Aria knows she shouldn't be looking forward to meeting Phantom again, but she does. She's at least honest with herself, she reflects, as she paces about the balcony, her hand fingering the chain of the Skaia around her neck.
She hasn't told anyone about the past two meetings yet, and definitely hasn't told anyone how she's actually looking forward to seeing him again. Phantom may be a thief, but he's sincere, at least. And since he's not technically her subject like Elena, he sees no need to maintain proper decorum - which pleases Aria, actually.
It's tiring to always have to be Empress Aria in front of everybody else, but at least with Phantom, she finally feels as if she can be herself. Speaking with him is a liberating experience, and Aria knows, as Empress, these moments are few and far in between.
"Have you been expecting me?" Phantom chuckles as he appears.
"I'm not even going to ask how you do that." Aria can't help but smile.
"Shall I show you?"
"No." She shakes her head, recalling the last time he had done that and they had ended up on the Lumiere.
Phantom's silent for a while, as if in thought, and then he speaks. "Dine with me?"
"What?" She looks up to face him.
"I've prepared a small dinner for two. Unfortunately I only have the appetite for one share, so you'll have to take the other."
"You can't be serious." Aria's eyes narrow. "First you intrude into palace grounds to steal the Skaia, and then you kidnap me, and now you wish to dine with me?"
"I am serious, my Empress. Come." He stretches out a hand.
Aria shakes her head. "I cannot put myself in danger."
"So you think I'm dangerous?"
"You're definitely not harmless." Aria swallows as she takes a step back.
"Then I suppose I'll have to bring the food to us, then." Phantom walks out to the balcony and looks up at the sky. "I'll be back soon, my Empress." He grins, and in a flurry of cards, disappears.
"Wait -" But the word stops on Aria's tongue, and she balls her hands into fists as she stares at the sky. "He's impossible!"
Shaking her head slightly she turns to leave, certain that Phantom's only kidding and messing with her. She's not about to fall for his trap though, for she's sure that he's watching her from the Lumiere to see whether she takes the bait. She won't, so she heads back indoors.
"Going somewhere?" A very familiar and very charming voice.
Aria whips around to face -
Phantom is on her balcony again, and next to him is a table covered in a white tablecloth. Atop the table rests a single stalk of rose in a tiny vase, and two silverware lids cover plates on either side of the rose. Two wine glasses filled with something sparkle in the moonlight. Aria stares at the set up. How he's managed to do it so fast she has no clue, but she's more amazed by the sheer fact that he's actually serious about it.
"After you." Phantom gestures to the table, a mischievous grin on his face and a twinkle in his eyes.
"You're joking." Aria manages out. She's stunned by the mere fact that Phantom - Master Thief and mysterious Phantom - wishes to dine with her. And after all he's done - "You've got some nerve."
"Do me a favour and please take a seat." Phantom holds out a chair for her, and grins.
"I'm not dining with you." Aria turns her back to him and plods back indoors. "Leave in five minutes or I'll call the guard."
She closes the balcony door behind her, and immediately peeks through the curtains. She watches, incredulous, as Phantom sits down and removes the silver lid off one of the plates. To her even greater amazement, he places the napkin on his lap, picks up the silverware and begins eating.
Phantom looks up then, and they make eye contact through the window. Aria narrows her eyes. He slowly slices through his food - what looks like a slab of meat - and pops one bite into his mouth. He's savouring it, Aria thinks, andshe swears he's doing it on purpose.
Another bite, and then he looks at her again, and grins.
She's had it. She crosses over to the main door of her room, and she's about to open it, her hand on the knob, when she stills. No. She can't turn him in.
Or rather, she reflects idly as she looks back at him, she doesn't want to. She's the one who lured him here in the first place. Didn't she want to get to know him better? Wasn't that her original intent?
She shuffles back to the balcony door slowly. Yes, she takes a deep breath. Getting to know him better is her duty as Empress, to figure out what her subjects - in this case, a very wealthy and very arrogant thief named Phantom - are thinking. Yes, that's it. She's invited him here to better understand him and his motivations, and possibly seek a solution, that's all.
