notfaking_it | (no subject)

The gala had been a bit of a bore.

Lily was used to it, mingling with investors, the people who essentially paid for her to be a dancer, and she was usually good at it. Even tonight, she doubted anyone noticed that she was bored, but it had gone on long and all the champagne in the world couldn't make it end any quicker. She passed by Nina several times, pausing long enough to talk to her, to laugh about something that had been said, but she knew it was encouraged for them to be as social as possible and so she moved on after a few minutes.

It was something she was good at, even at her worst, and Lily smiled and laughed as she knew she was supposed to.

Between conversations, she set down her champagne flute and slipped toward the bathroom, her purse in hand. Raising her hand as she passed Nina, she grinned, then slipped through the bathroom door, glancing down into her purse for her compact as she crossed toward the mirror. Her heels clicked against the tile floor and when she glanced up, at first it seemed that nothing was wrong.

But the bathroom was gone.

Beyond the mirror she had glanced into stretched a long, golden hall and Lily shifted, moving away from the mirror to stare at what had appeared. She blinked, then turned back toward the bathroom door only to find it gone, replaced with a beautiful hall, the walls adorned with art she'd never seen before, rich looking and lush.

"What the hell?" she murmured.

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He was doing the dishes. Then he wasn't anymore.

He didn't have to - of course they had a dishwasher - but there was something about the process that felt almost meditative. The running water, the warmth, looking out the kitchen window at the city at night, the sounds of Eleanor watching television or listening to music in the next room.

He blinked and all of that was gone.

There was still water, and it came from a massive and ornate fountain in front of him. The thing was marble and gilt and carved with graceful, draped figures. A woman with a bow and arrows. Another woman with a sheaf of wheat.

A man with lightning in his hands.

He stared up at it, briefly oblivious to the people who wandered around the huge domed hall that contained the fountain, sitting on benches, talking and laughing. Hardly anyone looking at him.

There were columns, more gilt, richly painted murals on the walls. It was beautiful. But he didn't want to be somewhere new. Not now. Brow furrowed, he looked around, beginning to be quietly desperate to catch sight of someone, anyone, who was familiar.

She wasn't worried, not yet, but Lily wasn't exactly excited by the prospect of being taken from Darrow, especially at a time like this, when things had been going so well. Walking through the long, beautifully decorated halls, she'd glanced in a few rooms, trying to gather information, but most of the people who were around seemed to be involved in other things. They would acknowledge her, smile or even raise their hands in greeting, but no one seemed inclined to stop and explain.

Which meant people probably didn't arrive here at random.

She stumbled upon the fountain and Delta by accident. He looked out of place -- probably just as she did -- but even as she walked toward him, she was cautious. He might not remember her. He might not be Delta at all.

He turned and saw her just as she came toward him, and froze. It was her. It had to be.

And if she was here, perhaps Eleanor was as well.

"Lily?" He started forward, barely avoiding stumbling over a little girl as she ran across his path clutching a golden ball. "Lily, where are we?"

The relief she felt when he said her name was palpable and Lily's shoulders relaxed even as she watched the little girl run off. There were children here, all sorts of people, entirely different from those she'd met in Darrow and she had no idea what to make of any of it.

But at least she wasn't alone.

"I don't know," she said, going to him, reaching for his hand. "I was at a gala, I went to the bathroom and then..." She trailed off, at a loss. "Have you seen anyone else you recognize? They're all strangers to me."

"I've been looking for Eleanor." He was unable to keep the panic out of his voice, though it was easing a little, seeing Lily. The world all around them was still alien to the verge of hostility, despite its beauty.

It was, perhaps, just a little too much like Rapture before the fall.

"I can't find her. Lily, if she's... I've been without her before. I don't- I don't know if I can do that again."

"Hey," she said, voice firm as she squeezed his hand and tried to get him to look at her. "We'll find her." She didn't want to add anything to that, didn't want to qualify it with questions about whether or not Eleanor was even here. The two of them were here and she could make him believe that Eleanor would be here somewhere, too.

It wasn't a promise she could keep, but she'd made it to him anyway.

And it gave her something to do. Lily could always adjust, would probably fit into any situation she was thrown into, but she needed a way to go about doing that and thinking about what was left behind was never helpful.

Lily couldn't know that, he knew. But hearing her say it calmed him even more, and he nodded, returning the squeeze, forcing his heart to slow.

His heart.

"In Rapture we had a bond," he said quietly. "More than love. Life. It was part of what they did to me. If our bond was ever severed, I would die."

Even now, she was only piecing things together about what had been done to him, the scars, his connection with Eleanor, what he'd said about being grafted into a suit. She didn't understand it completely, but she did know how important Eleanor was to him and she didn't like the idea of them being separated.

"Delta," she said, stepping closer, pressing both her hands to his chest. "We'll find her and if we don't, we'll find a way to get back." She'd never had any reason to go back anywhere and, even now, it wasn't her reason, but she'd do it for him.

He nodded. It didn't even terrify him as much as it used to, the bond, and he knew by now that if worst came to worst, he could survive without her.

That didn't mean that not knowing where she was was at all easy.

"We should move," he said finally. "If we can find out where we are, that might help us."

Lily nodded her agreement, stepping back from him, only to nearly walk straight into someone passing them by.

"I'm sorry," the man said, pausing to smile at them both.

Lily glanced to Delta briefly, but she'd never had a problem talking to strangers before. "Is there a central meeting place around here?" she asked. "An information area?"

"There's a gathering," the man answered. "A party."

"We're not looking for a party," Delta said, trying not to sound rude but unable to keep all of the tension out of his voice. "Where are we? What is this place?"

The man looked nonplussed. "You must be joking. How could you come to Atlantis and not know of it?"

"Atlantis," Lily echoed, her brows drawn together, looking from the man to Delta. That seemed impossible, as far as she'd always known, Atlantis was something of fiction, a legend no one ever really believed was true anymore. She felt like there was a cartoon about it, something for kids.

"You should come to the party," the man said before he smiled and continued on his way.

"We're not-" she started, but he was gone already and she turned back to Delta, even more confused now than before.

"Atlantis," he murmured. Looking around at it - the pillars. the fountains, the way the people were dressed, the statues of gods and fantastical beasts, the murals... it did make a kind of sense. "I've read about it. But it's a myth, isn't it? It..." He laughed softly as the irony of it hit him. "It sank into the sea thousands of years ago."

"It doesn't exist," Lily answered, looking around. Then again, she supposed the island shouldn't have existed, or Darrow.

"It's not under the water now," she said, her gaze still drifting around. Another group of people passed them by, all of them turning to stare, and she frowned as one woman in particular smiled at Delta.

"Are you coming to the party?" she called out as her group passed and Lily, who normally loved a party, found herself rolling her eyes.