Pata Hikari: You're going to have to wait and see. Any predictions?
ObviousMan: Well, I try. The shindig's this chapter; for the public meeting, you're going to have to wait.
Dracobolt: Thanks muchly.
WhitterZ: Warning, fuzzies ahead...
Meg: A big thank you and your waiting is over.
Shaddowind: Oddly enough, I used to have a low level of appreciation for Regal, too. Back-story can work wonders on a person's point-of-view.
End of Response Section6/11/05 It only occurred to me recently: I'm writing a tragedy. Anywho, I don't think the next update will come until after I update another fic of mine that I've been ignoring more. I figure that with two sets of angry reviewers, I'll get on my lazy behind and start typing.
Disclaimer: Rallalon does not own Tales of Symphonia. Nor does she own any of its characters, items or locations.
.-.-.-.-.
"I don't believe this," Melissa said in a slight monotone before she began smiling like an idiot. "You snagged a duke."
Feeling like she was about to fly apart in every direction at once, Alicia replied somewhat automatically. "I did not 'snag a duke'."
"Yes you did. Something wrong with your hand?"
"What?" She glanced down and realized that she'd been rubbing the back of her hand. Where he'd- How long had she been doing that? "This is insane."
"Yes it is." Melissa gave a little noise that was oddly good at expressing her mood. The effect was somewhat ruined by her quiet mutter of "El Presidente Junior. El Presidente Junior."
"Don't call him that," Alicia said, harsher than she'd intended and received a rather offended "Sorry."
"Melissa, I didn't-"
" 'Sokay, Ali. You're freaked out, I get it. But... him. Wow. Wow. That's..."
"A complete disaster?"
"Ali it'll be okay. And I know this isn't the most comforting thing to say, but you need to go to sleep."
"Fine," she snapped and flung herself down onto her bed. "Good-night."
"C'mon, Ali, you know I don't mean it like that."
"Like what?" Alicia replied somewhat sulkily, acting very much her age.
"Like I'm your babysitter or something. Never mind about sleep, kill sleep. Talk to me."
Silence for a moment.
"...He's a duke."
"...Yeah."
"What do I do?"
She felt Melissa sit down beside her, and a comforting hand rubbed her back. "Well... I think you're actually handling this well so far."
Alicia had to laugh at that. "How?"
"That it's his status that's the problem, not yours."
"..."
"...You never even thought of it that way, did you?"
She shook her head, confused. "Should I have?"
"No. No. I know I would have, though, and that means what you're doing is mature."
"..."
"...Ali... Is he... I mean, do you know how... uh..."
Alicia flopped onto her back and looked up at her friend. "How he what?"
"...I, ah… I mean, how serious do you think he is?"
"...I'm not sure. I hope he is, I mean, I, but..."
"The class difference."
"Why me?"
There was a fairly lengthy pause. "Why not you?"
There was a fairly lengthy pause. "Because I'm... me?"
"Ali..." Melissa said in her "wise and mature" voice, "it is not a good idea to insult a guy's sense of taste. Or your best friend's, for that matter."
"..."
"...You really like him, don't you." It wasn't a question.
She answered it anyway. "Yeah."
Melissa gave her knee a good strong pat and Alicia thought she was smiling in the dark. "Then it'll be fine."
.-.-.-.-.-.
It was horrible.
That simple.
It. Was. Horrible.
They were awkward together. They hadn't been awkward together for... a very long time. At least since their almost-date... thing.
She tried. She really, really did try. She'd thought things would be like they had been before. But nothing came easily anymore. She didn't know how to act around him anymore. He wasn't the Rearranger anymore.
Anymore, anymore, anymore.
Nothing was the same.
She worried about what he thought, more than she ever had. What standards was she being held up to? When they cooked together, did it make her seem like she was common? Well, more than she was?
Why was a duke cooking? A security guard, she could have understood. A duke, not at all.
