Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Caspian lifted his shoulders noncommittally. “If it’s a problem, I’ll deal with it,” he assured her quietly. There was a high chance it would be. Plenty of people in the capital had seen Iris’s face on wanted ads when his father had listed her among the bountied rebels in Aspiria, so it wouldn’t be surprising if anyone recognized her when he took her with him to live in the palace. When word got around that the nation’s king was in a relationship with a former member of the scourge, it would be nothing short of a scandal.

But it didn’t change the fact that he wanted to be with her, and that he was done letting the woman he loved slip through his fingers.

So, when she said she still wanted to share a room with him, he brightened. After everything they’d been through, it was a relief to know that she wanted to pick things up where they’d left off. However, the expression didn’t last long as their conversation circled to Raine. It was a lot more complicated now, he knew. Even though he and the Suphate princess hadn’t signed any documents, he had technically already talked to her father about courting her, so if he backed out now, there was a chance there would be hard feelings between their families. He still had no intention of following through now that Iris was back, but he was going to have to tread carefully when he eventually left the safe house.

“I’m just happy you’re back,” he shook his head with a sigh. “Besides, even if there’s drama, it’ll blow over. It always does.” The upper echelon of Aspiria were a fickle people. That was something he could count on, at least. Whether his relationship with Iris caused quiet whispers or an all-out uproar in the capital, he was sure it would die down whenever the other high borns found something else to gawk at. The only lasting impact, perhaps, would be the fact that he wasn’t a bachelor anymore. Marriage was off the table as a negotiation tool with the kingdom’s sister nations.

And right now, it was way too soon to be worrying about anything like that. Instead, he shifted his weight when Iris brought up a more immediate problem, glancing uncomfortably at the bedroom door. She had a point. “Well… I’m sure she’ll understand,” he justified with a tentative frown. “We’ve been friends for a long time. That hasn’t changed just because we started thinking about courtship.” At least, he hoped not. Technically, he knew he couldn’t speak for Raine, but just because he wasn’t going to marry her didn’t mean he wanted to completely sever ties.

“Either until those rebels are caught or the military decides the palace is secure enough for me to go back,” he replied, turning to Iris again. For a moment, he studied her thoughtfully, then offered her a hand. “Have you had anything to eat? There’s more than enough food to go around in the kitchen if you want some.”

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Mahz As a note from a 1x1 role-player, most of our RPs take place over PMs, so having emails for any "post" in that section would be a nice feature.

Thanks for all the other updates so far too!

Two Dudes Sitting in a Hot Tub [MxM Search - Slow Burn Preference]

Bump

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas smiled when Iris reaffirmed that she wanted to be with him. He would never get tired of hearing it. However, the expression didn’t last long as she went on to tell him what she knew about the rebels in the city. His brows furrowed in thought at the mention that they weren’t far from the safe house. That was interesting, since they weren’t very far from the harbor. He wondered if the rebels had been using the waterway to get into the capital and made a mental note to have his security team follow up on that hunch later. There were enough security cameras in the area that one of them had to have picked up something near the docks if he was right.

“One of a few,” he said with a half-smile, giving her hands a squeeze. He didn’t know where all of the safe houses were off the top of his head, since he’d been a kid when his father had flown him around to see them, but he did know there were at least four of them both in and outside of the capital city. The one they’d ended up using was one of the smallest too.

At her question, he lifted his shoulders. “I was, but not around here,” he replied, sidling closer to her on the bed to wrap an arm around her waist. Now that she was back, he couldn’t help wanting to be as close to her as he could get. “Right now, I have a couple guys looking into some officers in the military… but it doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “You’re not going back to prison, Iris. Never again. And… after we get out of here, I want you to come back to the palace with me.”

As he pulled her in against his side, he held her gaze earnestly. In his head, it wasn’t even a question. They’d spent too much time apart, and no matter what anyone else thought about it, he had more than enough space with all the vacant rooms his family hadn’t occupied since his father had evicted them. “If it’s still too soon to share the master room with me, you can stay in one of the other bedrooms down the hall,” he offered. Honestly, he did want her as close as possible, but he wasn’t going to push it after everything she’d been through. As much as he wanted to pick up right where they’d left off, he didn’t know if she was ready for that or not.

And there was still the matter of his almost-fiancée. He could see on Iris’s face that she wasn’t happy to find out that he’d started seeing someone else while he’d thought she was dead. A part of him wished he’d waited just a little longer too—but there was no way he could have known he’d see her again. “You have nothing to be jealous of,” he promised. “Nothing happened, and we never even got far enough into it to start courting. We just talked about it.” He winced a little, shuffling his feet as he glanced away from her. “She’s, um… the princess of the Suphate kingdom. Her name’s Raine, and the only reason we even considered courting was because we were friends when we were kids. But really,” he turned back to her insistently. “Now that you’re back, everything is different. I don’t want to be with her, Iris. I want to be with you. I love you.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

When Iris apologized again, Caspian shook his head. He did wish she’d spoken to him instead of taking matters into her own hands, but right now, he didn’t want her to feel guilty about it when they’d found their way back to each other. That was all he cared about. The path to get there had been messy, but now that she was here again, they could move forward together. The rest, they could figure out along the way.

