Love Potion

Dancing with the Villain

Killian had followed me silently.

"My toe hurts from where you stepped on it," said he.

I jumped - almost dropped my glass. Killian was like that, I thought. Like a fox, like a cat. Doesn't announce himself until he wants to. I turned to him. I was suddenly cool, like every time he talks to me - every time I'm reminded he's just a swine, and it's just a game, and it's one I'm fuelled to win. And, that I looked fucking amazing tonight.

"Awh," I said, trenchantly, "Want me to kiss you better?"

The boy grinned. There was a white flicker in them, and his eyes and hair, that bit the coloured gloom. "I imagine you do."

I narrowed my eyes and mind. He was just playing; so was I. "You have a very white suit, you know." I took a tactful sip of my drink, then glanced at it. "What would you do if I just- spilled something on it-" And then I looked at him, and lurched my cup - I saw him gasp, jerk, and dilate in anger - a severely rewarding reaction!

His anger only ripened at the fact that I hadn't spilled a drop on him, and my cup was in fact empty. I snorted insultingly. His teeth stretched in a smirk he failed to convince me with. "That was really funny, Cosmo," he seethed. "You know... they say to dance like nobody's watching, but we were, and you really looked like an idiot."

That stung, for it was probably true. I only snickered to show I wasn't vexed - just like how he smirked. "Oh, please. I saw you dancing too, and if you trod one more time on Tamsin's dress, you'd rip it off." This was totally untrue, and he knew it, but it would hopefully still tinker him.

His response was a deviant grin. "I'm going to rip it off later. So what's the matter?"

Now that gave me a pang. I gasped. "What a... an indecent thing to say! I knew you were a jerk, but I hadn't expected a pig."

His grin curled further. "Oink, oink."

I was unsettled. Up to now I was convinced he wasn't so crude about women - that at least he had manners, though callous - and I thought he had never made love before?

Some of his deviance faded. He swallowed similarly unsettledly, and his eyes darkened. Was this a sign he was joking? I dearly hoped so - though I hadn't found it so funny. He even mumbled, "And you know I didn't step once on Tamsin's dress. Though, I am so flattered you watched us..." In this line some of that playfulness returned. "I've learnt to dance from the day I turned five."

Music suddenly played again: a waltz. An undeniable change in atmosphere: an undeniable eerie, dangerous tune.

I looked at him. He was looking away, at the band, and there was a fairy floating by his head, glowing pink. The creature was surely attracted to him. Who couldn't be? He looked divine. The pink light of the fairy laced his whiteness in perfection: white hair that curled down his neck like a frozen wave, the same whiteness shuttered his glisty eyes, clothed him, skinned him. He stared away, so I could see the side of his face. His nose was sharp and triangular, his lips ridged, his jaw strong; a side profile fit for a painting. And in his garb, his white suit and metal armour and death-black crown... a king you would kneel for, if he asked impolitely. I considered him a long time. I can't tell you what I was thinking. I wonder if he could hear it. It was nothing he hadn't heard before.

I looked away from him when he noticed the fairy, and batted it away. Then I glanced again. "If you're so cocky - you think you can waltz?"

He leaned on the fountain. Our eye contact now was long and heart-throbbing. I did well to maintain it - to not give in to him, to the affinity that eye contact brings. "I think that's a bold thing for you to question, Cosmo."