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The room, lit by candlelight (save for the ring light on the vanity). The clothes, perfectly planned and laid on the bed. The music—
Bam! Bam! Bam! “Toria, for the love of all that is holy, would you turn it down!” Kana pushes open the door, hit with a wave of sandalwood and strawberry incense which makes her cough. “Ah! Toria!”
“Shh! I need to—”
Victoria is at the vanity, the bright white ring light making her look somehow even more ghostly pale than she already is, with her mouth open and eyes squinting.
“What on earth— Oh.”
She caps her eyeliner with a flourish and turns to her friend, posing a little. Kana laughs.
“Yes, yes, you look gorgeous, of course, I don’t need to tell you that. Now, can we cool it on the Evanescence? I’m trying to finish this paper.”
“Oh, fuck, sorry!” Victoria rushes to her phone, hurriedly turning the blaring music off. “I thought you were done that one though.”
Kana sighs, leaning against the doorway. “Yeah, I thought so too but then I double checked the word count and… Ugh! I don’t even know how I’m gonna fill three hundred more words! I don’t have anything else to say, it’s all there!”
Victoria grimaces sympathetically. Kana’s history papers tended to haunt the entire apartment until she doubled down in the last hours of their due date to finish.
“Oh, and don’t forget we have dinner with the Azran’s tomorrow.”
Victoria rolls her eyes. “How could I forget? Clayton’s already sent twenty reminders in the group chat! Why would we miss it, anyway? It’s Clara’s PhD!”
“I know right!”
They both shake their heads over their professorial friend’s antics. Then Kana smirks at her.
“Annnnd… you can tell all of us how it ends up going with the Duchess tonight.”
Victoria huffs, turning away to fiddle with her jewelry in the mirror. “Don’t call her that…”
“Ohh, come on! I know you’re excited!” Kana comes over to shake her shoulders and then give her a light squeeze of a hug. She looks at Victoria in the mirror, grinning. “It’ll be great. She’s obsessed with you.”
Victoria rolls her eyes again, looking back at Kana through the mirror. “Yes, well… We’ll see how long that las—”
“Ehhhhh! Nope. No. We are not doing this. We are not psyching ourselves out over a woman we have already kissed, okay, Miss Isaacs?” Kana glares, shaking Victoria once more for good measure.
“Ughhhh. I know, I—I know…”
Kana gives her a pointed look in the mirror. “Do I have to call the boys?”
“No!”
Victoria pouts and Kana laughs.
“Good. Now get dressed, silently please, and come show me the full shebang before you go!”
Kana gives her another squeeze to the shoulders, Victoria’s hands coming up to return the kind-of-hug, and then she’s flown from the room, back to her desk to stare at the wall until something else reveals itself in her mind. Victoria sighs, hand reaching for the rosary on her vanity. It was true that her and Danya had already kissed… Quite a few times to be completely frank. She always managed to find Victoria, lonely in some dark corner of whatever party nursing red wine, and she always talked to her… Talked to her as if Victoria really was interesting and funny and… Her hand, rosary still clasped, opens the drawer of her jewelry box. Draws out the letter that had come just three days ago. A beautiful thing, on thick, tea-stained parchment with a real seal in blood-red wax. Danya’s loopy cursive flowing through Victoria’s name and then an invitation to dinner. Just the two of them.
Victoria runs her fingers over the writing, smiling softly. Danya hadn’t delivered it to her face to face, but it had been accompanied by a brilliant crimson rose. Victoria hadn’t believed it was truly for her until she saw her name on the envelope and even then… She clutches her rosary tighter, placing the letter back in the box with her free hand. She looks in the mirror and steels herself.
“I do deserve this. I am not unworthy. I was made to be loved. I am loved,” she whispers to her reflection, feeling a bit silly but, ultimately, a bit better. Stupid therapy actually working… (She can see Shepherd in her mind, smirking at her and barely holding off his I-told-you-so.) One last deep breath, and she rises, to finish getting ready.
She’s just double-checking her lipstick coverage when there’s a knock at the door. She bursts from her room but isn’t quick enough to beat Kana. Cheater, her room’s closer!
“Hello, Duchess. Here to whisk my best friend away and corrupt her gentle heart?”
“Kana!”
Danya laughs, low and syrupy. “Oh, no, I wouldn’t dare…” She looks past Kana’s shoulder to see Victoria and her eyes light up with her wide grin. “My… goodness. Victoria, you’re—”
“Gorgeous, beautiful, stunning, a gift too pure for this earth? She knows,” Kana says, crossing her arms and turning to let Danya have a better view, waggling her eyebrows at her friend all the while.
“Kana!!”
Victoria is aghast but Danya only laughs again. “No, no, she’s right. You are all those things and more, I—Um, shall we?”
Even in the shitty, yellowed dorm hallway lighting, Danya looks breathtaking, holding out her hand, in which rests another unbelievable rose, to Victoria.
“Um! Yes! Let’s! I just—Uh, my bag!”
She scrambles back into her room, lunging for her purse on the bed (a beautiful custom leather in the shape of a heart, gifted for her birthday from Sarnax). She catches sight of herself in the mirror- Red to her ears and eyes shining in half excitement and half anticipation. It is… a good look on her. She nods to her reflection and swans back into the living room, grabbing Danya’s hand and the rose and waving goodbye to Kana over her shoulder as she pulls her date away.
“Vic, darling…” Danya’s soft voice near her ear stops her in her tracks. She turns to see the taller woman smiling (and blushing just a bit!). “We’re going the wrong way.”
“No!” Victoria turns back to way she was facing and sees the end of the hallway. “Oh, fuck—”
Danya laughs, rich and full, and pulls Victoria closer to her.
“Oh!”
Her arm wraps around Victoria’s waist, the other hand clasping Victoria’s over her rosary. She’s so close… She grins, sharp, and Victoria feels dangerous just to be with her.
“Don’t be so anxious, Vickie… Do you trust me?” Her eyes glitter, emeralds under the fluorescents.
Victoria nods.
“Good.” Danya kisses her hand, not breaking eye contact, then pulls away and sets off the right way down the hall, pulling Victoria along with her.
Her hand is warm between the pokey beads of the rosary and strong it its grip. Victoria has a feeling there will be much to tell at dinner tomorrow… Much to tell, indeed.