A Night to Remember [Valentines Day Event]

Yazuki looked up looking around. As he looked towards the door, he dropped the stick he was chewing out of his mouth, jaw dropped, and the world stopped for a moment. A young lady wearing the most beautiful outfit walked in, her eyes had a softness to them that sent chills down his spine. He got up on his feet involuntarily, knocking the scotch over with his arm. He snapped to realizing he had done such and quickly caught it, his lightning reflexes catching it in time to not spill. He left his scotch at the table and started walking briskly up to her. Something compelled him, he didn't quite understand it, but his mood had washed away. This was something new for him. Usually he just picked the easiest target to flirt with, but this was different. There was no desire to win this one over with smooth talk. He stopped a few feet from the green eyed girl and froze, his eyes tenderly looking at her. He tried opening his mouth but as she turned her eyes toward him, he spoke and stumbled.
"Hello," he choked, a little sweat showing on his brow. He blushed and looked down, and for the first time in a long time, he was embarassed about not having a shirt on. This wasn't how he wanted this, he thought. It was already too late by this point. "My name is Yoshin- I mean Yazuki Yoshino."
His face flushed, and he sighed deeply trying to relieve some of this strange pressure. Her white hair was hued strangely and made her all the more captivating and he couldn't even think right to speak. He looked down, face bright red in embarassment. He was fumbling bad! He never did this. Not with any woman he had ever met. He looked at his tattoos around his torso. What is she didn't like the tribals? He didn't choose to get them, they were part of his magic. So many things rushed through his mind. Finally he got the gumption to speak again.

"Wo... Wo... Would you grant me this dance?" It didn't help! He was shaking from the anxiety of his own mind acting outside the norm. He was usually the smoothest talker around. Even Michael had said he was pretty good at it. This was different though and he couldn't understand it in the least.

"I-I-I mean if you want to?"

Appearance:

A long awaited day had finally come around, though she'd been a little on guard and indecisive of whether to actually go or just claim she had cold feet, she pulled herself forward to actually motivating herself to do it. Besides, with Nova by her side; her adorable little.. well she didn't really have a word for it, but never the less, it never stopped her from saying that she was taken and that was that. Regardless of the things that held her back, enough time seemed to pass that she could think she could walk around without thinking people knew who she was or where she'd been aligned to. This event Madison had decided on going to wasn't for her, but for her relationship more or less. Past the first date they'd gone on, she had decided on her own that she wouldn't let anything hold out on her spending time with the cutie pie she adored so much. Besides, they apparently enjoyed her beyond the stereotypes enough to want to not only disregard what they did, but to also progress out of their shell little by little. One could say though... the ball might have just been a step too far, however that wasn't anything she cared about so long as Nova was happy with the choices they made. To her, if they were happy, then so was she.

As the pair approached, Madi continued to keep her arms lightly wrapped around Nova's left. The elbow length white sleeves that both contrasted and fit into the black cheongsam dress and leggings. Her waist length crimson hair was wrapped up into a round bun and encircled by a single braid. To hide where her hair tucked in, she wrapped the bit with a decent sized bow that was also white in color and left it at that. She stopped him suddenly and turned around to face him, leaning over a little so she could straighten their tie and then plant a small, quick kiss on Nova's cheek before returning to their previous position by their side. "There we go, cutie~ Now we're all set!" She let out a small giggle as they'd then enter the hall. The red head was taken back from the look of the hall, extravagant in appearance to say the least, she loved the overall look of it all. She looked around for a moment before the nervous little one had spoken up, offering to go meet some of their guildmates. She bit on her lower lip nervously as she thought, not sure whether she wanted to just jump into the fray of legal mages and possibly make things worse. Just then, her eyes set onto a familiar face. One that she could never forget; Nora! The two of them had grown up together by the sisters in Shirotsume. She could hardly believe after all this time she'd get the chance to see her again.

