Series: Fairy Tail

Pairing: Elfman Strauss/Evergreen

Title: Giant with Two Left Feet

Prompt: Dancing

Rating: E for Everyone

Word Count:

AN: Now that we're officially in the last 10 of the challenge, there's a lot of ElfEver in this third. This one goes out to an anon who thought we could have gone for some more ElfEver interactions after the GMG, and who couldn't agree with that?

The post-Grand Magic Games ball was amazing. The king had been more than grateful to all of the mages who had saved the town—and likely the whole world—and was showing his gratitude through music, dancing, and most impressively: food.

Elfman Strauss had taken little time, after coming through the door, before snatching up a plate of meat, cheese, and sweets. He sat down at a table with his sisters at each side, and began to chow down. The Strauss sisters laughed at how their brother could shove down a whole meal in a few bites, while they nibbled at pie and cake of their own.

The tanned man had quickly cleaned his plate, and stood to fill it again, but his younger sister spoke up.

"Elfman, are you just going to eat?" Lisanna asked, and licked some cherry pie filling from her lips. "Don't you want to dance?"

Elfman flinched at the word.

Mirajane's laughter cut in before he could respond. "Hahaha! Are you serious, Lisanna? Like my baby brother knows how to dance." She teased.

Before she had said anything, Elfman was going to title dancing "unmanly," but now, he found being laughed at to be even more so.

"I can dance!" Elfman argued, "Not knowing how to dance would be unmanly! I'm a man!"

"Can you really, Elfman?" A skeptical voice intruded upon the siblings' conversation.

The white haired family members all turned their heads to find Evergreen standing to the right of their table, her weight shifted to her left side and her arms crossed. She observed them with one hand tilted up, holding a closed folding fan to her lips.

Elfman felt the blood drain from his face. He could have faked some dancing with his adorable sisters; they would have enjoyed dancing with him even if he had proved to be clumsy. But with Evergreen… she always proved to be precise and expected the same of others. With her, he would definitely get caught in a lie.

He tried to think about the excuses he could use, or a subject he could change to, but his pride as a man could be ruined, and his mouth worked faster than his mind. "Of course! I will prove it to you! As a man!"

And with that said, the take over mage took a hold of Evergreen's hand and lead her out onto the dance floor, inwardly cursing himself and his own stubborn pride.

Now, it wasn't that Elfman didn't know how to dance at all-the young man had the basics down, he just hadn't mastered it. Due to his size, it was hard to find a dance partner who didn't easily end up under his feet, and Evergreen would be no exception to that.

Elfman swallowed back his nerves however, and stood on the dance floor with the fairy queen. He put one hand to her waist, and held her right hand in his left. Was this right? His mind became jumbled in the heat of the moment and the "basics" he was sure he understood became muddled.

Evergreen looked up at him with a judgmental pout. "That outfit looks ridiculous on you." She told him with a glare. "It's so stuffy, can you even move?"

Elfman huffed a bit. "Hey, I like this. It's manly." He responded.

"Well," Evergreen rolled her eyes, "at least your hair looks nice."

Elfman had forgotten about his hair's new look. While he had picked out his own outfit for the ball (and shopping for a man his size always proved to be tricky), Mirajane had been the one that insisted he have his hair styled. So he allowed Lucy's friend, Cancer, to give him a once over. His hair was slicked back straight, without a bit of its usual wild spikes visible, and tied into a short ponytail at the back of his neck.

"Thank, Ever." He blushed a bit, not used to Evergreen using kind words, even if they were following criticism. He looked down at the young woman in front of him, with her hair up in a tidy bun, a couple strands straying lose and framing her pretty face. Her dress had loose sleeves and a tight corset, which did a great job showing off her…assets.

"You look great too." He told her. "Really great." He grinned.

"Just where are you looking?" The young woman sneered. Elfman's eyes jumped back up to her face. He didn't even try to make an excuse, just smiled and blushed.

"Whatever, let's just dance." She told him, her own cheeks turning crimson. She trailed her left hand up to his shoulder, and took a step backwards, which Elfman mimicked before their dance began.

Elfman found it not as hard as he had imagined. He mirrored Evergreens steps, watching when she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, and the way her hips swayed. He tried to listen to where her feet fell, so that his would not tread on top of them, but he would find his eyes wandering down to watch where he stepped over and over again.

"Hey, up here." Evergreen scolded him. His eyes shot up to hers again, and he nervously sweated. "I thought you said you knew how to dance." She raised a smug eyebrow at him.

"I-I do! I just… your feet are really tiny." He mumbled, a bit miffed.

"Excuse you? Yours are huge, I hope you mean." Evergreen turned her nose up to his comments, but kept performing her dance steps.

"If you hate them so much, why dance with me?" Elfman took a wider step than he had been as he became more annoyed. Evergreen gasped and skipped back to avoid his stomping feet, but her landed wrong in her golden heels and found herself falling backwards.

"Ever!" Elfman gasped, and lunged forward, grabbing the young lady by her shoulders and yanking her back up before she hit the floor. He held her by the shoulders still, and her hands were gripped to his biceps as she pulled herself back together.

"Are you alright, Ever?" Elfman asked, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" his word were cut off by Evergreens chastising again.

"I'm fine. You're overacting. I could have caught myself. And stop calling me 'Ever' in front of all these people!" She pulled her arms away from him and shook his hands off of her, before crossing her arms under her breasts, "I knew you couldn't dance."

Elfman sighed, but decided it was far past the point where he should just give up. Evergreen was always right.

"But, you did alright for a giant with two left feet." Ever's words caught the man's attention again, and his face lit up. "Maybe I'll give you lessons some time."

"I'd like that." He said. In truth, he would have liked any excuse to spend more time with Ever, especially when they weren't in a situation like this, where she felt the need to protect her pride—surrounded by a crowd.

The brunette raised an eyebrow and smirked at Elfman's joyful visage. "I bet you would." She chuckled.

End