Dance With Me
Description: As a college freshman, Sora faces a choice: the brotherly bond he has formed with his roommate or the possibility of love with a sophomore who loves to dance. AU, Amazing Grace crossover. SoraxRiku, LeonxCloud, ChristianxJustin, J'nelxIrene.
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all the Final Fantasy games belong to Square-Enix. Amazing Grace and its characters belong to me.
A/N: A fluffy chapter before the angst begins anew. Hope you like it.
Twenty-Five: Grand March
Grand March: An entrance march that begins a ball.
All couples line up and enter the hall. The hosts of the ball stand at the far end of the hall.
Upon reaching the hosts, the line splits and then reforms several times, creating several patterns.
"How do I look?"
I lifted my head from my book of Aeschylus to look at Justin. And nearly fell off the bed. He had dressed up for the dance club's annual ball, and he looked good. He had on a simple pair of black pants and a white shirt so crisp it looked dangerous. Overtop the shirt, he wore a Scottish vest that Christian had lent him, a Prince Charlie, I think he had said. The coat had been too big, so Justin just wore the waistcoat, a simple and sharp black vest with silver buttons at the bottom. The contrast of the white and black really brought out the fairness of his skin, the blue of his eyes, and the dress cut of everything showed off his long legs and his thin hips.
If I could get Riku to wear something like that … I just might faint.
"That bad, huh?" he teased at my complete inability to form anything coherent.
Desperate to stop looking like a suffocating goldfish, I coughed several times and finally managed, "You might want to get someone to escort you to Tarble. If you go out like that, you're gonna get mobbed."
He just laughed at me and turned back to the mirror to double-check his collar. Throwing me a playful look in the glass, he asked, "Are you really going like that?"
I looked down at my sweatshirt and jeans. "What's wrong with it?" I asked back. "I'm not going to dance or anything."
He sighed dramatically at me. "Yes, but your boyfriend will be there, and he'll be all dressed up. Won't you be embarrassed to look so sloppy?"
My face flushed bright red, although it was mostly from the fact that I still hadn't gotten used to Justin referring to Riku as my boyfriend. Heck, I hadn't gotten used to the fact that Riku was my boyfriend, and we had already been together for almost two months.
Rolling his eyes at me like I was a hopeless case, Justin walked over to my dresser and began rooting around in my drawers. "Here," he said, tossing me a blue turtleneck. "Put this on. And these." A pair of tan slacks hit me in the face. "I'm not letting you go to a ball in jeans, even to watch."
"Geez, Jay," I sighed as I pulled the pants off my head, "the way you're acting, people'd think you were the gay man in this room instead of me."
A low hiss informed me that I had gone too far. I lifted nervous eyes to my roommate to find him standing rigidly with his back to me, one hand on the drawer he had just closed. Waves of cold anger radiated off of his stiff form. "That's not funny, Sora," he growled.
"I'm sorry," I replied quickly.
"Get changed."
"Okay."
I tore off my sweatshirt and began putting on the turtleneck he had given me, cursing my stupidity. Even though four months had passed since I had come out to Justin, he still wasn't entirely comfortable with everything. He had accepted me, had accepted that I loved Riku and that Riku loved me, but there were still things that he continued to struggle with. Even after months of listening to Christian build up his confidence, months of watching two successful gay couples interact, months of experiencing happiness and contentment with barely a flicker of his old misery, even now Justin would flare up at the slightest hint that he was anything other than straight. I hadn't talked to Chris about it in a while, but it seemed we had hit an obstacle that even he couldn't surmount.
"There. Now you look presentable." Justin handed me a pair of brown shoes and then beaned me with my coat. As I put everything else on, he donned his own coat and picked up his violin case. "Let's go."
Tarble sits right next door to Parish, so we were outside for a grand total of a minute and a half, I think. That was fine with me. It had snowed again, and the sidewalks were kind of icy. I slipped a couple of times between one door and the next, and once only a quick grab by Justin saved me from becoming a human snowcone. If that had happened, I so would have turned around and gone home. Even the prospect of Riku in dress clothes wasn't worth sitting there with snow melting in my trousers.
Once inside, Justin and I climbed the stairs to the huge hall on the second floor. And were immediately attacked by a bunch of hyper women.
"Justin! You look so handsome!" Yuffie cried, throwing her arms around him. He threw me a pleading look for assistance, but I could only stare. She was wearing a dress! An actual dress that went down to her ankles.
