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It wasn’t often that people got the drop on Cas. One perk of his Beast Curse? Excellent hearing.
Of course, that only helped if the person sneaking up on him was walking, not teleporting.
“Cas?”
He instantly startled, turning around swiftly and knocking over a flask of something green and luminescent from Sibella’s work table with his tail. She snapped her fingers, making the flask appear in her free hand before it hit the ground.
“You know,” she said, setting the volatile brew safely onto a nearby table. “I’m fairly confident in my ability to have you brought back as a lich or perhaps a revenant if need be, but necromancy really isn’t my strong suit and I quite like you the way you are.”
Cas tucked his tail and wrung his paws nervously, straddling the line between schoolboy caught redhanded and guilty puppy. “Sibella! I wasn’t–I mean I just–”
She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Cas, don’t sound so nervous. I’m not upset at you. Just a bit concerned for your safety considering I haven’t properly cleaned up yet. I don’t need my fiancé accidentally vaporizing himself a week before our wedding."
“Ah, ha. Yeah, that wouldn’t be ideal, would it?” He chuckled, but there wasn’t any humor in it. Sibella frowned. This wasn’t like Cas. She narrowed her eyes, studying him with the intensity she usually reserved for particularly tricky spellwork.
“Darling, what *were* you doing in here? You know it’s dangerous to be in here alone. And I know you knew I wasn’t in here because…” She caught a flash of guilt in his eyes, punctuated by the droop of her furry ears. One downside of his Beast Curse? Terrible poker face.
“You were in here *because* I wasn’t,” she said, the look on his face all the confirmation she needed. “But why?”
“It’s silly,” he muttered.
“I’m sure it is, but I’d like to hear it anyway,” she said, keeping her tone light. Even with Cas sneaking around, it didn’t for a moment occur to her to be worried about anything nefarious.
Cas thought for a moment and then sighed. “I was looking for your Grimorie. I wanted to see your notes on Retrocasting.”
“My Grimorie? But you wouldn’t be able to read it, let alone use it.”
“Well I didn’t remember that until you poofed in here. Like I said, silly.”
“And if you wanted to know about Retrocasting, you could have just asked me. It *is* my specialty after all. Though I don’t know why you’d be interested in it. It’s not as if you have any spells you need to–” She stopped short, realization settling within her. “Casimir, is this about your curse?”
His body language betrayed him again without the need for a verbal response and Sibella felt a flash of wrath towards every person in Cas’s life who’d made him feel this way about his beast form. It was a list of people she planned to very methodically rain down vengeance on as soon as it was properly compiled. But that was a matter for another day and her anger quickly melted to warmth in the way that it only did for Cas. She closed the small gap between them, wrapping her arm around Cas's waist and lacing her fingers together.
“As I already told you, I quite like you the way you are. And I believe I’ve proven that many times.” She grinned roguishly. “Often multiple times in the same night, in fact.”
She felt Cas’s muscles relax slightly under her touch, but his expression remained conflicted.
“I know you’re willing to marry me like this but do you *want* to? I wasn't going to bring it up to you right away, but you’re really great at this curse stuff. I’m sure that if you just experimented a little, you could–”
Sibella reached up and put a finger to his lips.
“Cas, I could have undone your curse at any time. Most traditional curses are warded against being broken, not completely uncasted. It’s an enormous security flaw.”
Now, he went completely slack with surprise. “Wait. If you could have fixed me at any time then why–?”
“Not fixed,” she interrupted. “Un-cursed. And I wouldn’t consider doing that a fix. Honestly Cas, I am this close to inviting one of my former classmates over for dinner just so they can confirm what I was voted most likely to do to a monster during pre-graduation superlatives at Hexwell. Here’s a hint, it wasn’t ‘slay’.”
At that, he finally fully met her gaze for the first time since she’d arrived.
“You’re really choosing me like this?”
She answered him with a kiss, catching him so off guard that he hardly had a chance to reciprocate.
“Cas, you know me well enough by now to know that I am very clear about the things I want. I wanted to be a powerful witch. I wanted this kingdom. And I want you.”
She kissed him again, more gently this time. When they separated his eyes were soft and besotted and his tail slowly wagged–now safely away from any breakables.
“Do you believe me?” she asked.
“I do,” he said.
“Good. But if you ever need me to remind you of that, I will.” A wide grin returned to her face. “In fact, I think I’ll remind you right now." She took a thoughful glance around her lab which was still very full of extremely breakable glass containers filled with potentially hazardous potions and spell components. "Though, a change in location would probably be wise."
Cas cocked his head. “What do you–?”
But before he could finish his sentence, Sibella snapped her fingers and they were gone.