Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Careful there. You’re turning into one of those guys that parents warn their kids about when they go to college,” Caspian warned Miles with a slight smile, trying not to dwell on his uncertainties. “Offering everyone drugs like some kind of sleazy dealer.” On the inside he hadn’t moved on from the negative feelings he had toward Miles and Iris at the moment, but he had to try harder to hide it. He didn’t want the former to pick up on the fact that his frustration was, in fact, directed at them. That meant putting on a mask of positivity until after they ate lunch, when he could think up an excuse to leave.

Luckily, Iris seemed to understand his silent pleas though. When she got up from the sofa, relief trickled through the prince from his head to his feet. Whether she had moved on or not, he was glad that she seemed to have stopped flirting with his friend while they were all in the same room together. That was really what had been getting under his skin since he’d arrived. Watching the two tease each other and laugh just like he used to behave with her when they had been getting to know each other when they’d first met was difficult. As selfish as it was, he preferred that they maintain a distance, so he could pretend like there wasn’t an obvious spark between them.

He glanced up at her as she stood behind his chair and leaned over him, his heart betraying him by skipping a beat in response to her proximity. Though he felt slighted by the way she had buddied up with Miles, he couldn’t help that he was still hopelessly smitten with her. It also didn’t help that her red dress was just low-cut enough to make him squirm when she bent forward to look at the screen of his phone. A ruddy blush crossed his cheeks, and he swallowed reflexively, forcing himself to look away again as he returned his gaze to the same device.

“Y-Yeah, there is,” he replied to her question, cursing himself silently for stammering when he felt her hand on his shoulder. In a few quick motions, he pulled up the tab for the delivery tracker to show that their food had just left the restaurant. “Looks like it’ll be here in about fifteen minutes too.” Clinging to his composure by a thread, he wondered what Iris was doing by sidling over to his side of the room. He had been fairly certain that she had been flirting with Miles just a few minutes ago. Was she trying to keep doors open with both of them? He felt a little hurt by the thought, but at the same time, another part of him was encouraged to know that she hadn’t brushed him off completely. Maybe he still had a chance to fight for her. He just wished he wasn’t handicapped by the reality that he had to keep his interest in her a secret from Miles.

“Thank god,” his friend sighed dramatically, tossing his other arm over the back of the sofa and kicking his feet up on the coffee table lazily. “I’m starving.”

“Me too,” Cas agreed with a nod.

In the next moment, the doorbell echoed through the house, and Miles jumped to his feet. “I bet that’s Jay. That moocher is never late when we offer food. I’ll go get him.” Without waiting for a reply, he turned and trotted out the door to greet the missing member of their group.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

The technician just arrived, so I'm hoping it works too!

And yeah, a lot of people in AZ think the best route to take is to let everyone get infected, so we can build up herd immunity. The problem is that herd immunity isn't possible when people can get reinfected, which is what it's starting to look like based on recent studies :/ Now we just have thousands and thousands of people getting sick every day, and it's super dangerous to go to public places.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

When Miles boasted over the cost of the champagne in front of them, Caspian frowned contemplatively. He knew what his friend was doing. High born women were often impressed when men showered them with expensive gifts, so he had dropped the number to shamelessly imply that he would do the same for her. If he had tried it with anyone else, the tactic might have worked, but Cas knew that Iris wasn’t like other women. Materials and luxuries weren’t the way to her heart. Anytime he even tried to do her a small favor, he had to brace himself for pushback because she was independent to a fault. If Miles continued to try winning her over this way, he would just make her uncomfortable.

However, even though his friend had missed his mark, the underlying thought was still there. The other man was treating her like a princess because he felt like she deserved it. He was attentive to her needs and was trying to show her the finer things life had to offer because he wanted her to be happy. It just went to show what a great partner he could be if she was actually interested in him. The thought sent another stab of envy through Cas’s chest, and he looked away from them bitterly.

“You have to try it,” Miles insisted, picking up on her shock and using it to prove his point. “It’s the lightest champagne I’ve ever had. Really good stuff. Don’t you think so, Cas?” Suddenly roping the prince into the conversation, he turned toward him expectantly.

Caspian stiffened and glanced at his friend sideways, unprepared to join the conversation. “Um, yeah,” he fumbled without looking at Iris. “It’s good.” Unsure what else to add when his thoughts were occupied elsewhere, he fell into an awkward silence and slipped his phone from his pocket to pretend like he was busy. Usually, he was much more social and high-spirited, but it was hard for him to keep his head up when he had to watch one of his best friends and the woman who’d stolen his heart get on as if they had known each other for ages. A part of him even wondered if he should make up an excuse to go home and mope about it in solitude.

