A/N: I was talking about Cassandra and how everybody hates her and about book 10, and this sorta happened. I've never actually written Cass before, so I'm worried she was a little OOC, or Alyss was. It's hard writing them together. Let me know how I did (it's my first time, let me live). Also, is it weird how writing this actually made me hate her more? Like, before this I didn't even hate her but I kinda do now. Wow, that's sad. Anyway, enjoy :)

Noon came before she even knew it. Cassandra sat around for a short time, deciding whether she was going to go or not. Eventually she told herself yes, she had to, because she made a promise and this was her idea anyway.

It was her idea, but she was dreading this. It felt like a bad idea when she wrote Alyss and asked if she wanted to go to lunch, and it was an even worse idea now. But, again, she made a promise, and she was going to keep it.

Cassandra didn't want to draw too much attention to herself; she did that enough already. Just a simple, nice dress was appropriate for the outing, and she made sure her hair looked nice. Looking nice was still important to her, even if she didn't have to look like she was going to a banquet. Alyss wouldn't care much for that anyway.

Of course Harry was waiting to see her out. When she met him he was standing at the top of the staircase on the third floor, and he greeted her with a polite bow even though he knew they were miles past that. "Your Highness," he said.

"Harry, you know you're not coming with me, right?"

"Yes, but are you sure?" He followed her as she made her way down the stairs. "Going out by yourself-" he corrected himself, because Cassandra was going to do soon if he didn't, "even with one other person is dangerous. I know she can defend herself, but she's no ranger and neither are you-"

"We'll be in public the whole time. I doubt that's the best time to attack me, and if they do, I can take care of myself." She lifted to show him the pouch she usually carried around with her, where her slingshot was hidden.

"Your slingshot can't get you out of every situation," he said.

"It can this one. Watch me."

Harry sighed, for probably the seventieth time that day.

"And if it's not safe then it's necessary. It needs to be just us two, okay?" Cassandra reached the second floor, and turned to look over her shoulder at her personal guard. Any other day, she would let him come along for safety purposes, but this was the one exception.

They'd talked about this before, so Harry reluctantly nodded. He knew what was going to happen from the beginning of their conversation, but he just had to make sure. "Alright, then," he said. "I understand."

Harry escorted her to the door, where a few maids bowed to her and wished her a good afternoon. He held the door open for her and said with a kind smile, "Have a good time, Your Highness."

Cassandra smiled back. "Don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone," she replied, and left Harry rolling his eyes at her and sighing for the seventy-oneith time. If anyone was going to be getting in trouble, it was Cass.

It was a nice day to be outside, so nice they could've gone for a walk that instead of getting lunch, had Cassandra have thought of that. The sky was all clear, but the sun wasn't unforgivingly hot. The slight chill in the air kept it at bay. Too bad they were going to be eating inside.

She planned to meet Alyss in the restaurant; whichever one of them got there first would save a table.

It had been a good amount of time since they returned from Nihon-Ja, enough time for everything to settle down, between them and also politically. The two girls were on good terms again, just good enough to be in the same room without tension. It wasn't even like they were still in danger of tearing each other's throats out, it was a different kind of "okay". They'd apologized before, agreed that they were both being stupid, and promised to be nice again, but that was all.

There was always the lingering thought that maybe if she just left it alone, things wouldn't be so bad. So maybe this wasn't necessary, Cassandra thought. But no, it was. She didn't want to settle for 'okay'. That's why she was the one who brought up the idea of having lunch.

Every time she thought about what their relationship was now, it bothered her. It was part of that leftover embarrassment from how awful she'd acted to her back in Nihon-Ja, probably.

Cassandra arrived there barely a minute before Alyss showed up. She'd taken a table near the back of the room, so they wouldn't draw as much attention to themselves like Cassandra had done on her walk up there, being crown princess and all. Nobody could seem to forget about that.

Alyss spotted her quickly and walked over, giving her a small look of acknowledgement. Cass waved her over.

Only once before Nihon-Ja had they actually spent time together, alone, without any prompt from anyone else. They went to lunch, had a good time, talked a while… it was fun, and it never happened again. Did that make them friends? Cass wondered.

No, they weren't friends.

"Hey," Alyss said, sitting down across from her. The courier looked beautiful, in a simple but elegant white dress that reached her knees, and a short cloak just reaching her mid-arm. Around her neck was a necklace Cass had never seen before. It must've been new, or Alyss had just never talked about it before.

She only let herself admire it for a second, then took her eyes away and gave Alyss her attention.

"Hey," she replied. "I tried to get a table near the back, so we wouldn't draw as much attention."

"Attention? We're just a crown princess and a courier, looking for a little bite to eat. Not that big of a deal." A smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

Cassandra scoffed. "Not according to literally everyone else in Araluen. For a while I thought about eating in the castle instead, but this is better."

"Yeah, it is," Alyss said. She relaxed a little bit in her seat; squared her shoulders against the back of the booth. "I think there's less pressure this way. Eating in a castle makes it sound like a business meeting."

