I can't believe I'm doing this.

-twack-

"Auw!"

"Sorry!"

This sequence of sounds has repeated itself for at least 50 times in the last half hour now.

-twack-

"Auw!"

"Sorry!"

Next time, I'll flat out refuse, consequences be damned.

-twack-

"Auw!"

"Sorry!"

"O-kaaay! Let's take a break, before Masa-nii has to stitch his own toes." Hikaru sighed dramatically, shaking his head in disbelief. "Imouto-san, I expected no natural talent, given the reaction you displayed when Rintarou-san asked you, but I didn't think you would be THIS bad."

"I know that I suck at social dancing, you don't have to rub it in!" I retorted, my voice giving my frustration away. I took a step back from Masaomi, giving him (and especially his toes) a rest. Masaomi gave his brother a stern look. "Hikaru, don't be too hard on her, at least she is doing the best she can." He said, trying to ease the situation. Little did he know, that earnest comment hurt the worst, confirming my terrible dancing prowess.

"My dear big brother, you're misunderstanding me. This is all in her best interest. A wise writer once said: 'It is by suffering that human beings become angels.' You're suffering hard enough already, that is why I'm focusing on her for the moment. This way you'll both be saints in no time" Hikaru happily chimed, fully enjoying the situation. I gave him a sour look. "Oh I'll show you how angelic I can be when I give you what you deserve. He better watch his back the coming months." I thought, already plotting my revenge on the orange haired male.

Hikaru clapped his hands. "Okay, break time is over, let's begin again from the top"

I sighed, thinking back at how this situation came to be.

~Flashback~

"So that's why Rintarou and I decided that it would be fun to have the oldest daughter and son join the opening dance! " Miwa finished her explanation, clapping her hands excitingly.

"Uwaaah..Sucks to be the- Wait does that include me?! I exclaimed alarmed, the realisation jolting me back to reality. Everyone looked at me, surprised by my demeanour.

Miwa and Rintarou had come to visit today, discussing the plans for the wedding with me and all my soon-to-be stepbrothers. Since they had invited an insane amount of people to the reception, everyone had to give a helping hand. I hadn't been really listening the last half hour, already thinking up a few possible designs for the invitation cards that I had been tasked with.

"Of course, I only have one adorable daughter after all." My dad answered me with a loving smile. "You don't have to be nervous, I still remember how we had fun dancing together when you were little."

"You could hardly call that dancing, you just moved me around while I was standing on your feet!" I said frantically.

" Aaaah I can see the image before me! So cute!" Tsubaki chimed. "I wanna dance with my little sister too~ Why does it have to be Masa-nii? It's not fair!"

"Tsubaki, we'll be busy preparing for the song we're singing together. You'll just have to wait until the after party." Azusa interjected, trying to calm his twin brother down.

"You'll have to get in line then, I'm planning to get a dance with my adorable little sister as well." Said Kaname, giving me a flirtatious wink.

"Me too me too!" Wataru shouted. "I want to dance with Onee-chan too!"

I was getting more nervous with the minute, hearing what everyone had in store for me. "This isn't happening.." I took a deep breath to calm myself down, not ready to just go along with this. "Excuse me!" I shouted, trying to get everyone's attention. The squabbling brothers calmed down, giving me a moment to speak up. I looked my father straight into the eyes, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible.

"Look, Papa, I know you were looking forward to this, but I have zero experience. The opening dance is supposed to be a romantic moment for the bride and groom, I would just turn it into a laughing stock and ruin the moment."

"Then how about a few dancing lessons?" My father suggested, not willing to give up easily. I shake my head. "Most dancing studios won't accept such a last minute reservation. Besides, when would I go? My schedule is already full with school, my part time job and helping around the house. Designing and writing the invitations will take a lot of my free time too, so adding another task will be impossible."

Rintarou opened his mouth, trying to come up with a counterargument, but had to close it a few seconds later, not finding a hole in my logic. The other brothers remained silent as well, jealous of the oldest brother or not caring about my predicament. "Phew, seems like I successfully talked my way out of this one" I thought, relief washing over me. I felt a bit guilty, seeing the sad look on my dad's face, but I was not about to make a fool of myself in front of 300 strangers.

