All My Life I've Been Good - But Now...

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia Rosatta danced around the kitchen in her temporary home. With headphones in her ears, blaring vintage music, the young girl felt comfortable enough to sing. She was doing up the dishes for Blaise's parents. When they decided to let her stay there before she traveled again, she decided to pay them back every step of the way. His mother seemed so pleased to have a helper around the house, and lucky for the 15 year old, she knew a lot of things the sons should already have had knowledge about. Such as changing oil on a car. She had her late father to thank for that. Cassia hadn't thought much about her parents lately, not since the fiasco where she met Blaise all those months ago. She placed another clean dish in the rack, dripping some water on the lovely counter tops. It mattered little to the blonde who was going to clean it up with a hand towel. She felt around for one, but when she noticed it was on the floor she sighed. She couldn't dry dishes with a filthy floor towel. Rolling her eyes she took one headphone out and walked out to find the towels, which were in a hall closet across the house. The petite blonde heard a knock on the door, but assumed that Blaise was on his way to get it. Passing him in the Hallway, she used one of his arms to spin herself around, before flashing him a bright grin.

Once she had a towel she went back to her duty in the kitchen, though with more on her mind than before. It seemed within the past month, now that she and Blaise were communicating in a more effective way, that she had felt different. She felt lighthearted around him. Her chest tightened at the thought of spinning in the hall as she just did, and butterflies traced her veins. It was sad for Cassia to think that she may have developed a crush on the boy she now lived with. She knew that what was best for her was to move on, and keep going in her travels. She thought that maybe she would catch a flight from Paris to England, maybe go to America. She'd always wondered what it was like across the ocean. When she heard Blaise open the door she slipped her other headphone in, and began to listen to the song that played on her music device. It was an upbeat love song, and Cassia's cheeks heated up slightly. With damp hands she changed the song to something that was less about love and more about rock. With her head nodding to the beat, she was unaware of the police men that stood outside the door.

Meanwhile in the next room, a man of tall and threatening stature was inquiring of Blaise if he had seen the girl in the photo - The photo was of a petite girl with large brown eyes, marked with the birth date of February 19th, 2023. A fifteen year old runaway, who was being vehemently searched for.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

She's hot.

Blaise nearly dropped his phone as the latest message from his best friend lit up the screen. He quickly hid his phone in his pocket and looked around, hoping that Cassia hadn't been anywhere in sight. Despite the fact that she would have been unable to read the text, he still felt weird about his friends being attracted to the young girl. After all, he still didn't know anything about her. She'd been living with his family for just over five months now and thought she seemed to be really nice and she always helped around the house, it made Blaise anxious to know why she was in France in the first place. Not that he was complaining. It hadn't taken as long to convince his mother to let the girl stay as he would have thought and he was definitely okay with that. Though his mother had corralled him in the evening and asked him a multitude of questions about their acquaintance. Considering he'd ensured his mother that he knew Cassia and that she was totally fine, he had been a little hesitant about whether or not he was right. As it appeared though, Cassia wasn't some criminal looking to steal their stuff, she was helping out all the time, sleeping in his sister's room and trying to teach him english. There had been a few times where Cassia had woken him in the night by sleep walking, but he didn't mind. A few sleepless nights weren't going to kill him and it hadn't happened at all since he'd graduated.

Making his way down the stairs at the sound of the doorbell, Blaise smiled slightly as Cassia used him to spin herself around in a little dance when she got to him. He shook his head slightly and continued to the door. He was more comfortable around Cassia now, but he was still really shy. He reached the door and opened it, frowning slightly at the police man standing there. He asked if he could come in, but Blaise shook his head. His mother was not home and she'd didn't like strange people being in his house. "Have you seen this girl?" Blaise looked at the picture and his eyes widened at the person in the photo. It was Cassia. She was fifteen years old. Blaise had suspected, that much was true, but having the truth stare him right in the face was like a punch to the gut. He shook his head at the officer and sent him on his way with a promise to call if he heard anything. He shut the door and looked towards the kitchen. He needed to hear it from her. He wasn't going to judge until he knew. She wasn't using his place to hide from the police. She wouldn't do that... would she?"