And there was no way in Tethe'alla that she could make even the first part of the first move. He was far too much of a gentleman to do anything without a cue from her. And so, they were at an impasse.
Strange how once her two questions - What was his name? Why didn't he tell it to her? - were answered, so many more kept popping up. She wanted the world to just shut itself off for a while, for things to go back to the way they had been, to work through this, to get out of this now before it blew up in their faces, to go to him and tell him that she would do whatever it took to be with him, to...
To do far too much more than a thirteen-year-old girl could handle.
And so, she did none of it. Stalling wouldn't help anything, she knew that. But it did give her time to think. And she really needed time to think.
They didn't work well together anymore. She could cook with the Rearranger, correct him, laugh with him, watch him. She knew him. She didn't know Regal Bryant. It was like there were two separate people, one of which was human and charming and wonderful, the other untouchable.
The truth was, he was still the same person he had always been, but Alicia had turned awkward and shy. She worried, she fretted. Was she good enough? Did he think she only wanted to be with him because of his status now?
Because she did want to be with him. The first him. It was the Rearranger who she had helped and thought about. The Rearranger had been her first kiss.
Duke Bryant scared her.
She was sure Co-President Bryant would scare her more.
She was going to find out very soon, considering that she was currently at work on appetizers for the, in Cook's words, "Grand Event". Or "that idiotic shindig". The name for it was rather mood dependent.
"Ali? You good?"
Alicia swallowed. "I'm good."
"...You know, maybe we could sneak in there and-"
"No." She sighed. Melissa's attempt was only a half-hearted one. Both of them would be in the kitchen until dinner was over for the gathering of nobles, along with the rest of the kitchen workers. Of course, except for...
"Maybe we could be servers. I could probably talk Gregory around into it - he's interested in me again, it might work..." Melissa mumbled, but by this point, they both knew it to be idle speculation. It wasn't happening. The one person she'd ever had any romantic interest in was climbing further up the untouchable ladder. Seeing it happen wouldn't make any difference.
Alicia shrugged the idea off and feigned acceptance.
And so the night began.
.-.-.-.-.-.
And it never seemed to end. If anything, it was only lengthened by attempts to lighten the mood. Especially when the attempt was coming from Melissa's ex-boyfriend.
"I'm telling you, it's hilarious."
"Gregory Tate, this isn't the time..."
"Melissa, please, just let me show you how he-"
"Later."
"Melissa, darling, you wound me-"
"Then I'll be sure to help heal you - later."
"Ah, my darling, you honor me too much-"
"Get out there, Tate! Stop distracting the help!"
"-And so, with great reluctance, I bid you farewell... You have only to fling your shoe in my general direction, I will return to you-"
"Tate!"
"Goin', Cook!"
Alicia kept her eyes on her task of the moment, trying not to notice how much Melissa was grinning. Gregory was a flirt, and an obvious one. It wasn't fair that guys like Gregory Tate got to-
No.
She wasn't going to think about things that way. She wasn't. She would be happy for Melissa.
She would.
"So what was he talking about?"
Melissa shrugged. "Who knows, the guy's an idiot." It didn't sound like she meant it, though. Maybe it was her tone of voice... Maybe it was because she couldn't stop smiling. "I'll tell you once he tells me."
"Okay."
Back to work.
She'd never been so single-minded about cooking before. Always, there had been something she would think about in the back of her mind, hovering there, distracting her pleasantly.
This was no pleasant distraction.
She didn't allow it to be a distraction at all, stopped it from being one.
At least, she tried.
.-.-.-.-.-.
After far too long, the night was over. Dinner was not only served, it had been eaten long ago. Even dessert was becoming only a memory. In short, the "Event" was done, over with, and would never directly bother anyone ever again. Alicia just wanted to go to bed, fall asleep, and stay there.
Forever.
But then there was Gregory.
