The entire first floor of the Fleet Admiral's home had been transformed into a great ballroom with gold accents dripping from the ceiling and twisting around the great staircase. Beautiful people milled around the lavish dining table and sat in the drawing room. Wine slowly disappeared from cups as voices got louder. Ro tugged on her sleeves--her entire dress was made out of crushed velvet the color of garnets. How dreadfully clever of her lady's maids.
Sir John Baines stood in the entryway, in front of a grand staircase. He bowed at Ro, his finger wagging to the tune of the piano. His wife, Lady Sieryu, curtsied. Ro nodded back as her sisters curtsied in response. Celaeno had run off as soon as they arrived. That was one way to avoid the Admiral.
He wrapped his arm around his wife. Lady Seiryu was significantly younger than him, but much taller, with hair as dark as the sky and skin as pale as the moon. She was a strong woman from the Shanying Islands who Sir Baines seemed to rely on a great deal. It was heartwarming, in a foul, saccharine sort of way.
"Heiress Merope," Sir Baines greeted her. "I'm ever so delighted that you are attending tonight's soiree." He twirled his fingers around in the air, demonstrating the elegance of his word choice.
Diplomacy was important. More than anything else. She fixed a smile onto her face and curtsied. "Ever so my pleasure." She let her eyes drift around the first floor of the home once more. "Where is Lieutenant Suzaku Baines?"
"Oh, he's run off somewhere," Lady Seiryu said. She sighed and looked away. "I'll let him know that you've sent him your greetings."
"Oh, how it does bother me so," Sir Baines sighed loudly, "But a host nor his hostess has the time to go looking about for--"
"Shh," Lady Seiryu hushed her husband. "Let's not trouble the heiress, now."
"No trouble a'tall." Ro turned her body to leave but stopped when Baines gasped.
"Oh Heiress, your sincerest congratulations must ever be in order once you hear the news."
"What's that?"
"A wedding date for Suzaku Baines and the lovely Lady Danaë Oriol of the Tranan Mountains has been set," he announced. "The first week of February shall see the festivities."
Ro widened her eyes. "Why, yes, congratulations indeed," she paused. "I'm quite fond of Lady Oriol myself." She pivoted back towards the fleet admiral fully. She nearly tripped on the hem of her dress. "I'll go look for the Lieutenant and return him to the party guests. I'm sure they're eager to hear the details of his engagement."
"Oh! How generous our heiress is!" Baines rolled his eyes up in delight. Lady Seiryu tried to protest, but Ro walked away before she could hear it. She wasn't seeking out Suzaku entirely for their sake, anyway. He was an old friend of hers. She met both him and Lady Dejah Oriol when the three were younger. It was during one of the first royal visits to the Garnet House. It was a cloudy memory and she wasn't sure he'd remember her at all. It was nearly a decade ago. Not that she supposed it mattered if he remembered, but everyone knew that one day, after his father's passing, he'd be the Fleet Admiral. Ro had to secure good alliances where they counted. And, if she was being honest with herself, she wanted to know more about the marriage from Suzaku.
He wasn't in the sitting room nor the foyer. That would be too easy. Ro braved the ballroom. Granted, she hadn't seen Suzaku in several years, but it was hard to miss the one Shanyingyan boy in a sea of fair-haired Durantans.
Ro made her way through the ballroom, ducking past couples, admiring women with elaborate hairstyles and sparkling dresses as they twirled past. She dodged a pair of dancers before someone caught her by the shoulders. The stranger gently set her back onto her feet.
"Heiress Ro," he said.
Ro's eyebrows shot up before she pulled away. But it wasn't Suzaku. This man was tall, with brown hair, all golden around his shoulders like he had spent too much time in the sun. He grinned, his eyes a little green, a little brown, a little silver even. His beard was sloppy. He flashed his teeth, but any charm he was hoping to cast was lost on her.
"Who told you to call me that?" Not many people knew Ro's favored nickname.
"Have I upset you?" he asked, folding a gloved hand over his stomach. His hands were bulky like he was wearing too many rings beneath the fabric. The materialistic sort never made a good impression, which was ironic since Ro had lived in everything gold and velvet since she was born.
