A continuance of the first drabble, after this one i will move on to other drabbles, but i felt that this one needed a good ending. Any that come after this will have nothing to do with the New Years experience, unless i state otherwise. Happy Reading!XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Laughter bubbled from Smellerbee's throat as it had not in years, not since she had lost her family to the war. Jet, he too smiling and laughing, spun Smellerbee around the square in pace with the other New Year revelers as the dancing came to a head-twirling climax.
Longshot watched silently from his place at the edge of the crowd, feeling the strangest mix of pleasure and jealously as Smellerbee and Jet spun by him. For a youngling so unaccustomed to normal women's wear, Smellerbee handled herself with incredible ease in her newly acquired attire, exposing a side of herself that Longshot had never seen before. Sure, he had known she was a girl, but a woman…no; Smellerbee had never before been that in his eyes.
And now, to see her looking so comely unnerved Longshot, but not nearly as much as it did to see her held gently in Jet's arms. As soon as the dancing had begun almost half an hour ago, Jet had taken her by the hand and begun to teach Smellerbee the Earth Kingdom dances he had learned as a child at his parents' feet. They had spun, leapt, swayed, and twirled with the rest of Ba Sing Se's lower classes assembled in the courtyard in a corner of the Old City, serenaded all night long by the musicians set on a porch of a private home that opened onto the square. Longshot had resigned himself to merely watching the pair dance under the new moon, wondering if he should even bother to stay.
Just as Longshot had decided that he might as well leave the music changed. For the first time all night the square was filled not with the rumble and swooping of tablas, pippas and sarodes, but instead with the light sound of a sungi horn and finger symbols.
It was a slower song, gentler on the ears and more pleasant to move to, like the sound of rain falling on a pond.
Longshot looked around to see that all of the dancing couples had stopped their wild cavorting and were slipping into each other's arms more fully and moving in small circles. It was a slow dance.
Hardly able to think straight while images of Jet and Smellerbee flooded his imagination, Longshot had just turned to leave when he felt a tug on his sleeve.
She spoke softly, "Where are you going?"
He turned back to find Smellerbee standing before him in all her glory, a rather disgruntled Jet slouching off towards a crowd of men with carafes of nettle wine.
The mute archer asked the question with his eyes.
Smellerbee smiled shyly. "I wanted to dance this one with you."
And she slipped her warm, small hand into his larger one and led him into the crowd of dancing lovers.
They moved into each other's arms, his about her waist and hers flung round his neck, a careful distance kept between them at first, until slowly the power of the music took over them and the respectful space disappeared.
A small smile curved Longshot's lips when she rested her head upon his shoulder.
They never knew how long they danced; it seemed to them that they were the only people in the world, just two lost souls seeking homes in each other's embrace.
Suddenly there was a great rumbling from overhead and everyone in the square gazed up into the sky as green and gold fireworks exploded high overhead, heralding in the New Year.
Longshot looked down ant Smellerbee's upturned face, the fireworks reflected in her huge honey colored eyes and he smiled; it was going to be a good year.