❝I swear by the moon I am most  melancholy soft,
and most outrageous sentimental. ❞

𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑

It was the eve of the first ball, and Cancer was panicking.

"Gods, what if she's puking into the toilet right now?" she fretted, twisting a pale pink curl around her finger as she paced to and fro. She was not even dressed yet, walking around in only a corset and underskirt.

Pisces and Scorpio were already dressed and ready to go, the former seated on his bed and the latter leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

Cancer had been like this for the better part of the day. The Queen issued an order that forbid the Zodiac from seeing Virgo—she was up in some special room somewhere—and none of them knew what was going on. Virgo was relatively quiet, so this was not a big deal for people like Pisces or Scorpio, but not Cancer.

"What if she falls down the stairs on the way? What if she trips and cracks her head open on the dance floor?"

There were so many things that could go wrong and Cancer had no idea what to do. Virgo was one of her best friends—it wasn't right that she was sitting idly by while something awful might happen (or be happening) to her.

"Relax, hon, you're worrying too much," Pisces said from where he was fidgeting with his hair on the other side of the room. "Virgo's not going to crack like an egg at the ball. You know you have a tendency to blow things out of proportion when you get worked up like this."

Cancer didn't hear him. Her head felt light and dizzy and her vision was fuzzy and surely she wasn't thinking straight but it didn't matter when something awful could happen to Virgo. "What if she's hallucinating constantly and can't even get out of bed?" she whispered, biting her nails and shaking her head. "Oh, that would be awful and then she—"

"Cancer."

She hardly heard her name until the feeling of calloused fingertips against her bare arms caused her to stop her pacing, and that was when she looked up to see Scorpio standing over her, dark hair falling in front of his face. His expression looked as stoic as always, but it was hard to tell when her vision was still foggy and panic was still fluttering in her chest.

"Breathe."

Cancer tried to take in a deep, shuddering breath and exhaled.

"Again."

She did it again. Again.

Scorpio continued to watch her for a moment. "Better?"

She nodded wordlessly, squeezing her eyes shut. Virgo will be okay. The ball will be okay. There will be no attack on the Queen tonight.

"Hey." He squeezed her arms, eyes narrowed. "Words."

"I'm not sure I'd believe you anyway, Crab Cakes," Pisces chimed in.

Cancer shook her head, swallowing her worries into the pit of her stomach. "I'm okay," she finally forced out, because she would be.

Scorpio gave her an I don't believe a word of that look, but she crossed her arms over her chest and walked back over to her bed, where this evening's dress was laid out. Nothing awful will happen tonight, she told herself, shaking her head like it would rid her of the worries. The first ball was supposed to be fun—she could dance and drink and talk to Pisces about all the gods she wanted to set up.

The first ball would be fun. Cancer would not let her senseless worries get in the way.

She blew out a long breath and held up her dress. It was gigantic, far larger than the flowy day dresses she usually wore, made with pale pink and blue fabric. It was stunning—she hoped it wouldn't swallow her.

"Hey, Pisces, would you help me lace up the back?" she asked once she'd successfully navigated putting it on. Scorpio and Pisces had seen plenty of boobs before, but she still held the top of the corset bodice to keep from exposing herself.

"Give me a sec, I'm almost done with my eye glitter."

It took a moment, but then she felt Pisces' presence behind her as he got to work on the laces. He was much faster than Scorpio, who always seemed to worry about hurting her by tying the laces too tightly. Pisces had no such concerns and finished within a few minutes, spinning her around to give her a once-over.

He quirked a cheeky grin. "Looking good, Canc."

She felt her cheeks heat up and ducked her head, but judging by Pisces' chuckle, he saw it anyway. "Thank you," she told him. "You look really pretty too. That color suits you."

It was true. Of all the Zodiacs, she had always thought Pisces was one of the most beautiful. His hair was a perfect white, with bright blue eyes and lovely fair-freckled skin. The blue number he wore right now complemented his features perfectly.

He grinned. "Hey, thanks. Scorp, will you tell me how pretty I look, too?" He spun around to bat his eyelashes at Scorpio, who was leaning against the wall again and eyeing them with the same heavy-lidded look he always wore.

Cancer laughed and looped her arm around Pisces', dragging them toward him. "Me too! Tell us how lovely we look, Scorpio."

Like always, he gave them a dead-eyed glare.

"Don't be like that," Pisces cooed.

Cancer grinned and approached him, wrapping an arm around his waist and pinching his cheek. "Well, you look very pretty too, you know."

Scorpio was another especially pretty god, but in a different way than Pisces. He was darker—darker hair, darker eyes, darker stare. His skin was significantly paler than either of them because he spent most of his time in the Underworld, but Cancer found it charming.

