Violet gazed at the floor as they were allowed entrance, and they all stepped into a big venue with tall white walls, shiny marble floors and a high winding staircase above a little stage for the band. On the other side of the room with high glass windows showing the beautiful garden outside sat a sleek, grand black piano where a man casually played something classical.
People milled around, chatting idly as the night had barely begun, all dressed in sharp suits and stunning formal evening dresses of every colour and pattern.
There certainly wasn't another female in a suit like her own, and she shrunk behind Five for cover, a habit.
Lila swiftly tugged Diego to the dance floor by his tie held over her shoulder and he had no choice but to follow, sending them a startled look over his shoulder.
Violet followed Five to the edge of the room, ducking and swiftly avoiding bumping into anyone knowing she was effectively acting as his shadow.
When they got to the edge of the room she kept herself tucked slightly behind him, resting back against the cold wall for grounding.
Her eyes moved quickly, watching people dance and saunter past them like she was watching something on television. They all had so much confidence, their heads high, the dancers enjoying the night and the music and letting themselves have fun for the evening.
A few minutes of calmly waiting and observing passed.
They weren't offered any drinks by the servers milling around and she had a feeling it was because they still looked younger than anyone here, which was ironic.
That gave her an idea.
She leant forwards to whisper in Fives ear, "If I see dad I can't promise I won't throw champagne at him."
He did well to keep his head facing forwards but spoke out the corner of his mouth. "So long as no one catches you I dont think anyone can fault you for it."
She quirks a smile at the floor, running her fingers along the bandaids tightly wrapped around her broken ones, going down the back of her hand. It still sent twinges of pain down her arm, and yet it was soothing somehow.
"Stop doing that."
She glared at the back of his head and ignored him.
Another server waltzed past them and Five moved stealthily to grab a flute of champagne - the man kept going and he grabbed a second one with his other hand over his shoulder before he could notice anything gone. They watched his back as he disappeared through the people.
Five turned to face her and swiftly handed her a glass, forcing her to stop fidgeting so she didn't drop it and make a mess.
Her eyes darted to the glass then back up at him, narrowed.
"I know you don't like champagne."
She blinked at him.
"But it's the only way to get you to stop fidgeting." He shrugged, taking a sip from his own.
"Fidgeting is my way of life, Five," she whispered back, tilting her head and he bit back a smirk. "I think you secretly want me to find Reginald."
He had just given her the ammo she was talking about earlier, whether he realised it or not. She didn't know if she'd actually have the balls to do it if the opportunity came, but still. The idea was nice.
"Speaking of, we should get looking. We can't do much of that standing in this corner."
"We're not in a corner," she glanced left and right. "We're against a wall."
He rolled his eyes.
She gripped the flute of champagne tightly as he nodded for her to follow him, expecting her to follow, but her stomach knotted with anxiety as she saw how many people there were at such close proximity, dancing and chatting idly around.
She felt safe with her back to the wall. It was cooling her burning skin throygh her clothes, too.
He turned back to her, eyes softening a fraction.
"You can do it, just keep your mind on something else." He suggested lowly, seriously.
She swallowed thickly when he held his hand out.
With great hesitation, she rubbed her palm on her thigh and finally gained the courage to take his hand in her own.
He tugged her gently into the milling of people slowly dancing and chatting, and to her horror, he turned back to her and put his hand out for her other.
He took her broken hand in his like she was made of glass before she could run away from the situation.
"You do look good in that suit by the way." He said before she could even process her nerves. They slowly turned and moved to the music.
She swallowed, looking around nervously and anywhere but his face. "Maybe you should have made some effort." She forced the words out in a coy whisper.
He smirked.
Her eyes widened when he dropped one hand and raised their other joint hands up, stepping back in time with the music and forcing her to spin under them. When she half stumbled back against him his other hand landed on her waist to steady her.
Her expression turned serious. He looked proud to have made her face red with embarrassment.
"Don't do that!" She hissed, lowering her head and letting hair fall in her face to hide from anyone looking.
No one was looking, of course, but that inner voice in her head was persistent as it always had been.
"Why not?" He asked with a boyish grin.
She glared at him and pressed her lips into a thin line.
"No ones looking." He added quietly.
She released a shaky breath and said nothing.
He continued casually, "You know the last time we danced we were in the apocalypse."
At this she tilted her head, frowning slightly and leaning in. "I don't dance, Five."
His shoulder rose in a shrug as they turned together, still dancing slowly. Though this didn't really count, it was more holding hands and swaying and taking a couple steps in time to the music. "Well, surviving the destruction of the whole world changes people," his eyes locked with her own. "I should know, I've seen it."
