Hiya guys, here´s my third story! Yay, I finally finished it. Well this one´s about the Pandora Hearts couple Break/Sharon. I hope you like it, I´m kinda fond of it myself... *beams with pride* uhm... anyway, onto the story! R&R, Have fun!
Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing of Pandora Hearts
the first dance
Sunset had already begun sending it´s rozen light over the country when Lady Sharon began to undress. Sighing, she opened the buttons at the back, pulling off her dress and laying it neatly on her bed, picking up another one. It sure deserved the name 'Ball gown' with it´s violet reddish touch, matching her eyes and with the goldes laces covering her chest in a criss-cross pattern down to her waist, where it ended in a small belt, connecting to a huge skirt, draping itself around her, embracing the fine figure of her stature. Lovely roses spread across the cloth, dressing it in the most beautiful manner.
Tonight was going to be a party. And although her mother had said that only her birthday was to be celebrtated once in a while, Sharon knew that the real plan was to get her 'Socially started', in other words 'married'.
As a woman, she knew it was her duty to marry and bring forth many lovely children and be happy with just that, but no man would ever understand her status in the Pandora Organisation and acknoledge it. Nobody. But for a few exceptions, every other man would just give her a castle, lots of money and destroy all of the hard work she and her friends had built up with so much effort.
If it were up to her, everything having to do with 'marriage' would be going completely different. She would be able to choose the man she loved and whom she would be willing to devote her life for. She wanted to choose, hell, she already had chosen.
And she would get her way. That was her only true wish for happiness.
To choose the man she would be able to love and be able to love the man she chose.
A small pearl of sweat dropped from her forehead as she closed the last button at her back. She didn´t want to bother any servants with it, since everybody was so busy with the prepariations and what kind of woman would she be, if she weren´t even able to button up her own dress.
Somebody knocked at the door.
"Come in" she called, hoping it was something good.
It was Reim.
Blushing, he adjusted his glasses before reaching her a small note, torn from a piece of paper.
"I...I´m sorry, Lady Sharon," he told her," I found this before your door with your name on it and I thought it would be better to hand it to you before anyone else reads it."
Sharon smiled. That was Reim. Always thoughtful and helping people without the single trace of selfishness.
She took the note and unfolded it.
It was from Break.
"Milady," it said. "I´m sorry, I probably will be running late. Reim will have presumably brought you this letter, so please tell him not to worry and that I will come. Save some cake for me
Xerxes Break"
Her knees felt suddenly weak and she had to sit down. Surpressing the anger and the disappointment rising in her heart, she sighed, forcing herself to keep back tears from coming.
He wouldn´t be there.
Or 'he would be late' like he had written. But with Break you would never know.
Then she remembered that Reim was still standing before her, playing nervously with his glasses.
She forced a smile and stood up again.
"Thank you, Reim. Xerxes will be late, but don´t worry. He´s coming." And if not, he´d better run for his life, because not even Mad Hatter would be able to help him then.
Reim visibly seemed to relax at her words, but nontheless, he was still wondering off to where his friend had gone.
"Well then...I´ll... be going to the saloon, looking after the decorations" he said, backing away with a bow, then closing the door behind him.
Oh oh. You´re in trouble, Break. He murmured as he walked away. No one could possibly escape Lady Sharon´s rath. Especially when it came to love.
The young woman let out a deep sigh again as she opened her wallet with her jewelry. She seldom wore any, but on this occasion, she would.
Time flew by as quick as the sparrows outside her window, until the clock over the mantelpiece finally stroke eight. Inbetween, Alice had come in to check on her, followed by Oz, with whom she had had a very interesting conversation about her favourite topic: love. She had known that the young boy had had an eye on the brunett beauty for a longer time, but it had taken him enough time to realize his feelings. So she had decided to help out a bit, talking to him about it and giving him some good advice. And to her utter astonishment, he had been the one to start the topic at all, that´s why she was excitedly waiting for something to happen. If there was anything she hated more than cold tea, then it surely was a love story without a happy ending. (A/N I totally agree there...^^)
She snorted. She would get her Cinderella dream, even if it was only for one night. And she would definitely dance with Break.
The old clock told her with eight straight notes, that it was time to go now.
Sighing again, she heaved herself from the chair she had been sitting in and braced herself. No one would ruin this day.
It was her '20th' birthday after all. At least that´s what everyone, who wasn´t in the secret, thought.
With a few, graceful steps, she walked out of her room, down the corridor leading to the ball room, from where she could already hear the voices of the invited guests.
The watchmen outside nodded as she announced her name and they opened the huge oak door.
Suddenly, the room went silent. About a hundred mouths agape stared at her, the future Dutchess Lady Sharon Rainsworth.
Silent whispering started to rise, as she paced her way to her mother on the other side of the room.
