( ✦ i've seen you before ! )

[☆ marriage maze ☆]

kai inoue - royal - location: ballroom - tagged: carmen, catherine

kai didn't interject or cut in as carmen spoke so curtly to her--she just took it with an increasingly confused and concerned look on her face. underneath that, though, she looked almost...a little upset. that was strange for her, far too strange, and she acknowledged it as such, thrown off by a thought that seemed to occur without her own input. of course, she was used to being misunderstood and treated negatively, but realized for a moment she had never been spoken to so directly before--it was as refreshing as it was a little distressing. maybe that was it. or maybe it was the fact that it was her, this girl she was so strongly drawn to for whatever reason, that made the rejection of her social attempt sting a little more.

"oh...i wasn't, uh, involved with any of that," she quickly attempted to defend herself, a slight strain betraying itself in her typically flat and inexpressive tone. she fidgeted with the lace of her dress as she spoke--why was this affecting her so much? "i didn't get the memo until the very end, and by the time i showed up things had kind of...disintegrated. i just kind of...wanted to know what exactly went down. i still don't really know...but it seemed like it really, uh, affected the mood, if that makes sense."

"honestly, i think it was kind of stupid, too,"she continued, running her mouth in a nervous response even though she knew she was almost certainly making more of a fool of herself than she already had. "pretty mean, too, to do something like that right before the ball when everyone's excited about it. i dunno."

"i understand if you don't want to talk to me or anything, or if this is super weird," she finally began to wrap up--she hadn't missed carmen's comment on the social class difference between them, and understood her entirely, even though kai herself had always tried to make it a point not to frame interactions around those kinds of differences and be polite as a blanket behavior. "i just, don't really...know anyone. i mean, other than catherine, and she didn't tell me all that much. but i saw you last night, so...right. um, i'm kairi inoue, by the way, but i just go by kai." she was far too nervous for the very real reality of being turned down, so she neglected to offer her hand. hopefully she'd come off as less of a trainwreck than she felt like right about now.

[hakuna matata;;]

( ♕ )xx❝ＡＳＨＥＲ ＤＯＮＡＨＵＥ！！

━━━━━━━━ [ xrolel crown prince of italy x]xx[ xmoodl yo im straight up not having a good time dog x]xx[ xtagged/mentionedl jules/none x]

indent"it's not called being an ass, sweetheart, it's ca-" asher began before his eyes drifted slightly over juliana's shoulder in the direction of the hallway. there, a dark figure stood. while his figure was mostly masked by shadows, his green eyes glimered deviously against the lights illuminating the long stretch of windows and paintings. asher froze. while the man had little to no power in the mansion, asher knew him all too well - jacob riverii. he was a close friend of his fathers, and an incredibly influential man back in italy - who also happened to be a little too concerned with how asher's love life was coming along, and seemed all too happy to report back to his father each time asher got a date, was rejected, or even looked in the direction of the girl.

indentnews had already spread to asher's father that lilith was long gone, and the reminder of his fathers threats rang in his ears. the last thing he wanted was another reason for his father to keep him here longer. if he could just convince the watchful man that he had found some lady so asher could go back home and focus on actually doing important tasks...

indentasher's eyes drifted down to jule's. however, instead of hatred swimming in his eyes, he seemed determined - and even a bit concerned. "play along." he whispered to the servant.

indentin one swift movement, asher emitted a charming laugh. it was as though he was a completely different person. the look that he shot juliana in that moment threatened her to also laugh. when the man was still on the corner, watching with a bit too much analysis, asher bit his lip, irritated. jacob wanted a show? fine, he'd give him a damn performance.

indent"you're beautiful, you know that?" he purred, placing one of his hands on the curve of the servants back. he pulled her forward (a little too roughly - what? it was hard to pretend to love someone you literally couldn't stand), tilted her chin upwards, and placed his lips on hers, making sure that the kiss lasted just the right duration.

indent asher had kissed lots of girls before. he expected to be disgusted by juliana, but surprisingly, even when he heard footsteps walking down the hallway of a satisfied nobleman, asher lingered just a little too long with the kiss. there was something that felt relatively right about being with her - having her in his arms.

indentand that did not sit well with him.

indent"sorry." asher scoffed, pulling his entire body away from jules to look at her with great distaste. even though he had somewhat enjoyed the kiss, he would've sooner given up the throne of italy than admit that. "there was a man watching us. i wanted him to go away." he stated matter of factually before adjusting his gaze back to juliana when he was sure that he had regained his composure. "look, i don't like you, you don't like me. fine. but you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, so i'm gonna need you to play a little part for me." god, asher did not like having to do this. not with her. with anyone else, seriously. but not some fiery servant off the streets of - wherever she was from. honestly, he didn't care.

