"Lord Magi," Hakuryuu said, all practiced formality, and held out his hand. "Would you do me the honor of giving me the first dance of the night?"

Judal considered it, lower lip jutted out and his head turned haughtily up. They both looked and felt a bit ridiculous in their heavy ceremonial robes, and they were both a bit too young to really enjoy or appreciate the proceedings. Hakuryuu's proposal, silly as it was, seemed like a nice distraction. "Very well," he replied, placing his hand in Hakuryuu's.

And then they both giggled and grinned, and Judal let Hakuryuu drag him off his stuffy chair and out into the throng of dancing courtier and nobles. There the music swept them up into the rhythmic, stomping dance of the crowd. Hakuryuu grinned at Judal, and Judal grinned back, and the two of them swirled around in childlike glee, moving apart from the crowd in their own joyous little dance.

"You know, when you asked all stiff like that, I thought this was gonna be lame. But you're actually not half bad!" Judal laughed, moving to try to dip Hakuryuu like he'd seen someone do at a festival in a far off land. Unfortunately, Hakuryuu had some similar idea of his own, and the two knocked heads. "Gah!"

Hakuryuu and Judal both staggered backwards, clutching at their heads.

"Ow, ow, oww…." Hakuryuu peeked an eye open. "What was that for?"

Judal scowled, his face flushing deep red. "Well-well! If you hadn't!" He pushed Hakuryuu and turned stomping away. "You're a crummy dancer anyway!"

"Hey, Hakuryuu!" Judal called, alighting on the rail above the sunny courtyard where Hakuryuu was reading. "Wanna dance?"

Hakuryuu glanced up from his scroll, and he fought to keep an excited little smile off his face. "Very well. I suppose I could take a break from my studies to indulge you."

Judal lept over Hakuryuu's head, tumbling through the air to land in front of Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu bent down and picked up his polearm from where he'd laid it to rest. The pair did a slow, wide step, circling further into the courtyard and around each other. Judal his wand around in his fingers, whistling as he did so. Hakuryuu gave a few feinting jabs, testing to see what Judal would swing for. Judal just laughed.

"Whaaat, you think I'm gonna jump for those fake-ass jabs?" Judal pointed his wand straight at Hakuryuu, the carnelian in the tip trained on Hakuryuu's heart. "Come ooon, come at me with something worth my time, Hakuryuu!"

Hakuryuu made a small 'go ahead' gesture with the blade of his weapon. "The first move is all yours, Judal. I know how much you like to lead."

"More that I don't like following orders," Judal said with a shrug, finally coming to a stop. "If I had a king who knew what he was doing, I'd be more than happy to follow his lead."

"Well, I'm no king." Hakuryuu paused circling as well, his stance calm and ready. "And I've no intention of becoming one of your candidates, either."

"Well, then, seems we're at an impasse. How the hell are we to dance, if no one'll take the lead?"

The two men grinned at each other, still and poised. It was an old argument, and at this point it was more a game or a careful dance than a fight. Judal would offer his favor, Hakuryuu would decline, and round and round in circles until they were tired.

Hakuryuu saw Judal's wrist twitch, and he dove aside to avoid impalement on a spear of ice. His boots scratched against the cobblestone, and he sprang at Judal. Yet his blade whooshed through nothing but air.

Judal cackled behind him. "Too slow!"

Hakuryuu lept without looking, because looking would have meant taking too long. He tucked into a roll. He twisted and smirked back at Judal. "You haven't been able to hit me either."

Judal glared. "You!"

Hakuryuu weaved from side to side, dodging ice and sparks and all other manner of nasty things that blew holes in the cobblestone courtyard. He could feel sweat prick the back of his neck, and he ducked behind one of the spears lodged in the ground. It felt cool against his back, and Hakuryuu grinned again. Judal was getting tired, he could tell. "You're all flash, no substance!" he shouted, and Judal threw another ice spear at Hakuryuu. It crashed into the pillar of ice Hakuryuu was hiding behind. "You burn yourself out with big shows when really…." Hakuryuu slowly started walking a bit away from the ice, listening as Judal threw even more ice at his cover. "You should be doing something like this!"

Hakuryuu twirled around on his heel and ran towards the ice, leaping up onto the first spear and then the next, and the one after, and the one after that, until- Judal's eyes went wide as Hakuryuu sprang from the final spear and decked him right in the face. The two went tumbling down, Hakuryuu landing on top of Judal's scrawny form. Judal scowled up at him, and Hakuryuu grinned back.

"You know, I'd think after all these years, you'd have learned to dance, Judal."