"Thank the Queen," he said, rolling his eyes, and Cancer laughed at that.

"Well, shall we? I'm ready if you two are."

Wordlessly, Pisces extended his hand toward her, and the three of them made their way out of the room and down into the foyer. As it turned out, they were the last ones to make it, seeing as they could hear the rest of the Zodiac making their way out of this part of the palace and into the ballroom.

There was still a dreadful twisting feeling in Cancer's gut, but she tried to ignore it. The first ball was always fun and she would not ruin it for herself. Virgo was surely okay, right? She wouldn't crack her head on the dance floor. Pisces is right, she told herself. She did tend to blow things out of proportion.

Eventually, they reached the big gold doors that led to the ballroom. It was huge and Cancer could already hear the music and lively chatter coming from inside.

The doors opened for them, and they stepped into the room.

"Look at that, they've finally arrived!"

"Thought you might've gotten lost on your way."

"You three sure took your time!"

"Hey, we're glad you made it."

The ballrooms glittered with crystals and gold. It was flooded with people, gods of all kinds from all kinds of places. The dance floor was a sea of color as the dancers twirled and dipped and kept in time with the music as it began to slow.

Cancer was just about to ask where Virgo was when there was a hand grasping hers and suddenly, she was being pulled out onto the dance floor, nearly tripping over her skirts in the process.

The world around her bled together into a runny watercolor of dancing bodies and flowing dresses as she was spun around into the someone's arms who pulled her out here in the first place.

"Goodness, you look like you've just seen a ghost."

She knew that voice. Cancer blinked furiously, willing the world to come back into focus, and found Capricorn standing in front of her, one hand on her waist and the other holding hers as the song started up again.

She could hardly gather her wits before they started dancing and she nearly stepped on his feet.

"You look lovely, by the way."

Cancer felt her cheeks heat up against her will when Capricorn chuckled, she couldn't help but laugh too. "Well, thank you," she hummed, giving him a once-over. He didn't look half-bad himself (what an understatement). His hair was neat, his suit was tailored to perfection, and the colors he wore made those sharp grey eyes of his stand out. "You're very beautiful, too."

He quirked a half smile at that. "Thank you."

Cancer studied his expression. He was sporting that same calm, collected look he always did, but she didn't miss the faint dark circles beneath his eyes or the way his skin looked a bit less dewy than usual. "Are you alright, Cap?"

She watched his eyes widen just a fraction. "Of course," he said—a lie.

"You're worried about her too, then." Of course he was, they all were. She saw how his lips parted slightly and chuckled, shaking her head. "I think you think you're a lot better at hiding your feelings than you actually are."

He stared at her for a moment, still looking unreasonably surprised, and then he descended into a bout of quiet laughter. "No, I think you're just a psychic," he murmured, squeezing her hand. "Yeah, I'm worried. The Queen hasn't let any of us see her and I don't even know if she's here tonight."

Cancer nodded, biting her bottom lip. It was still raw from all her worrying last night and she winced. "I'm scared for her. What if something really terrible happened?"

Capricorn's brow furrowed. "I don't—"

Suddenly, she was spinning around as the song changed and when gentle hands landed on her waist, they weren't Capricorn's.

Cancer blinked furiously. Was this her imagination? Was this all her imagination? Was she actually still back in her room, pacing around in her underskirt and babbling senselessly?

"Hey, what's wrong? My makeup isn't that bad, is it?"

Cancer couldn't help the tears that pricked her eyes as she took in the sight of her very beautiful, very alive, very well best friend. "Oh, thank the Queen!" she exclaimed tearily, throwing her arms around Virgo's shoulders and spinning them around. "Oh, gods, I was so worried, V, I thought something really awful had happened to you and I had no idea what to do to help you and—"

"Hey, hey, deep breaths, I'm fine," Virgo said, setting her down and wrapping an arm around her waist again, pulling them close as she held Cancer's other hand. "I don't like seeing you so worked up over me, you know."

"I can't help it!" Cancer exclaimed, wiping her eyes. "You're one of my favorite people in the whole world and I don't know what I'd do if something terrible happened to you!"

"I'm okay, sweetheart, you don't have to cry." Virgo sounded almost sheepish as she chuckled and thumbed away some of Cancer's stray tears. They were still dancing, albeit quite clumsily thanks to her, but Cancer didn't really care when Virgo was right in front of her, alive and okay.

In fact, she looked better than ever. There was no gauntness in her features, no sallow cheeks or wanness. Her smile was bright and wide, just like it always was, and her dress was expertly made, layered with shades of sage green and a deep purple that suited her fantastically.

