I am going to be sick. There are a bunch of hidden pairings; find them all, and you get a cookie and a dedication!
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Dedication: To the amazing people I call friends. You guys… I love you.
…–…
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There will be a ball, tonight.
There are lots and lots of balls, Hana reflects, and sometimes they are very tiresome. Yes, very, very tiresome.
Hana thinks that being a noble is over-rated. In a country like Fire, in a city like Konoha, being noble is entirely over-rated. Her family is Inuzuka, her clan being one of the highest noble order. Hyuuga, Yamanaka, Haruno and Uchiha are important, too, of course, and Uzumaki is the current ruling house…
Hana sighs, and looks down at the shining ink-black layers-of-tulle-and-sparkles-and-diamonds dress that is sitting on her bed. She knows that she will be wearing it tonight, along with the opera elbow-length gloves and those dreadful high heels.
Hana shudders. What a horrible, horrible excuse for a party. Just the prince's engagement to that little Hyuuga girl -that friend of Kiba's-, after all…
There is only one redeeming feature about tonight, Hana thinks. And that is, very simply, the fact that it is a masquerade ball.
The devilish half-mask sitting on her pillow stares at her with empty eyes and a gaping, laughing mouth, and Hana shivers in delight.
She has always liked imps, and this is no exception.
…–…
The night is a swirl of energy, bubbling with champagne and laughter.
There are people in costume, just as is mandated, and no one can see anyone else's face. The castle is lit with a million, trillion candles, glimmering in the hidden nooks and crannies where secret lovers meet. The tables are crammed with food, the air thick with the million scents of life.
The dancing couples on the floor know nothing of whom their partner's are, but that is the point of this - the prince wanted a party exactly like the one where he met his fiancé, and since he's the prince, of course he gets what he wants.
Laughter, dancing, food, and the alcohol flows free. And really, if happiness has a taste, it would be the flavour left in the mouths of those standing in the glowing room.
Hana is left feeling sick to her stomach.
This is not where she wants to be tonight; she would so prefer to be out with the horses and the dogs, near the kennels. But ah, the imp does love to dance, and not even Hana is one to deny the imp what the imp loves.
And so Hana wears the mask. She remembers that when she tied it on, the razzle-dazzle silk ribbons caught in her fingers; snared them like flies in a spider's web. Such a strange thought, spider's webs, on a night meant only for fun. Such an unpleasant thought.
But Hana does not want to think of such unpleasant things, not tonight. Not here. Tonight is not the right time to be thinking of such things, Hana, she scolds herself.
The orchestra sings through the air. No, not the right time at all.
Hana smoothes the front of her dress down, her fingers catching against one of the many diamonds sewn into the fabric to make it sparkle. Yes, Hana thinks, I am beautiful tonight.
And no one can see my face. These thoughts cheer her immensely, and she turns her attention to the center of the room, the dance floor.
There are ball-gowns swirling, and men in tails, and Han feels sicker then before. She's starting to hate this whole thing - Hana is no princess, and this place feels like a prison. This life feels like a prison, and Hana, no matter how much she wants to, cannot escape it.
So instead she dons a sardonic smile, and moves to the center of the floor. Hana will dance alone, because she finds that no one is worthy to dance with her.
Also, she knows no man in the room has the courage to approach the beautiful brunette in black, wearing the dangerous fire-coloured imp mask.
Or so Hana thinks, and she closes her eyes.
And then she is corrected, when she feels fingers linking through hers. She opens her eyes slowly, and her own sardonic smirk meets that of the darkly-coloured boy - no, man - in front of her.
He is wearing white; white and silver and an ink-dark blossom on his shirt that is a rose. Hana finds it amusing that they are wearing opposite colours; she, in her dress-the-colour-of-midnight, and he, in white and silver.
His mask is the farthest thing from an imp she has ever seen; he is wearing a simple Casanova mask; but, still, red in colour.
I can not see his face, Hana muses, and for the first time that night, she feels annoyed with the fact that the ball is, in fact, as masquerade. She can only see his eyes, and the flickering light in them quenches Hana's thirst to escape.
