Wanna Be Yours

chapter twelve: karaoke night

August 17th, Friday

Cardan, Five Hours Before the Show:

"Are you absolutely sure you wanna do this?" Oak asked, laying back on the living room couch, "Remember the last time you made a decision like this? You're still paying for it."

"I will pay for it," Cardan groaned, looking up before meeting his nephew's eyes again, "but this..."

"Oh, dear!" Roach, coming out of his room, hair tousled, and eyes puffy from sleep was looking back and forth between Oak and Cardan, "Good morning sunshines."

Cardan looked down at his phone, "It is three in the afternoon."

Roach's smile dropped, and then, in a mocking voice, he said, "Good morning to you too, Roach. Nice to see you, hope you slept well!" He rolled his eyes and walked to the kitchen.

"Cardan's wanting to do something stupid again," Oak said.

"Oh, is he?" Roach giggled, serving himself coffee, "Of course he is."

"I need to do it!" Cardan slouched down onto the sofa, pushing Oak to give him some room.

"Idiot," Oak huffed.

"She's just..." Cardan found he couldn't quite let the words out. He couldn't tell the full truth of why he wanted to do this without revealing a deeper part of himself he did not wish to reveal to anyone.

She is not who we think she is, who she wants us to think she is. He sighed, he knew that feeling too well, knew what it was to need to keep smiling so nothing would fall apart, he did it now, he would do it until they'd won. The fact that he knew this from mere observation revealed just how much he understood this part of Jude.

And that was... Well, he didn't even want to think about that!

And it was a dumb plan, of course, as all things Cardan were, but it was clever, and if Jude really was planning some sort of intricate revenge against him, he thought it was fair for him to do something as well.

Even though she hadn't struck yet. Even though this might worsen her next moves...

But he had to do it, Jude Duarte was way too focused on perfection. She was tiring herself out, taking the joy out of something she obviously loved. He saw it perfectly, there was no denying it. And Cardan wasn't sure, he didn't know why he wanted to do something for her, something he thought might help her, but he felt compelled to so do. She needed to learn to let go, to learn to have fun.

Just as Cardan had learned the night before how important it was to make any efforts for the things that mattered. If he was going to learn something from Jude, then have her learn something from him.

Or, if he was feeling up to denying everything, and making himself seem like an arrogant King, the character he needed to play before his friends, he would say he was simply doing this to mess with her. He was doing this because she irritated him, and he wanted to mess up her plans and watch her struggle. Cardan Greenbriar would lie just this once.

Ghost had just woken up as well, as soon as the words left Cardan's lips, "She deserves this for making me rehearse all night treating me as though I am her stupid student. She deserves to watch just how much her attempts at making everything perfect for her matter to me."

Oak was staring at him, eyes skeptical, "Does it matter to you?"

Cardan formed his most wicked smile and shrugged. Not letting anything out, letting himself be indecipherable.

"You're an idiot," Oak rolled his eyes.

"Agreed," Roach laughed.

"Agreed," Ghost grumbled sleepily as he shut the bathroom door behind him.