Alicia had been through the situation before: Gregory would want to walk Melissa back to their room. Melissa would accept, politely. By the time they got to the room, the welcome would have grown warmer than just polite. Melissa and Gregory would spend time outside the door, Gregory catching her arm every time she "tried" to go inside. Everyone who heard the pair knew that the effort was only an obligatory one that could and would be ignored by the both of them. If anything, it would only inspire more shameless compliments from Gregory. Eventually, their "conversation" would dissolve into another activity, the sound of which was harder to sleep through than the far louder noise of Gregory's blatant flirting.
Hence Alicia not going back to their room.
Besides, the Sky Terrace was always nice; with the stars out, it would probably be much more so. It'd be peaceful. She needed that.
Even if the stars weren't out as she had hoped, there was still something about being outside. Looking over the short wall, breathing in the salty air, she felt better. She actually felt relaxed. For the first time in days, Alicia thought that she could manage things, work through them, make them work. It was a good feeling, being optimistic again. Besides, it wasn't like-
Ding!
The elevator! Quickly, she darted into the middle area of the terrace, where there were things to hide behind. Silliness was long past; Gregory Tate or not, breaking curfew on a night like tonight was more than stupid.
And yet... part of her hoped and prayed that a certain person would be getting out of that elevator. What she would do if he did, she didn't know.
But...
It wasn't him. A couple exited the elevator, obviously nobles by their clothes, lit for a moment by the light from the open elevator. From behind her plant, she couldn't make out their faces. For a moment, fear gripped her.
But those weren't his footsteps.
Three guesses as to what they were doing up on the Terrace at night, together. The first two don't count.
Alicia couldn't leave without attracting notice and her hiding spot was more than decent in the star-less dark. It didn't seem like they would be looking in her direction very often anyway. Choosing to wait them out, she quickly decided that stuffing her fingers in her ears would be... polite.
But less than a minute later, she heard another ding!, muffled by her fingers.
She heard the couple break apart.
She saw light pour out into a corner of the Terrace, a long shadow be thrown down.
She closed her eyes and stayed as still as she could.
Even with her ears plugged and the other two nobles hastily explaining that they had come up to see the garden under the moonlight and would now be going as it was cloudy and wouldn't he give their best wishes to his father, she still heard it.
Heavy footsteps.
The couple now gone - all the guests were supposed to have left some time ago, it was discourteous to sneak away from the group in the first place, he would be happy to show them about tomorrow if they wanted a tour, his best wishes to both of them and he would be sure to pass theirs on to his father - she tentatively peaked around her plant at the new arrival. It would be too... perfect. Too impossible to actually happen...
The man stood with his back to her, standing at the wall, shoulders tense. Everything about him spoke of noble blood, the purest of the pure. Even with the little light, it was clear he was finely dressed, the clothes accented by his posture in some way that was beyond her comprehension.
This was no teenaged Rearranger. This was an adult.
He turned, a shadowed face scanning the garden. A voice called out softly. "Alicia?"
She nearly fell out of her hiding place. As it was, her exit wasn't exactly dignified.
Silence reigned.
"You knew I was up here?"
He nodded in the dimness. "I overheard a young woman speaking with her companion."
Melissa was officially the best friend in the world.
Alicia didn't ask where he had been where he had overheard. He had been looking for her; that much was clear. And if she was honest, she had been hoping he would be.
A few footsteps brought her to his side. What she was doing there, she hadn't any idea. That was fairly normal by now. She would know what to say to the Rearranger; she would know what to do then.
Not knowing what to say to Regal Bryant, her gaze went to his shoes.
Luckily or unluckily, he knew what he was going to say. "Alicia, if this is too uncomfortable for you... that's fine. I don't wish to force you into something that you-"
Two small hands found a large one in the dark, clung to it.
A girl looked up into a man's eyes and became a young woman.
"It's not. I just needed to think about things and... and I've done that thinking. So... if you... if you'll have me, I want to be with you."
Gently, fingertips brushed against her cheek, stayed there.
