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“Come and find me later. I’ll introduce you to some of the officers—but you won’t like any of them as much as me.”

It was surreal to see a member of the Duodecim coming on so strong. Nicole had always flitted through life pretty flirtatiously, casually keeping everyone on their toes with signs of her interest. She was an engaging girl who liked to show her interest in people, but it was as much a form of conversation to her as jokes or heart-to-hearts full of sisterly advice. Aiya was something altogether different; she was a girl who had the whole planet at her disposal, cut from the same staggeringly lucky cloth as Vanna, conceived as part of a grand cosmic plan and born within the winner's circle. It was Nicole's luck that she had been born a carefree girl, a meandering pirate captain whose childhood had been spent navigating a sea of technicolor xenon, with good vibes and cheap street food at every port; it was Aiya's divine right to dance and rule and flirt the way she did.

In that moment, some terrified part of Nicole screamed what Astrelle had been screaming aboard the [i]Laurus[/i] at Penny and Dana, with their heads full of cartoons - [color=ec008c][i]grow up. No fun allowed.[/i][/color]

But that didn't seem like much of a way to live, either. Would the others have made her 'heart of the team,' as Cordelia had put it, if she wasn't working overtime to be their sister figure? It was still work to make people love you, wasn't it?

She'd been having a lot of these thoughts over the past couple days. Not for the first time, Nicole missed Astrelle. Aiya had been taken aside by her own set of responsibilities - responsibilities in this case being defined as stocky, well-groomed guards straight from central casting, a cabal that was uncannily comely and disquietingly faceless, each bodyguard utterly indistinguishable from each other. So following dumbly in her stead, while tempting, was also a no go. Besides, being clingy wasn't a good way to get girls to keep thinking you were hot.

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For a while, Nicole sought the company of the other remaining noble in her life. Vanna had survived enough of the pleasantries of the Duodecim over her own life that she was afforded some leeway the other cadets were not; she had found her way out onto one of the balconies adjacent to the ballroom, nursing a single flute of champagne that her pale fingers in a way that reminded Nicole of a woman clutching [s]her[/s] a throat. She cajoled and schmoozed her teammate for a bit, trying to get her to come out on the dance floor, but Vanna seemed content with the breeze and the moon for companionship. Nicole's presence was tolerated, maybe even with a hint of warmth, but in the end the Hastan realized that her light wasn't really necessary in such serene company, and she bade Vanna a goodnight. 

A dance with her lilac-haired coffee queen was the next highlight of her night; the two chatted about mochas and music for a few minutes, Nicole twirling in her arms, before her counterpart was pulled away for an introduction. Another, less engaging conversation or two followed before she managed to extract herself; Aiya had caught her eye again, gesturing for her to meet some of her compatriots from the officer's academy. On the way, Nicole found herself stopped by a leonine blonde boy, blue-eyed and grinning impishly. He pushed a flute of champagne from his family's table into her hand, along with a napkin containing two chocolate-coated strawberries. "She's the girl!" he called out to Aiya's table straining to be heard over the upbeat swing of the band changing tempo. Nicole giggled; she raised her voice to match his, tingling all over, buzzed and alive. She felt like her whole body had become her Ars Armagus. Maybe it had.

[color=ec008c]"I'm the girl!"[/color] she crowed, taking a big sip of her drink and feeling her arms tingle again at the taste.

She spent the rest of the night there, surrounded by young men she'd never met before and a Duodecim who seemed to hang on her every word. It made Nicole think again about their different life experiences, but this time she hit upon another truth - to Aiya, and to all of them, an Ars Magi must have been equally exotic. The nobility among them had grown up with them as a faceless, powerful fact of life, more beautiful than the guards who had escorted Aiya to her next engagement but equal in purpose and obstinance. They were there to be mysteries, not to be explored and bantered with. So she broke the ice the way Nicole Cognoscenti did best, telling stories from home, mining them each for more things to do in Palmyra, and even explaining again her superpower of free samples magnetism. One cadet had been as skeptical as Penny before another Nova Lux cadet drifted up with some delicious-looking bread and spread. Nicole took a bite out of it and silently freaked out when she felt the familiar texture and flavors of pesto on her tongue; she'd had a humiliating pine nut allergy all her life, and for a few minutes she desperately tried to play it cool...before realizing that nothing was happening, and it was safe to take another bite. A passive effect of her metamorphosis into a magical girl?

[color=ec008c][i]Holy crap. Holy crap![/i][/color]

Aiya had been half-right; for the rest of the night, the de Mars' heiress' table was the one she'd stuck with, and she liked each cadet equally, but none so much as her one-time dance partner herself. When it was finally time for the glittering jewels of Nova Lux to return to their chambers, Nicole did so with smuggled armfuls of pesto bites, strawberries, and a rich girl's number. 

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The Ars Magi had partied with various levels of enthusiasm, and for a time they relaxed in the common room, with Nicole sharing her snacks, stories, and plenty of giggles with Penny and Dana. Somewhere in all that mingling, one of the many unseen Powers that Be that made the campus run must have moved Cordelia's things into Nicole's empty dorm. The butler's things had all been meticulous tucked in and the sheets on both beds had been freshly changed - obliterating any traces of Astrelle Lennox that might have remained, save perhaps in memory or races of aura that Nicole was not yet attuned to. With that in mind, and as the buzz of the evening turned to a general feeling of drunken sleepiness, she tried her best to make her shower prompt - and made sure how to explain to Cordelia beforehand the necessity of fiddling with the shower knob to get the best potential water temperature. It would save her from going through the scalding initiation that Nicole and Astrelle had. 

As the water plastered her scarlet hair to her forehead, her fingers brushed her bare stomach and touched the emerald inlaid there. Maybe the rest of her life wouldn't be filled with nights like this one...but that was all the more reason to treasure them. That thought - and the hot water - teamed up to cut through her drowsy, inebriated haze, and she focused hard on the feeling of every droplet that broke or clung to her bare body. Through trial and error, and endless curses, she had found the dark alchemy required to coax a perfect shower out of this damn thing every morning and every night. Such a perfect shower deserved to be remembered, and she wanted to commit every second of it to memory - every second of the whole [i]night[/i] to memory.

She focused hard, biting her lip and smiling dreamily, until she felt like she'd succeeded. Only time would tell if she was right. Tomorrow morning would be the first test. She turned off the shower and dried off, only barely remembering before opening the bathroom door that she actually had to begin getting dressed before bed again.

After all, she had a roommate to consider.