The Night's Endless, Even Moreso with You

Oneshot. Maybe. Perhaps a part teo of these two idiots

Catherine was in her bed staring up at the ceiling thinking about the courtship with the king and thinking about Jest. Jest was just a joker, he had no right to be plaguing her mind like this, she thought back to the day he came to her window for the first time and took her to Hattas shop... She thought about his features. his muscles even though it doesn't show beneath his clothes she can certainly feel them—from that one time—, his face, his eyes, oh how beautiful his eyes are.

She got up suddenly.

She needs to stop thinking about him! She's courting the king! Well actually the king is courting her but either way she has to focus on getting the king to dislike her as a romantic partner not on other insignificant matters.

Jest is nice and charming and tells a whole lot of stupid jokes that still gets a laugh out of her but he's the kings joker. It wouldn't work. Not like she was implying that they would get together or anything!

But who is she kidding honestly? She obviously fancies him. Then she remembers what he said at her windowsill that one night.

"I'm fond of you too, I think."

Her face turns as red as a rose. She didn't know what to make of the compliment at the time and still doesn't but viewing it in her own perspective makes it seem as if he was flirting with her. Maybe she was too dense to understand his hints in a romantic way.

If Cath really thinks about it she realizes she fancied him ever since their first encounter. He made conversation come easily and was fun to talk to. Of course, he was being polite but then she took into account the way he reacted when she laughed, when he helped her get out of a proposal, the way he tensed up and seemed quite nervous when she had held onto him that one night, oh how that night felt like so long ago.

She mumbles to herself "Maybe I'm just overthinking things... he can't possibly—he just can't."

Mary Ann knocks on her bedroom door. "Catherine you got a delivery!" Catherine just sighed it was probably another bouquet with a corny and cringe worthy letter inside of it, unless of course it was written by Jest. When the king wrote his own letters she felt as if she wanted to fall into a deep deep hole and never get out, that's just how bad they were.

"Come in!"

Mary Ann stepped inside the room and gave Cath an envelope. It was different from the rest she has received in the past from the king. This envelope had a blue seal and had her name on it 𝐿𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝓅𝒾𝓃𝓀𝑒𝓇𝓉𝑜𝓃 Her heart stuttered. Sure there were plenty of people who called her and her mother lady Pinkerton but this handwriting was certainly Jest'.

She carefully opened the letter, breaking the seal. She opened it and it read,

𝐼'𝓂 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝐼'𝓂 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝓊𝓅𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼, 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝒸𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓇𝓁𝓎 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒷𝒶𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝐼 𝓉𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒹𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝒹. 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓀 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓈𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓁𝓎 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝐿𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝒫𝒾𝓃𝓀𝑒𝓇𝓉𝑜𝓃.

𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓁𝓎,
𝒥𝑒𝓈𝓉

"This man is going to give me a heart attack!" Cath said out loud, hand over her mouth; too in shock to remember she had Mary Ann present.