Royal Jester

Bonus Part 1. Mason

Warning: 17+ content below

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Eight months after Mason's graduation

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Mason sighed as he closed the front door behind him, shrugging off his jacket and hanging it on the coat rack as he set his keys on the entryway table.

As if on cue, his girlfriend's beautiful, smiling face suddenly swam into his vision when she turned the corner and skipped towards him. He felt his grin mirror her own as she ran into his arms and kissed his cheek.

"Hello, my girl," he muttered warmly into her ear and his entire body sagged at the breathy sound of her returning laughter.

He nuzzled his face into her neck, just taking a moment to breathe her in as she spoke. "You were gone for so long today," her voice was slightly muffled (most likely because his ears were covered by her billowing curls) but he'd have to be completely brainless to not pick up on the sadness in her tone.

He grimaced at the reminder, "I know, baby." His arms tightened around her waist, "I know."

For the first time since he'd started his job only half a year ago, he'd been called into the office that day (something about an emergency meeting) and had been gone for over ten hours.

It'd been complete torture to be away from her for so long.

And - after sitting through the entire thing and enduring what was probably the longest day of his life - he could confidently say it was completely not fucking worth it. One of the company's biggest investors had apparently been unhappy with the outline they'd received and had threatened to prematurely end the contract.

This sent all of Mason's higher-ups into a complete frenzy and his whole entire team had been summoned to the office building to discuss their plan of action.

What had they come up with, you ask? After eight hours of deliberation and what was probably almost three hours of complete chaos?

Redo it.

Yep. That was the genius solution they spent hours agonizing over.

Mason was still pissed off.

Ana abruptly pulled away then, and he had to stop himself from calling out to her as she moved even further away from his reach. "Dinner's ready though," she gave him another sweet smile. "I made your favorite."

His favorite could be a lot of things, but that just made him all the more excited. "Yeah?"

He lifted his arm to check his watch.

Shit.

"Actually, I have a work call in like ten minutes and I still need to shower," he stepped towards her to gently brush his lips against hers. It was brief and he wasn't even sure if she was able to reciprocate it or not, but it made him feel a bit better. "But thank you for always thinking of me, pretty girl." He noticed her face fall and- were her eyes always so glassy? "Could you save a plate for me?"

She bit her lip, "Sure." He brushed his thumb over her cheek as he awaited her response (Jesus, she really was so pretty). Then, only a couple of seconds later, "I'll leave it in the fridge."

Mason gave her one last parting kiss on the nose - hoping his gratitude was as obvious as he felt it was - before he walked past her and into their shared master bathroom.

Later that night he'd realize just how much she'd been keeping from him in that moment.

If only he'd taken the time to notice her lingering gaze, or the tears now staining her skin.