A Queen and Her Kings

Magical Mishaps

Cassandra blinked the sleep from her eyes and yawned, not bothering to sit up; not that she could, given the arms coming from both sides of the bed slinged over her body...

Wait, arms?

Last she checked, she had only gotten into bed with one person.

Looking from each side of the bed to the other, she was extremely amused to find a peacefully sleeping Deuce on her right, and an equally dead to the world Ace on her left, just beyond a very awake, very annoyed Ash. Cassandra laughed quietly.

"Do I want to know?", she whispered to him, snuggling closer to his chest. Ash huffed and held her tighter, snuggling his face into her neck.

"No, you don't, but you have to.", he said. Ash then informed Cassandra about everything that had happened while she was asleep. Once he was done with his story, Cassandra sighed.

"So much for three days of R and R.", she said, knowing if she didn't help handle this Ace was likely going to manage to somehow make things worse. Ash scoffed.

"Yeah, I'll say. Guy couldn't even wait until we had a decent amount of sleep to raise hell.", he grumbled. Cassandra raised an eyebrow.

"Why did you tell the guys to sleep on the couch?", she asked. Ash stiffened. He was hoping she would ignore that part.

"Because they interrupted us and they're annoying.", he said, as if that explained everything. Cassandra raised a knowing eyebrow with a smile.

"And because you didn't want to share me?", she asked. Ash grumbled in a way that told her she was right. Cassandra laughed.

"I'm not mad; everyone deserves something exclusive to them. I just wish you had offered them a guest bedroom so they wouldn't feel the need to do... this.", she said, gesturing to Ace's arm around her waist. She laughed when she felt the still asleep boy nuzzle into her neck, but flinched when she felt the cold metal of the collar on his neck. Sighing, Cassandra grabbed the pillow from beneath her head and quickly rolled out from under Ace's arm onto Ash as to not wake him, a tactic she had learned from years of experience.

Looking down at Ash, hair wild, she grinned.

"Now, let's start our day, shall we?", she said. Ash grinned up at her.

Getting up carefully, so as to not wake the two others in the bed, Ash and Cassandra quietly got ready and out the door. Grabbing her phone, Cassandra felt her eyes widen when she saw it was well past eleven; almost time for lunch in the school cafeteria, if she remembered her schedule correctly.

The two of them made their way over to Skip's room, slowly creaking the door open to check on the boy. They both smiled softly when they saw him still sleeping soundly in his bed. Closing the door, they both looked at eachother and made their way down the hall.

Climbing down the stairs, they were greeted by an unusual sight. The living room was empty. Back in New Orleans, the compound courtyard was never empty, there were always at least two people doing something or another and making noise.

Yet, there was no noise. They looked in the kitchen, nothing. Now it was getting concerning. Ash looked at Cassandra.

"Maybe they're still asleep.", he said. Cassandra was about to agree with him, when they heard a familiar ear-piercing shriek from outside.

Rushing outside, Cassandra was greeted by a shocking sight.

Yue was stuck on top of what she could only describe as a fully grown coastal redwood tree, clutching the top branches in a deathgrip as he wrapped himself around the branch. Shorter, Griffin, and Eiji were trying to climb it, and failing miserably. Which was unsurprising, given the fact that those particular trees grow to be taller than most skyscrapers. Cassandra was in shock.