A/N: heeeeeeeeeello. New chapter, pretty cool right?

I wouldn't say this is a bad chapter but it's not one of my favorites tbh. Still, an important one.

I hope you enjoy!

Based on what Mike could hear from his spot outside the room and the details recounted to him later, Sky dragged Ella back to the balcony above the dance floor. "There you are," their father said. "Finally, I can get this show started!" He grinned and turned to the people beneath him. "I'd like to thank every single one of you for coming to this little event...but that would take too long!" He laughed at his own joke.

A few nervous laughs and a couple of hidden eye rolls from the crowd followed.

The king talked for about five minutes about the importance of this dance, the festival, blah blah blah...then came the important bits.

"Of course, tonight is extra extra important because my two daughters will hopefully be securing someone to get married to...preferably someone important," that last bit was mostly spoken to them. "And my nephew too, I guess," he added as an afterthought.

Topher grinned at the mention of himself.

"Please continue enjoying tonight, and don't cry if you're not picked!" The king bowed slightly. "The announcement will be made around midnight, so very soon. That is all."

The crowd clapped briefly.

The king turned to his offspring. "You two got more dirt on some of those guys, right? And have one in mind? This cost too much to not have been a success," he asked his daughters.

"Possibly…" Sky replied. "Hard to say after one dance."

The king sighed dramatically. "How about that guy with the short hair? You were dancing with him awhile, you had to have heard some things...is he at least somewhat important?"

"His dad's a lord that doesn't really like you, I think...kid kept asking if I'd washed my hands."

"He sounds perfect! Show his dad who's the boss around here..."

Sky blinked. "Okay then," she replied.

"What about you and that tall guy?" The king asked Ella.

Ella faintly blushed. "Well, there's something there, I think...he's very nice," she admitted.

"If he's important, great! If not, I don't care!" The king looked over at the ballroom and was unable to spot Mike. "Hey, where is he?"

"Um...in the hall," Ella explained, not wanting to lie. "He...became a bit tired, and needed a break." Understatement of the century.

"Ah, makes sense...I'd take a break if I could but I can't so I can't whine now can I?"

The two sisters glanced at each other. "...sure," Sky replied.

The king clapped his hands together twice. "Get back out there. Ella, keep it up with that guy-see if he's actually important. Sky, pester that lord's kid some more. Topher...I don't really care, honestly. Go find someone to dance with, at least!"

The four split off. Ella got swept up in the dances again, and had to dance with Vito for a time because he was closest and he saw the oppurtunity. She didn't enjoy it, he wasn't nearly as good a dancer as Mike.

After a long time of being unable to pull away and out of the ballroom, she went back to the hallway, about to apologize to Mike. Only, she was unable to. Instead she gasped and called down the hall, "Hey! C-Come back!"

Whoever she was calling to looked at her once before disappearing from her view, taking Mike with them.

Cliffhangerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. OOf.

I'm just going to throw in a small self promo here: in case any of you reading are interested and haven't seen yet, I wrote a little prequel-ish one shot to this fic called Bush Cat. You can find it on my profile, it's near the top of the list under updated as of posting this.

Thanks for reading, and see ya next chapter :)