"The way he looks at her....
As if her smile is the only thing
that could possibly matter"
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"Fucking bastard!"
"I apologised!"
"What's going on here?" Xavier finally spoke up. For the past fifteen minutes we had been watching Eren chase Luca around trying to beat the shit out of him. I decided to answer Xavier's question "Eren finally realised that it was Luca who had been making my life hell the past months so, he is taking revenge."
"Okay that's enough." Eymen spoke up, effectively stopping Eren from punching Luca in the stomach again. "Both of you, we have a ball, for your sister in less than 10 hours, now get your asses of the floor and get ready. And that goes for the rest of you too."
I would never admit it out loud but I loved how Eren's father always referred to me as his son's sister. He never called me his daughter, because he knows that place will always belong to my own father but calling me Eren's sister was a way to say I was his family and I always will be.
After a whole lot of chaos I was finally getting ready. The two slightly older ladies were in charge of my dressing and make up. Elijah was sitting on my bed, he had arrived earlier, already ready and way too excited for the fancy party.
I had picked a black dress for the event, it was a one shouldered dress, with a net sleeve and a slit on the left side. The makeup was done in a royal core aesthetic way. My eyelids and cheekbones were adorned in light glitter, and my lips were painted in sparkling red lipstick. I had picked up a pair of black heels to match with the dress. Two strands of my hair were braided and pinned back, and they held up the silver leaf hair piece. The only pieces of jewellery on me were the diamond necklace around my neck and a matching ring on my right ring finger.
Lastly I attached my thigh sheath, which held my hand gun and for the night I only kept Nyx with me. Kissing my blade one last time I slid it into its place. Taking one last look at myself in the mirror, I left the room, walking down the stairs I was met with the stares of my family.
Katherine's Dress
Hairstyle
Shoes
Accessories
Elijah being the drama queen he is, started clapping loudly and shouting out how I was slaying the look. Reaching down I waited patiently for the others to tell me how I looked. I have always been comfortable with my body, at least not when it was covered in scars.
Snapping out, the others gushed about how I looked pretty, and how I was indeed slaying this look. After all of us gathered downstairs, we walked towards the dining hall. I had only been to this room when I first arrived, the room was huge and tonight it was filled with people.
The lighting from the chandeliers bathed the entire room in a warm golden hue, the royal Victorian wallpaper complementing the aesthetic of the event, the tables were set with deep blue cloths and every guest was dressed in ridiculously fancy outfits.
The first person to meet us was our Aunt. "Oh, my sweet boys. It's so good to see you again. It's been too long." The woman was insanely pretty, she had to have been in her late forties or early fifties but she still had the young glow to her.
The guys introduced me to her, "Oh, you look just like your father. You have his hair and his eyes." I took comfort in the fact that I looked like my father. "Thank you."
"Well I am your Zia Rosa. I am so glad you are back with us. I am sorry I couldn't meet with you earlier. I was in Italy, swamped with work. God I hate that bitch for taking you from us." She isn't the only one. (Aunt)
"Well I'm glad I'm back." "Me too." Giving me a kiss on my forehead she moved on to meet with other people. I had hoped that this would feel like a motherly kiss but it didn't. In a way it somehow felt like it was reluctant.
When Sophia was affectionate with me it felt warm but with Zia Rosa it didn't feel anything other than some sort of formality. Shaking my head free of those thoughts, I focused back on the party.
Sophia and Xavier were standing next to each other talking in whispers. God they were sickeningly in love. "Hey, where are the others?" I ask reaching them. "I don't know. They must around here somewhere. You should look for them. We are about to go dancing." Sophia said.
She took the champagne flute that was previously in Xavier's hand, downing it quickly she pulled him towards the dance floor. They moved perfectly along each other. I was standing here admiring them when a frantic looking Elijah came into my view.
"I need your help." "What happened?" He pointed to a guy standing my the bar. "Victor is here. And that probably means Ace is too so-." "Wait why the hell are they here. This is related to mafia people."
"Elijah shrugged "I mean your brothers said that the legal partners would also be here. And if you think about it, maybe these guys are here related to the hotel businesses you guys have. 'Alvarez lodging' must belong to Ace." He made sense. "So what do you need my help with?"
"I'm gonna make move for Victor." "That's great."
"Yeah now I need you to be my wingwoman." I have never in my life been some guy's wingwoman "I don't know how to do that." Elijah looked at me like I had grew two heads. "Really. Like you never helped Eren with girls?" "Eren didn't need help in that department.
