The evening was nice, the oil lights burned bright and shined off the color of the room, red and green and blue and even yellow of all colors. Violins played softly as the dancers moved about the room in a routine that was never tiring to them. The moved back and forth, going through the steps, graceful as they were risky. One wrong move and the partners would be switched, they would crash into each other and cause a horrendous scene, the entire dance could be ruined because of one mistake! The building was new, built for this purpose and no other. Usually held outside, but no one felt up to catching ill because of the rain. The music was their distraction, the lights their sun, the wood their ground for dancing today. And the dancing was different as well, a spectator noted later, from the French and not from folk lore.
A young knight drew himself up as he spotted a pretty girl move through the crowd, dancing her way along, laughing at the the people around her. Before he could reach out and pull her from the crowd, with all intentions to ask for her hand to dance, another knight slipped between them and grinned at him. The shorter, by an inch or two, glared at him and tried to push through to the lovely maiden, though when he looked over the knight's shoulder she was gone.
"You hoping to win her hand, Brüderlein?"
"Only doing what you can't."
The older turned and the two watched the young girl dance with a high-ranked officer, smiling politely and chatting with the ladies as it was their turn to dance. A natural in such scenery! The young knight watched her with keen interest, imagining her in his arms, not the arms of that smelly old man. He was pulled out of his thoughts as his older jabbed him in the side and he glanced over.
"Y'really wanna dance with her?"
He nodded.
"Then let's dance our way over!"
Forced into the dance, they stepped in line with the other couples. His brother bowed, taking the man's role, and in return the younger gave a small bow of his own, determined not to be the female. They came to stand beside one another and took a step forward, following the other dancers skillfully. The young knight was pushed forward and the woman opposite of him took his hand and the two carefully moved in a circle, bowing then moving back and forth to the music. They stepped back into place, and his brother took the girl in front of him to dance. His brother had been dancing longer than he, and his experience showed in his graceful moves. The knight awkwardly took a step the the man in front of him and danced as he had seen the women do, taking the stranger's hands in his and dancing as he had done with the women. He returned to his brother's side, then came with the other women into the center, as they were turned and led by the men into different was his chance.
He made his way through the dancers doing this, straying further from his original partner until he reached the young girl he had been watching beofre, carefully placing a hand behind her back and taking her other hand in his, circling around with her. The young knight became her new partner, the other one discarded to a woman twice his size and weight. The women took each other hands and stepped back, then forward, and the men joined them. The eight stepped back to their original positions and turned to their partners as the music ended. The girl smiled shyly and he returned it, bowing as she curtsied at the end of the dance.
"Do you steal dances often from young women, sir?" She asked, taking his hand as they made their way towards a pair of seats to rest their tired feet at.
"Only for those as beautiful as yourself, my lady." He replied, leading her through the moving crowd the best he could.
The two sat in each other's company quietly, talking very little as they watched the dancers. She rose to meet a man, whom she explained as a close friend of hers, and they settled into the dancing crowd for another round. Glum, the young knight looked for his older brother, scanning the people. He jumped as he was tapped on the shoulder and turned to glare at the other when he saw that familiar grin. He stood and his brother pulled him through a door to the hallway, and immediantly began to inquire about the young lady's presence.
"A 'close friend' took her to dance," he responded regretfully.
"You were never a good talker. C'mon, I found a secret room while you were staring dreamily into that girl's eyes!"
The older pulled him along by the arm to a tapersty, which covered a secret door, his brother explained as he pushed it aside to show. The door swung open easily and the two entered the darkened room. The older knight closed the door with a quiet 'click' and pulled the curtain hiding the window open, letting the moonlight shine in.
"What sort of room is this," the young knight asked as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light.
"An old sortage room or chambers or something I think. It's unused now, so we can just relax back here." As if to prove this, he plopped onto one of the rolled up carpets on the ground and coughed as the dust flew into the air.
The younger glanced around, and settled beisde his brother onto the old rug.
"Bruder, why do you think that girls don't find me charming?"
"'Cause you're an old man with a kid's body."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Girls don't find ya interesting."
"Oh."
There was a pause. Then,
"Is it because I'm inexperienced in kissing?"
His brother laughed and shook his head.
"And here I thought that you would've kissed a few more maids! You don't know how to kiss?"
"W-well, not a real kiss. Not like I've heard other knights speak about."
His brother got up, standing opposite of the other and stared at him.
"Bet ya kiss like a little girl."
"At least I've kissed more than little girls."
"You haven't kissed anything but your left hand."
The younger glared and turned his head away.
"That will be useful one day when I've kissed more girls than married women."
"What, are you gonna show them how close you and your hand are?"
"You're the one who told me to do it!"
"Ja, and you did! I laughed so hard with the knights when we found out you actually tried it."
"You're so stupid, Bruder."
The older knight just grinned, then plopped a hand onto his shoulder.
"Ja, I'm the awesomest and the only one who can teach you to kiss as awesomely as you can! You're probably all sloppy and like a pig~"
"I don't want you to teach me!" The younger complained, but with good reason. His brother was nothing but trouble, even when he was "helping".
"Too bad! If y'wanna get a girl to roll with ya you gotta learn how to please her! It'd be better if thre as a girl in here so I could show ya how it's done, but I guess first-hand experience will have to do. Ew, the thought of having to kiss you makes me wanna puke."
"The feeling is shared, Bruder."
But his brother leaned close to him and their breaths mingled, the moonlight glinting off the older's hair and making his eyes seem unnecessarily bright. Their lips pressed together for a split second before the younger pulled back as far as he could with his brother's hand holding him at the shoulder.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm trying to teach you to kiss, stupid!"
"Well warn me before you put your filthy mouth near mine!"
There was silence, then a gasp as his older brother yanked him close and kissed him hard. It was... Warm, soft, not like he had expected. After a minute or an hour, he couldn't tell, they parted.
"You're a real bad kisser, Brüderlein! Look at all this slobber." His brother wiped his mouth off with his sleeve to show. Then, as an after thought, he added, "But I guess you're not bad for a first-timer. You'll need some lessons."
The insulted frowned and stood up, pushing his brother away.
"I think I'll do fine without any of your lessons. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a young girl to win back."
The boy exited the room and lifted the tapersty out of the way, and the older knight watching as he went frowning slightly.
"He's gonna fail so hard."
By the end of the night however, the young knight had danced trice with the young girl and had even gotten her name and the road she lived on to visit her.