Chapter Text
Dressing in formal attire could only mask so many of his failings as someone who frequented performances like this, letter in hand he walked with his partner and reached the entrance. That was when a curveball was thrown.
He reached the doors themselves before he realized he wasn’t being followed by her footsteps. “You’re not coming?” He held up her ticket to the opera, “Ah, I can’t come with you.” She seemed very apologetic over the circumstances.
“Why not?” How much did an artist have in common with musicians? “I’m not supposed to be here right now.” She didn’t seem like a stickler for the rules considering she took him here, maybe he could cut the difference?
“Alright, but what do I do with this ticket?” She smiled and motioned for him to close his eyes, he did as told but how was he supposed to know when to open them once again? “When can I open my eyes?”
SIlence.
He looked ridiculous, almost to the point of opening his eyes to check he hadn’t been duped; he felt a touch on his cheek with their hand ghosting over the rest of his face. “Open your eyes.” They sounded much more mature than the woman before her.
He wasn’t sure he had seen anybody more beautiful than her.
As he was dumbfounded she simply took the extra ticket and walked towards the entrance, “Come, tonight we are partners once more.” He was too busy to try and understand what she meant by being partners once again.
Somehow she seemed a more natural fit than himself, despite her different attire. He was jealous of her ability to show no discomfort despite not fitting in. Was she someone of importance?
No, that couldn’t possibly be true because why would she be sitting with him or asking him to be partners, whatever that actually meant. No one would ever want to be with someone who wasn’t even a commandant unless they came from the same class.
She seemed to be much too good for the performance but as long as he was with her it would make it tolerable. He wasn’t sure what to do with how alluring she was, hopefully it would be a good performance to take everything off his mind.
They announced the performance for the night, Selena was here for the night. This would be his chance to see her! For some reason that made him feel like he was about to reunite with someone he had not seen in a long time.
“Ah, you must be here for Selena, am I right?” Her facial expression didn’t change but he still had to pick his words carefully, he didn’t want to feel her wrath. He really was amusing at this age, “No need to worry, I’ve seen her perform, a truly stunning individual.” He relaxed like a weight had been lifted.
What a cute commandant, no wonder he ended up being the perfect one for her.
The curtains had risen for her to make her appearance along with the rest of the performers on stage, she sat at the piano but still looked towards the crowd to see any new faces on the off chance they had received her letters, she still held some hope albeit diminished.
Out in the crowd her eyes focused on the only two not fitting with the crowd, despite appearances it was the male that seemed more out of place between the two of them, she locked eyes with the female.
She whispered into his ear and he raised the letter of hers into the sky, someone had responded to her letters. With a reinvigorated spirit she prepared for the performance, she would have to give her best for him.
Selena wouldn’t want to disappoint her first responder.
So this was the power of the classics?
He was enthralled by the entirety of the performance despite the oddity of what they chose to present, an old golden age story of star crossed lovers. Certainly applicable in this situation even if he didn’t know it.
They did their jobs well and he could see why they were the best at their craft but he was focused on her and her Piano playing, it just drew him in and drew out the best of the scene to come to life.
He could imagine himself dancing with someone as it peaked and fell long into the night for just the two of them. It was just so vivid like he had done it before.
All the while she continued to look at him long since memorized the notes and positions of her fingers. It was like the two of them were meant to be here and now.
Everyone else fell away from his consciousness and it was just the two of them hand in hand as it continued to play, he had never done anything like this before.
She hadn't either.
Yet he took the lead giving her a dance to remember despite the missteps and fumbles that occurred with one another. That just made his charm grow multiple sizes in her eyes.
The performance ended and the audience gave them their roses but the two of them only had eyes on each other, an uncomfortable amount of time passed before his partner snapped him out of it.
"Come, we should find her." She said as she walked towards the exit, he wasted no time in walking with her to a scene unexpected of someone of her status.
Selena was out in the cold theater standing around hoping to catch the one who had captured her eyes and attention in that moment. He was just so attention grabbing by how much he wasn't used to this type of arena.
Not many had words for someone like her seeing as they went unrepresented as a star of a production, yet he only had eyes for her and not the rest of the production. Was this the beginning of her own fairytale?
The first thing she had noticed was that she had disappeared from his side, presumably not wanting to waste anymore time. Second came the quality of her letter.
Complete sealed and not broken.
She was dumbfounded, "You didn't open the letter?" How did he know to look for her? "Your friend gave it to me, at least she called herself your friend." She tried to rack her brain.
Only Ayla was her friend but that couldn't possibly have occurred considering she was busy completing a painting someone had commissioned. "Oh, she had pink hair, do you know anyone with that hair?" She just shook her head, any theories would only make her seem crazy.
Having a stalker was a double edged sword, she finally had some recognition, but she for sure would report them to the police for the impersonation of her only friend. But on the outside she smiled like nothing was wrong with that.
