Kel took a deep breath and knocked on the hard wooden door. She heard the chatter and laughs of young women, all happy to be in Lalasa's famous shop. Kel would not be happy to be there.

Kel's previous maid opened the door herself, her eyes wide as she took in the Lady Knight's great presence. "Milady!" she cried and flung herself onto Kel. "What brings you here?"

Kel blushed. "I need a dress for Raoul's rehearsal dinner," she said quietly. "Do you have time?"

Lalasa nodded fervently, pulling Kel into the bumbling shop. She brought her into a fitting room, ordering her to undress after forcing her onto a stool. Kel, red-faced, did what she was told, changing into a better breast band and corset. She then pulled out various shades brown and pink, thrusting surcoats, petticoats, girdles, laces, undergowns, smocks and layered skirts into her hands before fitting them to her muscular body. Kel stayed as stiff as she could, remembering what her mother had drilled into her head when she was a young girl. Actually, it wasn't much difficult from what she'd told her to do when being healed, though Kel had practiced the latter much more. She closed her eyes, trusting her old maid not to poke her with those gleaming, sharp needles that she weaved in and out of the soft materials so nimbly. Kel had lost all feeling in her legs when Lalasa finally finished and steered her to a mirror to admire herself.

Kel bit her lip as she saw herself—she didn't see Kel in that mirror, but a lady. The dress was pale pink underneath, the skirts layered with brown and rose, her cloak dark and warm… she removed it to find her arms bare, exposing the full silk sleeves, so plush she had to stroke them, brown velvet fitting tightly to her waist… "It's beautiful, Lalasa. How was it you did it in so little time?"

"I knew you would come for a dress sooner or later," Lalasa shrugged. "I had a lot of time to prepare."

Kel smiled slightly. "But what will I do with my hair… and my face? I never needed cosmetics while training—"

"We'll go buy some then, milady," Lalasa said pleasantly.

"No—I'm sure I don't really need it!" Kel yelped.

"Cosmetics will distract viewers from your scars so that they look at your beautiful eyes instead," Lalasa said firmly.

"Don't you have a shop to run… or someone to be with?" Kel asked heatedly, realizing too late that what she had said might be a delicate subject for Lalasa.

"Maybe," Lalasa smiled secretively. "I'll tell you about her while we shop."

"Her?" Kel asked with confusion.

"Yes," she grinned.

Kel shrugged and simply let the older girl have her way.

She took a deep breath, trying not to look at the girl in the mirror. Dom was going to be there… he would get one look of her and decide that he didn't want to go after all… but she was strong, she could handle that sort of reaction.

There was a knock on the door. Kel envisioned the smooth lake and opened the door. Dom looked handsome in dark grey breeches, a black sleeveless tunic rimmed with silver embroidery, and a silk grey shirt. He himself stared at her, a pretty girl in Lalasa's dress, dark lip paint, faint blush, tinted rice powder and green color around her eyes. Her hair was gathered into a tumbling bun by numerous pins and a leather thong, and glitter had been sprinkled over her, making her look more like a vision than a person. She was beautiful, he realized, but where was Kel?

"It's still me, you dope," she commented quietly, showing him her hands that were still covered in scars. "If you make any comments about the way I look, I can still beat you up."

This made him laugh. It was still her, though with a little more color. "How can I not, though? You look great—worthy of my accompaniment, I'd say."

She cuffed his ear, careful not to tear the arms of her dress… she wasn't sure how sturdy this thing was. "Let's get this over with. I can't breathe."

He smiled and took her arm, and they walked to the rehearsal dinner.

Certainly, the reactions of the guests were not the way she expected them to be. They all seemed to admire her, as if she was some sort of magnificent creature. Could cosmetics really do so much for her? Maybe she should wear them more often and people wouldn't think she was simply some sort animal with a fighting demon within. They went to sit in between Neal and Yuki and Raoul and Buri.

"You look like a girl, Kel," Neal said in a voice as if he was warning her.

"That's because I am," she growled, daring him to continue the conversation.

"How did I not know you were pretty?" he chuckled, ignoring her comment.

"To think that once I would have given anything for you to say that. I'm so glad you didn't."

"What do you mean?" he asked sharply.

She smiled—she had him in a rare position where he was clueless. "Didn't you know?"

"Know what? What are you talking about?" he snapped, almost frantically.

"When I was younger… there was this boy that I… well…"

"What?"

"Well, there was this guy, when I was a page, that I had a crush on," she sad simply.

"Who—what?" Now she had him confused.

"Oh, Gods, Neal, you can be so clueless," Dom growled at his cousin. "She's saying that she had a crush on you when you were younger!"

Kel glared at Dom. "You stole my punch line."

"It wasn't funny, Kel. You girls never understand how we feel about these kinds of things," he said exasperatedly.

Kel frowned—this wasn't like Dom. "Sorry… I didn't realize I was hurting your feelings…" she said sarcastically. "Because, as you know, I was talking to you."

He met her eyes and her heart began to thump faster… was she really falling for him all over again? He broke the gaze and began to shovel food into his mouth. Neal opened his mouth and then closed it, changing his mind about what he was going to say.

"I'm sorry I forced you guys into this," Raoul murmured. "Didn't think you'd show up, actually, much less together."

Kel swallowed her food with difficulty. "It's not like I can ignore your orders, sir. Once again, I am forced to comment that you are a bad man."

Raoul chuckled a little. "I didn't think Dom felt this way about you, to tell the truth."

Dom choked. "I don't! I asked her because I had to find someone to go with who wouldn't make me dance and stuff!" he snapped.

Kel stared at him, trying to put on her Yamani face but failing. Did he not think of her feelings at all? What he'd said had hurt.

"Think about what you say, Dom," Neal hissed, suddenly dead serious.

Dom looked taken aback. "I… I didn't mean to imply…" Dom started.

"What did you mean to imply?" she asked, her eyes cold. Why was Dom acting this way?

"I was just saying that we're just friends… that this was just, just…" he said quietly, his voice hoarse.

Kel's happiness vanished. She realized that she'd been hoping that maybe this hadn't entirely been because they were friends… that maybe, just maybe, it was because he liked her as a girl. Of course, she'd known that it wasn't true, but it was all right to hope, wasn't it? And now the hope was gone. And anyway, wasn't it better this way? If he'd loved her, then she would have had to tell him that she just wanted to settle into knighthood now, and that she didn't wasn't that kind of relationship with him… she didn't, did she?

"It's alright, Dom," she smiled. "I would've said the same thing."

He didn't seem content with her reply, but he decided to discontinue the subject and eat his food.

Neal and Raoul glared at him with critical, cold eyes, not satisfied with the outcome of the conversation. Buri sighed.

"Shall we all go dance?" Yuki asked, trying to break the tension.

Kel smiled at this prospect and pulled Dom away with her to the dance floor. "Don't kill me," she said quietly out of the corner of her mouth.

"I'll do anything for you as long as it means I don't have to be under the eyes of Neal and Raoul," he said happily.

She smiled in reply and put her hands around his neck as he placed his on her hips. She was all too aware of how close they were, but tried to push it out of her mind and concentrate on the steps to the dance.

"It's been a while since I've done this," she commented.

"Tell me about it," he said distractedly, staring at his feet in an effort to remember the steps. He stepped on her foot as they whirled into a different position.

Kel bit back a yelp. "You're terrible," she croaked when the pain was nearly gone.

He chuckled, his laugh making Kel feel very warm inside. "I know," he said very quietly, moving in a little closer.

Kel could see the freckles on his nose—they were far too close. "I think I want some punch," she said hastily.

He cleared his throat and released her. "Yeah, sorry…"

She took a deep breath, smoothing down her dress's skirts and walked over to the punch table, her face very red.

Kel and Dom didn't dance again for the rest of the night, nor really spoke for the matter. When the speeches started, Kel was forced to say something herself, and so did Dom, Alanna the Lioness and the King. She was only too happy to leave.

As she walked to her rooms, Neal stopped her. "Kel… I want to talk to you."

She nodded and offered him a seat in her room. "I wish you'd let me get out of this thing first."

He waved this comment aside. "So you liked me?"

She laughed a little. "Yeah, when we were pages."

"You know… I kind of did too… but I didn't really know until afterwards."

"What do you mean?" she said.

"Well, when you and Cleon became lovers, I was always sort of tense, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why… t was when I met Yuki when I found out that I had feelings for you," he said with a shrug. "But that's not what I came here for."

"Then why'd you come?" she asked, pouring herself a glass of water.

"It's about Dom. You shouldn't let him talk to you the way he did," he said bluntly.

"But I can't blame him," she said. "I would've said the same thing. He didn't mean to imply that I'm unattractive or anything like that. His tongue just slipped. Dom is my friend—I know he would never want to hurt me like that."

"But he's a guy, Kel. He was jealous when you said what you did to me—it was plain as day," he said exasperatedly. "And he did that because he doesn't know how to express himself. You have to tell him what you think, or he'll hurt you."

"Jealous?" she laughed. "He was just… truth to tell, I don't know why he acted the way he did, but it was certainly not because of that. And I don't want to jeopardize our friendship by confronting him. Dom's a good guy—we both know that."

Neal sighed. "I just—Dom wasn't being normal. And guys aren't normal when they like a girl. If he doesn't come clean about it, he'll just be mean… I would have thought that a grown man would be able to express himself, but apparently Dom can't. He'll understand if you tell him your response to it. Like you said—Dom's a good guy, and he knows that what he said was wrong."

"But what if you're wrong? That will ruin our friendship. Neal, I want to believe you—you know I trust you—but I need to be sure before I do anything about it. Maybe he was just in a bad mood," she said with finality.

Neal studied her for a few minutes before standing. "Do what you will, Kel," he said with a sigh. He looked her up and down and commented," You really look great in a dress. You should wear them more often."

Kel prepared to retort but he was gone before she could open her mouth. She shut it and sat on her bed, thinking. After a while, she decided to forget it until there was a reason to bring it up and readied herself for bed.

Note: Hi! I didn't write a note last time… sorry about that. I've got so many reviewers already! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'll try and respond to your reviews more often, too, because you guys are the ink for my pen! I hope you like this new update… hope you don't fall asleep while reading it. It is SUPER LONG… If you've got any ideas, just tell me, and I'll try to pay heed to them! Speaking to ideas, one of my reviewers gave me one! She said that the dress should be pink and, though I decided against making that something really important, I'm still really grateful. Her name is Lady Blooddrop! Yay Lady Blooddrop!!!

Anyway, shout outs to: theweirdworder, SarahE7191, Fire Daughter, quickreader93, Lady Blooddrop, Kari of Mindelan, sharingiscaring.