Done on a whim. Please read and review.
Sui Generis (adj.)- unique, peculiar, forming a class alone.
Rating: K+, but K+ readers read at your own caution as the rating will go up.
"A ball in week. What do you wear?"
Dawn stared, her eyes glazed over, paying attention but not exactly so. She stared at the royal blue silk fluttering before her, and the pine green taffeta her friend Zoey stared at, her eyes glistening. Zoey eagerly pointed to the green taffeta material. Scrunching her lips, Dawn shook her head no.
"Too…Christmassy, Zoey." Dawn admitted, smiling cautiously. Zoey blew a lone piece of her fiery hair and rolled her eyes. Keira, the seamstress extraordinaire, giggled.
"It was Archduke Lorence who suggested the dark green. By Arceus, it's March."
"Don't blame father, he's just blind for things like that." Dawn laughed, cocking her head to the side to see herself in the mirror. She was wearing her regular dress, baby pink-light enough for innocence but not too babyish, Zoey always commented-laced with white lace imported from another region she couldn't bring herself to remember. She fiddled with the long, flouncy sleeves of her dress as she thought. Keira and Zoey waited expectantly.
"How about…a lavender dress? It is spring right? Or…maybe a nice silver dress, not too much sequins, remember"
"Silver. Silver and lavender. Eye-catching and original." Keira winked. "Sometimes, you should be the seamstress."
Dawn wiggled her fingers before shaking her head. Sewing didn't seem like a forte for her. "Thanks but I'll leave that to you."
"Always a pleasure, Miss." Keira pecked Dawn on the cheek and gave Zoey a hug. Once she disappeared with her seamstress trunk and trundled away to go to the worker's quarters, a large house situated not too far from their mansion, Zoey closed the door and smiled.
"Sooooooo," Zoey brashly flounced herself onto the white leather ottoman, her loose babydoll-like maroon dress crinkling. "Who do you think the lucky guy is?"
"Huh?"
"Act like a Slowpoke with a brain like an Abra. Focus, focus, future Archduchess!" Zoey clapped her hands three times. Dawn winced.
"Oh, I don't know. I asked Mum twice already and all she said was 'Patience is key, Dawn. He's sensible and good-looking.' I mean, Arceus, that could be anyone!" She stood in front of her crystal-encrusted mirror, a gift from Hoenn region, and examined her updo.
"Anyone? How about...every other twenty boys in our range in the kingdom. Not everyone has the dashing combination of sensible AND good-looking. Good suitors are getting more difficult to find."
"You're just saying that because you rejected your first two." Dawn quipped, grinning. Zoey huffed.
"Please, Dawn. Kenny was probably drunk off the fact that you're basically unattainable regarding the circumstances, and lurched for the closest thing with a corset and…and…that guy…had weird hair."
"Weird hair. Oh Zoey," Dawn patted her friend's hair like a tamed Poocheyena "Only you."
Zoey rolled her eyes and leaned against the doorway, something her mother would immediately scold her at. Dawn pushed away a stray tress of her hair and lead her out her room and into the large foyer. "How about tea now?"
"My stomach says yes." Zoey beamed. Dawn laughed and the two friends clasped hands and trailed down the stairs, their dresses spilling from behind them and sliding down the shiny steps of the Archduke's mansion.
"Lady Dawn, your father requires your presence in the main dining." A maid said, her cheeks flushed. Zoey looked at Dawn, eyebrows raised. "Miss Zoey may accompany you."
"Thank you." Dawn nodded as they trekked towards the main dining hall. Maybe her father would reveal the 'sensible and good-looking' guy? She hoped. And she sort of didn't, because she was still anxious about the whole marriage situation. Seventeen and four months away from adulthood, she wasn't exactly ready. She breathed shakily as Zoey dragged her through the alcove.
"Dawn! Zoey! Hello! I have someone I'd like you to meet."
"Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez." Dawn murmured under her breath.
"Chin up," Zoey whispered. Dawn lifted her chin, straightened her back and smiled graciously, unaware of a young man sitting at the table, dressed in a chainmail and glancing at the ceiling.