Phantom catches her looking at him through the window, again, and waves. Aria throws open the balcony door.
"You - you are impeccable!"
"Why," Phantom makes a show of smoothening his fringe. "Thank you."
"You know that's not what I meant." Aria huffs, folding her arms as she sits down opposite him at the table.
"I'm sorry, but that's all I heard, my lady." Phantom continues cutting his meat. THAT gets her attention.
"What're you eating?"
"Filet mignon. You have some, too." Phantom removes the lid on the plate. "Ordinarily, my servants will remove the lid, but for today, I'll make an exception. Just for you, my Empress." He grins boyishly, cheeks dimpling slightly.
Aria snorts, but can't stop staring at her food. The filet mignon drizzled with cream sauce looks and smells delicious, and the asparagus and mashed potatoes next to the beef look tempting, as well.
"If you're hoping for me to feed you -" Phantom raises an eyebrow.
"No!"
"Then, eat." Phantom makes it sound as if dining with an intruder is a common and typical affair.
Aria looks up at him, and immediately wishes she hasn't. He's smiling at her, looking at her, and she can feel heat rise in her face. She grabs her fork and knife, suddenly grateful for the distraction, and begins cutting the beef into pieces.
"I'm happy to see you're enjoying your food." Phantom observes.
"It's not that I'm enjoying it. It's that I don't wish for you to get the wrong ideas, so don't be mistaken."
Phantom laughs. "As you say, my lady."
"It is as I say." Aria replies as she forks a bite of filet mignon into her mouth. Her words only elicit another chuckle from him. She reaches her hand out for the glass, smelling it before she takes a sip; it's just water.
"It seems we're having a rather enjoyable first date."
Aria all but spits out the ill-timed sip of water. "What?"
"Are you always this slow?" Phantom grins.
"What?" She sets the glass back down on the table.
"I figured the Empress of Maple World will be smarter."
"This," Aria jabs at her mashed potatoes. "Is not a date."
"Perhaps we're missing a candle, then."
"You've got to be joking." Aria rolls her eyes. Although, she can't deny she is enjoying the attention she's getting from him; she suppresses that feeling immediately.
"Next time, then." Phantom grins, and continues eating. They lapse into silence, although it's by no means uncomfortable. Aria knows she shouldn't be dining with him - dining with the thief everyone's been looking for - but she's curious about him and his motivations. Perhaps-
"Why do you steal?" Aria lets the fork and knife slide back onto her plate.
"Why?" Phantom finishes the last of his meal and dabs at his mouth with his napkin. "Now it's your turn to tell me you're joking."
"Why, Phantom? Why do you steal?"
"It's like asking a mage why he practices magic. Or a warrior why he uses his sword. Thieves steal. That's what they do. And that's what I do."
"You only steal from the rich." Aria presses. "And powerful." She thinks instinctively of the Skaia around her neck, of the story she's concocted, and of how he's actually managed to steal it - only to return it to her. It baffles her.
"Of course. Why steal from those whose every meso is like a treasure?"
"So you think you're doing justice?" Aria looks him squarely in the eye.
"No," he shakes his head. "I know I'm not. I will not even pretend that what I'm doing is right."
"But you still continue doing so?" She asks as she raises an eyebrow.
"Yes." He nods. "Time for dessert." With a fluorish of his hand a shower of cards rain down upon the table, narrowly missing the plates and glasses. When the cards disappear Aria's amazed to discover two silver bowls of ice cream.
"Ice cream?" She chuckles as she looks at the single scoop of vanilla before her.
"Picky, picky." Phantom begins eating his, and Aria does likewise.
"You didn't poison me or anything, right?" She's been too careless tonight and she knows it. All it'll take is one smidgen of malicious intent, and -
"No." Phantom answers.
"Oh." She swallows and looks at the empty plate before her, and at her half-eaten ice cream. The fact that she's never even considered poisoning surprises her. She's not one to be this careless, and she frowns.
"Why? Vanilla not to your liking?" Phantom smiles mischievously.
