Elf

“…and that’s it. So, what do you think?”

It’s the next day and they’re all seated in his study again. He can’t help but notice that John’s sitting a tad close to Ayesha than he was before. And she doesn’t mind.

He isn’t surprised when he feels a pang of jealously.

Both of them are staring at him in equal parts horror and awe.

He fiddles with a loose thread on his shirt while he waits for one of them to break the silence.

“You’ve lost your mind, Cassius.”

“I have to agree with her, boss.”

He’d expected that.

“I understand where you’re coming from. Both of you. But tell me this. Haven’t you ever wanted more? Haven’t you ever looked at all the people who lay waste to all they have; all they don’t deserve? All that you do? Haven’t you ever looked up at the stars and thought that could be mine?”

He grins, with teeth stained with the blood of his emotions, his ambitions, his hopes and his dreams; and his ever-present grief.

He continues, “I have. And that’s how I know you have too. You’re here. You survived. As did I, and that takes something that most people don’t have. We came out on top and we did it, but this isn’t the end. Do you still not understand?”

And here he bangs the desk with his left fist, and though he does not mean to, the rest of his words come out in a whispered rasp.

“We could be so much more. And this…this right here is our chance. So, tell me, are going to grab it with both hands or are you going to let it pass by you?”

Cassius sits back, exhausted with the sheer intensity of his feelings.

He wonders, whether to feel so heavily is a curse or a blessing.

John looks at him for a long moment, and his heart skips a beat at the possibility that he still might not agree.

But then he cocks his head and gives a lazy grin, and Cassius feels his heart skip for an entirely different reason.

“I’m in,” John says.

“Seconded,” says Ayesha and there’s this absolutely determined look in her eyes.

The air in the room feels giddy with possibility, with potential, with hope, and he’d forgotten just how dynamite they could be together.

“Alright then…lets go kill the king.”