AN: I needed a break from studying, so I wrote this. I hope you all enjoy.

Edit (2018/02): Changed title from Faces:Phases to just Faces.


Naomi chuckled to herself as she sat on a stone wall by the pier, watching her dad's ship gradually disappear into the horizon. Her dad was off to an event on an island a few ways from Avalor—a merchant convention, if you will. It was held annually. Normally, she would be coming with her dad. She loved the place. They always had novel stuff she wouldn't even have thought existed, like the rapid-fire crossbow she bought the last time she went. The surprise on her dad's face when she had told him she wasn't coming this year was understandable—her deciding not to go was just unthinkable. "I found something a lot more interesting here, and it just can't wait," she had told him with a wide smirk.

Okay. Rewind. On the afternoon of the day before, the usual foursome, Gabe, Mateo, Elena, and she, had the pleasure of helping out a local dance school with its animal problems. They quickly took care of the cause of the frequent bear attacks the school has had—but that's besides the point. The highlight, at least to Naomi, was when Señora Lana insisted that she would teach them dancing the rest of the afternoon for their trouble. The señora was a woman around forty; she was friendly and funny, if not incredibly pushy. Some would say she was a bit of an eccentric. She was an immigrant from a neighbouring nation. She came from a long line of dancers, apparently, and she inherited her family's style—which was what the four had been made (forced) to learn.

"It is a story," Señora Lana explained, "You don't just tell the story through the dance. You feel it. You believe it. You become it." She spouted all sorts of monologue while swinging Gabe around the room demonstrating the "untamed surge of emotion" that should emanate from the dance. She had talked for at least an hour, with most of her words flying over their heads, before they had even started learning steps. At that point they had wanted nothing more than to escape, but they couldn't.

"It's okay. We could just play along until it's over," whispered Mateo optimistically while Lana was skipping around the room with Gabe. "How hard could it be?" he added.

"I guarantee you'll be eating those words once you start prancing around with her," Naomi replied while pointing to the instructor.

"Although I do admit watching Gabe being handled like a rag doll is hilarious," said Naomi, to which all three of them laughed. The laughter, however, didn't last long as the señora approached and put her hand on Mateo's shoulder.

"Your turn."

Mateo gulped at the sound of the two words—it was like elementary all over again, when it's his turn to recite poetry in front of the class. Who knew a greater dread could be summoned from those two words outside his awkward grade school days. Naomi and Elena could barely keep their laughter in check.

Lana then scanned each of them from head to toe. "You," she said, reaching a decision and grasping Naomi's arm, "You will be his partner." Elena used a hand to cover the smile cracking up on her face as her friends were dragged to the centre of the room.

"Princess Elena, the other boy will be your partner," said Lana, pointing her chin at Gabe who was sprawled on the floor catching his breath. Turning back to Naomi and Mateo, she commented out of the blue, "You lack intimacy."

She proceeded to push Naomi and Mateo together like a sandwich, "Closer! Closer!"

To their, surprise, the señora's overbearing teaching style was effective; it didn't take long for Naomi and Mateo to be able to dance through a good portion of the music—something Lana called the "Part A" and the recurring "main theme."

"I will teach the dance up to this point," she said, letting Naomi and Mateo take a break, starting to teach Elena and Gabe the same routine.

"Our turn to laugh, Elena," said Naomi, sticking her tongue out.

They watched as Elena and Gabe were put through exceedingly, uncomfortable and tight positions wherein they were practically tangled up in each other.

"I can't believe we danced that," Mateo told Naomi, who was sitting beside him on the floor, as Gabe and Elena finished a set.

"You better believe it, young man," said Lana, misinterpreting Mateo's comment, "It's a masterpiece that's said to be choreographed by the angels themselves."

"I have a hard time imagining angels dancing this," Naomi quietly remarked.

"Break's over for you two," said Lana, "It is time we infuse the emotion into your dance."

They groaned after having realised that they weren't done.

"To put it bluntly," Lana began, "Your dancing now is just a dead shell. It has to be brought to life by emotion. Only then can the dance tell its story." Lana swung her arms in exaggerated motions while explaining "emotion" and how it "flows" as "energy" while dancing. "To tell the story, you must be the story," was the final takeaway to her enthusiastic lecture. What she said might sound symbolic, but she applied it literally.

"Right now, you are lovers Estella and Leo, fighting passionately against all odds for your forbidden love affair." Directing her words now to Leo, err, Mateo, she coached as Mateo and Naomi were dancing, "Leo is a firm and dominant male, he knows what he wants. No man can match the hunger Leo had for Estella's love. He asserts his way. You must embody this!"

"I need to what?" Mateo exclaimed incredulously, causing his friends to snicker.

"Come on, Mateo. Just play along. How hard could it be," teased Naomi as she was being dipped low.

"I'll drop you."

"Can you?" replied Naomi, calling his bluff.

