Iris' POV

I groggily open my eyes and the first thing is I see is Kevin's chest. My throat feels like sandpaper and I swallow repeatedly to lubricate it. It feels like the time at the lake.

We all felt super thirsty and drawn to Delmar's lake. Only Karen could smell the poison's foul smell but we all ignored her due to the intensity of our thirst. And that resulted in me turning into a mermaid- human hybrid. And ever since, I have been feeling thirsty all the time. It's not a big problem, because I can freaking conjure up water from the air which I find super cool!

I unwrap my arms from around Kevin's waist and groan as I try to sit up. Kevin is quick to wake up at the loss of contact and he jolts upright.

"What happened, baby?" he asks, his voice hoarse.

"Nothing, go to sleep, I am just thirsty." I shrug. I swing my legs to the end of the bed and stand up. Just as I am about to walk Kevin grabs my arm and I turn to look.

"Can you bring some for me too?" he asks and I nod. I slowly open the door, hop my way out, and shut the door silently.

The hallway is dead silent and there are only three bedrooms, ours, Karen's, and Caspian's in this one. Conjuring up water does require a little bit of energy from my side, although not as much as they need, I am too lazy to use any energy of mine because well......I am super lazy.

There is a small rack where they keep water, juices, and stuff like that in fancy glass bottles. The bottles alone make you pick the drinks. I am guessing the top row has liquor too, but I am not taking any of that. The tequila burned my esophagus today.

I pick two bottles of orange juice and a big bottle of water and decide to head back when I hear a noise in the door beside me. This is Caspian's room. I decide to move further towards my room when I hear Caspian grunting. 

What the hell is happening? Why hasn't he slept yet?

I quickly move towards my door, place the drinks inside, try to wake Kevin up but he turns around, cursing Delmar in his freaking sleep. He didn't like it, me barely dressed, swimming with a smokin' hot merman but in my eyes, this sleeping bird is the hottest guy on earth.

Does Eponine count as Earth?

I drain the bottle of juice before I hop my way to Caspian's door. Although I know that this is not right, I strain my ear to know what's happening inside until I hear a thump. I quietly knock on the door and wait for him to answer. I know he is not sleeping anyway.

When he doesn't answer, I knock again.

"Go away!" he growls. 

Boy, this isn't good!

"Caspian, it's me, Iris. Open the door." I say, knocking again. I hear some shuffling before someone yanks open the door and I see a very flushed looking Caspian.

"What do you want?" he asks. His eyes are red, his nose is pink, his cheeks are pink; he's been freaking crying his eyeballs out!

"Why haven't you slept yet?" I ask.

"Why do you care?" he scoffs, turning around on his heels and walking back inside. I follow him, trying not to bombard him with questions.

"Why do I care? Because I am your damn friend!" I reply.

"Aren't you supposed to be cuddling with your boyfriend?" he huffs.

"Well, aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

"Why are you here?"

"Why the hell were you crying?"

"I am not crying! Just go away!" he yells.

"I am not leaving you here like this, Caspian. Either you tell me what is wrong or suffer my nagging for the rest of the night!" I say through gritted teeth.

He huffs, "What's wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with you? Why are you crying, Caspian? Tell me!" I persist.

His hand rubs his forehead in frustration. "Iris, for the last time, I am not freaking crying! Go cuddle with your boyfriend." he huffs.

"Then why are your eyes red? And why is this goddamn vase shattered? And I don't think they offered you this absolutely wreaked bed!" I argue. He huffs and sits on the unmade bed, running his hand through his golden hair.

Caspian sighs in defeat. "Close the door..." he whispers.

I close the door and sit on the bed beside Caspian who sniffles so I place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Caspian..." I whisper but he hesitates for a moment before he speaks again.

"Why didn't you tell me, Iris?" he asks, looking at me, his eyes pooling with tears.

"Tell you what?" I ask, confused.

"Ab-About Katarina and Darius. That...that they are together." he sniffles.

"I thought you knew..." I mumble.

"Well, I know since the past five hours!" he huffs. 

Oh goodness, how am I supposed to do this?

"Caspian..." I whisper taking his hand in mine but he pushes it away. He is so mad that I don't even know what to do.

"You like Karen?" I whisper.

"I don't know, Iris. Whatever it is, but I can't have her. This shouldn't affect me, but...but...I can't help it." he admits and breaks down in front of me.

"Caspian..."

Choked sobs escape his lips. "I want her...I want her so bad...but, it's just..." he sniffles, taking a deep breath, "I can't have her!" 

"Why...why can't you?" I ask.

