#1. Accomplished
Tamao's dance lessons were fierce, long, and often ended with a sweaty and irritable Nagisa's weight having to be half-supported by Tamao all the way back to Strawberry Dorms.
Several times, Nagisa contemplated quitting her preparations for the dance. Shizuma didn't want her, anyway, not in the way she had needed and loved Sakuragi Kaori. To continue this far in the competition at Shizuma's side surely was an insult to both Miator and the sickly Kaori's memory.
But sometimes when Nagisa was alone in her dorm room, with Tamao away at her club and Chiyo in classes or working a shift at the library, Nagisa would listen to Tamao's sage advice and practice dancing, feeling Shizuma's phantom arm resting gently at her waist—slightly lower than was proper, as per Shizuma's style—with Nagisa's own arm held at the wrist by Shizuma's long, pale fingers. She would twirl across their floor, without music, looking into her imaginary dance partner's eyes. In these fantasies, she never broke contact with those golden eyes, didn't freeze up when held close against her imaginary Shizuma. She never made a single misstep. Tamao would be proud.
For a while, Nagisa would feel as if she had accomplished something in her short time at Miator; felt like she had earned the right to stay at Shizuma's side.
"Nagisa-oneesama! Nagisa-oneesama!"
But then Chiyo would return to clean her dorm room, and her ghostly Shizuma's fingers would slip from hers, just as Shizuma herself had slipped from Nagisa's grasp. She would cease to hear the music, and her dancing would slow to a stop.
"Oh! Come in, Chiyo-chan!" Despite how disappointing it was to be seperated from Shizuma once Chiyo came in like clockwork, Nagisa was a little glad. She didn't want to dwell in these daydreams any longer.
She wanted to feel that sense of accomplishment for real, this time.
Disclaimer here: I am not affiliated in any way with the 100moods livejournal group. I just thought the prompts looked fun, and since I don't have or ever plan on getting a livejournal...this happened.
I found the prompt through the wonderful Michiko to Hatchin fic "Psychological Rainbow" by Sassy Lil Scorpio. Her writing really inspired me!
This is set during the book, with Nagisa learning how to dance for the ball at the almost-end of the Etoile competition.
