Something about knowing he wasn't the only one here with a music blessing made Ven relax a bit. Large events like the charity ball were always embarrassing for the musically inclined. Someone would burst out into song, or unconsciously clear the dance floor for a private dance for two. Some people would call them brave for coming out. Others would just be flat out rude- more often than not while singing about their annoyance.

"Remember Ven, no singing," Brain teased as they entered the main ballroom. He glanced over at his friend with a cheeky little tilt of his hat.

Ven let out a rather offended gasp before arguing, "At least I hear music before everyone starts bursting into song!"

"Not always." Skuld disagreed. She looked over to Ven after with a grin on her face.

Knowing his friends were bullying him, Ven pouted slightly. He even made a point to not look at either of them out of spite. A waiter dressed in a tailcoat suit with a pale yellow undershirt and sharp red bow-tie came up to him at that moment. With a kind smile he offered Ven one of the champagne flutes from the tray he was holding.

"I don't drink." Ven told the waiter, moving away from them a bit.

"I do." Brain cheerfully declared as he took one of the flutes.

The waiter grinned to them both before trying to offer Skuld one as well, but she also backed out.

"I don't drink in polite company." she admitted. "But thank you anyway."

Soon after the waiter left, a girl started to approach the group. She looked a little shy with most of her black hair obscuring her face. It was to Ventus directly when she said, "Excuse me, but would you like to dance with me?"

Ven's face immediately started to flush. "O-oh I don't…" he tried to say, but he could feel Brain shove him forward. It almost made him stumble right into the shy girl. The two look at each other for a moment before equally looking away with beet red cheeks. Knowing that this was going to end in one of two ways, Ven finally gave in and accepted the girl's offer.

"That has got to be the fastest time yet." Brain mused as the two went further out onto the dance floor. "He wasn't even here for -what? Five minutes?- before someone asked him for a dance."

"Wasn't there a time where he went to some outdoor festival, and was caught in his hiding place just because someone wanted to dance with him?" Skuld mused while wrapping her arm around Brain's.

Brain immediately laughed. "You're right! Thank goodness we didn't get any annoying blessings like being immediately adored by everyone."

"Says you." Skuld huffed. "Anytime there's a medical emergency, you know what happens when someone like me is there? It's not even like anyone cute has medical emergencies too. It's always some old guy, or someone who really needs to go on a diet."

Brain let out another freeing laugh before taking Skuld into position for a dance. Knowing that it was coming, since they were going further into the dance floor while they talked, Skuld accepted the gesture and the two started to dance in a gentle glide. They made sure to linger close to Ven- he and his dance partner were not matching steps very well. It was hard to even tell who was messing up. The girl was so shy that she refused to look up, which caused her to fumble on his toes more than once. However, Ventus was being too stiff. He wasn't giving her enough room to even move to begin with.

"Oh no, kids! Not like that!" a loud voice spoke up. Ventus and his shy partner turned to see a short and very stout woman come up to them. She carelessly swatted Ven's partner away before asserting herself and his new dance partner. The shy girl meekly stepped out of the way- a move Ventus sincerely wished she hadn't done because the boisterous woman then declared, "Let me show you how it's done!"

'How it's done' apparently meant being yanked and pulled all across the dance floor. The woman moved with so much energy that Ven felt more like a rag doll than person. He happened to notice Skuld and Brain dancing not far from him. Their teasing smiles almost made him angry. In desperation, Ventus mouthed the word 'help' to his friends, and all they did was laugh. He gave them a thoroughly outraged expression just before quickly getting yanked in a different direction as he partner continued to dance erratically. If this kept up, Ven was probably going to lose his lunch. He gave a silent prayer to whoever was listening that someone would come and save him already. Preferably before everyone started bursting into song over how uncomfortable he was.

Meanwhile, Sabrina was lingering back in the shadow as she tried to go over the notes she had saved onto her phone. Her plus one for the night, and one of her few genuine friends, idly tried to read them from over her shoulder.

"So why are we hiding out here instead of looking for whoever?" Riku asked. "You can't check that stuff while in the sunlight?"

"I'm checking it here because someone out there must have a musical blessing." Sabrina grumbled under her breath. "Might even be more than one person. Urg…"

Riku raised an eyebrow. "You can tell?"

