Star Starless

Iris turned towards the window and his eyes widened. "Cedar?! But... but he's dead, right?" guilt started to fill Iris. We left him to die... Iris thought.

Iris twiddled his thumbs. Don't take it to heart, Iris. he told himself. You shouldn't expect him to tell you everything. But I feel bad. I want to help him. Or maybe he is just homesick... augh stop overthinking this, me.

“Oh, ok.” Iris said. He knew that Lockwood was hiding something, but he knew that he wasn’t going to open up.

“Lockwood please. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me. Is it me? Am I doing something wrong? Talk to me.” Iris pleaded.

Iris walked in and put the pancakes down on the bedside table. He pulled Lockwood into a hug. “Please talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Iris opened the door, balancing both trays of pancakes on one arm. "Hey..."

Iris walked up the stairs and approached the door. He heard sniffling on the other side. Lockwood.

(Ok one sec.)

(Should I make Iris walk in or no?)

"That doesn't matter anymore. They'll find them instead." Kamado snapped his fingers and the fire lion pinning Vivus disappeared and was replaced by a small cage of fire. The bars were made of white-hot fire. "There. Now you're not getting hurt and I still have you in my captivity."

"I know lots of things, Vivus. So, if I knew so much, do you think I would be asking if I didn't know? But aside from that, I guess you aren't going to talk. Guess we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way." Kamado snapped his fingers and two more fire lions appeared. "Find them." he muttered to the animals. The bolted off in search of Iris and Lockwood.

"You're going to be stuck here for a little bit. My fleet is on their way. You will be accompanying me and my grandson home. In a prison cell of course. Unless, of course, you tell me where they're hiding."

(NOOOO MY CHILD WHY ARE YOU SAD) Iris grabbed some plates from the kitchen and brought the pancakes back up the stairs. He didn't open the door yet though.

Iris couldn't shake the fact that he felt like something was wrong. But he walked down the stairs and into the inn's kitchen. He grabbed some flour, milk, and eggs and turned on the stove. He put the batter in the pan and pretty soon he had pancakes.

"Ok. Pancakes?" Iris stood up and walked towards the door.

Iris grabbed Lockwood's (non-dominant) hand. "I do trust you... but something seems off. You trust me, right? You know you can talk to me?"

Iris raised an eyebrow. "That makes me believe you less. What's wrong?"

Iris looked up. "Something's wrong." He handed Lockwood the sketchbook and flipped to an empty page. He passed him the pencil.

"Ok." Iris continued flipping through his sketchbook.

Iris flipped through the pages more. "Hm. I have some really old drawings in here." Iris saw Lockwood looking away. "Hey are you ok?"

Iris shrugged. "I have a good memory. Why? Would you prefer I drew you as a stick figure? And you have a lot of time on your hands when you're hiding from the guards your boyfriend's evil grandpa sent after you."

"Yeah. Here." Iris flipped to a page and showed Lockwood another drawing of him. This one was a lot better.

IM LITERALLY SOBBING RIGHT NOW

Iris sighed. "That's not even a good drawing."

Iris's heart jumped. "Uh, maybe we shouldn't go through my old sketches..." It was too late. Lockwood thumbed through the sketches and stopped on a portrait of him that Iris had drew. Iris hid his face in his hands.