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No harm will come to the scouts, not while Minako is alive and well. She will ensure it.
The others haven’t fully awakened. They don’t know of the loss, the suffering, they have all experienced.
But Minako does.
They do not know her yet, but they will. She watches them dance at the ball, a feeling of wistfulness and longing tugging at her heart.
Artemis doesn’t insist she join them. He knows as well as she does why she cannot.
Soon, she reminds herself, refocusing on the mission. Soon they will all know.
“May I have this dance?”
She turns, a polite refusal at her lips, but the words die as she spies the man in front of her.
He is ethereally beautiful. Long white hair spills down his back, accentuated by the black tuxedo he wears.
Minako stares at the black gloved hand, an odd feeling of recognition flashing through her. For a moment, it feels as though she’s known him her whole life and yet she swears that she’s never seen him before.
His gray eyes widen beneath his black domino mask and she wonders for a moment if he feels it too.
”Of course,” she says, helpless to say otherwise.
He pulls her into his embrace, executing the waltz flawlessly. Minako is an excellent dancer of her own accord, but there’s something about dancing with this man that seems to transcend mere waltzing.
”You’re a good dancer,” she observes, trying to shake off the feeling.
”As are you,” he says and she cannot help but note how impossibly deep and suave his voice is. His accent is slight but she wonders if he’s foreign. If so, it would explain his unusual features. “There is something almost…regal about you.”
Minako smiles to hide her reaction. His guess is closer to the truth than he could ever hope to know. “Perhaps I just enjoy dancing,” she says, used to speaking evasively. “One could say you are rather regal yourself.”
There is a smirk at his lips. “I am hardly anything of the sort.”
She adjusts her mask. “That’s for the best,” she says cheerfully. She knows all too well the heartache a prince can bring. She cannot stop her princess from loving one again, but this time, she promises herself that the moon princess will not lose out a second time.
He raises a brow. “You are not here to see the princess and her crystal, are you?”
”No,” she says easily, silently adding in not this one. “You aren’t either.”
It’s not a question but he shakes his head slightly and she watches his hair ripple around him.
For a moment, she relaxes against him, enjoying the feel of his embrace as they dance. She has never felt so at peace.
The music ends all too soon. They part reluctantly and the desire in his eyes is unmistakable.
He wants to kiss her—and she wants to let him.
But out of the corner of her eye, she sees her own princess vanish from the ballroom and offers her partner a rueful smile. “I enjoyed our dance,” she says quietly.
He does not stop her from pulling away. “So have I,” he says quietly. “More than I believed I would.”
She takes the words with her as she leaves, cherishing the moment even into her dreams later that night.