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elysia remembers picking out their dress, giggling excitedly at the feeling of silk and embroidery beneath their fingertips.
they’re a dancer, so events aren’t an unfamiliar concept to them. a masquerade ball, however, not so much.
subtlety isn’t their style, unless required for one reason or another. elysia saw the dress code required for the event and decided extravagance was the way to go.
they prioritised practicality and flexibility though too, elysia hoped to dance at the ball.
and dance they did.
-
the ballroom was practically bathed in a golden light.
the walls were adorned from floor to ceiling in a deep red, lined with gold. the chandelier was just as incredible, crystals layered oh so perfectly to give off the illusion of an upside down flower, suspended above the guests in gold.
wherever elysia looked, it was gold.
and when they looked some more, a figure dressed in silks and furs of rich, vibrant colours, caught their eye.
surely, there is gold everywhere, tinting the very air, the guests, and yet; here is a woman, who seems to defy it, without a glimmer of gold upon her.
elysia is completely entranced.
they’re here alone, but that doesn’t seem to matter when the music starts playing and the rest of the wine goes down easily.
they take the first hand offered to them and step out into the space unofficially designated for dancing. it doesn’t register that elysia (and whoever their partner is) are the first duo out there.
even when it does sink in, it doesn’t matter, because the space fills up quickly and elysia falls prey to the music playing.
they adore the anonymity, the freedom, dancing with whoever, dancing to whatever, hidden in a crowd.
elysia curses the anonymous aspect of this entire event when they come across the figure that caught their attention so intensely earlier.
the world falls away when she takes their hand and elysia wants nothing more than to sink deeper into the touch.
she’s a dancer, elysia notes, finding themself being led effortlessly across the laminate flooring.
“what’s your name?”
“doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a masquerade ball?”
“forgive me for wanting to know the name of the pretty girl i’m dancing with,” elysia hums, knowing their mask doesn’t hide their smile.
“pretty? you don’t even know my face,”
“call it intuition.”
the woman laughs, her voice so beautiful to elysia’s ears that they cannot doubt the sudden realisation that their dance partner is almost certainly a singer too.
she twirls elysia round and then pulls them in. elysia goes, so easily, like the wine down their throat earlier.
elysia meets her eyes and realises that the woman does indeed have gold upon her, more accurately, in her gaze.
they dream of nothing but golden eyes for weeks.
-
“you’re pathetic.”
“well that’s harsh. i just finished a performance, buy me a drink before you insult me mobius,” elysia yawned, stretching their arms high up into the air before slumping against the table with a sigh.
they’ve been up for so long today. first it was training at the gym and then practice at the dance studio they’ve attended for years and then elysia had to go and perform on a stage in front of a few hundred people.
“i’ll buy you a drink but i’m going to insult you regardless.”
“for being such a pretty girl, you’re quite rude.”
“elysia shut up and tell me your order.
“the usual, but with a double shot of espresso.”
elysia watched mobius go to the counter, order, and then return to her seat.
“ok so,” elysia began.
“if you’re going to talk about that damn woman you danced with again, i will forcibly shut you up and make you pay for both our drinks.”
they grumbled, mumbling something unintelligible, not that mobius cared anyway.
elysia hears mobius’ name get called and watched, once again, as their friend gets up, this time to collect the drinks, and return to her seat.
“here.” elysia hums out a thank you and sips at the coffee, feeling immediately better. it’s stronger than usual, but they asked for that, and damn are they glad they did.
-
“a theatre play?” elysia folds their gym towel before clicking the locker shut.
“i have to attend one for my university course, but i don’t want to go alone,” hua mirrors elysia’s actions, taking a long sip of her water after.
“are you asking me on a date, little birdie?” they tease, lips curling into a smile.
they watch as hua blushes and stumbles over her words.
“absolutely not! it’s just something i need for my course!”
“alright, alright, whatever you say hua. i’ll come with you.”
-
there’s a lot of people, elysia noted, walking beside hua.
“so what exactly is the name of this play?” hua collects their tickets and sends a glance towards elysia.
“it’s foreign, so uh, i don’t know.”
“aren’t you supposed to write an essay or a thesis or something on this?”
“well, yeah.”
elysia simply stares at her before giggling.
“come on then, we’ll figure it out. is it at least in a language you understand?”
“no but i know the star of the show, i’ve seen the script.”
“excuse me?”
-
elysia let hua drag them through the building until the two of them reached relatively secluded seats.
they lean over and whisper, “did you get premium tickets or something?”
“do you remember nuwa? i met eden through her a while back and let it slip that i needed this for my course and eden managed to get me these tickets.”
“eden’s the star of the show? who you’ve seen the script from?”
“yeah, she’s incredible, you’ll see.”
elysia took that as a cue to shut up and so they did.
it’s not like they haven’t heard of eden, elysia hears that name pretty much everywhere when it comes to performing.
the lights dimmed, drawing elysia from their thoughts and the show started.
“she’s pretty,” elysia mumbled and hua made a noise of agreement.
“that’s eden.”
oh.
wait.
oh.
oh no.
elysia doesn’t register much of what goes on when eden laughs. eden laughs and elysia gets thrown back to that masquerade ball, a month ago now, when she danced in a ballroom bathed in gold.
“oh mobius is going to get a kick out of this.”
“what?” hua’s confused, rightfully so, elysia never told her. they’re not sure why, actually.
“nothing.”
“…alright.” hua watches elysia for a moment longer before paying attention to the stage again.
elysia watches and listens, only to eden, the rest of the play doesn’t make much sense to them. it’s a foreign play and yet, elysia thinks they could listen to eden sing and speak for hours longer.
“you’re pathetic.”
mobius was right, they think, completely stupidly right.
-
elysia feels weak when the play ends, barely registers hua standing up until their shoulder is tugged.
“elysia are you okay? you’ve been spaced out the entire time.”
“i’m fine.”
it sounds like a flimsy excuse even to elysia. hua doesn’t question it though, for whatever reason, and elysia lets her lead the two of them out of the theatre.
“oh, hang on elysia, i’ve just seen nuwa.”
“huh? what?” and hua is gone from their side. elysia catches sight of silver hair and follows, keeping their distance.
they know nuwa, slightly, so it wouldn’t be an issue if elysia joined the conversation but elysia isn’t quite over the fact that they’ve been pining over a broadway star for a month.
elysia sends a message to mobius quickly and calls out to hua.
“birdie! do you mind if i go ahead? mobius wants to meet!” they feel absolutely awful for ditching hua here (and using mobius as a getaway) but if elysia keeps this in, they feel like they might explode.
“i don’t mind!” elysia doesn’t hear anything else of what hua says as they shout a thank you and goodbye in response, rushing off.