"Morning."

"Morning, beautiful."

Lazy Saturdays were Cassandra's favorite. She loved lying in bed, thinking about all the things she could do with her weekend. Usually, those plans included going back to sleep. She wasn't a morning person at all. Thankfully, Varian was.

Cassandra reached over to wrap her arms around him. In her foggy, sleepy mind, that was fine. She wasn't really aware of what she was doing, until she wrapped her arms around his pillow instead. "Huh. That's not Varian," she said to herself, looking up into the house, only to find him at her fireplace.

"You're right, it isn't. I'm making breakfast.

She finally sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "You don't have to do that."

"I should. As a thank you for dinner. And a thank you for letting me stay here." He cracked two eggs in a pan, barely paying any mind to her other than his answer. He'd never done this before, so he had to focus.

But then it occurred to Varian that after he put the eggs in the pan, he didn't know what to do. He stood there, staring at the fireplace with a smile. "All in a day's work."

"Varian?"

"Yeah?"

"They're gonna burn."

"Isn't that supposed to happen?"

Cassandra laughed, a real hearty laugh. She hadn't laughed at something in a while. "Oh! Okay, let me do it."

"Show me how?" Varian asked, watching her gather more eggs and a spatula. It never occurred to him that maybe he needed cooking utensils. "They're not supposed to turn black, right? Oh, they're burning!"

"I know, I know. Those are ruined, but we can always cook more. Want to crack these in the pan for me?" Cassandra asked, handing him two eggs. "You at least know how to do that. That's a start."

Varian did just that, and before he could ask what came next, Cassandra wrapped her arms around him from behind. She held his hands, placing the spatula in his grip.

"You're going to scramble these eggs. We'll mash them up, and stir them all around the pan. Got it?" She guided his hands, showing him where to start. She rested her chin on his shoulder to see, but when she did, she realized what she'd done and how close she'd gotten. "I, er, sorry."

When she backed up, Varian turned away from breakfast a second time to face her. "There doesn't have to be anything wrong with that, Cass. We've kissed before. Twice."

"And you just expect us to be in love now? They were just kisses, Varian." Cassandra slumped down in a dining room chair, crossing her arms defensively.

"Yeah. I did. I thought you at least liked me, otherwise you wouldn't have done it. Do kisses just mean nothing to you, then?"

She wouldn't even kiss Andrew, that admittedly gorgeous separatist she helped capture. She liked him a little too, and he wasn't even worthy of her affection. So what did this mean for Varian? What did it mean for her? "It meant something," she admitted.

"What did it mean?"

"Thank you. Thank you for being my only real friend outside the palace walls."

Varian scoffed, before looking over his shoulder at the now blackened eggs they tried to cook together. There goes the universe again with its cruel irony! They were never going to do anything right by themselves. "I'd say my debt for it's repaid, but I don't think these count either."

He took the charred remains and dumped them in the fire, before storming out of her house.

That wouldn't do. As soon as he was out the door, Cassandra was on her feet, chasing after him into the yard. There she stood, in her pajamas, in the royal courtyard. The royal family was having breakfast just feet away, staring at her in all her bedhead glory, with a man she'd spent the night with standing next to her.

"I-it's not what you think," she mentioned to them, trying to grab Varian by the hand to drag him back inside. "Varian, get inside."

"Oh, so now you actually want me in your house?" He asked, not budging from his spot.

"Fine. We'll work this out here in the yard. I'll just get beheaded after this. That's fine." She rolled her eyes, continuing, "I like you a lot, okay? That was actually my first kiss. I've never been close to someone like I've been close to you, and I didn't hate it. So please, let's go back inside. We'll figure out what we want out of this."

"You like me?" He asked, a little taken aback. "I like you."

Eugene shouted from the pavilion, "Yeah, we knew for years."

Varian rolled his eyes. "I've liked you since I was a kid. And this whole thing has been a dream to me, Cass. I can't even begin to thank you for what you've done for me."

"I can think of something," Cass suggested, leaning in a little closer.

"Way ahead of you." He kissed her gently, pulling her in by the waist. It felt like they had done this a million times in another life, but that didn't take away from the shock and sheer joy it gave him when they kissed.

And out on the pavilion, Queen Ariana clapped. "He's a keeper, Cass!"