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The holiday parties that Senna and Lucian put on for their friends have always been a thing of legend.
Seraphine had never been invited (had always been a bit of a nobody before everything that had happened with K/DA—), yet this year she absolutely had, and gods above if Seraphine’s jaw hadn’t dropped all the way to the floor when she’d first pulled that gold inked letter out of her apartment’s shitty little mailbox. She’d been out of the limelight for a good few months already, intending to lay low for the foreseeable future and properly make plans for her unexpectedly jumpstarted career, and yet—the arrival of that holiday invitation had necessitated a small change in those plans, because, well. Who would she be, to reject an invitation from the power couple of the industry, themselves?
She’d run hollering into the kitchen to a terrified-looking Rell, and the two of them had taken the invitation and framed it above the bed in Seraphine’s room less than a minute later. Rell had laughed and laughed and had taken pictures of Seraphine’s overheating and star-struck face, and it hadn’t been until a few hours later when the two of them had gone back to read the fine print that Seraphine had realized aloud:
“Oh. It looks like they’re letting me bring a plus one.”
Rell had raised her eyebrow and had promptly replied, “Akali would probably say yes, if you asked her to go,” and then Seraphine had looked at her strangely, and had asked with a sharp little laugh:
“Like what—you’re gonna say no?”
“I still can't believe you were serious about this,” Rell mutters as they step across the threshold into Senna and Lucian’s house. Seraphine grins back at her, eyes flitting appraisingly over the half-suit half-dress that they'd picked out for her the week prior, and Rell rolls her eyes, her own small smile dancing softly across her lips. The outfits they’d picked out had been designed to match: something dark and ruffled at the edges for Rell, showing off the spinning tattoos that wrap around her forearms—and something light and skin-tight for Seraphine, one that covers nearly all of her body in a shimmery sort of lace. They’d gone on to find jewelry for Seraphine that would match all of Rell’s piercings, and the two of them make quite a sight—small, glittering, brilliant and sweet.
Rell had said that they looked ‘fucking incredible’ in the moments before they left, and as they pass by one of the hallway mirrors that decorate Senna and Lucian’s mansion-esque foyer, Seraphine can't help but agree. They’d done a good job. The two of them really do look drop-dead gorgeous.
“Sera!” someone calls from across the hall when they arrive, and Seraphine looks up to see Akali waving at her from the fireplace, a mug of something probably not alcohol-free clutched in her hands. Sera looks over at a suddenly very wide-eyed Rell, and grins as she grabs the other’s hand, hauling her over Akali’s way.
Seraphine knows that Rell is nervous (she’d been insistent on Seraphine taking someone else for the first hour after Sera had asked her—), yet Seraphine had always hoped for an opportunity to pull Rell into her life among the stars, if only out of the selfish desire that it would help her convince the other girl to join her, and she’s not going to let this opportunity slip by.
“Hey cutie,” Akali grins, kissing Seraphine’s cheek as she and Rell make it over to where she stands. “It's good to see you again. And you finally brought your girlfriend, huh?” Akali wiggles her eyebrows. “I recognize her from your pictures.”
“Akali,” Seraphine chides, just as Rell hurries to correct her with: “Just a friend—” and Akali shrugs and grins back at them both.
Evelynn takes that moment to drape herself over Akali’s shoulders, and she follows up with, “Cute friend—” to which Seraphine decides they may as well get on to the actual introductions before the two of them can make any more inaccurate guesses that leave Seraphine’s heart doing silly little flips.
Rell is still holding Seraphine’s hand throughout it all—needing a bit of an anchor, more likely than not—and Seraphine squeezes as Rell introduces herself quickly and politely, looking nervous under to twin gazes of two of the most known women in pop.
“We've been friends since we were young,” Seraphine goes on to explain, grinning as Rell flushes a bit at the admission. “We met at our primary school’s choir.”
“Ooo,” Eve says, perking up a bit. “Do you sing too then, darling?”
“Not as much as I used to—” Rell starts, but Seraphine cuts her off, hand on the other woman’s mouth as she grins back at Evelynn.