Violet just regarded him carefully, thinking it odd that they had spent so much time together in a different timeline, and that only he had memory of it all.
"You were the one that dragged me out in the middle of the pouring rain after all."
She looked at him, eyes a fraction wider. That didn't sound like her at all. Though, with the absence of other humans, she supposed it would be easier to function outside of her usual crippling anxieties.
"Really?" She whispered back.
"Yeah, even though I told you it wasn't a good idea because we could get sick - and we did. But you healed me up faster than you did yourself because you're even more stubborn in the future than you are now."
Her eyes narrowed playfully at him and he stared back defiantly with raised eyebrows, a hint of a smile in his eyes, lifting her arm above them so she would have to twirl again then stopped back in front of him, their hands joining again.
This time she didn't stumble.
"I hate you."
"No ones looking at us, Vi, they're all too focussed on themselves," he assured her. "Besides, no you don't."
"No," she looks down at her feet, astonished she hadn't trodden on his yet. She had never been good at their ballroom dancing lessons as a kid, nor sure why they even had them. She just preferred listening to the music on the sidelines. "But it makes me feel better saying it."
"Say it all you want then." He said, eyes bright.
Maybe it was the way he said it, or their close proximity, or how she could do little else but force herself to focus on him - but her stomach fluttered.
She hid her smile with her hair falling in her face.
"If you keep looking down like that you're gonna make me nervous and I might just step on your toes." He murmured beside her ear.
"Stop it."
"Stop what?" He asked innocently, leaning back to look at her fully.
He was teasing her about her little mannerisms and while she'd usually be offended or take it to heart, she couldn't deny that it was calming her down. He'd distracted her somehow, and it was working.
Maybe it was just because it was Five.
She doubted anyone else could have that effect on her like he did.
For a brief moment she was actually enjoying this, but then Five's expression dropped to something more serious as he stared over her shoulder.
He paused, glancing upwards before she turned to look, seeing nothing in particular that was troubling. Not that she knew, anyway.
When she looked back at him, he made a move to step around her, eyes fixed on the stairs. "Stay down here and find Diego, I need to take care of something."
Her mouth opened to say something but she was too stunned to actually get anything out. Five squeezed her hand and swiftly made his way through the guests in a beeline for the stairs on the opposite side of the room.
Violet's hands, now cold, fiddled with the ends of her jacket as she found herself alone and surrounded by way too many people.
She looked left and right, having to step back to avoid bumping into a slow dancing older couple. In doing so, her back collided with someone and she gasped, spinning and backing away from a server who gave her a disapproving look before moving on. Her arms wrapped around her torso, unable to escape the feeling of being trapped.
In a slow turn, she tried to spy a clear path out of the crowd, stomach doing flips.
A strong hand lands on her bicep and she turned in panic, freezing in place at the touch.
A young man with a charming smile stood in front of her and as she scanned his appearance, her stomach dropped. He had blonde, combed back hair and dark brown eyes that just seeing made her hand burn with pain. But when she blinked, it wasn't him.
It wasn't.
So why did she feel like the room had washed away and she was back in that cold alleyway under his gaze?
"I gotta say, it isn't every day you see a girl in a suit like that, especially at a place like this," he says smoothly down at her with a quick smile. "But you wear it surprisingly well."
She wasn't in the alleyway, there was classical music playing bringing her gradually back to the room, but the hand on her arm and the sudden attention of someone was making her heart hammer against her chest.
"Would you like to dance?" He asked, not unpolitely, but the backhanded compliment wasn't the best of places to start and he didn't take his hand away.
She opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't, and all she could see in her mind was his face. The one that had stood over her watching with such dignified satisfaction at her suffering - and she could feel the blood drain from her face.
She couldn't move all the while her mind screamed at her to break his fucking hand to get him off of her-
"-are you-" his face pulled into one of concern, but he was interrupted by someone patting him on the back.
"Hey, she's already got a dance partner."
Her eyes shot up to Diego as he casually moved him away from his sister. His hand dropped from her arm and she took a little step back, her skin burning and her eyes brimming with tears she couldn't contain.
She had never felt so relieved to see him.
"Oh, sorry. I had no idea."
"Yeah, thanks." Diego gave him a false smile until he turned and left, giving back a dejected, hesitant dip of the chin.
Once he was gone, Diego's calm smile dropped into a sneer and he turned to Violet, who looked like she could keel over any second. He put a hand out hovering by her shoulder to keep others from knocking into her.
"Hey, you okay?" He asked with concern.
She swallowed, her hands beginning to shake. She clutched them in front of her to try and hide it, but it did no help.
"Come on, let's get you out of here." He ushered her through the people milling around idly, caught between chatting and dancing.
