Somewhere Very Fancy; Off-Island, Friday Evening [12/29].

[chef_chocobro]

In his unending quest to reveal to Liliana that patience was a gift that would reap many rewards, part of his Christmas gift to her could not be fully enjoyed until this very evening. It had involved a gown, as well as tickets to the opera, and the promise of dancing the night away afterwards. His own suit had threatened to cause them to miss the performance entirely, but thankfully, that particular crisis was averted, the show did, in fact, go on, and Liliana had faithfully whispered to his the details of the more impressive visual elements....as well as whispered many other things that had absolutely nothing to do with the show itself, and much more to do with the way her fingers tantalizingly brushed against his wrist. It was enough to make him wish he'd skipped the propriety of proper opera gloves if not for the fact that he was quite sure the gloves themselves were the inspiration for those trailing touches.

And lovely as the opera had been, Ignis was eager to move on, and they finally arrived there at the dance hall, which he had been assured was quite astonishing to behold. The swells of lively music with sweeping cadences and the din of conversation layered over it was promising, but his attention was entirely focused toward the woman on his arm to gauge its suitablity.

[[ and for said shamelessly modded woman, and NFB for disance, natch~ ]]

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[deathsmajesty]

Liliana made a small, pleased noise, the one that Ignis had come to recognize as her expectations having been met, possibly even exceeded and that she was quite pleased. Her hand was tucked into the crook of his arm, her own gloves crafted from silk and lace, extending up past her elbows and over her palm, but leaving her fingers and thumb bare, which meant she could continue to stroke the rich fabric of his suit. They made quite the striking pair, and conversations quieted as they entered, not ending, but at least some changing topic entirely. Liliana's lips curved into a pleased, cat-like smile. Yesgood, darlings, this was the correct reaction to the two of them.

"My darling, we may just be the most sparkling ornaments in this very lovely hall," she murmured to him, amusement, approval, and appreciation in her voice. "If it weren't so very gauche to interrupt our entrance to crane about like a tourist, I just might have done so. Even at first glance, this room is breathtaking. To our left..." She kept up a murmured description as they wended their way through, not pausing even while she was gracing various onlookers with regal nods or small smiles of greeting. "...In short, it's enough that I'm almost glad we didn't end the evening early, as I suggested after the opera."

Which, of course, meant that she was actually thrilled they hadn't, but if he was going to dress in ways that made her want to undress him immediately and pair that with a pair of very slutty gloves, she was going make known her appreciation. And that he had foregone his glasses for the evening made it that much more difficult to keep her touches to the light and trailing.

[chef_chocobro]

Liliana, darling, these were opera gloves. They didn't even begin to skim the surface of sluttiness, just wait until you got a look at some of his old driving gloves...

Truly, the only thing likely saving him from his former roommate was the incredibly inconsistent nature of his previous residency on the island...

But, for now, clearly, the lesson in patience would continue, but, rest assured, Ignis had every intention of ensuring that such lesson not go unrewarded.

"Do you really think," he asked, his own pleased expression clear and smug, from the moment they walked in and he was treated with that small, pleased noise and the quieting of the crowd as they made their entrance, reveling in just the frisson of their arrival, made that much more palpable in their survey of the area, and now, having been brought around to the dance floor, where he turned to slide one hand into Liliana's and the other around her waist as he turned to face her, "I'd have allowed for the evening to be cut so short when I've been doing nothing but thinking of dancing with you tonight for weeks now?"

[deathsmajesty]

Well, he did owe her already for keeping parts of his wardrobe secret...

Liliana Vess didn't melt. Don't be ridiculous. Nor did she adore, she was the object of adoration, not the subject of it. So anyone who saw her expression at those words, at the idea of weeks of him waiting for this moment, and declared that it did anything as inane as, say, 'melt into an adoring smile,' she'd set zombies on them.

Her hand did stray up to caress over his cheek a moment, before falling properly to his shoulder as they began to dance to the music. "If that's your idea of nothing, my darling, no wonder you think I'm indolent," she said with a soft chuckle. They swept across the floor, Ignis moving in perfect sync with her steps, as if they'd been dancing together forever instead of only a little over a quarter of a year. "Has tonight been worth the investment of patience, then?"