However, I hadn't counted on a certain cross-dressing writer intervening.

"Then how about I give you some tips? I'm taking a break from work at the moment, so I can adjust myself to your schedule easily."

My dad's head snapped up, looking hopefully to his saviour. "Do you mean that, Hikaru?"

"Yes of course, I have to attend a lot of parties in my line of work and people always praise my dancing skills, both as a man and a woman. I can even help with writing the wedding invitations, so we'll have plenty of time to practise." He said full confidence, giving me a sweet smile. I sweatdropped. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Ohhh thank you so much!" My father said with a big smile on his face. Panic taking over again, I looked to Masaomi, hoping he could come to my rescue. "Sounds good to me. Do you mind if I join, I'm not really experienced at this either." He said sheepishly, crushing my last fragments of hope. "Not at all, that's even better." Hikaru answered. "That way you both will be fully prepared for the official event." Masaomi nodded, seemingly convinced. He turned his head to me, his eyes pleading. "I know I may not be the most reliable person in the world, but with Hikaru helping us, things will surely work out." "B-but..th-that's not.." I stuttered, trying to find some new form of defence. "Honey, please? You would make me the happiest father alive." My dad gave my his biggest puppy eyes, making me finally concede. "Fine.."

~End flashback~

I hadn't spent much time with Hikaru yet, since he lived separately. The only things I knew before the lessons started, was that he was a passionate writer, going as far as crossdressing to get information for his books, and that he loved teasing his brothers, especially Ukyo. He was in disguise the first time we met, hoping to fool me as well, but sadly for him I managed to quickly see through it. This didn't stop him from holding on to his disguise however, so I had grown pretty accustomed to seeing the 'female' Hikaru. But today he showed up in man's clothes for the first time, making me look twice to ascertain his identity.

Now after spending a few hours with him, I had learned another important fact about us.

We were not getting along.

"Nonono wrong, you can't constantly look at your feet!" Hikaru commented sharply, finally getting frustrated with our lack of progress as well. "Again."

We had been practising for 2 hours now, but seemed no better than when we had just started.

-twack-

"auw!"

"Sorryyy!"

"Okay STOP! That's enough, this is getting us nowhere." Hikaru finally said, seeming ready to give up.

"Maybe we just need a good night's rest, to let today's lessons sink in. It's already eleven o'clock." Masaomi tried to mediate. "I'm sure we will do better next time."

Hikaru and I sighed in unison this time. "Whatever you say..." Hikaru said, calming down again. "I'll let you go for today, I don't want you to be tired at work tomorrow. You have to take good care of your patients. I'll just have a quick discussion with our young lady here before I leave for the day."

Masaomi let a yawn escape. "Okay. Well then, I'm turning in for the night, sweet dreams." ruffling my hair lovingly, he silently added. "Be nice to him, he does care about you, in his own way." He slumped to his chamber, leaving the two of us alone behind.

An awkward silence followed. I was thinking about what Masaomi said, not able to believe what he had just said, even if it came from him. "I can't really see him thinking bad thoughts about anyone." Shoving the thoughts in the back of my mind, I waited for Hikaru to speak up, wondering what he wanted to talk about.

"I can't find it." Hikaru finally said, breaking the silence.

"What? The hope to continue? Yeah, me neither." I said sarcastically, not ready to give him an easy time. It was his fault that I'm in this situation.

"No, what the problem is. You're moving your feet perfectly in rhythm with the music, so I don't understand why you keep ending on Masa-nii's toes."

I looked at him in surprise. Huh, didn't expect him to give a sort-of-compliment. "It's not that I don't know the timing for moving my feet, just that I don't know where to move them to." I said, trying to clarify the situation. "I can't predict in which direction he will go, which is why I keep staring down to his feet to follow his movements. "

"I see.." Hikaru pondered for a while. "That information certainly helps." His lips formed a smile. "So in summary, you've been trying to mimic his movements instead of following his lead."

