A/N: okay, it has been about three weeks since Lenalee got sick (she just had a really bad dose of the flu for those of you who were wondering) so she's all better now. This is a little bit of a fluffy chapter, again no action but it is building the relationship. It was a little harder to write even though it was so short because a majority of it was done from Kanda's point of view. He's hard to write so forgive me if he's a little OOC and also remember that he is falling I love, even though he is too thick to notice it. kudos to whoever picks up the kuroshitsuji reference. Please rate and review and thank you to those of you who do.

Disclaimer: I am about as capable of owning -man and Beauty and the Beast as I am of flying.

6. Dancing Lessons

In society, dancing has often been considered an acceptable way for young people to get to know each other. While styles, people and places change as you travel through the world you will always find that dance plays a special part in whichever culture.

Kanda was snarling more than usual. He was trying to figure how he had landed up in this mess. It had been that stupid Tyki Mikk's fault, he had been bugging Kanda about how he couldn't dance and the girl had overheard. Nobody had ever cared before and he didn't see why he needed to know how to dance, of all the stupid pastimes. You couldn't kill someone with dance, you could only make yourself look like a fool. Tiedoll had, of course, agreed to the idiocy, he always complained about Kanda not doing an artistic thing. Marie was actively helping the process by providing music!

"Kanda, Kanda watch here, Tyki and I will show you a simple waltz and then you can try with me, okay? Marie started playing a French waltz, not one of the ones that were overly slow but still slow enough to put someone to sleep in Kanda's opinion. Lenalee and the Noah began spinning round the dance floor and he felt something in the pit of his stomach. Rage was the dominant emotion, no doubt because he had to take part in this nonsense but for some reason he also felt as if he hated Tyki Mikk far more than usual. Whatever, this was stupid. Some idiot was making it worse, it sounded like the sister complex, seemed he didn't like the idea of Lenalee dancing. Good, maybe he could make up for all the trouble he'd caused Kanda by getting him out the lessons. It was, vaguely amusing, when he tackled Tyki Mikk and Kanda felt absolutely no remorse for not having stopped him. Relo was hovering over the event, howling at Komui, while Timcampy was trying to guide Lenalee away from the conflict.

"Brother, you are over reacting! Kanda doesn't know how to dance and I was going to teach him, Tyki was helping me illustrate the basic steps!"

"Don't you see Lenalee-chan it's a ploy! They're trying to steal you from me by making you fall in love with him while dancing."

"WHAT THE HELL! Sister complex I am going to come there and kill you!"

"Don't worry baKanda, no one actual believes that you could attract a girl"

"Shut-up Moyashi!"

"All of you keep quiet. Brother, if you can't deal with me helping a friend go sit somewhere else, Kanda put that sword away. Marie, give me two minutes before we try teaching Kanda with music."

She helped the stupid Noah up and made her way over to where Kanda was standing. Reluctantly he returned Mugen to its sheath, glaring down at the girl. She hitched her skirt up slightly so that he could see her feet.

"Now watch, the basic step is one, it comes from the heel…"

Her right foot went a step forward.

"two…"
she brought the left one to join it.

"three."

She raised the right foot again and put it down back next to her left foot.

"Now we repeat the step but with the other foot, come on Kanda, do it with me."

He brought his foot forward and tried to imitate what she was doing still not seeing the point. She watched his shoddy footwork with a slight frown.

"That'll do."

That was it? He could leave. Before she had time to change her mind he was moving.

"Come back here, I didn't mean you could go."

"Yuu-kun, don't be rude."

With a glare that would have reduced most people to a cinder, he turned round and returned to the annoying Chinese girl.

"Okay you take my hand, and we hold them out in front of us, like so. I put this hand on your shoulder, and you place your spare hand firmly on my waist."

Where? She had to be joking. Gingerly he placed his hand on her torso, the side of his finger barely touching her dress.

"Those are my hips, this is my waist. And I said firmly"

She gripped his hand moved it up and placed it up where it was supposed to be. Kanda felt as if his face was burning and he arranged it into an expression that wouldn't give him away. Suddenly he felt his cheek pinched between her fingers and she began pulling the corner of his mouth upwards.

"Before we start we're doing something about that sour look on your face. It's impolite because no matter how you feel you should always make the lady think that you are enjoying yourself. So smile happily."

"Ngnn"

What exactly was she doing? Smiling happily? When had he last done that? Had he ever? If he had, he'd forgotten a long time ago. He heard sniggers behind himself and began to turn, intent on reminding the rest of them exactly why you did not laugh at Kanda Yuu.

"Now, now, Kanda that just make you look like you're about to kill someone."

The laughter stopped abruptly, good, they understood. He'd enforce the lesson later. He tried to pull his face back into its usual impassive expression and looked down at her.

"That just looks like you're sucking on lemons."

Carefully and controlled he rearranged his features until he was sure they were in their usual antipathetic style.

"I guess that'll do, just remember not to frown."

Slowly they started moving to the beat of the music, round the side of the ballroom. He was barely breathing and stubbornly stared at the roof. He'd planned on watching his feet to see what they were doing but looking done meant looking at Lenalee Lee and he, for some strange reason, felt odd when doing that. Maybe looking at his feet would have been a better idea, he felt them land on something soft, undoubtedly her feet. He looked down, doing his best to look indifferent; briefly, he made eye contact with her before snapping his head back up and facing the ceiling. Why had she been looking up at him? She should have been checking her feet or something. As gently as they began, they slowed to a halt, at the same pace as Marie's decrescendo. Again,he dared a look down, this time she wasn't facing him, she was looking at the rest of the rabble. He noticed that he still hadn't let go of her, for some strange reason. He quickly corrected his error and not being one to miss an opportunity Kanda pulled himself free of the crowd, and of her. Heading upstairs to his room and his lotus.

The villagers feared Skinn Bolic and his single mindedness, the way he pursued something relentlessly. He'd come knocking on the doors, looking for answers and once he'd heard them some say he looked uninterested. One source of sweets was as good as another and the Confectionary looked as if it would be having more business. The villagers had relaxed. He didn't usually change his mind; Lenalee Lee would become a thing of the past. They'd laughed at how he'd seemed to take the stories so seriously in the safety of their own home. What they didn't know was that he wasn't the dangerous one, there was someone else who may have a reason for looking for Lenalee Lee. Well, maybe not Lenalee Lee but certainly for the place she currently resided. So, the next morning the people of the village woke to the sound of Akuma knocking on their front doors. All the able-bodied young men were voluntarily leaving to help in the search and rescue of the Lees. Why some of them wondered? Had they known they would have lied to Skinn Bolic and they wouldn't have laughed when he took the stories seriously, in fact, they would have wept, because when he heard something odd he told his uncle. No one knew how long his uncle had lived there or exactly how old he was. Only the akuma's went in and out of the building and so far as the people knew, there was always a male heir so they had never asked any questions. They'd all been quite surprised when Skinn had arrived. There was not a time in living memory when a relative of the Noah clan had come and gone from that house, if they had traced it they would have known it was the first time ever since the family had moved there two centuries ago. Family might be the wrong word, man was better. The same man who had escaped his youngest brother's curse, or part of it at any rate, but in escaping his home had lost the ability to control it and the memory of where it lay. That self-same man heard a story from a nephew separated from him by countless generations. About a girl who had been taken by a familiar sounding man to a familiar sounding place. In a sequence of events that reminded him of an old curse, the last words he ever heard his youngest brother say. Before he had settled down in the village he had searched for his old home, but to know avail. Now, fate had handed him a way there on a golden platter. He wasn't missing the opportunity, the Millennium Earl was returning to the Ark.