I'm once again pretending I'm actually gonna participate in Promptober this year. Shhhh it's fine.
This month, I may end up playing entirely in the VaLia 'verse that @teaandinanity and I have created just for fun. AKA is it even 7KPP anymore when we're shipping the next generation and also only one canon character exists still? I apologize to everyone else, who don't actually know what's going on and will not recognize the characters we're yelling about. I promise I will hide everything under read mores, at least as long as I'm participating.
Thank you for your patience! <3
He’s staring again.
He shouldn’t be, and he knows it. It’s something that has always made Nadia uncomfortable, the unsubtle leering of men who only ever wanted her for beauty or title. It’s something that he’s always known about her, that he has always poked fun at, dismissing them as lechers and ingrates, hardly worthy of her acknowledgement, let alone her time, her attention.
And now, neither is he.
Or, perhaps, he’s never been, but he’s just never realized it until now. Perhaps his only saving grace is that she’s never noticed either, that she somehow still hasn’t noticed.
And if he wants to keep that up, he really has to stop staring.
“Lord Thomas?”
A giggle, a gentle weight on his arm, brings him back to his senses, and to the young lady whom he has been tasked with escorting and whom he has been rudely neglecting. He turns, forcing a smile onto his lips and thanking the years of socializing that has given him the training to manage one which passes basic muster.
Or, at least it ought to, but he sees Lady Rana’s own expression turn stilted for a fraction of a second before smoothing back into graceful levity. And yet he almost doesn’t notice, because instead, he can feel another pair of eyes land on the back of his head, and he’s not sure if the sudden weight is relief or disappointment by his timing.
Rather than considering it any further, he puts it out of mind with a small bow. “Lady Rana. My most sincere apologies for my wandering mind. Might I redeem myself in your eyes with a dance?”
Her smile widens as she accepts his proffered hand and he fixes his gaze on it, the delight and coquetry that ought to be enough, that ought to be everything.
When he next gets a chance to look back, she’s gone.
