The Elementalists

40.

"Here I am." I repeated as I replicated the smile he was giving me. His hazel eyes had gone soft, and I figured mine had too with this warm feeling in my belly. "All's well that ends well."

Wafi unbuttoned his coat as he relaxed a bit into the chair. "You can say that... But I don't think it ends until you're announced as a Royal and finally living in the Palace." He threw an arm out, gesturing lazily. "This place has no security."

"We do have security systems installed."

"Please—" Wafi scoffed "—don't make me laugh." I frowned, but before I could say anything he glanced at his watch and spoke. "We have a while... but you should go change. Christopher is coming too."

My stomach twisted, suddenly worried, yet elated. "Wait, what? You never said he was coming?"

Wafi cocked an eyebrow as he searched my face. "Problem?"

"Not really." The flip-flops in my stomach say otherwise.

"Good. Then go change."

I opened my mouth to argue but let it fall shut as I didn't really know what to argue about. I didn't get to meet Christopher enough these days and I had to admit, I was a bit excited to see him in formals again.

"Dress code?" I asked as I passed Wafi, already flipping through a few options in mind.

"Please wear something classy." He paused thoughtfully before standing up. "On the other hand, let me loo-"

"No!" I snapped. "You go through my cupboard once more I will tear your hands off! I have good clothes and a good fashion sense, so trust me to use both and dress accordingly!"

Wafi gave me a worried look and slowly backed away to his chair. Just to be sure, I glared at him till he was seated before heading upstairs. Sure I dressed way too casual all the time, but I didn't want to burn my good clothes. It was really hard to get that through the skull of a Light user and former trainee Fire Elementalist apparently.

I pulled out a suitcase of clothes I hadn't gotten around to wearing in this dimension yet. Some of them were knockoffs, some of them were the real deal, but most of them were club-hopping types of dresses. It didn't mean I didn't have formal dresses with me, it just meant I didn't have as wide of a selectio. The ones I did have, never fell out of style.

I took my own sweet time to let Wafi soak in his own juices downstairs. There's only so much time you can spend combing out your hair before you leave the room. I can do enough makeup to look good, and hopefully, good enough to meet Wafi's standards. Or he'll end up calling an entire team of professionals to do me up.

Probably not, but if he tells me to sit down and starts brandishing a mascara wand, I'm disowning him. This control over me is unhealthy.

Wafi was already looking towards the stairs as I walked down and took a seat on the last step to tug my heels on. "So, shall we?" I said as I snapped the band of my nude stilettos in a final flourish as I stood up.

"Not bad." Wafi said, placing his phone in his pocket and standing up. "I personally think maybe you should've gone for the high ponytail but this looks good too."

I rolled my eyes and punched his bicep as he walked up to me. "You can't just let me have a simple compliment."

Wafi chuckled, not even fazed by the assault as he pulled the door open for me. "I'm your brother. There's probably a rule somewhere that I'm not even supposed to give you compliments."

I laughed and whacked him again, lightly on his back before turning around to close the door. "The food better be good tonight to make up for that then."