Sabrina looked up at him. "You can't?" she shot back. "Look at how everyone's dancing- that's the biggest tell. Two or three people in the center with no one to crash into, while everyone else mindlessly dances outside of them in this protective barrier thing. You know it when you see it."

Riku still gave her a funny look, then craned his neck a bit to get a view of the dance floor again. Sure enough, it was more or less as she described. The only key difference was that the waiters were expertly weaving in and out of the people. Some of the dancers even stopped and tried to squish themselves out of the crowd to get some refreshments. Otherwise, to him, it just looked like any other party.

"I can't believe you of all people forgot that I have a mindfulness blessing." Sabrina then huffed- it was just genuine enough that Riku wondered if she was actually offended. "I always notice stuff like that. Not that it wasn't obvious anyway…"

"Just because some of us were blursed by an evil fairy, doesn't mean it's obvious." Riku lightly teased.

Sabrina blinked for a moment. She looked up at Riku with a hard glare soon after.

"Did you just say that word to me with a straight face?" she questioned- more as a demand. Her face further scrunched into disgust before uttering, "Fuck you."

"At least it's more eloquent than whatever you can come up with." came the cheeky reply. He even gave her nose a little tap just to annoy her. The sound of disgust she made only made Riku grin more.

"By the way," Riku then said, "What does that guy you're looking for even look like? You can go high and I can go low. Divide and conquer."

Still mad at him, Sabrina cocked an eyebrow at Riku with utmost skepticism. She tried to hide her moment of relent as she scrolled through her phone's notes.

"His name is Naveen Maldonia." she told Riku, holding the phone just close enough to his face so he could see. It wasn't the best quality picture -since it was taken from a security camera- but you could make out the more defining traits of Naveen; his dark skintone, slicked back black hair, deep brown eyes, even his rather sharp chin. "If you're going to stay low, I suggest you get near the house band. He's got a thing for music."

"Got it." Riku nodded. "If I see him, should I send you a quick text or something?"

"You got it." Sabrina agreed. She put her phone back into her (obnoxiously small) purse as she added, "Use the royal crown emoji. If I'm up high, I can locate you in seconds."

Riku gave one last affirming nod before heading off. Sabrina waited a bit longer before coming out as well. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the much brighter lighting of the ballroom. Not that she really gave them time to adjust proper. To the left was a large staircase that led to a balcony-like ledge. It looked to have a pretty decent coverage of the entire ballroom. Sabrina gave herself a nod as she made her way to the new vantage point.

She never once realized that, as she started to scan over the ballroom, no one else was standing beside her, thus making her very, very visible to anyone who looked her way.

. . .

Ven didn't know how he did it, but he finally managed to break away from the erratic old lady. His breakout landed him right in the center of the dance floor. Not that he cared too much- his lungs were burning for a breath of air.

"I can't … believe… my mom knew… the- the Three Stooges… of fairies." Ven wheezed to himself. "Friendship blessing? What… whatta joke…"

Ventus only attempted to stand up proper again after he was sure he could breathe. It was in a sudden awareness that he really was just right smack in the center of the dance floor. Where even was Skuld and Brain now? Wasn't Lauriam and his sister supposed to be here too? It wasn't until he noticed the grand staircase, along with the balcony it led up to, that he understood why everything seemed to give him breathing room.

At the balcony, overlooking the entire ballroom, was a young woman. He could almost see with crystal clarity how her brown eyes scanned the room- not once falling on his, but he wished they would. Noticing the gently teased curls of her black hair made his fingers flinch. How soft was it, he wondered, and would he be able to run his hand through it like fine silk? It was only in a faint awareness that he realized the music was starting to swell around him. A new song was going to play- one completely orchestrated by his music blessing.

The woman's face only seemed to sour more. She glanced down for a moment to pull a cellphone out of her purse. When her eyes flicked back at the ballroom (still not in his direction), it was with urgency.

By now, the crescendo was starting to rise in the music. It was almost time. Ventus knew from experience that the lyrics were going to start soon, and he made no attempt to hold them back. This was probably the point where Ven noticed something was off. The woman at the balcony wasn't responding to the music at all. Not that it stopped the song any. As he contemplated what would happen if she just never sang, Ventus came to a shocking realization.

She was the first to never respond to his blessing.