AU for _deadlydance_, set immediately after "The Price"

[birthrightgreen]

She wasn't nervous. She had nothing to be nervous about. It wasn't like it was a romantic evening. They'd just worked so hard on the case, working to catch the rabid witch who'd been slaughtering innocent males. And they had, with Jaenelle's help. Now Jaenelle and Daemon were back on their honeymoon and she...

She was here in Amdarh, back how she had been, nursing the bruises Falonar had left. So, why, exactly was she changing her dress? The one she had on was perfectly acceptable. She was going out dancing with a friend. She could use a friend right now. What she couldn't use was a male thinking he was just going to sweep in and carry her off.

Not that he was probably thinking that, but she was suspicious.

He was a male, and years of seeing them abused by her own sex still hadn't made her trust them as a gender. Then again, she didn't trust most people.

With a growl at herself, she finally settled on a black dress with enough slink to impress and a enough swirl to make a statement on the dance floor, no matter how elegant and formal. Hair pinned half up, the rest left down. If people stared at her ears, so be it.

She was ready. It was going to be fun. She kept repeating that. Fun. With a friend.

Just a friend. He wasn't expecting anything. He wouldn't be that foolish.

She just wished she knew what he wanted.

Comments

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She paused a moment then smiled and clinked her glass against his.

"To once or twice."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

When she miled like that it was very hard for Rainir to ignore the need to serve, and protect.

"And the townhouse? Does it have everything you need?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"I think so? Saetan saw that it was always well staffed and equipped. I suppose it's expected that I hire a maid, but honestly, that's just more trouble than it's worth. I can dress myself."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Rainier stilled an the image of her doing just that creeped into his mind.

"...good."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

Surreal glanced at him through her lashes again, her lips curving in a purely feminine smile. Nothing might ever be going to happen between them, but that didn't mean she wanted him oblivious to her.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"So." Looking at Surreal, he repeated the only words he could find. "No maid."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"No. Saetan insisted on it at the Hall, but here..." She shrugged. "Well. I can do more as I please. And if I need help for a more formal function..." She tried to think. "No. I can't think of why I would. Do aristo women really not draw their own baths?"

Now she was just being wicked.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Rainier could breathe. He reminded himself of that fact, physically forcing himself to cool down. As long as he breathed, it eased. Because he wondered if taht pleased spark in Surreal's eyes would fade if he actually responded to her flirting. He didn't want that to happen.

Rainier smiled for her.

"I doubt they even know how the water gets there."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She snorted. "I'll never be one of them." It was almost a warning. That her mother was a Queen and her....the man who speared her a Warlord Prince didn't matter.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Rainier looked puzzled.

"Did I miss the part where I said you had to be?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

Her smile was slightly dark. "Aren't I supposed to be? High Lord's niece. Cousin to the Warlord Prince of Dhelman. Don't you think I'm expected to be?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

If her smile was dark, his eyes were.

"I think it is more than enough to live up to our own expectations."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She paused slightly at that, nodded. "I always thought so, too."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"But someone else disagreed with you?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She shrugged slightly. "If they'd just let me come in as 'Surreal'..." She sighed. "But no. They insisted on a surname and...I ended up with an aristo family who keeps insisting I'm one of them." Possibly it was the wine that loosened her tongue, or the flailing need to make him understand. See.

She wasn't like him.

He had to understand that before he started escorting her around town.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"Surreal." Rainier tried to keep the smile from his face. "Speaking as someone who has had the benefit of standing back and watching ou with them? They aren't just intisting they are your family. They are your family."

There was the smile.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Maybe they're family. But I'm not like them."

She was sticking to that point.

"I'm not like you."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Rainier finished the last of his wine.

"What am I like, then?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"Aristo." No scorn in the word, but something....different. Apart.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

"You're saying that you are not like me." Rainier surmised. "But why would I want to spend time with myself? Dance, with myself?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She looked at him narrowly, unsure if she was being teased.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

He recognized that look. It was time for another question.

"What does the word Aristo mean to you?"

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She shrugged slightly. "Money come by in some respectable fashion. Family with entree into society. Growing up with that. Breeding that shows, not tainted by..." Her eyes flitted away. By time on the streets. By never knowing where your next meal would come from. By letting people do...whatever to you. "Ties. It's a different world."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_deadlydance_/]

Rainier always admired grace, even off the dance floor. He paused to watch the delicate lift of Surreal's shoulder. And then there was concern. She thought she was tainited?

But the look in her eyes warned him off.

"If I have given ou the impression that I am someone that is overly concerned with pointless frivolities, I'm sorry."

And he wanted her to know that. Society had a place, but not every place. Protocol however? Mattered. The deep-seated need to serve? Called.

He had promised that he wouldn't snarl.

But, tainted?

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head, watching him. "I didn't say you were overly concerned with pointless frivolity. Nor that aristos are. You run the Blood. Run the Territories. You form Courts and Circles. There are hundreds of Blood who do not have that opportunity considering their birth. Society is where the world is run from."