Blaise walked into the kitchen and saw Cassia standing there, moving to the sound of a song he figured. Blaise tried to calm himself down. It was all a misunderstanding and he was going to have it cleared up right now. But... what if she was running away from an abusive home? But what if she was a criminal? She hadn't taken anything of theirs, he'd checked. He was so confused, none of this made any sense. "Cassia. la police à la porte... uh door." It wasn't loud, but he was sure she'd be able to hear him over the sound of her song, whatever it was.
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia, if she had any clue what the boys on Blaise's phone were saying, would hide away. The young girl really wasn't used to any sort of attention denoted towards her looks. Except with Blaise's younger sister, whom seemed to look up to her a bit. Though she also asked too many questions about Cassia, and was annoyed with how vague she seemed to be. In truth the only person that Cassia talked to in the house was Blaise. Something about the tall, goofy looking boy made her comfortable. Perhaps it was the way he sometimes stuttered if she sat to close, or the way he became scared if she popped from around the corner to startle him. Cassia liked some of his little quirks, and even thought it was funny when he got mad at the games on his phone. Most of those thoughts though, went out the window, when a song from her dad's era came on. She was sure that the song was from the year he was bored, with a heavy base and a vocalist that occasionally gave her goosebumps. Her hips swayed to the music as she worked to get the kitchen cleaned up the best she could, now putting away the last of the dishes as she dried them.

Cassia could almost sense that Blaise had come into the kitchen. She reached down and turned the music down a few notches, only catching the last of his sentence. She froze, plate in hand. Police... at the door? The plate fell from her hand and smashed on the floor with a sound that was deafening, and for a moment, Cassia felt like everything stopped for a moment. The only word in her mind was 'hide'. So she did, moving across the room, and stepping in class as she did so, she ducked down to a small cupboard they had. And shoved herself inside along with a box of trash bags and a few other things. "Blaise, stall them." She whispered the blood from her foot making obvious tracks to the cupboard. She wasn't sure what she was to do, she was hiding the best she could but the cupboard didn't quite shut. She couldn't risk being sent back. She would never see Blaise again. Tears started to form in her eyes and she wondered if he would turn her in because there was a reward. Was there a reward? Did her God Parents care enough? She didn't even bother looking out, and wouldn't come out, until the coast was clear.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

Blaise didn't really know what to say. Cassia's reaction was definitely surprising, though he supposed that given the fact she was even being looked for by Police, obviously there was something wrong there. Blaise didn't know why she had run away or even why she was hiding, but he didn't like lying to the police. Not if she had done something bad. The trouble was, even if he asked her, how was he to know whether she was telling the truth? It would all be guess work and he was inclined to believe her simply because she is a girl. Being pretty probably contributed, but he couldn't be sure. Every girl he'd ever seen had been pretty. Then, he did have his head down so often he probably missed quite a lot of the world, going on around him. He was even more shocked however when she crawled into the cupboard below the sink. Blaise was horrified to discover that she had cut her foot on the glass and that there was now blood on the kitchen floor. He couldn't just leave her to bleed in the cupboard.

Blaise stepped forward and sighed. "Police... gone." They were slowly developing their own way of talking which was unique to them. They were fortunate that his mother could speak english and tended to tell Cassia things that Blaise really needed to tell her. Like if she'd left something in his room, or not to disturb him when he was studying which was really code for using magic. The fact that Cassia was a muggle was hard. Blaise barely knew how to talk to her, let alone make excuses. His mother and he often got into arguments over this but he was determined not to throw her out. Blaise crouched in front of her, and held out his hand. "Come, we fix." He was sure they had bandages around somewhere. He'd used them before hadn't he? He was sure he had, At some point. Whatever was happening, Blaise like Cassia. He didn't want to lose her as a friend. "Cassia, come."
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia's mind was racing more than it normal did, her fingertips trembling as she set them on her knees. She didn't know if hiding was going to work, especially now that she felt the pain in her foot. The blood wouldn't be coming out so quickly, but it was a flesh wound - besides that the bottom of anyone's feet bled profusely. It was just how certain wounds worked, like a cut on her hand. She had not quite gotten herself all the way in, the door still open for Blaise to close, when he mentioned that the police were gone. For a moment Cassia's brown eyes narrowed, a part of her not wanting to believe him. He could be turning her in - after all she had never mentioned the real reason that she was there. However, after a split second of disbelief, she let out a sigh of relief. Cassia felt in her heart that Blaise wouldn't lie to her - and she only hoped that the man before her wouldn't betray that trust. She gave a small smile to him, watching him offer her his large hand. She looked at it for a moment, debating on if she was ready to come out yet.

