The Christmas Formal

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith watched Jude as he followed Madeleine. She really looked on the verge. Of what exactly Ailith didn't know but it wouldn't be pretty what ever happened. She was glad Jude was prepared to go and talk to her. Although she wouldn't appreciate Jude coming back from consoling Madeleine in a bad mood. But Madeleine was in good hands. And rather handsome ones tonight if Ailith did think so herself. Jude didn't look half good in smart-casual and the sunglass just added to the smoothness. Shame about the earplugs but then again you didn't really notice them.
He went through the doors and out of sight, Ailith sighed softly and turned back to the party. There really was a lot of people there and Ailith surprised herself when she found she could surname a good few of them and first name most. She smiled and briefly chatted to some of the people she knew in her classes (or some who she always just seemed to bump into) and exchanged names, groups and years with those she didn't. Everyone looked great (except Madeleine but in a different way) and Ailith herself was complimented on her dress a few times.
As soon as she turned away from the seventh group she spotted Josh. Tall, dark (almost completely literally) and casual. He was standing at the side staring rigidly foward, his eyes fixed on ... Ailith followed his eyes to... Maggie, who was dancing surrounded by a few guys. She didn't blame them though, she was wearing a beautiful purple dress that suited her perfectly. Josh didn't look too happy though so, while Jude was away comforting Madeleine, Ailith would try and be helpful and attempt to entertain Josh.
As she approached Josh turned his head the other way, she frowned He must be more upset than I thought and touched his forearm.
"Hey Josh. How's it going?" Ailith smiled as if she'd noticed nothing.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Her hair brushed against his neck like soft, gold silk. As he breathed in, he inhaled the sweet, familiar scent of strawberries...
Why was that familiar?
And more than that... he'd gotten that flashback with Maddie-
Reacting quickly, Lee focused on Sophie instead, letting his hands trail across her back slightly...
"Princess Sophie, from what I heard," he said, even more softly, grinning. "Why a princess, may I ask?"

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"That depends," he mused, determined not to be overwhelmed by the tempting sparkle in her eyes. "What sort of adventure would we have?"
Then he glanced up at the swarm of boys ready to pounce.
"Next dance?" he offered, refusing to let her go.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lee sensed he was with someone who had done this a million times before; and he was just playing the catch as it was hooked and reeled in. Funny thing was, he didn't care that he was probably one of a hundred. He was the one tonight. And the ol' adrenaline at her velvet touch was finally starting to kick in.
Her palm came to rest on his cheek as her sentence trailed off. His hand too moved up; stroking the side of her cheek and embedding itself in her soft, blonde hair.
"I'm not sure if I like surprises," he reasoned, still keeping his expression carefully nonchalent. "I like to know exactly what's going on- I like to lead the way..."
His other hand crept further around her waist, pulling her closer.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

He smiled, but made no reply, still swaying gently as the music drew to a climax. Moving his hand, he slipped them both around her waist again, and as the final notes played, he spun her around and dipped her- only pulling her up when the music had stopped altogether.
"Like that?" he asked smoothly, his arm still around her waist as a new, faster song struck up.

[Josh Cole]

As usual, Maggie was stunning, in a sweeping, purple (okay, well, it was apparently blackberry, but come on - if it's purple, it's purple) floor-length dress. The neckline plunged, almost down to her waist, and in Josh's opinion, there was a little too much there that he was comfortable with seeing.
Saying that, it was only because it was Maggie. It was like seeing his sister... actually, better not to go there.
Still, she did look lovely, and she'd practically glowed when he'd told her this, her lips moving into her trademark smile, showing all her pearly straight teeth, the result of a year's brace.
Ha! He still remembered that brace stage. Poor Maggie.
Now Maggie was seated beside him, "blackberry" stilettos tapping against the floor to the beat of some unbelievable bad beat, a champagne flute of soda water in her manicured hand. What she wasn't realising was that about eight guys were eyeing her up in a way that Josh didn't really like, in a protective elderly brother way.
The odd thing was, she wasn’t even noticing it. Maggie was pretty. Okay, well, if she wasn’t Josh’s best friend, he’d have to admit that she was hot. Male attention was not something this girl was lacking in, and she loved it. She lapped it up, even if she pretended to be coy about it later on.
So it was odd that Maggie was passively ignoring this.
Josh nudged her. “You okay?”
She turned her head, like a flower on a stalk. “Of course, why?”
He nodded pointedly at the gaggle of guys drooling at her. “You’re being eyed.”
Maggie smiled. “I did notice.”
Josh frowned at her. “So why aren’t you encouraging it?”
Oddly, Maggie coloured slightly and stared towards the ground. “No reason…”
“Mags?”
“Nothing.”
“Okay.”
Three… two… one…
“Not really the guys I want to be looking at me.”
There we go, right on cue.
The doors to the ballroom opened again, and Josh’s eyes were drawn towards them as he replied, “Alright then, so who do you want to be looking at you?”
Looking back at her, she realised that she wasn’t just pink – scarlet was a more accurate word. “Maggie?”
“You’ll laugh,” she muttered.
Alright… worrying…
“No, I won’t,” he responded. “Promise.”
“No, you will,” she said to the floor.
Silence.
“Sh*t, it’s not Levi Ryder, is it?”
“No! I’m over that!”
“Over… oh Christ, Maggie!”
She squeaked a swear word and quickly jumped up and walked away, where she was immediately attacked by an onslaught of adoring guys.
Josh leant back, marvelling at his friend’s stupidity. Of all the-
Ailith was over there.
Was it possible that someone who was so strong and good at fighting could look that great in a formal dress? And her hair looked so good under the lights, the changing colours making her hair glow like gold. God, it was-
Crap. She’d met his eyes.
He quickly dragged his gaze away from her, back to Maggie, who was now dancing with some guy he’d never met.
A minute later, Ailith was beside him, her hand on his forearm. “Hey, Josh. How’s it going?”
He turned to smile at her, and was taken aback by how much better she looked close up. “Good, thanks. You look… great.”
Smooth.

