Hello! Well, Kinzie and Hylla are one of my favourite pairs, so of course they make it into the first week of Femslash February. Quick pause to acknowledge that I love the Amazon world that Rick Riordan kindly gave us, and that I wrote this pre-Son of Neptune, meaning that everyone is still ALIVE and well and happy, and there aren't ghosts popping out of the ground yet. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Day: 6

Situation: They attend a party

Fluff: Dancing

Angst: Break Up

Executive Event

"Your hair looks beautiful. Your eyes are beautiful. Your dress is beautiful. You are beautiful," Hylla said quietly. "The only thing wrong with you tonight is the hunch in your shoulders."

"Sorry. I'm just… very stressed."

"I see that," Hylla said. She put a hand against the small of Kinzie's back and her entire body relaxed, as if every nerve was suddenly focused on feeling from that little patch of skin.

Kinzie nodded and took a deep breath. "I don't go to the big parties usually."

"I never bring assistants to parties," Hylla said. "I bring dates. If you're going to be my girlfriend, you better get used to it."

"I got used to everything else pretty quickly," Kinzie said.

"Don't go around saying I'm boring," Hylla said. "I may have to try something new if you do."

She kissed Kinzie's ear at that ultra-sensitive spot she'd accidentally discovered not too long ago during- nevermind, that wasn't important. The point was that Kinzie was absolutely melted at the moment and feeling content –heck, even confident- as they stepped into the ballroom.

"Ladies and Amazons," the caller said. "All Rise for the Queen, our most honourable Queen Hylla the First, Daughter of Bellona, Defiant of Bacchus, Saviour of Persia, and Scourge of the Seven Seas."

Everyone rose to their feet and Hylla looked at at the caller, who cleared her throat awkwardly again.

"And her partner Kinzie McLeod, of the-"

"Aurae," Hylla said so coolly it was scary.

"Aurae," the caller echoed, swallowing sharply. Kinzie swallowed sharply too, and kept her head up as she held onto Hylla's arm and followed her across the room to the Ballroom's throne, next to which a smaller throne had been installed for Kinzie on Hylla's left. To her right, Hylla's next-in line Keisha stood respectfully.

Once they'd reached the thrones and Hylla had sat Kinzie down with a smile before taking her place, everyone else sat.

"Ladies and Amazons," the caller said again, this time in a much lower and more pleasant voice. "To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Amazon's foundation, we bring you talents, acts and musical numbers from the five biggest Amazon headquarters from around the world as well as a TED talk by Maria Andrysiak, Executive Chief of European Activities, about the discrimination of women in international relations. Without further ado, please welcome our first performers; a talented troupe of indigenous Australian dancers who hope to use key staples of their culture to promote the coexistence of economic development and cultural freedom and independence!"

There was the first round of polite clapping for the night, followed by actually impressed and happy clapping, wooing, etc, etc, etc. Hylla gave the final speech about the Amazon Kingdom's might before it was cocktail hour, which was really the trickiest time for Kinzie, she found.

As much as she tried to stay hooked to Hylla's elbow where she could safely smile broadly or occasionally laugh, eventually she had to give her girlfriend some breathing room. Well, Hylla was handling the flood of attention and questions and demands and secret-agenda-small talk with her usual tact and ease and grace; Kinzie needed the breathing room. Hylla gave it with a smile when Kinzie excused herself to go get something to drink at the refreshment table, skirt swishing around her legs. She'd never worn a dress so long, so elegant and formal and... well, so distinguished. Kinzie was used to the leather pants suits and armour and the occasional sensible assistant dresses for special events. This dress felt so pretty but also so incredibly foreign, as if Kinzie had pulled it out of a dress-up box as a child...

"Kinzie," a beautiful blonde Executive from Marketing said as Kinzie neared the table. It was too late to turn back.

"Hello, Miss Davis," Kinzie said.

"Ah, ah, ah," Miss Davis said. "I'm not Miss Davis to you Kinzie, you're not anyone's assistant tonight. Call me Deborah. Debbie even."

"Yes Miss… Deborah…"

Miss Davis threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh dear, this must take a bit of getting used to," she said. "It's a whole new world, is it not? To be on the other side of… well, things."

"Yes," Kinzie said carefully.

"Yes," Miss Davis answered with another perfectly manicured, fake smile. "Well, it's nice to see you all cleaned up today. Hope you'll still run my photocopies for me on Monday!"

"I… I'm technically the Queen's assistant, not just anybody's…" Kinzie clumsily specified.

"Yes of course, dear," Miss Davis said. "I was trying to make a joke."

Kinzie nodded and Miss Davis wandered off. Kinzie breathed a sigh of relief and poured a glass of punch using a big ladle.

"McLeod," someone said strolling up to the refreshment table. It was Mina Chow, the scatterbrained head of Public Relations. "If I could get you in the South Conference Room to assist in note-taking during a conference call with Apple, I would really appreciate it. I can email you preparatory reading right now, to-"

"Miss Chow," Kinzie said. "I'm here with the Queen tonight and… Hylla instructed me not to do anything work-related. I'm here as her date."

