Waltz

two: in which one sweeps across

At the ninth bell, Ike gingerly pushed open the door to the large ballroom, carefully sticking a foot in to enter as inconspicuously as possible. The last thing he needed was rumours flying around that he had some sort of ballroom fetish or something. Not surprisingly, he found Elincia waiting for him, sitting on a nearby chair.

"Shall we get this moving?" Ike asked. He didn't bother trying to hide his impatience and slight reluctance. In response, Elincia got up and walked to the centre of the ballroom, looking back as though to beckon him. Ike followed, not sure how to approach Elincia. He couldn't tell whether she was just being naïve or acting naïve on purpose and ignoring his apathetic attitude towards dancing altogether.

"There are many types of dances used in the court," Elincia said. "Tonight we'll be starting off the waltz, since it is most favoured by Begnion."

"So if I'm lucky, I could sit out all the other types of dances?" Ike asked. He really didn't want to have to learn ten kinds of dances. Sword moves took practice enough as it was.

Elincia looked as though she was in deep thought. "I suppose, with the structure of the ball and all," she mused. "But enough about that. First we have to start with position." She moved to his right so that they were facing in the same direction.

"In a waltz, the male is typically the leader. What you have to do is extend your left hand to your side – " Elincia demonstrated, " – bend your elbow slightly and have the palm raised, facing your partner." Ike took the hint that he was supposed to copy her, though finding the action very awkward.

The queen turned to face her new pupil, looking over Ike's arm for a few moments in deep thought. Ike watched as she scanned his posture over, nodding to herself like she had approved of her own sculpture.

"Now, with your left hand, hold my right hand." Elincia assumed a similar position, except mirroring Ike instead. Ike reached out for Elincia's hand and grasped it, feeling very conscious of the action. It wasn't like he hadn't held her hand before – leading her around camp, getting her off a horse, those all required holding her hand – but those were all sort of out of a sense of duty, weren't they?

Well, he could just think of waltzing as a duty. But it was still different. Ike wasn't quite sure why, but he felt uncomfortable with their proximity. Evidently his discomfort was written on his face, however, as Elincia asked, "Is something wrong, Sir Ike?"

"N-no, it's nothing. What's next?"

"To finish the position, you put your right hand – " Elincia took his right hand in her left and placed it at her waist, " – here. Your partner will put her hand on your left shoulder like this." To demonstrate, she placed her hand lightly on his shoulder, resting it so her arm bent out slightly. Ike watched, not entirely sure why he kept staring at the hand on his shoulder or why his right hand was now particularly tingly.

"The waltz is a dance in two sets of three steps. Each set of three also follows a set of three in the music. We don't have any music right now, but we'll be going slowly at first anyway so it's all right." She looked down at their feet. "The first beat, you move your left foot forward. I'll step back on my right." At that, she moved her right foot backward, waiting for Ike to move along with her. Ike took that as his cue, and he shuffled his left foot forward.

Elincia giggled. Ike looked up from the ground, slightly puzzled. Had he done something wrong? Was his foot in the wrong place? He looked back down at his feet – no, left foot was forward, not right, and it was just in front of her right foot like she had told him to do. Was there something on his face, then?

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Sorry, I just think it's interesting that you're so… careful," she answered, stifling a laugh. "You usually just jump right into things, so it's almost… strange to see you like this." However, it still seemed like she relished the thought, because she couldn't help but keep giggling.

Ike frowned. This was totally unfair. He never laughed at Elincia for not knowing how to buckle a scabbard or anything like that, so why on Tellius did she get to make fun of him now? His facial expression had somewhat of the opposite effect that he wanted, though, because Elincia only continued to laugh upon seeing his disapproval.

"If it helps, it's no different from learning fighting stances – at least, that's how I would compare them," Elincia suggested. "Maybe you could try learning it that way?"

Combat positions – okay, Ike thought, he could do those.

"On the second beat, you move your right foot to the right and then upwards, so it looks like you're tracing a corner," Elincia continued, evidently taking Ike's silence as comprehension. She demonstrated by moving her own right leg to the right and then upwards, and Ike copied her. "Now shift your weight to your right leg, and on the third beat move your left foot next to your right one."

