the princess

   me from completing it?”  She passed the dancer a coy but knowing look    before letting out a sigh and plopping it beside her on the end table of the    couch.  She’d have time to work it out more tomorrow, anyway, and it was    bad to waste quiet nights like this on legitimate work.

      “Alright.”  She said finally, a mellow smile lingering on her face.  ”Let’s have     a drink.  But no nail painting for me, I’ve just had them done and I don’t trust     anyone but my darling Panetta do touch them, I’ve been going to her for so     long I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I didn’t have her.”  She peered     briefly at the shimmering black varnish she’d chosen just yesterday before     shrugging.

When her boss suggested she grab a bottle of wine, Luci didn't hesitate. She got up immediately and crossed to the other side of the room, crouching down to briefly examine the contents of the fridge. She ended up grabbing a bottle at random, though. Ferra Yomen was bound to have only the best in her personal stock.

Once she was reseated, she gave Ferra a sly sideways glance. "I find it hard to believe that you, of all people, would have nothing to contribute. You must know every little thing that goes on in your club." 

She waited patiently for Luci on the main floor, having arrived a few minutes early. She’d given herself far too much extra time for error. She grinned upon seeing the shorter girl exit the elevator, giving a little wave. 

"Whaaaaaaat?" Luci asked, giving Ema an incredulous look. "You were with me when I bought this top, you should know how expensive it is! There's no way I'm ruining it with a chlorine bath." She said with a wave of her hand. But she didn't find it necessary to explain to Ema why she'd bother getting dressed for the short trip from her apartment to the pool. 

"This way!" She said, turning on her heel. She led Ema right past the Elevators to the stairs that led down to the pool level. A short flight of stairs later, Luci pushed open the door to reveal a lavish looking indoor pool. Big windows to the right and left brought in natural sun light and gave the residents a nice place to sit and sun. But best of all, they had the pool entirely to themselves. It helped that they were swimming at a time most normal people were at work or school. 

Without a word, Luci moved closer to the pool, stripping of her clothes and flinging them on a nearby pool chair as she did so. Underneath them was technically a one piece black swimsuit, but it was strategically cut in so many places that it was essentially a two piece. Luci prefered fashion over function, even for swimming.

"I dunno~!" Luci said, really playing up the ditziness if only because it was fun. "With the amount of doxxings you can make in one night, I'm pretty sure any girl would be satisfied dancing, even if they didn't like it." 

"Yes, but I feel like spontaneously dancing all the time!"

Emalyn hadn’t expected…this. Maybe some pouting, and maybe some coaxing, but not…an invitation to swim. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face at the idea of swimming. Hell yeah she wanted to swim. 

Success! A smile! That was what she wanted to see. Emotional avoidance through distraction at it's finest. Things had gone form fun, to sexy, to serious so quickly, she almost had whiplash. But now things were back in her comfort zone and the two of them could continue on their date day out without any further issue. 

"Okay! You go ahead and get changed, we can meet at my place in about an hour?" She didn't wait for Ema to respond. "I'll text you my address! I live in the 6th in this huuuuuge building. It's super easy to find. Just call me when you get there and I'll come down and get you!" 

Without further ado, Luci gave Ema a little wave and then spun on her heel to strut off in the opposite direction.                                     ~*~Probably more than an hour later ~*~

Luci was late going to get Ema. She had called about 10 minutes ago, but Luci needed to find the right thing to wear over her new bathing suit. Yes, it would be on the floor of the swimming pool deck in less than 10 minutes, but appearances are important, Survivor damn it! Appearances were what Luci was all about. If she had the right appearance down, she could get anything she wanted. And she wanted Ema.

A short elevator ride later, Luci stepped out into the lobby, spotted Ema, and headed over to her. "Are you ready. To swim. In the best damn pool. On this side of Elendel?" She pretty much sang to Ema as she danced towards her. Things were about to get wet and wild (most likely not in the way Luci preferred, but...close enough)!

    Eliane wasn’t about to admit how she’d gotten ahold of Luci’s schedule but she’d been sure to pick a day when the girl had the afternoon off. She’d gotten to the club, staying outside rather than trying to get to the door, with about twenty minutes before Luci’s morning shift was supposed to end. She was half scared she might run into her brother, but through Harmony’s grace, Dier was nowhere to be found.

    As Luci exited from the back employee entrance, Eliane quickly waved to get her attention, and walked up. She forced herself not to run a hand nervously through her hair, despite how awkward she felt in doing this.

At least she had the rest of the day to relax and do whatever she wanted. And that probably meant she was going to go home, sleep for a few hours, and then go out to a club or something. Nothing all that special or interesting; she just needed to recover from the horrors of the morning shift.

As the back door shut behind her, a blur of motion caught her eye. Luci almost did a double take when she saw who was waiting for her. While she resisted that urge, she couldn't quiet keep an initial look of surprise off her face. Eliane.

This was the woman she Soothed twice, maliciously and without consent. And the second time she did it knowing full well that Eliane had an aversion to emotional allomancy. For the survivor's sake, they'd exchanged near death threats not that long ago. And now the other woman was approaching her thinking they could be friends or something? Luci didn't realize her reaction to Dier's little show had been so impressive, but apparently it'd put her in a new and exciting position (which she was totally willing to exploit).

"Hm." Luci hummed, fixing a curious smile on her face. "Yeah sure. That sounds...nice." Externally, she maintained the look of pleasant surprise. On the inside, however, she was beyond excited. Part of her had been disappointed that she'd made an enemy out of Eliane so quickly in her twisted version of fun. But now - out of the blue - was another chance to make something out of her relationship with Eliane. She could play the good friend if it meant she got something good out of it.

