Excitedly waiting in line, she gnawed on her lower lip as she stood on her tip-toes, attempting to see over the line of people in front of her. Damn short people problems, she thought to herself. She faintly registered hushed whispers coming from her friend group behind her, but was far too distracted by the glimpses of the red suit at the front of the line to really pay attention to anything else.

A sharp laugh pierced through her distracted mind, and she glanced over her shoulder, seeing someone in her group bolt upright, yanking something in their hands out of sight to hide it behind their back. Making eye contact, she puckered her lips and raised a brow in a questioning expression, but her attention was ripped away again by the line moving forward a few feet. Not long now-- it would be her turn soon…

The whispers and murmurs continued but as she got closer and closer to the front of the line her ears started throbbing with the sound of her own heartbeat. She wasn’t usually one to become starstruck, but something about tonight made her giddy.  One more person to go…

Now at the front of the line, she could clearly see Copia in all his crimson-suited glory, laughing and posing with the person ahead of her, taking their photos and exchanging quick pleasantries. She swallowed hard, mind starting to go a little blank as all of the practiced words and rehearsed lines started to flitter into the grey void. Shit. Her mouth felt suddenly dry as the person ahead of her gathered their things and began to leave, a handler now turning their attention to her to usher her forward for her own moment with the Cardinal.

A nervous, flat smile pulled at her lips as she glanced once more over her shoulder at her friends, catching a glimpse of them hemming and hawing over a piece of paper with a lot of red and flesh tones on it. Something in the pit of her stomach didn’t like that and her brow furrowed briefly, but she didn’t have much time to dwell on it before she was being dragged closer to Copia.

Now face-to-face, her eyes became glued to his, his own gazing back with a waiting expression as his hands clasped together in front of him. After a beat of awkward silence, the Cardinal seemed to pick up on her nervousness and took it upon himself to open up the greeting. “Eh, hello there. How are you this evening?” She blinked a couple of times before letting out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Ah...uh, G-Good,” she managed to mutter, giving a crooked open-mouthed smile and rubbing absent-mindedly behind her ear with her hand. 

“No need to be nervous, my dear” Copia soothed, a soft smile gracing his features as his posture changed to a more open stance, his arms pointed outward and palms open. “I promise I don’t bite.”

She let out a stifled chuckle, covering her lips with her fingertips and glancing away at the comment. “Yea, this is my first ritual,” she stated, folding her arms together in front of her in a somewhat anxious pose. 

Copia’s eyes lit up at the admission, “Ah, Wonderful!” he said gleefully, stepping closer to her and placing a hand at the small of her back. “It’s always a pleasure to have new people join us,” he added, gently tugging her to his side in a half-hug, his eyes shining as he searched hers for shared contact. 

The hand at her back made her heart skip a beat, and the hug to his side was probably the only thing that kept her from falling over where she stood. She couldn’t help but grin like a fool as she looked up at him, the eye contact surprisingly soft and welcoming. She opened her mouth to speak but her train of thought was interrupted by the cacophonous sound of her friends giggling and the scuffing of shoes across the floor. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a piece of paper go flying across the table in front of her from the direction of her group - landing flatly directly in front of Copia. She glanced sideways at it, her pupils blown wide once she realized what it was. 

Somehow Copia hadn’t noticed it at first, only at her change of expression did he quirk a brow and start to turn his head towards the table where the offending piece of paper lay. “Shit!” she hissed, lurching forward to snatch the paper up and shove it behind her back, leaning away from the Cardinal with a sheepish, toothy grin plastered across her face. 

“What was that?” Copia questioned, wearing a curious expression and a very slight smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. 

“What was what” she chirped, facial expression contorting into a cartoonish mixture of nervousness and feigned innocence. The Cardinal squinted at her, pursing his lips slightly and raising a brow. He’d barely seen what was on the paper before she snatched it out of his view, but it was certainly enough to pique his curiosity, and her attempt at hiding it even moreso. 

“What are you hiding behind your back, hm?” he asked, voice dipping low and quiet as he leaned closer to her, just barely hovering over her in stature, inches from her face. Distracted by how close he was to her and the feel of his breath on her skin, she failed to notice his arm snaking behind her to snatch the paper from her hands, yanking it away quickly before she had a chance to even think about trying to steal it back. An alarmed squeak erupted from her throat as he took the paper from her. She made a weak grab for it as he pulled away, but he was quick to move out of reach so he could look at what she so desperately tried to hide from him.

Her ears were on fire, all sound around her completely drowned out by the thumping of blood rushing through her skull. Faint giggles sounded in the distance, but admonishing her friends for what they’d just done was the farthest thing from her mind at the moment. Copia’s face was hidden by shadows as he stared down at the paper, the Cardinal being careful to hold it close to his body so that nobody else around could catch any glimpses of what was on it. 

Shit! Shit shit shit!! She screamed internally, her eyes wide and her face stuck in a comical, contorted mixture of panic and anxious grinning. 

On the paper clutched in Copia’s hand was a very skilled illustration of the man himself, naked and bound in silky, crimson ropes, a dainty spiked and studded collar perched high on his neck with a cute little heart shaped dog tag with “Rat” engraved upon it. She stared in the Cardinal’s direction, bug-eyed and frozen in place. She almost wished a hole to Hell would open up beneath her and swallow her whole. 

After a few torturous moments of silence, Copia finally turned his head back towards her, a downright devious smirk gracing his features and she could swear that his white eye glinted in the shadows. Carefully folding the paper into a square, he turned back towards her, sauntering ever so slowly back into her personal bubble. Leaning in close, he held the piece of paper up between two fingers, just to the side of her face. 

“Very… flattering imagery here” he mused, a brow quirking for emphasis and voice dangerously low. “Did you draw this?” he added, snaking an arm behind her once again to place his hand flat on her lower back.

She startled slightly at the touch, caught off guard and now looking like a deer in headlights. The tone in his voice sent shivers down her spine and all she could do was nod lightly in response. She felt like she might just pass right the fuck out where she stood. Her eyes were glued to his face, flicking between his mouth and eyes as he spoke. The corner of his mouth curled upwards even further, his smirk becoming toothy. 

“Is this…” he started, waggling the piece of paper in the air, “...what you would like to do to me? Hm?” His grin spread even bigger as he watched her throat bob, swallowing nervously and snapping her lips together, unable to speak or do much more than stare wide-eyed at him in response. With a breathy chuckle Copia pressed his hand into her back, closing the distance between them and pressing her body flush against his own. 

With a slight yelp, her face flushed like a tomato and she was pretty sure she could feel a slight stiffness in his pants against her hip. Dipping his head closer, his lips ghosted against the shell of her ear as he spoke, “Perhaps… we can arrange that, eh, my little Ghuleh?”

Maybe she owed her friends a favor instead.