Now she had a mental crossroad; Did she want to go ahead with Nova and meet their friends? Or did she want to let them go enjoy their company while Nora and Madi had caught up with one another? The whole thing threw her for a loop as she couldn't decide on what to do... Before she had even begun to decide, she saw a man approaching Nora, asking her most likely to go dance. Her cheeks puffed in a small pouting fit for a moment before she had a light bulb ding above her head... not literally of course. "Uhh.. W-Well I have something to do REAL quick, but if you wanna go over and get them gathered we could all sit in one table and talk for a bit. If it wasn't for finding an old old old friend, I'd go, but I can't chance not getting a chance. I promise I'll make it up to you, darling." She would lean over and plant another quick peck on their cheek and release their hold on Nova's arm, letting them head over. In the mean time, Madi quickly headed over and without warning, latched onto Nora with one arm and nuzzled into her cheek like when they were younger. "Nooorrraa! Long time so see! Did you get yourself a boyfriend? He's kinda cute!~" A joking wink headed towards the embarrassed male as she continued to hang onto the girl with no intention of letting go so easily.

Akane's Dress:

Akane stood in front of the mansion. She stared at the door and thought: "I'm I really going to do this." She looked at her dress and changed the position of her Wakizashi (short sword). "Sigh" She walked to the door and opened it. She looked around if she could see anyone she knew or if she saw any guildmate's. The first person she saw was Gangting. "Oh no." Whispered Akane as she wanted to turn around and leave. But it was too late.

Gangting had seen her and shouted through to the room to her. She felt embarrassed and now she wanted to leave desperately. But that felt against her principles. "Please, someone save me from him." was Akane's thought.

I heard the door open and close so I looked towards it. I saw a redhead girl walking into the room and realised it was Akane. "Akane without her armour? That is something I haven't seen." Was my thought. "Hey, Akane!"Shouted I through the room, it was so loud that the Orkest stopped for a moment. I walked towards Akane, who seemed to look around, I felt tempted to call again but she should have heard me the first time.

Lex laughed slightly as he saw Kenji getting even more worked up, it was fun to do this to people. He felt slightly bad though, this was a dance for people to find love after all, he should not toy with the boy’s emotions too much. Perhaps it was not too late, surely this guy had not fallen of Lex just yet. As the two dipped into the dance Lex assumed the traditional stance of the man. He placed his hand in the middle of Kenji’s back, higher up than his original touch was, while taking his left hand into Lex’s right. While he kept Kenji slightly close he made sure that there was enough distance between their bodies so that it was not too intimate. As soon as Kenji was ready, Lex would start a simple slow dance

“Come now Kenji, what brings you here tonight? Are you hoping to find love? Fun? Free food?” He made a face like he was in deep thought for a brief moment before giving his own question an answer. “I’m gonna say the free food and wine for me. That is what really brought me here, though I’m never opposed to what the universe brings to me.” He gave a wide smile and spun Kenji softly before pulling him back into the dance’s position. The music was rather classical and slow, it seemed rather romantic now that Lex was focusing on it. There were scores of couples enjoying their evening. Lex was having more fun than he thought he would but on the inside he was a little bummed. He knew that no matter what at the end of this evening he would be going home lonely, if he did end up bringing somebody home it would be a shallow reason and would only satisfy his physical needs for a brief moment. Love was not in the cards for Lex it seemed.

Cirven's Suit:

The demon's long ponytail swayed back and forth across his back as he walked towards the entrance of the ballroom. He was not exactly one for dances especially after the last one he had attended years prior where he and a past Sabertooth Guildmaster had a argument out of the view of others. There was some good to that event though because he did get to go with Alyia and represent Eclipse Soul before it was disestablished soon after. He figured you couldn't have all the bad without having some of the good so he did wanted to see what good could possibly come from the dance.

Once he made it to the entrance a man stopped him from casually entering. "Sir, what is your name?" He asked. "Don't worry about that. I'm not really wanting my presence to be announced or anything. Don't know if it will catch some glares from people I am not too high in regards with, you know?" He spoke to the man and then started past him. "If it is for other reasons though, its Cirven Mizune." With his last comment he did not even waste his time in turning to the man. He had a habit of doing that due to being used to still hearing people who did it to him because of his better hearing than most.

