THE BALL.

As the Decauxs all entered the ballroom, a hush descended upon the room.

This was the first time anyone was actually seeing Yvette after all, and after all the rumours they had heard... they discovered that she was nothing at all like they were expecting. Clearly she was a stunning girl, even if she looked a bit understated compared to her sisters. Still, her beauty was obvious. Where was the dirty ugly girl everyone was talking about?

Adele hated the looks Yvette was getting. To the Decaux family, Yvette's purple eyes had always been an abomination, freaky and unnatural, but it was clear that to everyone else it was what made her special, and part of what made her beautiful.

Seeing the commotion at the entrance, Bastien hurriedly made his way over to them.

"Lady Decaux, Lord Decaux." He greeted Claude and Adele politely.

Claude smiled somewhat thinly. "Duke Olivier, thank you for the invitation. We were very grateful to have been invited here to night."

Genevieve blushed and curtsied. "Yes, we're so glad you asked us to come!"

Bastien only smiled gracefully, before turning to Yvette and holding out his hand. "Yvette, would you like to dance?"

Yvette looked pleased and surprised at the same time, while Sabine seemed to freeze up, and Genevieve's face fell. Adele had clearly instructed her not to talk to any men, but she hadn't specifically warned her against dancing, so Yvette took his hand wordlessly and let him lead her to the centre of the ballroom.

"How are you enjoying your first ball so far?" He asked, as they started to dance.

Yvette hummed. "Truthfully, this is my first time out of the estate entirely. I'm still... getting used to it all, I suppose."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"This... might be impertinent of me but... how do your family treat you at home?"

Yvette sucked in a breath, making a pained face, but even still Bastien was smoothly guiding her along, his hand on her waist feeling featherlight and barely noticeable at all.

"...They would prefer if I had never been born." Was her indirect answer.

Bastien frowned. "Why?"

"My eyes." Yvette smiled a bit self deprecatingly. "They're not the right shade for a Decaux, and so... I was never treated like one."

His expression softened a bit. "Well... I think that your eyes are your best feature. If it means you're not a real Decaux, then don't be. You deserve better than them."

Yvette fell silent for a while before eventually breaking out into a wide smile. Bastien seemed to choke on his breath.

"Thank you."

After her dance with Bastien was finished, Yvette noticed Adele glaring at her from a corner of the room, so she struck up a conversation with the man that was closest to her.

She mingled casually with him, and then was joined by another man, and suddenly she was standing in the middle surrounded by a bunch of men who were curious to know about her or all trying to ask her to dance at the same time.

Thankfully, she was able to slip away after she said she wanted to get a drink, at which point she actually skipped straight past the drinks table and escaped to the balcony.

Somehow she managed to walk in on a confession.

Taking a look at the two people who were backlit by the moon, Yvette immediately recognised them as Louise and Leon. Leon had flaming red hair (a literal red flag, in hindsight) and was frowning at whatever Louise was saying. Louise had, interestingly enough, pale blue hair that complimented her fair complexion. Blue and red, huh? Maybe the signs were all there from the beginning.

"Prince Leon, I- my feelings-"

Whatever Louise was about to say, it was cut off when Leon suddenly turned his head and caught Yvette's eye. Oops. She had intended to just silently back away and pretend she hadn't seen anything, but now it was too late.

"Who are you?" Leon asked, narrowing his eyes at Yvette.

Yvette smiled calmly, thinking about all the different ways she wanted to pummel Leon into the ground. "Yvette Decaux."

Louise looked embarrassed, but when Yvette introduced herself suddenly she turned serious. "Decaux?"

Obviously they both also knew about the rumours surrounding her, and they likely also realised that all those rumours were false.

"Yes, well. I'm sorry for intruding, I didn't know there was anyone out here. I'll go back inside now."

Yvette turned around and slammed the balcony doors shut before anyone could get another word in. She hadn't yet thought about how she would deal with Leon, as a target he was still a bit far away. She needed to deal with her family first, and then she would go find Leon and teach him a lesson.

She wandered back the way she came, but this time she stopped by the drinks table and picked up a champagne flute. She just took one sip but there seemed to an instantaneous effect on her body. She could feel her cheeks heat up. It seemed like her body this time around was particularly weak to alcohol.

She sighed. She would probably have to stop after this one glass then.

"Excuse me," A voice beside her spoke up, "Miss?"

Yvette turned to the side and was surprisingly faced with another good looking man. He had blonde hair and matching yellow eyes, and looked mostly expressionless, if not for the slight crease of concern she could see in his eyebrows.

"Yes?"

"Your face is flushed." He pointed out.

The 'are you alright?' was unvoiced, but she could understand his concern.

"Oh, it's just the champagne." Yvette laughed a bit. "I'm fine though, don't worry."

He only ended up looking even more worried, which made her laugh again, at which point his expression went from worried to surprised. Yvette opened her mouth and was about to ask what was wrong, but then he turned around and suddenly started walking away really quickly. She thought maybe she had accidentally offended him somehow, but she caught the tips of his ears turning red, so she wondered if maybe he was just shy instead.