Philip waited patiently for his Puss in Boots partner to finish getting dressed. Philip had the most say as they picked out both of their outfits earlier that week so he was really excited to see how well Vivian pulled his costume off.

For himself, Philip had chosen a crimson red silk short vest with golden buttons on top of a beige linen shirt with bishop sleeves (a style of loose baggy sleeves). Around his neck he wore a cravat (the neckcloths that were fashionable during the 1800s) and on the bottom he wore tight fitting tan trousers with black Hessian boots. For his mask he wore a black mask that had swirling golden trim that ran across the top and down both sides, it included several rubies placed along the top to give the impression of royalty. Philip had also took the time to style his golden hair by carefully pulling his bangs back into a small ponytail in the middle of the back of his head, leaving the rest of his semi-wavy to flow naturally while still covering up the ribbons of his mask.

As Philip waited he took a look at the art exhibits that were lined up in the lobby outside of the gymnasium. Vivian had mentioned that his art class was his favorite during one of the times that Philip got Vivian to actually talk about himself. Looking over the table labeled “Self-Expression” Philip quickly noticed the same egg that Azazel had noticed earlier. It really stood out from the art surrounding it. (Not that it was hard to do with the person that was set up next to it having made a ceramic piece of toast and carved “Bread is Life” into it.) Philip immediately realized it was Vivian’s, just from how similar it was to how his Princess was curling up right before Philip had started to cuddle him. He wonder yet again what could have hurt him so bad to make his anxiety like it was.

Philip soon went looking for Vivian’s family piece, and was still looking for it when he heard Vivian’s soft voice come from behind him.

“If you are looking for mine, it’s that painting right there.”

Philip turned to look at his Black Cat Prince, he could barely contain his gasp. He knew that the outfit they picked out would look good, but didn’t realize how well Vivian would pull it off. Instead of a historical prince style like Philip’s, they had decided on more of a fantastical look. It wasn’t actually supposed to, but it ended up giving Vivian a very androgynous look. Which, considering who the cat in “Lord Peter” turned out to be, it was the perfect look for Vivian.

Vivian wore a black Victorian tailcoat that had extra long tails that went down to his ankles. It had a single dark purple stripe running down each side that then curved backwards at the hips and connected into one solid horizontal line on his back. It also had a silver trim along the pockets as well as outlining the whole jacket, creating a nice contrast with the rest of the outfit. The front of the jacket was a double breasted design with large notched lapels, fastened together by two diamond shaped buttons that contained an amynthest in each one. Underneath Vivian wore a white button up with the top buttons undone and the largely asymmetrical hem untucked. He wore a black leather sword belt with both parts loosely hanging on his waist and hips. His black pants perfectly clung to his legs and tucked into pitch black knee-high leather boots with the same silver diamond design as the tailcoat along with the amethysts inlaid in the top front of the boots. He wore his ebony hair down and had even added extensions to make his hair even longer, ending up having it run down to the bottom of his back. The black cat ears and tail were not lost among the other components and looked more realistic than Philip was expecting. Vivian’s mask was pitch black and had the same silver design and amynthests as his jacket and boots. Vivian had also added small whiskers to the mask at some point.

Philip wished that he could tell Vivian how beautiful he was, but Philip was stricken speechless. He just gaped at this Prince in front of him. Yes Prince, not Princess. His Snow was adorable and cute as his Princess, but as a Prince he set Philip’s heart fluttering even more.

Vivian started to shift slightly due to Philip’s staring. The black tail swished back and forth from the movement. Philip knew that if he was in one of Simon’s favorite manga right now he would be having a full blown nosebleed. Instead he was just enchanted to stand in one place without moving. He was only snapped out of it when he felt a buzz from his phone that was carefully tucked away in his vest’s inner pocket.

