a/n: Tango night at the Repenta, but Neesae has other things on her mind.
All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, but Neesae is mine.
The Repenta Diner's tango exhibition was everything that had been promised. Several couples had performed, although the spotlight had clearly been on Doug and Alexa. At one point (and Neesae hoped there was a video of it), the Outfitter had wrapped her leg around her partner and shimmied up his hip, only to be swung off in a swoop of heels, legs, and ruffled skirt. Neesae wasn't the only one to whistle and cheer when the music stopped.
The second set wasn't for a few more minutes, but there was no point talking. The noise in the diner was ferocious. Neesae was content to watch and nod, smile and enjoy. Gino sat across from her. He was leaning over, yelling into the ear of one of her roommates, and not having much success being understood.
She shook her head at his fool behavior. She still had the four roses in her lap. She should have stayed angry at him for passing off second-hand flowers on her, but instead she held them possessively. No one had ever given her flowers before.
She was wrong, she realized. No man had given her flowers. But there was that one Valentine's, in high school. A girl, new to the school and unaware of all its rules, had approached, offering a flower. It wasn't a rose, just a daisy, painted pink by the pep squad and taped to a construction paper heart. The child had fled in tears, followed by insults and threats. Neesae didn't know what had become of her, not in school or after. She knew that there was no point imagining how she could apologize now. That girl died with all the other innocents on Earth, while Neesae had used a decade of luck to be where she was now.
She twisted her neck uneasily, trying to relax away the memory. People hadn't been kind to Neesae as a kid, so what could you expect? She looked at Gino, still gesturing and shouting, and wondered about the scars on his arms again. No one had been kind to Gino either, but Neesae was suddenly convinced that he wouldn't have been as rude to that poor child. Maybe not smooth, but he wouldn't have made her cry.
The second set began. Neesae watched without watching as couple after couple played out mock meetings, farewells, lover's quarrels, and passionate reconcilliations. It was only the last dance that she saw, again the star team, doing a tango of delicate formality, with steps that followed each other more sensually than any previous slide or twirl. It was worth surfacing for, and Neesae stood up to cheer with the rest of the crowd at the end. She did more than cheer. Neesae threw her roses onto the dance floor in admiration. To be accurate, she threw three of them.
a/n: Neesae is trying very, very, VERY hard to be a better person. She knows she has a way to go. She showed up in Inktober, more than once, not always named.
Next up: Alexa and Doug, super short.