Date With Destiny (Caz)

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Lottie’s part of her room was an absolutely disaster; it looked like her wardrobe had thrown up all over her bed, the floor, and part way over into her roommate’s space. She had almost given up hope, all these new clothes and absolutely nothing to wear, and she simply couldn’t wear just anything on a date with destiny, now could she? Ah, but luck was on her side, for she had the perfect dress stashed in the back of her closet among her old clothes she had brought from home. It was destiny, she just knew it! Pulling on the pink sleeveless, full skirted dress, she removed the rollers from her hair, applied a bit of mascara and lipstick, popped on a few pearls and she was ready to go!

Almost.

Something was missing... of course! Digging quickly through the stack of hatboxes, she quickly found the matching hat and plopped it on her head. Turning from left to right in front of the mirror, her face contorting into different ‘sultry’ expressions as she observed her appearance, she suddenly let out a squeal and clapped her hands together. Perfect! Snatching up her little handbag (complete with compact and tissues, she checked) and throwing a light shawl around her shoulders, Lottie’s last stop was to grab the little basket she had left by the door before practically skipping out of the room. She was so excited she could barely think straight! That was why she had made it halfway across the courtyard before she realised she was severely underdressed for the weather.

“Horsefeathers it’s cold in this place!” she exclaimed to herself, but she was not about to turn back now. There was no way she was going to be late for this meeting, because if this was what she thought it was then in a few short hours she would have a honking big ring on her finger and her childhood dream would be almost a reality.

She could have ran the whole way to the lake, she was that exhilarated, but that was hardly the behaviour of a lady, let along a princess. She took a cab instead, chattering endlessly the whole ride to the point that the driver was almost ready to pay her to get out early so he could have some peace and quiet.

Finally reaching the lake, Lottie strolled as leisurely as her enthusiasm would let her until she spotted Caz by the water’s edge, his back to her. “Well hey there, handsome,” she greeted, stopping a few feet away and making sure to hold the basket to her side, letting her shawl slip off her shoulder despite the cold so that when he turned he would get an uninhibited look at her.

[cazaril]

Caz had asked for Lottie to meet him, because he needed to spend time with someone who he was sure didn't know him as an older Caz, as he was sure she would of said.

That and he could just tell, something about it felt..new. With the others it had felt familar.

So now to tell her? He figured that was the best plan of action, so he - wearing the new clothes she'd helped him get, scuffed his old shoes by the side of the lake.

When she did turn up, Caz had to get his chin off the ground, because he couldn't believe how...well...he'd seen her as beautiful, but this was actually insane.

"I....eer wow...I mean, wow..." He couldn't actually stop saying wow, and it took a moment to laugh awkwardly and try to explain himself - and say hello. "Lottie...you must be freezing!" he said, biting his lip, "I should of picked a meeting place, I'm sorry" he fumbled, taking off his jacket so his tweed beige shirt was all that was keeping him warm. "Please, wear this."

[Deleted]

Now that was exactly the reaction she was going for. Jaw dropped, eyes bugged out, inability to form a sentence... check, check and check! So far, so good! Well, better than good! If things kept going this way, then an engagement was practically in the bag!

Protesting only mildly when he tried to give up his coat (she didn’t want to cover up her pretty dress, but she was quite cold, and shivering and turning blue wasn’t exactly sexy), Lottie eventually accepted it, slipping it over her shoulders. There was just something so romantic about wearing a man’s jacket and she snuggled into it with a content smile. “Such a gentleman,” she cooed, before a look something akin to concern took over her features. “But now you’re gonna be cold!”

Taking her almost forgotten wrap, she draped it around Cazaril’s neck. “Pink isn’t really your colour, sugah, but I think I know somethin’ else that might help...” With a devilish grin, she gave the mock scarf a tug, pulling him closer to her and grinning up at him. “How about a little wine? That should warm us both right up.”

[cazaril]

Cazaril was not what you would call an 'alpha male' and in this sort of situations, his older brothers had wooed ladies off their feet and off and onwards. Caz was unable to do this, even though he did like Lottie, he wasn't sure how far that run, they barely knew each other - he didn't know himself, and yet she made him flush and act like a child - though he figured that was normal behaviour some of the time.