[chef_chocobro]

Well, the thing with secrets was that they also came with the joy of discovery...

"Mmmm." There was a soft, thoughtful hum and little else as a response, as first, as Ignis lifted his chin and squinted his eyes in a way that was very clearly to emphasize just how much deep rumination such a question required. And letting himself be swept up in at least a few more steps worked twofold: to drag his response out more dramatically, as well as just enjoying the music and how well they both moved so seamlessly together through it. "Well. It seems foolhardy to draw any decisive conclusions when the night is still so young. However..."

A pause, again, working two-fold: for more drama (always), and to take the opportunity to follow the music of a little extra flair in gentle spinning them apart, just so that they could come together even closer than before.

"My expectations have already been exceeded quite exponentially. Worth every second, and more."

[deathsmajesty]

This time, instead of resting decorously upon his shoulder, or even tenderly upon his cheek, her hand slid behind his neck, lightly stroking the sensitive skin there with her long nails.

"It always is," she whispered, nearly buried beneath the music and the sound of numerous couples on the floor with them, dancing in time. It might have been swallowed altogether, had they not been pressed together to indecorously, one might even say suggestively close.

Well, and if Ignis didn't so carefully listen for the rich timbre of her voice, even above a crowd.

"And to think," she added. "All this can be traced to a single chance three-minute meeting."

[chef_chocobro]

"If one should ever need proof," Ignis drawled back, almost as quiet, since already, even though his was incredibly aware of the other bodies around them as they moved out of a necessity, they had faded away to mere vague shadows as if Liliana were the only person in the world, "on how much of a difference even a few scant minutes can make...

"And I almost didn't come; what a pitiable turn of events that would have been."

[deathsmajesty]

As was right and proper, of course.

"For one thing," she teased, "I would have continued to be very, very hungry."

It was a joke, a shared reminder of how the first thing he'd done was feed her, but only on the surface. Below that, where so much of their communication took place, it was quite real - perhaps one of the most real and honest statements she'd made, both about where she'd been then and where she was now.

Her fingers left his neck, once again coming around to cup his face and stroke her thumb over his cheek.

[chef_chocobro]

And a response, and droll and slightly rumbling of in more ways than one was there, balanced on Ignis' lips, but that thumb on his cheek seemed to already say it, without even needing the words. He knew that if he did say it,it would be nothing but unnecessary redundancy and tedium. Besides, what words could really truly encapsulate everything there unspoken between them?

"Why, it's barely even worth thinking about," he said, instead, still low and rumbled, as he reminded himself that they weren't the only people in the room, and so a light leaning into that hand would have to suffice for now.

[deathsmajesty]

Only those words that would then very much be spoken. And they weren't having that.

They danced in silence for a bit, content to just feel and be and move in tandem. Eventually, however, Liliana chuckled and said, "Oh, I nearly forgot. I have a present for you."

She ignored Ignis' protests, spinning herself under his arm and out while her free hand reached to her hip, the gentle chiming of the Chain Veil a reminder of its omnipresence, and tucked into one of the cunningly hidden pockets of her gown. And then she spun back in again, and slid her 'gift' into his hand.

It was a piece of laminated cardboard, only an inch or so on a side, folded to create a small ridge at the top and bottom of the square. There were small holes punctured through the ridges, top and bottom both, as if something very small and thin were meant to pass through them.

And indeed something was, as in the furthest set of holes on the square was a metal sliver, the kind of thing that would chime if laid down carefully on a countertop.

Assuming he didn't know from just that, pulling the item free would tell him what it was immediately.

A golden hairpin, like the many that held Liliana's hair up in an elegant chignon at the top of her head.

[chef_chocobro]

Ignis' protests, for what they were, were light and mostly performative; Liliana had rather shown her hand, this season, with regards for her generosity when it came to gifts, so who was he to margue? Except only just enough to not give up the game quite so soon.

And though his hand was loathe to do anything but return to her upon her return back into his arms again, his curiosity easily got the better of him. Rubbing his thumb over the ridge of the small sliver of metal, he then rolled it over in his hand a little, the gloves making it slightly more difficult for him to figure it pit, but it was very clear, when he did, by the smile that surfaced on his face.

