Disclaimer: I only own the plot bunnies (and a copy of Tin Man on DVD).
A/N: So like I said, I had already written this part and I thought I'd post it. This one is infinitely longer than than the last.
Chapter 2: The Manners of Dress
Nobody could throw a party like the Royals could. That was for damn sure. And no one knew exactly how to torture a girl with lung crushing corsets like the Royals either. DG could attest to this as she stood atop the dressmaker's stool, while several women scurried around her feet, pinning and measuring and poking and prodding; her mother and Azkadellia stood nearby and Cain leaned against the far wall by the door.
"It's too…" she struggled for a word, "…froofy." She examined her pale pink, tulle-covered ball gown in the full-length mirror before her, with a grimace.
"It is a bit much," the Queen agreed.
"Thank you!" DG threw her arms up for added enthusiasm and abruptly cringed when a loud tear echoed through the room.
Arms still raised above her head, DG turned sheepishly to her mother, "Oops."
Her mother could only shut her eyes and shake her head as Az attempted - rather poorly, DG noted - to hide her laughter behind a cough. Even Cain - who she could see in the mirror - was smirking, his hat pulled low over his eyes.
As instructed, neither he nor Az had mentioned anything about DG's dream, and - as the design had faded and the pain had ebbed - nothing about her hand and the mark. Deeg decided that if it came back she ask her parents, but until then, mum was the word.
"Well, I'd say that one's out," Lurline decided, sighing. The Head Dressmaker got off the floor in a huff, storming off to retrieve the Princess's next option - followed by the small army of seamstresses.
"It really is rather hideous," Azkadellia commented, fingering the pink ruffles attached to the monstrosity her sister had been forced into. She silently thanked Ozma that she had found a simple dress to wear to the party.
"Not to mention way too small," DG snapped pulling at the now-partially-torn bodice in a fruitless attempt to breathe, "Does everyone in the O.Z. think I'm still eight?" She tossed a pointed glare at Cain, whose eyes - she noticed - were on anything but her.
"Hardly," the Queen interjected - laughter in her voice, "You'd never believe how many suitors have shown up here asking for permission to court you."
"Ugh," DG winced, turning around to face them, "don't say that word."
Az grinned, "Yes, thank goodness it was my face the witch took; no man wants to trek across the O.Z. to sweep me off my feet." DG rolled her eyes at Azkadellia's bluntness. The woman had been spending far too much time with her younger sister - she was learning how to mask her emotions with sarcasm.
"Lucky you," Deeg replied facetiously. Then she turned to her mother and smiled, "Besides, it's not like we'll ever find a guy like Dad; he literally fell into your lap."
The three women laughed as a soft knock at the door broke the mother-daughters moment and the man in question stepped inside with a smile. He loved seeing his women happy, especially with each other, but as his eyes fell on his youngest, his face contorted in disgust.
"Is that what you're wearing?" he asked. Az snickered again and Cain had to pull the brim of his hat even lower.
"No, thank god!" DG exclaimed.
"Besides, she ripped it," Az accused playfully.
"Oh, well, thank Ozma for small miracles," Ahamo said with a smile, both his girls breaking into fits of laughter. He turned to his wife, who was shaking her head again, "Ambrose - err, Glitch - whatever his name is wanted to talk to you about something or other for tonight."
"Yes, of course. I'd like to see the dress you pick DG, preferably before the party," the Queen instructed, hoping DG would actually have a dress picked by then.
"Sure thing, Momma!" DG replied brightly, giving her mother a thumb's up. As usual, everyone in the room - besides Ahamo - gave her a strange look. Ahamo simply led his wife to the door, attempting to explain DG's odd gesture, leaving Az and DG alone with Cain.
DG turned back to the mirror, grimacing again as she tried in vain to loosen the ties of the dress. She knew that if they stayed quiet for much longer, her dream would be brought up and she really didn't want to talk about that. She was still trying to sort through the whole thing herself. The cave didn't feel familiar, not like the one she was used to seeing in her dreams - and damn was she sick of creepy caves - but the girl with yellow dress, she knew that girl, she just didn't know from where. With a sigh of frustration at both the dress she couldn't get out of and her shoddy memory, she turned back to the amused face of her sister and Mr. Cain.
"Mr. Cain would you be so kind as to cut me out of this thing before I pass out?" she joked, hands on her hips.
