October 30, 2003 – 17:00
Frank pulled by the sidewalk in front of Victoria's apartment. He was about to text her that he was there, but he saw her walking out of her door, so he closed his phone and dropped it in the glove box next to him.
"Ready? Didn't forget anything?" said Victoria when she climbed into the backseat and fastened her seatbelt.
"As ready as I'll ever be, and yes, I've got everything I need. I'm super nervous, I'm not gonna lie, but I need to do this. Thanks for getting me in."
"As if I would want to miss that. Plus, they're playing The Imperialists, you couldn't have picked a better game to do this. Her three musketeers will witness it."
"Her 3 musketeers?"
"That's what I used to call Coralis, Gus, Erik and Henry at school. Gus may not be there, but Sebastian makes a better one now."
Frank and Stephanie laughed.
"I can see the analogy," said Frank.
"Sebastian convinced him that he wanted tonight's game. Frank wanted to do it last Monday, but a game against Russia… let's just say it wouldn't have had the same impact. The 3 musketeers, I'm going to remember that one," said Stephanie from the front passenger seat.
Victoria chuckled.
"That's an understatement. You still haven't heard from her, right?" she said.
"Nothing in 3 weeks," said Frank.
"Same, neither did Sebastian. He sees her at work, but she still doesn't talk."
"You sure you'll be fine if I can't take you back home?"
"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm hoping that she'll come back with us, but just in case she wants to talk to you somewhere secluded after the game, it's better if you have your car. I may not be a flyball player, but I can fly anywhere and you know Sebastian will probably take your sister with him, or I'll give her a ride."
Victoria drove toward the highway, hoping there wouldn't be much traffic on the road. She didn't want them to be late and for Frank to miss his window. Coralis only called her once in the past 3 weeks. She was worried about her friend. She remembered what happened almost 9 years ago, but didn't think it'd be a good idea to tell them about that story.
"I remember Christmas Eve 3 years ago when she had to leave for work before the night was over. We were barely seeing each other back then and I was hoping that her having to leave for a case meant that she'd miss her flight to Scotland the next day. I got jealous of Erik and Henry. I realized quickly that I shouldn't have been and I regretted it."
"You did WHAT? Didn't I tell you to not get jealous of them? I wasn't lying when I told you that her parents would have adopted her if they would have been able to. She sees them as brothers."
"Yeah, I know that now. It didn't take me long to get that I overreacted when she explained that to me that night."
"Well, I didn't know that, but that explains a lot, seeing how they play flyball against each other and behave when they're together," said Stephanie.
Victoria arrived there on time. As they passed through the wards and the building appeared in front of him, Frank became nervous again, more than when Victoria picked them up, but he refused to back down. He was going to see his plan through, even if he was aware that it might not work. He was going to see her after a long 3 weeks, even if there was a possibility that he would only see her from the team's reserved box.
His plan had to succeed. He needed her.
They made it to the team's reserved box 5 minutes before the game started.
"Sebastian told us what might happen tonight. You didn't change your mind, I hope," said Hector.
"No, there is no way I'm changing my mind. I'm nervous as you've got no idea, but unless the people running this place won't let me do it for some reason… I'm doing it," said Frank as the announcers gathered everyone's attention.
"Sebastian has already arranged it. With the success they brought to the team, any request the team members have, they get. If my brother tells them to let a human speak during intermission, they will oblige, no question asked. Someone will come get you when it's time."
"What's going on tonight? My sister didn't tell me anything, I guess she doesn't know? Or is it that no one is supposed to know?" said Jennifer as the announcers finished the presentations.
Frank told the group what he planned on doing during the first intermission. Jennifer got up to hug him when he was done, and the game started.
"Ooooh this is so sweet. I didn't know she had been that long without talking to anyone. I hope she won't tell you no," said Jennifer as she returned to her seat.
"I don't think she will tell him no," said Victoria, pausing for a moment, "but it is indeed a possibility. Frank, if she turns you down, please don't think it's because she doesn't love you enough for that, but because things are a lot worse than I thought. Shutting herself from everyone like that, she's done that before. Worst case scenario… I'm sure she'd at least find a way to talk to you privately after the game."
"I'm mostly worried about the crowd's reaction when they see a human standing in the middle of their home field, considering the witch hunt going on. I know the team never stood against humans, but especially considering their captain is highly targeted by a lot of human governments, fans are angry," said Ralphonse.
"I'm afraid you're right," said Marita, Steven's grandmother, "but if Blue really loves him, she'll find a way to stay with him when she hears him out. My mate is human and his family is deeply religious. I remember my mother telling me repeatedly that I should forget about him, that he and his family would have us burning at the stake. He never told them about me, but it took at least 20 years for my parents to accept him."
"My mother knows about Blue and Sebastian and I think that she would beat my ass if I would have given up or dumped her when the witch hunt hit the news," said Frank.
Stephanie laughed at that.
"You'd be lucky if it'd be just Mom giving you an earful. I don't think Lizzy would have let you live it down," said Stephanie.
"I'm not worried about the crowd. Blue will be confused when she sees him in the middle of the field, but if she senses a glimpse of danger toward him, she will burn the crowd down before they get to him," said Victoria.
"Which is something no one wants to see. If the crowd gets hostile and rowdy against him, I hope that the staff will get smart and intervene before Blue does," said Ralphonse.
"Bro, you're by far the most protected human in here," said Hector, then looked at Stephanie. "No offence to you, sis. Sebastian would go ballistic too if you ever get harmed… but Blue is a lot deadlier than he is. They don't have the same track records."
"No offence taken. I remember what she did when our cousin got kidnapped. I don't want to think about what she would have done if it had been my brother. If something happens to me, Sebastian would go ballistic, I don't doubt that, but he would also ask Blue to help him."
"And she would burn everything along the way to help him out as if she were a fire mage," said Frank, which made the group erupt in laughter.
"I genuinely hope that she won't turn you down," said Ralphonse after he stopped laughing, "but things are worse than we want to acknowledge. She nearly got captured 3 weeks ago, along with some others."
"Wait WHAT?" said Frank.
Looking at Victoria and Stephanie's expressions, he knew that was the truth. Before he could ask them why they didn't tell him about it when he kept asking them about Coralis, two staff members came in and signalled for his attention.
"Sir, it's time. Please follow us."