"No. I'm just - surprised you haven't tried to stab me or kill me or rip the Skaia out from my very hands. Or poison me, or abduct me and dump me on some desolate island-"
"Please, I've given you my word, my Empress. I have more class than that." Phantom finishes his ice cream. "So don't give me ideas."
"You shouldn't be here. Tonight's an exception, but tomorrow, and from henceforth, if I see you here, I'm calling for the guards."
"Go ahead. They can't catch me. It'll be as if I was never here."
"I'm sure you can't disappear without a trace." Now it's Aria's turn to grin as she gestures to the entire set up.
"Try me." Phantom remains seated, and the look in his eyes is amused, but challenging.
"Guards!" She yells in her most Empress-y voice, and almost immediately the door to her room is pushed aside as a dozen or so palace guards storm in and to the balcony where she is.
Satisfied, Aria turns to face Phantom, and - he's gone. The entire table and plates and silverware is gone, leaving only her on the borrowed chair. Her mouth widens as she stands.
"Yes, Your Highness?" The head guard, a blonde man she knows as Rohile, walks up to her, saluting in the fashion of the royal guards as he does so.
"I thought I saw -" Phantom's quick, she has to give him that. She's definitely intrigued, now. "A movement, in the bushes out there. Perhaps it was just a small animal." She looks across at the palace guards. "My apologies, I overreacted and I'm sorry."
"No need for apologies, Your Highness." Rohile says. "We will be sure to check the bushes."
"Thank you, Rohile. All of you may leave, now." She says, and watches as they file out of her room. Rohile's last to leave, however.
"Your Highness." Rohile's also the only person who addresses her in that way.
"Yes?" She looks up at him. Rohile is tall, taller than Phantom even, but his blue eyes are kind, and - and full of concern, she realises.
"Be safe, Your Highness." He says, and she feels like he's telling her more. He can't possibly know about Phantom? For a moment she stills, frozen by his sudden words that threaten to expose - "The threat of the Black Mage looms larger every day, and I am afraid the day will come when even Ereve is not safe."
Aria looks at him.
"Forgive me, I did not mean to spoil your evening with such talk." Rohile looks away, as if embarrassed. "It was unthinking."
"Rohile - perhaps all of us must 'be safe'. Not just me." Rohile's also always concerned for her. She's caught wind of why, of course: his concern for her crosses over his duty as her royal guard and into something else, something entirely unfamiliar.
"But you most of all. If the Black Mage were to invade Ereve -" Rohile presses, and his eyes are earnest.
"He wouldn't. I'll make sure he won't."
"We don't have the army necessary to stop him." Rohile takes another step forward until he's next to her, and looks out at the forest.
"We have alliances." Aria swallows. The truth is that Ereve's military is weak, but to rely on her allies in times of need is risky at best and catastrophic at worst. Elena has said as much, and Rohile, as head of internal affairs and of the royal palace guards, knows as much. It's no secret.
"The alliances cannot save us should anything happen." Next to her, Rohile grips the balustrade of the railing tightly.
"Then I'll talk. If the Black Mage ever threatens Ereve - I'll talk with him. I'm sure there can be negotiations and conditions. We can talk terms."
Rohile grunts, and she suspects what he's thinking. "I'll do anything to protect Ereve should the day come; he can invade Ereve over my dead body." Aria continues.
"Your Highness -" Rohile begins.
"I'm tired, Rohile." Aria turns to face him, prying her eyes away from the forest. Please leave, and I apologise again for the false alarm."
"Take care, Your Highness." Rohile salutes once more, and Aria watches as he leaves the room.
Thumbing the Skaia around her neck and heading back into her room, Aria can't help but realise that her conversation with Rohile has pushed her frivolous dinner with Phantom out of her mind, and she can't help but feel a certain sense of dread and premonition.
A/N: Well, I had to give the head guard a name, and I headcanon that there's a thing between Mihile and Cygnus. Mihile's father is Chromile (canon), Rohile's just my made-up name for Chromile's ancestor (not father). Thanks to IceKnightStar on AO3 for pointing out the time gap!