AN~ Oh gosh I was so immature I'm sorry guys... Edited.
Basil isn't a good dancer. His mother tried to teach him, back when he and his sister were growing up. It was considered something worth learning when his mother was a girl, a way to meet people of the opposite gender. He doesn't want to point out to his mom that it's the seventies, now, and guys and girls can go out to dinner together without causing a scandal.
But he's in Germany, now, and apparently they still have dances here. And all he wants to do is meet his distant cousins, then get on with his trip. He's determined to see the world before his dad kicks the bucket. Matilda's already told him she's not staying in their tiny town forever, and someone needs to. He's agreed to be the one to stay behind in exchange for this trip. This one chance to see the world, to be free. Then he'll settle down and be a responsible adult (it's about time, after all).
But his cousins have decided the best way to make him comfortable while he visits is to take him to a dance.
He thinks it's ironic that he thought he could escape that here.
Only it's worse here, because he only knows his relatives, and it's hard to meet someone with accents getting in the way of understanding on top of the music that obscures so much of what he could understand.
But then a pretty redhead with a round face comes up to him and says, "Hi," and her smile is enough that he doesn't need to hear her to understand her.
He smiles back, running a hand through his blond hair, and he suddenly doesn't feel awkward, being the only man in the room over thirty, being the only one who doesn't know anyone else, being the only one who doesn't want to dance.
She's a bit older than most people here, too, not quite his age, but still a little old to be on her own out here.
He finds himself very attracted to her, so when she walks off toward the door without another word, smiling at him in a way that isn't at all flirtatious but is still very, very inviting, he follows, swallowing.
Basil's never had a steady girl. He hasn't minded, exactly. He's been too busy being a Grimm to meet anyone normal, and he's never exactly been interested in Everafters that way. It's just too strange, and too complicated. He hasn't been lonely- after all, there's Matilda, and the Everafters. He has considered that he'll have to have a child, if he wants the barrier to stay up, but he hasn't gone out of his way to make that happen.
He's always figured it'll just happen on its own. There's no point chasing love.
With a jolt like a lightning bolt, he realizes that maybe it's just happened. Because he sees this redheaded woman standing in the moonlight wearing a sundress and holding a matching hat with a big fat sunflower on it, and he realizes he's never seen anything more beautiful.
So, with faint strains of the music working their way across the bursting flowerpots strewn all over the veranda, he swallows and asks, "Would you like to dance?"
She grins at him and says, "I thought you'd never ask."
They only dance for a little while before she breaks off, laughing at him, and says, "You're a horrible dancer."
Normally he'd be offended, but her laugh is infectious, so he just shrugs and says, "I couldn't think of anything else to do."
"We could talk," she offers. "My name is Relda."
"Basil," he answers.
The conversation moves on from there. He learns about Relda's life, about her dreams, about her family. He tells her everything he can tell her about himself that doesn't have to do with magic. He hasn't enjoyed himself this much since before his mother died.
"Will you teach me to dance?" he asks, finally, when she starts dancing from foot to foot. He doesn't want her to get bored. "I mean, better?"
"Of course!" she says, and the smile lighting up her face is beautiful.
So she begins to teach him, and he is still horrible, but with her coaching, he relaxes a bit, and begins to actually enjoy himself for the first time.
As the night winds on and it begins to be time to think about heading home, Relda says, "Basil, I think this could be the start of something wonderful."
He presses his lips against hers, because he thinks she's right.