She wiped some sweat from her brow with the back of her shaky hand, eyes falling to the floor as she focussed on walking in a straight line without knocking into anyone.
He took her outside and when the fresh, night air hit her skin she felt a breath leave her lips that she had been holding the entire time without realising.
She brushed her hair back from her face with shaky hands, skin hot, and rolled her sleeves up to cool herself down.
Diego stood in front of her in concern with a frown. "Five left you on your own in that mess?" He crossed his arms.
She shook her head, forcing out, "No, he went - he saw something-"
"Okay okay, don't talk. Forget what I said, just take some deep breaths, okay?" He said quieter at the end, putting a hand out.
She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. She was a fucking mess.
If she looked at every guy taller than her with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes and a sharp facial structure and found her mind going back to that goddamn nightmare, what the hell was she going to do with herself?
She shook her tingling fingers out at her side.
Diego saw them flickering in and out of transparency, then invisibility, then back to normal in all but a couple seconds.
"What happened in there?" He asks quietly, seriously.
Other than him putting his hands on her, whether it be with good intentions or not, nothing.
And that was the problem.
She sniffled, wiped under her eyes, and avoided eyecontact. She didn't want to say it because it felt silly, now. She shook her head in response.
"Okay." He muttered to himself. "Just let me know when you want to head back inside."
"You don't have to wait on me." She whispered hesitantly, a little ashamed.
"I know." he gave a little shrug, looking away.
It took a couple more minutes to compose herself and when she did, the cold night air was actually giving her chills, once the sheen of sweat on her skin went away. She tugged her sleeves down, trying to stretch them over her hands but the jacket was too well fitted - she had to give Lila that credit. How she guessed her size she didn't know. But Violet took comfort in bundling oversized sleeves over her hands for warmth and comfort and she couldnt do that now when she needed to.
Violet ran her fingers through her hair and brushed it back from her face, looking upwards and double checking under her eyes for dampness.
She finally nodded to Diego meekly, gesturing to the door.
"You sure? We dont have to go back in if you don't want to."
She took a moment and sighed, glancing up at the tall white building, meticulously sculpted like a piece of art itself. If their situation wasn't so dire she would have admired it properly for the artistry. The lights coming from the tall windows made it look classy and elegant. She watched a couple of people waltz past the glass without a care in the world and went to look away when something caught her eye.
A man in a white suit and a faint flash of blue light that she knew all too well. She could only see the mans back, but he darted away from the window at something she couldn't see, and she knew something was wrong.
Violet grabbed Diego's sleeve and tugged it urgently, pointing to what she had seen.
"What?"
But the figure was gone by the time he did.
He looked back at her like she was crazy. "What am I looking at?" He was confused.
She stared frustratedly up at the window and was about to drag Diego inside so they could help what she knew to be Five in trouble, when the figure stepped back into view.
And this time Diego was looking.
"Shit."
Violet dropped her hold as he quickly stormed inside. She watched him go and tried to keep up, but halted at the edge of the crowded floor where he simply pushed and shouldered through.
Her mouth went dry as she scanned the guests, trying to figure out the best and most efficient path to get to the stairs, but they kept mingling and moving, and it wasnt a pattern she could follow.
She tapped her foot on the floor, chewing the inside of her cheek, trying to convince herself to just go. Move. Not think about it.
She grimaced to herself before walking forwards, side stepping a couple and quickly pressing on. She hesitated at almost stepping on the end of a ladies dress and almost faltered into some people still dancing. She weaved and kept her eyes on the floor ahead of her, her hands clutching eachother at the midsection. Finally when she glimpsed a path beginning to open among the guests she darted forwards and began to jog up the stairs.
She was surprised when she spotted a familiar blue dress out her peripheral and caught eyes with Lila as they both got to the top of the stairs.
She had this serious expression on her face that she didn't expect to see. The two paused for a moment as though wondering why the other was there but the sound of a fight and a huge thud made them both run towards it.
Lila got ahead and she took one look at Diego being choked by the older man in the white suit, then Five being slammed against the floor by the other at the opposite end of the hall and made her decision.
But it wasn't the one Diego nor Violet were expecting.
The woman ran to help Five, leaving Violet momentarily stunned and confused - the sound of Diego choking broke her out of it. Diego kicked off of the wall and made him and the blonde man stumble forwards as he fought to keep a hold, and just barely he managed to slip out from under his arm as they struggled, kicking the back of his knee out.
As the man went down, Diego caught her eyes, catching his breath.
