Disclaimer" I do not own any of the places or characters, except for Hiro, the Shang Leopard.

Remember that midwinter is 7 days long and they have a ball each night.

Chapter 5

Kel, Dom, and Hiro got their trays of food and went to sit with Kel's friends. The three of them sat down, with each man on either side of Kel. Neal was the first one to notice that someone new was sitting at the table.

"Hello, who might you be?" he asked of Hiro. "My name is Nealan of Queenscove, and I can only guess that the lady knight brought you here, as she is the only one at this table who doesn't have enough manners to introduce new people."

"Neal, shut it. I have more manners than you could learn in 5 lifetimes. Besides no one even noticed him sitting there. If you ask me, if all of you who have bad manners, for not noticing sooner. Also, have you looked at our friends yet?" Kel said in a huff and pointed at Merric who was shoving food down his throat as if he hadn't eaten in weeks.

"Actually, I have more man- OUCH! Yuki, that hurt!" he told his wife after she hit him with her shukusen.

Kel and Dom burst out laughing, as did most of the table. "Okay, I'll introduce you all.

Everybody, this is Hiro Yukemura, the Shang Leopard. Hiro this is Neal, as he already told you, the woman who hit him with a shukusen is his wife, Yukimi, but we call her Yuki. Then we have Merric of Hollyrose, Owen of Jesslaw, Sever of Tasride, Esmond of Nicoline, and Roald of Conté," she introduced each as she pointed to them.

"It is nice to meet all of you," Hiro said with a nod of his head.

"You're a Shang Warrior? Well isn't that jolly," Owen, of course.

"So, Neal I guess your feeling better? Did you heal yourself, or get you father to?" Kel asked with a smirk.

"I'll have you know that I healed myself, thank you very much," Neal replied, indignantly.

"Of course you did, sweetheart," this from Yuki, who was trying to calm him.

As soon as Kel was finished eating Yuki jumped up and grabbed her by the arm, then started to drag her away. But Kel wasn't going without a fight.

"No Yuki, please, don't do this!" she yelled loud enough for every one in the mess hall to hear. Many people burst out laughing as they saw the large lady knight, who wasn't afraid of anything, being dragged away by someone half her size.

"Please I beg of you, don't do this! Somebody help! She's going to torture me!" some of the men began to look uncertain.

"Don't be silly, I'm not going to torture you, I'm going to put you in a dress and do your hair up all nice and put face paint on you," Yuki grinned evilly.

"Noooo!" Kel shouted in pure terror. Everyone in the mess burst out laughing, except for Hiro who turned to Dom and asked "Why is everyone laughing?"

Dom answered "Because Kel hates dresses and you couldn't pay her to wear face paint." With that he started laughing again.

"You are cold and heartless people" Kel informed the mess as she was dragged out. "And I will have revenge against my friends for letting this happen to me," was all she could say as she tried to catch a hold of the door frame, so as to hold herself there. Needless to say, it didn't work, and they could hear Kel yell from down the hall "This means jousting for my worthless friends." Most of the mess hall burst out laughing as her friends' faces paled.

A half a bell later Dom knocked on Kel's door. Yuki answered and asked what he wanted Kel for.

"I wanted to ask her, if I could escort her to the ball tonight," Dom told an excited Yuki.

"Well come in and ask her," Yuki told him and stepped out into the hall so he could enter. "I think that forgot something in my rooms, I'll be right back," she added as she walked away.

Dom entered the room and closed the door behind him. "Yuki, who was it?" asked a half dressed Kel, who was trying to get her clothes back on.

"It's your knight in shining armor, except, Yuki would probably kill me if I helped you escape. Anyways, I have come to ask if I could escort you to the ball tonight," he asked with a smile.

'Of course you can escort me, of great and gallant knight," she replied also with a smile.

He had just taken a step towards her when the door opened and Yuki stepped back in and asked "did you ask her?"

Kel answered for him "Yes he asked me and I told him he could only escort me if he behaved like a gentleman for once."

"I think you should leave now, so that I can get Kel finished for the ball," Yuki told Dom.

"Of course, Kel I'll pick you up at 7:30," Dom told her on his way out the door.

Two hours later Hiro was lost. He had been looking for his quarters, but had taken at least one wrong turn. He sat down on the base of a statue, and you can imagine his surprise when it started talking to him.

"Hiro, it's me, Kel, I'm behind the statue. No don't look, Yuki will find me if you do," Kel said in a hurried whisper.

"I wanted to ask you something Kel," Hiro said, looking straight ahead.

"Oh, really what is it?" she wanted to know.

"I was wondering if I could escort you to the ball tonight," Hiro asked hesitating.

"I'm sorry, but someone is already escorting me," she quietly told him.

"That's okay, I was just wondering. Who are you going with anyways?" he asked.

"I'm going with Dom. He was going to escort a girl form the riders, but she's ill and can't make it," Kel told him slowly, wondering why he wanted to know.

"So you're his second choice?" he asked incredulously.

"Dom just asked me as friends, because he doesn't like to show up at ball and stuff like that alone. It's sort of a phobia for him, and whenever the subject is brought up his gets all twitchy and starts mumbling about matchmaking mothers. It's quite funny to watch actually," Kel said with a smile, not that Hiro could see it.

"Well since you already have an escort for tonight, may I escort you tomorrow night instead?" he asked slowly.

Kel hesitated a little, the replied "Sure, I don't think I have anyone else escorting me tomorrow night…" she trailed off, but Hiro had only noticed the part where she said yes.

"That's wonderful! I'll pick you up tomorrow night at 7:30, okay?" he answered.

"Sure," was all she could say. "I better find another hiding place; Yuki will soon think to look here."

"Sure, you go and hide," he said encouragingly.

Kel jumped up, looked around and ran to find another hiding place. Unfortunately for Kel, Yuki found her 20 minutes later, and proceeded to drag her back to her rooms.