Chapter Ten: The Dance

'We need to talk about the dance.'

Cain looked up into DG's face, avoiding her eyes. She looked exhausted, pale, terrified, and so beautiful. As he watched her, she took a deep shuddering breath.

'We need to talk about the dance.'

The room was half lit. Dawn was still a few hours away and there was a grainy quality to the light which suggested cloud and rain. The air in Glitch's study was cool because of the hour and the bare stone floor.

Wyatt Cain nodded.

DG slid into a seat a little way off; as she did, she pulled her hand away from his. She settled into the chair, pulled her feet up underneath her and took another shuddering breath.

'You wore blue.' Said Cain quietly, his head down again.

'So did you.'

There was a small gruff laugh from the Tin Man, he looked up and met DG's eye. 'Not the way you did.'

'You... so beautiful. That dress.' Cain said slowly 'Lord Boring... That music... The air...' the string of phrases made hairs on DG's arms stand up. Memories of it came flooding into her mind.

It had been made of silk. Sky blue silk. The dress, that is. Her mother had insisted on it being specially made, it had taken weeks to be made and DG has expected to hate it. The dress would represent everything she hated about being a Princess. The grandeur, the pomp, the expectation... but when she'd tried it on, it was impossible not to love it. It was also impossible; all modesty aside, not to see that she looked incredible wearing it.

Cain glanced across the study at her and DG saw something in his expression she hadn't seen since the dance. That look, she thought, her heart pounding, that look was what started the whole mess.

He hadn't looked tired. That had been the first thing she'd noticed upon seeing Wyatt Cain in the Ballroom that night. He'd been down on the floor speaking with some of the other O.Z generals: all old Tin Men from before the witch's rule. She was watching them interact from the privacy of an internal balcony. The dance was celebrating her parents' wedding anniversary, and due to this there had been lots of preparations and several major peace treaties announced that evening. DG and Cain had been working on them separately for a few weeks, so the dance had been the first time they'd seen each other in almost a month.

Cain had been wearing his official uniform of deep blue. DG had admired its fit and how the colour flattered him as she had approached him from the balcony. The look had come when he'd seen her. At first it was genuine joy and pleasure to see her, but swiftly it had become something that made her heart pound in her ears and pulse race in her fingertips.

Back in the advisors study Cain had looked away again. He seemed far away. DG felt the tension rise in her shoulders; she sent silent prayers that going over this wouldn't cause more problems.

'Lord Boring...'

It was a nickname. DG had given it to Lord Sebastian Greenways after spending several days debating the rights of the people living within the walls of his father's castle. The man had no sense of humour or the ability to be distracted from a subject he liked. All of the subjects he liked were boring. The nickname had stuck after Cain had been forced to go hunting with him during their visit.

DG had chosen to dance with him rather than any of the other single gentry present because it wouldn't occur to him that she was interested in courting him. This at the time had been hugely important to her. Her parents were not pushing the idea of a suitor too hard at the moment, Azkadellia, being the eldest, was expected to be married first. However DG's time would come, she knew.

DG's time would come she knew. Unfortunately in avoiding dancing with a hopefully future prince she had been tied to dancing with Lord Boring... for three songs.

The Tin Man had rescued her in the only way socially appropriate, by cutting in. DG had gratefully clung to him arm and they had kept dancing.

DG had gratefully clung to his arm. Their conversation was far more interesting than that of Lord Boring and DG was surprised to find that Cain was a brilliant dancer. From some of the glances she noticed from the other women dancing, this and the allure of his official uniform were not lost on everyone else.

'That Music...' The way Cain said it made DG smile despite herself...

It had been a fast song. A fast song with an even faster dance. It was later in the evening now, in true O.Z style The Ball was now really The Dance. Her parents were spinning themselves silly and laughing hysterically. Glitch, after much persuading from Raw, had asked Azkadellia to dance. The Tin Man had offered to teach her the dance, and soon after she was holding on to him, barely able to catch her breath from laughing.

She'd been spun, shaken, lifted up and twirled for what felt like hours. It was amazing. Addictive even. Hanging onto Cain's arm DG had looked up into face. He was laughing too; it was the first she could remember really seeing him let loose. As the music fell to a slower pace Wyatt Cain's forehead met hers. They stood panting, laughing and leaning on one another centimetres apart, eyes locked. DG's heart was pounding far too wildly already, and now it was starting to hasten even more from the proximity of something she would never admit to wanting...

Then the music started again...

'The air...' That had barely been a whisper.

If it was the look that started it all, the air finished it. They had stumbled, exhausted and high from the laughter out into a courtyard. The air was fresh and crisp and hit them like a brick wall. They'd stumbled together and leant against a wall. Then DG leaned her head against his shoulder... for them both then, the fresh air, the dancing, the looks, the fact that they hadn't seen each other for a month and so much that always remained unsaid came together.

They were leaning against another. Then she was in his arms. Then they were kissing.

'We kissed. Then we panicked. We just stood there. Your son came looking for you and you left. Since then, we haven't spoken about it.' DG's voice was even and unemotional. It echoed very slightly in the now dawn lit room.

'It was unprofessional. That's all you said to me.' DG paused and took a deep breath. 'Then I made a massive mistake, I let it go... I needed my friend and I was scared... so I tried to pretend it hadn't happened... then I ran away.'

There it was, she thought. We kissed. We ignored the fact that we kissed. Then I ran away. Now look at us.

DG dropped back to the floor in front of Cain, her hands back on his knee. 'That was NOT the reason I ran.'

Cain pulled her up to she was on his eye level. He pushed some hair out of her face and met her eyes again.

'I know.'

'And now?'

'I really don't know, kid.'