Kairi had spared Riku one dance but hadn't the spirit for any more. She found a bench with a firm cushion and sat down, nursing the same glass of grape juice for an hour until a waiter came to take the empty glass. The ball carried on without her; Riku merely found a different random girl to dance with (it seemed that he was making a conscious effort to dance with all of them before the night was over). After only a couple of dances Marli and Sora had called it quits for the moment and disappeared from Kairi's view.

The seat cushion dipped as someone sat down beside her. She glanced at them, expecting that she would barely need to acknowledge their presence but her eyes widened and she did a double-take. Sitting beside her, straight-backed and powerful even at rest, was Terra. He looked at her, amused by her gawking.

"You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

"No, not at all," Kairi replied quickly, turning to face the ballroom with flushed cheeks.

Terra nodded and an awkward silence settled between them. Eventually Terra cleared his throat and made an attempt at conversation: "I noticed you shared the first dance with my apprentice."

"Riku? Yeah," Kairi said listlessly and before she could hold it in she blurted out: "What's up with him?"

Terra chuckled. "Riku's very free-spirited but he doesn't always know the correct way to direct himself. He's a lot like me in my younger days, actually. The moment I met him I recognised that. It was part of the reason why I decided to apprentice him."

"Aqua said…" Kairi started, glancing at Terra ambivalently. There was something unusual about this sudden drive towards conversation. "Aqua told me earlier that what you did might be wrong."

Terra nodded sagely. "Yes, it may yet turn out that way and I know what Aqua thinks of my decision but it's because he's so much like me that giving him the Keyblade was important. It may not seem like it from where you're standing but Riku has a big heart with even bigger potential. However, he is also naïve and feckless. He needs guidance or he might be too easily swayed towards a path of self-destruction, intentional or not."

Kairi nodded wordlessly, searching the crowd for Riku again only to find him at the very edge without a dance partner. He was standing beside his good friend, Sora, yet they weren't happily laughing together like before. In fact, they seemed to be bickering.

"I know what Aqua spoke to you about tonight." There it was. This is what Kairi had suspected he was leading up to. "I don't want to encourage or discourage you, just let you know that you have a choice and you should make it carefully."

"You didn't give Riku much of a choice," she pointed out quietly. Not that Riku was complaining from what she'd heard.

"I just explained Riku's case to you, but you're different. Some people have a stronger internal light and it's harder for them to lose sight of their ideal path."

"I won't lose sight of it," Kairi assured him flatly.

Terra's lips quirked into a wry smile. "I sincerely hope not. But assurances of the future, no matter how much conviction is put into them, are unreliable at best. It's only in the final hour that people's true colours are revealed."

The words got stuck in Kairi's heart, weighted with significance that her mind scrambled to decipher. However, before she could make any conclusions their conversation (which was already on the wind up anyhow) was politely interrupted and Kairi looked up, startled. She hadn't seen or heard him approach.

"Pardon me, Master Terra," Ienzo said, letting that hang in the air.

Kairi immediately sprang to her feet. So many words and sentences fought to be spoken and the result was that none were. She stared at Ienzo and he looked back at her, giving her a small smile. Terra rose slower.

"Ah, the new heir. What an honour to be graced with your presence." He showed it with a respectful half-bow.

"I missed you earlier," Ienzo conversed. "Master Aqua was pleasantly accommodating, though. I take it she's the speaker of your crew."

"She has a way with words that I certainly don't," Terra quipped. "Queues aren't really my thing anyway."

Ienzo almost laughed. "Perhaps I'll be able to take an audience with you next time."

"Maybe," Terra shrugged. He sauntered off, flashing one last smirk over his shoulder.

Kairi and Ienzo watched him leave. Neither of them spoke until he was gone and it was Ienzo who broke the silence first.

"They're mysterious."

Kairi looked at him nonplussed, unable to tell if he was talking to her or just to himself.