“She’s modest, she’s amazing, and if it wasn’t for her family’s involvement then she definitely would have been trying to break into the industry alongside with me,” Seraphine says promptly. “But she can still sing like a demon, and I plan on introducing her to Pentakill later tonight if I can... You’ll keep an eye out for them, won’t you? For me?”
Akali smirks. “I’ll send Sona or Karthus your way if I find them,” she replies with a tip of her mug, just as Rell says, “you plan to introduce me to Pentakill?” with her voice still muffled by Seraphine’s hand, and Seraphine laughs as she bids Evelynn and Akali happy holidays, just as Rell moves to pull her into the other room.
“Pentakill?” Rell repeats once they’re there, her eyebrows raised and her voice low and a little bit panicked.
“I may have had some ulterior motives in bringing you here,” Seraphine admits, stressing the ‘may’ just a little bit longer than necessary, and Rell rolls her eyes. “But I mean it, Rell—I do think they’d take as much of a liking to you as K/DA took to me, and sometimes... all you need is a little help and a couple of pointed connections.”
“And you want to be that for me?” Rell asks slowly, “a connection?”
“I want you to be doing something that you love,” Seraphine replies firmly, “instead of hopping retail jobs just because you don’t want me to be the only person paying rent.” She pauses as Rell frowns further at her, then lets out a sigh. The other girl’s cheeks are dusted with gold, and Seraphine is glad that covering Rell’s mouth earlier hadn’t mussed up the other girl’s makeup too much. “I know that you feel like you can’t go back into singing after the time you spent in the military,” Seraphine continues quietly, “but I also know that you miss it, and—well. You know I’ve always wanted you to join me in all of this.” She gestures at the party happening around them, and squeezes Rell’s hand again.
Rell squeezes back, before breathing out her own matching sigh. It’s a conversation that they’ve had only once or twice, yet Seraphine knows that Rell has been torn about her future ever since she cut things off with her parents. They’d been separated for a time while Rell had been forced to go into military service by her very imperialist family, only to find each other again after Rell’s service had finished and she’d fully cut herself off. They’d been living together since, with Rell supporting Seraphine’s dreams even while letting her own stagnate, and Seraphine knows that Rell would never be the one to ask her for something like this. She bites her lip. Even though her motives are still a little selfish, she does think that this could truly make Rell happy—but gods, it’s not like Seraphine would ever try to force her hand.
“I won’t introduce you to them if you don’t want me to,” Seraphine says then, tilting her head to catch Rell’s eyes, “but I think they’d like you, if I did. And anyway—you wouldn’t have to do anything more than ask for their autographs. Not if you don’t want to.”
Rell moves to hug her then, and Seraphine holds her tight. “Alright, Sera,” she says after a moment, her voice quiet. “Introduce me. I’ve been a fangirl of theirs for long enough anyway, might as well show them my best?”
“—and hope for the best, too,” Seraphine adds on with a sly little smile, and when she pulls out of the hug, Rell is shaking her head, her own smile still disbelieving, but heart-stoppingly sweet. Seraphine resists the urge to lean in, and resolves to get them both drinks, after that.
When they return to the party, Seraphine makes a beeline for the kitchen, intending to introduce Rell to as many of her industry friends as she can before making Rell brave Pentakill on her own. In the end, they find their hosts, Senna and Lucian, mixing drinks alongside Ekko and Kai’sa—the latter of the two sitting up on the counter with a boy that Seraphine doesn’t recognize—and Seraphine pokes her head in with a wave before Senna ushers her in with a hug. Seraphine grins as she stands on her tippy toes to properly return it, and delights in the continually star-struck faces that she’s pulled from Rell all evening.
