I returned to the Manor with Virgil, holding a bag with a dozen cinnamon rolls in it.

'I'll get a cup of coffee ready for you, ma'am,' he heads to the kitchen while I walk up the stairs back to my room.

I open the door too see Dante standing at the edge of the bed where Claude is sitting up, looking much better than before. 'Are you feeling better, Claude?' I ask him.

He nods 'Where do you go?'

'Town,' I say, sitting down next to him 'I bought you cinnamon rolls.' I hand him the bag.

He smiled, opening the box and taking a bite from one of them. His head moved to look at Dante as he gave a sort of gesture to him.

Dante gave a nod and began to leave the room, shutting the door behind him.

'Listen, Raven' he begins to say, so I turn my head to him 'I'm sorry I couldn't take you out and show you around town myself-'

'Its fine,' I cut him off 'I understand.'

He turned around, cupping my face in his hands 'No you don't. Everything's been so horrible lately. I promised you'd be happy here but you're not.'

I tried to stop the tear that was about to fall from my eye 'I know you're trying your best, Claude. Everyone seems to be.'

'I'm not trying hard enough,' he closes his eyes, his head dropping to my lap 'Everything I try to do for you. It's never good enough. I've isolated you from your friends and what little family you have left. I'm a horrible person.'

And suddenly I remember that night in the cabin. That night when Claude was crying, when he was at his weakest. When he thought he was a horrible person.

'You're not.' I tell him 'Look at me,' I lift him up from my lap, my hand resting on his cheek 'Those few weeks when we were running for our lives; when I thought I had lost everything. That feeling was nothing compared to how I felt when I thought you were gonna leave me..' I sniff, realising that tears had already started to flow from my eyes no matter how hard I tried for it not to.

Claude wiped his thumb gently against the bottom of my eye, pulling me closer 'I'm happy with you here Claude, I really am.'

I sniff as he hugs me tighter, pressing his lips against my neck.

'Okay, okay,' I laugh 'Now let go before I catch your cold,'

'Oh, is that what you're worried about?' He smirks pinning me down onto the edge of the bed and tickling me till I started to cry again.

*****

I sip my coffee in the library, stroking Octavius who's sat on my lap as I continue reading the book I left off at.

Claude's taking another nap which he says he'll be completely healthy after so I'm still exploring different parts of the manor. And my favourite room so far is this maze like library.

Octavius purrs loudly as I scratch gently behind his ear until he stretches over and rolls onto his back, gesturing me to rub his belly.

'You attention seeking cat,' I laugh, doing as he wished and stroking his belly.

'Meeoww (I wasn't always a cat, you know)' He yowls.

'You weren't?' I ask curiously.

'Meww (Of course not! A few thousand years ago, I wasn't even a cat!)' He sits up on my lap as if he's about to tell me the grandest story in the world.

'Wait... Claude said you were like 180 or something.' I correct.

He makes this kind of noise which I think is him laughing, but in a weird cat way. '(You make me laugh, child!! That age is how long I've been with the Helstons! You think I was just born into the Helston family? I had a life too, you know!!)'

'Alright, calm down, you crazy kitty,' I stroke him all the way from his head to his tail making him stop talking.

I hear footsteps that came towards me so I turned around to find it was Dante.

'Your dinner is ready, ma'am,' he bows so I get up and follow him downstairs to the dining hall.

Claude was sat at the end of the table.

'Are you feeling better?' I ask him, walking down the room to go sit with Claude.

'Much,' he sighs, picking up his fork and starting to eat.

'And what's with Octavius and his 'not being a cat' biz?' I add to which he starts to laugh.

'So he told you?' He chuckled.

I nod.

'I'll tell you about that some other time,' he continued eating.

(A/N I am seriously running out of ideas for this mess...I need help!!!)