Celestial Being

Draco went rigid. His eyes were wide as saucers and he didn’t dare look anywhere but at Aergia, so it would be impossible for Draco to miss the man’s smug expression.

Why would he do that? Draco might have lied to the newcomers out of loyalty to his own team, but that’s not what this was. Loyalty would be owed first and foremost to Mars, and only to Draco if they had made a deal. Aergia had directly asked and Draco had begged off. Draco racked his brain for anything he might have done to be so thoroughly misunderstood by Aergia that the older man would blatantly put him on the spot. Draco had flirted a little. He had teased. Had he crossed a line he wasn’t aware of? He felt far more embarrassed that he wasn’t experienced enough with romance to know for sure. Then again, what was there to learn that would negate how he didn’t want to spend time with any man so careless in causing Draco discomfort?

Perhaps Aergia didn’t see his actions as any different than the King’s. King Harry had called Draco out, daring him to solve a puzzle on command. Only, the two did feel different to Draco. He had asked the king to make his friend’s share the game. Plus, Draco didn’t think the king’s demonstration was about the game at all. He had asked over and over again if Draco was okay, and when Draco refused to open up to him the king had found a different way to distract Draco from his worries.

Draco turned his attention, and saw a brief flash of frustration on Aergia’s face right before Draco looked at the king. King Harry wouldn’t look back at him. He just clinched his jaw and stared straight ahead, waiting for Draco’s answer.

Draco got to his feet, putting space between him and the king. What did he matter, anyway? This wasn’t a choice between two men. Draco had just wanted to enjoy a party game and somehow he got caught up in things he didn’t understand. It was almost worth laughing over, all the things Draco didn’t understand that he got himself caught up in.

Draco understood plenty, though. He understood what is meant to be manipulated and exploited. He knew how people acted when they thought they could pressure you into serving their goals. He had no self doubt about how to respond to that.

“I think you’d best pick someone else,” Draco said, trying to stay even keeled. Still, there were murmurs from everyone watching.

“For real?” Aergia asked. “I thought you said you wanted to win this.”

This wasn't a conversation Draco wanted to have in front of everyone. He glanced at the faces watching but the masks hid individual expressions and Draco couldn’t read everyone’s thoughts. Even if they couldn’t recognize him, Draco didn’t want to be a cause of gossip for himself or his friends’ brother.

“Neither of us will win if we go,” Draco explained. He hated to give the game away, but he hated more to hurt his friends where it mattered and this could save face. “Next is observatory, then I suspect it’s back to the ballroom. Both invitations only let you take one person. You need to pair up with someone who can take you all the way.”

Aergia’s face twisted as the continued refusal. “This will be your only chance to go then, no one else will take you.” Of course Draco’s excuse didn’t work, because Aergia didn’t actually care about the game.

Draco tried not to tighten up in frustration. He tried to ignore the eyes watching and took a few steps closer to Aergia so he could lower his voice. He knew he still would look flushed and embarrassed. “If you want to go, take Mars. You two came together, you should stick it out till the end.”

“If you don’t want to go with me just say it,” the older man said, his eyes boring into Draco as he spoke too loudly.

Draco bit his tongue to hold back his emotional reaction. He stepped a bit closer so he could speak softer but even still he worried they would be overheard. “Can’t we talk about this privately? I’m drunk and stressed out. I’m so off kilter I couldn’t even get the stamp machine to work.” for once he let himself sound pleading, giving a little so Aergia might meet him half way.

Aergia crossed his arms with a frown, but he did lower his voice. “I just want you to be straight with me.”

“Okay,” said Draco. He leaned in even closer so he could speak ever more quietly, but took straightforward too far. “I feel like you’re being really pushy and manipulative right now and I don’t understand why.”

Aergia’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. “Seriously? The only reason I’m even here is because I did you a favor.”

“I appreciate that, I do. And we made a great team. But going forward would be giving up on the game all together, so this is about something else. Can you just be honest with me?” Draco insisted.

“Honest?” Aergia growled. He finally glanced around, like maybe he also didn’t want to be overheard. “Why don’t you start by being honest about how you know Harry.”

Draco’s mouth literally fell open. There were too many layers to this conversation and his drunken brain struggled to keep up. He managed to hiss out, “Who the hell is Harry?” but he could tell Aergia wasn’t convinced.

No, Aergia scoffed in Draco’s face. “You really expect me to believe that Harry would stare daggers at me every time I get close to you, then cozy up to you himself, if you two didn’t know each other?”

Draco was shaking his head. “The king is in the ballroom, we saw him,” he insisted, clinging to the lie even if it sounded hollow even to himself.

“Like this would be the first time Harry put out a body double so he could run off and be irresponsible,” Aergia snarked, explaining King Harry’s sudden appearance in the game.

Draco could only stare at Aergia. Draco’s mouth was opening and closing over and over but he didn’t have any words. He needed something true enough that Aergia would believe him without learning too much. “The equinox balls are anonymous, I never asked him who he was,” Draco squeaked.