“You two look great,” Senna says after hugging Rell too, looking the two of them up and down, and the rest of the kitchen greet them one by one: Ekko and Kai’sa both leaping off the counter to give their own hugs, and Lucian hands them both a set of flutes with what Seraphine assumes is berries in champagne. Senna pulls more seats up at the island so everyone can sit down, and they learn that the boy is Ezreal—a young model and friend of both Ekko and Kai’sa’s—in addition to being Ekko’s plus one. They also learn that there’d been bets on who Seraphine would take, and none of them had guessed that she might be bringing a childhood friend, instead of another friend from the industry.
“We met in grade school,” Rell says simply, and Seraphine grins at how she flushes when Seraphine absently takes her hand.
“You’re her roommate then?” Senna asks, “the one who also sings?” and Rell nods, glancing back at Seraphine with marginally widened eyes. News travels fast when it’s Akali and Evelynn with the deets, and Seraphine grins. Exactly what she’d counted on.
“Well,” Senna says after a moment, smiling wide as she looks over at Lucian and raises her eyebrows, “we’re glad that Sera finally decided to bring you around. The two of you are cute together.”
Seraphine laughs. She’s pretty sure they’re implying exactly what she’d expected they would, and she lets Rell flounder a bit at Senna’s words, enjoying the way Rell looks to her for help as Lucian begins to give them both his own blessing. It’s silly and sweet and feels so homey despite it not being her house, and Seraphine stays to chat with everyone in the kitchen for a little while longer than she’d originally planned, with Kai’sa even pulling Ahri into the room to meet Rell when they spot her passing by the kitchen door. Eventually, however, the two of them pull away, and Seraphine continues to take Rell around the house as she waits for an opportune moment to accost a member of Pentakill.
They find Qiyana and Yasuo controlling the music in the back, and they stop briefly to admire Qiyana’s flowing ballgown and ringleted hair. Qiyana insists on taking pictures of them along the steps of the house’s winding staircase, and Seraphine laughs as she hugs Rell from behind—in obvious imitation of the prom photos that they’d taken together as kids. They meet the actor Khada Jhin, who proves just as startlingly creepy in person as he is in all of his murderous villainy roles, and they meet the label manager Thresh, who seems interested enough in Seraphine’s attempts to pull Rell into music that Seraphine figures that could at least be a back-up option if their initial plans with Pentakill fall through.
They eat food and they drink wine, and they even happen upon two of the more iconic models of the year—Diana and Leona—who'd taken the entire world by storm after coming out together during pride. Seraphine thinks Rell couldn't have been squeezing her hand harder than when Leona had signed a little paper napkin and tucked it into Rell’s front pocket, and really, who could blame her? The two women had been just as gorgeous in person as they are on print, and Seraphine had told Rell that (more than ever—) she hopes to follow in their inspirational footsteps.
Eventually however, the two of them find Sona chilling casually at the very fully-stocked bar in the main hall, and Seraphine pulls Evelynn in to help as their ASL interpreter. Sona grins small at a head-over-heels Rell while Seraphine gushes about all of Rell’s past work as an amateur lyricist and her support of Seraphine throughout all the ups and downs of her own career.
Seraphine links her arm through Rell’s as she speaks, letting Rell automatically go to grab her hand as well. Seraphine eventually moves to chat with Akali while Rell and Eve and Sona do the same, and then Sona starts pulling Rell towards Mordekaiser and Karthus and Olaf in some other room—and oh gods, Seraphine is pretty sure that’s also Kayle—and Seraphine waves goodbye with a hopeful little smile.
Rell shoots her a look while she’s leaving (an ‘I still can’t believe you’d do this to me, Sera’ look that Seraphine grins back at while giving her a thumbs up) and Seraphine goes to find herself some water to balance out the drink while Rell gets introduced to the rest of Sona’s team.
It goes well, as far as Seraphine can tell by the animated look on Rell, Karthus, and even Kayle’s faces, and Seraphine steers clear as she pulls the rest of K/DA into a few group photos, laughing and enjoying herself as much as she can without Rell until the woman inevitably returns. Rell flashes her a business card with a few very obvious autographs once she does—her grin blinding and her eyeliner a little messed up—and Seraphine engulfs her in a hug, laughing and not bothering to correct the cheers and encouraging little wolf-whistles that follow her excitement. They drink together and take more pictures, and it’s wonderful. Happy, merry (and oh so bright).