"I think he's testing me," Ienzo continued, unperturbed by her silence. "The Keyblade Wielders sometimes act with disregard or even contempt for authority while moving fluidly throughout the world as if they belonged to all milieus. I wonder if that's how they're chosen or if this is part of the duty they perform. It's a pity they're not forthcoming about themselves or their world… if they do have a different world."

With a start it occurred to Kairi that throughout her life she had been privy to much more information about the Keyblade Wielders than it was typically anyone's business to know. She had a sudden information advantage over Ienzo but before she could figure out what to do with it he turned to her with a sheepish expression that was so adorable that it stopped all of her thoughts in their tracks.

"Never mind that for now, though. I specifically came here to speak to you. Do you mind if we go somewhere private?"

She nodded and he held his arm out for her to loop hers around. Ienzo walked her back to the stairs yet curiously nobody stopped them. Surely everyone would have wanted to chat with (and curry favour with) the new heir but no one even glanced their way. It was when Ienzo accidentally bumped someone and the man turned to them with confusion that Kairi guessed Ienzo was using some sort of magic to make them invisible to people. Yet another item on a long and fast-growing list of odd surprises she'd learnt about him recently.

The great doors had been left open for people to come or leave as they pleased and the two large men were still posted at both sides. Kairi looked at each of them warily. The larger, brown-haired man didn't seem to notice them but the man with black dreadlocks glared at them discerningly. Ienzo made some kind of gesture, it must have been a code he frequently used because the guard rolled his eyes and heaved his shoulders as if he was sighing, reluctantly turning a blind eye.

Once they were in the corridor there was no extra security since most of the guards were stationed around the ball. Ienzo took Kairi to a room that she didn't understand the purpose of. Two opposing walls were filled with shelves – one of which even incorporated a bureau – as if this was supposed to be a library but the space was bare save for a pedal harp and the cushioned seat nestled in the bay window. The curtains in front of the great windows of the ballroom had been drawn shut but here the windows were tied back and with dismay Kairi noted that it was still raining outside. There were no lights on but there was light coming in from the window. She crossed the room and sat down in the window seat looking over an exquisite garden of trimmed hedges and flowering bushes. Lamps placed throughout it were alight even though the garden was currently empty. The door clicked softly when Ienzo closed it but he didn't turn on the lights inside.

"I would ask if you were enjoying the ball," he said gently, filling the room warmly with his voice, "but judging by your melancholy right now I believe there's something on your mind."

"Why did you invite me here?"

She turned away from the garden and got up, moving towards the harp. Ienzo came to stand beside it, watching her stroke and strum the strings curiously.

"Why do you believe I invited you?"

"I don't know," she grumbled, brow furrowing in frustration.

"You don't know or you don't want to believe it?"

"Ienzo, I don't want to play games with you right now," Kairi snapped, glaring at him, "because honestly, I don't know where I stand with you right now."

"You stand where you've always stood with me."

"Which I guess is why you didn't tell me that part of this stupid party was for you to choose a fiancée!" Ienzo put a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. "What the hell?!"

She tried to stomp past him but he put an arm out to stop her. "That's not a part of this event at all although I understand why some confusion might have arisen."

"Then start explaining." Kairi crossed her arms tightly.

"This ball is a part of my formal introduction to the society as the heir apparent. Traditionally, it also means that any fiancée I may have would also need to be introduced but I figured it was too soon to be advertising our relationship as such. The line I had to speak with were dignitaries and representatives from a variety of places – courts, countries, families of note, or even other worlds – and their task is generally to report back so that the bodies of authority they represent can determine whether I have their approval or not. Apparently, since this event doesn't come around very often for obvious reasons, they often send newbies to this sort of thing as a kind of test for them but dignitaries are sometimes wily and will introduce an accompanying marriageable child or send such a child as their representative as a way of getting royal attention and hopefully interesting the heir in choosing a fiancée. As you can imagine, marrying the monarch raises a family's social standing considerably. However, that sort of behaviour isn't especially common, the only reason I can think for why the courting was so aggressive is-"

"Ansem didn't marry," Kairi finished for him. "And he didn't have kids, not even illegitimate ones, to our knowledge. You're the closest he has to an actual prince because you're his ward."