This time Aergia’s frown was thoughtful. “So you do know him.” Draco nodded, then shook his head. It was too complicated a question, he didn’t know how to answer. Aergia did the thinking for him. “You recognize him from from the last of these stupid balls.”

“They’re not stupid,” Draco answered, unhelpfully. Then, because he was drunk and not thinking, Draco added, “We met last fall.”

The look Aergia gave him was downright scathing. “You met last fall.” he said in a voice so cold Draco felt icy from hearing it. “That’s it? You had a nice chat?” It clicked then in Draco’s head the king’s timeline for breaking it off with the man he was talking to. Draco blushed harder than ever, unable to meet Aergia’s eyes. Aergia was the one to take two steps back, nearly growling in frustration. “Fuck this,” he said loudly. “Who the fuck has a ballroom card and wants to get out of here?”

The room was dead silent.

“One of you wants to win this. We’ll wrap it up and go see what prize the king has waiting for us.” He stared straight at King Harry as he said it.

It was the twin who spoke up. “Hey, let’s just take a moment. Come have a drink with me and we’ll talk this over.”

Aergia glared at his brother. “No, I’m not going to talk this over. Do you have a ballroom card or not?”

“Yeah, mate, but like let’s calm down a bit before we do anything rash,” his brother said.

That was the last straw. “All you guys do is yammer on about how much you want to win this, but when I say let’s go for it I’m being rash?”

There was a long and pained pause where all of Aergia’s friends stared at him, their mouths creased with worry or pity. Draco closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see and imagine how that would make all of this worse for Aergia. Draco was seconds away from stepping in and begging the twin to just let it go and take his brother’s invitation.

He didn’t have to. It was somehow worse when Colton spoke up and said, “I have the ballroom. Show me how to get the stamp and I’ll go with you.”

There was a chorus of groans from Draco’s side of the room. Mars spoke up to say, “You’re really just going to go off and leave us all here?” she sounded hurt.

Aergia ignored her. He stomped over to where King Harry was still sitting on the floor and said, “Move.” The king sighed, but got to his feet and walked away.

Of course the newer people all watched how Aergia used the trick to open the floor and display the stamp. Colton snuck in quickly and updated his card. The two men didn’t pause to talk with anyone before leaving the room together.

A floodgate of chatter burst open the moment the door closed behind them. Even as they gossiped, the newcomers all lined up to figure out how to access the stamp, and one by one took their turn with it. Draco’s team huddled together and lamented their turn of fate.

It was the king that stepped up to Draco and asked, “Are you okay?”

Draco, so caught up in his thoughts, nearly jumped at the distraction. “Fine!” he yelped.

“That seemed rough,” the king said, still looking a bit worried.

“Oh,” Draco answered with a shrug. “It wasn’t fun. But I don’t think he’s actually angry at me.”

The king raised his eyebrows in disbelief, but Draco just looked at him pointedly until the king’s expression shifted to bashfulness. “Ah,” he said. The king cleared his throat and looked away. “You should go get your card stamped.” He held out a card to Draco, his original observatory invitation.

“Oh, no. Do you still have the gallery one? I already used that, it would be cheating to use two,” Draco said.

“And now that you’re caught you don’t want to?” the king’s voice wasn’t pointed but it wasn’t kind spirited, either.

Draco crossed his arms over his chest and left the king holding the card. “They didn’t say you couldn’t bring two,” he grumbled.

“So you stole a second one?” the king guessed.

Draco’s chest tightened painfully at his judgemental tone. “Yes, I am a thief,” Draco said with an exaggerated bravado to cover up for his distress. Spitefully, he grabbed the invitation from King Harry and stomped away towards the crowd of people around the stamp, trying not to think too hard about how easily the king looked down on him. At least when King Harry knew who he was Draco could blame the king’s prejudice. Somehow, in hiding, there was nothing to hide behind. It was clear the king was inclined to think the worst of him.

He struggled when it was his turn. He’d been spiked full of adrenaline during the confrontation, but now he was light headed and sluggish. It took him three tries to do it right, and still his stamp came out slightly lopsided. Draco took the imperfect card with him to a corner where he could collapse against a wall. He watched two more pairs of observatory and ballroom invitations run out into the hallway and his own invitation felt heavy in his hand.

Mars plopped down against the wall next to him. “Everything’s gone to shit,” she said.

Draco nodded. “It’s exceptionally bad, even for me,” he agreed. “Could be worse. I don’t think anyone’s actually died.”

Mars tilted her head back and laughed. “Just wait. I’m going to murder him.”

Draco rolled his head over to look at her. “Are you really?” he asked.

Her head thunked back against the wall. “No,” she said sourly. “He deserves it, though.”

“Does he?” Draco asked, truly curious.

She somehow looked ever more sour. “No,” she said with a pout. “I shouldn’t have bullied him into coming. I thought I could break him out of his funk, but this wasn’t the place to try.”

