A/N: I must've watched this movie at least ten times. Yes, I know I'm obsessed. But oh well. I just realized after writing a few chapters that Lalita has become a weird mix of me, her character in the movie and Mia Thermopolis from the Princess Diaries.

---------------Three---------------

Lalita helped the bride fasten her green sari in place. "Are you sure about going to London? You've only met him twice," she reminded her gently, smiling at her friend.

Namrata smiled and leaned back, apparently satisfied with her appearance. "I'm sure, Lalita. His family is nice and so is he. And I would love to go to London." Lalita smiled through her sadness that her friend was leaving and hugged her.

Just then, the strains of music that indicated the dance where the boys and girls in the wedding were to meet (they didn't talk to or go near the boys until this dance) came.

Lalita loved singing and dancing and just having fun. Laughing excitedly, she waited for the cue for the girls to go down the stairs.

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As the first strains of lively music arrived, Will looked to Balraj for an explanation, but he wasn't there. He turned to Kiran, who explained that the first song and dance was the one where the boys and girls would meet, and where the groom would see the bride for the first time that day. Will nodded, but couldn't help feeling uncomfortable as he noticed an oldish man in a turban with a grey beard listening in to their conversation.

Will looked around as all the young men in the crowd organized themselves into a formation and started singing. Balraj was at the front, standing out because of his black 'kurta'; all the others were wearing white. He was doing an energetic dance, moving his arms and legs about wildly. Amazingly, everybody was in time, doing the moves almost perfectly. Will deduced that it was probably a common dance at Indian weddings, and that these men had had a lot of practice. Or they were just all really good dancers.

Will listened to the song that they were singing, noticing that the foreign words were repeated quite a few times. He assumed that the language was Hindi, because Balraj knew Hindi. He looked to Kiran, and she translated, "All these pretty girls, fluttering about like kites without strings."

He nodded, then frowned in confusion. What girls? He had thought too soon: the girls just came down the staircase leading to the balcony. Then they joined the dance as well, and he noticed that the pretty girl he had been watching was in the front line with the girl in the pink dress.

For a few minutes, Will watched them dancing and singing; the song sounded quite pleasant. But then, the boys started singing alone again, and the song took an ominous, angry note. They pointed fingers of accusation at the girls, then one man came to the front and faked convulsions that racked his whole body before mock-fainting.

"These girls are like naked live wires; get too close and they'll sting you with their electric shock of love," translated Kiran, talking into his ear (the song was so loud that they would otherwise have had to yell to be heard). Then she noticed the man with the grey beard looking at them calculatingly and backed away quickly.

The song seemed to be drawing to a close. Balraj slung his arm around the groom's shoulders and started singing a song that was softer than the other one. A pretty girl dressed in light green came down the stairs surrounded by the other girls. Her jewellery was magnificent: gold earrings set with emeralds with a matching necklace, gold and green bangles on her wrists and tinkling anklets on her feet.

Balraj repeated the line of the song he was singing. Will looked curiously at Kiran and she translated again, "When the moon disappears, the light of your beauty takes its place." He nodded, watching.

The song drew to a close and everybody started talking. Suddenly, a hush fell and the crowd parted; one of the women who had been looking at Balraj before started singing and dancing on the stairs. Her singing was quite good, but maybe she should have left the dancing to somebody a bit younger. Quite a few people were clapping in time and Will grinned in amusement as a man – presumably the lady's husband – tried to pull her out of the spotlight.

Once she had finished singing, Balraj came over to them, his face flushed from excitement. Just as he came over, another song started, one of a different kind: this time, there were specific partners for each person, and Balraj had apparently asked the pretty girl in the pink dress to dance.

Also, he had seemed to know which dance was coming, and he had come over to pull Will there onto the dance floor and make him dance. Though he resisted, Will was dragged along by Balraj and his hands were placed firmly in those of the girl he had been watching before.

Will could feel heat creeping up his neck and looked back in vain for Balraj who was of course long gone. Then he turned back to the girl, who smiled at him and patiently positioned his hands in hers to that their arms were crossed and they were holding each other's right and left hands.

Then the dance began, and it was mainly them holding each other's hands and spinning in circles, leaning back, relying on each other's weight to keep them from toppling over backwards. A brief smile flashed across Will's face as he recalled vaguely that this dance was like a trust exercise he had done in summer camp once.

