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Yuki keeps his hands purposefully away from his dress. It would be no good to fiddle with it and stretch it unnecessary—not that Yuki would get a dress that would do that easily, but with how nervous he is, his heart beating fast inside his chest, it might happen.
He’d fastened diamond-shaped pins to the front of the dress, too. It would be a shame if those were to fall off if he picked at them.
He leaves his oldest sister Yume behind to look through the crowd and potentially find a nice person to dance with. Namely, he’s looking for a head of pastel pink hair, so familiar in his memories despite only seeing the boy once.
As far as Yuki’s concerned, finding the phantom thief is reason enough to come here.
The princely phantom thief left a calling card at this masquerade; Yuki was lucky to get in due to his sister’s connections. Who really knew where Yume got all these relationships of her’s, not that Yuki cares or minds in this case. He used to, though, when it led him to meet annoying and famous people he didn’t care for, like Tenma Sumeragi.
He’s happy about it now, though, as it lets him get closer to the thief he saw at the jewelry showcase, staring out of a window instead of at the jewels, with gentle, spacey eyes.
At first, Yuki had just thought his white suit was tailored nicely.
Then, he’d caught Yuki’s eyes again, for the way he tripped onto someone nearby and nervously stuttered out a loud apology. Even when he recovered, moving his shoulders back and acting as if he’d been self-assured that whole time, Yuki kept watching him.
The pink-haired boy had slipped a card onto the display case for the jewelry. It was an expensive item, something Yuki hadn’t found noteworthy, considering that the whole showcase was expensive.
And then that night, the jewels went missing, leaving behind only a calling card.
So he was forced to pay attention.
Yuki considers himself a logical person. He would even consider himself not easily swayed by beautiful weirdos, because beautiful people were always the easiest to make fun of for their personalities. However, he was having trouble getting the pretty pink hair and white suit out of his head.
…Gross. Yuki has never felt more weird by his own actions which he himself chose to do.
But he can’t find it to regret it when he pulls on his masquerade mask and starts to dance in his longer than usual dress while the music flows around him. Yume should be loitering with her friends who invited her here, leaving Yuki to glance around the crowd for pink hair, judging outfits as he goes.
He sees the white suit and cape first, with the blue and silver diamond patterns.
Yuki grabs onto the arm of a pink haired boy with a mask that doesn’t conceal his youth. “Are you a thief?” Yuki asks bluntly, as soon as he finds his target.
“W-What?” the boy laughs.
“Dance with me,” Yuki demands. “I’m a boy, but…” he looks the other boy up and down, then lifts his chin. “You’re taller, so I assume you’re more used to the lead role. I’ll follow.”
“I’d love to dance, then,” he says, and holds out a white gloved hand.
When they start dancing, it’s not like they instantly get a connection with each other. Rather, it’s more like their closeness forms a secret bubble around them, among the music and the noise of the people around them. The lights overhead make even the late evening seem bright.
“You are a thief, right? The princely one that everyone talks about?” Yuki swallows.
At least the boy isn’t stiff when he dances. He moves gracefully back and forth as the lead. “I’m flattered. Being called princely is like a dream come true,” he sighs dreamily. “Oh, ah, but that’s not what I put on my calling card. It’s so hard to get noticed, I guess…” He frowns. Yuki can’t read his expression as well when his white and blue mask is covering both his eyes.
That’s as good a confirmation that he’s a thief as any, Yuki supposes.
Yuki nearly steps on the thief’s feet. “What did you say your name was again?”
“King,” he smiles again, gracefully tightening his grip on Yuki’s waist and not allowing Yuki to step on him. “But you can call me whatever you’d like.”
Yuki hadn’t planned on calling him by his name, anyway. He looks straight up into the thief’s eyes—really, they’re fairly similar in height, both short, and Yuki has heels on which makes it more like staring into the eyes of an equal. The thief’s eyes are beautiful. “You were staring out of a window the first time we met,” Yuki says. “And you look young. I’ll call you Wonderboy.”
King opens his mouth in shock. “Have we really met before? I-I think I’d recognise a pretty man like you.”
Cringe. He even stutters on it, so it’s not very smooth at all.
“I wasn’t wearing a full dress then,” Yuki says, because he’d really just worn his normal skirt. He feels the dress swish around his legs as they turn. “And I wasn’t wearing a mask, either. I didn’t watch you steal anything—and I don’t want to help you now. Don’t get the wrong idea.”
King giggles. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t involve you in my crimes. You,”—he leans in dangerously close, and Yuki feels himself heat up inexplicably—“are just a cover right now. Dancing with someone who recognises me is a surprise, though. If you don’t want to be my cover, just say the word, my prince.”
“I thought you were the prince,” Yuki scoffs. Sweat beads beneath his mask.
King grins. It’s childish and exciting, a true grin without a hint of arrogance. “I’m not the only prince out there, though. You, too, can become one if you just believe in yourself. Isn’t that beautiful?”
“Shut it, Wonderboy. I don’t want to be a prince,” Yuki bites the inside of his cheek.
