Lords And Ladies (2.1)

Lord And Lady Ilucis-White

Dante watches as his estranged wife rolls the red and white serpent ring back and forth along her thumb and fingers in one hand, holding the VIP room’s phone in the other.  A couple of hours had past, and the party was still going strong below, but up here...Well, it certainly didn’t feel like a party.

For Dante, anyway.  Mindy was, as she had ever been, a walking, breathing, particularly laughing party.  That familiar old snorting chuckle of hers traveled leisurely through every corner of the room.

“Okay, thank you.  My husband’ll be happy to hear that, I know.  I’ll pass it along.  Thank you again!  Later.”  She puts the phone down, turning back to Dante with an enthusiastic grin.

Dante’s arms ware folded.  His dragon mask is off, revealing the dark green eye shadow underneath.  His mouth is presently curled up into a pout.

Mindy’s expression doesn’t change.

“That was the lady from the hospital, what was her name...Skloo...Skloh...Sklodowska, right?”

Dante says nothing.

“Right, Lady Sklodowska called.  Your friend Damian is going to be all right.  They’ll be keeping an eye on him for a little while, but there’s no lasting damage.  Isn’t that great?”

Dante manages a nod of acknowledgement.  Damian was his oldest male friend and his favorite bodyguard.  He could give Mindy a nod for that, at least.

“Hmmm...” Mindy pulls her legs up onto the couch.  “Did she and Tom Ianthe ever get married?”

“They keep putting it off,” he responds.  “Somehow,” he adds, rather tersely.

“Oh.  I suppose she’s not Lady Sklodowska then.  Yet.”

Dante shrugged, as well as he could.

“What about his brother Felix?  I heard he might have had a teen bride arranged, but I’ve never heard it confirmed for certain...”

“I wouldn’t know about that.  I haven’t exactly kept in touch with the royal family.”  Dante’s voice shakes a little, briefly.  “I would think you would know more about that, seeing as you’ve been spending time with the princess.”

Mindy laughs again.  “Only for today, hubby.”

Dante winces.

“Don’t hear much gossip through your stepmom, eh?” she asks.

“Mindy,” says Dante, quickly changing the subject.  “What are you doing here?  I was under the impression that we had agreed to spend as little time with each other as we could get away with.”

“Pfffff.”  Mindy flips her wedding ring in the air and catches it as it falls.  “I never agreed to that.  I just go where ever I feel like at the time.”

“Ahuh.  And you felt like coming to me.  Again.”

“Yep!”

Dante frowns, and sighs.  He generally tried to be an empathetic person, he really did.  As exhausting as it was, he had always tried to understand and give equal attention to every friend and every girlfriend, and the children that he lived with.  When Dante wasn’t at the garage, he was generally lending someone he cared about a sympathetic ear and bed.  It was practically a full-time job in itself, but it was how his mother had taught him to behave.

His wife, though.  Understanding of her in particular had always escaped him.  She was a whimsical fire to herself, burning wherever she pleased.  And Dante was fine with that.  Dante didn’t want to control anyone.  But usually he had some idea of what they wanted and needed out of life, at least.  Not so with her.  

What could he do to help a flame?

He leans to her.

“You know my father will kill you if he finds out you’re here.”

“Ha!  I doubt it, Dante.  Besides, if he didn’t want me around, he shouldn’t have arranged the wedding.”  She reaches over to a peanut bowl on a side table, picks it up, shoves one peanut in her mouth, chews it, spits out the shell, and swallows.

Dante fights the urge to applaud her.

“After what happened last time-No, every time you’ve shown up to one of our parties, I don’t think he cares.”

“Ha!”  Mindy turns and lays against Dante’s chest.  Dante tries to move back a little, but finds himself backing up against the arms.  “I don’t care.  And besides, to most of these people, I’m still Lady Ilucis, at least.  If he tried to throw me out most of these noble worshiping punks wouldn’t know what to do.”

“Whatever.”

Mindy pulls off her own dragon mask, shaking her blonde hair out and laying back.  Her orange eye shadow seems to glow in the dark.  She reaches up and touches her husband ‘s cheek, and he winces a little.  “Smooth.  You still shave right down to the skin.”

Dante doesn’t answer, continuing to look away.  This becomes harder when a light ebony thumb with fluorescent orange nails suddenly moves up into the lower range of his vision and proceeds to cover his lips.

“You’re just avoiding me because you hate everything about your Dad, right?”

Dante continues trying to look away.  He twists his head far enough to see behind him.

Officer Kiplin, apparently still sitting behind the couch with a glass of scotch in her hand, waves idly at him.  He blinks, confused by the continuing presence of the officer who allegedly injured his best (male) friend, before Mindy grabs his head and pulls him back.

“Aren’t you?”

“Neither of us wanted to be married.  We shouldn’t have had to be.  Decisions like that shouldn’t be made by parents for politics.”

“Yeah, see, that’s your problem,” says Mindy.  “You let his opinions control you anyway.  I, on the other hand, don’t care.  At all.  I’ll spend time with you if I want to.”

“You don’t know him like I do.”

“You think my dad’s any easier?”  She grins up at him, head in his lap.

“Mindy...”

“Hey, how are your girlfriends?  I saw your bartender today.”

“They’re doing well.”

“How many are you up to?”

“Five, I believe.”

“That few?”

“Well, you know, I’m trying to avoid one-night stands, Mindy.  It’s hardly comparable to your record.”

Mindy giggles and pats his cheek.  “Well, you could do better.  That’s still more than most of the men manage.”  She grins and pinches his cheek.  “That’s my handsome olive skinned beauty.”  Dante rolls his eyes.

“Father,” says Diana’s voice suddenly from the entrance to the room.  “Lady Ilucis requests your presence.”

“I’m right here, thank you Diana,” says Mindy.

“The other Lady Ilucis, Mother.”  Dante sighs.  He has no idea how they picked that up.  “A ‘Lady’ also requests an audience with you, Father.”

“Number six, perhaps?”  Dante ignores Mindy’s ribbing.

“Is it Lady Dragon?”

“No, Father.”

“Then which other Lady is it?”

Diana pauses.  “Father, her name is Lady.”

Dante and Mindy sit in silence for a moment.

“I was wrong,” says Mindy.

“Indeed.”