Title: Masquerade
Prolouge: PREPARATIONS ::the calm before the storm::
Summary: The school is holding a masked ball, and everyone's invited! But there may be more to this than it seems, and there' s definitely trouble brewing in the aisles…
POV: Third Person, alternating
Comments: Hm. I'm not too happy with my writing style on this one. I kind of recur terms way too much, and it sounds really weird at some parts. Dang! I might edit this someday, but for now I'll just post it. Enjoy.
"That's it, Daisuke, now a little more to the left!"
"Yap!" he shouted back in reply and did as he was told.
It was two days before the ball. What ball…? Well, in truth, nobody was too sure.
There wasn't anybody who could tell you why exactly why the school was holding a ball. Maybe the principal thought that it was better than any regular old dance or prom? Maybe he just thought it was an good idea? Undoubtedly it was an interesting one, but as of now, for Daisuke Niwa, it was an inconvenience and it was killing his right arm.
"Alright! It's fastened! You can let go now Niwa!"
He breathed out in relief and thankfully dropped his arm, wringing his wrist to get some life back to it. Then looked up at the thing he'd been holding up for so long.
In loud, red, painted letters, it said:
"COME ONE COME ALL TO THE MASKED BALL
COVER YOUR FACE
WEAR COLORFUL DRESS
YOU NEED NOT BE YOURSELF TONIGHT."
It hung over the gym door, like a curtain, beckoning others to come. Daisuke sighed again and climbed down the ladder.
It was late. Sunset was closing in and he really wanted to be getting home already. There were things to see to at his home, and stuff to ready, not to mention homework…
He walked into the actual gym, a hall of massive proportions, looking grander and more beautiful than ever due to the efforts of the decoration committee. There were less students than there were some hours back however a horde of them were still pinning up banners and decorating the walls with eerie glitter effects. Some others were even trying their best to hook up the lights.
Looking around, Daisuke began to feel guilty at his want to leave. Everyone else was working so hard after all…
It was then he caught sight of whom he was looking for. He was standing near the end of the hall, hunched over his clipboard like a hawk and giving instructions to some delivery men lugging a tall box towards a marble platform against the wall, underneath an elaborate wall tapestry someone had donated and put up earlier in the day. The package was plastered with the word fragile in more places then Daisuke could count. He stared at it in wonder. What was in it? Some kind of centerpiece for the entire party?
The red head shook his head out of the clouds. That didn't matter right now. He had to be getting home.
"Be careful with that," the head of the decoration committee bellowed, not looking up from his clipboard, as if he could sense whatever the two delivery men were doing, looking or not.
"Satoshi!" he called, and ran over.
The silver haired boy looked up as Daisuke ran towards him.
"Daisuke." He said in simple acknowledgement.
"Hey, um, Satoshi." Daisuke said, his voice coming down to a softer tone again. The embarrassment of himself not working as hard as everyone else was beginning to seep back in. "May I have your permission to, um, leave already? Go home?"
Satoshi blinked at him, and Daisuke, in another level of nervousness, began stuttering out reasons.
"You see I have to help my mother with some things, and I've got all this homework to do…not to mention I haven't gotten anything to wear to the party after tomorrow and I haven't got a mask either but actually I do but I still need to fix it but I'm sorry I'm not working as hard and everyone else but still and well…heh…my arm really hurts…"
Satoshi listened to all of this with a very blank expression on his face, and Daisuke started to feel really stupid at the number of excuses he'd just conjured up. He half expected the boy to just turn back to his clipboard and not mind him at all.
Unexpectedly though, what Satoshi did was smile warmly back at him. "It's really no worry, Daisuke. Go ahead and go home if you need to."
Daisuke smiled back, ultimately relieved. "Thanks, Satoshi. Bye then."
And he grabbed his school bag and ran as fast as he could out the gate as Satoshi turned back to his clipboard, the sun, low in the sky, shining through the windows and reflecting on his glasses making it impossible to read his expression.
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Daisuke didn't stop running until the school was out of sight. He leaned against the wall and nearly sank to the ground, gasping for breath.
"Man, I must've looked so stupid!" He huffed to himself.
"That package…"
The voice came uninvited and Daisuke snapped back, annoyed, "What do you want, Dark?"
Dark's consciousness came out of the mind pit it hid itself in whenever Daisuke willed it and spoke:
"There was something in that package. The one your friend with the glasses was directing to the hall. I think that there's something of value in there. Perhaps, even, something worth stealing."
"What do you mean? Geez. You want to go out thieving tonight? I'm exhausted!"
"You won't be stealing anything, I will. And besides, who said anything about stealing? We'll check out what exactly that big wrapped thing was, then we'll steal it tomorrow if I see any worth in it."
"Darn it, look! I'm really tired right now and I don't want to argue! I refuse to allow you use of my body tonight for any reason whatsoever and that's that!"
Daisuke stared sternly at the air for some time, imagining a face to face conversation with his impudent alter ego.
In Daisuke's head, Dark was grinning. The boy was showing some backbone, at least.
Then finally, Daisuke sighed for the umpteenth time that day and proceeded to walk again, with the words. "Besides, I'll probably be up the entire night. I don't have a suit or mask yet, and I have my date to worry about too."
