emerald-ali·:
Her dress was handmade, of course, by the seamstresses back home. She wanted something light, elegant, and the lavender and icy blue shades with perfected beading and sequins made her feel light and flowy. Like she was a delicate snowflake mingling among the masses, floating around like the social butterfly she was. Obviously she came with Amelia, her best friend, for moral support and also because going alone to a ball was absolutely not gonna happen for Emerald Ali. Sure, she could’ve found some suitor to take her, but she still felt weird about the whole Dev situation. Clara had informed her of his life back on the Isle, how Jafar was practically absent from Dev’s life, casting him to live on the streets and fend for himself. She just didn’t know how to take that, how to put her pride aside and admit that she might have painted him out entirely wrong and not given him the benefit of the doubt.
But she was also distant, hell she hadn’t even seen or heard from him since that Halloween night, which put her on edge. Where was he? What was he doing? And why did she care so fucking much when they only went on one date together? Well, one and a half if you counted her taking him to that party where she found out who he was. It seemed all her questions were answered them he appeared in front of her…..with a date on his on. Rolling her shoulders back, she planned on just walking away and leaving him right there because that weird ping of jealousy hit right at her chest. But, he spoke about wanting to talk, and considering Clara’s information, she could give him that much.
Nodding without a word, she pursed her lips together and followed him out into a more private corner of the house. She knew the Roux castle fairly well, and King Adam’s library was seemingly empty as she opened the doors. “Yes?” Emerald murmured, cursing herself for not being more confident and sounding so soft.
Dev had thought about what he was going to say to her, should he ever get the opportunity, over and over again. He wanted to apologize. To explain his side of things. To do his best to open up, a thing he wanted to be but found great difficulty doing with someone so far out of his league. It was like talking to the sun and expecting thing beautiful burning thing to give some sort of reply. Either way, he followed her - she seemed to know where she was going - and was honestly taken aback by how big the Roux castle was. High ceilings. Deep rooms. The fact that one family needed all this space was a concept he couldn’t quite grasp. He almost preferred his small apartment, at least it didn’t feel so... cold.
“Okay, uh - “ shit, now that he was here alone with her this was a lot harder to vocalize. Step by step, Dev. Just spit it out. “You were right to be upset with me, I should have told you my full name from the beginning, so there were no miscommunications.” he began, looking down at his shoes for a moment before letting his gaze fall back on her. “but I didn’t hide it because I had some devious plan up my sleeve. The fact that you would assume so makes me wonder if you would have given me a chance if you had known in the first place.” it wasn’t accusatory. It was honest. He didn’t blame her for jumping to conclusions. Her family had been burned by the man who shared his genes. But that didn’t reflect on Dev, at all. “I didn’t tell you my last name because I know my father was a cruel, evil man and the idea of being associated with him makes my skin crawl.” Taking a step closer now, her kept his eyes on hers, hoping he would trust him enough to take his words for what they were. The truth. “I wanted you to know me as I am.” Really mustering every once of courage he had, after a beat, he really spoke his mind. “I still do.”
