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“I asked him first!”
“No, I did!”
Lemres sighed as Klug and Feli glared at each other, each of them clinging onto one of his arms and tugging at the sleeves of his suit. Even at such a formal event, they were still fighting over his attention. Then again, he should have expected this by now.
“Hey you two, no need to cause a scene.” He tried to ease the tension between them. “Now, what exactly did you guys want with me?”
“Well, I was wondering if you would do me the honor of letting me be your dance partner!” Klug smiled eagerly. “I’ve been practicing some ballroom dances for tonight, and I’d love to dance with you! I-If you want to, that is.”
“Don’t be stupid.” Feli snapped, “Ballroom dances have roles to them, and there's no way you were planning on leading Lemres, were you? He needs someone to follow him, like me!”
“Oh please, you think I didn’t study how to do both roles? Though I don’t doubt your following skills, considering that’s the only thing you ever do.”
“Now, now, no fighting.” Lemres pulled his arms away from their grips, making both of them look up at the taller mage.
“Look, you both want to dance, right?”
“Yep!” They chimed in unison, before immediately shooting daggers at each other.
“Well, I’m not the one you guys should be asking, I’ve got two left feet. I’d feel absolutely terrible for being a shoddy partner to either of you. Instead, how about you two dance with each other?”
“What?!” They said in unison once more, but this time they both stared at Lemres in disbelief.
“D-Dance with HER?!”
“Dance with H-HIM?!”
“Yeah! From the sound of it, you’ve both practiced a lot. I’m sure you two will be in perfect sync!” Lemres smiled at them, but they both looked uncertain.
“I-I mean…if it’s what you suggest…” Feli looked down at her shoes, clearly not happy with the turn of events, but incapable of bringing herself to say no to Lemres’ idea.
“I guess one dance wouldn’t hurt…” Klug frowned, also refusing to object to anything Lemres came up with.
“Then it’s settled!” Lemres clapped his hands together, though the sound was muffled thanks to his gloves. “I’ll be chatting with Miss Accord near the dessert table, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you two! Have fun!”
Before either of them could say anything more, Lemres swiftly exited the scene, heading straight to the lavender haired instructor with Popoi on her shoulder. That left the two of them by themselves, and they stood next to each other without a word for a few seconds, simply side eyeing each other, before Klug finally cleared his throat.
“Well, since Lemres expects us to dance together…”
He turned to face her, and held out his right hand, placing his left one behind his back.
“May I have this dance?”
Klug still didn’t look too pleased, and the bitterness in his tone was evident, but Feli didn’t object, simply huffing in response. After all, she had told Lemres she’d do it—she wasn’t going to back down now. She took his hand with her left one as she let him guide her towards the ballroom floor.
There were a few pairs waltzing together to the slow music, but they were all adults—most of them couples, Klug noted when he saw the familiar glimmer of metal on almost all of their ring fingers. It was a sight he had grown accustomed to, thanks to his parents always sitting next to each other in the morning, letting him see their matching finger bands. It wasn’t that surprising considering the ball was an official gathering, but it did mean that they’d certainly stick out if they stayed near the sides. Not only were some of the pairs changing partners mid-dance, but they were all vying to be the center of attention, and Klug didn’t feel like getting teased by Amitie or Raffina should they happen to see them.
Klug led Feli towards the middle, slowly pushing through a few couples with small sorrys before being satisfied that they were close enough to the center that the taller couples would hide them from view. It was an ideal position; you’d have to seek them out to spot them, which meant his friends wouldn’t, but he was confident that Lemres would be able to see them without much problem, and he could still show off his dancing skill, even if the older boy himself wasn’t his partner.
He let go of Feli’s hand, and turned to face her, bowing his head once she turned to face him as well. He took a brief moment to adjust the light blue ribbon-tied boater on his head when it fell forward, and at the same she returned the gesture with a half hearted courtesy, lifting the hem of her red dress with her lips curled downwards in annoyance before they both moved their arms into a dancing position. Klug placed his right hand under her arm and behind her left shoulder, and his left hand reached out to make contact with her right hand, grasping it a bit too firmly before easing it against his. The sudden warmth coming from his palms easily emanated through her white frilled gloves, and it sent a small chill down her spine, but she ignored it and placed her right hand on top of his left shoulder.
“I hope you can keep up.” He smirked as he took a step forward with his left foot, and she narrowed her eyes as she took a step back with her right one to follow his movements.
“Don’t underestimate me.”
The dance was slow enough, but Klug seemed determined to test how far Feli was willing to follow his lead. He moved to the right, stepping with his right foot first before quickly closing the gap with his left. He then took a big step backwards with his right foot, then moved his left foot almost diagonally, across his other foot before once again closing the distance, and going back to their starting position. The whole time, Feli was mirroring his steps with her own, stepping forward when he stepped back, and using her left foot when he used his right.