"I just wanted to make sure you were warm" he told her, his eyes crinkling a little, glad to be thinking of something else when she had put the scarf around his neck, and her fingers catching his skin made him bit his lip. "I actually love the colour red...it's the colours of the army...." he began to tell her, but she had already cut him off, tugging him close with the scarf and for a moment, he was sure they were going to kiss, but they didn't and Caz found himself flailing around trying to act as if nothing had happened - and failing.

"Wine! Yes, erm....I wasn't expecting a whole picnic"

What had he been expecting? He wasn't sure but he was sure that this could go one of two ways right now, and he wasn't sure which he preferred.

[Deleted]

For a moment Lottie kept their proximity, the almost uncomfortable closeness. She could probably seal the deal right now, but she was a lady and she did have certain stipulations. She fully intended to be whisked off her feet, so even if she had to do most of the work, she fully expected him to make that final move.

Unfortunately this wasn’t their moment. Yet.

Managing to keep herself from looking disappointed, it was only early yet after all, Lottie flung one end of the scarf to wrap around his neck before stepping back and turning to her basket. “Well, it ain’t much, really,” she said, as demurely as she possibly could. “Just some wine, cheese and a few strawberries. Might even be some chocolate in there.”

Pulling a checked blanket out of the basket she flipped it out to spread out on the ground. It was rather small by blanket standards, but of course that had all been part of the plan as well. The smaller it was, the closer they had to sit. “Please, have a seat.” She wasn’t completely without manners.

[cazaril]

Well, at least he was breathing now. Sitting down with Lottie on the blanket - which was rather small he gave a nervous grin. "I have to thank you again for the clothes..." he indicated the waist coat and cords, he was definitely feeling at home in this clothing compared to the rag tags he'd been in the day she'd met him.

He decided to be gentlemanly, and he pulled out the wine and opened the wine for them and poured two. He passed her one glass and sipped his.

"It's funny, the last time I got to drink real wine I had to water it...I was on duty--" he cut himself with a soft smile. "It feels like yesterday, being in the court of Cardegoss..." He looked to her again realizing yet again that un like Door or Cimorene, this girl knew nothing of his past self, that he hadn't an act to play or an impression to make and it caused him to smile gently.

"Thank you for letting me feel myself Lottie. Sometimes, I don't feel.." he wanted to say he didn't feel he knew who he was but even a guy knew when a girl didn't want him to be vulnerable, so he did a stupid thing...he confided to Lottie in the worse way possible.

"I don't feel that I'm ready for all that's to come...but I know I have to be. Whatever comes my way has to be my choice, you know? My life, my rules and all that...."

[Deleted]

If ever there was a time to lean in and kiss her, this was it, and boy was Lottie ready for him. Already her eyes were starting to drift closed, and she was leaning even closer and he… was turning away. Well phooey. Leaning back again, clearly disappointed, she tried to reassure herself that he was just bashful, or that he was worried about his country and what his parents would think if he chose her to marry. It couldn’t possibly be that he didn’t want her, she wouldn’t even let herself think it.

Apparently it was something all together different.

She tried to follow, she really did try to understand, but any conversation that starts with “don’t freak out” has the tendency to set her on edge. She did listen, though, but by the time he was finished part of her wished she hadn’t.

“Oh boy,” she breathed, sitting back. He had seemed so nice and sweet and chivalrous! Why, oh why, did she always attract the crazy ones? There had to be another explanation. Maybe she just had to talk it out.

“Of course you know who you are! I know who you are. You’re a caring, wonderful man with a sweet smile and a heroic air and a bit of a poor sense of fashion. You are chivalrous and brave and noble, fighting beside your people instead of letting then do battle for you while you remain safe. You are young and handsome and just adorably shy, but you have to grow up before anyone else because you’re going to have a kingdom to run…”

Even if she was currently wary of his sanity, Lottie meant ever word she was saying. Not only did she want it all to be true, want to prove he wasn’t in fact crazy, a part of her really needed it to be. She had already set so many hopes on him, granted she hadn’t been here long yet or met many other princes so it wasn’t like he was her only chance, and she really did care about him, she was sure of it. He was like she had always imagined her prince would be when she read all those fairytales…

Suddenly an idea struck her.

“It’s a spell!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “Evil queens are always putting spells on princes like you. She’s just trying to make you think you’ve already lived this to drive you insane and keep you from finding your one true love!”

