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Something akin to annoyance was leeching into January’s dance partner like an uncapped pen in a dress shirt pocket. Their grip on January’s hand was tightening. The lines around their eyes deepened. They still hadn’t said a word to him after inviting him to dance.
With the Natural person towering over him, intimately close and strong, in a way few Natural people were, January realized he hadn’t asked for their name.
He pictured himself saying: ‘Hi, I’m January!’
And the person would say, ‘I know.’ Because everyone already knew each other at these functions.
Then, January would say, ‘May I have your name, please?’ and it would cause an Incident across Tharsis high society because January must have missed a memo somewhere. It was hard not to feel like he needed supervision.
Had he committed a huge faux pas? Was this terse silence what happened when you were too classy to insult the bumbling earthstronger and not witty enough to come up with a way to address it elegantly? January felt like he was in the sights of a sniper rifle. The suspense was killing him.
Just do it, already. Shoot.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
Their dancing was as impeccable as any of the heirs of the Great Houses so they didn’t falter. The person looked outright angry even as they tried to play at nonchalance. “How’d you do it?”
“Do what?” January asked, beyond bewildered.
“Aubrey is nice to you,” they said, accusingly.
January wanted to say, ‘It’s for the show. The real Aubrey Gale is the one that bodyslammed me through the floor on live television.’ But then, he also remembered Gale’s careful kindness when the cameras hadn’t been rolling. Funny thing, that.
“I’m just that loveable,” January quipped, going for lighthearted to ease the tension. The person seemed to only get more agitated.
“January!” That was Senator Gale. They looked satisfied, which surely meant that negotiations regarding the foundries had gone well. January was absurdly happy to see them.
All at once the stranger pulled back and withdrew.
“Please excuse me,” they said, and walked past him. When January turned to watch them go, he could have sworn they disappeared, even though there was barely a crowd to disappear into.
“Who was that?” asked Gale, smoothly moving into position to dance with him, hands ghosting perfectly around January’s waist. January wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
Out of sight and out of earshot, Maksim Liu willed their reconstructed heart to calm. They didn’t care that the same Aubrey that had murdered them was now upturning heaven and Mars to protect their new spouse - they really didn’t. If they said it enough times they would believe it, too.