+ lounge hall

@ꕥ♞ Emily Mei I suppose you know where to find me then if you ever feel the inclination to see me again. Or, well, just to strengthen the acquaintanceship.
/somehow I’m already being dragged about left and right solely through my own chaotic train of thought, facing quite the struggle to choose just the right carefully picked words yet not rub off as overly confident/
That’s a relief. She’s never made me feel threatened thankfully. Though neither of you are people I’d dare cross. You’ll find I just roam around the palace for my own amusement when I’m not in our Queen’s use.
/just when the tension feels ever more heightened, the space between us opens up and I can’t help but to let out a long silent exhale of a breath I had been keeping in; the edges of my own plush lips faintly edging into a small smile/
I’d like that.. So is there anything I can do then? For you, in the meantime. I find myself restless and bored when the Queen’s away.
/anxiously I fidget in place with my hands just itching to find anything to do, quickly running slender digits through my own messy tresses while my gaze remains locked on your mesmerizing visage/

@♙ Zhang Yixing San may have been beyond drunk, but the way the man he was leaning against spoke about women as rebounds made him cringe a little. "Mmn... no, no... no," he took a long sip from his glass. "I'm too scary," he growled, mindlessly digging his nails into the other man's shoulder. He noticed what he was doing a beat later and then let go with a slurred apology.

He liked the way the other man held him by the shoulder. Sure, this guy was painfully straight, he could tell, but he still couldn't help the way that the hug made a shiver shoot up and back down his spine. Without thinking, San slowly swung his leg over the man's waist and sat in his lap. It was just to hug him better. The poor thing craved touch; anything. "Scare everyone who meets me... can't even be held," he mumbled, his fragmented thoughts mot really being filtered. The more he sat there in silence, the more the man's embrace — that San had sort of forced — made him feel warmer than the alcohol and fireplace combined. So that's what it felt like to hold a human in your arms...

San sat up from hugging the poor man — he probably hated this: he seemed uncomfortable for a split second when he leaned on him, so he couldn't imagine the discomfort of having another man in his lap. But he still didn't leave this man's lap. He just looked at him while he continued to drink himself into more and more of a zombie. This man was so handsome, now that San allowed himself to think. San knew he liked men, he'd never done anything with another man, but he knew. And he /really/ knew while he sat in this man's lap, especially now that the drinking had shifted him from sad to , inhibitions fading. He took one last swig of alcohol and he tossed the glass to the side, not minding the crash of the glass. "You're not scared of me... mmmn..." he purred. San leaned in dangerously close to the man's face, and his fangs dragged over the man's lower lip before he pressed closer. Without, thinking twice, San pressed a drunkenly messy, hungry kiss to the man's lips, clutching his shirt with both fists.

@♙ Zhang Yixing You haven't? Oh...right you're from Realm G.
There are no places that are beautiful there other than that forest, it's very sad to see how you humans live in there.
/I look upon you curiously when you mention how people in general are all differeent/
Yes, people are different, which makes me more confused as to why you believed....
/I pull my stockinged feet onto the couch, wrapping my arms around my knees. It is more so that I do not want to plan events to enslave humans, I like the ball, I like being around them, but-/
I don't find it very fun, it is very simple. Events like this...though I'll like to dress up, I don't like the context of them
/I frown when you decide to play music in this lounge, but I oblige when you reach out your hand to me, causing me to take it and step off the couch/
It is because, my height makes dancing with me awkward, many of the men here are very tall/as if to prove my point, my head hitting just below your shoulder/
/I press my free hand against your chest, my back curving slightly to look up at you/
See, its uncomfortable to be like this

@☪♚ San Sekhmet The man next to him was just as drunk. Not too well, he had noticed. It seemed as if there was more to him than just a normal craving for alcohol that he had. Almost as if something had come up for him, some bad incident that pulled him into despair. Different to Yixing, who had just wanted to taste that expensive liquor he would not have back at realm G. “Mind scramble...?” He repeated at first not even sure what the other man tried to imply by this. His heart though sounded like something he could identify, heartbreak it must have been.

Yixing was close enough to see the fangs that graced the other man’s teeth. A vampire just as expected, most humans had not dared to walk around just like this without guidance, he himself being one of the few who didn’t really care about such matters. Suddenly, the male was close, his body resting against his own in what was almost too close for two men to be together. But it was the alcohol that had taken over his brain and made him forget he was doing. It didn’t matter, especially not now that this guy seemed to need comfort for whatever or whoever had broken his heart.

