The Adventure on-board the Maria

The End of the Night

"That's Diana, that's Penelope, that's Lily, Brigid, Maud, Maebh, Miread, and.....". "Elizabeth, I think Melody has met enough of your friends. Why don't you sit over here for a bit? The parties nearly over, and I'm sure she's exhausted" Madame Red called out. "But she hasn't met Lady Ava yet" Elizabeth whined. She then looked back at Melody, only to see her stupefied, far-away face, with lines under her eyes. "Okay, I guess you're right" Elizabeth concluded, a little disappointedly. She then took Melody over to the chair Madame Red was sat on, with Ran-Mau and Lau. When the two girls sat in the chair across from them, Madam Red looked a little worried as she noticed how out of it Melody was. "Are you okay dear? You seem a little dazed" she asked. Shaking her head, and coming back to it just a little, she looked at Madame Red. "No I'm fine just a little tired. It was a big party". Madame Red seemed hesitant, but she nodded in understanding. "Perhaps this will make you feel better" Lau suggested, offering his gold pipe to Melody, who quickly shook her head at the sight of it. When the others got distracted, and began talking again, she went a bit out of it once more. Although what she said about being tired was true, that was only half the reason why she seemed so dazed.

What had happened earlier kept repeating over and over again in her head, making her unintentionally flushed. Even now, while Lau and Madame Red were deep in conversation, her mind went straight back to that moment in the garden. Her hand unintentionally found itself tracing her lips at the thought. 'He kissed me. Why did he kiss me?'. Her cheeks went a rosy pink. 'My first kiss. That bastard stole my first kiss!'. She tried to be angry at the idea. In fact earlier, she tried to bring herself to slap him for what he had done, but she couldn't. The strange elated feeling she had prevented her, and kept coming back when she attempted to convince herself she hated it, making her contradict herself. The fluttery feeling in her chest and stomach had never left since she came back from the garden. 'Why did he kiss me?' she asked herself again. 'He never showed any signs of liking me that way before, did he? We always fought until recently. Unless....'. A sinking feeling in her stomach replaced the butterflies. 'Could that be the reason he captured me. We didn't even talk when we met. He just asked for a drink, then caught me......Was it just because he thought I was pretty. Like nearly every other man I've met'.

The dreamy, dazed emotions she had before completely washed away, being replaced by a stabbing pain in the chest. It was only lust. Nothing else. Why would he kiss someone he so often considered a 'brat' unless it was for that. He was just like other men that tried to woo her back in Trost. 'Why am I so upset about that? There's nothing new. I should be used to it by now. Why should he be different? We aren't even that close. I don't see him that way. He was nothing but an asshole till recently. A handsome, secretly soft and caring asshole' she tried to convince herself. Her chest began to feel tight, and she soon found herself jumping to her feet, when she realised that her cheeks felt wet. "Melody, are you.....wait dear, are you okay? You're crying" Madame Red worried, when she noticed Melody's behaviour. "I'm fine, I just don't feel well. I think I'm going to be sick. Excuse me" Melody lied, as she began making a dash for the ballroom door. She exited through the hallway, and desperately searched for the front door, so that she could get some air. She eventually found it, and went out onto the steps, finally letting out some overwhelming and held back sobs. She didn't particularly care that her make up ran, the only problem was that it was proof that she had been crying. After a few minutes of letting her confusing emotions out, she took a few shaky breaths, while wiping away the mess that was now in her face.

"There you are Melody " Armin's voice called out from the door, making her start and spin around to see him. "Oh hi Armin" she greeted half heartedly. Behind the young blonde, came Gunther and Eld, who were carrying a knocked out drunk Hanji over their shoulders, Mikasa, who had taken her shoes off and let her hair loose now that she was away from the party and about to leave, Petra and Olua, who were pink faced and giggling away at each other because of some sort of alcohol they had, and last but not least, Levi, who was stoic and emotionless, as if nothing happened that evening, carrying a scroll in his hand. None of them seemed to notice Melody's behaviour, since they were either exhausted, drunk or too straight faced to tell. "We're leaving now" Levi declared going ahead down the white steps, where at the bottom, their two carriages were waiting for them. Armin, entered the black carriage first, followed by Eld and Gunther, with Hanji. Mikasa, Petra ad Olua went in the other one. Finally, it was just Levi and Melody again. The still stoic captain, entered before her. As she went up on the steps to follow after him, she froze up when she realised that there was only one seat in that carriage left.

 By the window, next to Levi. It was too late for her to turn back and go into the other carriage without appearing suspicious, so she reluctantly ended up sitting, while purposefully avoiding eye contact with him. The door closed behind her, and shortly after, the carriage began rattling back to the Modest Serpent Inn, followed by the other one containing the other three crew members. There was a very obvious discomfort in the air, one that Melody found unbearable. She found herself looking outside to avoid looking at the others, for fear of them noticing her composure. That didn't seem to work, since she could very obviously feel several curious and worried eyes on her. In the end she found herself closing her eyes, and leaning her head to the side, pretending to be asleep. To her relief, it seemed to work. So she remained like that for a while. She unexpectedly ended up actually falling asleep, not too far off from their destination.

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Sad, grey eyes gazed at the sleeping figure next to him. He wasn't dumb. He may of been stoic on the outside, but he could read peoples body language well enough to tell when somethings wrong with them. He sighed dejectedly, although the three other boys mistook it as tiredness. 'So she hated it that much' he thought to himself. 'Why am I not surprised? What the hell was I thinking?'. Some of Sebastian's words echoed in his head. 'Perhaps he was right'. He was startled as the carriage turned a corner, and he felt something, or someone slump over his shoulder. Darting his head around to look down at the sleeping beauty on his shoulder, he felt his cheeks visibly heat up at the cute sight of Melody's sleeping face so near him. "Sir are you...?" Armin started, both him and the other two men looking completely gobsmacked at the sight of their normally scary captain blushing like a school boy. "Shut the hell up Arlert! None of you say anything! You didn't see anything! Nothing happened! End of story!" Levi snarled at the three men sat opposite of him. All three of them kept their mouths shut, none of them daring to say a word, or lift a finger, for the sake of their lives. The carriage stopped at the inn, and Hanji was carried up by Gunther and Eld, while Levi carried Melody up to bed.