[ xword countx 0558 x]

[rose.bloom]

J U L I A N E - B A R N E S
mood. foolish | location. ballroom entrance | tags. asher

juliane watched hesitantly as his gaze shifted from her to something over her shoulder. she resisted the temptation to look back and instead focused on gathering herself, which resulted in her busying her hands with a crease in her dress. however asher didn't seem particularly cool either, most people wouldn't notice the subtle body language that certain people like jules and asher gave off when nervous, but jules recognized the little mind games they both knew how to play, and right now, she could tell asher had a bigger problem than the one in front of him.

when his eyes fell back on her she cocked her eyebrow, challenging him. play along? while a part of her wanted to shout out and ask him what that even meant, a part of her could tell what he was doing, because one thing jules knew they shared in common, was being manipulative. she narrowed her eyes, and was equally impressed and horrified at his acting abilities, but when he urged her to laugh along with him she simply smiled coyly. sure, she would "play along" but that didn't mean playing completely by his rules.

"trust me i know," she whispered smugly as he pulled her towards him, just loud enough for only him to hear. his touch was aggressive at first, but not unwelcoming. however what happened next surprised her; whatever she imagined she was playing along to, it was not this. and then she cursed at herself in her head for being so unaware as to not realize this was where it was going. her mouth met his and she lost herself for a moment. all the tension between the two, she mainly expected it to be released with one of them being killed by the other. but she wasn't displeased, she almost melted into his firm arms.

and then it was over, he let her go, and pushed her away. juliane scoffed at herself for letting herself become so dazed and foggy minded by him,of course, its another game jules.

apparently the tension hadn't been released...and the way he looked at her in that moment was the thing that hurt her most out of everything he said or did that night. petty comments and insults were one thing but this? she felt foolish. one thing jules couldn't bring herself to deny was that asher was attractive, she would be mad to say otherwise. but the look he gave her of such repugnance afterwards, and certainly the kiss couldn't have been that bad? she thought to herself, almost desperately. jules by no means had a romantic life even close to asher, but she was fairly pretty and she had had her fair share of experiences with both guys and girls. it was a rare occasion when jules didn't exude confidence, but this happened to be one of those times. "its fine," she said, strangely soft for her normally rich voice and she looked anywhere but at the stone faced boy.

play along? that was one thing. play a whole damn part? life really was everything but, well life to asher. yesterday it was a game and now apparently, it was a stage. "what if i don't want to?" she chided, finally looking back up at him, but her tone changed quickly, "what makes you think i owe you this, at all?" she asked, not even mad just truthfully. she didn't exactly wait for his response, and instead just searched his face willing some sort of emotion to come out of it. juliane hesitated "you can't burn a bridge when you still need it to cross the river," her voice almost took on a motherly quality to it. "goodnight, prince asher," she stared up at him, curtsied, and turned down the hall with no particular destination in mind. if he wanted her in any sense, for games or not, he was going to have to work for it.

[ghast.]

( ♛ )t𝘓𝘈𝘙𝘚 𝘝𝘐𝘌𝘙𝘙𝘈
─────── ( servant ) ∙ ( 18 ) ∙ ( catherine )





xxxxxthe way his act had earned a smile from the girl, god. he was never the romantic type, dull brown gaze too engaged within his life of servitude -- whether he was working or not, but she could've torn his heart out while they danced, left his bloody carcass to rot among the swaying bodies and she didn't. a habit of scaring people away with crude jokes and dark humor never mixed well with the ladies, as the boy found over time. a flirt, perhaps, but the relationships would never last.

and he hated himself for feeling it, but this one felt different.

he wanted to pull her in closer, wrap her in with his arms and let the feeling linger, let her know that he appreciated her, appreciated this. yet he could sense the watching eyes of the crowd, wouldn't let himself fall that easily, just continued dancing, the bowed smile of his lying crooked on his face all the while.

'thank you,' he noticed her eye him, which earned catherine an amused huff. 'so do you,'

was this what he was missing out on? what romance is all about? because damn, it was so much easier than he'd presumed. they moved in time, comfortable in each other's arms, like nobody else surrounded them. yet across the room, he could make out the figures of prince asher and his servant dame, shooting murderous glances at one another, and he could feel every single step the bodies surrounding him took. for once he felt like the world was right, like he was meant to be dancing with the girl who he'd just wanted to drown over.