A tug on my arm refocused my attention. I turned to find Irene's bright eyes smiling at me. "Sora, please say you'll dance with me once tonight. Just one. English is easy, I swear."
"Um … I don't think …"
"Ooo, dance with me, too, Sora!" Selphie cried, grabbing my other arm. I looked over her shoulder to see Tidus sniggering at me. "Please, please, please, please …"
"Here, let me see your program," Yuffie ordered, finally releasing Justin who escaped to the musicians' platform. She grabbed at the small book attached to Selphie's dress by a safety pin and a long ribbon. Selphie yelped in protest, but Yuffie ignored her and instead rifled through the pages. "Okay, Sora can dance Apley House with Irene and Well Hall with Selphie …"
"Ooooo! Goodie!"
"Wait! I really don't think --"
"And then The Bishop with me and Easter Thursday with Tifa and --"
"Excuse me, ladies," a smooth voice interrupted just as a pair of warm and familiar arms encircled my waist, "but if Sora is dancing with anyone tonight, it will be with me."
I sighed and leaned back into Riku's arms, so very happy to be rescued, as the girls either giggled or whined. Releasing me briefly, he flicked both hands at them to shoo them away, and I caught a glimpse of fancy cuff-links at the end of his sleeves. I had meant my little groan to be internal, but it slipped past my lips anyway as I clamped both hands over my eyes.
"Sora?" he questioned in my ear.
"You're all dressed up, aren't you?" I replied.
"Well, yeah."
"I'm going to take one look at you and pass out, aren't I?"
He laughed brightly at me and spun me around to face him. I felt his fingers on mine, slowly trying to pry them from my face. "Don't be such a goof, Sora. It's just a shirt and tie. You look really nice, too, you know. Although I'm annoyed at how high your neck is," he teased. "Won't be easy to access."
To my horror, I heard my roommate's voice comment, "You can still reach his ears, though."
"True."
"Hey!" I yelled, dropping my hands to glare menacingly at the two jerks who would talk about such personal things in public. The sight in front of me made my jaw drop and my knees go weak.
Riku hadn't lied. He was wearing a simple white shirt with a dark green tie and navy slacks. But the color of his tie brought out the green of his eyes, and he had pulled his hair back, not into a messy ponytail like usual, but into a tight, carefully styled one with a few wisps of hair falling down to frame his face. And Justin was standing behind him on one of the risers, his violin resting on one cocked hip and a wide, teasing smile on his lips. They were both so freaking gorgeous. I didn't understand why every girl in the place wasn't all over them right now.
Two fingers slid under my chin and pushed my jaw back into place. "You goof," Riku laughed at me again. He slipped his hand into mine. "Come on." His hand pulled me towards the small table at the front of the hall.
Tifa greeted us from behind the table. She took the money Riku offered and passed him a program. Her deep brown eyes stared at me when I declared I was there just to watch, but thankfully she let it go and only waved us to the other end of the table. At this end, she had laid out a bunch of red and white carnations, a few pairs of scissors, and a package of pins.
"They're for the Swat students," Riku explained to me, taking a red one and clipping it to a manageable length. He dug out a pin from the box and carefully pinned the flower to his shirt. Then, he picked up a white one for me.
"But I'm not dancing!" I protested, watching him cut the stem and root for another pin.
"It's okay," he answered. I started to argue some more, but he silenced me by saying, "Stop moving or I'm liable to draw blood."
A few minutes later, Riku took my hand again and led me back to the risers to sit and wait for the ball to begin. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot thanks to the silly grin on my face, but I didn't care. I had the pleasant memory of Riku's warm fingers on my chest, directly over my heart as he pinned the flower to me, along with the gentle tingling of my lips from the short kiss he had given me once he had finished. Even after two months, I still had to occasionally remind myself that I was actually going out with Riku and that it wasn't just a pretty dream.
Once we had settled onto a bench, Riku's arm around me and my head on his shoulder, I took a moment to look around the hall. Christian had arrived and was tuning up his flute as Justin talked to him. Leon and Cloud also arrived as I watched them. Leon started setting up his sheet music at the piano while Cloud scanned the seats until he found me. He nodded once to me, and I waved back. We had agreed to sit together during the ball since both of us were there solely on behalf of our boyfriends. Apparently the size of a ball required the fuller tones of a piano to underscore the melodies, so Leon had volunteered to play while Riku had left his guitar in his room, content to dance.