“Expert at alcohol, expert at alcohol after heartbreaks, expert at just everything...” He rambled without any logic. The last bit of alcohol that had been in his glass now ran down his throat and he put it back onto the table, where it almost crashed into pieces. “Look---” He said as his arm wrapped around the vampire’s cold back. “Don’t give a about whoever did that, just find yourself some nice little lady with big s and her until you feel better, yeah? Have y fun instead of caring about love, got that? Love doesn’t matter the slightest---” He hiccupped.

@♙ Zhang Yixing It had been a day since he lashed out at the ball. San woke up that next day in all too cold bathwater, and he cleaned himself up only to drink himself beyond reason. He wouldn't die, duh. He'd drank all day in the lounge, in front of the fireplace where he'd first reunited with Andy, with naps in between in hopes of bringing her back into his dreams. It wasn't working, but he managed to keep himself drunk most of the time, it dulled the pain. But the soothing warmth of flooding himself with liquor was slowly fading.

The fragments of his personality had lost all sense of order: his hair was white but his eyes were red, but his mind was perfectly normal as he sat there in front of the crackling fire with a wine bottle teetering between two fingers. He took a final sip and dropped it to the floor next to him, fumbling to grab the glass that had a different wine in it, and then drank it in one sip –– and the glass had been full. And then as his eyes lulled, he saw another man sit next to him. He heard his words, but they were muffled. San still answered though, but his voice was deep, slow, and slurred:

"I'm... not too well," his hand patted his chest while the other held out his empty glass to the man next to him to refill, "my heart... hurts... well, what's left of it. Mind scrambled..." he breathed in deep and let out a loud exhale. San looked at the other as their glasses clinked and he tilted his head mindlessly over his fangs to get the remaining alcohol off that he could still taste. "Expert at what?" San had lost all sense of boundaries, so he turned to face the other man, leaning his chest into the other's shoulder as he tried his best to listen to the answer

@☪♚ San Sekhmet He felt dizzy as he stumbled around the palace not able to walk in a straight line, crashing into the walls of the hallway once in a while. What he was looking for? He didn’t know---just a place where he could pour more alcohol down his throat, specifically the one bottle half empty bottle of wine in his one hand and the full one of scotch in his other. His was led him to a room with light shining from it so he decided to check it out, maybe it was a quiet place to drink at.

As he went inside he saw a figure sitting on one of the couches with bottles of wine in front of him too. A crackled in the fireplace and it seemed to be a rather private place even with the door open. Yixing put the wine bottle to his lips taking a big sip from it before using his sleeve to wipe over his mouth. “Drinking too, bro?” He asked as he placed both bottles next to his. He was almost as clumsy to have them all fall over but the bottles balanced before crashing so that their liquor was safe.

Yixing dropped himself on the sofa right next to the other male leaning his back against the sofa. His cheeks were already crimson from the amount of alcohol in his system but he didn’t want to stop drinking that night. It didn’t matter if he would have forgotten everything by tomorrow if only he had a good time tonight. Since he was at a palace already, why not drown in that expensive liquor around here?

The glass was emptied in one go and he filled himself a new drink in seconds. This time he touched glasses with the stranger. “Why are you trying to destroy your brain, dude?” He asked with a slurring voice. Yixing placed his hand on the stranger’s shoulder. His face was close to his to stare at him trying to make out if he had ever seen the male somewhere else. “You don’t look too well---” He stated bluntly, again not caring about his manners. “---let’s just drown your sorrow a bit more, okay? It will be fine, all fine---” Yixing hiccupped. He felt way too hot from the alcohol but he was already past the point of stopping now.