"Oh, Deeg," Az giggled as Cain finally approached the sisters, rolling his eyes.
"What? I'm running out of oxygen as it is. I don't know how anyone can wear something like this."
"Practice," Az replied.
"In what? Asphyxiation, because I think I'm getting first hand experience with that one right now," DG complained pulling at the bodice once more.
"Come on," Az held up her hand to help her sister off the stool and together they stepped behind the changing screen, as Cain respectfully turned his back.
"I don't know what your problem is, Princess, apparently this style is 'all the rage'," Cain commented, mimicking what Glitch had said about the design when the Head Dressmaker was showing off the sketches.
"Yeah, well, they should take a hint from Levi and make jeans instead of torture devices," DG whined as Az untied the ribbons on the back of the bodice.
"Oh, stop being such a drama queen; I've been wearing leather and platforms for fifteen years, I think you can manage to wear a corset for an evening," Az chided, loosening the final ribbon and helping DG slip out of the dress.
"Air! Oh, my god I missed you! I almost forgot what you felt like!" DG cried dramatically, earning an eye roll from both her sister and Cain.
She slipped her over-sized sweater over her head, pulled on her jeans and stepped from the behind the screen. Cain turned around to be met with one of her wide smiles as she looped her arm in his.
"Come on Tin Man, we better get off to my lesson before the Singing Mice come back."
He raised an eyebrow and she sighed: witticisms lost all their entertainment when people around you didn't understand them. Instead she gave him a 'never mind' and tossed a 'goodbye' over her shoulder to Az before leading the Tin Man away from her chambers.
He opened his mouth to talk to her, but she cut him off.
"Look Cain, I know you're not happy about this - me not mentioning my dream or hand to my mother - but I don't want to freak her out, and the pain's gone and the design faded so it's really nothing. If it happens again then I'll tell her - I promise - but right now you have to trust me that it was just a dream," she ranted. When she paused to take a breath he jumped in.
"Princess, I'm not your father, I've got no right telling you how to live your life, or how to deal with this, so if you don't want to tell your mother then fine, I got no choice but to listen - but don't insult my intelligence by pretending that it was just a dream. Nothing is ever 'just' with you," Cain said, leaving DG's mouth hanging open. She stared at him wide-eyed before realizing that this was exactly why she liked having Cain around.
She closed her mouth and turned it up in a smile, "Okay."
He raised an eyebrow and glanced down at her, expecting her to fight him, or get snarky but she was just smiling up at him in the most sincerely innocent way and it made the corners of his mouth twitch upwards.
"Good," he nodded once and the matter was settled.
"Back straight, DG."
"Elbows off the table, DG."
"That's not a suitable topic of discussion, DG."
"It's always 'yes' never 'yeah', DG."
"Don't slip your shoes off under the table, DG."
She so desperately wanted to throw her fork across the table at Tutor - as it was she was gripping it so tightly that her knuckles were white and she could no longer feel her fingertips. Not to mention the aggravated threats she kept throwing in Cain's direction after he'd tried to discretely cover his laugh with a cough for the third time.
She didn't really want to kill Tutor - but still, the man was trying to turn her into an automaton princess - which she obviously wasn't - and in all fairness she had a lot on her mind at the moment, seeing as how she had nowhere near forgotten about her dream.
And Cain was so not helping the situation. He'd been offered to join them for their lunch/teach-DG-how-to-not-start-a-civil-war-at-the-party session. And he'd spent the entire time trying to hide his amusement at her suffering. He was such an ass!
Especially since he was damn good at being a courtier - or at least he could fake it with the best of them. She imagined that it was probably because he'd been on the Mystic Man's detail and, according to Az it was extremely likely that - as a child - she had met him - or at least seen him - at one of the many events the Royal Family held.
But apparently thirteen years does crazy things with the memory - she could totally attest to that, her mind flashing back to the girl in the yellow dress.
And so could Tutor - who was currently giving her a dark glare and reprimanding her once again for muttering a simple spell under her breath to bring the salt closer to her.
"This is not the time to use your magic, DG."
"Then what good is it?" she grumbled, receiving both another vicious look from Tutor and another snort of laughter from Cain.
"DG, tonight, you'll be sitting in front of five hundred people who will be expecting you to be the princess they have been missing. And they'll get a woman with manners comparable to those of the Eastern Guild," Tutor snapped in response.