Ienzo nodded. "For reasons of wanting to inject royal genes back into the royal line or for wanting confidence and security in the future of the royal family in the coming generations or for whatever other reasons, the world's aristocracy is eager to see me betrothed."

"Okay…" Kairi muttered, turning to the harp and running her fingers down all of the strings. "And where do I come into this story?"

"Would you believe that the primary reason why I invited you was because I just wanted you to see it?"

"See what?"

"The event. I wanted you to be there and watching when Ansem named me the heir. I was really anxious about… I kind of still am but it's a really important part of my life and you're really important to me, so I wanted you to be there to witness it."

Kairi snorted trying to hold back her hysterical giggles but they burst forth in a torrent. Ienzo raised his visible eyebrow and waited for the tide to subside but it was taking a while and in the end Kairi resorted to speaking through her sniggers.

"All this time… all this time I was freaking out and… and trying to f-figure out… but there was no game!" She looked at him as if he had transformed before her very eyes. "Here I was beginning to think that almost everything was an information game with you but you just… you just wanted me here."

Her eyes were starting to tear up. She dabbed at them with her fingers. That mascara and eyeliner better be as waterproof as they claimed to be. Ienzo wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and letting her head rest against his shoulder.

"You need to seriously work on your communication. It's not good to keep secrets from people you claim are important to you."

"My apologies, but in my defence it was really a secret affair."

"Meaning…?"

"You technically weren't invited. I had to pull a few strings behind others' backs to get you on the guest list and to get an invitation written for you. Why do you think I handed it to you in person rather than let it get mailed with all of the others?"

"Okay… so, then, why didn't you at least tell me you were the prince instead of making me believe that 'ward of the castle' nonsense for so long?"

"Ah, that was a little selfish of me, yes," Ienzo admitted, pressing his cheek against her head. "Technically I wasn't a prince; I wasn't officially recognised as such until tonight since I have no direct connection to Ansem's lineage. But that's not a good excuse is it? It's just…" Ienzo sighed deeply. "I think this is going to sound dumb but I remember some of the work Dilan used to do with psychology students about the effect of social status on relationships and so I was always suspicious of my own relationships with anybody outside of Ansem's apprentice circle, especially since everybody I met always knew of me before I had even heard of them. But when I met you it was the first time that I had a chance to meet someone who I didn't know and who didn't know me in return. We were perfect strangers. I felt like we had been on equal footing ever since then and it was all about you and me and nothing else. I liked it. I really liked it."

Kairi giggled, this time more happily and playfully. "Funny that I felt a little bit differently, since you were always so evasive about things." Ienzo at least had the good grace to look embarrassed. She put her arms over his shoulders and looked up to be nose-to-nose with him. "It doesn't sound dumb. But it turns out that I actually have a really thoughtful and sensitive boyfriend who's very sneaky on my behalf. I think I've acquired a very dangerous weapon at my disposal."

"No girl should ever be allowed to wield such power," Ienzo played along, closing the distance between their lips gradually. "But I'll allow it."

Their lips met in a kiss that was slow and sweet yet chaste, sticky with lipstick and backed by the chorus of raindrops outside. Everything else was so far away from them; they couldn't even faintly hear the music from the ball. As they parted Kairi chuckled at the colour staining Ienzo's lips.

"You should probably wipe that off before you go back there," she teased.

He smiled and stole another kiss before going over to the bureau to find a tissue. While he did that Kairi's fingers wandered up and down the strings of the harp again.

"Do you play?" Ienzo asked across the room, dabbing Kairi's lipstick off until he couldn't wipe away any more.

"No. My parents said musical instruments were too expensive. The only instruments I played were the ones I got to try at school."

