Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

Sugar Cubes

The full moon never failed to get her attention, as the empress decided to stay up late and gazed upon a stars. Poured herself another cup of fairy tea, Aria sighed in relief and relaxed, leaned on the velvet red sofa – nothing or no one could ruin a perfect evening like this…

Dropped three sugar cubes into the cup and mindlessly stirred it with the silver spoon, the blonde empress has yet to notice a floating ship in the middle of the night sky, well-hidden but can still be spotted if looked carefully enough. But obviously she wasn't paying attention, as Aria was too busy toying with Skaia in her hand – the jewel of Ereve was given to her the day she was crowned. She was told that Skaia was something precious and powerful, but the young empress has yet to see what it can do – besides glowing whenever she held it.

The sounds of leaves rustled went unseen, but barely heard. Got up on her feet, Aria stepped away from the table and moved closer to Shinsoo – who was asleep until now. She could see a pair of fancy white shoes in front of her, the rest of that person was hidden in the shadow. He –judging by his voice, coughed and slightly bowed down in front of her:

"Good evening, empress Aria." She was taken back a little, and after a moment of silent between the two of them, Aria finally found her voice.

"I do not wish to be rude…"

"Of course you don't, my empress." He chuckled and stepped out of the shadow. The first impression she had for him was that he looked attractive – the combination of pale skin and light brown hair, with deep purple eyes, they were so alluring that for a second, Aria almost forgot that he was a stranger and there was no guards around her… "But I won't be surprised if you call your guards and kick me off Ereve in five seconds."

"Oh… Right, guards…" Cleared her throat, Aria stood straight up, "Stranger, I'm giving you a chance to state your name and purposes."

"Speak like an empress, I see." He chuckled and took two steps forward, "Well, you can call me Phantom. Phantom – the master thief."

'Thief ?' Aria questioned, looked at him from head to toe – he didn't look like a thief, at all! This Phantom, he dressed like he was going to a formal party, rather than stealing something valuable from someone – particularly her. "Pardon me, Mr. Thief…" She meant to press on the word 'Thief' – if that was what he said, "But I do not process anything considers 'valuable' for you to steal."

"Oh no, you got me all wrong, milady." Phantom made a rather dramatic gasp and acted like her word hurt him, "I just want to congratulate you for finally being crowned and became our new empress. However, there was a delay… on my side of the journey, of course." Tilted his head and smiled, Phantom carefully watched her hands relaxed and stopped gripping on the fabric of her dress…

"The reason I'm late was that I couldn't find a proper gift for you, my empress." Settled down on the chair in front of Aria, Phantom reached out and poured himself a cup of tea, "Strange, I've never seen this in my entire life…" He pointed at the silver cup with dozens of mini sugar cubes, raising his eyes brow as he looked at the woman.

"Oh, these ?" Her fingers touched the handle of the cup as she gently pushed it toward to him, "This is sugar cube, very rare I believe, only high class people can afford to buy those."

"Interesting… I only have sweetened powder…" Phantom picked up a sugar cube and brought it close to his lips, let it melted and the sweet flavor slowly spreaded on the tip on his tongue. Aria couldn't help but giggled at how his eyebrows furrowed together, giving him an impression that he was in a deep thought, before giving him another of those sweet treat.

"You can have them if you want." His eyes widen as Phantom looked at her, a bit confused at first, but then a smile made its way on his lips…

Phantom threw himself down on his bed and tossed the head aside, sighed. One of his maids entered the room with a damp towel and a tray of tea set, "Shall I leave them here, boss ?"

"Yeah, leave it anywhere you want…" He mumbled, buried his face on the soft pillow. Aria's ghost, he saw Aria's ghost… He could felt something warm left him, and that he was sweating like he was having a high fever. Getting up, the master thief took the towel the maid has prepared for him and cleaned his face, wiping away the sweats on his forehead. And then something got his attention: he silver set of tea nearby – or rather, the small cup with those tiny sugar cubes. It reminded Phantom of something, small yet heart warming, something belonged in the past…

He could simply steal it without any effort whatsoever, but it was given to him. The very first gift that he accepted. Chuckled softly, Phantom poured himself a cup of tea and dropped in exactly three sugar cubes, 'She always likes her tea sweet…' He thought to himself and stirred it with the silver spoon…

A/n: When I said I'll polish the hell out of the next update, I did. Because I'm such a shipfaggot and high on sugar when I write this, so yeah, this is what you people will get from me anyway.

Read and review!

P/s: Did I make any grammar mistakes in this one, I have to check like 3 or 4 times but I don't think I could find all of them myself