Cassius' Shop of Jeweled Wonders

[Red Gypsy]

((Timeskip to eight months later))


Cassius walked in through the back door and immediately noted how empty the house was. Dust covered almost every surface but for the ones he'd spelled against such a thing. All of his wards remained in place, meaning that the place was still safe and nothing bad had happened. But it was still empty.

He knew instantly that Kota was gone. Just as he'd felt five months ago.

He'd had no choice about heading into the ocean for a job Sebastet had needed done. He hadn't intended for it to take him six months to get home, but that was the way it had worked out. Six months in the deepest parts of the oceans, six months of being without the person he'd shared his heart and soul with. And now he came home to find that the person he'd fallen in love with had left.

He searched the house but couldn't even find a note. All of Kota's things were gone as well. Even his paintings from the studio. All of Orthius' things were also gone, the bird likely having gone with Kota when he'd left.

It hurt. Badly. It made him ache inside with so much pain that it was impossible to keep inside. But Cassius wasn't what he was for nothing.

He channeled the pain into power, then power into spell, then spell into action.

His hair flowed around him as he stood in the living room with his eyes closed as the spells moved through the building. Everything was cleaned up, organized, spells restored to full strength, stale air replaced with fresh. Then the spell power moved outward over the village, conjuring protective spells, detection spells, warnings, and anything else he could come up with for what was coming.

By the time it was all done, Cass found himself feeling oddly numb and with little will to do much. But he took himself upstairs to shower briefly and dressed himself with care in white tights and knee boots, lavender Victorian-style shirt, and dark gray coat. He brushed his hair dry and braided it down his back.

That done, he moved back downstairs to consider what he'd had to report to Sebastet. None of it was good news.

The Hunters were on their way to Vampire Island....  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

Exiting

Cassius moved over and picked up the figurine, studying it in silence for a moment. He tried sensing something through their bond but found nothing there. He tried sending something through the bond, but could tell that nothing was happening.

Then he felt like smacking his forehead. He was a magic user, after all. Check the bond itself. Duh!

So he did. But what he found nearly shattered his heart all over again. The bond had been severed with just enough leeway to leave him thinking it was intact. That left him wondering how such a thing could have happened.

Then he remembered something. Something that got him to his feet, owl in hand as he left the building to seek out his wayward Alichino.  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

Cassius walked back into the house and reached under his hair to pull the shaking bird out as he moved on into the kitchen and set him up with a bowl of clear water and another of the fruit and nuts he liked best. But, Cassius sat them down at the table as he fed the food to the bird one at a time, slowly. He hummed softly the entire time, casting simple healing and calming spells over the little owl.

"You eat and rest, Orthius. I'll get your aerie set up tomorrow. For now, rest. and yes, you'll be coming upstairs with me. You aren't going back to him until he learns to take better care of you," he told the bird simply but firmly.

Any questions the bird had, he ignored.

Instead, he hoped he wouldn't have long to wait....  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

Don't forget to quote me or I'll miss it.

Cassius fully understood the bird even without the bond. Animals were easy for him. But he just put something else into Orthius' mouth every time the bird opened his beak. In the end, he took the sleepy bird upstairs and situated him into a soft nest of silks on one of the end tables and shook his head when the bird just fell asleep where he was.

That was fine. He had something else to do.

He stripped himself down silently and grabbed a few towels before he headed downstairs, leaving the doors open in the unlikely event that Orthius woke back up. He moved out onto the beach and dropped the towels before diving cleanly into the ocean. But as he shifted, it quickly became obvious that his extended stay in the ocean had left it's marks on him.

His tail had scales peeling back, most scales were missing their usual rainbowed iridescent beauty and had faded into a milky bluish color. He also had numerous new scars over his body as he moved to swim down to the cave. The wards on it had alerted Cass that someone had entered it and he'd only ever shown it to one person.

As he moved up into the cave, though, he gave a heavy sigh at the sight Kota made. Fine. He could handle this. He'd done this before, after all.

He hummed a soft song that healed Kota's wounds then collected the unconscious man and took him out of the cavern and back to the beach. Once there, he forced himself to shift back to his human form even though it left him gasping and shaking in reaction. After a moment, he was able to collect the towels to dry them both off, stripping Kota down in the process before picking him up and carrying him upstairs.

He cleaned the salt water from Kota's skin and brushed his hair then slid him into the bed and moved to sit at the foot of the bed as he went to work with a bit more spell-singing.

By the time he was finished, he'd purged all the alcohol from Kota and healed everything he'd missed in the cave. Finally finished near dawn, Cass simply slid into a pair of shorts and went downstairs to collapse into his favorite chair, his mind buzzing a bit from all the magic he'd done in the last three days... And the six months before it...

His own exhaustion finally pulled at him as he vaguely wondered how Kota and Dakoda would get along, though he simply knew it was a disaster in the making. Besides, he rather thought he was going to give up on love at this point. It just hurt too much when it was over. And Kota had made sure that it was over....  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

Cassius was in the kitchen putting together something to eat. He already had another bowl of fruit and nuts for Orthius on the table and was cutting up fresh fruit and vegetables in the kitchenette area. When Kota came through, Cass simply pulled a plate of cold sandwiches from the cooler and set it on the table with a pitcher of juice. There was already a place setting for Kota there.

