Apadiel’s attempt at damage control falters when the door swings wide and Asmodeus saunters in with Kale trailing behind him. She steps quickly away from Noah, her eyes meeting his, then darting down to where the stain is more or less covered by his coat. She can only hope that he keeps it covered as best he can until Kelly can help him, and she’s left without a chance to reply to his comments about the distribution of resources in the city.
Asmodeus grins, and Apadiel gives him a radiant smile of her own, turning her head gently to the side to be kissed on the cheek.
"Asmodeus, please. Nicknames," she says, glancing towards Noah. There is humor in her voice, but her smile goes slightly brittle. There are too many new people for him to be so familiar. She does enjoy his company, but the idea that others in the room might take to the less formal greeting bothers her.
"It’s been too long. I’m glad to see you. And Kale as well," she adds, leaning away to nod to Kale in greeting. "It’s a pleasant surprise, seeing him here."
Out of the corner of her eye she sees Trudy join Noah. Kelly had stopped by her desk, momentarily thrown when he’d seen Kale come in behind the Prince, but now he approaches the group, waistcoat in hand. His posture is stiff and formal, and he doesn’t speak when he comes to stand with them, only raises his eyebrows when he makes eye contact with Kale.
Apadiel sees Asmodeus’ eyes roam over Trudy and intervenes quickly, wrapping her arm around the girl’s shoulders where she stands, holding Noah’s hand. Noah won’t like it, but is not strong enough in any sense of the word to protect Trudy from Asmodeus. He will never believe it, but here and now, in this room, Trudy is safe next to Apadiel.
"Trudy plays the flute," she tells Asmodeus. "She did a wonderful audition, so I thought ‘where better to let her perform than here tonight?’"
She gives the girl’s shoulders a squeeze and turns her head to smile at Trudy, who looks much more nervous now that there is an audience she’s never played for before. With Noah here, Apadiel is not worried about the pressure on Trudy. If anything, she is more concerned with the dark look that Noah is giving Asmodeus.
It’s not completely unwarranted; Asmodeus, like so many of the Princes, judges humanity by what they can do for him. Trudy is young, beautiful, and impossibly naive for such a place, and those same thoughts are reflected in Asmodeus’ eyes, but he would not make an attempt to take her from Apadiel, much less do so at her own party. Their friendship lacks the ruthlessness of her relationship with Lilith, but she smiles and holds Trudy long enough to make the message clear: don’t even suggest it.
"Noah came along with her, so I invited him as well, but when I sent him a new suit for the evening, there was a mix-up and the waistcoat didn’t make it. It was still in the apartment," she explains as Kelly holds out the waistcoat for Noah to take.
"Bathroom’s through that door," Kelly tells him, nodding towards the door on the far side of the piano.
Kelly turns his attention to Trudy, cocking his head back towards where she’d left her flute lying on the open piano. “Come on, let’s go get started.”
She goes with him, though she’s slow to let go of Noah’s hand. Apadiel turns to him and sets a hand on his arm.
"She will be fine," she says, as earnestly as she can. "Go get dressed. There are more people coming, but we’ll wait to start until you’re ready."
With that she leaves him, hoping that he will be able to put the waistcoat on and adjust it with no trouble, and without need of assistance. She thought she’d seen something, a look, between Noah and Kale when he and Asmodeus had come in, but it could just as well have been surprise. Noah’s suspicion of Princes and their pets would not be lessened by having two of each in the same room as Trudy. She doubts her reassurances will be any comfort to him, even if they’re true.
Asmodeus returns to Apadiel with a glass of champagne in hand, which she accepts with a smile. The knot in her stomach that had formed when she’d seen the blood on Noah’s shirt is fading as fast as it had appeared. Noah is, as he had been before, too worried about Trudy to cause any real commotion here tonight, but Apadiel also finds herself hoping that perhaps he’ll leave with different opinions than he had when he came in.
She looks from Kale to Asmodeus and back. “We’re nearly ready for another round of the Games, and I haven’t seen Kale’s name come up. Will you be putting him forward this time?”
She leaves the question open, not wanting to suggest that Asmodeus do it if he hasn’t already, but at the same time she’s curious to know if he has a reason for keeping Kale out of the ring.
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