“I am,” he nodded, holding her gaze earnestly. He could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe him. The uncertainty on her face stung a little, since he did mean what he was saying to her. He wanted to forgive and forget and pick up where they’d left off before she had gone back to the districts. Maybe she would say it was naive to try and move on just like that, and maybe it wasn’t going to be as easy as he was hoping, but after everything he’d been through recently, he didn’t have the capacity to really sit down and process what things were going to look like between them going forward. He just needed her to know his intentions.

As she laid her hands over his, Cas turned his palms over to take them, stroking his thumbs gently against her skin. Her touch was comforting, and he could feel warmth spread through him as they held each other. Even though there were going to be challenges ahead, he was glad she was back. And apparently, she’d returned with useful information about the rebels too. His brows arched in surprise when she told him she had a possible lead to their hideout. “Really?” He gawked. “My team’s been looking for two days, and they haven’t turned up anything.”

If she could even help them narrow down their search parameters, it would have been impressive. The rebels were getting better at hiding under the soldiers’ noses, and he was starting to suspect that they had at least one point of intelligence within the capital’s military. He wasn’t sure what to do about it yet, waffling between openly interrogating the soldiers for traitors and quietly sniffing out the double agents to use them against the Scourge, but either way, it was getting more difficult to weed out rebels in the city lately.

So, when Iris explained that she’d found evidence of the insurgents’ hideout, the king stared at her incredulously and then shook his head, running a hand over his hair. “Man, sometimes I forget you used to work with them,” he exhaled, meeting her gaze again more solemnly. “Whatever you think you know, you should pass along to the team in the kitchen. They can direct the men and women on the ground to check it out and see if you’re right about that location.”

It would be a good way to help convince the security team that Iris wasn’t a threat too, but before he could say so, he faltered when she suddenly asked about Raine. At the question, he winced slightly and averted his gaze. The Suphate princes was the elephant in the room, but he’d still been hoping not to talk about her.

“She’s, um… someone I was going to start courting,” he admitted under his breath. Forcing himself to look her in the eyes, he swallowed. “I thought you were dead for a long time, Iris. Now that I’ve taken over my dad’s position, people have been expecting me to find a queen, and there’s been pressure to restrengthen the royal line, and I thought…” Trailing off, he took a breath. “It doesn’t matter. Now that you’re back, I’m calling things off with her. I promise. You’re the one I want to be with, Iris.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

None of that mattered. Caspian clenched his jaw to stop himself from arguing with her. Iris was too kind to pin blame on his security head, but her mercy didn’t stop him from feeling angry and betrayed by a man he was supposed to have been able to trust. All this time, Jacob had known she was alive and knew exactly where she was, and yet he’d pretended she was dead to keep him from going after her. He wasn’t going to break his word to Iris and fire the other man, but he definitely had a few choice words he planned on sharing with him later.

Hearing her say that she still loved him sent a wave of relief washing over him, and he pulled her in as tightly to his chest as he could without suffocating her. “I’m not letting you go again,” he promised, his own voice partially muffled behind the curtain of her long hair. And he meant it. Of course, there were still a lot of things he was going to have to work out now that she was back. He was king now, laden with new responsibilities and expectations as he stepped up to manage Aspiria in his late father’s place. If he became publicly involved with a former member of the rebellion, it wasn’t going to be a popular move with the people of the capital.

Even though nothing had been put down in writing, there was also the problem of his prospective courtship with Raine. The Suphate princess had seen his reunion with Iris, and he was sure she was upset and confused. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but when he’d begun to spend time with her and entertain the idea of a future marriage between their kingdoms, he hadn’t believed he would ever see his “dead” girlfriend again. Everything had changed now that she was here again, and the princess’s feelings weren’t enough to stop him from choosing the woman he hadn’t stopped loving since they’d parted months ago. He was going to find a way to be with Iris no matter what.

“You’re what’s better for me, Iris,” Cas insisted, pulling back from their embrace so that he could meet her eyes. “While you were gone… I could barely get through each day. I could barely even think straight sometimes.” He shook his head. “I was surviving, but I was never doing well. Please… if you ever get it in your head again that I’m better off without you, just know that you’re everything to me.” Holding her gaze earnestly, he brought a hand up to gently caress her cheek.

When she brought up the attack at the castle, he winced. The memory was still raw, and he hadn’t yet had time to process all of it, but he managed a flicker of a smile at her compliment. He hadn’t realized she’d seen him that night. The expression gave way to one of interest when she added that she had something to give him, and he pulled her back into his chest, slipping his arms around the small of her back and resting his chin on her shoulder. “I love you too,” he whispered, turning to press a kiss to her cheek. “And I forgive you—for everything.”

Giving her one more squeeze, he drew back once more and let his hands trail down to rest on her legs, searching her eyes with knitted brows. “Now… what did you mean when you said you wanted to give me something to take down the rebels?”

Beta Testers Needed

Does Safari qualify? I typically run RPG on my Mac, but I'd be happy to help out too.

Two Dudes Sitting in a Hot Tub [MxM Search - Slow Burn Preference]

Bump

Two Dudes Sitting in a Hot Tub [MxM Search - Slow Burn Preference]

Bump - added one more plot for an old character I'd like to try again.

Two Dudes Sitting in a Hot Tub [MxM Search - Slow Burn Preference]

Bump. Still looking for partners interested in exploring a dynamic, queer slow burn