Hi guys! I'm back! With a fic of decent length this time. I'm not sure if this one's any good but it was certainly interesting to write so I hope it's interesting to read. Genderbending in this one! Heterosexuality! That's new.

Enjoy!

But a dream:

The wind ruffled Blavat Sky's hair as she turned her face towards the sunlight, or what was left of it, with the skies quickly becoming grey and overcast, much like her mood.

She shouldn't be feeling like this. Everything was going perfectly, exactly as planned and yet…

And yet she was growing attached to those kids.

Her kids.

No, calling them children did them an unwarranted disservice, Edgar, Lawrence, Herman and Gregory were fine young men trying to bring some light into a dark world. Whatever it was they had done before had darkened their own eyes but they still worked selflessly to make other people smile. She was already taking advantage of their sweet hearts, she would belittle them no further by casting disparaging assumptions on their age.

"Child of Delight! with sunbright hair
And seablue, sea-deep eyes;
Spirit of Bliss, what brings thee here,
Beneath these sullen skies?"

Recognizing Redmond's voice and the dark-light themed Emily Bronte poem, she turned. "The Two Children?"

Redmond smiled and nodded, leaning on the balcony next to her. "I thought you might recognize the poem, you seem the type."

Blavat smiled at him and leaned her back against the rail, the breeze ruffled her shorter hair but caressed Edgar's longer, heavier locks like a lover that couldn't get enough of him. Blavat couldn't blame the wind for that, he truly was stunning.

Wait, stop. Getting attached was bad enough, she couldn't be attracted to one of her four unwitting pawns, could she? That certainly wasn't part of the plan.

Redmond smiled at her and it seemed to light up his rose-red eyes as Blavat's heartbeat quickened.

Well there was that plan shot into the stratosphere.

"I don't know when you developed this idea of me as a well-read intellectual, I make jokes about other women's breasts," said Blavat with one of her indulgent smiles that always made Redmond feel as though she was looking right past his skin and into his soul.

Maybe she was.

"Well you did recognize the poem," he pointed out. "So maybe my guess was not too incorrect."

Blavat smiled at him, "believe whatever you want."

It would make no difference in the end, she had to keep reminding herself of that.

Maybe it was a preternatural ability that forewarned her, maybe it was just luck, either way, after opening the door and stepping inside Blavat had reflexes just quick enough to allow her to dance to the side, neatly avoiding Herman Greenhill as he crashed onto the ground where she'd been standing second ago.

Greenhill glared at Lawrence Bluewer who seemed to have thrown him across the room, "you did that on purpose."

Bluewer wiped sweat off his brow and regarded the bigger male coolly, "I did no such thing." But a corner of his lips pulled up. Blavat didn't need her uncanny ability to read people to know that the throw may not have been as accidental as Bluewer was claiming.

As Gregory Violet and Bluewer pulled Greenhill to his feet, Redmond approached Blavat, "are you hurt? Did you get hit?"

She gave him an absent smile, "I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me."

She pulled more song lyrics out of her wide sleeve and held them out, "like I promised."

She did not feel guilty about the way four very different sets of eyes lit up, she did not.

Blavat knew when her distress began to show on her face because Edgar asked, "are you well?"

She pasted a beatific smile back on her face, "always. So, shall we begin?"

She ducked away from Edgar and towards the other three, neatly cutting him off when he would have pursued the issue.

If she could ignore his care for her, she could ignore that she had begun to care for him also.

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep."

Blavat whipped around to see Edgar shutting the door behind him as he moved to join her on the same balcony they had stood upon scarce months ago.

"A thing of beauty; John Keats," she muttered, even as she told herself not to play along with Edgar's games. They'd done this more than once since the first day on this balcony and though she didn't want to; Blavat was beginning to see a pattern in the pieces of poetry Edgar picked.

He was directing them at her.

"Right as always," said Redmond, no surprise on his face, "a beautiful poem for a beautiful woman."

Blavat didn't rightly know how to respond to that, so she kept quiet.

After a second of studying her expressive eyes, Redmond sighed, "forgive me?"

