Midnight Wings

[1] XXXVI : [1-VII] : The House That Built Me (Attachment)

In the days after our dance, I found myself stunned, yet somehow left with this inexplicable happiness. Even the most frustrating things couldn't keep me from ultimately being in a good mood.

The ball was a wild success and a few letters were even written to me congratulating me on the performance, which was touching but also a little weird and off-putting since now in a way I have a quite literal mark on this world now. 

Kino and I saw each other a lot after that, but in a much more casual way.

Formal dances now aside, he was actually a pretty fun character and reminded me of a happier version of myself. He was as antisocial as Myu made him out to be, at least in the sense that he pretty actively avoided social events. The dance was definitely a one time occurrence.

He showed me around the city one day, fancy carriage ride there and all. I'd been with Myu, but in this case with him, we went to some less major streets, even passing through some neighborhoods and seeing some children as we walked and talked about hobbies and such. We did some window shopping, especially around some high-end clothing stores

I'm not sure how I feel about it but... I really just couldn't stop myself from looking at some of the more feminine clothes. They started to have a strong appeal to me. Not just that, but beauty products like wigs and some makeup and things like that. Perhaps it was how being in that dress made me feel. Perhaps it goes deeper than that.

I can't say I know, but regardless, I for once in my life enjoyed some window shopping, all the while chatting it up with Kino, who honestly seemed happy to just be out and about and socializing. 

We tried some local sweets and pastries and checked out a few shops - Kino did most of the talking and really was a sweetheart, the soft-spoken gentle type that just made my heart melt into pieces ------ EVEN THOUGH WE'RE BOTH DUDES!!!

What got awkward was how he kept offering to buy me things until I had to sheepishly tell him to stop since I really don't know how to accept gifts.

As we walked through the city, I couldn't help but notice that he didn't have the recognition that Myu did, which definitely reminded me that he's the indoorsy type. We saw each other a lot inside too. Do not, under any circumstances, take that out of context, or try to read further into that.

Myu and Lasory could only congratulate me at the fact that I was getting out of the house more, and both of them incessantly teased me about my "new boyfriend" even though that's definitely not what we are. What we were, though, was getting closer. Closer to what, I couldn't tell you, but we just clicked together as people, be it as friends or something more. And I'd love to play this off like it's not a cheap romance story and like I wasn't considering us as an actual couple, but, well, I couldn't do that.

The fact that he was of royalty was at least somewhat concerning to me, though, considering their marriages are usually supposed to be political - at least I'm pretty sure that's how it works, right?

When I was home, I started coming along with Myu to her tutoring, though most of the things she was learning, I really already knew, be it scientific or mathematic things I knew from my time on Earth or reading and writing that I somehow know, considering the language spoken here isn't anything like where I came from.

What did catch me by surprise was hearing English a couple times, though I never asked about that. It wasn't often, and normally in a very thick accent, but I did definitely hear some, unless it was some weird translation thing where I thought I heard it but in reality my mind is just confused between two first languages. 

Aside from lessons, the princess sometimes asked me about when I planned on leaving. I honestly couldn't answer that for her. I would find a new way to dodge the question every time, but I know she was catching on to me. I can't explain it but it really just gets harder and harder to give her that answer.