The Grand Ballroom of Xylaris Royal Castle was the kind of place that made you feel underdressed even in your best clothes.

Golden chandeliers hung above like captive stars, throwing warm light across polished marble floors that reflected the gowns, the jewels, the serious faces of nobles.

Violins played somewhere above the crowd.

The music was soft and graceful and completely at odds with the group of five teenagers standing near the refreshment table looking like they’d been dropped here from a different world.

Which, in at least one case, was technically accurate.

"Aries." Adrian tugged at his collar with both fingers, jaw tight. "Why are we here?"

His blue coat fit him well. He looked like a proper noble’s page, which he clearly found personally offensive. His eyes kept darting between the chandeliers and the clusters of high-born guests.

"And what even are these clothes?" he continued. "Dormal? Sormal? I don’t know what to call them but they’re not normal."

"It’s Formal." Valea said, not quite managing to hide the laugh.

She looked like she’d worn gowns all her life, deep sapphire trimmed in silver.

Adrian groaned. "Right, It’s choking me formally."

Eren and Nico stood nearby in matching grey, both equally comfortable unlike Adrian.

Aries straightened his own outfit, black with diagonal gold streaks from shoulder to waist that caught the chandeliers every time he moved.

No Cedric anywhere.

"He did say it was something interesting," Aries muttered.

"Interesting," Eren repeated, deadpan. "If by interesting he means standing here and smiling at strangers while trying not to spill anything on the carpet then yeah. Fascinating evening."

"Relax!" Valea turned with a grin, skirt swaying with the motion. "You all look good tonight." Her eyes slid sideways to Nico with a specific kind of deliberateness. "Well. Most of you."

Nico didn’t look up. "Whatever."

She ignored him and put both hands on her waist, tilting slightly. "Well? What about me? How do I look?"

The rose hair falling over her shoulders. The sapphire dress caught the chandelier light perfectly. She looked really pretty.

Aries, Eren, and Adrian all opened their mouths at the same time.

"You look rea—"

"Ugly."

Nico’s voice came out at exactly the same moment, cutting clean through all three of theirs.

After a moment of silence, Valea’s eye twitched.

SMACK.

Her fist connected with his nose before anyone could react. Nico stumbled back two full steps, hand flying to his face, eyes watering immediately.

"U-UGH—"

Aries, Eren, and Adrian stood frozen with fixed smiles.

’Beauty in the beast.’ all three of them thought simultaneously, ’She is genuinely terrifying.’

A familiar laugh cut through from somewhere behind them.

"Well, well. Just look at all of you."

They turned.

Cedric walked toward them in his formal knight’s uniform — white cloak, silver insignia of Xylaris on the chest, the easy confident bearing of someone who had attended a hundred of these and stopped being impressed by them long ago.

Beside him, Alaric raised a hand. "Hey kids, good to see you again."

"MASTER ALARIC!"

Valea, Eren, and Nico descended on him in unison, Nico’s injured nose apparently no longer a priority.

Alaric laughed and accepted the chaos with the patience of someone very accustomed to it.

His eyes found Aries over their heads. "Ah. Aries."

"Good evening, sir." Aries gave a slight bow. "Good to see you."

"All good since last time?"

"Everything’s been—"vAries stopped.

Because from directly behind Alaric, a face was peeking out.

Blond hair. Brown eyes. Half hidden behind Alaric’s cloak, trying very hard to be invisible and failing completely at it.

The moment their eyes met, the face froze.

"Wait a second." Valea went still. "Is that—"

"No way," Eren murmured, squinting.

Adrian and Nico spotted him at the exact same moment.

A look passed between them. The specific look of two people who have just identified a target.

They turned toward the hiding figure together, wearing identical expressions of theatrical delight.

"Ohhhh," Adrian drawled slowly. "Would you look who it is."

Nico tilted his head, practically radiating fake warmth. "Our favorite little noble. The Arrogant Shithead himself! How have you been, hm? You look well!"

Julian stepped out from behind Alaric with his face already flushing red. "H-HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ROYALTY LIKE—"

"Yeah, yeah," Adrian waved a hand. "Some royalty. You lost to our Aries."

"You — WHY YOU—" Julian’s voice cracked somewhere in the middle of the sentence and his face went from red to a shade closer to burgundy.

That was enough.

Laughter hit all of them at once.

"You are something else," Alaric said, shaking his head.

Julian stood with his arms crossed, ears burning, staring at the floor while the laughter happened around him.

The noise gradually settled.

Then, quietly enough that it nearly got lost under the music:

"I’m sorry."

Everyone went still.

Julian still wasn’t looking up. His eyes were fixed on the polished marble somewhere near his feet.

"I said too much back then," he said. The words came out careful, like he’d thought about each one before releasing it.

"I was out of line. I shouldn’t have called you what I called you, or acted the way I acted. So." A short pause. "I’m sorry."

Nobody said anything.

Because it wasn’t the Julian from before. The one who’d showed up with his chin up and his pride already decided.

This one was just standing there, doing something that clearly didn’t come naturally to him, without performing it.

Aries looked at him for a moment.

Then stepped forward, closing the gap between them, and held out his hand.

"It’s okay," he said. "I forgive you."

Julian’s eyes came up slowly. He stared at the hand for a second like he’d been expecting a different response and needed a moment to catch up with this one.

"By the way." Aries kept his hand out. "I’m Aries. We didn’t really get to do this properly last time."

A beat.

"I know who you are," Julian said it flat.

"And?"

Julian looked at the hand. Then at Aries’s face. Something shifted in his expression, the last of the stiffness going out of it, replaced by something quieter.

He took the hand.

"Julian," he said. Then, after a pause that lasted exactly long enough to mean something: "Friends."

Behind them, Valea propped her chin on her hand with a dramatic sigh. "Royalty learning manners. You love to see it."

"Don’t ruin it," Eren said, grinning.

"I’m spicing it up."

"You’re really not."

Adrian watched the handshake with bright eyes, Slopy on his head going "fuu fuu" softly as if adding her own commentary on the situation.

Nico stood slightly to the side with his arms crossed, watching Julian with an expression that had softened from hostile to something closer to cautiously waiting.

Not warm. But not the grin-and-mock from two minutes ago either.

Julian clocked it. "Don’t look at me like that, Lichenhall."

"I’m not looking at you any particular way."

"You’re doing the thing with your eyes."

"That’s your interpretation."

"It’s everyone’s interpretation."

Alaric and Cedric stood back slightly, watching the whole exchange with the comfortable ease of two people who had been showing up and watching the next generation figure out how to exist alongside each other.

Alaric glanced sideways. "He apologized on his own," he said quietly.

Cedric nodded once. "I noticed."

"I didn’t tell him to."

"I know."

Alaric was quiet for a moment, his eyes on Julian.

"Maybe," Alaric said, "he’s further along than I thought."

Cedric smiled. Just slightly. "Kids usually are."