"Beautiful..."
"Like a queen..."
"...a goddess...",
was what she overheard as the crowd parted before her like the sea before Moses.
As if they were expecting something, the hundred pairs of eyes followed her every movement.
A smile and a nod was all she recieved from her mother when she arrived at her side. ( A/N I know that her mother is dead, but I need her for this story, because her grandma in the wheelchair doesn´t look so good at a party, so I resurrected her...) Raising the glass that was handed to her, she cleared her throat to speak up, her eyes wandering through the faces, when she spotted Alice and Oz. The sight of those two holding hands and smiling up at her gave her new strength as she chose her words.
"I...I thank you for appearing so numerous to this ocasion. Now I don´t want to hold you in suspense with many words, so I´ll just declare the dancing floor open."
A smile, that was all it took her, to completely put the entire crown under her spell.
The applause grew steadily silent as the music started to play by a very well known orchestra and the first pairs started to dance.
She talked a bit to Gil about what she thought she would get as a present from them (Them being Gil, Oz, Alice,Reim and Break). After that she just stood there, pondering over some things and smiling about how narrow Alice and Oz had had danced before, when a tall, young, handsome man stepped in front of her. The first thought that came to mind at his appearance was "dark".
Although his face was young and good looking, she couldn´t help but dislike the fact how his deep blue eyes scanned her.
Holding out a hand, the man said:
"Lady Rainsworth, if I may introduce myself, Sir Charles, Duke of Rendersom.
May I ask for the grace of this dance?"
His glance sent a chill down her spine, when she suddenly felt a tug on her arm.
"Sorry" Oz grinned. "This Lady´s taken." And with that, he pulled the astonished but thankful Sharon into a slow waltz.
"Thank you Oz." She smiled.
"I guess something went quite well with Alice?" she added.
Oz blushed, still grinning. "Yes, it did."
And that was all Sharon wanted to hear.
"Why wouldn´t you let me dance with..uh..."
She had forgotten the name. It wasn´t that important, anyways.
"Mr. Cold-eyes?" Oz finshed her sentence. Sharon nodded.
"Well, honestly, I´ve heard some pretty bad rumours about him, so...don´t get too close to him, okay?" the boy smiled at her.
"I won´t" she promised. "Not even volontarily. But what rumours?"
Oz´ face went a bit dark as he shot an unfriendly glance at the guy. Fortunately, he was looking away. "I´m not quite sure, but he´s definitely got some knoledge about Sablier. Frankly, I don´t like him."
The dance ended and with the traditional bow so did their conversation.
"I´ll be careful" she said with a twinkle in her eye, as Oz put a hand on her back and directed her towards where Alice was standing.
Sharon smiled knowingly at her, which made the young girl blush and look away, but she did seem very happy.
Alice too was very beautiful, not only in Oz´ eyes. Her long brown hair was in perfect harmony with her wine red dress and her long hair only complemented her slim figure.
Suddenly Oz nudged Alice.
"You want something to eat?"
The girls face lit up.
"Yes!Uhm...please" she smiled shyly.
Oz grinned blushing, and made his way to the buffet with a small plate in his hand.
Sharon took the opportunity to squeeze a bit of information out of her self-prolaimed little sister.
"So?" she raised both eyebrows in excitement.
"So what?" Alice rplied bluntly, already sensing where this was going.
"So... did you tell him you loved him?"
Embarrassed, Alice put the fingertips of her index fingers together and looked at the floor.
"Well, actually, he told me first, then I told him and..."
She blushed furiously. "And... we kissed..." she explaned in her usual platonic way.
Sharon nearly jumped to the ceiling.
"And...?" her eyes shot needles at the girl before her, urging her to tell her everything.
"It was...beautiful" Alice whispered, her eyes slowly drifting somewhere into the distance, smiling faintly.
Sharon took her hands.
"I´m very happy for you." Her heartwarmimg smile hit Alice deeply. It was actually quite unfair that she had gotten Oz and Sharon was condemned to marry some clown. At the word 'clown' Alice´s brain made 'click'. She had been observing her best friend´s behaviour around the clown and lately, very much blushing had been involved with her talking to him. And that was the answer to the question whom Sharon wished to marry. She was in love with the clown. Not any clown, no. The one and only coming-through-the-closet-clown also known as Xerxes Break.
"Alice?" she heard Sharons soft voice asking.
"What´s the matter? You´re spacing out."
Alice grabbed Sharon´s sleeves.
"What about your happiness?" she asked.
"Wha-" now Sharon was confused.
"What about it?"
"You´re here to be married off to some unknown Duke of idiotism. Aren´t you going to do something about it?"
Sharon lowered her eyes, tears began to form.