"Yes, that is the way! I can sense the sensual tension!" This woman was straight up borderline; any more and they would think that she's a complete loon. "Estella is also a dominant type. She wanted everything Leo could offer, and she wants to have it in her own terms. Which is why, at this part of the dance, it is not uncommon that Estella would bury her fingers in Leo's hair and pull him close to the neck." She took Naomi's free hand and placed it on the back of Mateo's neck, then applied force such that Mateo's nose touched Naomi's neck. "It is a clash between two dominant forces resulting in a swelling of powerful emotion."

It went without saying that this was extremely awkward for both Naomi and Mateo. Naomi felt her heart beat probably as hard as the introverted Mateo, who looked like he could have a seizure at any moment now. A creeping blush swept her cheeks. She tried to play it cool. This shouldn't be a big deal to her—it was just Mateo. She's totally cool with just this level proximity—not. Naomi, despite her adventurous and outgoing nature, is actually fairly conservative, and she's barely within her comfort zone at this point. The only thing keeping her facade of composure up was that thought that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she broke before Mateo. She found a bit of solace from the sense of superiority she got from teasing Mateo.

"You're redder than a tomato. You allergic to girls or something? Come on, this is the last part. Let's just get it over with."

Mateo took this as a challenge, and, following Lana's instruction, pretended to kiss her neck. This was getting too weird even for Naomi. Hopefully, she wasn't as red as Mateo—she'd never hear the end of it from Gabe. She stole a glance at Elena and Gabe to gauge their reaction. She hummed shortly, as if discovering something, after seeing the cheerful and playful Elena, slightly scrunching her eyebrows and anxiously biting her lower lip in a tiny frown. The Elena, showing a face like that in reaction to a situation as ridiculous and potentially hilarious as this, did not make sense to Naomi. It was either Elena was really prudish, or…

Naomi felt a corner of her mouth curve upward.

"Bravo! I felt the passion in your dance. You both played Leo and Estella beautifully. If you aren't a couple already, I guarantee that you will be a great one should you choose to be—and I'm never wrong about this. You two show excellent chemistry," Lana congratulated them proudly.

Naomi glanced at her best friend upon hearing this and saw Elena fiddling with her necklace, which made her smirk even wider.

Just as Gabe and Elena were about to be coached on doing their own "infusing of emotion" into their dance, they heard what sounded like a huge bell from upstairs.

"Oh, that's the school bell. I've set it to strike every 9 o'clock. It's getting late but, surely you'd want to continue?"

Elena quickly jumped at the offer to leave. "Aaaaactually, I think we should be leaving. It was fun, but we have a busy day tomorrow. Can't have too much fun today, could we?" Elena made sure that she that the conversation was in her control, leaving only the minimum window of time for short replies. She gathered her friends and rushed them out the door while saying her thank you's and goodbye's to Señora Lana.

"Be sure to visit again! You're always welcome to learn more of the dance," they heard Lana shout from afar. They waved while increasing their pace, not wanting anything more to do with the school today.

"Well… that was different," said Gabe, shuddering from the memory of his recent dance lesson.

"I'll say," said Elena, crossing her arms, "She made us do some crazy stuff. What kind of school was she running? She seriously needs to tone it down… way down." Elena then turned to her two friends who had had it worse, "You two okay?"

"Peachy," replied Naomi, grinning.

"Don't tell me you actually enjoyed it?" laughed Elena.

You're too wide open, Elena, thought Naomi. No, she didn't enjoy the lesson—what she did enjoy was the discovery she made during it. She wanted to do one last test to confirm, and Elena just gave her the perfect opportunity to do so. She took and hugged Mateo's right arm as if it was the most natural thing in the world for her to do so. Now, for the pièce de résistance! She released a girly, flirtatious giggle uncharacteristic of her and replied, "I can't say I hated it. Mateo turned out to be quite the suave partner."

"Give me a break already," squirmed Mateo, flushing from the sudden intimate contact.

It was only for a second, but Naomi, with her honed, adventurer senses, was able to see Elena flinch when she got close to Mateo. I've got you figured out, Elena, she chuckled mentally. Naomi was fairly certain that Elena had a thing for her royal sorcerer. How could I not have seen this from miles away. Elena was always so touchy-feely with Mateo. What made this even funnier to her was that Elena probably didn't even realise that her sorcerer has it bad for her too.

"Still, I've got to give you credit. I didn't think you'd have the guts to just kiss me," teased Naomi, all while keeping an eye out for Elena's reaction.

"D-don't phrase it that way! I barely exhaled on your neck, let alone kiss it."

"I guess you could say that I took your breath away," Naomi laughed—because of her own joke and because the expressions her best friend made when the pangs of envy kick in are too fun to watch. It was already late so they eventually went their separate ways home, but Naomi resolved to see even more of her best friend's cute, pouty faces the next day.

Fast forward to the present: Naomi stood up, jumped off the wall she was sitting on, and skipped to the castle. Today's going to be lots of fun.