The Ball, part five
The dance with Aphrodite ended and even before he could thank her another had offered his hand to dance with the blonde Princess of Venus. Endymion smiled inwardly at the boy's reaction – his offer was eager with a stutter of hesitation – it was probably the first time the young man had worked up the courage to ask the beautiful girl. Aphrodite, for her part, acted delighted and honored, practically leading him away. What a great sport – the lad could be no older than twelve and Aphrodite, he guess at fifteen or sixteen, was a good three to four inches taller than her new partner.
New partner… snap. People were pairing up all around him for the next set. He stood higher and tried to look over the heads of the audience to locate someone to dance with. Serenity was paired with Nephrite, Athena and Bellona had partners… He could go fishing in the crowd of unattached young ladies just off the dance floor. Surely there wouldn't be another repeat of Adrestria; they would've warned him if there were another girl like her, right? On his way over, politely excusing himself when he had to squeeze between waiting couples, his eyes fell upon Demeter, the only one of Serenity's friends with whom he had yet to dance. She was already paired, but as he passed her he paused, "Might I have the next dance, Demeter?"
"Sure thing, Prince!" she replied with a smile.
The dance was a bit uneventful, though the girl he had asked to dance was very curious about life on Earth. He found through her that the Moon's education system primarily focused on the sciences at upper levels – physics, engineering, natural sciences such as biology and astronomy, and chemistry – yet retained the love of music, art, and literature. Apparently there were different schools that the children of the moon could choose to attend that focused on areas of their interest and strengths, preparing them for a future in their career of choice or a seat at the Lunar University wherein they would further study the hard sciences. Her curiosity stemmed from a lack of studies about Earth; it was a big part of their literature, a smaller part of their history, and was mentioned only rarely in subjects other than biology.
As he answered her questions about daily life on Earth, Endymion felt like his Lunar education was rather lacking. They studied the moon briefly in history and political classes, but otherwise his education was filled to the brim with the goings-on on Earth. … Maybe he'd pick up a book on the history of the moon before heading back home.
The song ended and she thanked him for his information and walked off purposefully, even before he had thanked her in return. Wait – had he just been interviewed? Would his name suddenly pop up in a list of quotations in a scientific paper of some sort? Even as Endymion's head filled with notes of grandeur – he would be cited in someone's work – it sank with the sudden realization: he would be cited in someone's work. What had he said? He hadn't been paying much attention, just answering whatever came to mind – had he said anything bad about Earth or Elysian? Aw, man… Zoisite would kill him if he found out.
"Good evening, Prince!" Demeter tapped him on the shoulder to gain his attention.
He turned and offered a weary smile to the brunette, still thinking of being a poor representation of the populace of his home, "Good evening, Demeter. Thank you for the dance."
"No problem; I know that strangers can be a mixed bag when it comes to partners," her eyebrows raised in a forced smile, "You can ask my feet for further evidence, if you need it."
He laughed, "So far the actual dancing part has been just fine," Endymion offered as Demeter relaxed, "but I think I was just interviewed without warning."
"Stressing about being misquoted or quoted out of context?" Demeter guessed intuitively. He nodded, and she continued, "I wouldn't worry too much about it; Karina is just one of those people who like to record everything around them."
He nodded again in understanding, and the apprehension began to dissipate; an amateur historian really wasn't anything to bother with. As more of the instruments entered into the song, he spun Demeter out then brought her back in, spinning himself so that they ended up in opposite positions.
"Aha!" Demeter laughed, "Another fancy dancer. You guys should come to our celebrations more often!" Smiling at the compliment, Endymion dipped the Princess of Jupiter, who laughed again, "This is so much more fun!" he brought her up and they moved throughout the room, "Usually we're stuck dancing back and forth, like poor Bell over there," she nodded her pony-tailed head over at the raven-haired Bellona, who was moving in time to the music in a slow circle, her young partner looking at her in awe and nervousness.
Endymion chuckled, "at least her feet aren't being trod upon."
"True; but usually the guys who step on our feet are at least trying to be exiting," the green-eyed girl explained. "I usually prefer dancing with the older gentlemen as their experience livens things up, but it's really nice to dance with people my own age and enjoy it. There's only so much you can talk about with older guys, especially when you're supposed to be a great Senshi of the Moon Kingdom, you know?"
He smiled, "Have to stay in character the whole time, right?"
"Pretty much," she nodded as they spun.
For about a minute or two, Endymion concentrated fully on dancing, enjoying Demeter's laughs and sudden exclamations when he did something unexpected – she was a really fun partner to dance with.
