#e;002

Truth to be told, it had been easier than she had imagined, moving from being just friends to being in a relationship. It turned out that everyone already thought they were together and were keeping a secret for professional reasons, and nothing much had changed. They were honest about how they felt, they didn't tiptoe around the other anymore, Mara felt as though she could breathe now.

Certainly, they hadn't gone to any event as a couple just yet, as the occasion had never presented. She was still his assistant, and there weren't many opportunities to stop being so and start acting like his girlfriend instead. A smile played on her lips at the word, as if Mara herself couldn't believe it. Sadly, as much as they had dressed up for this, Adam still had a photoshoot early in the morning so that night there would be no drinking for any of them.

Her hand reached up to fix her mask as she walked across the ballroom, eyes on her date once she had found him. "Excuse me, I'm afraid I've lost my boyfriend. See, he has a mask just like yours. Have you seen him?"

It was quite funny, and a man like him couldn't help but enjoy all the chaos that place had brought upon everyone, his family included. He had seen people believing to be someone else, others forgetting everything and others enjoying what seemed to be a second chance. He was the latter -- It wasn't Westeros, there was no war, no white walkers, and no terrible world about to end. He could enjoy life as he wanted, drinking and fucking and living.

He took a sip of his wine -- he wasn't one to drink champagne, it tasted terrible and it looked like piss. Some things shouldn't change just because they had been brought to some other world. He reached into his pocket for his phone, checking the hour as the couples danced and had their fun. He hadn't seen his siblings yet, and he failed to decide if that was either a blessing or a curse, maybe both somehow.

It could be the alcohol in his system, he told himself when he saw a flash of red hair so familiar his stomach tightened and his heart jumped. Without much care, he left the glass on the table and jumped off the chair, following the woman that had been once his wife. "My Lady," he called, hand reached out to touch her wrist, very gently as not making her uncomfortable, hoping to stop her.

What would she give for a nice glass of wine in her bathtub? Elizabeth hated social events, as she had been paraded in so many as a child. People would think her father was trying to get her a good husband that could take over the family business, so she had proven him that she could do it all herself. But she had promised that she would be there for a couple of hours and then go home, and it was a good thing that they had champagne.

She brought the glass to her lips, finishing it off in just one go, hoping the clock moved faster. She could barely hear her own thoughts with all the voices in the room. When a waiter passed by, she gave him her empty glass and took a new one, taking a sip. It was perhaps the most delicious one she had ever had, and she vaguely wondered if she could ask for the name.

As she looked around for the bar, she didn't notice the man in front of her until it was too late. They were a few inches away from each other when she stopped. And she recognized him, of course, because that hair and those eyes were hard to forget, especially when they haunted her dreams as of late. "Glad to see you here, Mr. Norrington."