[center][color=#B3EBC0][h1]Nolan Edwards[/h1][/color][/center]
Location: Grand Ballroom 
Attire: Attire: [url=https://i.imgur.com/8JdKRkn.png]Starry Night Attire[/url]
Interactions: [@princess] Marina
Mentions: [@princess] Lottie [@FunnyGuy] Lorenzo [@Oso] Calbert's Mitosis 
[hr]

With a look of genuine curiosity, his eyes followed hers until they landed on the very man that Lottie was smitten with though his eyes widened in shock. Why in the fuck did that man look like a carbon copy of Count Damien? When in the world did that man have a son? Why did he have a son? Did he perform mitosis and that's why the looked so similar to the man? 

[color=#B3EBC0]"It certainly isn't..."[/color] Nolan began with a healthy amount of hesitancy. [color=#B3EBC0]"But I hope that isn't all that he can offer."[/color] It would be wonderful if Lottie found someone so loyal, but she also needed stability. She needed someone that could be a solid foundation, someone that could weather the storm with her through thick and thin. Now he did not know the man so he could not make that judgement yet. Gods above he wanted to trust Lottie's judgement. His heart could not take the idea of her being hurt again.

And that hurt lingered. A sad smile crawled along his lips when Marina mentioned the Countess, Lottie's mother. [color=#B3EBC0]"Ah, yes. I was there for the funeral. It's... Well, I try not to think about it."[/color] 

Countess Emina had always been so protective and kind to him when Duchess Victoria, his adoptive mother, had not spared him anything of the sort. The times when he spent with the Vikena family on their estate in Verimont were so impossibly precious to him, words failed to describe it. To him though he never admitted it out loud, she was very much like a mother to him. Now he wished he could have gone back in time and told his younger self to not care about appearances and tell her that. Maybe she knew it, but he would never get the chance to express the sentiment to her. 

Marina's touch was a soothing balm for the turmoil that raged in his heart. She didn't take his worries away, but it was... better. Still, he could not shake whatever was bothering him. 

[color=#B3EBC0]"Well... it looks like-"[/color] Nolan cut himself short. Was that Lorenzo Vikena, Duke of Vermillion, and step-father of his best friend throwing an uppercut straight towards the king?

[color=#6C72C6]“OH, MY GODS!”[/color]

Marina's gasp and the sudden spectacular impact of her brought him back to reality. Now, she was not a particularly heavy person, but the problem was that her god damn leg was locked in with his. He could feel himself begin to topple with her off to the side as he desperately tried to hold onto her and maintain his balance.

[color=#B3EBC0][i]Fuck, fuck, [b]fuck[/b]![/i][/color]

Through no small act of willpower, he swung his leg over as they began to dip and braced itself against the floor.

[color=#B3EBC0]"Got you, I've got you..."[/color] He breathed out with relief.

It was then that clarity of [i]where[/i] he was touching her crashed into him next. One arm wrapped around her with a hand clutched tightly at her side, almost at her hip and the other on her supporting her upper back. In his haste, he just grabbed onto whatever part of her to protect her from the fall though he failed to at the same to recognize how much of a compromising position this would appear to an outside observer.

Nolan stammered out, [color=#B3EBC0]"I, uh, are you o-okay?"[/color]