Masquerade

Welcome to the ball

"A masquerade ball, huh?"

Tord stared at the off white letter with a gold border and pale green lettering. He knew that his excitable friend loved social gathers, but a ball? A masquerade, nonetheless. Tord figured he had much better things to do than go to some silly dance. Still, it did sound interesting. A room full of friends and strangers, all unrecognizable, due to elaborate masks and costumes.

"Ah, you got one too?"

A voice startled Tord out of his thoughts. He spun around and saw his black-eyed roommate looking over his shoulder to read the letter. He scoffed, but felt his face start to heat up at how incredibly close Tom was standing.

"Good morning to you too." He responded dryly, shoving Tom away from him. "And of course I got one too. Edd is my friend as much as he is yours."

Tom just shrugged and walked towards the fridge, presumably to get Smirnoff. Tord never approved of his friend's alcohol addiction, but never voiced his concern.

"Are you going?" Tom asked, not evening turning to face him. The asshole was downing a bottle a Smirnoff, earning an exasperated eye roll from Norwegian.

"Maybe, it sounds interesting." Tord replied, looking back down at the paper. "What about you?"

"Probably not, I'm not one for "social gatherings"."

Tord hummed in acknowledgement, scanning over the cursive writing as his gray eyes fell over the words 'masquerade ball'.

"Why do you think he decided to make it a masquerade?" Tord questioned, curiosity lacing his voice, but more talking to himself than the blue clad man in front of him.

"Dunno. That man has more money than he knows what to do with." Tom took a swig of Smirnoff before heading out of the room.

---

One week later, Tord found himself standing in front of the opera house downtown. He wore a black suit with a blood-red bow tie and a crimson cape. A black Colombina mask, decorated with a few small red jewels and swirls covered the top half of his face, hiding only the area around his eyes. His gray eyes flashed behind the mask; it was somewhat difficult to see, making him feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. His hair had even been slicked back, the lack of 'horns' on his head making him less recognizable. He knew it made him stand out in any normal scenario, but he couldn't care less. Costumes and masks were part of the idea of a masquerade ball, right? Everyone would be looking strange.

Tord looked up at the opera house. Its white pillars extended the tip of the roof of the grand building to seemingly touch the night sky. The opera house was called Royal something-or-other; Tord couldn't be bothered to remember the name. Wispy clouds barely covered the stars in the murky sky. Tord would much rather be wandering the streets in silence or be working in his lab rather than dance in an overcrowded room of unfamiliar faces.

While he contemplated turning a walking away, a short figure had approached him. Looking down, he saw his childhood friend and the affluent party host, Edd. He sported an emerald colored suit and a white tie, with a gold mask that covered almost his entire face, leaving only his mouth and eyes visible. The mask seemed to shimmer, and one could mistake it for pure gold. Now, if it were actually pure gold, Edd would hardly be able to stand, due to the weight. Tord almost had to shield his eyes when looking at Edd in the face, the mask was unnaturally bright.

"You made it" The stout man cried gleefully, actually surprised his mostly antisocial friend had decided to show his face. Or not, his mask kept him mostly unidentified.

"Yes, it is good to see you, Edd." Tord forced a wide grin, secretly wishing he could be at home, working on some new experiment.

"Is Tom coming?" Edd inquired, impatiently bouncing from one foot to another. He could hardly stand still when there was a party full of people inside.

"I doubt it, the asshole seems to think he has better things to do than come to your party." Tord scoffed, remembering how his roommate had totally blown him off that morning. And Tord had actually considered jokingly taking him as his date. Key word: jokingly. The red Norwegian would never like the Brit like that, right?

"Oh," Disappointment laced his friend's voice, snapping him back into reality. "Well, why are we just standing outside? Come on, the ball has already started!" The Norski almost fell flat on his face when the young host grabbed his wrist and dragged him through the front doors.

Tord audibly gasped when he entered the house. The seats had all been moved, replaced by a sleek wood floor, level with the stage. The room was filled with laughs and voices all around, engulfed in conversations. Puce, Aegean, and scarlet dresses twirled as woman danced, and raven, mahogany, and pearl suits stood out in the bright room. Masks of all sorts of shape and color covered every face, leaving only strangers. The room itself was a bright ruby red, gold railings and decorations blending in nicely. An Orchestra could be heard in the background of the drifting conversations, the lively yet sophisticated music creating a rhythmic melody that many danced to.

When Tord had finally torn his eyes away from the spectacular sight, he found Edd had slipped away, supposedly to talk to new arrivals. Not wanting to search for him, he set off on his own.

Allowing his eyes search the sea of people, taking in the bright colors and joyful smiles, he could recognize a few people. Matt was easy to find, it was obvious he didn't fully understand the meaning of the ball; his mask covered only a fraction of his face. Of course Matt would want people to see his face. He also seemed to be wearing a lavender gown, with a jade green sash around his midsection. His comrades Pau and Pat were dancing together, Pat detectable amongst the crowd due to his signature wing-like bangs.

Tord almost considered finding someone to dance with, but decided against it, and walking over to one side of the room alone. He stood with his back against the wall, watching the sea of people.

Suddenly, specks of spinning colors came to a halt. Few people all across the room stopped, all directing their gaze to the front, where a new stranger stood, alone.

(A/N: Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this! This is my first fanfic, so it probably has a lot of grammatical issues. Please ignore them, I'm doing my best to make this the best possible. I'm hoping for chapter two to be out in the next few days, possibly even later tonight. This fanfic will also be uploaded to ao3, under the same name. My ao3 account is LiteralPeiceOfTrash. I may also upload this to my tumblr, sun-shine-lolli-pops, so if you'd prefer to read it on one of those two websites, go on ahead.

Bye for now!)