Don't kiss and tell

"My dear Vincent

I do need your help with a bit of an embarrassing matter; there’s a class mate in the university whom I not particularly like and in order to decline an invitation to one of her dinners I made up that I had already “promised my fiancé to meet him, and since we are all terribly busy with exams I don’t see him quite often, and it would be inconsiderate of me to cancel our plans”

Apparently, her logical answer was to invite him too, and see the problem is that I don’t happen to have a fiancé. I know it’s a compromising situation but I do not want people to believe that I lie in these matters, and you are the only friend I rely on enough to ask this favor too
Don’t consider yourself obligated to assist, but if you do you’d make me an incredible favour and I will owe you forever. If you say no I won’t be mad or angry either, don’t worry

R. Rutherford

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Rosalie waited on the rendezvous point for her friend as she bit her lower lip; the blonde was nervous for several factors and as time passed the temptation of just sending a letter to Marie saying that she was sick grew. The worst part is that she was not nervous about the lying per se; she was a terrible liar but her plan was to speak as little as possible and to let Vincent and his charm carry on the façade

The problem was Vincent, and the fact that she was going to pretend that she was the fiancé of someone that she actually fancied. Maybe another person would have been eager about the opportunity, maker she had even done her hair and makeup for the party (even if she honestly was loathing the feeling of it on her face) but Rosalie was on the verge of hyperventilation due to the fact that she was sure of that Vincent would be able to sense that she was not acting and that it would ruin their friendship. Rosalie tried to focus on the feel of the mask covering her face, hoping that it would suffice to mask her expressions; for once she was glad of that masks were a thing in Orlais.

Dear Rosie,

Wow that sounds like quite the predicament, of course I can help you out, anything for you! I'll see you then.

Vincent

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Vincent had doubts about the whole thing, partly because he genuinely did have feelings for Rosie, so the idea of pretending to be in a relationship with someone he could easily see himself falling in love with felt a bit weird. However, on the other hand because of his feelings for Rosie, he'd just about do anything for her no questions asked, so awkwardness aside he was invested in helping her no matter his actual feelings for her.

It hadn't been too terribly difficult getting the time away from the Grey Wardens, though actually finding his mask was another story. He hadn't really used one since becoming a Grey Warden, one of the nice bonuses, he'd always hated the masks, made his face feel itchy. He decided he'd put it on at the last possible moment, so he wasn't wearing it yet when he approached Rosie, instead he had it in his left hand. He smiled warmly.

Sorry, hope I'm not late, took me awhile to find my mask, haven't worn the thing in years. As far as his clothing he was actually borrowing some things from Tristan, since Vincent had never really owned fancy clothing.

Rosalie was wearing a velvety dress, which was quite modest to Orlesian standards but way more refined than what she was used to wear. It matched the green of her peacock mask, which was also more extravagant than her usual more modest masks. To sum up, Rosalie felt like a clown rather than an elegant lady, and swore that she would never trust a peer to choose her clothing.

“You look different” she said as she looked at Vincent, quite surprised. Not that she expected him to show up in armor but it was so different from his usual clothes that it caught her by surprise. “Not different bad, just I…I think you always look great! But now is great like fancy which is good too but like I guess I miss your face a litte? And the armor looked cozier which is weird because it’s metal” and Rosalie closed her mouth abruptly before more stupid stuff came out of it.

“Not late at all but we should be moving; Marie’s party starts in half an hour and accounting for the fashionably late nonsense we have like an hour but you know, I’d rather not push it and be rudely late” said Rosalie with a nervous giggle and she swore to herself that she had never said so many ridiculous things in such a short amount of time

Vincent was practically speechless with how gorgeous that Rosalie looked in her dress, not that she didn't always look good, but he'd never seen her in something so fancy. He chuckled as she talked about him looking different and how it wasn't 'bad' different and how his armour looked comfier but how that was weird because it was metal. He chuckled at her words, but in a warm way, not a rude way.

Well, to be honest I'm more comfortable in my armour than I am in fancy dress. We never had fancy dress growing up, definitely nothing like this. It feels a bit weird, but I don't mind, some times different and weird can be good, well, as long as this isn't something I have to do every day. He was relieved that he wasn't late and nodded about the party starting in an half an hour and that that was accounting for being fashionably late a concept that Vincent had never really understood, but since he was always late to one thing or another, he kind of liked the idea that there was a 'fashionably late' he could claim instead of the truth which was just him being late.

So, anything I should know about Marie before we get in there? OH, and what exactly does she know about us?

“Definitely not every day, I’d miss my Vincent” she said with a warm smile before realizing what had left her mouth “As in my Vincent my you know, old pal, friend super best acquittance Vincent” and there she was, doing a Thesaurus of the world friend as long as it hid how bad she was crushing on him.

