"Dancing lessons." Fai murmured with a smile, eying Sakura and Syaoran.
It started like this every time. Fai had this flare for matching people up; he seemed to like to see happy lovebirds. Sakura and Syaoran had everything that dictated the budding of a romance between friends, but every little move they made was uncomfortable or nervous. One of the wizard's favorite pastimes was to thrust the two of them together in an exceedingly awkward situation—one worth mentioning was the discovery of a game called Twister, which ended with red-faced teenagers and an exceedingly aggravated ninja. Nonetheless, these were all attempts at getting a passionate romance going, and they weren't entirely unsuccessful.
The comment had caught the natives of Clow off-guard and they stared at Fai blankly for a minute before Syaoran finally said, "Pardon?"
"Have you two ever learned to dance?" Fai glanced over to a snoring Kurogane, asleep against a tree. On his shoulder was Mokona, who giggled.
"I took a few classes," Sakura frowned. "Not many, though."
"None for me," Syaoran flushed slightly.
"Would you like to learn?" Fai asked, standing.
Sakura smiled, nodding vigorously, and Syaoran turned an even more violent shade of red. It wasn't as though they had anything better to do- they were in a world that Fai called an "In-Betweener", which was just a world with no feather. They'd been dropped into it by chance, and decided to take a bit of a rest before moving on.
"Kuroro-rin!" The blond trotted over to Kurogane's tree and kneeled next to him. "Hey, hey, Kuro-chan!"
"Mmn?" Kuro opened an eye, looked at Fai once, and closed it again.
"Oh, don't be that way, I need your help!"
"I'll be whatever way I want to be. And help with what?"
"Dancing lessons!" Fai dragged the much large man to his feet. "I'm teaching the Princess and her little Prince how to dance, and neither of them are tall enough for me to teach with."
Kurogane attempted to growl "I don't dance," but it just turned into a yawn.
"You don't know how?" The smile spread even wider. "Does that mean I get to lead?"
Before Kurogane could respond, Fai had placed one of the dark man's hands just above his waist, and held Kurogane's left in his right.
Mokona gave a cheer. "Kurogane makes a pretty girl!"
"Wait, wait, what the hell is this supposed to be?"
"You said you'd dance with me, Kuro-tan. We have to show the children!"
"I never said anything like that!" Kurogane pulled himself away from Fai's interlocked fingers. "It's not happening." He stormed over to the tree and planted himself there, determined to go back to sleep.
Fai pouted. "Aw, that's just not fair. You know, I bet Syaoran wouldn't mind me leading him to dance, but that defeats the purpose of all this!"
"Yeah," Mokona nodded. "Syaoran's a lot manlier than you are, Kurogane."
That caught his attention. "What did you say?" Syaoran looked mildly terrified in a "please-oh-please-don't-drag-me-into-this" sort of way.
Fai winked at the little white pork bun and laughed. "Yeah, Moko-chan's right. I guess you're just not secure enough in your masculinity to-"
Kurogane promptly stormed over to Fai and resumed the position, though he was uncomfortable with Fai's hand on his waist.
"Shall we, Kuro-min?" Fai nudged Kurogane forward, who was attempting to not get stepped on. Mokona began to hum something that sounded like a waltz.
Fai was muttering under his breath something that sounded like "Quick-quick, slow. Quick-quick, slow." The dance was elegant, but it soon became apparent that Kurogane was getting bored with being pulled around the impromptu dance floor. With a devious grin, Fai leaned Kurogane backwards into a low dip. Kurogane's shout of surprise was so loud that Fai dropped him.
"What is it now?" Fai was trying to suppress giggles and failing miserably.
"I said dancing, sure, fine, but not DIPPING. Or dropping," Kurogane snarled, standing.
"Dipping is part of dancing."
"IF I WERE MEANT TO BE DIPPED, I WOULDA COME WITH SAUCE!"
Ignoring this outburst, Fai turned with a bounce to Syaoran. "Are you beginning to get it? It's sort of a box-step."
"Don't you change the-"
But Fai had already launched, with some enthusiasm, into coaching Sakura and Syaoran.
---
The dance classes had ceased when Kurogane had stormed off to find food. Syaoran had followed him, apologizing profusely to Sakura and Fai for having to break it up. Dinner had been enjoyable, and nearly everyone fell asleep immediately afterward.
At some hour long past midnight, Kurogane woke to the sound of gentle humming, and light steps in the grass.
There was Fai, dancing alone in the dying firelight, with a smile on his face. He was dancing backwards, as if he were being led around the dance floor.
"Why is it that you know both parts?" Kurogane asked, quietly enough to not wake up the others.
Fai stopped dead and turned. "Parts?" He asked with a forced smile.
"You know both the man's and the woman's."
"Just how I was taught," He chuckled.
"The smile suited you better." Kurogane grunted.
"I am smiling."
"That one's fake."
There was a moment of awkward silence, in which Kurogane stood. He seemed to be thinking about something. Fai watched him, nervous about what would come next. Largely all he was thinking about questions that could be asked that he would have to lie about.
To his surprise, Kurogane offered a hand and what might have been a smile. "Shall we, wizard?"
"Some day, you're going to learn my name." Fai teased him, taking his hand. Kurogane knew that the smile on his face was real this time.