“Here, this is some good ...” He poured scotch into the wine glass not really caring about such a thing as he handed it to the other man. “Cheers!” He voiced a little too loud, too excited as he clinked their glasses once more. “I am an expert, you know, a real good expert---"

@ξ♞ Yume Fuji Well, I just wanted to fit in here at the palace. I have never been anywhere this big and formal.
/I ignore that you keep calling me gullible not wanting to accept being called anything close to stupid/
Isn’t it always like that with people? Vampires and humans alike whether royal or not? Everyone is different no matter their kind nor status.
/I look over at you as you decided to sit down too, sadly by yourself and not on the same sofa as I did/
So that’s how it is. But shouldn’t you still try to enjoy yourself around here too? Even if your title doesn’t call for you doing anything no one is stopping you if you decide differently.
How does your body height have anything to do with dancing? It shouldn’t stop you from having fun, plus, you are really pretty, I have to admit.
/I get up again walking over to the old gramophone where I choose a disc for it that would most probably be accurate to ballroom music/
/I walk over to you as I slightly bow in front of you holding out my hand to you/
May I ask you for this dance, miss?

@♙ Zhang Yixing Being gullible is believing everything that is told of you mister
And speaking in that weirdly formal manner because someone told you you have to IS you being gullible
/tsks at your gullibility and your refusal to acknowledge it/
You will have to learn for yourself. Each royal and vampire is different around here...what may be fine for one person may be disrespectful for another
/my eyes watch you as you move to the couch, making me a bit antsy that you choose to sit...should I be sitting down too?/
Yes...a countess is important...but we do not have direct hands on what happens in the palace, that is something that a Lady or Lord would do.
My title can be rather lonely, I dont get to help much here
/decides to plop myself onto one of the other empty chairs by the fire, kicking off my heels/
I don't really dance at the ball...I'm too small compared to everyone else
And too clumsy, I'm just in the way and end up hurting myself in the end...
Why are you so insistent on learning with me when you dont know how to dance and I dont know how to dance?
Its pointless

@ξ♞ Yume Fuji Gullible? I wouldn't call it that, I am just trying to somehow fit in here. It's hard when you don't really know how to act here.
But yes, I should not listen to some stranger. Maybe you can help me though to find my way around here. Is there anything I should or shouldn't do?
/I smile down at you as you look at me/
A countess? That still sounds rather important.
/I decide to sit down on one of the sofas as just standing there by the fire seems rather awkward, especially since I need to look down on you/
We could start practicing now if you want to. Is there any room where we can play some ball music and have enough space to dance? The furniture here is a bit disturbing for that.

@♙ Zhang Yixing That person must enjoy playing mean jokes on others...and you mustbe really gullible if you truly believed you must speak in that manner
....you can't justbelive everything you hear you know
/I continue to strike my fingers along the molding, still contemplating on whether of not I should keep speaking to you/
I'm a countess, so I don't get directly involved with these events if I'm not requested to
/pauses a moment and tilts my head up to look at you, your face quite high due to mysmall height/
I dont know ballroom dancing either...but I do enjoy having company from time to time

@ξ♞ Yume Fuji /surprised by your words I rethink just what I have worded that would make you feel this way/
I am sorry, miss. Someone told me that I would need to speak round here in that manner.
Oh, then what are you? No royal nor Lady? You look like a princess.
/I smile down at you clearly noticing that your movements seem rather awkward, I wonder if it is because we don't know each other or if you are not pleased by the presence of a human/
How about I take you to the ball then? Do you think you would enjoy it if you had company?
I am, I have never been at such an event but I do not know any of those formal dances, maybe you could help me with those?

@♙ Zhang Yixing Why do you speak in such a manner? You seem too young to speak such a say, are you possibly poking fun at the possibility of my being much older than you?
/even in my heels, my height is too small compared to yours, my head tilting up to look at you properly. Why is it that you look at me so?/
It wasn't very busy for me...its busy for the royals, Lords and Ladies
/awkwardly the molding around the fireplace/
I like dressing up yes, but I'm not once for ballroom dancing...and the banquet is for the Humans and the select vampires that can enjoy human food
Are you excited for the ball mister?

@ξ♞ Yume Fuji /your face seems like a petal from a rose, beautiful and dainty, graced by eyes that I could lose myself in/
I am glad to hear that, milady. /I move closer to lean against the fireplace myself now only distant from you by one or two steps/
I am. It must have been quite busy around here up on our arrival. /my eyes scan you once more as I try to memorize your features, you are the second vampire woman I met and I want to remember you so that I at least have one other familiar face around here/
Do you look forward to the ball? I heard that it is quite the event for vampires and humans alike.

