Original Publishing Date: 12-06 -19
Author Note: Hello again, my dears! This prompt is just a quick drabble because I'm so far behind on Hamliza month, but please enjoy Day Five's prompt: Dance Lessons!
"I am terribly, terribly sorry! Please, I pray for your forgiveness!"
"You do not have to keep apologizing, my Hamilton."
"I most certainly do! I am going to seriously harm you at the current rate!"
Alexander pulled away from his intended with a grimace, unable to meet her worried gaze as she brought her arms back to herself. His future mother-in-law, Catherine Van Rennselaer, ceased her piano playing and looked to the two of them with a mixture of concern and pity, which did little to help his deteriorating self-confidence. The three of them had been working all throughout the morning and early afternoon on the choreography for the dance that he and his Eliza would share at the beginning of their wedding reception, but as it would seem, Alex's dancing was a positively lost cause. He had stepped on his beloved's feet so many times it was humiliating, he had issues with keeping time and not mixing up the footwork, and he was exceptionally worse at this particular skill the more he got frustrated over it.
Even the two level-headed Schuylers were certainly fed up with him, though they hid it with their usual grace, and he was more than ready to simply announce that a 'first dance' was not necessary. Even if he wished for it desperately, he knew it would break his Betsey's heart and make spidering cracks in the wedding of her dream, and he could not possibly allow such an injustice.
"Shall we take a small break?" Catherine inquired with a small, tight smile, suggesting this was more of an order than a request.
"Yes, we shall," Eliza conceded with a tiny sigh. "Alexander, are you alright?"
"I should be exclusively asking that of you!" He lamented as he took a knee, carefully lifting up each of her feet and inspecting the small bruises and red marks that his own had caused. "My God, Betsey…You must be hurting so sorely, and it is my own doing! What kind of fiancé am I to injure my bride?!"
"You are a fiancé with two left feet, and that is nothing to be ashamed of!" Elizabeth said decisively as she took to her knees, her hands taking his as well and forcing his blue eyes to meet her dark ones. "My dear, you are still not nearly as terrible in these manners as my brothers. Even Peggy took many sessions to be able to take mastery over her balancing!"
"Airing my dirty laundry once more, sister dearest?" Peggy asked teasingly from the doorway where she'd appeared. "I always knew that my most secure and embarrassing tales were safe with you."
"And yet you move more fluidly and gorgeously across the dance floor than any other member of our family!" Eliza exclaimed with her fondness for her sister strongly shown across her face and in her tone. "As a matter of fact, I would bet money that you could help him!"
"No need to gamble; I will offer my services for free, as you are family," Peggy announced with a smirk. "Unfortunately, I am not in the business of my toes being trampled, so I'm going to have to retrieve boots before we begin."
Alexander face reddened more profusely, and it took his Betsey holding him place by the arm to keep him from sulking out of the house and back to the camps. Once Peggy was directly before him, Eliza began to play their wedding tune as skillfully as their mother had, and he nearly forgot he was meant to dance until his hands were seized very tightly and he was thrust forward. He corrected himself as fast as possible, stomping accidently atop the younger Schuyler's boots and making them both grunt.
"You need to loosen up!" Peggy commanded. "I can't teach a beam of steal to waltz, Alexander."
"If I do not remain in proper posture, I will make us both look sloppy," he attempted to argue, but she was quick to put her hand directly over his mouth and shake her head while tutting like a disappointed mother.
"None of that. Who is the expert here?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, forcing him to concede that she had a point as he tried to release the tension that had synched up his shoulders and back. "Much better. Now, follow my lead, and one and two and three and four- now square your shoulder and~ Turn! …and two and…"
It was only lasted for a couple of minutes before he pulled away from her as well, the bottoms of his feet throbbing with so much relentless contact with her heavy boots and stumbling over himself. Peggy sighed more loudly as he stalked to the edge of the room, his movements stiff and aggressive as he threw his extremely damp hair into a tight bun and cursed under his breath with all the usual vigor of a soldier.
"Alexander…" Eliza was soon behind him, her hand touching his shoulder comfortingly, but he was fully beyond frustrated with himself now.
"Betsey, perhaps…" Alexander began, but he caught a glimpse of her anxiety-laced expression and immediately threw out the idea yet again. "…perhaps…Perhaps we ought to just try again another day?"
"No way!" Peggy exclaimed sharply. "You would be fine if you would loosen up-! As a matter of fact, to Hell with the choreography! We are just going to do this independent-style!"
"I would rather not make my future wife appear foolish, Miss Margarita," he replied tersely, a bit more abrasively than he intended, but his point was clear. "She is a lady marrying a bastard; there is no need to further shame herself."
"Alexander Hamilton!" Eliza gasped. "How dare you assume such awful things about yourself! Why would you ever feel that way when our love is so deep and true?! Have I not planted my love so intimately within your own heart that you believe my words over this toxic self-hatred?!"
"I-I…I apologize," Alex stuttered, once again unable to meet her eyes despite how she embraced him tightly. "I did not mean to offend my most beloved."
The two of them embraced for a full minute at the very least, their bodies slowly relaxing the longer they held each other with such love and determined fondness. They only broke apart slightly when their wedding song of choice began to play again from the piano, but Peggy immediately shouted from them to 'stay together and dance freely or she would kick both of their posteriors all the way to their big day.' Alexander looked down to his fiancé and gave a small but amused sigh of defeat in tandem with his Eliza, but then she was swinging their arms and pulling away across the cleared floor, and he could not help but laugh as he followed suite. He slowly began to sway with her, then spin them around, hands the only things interlocked as they went more and more quickly around, giggling with childlike glee as they held tight to each other with their own thoughts of the other. He eventually lifted her up fully, inspiring an adorable squeal of laughter from her as he rotated her with the surprising eloquence of an old professional.
Peggy surrender the piano playing to her beaming mother soon enough, her eyes twinkling as she watched the two lovebirds dance and make merriment the way they were always meant to for a wedding dance. "And like that, dear Mother, my work here is done."