By the time the party is really in full swing—Qiyana and Yasuo having replaced the holiday tunes with happily pounding bass—the night is young and many of the party guests are already a good number of drinks in. Seraphine pulls Rell out onto the balcony to get some air, and she can feel the moment that Rell relaxes as the door slides shut behind them both, the din of the party still faintly audible through the glass. Rell leans against the balcony railing, forearms keeping her grounded, and Sera leans next to her—laughing lightly as they look out over the glittering sea that spills out to the horizon.
“Holding up alright?” Seraphine asks, and Rell breathes out a laugh.
“Better than I expected I would be, after revealing you wanted to introduce me to Pentakill, sneaky son of a bitch—” she replies, tilting her head up and towards the stars. She’s pretty like this, awash with the twinkling lights of the party inside, filtered only through the glass doors that had led them this way, and Seraphine grins.
They stand in silence for a long while, letting the sounds of the party and the sea fill their muted thoughts, and Seraphine digs her nails into the side of her hand, something bubbly and sweet moving to fill her chest.
“Well,” Seraphine says after a quiet moment, her smile small and lopsided, “welcome to the world that isn't quite mine—but almost feels like it might be, one day.”
“One day?” Rell replies with a short laugh, “are you kidding?” She shuffles closer next to Seraphine, and their shoulders bump, then their wrists do the same. “You're already so integrated here, it's amazing how far you've come in such a short amount of time.”
Seraphine shrugs, letting her hair fall soft over one shoulder as she sneaks another glance Rell’s way. “You know me,” she replies simply, “always just a little bit insecure,” and Rell reaches over to squeeze her hand, because Seraphine knows: she really does. Rell knows her better than anyone else in her life, and Sera looks down at their linked hands, her heartbeat picking up.
“You’re amazing, Sera,” Rell tells her. “And—well. You’ve come so incredibly far. I know it’s a little bit silly, but before this I was always so continually surprised that you hadn't just... left me behind.”
“I could never leave you,” Seraphine says, teasing but genuine, and she knocks against Rell’s shoulder with her own. Rell squeezes her hand, thumb brushing across Seraphine’s rings, before looking up at her with a small, tentative sort of smile.
“Everyone here thinks we're together, you know,” Rell says, and it doesn’t feel like such a jump in topic that Seraphine knows it is. “Even if we really just came here as friends.”
“Only because you've been doing a very bad job of dissuading them,” Sera says resolutely back, feeling her heart beat full even as she lifts their clasped hands and lets them fall together again.
Rell sticks out her tongue: lazy, but cute. “Like you’ve been any better,” she replies, “picking up my hand around all of the other guests.”
Seraphine snickers, and lets herself move closer. “It wouldn't be too bad, would it?” Seraphine asks simply then. “The two of us, being together?”
“To be completely honest,” Rell replies, without missing a beat, “I feel like we've known each other long enough that we really might as well be.”
Seraphine raises an eyebrow. “I’m not sure that's quite how friendship works,” she starts, but Rell squeezes her hand and Seraphine quiets, letting Rell step just a little bit closer. She’s warm and small, her piercings glinting brilliantly in the technicolor light, and Sera holds her breath.
“I think it's how ours could,” Rell says then, and gods. Sera lets her breath out.
“What a coincidence,” she finds herself saying, smile so hard to wipe off her face that Seraphine doesn’t even try. “I think it’s how ours could, too.”
They don’t make any move more than that, yet it’s obvious that things have shifted between them just a bit—the weight of their relationship becoming just that much weightier—and Seraphine feels like she’s walking on air. Her heart beats fast, the music beats faster, and Rell’s hand is small in hers: nails painted a pretty black to Seraphine’s metallic white.
“I think need another drink,” she says after a moment, and Rell laughs as she replies:
“Good god, so do I.”
And so—the two of them lose themselves to the festivities, after that.