"Um, wait."

The three of Inori's friends stopped just inside the doorway, turning their heads back to look at her. Still kneeling in front of her table, hands gripping her knees, she set her eyes on Setsuna in return. "Could I talk to you for a minute before you go, Setsuna?"

Setsuna looked to Love, seeking input from the one she was naturally going to be walking with. Love nodded encouragingly and put both hands on her sister's shoulders, personally turning her around. "Don't keep her too late for dinner, Buki!" she said cheerfully. "I'll go home first."

With a laugh, Setsuna replied, "Don't worry, I wouldn't miss Mom's cooking for the world."

"See you two later," Miki said with a wave, breezing her way out. Love bounded after her, her own goodbye carrying through the hall as she disappeared.

In the end, Setsuna was left there with her, and Inori already felt better.

"What's up, Buki? Is there something else about the dress?" Curious, Setsuna walked back over to her.

Inori shook her head, but her eyes fell back on the fancy yellow gown neatly folded in front of her anyway. "I thought of something else that might be a problem." She exhaled. "There might be… ballroom dancing."

"Ballroom dancing?" Setsuna kneeled down at the opposite side of the table. "I read about it when I was trying to understand dancing more. Are these parties where people do it?"

"I don't know, but they might. And I've never done it before." Inori deflated a little. There was too much to worry about with this cruise invitation. Why had Kento expected so much of her?

"Why don't we practice together, like at our training camp?" Setsuna suggested. "I haven't done anything like that either, but I'd be happy to start learning with you."

"Really? I was going to ask you the same thing." Inori smiled at her. "After that, I feel more comfortable with you than anyone else."

Setsuna returned the cheery expression. "When do you want to start? I could use a little more time to research it."

"I could use some time to get things ready myself. Are you free the afternoon before the party?"

"Yes, I am. You can have the whole night if you need it."

A little embarrassed by her friend's earnestness, Inori's face warmed. "I don't want to take up your whole night, Setsuna, but thank you."

In the days that followed, Inori diligently pursued the topic. After consulting Miyuki, she chose the waltz as the best style to focus on. While Miyuki offered a brief lesson of her own, Inori gently declined. There was the fact that she would feel self-conscious trying to replicate her instructor's moves in front of her or with her, but she also wanted to reserve her first steps for Setsuna. Surely her friend was thinking the same.

Miyuki understood, and gave her a CD to dance to in the lesson's place. Inori was happy to accept.

She spoke with her mother after that. Inori managed to get her alone out in the waiting room after hours; her father was just getting a few things ready for the morning. "Have you ever waltzed before?"

"Hmm… ah, I did once," her mother answered. She folded her hands together in her lap. "I was invited to a fancy party for my father's work, and I asked your father to go with me."

"Was it fun? Difficult?"

"I had some practice before then to make sure my father could be proud of us, so it wasn't hard at all. As for fun…" She affectionately looked off toward the door of the examination room. "With your father, it was. It wasn't our first date, but it was the first time I realized I was in love."

"Oh." Inori meekly tucked her chin down at the blunt expression of her feelings.

Her mother turned back to her and giggled. "Not something you wanted to hear about your mother and father?"

"N-No. It's not that," Inori said quickly, shaking her head. "I'm happy to hear it. I don't think the same is going to happen to me, though."

"This is about that invitation you got, right? Try not to let the person you dance with steal your heart," her mother added with a wink, and Inori turned her pained face away.

"It's really not going to be like that~..."

When Inori did manage to break free of the awkward part of the conversation, she earned some actually helpful instructions on the topic from her mother. Her father finished up and joined them, and he was swept into a rusty waltz with no room to complain. Their shared missteps and laughter warmed Inori's heart — seeing their parents still so in love would give anyone hope for the future.

With the music ready and the information from her mother fresh in her mind, Inori was ready for the day before the party to come around. Looking forward to it so much shook off some of the nerves she'd felt over going to the party at all.

The first thing they did when Setsuna arrived was work together to carefully move her table and cushions to the corner of the yellow room. Setsuna placed an open book on her bed, the pages covered in diagrams of dancing people. That was her research, she said, and Inori could only smile at how Setsuna it was.

"Why don't we start with the box step, side-by-side?" Setsuna asked her after refreshing herself on the book's contents. When Inori nodded, Setsuna got up and took her place near the center of the room. They both stood with their backs to the sunlight streaming in through the clear windows.

While not even remotely convinced of her expertise on this, being with Setsuna made Inori feel like she could contribute more easily. "Mom taught me some of how this goes. Would you mind if I try leading?"

"No, go ahead. I've only seen it in that book, after all."

"Okay. So…" Inori took a deep breath. "Step forward with the left…" They both took a deliberate step forward. "To the side with the right… Put left foot to right, and then step back with the right…"

It was a pretty simple sequence neither of them had trouble with after all of the complicated moves they'd been learning. Once they'd repeated it twice, Setsuna offered to start counting out the beat. "One, two, three. One, two, three," filled the room, a comforting accompaniment to their gradually relaxing steps.

"Let's try dancing together now," Setsuna said after she was satisfied with the progress.

Inori nodded, then looked at her quizzically. "Wait… Men and women play different parts in this dance. How can we do it?"

"Haha, it's not like it has to be a man, right?" Setsuna gave her a slightly bashful grin. "If you do dance tomorrow, it'll be with a boy, so I'll be the boy tonight. Since I'm not going, I don't have to learn it the other way around."

"Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Only if you'll let me have this dance." Setsuna faced her and held up her left hand.

At the brave encouragement, Inori giggled and took that hand in her right. "Yes."