"no," benevolence rolled off his tongue with each word he spoke. "but i don't want to jinx it," lars teased, adding a wink to the end of his sentence and letting a hand slip down to the curve of cat's back and pulling her closer to himself.

[sandwich.]

carmen cabrera
tagged; kai

carmen watched as the girl stumbled through her response. some small, but increasingly growing part of her found it endearing. but she pushed that down. something else rose up from her collarbone, seeming so seize her jaw and worry her head. guilt. why did she feel guilty for making this girl sad, or nervous or... whatever had caused her to act like this? when she offered carmen an escape- seemed to understand her discomfort (unusually), carmen should have bolted then and there. but she found she didn't want to. why? she barely knew her. she hadn't the slightest idea as to why she was acting like this, but she already didn't like it. no one should be able to affect her like this. especially not a girl she barely knew. especially not a royal girl she barely knew. carmen had been so caught up in her own confusion that she startled as the girl introduced herself. her name felt... weird, like a puzzle piece that fit into her head. it felt familiar, and it had a weight to it that carmen didn't understand. she found herself whispering it out loud, just to see what it felt like on her lips. "kairi inoue." kai.
she realized she was probably acting strange (although, again, why did she care what this girl thought of her?) she also noticed that kai had declined to offer her hand. this made a familiar anger surge within her. what, am i not good enough to touch your impecably royal hand? although... something told her that wasn't kairi's intention. carmen purposefully closed herself off a little more, crossing her arms. she managed to look into kairi's eyes, though. "i'm carmen." she admitted reluctantly. why would she care? her brain echoed. after a moment, she sighed, and opened herself up again, doing something she'd never thought she'd do- she offered kairi her hand. "carmen cabrera. not that it matters."

[stranger danger]

✩ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐀𝐍 ✩
who? lars what? nostalgic, enchanted where? ballroom
──────────────────────────────────────────────

"jinx it?" cath asks, incredulous. she shakes her head, one hand coming up to cradle the side of lars' face. "you couldn't, this moment is ours to keep," she leans her forehead against his, their lips inches apart. "for as long as you want to remember it," and catherine knows she will for as long as she can.

it didn't even matter to catherine if the music was still playing, if it had stopped or if it was a whole new song entirely. this was just too perfect to pass up, to right to let go of. catherine felt as if no matter where in her life she'd have gone, she'd end up here, in lars' arms, his hand on her back, hers on his cheek, as close as they could be in the moment, each and every step she'd taken in her life had brought her here.

there was a hitch in her throat all of a sudden, cath's lips pursed as she gazed into his eyes. there was still something he had to do.

"i'm sorry-" she was just full of apologies tonight. "i don't want to be too towards or presumptuous again, but-" she licks her lips, smiling softly. "i think i have to do this," she places a kiss on the corner of his mouth, tinting the skin there a slight red color. cath wasn't too sure of lars' feelings so she didn't kiss him directly on his lips - but she wanted to, and all of those previous feelings of 'hatred' were out of the window, forgotten to her for the moment, however long it lasted. instead, she found herself thinking of how many more days she'd spend in his embrace, dancing or standing, or doing whatever people that loved each other did. she didn't know - but now she wanted to.

wc: 305

[ghast.]

( ♛ )t𝘓𝘈𝘙𝘚 𝘝𝘐𝘌𝘙𝘙𝘈
─────── ( servant ) ∙ ( 18 ) ∙ ( catherine )





xxxxx"ah, i get it," lars retorted, pulling back for a second. "you don't believe in bad karma, do you?" his lips curved into a chaotic smile, staring into her eyes for a moment, challenging cat to react. with her here, within his arms, he felt something he hadn't felt since he was a kid; he had a friend stay the night, and they were up until morning rolling with laughter and making fun of themselves. the invincibility in the idea that it could last forever. but alas, all good things come to an end, and they had to go home when the weekend ended.

but if what she said was true, this didn't have to end. ever.

lars leaned into her touch, his pale brown gaze locked on the girl's. maybe soulmates really didn't exist and they all were players in some sick, sullen game, but he couldn't have cared less. he only had distant memories of what love was, his parents dead for eight years now. his heart was equally full of hatred and compassion, but you'd never tell in the current moment.

"hmm?" he hummed in query, caught off-guard by the girl as she laid a kiss on the corner of his mouth, earning he placed a hand under her chin, tilting the girl's head up enough so their lips could meet. he let it last for a moment, holding her close, before slowly pulling away.

huh. he sort of liked the romance thing.

