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The night is only just beginning. Puffy talks a big game about how she’ll be walking straight back out the door if Bad and Ant don’t have her shrimp cocktail ready, but it’s all a front for the bubbling anxiety that settles at the back of her throat and probably won’t let her eat anything at all if she’s honest. They have a big job to do tonight.
Hopefully, that’s gonna end in the Eggpire people being serious about turning over a new leaf and not converting everybody to their weird cult any more. If not…
She doesn’t know.
If they lock the doors behind them, Puffy doesn’t even think she’ll be able to tell. It’s so red in here; red brick lines the walls, red vines hang from the ceiling, red patches of ominous liquid corrode at the cobbles beneath them and make her watch her feet with every step.
Ponk took her coat at the door, and her armour besides; all she has to hand is the knife that’s currently strapped to the outside of her right thigh, hidden under sheer burgundy stockings that match her elbow-length gloves. There’s a stash of better weapons somewhere in the back, assuming Bad and Ant haven’t stumbled across it. Team Omelette are ready to go if the worst case scenario comes to pass.
The guests move through the hall and across to the dance floor. Eret and Hannah, Foolish and Hbomb, Sam and George surround her, and when Fundy puts a record in the jukebox, they split off into partnered pairs across the room. Puffy watches from the middle while her friends all find their footing.
And then there’s Niki, emerging from the throng, a little hesitant but smiling nonetheless.
Puffy takes her waist and the two begin to waltz.
It takes another few seconds before either speaks. “It’s been a while.”
“Yeah,” says Puffy, “yeah, it has.”
“They said you were a guest of honour?”
“Me and some of the others, yeah.”
“Oh.” Niki’s hands are not gloved. Skin presses to skin against Puffy’s shoulders, a golden bangle pressing gently into the curve of her arm. Her bright blue eyes are averted, focusing down on their feet, afraid to step on Puffy’s toes.
Funny, Puffy thinks, how Niki could punch her in the gut and she wouldn’t mind it. How, after all this time apart - after their disagreements and their drifting, how they’ve barely spoken since the day that Techno, Phil, and Dream lit the world on fire and Niki disappeared amid the smoke - how she still finds herself falling for this beautiful, intelligent woman over and over again.
(There were flowers, once.)
“You look beautiful tonight,” Puffy offers, hesitant.
“Oh,” says Niki again. “Um. Thanks.”
A swell in the music; Puffy tugs, just slightly, at Niki’s waist, and Niki lets herself dip just slightly under her hold. Trust. A willingness to fall, even just a little, and be sure that Puffy will catch her.
“And so do you,” Niki finishes, delayed. “It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve seen you without your glasses.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t do this much eyeshadow for nothin’,” she quips.
“It’s pretty. And your dress.”
Underneath that dress, the knife digs gentle into Puffy’s thigh. Like this she’s never felt so perilously protected. If it all goes south, she’ll be safe, but…
“You’re so coordinated,” Niki says, and Puffy makes a choice.
She pulls the other woman in tight, still in step with the waltz one-two-three-one, and presses cheek to cheek, her mouth to Niki’s ear. “Niki, look. What do you know about the whole Egg thing?”
“Um,” Niki murmurs back, “less than I should. Somebody told me that they want to rule the server. I’m hoping I can help that not to happen.”
“Good.”
That bravery that gripped her seconds before starts to ebb, just slightly… but her time is limited. She, Foolish, Hannah, Sam - they’re gonna have to keep their wits about them tonight. The less time she spends focusing on the warmth of Niki’s skin against her own, the better.
“Just - you might wanna watch out tonight. Bad and Ant, they tell us that they’re turning over a new leaf, and I wanna believe them, I do… but we’re the guests of honour at a party in the heart of the Egg’s power. If they turn on us then I’m not exactly gonna be surprised. And if things get ugly…”
“I won’t let myself get caught in the middle of it,” Niki promises. “I can hold my own in a fight. Better than I could before, at least.”
“Hm?”
“I’ve, uh. I’ve been training.”
(And isn’t that a pretty picture - the thought of Niki, underground, working up a sweat against cold stone bricks and cobble walls…)
“Puffy, I’ll be fine,” she says, and pulls away to meet her gaze for just a moment. The bright blue of her eyes shines stark against the scarlet of her dress, the gold of her hair and her earrings. They’ve been pressed close for long enough that some of Puffy’s foundation has come away on Niki’s cheek, a slightly darker shade, the evidence of their connection. Puffy fights the urge to lift fingers to her own face and check for the reverse.
“Just be careful,” Puffy tells her, lost in blue, like the ocean from which she hails - blue, like lapis-lined enchanting inscriptions. Niki is enchanting, really. All that Puffy wants is for her to be safe and fine.
Bad’s voice sounds across the room. “Everybody come take a seat! The banquet’s about to begin!”
She realises, abruptly, that the music stopped a little while ago.
Niki’s hands drop from her shoulders, clearly noticing the same. “Oh, sorry! Come on, let’s go eat.”
“Yeah,” Puffy breathes, “we should.”
She’ll take her seat, then, and she’ll listen to her gracious hosts as they celebrate the fact that they’ve brought everyone together for a toast tonight. She’ll pretend there’s nothing hidden in the hollow of the table, that there’s nothing keeping her on edge with every little speech her friends and allies give.
Puffy will avert her eyes from Niki sitting far too many seats away, and pretend she never said anything at all.
(And when the lava starts to fall around them, she’ll wish that they’d just run away together while they could; that she could disappear in smoke and ashes like the woman she never truly stopped loving, that she could make a new life somewhere far away.
But her duty has always come first for her - she wants to help people more than anything else, she wants to save her friends from themselves no matter the cost. If that means she and Niki can never truly work together, then that’s the way it’s gonna have to be.)