A man and a young woman leaned towards each other.
"I would be honored, Alicia."
Two small hands loosened their hold on a large one only to cling to it more intensely a moment later.
A man and a young woman came to an understanding.
"I'm glad, Regal."
Gently, fingertips changed into fingers, cupping her cheek.
A man kissed a young woman.
For one long, perfect moment, all thought left her.
And after one long, perfect moment...
It was a quiet sound, but also a pronouncement of something similar to doom.
Ding!
Quite abruptly, she found herself against his chest, a protective arm around her, and the pair of them turned so anyone looking from the elevator would only see his back, if they saw anything at all. It was the elevator on the other side, that's where the light was coming from. She heard Regal's breathing be forced into its calm, normal pattern, felt him breathe. Alicia tried to do the same and all she did was learn that he smelled far too wonderful for his own good.
"Ali! Are you up here?" A whisper, quiet and urgent. "Ali! Emergency!"
Something very unpleasant was going to happen to Gregory Tate.
Both regretfully and hurriedly, Alicia pulled away from him, slipped under his arm. He didn't understand, didn't know that she was Ali. She'd released his hand, but he held on. Because if they did stay still, Melissa wouldn't find them, provided she didn't come any further into the Terrace. Another perfect moment was right there, waiting.
"Alicia Combatir, where are you!" Melissa raised her voice only slightly, but her tone yelled that something was wrong.
Regal let her go.
Alicia ran.
"I'm here! What's wrong?" Even blinking against the light, she could see Melissa was in a panic.
"Ali, he-" She paused for a moment, seemed to rethink saying this right away. "You shouldn't be up here. We shouldn't, I mean. C'mon, I tell you in our room."
"Melissa, what-"
Melissa pulled her into the elevator and it ding!ed shut.
"-happened?"
As they went down, Melissa wasn't paying any attention to what Alicia was saying. She was walking around her, inspecting her from all angles, snapping at her if Alicia turned around to look at her or ask what she was doing.
"You're alright, Ali?"
"What?" she asked, confused by the question. Anyone could see which one of the pair was the one freaking out. "Yeah, I-I'm fine."
"You're sure? Nothing-"
"Melissa, what happened?" The young woman of a moment ago was rapidly becoming a frightened girl. "Gregory didn't do anything to you or-"
"No, Ali, Gregory just told me- I'll tell you when we get to our room."
"Wh-why? What is it?"
Melissa looked as if she might have caved for a second, but she didn't give in. "I need to tell you this in private."
"We're in an elevator. How much more private-"
Ding!
.-.-.-.-.-.
Alicia closed the door to their room behind her. "Okay, Melissa, what is it?"
"Sit down."
She obeyed and Melissa sat next to her, held her hand. "Tell me now. You're really starting to scare me."
And so, without any comforting preamble, Melissa said, "Duke Bryant is twenty-one years old."
Confused and frightened and numb all at once, Alicia looked at her friend for any sign of a lie, pulling her hand away. "…What?"
"Duke Bryant is twenty-one years old," Melissa repeated, pity and anger on her face. Pity for her, anger for him. "Since two days ago."
"But... Regal? Regal Bryant?"
Very softly this time, Melissa told her. "He's eight years older than you. Seven and a half, roughly. I thought that he had to be older than sixteen or seventeen before, but I didn't know he was..." She trailed off.
Alicia stared at her before pleading with both her eyes and voice. "...Tell me you're lying. Please, just... just tell me you're lying."
Melissa didn't tell her that. "Sometimes nobles are... you know... All that inbreeding must make them romantically unstable and all... Ali, it's not like... it's not like he's a pedophile or..."
"..."
"But... I don't think you should see him anymore."
"..."
Melissa didn't say anything else after that. She just opened her arms, held them out to her. Alicia threw herself into them, buried her face in her friend's shoulder and cried.
And that long, horrible moment never seemed to end.