"Well, she's with Darius now?" he tells as a matter of factly.

I roll my eyes. "There was a time before that, Caspian!" I remind.

He inhales. "Every female in my life...my mum, my sister, my grandmother, every one of them was killed. Because of me. Because I am cursed and I can't do anything about it." he answers.

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused.

"When I was born, it was like...on a cursed day. The day is cursed for Eponine. Usually, no kids are born on that day and even if they are, they will die. But me...I never died!" he begins. "I grew up like any other normal child but...only as I grew up, did the effects of the curse began to show. First, it was my little sister. She was playing in the garden and I left on for a minute or so and when I came back she disappeared. And I have never seen her since. We searched every nook and corner for her but to no avail."

Oh my god!

He continues. "Then it was my mum, again in front of me, a sword went through her before I knew it, she dropped dead on the floor. I killed the guy who murdered my mum but it was nothing. I still lost her.

And when I was holding on to my last hope, my lovely grandmother, she was poisoned. We were eating and then...she just...died. All of them were just murdered!" he completes. 

Oh Jesus!

"Caspian...I am so sorry...I never knew any of this!" I say. 

Why does god trouble the kindest hearted ones the most?

"No one does...but I can't keep it in anymore!" he whimpers and I wrap my arms around him, rubbing my hands up and down his back.

"Let it out, Caspian! You've been strong for too long." I soothe.

He whimpers. "That day when you died, I thought it was because of me. You remind me of my little sister, Iris. And when you died, I thought... I thought-"

"But I came back, didn't I? And none of this is your fault, Caspian." I say, but he shakes his head.

"It is. If I had died, my mum, sister, and grannie would still be alive." he cries.

I look into his eyes, taking his hand in both of mine. "Caspian," I begin. "You and Darius are both now my big brothers. I can't even imagine what this whole adventure would be like without you. You guide me, and pamper me and even scold me and I love all of it. Because I never had any elder sibling. And I love you guys so much because you've made me feel like how it is to have big brothers.

And I promise you that I will stay with you till the end of the line. That I will stay alive for you. I will fight for you and I will love you from here on!" I say.

He smiles. "But I don't want to lose anyone that I love anymore, Iris. That's why I stayed away from both Katarina and you. When I noticed that I was starting to feel protective and concerned about you, I wanted to put a distance. That's why I refused your cookies." he admits, sheepishly.

"Seriously? You played with my cookies?" I giggle.

"Yeah...because I wanted you to not like me." 

"Caaaspiannn....look at me!" I say and cup his face, turning his head to face mine. "You are too evil to refuse my cookies and too angelic to put us before you. To be honest, Karen was hella confused about both of you...and she told me about you being an a-hole but she still had feelings for you both you and Darius." I tell. "When we saw the hickies you left on her, she was blushing like crazy but then, she was also very confused. But her feelings toward Darius increased because they were always flirting with each other. And now here we are!" I say, a little playfully hoping to change his mood.

"Yeah, now here we are! But she will be happy with Darius...happier than she will be with me. And so you knew about my drunk kiss, huh?"

"Yeah dude, the hickies you left on her, damn!" I appreciate and he rubs the back of his neck shyly. "I and Kevin teased her for the whole week hoping for something to happen between you two. But yeah, you are stubborn!" I shrug.

"I have never seen them on you though..." he ponders.

"Well, I hide it, sir!" I reply smugly.

"Won't Kevin look for you?" he asks.

"I tried waking him up, but he was busy mumbling profanities at Delmar in his sleep. He definitely didn't like me swimming with him." I chuckle.

"Kevin didn't like it, he hated it. Since you were only wearing gems on your breasts and the rest of you was on display, even I didn't like you swimming with that flirt of a merman!" he admits.

"Why? Delmar was a pretty decent guy..." I say.

"Forget it! Aren't you going to sleep?" he asks but I shake my head.

"Nah! I am staying with you because otherwise you might think about dumb stuff again and start crying. I ain't gonna leave you for that! I am going to pamper you and make you feel amazing again!" I announce.

"What?"

"Yes, big bro! You are going to have the company for me, who is your new sister, for the whole night. You can sleep if you want, or we can talk all night!" I sing.

"Aye, aye, aye!" he facepalms and I giggle.

"But first let's get his bed ready and let's clean up this room." I stand up and begin to pick the broken pieces of china that he shattered, despite his protests.

We clean up the room in twenty minutes to make it spotless and then I jump back the bed.

"Come on big bro, let's have some fun!" 

**********

A/N: Yay! We got some Caspian and Iris bonding time! Do ya'll like Caspian? I love my baby caspy caspy!