Chapter 36

Goodwin took a sip from his coffee and peered over the edge of the cup at Cassandra. She gazed down into her cup of coffee that she had wrapped her hands around to keep warm in the chilly morning. Some people were staring, wondering what in the world the director was doing in public with the celebrity, Princess Cassandra. Goodwin didn't seem intimidated.

"Are you sure you don't want that chocolate cake?" Goodwin asked her as he set his cup down. Cassandra shook her head.

"It will only make me jittery," she told him and looked up at him as he sighed.

"You grew up too fast. I missed too much," he said sadly as he stared longingly at her. "You used to want a piece of cake all the time, now you are worried over a sugar attack. Cassandra, you never were an overactive child and you weren't one to get a sugar rush, no matter how many sweets you had."

Cassandra averted his gaze and stared into the cup before her. Her prince told her to spend as much time with loved ones as she could and now that she had the opportunity, she didn't know what to do.

"What is it?" Goodwin asked her finally. Cassandra glanced at him for a quick second and was sure that his cold blue eyes were upon her.

"After this, can we go to the park? Do they still have that carousel there?" she asked him.

"I'm afraid they removed that long ago, Cassandra dearest," Goodwin told her and she seemed even more saddened. "But, we can go to the park if you would still like to go."

Cassandra nodded and sipped quickly at her now lukewarm coffee to finish it off before it got nasty. Goodwin walked into the café to pay for the tab and soon came back out as Cassandra joined him to go to the park.

As they walked down the street, Cassandra noticed a lot of beautiful spider webs in crevices and street lights. They had dew in their delicate design and the sun filtered through it, catching her eye as they passed. As they stopped at a street corner, she stood and gazed at one connected to a pole and a wire that held the traffic lights. Cassandra wasn't bothered by spiders much as Goodwin kept the mansion insect-free and seeing pictures of them didn't bother her either. As long as they weren't crawling all over her face, bearing their fangs as they had done in a movie she had watched. But their webs were beautiful and she couldn't help but admire how talented the little creatures were.

"I'll try to schedule a fall concert for you; I know you've been awfully bored for awhile now," Goodwin told her to start a conversation.

"That would be nice," Cassandra said blankly. Goodwin didn't like this response.

"Are you angry with me for some reason?" he asked her kindly. Cassandra shook her head but after a few minutes of thought, she remembered what had happened at the Fortune Cup.

"Well, you were acting weird towards me before," she told him nervously. He seemed surprised.

"I'm sorry about my behavior before, Cassandra. I am not sure what had come over me," he apologized and stopped so she would look up at him, "You have blossomed into a beautiful young woman."

Cassandra blushed slightly. "Thank you," she whispered and they entered the park, one of few places in this city with natural grass and trees. The city was so modernized and most people used fake plants; there were only a few places with real plants.

The park was very small and had an oxidized copper statue of some forgotten figure from centuries ago in the center with four sidewalks branching out from opposite directions. If one took a compass to the middle, they would find that each sidewalk matched up evenly with the compass: a North walk, South walk, East walk, and a West walk. Around the statue were benches accompanied by convenient trash cans. Goodwin sat in one and Cassandra sat beside him.

"Not many people come to this park anymore," Goodwin commented, gazing around.

"I remember coming here before," Cassandra said and Goodwin looked at her, "with my papa."

His face softened, "I came here with my brother as well."

"To ride the carousel?" Cassandra asked him, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah, we were just kids," he gave her a nervous smile. Cassandra chuckled to herself and sat back into the bench.

"There used to be an ice cream stand nearby and he would take me to get ice cream and then we'd ride on this beautiful white horse on the carousel," Cassandra smiled as she stared at the sidewalk, her throat stinging.

"I remember that ice cream stand. My brother would take me to buy ice cream when I would do well on my report card," Goodwin told her. He smiled and gave her a soft shove. "Let's go get ice cream," he grinned and Cassandra looked him oddly.

"For breakfast?" Cassandra laughed as Goodwin took her hand and led her out of the park and down the street. It was like he was young again with those cold blue eyes and that long brown hair, Cassandra thought as they entered a '50s themed diner. They sat down at a table and waited for a waitress to come by, the whole time with Goodwin smiling at Cassandra.

"The last time you took me out for ice cream was when I was twelve," Cassandra laughed and a young lady in a pink uniform with short, wavy blonde hair came up to the table.

"How may I help you two?" she asked with a Southern accent that Cassandra enjoyed as soon as the woman spoke.

"A fudge sundae for my lovely lady here please," Goodwin smiled as he rested his head on his fist. The woman wrote the order down in her notebook with a smile.

"Will that be all, Director?" the woman asked him.

"Yes, thank you," Goodwin told her and the woman rushed off through a doorway and into the kitchen invisible to the customers.

"Do you think she recognized me?" Cassandra whispered and noticed people watching her. Goodwin didn't comment because the woman came rushing back out with a couple of the other waitresses, all in pink uniforms. One was a brunette with square glasses and the other had a long black braid with a red ribbon. She also had the fudge sundae and placed it on the table as the girls shoved open black books and photographs of Cassandra in front of her.

"Can we have your autograph?" the girl with the braid asked her as she handed Cassandra a pen.

"Can you sign one for the diner as well?" the blonde asked her.

Cassandra smiled and nodded as she signed everything with her curly "Princess Cassandra". The women squealed and hopped around excitedly when she finished.

"If you need anything at all, don't be shy, okay hon?" the blonde woman patted her hand.

"Thank you," Cassandra grinned.

"Oh, no, thank you," she replied and departed to the kitchen with the other waitresses. As Cassandra was about to take a bite of her sundae, a couple people came up for her autograph as well.

"Can't go out anymore without being overwhelmed by fans, huh?" Goodwin smiled when the people had left. Cassandra nodded and let out a sigh of relief before digging into her fudge sundae. This would be her last chance to enjoy such luxuries.

Just a little Goodwin and Cassandra filler. So no one but my friend commented on the Labryinth crossover??? Wow. Oh well, I'll develop it more later when I rent the awesome movie again. lol

As usual, please check out the Avatar of Bahamut's 'Legacy of the Star Princess' and 'Yuki Shiro and the Five Dragons'. Did I get it right that time? lol Awesome stories so do go read them. Also, on deviant art, please check out LittleBlackDragon and oO-Kai-Oo; that's me and Avatar. I upload illustrations to my acct when I draw them and I found my old sketches of random stuff that I totally forgot about, so I'll be doing a mass upload when I get the chance. ;) Soon, when the certain chapters comes around, I'll be releasing some cute pictures for this fic.