A Queen and Her Kings

A Pining Idiot and Deuce Throws Hands

"Sure, if that's alright with you. Do you know the ingredients needed for a mont blanc tart?", she asked. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, just let me get them from the BACK- '', the shopkeep said, yelling out the last word when his shadow opened the rattling door and dragged him in with him like it was The Exorcist. Cassandra and Deuce blinked before looking at each other.

"Should we... help him?", the navy haired boy asked uncertainly. His girlfriend shrugged.

"If he doesn't ask and we don't hear screaming, we should probably stay out of it.", she said simply, taking a cherry lollipop from a bucket of lollipops on the counter that read 'one madol each' and smacking said madol onto said counter as she unwrapped her candy and popped it into her mouth. Deuce stared off into space for a while before he decided she was right and shrugged, following in the redhead's example, grabbing and paying for a blue raspberry lollipop. The two lovers then just stood in peaceful silence, blissfully ignorant to whatever the hell was happening to Sam on the other side of the door.

Meanwhile, on the shopkeeper's end...

"What the hell is wrong with you?!", Sam hissed at Shadow, who gestured frantically to the door. Sam glared at him.

"You can't go out there! She's out there, and if you go out there, you'll try to make me tell her everything by putting me in a bad situation! I know your game, you're literally a part of me!", the man whisper yelled, causing the shadow to deflate. When he saw Shadow's discouraged state, he sighed.

He had been up all night trying to figure out what Ayezan meant when she called Cassandra his 'destined lover'. After consulting some of his great-grandfather's old grimoires, he stumbled across the concept of soulmates.

It was rare, nearly unheard of, but everything that was happening to him matched up with soulmate mark 'symptoms'. This made Sam both extremely happy and extremely stressed out. Happy, because what he felt for Cassandra was real and validated and not going to crash and burn (hopefully), and stressed because how the hell are you supposed to explain that to someone?! Would she accept it, accept him? The whole thing was driving him nuts and he knew he was going to have to take his time so he could get things right.

Shadow, however, did not understand why his master was dragging his feet (AKA being a wuss), and was determined to get the ball rolling on his and Cassandra's passionate romance by any means necessary.

"You know I can't tell her everything. I'm taking this slow, for her sake. So if you care about her as much as you act like you do, leave her alone and be quiet.", Sam said in a less irate tone. Shadow seemed to sigh and then nodded. Sam nodded back.

"Good. Now, I'm going to get what Cassandra needs. You stay here and do not open that door, got it?", the dark skinned man said firmly. Shadow crossed his arms and nodded, and Sam retreated into the depths of the store.

A few moments later, the shopkeep came back with all the needed ingredients, giving Shadow a 'don't even think about it' look as he opened the door, walked through, and quickly shut it back. Cassandra, who was leaning against the counter and scrolling idly through her new Magicam app, looked up and grinned.

"That was quick.", she said, cheeking the lollipop she still had in her mouth so she could speak. Sam grinned slyly.

"Well, when you do customer service long enough, you tend to get good at getting people what they want as quickly as possible.", he said in his southern drawl. Cassandra returned the grin and leaned forward on the counter, checking to see where Deuce was before she spoke again. She chuckled a bit when she found him across the room looking starry-eyed at a large chick plushie and made a mental note to buy it for him.