@♙ Zhang Yixing /I had stood staring into the fire, becoming lost in the flickering flames before my eyes/
/the warmth caused my thoughts to wander, thinking deeply about my past life before I came to the castle/
/my eyes perk at the sound of footsteps, my eyes pulling away from the flames when I'm spoken to/
I-um.../your face is so strikingly similar to him, my heart clenches at the sight/
You're not disturbing me..../then the scent hits me, the scent of your human blood/
Are you part of the new wave of humans from the testing?

@ξ♞ Yume Fuji /a sigh pressed past my lips as it had taken me the whole morning to roam through the palace losing the directions more than just once, the palace is just too big to remember the ways around it/
/after just another hallway and some more stairs I finally find myself in this room, the sofa and fire seem comfortable and inviting so I decide on going inside to rest for a while/
/I discover you in the room, your body looks so petite but it glows in a way that I cannot explain, it pulls me closer to you/
Good afternoon, my lady. I am sorry if I am disturbing you, I was looking for a quiet spot in the palace and this room seemed inviting.

@♙ Kim Hyojong (SH) An aquaintanteship...you bring a wonderful offer to the table, one that I may or may not be interested in.
/I try to hide the prideful smile on my face as your fear and anxiety is much more apparent especially with the way you flinch from my touch, though it comes as a surprise to me when a pretty red forms along your cheeks/
My Queen is a beautiful person inside and out, even if she were to hate you currently, she would show you kindness/I leave out the part about how she would too destroy you if you were to hurt something she loves, just as she had done to the Slayers in the past. But it was already enough you understood to fear me/
I had forgotten how obvious a humans emotions could be and how quickly they changed
/my lips curl into a sly grin knowing that what you say is no lie/
Serve me, now now, you don't want that, but I'm sure the queen is willing....to share/my eyes travel down your body before I turn from you and return to my seat/
Keep this up Hyojong, and you may possibly get on my good side.

@ꕥ♞ Emily Mei /indeed anxiety washes over again and again like tidal waves although still attempting so so intensely to remain calm as I flash a meek smile/
I surely hope so. It’d be nice to see you again and build a.. um, an acquaintanceship if you will.
/still my breath is subtle in its shakiness and there is no helping how I flinch by instinct the moment I feel your cool touch grazing along my skin/
Well your Queen hasn’t been unkind to me. I’m grateful to be in such a lucky position, truly. /albeit my nerves are on edge, soon I settle myself to practically melt at your fingertips as my cheeks grow ever more flushed with radiant warmth/
I have no reason not to be. As far as I’m concerned this is the best place on Earth for someone like me. I have a purpose now. I serve her Highness and, if given permission, I would serve you too.
/as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders I feel comfortable enough to tilt my head off to the side just a little bit, barely on the verge of nuzzling into your touch/
Hyojong. At times I’m called Hyo.

@♙ Kim Hyojong (SH) /good, you seem to be nervous from the way you had held your breath, with how shaky it had seemed from your hold too long/
A small world, yes yes and a very small palace. Also, if you are the slave of my queen, you must frequent the areas she is in often.
Meaning I am always present.
/my eyes narrow, almost in warning at the idea, as if you should be aware that I am always watching when it comes to her, and if you were to do something to try and harm her, I would be ready to kill you. No hesitation/
I'd rather ask her in private as to her true reason why. She dislikes humans usually, so I must know why you are different.
Possibly it is because you smell quite appetizing, does she just want her blood all to herself
/places a hand on my chin as if I am thinking. Though what I said is most likely far fromt he truth, Hyuna is much too kind for that to be the reason and I know she may have sympathized with you in some way...but you did not need to know that/
Or possibly it is that you are such a pretty little boy/I sigh when you lean away, though that does not stop me from reaching out and stroking a red nail along your warm cheek/
Such an obedient thing you are, keep that up and we should have no problems...um...what is your name again human

@ꕥ♞ Emily Mei /Already I can tell that tensions are high and likely to continue peaking if I am not extremely careful with how I conduct myself, letting out a silent little exhale from the breath I’d been holding in since entering the room/
Well then it must just be a coincidence that I see you in the same places over and over again. It’s a small world after all, some might say. /Lets out a dainty shy chuckle, soon letting my extended hand fall back towards my side and keeping a relatively safe distance away so as not to invade any personal space/
Honestly? I’m not so sure.. We could ask her Highness together if you’d like? I promise I mean no quarrel or threat. /I swallow a rather large lump in my throat yet still manage to muster a faint gentle smile, leaning back just enough so that the tip of my nose doesn’t accidentally brush against yours/
You have all the power here. I can do nothing except follow commands. That’s what I’m meant for.