Ienzo tossed the tissue in a waste paper bin hidden discretely under the bureau. He went back to the instrument in the middle of the room and sat down at the stool, pulling it closer to himself and getting adjusted. Kairi stepped back from it to give him space as he placed his fingers beside the strings and began to play a rhapsody. The strings weaved a tapestry of notes like a stream, bubbling up from a spring in the mountains and making its way down the slope, running over rocks and between trees, meandering through a valley and then spilling into a great lake full of magic and with a shining town floating in the middle.

Kairi sat down on the window seat again, watching Ienzo's fingers work the strings. At some point her gaze wandered back out to the garden and the steady veil of rain falling over it. She settled back, alternately watching Ienzo play and observing the empty garden. Everything was at peace again.

The last notes rung through the air when Ienzo had finally finished playing. They stayed seated where they were companionably. Ienzo was the first to rise, reminding them that he actually had an official role in the event. They went arm-in-arm back to the ballroom, pausing just before reaching it.

"Why don't you tidy up your make-up?" Ienzo suggested, facing Kairi. She raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't that just a ruse for 'I think we should enter the ballroom separately'?"

"You understand me so well; I think we'll do fine."

Kairi laughed dryly. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing anyway."

She was about to step away but Ienzo held her hand tightly. She looked back at him curiously. "Kairi, I know this is hard to understand, not necessarily intellectually but on an emotional level, that I have to appear regal now and that might mean playing nice with people who obviously have ulterior motives. I'm going to be mingling and dancing with a lot of other people but I'll save my last dance for you if you save yours for me."

Kairi couldn't help but smile as she gave him another small kiss on the lips. They parted ways in the corridor, Kairi headed to a bathroom while he went straight back to the ballroom, attempting to pass the guard as if nothing had happened but Dilan stopped him with a hand on his arm. Ienzo raised a challenging eyebrow. Across the doorway, Aeleus regarded them bemusedly.

"Your lips look a little pink," Dilan murmured accusingly.

Ienzo was taken aback but recovered quickly with a smirk, replying cheekily: "I just felt the need to freshen up a bit."

He brushed past and Dilan couldn't keep him, new rank and all. At the bottom of the stairs, a girl in a flamboyant red dress bounced up to him, loudly demanding his attention despite the futile efforts of her attendant in green to hold her back. Hiding a long-suffering sigh behind a congenial smile, Ienzo bowed and held a hand out for hers to kiss. He would humour her for one dance and that was all.


Kairi was starting to get a little drowsy and hadn't kept an eye on the time. She was still waiting on Ienzo to make good on his promise and in the meantime had filled the hours idly. Sora sat by her for a little while, having a conversation but he didn't have Marli with him, making Kairi worry for where she could be. However, Sora eventually got dragged away by some young noblemen who considered themselves worldly and educated, looking to solicit details about his home island and culture. Kairi didn't think they'd have much luck – Sora wasn't very forthcoming about that information. She did get to dance around the ballroom again a few times, twice with some boys who were quite direct with stating their advances and once with a girl who insisted on them dancing with their arms wrapped around each other very intimately just so that her mother would stop trying to convince her to "come on to the prince".

Somehow, Kairi had ended up in the peculiar position of being sandwiched between a talking mouse and a talking duck on a bench. Unlike Sora they were more than happy to confer with some specifics about the world they lived on, which was apparently full of other Animals like them while being utterly devoid of humans. She got sucked into the discussion of how strange it must be for Animals to walk among humans while trying to consider what it would be like to take a trip to the world of Disney. Until someone cleared their throat. Kairi looked up, startled.

"Prince Ienzo, good evening," the mouse – who Kairi now knew as Minnie – said, holding out her ring hand. Ienzo knelt down to her level to kiss the jewel. She was a queen and therefore had the right to demand such respect, after all. "Congratulations on your… ah, I'm not sure what to call it, actually. We don't have such a custom in Disney World."

"I am being named heir, that is all there is to it," Ienzo replied.

"Seems s-hic!-silly to me," the duck, Daisy, remarked forgetting her manners now that she was on her umpteenth champagne flute. "What if… what if something happened an-and you couldn't be the -hic!- the prince anymore?"