My eyes wandered further into the room, and I noticed J'nel and Irene chatting with Yuffie and a tall, dark stranger. I elbowed Riku in the ribs and asked, "Who's that with Yuffie?"
He growled slightly from the abuse I had inflicted to his side before answering, "Her boyfriend, Vincent. He's an alum. He was a senior when she was a freshman. She's been chasing him since she met him. He finally gave in last summer."
I looked more closely at the tall man who had dressed entirely in black except for the red carnation pinned to his shirt. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his chin down, apparently oblivious to the excited young woman hanging on his arm. "What is a guy like that doing with someone like her? Doesn't she drive him nuts?"
Riku laughed, making my head bounce with the shaking of his shoulders. "One would think. But I've seen stranger couples in my time."
"Like you and me?" I teased.
"Sora," he scoffed, playing along with me. "How could you? You know that you and I are the ideal couple in every way." His fingers tilted up my head to look at him, and I smiled up into his own smiling face. After a moment, he leaned down and kissed me sweetly. I was about to open my mouth and invite him in when we both heard a pronounced cough from behind us.
"Break it up, lovebirds," Cloud ordered, taking each of us by the collar and forcing us apart. Then he hauled Riku to his feet and gave him a light push towards the stairs. "Go dance," he said. "I'll take care of your boyfriend for you." As Riku waved once to me and ran down the stairs, Cloud settled into the spot that Riku had vacated. "Damn kids," he muttered, but I caught the affectionate smile he briefly threw my way.
The ball itself was a blur of color and sound. The women all had on fancy dresses, sort of like a prom but with a more mature taste. Most of them seemed to have chosen their outfits based on how fully their skirts would flare when they turned, which they did a whole lot. Several of the men had kilts on along with their fancy dancing shoes and knee socks. I liked the way Riku looked, though, and I kept my eyes on him for most of the night. I liked the way his hair flew out behind him when he moved and the way he would twirl his partner a bit more than necessary, usually making her laugh at him. I liked how crisp his footwork was and how, if his partner was really skilled, the two of them would increase the difficulty of their figures with added ornamentation. And I really liked the way how, after each dance ended, he would look up at me and smile before turning to find a new partner.
At the tea break, Cloud and I went down to the main floor to join everyone else for cookies and breads and fruits and all sorts of delicious stuff. Tifa corralled us all into a group photo at one point and responded to my protest that I was just a spectator by shoving me into Riku and telling me to shut up and smile. When the dancing restarted, Cloud and I returned to our places on the risers, me blushing furiously due to the fierce kiss Riku had bestowed on me as a goodbye, Cloud watching me with that damned knowing smirk on his face.
At about eleven-thirty, the final dance ended and people began to wander over to the risers to change their shoes and pick up their coats. The musicians had launched into a last waltz, and most of the couples that I knew were out on the floor dancing, including Selphie and Tidus in spite of their mutual clumsiness.
"Sora?"
I looked down to see Riku standing at the bottom of the stairs near the musicians. He was red in the face from all the exercise, and his hair had come undone in places, the loose strands sticking to his face with sweat, but he still looked beautiful to me. With a smile, he motioned with his head for me to come down to him. When I had, he held out a hand to me.
"Dance with me?"
My eyes went wide. "I … I can't. I don't know how."
"You can count to three, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then you can waltz," he assured me. He reached down and took my hand, but I still resisted.
"Really, I can't. I'm all feet. I'll step all over you. I--"
My protests stopped when I felt a pressure on my back and was suddenly pushed forward into Riku's arms. I looked back over my shoulder to see a smiling Justin looking down on me, still playing the waltz on his violin. He had shoved me over to Riku with his foot!
"Come on," Riku laughed in my ear. He carefully led me out to the floor, and for the first time in my life, I waltzed. It was completely terrible. I trod on his feet more times than I could count, and I nearly fell down more than once. But each time Riku just smiled and pulled me back into the dance, and by the end, I had gotten the hang of it enough to hold my own when he spun me around in a fast turn.
Eventually, the music ended. I stood there in his arms for a long moment, just looking up at him.
"Maybe I'll start coming to class," I said.
He smiled. "I'd like that."