"Oh, thank the Queen you're alright," Cancer sniffled. "I'm so sorry I didn't do anything to help, V, I'm really sorry."

"You don't need to be," Virgo said with a knowing smile. "You were just following the Queen's orders and that's the most important thing. It is a bit of an ego boost that you were so worried, though."

Cancer laughed at that, wiping away the last of her tears, and moved her thumb up and down the base of Virgo's neck absentmindedly. She felt awful that Virgo was probably suffering and she just stood by, but her friend also had a point. The Zodiac existed solely to protect the Queen. That meant following her orders, even if Cancer didn't like them.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she murmured, shaking her head.

Virgo's answering smile was warm and bright, just like it should have been. "Thank you, Canc. I'm glad, too."

Cancer meant to reply, but once again, she was being spun away into the arms of the next dancer as the song changed again—this would be the last one of the quadrant before the musicians took a quick break.

She twisted around and took hold of her partner's hands, looking up to meet glittering obsidian eyes.

"Oh!" she breathed, grinning despite the uneven rise and fall of her chest. Dancing in heels and a dress that weighed as much as her was much harder than one would think. "I didn't think you were dancing tonight, Scorpio."

His throat bobbed as he moved his hands to her waist—they were much larger than Virgo's, but both of them had similar fingers, long and lithe. "I wasn't planning on it," he answered in a low timbre—of all the Zodiacs, she thought Scorpio had the deepest voice. It was quite impressive, actually. "Aries had other plans, though."

Cancer laughed at that. Aries and Scorpio were not enemies by any means—not like Capricorn and Sagittarius, who would rather eat their own feet than say one nice thing about each other—but they did enjoy antagonizing each other. She could only imagine Aries practically shoving Scorpio onto the dance floor with a wide slash of a grin.

"Well, I'm glad," she told him decidedly, smiling. "You're a very good dancer. I almost stepped on Capricorn's feet just a moment ago, you know?"

She saw the faintest quirk of the corners of his lips, and though he had to bend his head over slightly to meet her eyes, casting his face in shadow, she could see the barest hint of his dimple. "I'm not surprised."

"Hey! I'm usually a fantastic dancer, thank you very much," she huffed, but there was no offense taken and she couldn't keep the pout on her face for too long. "Oh, have you seen Virgo? She made it today—she looked wonderful, no sign of sickness on her."

Scorpio nodded. "Danced with her earlier. She seemed like her usual self."

Cancer couldn't help her wide smile. "I suppose you were right."

"I usually am."

She chuckled. "Thank you, though. For helping me earlier."

Scorpio looked away at that, tilting his head back up so it was harder for her to see his expression. "It was nothing," he said, so quietly she barely caught it over the sound of the music and clattering shoes on the floor.

She could see the flush on his cheeks, though, barely there, and chuckled, squeezing his hand. "I mean it. Hey, look at me."

She reached up to gently grab his chin, tilting it toward her so he met her gaze with the same stone-cold expression he always wore. Cancer smiled to herself—he looked really frightening most of the time, especially when his hair hung in front of his face like it was now, almost obscuring his eyes, but he got embarrassed just like everyone else.

"Thank you," she told him as intentionally and sincerely as she could, because this was important. She wanted the people around her to feel recognized for their efforts—being around her surely wasn't easy, what with all the tears and tripping and worrying about every tiny thing.

Scorpio searched her gaze for a moment, scanning her expression for something (what that was, she had no idea), but then the music reached its final climax and before Cancer could say anything or even let out a yelp, the hand around her waist tightened and she was being dipped down to the floor, close enough that some of her loose curls could have touched the ground had she gone just an inch lower.

Scorpio hovered over her, their faces close enough that Cancer could see the very small golden flecks in his dark, dark eyes. She couldn't help but smile at him, one hand at his nape for extra assurance, though she was fairly confident Scorpio wouldn't drop her.

It only lasted a moment, and then Scorpio helped her back up and stepped a pace away, bowing deep at the waist and pressing a kiss to the top of her gloved hand, as was customary. Cancer grinned and tugged him toward her, laughing when he stumbled as she held his face in her hands and pressed a big fat kiss to his cheek.

She continued to laugh when he stared at her, confused and blinking slowly, just before realizing what had happened and wiping her lipstick from his cheek.

"Thank you for dancing with me, too," she told him, feeling giddy from the music and craving a glass of champagne.

Scorpio was still staring at her, and his lips parted like he was going to say something, but she never heard it. Suddenly, the lights began to flicker, and then the tables began to tremble, and then the ballroom tipped.