Estellise studied her reflection for a moment. This was the third dress she'd tried on in the last hour and despite the fact that time was running out, she could not decide for sure if this was the right one. She didn't know why she was so concerned, after all she'd been through on her journeys with her friends... what she was wearing now just to see them again probably shouldn't have been that big of a deal. But she wanted it to be right, she wanted it to fit her. She was a lot stronger now than she was before her travels, yet she couldn't forget a certain comment a Mr. Yuri Lowell had idly thrown her way.

i"That doesn't really suit you either."/i

Whatever that had meant, she wanted to wear something that really suited her. There was an air of wanting Yuri to be impressed with her... it was silly, but she couldn't help wanting to make sure he took notice of her the right way.

"Estelle! Estelle!"

Flustered, Estelle looked into the mirror one last time. "Oh well..." She began, "This will just have to do!" And she sauntered toward the door, bowing her head. "Karol!" She said, gracefully - though she was unable to control the excitement in her voice. Leaning down a little, she couldn't help but hug the younger boy who seemed to blush a bit.

"Estelle! Hey! I've missed you!" He replied, his face still flushed even as they separated. Taking a better look at the pink haired princess, he gasped."iWow/i!"

"What? What is it? Is something wrong?!" Terrified, Estelle turned around in confusion and the younger boy shook his head.

"N-no! You just... um... look different!"

From behind, a much taller figure emerged. Her clothing was far more revealing and yet, she seemed to be at utter confidence with this. The expression on Judy's face made Estelle nervous however, but Judy spoke before she could even reply to Karol or greet the Krityan. "Karol, she looks beautiful!" It was rare for Judith to show much excitement but her face seemed to light up like a happy child's. Karol nodded his head soon after, "Y-yeah. Well, come on everyone's waiting in the Dining Hall! Flynn's even here too and everyone's been waiting for you!"

"Flynn?" Estelle questioned, eyes widening a bit. She'd forgotten all about Flynn, somehow... and also about any of the conversation that'd just transpired. She wasn't too confident she looked as beautiful as Judy said she did, but then again... it wasn't like Judith to lie. Ever. Blushing a little, she shook her head. What was Flynn going to say about how she looked? It was really not extradonarily different from her usual, grand and puffy dresses but perhaps a little bit less... flashy. It had a certain, simple elegance to it and the way her hair was clipped back out of her face made every expression she showed an obvious one. That made her nervous too.

"Well... okay, I don't want to keep them waiting any longer! I'm sorry! Is Rita here? Has she been able to take a break from her documenting?" Since the end of their journey, Rita had taken the liberty of trying to document most of their travels. "And... and Raven?"

Judith spoke up first, "Yes, our lovely genius mage has decided to grace us with an appearance although she claimed it was only because she had some backtracking to do around here... for some information she needed. That's our Rita for you -"

"And the old man's here! Of course! Come on Estelle!" Leading the way at a much higher speed than the rest, Karol raced through the castle nearly leaving Estelle breathless as she chased after him. Judith followed along at a much calmer pace.

A lot of people were proud and thankful for what Brave Vesperia had done for them, but despite this Estelle couldn't help but have the selfish hope that the Dining Hall wouldn't be too crowded with this reunion. She wasn't sure how she could handle so many people in one place, when really, she sort of just wanted to talk to one in particular... it seemed like a while since she had spoken to him.

Finally, the three had sauntered into the Dining Hall and it wasn't with out a greeting.

"Woof!" That was certainly a familiar sound. Grinning, Estelle leaned down, "Repede!" She tried, and surprisingly he didn't inch back too terribly. From the other side of Repede, Estelle caught sight of Rita quite quickly. It was hard to miss the mage with her red hair and bodacious attitude.

"Estelle!" Looking more than overjoyed, Rita inched toward the princess. "Whoa! Look at you!" Her face contorted into a smirk. "Who are you aiming to impress tonight, huh?"

"Rita!" ... A pause. "What do you mean...?! I'm not trying to -" Another interruption broke her half-finished verbal thought.

"Well, well, well. Look at ya! Aren't you all spiffed up! Heh, good to see you. Be careful, someone might snatch you up - you look almost too delicious to resist! Better than all the grub on the tables, at any rate... thought this was supposed to be a royal event..." The dark haired Raven sent a wink toward the princess, and then grinned as his mumbles faded. This time, Estelle flinched visibly and looked a bit horrified for a brief second before she regained her composure.

"Umm... I'm not sure I'd like that," Pausing, she exhaled a breath. "Have any of you seen Flynn... or... Yuri?"

"So, ithat's/i why you're all dressed up!" Rita couldn't help slapping Estelle on the back, a little itoo/hard and again Estelle looked genuinely confused and embarrassed. "N-no it's not like that! I just haven't seen them in such a long time, it feels like!" Rita grinned, but had no time to tease her friend any further because Yuri himself had finally entered the scene.

"What's the commotion over here... Estelle!" Despite the fact that he usually tried to keep a cool demeanor, it was hard to not surrender to what he saw. Not only had he missed the girl dearly - he'd gotten used to her near by, but she did look absolutely perfect. "Whoa, looks like you got a makeover. I like it, it suits you for once."

Estelle felt her cheeks go crimson and it felt like she was in the desert again, something she didn't exactly want to relive now or ever. "Yuri! Oh... thank you..." Although she'd probably never admit it verbally, that had been iexactly/i what she'd wanted to hear. "Oh... um.. so, where's Flynn, Yuri?" She asked, cautiously to keep the awkward silence at bay.

"He's right over -" Turning around, Yuri was surprised to see that Flynn had disappeared. Confused, he turned back to Estelle. "He was just standing over there a minute ago. He would barely shut up about you finally being back here." A smirk had crossed his features, and Estelle seemed to tilt her head in confusion.

"I'm going to make sure he's alright." Nodding her head, Estelle disappeared from the Hall - a confused Karol looking on at the scene, and her hearing his voice but not quite sure what he had said... her mind was racing with other things, at the moment. For some reason or rather she was surprised to see Flynn standing alone at the end of the hallway, looking as though something was deeply troubling him.

"Flynn?" Estelle asked, in a tone she hoped he'd just be able to catch. She almost felt like she was disturbing him, like he was in the middle of an oddly private moment... alone.

Turning at once to look at the pink haired girl, Flynn's voice faltered a bit as he saw her up close. "Lady Estellise... why did you leave the Hall? Everyone was waiting to see you..." Trailing off a little, he looked half at the wall - as if he were trying to hide his expression.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay, and well, I wanted to know why you left. Yuri said that you were right there... but when we looked, you'd gone. I thought maybe you didn't want to see me, or talk to me! And I can't figure out what I could have done!"

"No!" Feeling guilty, Flynn flinched visibly. "Of course not! I wanted to see you... and I did."

"But you didn't want to talk to me? Why?" Estelle tilted her head, looking as if she was becoming more confused by the moment. She hated feeling ignorant to other people's feelings, but sometimes, probably because of her upbringing... it was hard to understand people. Yes, it was still hard for her to understand a lot of things.

"Because I saw the way you looked at him... and how he looked at you, which... forgive me, it isn't surprising with how you look tonight." Pausing as if he'd committed a crime, Flynn stiffened. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be saying these things. I'm going to take my leave now." With out another word between the two, he began to walk away and oddly enough Estelle couldn't find the power to stop him. She was glued to the spot by some incredible, invisible force.