I should have caught on to Ana’s teasing. That girl has been doing nothing but teasing from the moment I met her. Either to myself or Katherine, she held nothing back when it came to it. The ‘date’ Ana talked about, was in fact just a normal dinner in the dining room. Weirdly enough there were only two chairs at the table. I guess the servants eat elsewhere?
As I sat in my chair in the dining room, I looked around and saw that they really tried to set the mood. I'm not sure what mood that would be, maybe Ana was playing into the whole date thing. I saw lit candles everywhere, and a bottle of unopened wine on the table. Across from me on the other side of the table was the other empty chair, for who I would assume is for Katherine.
Speak of the devil, as soon as I had that thought the door to the dining room opened. The first one to enter was Ana in her usual maid uniform. Following her was Kather-
I was stunned looking at Kat. She was dressed up in a beautiful red dress. She really had a look of royalty to her, and I couldn’t help myself from staring a little. She looked over and she took a look at my own black dress that Ana picked out. I saw her eyes move up and up, till our eyes met and we both stared at each other. I felt myself blush so I looked away, and when I snuck a glance back I could see she was doing the same thing.
She sat down in front of me, taking a look around the room as Ana helped another servant bring in two plates of food for us.
“Ana?” She asked with a confused expression. “What's with all the candles, did the lights go out or something? And why is dinner being served here and not in the study?”
“Why it's for your date of course,” Ana said with a smug grin.
“D-date!?” she exclaimed. She shared a look with me, before averting her eyes back towards Ana. Who seemed to be just chuckling as her teasing was working. She spoke to me but still kept glancing around. Not that I could meet her eyes anyway.
“I'm sorry about this Em, I swear I had no idea she was doing this tonight.” She said before she sighed. "I should have known something was up when she demanded I dress up tonight."
“I-its fine Kat,” I said, before turning my attention to the wine bottle. Hoping to change the topic of conversation. “Uhm, Ana? I'm too young to drink. Could I get something non-alcoholic?”
“Are you sure?” Ana asked. “fae law says anyone above eighteen can drink, and you're nineteen right? You should be fine. Oh well, I’ll get you some juice from the kitchen, or would you rather have soda?”
“Juice is fine, thank you.”
With that, she left. She returned shortly with a glass of juice, it looked like grape juice but tasted a little different from what I was used to. It wasn’t alcohol, that's for sure, but it must be a different berry than what I'm used to in the human world.
Dinner very awkwardly started. It was another dish that I couldn’t name. It had some noodles in it and I almost felt like calling it a lasagna, but it just had all these weird things in it. It was good though and helped to distract from Ana’s teasing from earlier.
As we finished dinner, it was still just as silent and awkward as it was before it started. We attempted some small talk during dinner, but Ana’s teasing was still bothering the both of us I guess. Thankfully the mood got better as we finished, and finally started having proper conversations again.
“So.” I started.
“So?” Kat asked.
“When is your whole big adventure going to happen?” I ask, before clarifying. “You know, the whole going out chasing monsters and killing demons thing. Don’t take it the wrong way, I’d love to just spend time here in the city with you. I just had this impression you wanted to go out into the wilderness and look for trouble.”
“Hmmm.” She thought about what I just said for a moment, before speaking up. “It's true, I’ve always been more aligned with going out and doing as you say, chasing monsters. I love exploring old ruins and all that, even though I'm the only one in my family to do so. My older brother and sister would never even attempt such things. They think royalty should be all special and they think my hobbies are too wild and brutish.”
She sighed. “I do love them though, their family after all. Can’t blame them for not enjoying the outdoors and the adventures like I do.”
I nodded before she continued. “We’ll go out on our wilderness journey soon, don’t worry. Maybe a week or two? I wanted to bring you around exploring the city for a while. Sometimes it's just as fun as exploring the wilds.”
“I'm looking forward to it,” I say with a smile. I really want to see the sights and sounds of a new city, from a culture different from my own.
She smiled as she continued. “I gotta warn you though, demons aren’t the same as the ones in your human stories. They're all around pretty nice, as long as you treat them well. Just try not to compare them to the ones in the human stories and you'll be fine."
I nodded along as I started to try and forget what I previously knew about demons. Growing up in a religious household, they definitely didn't paint a nice picture of what demons are like. Hopefully, I can forget all of that before I actually meet one.
