c h a p t e r. 20

"A big desire is not enough to meet the expectations of lost dreams." -Dejan Stojanovic

chapter 20

"Are you sure I don't have to bring money, Jasper?"

"It's not that type of place, Star," Jazz says, a little amused. "And even if it was, you wouldn't need to bring money because we agreed that I'll be paying for things."

Castor gives him a dirty look but the musician just grins back at him before focusing on the road again. It was a week break for their college and they were using it to their advantage to go on their first date.

Since he asked, Jazz got the chance to plan it.

He already called ahead and informed Mrs. Patricia, the groundskeeper at the castle, that the two boys would be spending the week there and she got everything ready for them and informed the other young masters (who wouldn't be there anyway) that the estate was off limits to them for that duration of time.

His date plan was simple: show his God around his home, take him up to the large balcony and show him where 1. Nymph's Creek is and 2. Strawberry Heaven is-- a whole field of fresh, giant strawberries that's by the estate's apple orchard and then the next step would be to take him to those places and then butterfly land.

And, if it all goes well, he'll ask for a second date.

And maybe a third.

Eh, who knows.

"First off, jitterbug, it wasn't an agreement, you just won the fucking bet," Castor scowled, though his song was still a pretty shade of seafoam and emeralds. "I still don't think this is fair."

The bet was that if the star could guess within 100,000 dollars of what's in Jazz's private bank account then they'd share payments of any dates in the future but he was way, way off and since the musician is super fucking rich, he wanted to buy whatever they'd need.

And since then, Castor has been trying to go back on it but Jazz, as a Red and Astoria, had a lot of power not only financially but in most towns they go to-- which the god was very quickly learning-- and could pay for things before Cas even pulled out his wallet.

"It doesn't have to be fair," He huffed out, changing lanes. "You just have to accept it."

"Ugh."

"Come on, Castor," Jazz laughs. "Don't be grumpy. You're always really nice to me and I'm really awkward about a lot of things, not including how oblivious I am. Not that I know what I'm oblivious about, b-because you always refuse to tell me, but I know I'm missing something. It's only fair that I get to do something for you too."

"But--"

"Until you're taller than me, I get to pay for things." He teased, hearing his god grunt at him from the passenger seat. He was getting a lot more comfortable around Cas, and with being comfortable came his extra playfulness.

"You know, you don't act like you're tall." Castor told him.

Jazz tilted his head slightly, eyes flicking to him before focusing back on the road, "How do I act then?"

"Like a puppy."

Gaping slightly with heat rising to his cheeks, the musician hmphed, "I do not!"

"Yes you do," Cas chuckles at him. "You get so excited to see me, even if you just did five minutes ago or if I left the room to grab something. You're just like, really adorable, love."

"I... I'm adorable?" Jazz asked, genuinely confused. Because, just, how?

"This is why I call you oblivious."

"Castor," He whines, pouting as he takes a right turn which took them right onto the Astoria road. "How am I supposed to learn how not to be oblivious if you don't tell me why it's oblivious."

With a teal amusement and sunflowers edging against the viridian and ethereal green, Cas says, "Only people under six feet tall are allowed access to that information."

Pausing, realizing his tease was being thrown back into his face, Jazz's pout deepens, "At least you can grow. I can't shrink unless someone chops off my legs."

"Is that really where your mind went?" Castor laughs.

"Yes, sir, it is."

"Why do you call me that?"

"Sir?" Jazz clarified, and continued at his nod. "I dunno. It's just a thing. Do y-you not like it?"

He can tell Castor is smirking just by the change in his song, "I wouldn't say that."

Not being able to reply because he's pulling up to the gate, Jazz rolls down the window and presses the buzzer, instantly getting, "Astoria residence, how may I help you?"

"Mrs. Patty!" The musician smiles, not having heard her voice in a while. "It's Jazz and I brought my butterfly."

"Oh, young master, we thought you'd be coming a bit later." Mrs. Patricia said, her soft blue coming through the speakers. "But no worries, dear, I'll send Mr. Thaddeus to pick up your bags and let you in."

"Thank you," Jazz pulled back and put the window back up, quickly driving up to the castle and parking in front of the main door.

Looking over at Castor when the god's oak-leave of astonishment and mint fascination buzzed around him, lightning-strike gray eyes staring up at the seven story, giant building right outside his window.

"C'mon, star," Jazz chuckles, seeing Mr. Thaddeus push open the doors with two of the other butlers right behind him, one to probably help with bags and the other to park Midnight into the large garage. "We'll just hand them our bags and I'll show you up to my private floor and the wing we'll be staying in for the most part."

His god turns his dumbstruck eyes onto the musician, simply nodding as his head jerks to the side in a tic. Both of them climbing out of the car, Castor asks, "How high will we be?"

"Mine's the seventh floor, I have the entire thing but any other floor besides the third, that's my parent's suite and I refuse to enter, we can go in." He informed. "So really high up. I have a balcony and a hot tub up there that we can just chill in."

"Seventh floor. Hot tub." The god nodded, thoughts going down a different path. "Got it."