"No. Carry on." She turned away, but the man followed her. He tugged on the collar of his shirt. "You're not a businessman," Ro assumed. "Seeing as you're uncomfortable in that suit. Not royalty either. You're a little too--"
"Roguish."
"Unkempt, I was going to say." "Captain Robert Fairburn," he said. "Highly renowned. Highly decorated."
Ro hadn't heard of him. She had to get more involved with the Navy. "Proper to meet you then, but I've got things to do."
"One dance, Heiress Ro--you'd pay me great compliment--your best Naval Captain."
For as long as she'd been alive, Ro had never danced with a man. One half of Longport thought she was too young and carefree, always dancing with her female friends. The other half knew a secret that she wasn't trying that hard to keep. Life was too short not to dance with beautiful women. For diplomacy's sake, then. Ro agreed, turning back to Captain Fairburn. They began in the middle of the song, swaying back and forth. It was boring yet so tedious.
"I thought you'd be less clumsy," he said. "Though I mean no offense of it."
"I'm not inherently clumsy, just easily distracted," she said.
"Yes, so many beautiful people here. And I'm dancing with the heiress."
Ro laughed quietly, not as offended as one might expect. She knew she wasn't a beautiful woman in the traditional sense, and she was tired of all the brown nosers of Longport lying about what they saw. She liked Captain Fairburn's honesty. It didn't hurt the way lies did. "Why, I see I'm not included in the beautiful lot."
"It's ever such a curse to be beautiful and have a high profile. I dream some nights of being ghastly."
"Yes, being ghastly isn't all so bad, Captain. I've been like this my whole life."
"Fascinating," he said. He raised his arm, waiting for her to twirl, but Ro wasn't much of a twirler. "Well, we just seem like the strangest pairing on this dance floor, don't we?"
The song ended. "Perhaps." She paused. "Perhaps until those widows start fighting over the young Captain Howe."
"Oh, Heiress Ro. How generous of you to remind me. I'll be sure to be thoroughly drunk by then."
She walked away and tugged at her dress. The high neckline was riding up and choking her. She looked over her shoulder. "Captain Fairburn." He turned back before bowing again at her. She took a deep, decisive breath. "I expect you to debrief me on Naval status at your soonest convenience."
"Absolutely, Heiress, meet me at the east wharf tomorrow morning, eight o'clock."
"You've no office?"
"Office," he mocked her. "The world is my bloody office." She nodded before leaving the ballroom for good. "I do have an office actually. It's very nice!" He called after her. The ego on this one. It was a bit hard to stomach.
Back to Suzaku. He wasn't downstairs. Nobody seemed to be on the second floor, although Ro was indeed a bit curious of how Baines' pretentious tastes had influenced the design of his own personal room. Unfortunately, the doors to what she only assumed could be the master bedroom were closed and she wasn't about to go snooping around.
She continued down the hallway to another room. The door was slightly ajar. A candle flickered against the door frame She pulled her red dress to her ankles to avoid tripping. She peeked through the door, but the opulent bedroom was unoccupied. From all the drawings pasted to the walls, it was clear that this was Suzaku's room and his stepfather's design taste. From the messy white sheets on the four-poster bed to the expensive red rug, everything was bathed in dark wood and rich oxblood. Windows lined the outer wall of the room, and one of them was pushed open. The sheer curtains fluttered across the room and the pages on the wall rippled.
Suzaku was magic with a bit of charcoal. His drawings were black and white, filled with emotion and movement, like a snapshot of the past and all the little things that haunted his very active mind. Ro remembered him as thoughtful. Very inward, very reserved. But if you got deep enough, he was silly too, and he'd do anything for a kick of adrenaline. Ro recalled watching him fire his father's gun for the first time, and the joy in his eyes when the kickback hit him, and the laugh that erupted from his belly when the bullet lodged itself in the parlor room wall. In retrospect, one of their stupidest childhood experiments. Now a painting of Ro, Suzaku, and their close friend Dejah as playful children were carefully placed over the hole after a stern lecture from Lady Seiryu.
Through the window, Ro could see the lights of the wharf flickering through the frosted panes. This time of November, it was dreadfully cold out. They'd be expecting snow soon.
She stepped through the room and peeked out the window. The roof sloped beneath it. Out on the roof, Suzaku sat overlooking the rooftops, and down to the water. Ro kicked her heeled shoes off and stepped out of the window, the cold rooftop burning the soles of her feet. She inhaled sharply. Suzaku turned around.