"Yes," Miss Chow said though her smile looked as if she'd swallowed a whole lemon. "Of course." Maybe two lemons.

"If it's before 11:30, I can assist," Kinzie said with a sigh.

"It's booked from 9:00 to 10:00, but you know how it is to deal with men."

"Of course," Kinzie said.

"I'll send you the email by tonight," Miss Chow said. "And transcripts from our last call with them so you can keep up, it wasn't too long, maybe thirty minutes…"

"Thirty minutes?" Kinzie asked. "Were notes taken thoroughly? Is this call to…"

Mina Chow marched off triumphantly before Kinzie could ask a single question.

She focused on the punch. Punch was good. She even poured a second glass for Hylla, that would be an excellent excuse to go back to her.

Tara Robins, Executive Chief of Military Operations, marched to the table and took the ladle basically from Kinzie's hand and poured herself a drink.

"Well, McLeod," Tara Robins said. "Fancy seeing you here."

"My name's Kinzie and I'm here with the Queen," she said quietly.

"Right, the caller mentioned," Tara said, taking her sweet time to portion out punch. "That'll take some getting used to."

"Hylla and I have been together for four months," Kinzie said.

"Yes and having an affair for who knows how much longer," Tara smiled contently. "Having it be official is strange, that's all. Especially in front of absolutely all the executives… Sorry, did you want the ladle?"

Kinzie didn't even want punch anymore. She wanted something stronger.

"Yes, thank you," Kinzie said anyways. Her knuckles were basically white as she wrapped up a ten-second errand turend ten-minute torture session before marching back to Hylla.

"I got you a drink," Kinzie said. "Non-alcoholic, tested for poison by myself."

"Thank you," Hylla said.

"Tastes like cherry, your favourite," Kinzie rattled on.

"Excuse me," Hylla told her guest –if Kinzie wasn't mistaken, she was the Executive Chief of Transportation- before herding Kinzie away with a gentle nudge of the shoulders turned hand on the back turned marching orders until they found themselves outside the ballroom.

"What's wrong?" Hylla asked. "Why does punch sound like it makes you want to cry?"

"I'm not," Kinzie said.

"Well you certainly look like you are," Hylla said. "I've known you long enough Kinzie, what's the matter? I know that executive events aren't like regular Amazon parties and they can be boring, but there's something on your mind, I can tell."

"I'm not real to them," Kinzie said. "I'm not a real person. I'm not a real… a real… to you…"

"You're not a real girlfriend to them," Hylla said quietly, closing her eyes and nodding softly, like whenever she figured out a complicated contract or mediated a tricky conflict.

"No," Kinzie said. "I'm just a – an errand girl, a photocopier guru, an assistant playing make-believe and dress-up."

"Okay," Hylla said.

"Okay?" Kinzie said.

Hylla shrugged. "When I became Queen, there wasn't the labour force to reappoint my own court and for the longest time, none of the executives treated me like I was really the Queen either. It takes a while for people to transpose someone they know into a different position."

"It's because of my rank," Kinzie said. "It's because I'm lower than them. Hylla, they're hinting that it's because of the sex alone and that's not just tonight, that's all the time- people are always thinking all these things…"

Hylla squeezed Kinzie's hand.

"I won't let them get you down," Hylla said. "I won't. So you know what we're going to do?"

"What?" Kinzie asked.

"I will kiss you as often as I can tonight," Hylla said. "And you're going to hold my hand, not the crook of my elbow or something equally plastic and strange. And you're going to talk to people because that's what actual sentient beings do when they're not being assistants- even if you think that you're stepping outside your boundaries or the lines, I will always back you up. And we will be so goddamn romantic that nobody's going to question your right to be at this stupid party that I would personally love to leave."

Kinzie smiled at her feet. "You kind of have sweaty elbows."

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do!" Kinzie said.

"How would you know? We never hold elbows. We do this," Hylla said. She kissed Kinzie's nose. "Or this." She kissed Kinzie's cheek. "Or this." She kissed Kinzie's neck. Kinzie closed her eyes and smiled, putting a hand on Hylla's carefully braided and pinned hair.

Someone cleared their throat not too far away, and Kinzie opened her eyes while Hylla straightened up to look back. The Page looked at her feet awkwardly.

"Miss Ankita Patel from, umm, the- she's the Executive of Asian Activities and she's looking for you, umm, for Your Majesty if you're not, umm, busy…"

"Well, I am," Hylla said. "But I suppose it can wait. Tell Miss Patel that I am on my way."

The page blushed profoundly, looked at her feet, bowed her head and scurried off.

"Pages," Kinzie said shaking her head. "Pseudo-assistants, always in the way…"

"This might not be so bad," Hylla said. "They are, after all, terrible gossips. And I have a secret that I can't wait to come out."

Hylla kissed her again, and in that moment the entire world -lavish dress included- felt more real than it ever could.