come one, come all, to the greatest show on earth:

Dancing was a strange art. It was a composite skill, formed of aptitude in balance, locomotor skills, ball skills, hand- and foot-eye coordination, timing, technique, emotive performance, improvisation and fitness. Even then, should a person possess all of those qualities, they still needed to know the right steps.

Everest was an acrobat. He already possessed all the skills needed to be a dancer in abundance; what he lacked was a knowledge of the precise moves of this exact dance. He was pretty hot at improvising usually, but this song was weird. It sounded straight up out of the Middle Ages. As he led Bryar onto the dancefloor, Everest watched the other couples carefully, sussing out what they were doing and how they did it. Okay. Didn’t look too hard. No one was in sync either, which either meant no one was fully clear on the steps for this dance, or he was the most coordinated person here by a mile. Should be a piece of cake.

Even while keeping one eye on the other dancers, he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to comment on the revelation that Bryar was rubbing shoulders with royalty.

“So, not a princess,” he noted, giving her a sly side-glance, “but I guess that makes you a lady?” He stopped in an appropriate gap on the dancefloor and moved round in front of her, smiling coyly. “Milady.” He made a point of bowing over her hand.

It was amazing she didn’t leave him where he was standing, frankly. This kind of teasing did not work on most of the girls Everest showed an interest in – but, then Bryar wasn’t like his usual type. She was much more inclined to kick his ass than simper at him. It was a pleasant surprise, then, when she stepped closer towards him and moved his hand round to her lower back. In spite of himself, Everest felt his skin tingle and his heartbeat speed up a notch. Her dress was thin and silky beneath his fingers, and they were close enough now that their breath warmed the air between them intimately. He shifted the position of his hand more confidently, curling the other one around her fingers, and leaned forward so that their cheeks were parallel.

“I think you were planning on putting your hands on me,” he whispered in her ear. “I think you like me.”

He waggled his eyebrows at her, like a schoolboy who had just identified a schoolgirl with a crush.

“So, Lady Bryar,” there was a momentary pause while he spun her expertly, then pulled her back in a little closer than she had been before. With his hand a little lower. “I hope your kissing is as spectacular as your body in that dress.”

dankeschön,

everest