And now she was starting to sound like Giselle. If animals started following her around expecting her to sing to them they had another thing coming. The other thing likely to be a shoe flying at their heads.

[cazaril]

He knew he was nervous around Lottie, but he felt that she definitely knew how to make him feel any particular emotion, she could make him nervous, and at ease with just a tone of voice, perhaps she had learnt that back home in New Orleans, but maybe she'd learnt it because she seemed to always get her way.

She had got information out of him, but not all the information she needed. Now, she was hinting very much she wanted to be with him, and Caz, because he was so unsure of anything, felt his eyes dart away from her when she got so close.

Don't get him wrong, it was nice and all, and he hadn't courted anyone properly for a long time, and even then, that was because his brothers thought he was a girly 14 year old. Either way, he smiled sheepishly.

"Lottie I have to tell you something...I...okay, don't freak out but..." He sighed, "I can't remember my future. I know it sounds silly, but....it's true. I've...already been 17, already been here at Tintagel...I've had a whole other life and I can't remember it, my age and memory was stolen somehow....and now I don't know who or what I am"

He sighed, she was probably going to think he was crazy - probably thought he needed to go to some sort of mental house, fixed by a fairy but he was suddenly deadly terrified of her rejection of him, for something he could not control.

Even though, Caz had told her because he didn't want to keep this problem a secret any longer.

[Deleted]

((sneaking on at work, shhhh))

If ever there was a time to lean in and kiss her, this was it, and boy was Lottie ready for him. Already her eyes were starting to drift closed, and she was leaning even closer and he… was turning away. Well phooey. Leaning back again, clearly disappointed, she tried to reassure herself that he was just bashful, or that he was worried about his country and what his parents would think if he chose her to marry. It couldn’t possibly be that he didn’t want her, she wouldn’t even let herself think it.

Apparently it was something all together different.

She tried to follow, she really did try to understand, but any conversation that starts with “don’t freak out” has the tendency to set her on edge. She did listen, though, but by the time he was finished part of her wished she hadn’t.

“Oh boy,” she breathed, sitting back. He had seemed so nice and sweet and chivalrous! Why, oh why, did she always attract the crazy ones? There had to be another explanation. Maybe she just had to talk it out.

“Of course you know who you are! I know who you are. You’re a caring, wonderful man with a sweet smile and a heroic air and a bit of a poor sense of fashion. You are chivalrous and brave and noble, fighting beside your people instead of letting then do battle for you while you remain safe. You are young and handsome and just adorably shy, but you have to grow up before anyone else because you’re going to have a kingdom to run…”

Even if she was currently wary of his sanity, Lottie meant ever word she was saying. Not only did she want it all to be true, want to prove he wasn’t in fact crazy, a part of her really needed it to be. She had already set so many hopes on him, granted she hadn’t been here long yet or met many other princes so it wasn’t like he was her only chance, and she really did care about him, she was sure of it. He was like she had always imagined her prince would be when she read all those fairytales…

Suddenly an idea struck her.

“It’s a spell!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “Evil queens are always putting spells on princes like you. She’s just trying to make you think you’ve already lived this to drive you insane and keep you from finding your one true love!”

And now she was starting to sound like Giselle. If animals started following her around expecting her to sing to them they had another thing coming. The other thing likely to be a shoe flying at their heads.

[cazaril]

Caz was afraid her "Oh boy" was going to turn into something that meant she was just going to get up and leave. He'd been afraid she'd call him a freak and think him so strange she'd never want to talk to him...

And then she started being so nice, and Caz was finally feeling at ease with her, his friend being so nice and considerate about the whole thing, he wanted to laugh and drink the wine she'd bought. The spell did sort of make sense but--

But she had to say it, didn't she? She had to say the words that might inevitably change everything and in turn, Caz had to ask her the question, had to bring her out of the dark and into the truth.

Caz cleared his throat and took a breathe, confused at this insistence. "Lottie....I don't understand what are you talking about. I've not got a kingdom to run and I'm not a prince, far from it..."

[Deleted]

Lottie was beaming at him again, proud of herself for figuring it all out and expecting him to exclaim how brilliant and wonderful she was, and to sweep her into his arms and to show her just how grateful he was.