Then Will realized with a throb of horror that his drawstring pants were coming loose again. Releasing one hand, he pulled them up, trying to make it look like he was wiping his hands. The girl took this opportunity to brush a lock of dark hair out of her face with her free hand. This happened a few more times, and once the girl laughed out loud and Will flushed, thinking that she had realized what had happened to him and was making fun of him. But she smiled at him again, her eyes sparkling, and he decided that it was because she was enjoying the dance.

As soon as the song finished and the music faded, Will abruptly dropped the girl's hands, nodded briefly to her and hurried off, though most of the couples spent a few minutes making conversation before parting. He noticed the quickly shielded look of hurt on the girl's face and felt bad about it, but he had a more pressing problem to fix.

He went to a secluded corner and lifted up the front of his shirt so that he could see the drawstring he was fiddling with. Kiran and Balraj came over while he was doing it.

"Darcy," said Balraj, sounding highly amused, "what are you doing?"

Will didn't bother looking up, still toying with The Drawstring From Hell. "Drawstring keeps coming undone," he muttered.

Balraj's voice was filled with laughter. "Let's see," he said loudly.

Will finally looked up and noticed a random guy with a turban and a grey beard (not the same one who had been listening to their conversations) looking in with great amusement.

"Why don't you go alert the media?" Will said sarcastically, not at all amused (Balraj was laughing his head off).

-----

Lalita listened half-heartedly to her sister Maya complain about Lakhi. Inwardly, she was brooding about William Darcy. Why had he been so abrupt? Was she looking ugly? She looked in the mirror opposite the hall. No. Lalita didn't think herself particularly pretty, but she knew she wasn't horribly ugly. What was it, then? Were all Americans this rude? Or was it just Darcy?

"…do you know she's been on her phone all night, texting boys?" ranted Maya, oblivious that her sister's mind was elsewhere. "She'll give us all a bad name! Lakhi? Lakhi!" With that, Maya hurried off, presumably to tell Lakhi off and bring her back to their table.

Sure enough, Maya came back, with their parents and Lakhi a few minutes later. Jaya also joined them, smiling excitedly. She had enjoyed the dance with Balraj, and apparently, they had had fun talking and dancing.

Just then, Balraj, his sister and Darcy came over, Balraj smiling at Jaya. "Hello," he said, giving them a friendly smile. "We're from the groom's side; we'd like to introduce ourselves. I'm Balraj, and this–" he gestured to his sister –"is my sister, Kiran, and this is my good friend, William Darcy."

Kiran smiled at them politely and Darcy gave them a brief smile. Suddenly, he dipped down slightly and came back up again, as though his knees had buckled. Lalita stared at him, wondering what had happened. It might have been her imagination, but she thought his face was more flushed than before.

Her father smiled at them and shook Balraj's hand. "I'm Aman Bakshi, this is my wife, Manoba Bakshi and our four daughters: Chaya, Lalita, Maya and Lakhi," he finished, gesturing to each one, and reciting their names in age order.

"Good Lord," exclaimed Balraj, "four daughters in one family! God has blessed you four times over!"

Aman smiled in reply.

Darcy was staring at her in a weird way, and it was beginning to creep her out. Was there something on her face? His face was even more flushed now; Lalita was definitely not imagining it.

"Would you do me the honour?" Balraj asked Jaya, who smiled softly. Aman stood to let Jaya pass and Manoba was practically wetting her pants with glee at the fact that her daughter appeared to be snaring the rich Balraj.

"Darcy," said Balraj pointedly, "why don't you ask one of Jaya's lovely sisters to dance?"

Darcy's eyes widened, and he looked at her. "No," he said flatly, then hastily amended, "I mean, I can't. I just got a conference call; I have to get back to work."

Lalita gave him a small smile. "It's not as difficult as it looks," she said, wondering if he was apprehensive about dancing because he didn't know how. "I could show you."

"No – I really can't. Nice – nice to meet you all." With that, he was gone.

As soon as he was out of earshot, her mother said, sounding annoyed, "What does he think? That we are not good enough for him?"

Lalita chewed thoughtfully on a laddoo, an Indian sweet. It all came back to the ultimate question: were all Americans rude, or was it just Darcy?

Though the answer was a lot more simple, however. If Lalita had looked at him when he was walking away, she would have seen him angrily pull up his pants.

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A/N: Do you know what the funniest part is? The whole pants-falling-down scenario actually happened in the movie. I'm stupid, so I only picked it up in the fourth viewing.