Cassia took the smooth hand of her friend, and came out of the little cupboard with slight difficulty. Once up she knew the bathroom was the best place to head, and hobbled with him there. She figured now that he knew the police were looking for her, she should tell him. Her french was mixed with Spanish and English. Cas had been trying hard to learn french from Blaise's mother so that they could talk a little more. "Blaise, I'm a runaway." She said in English, unsure of the french word for runaway. However, in her best broken French she spoke with a heavy heart, sitting on the toilet lid while she waited for him to get bandages. "My parents... died." Her brown eyes turned away. She wasn't sure how else to put things, and instead began to tell him in English, hoping he would pick up on enough to understand. "I have God-Parents, but they want me to forget my parents." She let a tear roll past the rim of her thick eyelashes. "Don't tell your mother please. I know I have to leave now... but I don't want them to hate me." She spoke, switching between what little she knew in french to what she knew in English.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

Despite everything, Blaise had come to care for Cassia. He knew that he had, but it was still hard to admit to himself, particularly as he realised that she may have to leave him now. He had no idea what was actually happening with Cassia right now. It could have been any number of things really and he really didn't want to think of all the horrible things that it could have entailed. He sighed in relief, and released a breath that he hadn't known he'd been holding when she finally took his hand. Evidently she had some thinking to do herself, which was fair enough, given their circumstances. Blaise helped her stand properly, though she was wobbly on her injured feet, then proceeded to help her make her way to the bathroom, where he presumed they would have bandages. He was at a real disadvantage in his own house right now, he had no idea how to do things the muggle way, at least not these kinds of things. Mostly his mother didn't allow magic in the house which was a good thing considering they were in a muggle neighbourhood and didn't want to break any laws. That would be horrible. Blaise couldn't talk to muggle police without freaking out, how would he handle a bunch of ministry officials? Shaking his head, Blaise decided to think no more on that issue. It wasn't important right now, Cassia was.

Cassia started talking even before they had made it to the bathroom and Blaise nearly dropped her as he tried to process the words. Runaway... the french word for that was... fuyez. He was sure of it. She was a criminal then, a fugitive? Well, he'd thought as much when Police had shown up at his house, but, well, hearing her say it was a little different. He helped her to sit on the toilet as he turned to the mirror and opened it, searching for a bandage. They probably should have been going to a hospital really, but he was sure those were the types of places that the police would be checking. So he told himself that here was the best place for her currently, until he could get her patched up. She spoke again, in french this time, as he closed the mirror and placed the bandages and salve on the sink and then leaned over the bath to reach a cloth with which to clean her foot. He would also need tweezers, he realised as he remembered that she had stepped on glass. He was listening to her as she spoke, though she had now switched back to english. This was harder for him to understand and he realised that he would have to concentrate so he forgot about looking for tweezers for the moment as she told him what had happened. From what he could gather as she finished, she was a fugitive, or runaway as she had said it, her parents had died, which he supposed accounted for her leaving and... what was the last bit? He wasn't sure, but he was sure she had mentioned God parents? whatever those were. Well, he wasn't going to tell his mother, and he didn't want her to leave, but, if she wanted to, then that was her business.

Blaise nodded at her and held up a finger, signalling that he would be right back. There were a pair of tweezers in his sisters room he knew, so he quickly headed there and plucked the tweezers off of her bedside table as he went before making his way back to the bathroom. Right now was not the time to worry about what she had and hadn't done, they could worry about it later. He kneeled in front of her and lifted her foot so that he could see it and gently began to remove a piece of glass that he could see in her foot. There was only three pieces which he thought was a miracle considering the amount on the floor, but he could clean that up later. "Is okay. I trust you." He didn't want her to leave, but if she was going to, he would stop her. "Don't leave, please?"
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia hadn't realized how much her foot hurt until she moved with Blaise, putting pressure on it. In her panic over the police it seemed to have just slipped her mind. She felt ridiculous now, and nearly began to cry. Of course he sent them away. Blaise had been so far a good friend to her. He was kind and understanding, and while often times he was awkward he never made her feel uncomfortable. She was sure the same could not be said the other way around, as she had slept walked into his room more than once when she first started staying with his family. She felt her heart beat speed up in a small panic as she thought about what his parents would think. After all, they'd put so much trust in her. And then Blaise - wouldn't he be in trouble as well, bringing a person like her into his house. While all these thoughts stormed in her head she stole sideways glances towards the man helping her to the bathroom, and hoped that the thoughts he was thinking were not of hate.

Cassia was sat on the bathtub now, as it made the most sense to her. She felt an ache in her chest for everything that had happened, however she couldn't imagine things being any different. After all, did she expect to stay there forever and live happily ever after? Did she think maybe she and Blaise would ride off into the proverbial sunset as friends, or more? 'Or more.' That thought had crossed the young blonde's mind more than once. She cringed when he began to remove the glass. This was embarrassing and painful; Cassia wished it could be over a little quicker. She knew Blaise was only taking care to make it easy on her, but she still thought perhaps ripping the glass out would be better; after all she felt like a crap person and a little pain served her right for lying to his family and to him. She thought about that first day they'd met, in the rain in that little cafe. About her stoeln wallet, and his cell phone. She said she'd pay him back and this was how she was doing it? Bleeding in his bathroom like some kind of...criminal? Cassia let a tear slip, though it seemed that he was nearly done with her foot. All she was missing was a bandage.