[post deleted by owner]

@♙ Kim Hyojong /ever since the auction, I have had a sour taste in my mouth. Why would my beautiful queen bid on this human?/
Don't trust him/I whispered to myself as I followed him for the millionth time, determined to find him do things that were not to be done, but no matter how long I followed, I could not seem to find anything to condemn him/
/once in the lounge, I practically throw myself onto the couch there, picking up a lone magazine to seem as though I am busy/
/my eye narrow on the hand that is held out in a seemingly kind manner...don't trust it/
I have no idea as to why I would seem familiar to you/glares at you, my eyes running up and down your body/
/a smile dawns my face at the mention of taking my issue of you with Hyuna, causing me to stand, my face very close to yours/
I am not sure why you think you keep running into me, but it seems like you are using my Queen as a threat against me/I scoff at the thought/
I wonder, why would she bid on the likes of you?

@ꕥ♛ Andy Bathory (i hope this is worth the wait in content quality and length i'm sorry ;; )

"Plus, you've probably hated me and maybe now enough time has passed for you to be able to forgive me."

It broke his heart. San could never hate her, resent her. He'd forgiven her as soon as she left. He'd wait, he'd give her time, space, as much as she needed for as long as she needed. San's heart was a wanderer of its own. He loved many a woman in both of his lives, he knew he'd fall in love with men at some point, and he loved many at once, but he didn't hold that against himself, and seemingly no one else held that against him either. Maybe it was because of how hard he loved and how long he loved. Miss Andy was no exception to San's heart: he loved her for a long time, and he loved her so hard it sent him head over heels when they were together. Perhaps his heart had wandered on in the time she was gone, but that gap of time became meaningless as his eyes took in the woman on his lap that he held so tight in his arms. His heart snapped right back to her.

It was then that San realized she had finished speaking and that he was just staring at her, smitten all over again.

"Darling," his voice was deeper than it used to be when they were together, he had the timbre of a lion's purr now, low, but not necessarily deep, smooth, soothing. "I could never hate you. I didn't know why you left, but I knew you had a reason. And I knew you'd come back, as long as you stayed alive," he admitted, with a lazy, sheepish smile. "I was just worried you may have passed on, it's always likely when you disappear for hundreds of years, you run into the wrong people... or a stupid ing snake," he looked to the side and growled at himself, his stupid twenty-one-year-old self.

San sighed and shook his head before he looked back up at her, mindlessly caressing her thighs, her sides, her back. He was sure any one thing she had to share would be much more interesting than the past 404 years of his life. "I... haven't done a lot. I fought in the war, that's the fullest I've ever been," he gently patted his stomach.

Otherwise, he'd locked himself in the castle. During that war, he'd let the demon inside of him take too tight of a hold on the reigns, he'd feasted the best he ever would, but he'd killed too many. It startled him, the normal part of him. The only person he'd feed from now was his mother, maybe a human slave if he ever was interested enough to purchase one, or some item from the blood bank. But his main source was his mother, but he wasn't going to mention that. It would probably scare her, to let her know such a creature lived in his festering, decaying mind and heart.

San was gently chewing on his lower lip as he looked up at her, head tilted to one side. He was still in awe that she was back. "Tell me about the rest of the world, make it as complicated as you want to. You know you don't have to hold back around me," he nodded his head a little to encourage her as he spoke.

@ꕥ♞ Emily Mei /For who knows how long he’s been followed around like a ghost haunting him every and any place he’d go within the palace and now finally he spots the very face noticed hovering around him, inhales a deep breath, and approaches forth to confront the girl in the lounge/
Pardon me.. Hi. You look familiar. Extremely familiar. I’ve seen you all around, but you haven’t really said hi yet so I just thought I’d come and introduce myself.
/He extends out a hand as a friendly gesture, flashing a faint smile so as not to pose any threat/
I’m Hyojong. If there’s something you might have needed or wanted from me, any reason why I keep bumping into you in particular, you might want to take it up with Queen Hyuna. She’s, um– I’m under her ownership.

