Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ A New Hope ❯ Moonlight Seduction ( Chapter 18 )

AN: Alright, this time I'm allowed to apologize. It's been what feels like forever since I last wrote. Theater just ended, so I should be on more. Hopefully. But I've been thinking of this all the while I was singing the stupid songs of the musical. So enjoy. Or hate. Your preference.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*

 

As soon as Marie had descended down the steps in the grand ballroom, she was crowded by a ton of masked men all wanting to know about her, and to get the chance at dancing with her. She scanned the faces beneath the masks through the eye sockets of her own hand mask, but she didn't see the one she wanted to.

 

Gazing around the ballroom, she noticed where several of the other men were glancing at her and her group of hopefuls, all wearing masks. And from where she was standing, it was nearly impossible to discern Nathan from the crowd. She also noticed the women the men were apparently dancing with were standing along the wall, glaring at her for taking their dates away. She quietly excused herself from the group, accepting none of the dance invitations, and sat down on a plush-covered seat towards the back of the ballroom. The band began playing a slow, haunting melody that wafted over the guests. She sat there, watching all the masqueraders dance as one masked man approached out of her line of vision.

 

“Let love lift us up o'er the nights jeweled sky,

so that I may partake in that which is thy.

Your powers that hold me are truly divine,

what will it take for me to make you mine?

Is this all that it seems,

or is it that my mind dreams?

Give to me thy tender kiss

and I am in bliss.”

 

Marie gasped slightly, almost dropping the mask that she held to her face. Twirling herself around in the chair, she gazed upon the smiling masked face that she believed was truly not her imagination running wild.

 

“Nathan?”

 

He nodded and drew his mask away, revealing himself to her, as was custom at masquerade balls.

 

“And may I say that you truly are lovely tonight, Marie.” He placed his mask back on his face and extended his hand for her. “Now, may I have this dance?”

 

She nodded and accepted his hand, then allowed him to show her to the dance floor.

 

The band's tempo quickened as they began dancing, yet the haunting melody continued on. They twirled along as a blur with the other couples as they danced, leaving sweeping bows and curtseys out of the number. The lights dimmed as a slower, less haunting song began to play, and a good number of the couples wandered off to be alone. Nathan and Marie were one of the couples.

 

Nathan led her outside to a moonlit garden that held only one other couple that was getting busy behind a tree. They left the couple to themselves as they walked silently, her head on his shoulder. The two sat on a bench overlooking a decorative waterfall. Clearly, Endymion left nothing too pricy out of his castle. Marie soon broke the silence.

 

“That was a beautiful poem. Did you write it?”

 

“Yes, earlier in my room as I waited for the ball to begin. Well, then and on the fly of the moment. And you're beautiful yourself in that dress.”

 

She blushed. “Thanks. You're handsome yourself. If I didn't have this much self-control, well, we'd be like the couple we passed a bit ago.” Marie looked at him and smiled, still blushing.

 

Nathan rested his head on hers. “You know I'm not touching you until you want me to. And I'm not going farther than what you want. You know that. So stop hinting unless you want some.” His tone was light as he spoke.

 

“Someday, Nathan, someday I'll lose it and we'll finally have each other.”

 

“Then I'll just wait until that someday comes.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*

 

 

Later That Night

 

As Marie changed into her bedclothes, there was a knock at the door. When she finished changing , she opened it. Asphodel waited outside her door.

 

“May I come in?”

 

She glanced at the clock.

 

“Um, at 11:45 at night? I suppose so. Yes, come on in, Asphodel.”

 

He entered the room, looking around. His gaze soon fell on her.

 

“You looked lovely tonight in that dress. I'm surprised Nathan could've kept his hands off of you.”

 

“Thank you. But he and I have much more than a physical relationship going on.”

 

Asphodel, who was standing next to a chair by the bed, stood up and walked to the door, locking it.

 

“Oh? So you mean he never touches you?”

 

She blushed. “Well, sort of. But…I'm not really comfortable talking about this right now if you don't mind.”

 

“You've never let him? He's never made you scream out his name so loudly you thought your lungs and vocal cords would burst from doing so?”

 

“Asphodel. Please. What do you want?” She had backed herself up onto the bed, and he was advancing slowly.

 

“What? Why, only to know if your still fresh for the…picking.”

 

A look of disgust crossed Marie's face.

 

“What are you saying? You want to know if I'm still a…?”

 

“Virgin? Yes, I do. Because I want you to know what you've been missing.”

 

Marie was sitting at the head of her four-poster bed, and Asphodel was nearly on top of her. His closeness and smell made her almost faint, but her mind was racing with possible ideas. He leaned in with his mouth to hers, then moved and whispered into her ears.

 

“The body is willing, yet the mind is not.”

 

Every sensible part of her brain was screaming NO! at the top of it's lungs, but as his mouth closed the distance to hers, all she could do was think of what Nathan would think when he found out that she had lost what she was saving for him alone.