"Of corse." He muttered "Look all you need to do is lay the base for me to work with. Talk me up with Victor and when I see the prefect opening I'll slip in and you can leave us be." Reluctantly agreed.
My conversation with Victor wasn't too bad. I realised he still thinks of me as the 'not screaming girl' I don't know if Ace ever told him that we didn't hook up that night or Victor just doesn't want to believe it. When Elijah stepped in, the two completely got lost in each other, they had those goofy smiles on their faces and completely forgot anyone around them.
I had slipped out easily and went outside to take a breath of fresh air.
"What are you doing out here?" I turn back from admiring the water fountain to face him. Ace stood before me, his hair a little tussled now, probably from dancing, his tie discarded and the top two buttons of his dress shirt were open.
"Needed a little break from all the chaos inside." I replied, turned back to the water, and stood by the ledge of the fountain. It was far enough from the party inside to dim the noise a little but close enough to not be completely out of hearing.
"I thought you liked the chaos, you know. Given our previous experiences." I laughed, remembering the night he was referring to. He walked up to stand beside me.
"Oh I love parties. But only when I'm drunk enough to not remember anything the next day." Eliciting a chuckle from him too. "And lord knows my brothers are never gonna let me go near an alcoholic drink, the closest I got was when I snuck a champagne flute but they caught me so I could only get a few sips."
There was a moment of silence between us as we both stared ahead of us. The moonlight reflects in the water in the fountain making it look like shining diamonds.
Suddenly a flask appears in front of me. I turn my head to see Ace offering it. I took it hesitantly from him, "What is this?" I ask. "Vodka." Oh dear god! Could this man get any more perfect?!?
I greedily took a couple of sips letting the bitter liquid run down my throat. "So what about you? Why are you out here alone?" "Got bored. Also Victor and your tiny friend seem to be having a lot of fun so it would be mean of me to interrupt them."
He was right, the last I saw the two, they were making those googly eyes at each other. After another moment of surprisingly comfortable silence, the sound of the song playing behind us caught my attention.
"Oh my god!" "What?" I turn to him "The song." I say simply. A soft smile playing on my lips. "I had heard it the first time when I was probably eight. And god did I fall in love with it instantly. You know what? Let's dance."
I extended my hand for Ace to take. I don't know what was going on in my head, I had never upfrontly asked anyone to dance with me but somehow I always got that boost of confidence whenever I was with Ace.
The boy looked at my hand confused and then shook his head. "Na, I don't dance." Of Course. "Just. Come on." I pulled him away from the fountain and a little towards the building, making the music more clearer and louder.
Ace placed his right hand on my lower back, making me hold back from shivering at his touch. And his left hand intertwined with my right while my left rested on his shoulder.
I led us, moving from side to side, the music blended into the background as we focused only on the person in front of us. I knew within the first few seconds that Ace knew exactly what he was doing but he still made me lead.
"See. Not that bad huh?" He didn't say anything back for a while, and when he did speak his voice was low and just above a whisper. "Yeah, not that bad."
It was a serene moment, you know the moments you read about. The one where it feels as if wind is blowing through your hair, the moon looks brighter, violins playing in the background and nothing could compare to the feeling of contentment you get.
And every bone in my body wanted to enjoy this moment but I couldn't, not without asking him what I have wanted for what feels like eternity.
"The painting." I say breaking him out of whatever dream he was in, "The painting you made for art class, the painting that was a portrait of...me. Why did you make that?"
"Because I wanted to." His answer was simple. It was kind of infuriating how easily and casually he said this, like it wasn't at all a big deal.
"Out of the people you could think of me. You drew me. Why?" "Because you're worth being drawn." I stilled after hearing this.
"What?" "You're beautiful. And I wanted to put that on paper so I did." His answers kept shocking me more and more. Nothing about our situation was making sense to me.
I thought we were at the stage of being friends who occasionally flirt. I am not going to deny that I was actually attracted to him but I didn't think it could actually lead to something.
"You think I look beautiful?" "No, I don't think you look beautiful. I think you are beautiful. You could be all done up like this, or you could be shitface drunk dressed in seats and with a drool down your chin and you would still be beautiful."
"The night of the club?" I ask.
"The night of the club." He ressaured. I still remember how horrific I looked when I had woken up the next exactly how he described. I fucking hate myself for getting high that night, as much as it had taken the pain of the orevious events away, it also took the feeling of the best thing that happened that night.