As they lapsed into silence again, Miles furrowed his brows. He had planned to just let Cas work through whatever was bothering him on his own, but clearly that wasn’t going to work. Tired of the uncomfortable atmosphere in his bedroom, he crossed his arms. “Okay. What’s your problem, man? I thought we were gonna be celebrating Iris, but you look like you just came back from a funeral.”

Cas flinched. Apparently he hadn’t been hiding his dejection as well as he’d thought. “It’s nothing,” he shook his head, hating that he couldn’t just tell his friend the truth. “I just… had certain expectations about something, and I’m still adjusting to the possibility that I was wrong.” As he spoke, his gaze drifted to Iris in a subtle implication of what he was talking about. He doubted Miles would notice, but he hoped she would realize he meant he was still struggling with the fact that she no longer seemed committed to their relationship. Even if she was going to be with someone else, he would have appreciated it if she didn’t flaunt it right in front of him. Watching them together was difficult for him to stomach.

“Fine, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Miles conceded, taking the prince’s cryptic answer to mean that he wasn’t going to give them any more details. “Just try not to let it ruin our celebratory lunch, okay? Nothing but happy thoughts and good vibes here. Speaking of which,” he stood up from the sofa to go rummaging through his nightstand, only to pull out a brown bag that he flourished before the others. “I have plenty of good vibes in solid form in here. You can take your pick if you want any.”

“We’ll see,” Cas replied noncommittally. Though he wasn’t a fan of the way he felt when he indulged with his friends, he couldn’t deny that a small piece of him was feeling tempted, if only to take the edge off the sting of his jealousy. For now, he wouldn’t make any promises one way or the other.

“Well, they’re right here if you change your mind,” Miles said, tossing the bag onto the table with the champagne bottle and flopping back down next to Iris. “You too, Ms. ‘I don’t like your ideas.’” he nudged her playfully.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Not yet. I'm still using my hotspot. Supposedly a technician is coming by today to give us a new modem, but I have no idea when he'll get here.

Thanks! We had fun. And that's awesome! I'm trying to cut back on going to restaurants lately because my state is officially the worst place in the entire world for COVID right now :( Nobody is following safety guidelines because they're saying that wearing a mask and social distancing is infringing on their personal freedoms. It pisses me off because the guidelines are in place to protect people, and now something like 1 in 7 people in my state are infected and hospitals are completely full because most people don't care. I'm holing up at home for a while to try and wait out the worst of it.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Ouch,” Miles rolled his eyes jokingly when Iris teased him. The way she took every conversation with him as banter made it difficult for him to read her, but at least she didn’t seem interested in Jay. She hadn’t fidgeted or blushed or done anything else when he’d mentioned the other high born’s name, so he assumed that meant he was in the clear. Neither Caspian nor Jay were competition, so he was free to keep trying in the hopes that he could win her over. At the thought, a pleased smile curved his lip, but it vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” he confirmed, glancing toward the bedroom door at the mention of the prince. “I don’t really know what’s going on with him, but I don’t think we should worry about it. I’ve known him for a few years now, and he sometimes gets into these weird moods. I love the guy, but he wears his heart on his sleeve, and sometimes he misdirects his feelings at the wrong people. My guess is that something happened during the lockdown that’s made him pissy, and he doesn’t realize he’s taking it out on us.” He shrugged once more and turned back to Iris, “It’s the only thing that makes sense to me, since neither of us have done anything to make him mad.”

When the subject was changed, he pondered over their options. He had no idea what was going to happen to her now that the soldiers had decided she was long gone. Of course, he wanted her to stay in the city since he was attracted to her, but was it really the best place for her to be? It is, he concluded promptly. As long as she could keep staying with him, there was no reason for her to leave the capital. “First of all, I’ve offered you the bed every damn day, and you’re the one who keeps picking the sofa,” he reminded her with a smirk. “And second, you can do whatever you want. If you want to keep staying here with me, I’m happy to continue being your gracious host, providing you with food, blankets and my sister’s clothes. From what I’ve heard, it sounds like this place is a lot safer for you than the districts outside the capital too. Why leave when you don’t have to?”

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, the door opened, and Cas stepped back into the room. The prince closed it behind him and looked up, slightly discouraged to find that Miles and Iris were still exactly where he’d left them. Part of him had hoped that Iris would shrug off Miles’ attempts to get closer to her while he’d been gone, but apparently, she was either oblivious to the arm thrown carelessly behind her back or didn’t mind its presence. His earlier train of thought convinced him it was the latter.

