Tierno loved his Pokemon dearly, but sometimes he just wanted a human partner to dance with. Not to perform with, as the realm of professional partner dancing was almost foreign to him and he was not in a mood to learn it, but just to dance with. Someone to spin around or to dip down or to gently toss into the air and catch. Sure, he could do all that with his Pokemon, but they were trained to perform with in solo-style dances, and none of them were tall enough to properly hold hands.
Okay, so maybe Tierno was just feeling lonely and wanted to hold a human hand, with dancing being a much-welcomed bonus if it happened. But his crew of friends was currently scattered around the region; Shauna, his immediate instinct to ask, was off in Kiloude helping Calem with the battle area he couldn't remember the name of, so she would be too busy to ask. That meant Calem was off the table then, too. Trevor, well, Tierno adored him, but he even if he could make the trip from Geosenge to Coumarine, he was still so uncoordinated that he couldn't earn the compliment of having two left feet if he wanted to. As for Serena…
What would Serena be doing right now anyway? She was seemed to be doing something different each time she came to visit Tierno, with no set itinerary or declaration of what she would be doing on any given day.
But it couldn't hurt to call and ask her if she was available, right?
After the third ring of the Holocaster Tierno was wondering if Serena wasn't going to be available after all, and would have cancelled the call if she had not picked up on the fourth one.
The image projected was angled to show Serena only from her neck-up, and she rubbed her eyes as she gave a greeting. Tierno immediately began to apologize.
"I didn't mean to wake you up! You can go back to sleep if you want!" He wanted to peek at his watch and check the time, but then remembered that the call was being projected from said timepiece.
"You didn't wake me," Serena replied, trying to ease his anxiety. "It's just been a lazy day for me today."
Tierno couldn't tell she was lying and it worked.
"So you're not busy then? You can come see me then?" He was more excited now, but tried to keep it at least somewhat in check. "I mean, if you want. I have a heart scale ready for you already." He always had heart scales ready to give his friends, even when they had decided to drop by on their own.
"Yeah, of course I'll come see you," Serena laughed, sitting up but keeping the Holocaster angled to her face so Tierno couldn't see her in her pajamas this late in the day. "You don't have to bribe me."
"I didn't mean to bribe you!" Tierno defended himself, worried he had offended Serena. Another laugh from her signified that she wasn't.
"Don't worry 'bout it Tier, I was just teasin' ya. Is there a particular dance move you want to see today, or should I just pick one at random?"
Tierno had forgotten about that. Usually he was practicing a particular move for one of his solo routines and needed some inspiration to get it just perfect. But today he wanted to a partner to dance with, or at least to be able to focus on social aspects as opposed to personal ones. He almost asked her to pick one on her own since it wouldn't be important, but then he remembered-
"Teeter Dance!" Tierno was excited again and his voice continuously sped up as he reminded Serena that "Teeter Dance makes people want to dance! It brings people together, and the best kind of feeling is when people are together!" Maybe he went too far into why he really wanted Serena to visit him, but she didn't seem to notice.
"I'll make sure to get Honeybun from the PC then." Honeybun was the Spinda Serena had caught special for when Tierno wanted to see Teeter Dance, and thus named it after one of her more affectionate nicknames for him. She smiled at seeing Tierno so excited. "I'll be over in a little bit, all right? I need to get everything together first."
"Of course! Take your time. I'll be here." Tierno squeed a bit as he hung up. He had not realized just how human touch-starved he was until Serena had agreed to come over. He couldn't remember how long it had been seen had seen his friends in-person, though whether that was due to his poor memory or the actual length of time it had been he was not sure.
That didn't matter now, though. What mattered now was that Serena was coming over to hang out with him.
Tierno didn't check to see how long it took Serena to arrive, but to his delight it did not feel like a long time. He recognized the Pokemon she flew in on - it was the Volcarona that he watched use Fiery Dance when he wanted a move to feel like it was exploding with energy. But Serena wasn't here to show him Fiery Dance.
Serena returned the Volcarona to its pokeball while pulling out the one Tierno assumed held Honeybun. She gave a grin and shook it slightly. "Teeter Dance, eh?"
Tierno clapped and gave a small hop in excitement.
The pokeball opened and sure enough, there was the Spinda Tierno was so familiar with. Honeybun recognized him and waved excitedly, which Tierno matched in his response back.
"Oh, before we start!" Tierno fished around in his pocket for a second, pulled out a heart scale, and tossed it to Serena.