That Blavat wasn't expecting, "oh?" She asked, head jerking up, "for what?"

"My attentions make you uncomfortable, that was never my intent."

Uncomfortable. Not exactly the word she would have used, "I'm not uncomfortable, I…" Yeah, how was she supposed to explain how she felt and why, "is that what they are? Attentions?"

"Come now, we both know the answer to that."

Blavat inclined her head wordlessly because that was true, she did know, he'd been pursuing her for months and she no longer had it in her to pretend she believed otherwise.

"You can do better," she assured him, "really. At the very least; I'm too old for you."

Edgar looked amused, "you can't be any more than twenty-five."

"Wouldn't you like to know," Blavat replied with a wink. She turned back to the sky above their balcony, "seriously though, I am not uncomfortable, but I am not what you want."

"Isn't that my decision?" Edgar asked. And truly, Blavat had never met a better man than the one standing beside her, for all his faults, he had such a good heart.

She had also never met a worse judge of character.

"I'm warning you," she cautioned, "do not pursue this line of thinking. You will be sorry."

"You are stubborn," Redmond replied. "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art—" Blavat gave him a flat look, that poem Bright Star, another by John Keats, was possibly her favourite, she didn't enjoy having it quoted against her, "I may not be as persevering as you are but I will fight for what I want." Redmond told her. He took her hand, "if you would allow me."

"If I would allow you?" Blavat echoed.

Unusually serious red eyes regarded her calmly, "say you wish me to leave you alone and I will never bring the subject into discussion again." He vowed. "I know what I want. The choice is yours."

Blavat opened her mouth to do exactly that and her voice caught in her throat. Unspeakably selfish though it was, she did not want to break this fragile glittering bond between them. She stepped closer.

Edgar didn't move away, they were virtually chest to chest, "and if I don't say that?" She asked.

Redmond reached up to brush aside the braid hanging on the left side of her face, her skin burned where he trailed his fingers over it. Despite herself, Blavat leaned closer. They were a hairsbreadth apart.

She heard Bluewer calling for the two of them and it seemed Redmond heard him too. He pulled back and she tried not to feel disappointed.

He caught one of her hands in his and traced his thumb over the black moon on her skin before pressing a kiss to its centre. "Until next time."

He left and Blavat vowed there wouldn't be a next time. Despite what she had said, or not said, she wouldn't do this.

And it had nothing, nothing to do with not wanting to hurt Edgar any more than she already inevitably would. It was because she couldn't afford to become any more distracted than she already was, she had a job to do.

Her hands clenched on the metal rail. Everything was for the sake of the Shining star.

But her calling no longer brought her a sense of happiness. Not when she couldn't get a gentle smile and a pair of kind eyes out of her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed the heels of her palms into them. She had come so far! She would not weaken now! No matter if it felt as though a collapsar was swallowing her heart.

"I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach."

Redmond looked out the window, one hand propped up on his chin. The weather outside echoed his mood, the rain a torrential downpour. On the bed beside him, Gregory flinched in his sleep, as though unable to get the haunting images to leave him, even while he slept.

Lawrence ran a hand over the paler boy's hair, before turning to the blond, "Edgar, are you alright?"

The use of his first name pulled Redmond from his dark thoughts, we were helping her kill people. And Violet almost died trying to shield us from the truth. How could I possibly be alright? But there was no way he was saying that to Bluewer. Lawrence was not to blame and didn't deserve to be hurt worse simply because he'd been an unsuspecting pawn.

She'd played them all for fools.

Instead, he smiled, "of course."

His mind drifted again after the bespectacled male left the room and as awful as he felt for it, Edgar couldn't concentrate on thoughts of their own situation, Gregory's ill health or the people who had been killed. His mind was on a woman with glitter in her eyes and sparkles in her hair who had, for one brief second, made him feel whole.

"Riches I hold in light esteem
And Love I laugh to scorn
And lust of Fame was but a dream
That vanished with the morn–"

Yeah, this one might be my favourite for some reason so I really hope you liked it.

I may not update again tonight so if I don't I will hopefully update at around this time tomorrow.

Bye guys!