"So… like this?" Ike asked, doing as Elincia had told him to. Elincia nodded. "Is that it?"

"Well, that's the first set of three. The second set of three is basically what you just did, except backwards," Elincia said, as though putting it that way made things a little easier. Ike could almost feel his brain trying to work out everything backwards while keeping all the steps in mind – left foot up, right foot right and up, left foot next to right foot…

The effort he was making must have been etched on his face, because Elincia couldn't help but avert her gaze slightly and giggle again. It was at this time that Ike realized that he was still holding Elincia's right hand and waist, and started shuffling a little from the proximity.

"Sorry," Elincia finally managed to say as she calmed down. "That was horribly rude of me, Sir Ike. I apologize."

"No, it's all right." Ike tried to recall the steps; he realized that while he was being so aware of his and Elincia's position he had completely lost track of the steps. "Can we go over that again?"

Ike tried to listen carefully as Elincia went over the six steps again, but he found himself drifting in and out of her instructions as his attention wandered from their feet to his right hand on her waist to their clasped hands. They slowly traced the footsteps together, until Ike found himself absently doing the steps on his own.

"Well, it looks like you have the basics down," Elincia said, like she was happy with her pupil's work. "Now there's just one more thing. When we repeat these steps, each time we step up and right, we turn slightly. So for example…" As if to begin another set of steps, she took a step back with her right foot, and Ike took the cue, stepping forward with his left. He was taking his second step – right foot right and up! – when he felt a push on his left arm, as Elincia rotated them slightly to the right. And when they reached the fifth step, again Elincia gently guided him, this time slightly to the left.

This wasn't too bad, Ike thought. He could do this.

"Shall we practise for a little while then?" Elincia suggested. Ike nodded, and the two of them put their feet back in the right position. However, too busy looking at his feet, Ike accidentally knocked his head into Elincia's face, causing her to reel back, clutching her nose with her hand.

"Oww…"

"Elincia! I guess it's my turn to apologize." Ike stepped back, slightly relieved for the break. "I'm sorry about that, I should've been more careful."

"It's all right," Elincia answered, slowly removing her hand from her face. "I guess it was more the shock of it happening than anything else. Pay it no mind. Shall we continue?"

Ike could have sworn she was a bit red in the face – did he hit her that hard? "Are you sure? You don't look all right…"

"It's fine, Sir Ike. Please don't worry about it."

"I will… if you promise you'll only call me Ike. I mean, you were the one who told me to call you Elincia."

Elincia opened her mouth like she was going to object, paused, and then closed it again. "Very well… Ike," she said, like it felt awkward for her to say his name like that. "I did, didn't I? I suppose it's only fair. Well, shall we practice a little longer?"

Ike didn't really have a reason to object, so he nodded and tried to remember the position for the waltz. Taking Elincia's right hand in his left, he put his right hand around her waist.

"Like this, right?" he asked. Elincia put her hand on his right shoulder and smiled.

"Perfect," she said. "Now, I'll be counting 'one, two, three' and those will be our beats." After settling on a tempo, the two of them began, Ike looking down at his feet to make sure he didn't step on Elincia's. Despite how easy they made these things look, Ike supposed that nobles had their fair share of training to do, too. The two of them began to circle around the room, the only sounds being their moving feet and Elincia's quiet counting.

As the two of them waltzed, Ike found himself becoming more and more comfortable with his closeness to Elincia; he was calmer, and he found the steps coming to him more and more easily. The simple 'one, two, three' became background noise, and his eyes went from their feet to the ballroom chandeliers to the emerald of Elincia's hair. Slowly, he stopped thinking of which foot he had to move and onto other things – what would the ball be like? Who would be there? Ranulf better not laugh at him this time – and the dance became somewhat second nature, even with the tingly feeling in his hands.

"Ike? Are you listening?"

"Huh?" Ike looked at the face across from him. Elincia was staring at him like there was something wrong.