"Well then it's a good thing the Guild Fighters will be there; I'm sure they'll be much impressed!" She retorted rolling her eyes for what was probably the fortieth time that afternoon as Cain laughed again.
Abruptly in a huff, Tutor stood and DG was half figuring he'd given up on her when he walked around the table and grasped her elbow, pulling her up from her chair. Cain stood with them - as amused as ever.
"Hey! I need that arm!" Deeg whined.
But Tutor wasn't listening to her. Instead he dragged her from the room - with Cain following slightly behind - toward the Grand Ballroom. Or more precisely, to the top of the Grand Staircase leading into the Grand Ballroom. Here, he stopped, dropped her elbow, turned to Cain and pulled the former Tin Man forward to stand beside the Princess.
"Okay, Tutor, I know it might be too late to ask, but have to gone all Glitch on me?" DG questioned, eyeing her teacher suspiciously - fully convinced his synapses were misfiring.
He didn't answer but rather took hers and Cain's hands, stretched out their arms, and looped hers around his, bending them and setting them both back down. DG raised an eyebrow at her teacher.
"Tonight, before dinner, you'll have to walk down the stairs with your escort -."
Here she cut him off with a wave of her free hand, "Hold on, escort? Who the hell is going to escort me?"
Cain cleared his throat and her large blue eyes turned to the man beside her.
"You?"
Cain raised an eyebrow, "Something wrong with that, Princess?"
She was quick to amend herself, "No, it's just - I thought you didn't like all the ceremony and formalities and stuff."
He gave her a quick smirk, "I kinda thought it'd be fun."
Another wide smile blossomed across her face at the mischievous glint in his eye. But she begged the Gods that her face wasn't as red as it suddenly felt because, oh, gods, Wyatt Cain - her personal cowboy on a white horse - was escorting her to the party - and she promptly forgot the girl in the yellow dress, and her dream and her hand, as simply breathing was taking up all of her concentration.
What was she supposed to be doing? Oh yeah - walking down the stairs. Tutor was staring at her expectantly - a twisted, gleeful grin on his face - and she cringed knowing what exactly was making him smile.
"You're not concentrating DG," his amusement was almost enough to send her over the edge. Instead - with the help of Cain's arm to grip - she took a deep breath and ground her teeth together. Her anger only mounted when she felt Cain shaking with concealed laughter beside her.
"Sorry, Tutor," she managed through gritted teeth - digging her heel into Cain's toes for good measure. If Tutor noticed the pain that sprang to Cain's face, or the act that caused it, he didn't mention it.
"Now, Princess Azkadellia and Mr. Ambrose will enter first, and then you two and then the Queen and Consort. Let's practice going down the stairs," Tutor suggested. He scurried down the stairs and took a place at the bottom.
Stairs, how hard could going down stairs be?
In his loudest voice, Tutor introduced them, "All rise for the Princess Azkadellia and Royal Advisor Ambrose - the Princess Dorothigale and Commander Wyatt Cain."
At the sound of their names, DG and Cain easily trotted down the stairs at a leisurely pace. At the bottom, DG curtsied nearly to the floor - which earned an eye roll from Tutor - and then proceeded to welcome the invisible courtiers around them over dramatically.
"Thank you - thank you - oh, wonderful to see you again - yes, isn't my gown just completely garish? Thank you - thank you!" She went on as Cain tried in vain to cover his laughter. Tutor sighed once more, rubbing his palm over his eyes in defeat.
"Fine, DG, you may leave," he finally said.
She cut off immediately, whirling on him, her eyes wide, "Really?"
"If you insist on being immature then you may go," Tutor answered.
Guilt washed over DG's face, her eyes lowered to the ground as she scuffed at the polished marble with her sneaker. When she looked back up she noted that Cain was only smirking now and Tutor looked disappointed.
"Sorry Toto," she apologized, "I'll try to focus, I promise."
Tutor sighed again - ignoring the fact that she called him his pet name - and nodded, "Alright then, why don't you go back to the top and try it again, slower this time - and remember: you won't be wearing those shoes."
Ugh…the dreaded 'h' word. Heels.
"Kill me now," she whined as she and Cain started back up the stairs.
A/N 2: I hope you like this. Comments are wonderful to just let me know you're reading, even smiley faces are excellent to get! Before I forget, thanks bundles to all y'all!