For now, anyways.
They spin around the room, elegant in a swirl of black and white. Hana feels hundreds of eyes on the back of her neck, where her hair is held up by glittering jeweled pins -obsidian and ruby and more, so many more, diamonds- and she wonders just who this man is.
He dips her back, and Hana's eyes momentarily find her younger brother's; Kiba's hair is so unruly, and Han silently tsk's. Kiba is standing with a girl with long blonde hair, and a smile that could only be Yamanaka in origin.
Hana almost smiles. If that girl is who Hana thinks she is, then Hana knows that there will be a marriage, and soon. She wonders if she'll be a bride's maid.
And then she is whipped up again, and pressed close to a broad chest.
Hana smiles, quiet, quiet, softly, softly, and she thinks that maybe she should push him away.
She doesn't. Instead, she whispers "Who are you?"
His voice is gentle, and Hana thinks she hears wind whispering through trees, but then the moment is gone. "Midnight," he says. "You'll know at midnight."
Hana has to wonder how he knows that they will still be dancing at midnight. And then she realizes that he is the only man in the room with enough balls to approach her.
And Hana almost laughs.
He spins her again, the imp mask laughing in the candle-light with delight at being so loved, and Hana catches sight of someone else with this man's hair colour, and Hana puzzles. That hair, she thinks, where have I seen that hair?
The answer is there, dangling out of reach, right in the front of Hana's mind. But she just can't reach it, so she stops trying, and the flash of pink and black twirls away from her vision. Just like everything else, this night.
…–…
The clock strikes eleven and Hana is not bored, surprisingly enough.
The man she is dancing with -because really, yes, they are still dancing- is intriguing, and Hana wonders if he is even noble at all.
He has an unexpectedly off-beat side that makes her smile. He speaks about running away in hushed whispers that thrill her, because, god, for so long she has just wanted to run…
But running is not an option when one is the current heir.
Hana's thoughts flash to Kiba, and she thinks that maybe we could run forever and forever, even though I don't know you're face-
But she feels like she has known him forever.
…–…
Eleven-thirty, and Hana is still being danced about the room. It is hot, and the candle-light and all the staring is starting to get to her.
But she, in true noble fashion, blooms in the light, even though her heart quakes and screams and rushes her to run away as fast as she can.
But she doesn't, and she smiles at the many other pairs of dancers on the floor. There are so many couples - a girl with red hair screaming at her partner, who simply laughed - a taller, older man with someone Hana vaguely recognizes as Kurenai - Anko? Is that Anko with someone with silver hair?
And they are all dancing. The twist, twirl, swirl of skirts and legs makes Hana dizzy until her partner pulls her outside.
…–…
Eleven-forty-five, and Hana is beginning to hate how slowly time moves when one wants it to just go.
She and he stand on the balcony together, sipping flutes of champagne in the glittery remnants of light and strains of laughter and music coming from inside.
It is quiet, and Hana smiles behind the laughing imp mask when his arm very gently slips around her waist.
She realizes with a morbid bit of humour that this is the most she has smiled in almost a week. She is with someone she is sure she has met before, but really, they are a mystery to her.
And she is feeling more alive then ever before.
…–…
Eleven-fifty, and Hana is so impatient, it hurts. She wills time to fly, fly free!
But it does not.
…–…
Eleven-fifty-nine, and Hana is breathless with anticipation. One more minutes; sixty seconds is all she has to wait.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-toc-
And then he pulls the mask off, and Hana has never seen a more beautiful face. Her fingers fumble with the silken ties on the still-laughing-imp mask, because, god, she wants to get it off more then she has ever wanted anything…
The leather inside of the mask clings to her face, cool and calm and protective- But she carefully peels it off anyways - because the imp does so love to dance, to sing, to be -, and she stares him in the face.
He really is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.
"Hana…" he whispers, like he has known all night, like this is a normal occurrence, like- like- like he loves her.
And then Hana stands on tiptoe (despite the heels), and very, very carefully kisses Uchiha Itachi on the mouth.
And she is in heaven.
…–…
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fin.