"I'm afraid in that case the succession process will simply have to begin again," Ienzo answered earnestly, despite her state. "It isn't without precedent: Rylan the Jolly ran a separate ball for each of his three children before anyone was confident and content that the new heir would be a reliable successor. However, that speaks more to his stubbornness in the face of advice and unpreparedness more than anything."

The ladies laughed in good humour.

"Nonetheless, it's quite a grand ball; a very awe-inspiring event," Minnie said. "You're staying to the end of it, aren't you?"

"Unfortunately, I plan to retire soon. There are still the public formalities that I need to attend to tomorrow and I wouldn't want to be out of sorts. However, before I go, I would request a dance from this young lady."

Kairi took his hand and allowed him to pull her out of her seat. He said a polite farewell to the Animals and led her into the middle of the ballroom. The crowd had already thinned significantly and the ensemble was playing slowly to wind things down. They both put an arm around each other and Kairi let Ienzo lead her around the floor in the flow of direction.

It was late and Kairi was already too tired to dance properly. Her fingers intertwined with Ienzo's and she leaned forwards to rest her chin on his shoulder, observing the ballroom from there. With a grin she noticed Terra and Aqua dancing very close. King Mickey brought his queen out for a final dance too, while Daisy was dragging her partner around with a great fuss. Kairi laughed. They were making more of a scene than necessary and getting their feathers all over the floor. Ienzo turned and Kairi's vision panned the room until her stare fell upon something that made her jaw drop.

"I knew something was up with them!" Marli hissed in her ear. She turned to her in surprise.

"Marli!"

Her friend winked, currently draped over the arm and shoulder of an awkward-looking Ventus, who was glancing at his fellow apprentice across the floor. Kairi also went back to observing Riku, dancing slowly with Sora, arms around his waist. Their bodies were almost pressed flush against each other and their foreheads were touching as they slowly – almost sleepily – rotated in movements that vaguely resembled partner dancing. Their heads tilted slightly and it seemed that they had moved closer. All doubt about what had happened flew from Kairi's mind when a woman passing the couple gasped. She blushed from the ruffled collar of her neck to her hairline and hurried away, one gloved hand over her mouth.

Kairi cuddled closer to Ienzo. He kept taking her around at such a relaxing pace that she began to feel drowsy. Upon passing Marli happily enthralled in the steps with Ventus and noticing the time on her little silver watch the tiredness fled from Kairi's eyes.

"Uh oh!" she gasped, tearing herself out of Ienzo's embrace and grabbing Marli's wrist, to her annoyance. Kairi lifted her watch arm so the face was more visible. "It's almost midnight! We said we'd be ready for mum to pick us up nearly an hour ago!"

Marli's eyes widened.

"It's okay if you have to go," Ventus said with a tender smile. "I'll come and visit you sometime."

Marli flashed him a coquettish smile and gave him a peck on the cheek as a goodbye. Kairi turned to Ienzo apologetically.

"Sorry to cut this short."

"Not at all. Every moment I got to spend with you had been the highlight of my night."

Mindful of the people around them, Ienzo merely stepped back and kissed the back of her hand politely. Kairi would have been happy to leave with such a gentlemanly gesture but the sight of the ostentatious red dress in her periphery gave her a new idea. When Ienzo straightened up she darted in to steal one last kiss. She was gone just as quickly, running towards the stairs after Marli as fast as she could on her heels. She turned to give the ballroom one last glance at the bottom of the stairs, satisfied with the scandalised reactions on the faces of the other patrons who had witnessed her bold move. The look on Lani's face was absolutely apoplectic.

Ienzo was smirking in good humour and offered a small wave, which she returned almost shyly. At Marli's insistent tug, she turned to continue up the stairs. With any luck they'd get to the front doors before Kairi's mother started to burn the castle down.

.

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End


A/N: So that's it, that's my story. Actual romance happened in this chapter, yay! Please leave a review and tell me what you think since there isn't any more, so this is, like, the ultimate appropriate time to leave feedback. Thank-you and buh-bye!

... at least until next time. ^_^