“So…we’re uh…here, I guess.” Rhenakos and Osiria were standing outside of a rather large building on the main street of Egjora. There was a line almost circling the block. At that alone, Rhenakos would have suggested they ditch their plan, but Lewis and Simone had planned for this, and gotten them tickets beforehand.

Tickets, mind you, for a famous play done by the Morelli Group, a rather well renown playgroup that had done hundreds of sellout plays across Canelux and Parvpora combined. Today, they were performing a well known classic, the tale of the Hunter and the Princess. It was, of course, a tragedy. For some reason, people seemed to love those.

Lewis had helped Rhenakos get ready hours before. The ex-assassin had taken one look at Rhenakos’ possible wardrobe, and rolled his eyes. Within thirty minutes, Rhenakos had been measured up, and was now sporting a rather fancy set of burnt orange coloured slacks, with a white button down shirt and a matching orange tailored coat. Much his Rhen’s dismay, he was even forced to wear a black tie.

“You can thank Simone later,” Lewis said. “It’s her who’s telling me that this will work for you…”

“Oh, I can thank her all right. Just give me one-”

“I can change the color from orange to red, if you prefer,” Lewis said with a glare.

“Kidding,” Rhenakos replied, putting his hands up.

That had been hours ago. Rhenakos stepped forward and presented the tickets to the handler, who looked at them and ushered them on. As they walked into the main room, it was as if they had been transported to a wholly different world. The play was not to start for another hour or so. There were appetizers and drinks about the elegant red carpet floor. Up above was a shimmering chandelier that Rhenakos could only describe as ‘unnecessarily huge’.

“What…have we gotten ourselves in to…” Rhenakos asked Osiria.

Simone was helping Osiria get ready, “Are you really not used to this?”

“Not really… This is fancy,” Osiria looked up from getting her hair and makeup done. She looked beautiful to Simone.

“We put your names on the tickets just in case you two do something stupid,” Simone chuckled a bit and Osiria winced. They would probably indeed do something stupid.

Osiria was on his arm as they walked around, “…Looks like we’re in with a group of snobs now… We should have gone with the date on the water idea. Just the two of us… and well the driver but still. Next time we go for simple.” Although… Simone had Osiria looking like a dish, a really nice feast.

“I guess we should get some wine and hunker down this is going to be a long night.”

“Well, I wanted to go all out, you know? Besides…I can’t complain too much. Have you seen the dress you’re in?” He gave her the look that screamed ‘we’re fucking tonight’ as he led her to one of the tables. He poured them both a glass of wine, taking a moment to ‘elegantly’ offer her a glass. The whole thing was practically a joke to him at this point, so why not go with it, even if it was absurd.

“Should we….mingle?” Rhenakos asked, almost disgusted at the prospect. He could hear conversations close to them. One man was talking about investments into the royal military, while another was commenting on how avante-garde the most recent art display was. Somewhere off in the distance, he swore he could hear Raile’s influence about trade.

“On second thought…I don’t think we’ll have much to talk about,” he said. “This is…just a lot. Hopefully the play will be better…”

“You can thank Simone for this one. She picked it out… You really like it?” Of course, he liked it but she wanted to hear it. She took the wine and sipped on it. Listening in on the conversations she just sighed, “We don’t really fit in with this crowd do we?” She chuckled. “Simone and Lewis would have been a better fit.”

She snuggled into his side and held his arm as she drank, “Wonder how drunk we can get off wine before it starts… Bet you I can hold my wine better than you pretty boy.” She elbowed him softly before kissing his cheek.

“Are you Mr. Raize,” there was a snort from her.

“Of course I like the dress,” Rhenakos said with a sly smile. “It would be better on the floor, though…” He glanced around. “Though I doubt the others here would appreciate it. Not that I care, but…I think we do owe it to Simone and Lewis a little…getting kicked out of this place so quickly might give them a bad impression.” Of course, Osiria’s suggestion was not much better than his own.

“Oh, is that a bet?” he asked. “Mr. Raize here can hold his liquor quite well…” He poured another glass of wine for the two of them. It was quite easy for each of them to polish off the glasses. It was almost a game to them…they were making sure not to catch the ire of the staff and other play-goers. In the end, the two of them each had finished nearly three bottles of the dark red wine that had been provided.

It was about this time that a man appeared at an elegant, large set of double doors. “May I have your attention, everyone? The play will start soon, You may begin seating at this time.”