The pattern for the box step was simple. Left, right, left, right, left, right, rinse and repeat. The steps weren’t a problem at all, in fact the most difficult part of the dance were the partners themselves. Feli and Klug’s proximity to each other basically guaranteed that they’d have to be face-to-face the whole time, but neither of them ended up doing so thanks to their stubborness, instead choosing to look at each other's clothes to avoid making eye contact, both letting out the occasional “hmph” to signal that yes, this dance was indeed mediocre.
Klug’s suit was colored red on the inside, but a baby blue on the outside, golden yellow trimmings running along the edges of the cloth, even down to the tips of the coattails. Almost complimenting his outfit, Feli’s dress was almost entirely scarlet red, sans the frills on her shoulders and at the ends of the dress which were white, the same shade as her patterned stockings. Though, since she was shorter, Klug found himself paying more attention to the translucent red ribbon hairpiece standing out in the midst of her violet hair.
“You look like a birthday present.” Feli commented as she took another step to the side. “A tacky one at that.”
“And you look like a Christmas stocking in the clearance aisle.”
Klug let go of the hand that was holding onto her back and spun her around, catching a glimpse of the big, red bow tied behind her back, underneath her shoulder blades. It most likely had lace on it too, since he spotted some blurs of white, but he’d have to wait until the next chance to spin her around to make sure.
Their feet glided across the ballroom floor, dancing in time to the music. The whole time, their hands were in close contact with each other, moving from shoulders to hips to hands whenever necessary. Klug moved his hands to her waist to lift her up into the air for one trickier move, and she almost looked like an angel for the split second she was off the ground. The clack of her red shoes on the marble flooring alerted him to move his hands back to meet hers, the duller sound of his brown loafers syncing up with her steps right after.
Klug spun Feli around again, but instead of allowing her to complete a 360 degree turn, he pulled her closer to him halfway through so that her back bumped into his chest, making her nearly lose her breath when he took her hands with his own again, much closer to each other now than before.
Now that Klug was right behind her, he was left to completely take control of the dance. He took smaller steps forward and to the side for her to follow, one hand overlapping with Feli’s own on her waist while the other stretched out to clasp onto her outstretched one. The girl found her heart beating just a tad quicker at the action.
“What did you say again about my leading skills?”
“Sh-Shut up…”
They moved around the center of the ballroom with ease, not even noticing how they were rotating around it circularly, along with the other dancers. The movements just played out naturally, and the atmosphere certainly helped make it easier to get the timing right. They were both admittedly easing into the fact they were dance partners, more than either initially thought. No more was the competitive aura around them, thrown out of their minds in favor of savoring the moment.
When he let go of her and they moved back to the default dancing position, rather than just hold her hand, Klug intertwined his fingers with hers, making her blush and avoid his gaze. She was getting into it, and didn’t know whether it was a good thing or not.
“You’re…doing pretty well.” Feli huffed as he spun her around again, their fingers intertwining once more when she returned, confirming that he was doing it intentionally.
“So are you.” Klug sounded genuine this time, not even adding in a quip. His eyes were too focused on her elegant form, running up and down her figure.
The increased intensity of the string instruments indicated that the song being played was coming to a climax, and so was their dance together. Klug was rather enjoying himself, but even he knew everything had to end. As a flashy finale, just as the bows against the violin strings were pulled away to reduce the music to silence, he moved his hands to Feli’s back and dipped her low, making sure he could hold her weight so that neither of them fell. She finally made eye contact with him, the first time since they began their dance, their breaths hitching when they looked at each other.
Gravity made Feli’s bangs fall over to the sides of her head, almost like they were being lifted up. Her lips, colored the same shade of red as her dress, were just inches away from his face. If he really wanted to, it would be so easy to just lean in and….
Sudden clapping snapped them out of his thoughts, and Klug’s eyes widened when he looked around the surrounding area, though he calmed down once he realized the clapping was for the other dancers, not specifically for them. He quickly pulled Feli’s body back up to a standing position, letting go of her right after as if she was suddenly hot to the touch.
“N-Nice dancing.” He muttered, hand instinctively moving to the back of his head as he looked away from her. What in the world was he thinking?
“…” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, much less reply to his words, not when her cheeks were all pink like that.
Another song began to play, and while some adults resumed their dancing for another round, this song wasn’t playing for the two of them. Not this time, at least.
“I need to excuse myself.” Feli murmured, leaving without another word and disappearing into the crowd before Klug could even open his mouth.
“Ah…okay….” He weakly lifted a hand in her direction, but lowered it back down, sighing to himself.
In the distance, Lemres watched as Feli hurried off somewhere to get some space. He had watched the entire thing, and hummed a bit to himself as he thought about what he witnessed.
“I’ll call this somewhat successful. The tension will still be there, but hopefully, this has shown how vulnerable they can be to each other. Now if only they could be more honest to each other through words…”