“I found this,” he said, breaking the silence and doing his best to hide his initial reaction to them by presenting the bottle of champagne. He stepped over to set it down on the coffee table, label facing the sofa, and sat down in his empty chair again.

“Cristal Vinotheque. Nice,” Miles nodded approvingly and glanced at Iris. “Are you sure you don’t want any? This is a fifteen hundred credit bottle right here. I bet you’ve never had a champagne this good in your life.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Miles watched as Caspian left the room, once again picking up on some resentment from the prince but not understanding where it was coming from. In his mind, he hadn’t done anything worthy of stirring up his friend’s passive aggression. He’d kept Iris safe for the entirety of the lockdown, and he had invited him over to see that she was okay the very morning after the restrictions had been lifted. If anything, he felt like Cas owed him for risking his neck for the sake of a woman he had never even met before the last week.

Subtly, he raised his shoulders in a shrug to himself. If it was important, Cas would probably bring up the problem eventually on his own. For now, he would just ignore the odd behavior and carry on with what he was doing—which, hopefully, was clueing Iris in to his interest in her so he could figure out if the feelings were mutual. At this point, he had no idea what it would look like to go after someone who had been a commoner and a member of the Scourge, but he didn’t like to think that far ahead anyway. If it turned out that she was into him too, he would just figure that out when they got there.

When she spoke up to ask about Jay, he turned away from the door and shrugged again, more prominently this time. “Dunno. Probably soon. I told him there would be food and substances, so I’m sure he’s hurrying to get here as fast as he can.” He couldn’t wait for the other high born to arrive. With any luck, Jay’s presence would distract Caspian from whatever had crawled up his butt that morning. “Why? Do you miss him?” he added with a teasing smirk. Though the question was framed in a playful manner, he was trying to rule out the possibility that she fancied the other man. Cas had already told him that nothing had happened between them, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t catch feelings for Jay.

Meanwhile, Cas headed to the oversized pantry where the Kinders’ stored their liquor and closed himself inside, leaning with his back to the door and his arms crossed over his chest. An uneasy expression colored his features as his eyes roved absently over the shelves of bottles. Though he had told Miles he was going to bring back champagne, he had no intention of fulfilling his promise right away. First, he needed some time to cool down and process what had just happened in the bedroom.

When he’d first arrived at his friend’s estate, he’d been thrilled at the thought of reuniting with Iris and picking up where they had left off a week ago. However, now he was starting to wonder if he’d gotten his hopes up prematurely. It had never crossed his mind that something would happen between Miles and Iris while they were staying together during the lockdown. Over the course of it, he’d assumed she wouldn’t be interested in anyone other than him, so there had been no reason to worry. How naïve that had been. She was a beautiful woman, so of course the other high born would take an interest in her. And Miles was both handsome and had the confidence that so many other girls swooned over. Tossing the two into a room together for a whole week had been a recipe for disaster.

At the thought, he grimaced, curling his fingers tensely against his arms. Betrayal stabbed at his heart like a knife, and even though he knew he had no proof that he was right about them, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d just sabotaged himself by giving her another option. If he had only thought of a way to hide her from the soldiers without pushing her into Miles’ open arms, she wouldn’t have learned that there were other, better men in the capital than himself. She wouldn’t have sat in front of him, flirting with one of his best friends as if nothing had even happened between them in the districts.

But what the hell kind of life would that be? He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the door panel. As much as it pained him to admit it, he couldn’t control her like that. If he tried to hide her away from every other man in the capital, he knew she would just resent him for it. They would have to trust each other not to leave the instant a new plaything was presented to them… But what if she didn’t want to stay with him in the first place? What if he was the only one who had gotten invested enough to decide that he didn’t want anyone but her? Maybe his guess had been right, and she was testing the waters with Miles because she wanted to explore what it would be like to be with someone else. Objectively, she had every right to date around. She didn’t belong to him, and he couldn’t control who she wanted to see. He just hated how quickly it seemed like she had moved on when he was still so thoroughly entangled in his feelings for her. He’d meant it when he’d told her he loved her, after all.

Biting his lip to stifle the roiling uncertainty and hurt inside of him, he took a step away from the wall and flipped on the light switch beside him to look through the Kinders’ stores of champagne. Thoughts of Iris still circulated inside his brain as he browsed the glass bottles for something his friends would like to drink. He wished desperately that he could just talk to her and find out what was going on, but at the same time, he was afraid to hear the answer. To find out that she had moved on would have been devastating, and he wasn’t sure if he could handle it before he’d had a chance to brace himself for the worst.