"Do you- do you remember that night?" Ace's voice was slow and deliberate as if he was fighting his mind about whether he should actually say something or not.
"Bits and pieces. Nothing after you took me to your house. Why?" He shook his head signalling it wasn't important. "Tell me about that night." He looked shocked but I didn't relent. I wanted to know what he did. Wanted to know how he felt that night.
"When we were back, after you got changed and we were about to fall asleep, but you started crying, and you told me about how, you felt like no one cared about you. That you felt awful trying to hide the real you."
I had to hold myself back from wincing at the repeat of my words.
"You told me how you had been hiding the real you because people didn't accept it. That everyone thought you were crazy for being the way you were. And I didn't know what exactly I could say to that so all I could come up with was 'Screw society
Screw what people think." We both said the last words in unison. A small smile gracing both our lips. "Then what happened?" This is what I wanted to hear. What had happened after he said those words. After he had been the first person to accept my real self, without questions.
"And then... then you, um." He stopped. "What?" "You really want me to say it?" He asked, I felt disappointed. Was it really that hard to say that he had kissed me that night?
"Is it really that bad?" I asked, "When you don't even remember how it actually was. Then yes, yes it is hard." Oh, I didn't see that coming.
"You know, at the start of the night I was so happy to find drugs that could make me forget all of the shit that had happened earlier that day but when I woke up the next day, remembering what had happened between us, I fuckign cursed myself for being stupid enough to not even remember how my first real kiss felt like, let alone my first kiss with you."
Why the hell couldn't I stop myself, somehow when Ace was around, I couldn't stop myself from being vulnerable. He brought out the side of me that wasn't afraid of possible hurt, a side that was hopeful for a good future.
"That was your first kiss?" "In a way." It was after all my first consensual kiss. The first one I got that I actually wanted.
"And you wanted to remember it?" "Yes. I wanted to remember how it felt."
"It felt like this." Before I could process his words, the hand which rested on my back pulled me towards him and his lips crashed down on mine.
And just like that, in a moment every nerve ending in my body lights up. Our hands defanged from each other, mine moving to rest behind his neck as his hand moved towards my back pulling me even closer towards him.
The music in the background coming toward its end as it increased in volume, blasting through my ears, the scent of Ace's cologne overwhelming senses with a woody and cinnamon like scent.
Our mouths moved against each other languidly, as if we had all the time in the world. He had pulled me so close to him, almost like he was trying to memorise everything about me. His hand moved to cup my cheek and tilt my head so he could deepen the kiss. The taste of champagne on his tongue was entirely too intoxicating.
We finally pulled apart, taking a greedy gasp of air. Neither of us said anything, not wanting to ruin the moment by speaking. I would have stayed this way forever if it was possible.
The clearing of someone's throat brought us back to reality and our heads snapped to the source of the noise, finding Eren standing nearby with an amused smile on his face. "Am I interrupting something?"
Neither me nor Ace could say anything. We just hid our faces from Eren's gaze. "Anyywayyy. I came here to tell you that Victor is looking for you Ace. Something related to the restaurant shipments."
"Shit I gotta go." Ace moved to leave but I stopped him, catching onto the sleeve of his suit jacket. I didn't even know what I was going to say, but leaving without actually saying anything after that just happened felt weird. He turned around quickly "I'll see you tomorrow. By the lake."
There was only one lake near here. The one near our school. I nodded my head in acknowledgment "Bye." "Bye." He jogged inside, heading to look for his cousin.
My gaze turned back to Eren who was seconds away from bursting into laughter, and honestly I don't blame him, I have never been so love sick for some guy.
"Not a word." I warned, when I reached him. Eren just raised his arms in mock surrender before swinging it around me and we both made our way inside the house, with happy smiles on our faces.
They quickly fell once the sound of a gunshot reached our ears, followed by ear piercing screams.
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Ahhhhhhhhhh! I'm so happy with this chapter!
Although this book is about family. I wanted to talk about 'found family' along with 'blood family'. Now we already know how important Eren and Elijah are to Kate. My focus here was Ace.
I have always loved romance stories and I wanted to show a little bit of it here as well. How do you guys think I did? Did you enjoy it?
For those who might not remember how Kate's blade looks like
Nyx- The primordial of Night
And big news! We are more than halfway through the book! How exciting is that!!
I'll see you guys in the next chapter
Love you all!💕💕✨✨