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith smiled and bowed her head, "Thank you, you look good too," Ailith took in Josh's attire critically before nodding her approval, "it definately suits you."
Ailith flicked her eyes to the doors briefly. Still not back? Poor Maddie must be in a really bad way.
"So how's your night going? Bored yet?" Ailith laughed.

[Josh Cole]

"Well, not much is going on," he replied, unable to keep his eyes from trailing down Ailith's pinkish dress.
Watermelon, Maggie would call it ... when the hell did fruits become words for colours?!
"It's a bit boring, because Maggie got swarmed," Josh added, with a laugh. "And all everyone else seems to be doing is following the eh, princess over there." He nodded towards "Princess Sophie", who was dancing with Lee Norris in the middle of the floor.
Crap, poor Madeleine.
"What about you?" he asked, turning to Ailith again.

[Ailith Rayner]

Oops. Ailith looked back at the doors. Keep her a while longer Jude. This won't help her much.
"What about you?" Josh asked.
"Mmm, well I'm not bored but I can think of several more productive things I could be doing." Ailith looked back to Josh and smiled. "I take it you're not a dancer?"

[Josh Cole]

Josh laughed. "Not really. Like you said, more productive things to do. And besides, this music sucks."
She was smiling at him.
Should it feel that good?

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith looked at the floor and closed her eyes and actually listened to the music for the first time. Not that she couldn't hear it, or rather feel it before (she was close to shouting over it to talk to people). Josh was right though. The music was full of electrically modified instruments and voices and of course there was the heavy throb of the bass that vibrated all the way through your body and echoed in your chest. It was no doubt created by someone with a name beginnig with 'DJ' and ending in 'y'.
Ailith laughed because no sooner had that thought occured to her, didn't the music scream out "DJ *something*DY!". It was hard to tell what the something was due to the throb of bass and intensified electric squeal.
AIlith opened her eyes and looked up at Josh,"Yeah you're right it really does. What kind of music do you like?"

[Josh Cole]

"Anything with good guitar and bass," Josh replied, wincing as the heavy, terrible bass reverbrated through his feet, up to his brain, and starting to form a mild ache in his head. "Usually stuff with good lyrics..."
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Jude, the guy from the arm wrestling match, out of the corner of his eye, headed straight towards them.

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude felt the weight of the little silver lump in his pocket like it was some sort of burden; a secret he and Maddox shared. How did it make him feel?
Like crap. Basically.
And the crappy steeky beat serving as a follow-up to a perfectly good song by the Fray wasn't helping either.
Ailith.
Relief swelled in him like a balloon, and he felt the silver weight of something entirely different in his other pocket. Jude had thought long and hard about what the hell he should actually make Ailith for Christmas. Tameron and the others had come easy- he'd even spotted a punching bag he was sorely tempted to send back to the orphanage as a more... appropriate outlet for characters like Tommy.
But as for Ailith... he guessed he wanted to make sure it was special. He seriously needed to pay her back for the Stetson, after all.
So it'd all come down to his powers. After getting Lee to conjure him a lump of silver, Jude was able to craft from it a long, fine chain. The good thing about Ailith having metal powers too was that if it broke, she could fix it. Once he'd fastened this chain properly, he'd used the remaining metal to craft a little cowboy hat charm (this part was on Tameron's advice). And... when Tameron had seen the final result, she'd really liked it. Jude had to take it as a compliment- because that cowboy hat was so goddam fiddly he'd almost chucked the thing out his window.
Arriving slightly breathlessly at her side, Jude put his arm around Ailith's waist and kissed her on the lips.
"Hi," he grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that..."

[Josh Cole]

When Maggie got a crush on someone, Josh was the first to know.
And he was always the only one to hear all the details of how it felt when the hope that was in a crush crashed and burned.
However, Josh had never actually had a really serious crush on anyone, so he could never really empathize with what Maggie was saying most of the time, and he didn't think he would. After all, it was a completely different thing for him than it was to Maggie, right?
Eh, wrong.
When Jude kissed Ailith, Josh's stomach filled with lead and dropped by several notches, and his smile suddenly became more than a little hard to wear.
Hang on... did he have a crush on Ailith?
... aw, balls.
"Oh, are you two going out?" he asked, hearing Maggie's voice hiss into his ear, making him want to start hitting the side of his head.

[Jude Dorrian]

"Er, yeah," Jude glanced at Josh, noticing him for the first time. He hadn't actually seen the guy since the arm-wrestling thing... of course, if Maddox ever decided to be less stubborn he might have gotten to know the guy better by now but-
Oh, hell, shut up, brain. Maddox has got enough on her plate right now.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few brief seconds, as Jude realized he'd apparently walked right into the middle of a conversation.
"Ah, right," he said finally. "Sorry for the interruption, guys. Hey, Ailith, I just came over to give you this..." he fumbled in his pocket, and lifted out the little box, tied with ribbon, courtesy of Tameron. "Merry Christmas..."
He wished Josh would stop looking at him. He felt unnecessarily awkward.