“She’s mean, stupid and possibly hates me. I am sure of that she insisted on you coming, because she knows I made it up and wanted to leave me in evidence” confessed Rosalie, not being able to hid her distaste for her. “I made up a boring story; we met in the marketplace because I lost my purse, you helped my to retrieve it and after I invited you to a drink because I was grateful and thought that you were quite handsome” said Rosie as they arrived to Marie’s house “And the rest is quite obvious, we liked each other and eventually dated plus became engaged”

When they were in the main door Rosalie brushed her dress “So, ready?” said her with a smile as the door was opened by a staff member. Music and laughter filtered thought the door but Rosalie felt as if she was entering into a trap.

Vincent smiled warmly at Rosalie as she went through a slew of synonyms for the word friend, he wasn't entirely sure how to take it. On one hand, he liked the way 'my Vincent' sounded, on the other hand, he also felt a bit sad at the thought of only being friends, but he if that was all she wanted, he considered her friendship very dear to him.

Hon, we're in Orlais, if you aren't hated by someone, you're doing something wrong. He'd called her hon, he hadn't meant to but there it was, it had slipped right out, maybe she won't have noticed his little slip or just assume it was an expression of friendship, friends could be hon's couldn't they. As she explained the story of how they met, for a moment he wasn't sure why she hadn't just gone with the true story of how they'd met, though it wasn't nearly as exciting he supposed. When she said 'engaged' he flushed slightly, had she mentioned that before in the letter, engaged, he couldn't remember but it made him speechless for a moment.

He took her arm in his, caressed her hand affectionately and smiled confidently.

We got this!

Rosalie entwined her hand inside of Vincent’s as they were lead inside of the house. The blonde never had a boyfriend before so she didn’t know which was the proper amount of closeness to display. The woman settled from keeping their fingers laced togheter as Marie was introduced to the guests. She was wearing an over the top dress that made her look like a pink gigantic bird and as soon as the introductions ended, she headed towards Rosalie with an hypocrite smile.

“Rosiiiii you made it!! And brought your lover!!” said Marie with her usual high pitched voice “So tell me darling, how did you land someone so handsome, considering that you spend all of your time locked in the library? I was almost sure of that your finacé was going to be a book called Vincent” said the woman to what Rosalie, who just tried to fake a polite smile.

“I don’t know, maybe I am just extraordinary lucky; specially considering that his charm and kindness is even better than his looks” added the blonde.

Vincent felt a bit like he was being led into a lion's den, but then this was Orlais after all. Growing up poor he'd never really played the game like his friend Lucien had and then having spent the last eight years or so with the Grey Wardens put him even further away from the game. This outing definitely reminded him how much he despised the game and those that took a pleasure in playing it. After all, his friend Lucien could play it, but he was never boastful or proud of the fact.

He did his best not to look embarrassed as the woman looked him over like a fresh piece of meat and while she did, he pulled Rosalie a bit closer to him, not even realising he was doing so, but having her close just made him feel better about the whole ordeal.

Well, I won't lie, I do compete with the books from time to time, but there's a lot more to Rosalie than just her love for books, one only has to have the patience and consideration to ask her.

Marie seemed clearly unimpressed by Vincent’s attempt to defend Rosalie. The blonde was admittedly flustered between Vincent’s kind words and his closeness. “After talking with someone as interesting as my fiancé, it’s very hard to maintain attention in books, I assure you my friend” she added quietly, her gaze avoiding his.

The woman in front of them detected quite fast that she would not obtain entertainment by meddling the two of them so she shrugged and without a lot of enthusiasm encouraged the pair to enjoy the food and the party.

Rosalie turned around and grabbed a glass of wine before passing another to her companion “Are you secretly an actor? If I didn’t know you better I would have mistaken you for a hopelessly in love boyfriend” said the blonde trying to make a joke, and realizing that likely she was the one going around looking hopelessly in love and drowned the whole glass and grimaced.

Marie didn't seem quite as scary or intimidating as he was expecting, though she definitely gave off distinct bitch vibes just the same. Either way he was glad when Marie finally walked off, seemingly having grown bored of Rosalie and himself. He smiled as Rosalie turned to get a glass of wine and then tried his best to hide any emotion when she mentioned how easily he'd 'acted' being a hopelessly in love boyfriend. 

The thing was, he wasn't exactly lying, sure he wasn't Rosalie's boyfriend, but he was also definitely falling in love with her and often imagined what it might be like to be her boyfriend. Usually those thoughts ended with him trying to convince himself that Rosalie deserved better than anything he could give her. After all, he was just a former thief turned grey warden, he had no home, he had no money, he had nothing.

