“Shoes!” Ella declared. 

This time, the cheering was half laughter. She ginned. 

“Listen,” she said, and her captive audience hushed in anticipation. “I’m small, petite…some would say…fun-sized,” she told them conspiratorially and with jazz hands.

Someone giggled. 

Ella hiked up her dress and pulled aside the drape of her skirt by the slit in the fabric to display a toned calf and her stilettos. “See this?” she asked. 

There were a couple of wolf whistles from the audience. 

“Height is—yes, thank you,” she addressed her admirers with a saucy wink. 

Prince Veo let slip a chuckle. The atmosphere of amusement was infectious and even he could not help but enjoy himself.

“Height is adjustable,” Ella announced with the authority of a sovereign. 

A resounding round of applause and cheering took over the room from anyone who had ever worn shoes to enhance their height. Well, there was hardly anyone who hadn’t. Prince Veo included. 

He was not a tall alpha or even average in height. Veo knew he was short and the shoes he favoured tended to have more heel than advisable for long hours of standing or running. Good thing he didn’t do much of either. But Ms Timber’s sentiments about her shoes was—as Felipe would later inform him—such a “mood”. 

Backstage, Dimitri had cut a stem of rose from the garden outside and he waited in the wings of the stage with Tenshi.

“What are you doing?” asked the omega. “Why do you have flowers?”

“None of your business,” Dimitri told him, eyes glued to Ms Ella, who was wrapping up her segment. 

Tenshi followed his line of sight. “Ella? Oh, really?”

Dimitri ignored him.

Undeterred, “are you two a thing now?” Tenshi asked incredulously.

“What?” snapped the alpha. “Why can’t it be a thing?”

Tenshi stared at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Because this isn’t a vacation. You know the rules.”

“It’s just a bit of fun, okay. Don’t make it weird.” Dimitri chin jutted out mulishly. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

The omega grabbed his arm in indignation. “Tell on what? There’s nothing to tell.”

Dimitri shrugged him off as Ms Ella came towards them, walking offstage from thunderous applause. “Shut up,” he hissed. “She’s here.”

“That’s was exhilarating!” cried Ella as she came backstage. She heaved a huge sigh of relief. “You guys couldn’t tell, but I was shaking!”

Dimitri presented the rose. “You were amazing,” he told her very sincerely. Tenshi refrained from rolling his eyes.

Ella gushed her appreciation, making wide doe-eyes at Dimitri who was clearly enraptured. “Dimitri, that is so sweet of you,” she cooed and the alpha—honest-to-god—blushed. Tenshi had to remind himself to close his mouth. 

“I should get ready,” he muttered to no one in particular. 

“Oh, Hisahiko!” called Ella as he was walking away.

I took a second for Tenshi to register that she meant him. He looked back. “Yes?”

“Break a leg,” she smiled.

After Ella left with her thornless rose that Dimitri made sure to tell her all about, the alpha watching her mournfully, Tenshi emerged from the changing rooms in his costume.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Dimitri doubtfully.

“I don’t have other showcase-able talents,” he answered. 

The alpha hummed. “But it’s not very classy for something like this, you know?”

Tenshi very much wanted to punch out his partner at that moment. “Stand-up comedy isn’t classy either, you hypocrite! And it’s too fucking late to do change my mind, damn you.”

“Ms Ella is a classy lady. She pulled it off,” Dimitri retorted stubbornly. 

With immense irritation, he tied on the domino mask and strutted out on stage without a reply. 

It was hardly the most attention-grabbing outfit he’d scraped together for her performance, given that he had not anticipated being asked to perform. However, he didn’t require much clothing for this. The mask had been a last minute addition that Dimitri had bought as a souvenir on their day trip to the museum. His heels clicks against the wood.

Tenshi takes his first position by the slowly spinning pole, back facing the audience. His long hair is pleated back in a simple French braid. The audience is silent in anticipation.

The first bars of the slow pop song he’d chosen plays from the speakers. Tenshi’s eyes were close and he opens them as he breathes out. He extends a graceful arm upwards. 

The music plays and he spins away from the pole and cartwheels with the momentum. There is a smattering of applause that Tenshi ignores. His mind is on the music and now, a short distance away from the pole, he lets his feet close the distance and grasps the cool metal just as the chorus begins. 

Prince Veo watched the pale blue silhouette of Hisahiko’s form suspended by the pole. Vaguely, he was aware his jaw had dropped. Up there, the omega seemed to be dancing and spinning in a world of his own. His colours indicated the tranquil calmness of his emotional state, a stark contrast to the red heat of attraction emanating from the room. 

The alpha felt red too. Red with desire and a stab of annoyance that so many people got to see Hisahiko like this. They did not know him; their attraction was shallow. Hisahiko twirls around the metal rod, torso twisting into position. He is exquisite. 

As the music tapered off to an end, Tenshi let himself down the pole in a controlled slide to rest at the base. He found himself breathing hard at the exertion, but Tenshi forced himself to stand and bow and walk off. 

Dimitri hands him a bottle of water when he returns. He gulps down the icy water and takes the face towel that the alpha offers him. “Thanks,” Tenshi says a little breathlessly. “I’m going back to my room,” he says and walks away.

The adrenaline rush is fading as he heads back. And he wishes he remembered to grab a robe before he left the hall. The air-conditioned corridors of the palace makes him shiver as the cold air cooled his sweat. 

Tenshi makes it all the way to the end of the corridor before anyone tries to stop him. 

“Hisahiko!” Prince Veo calls from behind. Tenshi turns around to see the Prince speedwalking in his direction. He’s barely using his cane. 

“Yes?” he answers even though he wants to get somewhere warmer. 

Closer now, Prince Veo opens his mouth but says nothing. As if he’d forgotten what he wanted to say or never actually had anything to say.

“Did you need something?” he asked a little waspishly. 

Prince Veo’s mouth closes and opens like a fish. “Why are you shivering?” he finally asks.

Tenshi rolls his eyes. “I’m only wearing underwear.”

The Prince’s mouth is an ‘o’ of surprise. Another two beats and he shrugs off his blazer to drape it around Tenshi’s shoulders. It is warm and the satin inner lining is smooth against bare skin. 

“Thank you,” Tenshi says, feeling weirdly shy. 

Prince Veo is looking at him. He can just see the outline of his eyes behind the shades, and it looks as though the Prince can actually see him. Tenshi looks away first. 

“Are you hungry?” he hears himself asking. Prince Veo cocks his head to the side. “I’m going back to my room to change. We can meet in the kitchens after?” 

“Yes,” answers Prince Veo. They stand there without saying anything for a few seconds, long enough that Tenshi excuses himself awkwardly and tries to walk away without tripping in his heels.

Prince Veo is a strange, strange man, he thinks. Tenshi purses his lips to hide the smile.