Command • T'Challa

One Night in Vienna: Grace's POV

One night of (sort of) freedom: that's all we've got. One night at the Vienna Opera house to see a ballet, in these fancy dresses that probably cost several month's worth of apartment rent back home, but heck, I'm not home, I'm in Europe, a royal, high-society mess. A hot mess, I guess, if I felt really lucky, but it's just so nice to feel this way.

Tony picked us up at six in that brand-new Audi R8, an orange one, just like the one he kept parked at the compound.

"Did you have that thing flown in from the states?" I asked him incredulously. He made a face, and threw his hands up.

"As if I would be so wasteful.Tut-tut, Ms. Alburn, but hell no. This is a rental, I swear, to match the one back home."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever you say, Tony."

"I do say so, and I also say that you two look pretty good considering. You won't shame me, not yet, anyways." Tony said, holding the door of the car for Wanda and I.

Wanda got in first, gathering her full black skirt up. She looked like the Hot Topic queen, like she invented goth or something, but she looks amazing. Her eyes flash that red color now and then, and she has a single ruby necklace around her neck, complementing her dress just right.

"Thanks again, Tony," I say, getting into the car, "You're kind of like a fairy godmother."

Tony, in the driver's seat, pretended to plug his ears with his fingers.

"I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear that last part, but you're welcome, kiddo."

I laugh, and Wanda smiles shyly. Tony, chattering on and on about the ballet, drives us through the streets of Vienna toward the Opera House. I cross my fingers. Hopefully tonight will be good.

Little do I know that I'm in for more than I ever could've bargained for.

............

We walk to our seats, Tony, like a true gentleman, (what a surprise!) doesn't have us on either arm, because he's actually afraid that people will assume that we're his little girlfriends or something. He doesn't want anyone to be unnecessarily confused by seeing him with Wanda Maximoff and some unknown girl, especially since he and Pepper are "taking a break" i.e, you know, not together anymore. He didn't have a guts to actually say it,  so I had to do it for him.

"It's okay," I say, in my most sympathetic voice. "We'd never go out with an old man like you anyways."

He made a face. "You know, if I wasn't so damn preoccupied by tomorrow's events, I'd have come up with a really smart comeback to that." he said, exasperated. I just smiled sweetly.

"Just show us to our seats, Stark." I said.

 So he did. We followed him up a grand marble staircase, picking up the skirts of our dresses. Mine wasn't as full as Wanda's, but I loved it, every satiny frill making my heart leap, every step upwards making me feel like I might float away on a cloud. Never in all my life had I ever felt this way.

 A door opened at the top of the staircase to a row of seats, each sectioned off into boxes. Ours, of course, had an excellent view of the stage. I didn't want to imagine how much the tickets had cost Tony for the last minute, or for anyone at all. We took our seats, Tony to the far right, me to the far left, and Wanda in the middle. She looked eagerly into the crowd of people that were in other boxes near us, and the throng of people below us, all dressed so elegantly. I looked at the program that Tony had given each of us, printed on this parchment paper that looked like it might've come out of an old book, and even though I had zero knowledge of the German language, it was pretty easy to understand that tonight's ballet performance was Cinderella. Anybody could tell it was her- the carriage, the dress, the clock tower, even the pumpkin, it was all right there.