“Oh!” Philip quickly pulled out his phone to see if it was the message he was waiting for. Once he confirmed it indeed was, he put his phone inside his bag on top of his other outfit that he wore for school. “Azzy just finished the arrangements on his side and says everyone from the club will be there as well. He said that he will meet up with us later and just go into the dance without him.” Philip did his best to look Vivian in the eyes so he wouldn’t seem to be acting unnatural. He was extremely glad that he wore a mask that covered most of his face, hiding his major blushing. “I’ve also informed Theo that we planned a surprise welcome party for you and you wouldn’t be home tonight. I asked if he could send my aunt over with your overnight things. She knows to roll with the surprise party excuse and not let him get suspicious.”

Vivian just nodded. “We should probably head on in soon.”

“Of course!” Philip’s eyes lit up. “You are going to enjoy this so much.” Philip grabbed Vivian’s hand and dragged him to the gym. They decided to enter through the locker room so they could drop off their stuff first.

When they exited the locker rooms they entered the mini hallway that was located between the male and female locker rooms. The doorway that connected the hallway to the gym was blocked by dark curtains and a teacher that held people back in line and would announce each person over the sound system by their costumes. The teacher would also write down everyone’s real names with their costumes on a clipboard so they could award prizes later, and also to keep an eye on everyone for their safety.

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Vivian could hear other teachers over the sound system and knew that the same scene he saw before him was happening at the other entrances. He was actually kind of excited for this masquerade party, which was why he immediately decided that they were still going to attend. He needed something fun to cheer him up and distract him from everything. Maybe he could even revert to his early middle school self when everything was still alright and his life was still whole. He wouldn’t have cared about Theodore’s past back then. There were no anxiety blackouts or meltdowns. No inner demons. Just a happy preteen in a happy complete family.

Vivian started to get jittery as he started to feel a tiny inner demon try to crawl into his thoughts to ruin the night. The demon was immediately exorcised by the feeling of Philip grasp his hand and squeeze it tightly. Vivian looked over at the smiling boy next to him. Philip cocked his head slightly to ask what was wrong, but Vivian just shook his head and smiled back unconsciously. Vivian wasn’t sure, but it looked like Philip’s face started to grow slightly pinker underneath his mask. Vivian’s face grew warmer at that thought. Why would Philip suddenly blush?

Vivian didn’t have any time to ponder though as they came up to the teacher with the clipboard. After asking for their names, class, and what they wanted to be announced as the teacher quickly wrote down the information then peeked out to signal to the other teachers that his entrance had students to announce. When the rotation finally came to their entrance the teacher waved them on.

“Entering from the Noble’s Entrance, introducing Lord Peter and his Cat Prince!”

Philip adjusted his hand so that it lay flat and Vivian’s hand rested gently on top as he slowly escorted Vivian into the masquerade dance like Vivian was his precious Lady. Which, considering the ending of “Lord Peter” and the relationship between the two characters, was appropriate. Vivian was too preoccupied by amazement and his thoughts to actually notice or dwell on their body language though.

Was it really a coincidence that we walked through the Noble’s Entrance? I bet Philip did research ahead of time. Vivian chuckled a little at his thoughts before his mind quickly started trying to take in all the decorations inside the gymnasium.

Vivian could hardly believe his eyes as he looked at the gym. It was so thoroughly changed and decorated that it felt like they had been transported to a real medieval ballroom. The bleachers had all been pulled in to provide more room, and humongous prop walls that almost reached the ceiling were set up. They all had realistic 3D designs painted on them to match what a real ballroom walls would look like. There were fancy gold and silver ceiling drapes hung from the gymnasium rafters. Vivian also noticed that most of the floor had temporary checkered wood tiles laid out. The only place that didn’t was surrounding a platform on the far side of the gym that had two thrones on top along with a community band playing different songs at the base. For resting and socializing, there were five round tables with elegant tablecloths and centerpieces to the side of the platform. The food and drinks were set up next to the tables, manned by the lunch staff.