He looked around the ballroom and felt like he had jumped even more into a nostalgia trip with how it looked. All those in the ballroom needed were masquerade masks and it would have been practically the same event as the Sabertooth ball all those years ago. He did not want to dance so much and like a typical pirate was mostly there for the drinks so naturally he made his way to the bar. With each step he fiddled with his tie more and more growing annoyed by how it felt on around his neck. "I'm pretty close to just cutting this thing off! How do people wear these things without punching through walls...!" He spouted out annoyed as he loosened the tie more and more. He did not know that he was basically in front of the bar at this point and naturally was just speaking to himself which was why when he finally was able to get comfortable he looked up to see a bartender staring at him that looked confused with his eyebrow raised. "Yo!" Cirven acted like it was nothing new at all and just spoke normally. "I'll have whatever drink you recommend on rocks. That is what they say, right? I'm used to the bars where they basically just throw a drink at you and your done so first time for everything, right?" He chuckled a bit but was not nervous at all. He honestly didn't care what the bartender thought and just wanted a drink.

The bartender quickly made a drink for him by mixing two liquids together in a glass. Cirven did not watch as he had just sniffed out and found his Captain who was in a dress for once. The sight was a lot different from what he was used to seeing and made him wish he had a way to take a picture of her to show the others in the crew what their captain looked like she she got all pretty for an event. His focus was taken away from her when he heard the glass lightly hit the table near him. He tried to pay but the bartender shook his head and pushed the jewels back at him. "There must be a pretty extravagant check waiting for you to not take any tips. Most places I have been too would have ripped the jewels out of my own pocket for a tip." He laughed a bit while grabbing his drink and then made his way closer to Anastasia.

"You know Ana, the boys would probably hang themselves happily after seeing you all dolled up. If I didn't have the canine-like nose I have I wouldn't even have recognized you. Maybe I should get a picture of you to show all of the crew to see their reactions to it?" He joked with his captain a bit. "So is this place any better than the usual hangout or you can't tell yet?"

While staring at the spread before him, stomach -- or rather, the facsimile of a stomach inside of his vessel -- full with cocktail weenies, mini sausage rolls, and a perplexing spongy morsel a fellow guest called "keesh", Atsu gave little notice to the girl sliding up next to him. His slender hand found its way to his mane, bony fingers proceeding to twirl a lock of hair as he pondered his next sample. There were so many different snacks to choose from and not nearly enough time left in the night to truly appreciate the delights individually. With his free hand, Atsu idly yanked at his loose tie in thought as his eyes drifted towards a display of sweeter looking treats. The lesser god's expression warped into that of unbridled joy upon seeing the gigantic white cake sitting atop a raised platter. A few slices had been cut from the masterpiece of baking artistry and placed on plates resting upon tiers cascading down from the massive monolith of celebratory sweetness above. If he had given his vessel the ability to do so, his mouth would have begun watering.

Atsu began to reach toward the cake, pupils dilated from behind his mirrored sunglasses, when he heard a small voice next to him.

"The gingerbread cookies are nice." came the voice of the girl he had barely noticed earlier. All Atsu could muster was a confused squeak in her direction. But... but the cake! The cake! He wanted to just ignore her and go for the cake, but his entire purpose for coming to the event was to meet people who could help guide him through this foreign time period. Despite his usual bravado, Atsu was never good at introducing himself to people. Another person walking up to him like that was a rare treasure in such a setting filled with far flashier individuals. He needed to seize the opportunity while it was still available to him.

But the cake!

Atsu mentally slapped himself, wincing physically at the metaphysical impact. No! The cake will still be there. You need to talk to this person! After inhaling sharply and nodding in affirmation, the lesser god slowly craned his neck to look at the girl. Her dark skin made her stand out and her dress did a good job of accenting her natural features. For all purposes, she was far more appropriately dressed for the evening than he was. An insincere smile creeped its way onto his visage as he replied.

"Y-Yes. The gingerbread."" he said, trying to follow along, "That does look pretty groovy."

