three's a crowd

the ball

A/N: A ball is being held, and turns out that the three kings can get jealous after all.

-Caius' POV-

Those bloody Romanians had stolen Ophelia completely! Ever since they arrived, Caius hadn't seen her. He had been in an awful mood because of it, and he knew Aro didn't particularly like it either. Even with her being confused about the whole mating thing, even with her nightmares, she would check in on them occasionally. Caius had been stubborn, refusing to go find her himself, and somewhat realizing she might want to be alone with her friends, but the fact that she didn't come by once, upset him. An entire day had passed, and it was already noon. The ball would be held later tonight, all for her, but she did not seem to care.

"I'll go get her, she still needs to get a dress and everything." Aro speaks when the impatience finally gets the best of him.

"I'll join you." Caius says quickly, eager to get up. Secretly, he was smug Aro had lost his patience sooner, but at the same time he was relieved he had.

"Me too." Marcus says, surprising Aro. If Marcus was getting impatient, things had gotten far. In a second, the three kings are standing in front of Blaise's bedroom door. Aro glances over at his brothers, then knocks on the door.

"Come in!" They hear Vladimir call out softly. A scowls appears on Caius' face at hearing the voice of the Romanian, and Aro opens the door, the three of them entering. Caius freezes up at the sight.

Ophelia's sound asleep. Her head rests in the blonde's lap, one arm wrapped around his waist, as her other hand holds that of the dark haired, who's lying next to her with a hand behind his head. Caius sees red. He should have killed them properly all those centuries ago, those bastards!

"How dare you touch our m-

Caius halts when Ophelia yawns and turns her head to them. She looks so peaceful, so void of nightmares, that he can't say anything. And she's wearing. His. Shirt. Caius can smell it from where he's standing. How did she get that?

The two vampires both look up at him, but Ophelia remains asleep.

"My apologies if we offended you, Caius. She fell asleep as we were talking. We didn't want to wake her up, since we know how bad her insomnia can be." Stefan explains, seeming genuine. Caius nearly feels bad for his actions earlier, but then his protective side takes back over, and he merely huffs.

"Thank you. She could definitely use some sleep." Aro mutters, clearly having to force himself to look away from Ophelia

"Nightmares?" Vladimir asks, a knowing look on both their faces. They were all talking so quietly that no human would be able to hear it, in order to keep her from waking up.

"Every time she falls asleep. She keeps herself awake as long as possible out of fear." Marcus explains, a sad tone in his voice.

"It took her six months to trust us. That half year, she had nightmares every time she slept, so she'd stay up for days. It took us 6 months to discover she didn't have the nightmares if we slept with her. Since then, we spent every night with her for five years. We never expected her to move. It's our fault she still has the nightmares when we're not around. We should've taken her to a doctor or something, someone who could've helped her." Vladimir explains as he glances down at her with a guilty, worried look.

"Do you think she'd be able to sleep if one of us stayed with her?" Aro asks, unable to keep the hope out of his words.

"I think so. You're her mates, after all. I don't know if she'll trust you three enough yet, though. Like I said, it took us some time." It's a little harsh, but it's the truth, and Caius can appreciate that. Very slowly, he was beginning to understand why his mate was so close with them. They were incredibly annoying, but they clearly cared a lot for her, and they made her happy.