"This is the new Grand Master Knight, Paul." The young man stood up, Dawn immediately taking notice of his strange hair, a sort of dulled indigo purple, grayish even. He looked like he was in her age range, more or less. "He was appointed four days ago. Saw him doing his techniques and strategies, quite the fine fellow. Clever, quite clever. Arceus forbid we need to, he will certainly lead the kingdom's army and make the kingdom proud." Archduke Lorence nodded. "The King chose him himself."
"It's an honour to meet you, Grand Master Paul," Dawn smiled and curtsied. Zoey followed through, throwing a look at Dawn, which she pointedly ignored.
Paul nodded, his face as blank as a canvas as he bowed to Dawn. "An honour to meet you, Lady Dawn. Thank you for your time."
"Thank you for yours," Dawn automatically replied, offering a smile. Still, he didn't smile, his eyes stayed the same.
"Off we go then, Dawn. I'll see you again at dinner. Having a nice visit, Zoey?"
"As always, your Highness." Archduke Lorence smiled as he walked away from the dining hall. Dawn grasped the domestic bell and rang it, the sound reverberating for a few seconds before disappearing.
"He's…detached. But those are always the best ones, right?" Dawn pondered aloud. A servant with a cart walked in and placed chamomile tea and shortbread cookies in front of them before accepting their thank-yous and disappearing. Zoey shrugged.
"Maybe he's the one."
"What? Zoey, don't be ridiculous, I don't even know him that one, why would I-"
"Take your burning shoes off, Lady, I'm saying what if he's the one you're to be married with, not the one you're destined to be with." Zoey scoffed. "You're cute but you read into words too much."
"There's a difference."
"A difference between cute and reading into words? Daawwwnnn."
"No, no! Not that. Uh, well, marrying someone and having someone destined to be with you."
"Oh please, don't sound like those girls I pass by every time I go get a new dress. The over-giggly ones who wear far too much pink and sequins."
"Gosh, Zoey, I'm just asking. There is a difference, right?"
"Well," She sighed. "Ah, well, yes. Because…if you marry someone that people just shoved into your face, that's not love is it? Destiny, now, I'm pretty sure that'll bring you love. I'm being confusing, wait-"
"No, no. I understand." Dawn drank her tea in one go. "My head hurts."
"Can't handle my psychological findings, Lady of loooveee?" Zoey sipped her tea.
"No. Now I'm really anxious to meet this man I'm going to be betrothed to. What…what happens if he's really old. Like, really old. Or, if he's cocky. Or stupid. Or, Mew forbid, a wife beater?" Dawn cried, standing up and making her chair topple a bit. Zoey flicked a large crumb of shortbread at her friend.
"Dawn, really, calm down. Everything will be fine."
"WHAT IF HE HAS SOME FREAKY FETISH, LIKE…SOCKS DURING-"
"Shush! Shush, okay, shush." Zoey hissed, tugging one of her sleeves, which caused the shoulder of the dress she fall off. Dawn absentmindedly pulled it back up and sunk into the cushioned seats and buried her head in her hands. "You realize you just screamed the word fetish in the loudest vibrating room in your mansion, right?"
"Bad. That's what this is. Completely, utterly, totally, horrendously bad."
"I know, your mother will probably freak. The word fetish isn't exactly fitting for-"
"Not that," Dawn murmured. "This guy. I-I have no idea. I don't think I can marry him. I already know I can't."
"You don't know that," Zoey soothed, massaging her shoulders and sighing. She knew for a fact that even though Dawn was as dainty and lovely as a summer daisy but the minute paranoia settled in she was a train with no stops. "You don't know that, Dawn."
"Zo-"
"You might be dashing, loving, kind, witty…You just don't know until the ball rolls around."
"I-"
"Hey, promise me this. Just meet him okay? It's in three days. You have plenty of time to freak out, but you have to meet him. You can't wiggle out of this easily, anyways. This is serious business for Archduke and Archduchess."
"Mum and Father."
"Yeah."
"Why are you reasonable at times like this?" Dawn asked, laughing. Zoey shrugged.
"I'm an amazing girl with amazing capabilities."