23

Chapter 23Chapter Text

Chapter Roman

Akelarre moved into the VIP room she was starting to think of as her and Neo and Roman's hang out spot with all of the grace and poise of a gangly puppy tumbling down a staircase. Away from home, away from her mom, she was paying less and less attention to just how she presented herself.

Salem would probably be a bit disappointed in her. The Queen of the Grimm was nothing if not regal.

Maybe, she reasoned as she flicked on the lights with the leg of one Grimmsect, she should start paying more attention to that sort of thing. She was about to go on a date, after all.

She was even dressed for it in a nice black piece Cinder had helped her pick, new stockings and shoes and even a new, more lacy cloak to hide her features while out in the city. It wasn't the kind of clothes she would have chosen to go out in normally, but it did make her feel a little prettier.

Ready as she would ever be, she stood in the doorway to the VIP room with hands on hips, tentacles around her shoulders, and chest puffed out.

Neo groaned.

Blinking, Akelarre glanced across the room until her gaze paused on the form of her new friend, hunched in on herself on the couch, both hands wrapped around her tummy while beads of sweat poured out of her hair and across her face.

"Neo?!" Akelarre shouted.

There was a sigh from off to one side and she found Roman, in his usual garb, shaking his head. "She's fine," he said.

Akelarre approached Neo and almost got a boot to the head when she tried to touch the girl. Scowling, she shoved Neo's leg back down and placed a hand on Neo's forehead. It was a little warm, but not dangerously so. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Neo looked up at her, eyes watery and full of pain. She nodded down to her arms which were crossed around her belly and wiggled a little. Had she been shot? Was Neo dying? Did someone hurt her? Was Neo one of those girls that got really bad cramps?

"She ate too much ice cream," Roman announced.

"Ah," Akelarre said while Neo mewled pitifully. Whatever sympathy she had dried up as she noticed the sea of empty bowls laid out around the couch. "And she did that just before our date," she said.

"Sorry love. Guess you're out of luck."

Akelarre stood up to her full height, frown now firmly in place and hands on hips. This just would not do. "I paid for two ticket to enter that costume party and I'm going to get my money's worth," she said. Hard red eyes turned to Roman and pinned the master thief on the spot. "What are you doing tonight?"

Neo paused in her groaning, opened one eye a slit, looked between Akelarre and Roman, then started to let out pained chuckles.

"Oh no."

Akelarre smiled.

***

Roman was... well, he wasn't having a bad time, not yet. In fact, in most respects this was a nice situation to be in.

He was out on the streets of Vale, looking nice and snazzy, one arm being held by a pretty girl and he had a nice party to look forward to. All nice things; a perfectly good way to spend the evening.

Except the girl was the Princess of the Grimm and as far as he knew, she was one stubbed toe away from calling down death and destruction upon the remains of the human race. A race that he was currently an active member of. Oh, and the party was a political fundraising thing that he probably wouldn't be allowed to stick up.

There were black tentacles pouring out of the back of her dress and wrapping around her neck. He would have called them props except that one of them grew an eye and stared at him with what he thought might be hunger.

"You know, I didn't see Neo getting all costumed up for this thing," he said.

"Oh," Akelarre replied, her free hand, the black one, waving the comment off. "She was going to use her semblance to look like someone else."

"Uh huh," he said. "And what about me?"

He never got an answer to his question. They arrived at the back of a short line, a pair of butler-types blocking the path into a park that had been decorated for the occasion with hanging lanterns that cast yellow light through the foliage, and silvery cloth draped from one tree to the next, creating a roof of sorts over the paths that criss crossed the park.

Now that they were close enough, he could hear the wailing song of a violin competing with a stand up bass for attention, and the low murmur of discussion coming from people wearing elaborate and something downright weird costumes.

He saw a man dressed as a female opera singer hand in hand with a girl wearing plate armour. Deeper in, a young woman was wearing a very elaborate and rather trimmed down version of Pyrrha Nikos' armour. She laughed at her partner, a man in a tuxedo whose belly was padded out with what looked like a pillow to make him appear fat.

"What is this event anyway?" he asked. There was a certain air of... class to it, despite the rather strange dress code.

"It's a costume party held in honour of the hunters and huntresses of Vale. The money raised will go to Beacon and a few other schools. At least, that's what they say. A good chunk of it is funnelled back to the city and to the Merchants."

Roman gave her a glance, surprised that she had learned so much about the city's underground so quickly. Then again, maybe competence came with the title of evil princess of evilness.

Akelarre grinned at the butlers and handed over a pair of tickets.

"Welcome, welcome!" A fat man in a train conductor's outfit said, his mustache quivering with every word. "I'm Slate, Arryn Slate, councillor of this fine city and host of today's little get together," he said with a twinkle in his eye while gesturing at the dozens of guests milling around.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Arryn," Akelarre said with a demure smile. "I'm Akelarre, but tonight you can call me Salem, Queen of the Grimm."

The councillor's eyes widen, then he let out a guffaw of laughter. "Excellent, excellent. And your handsome partner here needs no introduction, of course. He's a spitting image of that damnable Roman Torchwick chap. Wonderful costume my lad. I do like the theme. Bad guys indeed."

"Thank you," Roman said as he extended a hand to shake. His smile was a little strained but the councillor didn't seem to notice as he shook his hand.

"That was so rude," Akelarre said as they moved towards the buffet.

"Really? Was he supposed to bow down before your royal might?" he asked.

"No, you stole his watch," she said.