"Larelle." She ignored the offered hand, motioning instead for two drinks. Larelle Favreux was not a hand-shaker. She was a drink-buyer, and this was how she showed politeness. "So, Luci. What do you want from me?"

Out of courtesy, she decided not to tap her metalminds tonight. Let the girl deal with her in her most natural form. Of course, she would still be better than the girl by a landslide—it was how things progressed.

Larelle. The name buzzed in Luci's head. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. Still, the way the other women held herself told Luci that she was important in some way. That and she acted like her shit didn't stink or something.

"Well, at first I just wanted to rescue you from boredom," Luci started, retracting her hand smoothly and laying it to rest on her lap. "Now I'd just like to have a nice conversation with you."

That was probably easier said than done. So far, Larelle didn't seem to be that enthusiastic about her as a conversation partner. Or fellow human being, for that matter. Luci would have to try her best to be aloof but interesting to keep the other woman around long enough to find out what her story was. But...

         ( I could eat that rat in two bites. )

"Hey! Bad dog!" Luci scolded as she lifted her little dog up over her head. Though, it probably didn't matter much: the other dog was so big it could easily jump up and snatch Pookie anyway. But hey, it was the thought that counted. "You be nice to Pookie, you mean old grump! Hasn't anyone ever taught you any manners?!"

    Honestly, Dier almost pitied the poor fools who were taken in by the ruse. Ferra and her girls played them for all they were worth. There was something incredibly attractive to him about these dancers, though he’d always found it to be their cunning, rather than any physical assets they might posses. There was just something alluring about a woman who knew exactly what she was doing and had complete control of her situation.

    And he’d already been taken by the pinnacle of that archetype.

"Oh! That sounds delicious!" Luci practically squealed as she smacked her hands together in excitement. Her little facade was back and in full force; she just felt more comfortable that way. "Lead the way!"

And  then the rest of Luci’s sentence came. She knew, Ema realised. She knew she’d liked it more than she was letting on. Involuntarily, she shuddered under the breath. For a second, she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even convince herself to glow a brighter red.

It’d be so easy to throw Luci against the wall, give her exactly what she was asking for. It’d be so easy to just give in, let the natural high wash away everything she was feeling. It wasn’t even just her confusion over what was happening between her and Luci. It was everything from her father’s death, to both Sin and Eliane’s revelations. All of it still hurt, and none of her knew how to react to any of it still. She’s been faking through all this so well, she wonders if it’s worth breaking that illusion for a few seconds of a high. After all, fake it until you make it was a very true statement, wasn’t it? If she kept at it, it was bound to ease up to something she could manage.

It’d also be easy to throw Luci off and pretend everything was still okay. She didn’t think Luci knew enough to tell when she was going to be out of character. For all Luci knew, Ema might just secretly be into the whole friends with benefits thing. That made everything all the more tempting. Unconsciously, her fingers started trailing up Luci’s sides. Lightly, barely skimming the skin. What were the chances anyone would know, anyways?

She would. And after all was said and done, she’d be left alone with the guilt. She’d just be using Luci, and that was something she couldn’t bring herself to do. Maybe that was what the whole idea behind (closet) friends with benefits was, but…it wasn’t her. 

Maybe with some regret, her hands finally settled, and she lightly made to push Luci away. She avoided looking Luci in the eye, despite the inner Soother in her saying that was a tell-tale sign of something not quite fitting what was being said and done. 

And it seemed like there were signs that Ema wanted it. Survivor, there were a lot of signs! Even the reluctance in Ema's gentle push told her that there was something there. But Luci was fine with being told no for now: she enjoyed the seduction game. No, what concerned her was the tone of voice Ema used. There was something else beyond Luci's simple actions that had gotten to her. Luci wasn't quite sure what, and she was sure she didn't know how to handle that.

    She stiffened, feeling for once, not panic, but anger. This girl comes into her store and tries to pull something like this? Extorts her for intel and slaps her with Allomancy on the way out? How dare she. How dare she.

    It wasn’t the kind of treatment Eliane was planning on letting her get away with.

“Ms. Wardwick,” she said with a voice as cold and hard as ice. “The next time I catch you Soothing anyone in my shop, whether I am your target or not, I will ruin you. Allow me to be very clear, now that I don’t have any reason to keep the secret. I have contacts all over this city. I could pull a few strings and make sure you don’t find work in the underworld for the rest of your life.”

    She wasn’t bluffing either. She’d done a cursory search into ‘Lucilla Wardwick’ and hadn’t turned up much, but with the connections she knew Luci had, she would have absolutely no problem framing Luci for something devastating.

"Oh, I don't doubt that you're capable of doing that, sweetie." Actually, the fact that Eliane could do something like that told Luci a lot more about this particular Casuana. Today had ended up being so informative! "You can do what you want. Just know that I'll make sure you reap what you sow ten times over." 

Alarm bells were ringing in his head. Abort, abort, abort, abort. There had been a critical failure, somewhere, somehow along the lines of this conversation. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

(“Oh dear oh dear” was actually a highly edited version of what was going on in his head right now. There was a lot of strong language for starters. There were also some sexual thoughts going on but he was trying to quash those. Problem was, that was a little more difficult when one was tipsy.)

Grandma would not be proud of you, he admonished himself. This was actually a very effective way to throw cold water on the problem since a) grandmothers were lovely and not sexy and b) who wanted to disappoint their grandma anyway?

"I’m sorry- that is I don’t think- I just- I don’t think I can afford you." Rust. Rustrustrust. "That is, I do not believe an artist like yourself can be bought." There. That was better wasn’t it? She was very talented and very pretty and everyone always said one couldn’t buy talent. Of course, she is offering it for free… I could see a master up close…

Wait. Where was he going with this? It was very hard to remember when she was right in front of him and behaving in a way that would disappoint his grandma.

(There. He was good again.)

(Thanks Grandma.)