"Feed Orthius while I finish this and have a couple of sandwiches," he said simply, "I know he's probably been stuck with mice and the odd lizard while you were gone, but the fruit and nuts will give him the nutrients he's missing," he added then turned to the bird with a mock glare, "And I do hope you aren't planning on arguing with me over it, bird," he teased slightly, knowing that Orthius was ready for it even if Kota wasn't.

He was simply moving on as if not much had happened right now, trying to show Kota that he'd meant what he'd told him when he'd said 'forever'... But he knew he was probably going to have to state the obvious.

But could his heart handle it again? Could he really open up his heart to someone, anyone, again after Kota had left him like that? Without even a note? Everything that belonged to Kota gone? As if he'd never been here at all? It had felt like Kota had tried to erase his entire life with Cassius and it burned deep inside of him.

He'd done what he could to make it easier for Kota to feed and that wish still held as long as the Alichino held Cassius' soul. So that couldn't have been it.

What had he done that was so wrong that Kota had run from him?

The uncertainties ran through his mind like wildfire while he cut up the vegetables and fruit and moved them to the table with a light dipping sauce. He added a cup of coffee for himself as he sat down and collected a few things to eat on his plate. He couldn't cook, but that didn't mean he starved...  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

I knew you'd get the hang of it. lol

Cassius gave a shrug of one shoulder as he ate, pausing to take a sip of his coffee before speaking, "Go ahead. I've never failed to listen to you Kota and I don't plan on stopping now," he told him simply then went back to his meal.

Part of him wanted to kiss that fear out of him then lay him on the table and-

Best to stop that line of thought now since he had no idea what Kota had planned to say. he'd always listened to Kota, no matter what he had to say and always took his fears seriously. He also knew Kota could feel the protections that were on the building, making it the second-most secure building on the entire island. Only the castle was safer than Cassius' home. And he'd ensured that for Kota.

He looked over at Orthius, who had finished eating, "I set up your aerie while you two were sleeping. You can clean up out there and sleep off the food if you want to," he did his best to give a subtle hint that a little privacy might be warranted but also knew how much the bird hated having sticky feathers from the fruit he so loved.  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

Aaand it's time for Cass to go a little overboard... lol Hope the table's okay, cause I don't think he'll make it to the bed... Unless Kota has a few tricks under his sleeves...

There were some things Cassius simply couldn't endure for long. Kota in tears was one of them. So, even though he was listening to him and putting some things together, his own heart was breaking.

Then, when Kota started rocking himself, Cassius moved to pull him up into his arms, holding him tightly for a moment as he'd wanted to do in that moment at the inn. He knew there was something he had to tell Kota aobut their bond fracturing but couldn't hold himself back from what he needed to do right now.

"Forgive me..." he said softly then pulled Kota back only long enough to put a hand to the back of his head and kiss him. It wasn't like the kiss he'd given him so long ago on the beach. Oh, no... This one was full of pent up emotions, frustrations, so many months being apart, and sheer desperation. He needed Kota to feel him right now and this was the only way he could think of to get through to him.

That one request for forgiveness encompassed so many things: his words at the inn, his colder demeanor, the fierceness of the kiss, and what he was about to do. He didn't want to hurt Kota, not at all, but he had to be able to touch him right now and didn't care that his own emotional turmoil was completely bare for the Alichino to see and feel.

He swept his other hand over the table and scattered the dishes before lifting Kota up to sit on the edge of it, still kissing him, though it was more like feasting at his mouth than kissing. In this moment, he wasn't thinking, wasn't able to think at all. He could only feel and everything about him needed to lose himself in Kota, the one person he'd lost his heart to.

If there was any hope for healing the both of them, it was now. Especially since Kota was not the one at fault for their broken bond. Cassius knew that but was unable to voice it right now thanks to the overload of emotions and needs running through him. He knew it was the Hunters that were responsible for where they were right now but couldn't get past the need to feel Kota needing him just as much...  

[Red Gypsy]

Vihata

And it's breakdown time!!!

Cassius felt the timidness come into Kota's responses and it hit a nerve in him, reminded him that he wasn't thinking. He slowed down the endless kiss until he could finally pull away but found his forehead resting on Kota's shoulder as he gasped for air and tried to make his body calm down, fully able to tell that Kota wasn't ready.

"I'm sorry, Kota... I'm so sorry..." he gasped out, feeling so bad about taking things so fast with that kiss even as he felt his body on fire. But he had to say it and had to keep going, "The bond wasn't your fault... It was mine... I just didn't know what they had with them... I tried to call them to the rocks... But they had someone with them... Some new kind of priest that I didn't know about... I didn't know, Kota, I really didn't know... It wasn't your fault..." he babbled out as he tried to remember how to breathe.

But he couldn't think clearly, not with Kota so close right now. He didn't even know he was crying until his legs gave out and he found his face in Kota's lap and his body shaking with it all.

"I barely got them to crash... The sharks did the rest... But it was too late by then... the priest had done it already... I didn't know it until I stopped to actually think like a mage instead of feeling so lost... I was going to tell you when I saw you at the inn but I could see that you wouldn't listen... It was my fault... It was my fault... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." he kept repeating those last two sentences over and over, feeling his heart breaking all over again.