"Blaise..." she nearly whispered his name at what he said. After this revelation he still trusted her? Cassia's lark, dark orbs look up to meet the boy's in front of her. She felt the fluttering in her chest. He didn't want her to leave? Cassia's lips trembled a little bit, and she reached out for the teen in front of her. In a moment of lapsed judgement she did not hug him close to her - she instead moved her face to his, laying pink lips over his own. Cassia wouldn't deny that since the original shock of staying at Blaise's house, she'd felt a connection to him. Perhaps it was how kind he was, or the way he made her laugh. She felt at home with him, which might have been why she didn't want to leave in the first place. Whatever the reason was, she was now holding him, arms around his neck to lean him down, kissing him until he pushed her away.

 

[Blaise Chevotet]

As Blaise removed the last piece of glass from Cassia's foot, her placed the tweezers on the sink. He leaned back for the slave and was about to open it and rub it into her foot when he was suddenly thrown for a loop by the presence of Cassia's lips on his own. He would have fallen backwards were he not holding onto the sink at precisely the right time. What in the world was even happening right now? Blaise registered that Cassia was kissing him, but beyond that it was as if the world had vanished. He'd actually never kissed anyone before, definitely not a girl. Though that wasn't through any lack of interest on his part. He simply could not bring himself to talk to people, it was just a shyness thing. He was so awkward all of the time that it made it hard to talk to anyone, let alone someone like Cassia. She'd approached him though and then he'd had to help her because she was in trouble and his mother had always brought them up to help people when they were able. So it was really no surprise that she'd hadn't been overly surprised to have a random teenager on her doorstep. Of course he had vouched for her, told his mother that he had known her for a while and whilst he was sure his mother had known he was lying, she went along with it, because that was the sort of person that she was. Blaise loved her very much. Right now though, he was busy trying to get his body to work again.

Blaise got the neurons in his brain to start connecting again after what felt like an eternity and gently pushed Cassia away. He used enough force to move her, but not enough to hurt her. He was being unbelievably calm right now. He would have thought that he would be freaking out, but, no, he just wanted her to stop kissing him and this seemed like the best way to achieve his goal. "No." One simple word. He turned away from her and walked out of the bathroom. He leaned against the wall and all of the panic he had felt whilst in there with her rushed up into him. He crouched to the floor and held his head. This was crazy, what was he doing?! He couldn't just leave her sitting in there with a cut foot. He had to help her. He wanted to move, to go back and help her, but he just couldn't bring himself to face her again. He didn't want this. He liked Cassia, but this was just a crush, because he had helped her, because they had spent so much time together, she was a muggle, she was a runaway, she was a kid, he couldn't do that to her, he was the responsible older boy, he was supposed to make sure that this kind of stuff didn't happen. She needed to grow up on her own. Merlin, what had Blaise gotten himself into now?
​

 

[Cassia Rosatta]

Cassia knew she should have known better. She hadn't even thought before kissing him. It was almost ironic that she would be his first kiss - though that was beyond her realm of knowledge - as he too was hers. Light pecks on the cheeks and holding hands were all she'd done before, and even then they were few and far between. However the heat between them in the kiss she shared with him. She had noticed her wasn't kissing back just before he gave her a light push. She completely released him, small form almost recoiling in what seemed like guilt or fear. His word, one word, hurt more than what the action of actually pushing her away did. So she sat there instead, her face going completely blank. The blonde thought she should apologize, she almost mustered the courage to speak. Her words caught in her throat as if they were coated in honey. She swallowed thickly, feeling as if she had to choke down what bit of dignity and humility she had left in order to look away from him as he left the room.

Still sat on the edge of the tub, Cassia pulled her knees to her chest. The blood from her foot had slowed to a trickle that dripped down the porcelain tears. Eventually, as she became thawed from her initial numbness, her tears mixed with it and ran down her cheeks. The volume of tears increased by the second as she buried her face, staying in the bathroom for an unknown time before finaly realizing that she should clean herself up. She bandaged her foot and left the bathroom without another word, to grab cleaner and pick up the mess of glass. Wishing it was only that easy to pick up the pieces of what felt like a shattered heart in her chest. The slow thud was the only music she had now, too uncaring to plug in headphones as she cleaned up the mess.

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FIN
Cassia is now faced with a heavy decision. Should she stay, or would it be better for everyone involved if she left France as she'd originally planned from the beginning.

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