"Harada Riku, am I right?" Dark laughed. "You're so lucky being able to take out a pretty girl like that. I'd sell my soul for a girl like her. Or…well…I'd sell yours anyway."
"Buzz off," said Daisuke as forcefully as he could, which, in a way, really wasn't forceful at all.
Dark sniggered and withdrew.
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"Isn't it perfect?"
Risa turned to face her sister who was sitting on the bed with anything but excitement on her face. She was staring at the floor with a very glazed look in her eyes, obviously very deep in thought, obviously unable to respond to the question and obviously not listening or caring for the words that came out of Risa's mouth.
At this realization, Risa's smile faltered the teeniest bit before saying in a close-to-shout voice, "I said: Isn't it perfect?"
Riku's head snapped up like someone had just lit a firecracker on her face. It took her one second to recollect everything that happened within the last ten seconds. She forced a smile and said, "Um, yeah, perfect, right."
Risa nodded. As long as she was agreed with she was satisfied.
Riku exhaled. Thank the lord she was easy to please.
"Isn't it perfect?" Risa sighed again, unaware that this was the third time, "A masked ball!"
She threw open the cabinet door and fished through it a bit before finding what she wanted. With a dramatic flourish and an audible shwing, she beheld a dress of various shades of pink with excessive ruffles and an off shoulder cut.
"I am going to look absolutely gorgeous in this," she sighed, hugging the dress as if it were her child.
Riku smiled, sincerely this time. Indeed, her sister would look as beautiful as any princess in a dress like that. It suited her to a tee.
Of course she was yet to hear the rest of the sentence, which Risa continued as she sank to the floor, dramatically, with a smile of pure bliss on her face, "…and when Dark asks me to dance, we'll look just…so…" and her face flushed and she squealed into the dress, her smile so large this time that it was debatable whether her face could contain it or not.
"Dark?" said Riku, getting up on the bed and looking down at her weak-kneed twin, an expression of disbelief plastered on her face, "…as in Dark Mousy? The thief?"
"Is there any other?" Risa replied, still grinning ear to ear.
"As in violet hair, dark wings, flies in the night and steals works of art?"
Risa sighed smiling even wider, as his image popped into her head, "The exact one."
"Risa! I can't believe you're still…" she searched for the correct word, "pursuing this silly obsession!"
Risa got up slowly, at the same time. "It's not an obsession," she turned her face to her sister's and copied the expression so that at a glance, they looked like the two sides of a mirror, "it's love."
"Besides," she went on, a smirk creeping into her face, "don't you have your own date to worry about?"
Riku blushed. It was true that she had been too busy criticizing her sister to even mind herself. She had no dress yet, no mask, and she didn't want too look like a frumpy girl who just threw everything on for the sake of it. Not when she was going with Daisuke!
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Satoshi walked into the school's ballroom, his footsteps echoing through the emptiness of banners and streamers in the dark.
Being head of the committee of decoration wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. In fact, if anything, it was trying his patience. Too many people asking how to do this and that, and how this should go and where that should be. It was driving him insane. But there was still this.
He stopped near the end of the massive ballroom and tipped his head upward. There it was.
It was a woman, or was it? At first sight, it seemed everything a woman should be, but upon closer inspection, one would see that it was a genderless beauty. The great androgynous statue stood there lacking arms, but having massive wings that though stone, seemed light and soft. It's body was wrapped in what seemed an unraveling toga to cover parts for the sake of censorship. It's hair seemed long fine locks waving in the wind. And it's face, most especially it's eyes that were engraved sapphires – again, so beautiful, that it would make artists and dreamers weep in desire.
The statue. It was an angel, poised, about to take flight. The angel Tabris. The angel of freedom.
It was discovered in the basement of a castle near the coast of North Ireland less than a month ago. Apparently it had been created by one of his ancestors some centuries back and given as a gift to some foreign friends or some other. It had arrived some mornings ago and Satoshi had gotten this brilliant idea.
But at this point details didn't matter. The Tabris was here. The time was now.
He pushed his glasses farther up his nose and the arrogant image of the Phantom Thief Dark flashed through his mind, carrying pieces of art out of Satoshi's reach after another. The Hikari's family's art.
Satoshi clenched his teeth slightly and stepped forward.
It was a very beautiful statue.
He ran his fingers down the sculpture's legs, skimming delicately like a spider over water. "He will not get his hands on this statue," he hissed, at the universe in general.
And as if the universe was replying, there was a crash of thunder.
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And in the dark recesses of Satoshi's mind, Krad smiled.
Next up: Riku buys a dress, Daisuke gets a suit and Dark makes plans to crash the party
And that's it for now peeps.
As a warning for people who plan to read the masked ball and all, I'm not totally DNAngel oriented, and I haven't watched it in some time, so there may be a lot of inconsistencies with the actual plot, and the characters may be a little off. Sorry in advance.
Plus, can anyone guess why I named the angel Tabris:3
And – pairing alert! – I'm very open to all DNAngel pairings, but I'm especially fond of RikuxDark, RikuxDaisuke, SatoshixRisa and strangely enough RikuxKrad, so be ready for a good helping of these, a dozen other pairings, and perhaps even an OC in the future.