She darted forwards before the man could get up, hopping over his low grab for her and nearly colliding with Diego who stumbled to get out of her way. She grabbed his white tie in a swift movement with her good hand and used her momentum to swing herself round until she was behind him and her knee pressed against his spine; his hands grasped at his neck and back at her but she used her weight to pull the tie as hard as she could while keeping his body away from her.
She caught eyes with Diego who had a hand on his knee, still taking deep breaths to recover. Then, they both watched the end of the hall in shock as Lila used the chandelier to swing herself above the other white suited guy, locking her legs around his neck and expertly taking him to the ground.
She opened her mouth in shock but her long hair was snagged and he had it twisted around his fist. She was yanked closer with gritted teeth, and Diego pushed off the wall when he used his strength to practically throw her forwards and over his shoulder.
Before she collided roughly with the ground a pair of arms caught her under her own and she was quickly pulled out of the way of the next attack.
She held onto Diego's arms on instinct and he pulled her to his side and set her on her feet, looking at her with wide eyes.
She didn't have time to register that she'd let him grab her.
She caught the man moving in her peripheral quicker than she expected him to recover and dragged her brother down by his suit jacket, cloaking herself just in time for his hand to pass right through her neck.
She span, and the man hesitated as he stared down at her ghost form, then down at his hand that had been met with nothing but air. Chills ran down her spine at the sensation and she clenched her fists before running right through him.
Now behind him, she uncloaked herself and pushed him as hard as she could to send him towards Diego, who punched him straight in the jaw and knocked him down to the floor.
Across the way, Five kicked his attacker right through the window. The sound of the shatter filled the hallway and she fought the urge to cover her ears at the volume.
The one on the floor between herself and a startled Diego saw his friend fall and pushed himself to a stand. Diego stood prepared for another attack but he span to face Violet and she froze like a deer caught in headlights.
She cloaked as quick as she could as he ran through her, her skin tingling uncomfortably and she turned to watch him leave to presumably go after his friend.
Feeling herself flicker in different phases, she used the wall to support herself and uncloaked, her head feeling light.
Five appeared at her side in a split second and she left the wall in the hopes he'd think she was fine. Instead he fixed her with a serious look. His hand fell on her sleeve and in another moment, they were outside.
She blinked to refocus her eyes and shrunk behind Five as guests fled the building, leaving past them and taking no mind to their presence.
"We need to find him before he leaves." Five was looking left and right, trying to find Reginald frantically. That was if they assumed he wasn't already gone.
Violet couldn't do much help, she was far shorter than him. Unless she hopped onto his shoulders, she supposed, but she didn't think he'd find that suggestion as amusing.
Diego and Lila joined them after a minute or two and Violet found herself subtly watching Lila out of the corner of her eye for lack of anything else to do.
It wasn't like she actually wanted to find Sir Reginald.
It didn't seem normal that this random woman Diego had found knew how to fight just as well as they did because she wasn't raised like they had been. Yet she had attacked confidentlh like she knew exactly what she was doing.
She was not just some normal, run of the mill woman and that was clear.
And with all the chaos going on in their lives and the lack of time they had, Violet suddenly found she didn't entirely trust Lila.
Maybe it was just her being paranoid - she was certainly good at that. But her choice to help Five over Diego was also bothering her, especially since he had been right there.
She must have looked visibly troubled because Lila actually noticed.
"Are you okay?" She asked in a friendly manner. Diego glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as she did.
It made sense - the woman had gotten to know her meek mannerisms well over twenty four hours and was wondering if she'd re-hurt one of her existing, unhealed injuries in the fight.
She had heard what had happened to her that other night and as a woman had automatically became a little protective over her.
And any other time, Violet might have believed that hint of concern in her voice.
Violet's frown didnt let up as she met eyes with Lila - unwilling to back down just for curiosity to see what would happen - and her concern was slowly wiped off of her face when she realised she wasn't going to get a response - and the look was now fully aimed at her.
Lila gave a weak smile in an attempt to brush it off, assuming Violet just wasn't up for speaking at the minute which wasn't a far fetched conclusion to make.
Violet watched Lila closely, narrowing her eyes slightly.
The woman flinched then, a hand reaching up to the side of her head, and she looked down with pinched eyebrows.
"What's wrong with you?" Diego asked with a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms.
Even he looked distrustful now.
She plastered on a smile and glanced between him and her.
Violet crossed her arms and turned away from them, moving to stand just behind Five who had his back to them.
"Head hurts, that's all," Lila said in response, waving it off. Yet still rubbing the spot between her eyebrows. "Must have hit it back there and not noticed."
Five subtly looked over his right shoulder at Violet who caught his gaze. Her expression was blank and surprisingly calm.
He looked away with a tiny smirk on his lips - and Violet did the exact same.