@☪♚ San Sekhmet He seemed different from back then. Absent at first, as if he was staring right through her at someone else, something that didn’t exist. This discovery, however, was shoved back deep into her mind as all she could and wanted to feel was the happiness of having him back, seeing him again. It had been so long and of course she had to expect that San had changed. Things never stayed like they used to be and she knew that once you left someone you would never meet that exact same person again. After all, she herself had changed too in more than only a few aspects. Her skin gracing more tattoos than before, her mind having become more peaceful, she, like everyone else had changed after leaving or having been left.

Andy wanted to stay like this forever. She didn’t want to let go of San because for as long as she could hold him nothing could break them apart. The man in her arms was one of the few people that she had actually gotten attached too. Even though she had left him she had never stopped thinking about him during her journeys. He had been special, stuck to her mind because he had actually managed to touch her heart back then in away that only a few had ever managed. Once they would pull apart this sweet fantasy could vanish. What if San hated her? What if he had actually forgotten about her considering how many hundreds of years it had been? She couldn’t figure out what was worse, didn’t want to.

Her worries faded as she felt his arms around her slender body as he actually hugged her back. Her heart started beating like crazy having its own race in her chest. His warmth engulfed her as she felt a few drops of her tears rolling down her cheeks. Her embrace tightened as she found herself on his lap. What if all this was only a daydream, a fantasy? She didn’t know what it was about San that had gotten her this attached to him. Maybe it was the deep friendship that they had shared before an the fact that their affair had been by far the most intense she had had with someone of her kind.

Everything felt intimate, special, the way he tucked her hair behind her ear was so tender as if they had never stopped being together, as if they hadn’t been separated for so many decades. She closed her own eyes as the few drops of her tears fell on his shoulder. His scent enveloped her in memories of how they had used to be, of all the moments of happiness. A faint smile overtook her lips and without second thought she pressed it against his neck for a moment.

“Of course I am alive. What did you expect?” The word ‘idiot’ radiated in her head but she didn’t voice it even though it was only harmless teasing. It wasn’t the right timing to talk just as blunt as she usually did.

His question was a hard one as Andy had been everywhere and nowhere to put it simple. She had travelled through the whole world, experienced whatever there was to experience. Sometimes she had stayed at a place only for a short amount of time, sometimes a decade which for her was still not all too long. She had needed freedom as she had never been the type of person to stay somewhere for long, to be someone for long. She had tried to figure out what it actually meant to be alive and immortal as such. It was that constant search that kept her going even though there had been more than only a few places where she could have stayed at, people she could have imagined being with for only a little less than forever. But she just wasn’t the type to settle down.

“I was around the world. That is pretty much as simple as I can put it.” She said, guilt crawled up in her veins as she thought about the past, their past. “I am sorry for just leaving back then without a real explanation. I’ve never been the type of person for big goodbyes as you know but I shouldn’t have just left---it wasn’t fair, was it?” She sighed.

“What have you been up to? I was devastated when the news of your death had hit me. You won’t believe how relieved I was when the rumours reached me that you were still alive.” She loosened the hug lightly to be able to look at him, nonetheless, still having her arms around him. “I had really wanted to look for you and come back to you when I heard about it but---” Another sigh escaped her lips as she was not quite sure how to word it. “I hadn’t been really sure if I had already become the right person to meet you again. Plus, you’ve probably hated me and maybe now enough time has passed for you to be able to forgive me.”

@ꕥ♛ Andy Bathory San never knew what was real. He could guess, but he was never one hundred percent sure anymore, the delusions had gotten that good at tricking him. One thing he knew, was that if he tried to touch a hallucination, it would dissolve as his hand went through it, and that was how it had been for the past century or so. Though, he always expected it to change, after all, it had been one hundred some odd years of the same thing, they were bound to drive him crazier at some point, he only had all of an eternity or two to waste away, to succumb to his delusions... to give them what they wanted: a return of his soul.

Now, how did he know that they would dissolve in his touch? He was so scared of them, why would he try to touch those oh so real demons? Because one wasn't. One was as clear as day, and as punctual as a clock. Too real, almost. His very first love, Andy Bathory. She left. San knew it wasn't because of him, they had loved each other too intensely, too well, for him to have driven her away. He wasn't crazed yet, anyways. And she had disappeared for near half a millenia, he assumed she had died. So was it his assumption that conjured her up? Or was it his ability as a Sekhmet to foresee that conjured her up as an illusion of the dead? Of course, San didn't know. All he knew was that one day, eyes all glossed over a milky, icy grey, he was face to face with Andy. Her tattoos, her hair as black as night, those eyes. It was her. To him, he was quiet, composed, only crying a little as he reached out to touch her, hold her, kiss her again, as she faded away. But in reality? Dear gods, how his howls echoed throughout the palace that day.

