~ Day 5- Slow Waltz ~

"That's ridiculous", Takane snorted as she leaned back in her seat with a haughty grin. "Did the principal ask you to do this again, Sensei?"

Tateyama Kenjiro sat in his chair and crossed his arms. He had been had and he knew that. "It's not like you two won't ever have to dance. It's a common thing to do and school's there to provide you with knowledge for your lives", he objected calmly and shoved his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

"Only because the other students have to take dancing lessons, we don't have to, though", Takane went on. "Also, it's only me and Haruka here, so we can't do things like change partners or anything."

"How about you give it a chance, Takane?", Haruka then interjected and gave her a small, encouraging smile. Takane glared at him long and hard, before blushing and turning away with a sigh, her angry gaze meeting her teacher's.

"We're not doing it and you can take the funds for that and return them to the principal", she said and crossed her legs and arms simultaneously. Kenjiro groaned in defeat and Haruka slumped slightly next to her, but Takane wouldn't back down on this. She wouldn't dance with anyone, much less Haruka of all people.

"As voting and taking the majority's opinion won't work... we'll just have to drop that then, won't we?", Kenjiro asked after a while and looked at the unhappy Haruka who just shrugged weakly. "Well, then I guess we'll just end out lessons for today here and you're dismissed. Have a nice day."

As their teacher made his way out as quickly as he could, Takane chuckled in satisfaction and was about to put her headphones on, when Haruka tapped her shoulder with, "Um, Takane... would you still dance with me?"

She went rigid. This was the reason she didn't want to take dancing lessons, and now Haruka was still asking her? With lessons, maybe there would have been teachers, but now... "You can't dance, though, can you?", she asked and nonchalantly rolled her eyes.

"I know how to Waltz?", he offered slowly, carefully. "It's four steps, so I do think I can teach you what to do." In his good nature, he just smiled and held out his hand for her to take. "You ask 'can I have this dance', don't you?", he laughed and brought his offered palm closer to Takane.

The girl swallowed and felt her heart pound in her chest. She was going to dance with a boy. With Haruka. And she'd embarrass herself and Haruka would laugh at her. "We don't have music, though", she objected weakly as she let her right hand fall into Haruka's left one.

"Does your mp3 have a speaker?", Haruka asked as he got up, holding onto Takane's hand gently as she rose from her seat as well. The atmosphere around them was too light to be right at that moment, Takane thought bitterly. It should all feel more tense, but instead, it was happy and friendly.

"Yeah", she replied after a few seconds and unplugged her headphones, then turning up the volume and selecting a slow song. At least she believed that it was the kind of song that one would need for that kind of dance.

They then took on the proper stance (although Takane did jump as Haruka placed his hand below her shoulder blades) and Haruka grinned lazily at the girl in front of him before he started speaking.

"You take one step back with your left foot." Takane did. Haruka stepped forwards with his right one. "Then you pull your right foot back and shift your weight on it." Again, Takane did as she was told, though her eyes were fixated on her feet. She blushed when she found Haruka eyeing her footwork as well. "Then pull your left foot over to your right one."

As she stood right in front of the boy again, her hand on his shoulder (way too high, by the way) and their feet positioned nicely in front of each other, she wondered if she had done that right.

"You take a step forwards with your right foot now", Haruka said as he now took a step backwards with his left foot. Takane did as he told her. "Then do the step with the left foot and put your weight on it again." As she followed Haruka's instructions, she did the last step by herself without noticing, pulling her right leg up to her left one again.

"And then?", she asked as the song on her mp3 slowly came to an end. Haruka smiled at her and slowly, she understood what he was trying to say. "That's everything?" He nodded. "It's easy, then."

"That's the point", he chortled and looked down at Takane's feet. "Do you think you can do it? Just do it to the rhythm."

"Of course I can handle that!", Takane replied haughtily and straightened her pose a bit, squeezing Haruka's shoulder in the process. The same song as before came on again and she was happy that she had put it on loop.

As they began, Takane's eyes kept darting from her feet to Haruka's face as he looked at her with a little smile, but as the song went on, she became more confident, grinning up at the boy like a child expecting praise.

Even when the song slowly faded and their last step was done, Takane couldn't help but feel accomplished, happy and very much glad that she was staring up into two familiar, dazed, dark eyes instead of someone else's. It hadn't felt like Haruka had been leading her steps at all and he didn't mind when they got off-beat at some point. Probably, Takane thought, he didn't notice it himself.

"Thank you for the dance", Takane then said cheerfully (she doubted that it was her own voice, her tone was so alien) and let go of Haruka's hand and shoulder after lingering there for a few milliseconds.

"You did great", he told her and she grinned, before, timidly, deciding to hug Haruka's midriff and hide her blush. Surely, for once, she could do that and get away with it. "Eh? Takane?", he asked her and pulled his arms up a bit.

"Really, thank you", she mumbled into his sweater and took a deep breath, smelling the scent of detergent and deodorant and after shave.

Hesitantly, two long arms wrapped around her as well.

The same song as before started up again.

A/N: Dancing lessons are fun. Uncoordinatedly trying to dance Disco Fox isn't.