I am fully aware I basically just cheesemoded my way through this chapter but shhhhh I have dragons on my brain and am having difficulty with a multitude of tasks.

Ever Just the Same

"What do you think he was on about?" Kia wondered yet again as she dallied around the food tables which had just been laid with fancy looking hors d'oeuvres. She wasn't sure what half of them were, nor did she want to ruin the perfect display patterns, despite the fact that she was getting the first rumbles of hunger.

"I still don't know, just like the last ten times you asked me that." Hatter rolled her eyes over Kia's fixation – the mod was concerned too, of course, but there was only so many times she could give the same answer to the same question. She followed after the girl, frowning slightly as she looked down at her. "Did you get shorter?"

Kia whirled around with the darkest glare on her face that Hatter had ever seen, roughly jabbing her finger in a pointing motion to the black flats she was wearing. "You never notice the effect of heels until you don't have them," she growled as the mod did her very best not to burst out into side-splitting laughter at Kia's reaction to the observation.

"I'm sure nobody else will realise," she managed to say between spasms of laughter.

"Are you two okay?" someone asked, their voice muffled slightly by the food they'd just put in their mouth. Kia and Hatter turned to face their addressor and both sets of eyes widened in awe at the now slightly confused author. "Seriously, you want me to call someone?"

"No," Hatter squeaked before repeating herself in a more normal tone. "No. We're fine. You're… you're Lavs… It's an honour to meet you." She held out her hand, shaking almost imperceptibly, to greet her.

"You too, I guess." Clearly the critically acclaimed author didn't quite know what to make of them, so she just shook Hatter's hand and then reached for another snack.

"What's going down here then?" asked another bright voice as two more people joined them, a man and a woman. He grinned upon seeing Kia's frozen face. "Ohhh, fans! Always love a good fan. Hi, I'm Hii." He chuckled at his own joke, even though it was the same one he always made when greeting someone.

"You're the actor who goes by the name Hii and will be playing the character of Laurence in the new BBC adaptation of Lavs's book series about the detective Manz and her best friend Laurence," Kia whimpered, freezing up again immediately.

"Is she okay?" Hii muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"That's what I asked," Lavs replied, nodding her head.

"Oh, sorry," Hatter laughed, finally regaining all of her composure – tonight was going to be hard on them both, she could tell. "She'll be fine in a moment. Tends to freak out a bit when meeting new people, that's all." She held out her hand to the final woman to shake. "I'm Hatter," she informed them, immediately seeing some raised eyebrows at the name.

"Amanda," she replied with a knowing wink.

"The actress Amanda who will be playing the character of Manz in the new BBC adaptation of Lavs' book series about the detective Manz and her best friend Laurence."

"Seriously, do we need to call a medic?"

"No, no, I promise she's fine."

"Don't believe you," Lavs shrugged. "I would be ashamed of myself if I ever wrote a character with such a blatantly expositional purpose into one of my stories, even if it is for comedy – there's definitely something wrong with her."

"I'm fine," Kia managed to say, albeit at a pitch two octaves above her usual one, which was impressive in an odd way. Hatter took her shoulders and began steering the girl away from the group, smiling pleasantly back at them.

"Sorry, I just saw my boss calling for us. It was nice talking to you."

Hii's face was scrunched up in confusion as they left. "Well that has got to be the most interesting introduction I've ever been a part of."

The pair were well away from the tables by the time Kia had calmed down enough to be considered functioning normally. "You make worse excuses than OKD," Kia stated, causing Hatter to give her a sceptical look.

"You have no right to judge me after that performance you just gave," she snickered. "Besides, it may have sounded fake but I wasn't lying – Evanz was looking for us."

"How can you tell he wanted us specifically?"

"Sixth sense," she explained, to which Kia was about to make a snarky comment before remembering Peace saying something similar once before. As it was she decided to shut her mouth and just follow her guardian through the crowds of people to the host, who quickly bade farewell to the guests he was conversing with in order to speak to them privately.

