Fireheart [Fanfiction - Alternate Universe]

Dinning with a surprise

[Header image is Elide Lochan]

Even two weeks after her conversation with Rowan, Celaena still didn't have much more information on her aunt and Arobynn. She didn't have anything that would make a real difference, she still needed tangible proof. She'd talked with Manon and her sisters a bunch of times, and they were trying to find evidence of the dirt under both of their nails, but they hadn't found enough to go to court with.

There had to be more people involved than they originally thought, as Maeve Galathinius and Arobynn Hamel didn't seem to have a single paper involving them with neither the fights nor the drugs under their names. Except for that one bet Celaena had found at the start, the one with Sam's name on it. She'd gone back to The Mansion looking for it, but she hadn't found anything before she'd heard the front door and had to flee not to run into her mentor. She knew from the start that it wasn't going to be easy, she never expected her aunt to be stupid enough to be doing all her illegal business under her own name, but they were struggling more than she'd expected.

They were now considering the fact that they could have aliases and that was what the Blackbeak triplets were working on. They needed to find those names being used for the shady transactions so they could make a connection between them. Between Maeve and the fights, between her and Arobynn, and between both of them and the drugs.

That's what Celaena was thinking about as she walked down the road holding Dorian's arm. Dorian had invited her to dinner, and after he'd begged a little, she'd agreed. His father had a meeting at a restaurant and he'd insisted his son joined him. So logically, Dorian had wanted to piss his father off by taking Celaena with him and even went as far as asking her to dress casually, even though the restaurant sounded fancy enough to be worthy of a dress.

She'd decided to wear her comfortable riding leggings, a short-sleeved dark grey top from a punk band she'd seen live once, and a jean jacket with a grey hood. She was only wearing mascara and dark red lipstick, no doubt, the opposite of anything Dorian Sr. could envision for his son.

As they approached the place, they almost ran into Aedion Ashryver who was coming out of the venue next door with a few of the guys from the football team. Celaena barely nodded and then kept walking as Dorian greeted him with a few polite words. It was still hard for her to look at him, as every time she did, she was assaulted by memories of her past that she wasn't ready to deal with. The events of the last few weeks had made things harder for her -if that was even possible.

"He always looks at you weird, I don't like it," Dorian muttered as they walked through the front door.

"What are you talking about?" Celaena wondered, looking back over her shoulder at her cousin.

"I'm not sure, but he always looks at you different, like... he's always staring at you as if you're something he wants... I don't know how to explain it," Dorian replied with a frown.

Celaena bit the inside of her cheek and then tried to convince herself not to worry about any of it. Dorian was probably just being overly protective. Despite the fact that they weren't really dating, he'd become a pretty good friend in the last month. They had had a few dates around town, and even if they never went any further than holding hands, she always had fun. She didn't feel that way for Dorian, she wasn't interested in kissing him, or being close to him. His body wasn't warm and inviting like— She shook her head as they reached the table where Dorian's father was waiting.

Looking at the table, her jaw almost dropped and she thanked all her years of faking emotions as she managed to keep a straight face.

"Son," Dorian Sr. said in a clipped tone, "Celaena," he added with a bit of restraint. "I'm glad you could both join us. Please take a seat, and let me introduce you to my dear friend Marion Lochan, and her daughter, Elide. I'm pretty sure you must know each other from school."