He blinked, the added weight in his pocket suddenly feeling rather warm. "You noticed?" he asked.

"I see everything, Roman," she replied easily. "Next time, take his wallet. It might not be worth as much, but we could learn something useful from it."

"Oh, are you telling me how to do my job?" he snarked.

She snorted and pulled a drink from the side of the buffet table, gave it a sniff, then pushed it into his hands. It was champaign. Instead, Akelarre picked up another goblet that was filled with icy water and took a long sip. "I could do better," she said.

He almost choked on his drink. "Do better. Than me?" he asked. "You are a hundred years too young to be better than me, sweetheart," he said.

"You do know that I'm essentially immortal. For all you know I've been around for far, far longer than a hundred years." Undisguised red eyes, filled with both mirth and a feral edge, looked him up and down.

"We could put it to the test," he said.

"Oh?"

"The one with the most in their pockets by the night's end wins," he said. He already had something of a head start, but no one had ever called him a fair player.

"And what would they win? Another date, a kiss?" she asked with a growing smile.

Roman rolled his eyes. His sense of self-preservation wasn't that bad. "No, nothing like that. How about... footing Neo's ice cream bill for the next month."

Akelarre laughed, and it was a soft noise, muffled by a hastily raised hand. "I might be heir of the richest person on Remnant, but even my castle isn't made of gold. I'm not sure I can afford that much ice cream. But, seeing as how I intend to win... you're on, Mister Torchwick."

"So when do we start?" he asked. Maybe he could stall her a little.

Then a wasp the size of his palm zipped by, dropping something that flashed golden between them and Akelarre caught with a snap of her arm. She opened her hand to reveal a pretty little earring. "Didn't you start yet?"

***

This was, he knew, a distraction.

Sweaty palms wrapped around warm hands and then let go so that the woman in his arms could spin around, her dress billowing out around her.

He was the only one that noticed the tentacle whipping out from under the dress, sharp tip cutting through the straps of a purse before snatching it out of the air on the next spin.

"Cheater," he said as Akelarre crashed back into his chest.

She grinned at him, face flushed with victory. "Not cheating, just using my assets in new and creative ways," she said.

He harrumphed and missed the next step, going off beat and bumping into a man that had been behind him. He fired off a muffled apology before catching up to Akelarre's dancing and stuffing a wallet in his jacket pocket. "See," he said. "What was done with skill and finesse."

"I'm sure," she agreed without warmth. "Strange how your vaunted skill and finesse aren't helping you win."

"That's because my competition is cheating," he said.

"Cheating at a criminal competition? Oh no, who would have guessed?" she rolled her eyes. Then opened a palm in time for a broach to fall into it from above. She smiled as she slipped it into her dress front.

Roman sighed. "So why did you want to come here, really? It can't be for the dancing."

She pouted a little. "I was kind of hoping to spy on people, but really most of the conversations are all about mundane, boring stuff. The people of Vale are too nice to spill secrets at parties like these."

"Maybe you're not spying on enough people?" he tried.

She shook her head, black locks tumbling around her face. "No. I'm spying on every living person in this park. I've got bugs on all of them. Really, if I wanted to rob them properly I'd have my bugs bite and inject them all with paralitic then stip them naked."

"...gods," Roman said as he imagined the scene.

"There aren't any gods, Mister Torchwick," she said.

He raised an eyebrow at that. "You're not the religious sort, I take it?"

"Oh no, there were gods before. The god of light, who created humanity, the god of darkness who ruled over death, and so on. I know, I killed one. But my mom scared the rest away. It's just us now."

He swallowed.

Then someone started screaming, a repetition of 'Where's my wallet?" that grew louder and more insistent and was soon joined by a chorus of panicked yells about missing jewelry and watches and purses.

"Time to bail," Akelarre said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him through the crowds. The lights above flickered and died where they were passing, leaving what few guards were around floundering in the sudden darkness.

Akelarre bunched her skirt up, a single earring falling out before she jumped over the fence in a single bound. He saw a flash of white in the shadows swoop by and pick up the earring.

Following after her, he ran to catch up, only to see her stopping half a block away and waiting under the light of a lone street lamp.

"That was amusing," she said. "Kind of pointless, but amusing nonetheless. Plus now I have gifts for Cinder and Emerald and mom."

"That's it?" he asked, suddenly feeling rather empty. He realized with a start that he had been having fun.

"Not unless you had other plans for tonight," she said, guileless red eyes locking with his. One eyebrow perked up. "You weren't planning to go on a date, I can forgive you for not being entirely... prepared to entertain a lady all night."

"I'm always ready to entertain a lady all night," he said before the words could go through all the filters in his mind labelled 'don't commit suicide by Grimm Princess.'

Akelarre's eyes widened and a touch of red splashed across her cheeks. She slapped his arm, not hard, but enough that he felt it. "You're such a pervert."

He gave her a winning grin, the kind that had gotten ladies to swoon before. "I am something of a rogue," he said.

"Well, mister rogue, you'll have to do better than one poorly planned date to impress me," she said before turning on one heel to move away. "But I might take you up on it if you ask nicely."

He didn't know what she would take him up on, and his fuzzy, bloodless head was more than happy to conjure some images for him. "Yeah, yeah," he said.

Then he realized that she was well and truly gone, and that he was out alone on the streets of Vale, only the light of a single lamppost to keep him company.

"Neo's going to kill me," he said.

Maybe he could placate her with stolen jewelry?