"I just got word that they'll be arriving any moment now," he began, speaking quickly but as clearly as he could. "Have you identified any threats?"

"No, but that's not to say there are none. We weren't able to get much investigating done before we were waylaid by som–"

"Never mind that now." He waved away whatever the end of that sentence would have been. "Just keep a close eye and make sure they are protected no matter what. We can't afford for anything to go wrong."

"Because Rage and Hollow will kill you?" Hatter smirked. Kia shot her a confused glance that went ignored.

"Because the whole damn world will kill me. Oh, they're here; excuse me." Evanz hurried off to one of the room's entrances and Hatter finally turned to the girl beside her, who had crossed her arms and begun pouting at being ignored.

"What?"

"You haven't actually told me what's going on," Kia pointed out.

"Well don't worry, it's just…" A concerning thought suddenly occurred to the mod and she clamped both hands down on Kia's shoulders firmly, staring her straight in the eye with an air of utmost severity. "Kia… don't die."

"Huh?"

"Given your track record with meeting people, is pretty reasonable to assume your heart may give out at any moment tonight, but it really won't do to have you die here."

"Hatter," she murmured in a warning tone, "who are we meeting?"

"Oh, you know, just a couple of famous people…" Her eyes darted sideways to the pair that was currently approaching them with Evanz.

"Hatter!"

Kia had barely any time to process what was going on before the mod was pulled away into a fierce hug by one of the women. As they separated the caller grinned at Hatter, her bright blue hair seemingly weightless around her head, like candyfloss. "How are you, Leni?" Hatter greeted.

"Wonderful. All the better for seeing you today." She turned to face Kia as well and the girl suddenly understood what Hatter had meant about dying. It was the prime minister. What on Earth was she – Kia, the ordinary commoner – doing standing in front of the prime minister? It couldn't be real. "This is…?" Leni queried.

"Kia. She's sort of my temporary partner."

"She's cute. Hey, come and meet Kia." She beckoned over her companion and Hatter felt a pang of sympathy for her 'temporary partner' as she finally caught sight of the demure woman.

Kia's knees felt weak. Her mouth was dry. Her ears were ringing. She was fairly sure she was stuck in a dream – maybe she'd been caught in an Inducer again? For some reason that felt more comforting to her than actually believing the reality right before her eyes. It couldn't be her. There was no way the world would ever allow her to be standing in front of Kia. There was not blonde hair fringing a dainty face. There was not a piercing blue gaze observing her. There was absolutely not anyone of importance anywhere near her, for if there were Kia's heart would give out and that was not going to happen.

The internal screaming was almost audible through the silence that had fallen among the group. Leni was clearly finding this fascinating while Evanz still didn't know what to make of it – all he'd ever seen of Kia was this form of panic – and Hatter felt a mixture of laughter and legitimate concern for the girl's wellbeing roiling inside her. Looking back on it, she probably should have warned Kia about this. No, there was no 'probably'; she definitely should have. But if Kia made it through this then she would be able to survive any other surprise meeting thanks to the habituation.

"Is she alright?" The voice was quiet and courteous, but with an undercurrent of authority that Kia had never thought she would ever hear in her life. The woman turned questioning eyes on Hatter, wordlessly demanding an answer in the most civil manner.

"Just give her a moment, ma'am."

"Oh, now don't give me that," she scowled lightly, and even that looked polite. "I already told you that you don't have to act like you're treading on so much ice around me."

"Sorry, Danni," Hatter chuckled sheepishly. "I guess I couldn't help but tease Kia a little."

Upon hearing the mod say her name, Kia let out a small whine of distress, which only served to tip Hatter over the breaking point and into full-blown mirth. Kia began muttering to herself and when Hatter moved closer in order to hear whatever it was the girl was saying, she was greeted with a celeritous loop of, "It's the Queen. It's the Queen. It's the Queen."

So I have decided that there has to be one in NaB somewhere.

Lavs is now secretly a dragon.