"don't be sorry, love," lars murmured, a cocky charm to his words, though he was nearly twitching with nerves. he'd kissed people before, ha, funny joke, but never someone who claimed to be his goddamned soulmate. and he might be stuck with her for the rest of his life -- not that it was a bad thing. he just never found himself in relationships that lasted over a month or two, due to both his poor taste in people and his distant nature. hell, he didn't need to stress himself out over the future, just enjoy what he had in the present moment -- the girl who he'd just hated, now turned the one he wanted to keep close to him, keep in his embrace.

[☆ marriage maze ☆]

kai inoue - royal - location: ballroom - tagged: carmen

if carmen was acting strange, it didn't even register for kai--after all, in her head she was much more wrapped up in how strange she felt herself. though she didn't know it, carmen's name held that exact same weight for her as she heard it for the first time, and she felt almost as if she in fact had already known it before carmen spoke. she mouthed the syllables to herself, mouth slack in her awed daze, before she blinked a couple of times in succession and remembered where and who she was. "well, it's very--" her voice caught in her throat, and she coughed a little to amend it before continuing. "it's very nice to meet you, carmen cabrera." she repeated the full name as if to subtly counter the girl's own comment--it did matter, to kai at least. her handshake was perhaps a little flimsier than expected, given her state of mind.

talk to her. kai had to talk to her, be around her and hear her voice--an urge towards another person that she couldn't remember ever experiencing before. new and frightening as it was, she was powerless against it. "ah...this whole soulmate thing. what do you think about it? everyone seems really excited about it but...well. i don't know." there was a slight hesitancy as she spoke, unsure if this was a sore subject due to last night.

[ajohanna]

--➳.── ‘𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝚌𝚊𝚒𝚞𝚜 𝚔𝚒𝚝 ’
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- - - gender: male | role: servant | tags: archer

liam grabbed the bubbly drink, taking a sip and making a slight face. after the first sip of any alcoholic drink, he always made a face, but as it coated his taste buds, it wasn't too bad. he gave a chuckle, "then that makes two of us. i didn't check up on anything. i may be a servant, but i don't pay much attention to some things.." he gave a slight, toothy grin. the silence overcame the two boys yet again before a question popped into his head. "so, what's your thought's or opinions on this whole, 'soulmate' talk going around?"

he wanted to know what archer thought. while he was working for the family, liam always went to archer for advice or thoughts on something. usually something that troubled him. he wasn't really caring for the soulmate thing, the only thing that freaked the boy out was the mark that appeared on his arm. "a little while ago this tattoo magically made it's way onto my arm. i have no idea what it means or what it's connected to, and i don't want to think it's about a soulmate. though i have that feeling that it is.." he sighed out, setting the drink on a nearby table and rolling up his sleeve to show the mark.

[sandwich.]

carmen cabrera
tagged; kai

carmen frowned slightly as kairi hesitated on her name. could it be that she felt the same weight? but she shook it off. dumb, stupid, pretty girls. messing with my dumb head. kairi seemed like a nervous person in general, she most likely stuttered through everything she said, ever. carmen couldn't help but hold the hope in the back of her head, something she reprimanded herself for as she reminded herself that she was supposed to hate this girl. something she was truly trying hard to do. but there seemed to be something that tugged carmen in, made her want to stay. she seemed kind, her hands were soft and warm but not sweaty. her eyes seemed to bore into carmen's soul, something she couldn't decide if she hated or couldn't live without. and her voice ran through carmen's ears like honey, seeming to lure her in like she was a child who smelled pastries being baked in the kitchen. carmen realized she'd been holding onto her hand for a long while and haphazardly dropped it, looking to the side and crossing her arms. a moment of silence passed, before kairi broke it with something unexpected- soulmates.
of course carmen thought about it, the thought of soulmates practically plagued her mind. but she couldn't let this confusing, alluring, nervous royal girl know about that. carmen steeled herself and frowned, before responding. "yeah, everyone's excited. makes sense. they probably have soulmates." she didn't dare look kairi in the eye. "this is a lover's ball after all. though no one would say it out loud, everyone's expecting to find their soulmate and unite their kingdoms and blah blah blah. i don't have one though, so my opinion would be moot i guess." carmen shrugged, trying to give off the impression that she didn't care when she really, really did. though she pushed down every thought she had of soulmates and love, they always surged back up, tasting of bile and something indescribable. she hated, longed, and avoided it all at the same time. yet here she was, talking about it, with a royal.