"Prince Endymion, do you enjoy ice-skating?" Demeter asked.
Endymion considered; they had skated a few times when visiting Zoisite's kingdom and Nephrite's kingdom. He enjoyed the challenge of keeping balanced and the speed that one could achieve. He nodded, "Yeah."
"Have you ever figure-skated?" she continued with a smile.
Figure skating – that was like dancing on ice. He had participated in a few events, but he wasn't nearly as good at it as Zoisite and Nephrite were. "Yeah," he said again, with a growing suspicion as to where this was going.
"Great! I thought it'd be fun to bring you guys to the rink sometime, but Bell said you guys had probably never skated before; with all that ice all over Earth's northern hemisphere, I just knew you'd at least heard of it. Skating is the major sport around here, though they have been experimenting with this new one out beyond the artificial gravity bounds that I'd like to try sometime. I adore figure skating, and Serenity's rather talented. I think we'd have a great time."
Another chance to be close to Serenity? 'Sign me up' he thought, using a favorite phrase of Nephrite's. It would be interesting to see the princess completely in her element, expressing herself without a partner to guide her along. "I think it's a great idea," Endymion seconded.
"I'll arrange to reserve it for an afternoon sometime this week, then. Ah, the perks of power," she winked conspiratorially. The dance was starting to wind down. "Three songs down, right?" Demeter asked, glancing up at the orchestra's stage.
"Since the last break," Endymion verified.
Demeter smiled, "I thought so. The fourth song of the final set is the most like a fireworks finale – it's a very energetic partner-swapping dance. It's a little complicated but very fun. I don't know if you know it… but, if you wouldn't mind, I could teach you."
Partner-swapping, eh? He glanced around as they turned, seeing Serenity not too far away, dancing with Jadeite. If he ended the dance with her, it would be all too easy to snag the next song, as well. … but how could Demeter teach him so quickly? "How could you teach me an entire dance minutes before it starts?"
"Well, it repeats. I'll dance the first part with you; just let me lead a little and you just have to remember the steps. When partners swap, it pretty much starts all over again. And don't worry – I'll make it look like you're leading the whole time," she winked.
The idea was sound, if a little strange. "Alright," he agreed, "let's do it."
The song ended, and everything around them changed. Princess Jupiter led him over a bit to join in a loose grid-work of couples. Glancing around him he noticed that the crowd of waiting people had diminished to a tiny proportion – everyone, it seemed, had found someone for this dance. Even Queen Serenity was paired with a tall mustached gentleman. Suddenly the strings broke into a quick fall, which the woodwinds picked up and ran with. Demeter led him in a number of turns, then a move where their hands joined together before their faces, their other hands behind their backs, and they turned a half circle around each other, switched hands, did it again, held and he spun her (rather, she spun herself, but her skill at hiding who was actually in charge was commendable), there was some fancy footwork he had a few issues with, but before he knew it Demeter was whispering "pick me up in three." He counted the beats dutifully and lifted her in time with the other dancers. Honestly, he couldn't really recall what other moves were involved – half of his head was set upon robotically remembering the steps the graceful brunette was leading him through, the other half wondering at the new experience of being led rather than leading. It was rather odd – he had to be kept on his toes at all moments, prepared for any move Demeter suggested and reacting appropriately. Did girls go through this every time?
Suddenly they were hurtling to the next row, shuffling places with other couples, then separating and arching their hands to create a tunnel for couples to dash through to the end of the line. Though some ran quickly, others danced a quick jig – one man slid on his knees for some distance then popped up like nothing was out of the ordinary and rejoined the line. When his turn came about, he chose to do the easy thing and dash, especially as he had no idea how long this part would last. Feeling lost, he looked to Demeter, who smiled, whirled her finger around and threw her thumb out behind her. A turn then, and partner with the person in the line behind them?
Right. Okay. He turned and grasped hands with the woman a few steps behind him and they danced back the way he had come down the line. When the tunneling people ran out, the lines were suddenly reformed and the dance beginning anew.
Endymion continued through the dance, repeating with a touch of dexterity the moves Demeter had shown him with his new partner, a motherly figure who smiled and whispered "Your first time?" He nodded, reaching up to touch hands for the weird hand part. After that, if he faltered for even a moment she was quick to whisper helpful instructions. When they crossed down the archway of hands she smiled and complimented him on doing a good job.
He was actually starting to get the hang of this.
Three partners later and the song had ended. To his disappointment, Serenity had ended up just one line away from where he stood, but that still kept her in range for the next dance.