"I may know someone like that." His face showed off his happiness at not being duped by some random stranger, so far the two of them were 2 for 2 on being helpful strangers, Selena found that endearing about him.
He introduced himself as coming from the F.O.S, he had to have seen more than she had and was excited at the idea of getting actual news that wasn’t about Babylonia. There was only so much news about everyday being the same while spitting that they would return to earth within their lifetimes.
Sure, she was young, but they had stagnated against the virus. Unless there was someone truly special and the rest of the world was able to come together the best they could do was divide the earth dashing all hopes of reunification.
Although it had produced some of the best pieces of art in her lifetime. Albeit paling in comparison to the classics from before even the golden age. History held so many secrets it was a shame how much had been lost.
They both walked away knowing much more than the average citizen knew about a field they were unlikely to enter. You wouldn’t think there was much to talk about with their differing fields but somehow they made it work.
You could say they were the most interesting people either one of them had met, in the end they had both left with much more knowledge than before. And in the end the both of them had exchanged numbers.
He had never received someone else's number that he actually wanted to keep.
After so much happening that day all he wanted to do was go to his bed and pass out, not even having the energy to prepare for sleep. But that would not happen that night as he had even more to deal with before sleep.
Not much happened at the college aside from their studies and preparations for tests, with how much they had to be ready for anything it was hard to be a partier. Yes he wasn’t one to sneak around at night.
The whole thing with Selena had been when they caught him on one of his off days, he didn’t believe in coincidence but there was no other reasonable explanation. And he very much enjoyed still having a future.
Reaching his dorm he was ready to ignore everyone else until the next day when he would have to work with them on that project of theirs. Typical leeches and his inability to put his foot down. Besides he wasn’t even that smart, otherwise he would be a scientist.
“You’re late.” Oh, well that was usually what happened when he left the school, he would take the maximum time off that he could. Wait a minute…
“Sorry? Do I know you?” She couldn’t believe this was the human which she needed to talk to about the gift, lord knows where he managed to find something this huge. Even if she made it fit in the end.
In one word to describe the construct before him was cute. Of course you could also call her beautiful but the first thing he wanted to do was give her a head pat. Not everyone would appreciate that however.
“I received your letter.” Oh, this was the destination of that letter which he had to send, what was her name again? Honestly, this new generation was totally screwed if he was the next star coming out of the school.
“I’ve never received a gift from Babylonia, what’s your game?” He could see she wanted to interrogate him but considering they were in the hallway and his unassuming stature it was clear in her mind she might not need to.
“At least let me open the door before we do this.” She stepped aside so he could do while wondering what exactly he meant by that wording.
For his sake she hoped it was just a dumb comment.
“Make yourself at home.” She took the chair closest to the door as he sat away from the door, either way he was trapped with her. He cleared off the table before they talked with one another.
“I thought it would be a good idea, you did like the frog, right?” She did have to admit it had made her day and caused her module to warm. “Yes. Why send it however?” He did have to think on that one.
“I thought you would like it.” Well he didn’t seem to be lying on that front, maybe this was something she couldn’t understand as a weapon. “Constructs don’t need gifts, we are weapons for humanity.” Why did he look at her like that?
Was that pity on his face? How could he take that from her situation?
“But you didn’t throw it away, a weapon wouldn’t have cared to keep it.” Was she seriously being convinced by this commandant in training? Silence descended upon the both of them as she thought about how she felt when she had returned to the giant thing outside of her dorm.
“And I’m sure if something happened you would keep a reminder of what you had gone through.” What an odd thing to say out of the blue, constructs didn’t get to have ideas such as regret. That was only for the humans they served.
She was not impressed.
But he seemed harmless so it wasn’t a complete waste of time, and she got to get away from her commandant and her squad. She couldn’t be with them all day everyday. Lucia would’ve lost her mind before the end of the day.
“Why write the letter?” Might as well get something out of this student who had reached out of the blue. “Oh, I just delivered it, I didn’t write it.” Now that can’t possibly be true. She looked for a piece of paper and pencil.
“Write something for me.” Ok, but why would he need to do that? He retrieved the materials before copying down what she told her to, she said nothing besides picking up the page to compare it to her memory.
Exactly the same.
She looked at his face, he unfortunately didn’t seem to be lying. Now if that wasn’t an impossible question to try and answer. These thoughts racing in her head only helped to give her a headache.
In his opinion she left abruptly but it was late at night, so with one final send off he closed the door thinking about everything that happened today. Sleep needed to come for him to have enough to progress through the day.
That didn’t happen.
He needed some sort of spiritual innervation to make it through the next day, someone well versed in building electronics and such would have to be the next one to help him, even if it might be wrong to ask that of them.
Oh, he needed to cheer up and ask.
That was why he was the only one for them.