The very last thing she expected was for him to completely dash all her hopes and dreams into itty bitty little pieces by suddenly revealing that he wasn’t a prince. Lottie drew back in shock and horror.

“You’re jokin’, right?” she asked, but he didn’t appear to be joking. Not at all. Not in the slightest.

Lottie couldn’t believe it. All this time! All these... days letting her think he was a prince, letting her get her hopes all up and start to care about him and start planning their future and he was lying the whole time! And she had just said all those nice thing about him, about how sweet and caring he was and he was nothing but a lying... liar!

“What do you mean you’re not a prince?” she screeching, trying to get to her feet in a dignified manner but being too angry to manage it gracefully. At all. “Then what was all that talk about the boys looking for your luggage, and having to go to war because even the royals went and about your kingdom?”

[cazaril]

Caz choked back on his words, "What I meant is I was born a Castillar, a baron's son...and yeah, I have had people help me with my luggage and I had to go to war because EVERY boy does. When did I ever mention I was a royal?"

He got angry himself now, standing up. "So was that the only reason you were my friend? At all?! Why you helped get me those clothes? Why you've been cuddling up to me?!" He almost growled, "Do you know just how low that is?"

[Deleted]

Propping her hands on her hips, Lottie was the picture of defiance. How dare he lead her on like that? How dare he tell her he was a prince only to turn around and... admit that he wasn’t and... oh wait... oh no...

She opened her mouth, trying to throw back at him when he had said it, how he had said it, all the times he had flaunted his status but... she couldn’t come up with any. The fact of the matter was that he never had actually claimed to be a prince. Lottie snapped her mouth shut, utterly mortified. The more she thought about it, the more the image she had built around him crumbled. Even when she had mentioned “his” kingdom during their first meeting he had balked at it, but she had found some other words of confirmation, some other way of convincing herself that it was destiny, that he was her prince charming.

“Oh gosh, I made it all up...” she breathed to herself, slapping a hand over her mouth and looking utterly horrified. He was the first handsome, kind, well-mannered man she had met here and she just wanted to believe it so badly, wanted to find her fairytale ending, that she had convinced herself that it had been true. It had all been in her head.

And now he was really, really angry.

“I just thought... Oh gosh, I’m so sorry! I just really did - really do like you, and... oh, I don’t know what I was thinking!” This was terrible. Something like this had never happened in any fairytale she had ever read and she simply had no idea how to handle it. All she knew was that she felt as low and he thought her to be.

[cazaril]

(my weekend got super busy all of a sudden so I can't post as much, but I hope this helps!)

Caz was angry, and bloody too right, he had enough problems as it was without some girl - some girl being one of his few friends - making his identity crisis harder by giving him an identity he knew for a fact he didn't have.

Caz was going to leave, to prove a point, to stay angry, but then she admitted it, and he saw in her face her apology, he was sure her lip was wobbling and though Caz knew he should remain annoyed, whatever lifetime he was in, he couldn't watch a woman cry when she clearly had realized her mistakes.

That and Caz was a sucker, but you know, a nice one.

"Look...don't be upset, I didn't mean to shout at you, I just...I..." he bit his lip, "Lottie..." he didn't know how to respond, but instead, he sighed, and step forward, his hands out in a hug, "I'm really sorry, I should of taken it as a compliment..."

[Deleted]

Standing there, staring at Caz with wide, watery eyes, Lottie tried to prepare herself for what was to come. He was just so angry and she knew he was going to yell at her more and she didn’t want to burst into tears but she was not used to being yelled at. Her daddy had tried it a few times but he had never really meant it, and had never been truly angry at her, not like this. He had just been trying to exert his authority and she had always known he would eventually give in and give her what she wanted.

Caz wasn’t like Big Daddy, though. She had been pretty close to having him wrapped around her little finger but that was all over now and he looked so angry she was almost crying just looking at him. If he yelled again... she was done for.

Biting her lip and looking absolutely miserable, she actually visibly flinched when Caz opened his mouth to speak, but what came out was completely unexpected. He wasn’t yelling, wasn’t even scolding her. He actually apologised to her and even offered her a hug.

He really was the sweetest, most caring and wonderful man she had ever met. So she cried anyway, but for different reasons. Flinging herself on him she hugged him tightly and buried her face in his chest. “No, I’m sorry!” she sobbed loudly and messily. “You must think I’m an awful person!”