Ah, ha ha, well if the Grey Warden thing doesn't pan out, I'll look into becoming an actor, probably pays better. Was he convincing, he didn't feel convincing but he was trying his best to agree with her and not be awkward about it.

“Well if you trade careers do give me a heads up! I will be sure to go to your plays and clap extraordinarily loud” said Rosalie with a bit of laughter as she finished her drink. She had never drank wine like this, she examined it closely and it was not red per se but pink and kind of bubbly and fresh. The blonde definitively liked the soft flavour more than what she favored others.

“You should try the wineeee” said Rosie as she passed him a glass “You know now that Marie is gone I am way more relaxed. This is fun, like not everyday fun like having chocolate or reading a good book but a once in a while fun” said Rosie as she finished her second glass “The bubbly is making things a bit spinny, that’s interesting, perhaps alcohol affects proprioception” said the blonde thoughtfully as she stared at the now empty glass

“We should dance Vincent, I know that you are leaving soon to one of these missions in the North, which means you won’t have a chance to dance in a while too” said Rosie grabbing his hand and pulling him closer, fueled by the liquid courage that ran through her veins “Just a couple of dances, I have never danced but it seems like fun”

Vincent smiled and laughed at her comment about that she would go to his plays and clap loudly, he could actually picture her in an audience doing just that if he actually did what he said and gave up being a grey warden for being an actor. Granted that kind of move wouldn't go over so well with the rest of the Grey Wardens, but then they were only speaking in hypotheticals.

Vincent couldn't help but laugh a bit at how tipsy that Rosalie was getting. He thought it was cute how she was enjoying the wine and really getting into the whole having fun thing. It was definitely a side of Rosalie he'd never seen before. Though some of the words she was using he wasn't quite sure what they meant, though by context he assumed they had something to do with the side effects of being drunk.

Hun, you're starting to use the big words, you know I didn't go to school like you, I don't know the big words! He put a hand on her lower back just in case the spinny turned to fally downy and smiled warmly at her. I've never danced before either, so sure, one dance but then after you have to drink some water, fair? He might now shit about dancing, but he knew a lot about getting drunk and he wanted to try and minimise how shitty she'd feel later.

“But using big words is my thing in the same way being handsome mysterious and cool is yours! Don’t take away my stuff Vincent” she said leaning on him, turning her head and pressing a kiss to his arm. Tomorrow she would regret it but bubbly wine Rosalie wanted to enjoy the moment.

“I will drink one glass for one dance, I promise” she said as she positioned herself like the rest were, initiating the waltz and meshing with the rest of the dancers. She looked up, her hands on his shoulders as they swayed gently with the music “I had never noticed how tall you are, and that your lips are kind of pretty” she said without thinking, the liquid courage fueling her words.
The dance was quite enjoyable, her heart beating so close to his and it was so easy to pretend that they were in love, engaged and that they had a future in common.

When the dance was over she was mesmerized and tiptoed for a moment, putting her lips closer to his and retracting in the last moment to kiss his cheek "I am ready for water now" she said realizing now that she was making a fool of herself. This was a façade, not their reality

Vincent wasn't sure what to make or Rosalie at the moment, on one hand it could all be apart of the ruse. However, on the other hand, he wasn't sure if she was *this* good an actress. He was ever the gentleman though and did his best to make sure she was all right. He'd seen plenty of people drunk before, and he was personally well aware of what being drunk could do to someone.

The dance was fun, and it was getting harder and harder to tell if it was still an act or not, but as Vincent was the sober one, he wasn't about to say or do anything that would compromise or embarrass Rosalie. He definitely blushed a few thousand shades of red when she kissed him on the cheek, suddenly realising that he was wondering what it would be like to kiss her on the lips. He smiled when she said she was ready for water.

Wait, did you eat anything before you left? He was wondering if perhaps having an empty stomach was why the alcohol went to her head so fast, or perhaps she was just that much of a light weight.

“No I did not” said Rosalie as she leaned against him. She eyed the party surrounding her as she leaned against Vincent while sipping on a glass of water that he had passed her. To be honest she was fed up with the pretending, and a bit hungry since she had been so nervous about the party that she had been unable to eat a single bite before coming here.

She wanted to eat something comforting, maybe hot bread with butter and then sleep cozily. Her feet hurt, the dress was too tight and she had never been a party girl

“Take me home Vincent, we can get some food there and then we can go to sleep” she said cozily before realizing that while she meant that each one could go to sleep to their own places, it had not been clarified

“I meant sleep as in you go to your home I go mine and we do the sleeping as an independent activity of course” she said blushing hard, whispering the clarification on his ear so that it would not be overheard.