"I can´t." She whispered. "I would be the amusement of the whole society if I refused to marry. I´d be laughed at, isolated from Pandora Organisation and sent to be a nun." She sighed. "You´re happy, Alice. I´ll help to keep it that way. As for me, I´m just not destined to... marry a true love."
Throwing herself forward, Alice hugged her.
"A...Alice..." Sharon stuttered,being very surprised by her action.
"Don´t give up on your dreams, Sharon-neesan" the brunette whispered.
Her friend nodded and hugged her back.
This whole conversation over, Gil had been carefully watching the two girls from a safe distance. As Oz went to fetch something to eat for Alice, he glanced towards Gil at the other side of the room, grinning and holding up two fingers.
Smirking, Gil nodded and lifted his thumb to show that he had understood.
Two fingers meant that it was his turn.
He continued watching the girls and realized the change in Sharons mimik. He knew that Oz and the stupid rabbit were a couple now and he didn´t really mind it, except for he´d kill her, if she ever was to break his masters heart, but he also wished the same for Lady Sharon. (A/N I hope you know I mean the love thing, not the killing...^^)
It was an open secret between them that she liked Break very much more than she´d usually be allowed, only Break didn´t seem to notice the open signs of her attraction to him. Her slight blushes, he movements, everything.
Suddenly, he saw Sir Asshole (aka "Sir Rendersom") coming over, aiming his steps at the now hugging pair of girls.
"Shit." It escaped him. Oz had warned him about that guy. He glanced to his young master, who had also noticed the dawning threat, but was too far away to do anything, so Gil had to take action. Fighting his way through the crowd, he slowed himself down, arriving just in time before the Duke could say anything, and held out a gloved hand.
"May I dance with you?" he smiled.
Sharon nodded happily while Gil exchanged a meaningfull look with Alice, who nodded slightly.
Noticing that Sir cold-eyes had once again failed to put forward his request for a dance with her, she took Gil´s outstreched fingers and let herself be led to the dance floor. They didn´t talk much, Gilbert just wished her a happy birthday and let her enjoy the four or five minutes he had bought her.
But the whole dance through, Sharon couldn´t shake off the feeling that Gil and Oz were playing a sly game, only they knew of.
Of course she had realized the glances being exchanged between them, but she couldn´t make anything of it.
The dance was rather long, but she didn´t mind it. She liked Gil, he had a honest heart and an unshakable loyalty towards those he called friends.
After they had finished, Alice ran up to them, linking her arm with Sharon´s.
"What´s up with you?" the young dutchess laughed.
"I´m not letting you out of my sight" Alice growled through gritted teeth.
"How about out of your grasp?" Sharon suggested playfully. Alice just shook her head.
"Duke of Idiotism is after you and I´m positive his intentions aren´t good."
These words warmed Sharon´s heart.
Even Alice worries about me, she thought.
"...just a pity, that I´m a girl and can´t dance with you" she heard her say.
"You would go to that extent to protect me?"
Alice shrugged. "Yeah, sure. You´re my friend after all."
Sharon laughed heartily. She was very glad to have such friends.
Oz was standing a bit away from the rest and waved them over to him and Alice immediately changed course after noticing and joined him, still tugging along the young dutchess.
Sharon sighed and leaned herself against the wall behind her, looking out for Gil. He had suddenly disappeared.
Oz handed her a small piece of chocolate. "If you´re wondering where Gil is, don´t worry." His twinkle in his emerald eyes made her suspicious. But she didn´t ask. As for now, she was too much enjoying having to dance with her friends only, although she already feared that she would have to go through the torture of dancing with every man in this room that could be a potential husband.
They were now standing next to one of the huge glass doors to the long balcony. The glass of which the doors were made of, reflected the candles and through one opened one, no clouds were to be seen in the moonlight-filled night sky.
Oz leaned towards Sharon. "Would you like to be alone with your thoughts?"
She nodded, thankful that he had noticed her exhiaustion, so Oz turned to Alice.
"Do you want to dance with me again?"
Alice nodded happily. And while dnced closely, the were completely lost in each others eyes. Lilac passion met emerald joy and neither of them would have known a place were they´d rather be right now.
The young duchess smiled. Love sure was such a beautiful thing.
Suddenly, out if the corner of her eye, she saw someone coming towards her with a steady pace.
Sir Rendersom. And he was coming straight at her. When he finally reached her, he bowed respectfully and held out a hand once again.
"May I now request a dance with you? I think you owe me one..."
Well, that went...well ^^ see you in a... year or two maybe for the next chapter... :) Haha, I´m just being mean right now...,sorry. Be sure to stick around the next chapter, It´s gonna get intersting :D
There surely will be lots of... Break and...Sharon...and of course, yours truly, Sir Asshole ^^
see ya! oh and the little things you call 'reviews'... be sure to leave lots behind, I simply couldn´t survive without them *Big grin*