A Rosy Thorn

Chapter Four

The drive to Skylark's mansion was surprisingly smooth. Kyanite didn't run into any buildings, she didn't flip the van over, and she managed to not hit any of the pedestrians that happened to be walking the same way the van was going.

"See? My driving's great!" Kyanite grinned triumphantly once she'd parked the van outside the mansion. "I got us here in one piece."

Precisely as she said that, one of the van's wheels caught on fire.

"I got us here in mostly one piece."

The exhaust pipe fell off and clattered to the ground.

"I got us here."

Rosette rolled her eyes, stomping on the fire to put it out.

"You got lucky this time," Veto huffed as AJ helped her down. Apparently, the state of the van was perfectly acceptable to her. "We'll see about the ride back."

"We haven't even gotten inside, don't start arguing now." Rosette smoothed down her hair. "As of now, our top priority is blending in and identifying Taiho. Then-"

"Yeah, yeah." Kyanite interrupted, waving a hand. "Then we alert everyone else, we all corner the guy, and-"

"Bang, bang!" AJ jumped in, making gun noises and miming shooting the air. "We take him out!"

Rosette nodded. "Exactly."

"Well c'mon then, let's go." Kyanite started forward at the front of the group, leading everyone inside with an air of confidence.

The ballroom was full of people, despite its massive size. Everyone was dressed formally- Rosette held her tongue to keep herself from saying 'I told you so' to her group.

Upon doing a quick scan of the room, no one matched Taiho's appearance. But no one was concerned. It was never that easy.

"Veto, Kyanite, you two cover the right. AJ and Kai, take the left. I'll stay at the center."

Everyone nodded, scattering to their assigned part of the ballroom and disappearing into the crowd. Rosette smoothed down her dress, tightened the strap of her cleverly concealed gun, then calmly strode into the sea of people.

A girl with bouncing pink hair approached Rosette, smiling. "Hello, there!"

"Hello." Rosette did a slight curtsey.

The girl made a quiet 'oops' sound, curtseying as well. She held out a hand. "My name's Kimmer!"

"Pleasure to meet you, Kimmer. I'm Rosette." Rosette shook her hand with a tight smile.

"You look great, Rosette!" Kimmer looked her up and down, which wasn't a comfortable feeling. "Very cute!"

"Thank you. You look lovely yourself."

"Awe, thanks!" Kimmer clasped her hands together. "So, who are you here with, Rosette?"

Rosette blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Y'know! Parents, brother, partner... which one?"

Oh. "I suppose I'm with my brother. And you?"

"I'm with my boyfriend. He's over- eek!" Kimmer interrupted herself with a shriek, jumping back a couple feet. She was staring in fright at the ground. "Who let a lizard in here?!"

Rosette frowned. Lizard? She looked to where Kimmer's eyes were. A little skink was visible for just a second before it darted off in a blur. Rosette narrowed her eyes. Blurry skink. She coughed into her hand to get Kimmer's attention once more. "It's been lovely talking to you, but I'm afraid I must go. My brother told me not to stray far."