After working out their hand positions a little more from Setsuna's reading and Inori's parents' demonstration, they were ready to begin again, together. Inori had high expectations from how well they'd been doing so far, but their first step — still to Setsuna counting — was their toes smacking together over someone being too quick or someone being too slow. It didn't hurt, but it was surprising.

"Sorry!" they both said, this time in unison, and they laughed.

"It looks like we have to work a little harder on our timing with our feet," Setsuna remarked, "But we've got it just right like this."

"My mother might have been standing a little to the left of my father when they were dancing. Why don't we try that?"

With Setsuna's agreement, they resumed. It wasn't the type of performance that could win a contest, but there weren't any big mishaps, and they gradually became at home in each other's arms. Inori only broke away once to turn on the music, and Miyuki's choice guided them through the movements without Setsuna's careful counting.

"I'm feeling more confident about tomorrow now," Inori said after Setsuna released her some time later.

"You should! You're going to do great." Once again, Setsuna seemed more excited for her than Inori was for herself.

"But… the dress." She looked uneasily toward the wardrobe where she'd hung it up. "Am I really going to be able to dance this easily in something like that?"

Setsuna fell deep in thought. Then, her eyes lit up. "Why don't you try it now? We might as well practice that too."

Wide-eyed, Inori glanced from Setsuna, to the window, and back. "But the sun is starting to set. Haven't you spent too much time on me already?" There was the flutter of some other kind of self-consciousness, too.

"No, but if you want to hurry, hurry and get the dress on first. I'll wait outside. Knock when you're ready for me to come back in."

"O-Okay." After watching Setsuna step out, Inori sighed. How much she enjoyed having her friend around was waging a terrible war with how concerned she was about wasting Setsuna's time. She had to be having fun, though. She'd be gone already if she wasn't.

For the first time, she changed into the long gown Kento sent her. It was nothing like her usual clothes, but at least it was simple to figure out how to wear it. The frills at the bottom brushed against the floor as she was, so she slipped on a pair of heels to complete the transformation. It really was lovely. Too lovely for an average girl like her.

Inori knocked on the door without thinking, but a nervousness hit her as her hand met the doorknob. Setsuna was going to be the first person to see her like this. What if she confirmed it was too beautiful for her? What if she thought Inori looked plain silly all dressed up? It was harder to handle that idea than any similar possibility from Kento. She couldn't exactly stop now, though. It was either open the door, or stay in there forever with Setsuna's things.

"You're so pretty," Setsuna said breathlessly when Inori was in full view again. Flustered, Inori put a hand to her pink face and stepped back to allow her friend back in.

"It—It's just the dress."

"No, it's you. The dress just makes you look even more beautiful. Are you okay?"

Through Setsuna's praise, Inori had gradually angled forward and covered her face with both hands. "No, but thank you very much."

"Hehe. Are you ready to try dancing again?" Setsuna closed the bedroom door behind her and returned to the center of the room.

Inori moved her hands and walked to the CD player, more or less accepting how hot her face was going to be for a while. She returned to Setsuna's side once the music had started playing again and beamed at her, allowing herself to ride the joy of the compliments. "Yes. Shall we dance?"

"We shall." Setsuna took her hand, and they began moving together again. It went smoother than Inori expected, but Setsuna had a way of chasing off Inori's unnecessary worries.

"It looks like you're not having any trouble at all," Setsuna observed as they danced.

"I do have to concentrate a little more. I'm not used to wearing heels in daily life like you are."

"You could've fooled me. I think you'll be able to fool Kento tomorrow just fine." Shortly after saying so, a subtle smirk crossed her lips. "I wonder if he'd be upset by this."

"By what?" Inori asked blankly, tilting her head.

"By me being the first one you wear this dress for. It was his gift, after all."

"Oh, I don't think Kento is that kind of person."

"Maybe not. I feel a little special that I am the first person, though."

"Do you?" In her surprise, Inori felt her cheeks flare up again. Now, she was too close and her hands were too occupied to hide it. Her heart beat faster, and she couldn't blame it on the slow movements of the waltz. "I…"

"Sorry, I don't know what I meant by that. Don't worry about it." Setsuna sounded satisfied despite her floundering. Inori was envious of how cool that expression could be at a time like this.

"It wasn't our first date, but it was the first time I realized I was in love."

"I'm happy to hear it. I don't think the same is going to happen to me, though."

Feeling herself falling back into a comfortable rhythm, Inori mumbled, "...I'm glad you're the first person too."

"Hm? I couldn't hear that over the music."

"Nothing! It was nothing. Thank you for all your help, Setsuna."

"Anytime, Buki."

Inori, in her dirty dress, lingered with Setsuna and Chiffon on the pier after the cruise incident was over. "There wasn't any dancing after all."

Setsuna's head snapped over to her, and Chiffon mimicked her from down in her arms. "Eh?"

"I don't know if they were planning to, but Labyrinth taking control of the ship made sure they didn't. They might not have been at all."

"I'm sorry, Buki," Setsuna said, eyebrows curved sympathetically.

Inori shook her head in return. "It's okay. I wanted to spend my time with the animals anyway."

"Same old Buki," Setsuna replied affectionately. "Do you feel like all that effort we put into getting ready wasn't worth it now?"

Fixing her with a look of surprise, Inori said, "I could never. It's a precious memory for me, and I might still use it another time."

"Might, hm." Setsuna squared her shoulders and puffed out her chest toward the ocean. "Why don't we make it "definitely" and dance together again sometime? It was a lot of fun."

Inori watched the sea breeze stir her friend's glossy purple hair and smiled kindly. "I would love to."