Atsu's voice escaped his mouth in shaky and uncomfortable bursts. He gave a half-hearted chuckle as he went for the cookie display. He knew what a cookie was, at least. Of course, it did take him months to acclimate to the concept. They were similar to rice crackers in shape, but were supposedly sweet. Not that they tasted sweet to him in any way. It was always a gamble when he placed something in his vessel's mouth. Some things tasted they way they were described to him, but he would often find that a new food he was trying brought on a sensation that was altogether different from what he was supposed to get from it. Cake, however! Cake was exactly as he was told it should be. Pillowy heaven that melted in Atsu's mouth.

"Enough about the cake..." he muttered to himself as he picked up a rather plain looking cookie. Brown in color and far less appealing in appearance than tho other snacks on display. However, knowing what he did about that era's sweet novelties, Atsu knew that "gingerbread" was brown in color. Bringing the cookie to his face, he gazed back at the girl. He uncomfortably opened his mouth and stuck it inside -- keeping uneasy eye contact with the girl, not that she could tell behind his glasses -- and proceeded to bite down on the baked treat. It was surprisingly difficult to bite through; perhaps Atsu expected it to be soft like the other "cookies" he had sampled. As he chewed the crumbling confection, a particular flavor stuck on his tongue and danced in his mind.

"It's... salty. Not bad, actually. Didn't expect that, but I can dig." he said to the newcomer, the tension of the moment relieved by the pleasant surprise.

Zeron smirked as she saw how the crowd reacted to Micheal's sudden foray into femininity, but quickly moved on, making sure Phaje was following. She'd gotten her revenge, and that was what mattered. Despite all the awkwardness and annoyances in the night so far, she was actually enjoying herself. Most of the formal events she had gone to in the past were research gatherings where she was a guest of honor, so to speak; always there to speak about some topic or make connections in the field, never to have fun. There was something relieving about not being at a party for any particular reason, just being here to be here. She thought on the benefits of it as she bit into a cookie, savoring the flavor as it spread through her mouth.

The sound of a bowl clattering behind her caught her attention, but she quickly dismissed it as some clumsy fool who'd had a little too much to drink. Zeron never really understood the point of alcohol; why diminish your mental faculties for any reason, let alone do it by ingesting poison? A sudden increase in gravity behind her, however, clued her in to the fact that something else was going on. "Phaje...?" The half-demon turned around, only to catch a trace of the gravity mage's toga flutter in the wind towards the direction of the door. A spilled bowl of strawberries was the only thing left behind. Oh jeez, what happened? I was just talking to him; did I say something wrong?

Zeron took off towards the direction she had last seen Phaje moving in; namely, towards the exit. She blew past a green-haired, awkward-looking girl on her way, barely turning her head in acknowledgement of the teen before moving on. She was very grateful that she hadn't worn the heels now. They would have very much gotten in the way of the mad dash she was now making. She reached the edge of the ballroom within a minute, leaving a trail of thoroughly confused and miffed partygoers behind her, but she didn't care. At the moment, she was fully focused on finding Phaje.

At the edge of the ballroom door, Zeron heard quiet sobbing from the other side. Was it Phaje? Only one way to find out. Just as she was about to step outside, though, she heard him speak through the tears. "I'll just hinder your research, " he sobbed aloud to himself. "Maybe I should leave. She can achieve her dreams."
Oh, Zeron realized belatedly. That's what's happening here.
It seemed as though Zeron's end goal had finally made it through to Phaje. She fully intended to wipe herself clean of all emotion, which would mean that Phaje's feelings would never be reciprocated. A week ago, Zeron would have been completely fine with this; although she would have missed him, she was confident that she could have overcome the obstacle and keep moving forward towards a brighter future.

Now, though, the thought of doing so made something...rather unpleasant settle in the pit of her stomach. An unshakable feeling that what she was planning was taboo, deplorable, wrong. She looked at her own hands, suddenly aware that she was shaking violently; this was an attack on the core of her being, her whole reason for living. She'd lived the vast majority of her sentient life searching for a way to be free from the tyranny of this thing called emotions, and now, suddenly, her whole body was telling her to reach out to the mage on the other side of the wall. The sudden music blaring certainly didn't help matters; the voice sounded obnoxiously familiar to Zeron, and what lyrics she could catch through the mental turmoil only served to dig her hole deeper.

