Kryschenn and Cassandra waited on either side of the door as people finally began filing out of Terri's room, expressing their gratitude that Terri was now safe, and chattering happily about what costumes to wear to the ball. Kryschenn went over Cassandra's matchmaking plan in her head, glad to be thinking about something light and fun for the moment. It was simple and romantic enough...get Hank and Sheila to sit together for dinner, get them to dance together while the perfect love song was played. It stood a good chance of working.
But just in case, the contingency plan was to try to stir up some jealousy between the should-be couple, and to do that, she was more than willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good by forcing herself to flirt shamelessly with Hank. Life is rough sometimes, isn't it?
"Yes," she decided to herself, watching as Hank left with the others. She was quite unable to take her eyes off that spectacular back view. "As far as contingency plans go, this is definitely going to be the most fun." And hopefully, after the masquerade, she could find her way, in the middle of the night, to the fountain in the garden she had spotted from the window. A cold shower was definitely going to be in order for her.
Just then, Cole entered the hall, and Kryschenn sprang into action. "Cole, laddie," she said, wrapping a rather muscular piping arm around his shoulders like a Mafia Godfather about to make an offer he couldn't refuse. With a wink at Cassandra, she steered Cole away from the others, saying, "Ye were just great! I'm so glad ye could help Terri! Ye bae a hero, ye know that? I ken ye was a might worried when we first asked ye t' do it, but ye came through like a star!" When they were far enough away, her tone changed to a more conspiratorially hushed one. "And we need to ask you to do one more little thing, okay?"
Cole looked apprehensive, and not just from the way she suddenly and completely dropped the accent. As Kryschenn had just pointed out, the last "little thing" he'd been asked to do was go into someone's sleep-imprisoned mind and fight a demon of unknown abilities using powers he had only been given a few hours before with no real time for field testing.
"In case you haven't realized," Kryschenn explained, "some of us think Hank and Sheila belong together, and we're trying to set them up."
Indeed, Cole remembered wanting to strangle the fairy for doing just such a thing.
"So tonight, laddie, Cassandra has a neat little plan to spark some romance."
Cole had no idea why Kryschenn was telling him this.
"But they may not take the hint. If it comes down to it, we're going to have to try to stir up a little jealous passion between those two." Kryschenn finally came out with it. "What we need you to do, if I signal you to, is to start hitting on Sheila for all you're worth. Just flirt like you're madly in love with her. But I should warn you, this is a dangerous plan. If it works like we think, Hank will probably end up trying to kick the crap out of you. Well, laddie? What do you say?"
((Cole---I hope you don't mind me putting in your reactions for you. I based them on several posts you had made previously, so I'm hoping they still stand. ---Krys))