“O-Oh, I see,” King spins them around once more. “Would you rather be my accomplice? Just for tonight? For this one dance…?”
Yuki’s heart beats in his throat. “One dance, huh?” His grip on the thief’s hands tightens, and he studies his mask, his pink hair, all the details about him that he can imagine. “I might, as long as I don’t get involved in—whatever it is you do.”
“Hehe. That’s perfectly alright.” King’s mask is white and covered with diamonds. Yuki wonders if this was fate for him to have a similar pattern on his own dress. If this was a romance, maybe Yuki would lean in closer.
Yuki doesn’t move closer. “What if I see you again? Will I be your accomplice then?”
“You’ve already seen me once before, and I thought this was the first time we’d met. Maybe you’ll just become a stranger to me again, but if you greet me as if we know each other, I promise I’ll know it’s you.” His smile is serene.
“Oh, so what am I supposed to say?” Yuki scoffs, then grins himself. It feels like a game, like he and King are pushing and pulling each other in their elaborate dance. “It’s your first time meeting me? Hm, I’ve already met you many times under various disguises. I’ll come see you again under a different guise.”
King laughs, ducking his head as if embarrassed, turning it away from Yuki. “Are you planning on making sure I don’t recognise you?”
“Maybe,” Yuki squeezes his hand on King’s shoulder. “Maybe not.”
“And what did you think of me the first time we met? Did you know I was a thief?” The music is slowing down. Soon, the loudness of the feet around them will fade as well, and their secret conversation will stop feeling so closed in. But King looks back at Yuki, and it’s like all of that disappears.
“I…” I thought you were beautiful. “You seemed spacey. Staring at jewelry none of us could have. Your outfit was so over the top, I thought there was something about you that seemed off. Then the jewels were stolen.”
“So you put it together through that, did you?”
“A little,” Yuki admits. “You have an annoying habit of leaving calling cards everywhere, though. Do you really think that’s helpful? You’ll just get caught, and even though I don’t care about you stealing from rich people, I doubt anyone will help you.”
King giggles again. “It’s part of being a phantom thief. Um, by the way, do you mind me calling you my dear?”
Oh, this is so far into flirting that Yuki feels like he’s drowning. He wishes he hated it, but it’s too exciting to stop. He’s too far deep, dancing in a beautiful room with a beautiful boy who’s taken him as an accomplice. “If you really want to be a flirt, then don’t act nervous about it.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t help it,” he replies, but then pulls Yuki closer, just for a moment. “But, you see… There’s nothing I can’t steal. Now, then, shall I snatch your heart?”
When he releases Yuki completely, stepping back, Yuki can feel his face completely flushed. He never thought he wanted romance, especially not a cheesy, almost manga-esque romance—King is lucky he’s just someone Yuki met by chance, and not an actual love interest—but Yuki can’t help being captivated by the thief.
“That’s not fair to steal my heart, Wonderboy,” Yuki says evenly, but he’s sure the redness of his face is seeping below his mask. He drops his arms to his side.
King covers his mouth. “Oh no, you’re right!” He drops his gloved hand against his chest. “You should try to steal mine, then, when we meet again with your new disguise. I’ll try to steal yours first, though.”
The music stops. King keeps staring at Yuki for a long moment. Around them, people stop dancing, and light chatter fills the air instead of the string instrumentals from before.
“You have things to do now that the music is over, don’t you?” Yuki asks.
King blinks rapidly underneath his mask, and Yuki just barely catches sight of it. “I do indeed. Ehehe, farewell, my dear.” He backs into the crowd, but before that, he waves his fingers at Yuki. It’s cute. Yuki hadn’t thought the thief would be so… cute.
When all Yuki can’t see the pink hair among the crowd anymore, he turns on his heel to go the opposite direction, leaning against the room’s wall and wondering if he’ll be able to make a disguise good enough to keep being unrecognizable to such a strange, almost airheaded thief. He closes his eyes and touches his fingers to his mask.
Did King look into his eyes past the mask?
Muku presses his hand over his heart. The middle of the masquerade isn’t the time to get manga-like heart-pounding excitement over romance, and Muku’s first ever successful flirting attempt—not that Muku flirts much, though. And he’s never tried it while pretending to be a confident, heart-pounding thief!
But maybe that’s why he was able to do it, even as a thief, because he finally found someone he wants to experience something with, even if not a full romance.
As Muku runs to where he’s supposed to be, he apologizes in his head to the mysterious masked boy. Muku will await his next appearance, but he really deserves a better person than a thief who took interest in him and who got distracted by his dance.
And yet…
Muku closes his eyes, for just a moment, and lets himself revel in the feelings being near the other boy brought him. In that beautiful dress, with the green hair and the white mask, almost as if he was matching Muku step for step. Muku can’t help the spark of excitement.
And when the boy said he’d see him again in a different disguise, well. Who said that someone couldn’t simply steal from a thief?
Hah, my heart was stolen instantly by that line of his...