Cassandra's surprise return

Chapter 3

Cassandra put her old lady-in-waiting dress on, but didn't put the headband on.

Varian just put on a clean set of the clothes that he had on before.

The twins had matching dresses on, but with different colours, Avery had a blue one on and Hayley had an emerald one on. Both still looking absolutely adorable.

Raps put a purple dress on, kind of like the one she wore when she went to see the lanterns. She found those dresses to be quite comfortable.

And Eugene just put another set of what he was originally wearing on cause, y'know, men are lazy when it comes to picking outfits.

Everyone, including Fredrick and Arianna, Rapunzel's parents, and Lance with his two girls, Catalina and Keira, were sat around the dinner table happily chatting with one another, mainly happy to see Cassandra back.

"Was your journey dangerous Aunt Cass?" Hayley asked.

Then Avery piped up. "Yea! Did you fight any bad guys?" She asked.

Catalina smiled.
"Hey Cassandra, did you learn any new fighting techniques on your journey that me and Keira could practice?" She asked. She looked so much more grown up. 4 years can really change people. Kiera as well, she had grown her hair out a bit, and it now went down to mid-shoulder length.

"Guys, give Cassandra some slack, she must be exhausted after her adventures. But yea, did you beat up any villains or stuff like that??" Keira asked becoming quite intrigued.

"Woah, slow down there, I'll answer all your questions, but not all at once." Cassandra chuckled, she then noticed Varian staring at the table, he didn't look very well.

"Girls, would you excuse me for a minute. I need to talk to Var." She said with a quick smile as she stood up and sat in the spare seat next to Varian.

"Hey..." She said with a small smile.

Varian looked up and put on a smile, but Cass knew that it was a fake smile.

"Hey Cassie." He said still fake smiling.

"What's wrong? You don't seem like yourself." Cassandra said softly.

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly fine. Who's Varian?" Varian said with a nervous chuckle.

"Var... Is this because of me leaving? If it is, I'm truly sorry, Raps mentioned you not being very sociable after I left. And I feel horrible for how I made you feel. Can you forgive me?" Cassandra said, she could feel her eyes stinging, tears threatening to fall onto her cheeks, but she made sure she didn't show it.

"Cassie... I.." Varian started, but then remembered they were surrounded by other people, they weren't paying attention to them, but Varian didn't want to draw any towards them.

"You, wanna go for a walk?" He asked. "I want to talk to you, alone."

"Oh, um, yea sure." She said, her heart suddenly quickening its pace.

'Why do I feel like this? It's not like I like him, so I shouldn't be feeling like this! I-I don't have time for relationships, plus, my destiny is still out there... but then again...' She thought to herself.

"Cassie, are you coming?" Varian asked as he stood up from his seat breaking Cassandra from her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, y-yea, I'm coming." She said as she stood up, a small blush forming on her cheeks. She walked over to Rapunzel and told her she would be back in a bit.

"Honey? I think we have a ship to set sail." Rapunzel said to Eugene as she watched Cassandra and Varian walk out the room.

"Hm? Oh, you mean Ice Lady and the kid? Yea, I'm pretty sure they'll be able to work out their love for each other by themselves, but if you want to do project Cassarian, then you go ahead Sunshine." Eugene said as he took a bite of his meal.