"Oh no... he's here!"
Dom heard his cousin and immediately became worried. He turned to see if she needed help, only to see an expression he wasn't expecting. Her face was bright red and her eyes were wide. She took a few deep breaths and turned to face the source of the voice. At first Dom was quite protective and prepared to deal with them, thinking that his cousin might be dealing with a troublesome character. But that feeling faded as soon as he saw who made his cousin look so flustered.
A young but very good looking man walked up to her. He still looked very immature to Dom, but he immediately understood that his cousin wasn't in danger of anything other then falling for a cute boy. Realizing that, a mischievous grin appeared on Dom's face as he watched the scene unfold.
"Hello Evangeline, I wasn't expecting to see you here! How have you been?" The boy spoke with an English accent, he had blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, and Dom couldn't help but realize something. 'Evangeline? She looks extremely pleased to be called that by him' Dom thought. For as long as Dom could remember his cousin hated her full name, but right now when she listened to it, he could tell her heart turned her rib-cage into a bouncy castle.
"I-I'm doing pretty well, my mom wanted me to come with her as usual... what about you? Are you here with your dad?" Eva was extremely bashful. Dom thought that she was being quite obvious with her feelings, the signs were clear as day.
"Yeah... my father wanted me to come to this event. Apparently the mayor told him it would be fun... and now that I see you're here, I think I can agree..." the young boy replied. Dom could've sworn this was his attempt to try to flirt with Eva, which caused Dom to smile a little. 'I guess the feelings are mutual' he thought. However, the small flirty smiles soon dragged on and became awkward as the silence continued. It felt like both youths froze because of the statement, so Dom stepped in to be Eva's wing man.
"Hey Eva... who's your friend? When he showed up you completely forgot I existed!" Dom said with a chuckle, as he tapped her shoulder. As a result, Eva jumped in fright and immediately remembered her cousin was there the whole time. "Dom?! Oh my god I'm so sorry!! This is Gerard Hellion, his dad is General Barrett Hellion! The general is a good friend of mom's, he's a really nice guy you know so I guess Gerard comes by it honestly hehe..." she rambled nervously. When Dom heard the identity of the the young man his cousin had a crush on, he almost exploded in shock. 'The son of Black-Bear Barrett? The strongest human in the city?'.
"Gerard, this is my cousin, Dominic Cyprinus! He looks all mature and everything but really he's younger than me by a couple months." Gerard was taken aback by the youth beside Eva, he was a massive hulk that was bigger than some adults! Yet somehow he was younger than Evangeline. "Well, I for one wasn't expecting Evangeline's cousin to be competing against my father for largest human alive!" Gerard chuckled.
"And I wasn't expecting to be forgotten about as soon as a pretty boy showed up!" Dom shot back jokingly. The two each held out a hand and gave a firm handshake. "Well, if I'm being completely honest, being good looking certainly has it's ups and downs...more ups than downs I'd say though" Gerard said in a teasing manner, causing Dom to immediately accept the boy as he threw an arm around him and began to scruff up his hair. "Dammit! Somehow that made you look even better!".
Eva watched with an amused smile as the boys continued their antics while they all walked into the art gallery. Once there was a pause in the conversation Dom glanced around the hall and was curious about the guests. 'Elves are here? I haven't seen elves in person before...' Dom thought astonished.
"What are elves doing here?! I can see maybe city elves or even blood elves being here but those are forest elves! They despise anything that has to do with cities!" Gerard said, and immediately after a small giggle could be heard. The trio turned their heads and saw a tall elven girl seemingly amused by what Gerard said.
"You're right! We tend to stay away from human cities, there's not enough... greenery around here. But today's special, my clan head is friends with the mayor and she invited a few of us over... said she had something that might be of value to us." The girl continued to chat casually with Gerard and Eva but Dom didn't notice a thing about his friends. He was too caught up in admiring the elf, her appearance was athletic but slim and she had a messy bob haircut that accentuated her ears... her beauty was ethereal to him even though she looked more masculine than most girls he knew. Before he knew it the elf was departing and he couldn't help but realize he probably looked like a total airhead in front of her and his friends.
Eva noticed her cousin's behavior and couldn't help but comment, "Looks like someone has something for pointy ears!" Dom choked on his own spit, causing Eva to laugh. "Annnnnyways we should meet up with Mom. Oh wait a minute! Looks like your dad's at our table Gerard" Eva said while pointing to a table at the far end of the hall. Seated there was Tu and a very large man with jet black hair.
Tu spoke up as soon as the trio reached their seats. "Oh Gerard dear, you've already arrived with Eva?" The man beside her turned to see his son with Eva and a huge smile blossomed on his face. "You two get along great, doncha?" Eva and Gerard blushed furiously and Dom smelled blood in the water. "Aunt Tu! Get this! At the very sight of Mr. Perfect over here, my own cousin forgot about my very existence! They went off and had their little private fling while I was a third wheel that the other two wheels didn't even know was there!"
If one were to look closely steam could be seen rushing out of Eva's head at that moment, that's how flustered she was as she shouted out "Dom!!! I did not!", causing everyone except Gerard and her to laugh as they knew that that's exactly what happened. Seeing Eva's embarrassment and loss of poise caused Dom to smirk. 'Revenge has been served!' he thought with a stern nod.