Draco hummed to acknowledge her words. “He seemed okay, until…” he’s eyes flickered towards the king.

“Yeeeaaaah,” Mars said, dragging the word out. Neither of them wanted to dwell on that issue.

Draco sighed, then held out his card to Mars. “Trade me. You should go after him, make sure he’s okay.”

Mars’ eyes went wide in surprise. “How’d you get that? You had gallery.”

“I cheated,” Draco admitted without remorse.

Mars face split into a giant grin. “Wicked.” She paused for a moment before letting the grin fade. “I couldn’t do that, though. It doesn’t feel right to leave everyone else behind.”

Her words were like a balm to Draco’s nerves. He found himself smiling naturally for the first time in what felt like ages. “I feel exactly the same.”

Both of them paused to look out over the room. It had grown even more crowded than when Aergia left. Clearly the teams at the front had long since lost their lead. This room wasn’t big enough for the amount of people crowded into it now. Draco supposed eventually someone would have to go back. Maybe that was why the last room was so large and served a feast? Perhaps everyone was meant to be stuck there, except for the lucky few who could get to the end.

“It doesn’t make any sense, to make a game where so many people are abandoned,” said Draco.

“Fucking blows, is what it does,” agreed Mars.

Draco glanced around the room, his eyes searching for the king, but he was now hidden amongst the guests. Draco could only catch a glimpse of him, crowded as the room was. He was across the room talking quietly with the astrolabe. Draco chewed on his lip as he thought.

“Why would the king make us play a game like that?” Draco asked.

Mars shrugged. “As you said, it doesn’t make sense. He’s an asshole, but he’s not that sort of asshole, if you know what I mean.”

“No,” Draco murmured. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She paused to think about it. “His heart is in the right place. If you remember that, and give him enough time to work through his feelings, he always comes back around and does the right thing.” She sighed. “He’s like Charlie, that way. They’re too alike, and they’re too different.”

Draco glanced at her. It hurt a bit to keep up the lie as he asked, “Who’s Charlie?”

She blinked in surprise, and then burst out again in laughter. “My asshole brother. Well, one of them.” She smiled broadly. “I’m glad we met up, tonight. It’s too bad you and Charlie didn’t hit it off, I think you’d have been good for him.”

Draco tried to laugh good naturedly but he could tell it came out a bit choked. “I don’t think he’s my type. He kept calling the game stupid.”

That sent Mars into a fit of giggles. She nudged Draco’s shoulder with her own as she laughed. “No, you two never would have made it,” she agreed, fondly. She paused to watch another pair leave for the observatory. “What are we going to do about the game? I don’t want to go back.”

Draco stared after the pair as well. “I’ll stick it out with you as long as you’re willing,” he decided. She didn’t answer, but he saw her smiling. They both watched the crowd get increasingly agitated around them. The flutes of champagne had long since run out there was nothing to do in the room. “We have to be missing something,” Draco murmured, mostly to himself.

“You read the last clue, do you remember what it said?” Mars asked.

Draco shook his head. “Honestly, I was so drunk I hardly read it. If it wasn’t so obvious I never would have figured it out.”

That perked Mars up. “So you might have missed something?” she asked.

Draco paused to think, then without hesitation he said, “Yes.”

They didn’t even discuss it before they were both standing. In unison they walked over to the shooting star and asked to see her card again. No one cared, anymore, and she shared it willingly. Draco and Mars hovered over it, their eyes scanning the page again and again, determined to find out what they’d missed. It was Mars who pointed at the word. It was not something they’d missed, but a sign that something wasn’t there. The invitation declared the event began at the stroke of midnight, but it didn’t have any other number.

Mars and Draco met each other’s eyes. “Do you think…” Mars started and Draco immediately said, “it would have to.”

Draco pulled his observatory card back out. He licked his lips nervously, staring at the card, and then at his companion. “We have to test it,” Draco said.

Mars nodded, then pushed Draco towards the door, grabbing people as she followed behind him.

Draco was first in the line up, followed by the twin, the comet, the shooting star, Mars, the Patil sisters, and finally another woman Draco didn’t recognize that he guessed was dressed as a planet. Outside the door was the guard who would make sure only people with proper invitations could pass. Draco looked him squarely in the eye and showed him the invitation. He pointed to the same line in his that the chapel invite had. “I want to take seven,” he said with the confidence of someone who desperately wanted to be correct.

The guard took his invitation, confirmed the stamp on the back, and counted the people he’d brought with him. Then he gave the card back with a nod, pointing the way to the observatory.

There was a long, disbelieving pause, and then the entire team let out an enthusiastic cheer. The comet and twin were jumping up and down, the shooting star pulled Mars in for a hug. Draco let the planet hug him, too. He pulled away only to pop his head back into the chapel, where everyone else stared on in confusion.

Draco still wanted to win the game, but more than that he didn’t want anyone to be left behind all alone. “You can bring seven!” he called out, so that everyone would have the clue. Then he was being pulled back out the door, to join his team towards the final puzzle.