Serena caught it with ease, and with a wave of her hand, the Teeter Dance began.
Tierno had temporarily forgotten why he had asked Serena to come over when it started. He loved watching Teeter Dance; it was made up of sways and spins and other soft, repeated movements. He always danced along when it saw it, and assumed that others found it just as contagious.
As Honeybun was finishing off the last few moves in the Teeter Dance, Tierno looked towards Serena to see that she, in fact, did not find it just as contagious. Instead she was busy admiring the glimmer of the heart scale in the sunlight.
It wasn't that Tierno found this surprising - Serena never participated in the other dances he did when she showed him a move and she had the same eye for shiny objects that he did - it was the fact that it reminded him that he still desired human contact and had seemingly failed at getting it. A look of defeat and dispiritedness filled Tierno's face as Honeybun was returned to its pokeball.
Serena returned the pokeball to her purse and was about to pull the Volcarona's back out when she noticed Tierno's expression. It was unexpected and a little heartbreaking to see; just before he had been dancing happily, and now he looked like a kicked Lillipup.
Had she done something to upset him? Did something happen and she just completely missed it? Whatever it was, Serena was going to find out.
She gently put one hand on Tierno's shoulder and pushed his head upwards with the other one. It was more work for her to meet his eyes that way, but it was too upsetting to see him look down in sorrow.
"What's wrong, Tier? I don't think I've ever seen you sad after a dance before."
"I'm not sad," Tierno lied. Serena raised an eyebrow at him.
"We both know you're a terrible liar. Did something happen?"
"No." Tierno mumbled. He should have realized that wouldn't work. "It's just … I guess I've been feeling lonely lately. That's all."
Now that was something Serena could easily handle. "Well, why didn't you just say so? Come 'ere." She pulled him into a hug, trying to balance her chin on his shoulder so she could still be heard. "I would have still come over if you just said that in the beginning."
Tierno did not answer her, as he was too busy trying not to cry and failing at it. He was already an emotional person to begin with, so having to balance that with suddenly getting the human contact he had sorely been missing was making it difficult.
Serena didn't mind that he was crying or even blame him for it - after all, she knew perfectly well that she handled being alone much better than Tierno did. She spent the time they were still embraced trying to plan out what to do next. Gather everyone else for night out later? Try and make a more consistent schedule to come visit him, or at least call him more often? Thinking about the Holocaster in that manner suddenly reminded Serena of something Tierno had said earlier when he called.
She pulled away from Tierno and with a grin on her face she asked, "Were you hoping to have a dancer partner? For Teeter Dance to encourage me to join in?"
"Huh?" Was all Tierno could say in response as he wiped his eyes. How did she figure that out? "Um, uh, you don't have to do that, Serena." He gave a small yet genuine smile. "I'm already feeling better."
"But we can make you even better than that." Still grinning, Serena stepped back, gave an overdramatic curtsey, and then stuck out her hand. "Can I have this dance?"
"A-are you sure?" Tierno's face warmed up ever-so-slightly. Nobody had ever asked him to dance before, that he could remember anyway.
"Of course. You're my friend, Tier. No friend of mine is going to be sad on my watch."
Tierno was going to cry again, but this time he was smiling while doing so. He grabbed onto Serena's hands, hoping he wasn't too rough, and immediately began to sway her around.
Serena was slightly caught off guard at the suddenness of the motion but still appreciated it. "Did I start right? With the curtsey and stuff?"
"It um, depends on the dance." He wiped away the few tears that had already made their way out of his eyes. He liked talking about dancing almost as much as actually doing it. "Some dances start with curtsies, some end with curtsies, and other you curtsey at the beginning and the end. Like, what we're doing now-"
He softly swung Serena away from him and then pulled her back into the circular motion.
"Is kinda like a ballroom dance, and certain kinds of ballroom dances, like kinds of waltzes, start with curtsies." Tierno shook his head in response to something he was thinking. "But this isn't really a waltz or a ballroom dance. It's just a nice freestyle."
"That's good," Serena chuckled, "I probably won't mess up a freestyle like I would a waltz."
"You're doing fine," Tierno told her, and then he beamed at her again. "It just makes me happy that you're dancing with me anyway."
"In that case then-" Serena paused to dramatically tilt her head back and put a hand over her face as she was swung away again and didn't finish her thought until she returned to the circular pattern - "Make sure to call me when you're feeling lonely like this again. I don't want my friends getting sad when I know I can fix it."
Tierno felt himself crying in happiness even more and promised that he would.