Pulling a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal Vinotheque from the shelf, he took a steeling breath and headed back into the hall to go back to the others. As unsettled as he was, he couldn’t let Miles know what was going on. He’d already told his friends that nothing had happened between him and Iris, and he had to stick to that story. He just hoped he wouldn’t return to find them in an even more compromising position than they had been before.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

It's mostly annoying because I don't have much else to do at home during the pandemic without internet lol
Anyway, I managed to get a personal hotspot set up with my phone, so I'll try to get a post up later today! We have a friend over right now

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Thanks. It was a lot of fun! The views at the top of the mountain were gorgeous.

Anyway, I was gonna work on posts today, but our internet router broke and won’t be replaced until Monday :( I may go to a coffee shop to write if I get super bored at home, but worst case scenario is that I’ll be unable to get posts done until the technician comes out.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yeah, it's exciting!

And Cas lost his cool a little cx His jealousy is flaring up whenever Miles and Iris get close to each other

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

We’ll see about that, Cas thought, glancing up at Iris with an amused expression when she poked his arm. Though her touch was playful, it still sent butterflies flitting in his stomach. It was familiar and warm, like a comforting place that he longed to return to; yet at the same time, it was electrifying after they had gone an entire week without being near each other. He bit his lip as he keyed the information into the checkout on his phone, finding it ridiculously hard not to reach out to close the distance between them. He wished they could be alone and inwardly regretted sending her to stay with Miles during the lockdown.

“Luigi’s makes plain pizzas too, but we never order those,” he told her succinctly when she commented on the suggestions he and Miles had made. In the capital, only children ate the bland options provided by restaurants, while adult high borns were expected to have more refined palates. They were all raised on the richest spices and seasonings the world had to offer, and as a result, almost everyone acquired expensive taste by the time they were fifteen or sixteen years old. After that, they ordered the gourmet dishes not just because it was expected of them but also because they genuinely enjoyed the flavorful recipes.

“Yeah, after you try these, you’ll never want to go back,” Miles promised her confidently. He was a little surprised that Iris had limited herself to cheese and tomato pizzas all her life, but he guessed that she had just never been pushed to try the toppings that were better. If the people outside the capital didn’t dine on gourmet food at every meal like the high borns did, maybe her family had never even given her the chance to get out of her comfort zone with unique dishes. “If you don’t think the pizza is good, I will literally give you two hundred credits and chug the whole ass bottle of champagne,” he added, slapping one hand on the sofa beside him with unnecessary emphasis.

“Damn, now I kinda hope she hates it,” Cas snickered, hitting the key to submit their order and putting his phone away. All they had to do now was wait for the driver to arrive with their lunch.

“She won’t,” Miles grinned confidently. “I’m certain of it. I’ve never met a single soul that didn’t think Luigi’s makes the best pizza in Aspiria.”

“We’ll find out then,” Cas shrugged, his eyes tracking Iris’s movements as she went back to the sofa and sat down. Though it was irrational, he felt a pang of disappointment, wishing she would have stayed by his side a little longer. Her visit to his chair had been so short that he couldn’t tell if it had been an excuse to get close to him or if she had really just done it to read the restaurant’s menu over his shoulder. For the second time that morning, insecurity simmered beneath his skin, and he shifted his weight uncomfortably.

To make it worse, as soon as Iris sat down, Miles threw an arm over the back edge of the sofa behind her. The gesture would have been incredibly discreet if not for the fact that he had been flirting with her rather overtly just minutes before. However, because he knew exactly what his friend was thinking, Cas seethed with silent jealousy and glanced toward the bedroom door to tear his eyes away from them. Part of him was tempted to ask if something had happened between them, if only for the sake of clearing the air, but he didn’t trust himself to approach the topic without revealing his own interest in Iris.

Tense with anxiety and unsure how to deal with it around them, he rose abruptly from his seat and then cleared his throat. “Speaking of champagne, I’ll go get a bottle from the kitchen for you,” he offered, masking his desire to get away with a reasonable favor.

“Okay, thanks,” Miles nodded. “We’ll be here.”

You don’t have to remind me, the prince thought, biting down on the tip of his tongue to stifle the petty words. Needing some time alone, he stepped out of the room and strode to the kitchen without making eye contact with the maids he passed by in the halls.