"You should pay attention to your partner! If she's an important noble, you can't look like you're ignoring her," Elincia scolded. "That could result in… unfavourable circumstances."

Nobles – easily offended, right. Ike was always glad that Elincia was such a glaring exception to the rule. The thought that he'd be spending an entire night with them, dancing of all things, was disgusting; if it weren't Elincia asking him, he certainly would have refused a long time ago. But… if dancing was just like what he and Elincia were doing now, perhaps it wasn't so bad.

"Right. Always pay attention to – ack!"

For the first time in a while, Ike looked down at his feet. His right foot had caught onto what appeared to be the hem of Elincia's dress, and as she moved underneath the dress had swept his foot along with it, causing him to lose his balance. He managed to stabilize himself, but he had pulled her slightly in the process so that she also lost her balance, and they ended up grabbing each other closely in some kind of embrace. Somehow, though, they had managed to both stay up. Thank goodness, Ike thought. He didn't really need the queen falling on him a second time today.

When they had finally managed to sort themselves out they both stepped back from each other, Elincia slightly red, Ike averting his gaze. He quickly composed himself, though, and went to ask her, "Are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine," Elincia answered. "Just a little caught off guard, I suppose."

"And I thought I'd be able to get through the entire time without tripping my feet… drat," Ike said, somewhat dejected. He had been so close, too. Last time at the coronation ball, Mist and Boyd thought it would be funny to count how many times Ike tripped throughout the night, and it ended at an incredibly embarrassing number. He was determined not to let that happen again.

Elincia smiled. "I still think you've done incredibly well," she said. "You've picked up the dance very quickly."

"Well, I have a great teacher." At Ike's praise, though, Elincia turned away, turning redder than she already had been.

"You flatter me," she said quietly. "I'm not that great…" Before Ike could tell her that yes, she really was that great, something caught both their ears.

"Your Majesty? Where are you?" A familiar voice faintly penetrated through the heavy ballroom doors. It was a voice that Elincia found dear, but one that for some reason only managed to strike fear into Ike's heart every time he heard it…

The large doors opened, and a head of long, light blue hair poked in.

"Oh, there you are!" Lucia said, sighing in what Ike guessed was relief. "I was just wondering where you had gone – you didn't say anything, so…" Her words faded on her tongue as she caught sight of Ike. He tried to remain as calm and impassive as natural, but he had no idea what to expect from Lucia – was he going to get yelled at, or just a quiet glare?

Elincia must have caught on to his concern, however, because she immediately spoke in his defence.

"I was teaching Ike how to do the waltz," she said. "I thought you had enough to do, and I didn't want to burden you or Geoffrey further. That's why I didn't tell you, Lucia. I'm sorry for making you worry."

"For the Summer Ball, correct?" Lucia asked. "I only wish you had told me first, that's all. Well, I won't interrupt you further."

"It's all right, we're pretty much done for tonight," Elincia answered. "Shall I walk back to my rooms with you? I wanted to speak with you tonight, anyway…"

They were done? Ike wasn't sure if he wanted to be done or not; he was glad that he didn't have to dance any more, and yet for some reason he wanted to stay with Elincia, in that room, on their own. It made all that paperwork and diplomacy worth it, somehow. He remembered back to that moment where they had stumbled into an embrace – her slim frame, her green locks…

Clearly, he had been listening to Bastian too much. Still, this feeling left Ike puzzled.

"Are we going to practise again tomorrow?" he asked, not sure what he wanted the answer to be.

Elincia smiled. "Want to dance more already?" she teased.

Before Ike could stammer a retort, she continued, "Don't worry, I'm busy tomorrow, so how about in three days? I'll meet you here at the ninth bell again." She paused." Good night… Ike," she said carefully, like she was remembering Ike's request. With that, Elincia turned to leave with Lucia, leaving a trail of chatter and laughter.

Elincia… sometimes, Ike thought, he completely understood her, and yet there were times where he was still so very confused.

This would be one of those times.

I like this a lot more than part one, to be honest.