The following day was mostly uneventful, but it did leave Julian – and the others – plenty of time to reflect on the previous night's dance lesson. He decided that it was surprisingly easy to ignore the raised-eyebrow looks Jadzia was sending his way whenever their eyes met. He had enjoyed himself, and he had enjoyed Garak's company. The others could make of that what they would.

What was more confusing was his own reaction to the dancing. It wasn't like him to lose track of his surroundings like that, even when he was enjoying himself – his enhanced genetics usually didn't allow for such complete absorption in something. He could only recall a few instances in which something similar had happened – during a surgery, for example, or sometimes while studying intensely back at the academy. But it was one thing to narrow your focus if there was a life on the line, or a test the next day; It was quite another to become completely absorbed in Garak's dance leads.

He discovered that evening, however, that the Foxtrot required a significant portion of his focus even without Garak. He winced as Vic repositioned his neck once again and caught Garak's amused expression out of the corner of his eye.

"And you've gotta arch your back a bit more," Cynthia corrected him from the other side. "Like this."

Julian mimicked the position until they appeared to be satisfied and let him be to practice the moves Vic had shown them – a graceful series of movements with a smoothly varied pacing (for the first ten minutes Vic had to count for them – slow, slow, quick, quick, slow). As they did so, he caught a few words muttered in his direction from Garak.

"Still enjoying yourself, Doctor?"

He wanted to look at Garak as he replied, but reminded himself to hold the oddly tilted neck position. "Let's just say that this isn't the most pleasant of dances."

"Ah, but Doctor," Garak chided him teasingly, "You're just not catching the subtleties of the dance!" And then, before he had time to react, he felt a shift in the leads Garak threw him. There was the tug on the arm that sent him into the move, but didn't this push on the shoulder lead him into something completely different? Garak had led both moves correctly before – he couldn't be mixing up the leads.

He only had a matter of seconds to choose which lead to follow. Instinctively, he almost followed the pull on his arm; it was the more decisive of the two. But this was Garak, of all people. With him, there was almost always something below the surface. Changing his mind at the last minute, he followed the softer force on his shoulder.

"Oh, very good, Doctor!" Garak exclaimed. "But what do you make of this?"

And now they were off again, spinning around the floor with the others. Garak played several 'games' with Julian as they danced – gently softening the leads to see how much he could really detect; leading one move before switching to another one at the last second; or dancing in patterns and then slackening the leads to see if Julian could figure out what came next. Julian, of course, was never allowed to know the "rules" of these games beforehand, but he didn't mind: figuring it out as they went along was far more interesting.

Vic and Cynthia interrupted their games every once and a while, stopping them to correct some aspect of the dancing. After what Julian figured was about twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds Vic stopped everyone, preparing to teach them a new move. Seeing as how they had already learned quite a few moves in the first half-hour of the class, he was very curious to see what they would be learning next.

"Okay, folks," Vic said, looking around at the assembled couples. "You're all doing pretty well with the Foxtrot. How 'bout we try a dip?"

As he and Cynthia demonstrated the move, the others began talking amongst themselves. Finally, Kira said. "Well, that doesn't look too hard."

Vic turned to her. "It's not, really. Just remember to make it as smooth as possible. The follower should be doing most of the work keeping herself or himself up, but the leader should be providing balance and support in case something does happen."

Jadzia grinned at Sisko. "My balance isn't quite as good as Emony's, but I don't think you'll have to worry about me falling."

"Whatever you say, Old Man." Sisko replied with a smile before turning back to Vic. "When can we start?"

Even though he knew that his sense of balance was certainly enough to keep himself from falling, Julian felt as though he were participating in one of those "trust fall" games that Starfleet occasionally utilized during its training workshop. What surprised him, however, was the fact that he felt he did trust Garak to keep him from steady if he lost his balance.

Garak wasn't really the type of person anyone placed much trust in – over time, people on the station had been forced to utilize his particular talents for various things, but he knew that very few people would actually claim to trust the man. Garak himself discouraged the good faith of other people- once he had even complimented Julian for his mistrust. There were plenty of reasons not to believe in Garak: he was a Cardassian ex-spy who lied about nearly every aspect of his past.

So why do I trust him now?

Despite the logical arguments to the contrary, Julian knew as he dipped into the backbend and felt Garak's hands supporting him that he was safe. As much as people were right to question the Cardassian's personal history and professional motives, his friendship had never seemed anything but sincere. He may have no qualms about lying or overly elaborate Cardassian wordplay, but his sentiments were surprisingly consistent if one could cut through the misdirection. Julian often felt, however, that he was the only one on the station who had bothered to cut through that misdirection out of curiosity rather than suspicion. Perhaps that's why he always seems genuinely happy to see me, rather than putting up some of the polite mask he uses on the others from time to time.

He felt his balance wobble slightly – definite, but not enough to seriously compromise his positioning. Still, he smiled to himself as he felt the grip on his back tighten and knew Garak would try to keep him safe if he fell.