But that days was decades in the past, probably nearing a century or two. Today, he found himself in the lounge, in front of the fireplace. His eyes were the same milky grey, his hair as white as fresh snow. It was rare, but not unheard of, for the ghost to visit him in the middle of the day, for the hallucinations to start early. His eyes seemed to focus on nothing, but he was focused on the fireplace, his first love was there. Not speaking, not even really looking at him, she was just there, and San refused to take his eyes off of her.

But then she spoke. Except, didn't move. And suddenly, the old Andy shattered, disappeared forever, and was replaced by a blonde one. He knew it was her, the tattoos and the voice were the same. Figured it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but unbeknownst to him, the ghost had vanished as soon as she came in – it didn't like to be seen by anyone else. His hair faded to that blackened brown with a white streak, and his eyes swirled to their deep merlot color.

"I'm so happy to finally see you," she said to him. She hugged him. That was new, if this was a hallucination. Maybe they were always allowed to touch him, they never had, but that didn't mean they couldn't. San didn't know if this was real, and wasn't sure, if it wasn't real, that returning the hug would make her fade away again. His hands twitched. He wanted to hug her, to touch her, to hold her again, no matter if she didn't love him anymore or not. They were friends before they became lovers, and nothing could have broken that. But he was too scared to lose her again. He couldn't hold her, she'd just dissolve, right? So he didn't. At first. If he ever regained sanity, he'd regret that decision for the rest of time... So he did. His arms wrapped around her just as tightly as she held him. He practically pulled her into his lap

She didn't fade away.

And for now, in that moment, San accepted she was really there, still alive. But that wouldn't last too long.

"Andy..." was San could breathe out for a few moments. "You're alive, you're– you're back," his hands carded through her hair, pushed it back, tucked it behind her ears. He was too startled, too in schock, to cry with her. His eyes wandered to the fireplace as they hugged, but he closed them and buried his face in her neck, only tightening his hold on her. "Where did you go for all those years?" the question was muffled, but still clear enough as he asked it against her skin.

chanyeol slips in quietly and takes a seat near the open window, heaving a soft sigh.

@☪️♚San Sekhmet Rumours had reached Andy that someone lived in the palace who she remembered all too well. San Sekhmet, not only prince as such but one of her past lovers that had stuck in her mind. Their love affair had been short but intense, one that you would not forget about easily. Even when Andy had been the one disappearing back then. For 400 years she had just travelled through the world, trying to find her place, trying to get her mind at ease, forget the all too painful past.

They had said he had died. Somewhere in the desert, those rumours had reached her during her time in Japan. She had switched countries, the places she stayed at, more often than her clothes. It was the feeling of not having a home, not belonging anywhere that made her a traveller. But she planned to stay here longer, especially now that she had found her family.

San had been saved back then, they had told her and Andy just had to see him, convince herself that he really still lived. Not out of love, even though she still felt closely connected to him. Maybe it was for the old times, maybe she wanted to get back to a point where life was easier.

A skinny jeans enwrapped her legs, a red shirt adorned her body and overall she tried to look as stunning as possible. Would San even remember her? Or had he lost all memories from before his death? She had to try whatever the answer was. She had to convince herself, see him in reality.

She walked around the palace trying to figure out where he could be. Most of the rooms where empty with no one around. She was worried that he was somewhere out in St. Petersburg and that at this point she would never find him. Minutes passed what felt like hours until she reached the lounge hall, a huge majestic room. A man sat by the fireplace, an all too familiar man, the one she had been looking for.

“San!” Being as excited to actually see him again she almost tripped over the carpet but managed to catch herself before hitting the ground. “The rumours were true, you really are alive! San---” Tears welled up in her eyes, she wasn’t sure how to name the emotions that she felt, happiness was definitely a part of it.

Without second thought she threw herself at him to pull him into a tight hug.

“I’m so happy to finally see you.”