It seemed as though she had a choice to make, but there was really only one decision.

Zeron stepped out of the ballroom, turning to face the figure of Phaje. "Phaje," she called out, trying to grab his attention as she made her way over to the depressed mage. As she reached him, she would stagger, briefly overwhelmed by the gravity he was giving off, but would quickly readjust despite the stress on her body. She had something she needed to do, and nothing, not even the man himself, was going to get in her way. Her hands shook with anxiety, confusion, fear, and several other emotions she deplored, but she would push through. She was Zeron Guzmial, prodigal researcher and heir to the power of Seranesca, the Demon's Desire. A little fear would not stop her.

She grabbed ahold of one of one of Phaje's hands with both of hers, hesitating only slightly. The grip was tight, rigid, and trembled noticeably, but she could only hope that the message would get across. "Phaje," she started, not realizing how out of breath she was until her voice came out a gasp. "I overheard you crying to yourself." Normally, the line would have come with a teasing smirk, but Zeron was mentally exhausted and just wanted to get the message a across. "We can talk about it later. I'm...I'm not sure where I want to go. I'm being pulled in several directions at once, and it's one of the worst things I've ever felt. But...I don't hate it. Just, please, stay with me. I'm not sure what it'd do to me at this point if you left, and I don't think you want to leave either. So let's keep walking down the path. Maybe...our path."

As Phaje arrived outside, he stood there for a moment. He heard a familiar voice through the door dedicate a song to him and Zera, which really related to the situation he was in. He didn't want to go, he really didn't, but he didn't have a chance to salvage this at all and he knew it would only kill him. Right now though, he was already dying inside. She was the first person he had ever encountered that had stuck around him and became friends with him. She was the first person he had ever confessed his feelings to. She was the first person he had loved. His tears intensified as he reached a level of despair he had never felt before in his life.

He heard footsteps approaching him rapidly and he looked up. Shock overtook him as Zera had once again chased him, and his heart skipped a beat. He noticed his gravity was being controlled by his emotions again and wanted to fix it but he was too devastated at the moment. She was shaking, which wasn't like her, as she met his gaze. Then she did something that Phaje would have never anticipated: she grabbed his hand. His heartbreak was quickly replaced by confusion as she was apparently gripping him firmly as to not let him pull it away, her hands shaking. He only had ever seen her mad like this if at all, but that was once in the entirety of them travelling together, and he instantly felt bad at having angered her. Then she spoke and the whole world froze for a moment.

She didn't know what it would do if he left? OUR path? He didn't know what to do. He stood there, dumbstruck as the one person he knew had the worst time with emotions and who thought emotions were despicable held his hand and asked him not to leave. He looked into her eyes and at her expression. Not even a playful smirk on it like usual. He had grown accustomed to it, knowing that she found it slightly humorous whenever emotions ruled over Phaje, almost as if to say See? Now she looked at him with an emotional face and he didn't know how to react.

"I don't want to be a burden to you, your life research is to free youself." He looked back down not knowing what to do at this moment. "I would only enslave you to that which you want to be free of. I don't want to lose you, but your research is your life's work." He looked back up at the person he had grown so fond of. He just wanted to... her hands she had...

His gravity snapped, freeing Zera from the pressure, as he turned and quickly embraced her tightly. His head was rested on her shoulder as he began to sob uncontrollably once again. This was all he had in this world, here in his arms. The only thing he had to look forward to everyday. He didn't want to leave but he hadn't ever really said what he said next. He didn't know how she would react or even what she would think of him for saying it as the words left his mouth. His voice broke often through the sobs as he spoke

"I don't want to leave, but losing you... You're all I have."

The demon grinned at the fact that Ana seemed to forget what she was in and how she was dressed. It showed that her true self was not cut out for the fame and glamour like some others were. She was meant to be in the ruggedness of things more than the beauty of it all. He was similar to her because of his past. He just would not be able to live a regular life like others could and would be constantly pulled into danger and complicated situations all the time.