"What do you mean, isn't that the same?" I asked, not following his explanation.

"Not exactly. But I get why you wouldn't understand immediately, since you have the tendency to try everything by yourself instead of relying on others." He said all knowingly.

"I don't think that is a bad trait to have." I replied, not happy with him analysing my behaviour.

"It's not, but it does not help you in this situation. Luckily, I have a good idea how to fix that little problem." Somehow, him saying that wasn't making me feel comfortable, afraid of what was coming next.

"Close your eyes." He ordered.

"What?"

"Close your eyes." He repeated.

"How is that going to help?" I asked, not seeing the point of his demand.

"Well look it at this way, it can't possible make things worse." He chirped cheerfully. "Ugh.. That doesn't help." "Nownow, you'll just have to trust me on this. I promise you, this will definitely help you improve."

I eyed him suspiciously, expecting him to play a joke on me, but surprisingly saw no mischief in eyes. Well, I guess he had a point. I can't see it getting any worse either.

"Okay, if you say so.."

I closed my eyes, discomfort instantly kicking in. I sharpened all my other senses, hoping to get a reading on my surroundings. I heard Hikaru stepping towards me, his shoes clacking on the wooden floor, only stopping right in front of me. My senses become quickly saturated with his scent and heat, making my heart race. "Now" He whispered close to my ear, his breath passing my ear, causing a little shiver to ran down my back. "I want you to relax all your muscles and try to keep yourself as still as a doll. You only have to move your legs when it's absolutely necessary." I took a few deep breaths, letting al stress I had been building up go, trying to make myself move as little as possible. I nodded, signalling him I was ready.

He tenderly took both my hands, letting one rest on his shoulder, the other one holding firmly in his. He laid his free hand on my lower back, pulling me closer until only a few centimetres remained between us.

Suddenly feeling a pull backward, I quickly tensed back up, moving one feet forward. "Uh-uh" He chided me. "Relax, relax, I got you." His voice holding a soothing tone. I took another deep breath. "Sorry." I whispered softly, somehow wanting to disrupt the moment as little as possible. "I've got to do this." I thought to myself, trying to gather some courage. I relaxed my body once again, slightly leaning on him this time.

I wouldn't have believed what happened next, if I hadn't experienced it myself.

He leaded me through the room with respect, guiding me through every movement. My body slowly adapting to the different poses. Every moment, every angle seemed to be planned in advance. Nothing was forced; I literally thought I was floating. He went right, I went right. He sped up, I sped up. The warmth between us grew more powerful by the second, my heartbeat growing steadily along with it. It felt perfect; everything from our breathing to how our feet moved and stayed in sync. It gave me a sense of security and safety I've never experienced before, knowing I could fully depend on him.

We continued like that for a few minutes, only slowing down at the end. When we finally came to a stop, I was amazed. I opened my eyes to look at him, not even resisting the broad smile forming on my face. "We did it!" I stated happily. He chuckled softly. "We certainly did." Looking proudly back at me.

At that moment, I finally saw the kindness behind his cunning demeanour. He truly did care, in his own way. Why didn't I see it until now? I mused on our previous exchanges, trying to find signals I hadn't caught before.

We separated at last, his fading warmth giving me a sense of loss and loneliness. "Well then, I'm glad we made some improvement after all today." Hikaru said, reverting back to his teasing old self. I laughed, still feeling giddy from before. "Hehe yeah, I can't wait to show this to Masaomi-san. He'll be so surprised!"

"Don't get cocky now. You still have a long way to go." He tried to reproach me, but was unable to keep a smile back.

"I won't." I promised him. "thank you for everything today, Hikaru-san, good night." Conveying to him it was going to sleep.

"Your welcome. See you later, Imouto-san." He leaned close, surprising me with a kiss on my cheek. "I'm looking forward to the next session.~"

He went home good-humoured, leaving me behind completely red in the face.

-author's note-

Phi-eew, that became a lot longer than I expected! I started writing this with the intention to create a special moment with Masaomi, but I guess Hikaru couldn't help stealing the spotlight!

Hope you liked it!

Until next time

-Whateffs