It was obvious from the whole room that the drama club had a hand in designing the decorations. Vivian wondered why he hadn’t seen most of the props they used, but then figured that they had moved them recently to a room closer to the gymnasium to start to prep for the ball. It was only recently that he had gotten the keys to the storage room after all. Having been helping with other behind the scenes jobs for “King Thrushbeard” during the meetings, Vivian didn’t even have a lot of time to look around then either.

“Surprised?” Philip had a smirk on his face as Vivian looked over towards him, himself being speechless and gaping at Philip. “This is one of the most anticipated annual traditions ever since the original Eccentrics’ started it. Or more specifically, a small group from their class convincing the higher ups that it was needed. Apparently they were actually a group of five delinquents, and the teachers were so impressed that they wanted to do something for the community for once that they quickly agreed.”

Vivian wondered if the sparkle in Philip’s eyes was due to the folklore aspect of the story. “It definitely is a full blown celebration.” Vivian couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Philip just chuckled, then tugged on Vivian’s hand. “Come on, we have finally arrived at the ball Cinderella, we only have until midnight to dance.” Philip’s eyes twinkled so much at the fairy tale reference that Vivian didn’t even mind being called yet another princess.

Vivian let himself be dragged along, his excitement killing all the anxious inner voices that would typically be paranoid about what he looked like to the public eye. He didn’t care if anyone was watching for once. His mother wasn’t here and no one here knew who he was. He could finally be himself without worrying about how he looked, or the fear of his mother hearing rumors.

He also was distracted from wondering about who Theodore actually was. He didn’t have time to remember that he knew nothing about his step-dad before he was his step-dad. All that was going through his mind was how amazing and elaborate his new school’s dances were.

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Philip turned to Vivian who was dancing next to him and smiled. Vivian’s face was full out beaming with happiness. It was hard to imagine that just a few hours prior he had cried himself to sleep in Philip’s arms. In fact it was hard to even recognize the usually quiet and somber teenager. If he told anyone who this Prince next to him was, no one would believe him. Philip was sure everyone would believe in Philip summoning a Prince from a book world before relating this person to the Vivian everyone else knew. The only reason Philip recognized him was because he had seen Vivian’s smile before, and no one could replicate his Princess’ smile other than his Prince.

Philip heard the cue that the final songs were about to begin. There were only five songs left until midnight, and they were all slow songs. Each year since the ball was started the masquerade would last until midnight, and then after a countdown to midnight everyone would remove their masks and reveal themselves to their final dance partner. There was a jinx started by the original Eccentrics that if you and your final dance partner both catch the same amount of confetti that is thrown by the non-dancers, then your relationship will last forever, and no matter how many times you are separated you will be reunited eventually. There was also an extra part that said the more you catch the smoother your relationship will be.

Ann loved to tell the story of the original dance to Philip, and how there were only three couples who succeeded in catching the same amount, Philip’s birth parents being one of them. Philip also personally knew another couple that bet on how much confetti they could catch, and got married because of it. Philip smiled as he remembered how it was the only irresponsible thing the bride had ever done in her life, and everyone’s reactions to their marriage.

Philip was about to book all five songs with Vivian with the excuse of sticking with him like he promised earlier, secretly hoping Vivian hadn’t heard the jinx and realize what he was up to, but before Philip could ask, Vivian was surrounded by a pack of girls who had the same idea as Philip. They would have surrounded Philip as well, but it was obvious who he was and it was old news that he had come out of the closet. This new Prince though had caught everyone’s eyes the moment he entered, and he didn’t have a girl hanging all over him so they all assumed he most likely was single.

Vivian was obviously overwhelmed by all the girls, but Philip couldn’t come to his rescue since they had slowly started to drag Vivian away from him. They probably wished to kidnap him before Philip could sink his homosexual teeth into him.

Luckily(?) for Vivian a tall blonde came over and linked her arm with his to assert her dominance. “I’ve already claimed this Prince’s time for tonight, so you can all run along now.”