The Gentleman's Guide To Color and Credence

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a/n: It's a new year, and which means I hope to be writing this story more efficiently! I hope you all have a wonderful year, and the best year yet :)

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The journey to the other side of the hallway to my brother's infamous bedroom wasn't going to be as smooth as I had hoped. Chasity and I weren't eight years old anymore, where our clothes were up to our ankles that summer and we were too restless to be fit for new ones. We would run along the grounds of our estates into the woods for adventure after adventure, coming back with rocks that we would name, bringing them to and from the forest on our adventures as we worked alongside one another with fairies or pirates. Making our own pirate marks with sticks in dirt along the riverbanks of creeks. Creating our own sets of fairy wings with large leaves we found, mending them together and pretending they were our own with magic wands of twisted twigs on the dirt ground that fed our imaginations. In those days I didn't even know of my siblings, barely payed attention not the muttering of my brother's name that my father cursed with. It wasn't until I was hit for the first time that I understood what it was and questioned it. Now we were older, our robes fitted, destinies we wanted to destroy and resented with everything we had, and a hallway to cross as if it were jumping over a deadly drop so high the bottom couldn't be seen.

I poked my head out into the hallway, Chasity poking it out the other way. We looked to each other, scared when we saw each other, our faces relaxing and chuckling at the fact. We nodded, flying to the other side as she took the same pin out of her hair and quickly unlocked the door. We landed inside the bedroom, closing the door behind us so efficiently we were out of breath, side by side with romantic tension settling in as we giggled, leaning on the door and looking at each other. The laughter soon plummeted, and became the staring of one looking into the other's eyes as if they were stars in the night sky. A look I found mutual between the both of us as we stared, almost leading me to believe our feelings towards the other were mutually romantic.

The pining I had for her had been for so long, I wanted to cancel the wedding and elope right then and there. My desires had taken the best of me, because the next thing I knew I was unknowingly cupping her jaw, her breath heavy as she looked down and up into my eyes. If it were my brother's room, I knew that it would have a much less elegant past like my sister's, and that kissing a to-be-wed woman wouldn't be as much as a sin as my father hitting me.

But it was her who stood on her toes to bring our lips together.

I'd never kissed anyone before, she was the only girl I had ever liked. It felt like champagne make of stars, bursting out and flying over the sky like the mid-summer star showers late in the night. It felt like the stories of Carnival in Venice, the excitement, the energy, the freedom and love and celebration in the air making only that moment matter above all others. I hadn't realized how much I wanted Chasity to be mine until that moment as well, and as we kissed I found myself wanting to kiss her more and more, forgetting about her arranged marriage.

It was me who pulled away, and she looked at me as scared as I did her when she opened her eyes.

"D-Did I do something wrong?" She asked, the uneasiness in her voice made my hands quiver. I looked to her, trying to keep the wrong words in and form the right words into sentences to say.

"N-No. This... is just so wrong isn't it? You're to be married in a few weeks time, to have an affair? God I'd turn into my father." I said, my eyes were wide with fear. Chasity's hands fell into mine, a pleading look in her eyes, a chance for her to have a chance at a life she wanted, a life we wanted. One that we never knew the other also wanted.

"But, think about it Dri! We could elope, and run away to the American colonies. Never to be seen again. We would be able to have what we want. What's wrong with that? You and I both know how horrid the situations we are put in. Why not break it, like your brother, or your sister." She stated. My heart broke at the pleading, at the begging undertones.