Jazz watches Castor as his lightning-strike gray eyes take in the castle, moving to the tall tower coming out of the back and that attaches to his floor's giant balcony before moving back to the musician.

"So..." He says, squeaking a couple seconds later, winking at him in a tic. "Where do you guys keep your dragon?"

"I'll show you." Jazz smiles.

Because, well, he did have a dragon-- in a sense.

Taking the elevator, mostly because he didn't want to have to do seven flights of stairs and go through all those doors and put in those passcodes in without Castor having his cardkey-- to unlock different sections of the castle, but also because he didn't want his clumsy self or Cas to tic and send them both rolling.

Really, it's happened before and it is not pleasant.

Putting in the passcode to get access to his floor, Jazz pushes the door open and watches his star observe everything; the mint walls, papers over the table, selves of trinkets and miscellaneous items around the place.

Castor stumbles here and there, trying to walk while looking at everything so he wraps his arms around his waist and keeps him close, letting him have a few minutes to look at it all.

It was probably a little overwhelming.

Knowing he wanted to see the 'dragon' and needing to get things done before they start the date, Jazz squeezed his god's hip lightly and whispered, "I'll show you everything soon."

Castor nods and lets him lead the pair to his balcony and then right up to the tower that they were looking at earlier.

Peering inside, his lightning-strike gray eyes widen slightly at the two owls who stare back at him. Dragon, a snow owl with galaxy-like eyes and who wiggles her wings towards the star and her owner, happily chirping and dancing away, and the other was Archimedes-- he got the name from an owl in a disney movie and an old greek astronomer-- who didn't really like other people but wasn't trying to attack anyone, so that was a good sign.

As Castor smirks at him, Jazz moves down, kinda having to crouch because of his extra height and moves right to his god's side.

"Do they just-" He growled and the musician watched as the rose leaves ran right into Dragon's light pink chirp. "-have to evolve more or are they food for the dragon?"

Scoffing, Jazz moves towards his pets and lowers his arm, letting both of them climb onto it and for them to nuzzle against him briefly.

"Dragon," He softly pets her wings, the white feather ruffling under the pads of his fingers, making her whistle happily up at him. "Meet Castor, he's a disbelieving god and disbelieving god meet Dragon and Archimedes, who are definitely not food."

The star just shrugs, "I'm sure with the right recipe they could be."

"He didn't mean that," Jazz tells them and in return Dragon tugs on his shirt with her beak and he moves his arm out straight, letting the owl climb up to his shoulder and perch there, softly biting his jaw before settling down to just nuzzle under his chin. "See? You hurt her feelings. Archimedes is a grump too, though."

Which was true, the owl was just crouching down against the crook of his arm, staring over at Castor with an almost-glare on his cute little face.

"My apologies, I should know better than to make a Dragon mad," He says, sarcasm dripping from his tongue in a line of jade but the rest of his song was all sunflowers and seafoam, his eyes soft as they stared at him. "And is my fellow grump at least soft?"

"Super," Jazz couldn't nod, because Dragon was still cuddled under his chin, so he just settled for wrinkling his nose at the god. "You can pet him, if you want, Star. He's calm right now and most likely wouldn't attack you."

"Most likely?"

"He doesn't do it in front of Dragon," He explains. "She scolds him in her birdy language. Literally, he bit Axel's nose once-- the jerk was being really annoying and bothering me, I guess he got protective-- and for the next hour she chased him around and just shrieked."

"Me and you," Castor suddenly looks right at Archie, extending his hand and making the owl pause from preening his feather and to look up at him with unblinking, pumpkin-orange eyes. "We understand each other."

That's not ominous at all.

Hesitatingly, Archimedes moves closer, nibbling on the star's finger-- not painfully, just in a greeting but Jazz bets it feels weird-- before dipping his head down and letting Cas pet him, which he does.

"He likes you but I'm not surprised," Jazz says, a soft coo to his voice and a giggle as Dragon rubs her face against his. "Yes, Dragon, I know you missed me. It's good to see you too girl. Haven't been too much trouble for Archie, have you? No?"

The owl chirps back at him a couple times, all sunshine and peaches, as if she was carrying on the conversation and he grins, dimples popping out.

"You're right," He replies. "Archie is the one who causes trouble. He likes to fight people who pet you too long, doesn't he?"

Archimedes bites people's ears if they take too long petting his mate, he didn't like her attention off of him and did that to anyone that wasn't the musician or his parents.

She, miraculously, nods before cuddling back into his neck and Jazz laughs, even after having owls all these years amazed by the grace and just weirdness of them-- especially Dragon, she was an awkward and energetic little thing.

"At this point," Castor sighs out, patting Archimedes on the head. "I'm not even surprised that you just had a conversation with an owl. You're too fucking cute for even animals to ignore."

Flushing, Jazz blinks his wide, mint eyes at him and says, "I don't know how to reply to that but it made me happy."

"That's good enough," The god smiles at him, pausing to give Archie attention again. "Dragon better be able to breathe fire, or I'll be sorely disappointed."