"Ah," he said, "a gift, is it?" Tucking it against his palm, he extended a finger to lightly brush against her hair. "Or just a promise of more to come?"

Had that been his first time, cooking in her kitchen? Hard to believe there'd been so many more meals crafted there since that moment, and he could still hear that gentle,steady clinking, still recall the almost maddening curiosity to figure out what it had been and to what purpose, and not being in the slightest bit disappointed in the answer...

[deathsmajesty]

She'd warned him it was a trap. A two-pronged trap, in fact, one meant to snare him immediately and then let go, the second to root deeply within him and do its work there.

Which it so very clearly had.

"Why not both?" she asked with a soft chuckle, leaning against him to brush her lips over his in the barest hint of a kiss. "The promise of more throughout the night, and the gift of not expecting you to walk around with a truly ridiculous amount of loose hairpins in your pocket."

And since their hands were so close, she was going to run her fingers along his inner wrist again. "Do you think it will lessen the effect? Knowing what is going to happen once you kiss me for real tonight...?"

[chef_chocobro]

And just look, how desperately he beat his wings against the bars of such a trap in an effort to escape its captivity, too...

"Lessen?" A cool eyebrow lifted, and a hand so adept at adjusting the handle of a blade with a mere flick of a wrist now did so in a way to capture that hand at his wrist, and he leaned in to wrap his arm around her for enough support to dip her with the music, grinning as he spun the back to standing and even closer, somehow, than before. "On the contrary. If anything, all it will accomplish is making me find myself quite ...well, optimistic isn't quite the right word, but perhaps idealistic in thinking we'd be on our feet until the sun came up."

[deathsmajesty]

Much like his continued high hopes for a breakfast eaten as part of Plan A.

He was grinning. Not just faintly smiling, or even actually smiling, but a full on grin. Her heart thudded heavily in her chest - no doubt a coincidence of timing, what with the exertion of dancing and all - and she was glad her hands were occupied, so she couldn't place them over his lips as if to capture it for herself, and draw his attention to it.

But it did draw an answering grin from her own lips, and would have even if she hadn't already been so inclined. But who wouldn't have been, with an answer like that?

"There are other ways to be on our feet that long," she said, ghosting a kiss over his cheek this time. ""You know, on the surface, it sounds like a fun game to play - your vaunted patience against my strongest attempts to seduce you. But I have a feeling that no matter who wins, I'll still end up terribly frustrated before it's over. Even if I do love making you want."

[chef_chocobro]

"And you do it," Ignis informed Liliana, and, although he knew that he didn't need to tell her as much, he did suspect she'd still revel in hearing it, "so effortlessly, too....but I would hardly want to cause you to feel...terribly frustrated, darling."

A little frustrated, perhaps.

A dangerous line to traipse, perhaps, but if he approached it with even half as much assurance and grace as he approached the dance floor in this moment...

[deathsmajesty]

He had a great deal of skill at it, to be sure.

And he was right, she did like to hear it, just like she enjoyed hearing someone call her beautiful or deliver her some other compliment. She might already have known it was true, but it was always delightful to be acknowledged.

"I don't know that I have the same restraint, my darling," she confessed with a wicked grin, and began telling him a story. "This is just one way I've imagined seducing you..." She kept up her narration as they danced as easily as she'd kept up her description of the hall during their entrance. Her rich voice murmured softly in his ear, creating a very detailed account, eloquent and explicit, but without ever straying into the vulgar or uncouth. She adhered directly to the social contract of this place, and not a single objectionable word or phrase fell from her lips, even as she crafted a fantasy around them both.

The rhythm of the dance only helped, of course. Sometimes they were pressed so tightly together, she barely even needed to breathe out the words, hands lightly skimming over his back or chest before returning to position. Other times they moved apart- a spin, a dip, an extension of their arms before he tugged her back in, and she used those moments of silence to build upon the drama, just as he had done.

And every so often, one of her stories would be punctuated by a tiny golden pin being slid into the holder and then tucked back into his pocket.