“So anyway, it's been half a day.” She started, looking me up and down. “How are you enjoying the new you?”
“It's great!” I exclaimed. “Having a body that fits is perfect, and while the tails and ears are still taking some getting used to I still love all of it.”
I gave her a big smile, tears forming in my eyes. “Thank you Kat, really. You gave me everything I ever wanted.”
“It's my pleasure.” She said with a big toothy grin. “I promised you a new you and a new adventure, so I'm glad that my first promise went well.”
Suddenly she got an idea, as her face brightened up. She stood up and grabbed my hand.
“Come with me, I got a surprise for you.” She said as she dragged me through the mansion. Out through a back door, into the garden. There was a small sitting area with a fountain in the middle. She pointed upwards and I let out a gasp.
What I saw was the night sky, looking incredibly magical. It was as if it was the first time I ever saw the sight. I guess to be fair, it is my first time seeing it in this world. The stars were twinkling and there were even some who were changing colors. Going through the rainbow, as if they were RGB computer lights. It was easily the most beautiful night I've ever seen.
“I know how you mentioned you like the stars at night, I figured you’d want to take a look at it.” She said, smiling as she looked up at the night sky. As she talked I went to look at her but surprisingly I found myself staring at her instead. The night sky was beautiful, but the way I looked up to her as the light of the moon illuminated her was even more beautiful. I felt my face heat up, and this time I knew I couldn’t blame the temperature. I knew I was blushing.
She looked at me and I had to suppress a gasp. She smiled before turning back up to gaze at the stars. Letting out a cute little sigh as she did so.
There was no turning back now, I knew I was developing a crush on her now. No, not even developing, I think tonight it turned into a full-blown crush. I tore my gaze away and looked back up to the sky as I wrestled with my thoughts. I knew in the back of my head that I’ve been thinking about her more and more since we met. I was worried that it was too early to develop a crush, so I guess I started to pretend I didn’t notice.
But would she even like me back? That was my biggest worry. If I have to stay here, I wouldn’t want to make things awkward if she didn’t like me back. I had nowhere to go if she kicked me out. After all, I can’t go back to the human world on my own. And I have no ID or anything to help me out in the fae world.
Knowing my luck she’s probably not even into girls, she’s never shown any interest in me or any other girls. Or at least I don't think she has. I’ve only seen her around Sam, Victoria, Ana, and myself after all. Then even if she liked girls, would she even like me? Knowing who I was befor-
She spoke up, interrupting my likely unhealthy thought process.
“I haven’t had this much fun in ages.” She said, in a soft tone. “The capital was always busy with paperwork and restrictions. So many rules and mannerisms you had to learn. You would be lucky to get away from it all for a day or two. It took years of begging for me to get the chance to go out on my own like this.”
“What changed?” I asked curiously.
“Guess my mother thought I was strong enough, that I wouldn’t be in danger. I was excelling in every single magical test they did on me, even now I'm likely the strongest mage in the entire capital. She felt that I was old enough and strong enough to live on my own, so she gave me the vacation home that was in another city. That way I could go exploring and have a safe nearby place to return to.”
“She sounds like a nice mom,” I say.
She looked shocked, then apologetic. “Sorry,” she said.
“For what?” I asked.
“I know what your parents were like, from what you’ve told of them at least. I shouldn’t be here bragging about my own mother like that when you had it so bad.”
“It's fine. Really, I'm kinda happy to be away from them.” I said. I'm really glad she brought me into the fae world, I get to be free of them and their hatred. Finally. “In fact, I'd really love to hear more about your family Kat.”
“You sure?” She asks. I nod. “Okay well… ah! I have so many tales of my older brother! His name is Joshua and when he was younger he couldn’t go a week without pranking someone!”
She told more and more tales of her siblings and her mother. Including some tales of Ana when she was younger. We stayed up late into the night, laughing at each new tale. I even told a few of the happier ones of my childhood, and a few of Sam when she was a child.
By the end of the night, our stomachs were hurting from all the laughter, and I knew for sure that my crush on her was real. I knew I had it bad too.
All according to Ana's plan...
It was good though and helped to distract from *Ada’s* teasing from earlier.
I think you meant Ana.
Thanks for another chapter!
Thank you for pointing that out, I totally missed it. oops.
Ahh, they're so cute