"You don't need Dragon to get fire," Jazz laughs. "We have Nyx for that."

His big sister was practically a force of nature at this point; she's survived a hell of a lot just to get where she was at the moment and she had to heal so much just to get happy again, the life was returning to her song and he was grateful for it.

Castor snorts at him but doesn't reply as Archimedes nibbles at his fingers again, giving a low rumble. Watching him pet the owl for a couple more fingers with Dragon resting against his face, Jazz can't help but to smile.

It was cute.

Really cute.

But, unfortunately, they had things to do.

"Castor," Jazz said, making both him and Archie to look at him with a mix of lightning-strikes and pumpkins. "We have to get you a passkey and I want to show you to Nymph's Creek, if-- if that's okay with you?"

"Part of our date?"

"The first part, yes," He nods, biting his lip as he tries to think of how long everything will take. "We'll probably have to do part two tomorrow?"

"And I don't get to know what it is?" Castor grumbles out.

"You get to know that I already want a second date," He offered the information. "But nope, it's going to be a surprise because I messed up with the smoothies a-and I practiced not blurting things out to you! I didn't want to ruin anything again."

"You didn't ruin anything in the first place, Jitterbug."

Jazz tilted his head because how didn't he ruin it? He couldn't even keep the surprise. But he didn't question the God and just put Dragon and Archimedes back into their tower, offering them a little treat from the container next to the tower's steps.

Moving back, he points out the large willow tree that's right next to Nymph's Creek-- a good mile trek from the Castle's main yard-- before taking them back to the first floor, Castor actually looking at him more this time than observing everything else to see him enter the passcodes to the door's locks or swipe his card into against the sensor (depending on how high-security the room was, his bedroom needed both the passcode and the card but his main hallway only needed the card).

Being trapped in an elevator with someone-- having really bad memories attached to elevators and men paired together-- always made Jazz a little antsy but neither he nor his star mentioned it as they moved past the sliding doors and to the security office.

Knocking to alert Mr. Kennedy-- a sweet man in his late fifties and almost as big as Jazz with a scruffy beard, blonde hair, and a pastel yellow song-- of his presence, he opens the door after a gruff 'enter' sounds out, the musician tugs the celestial in after him and shows him off with a bright smile.

"Mr. K, this is my butterfly Cas," He chirps out. "And he needs a keypass for the castle."

"Nice to meet you, young man," The head of security nods politely, turning back to the big monitors behind him and grabbing out a blank pass out of a drawer, lanyard already on it. "Which floors is he allowed to go?"

"All floors and wings, excluding Goddess mama's and papa's level and Nyx's wing." He says. "Can you make sure that he also has access to the art wing on the fifth floor and to the gates?"

Mr. K nods, adjusting his glasses over his nose before squinting at the screen, "It says here your last name is Rex, correct?"

"Uh..." Castor just blinks at him, chartreuse of 'what the fuck?' and bewilderment in his song and expression.

"Sorry," Jazz apologizes. "My security team updates whenever someone enters the property and since I needed to set things up for our date, they know who you are."

The celestial's lightning-strike eyes turn back to Mr. K, "You did a background check on me?"

"You're dating one of the godlings," He rolls his eyes back, scratching his beard slightly before fixing his dark eyes on the screen. "It's my job to know who is in his life and well as all the other young masters. My team deems whether they're a threat or not and continue from there. You are a good one, Mr. Rex. I just needed the conformation for your passkey. It's a large responsibility and I don't want to hand that over to you if you aren't ready for it."

"Yeah," Castor says. "It's Rex."

"All you had to say, kid," Mr. K snarks back.

"Mr. Kennedy," Jazz says, voice holding a slight more authoritative once than he's used to around the celestial. "Thank you for doing the keypass. After, double security around the left sector of the side yard and make sure no one needs to pass the east gate to Nymph's Creek again."

"Of course," He nods, quickly scanning Castor's pass into the system and handing it to him. "Don't be afraid to ask for help over the intercoms if you get lost. Maids and butlers as well as Mrs. Patty, my wife, should be around to help. I doubt your boy will let that happen, but it's regardless. First aid kits are in every bathroom and every kitchen, as well as fire extinguishers. Alarms for intruders or fires you can't put out yourself are by the intercoms, don't worry about hitting them by accident, we ask over the intercom if it was an accident and if there isn't a response, then we get the help you need based on the situation. Libraries cut out the oxygen if there's a fire but you will have time to evacuate if that's the case. Any questions?"

"There's multiple kitchens?" He blinks.

"Oh," Jazz says, pressing a soft kiss to his head. "You're gonna love this."

Castor did, in fact, love the musician's private kitchen-- it was not only very, very large compared to the ones he's probably been in before, but it had all kinds of different ovens, utensils, ingredients, fridges and basically was a cook's and baker's dream place.

He instantly wanted to cook in there, so Jazz let him and just sat on the stool by the island's counter while his god baked a strawberry marble cake, all while marvelling over everything in there.

It cut into what he wanted to do but, honestly, did it really matter what they did as long as they were enjoying it and the other's presence?

And it just meant he had more to look forward to.