6/14 - Lunaires amongst Knight skies (part 12)
Johannes hadn't stopped smiling since he got back to his rooms in the Queen’s Academy guest dorms.
He had washed off all the sweat and dirt from that morning's competition with a smile, he had dried his hair with a smile, he had selected an outfit with a smile, and he had even dressed himself and begun fixing his hair with a smile.
His face was starting to hurt, but he found that he enjoyed the feeling.
Vaevelia had smiled at him, smiled and taken the invitation, their hands had brushed, her face had blushed.
It was beautiful, and something in Johannes simply couldn't stop smiling over it.
He had asked Cordliea and Indrina to get her to wear something in hues of blue or silver to this afternoon’s Garden Party. To match him, to show how well they looked together, to make them a pair.
This was the second most important event of the week after all, and he needed them both to look perfect. Though Vaevelia, of course, would look perfect already as she always did.
It was day four of the week-long event between the two schools, meaning Johannes had three more days before they would be parted. Three days to get Vaevelia to agree to courtship, three days to set a betrothal, three days to ensure that everyone knew they were together.
That she was his and he was hers.
On the last day was the final ball, the one his Uncle’s advisor, Marquis Kellam, was attending as an honored guest. If he saw them together, he would pass it along to his uncle, and soon Johannes would have her secured as a finance without issue. His uncle had been nagging him to find a wife after all, and Vaevelia was his perfect match.
Johannes, finally, manages to school his face back to its usual mask of impassivity when he exits his rooms to fetch Vaevelia. He had offered to escort her to the East Gardens for the event, taking every chance he could to spend time with her.
“Lord Johannes…” Petre is waiting in the hall outside his room, a worried look on his face.
“What is it?” How wonderful, his joyful mood was now spoiled. Petre only ever looked like that when something was seriously amiss.
“What about him?” Had the humiliation and beating in the ring not been enough? Did he truly think the matter was unfinished between them? Johannes had made it very clear that things were done and dealt with.
“He… He wrote to Miss Vaevelia’s uncle.”
“And?” Johannes sounds so unbothered by it, but he pauses in his strides as Peter comes to a stop beside him.
“He’s gotten a response, my Lord.”
How? Johannes had written to the younger Lord Hoshimiya about Vaevelia on the first day of the week. He had requested permission for a formal betrothal between the two of them. Why had Pel gotten a response but not him?
“About what?” Johannes tries, he really does, to keep the thoughts of ripping Pel into pieces out of his mind. To keep the ideas of simply stealing Vaevelia, keeping her locked away in one of his palaces, for his eyes only from solidifying in his mind. Tries desperately to imagine a world where Pel was married to her instead.
Petre hands him an envelope. It's sealed with the Hoshimiya crest in bright red wax and addressed to Pel.
“Garin grabbed it by mistake this afternoon after the competition. He assumed it was for you and didn't realize it until he passed it to me to deliver.” Petre explains, finger pointing to the date on the envelope. Addressed three days prior to the week's start.
“Pel wrote to him before…” Johannes sighs, glancing out the window and then back to the letter in his hands.
He would deal with this later, it was inconsequential after all. If Pel had written before the week's events, then Vaevelia’s uncle had responded without knowing of Johannes’ offer of engagement with her. Asides from that, it was doubtful that that proud man would let his daughter be embarrassed by a change of engagement back to Vaevelia.
Johannes had to get to the dorms to escort Vaevelia now; he wasn't going to let this ruin his day with her. Not after all the effort he went through to secure her attendance by his side.
“Lord Johannes.” Vaevelia was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs to the dorm building. In a gown of pale blue fabric with accents of silver and white around the sleeves and lace, in a similar cut to the first gown she had been wearing when Johannes met her, but four days ago.
“Miss Vaevelia.” He’s smiling again, the same smile that had hurt his cheeks all afternoon, “Shall we?”
She nods, taking his offered hand and letting him lead her down the halls that she surely knew better than him.
“Thank you for agreeing to attend with me.” He lets her hand move to the crook of his elbow as he speaks, using the position to bring her closer to his side, "I've been looking forward to it.”
“It was what we agreed upon.” She’s smiling again, it's sadder this time, and for a moment it worries him, “Besides, you won every bout, and Cordelia says that's due for a reward.”
There's a beat of silence that passes between them, during which Johannes can feel the heat of a blush rushing up his neck.
Vaevelia also turns red in the cheeks, stuttering as she corrects herself, “Not-not that I think I'm a reward or any such thing!”
“I would certainly say your presence is such a thing for me,” Johannes whispers, half wondering if he should have kept such a thing to himself.
Vaevelia halts at that, jerking both of them to a pause in the deserted hallway.
Johannes turns to look at her, watching her deep brown eyes as they fill with tears for the second time that day.
He hates the look of it on her, that sadness in her eyes.
“What are your intentions?” she asks softly after a moment.
“What are your intentions?” In reality, Vaevelia knows, she knows what he wants with her. What other men have wanted from her? This wasn't the first time a man had attempted to keep her on his arm for a spell to look impressive during events.
Though back then she had been a lady of standing, now she was no more than a polite ‘Miss’. But she knew things went deeper than that. She knew she looked like her mother and her grandmother, with their long black hair and deep brown eyes, and ever so slightly olive skin that seemed to shine golden in the sun. On top of that, Lunaires are said to hold an ethereal beauty that emanates from their soul and spreads to the very tip of their hair in a magic that seems to put a spell on all who look upon them. She knew she was pretty, though she had never thought that she was enough to cause any battles between men or to be worth chasing after. Especially with her standing now.
But Johannes and Pel had fought that morning in the ring over her. Johannes had pointedly drawn it out, he had made the younger lord admit defeat loud enough for all to hear.
But her friends, ones she’s had since childhood, ones she considered family, considered to be her sisters in all ways but blood relations, insisted it was more.
Indriuna said he looked at her with more in his eyes. Cordliea said that the smile that morning meant something. Emma and Anna insisted it was love. Amelia pointed out that he could marry whoever he wanted, and with how he was acting, he wanted her.
But Vaevelia knew that that could never happen. It was something they -she- could never have.
“What do you mean?” Johannes tilts his head, the choppy square lengths of his hair swaying with the motion.
“What do you want from me?” she asks again, hand slipping from his arm. He’s quick to grab it again with his own, bright blue eyes, never leaving hers.
“My apologies.” He murmurs after a moment. “I thought I was clear, but I've been told it's rather difficult to be understood at times.”
He smiles and brings her hand up to his lips, bowing slightly as he speaks. “I would like to marry you, one day, Vaevelia. I know we’ve only just met, but… something about when I'm with you, it feels right.” He presses a gentle kiss to each of her knuckles before bringing her closer to his again.
Grabbing her chin when she tries to turn her head away and tilting it so she’s looking at him. “I know it's rather a sudden thing, but I would like to have a formal betrothal between us by the weekend at the very least.”
“I can't-” Vaevelia tries to argue, but Johannes simply smiles and pulls away, beginning to lead her down the hallway again.
“We can discuss this in more detail later. I understand your reservations to such a thing, but let's enjoy our afternoon for now,” he says it with such ease, with that sweet smile that melts her heart again like it did that morning, that she doesn't even think of continuing her refusal and simply lets herself be led along again.
