I sat cross armed at the kitchen table, the mahogany surface barren apart from the invitation. A week passed by in hyper drive speed and the ball was now tonight.

Yes, tonight, as in, imminently.

Uncertainty caused my palms to feel wet and I wished for the hundredth time that my mother had picked up when I tried to call her. This wasn't my first ball- I had accompanied my mom when I was 9 to the fundraiser of a very influential American senator. The difference here was that, after entering, I wasn't about to duck out ten minutes in to be hoisted up by my uncle dressed as a cocktail waiter into vents too narrow for an adult to fit.

I actually had to mingle- with people. People who likely never once in their childhood scaled down a 44 story building with no safety equipment carrying their favourite hippo plushie in their teeth that their cousin, as a joke, had hidden on the top floor of Rotterdam's tallest skyscraper.

Still, even so, it would have been fine- I could handle a dance. The Hikage's are well versed in the ways of grifting and I had just as much education on ballroom etiquette implanted in my brain as any of the other young men and women attending – just, the emergency lipstick in every girl's clutch will probably be strictly for cosmetic purposes and won't, for instance, double as an electronic jammer.

My issue here was… I wasn't exactly sure of my purpose. It's easy walking into a room if, for some random example, you know going in that your goal is to seduce the president's son into giving you a secret tour of their winter chalet. Seduction can be boiled down to a science. I knew the exact number of times to blink in a minute, the best lighting to stand in and that I looked most attractive with my head tilted ten degrees up with calculated variation depending of the height of the mark. Once you start running all that through your head, it's hard to have any mental capacity left over to feel awkward. It's even easier if all you have to do is snatch something and leave.

Though I had no goal here, not really. I'm pretty sure I was just going for the sake of going.

I sincerely doubted that I was going to crack the code of the twins at this engagement, I was probably only going to get a few minutes from each of them and they would be in full-out host mode the whole time, a guise impossible to crack. It probably would have been stranger if I didn't go though. Either way it wouldn't hurt me to go but there was many potential opportunities I might miss for not going.

Still sometimes it's impossible to separate your thief senses with your antisocial teenage girl senses. In other words, it was hard to tell where this voice screaming 'don't go, don't go, oh god for all that is holy play sick!' was coming from. Probably from the girl. Still, it seemed counter intuitive to ignore my instincts when they were someday going to be the only thing keeping me alive.

That's what I did though.

I returned to my room and eyed the dress I had snatched from what was apparently my mother's closet. It had taken me well over an hour to choose seeing as none of them seemed quite appropriate for a glorified high school dance. I wondered if my mother ever wore anything not black or midnight shades of green, maroon, red, burgundy or blue.

I had already done my makeup and all that was left was to slip it on. I did so and stepped out in front of the mirror doubtfully. What I had finally selected had seemed simple enough. It was a very dark red, which I assumed was a little less startling than black. The neckline wasn't anything that would get me kicked out for indecency. (I mean, my God. I cringe to imagine my mother wearing some of those numbers even if she could pull them off)

The only part I didn't like about it (which was coincidentally probably the only reason my mother liked it) was the VERY open back.

I didn't look like I was going to a ball. I looked more like a woman who stepped out of a noir movie's dimly lit lounge – a femme fatale of sorts. Then I realized, by definition, I totally was.

The limo ride was, as expected, uneventful, and ended way too soon.

The driver came around to open the door for me, allowing me a couple more seconds to compose myself, glance in my compact mirror (for once not as counter surveillance but for actual appearance-checking reasons), and remind myself that I was a totally badass thief that had earned the ability to confidently rock a bold cut dress.

Then the door opened and my confidence shattered, but I hid it well when I stretched one long leg after the other out of the car before stepping out with a (totally fake) model's smirk and walking into the building, all too aware of how the dress elaborated each swing of my hips in a way that had the stragglers outside doing double-takes.

I was already not having fun.

The ballroom was brightly lit. Girls from the club strolled around in groups, giggling at the hosts who were making over-the-top greetings.