He then listened to his captain as she explained her motives for coming to the event. He knew it wasn't like her to go to things like this but decided to not step all over her parade before he knew more about why. She only stopped for a short time as a random drunken man stumbled his way to the bar and got some drinks then left. "Shouldn't be too hard to deal with a new mark dressed like that, Captain. Fairly sure they might just come to you." He chuckled a bit but stopped upon the woman speaking of his girlfriend. He raised his eyebrow to her as the confusion set in his mind and caused his thoughts to grab at ideas as to who she meant. "Girlfriend? I don't have anyone like that. Rather prefer not to with my track record of what I have done to those close to me, you know?" Even though the sentence came off as sad he smiled for some reason to mask it. The smile was unintentional and was more like an instinct he had built up to make his sad past into a sort of joke like it didn't happen. He knew there was no reason to dive into his life story at all and that Ana probably cared little for it. Before he could say much else a young woman approached them speaking.

"Attracting even women too? Captain, you are more of a dog then me, huh?" He whispered to Ana as the girl spoke out to her. He hoped that it would cause the woman to laugh or stumble over her words from the irony of it all. The new entrant into their conversation did ask a question that caused Cirven to shut up though by asking about The 'Isayev' name that Ana had. He was as curious as the girl was about the name but had a feeling neither would get an answer from Ana but instead would get some type of wild goose chase in the form of words.

The right one? Lex kept to the beat with the music and kept dancing along with Kenji. After they both made their comments about why there were here there seemed to be a moment of dead air. The two danced for awhile. Lex was just enjoying the moment, he was not really thinking much about love or relationships. He noticed how many of the people were getting all cutsie. Lex had lost sight of Summer since he entered the ballroom and did not really recognize anybody else here, he was lucky he found Kenji so early on.

Lex looked down at Kenji and noticed the boy was staring up at him and looking rather nervous, was Kenji admiring Lex? As the two locked eyes and Kenji made a gulping sound that made Lex rather nervous. What is this guy about to say… Kenji then blatantly asked Lex if he thought he was attractive. This put Lex on a rather awkward situation, should he tell Kenji he was attractive and run the risk of having his teammate develop a crush on him? Or should he say no and perhaps shatter any form of friendship the two could ever develop.

“Hmm..well sure you are, everybody is attractive as long as they carry themselves in a confident way right?” He did not know how Kenji would take that comment, hopefully he would just take it at face value but who knew with these gays, they were so emotional after all. As the song came to an end Lex’s grip loosened. Perhaps this was an opportune time to perhaps change the topic and venue. “Should we go hit up the bar? The tickets to the dance were supposed to cover free drinks right? I think I could go for a glass of merlot.”

Zeno was stunned for around five minutes from the kiss that the stranger had given to him, even though the lady was pretty, Zeno could feel a man-like aura coming from her, though he just shook it off and continued eating all the food. I wanna have fun.... All the girls are pretty but, I wanna see someone cool. He anxiously waited for something to happen that would excite him. 

The crimson haired mage thought about something fun to do, then an idea came to him, Aha! Maybe I should act like Yazuki, flirting with all the girls. He was a reckless idiot who didn't care about relationships, but nothing would stop him from having fun, "Hey babyyyy, love me!" He attempted to imitate Yazuki, but was instantly slapped by a girl in a pretty dress. 

He walked away in a gloomy state but was instantaneously happy when the waiter offered him food, "OHOHOHOHO!" He yelled wuith joy, drooling as he thought of all types of food delicious food.

Zeron didn't think it was possible, but she seized up even more as her mind desperately fought to beat down the emotions running through her at the moment. She felt like she was about to snap, but that was one thing she absolutely couldn't do. Going wild at a ball like this would result in nothing less than Zeron being arrested and caged up like the monster people were sure to see her as, or worse, get her killed. Neither of those were appetizing in the slightest, but to keep herself from exploding, these damn emotions would have to take a backseat. So she stood there, as much focusing on closing out her mind-clouding emotions as she was on the words Phaje was saying.

As she starting sorting out what had just happened, however, it only served to throw her mind into more turmoil. Apparently, in her moment of weakness (that was still happening), she'd said a lot more than she had intended. This wasn't just bad for the dynamic Zeron was aiming for. This was a disaster. She'd been trying to suppress those feelings for a few days now, but they were bizarre and alien to her; it was difficult to stop something one had never experienced before. As such, Phaje's weakness had triggered hers, and the result was this mess.

Phaje certainly wasn't making this easy, either. It was clear from his words that he still had his doubts about his place, even though Zeron had already gushed entirely too much in the last minute or so. As intelligent as he could be, the boy was certainly dense sometimes. If the beforehand moment wasn't enough to drive into the boy the feelings currently fighting in Zeron's head, he might not ever get it-

She was interrupted when the gravity suddenly dissipated and Phaje suddenly embraced her, driving out all of her thoughts for a moment. She froze up completely, and something within her snapped, although not the thing she expected. The glamour on her eye had broken, revealing the black eye and the shadowy cracks sprouting from it as well. Her hand quickly moved to cover it, but it halted a few inches from the half-demon's face. There wasn't really a reason to cover it here. Almost everybody here was a mage, so a strange eye like this probably wouldn't even stand out. Instead, there was something else she could probably do. Hesitating for several seconds, she finally placed a reassuring hand on Phaje's head.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," she said, desperately trying to regain her usual temperament. "You know more than most that I'm fully capable of protecting myself. And it's not like I'm going to just walk out on you, either. With that being said, though, can you please let go of me? You accidentally broke something," she continued, gesturing to her eye with her free hand, "and I won't run away when you let go. I'll still be here as long as you want me here. It's a promise."

Phaje slowly let go, tears slowing down, sliding his hands down her arms and holding her hands. The small bit of demon breaking through was a normal sight for him when he upset her emotional imbalance, yet her holding his hand hadn't broken it, thus, he thought, Zera should be ok with this. He wiped his tears off and looked deep into Zera's eyes, not really knowing what to say. Finally, after a few moments of letting himself calm down, he was composed enough to talk.

"Zeron Guzmial," he started, which was odd as normally he never used her full first name. It was against the norm. "I don't want to become nothing to you. The past month, I have felt emotions that I never knew existed, and while I hate how messed up I get, you always seem to make everything... better... Let's talk about this tomorrow, when we are both calmed down. Until then, will you come inside and dance with me again, like we did at the wedding?"

He had a seriousness about him which was rare, and using Zera's full name is something he had never done. It shocked him as much as he was sure it shocked her. He simply wanted to enjoy himself with her for the moment. They could deal with the issues later, she was right. He looked in her eyes expectantly. The night was still young, and the Ball room was just starting to fill. He looked at her as she started to open her mouth and found himself interrupting her before she could speak.

"Please. Dance with me. I have something shocking planned for our dance. Please. It took me all week to come up with this and figure it out..."

Her fellow snack bar browser was rather unusual compared to the rest of the crowd. Almyra noted this, though she was rather unusual herself, but on this occasion, she stood out far less than usual, having exchanged her cloak for attire more fitting to the event. Still, this man was quite disheveled to say the least. Not that Almyra cared what others wore, but it did make him more noticeable. He seemed not too fond of her gingerbread suggestion, given his rather half-hearted smile. Perhaps he had had it before and didn't like it?

He mentioned it looking groovy. Almyra tilted her head to the side a bit, a bit confused by then new use of the word she so infrequently heard. Furthermore, he seemed rather nervous. Perhaps he wasn't used to crowds? He mumbled something about cake before trying a bite of the cookie. He made a comment about it being salty, to which Almy pursed her lips in confusion. "You seem rather nervous. Are you alright?" She asked. There were many peculiar things about the man she was talking to, but before inquiring about those, she was concerned if he was alright. She wouldn't want to press any further in questioning if he was already uncomfortable, but she was quite curious as to how gingerbread tasted salty to him.

Meanwhile, Timara continued to sit quietly at a table by herself, watching everyone around her.