Lavenders Blue ❦

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟChapter Fourteen; The Final Trial

Lance hums, undefined and unsure of himself.

"You look handsome, Lance." Adam says with a genuine tone, pushing his glasses back up onto his face. "I'm sure Shiro thinks so too."

"Mhmm." Shiro agrees, albeit half asleep and high on the weight-lifting relief that his mistake hadn't cost him what he had initially feared. The stress he had been through that morning was worse than an arrow in his side, an emotional stabbing that was worse than anything a physical, steel-tipped mini spear could do. Shiro knows that to be true. In his long, young life, he's now experienced both the emotional pain and the arrows.

Lance nods, pulling down the sleeve sharply with a feel of class, sophistication. "I feel like I'm going to ruin it at any moment." He sighs, seeing if there's anything he could do to make himself look better. "My Papa always said that your presentation will be everyone's first impression of you. I don't want to do Keith injustice, people should see me and think I'm at least visually worthy."

"It's a good thing you're well-spoken, then."

"Thank you. I just worry. There are so many things that I could ruin, and I probably won't even notice it until a room full of his guests are laughing at me. I don't remember if the big fork or the little fork is for salad, I can't tell the difference between glass and crystal; I probably won't even know all of the waltzes that Keith does. I only know King Kogane's in terms of the royal family bloodline." Lance says, face crinkled with worry.

Grinning, Shiro leans on Adam's shoulder, feeling like- and pretty much being- Marmora's master of princely expertise. "I think that King Kogane's waltz is the only one that will really matter tonight, especially to Keith."

Nodding with a bit more confidence, Lance fixes his nervous, crippled posture and stands a little taller.

"Do... do you think they would ever make a waltz about me?" Lance mutters. He looks absolutely bashful, trying to push his hair in a direction that's suitable enough for his own liking. He has it slicked back, but the only thing keeping it from springing back into subtle curls like usual is water and oil.

Shiro and Adam nod collectively. "Keith has talked about it before. He hopes you both get to dance each other's one day." Shiro says with a soft smile, ripened by the endless love he can already see unfurling between his new recruit and his dedicated prince.

"He really said that?" Lance asks with wide eyes, and lying just underneath them, rosy cheeks.

"Well, he didn't say the second part, but you could tell without a doubt that he meant it."

Sighing with an obvious excitement, Lance runs his fingers down the center of the vest- the piece that brings the whole suit into the imaginative masterpiece it is; The same suit that Keith first got him when he returned the clothes that had been ruined. The suit with sapphires studded all over with perfect seams that looked like calm waves flooding over his body- waterfalls of silky material that made him gleam like a sapphire among soot. He felt regal, but he also felt that the boy underneath something so nice could never look as good as the clothes.

"I'll see you both at the ball, then." Lance sighs. "I'm making myself go back to Haggar's den, I'd like to clear the air between my step-family and myself." Lance says, turning away from the mirror quickly, though his gaze meets the floor rather fast just thinking about confronting such an intimidating trio.

Adam shrugs. "Then don't do it, you'll be better off just showing them the ring tomorrow."

"Haggar may not like what she sees." Lance mumbles, looking at his shoes immediately.

"I wish I didn't have to, but I would rather apologize and leave on good terms with my step family than leave mysteriously and leave them without an explanation. They did raise me for so many years, after all." Lance says assertively, feeling glad that he had decided to ditch the white gloves that had been itching his clammy palms. "And beside all of that, I have questions for Haggar that only she can answer for me."