A lump formed in my throat, there was a lot of pastel – and I stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Ueda-hime!" A voice boomed with astonishment. I did not grimace, I turned around and gave a confident smile. "Suoh-Sempai." My voice was cool, I tried to visualize and embody snow blowing down a mountain.

"My, you are truly a rose tonight." He bowed, "I can't help but feel ensnared in you thorns-"

A hand whacked him away from me just as he was reaching for my hand. "Senpai, dial it down." Haruhi scolded, "Mei's not your customer, and you're probably creeping her out."

The words seemed to hit the King like bricks. He pointed at himself dumbly, "Me, a creep?"

I didn't mean to say it but it slipped out as I looked to Haruhi in surprise, "No one's ever called him that yet?"

Shock had rendered him mute.

Before he could fall to his knees, Haruhi went to comfort him, "Now, now Senpai. Now's not the time, you have all these ladies that have come to see you…"

"You're right." He said. "Plus…. There's a greater tragedy here…."

"Oh what now?" I asked under by breath.

He pointed at Haruhi, "It's the big dance and my baby girl is in a tux!" He bit into a hankie in tearful frustration, "Daddy wanted to see you in a dress."

"Now we both know why that's not going to happen." She said in annoyance. Then with a monotone expression she grabbed him by the collar, "come on now, back to work." She pause in dragging him away, and bowed to me, "Enjoy your evening Hime, you look very lovely."

"Very lovely indeed." Two voices purred. In an instant, the twins descended on me.

"What do you two want?" I asked, as one stroked my exposed shoulder.

"You pay for this, remember?" He smirked.

I guess I couldn't argue there.

They glanced around in perfect synchronization spotting Kozue and Haruna milling near the buffet. "Of course you came late, so we have other guests to see first." One said.

The other stroked my hair, "save a dance for us will you?"

Then they were gone splitting up between my two 'friends'. Haruhi was waltzing with one of her own guests. I was alone. It was like every school dance nightmare.

I stood there until the dance floor expanded and I had to step back.

I felt myself back into someone and I quickly turned around to apologize, then found myself instead just staring. "Dominic," I said.

Dominic whatever-his-last-name-is smiled at me as if he hadn't a care in the world. His suit was expensive and custom tailored, and despite being in a ballroom filled with a host of unnaturally handsome…. Well, hosts- he held his head high as if he were the most attractive man in the room. Despite my continued assurance that he ISN'T EVEN FLIPPIN' GOOD LOOKING, a couple girls nearby took note of him.

"Well, excuse me miss." He said with a grin, "but let me say you are quite the sight."

I just stared at him blankly. "thank you." I said in a way that didn't seem to accept the compliment at all. Then I walked away, all the way out of the main hall and I waited outside the bathrooms, leaning against the wall.

3, 2, 1. He turned the corner right on my count and I slammed him into the wall. "What are you doing here." I hissed. "I told you to leave me the hell alone you bloody stalker."

Playing dumb he tilted his head, all the while acting as if he weren't in immense pain as I twisted his elbow. "I'm not sure what you mean miss," he said. "I just transferred here. My word, are all women here this forward? I think I'm going to have a lot of fun." His eyes narrowed, "I love it when girls get forceful."

In disgust, I let him go before leaving him behind with his back still against the place I had held him. I didn't know what he was planning, but I also didn't have the energy to deal with him tonight.

Still a little ticked off, I didn't notice until a dancing pair bumped into me. I staggered to the side.

"Sorry Mei!" A voice called, and I got my bearings just soon enough to see Kozue waving apologetically, not breaking her stride with her partner twin.

I had bigger problems though.

I looked down in my hands.

I was holding a wallet that was definitely not mine. "Shoooooooooooooooooooooooooooot" I whispered. "Shoot, shoot,shoot."

It was a bad habit of mine. When I'm angry, my fingers get sticky, and now I just unconsciously lifted a wallet. I opened it up to reveal the student card, Kaoru Hitachiin. Shooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot.