With the quick passing of the afternoon, many guests arrived at Romana's Villa in order to attend the dinner recital. While Lumina was still upstairs preparing for her personal debut, Elli was by the doorstep, dressed in her impressive sky blue gown, and greeting a few guests on their way in. During this fairly daunting task, one such guest took particular interest in the "refined" young lady.
This flashy woman had long, silvery-blonde hair, and wore an ornate violet dress adorned with amethysts and diamonds abound. On her head rested a matching headband with even more diamonds embedded in it.
"So… you must be the distant relative that Ms. Romana mentioned. "Ellis", was it?" she said with a curious look.
"Just "Elli", no s." the Mineral Town girl corrected with a tinge of caution in her voice.
" "Elli", right. It's hard to get new names right when you have so many to remember in all these parties." She scoffed.
"Oh. I see…" Elli replied in nervous sympathy.
After an awkward silence occurred between the two, the opulent lady gave Elli an intimidating, analytical gaze. Poor Elli tried very hard not to quake with fear.
"Hmmm… very interesting…" the lady muttered aloud.
"Wh-what? What is it?" Elli replied, struggling to retain composure.
"I can't exactly point out how, but you seem to carry this "country girl" essence that really stands out…" she said.
Elli gulped. "Ah… I… uh…."
"I like it." The lady continued. "It's… pleasantly "quaint", actually. It reminds me of that "Cinderella" fairy tale where some girl in rags overcomes her station and makes it big becoming Prince Charming's bride. You're like a living, breathing fantasy."
"Ah… th-thank you." Elli uttered humbly. "You actually look very nice yourself."
The young lady chuckled with amusement. "Very cute. You even have the whole "humility" thing down. This has truly been a pleasure meeting you tonight."
This comment left Elli with a very confused smile.
"Ah, but I suppose I have little time to dawdle. There are a few more guests coming do see our dear Lumina perform, and it would be impolite to keep them. Still, I hope we can meet up sometime later. Ta ta!" she cried as she scuffled about in her dress towards the dining hall.
"Ah, hi! You must be Elli, right?"
Elli turned to see an upstanding young couple right by her.
The man had short, fairly messy brown hair and deep chocolate brown eyes with his warm smile. He was wearing a clean black tuxedo and an underneath red vest for the occasion.
The woman had long, neat, dark brown hair and bright hazelnut eyes. She wore a loose evergreen dress-skirt with a matching pillbox hat. She joined the young man in his greeting by waving quietly with a friendly smile.
Elli was quite surprised to see the young man's earnest greeting.
"I'm… sorry. Should I be familiar with you?" she asked hesitantly.
"I see… so Lumina hasn't said much about me, has she? Well then, let me introduce myself. My name is Gavin Wilhelm."
The nicely-dressed young man proceeded to shake Elli's hand while using his free one to rub his head bashfully.
For a moment, Elli felt short of breath. "Gavin? As in… the local farmer?" she thought to herself.
He then turned her attention to the lady at his side. "And this is my date, Celia."
The lady in the evergreen dress-skirt then stepped forward and bowed politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Elli looked silently upon her cousin's object of affection as he stood happily alongside another woman.
"Ummm… Gavin…. Are you… the new farmer around here?" she asked.
"Oh, yes. Yes I am. So Lumina did tell me about you, after all." He said in relief.
"I actually happen to be a local here, as well. I'm just dressing up for the occasion! I fell grateful to be able to in the first place…" Celia confessed with a modest gesture.
"Really? Did you have to pay for it, or was it given to you?" Elli asked.
Gavin raised his hand. "Actually, that was me. You see, I came from the city with an aunt and uncle raising me. I told them about the dinner recital, and they were more than happy to spare some cash for Celia's clothes. My tux was actually meant for an old prom I ditched some years go. Believe it or not… I'm not really comfortable with big social gatherings. I'm just making an exception here Lumina's sake." He explained.
"Lumina happens to me a good friend of mine, too. We're here to look out for her and give her our support." Celia added.
"Wow… that's really nice of you!" Elli chirped.
Gavin sighed. "Yeah, thanks. Actually, I wasn't sure about coming at first when Ms. Romana was a little too insistent for me to attend, and it made really uncomfortable."
Celia laughed. "You really don't do too well with pushy folk, do you? You look even worse whenever you deal with Vesta. It's a good thing she really likes you, isn't it?"
"D-don't remind me…" Gavin stuttered with a nervous groan.
Considering their friendly natures, Elli clearly noticed that the pair were very comfortable with each other.
"I'm really curious now. Since you two decided to come here as a pair, are you two… you know… together?"
The reluctant pair was rendered startled and speechless with red faces.
It took awhile before someone among them uttered a single sound.
"Eh… Ah… Um..."
"I suppose that's a sensible assumption to make, considering we came like this, but… Gavin insisted this wasn't meant to be a date." Celia explained.
With that said, the pair looked each other in the eye for a moment, only to turn away with even redder faces.
This awkward interaction intrigued Elli. The aspiring farmer before her was a great contrast to the one she met in Mineral Town. While Sack was a cheerful and outgoing sort, Gavin was a fairly shy individual. Still, there was an unmistakable charm to the man.
Elli understood very well that this was the same young man that Lumina held close to her heart, but what played out right in front of her eyes was a scene tough to bear. It was clear to her that he loved the woman at his side, and that her feelings were the same.
Unfortunately, Lumina's romance wasn't meant to be.
Still, Elli wasn't the one to curse the happiness of a genuinely nice guy and his equally nice girlfriend.
"Well, whatever the situation is, you two look really great together." Elli beamed.
"T-thanks…" Gavin managed to reply.
Celia bowed her head while clutching in bashfully with one hand. "Thank you… I wasn't really sure I pull this look off well, but I'm glad to hear you think so."
"Oh, don't be silly! You look wonderful, Celia!" Elli assured her.
The friendly three shared a few life stories afterwards, and laughed together on fun moments.
For Elli, it was a pleasure getting to truly know these fine people.
"I really want to let you know that… I feel so happy that Lumina has caring people like you looking after her in this valley. I admit that this Villa feels rather confining sometimes." Elli professed.
"I'm just glad to know Lumina has a nice friend and relative that she can trust. I didn't really know she had any other living relatives besides her Grandma until recently." Gavin replied.
"Yeah. I wish we got to know about each other sooner. But I'm glad we're able to meet like this." Celia added.
Their happy moment lasted a little while longer until a sudden growl suddenly interrupted. The source was soon revealed when the fancily-dressed farmer held his stomach and made an embarrassingly hungry face.
"Ah, shoot. That's right. I worked this morning through the afternoon just to be in time for the dinner recital! Ugh… I'm sorry to say this… but I guess I better head to the dining table now!" Gavin groaned with a slight chuckle.
"Oh, alright. Then we should head there soon. I'm starting to feel hungry myself." Celia said to her "date". She then turned to Elli.
"Will you be joining us, soon? It would be nice if we had the chance to dine with you." Celia asked.
"Ah… I'm… not sure I'll be able do comply. There's still other guests expected to come by, and Auntie Romana expects me to get acquainted to me. I'm sorry, but you'll have to go ahead without me." Elli said regretfully.
Celia nodded. "Understood. Well, I'll see if we can try and save a seat for you. On the other hand, you just might be lucky enough to get a date for yourself." She suggested hopefully.
"I don't know about that, but I'll glad if I could join you guys later." Elli replied.
At that moment, the nurse in sky blue was taken aback when Gavin placed a confiding hand on her shoulder with a friendly smile.
"I wouldn't worry. Maybe he isn't here, but I have a feeling someone special is waiting for you somewhere. Perhaps that guy might be in your hometown…" Gavin said warmly.
"Aha… maybe. That would be nice, though." Elli said as she became flustered.
Gavin's stomach growled once more, reminding him of his current "condition". He gave a long sigh before taking off.
"Well then, I better get dinner now before I die of starvation or something." He groaned in a helpless tone. He then waved happily at the cheery hostess. "Then, 'till later, I suppose."
"It was nice meeting you!" Celia chimed in as she joined Gavin in waving.
Elli nodded and waved back. "You too! It was a pleasure!" she answered back.
Finally, the couple waded into the crowd of classy figures until they left Elli's view.
With that done, she had numerous other guests to greet by the door. A few others ended up taking great interest in this good-natured "Cinderella" in their presence. She repeatedly denied this visualization, yet graciously accepted the compliment.
Finally, there were only a few guests left lagging behind. Elli was just about ready to head in for dinner herself when one more guest arrived to meet her.
"Good afternoon, young lady." A male guest politely said.
"Good afternoon." Elli replied before she turned to meet him.
"My Goodness! Elli… is that you?" he cried.
Elli gasped. With the man's voice worked up, Elli recognized it somehow.
"Is it--- but why? How is it possible?" Elli thought to herself before she could lay eyes on him.
With her curiosity piqued, Elli hastened to see this new guest.
He was a tall figure with short, fairly messy black hair and observant brown eyes. He wore long, slimming white tuxedo coat with a silver vest tucked neatly underneath.
"D…Doctor?" Elli cried in total disbelief.
The tall man before her nodded slowly. "Yes… yes it is. Sometime after you left, I received an invitation for this event by some distinguished friends of mine. They said I deserved the break."
"B-but… what about the Clinic? Your Day Off isn't until Tomorrow!" Elli mentioned in concern.
"About that… somehow, I got lucky that Dr. Hardy from here was willing to cover for me. That man might not be as… "public-friendly" as others of my profession, but we know from experience that he's very capable in the field." He explained.
"Oh… thank goodness." Elli said with relief.
The Doctor's eyes remained greatly focused on the maiden dressed in a sky-blue gown.
"I'm really impressed what you've done. You look absoletly gorgeous." He said in an unusually calm voice.
Elli simply looked back with her innocent smile. "You look very handsome yourself. Almost like a Prince."
"I'm a Doctor foremost.." Doctor Holiday replied in a firm tone. "However, I will not mind accompanying you to dinner if you don't mind." He finished.
"Oh, no. In fact, I would love to join you!" Elli beamed.
Doctor Holiday smiled back. "Very well then…"
And so, with an unexpected escort at her side, the scintillating Lady Elli finally made her way into the dining hall…