The groups started to head towards the door, and Rhen took one look at Os and winked. “Can probably get a last bottle in if we hurry…”

“You like all my clothes on the floor… I don’t think it matters what they look like,” she added a bit of sass as she gave him a lustful look. That was really what held together their relationship, at least that’s what she had been told. “Simone told me the tickets were ordered in our names so it shouldn’t come back on them. She said we’re trouble makers.”

“Oh ho? But not as good as his Mrs.” She smirked a bit and together they began to drink. Wine wasn’t as heavy as what they were used to but after three bottles they felt a bit tipsy. “Ahhh… One more bottle.”

They hurried up and drank their way through one last bottle before finding their seats. Her hand rested in his as the room got dark and the stage lit up. “I’ve never been to a play before,” she whispered to Rhenakos. “Apparently, the cabaret doesn’t count.”

The play started out quite simple. A man came up on stage, and started out with the usual spiel about the group performing, as well as the history behind the play. Rhenakos rolled his eyes at this, and leaned over to whisper back to Osiria. “That’s what Lewis told me too. The way I see it, though…the cabaret is definitely a play. There’s a stage, and there are performers. I don’t really get the difference,” he whispered back.

The man on the stage took a bow, and there was clapping. Rhenakos shrugged and started to clap along, though he really didn’t know why.

The curtains rose, and there were two people sitting by a fire. The Hunter and his friend. The two started a rather lengthy back and forth, but instead of anything straightforward, the language used was rather flowery and seemed to dance around the subject at hand. That, which was the beautiful princess of the land. The Hunter was going on how she was a fair maiden, so pure of heart and delicate.

“I bet she gets royally railed,” Rhenakos said under his breath. “Probably by her cousin or something…”

“Yeah, but we got kicked out of that one cabaret because you wanted me to get on stage remember? It didn’t go smoothly. I’m no dancer.” She chuckled a bit though she tried to keep her voice down.

Osiria snorted a bit, “Lovely my husband, lovely.” She was mocking the scene now but she leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. She was already dreadfully bored.

“You remember that one time in that Vilpamolan Tavern? When you got into a bar fight with some douchebag because he touched my hair after I said not to? That was pretty fucking sexy.” She was buttering him up something good. “You know I don’t like to be touched by strangers, I don’t even remember why you remembered it but you did. I think that’s the night we made Izzy.” There was another chuckle from her.

After watching another scene she made a face, “Think you nailed it on the cousin railing… Royals.”

THat was a rather fond night to remember, though Rhenakos as the play dragged on. The two of them had gone out for another round of drinking, and Rhenakos had left for a moment to go get them drinks. When he had come back, a ‘tall, dark, and handsome’ man had slithered up to Osiria, and chatted her up. Even though it was obvious she wasn’t interested, the man kept pushing, even going so far as to stroke Os’s hair. That, of course, led to Rhenakos breaking the man’s hand.

The man may have started it, but it was definitely rhenakos and Osiria who finished it. The resulting bar fight ended up with a rather large bill for both of them, and a Vilpamolan wide ban on the two of them for a month, with a permanent ban from that tavern for life.

“Yeah…good times,” Then replied with a fond smile.

“Nailed it. Just like he did her,” he said as a “dramatic” sword fight between the Hunter and the Cousin ensued. The fight ended with the Princess coming between them, urging them not to fight. Then, despite her betrothal and desperate love of her cousin noble, she proclaimed her love for the Hunter. There were sniffles in the crowd.

“I mean…she can nail them both, can’t she? They just need to talk it out. Pretty sure the noble guy swings both ways. That’s the only explanation really for that…”

Osiria let out a laugh and she got looks, “Shhhhh.” She chuckled at Rhenakos and elbowed his side. “You are going to get me in trouble. Or kicked out.”

She couldn’t help her laughter though she just had to calm herself down. “You know nobles are prudes. Look at Simone. She doesn’t even look at another man… Though that begs the question… Can Simone look at other men? Is that part of the resonance? I find you yummy but she just gets heated about you staring at her ass.”

Their conversation caused there to be a cough behind them and Osiria looked behind her to see a blushing noblewoman. “Mind ya business,” Osiria said with a shoo before turning back around and sinking backing Rhenakos. “Still… Nailing them both? At the same time? Not even you’ve gone that far since we’ve been together. At least I don’t think…”