A Collection of Caraval Oneshots {Fanfic}

I know when its time to love {Act 2}

Prompt: Can you please write a ballroom one shot? Tella and Legend dancing, maybe Scarlett teaching Julian how to dance? Just some nice ballroom fluff please.

Bit of a warning: this one got a bit heated in the middle (nothing to bad) 0-0

Timeline: post- finale     pre- Tellas daughter
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"Crimson, dear"

   Julian's warm and slightly seductive voice his wife look up endearingly and confused at him. She could see him smile sinfully from where she stood in front of the mirror, carefully adjusting the off red shoulder straps to her gown. He lay on the white sheets of their bed, looking all to polite.

"I've been thinking"

Scarlett let out a breath and clasped her hands together, closing her eyes tightly, "lord, please do help the soul of my husband- he's been thinking, and you and I both know that never quite ends well"

He laughed, the sound rich and sweet. Scarlett wished she could stay and this room and hear him laugh for longer than he had been alive.

"Actually" he said, stepping closer to her pedal-stool she stood upon, "I was thinking you could teach me to dance"

"Julian"

He smiled innocently at her in the mirror, rubbing her bare back where her lace hadn't been stitched together, "yes, my darling?"

"You've been alive for decades, died multiple times, been resurrected, murdered the innocent, blissfully endowed yourself with maidenheads, lied to not only your wife but the world as well... and you expect me to believe out of all that time you never learned to dance?"

He nodded his head then delicately kissed her bare shoulder, "you do know of my dreadful past, I think it makes up for my mistakes, don't you?"

"Mistakes?" She snorted, "a mistake would be forgetting to attend a meeting, or accidentally stepping on coal, not lying to me so many times I almost left"

"I am quite the charmer, aren't I"

She rolled her eyes. Of course he was charming, she would only admit it in her deepest dreams. Sometimes she wished he could hear those thoughts.

Scarlett turned to him, "can you lace me up?"

   "Only if you dance with me"

   "It's rare you decline an offer to touch me"

   He grinned, "deal or no deal, Crimson?"

Scarlett huffed. The sound of her nickname almost made her blush. The warm feeling on her cheeks and nose told her enough.

She nodded as his fingers traced around her shoulder blades. Ruff callouses scraped across the sensitive skin of her back as she tilted her head slightly. Goose bumps arose around the areas not covered by the laced fabric.

Scarlett found herself biting her red lip to avoid making a noise of pleasure. Julian peppered kisses across the blades of her shoulder, leaving little red marks that faded almost instantly in his wake.

"Julian"

She wasn't sure if she whispered it or moaned it, whatever it was it made Julian smiled deeply onto her skin.

Scarlett attempted to find it within herself to hate what he was doing. Any proper lady would express distaste at such a move of decency, especially from the Empress. She was meant to set an example for everyone, she was supposed to be currently checking the empty ballroom, not having kissed embellished into her skin. But this was Julian, and in his presence she didn't feel like a proper lady. And she hated that she felt that way.

It was one of the many reasons she loved him, dearly.

Scarlett hadn't noticed him finish, but by the time she did he had perceived her gawking at him.

"It's your turn, Crimson love"

   She poised a look at him, "what's with the sudden adornment of endearments?"

   He shrugged, "perhaps I adore you"

   "I should hope so considering we're married"

   "Well then, wife, you'll have no problem dancing with me will you"

   She gritted her teeth as he held out a hand. She had truly married the manipulator of a thousand hearts. Clearly though, it was her heart he intended to keep.

   Scarlett let him steal her from the safety of the pedal-stool and whisk her to the middle of their chamber floor. The room was chilled with the night wind approaching. She hoped it would cool her pink face.

   Julian's ruff hands encircled her waist as she intertwined her hands with his. It wasn't the first time they had danced like this. Scarlett remembered quite vividly the first moment they had. The day they had said I do, Julian had insisted on dancing with her. She recalled he had said he was slightly jealous he never got the chance to 'sweep her off her feet' at the masquerade ball when she found out her fiancé hadn't really attended Caraval.

   "We've been married for a year now and it still surprises me how flustered I can make you"

   She looked at him with her eyes wide, "I- I'm not flustered, I'm j-just-"

   "In love with a devilishly beautiful liar who has murderish tendencies?"

   "Well when you put it like that, you do sound quite attractive"

   He laughed softly, "describing Tella and Legend is even stranger. If I would've told you three years ago your sister was in love with a deathly handsome man who had the ability to travel through planes of existence and a questionable obsession with roses and cards, would you have believed me?"

   "I wouldn't have put it past her"

   He laughed once more and kissed her neck, "beautiful and you surprise me, what more could I ever want"

   "Someone who believes in the lie you can't dance,  considering you've been doing just fine since we started"

   He smiled, "It is only just a game, Crimson"

   "The dance or life?"

   Julian kissed her cheek, resting his lips on her cheekbone, "both"

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I hope u liked it 🥺

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