After a moment of silence, locking eyes, Suzaku laughed and carefully stood up, crossing the way to meet her. Ro grinned and pulled him toward her by his coat. They hugged, moonlight bouncing harshly off the glass behind them. It was quiet if not for the muffled sound of violin music coming from the room beneath them. They drew back, hands still on each other's shoulders.
"Pea-brain," he laughed.
"Shut up," Ro drew her hand back and smacked him lightly on the head, but she couldn't hold back a smile. She scrunched her nose at that old nickname he had given her. Back when they were kids, he changed the grating Merope to "Pea-brain" because torturing Ro seemed to be a pastime that everyone could enjoy.
It got quiet for a moment. Suzaku looked up at her, his features softening. "My condolences regarding your father. I just learned of the tragedy this afternoon"
Ro cleared her throat, trying her hardest to wipe the sadness off of her features. "Your parents were looking for you."
Suzaku smiled weakly and sat back down on the rooftop. "I'm missing my own party."
"Why?" Ro edged forward and took a seat beside Suzaku. One of the shingles rolled off the roof. She cringed inwardly.
"I was um..." He pointed out towards the bay. "I was thinking."
"About?"
"You ever just get a bad feeling? Like right here?" He swung out his arm and hit her on the top of her stomach, hard enough to knock the breath out of her.
Ro gasped but when she looked up, he was grinning back at her. "Shiteater," she mumbled. "Yeah, I know it."
Suzaku smiled sheepishly. Serious, yes, but nothing brought joy to his face quite like taking the piss out of someone. "Well I feel it. Like uh, I don't know? Unfinished business? Something is heavy on my chest."
"Something you ate?" Ro asked. "Your mom is hell with a salt shaker."
"Maybe," he said. There was a pause and Ro realized how red her nose probably was. It burned with the chill and her fingers and toes weren't much better.
"Is um..." Ro cleared her throat. "Lady Dejah. Is she supposed to be..."
Suzaku's eyebrow cocked. He pointed at the room they were perched above. "Tonight?" He shook his head. "I haven't heard anything."
"Me neither." Ro laughed curtly, but it was thick with frustration. "I thought she'd send a letter, you know, seeing as my father..." Ro trailed. "But it's been so long and I haven't heard from her."
"You have got to get over her because you are certainly not on top of her."
"Do you stop? Ever? Do you ever just stop being a dickhead?" She pushed his shoulder playfully. His eyes lit up and he pushed her back. Ro's heart lurched. "Don't push me, we're on the roof."
"You pushed me first," he said.
"Yeah? But I'm an Empress. Almost." Ro carefully got up and dusted off her dress. "Alright I'm freezing my ass off," she said. "Just get yours downstairs."
Suzaku glanced at her from over his shoulder. He shot her a small smile. "I'll be down. I just need a minute."
Ro stepped through the window and slipped out of his bedroom. The party downstairs was roaring. She was happy to be out of the excitement for just a few minutes. It was hard to party when she was still so numb.
Ro jumped out of the way to avoid crashing into Lady Seiryu, but it was no use. The two bumped into each other. A bag fell from Lady Seiryu's hands and hit the floor, a jar of pitch black ink spilling out across the carpet. Three barbed tools, spiked with thin needles tumbled through the air. Ro cursed as one stabbed her hand. They rattled across the floor, Ro stumbling back to avoid getting stabbed again.
Blood spotted her hand, backed by a small back circle. Ro wiped the blood off on her dress, but the black stained her skin. She slowly ran her eyes back up to meet Seiryu's, who held a shaking hand to her lips. She quickly dropped to the floor and stuffed the barbed tools back into her bag before zipping it up tight.
"Heiress Ro, my apologies. This isn't what it looks—."
"Is this..." Ro stared at her hand incredulously. "A tattoo? Did you just tattoo me?"
"Please, don't speak of it. For the sake of all of Duranta," Seiryu begged. Before Ro could answer, the black-haired beauty shut the door of the Master Bedroom and hurried away.
Later in the evening, Fleet Admiral Baines emerged from his bedroom, looking terribly uncomfortable, but to everyone's surprise, he didn't complain about it.