A waitress came up to them quickly after Alyss sat down and took both of their drink orders. They had the same idea to order tea, but decided to wait to order their lunch.

The next minute was spent in silence, while they both took time to look over the menu and decide what they were getting, just so they could get that out of the way beforehand.

Then Cassandra had to ask.

"I haven't seen that necklace before," she said.

Alyss lifted her menu down from her face and glanced up at Cass. "It's new," she replied, and turned her eyes as down as she could to look at it. "Will got it for me earlier this week."

"That's sweet of him."

"That reminds me, are there any plans for the wedding?" She spoke carefully, like this was a business meeting. It bothered Cass, but she understood why Alyss was building walls around her as she talked.

"No dates, yet, but we haven't forgotten." Then Cassandra chuckled, and continued, "My father certainly hasn't. I think, in his mind, Horace is already his son-in-law and we're years into our marriage."

"I would've thought he'd be more… worried." Alyss must've decided what she wanted, because she put down the menu and faced Cass.

"He was at first, but now not so much. Not with Horace." She smiled. "That's a good sign, I suppose."

"Especially when the proposal was so sudden. I was worried about how that would go with him."

That kind of took Cass off-guard, but she didn't let it show through too much. "Well, yeah," she said. "It kind of was, but… I don't know, it felt right."

"No, I understand. It's not like it was a bad choice."

"Do you think we were rushing things?"

Alyss paused. Her first thought was to say "no, you'll be fine", but then she wondered if telling the truth was a better idea. She decided to and said, "To tell the truth, I do." Then quickly she added, "I don't think it was a mistake, though, even if it was sudden."

"Well… thanks." Alyss didn't reply in any way; she went back to looking at her menu, and Cassandra did the same, even though he knew what she was getting. That went on for about a minute, but it felt longer.

Thank god Cassandra didn't have to awkwardly change the subject to keep a conversation going. Alyss spoke first, and she didn't awkwardly change the subject either.

"I don't want to offend you," she said.

"You're not, I…" Cassandra sighed, and looked away. Even looking away, though, felt like she was under such careful watch from her. "Stop being so… reserved."

"Reserved?"

"Yeah. You look like you're on guard, like I'm going to attack you or something," she explained.

"I'm not."

Cassandra had to choke back a laugh. She had expected Alyss to be like this, or she should have. "You said, defensively," she pointed out.

"As opposed to you, who's acting extra nice and polite right now."

"I'm just being nice. Something wrong with that?" Cassandra duly noted to herself that that last sentence was, ironically, not very nice.

"We're both on our guards, Cassandra, because… well, why are we doing this?" She came out with it just like that. The elephant in the room.

Cass's heart sank in her chest. This was what she was afraid of. Alyss was letting down her guard, now, only to build a stronger one. "I don't want things to be weird," Cassandra answered, honestly. "Not after we fought."

"Things aren't still weird. I'm not still angry at you," Alyss told her.

"Then why're you acting all defensive?"

"Maybe because I'm embarrassed."

Cassandra stared. Her eyes widened just a fraction, but when she expected Alyss to look away, she didn't. That didn't mean she wasn't nervous, but she didn't let the silence extend for too long either way.

"I'm embarrassed I acted so childishly to you," she explained. "I'm still sorry for that, even if we're both at fault. It's not that I don't want to have a relationship with you- I do, actually, it's just-"

Cass interrupted her suddenly, looking angry despite what she said, "I don't want to be just 'okay'. I feel like, if we settle for 'okay', we'll always be just 'okay'. For God's sake, our fiances, or our future fiances are best friends, so why can't we be? Being with you is fun, Alyss, and even if it doesn't go that far that we become the best of friends- because I'm a brat or something, I still want…"

I want to be your friend, she thought.

Out loud, she rephrased, "I hate missed opportunities. Maybe we could just see what we could be."

Alyss's eyes softened. Her whole attitude softened at this, as Cassandra could see by her body language. The walls around her crumbled, and she let them.

"You're not a brat, Cass," Alyss said, words leaving her mouth quietly like she was scared to say them.

Cassandra shook her head. "Yeah, sure," she scoffed.

Her mouth opened again, but Alyss erased all her words when she leaned forward to her, put her elbows on the table and said, "Let's just… both let down our guards. Stop being so needlessly polite and I'll let my guard down. Start over."

Cass's mouth involuntarily curved into a smile, and she chuckled, unsure why. Alyss understood, though, and Cassandra saw her shoulders move up in jerked motions that said she was almost laughing too.

A taller figure approached the table, distracting them from each other and drawing their attention back to the present. The waitress smiled and asked, "Have you decided on your orders?"

Alyss and Cass exchanged quick looks. One at a time, they nodded. "Yeah, I think so," Alyss said.

Cassandra ordered first, but she was thinking about something else. She thought about how she was diving headfirst into a friendship that, one, probably wouldn't work out, two, in which neither of them had no idea how they were going to work together, and three, was budding right after a fight.

They may not be those two best friends attached at the hip, saying things at the same time, never leaving the other's side… but it was okay. They didn't have to promise that they would.