The clapping from the audience gradually dissipated, and the curtains of the little stage opened back up once again. The platform was decked with a lit holiday tree against a dark blue backdrop, reminiscent of a nighttime sky, and fake snow blanketed the sides of the performing space.

This was the performance he had been waiting the entire show to see. It hadn't even started yet and he already knew it was going to be spectacular.

Jack smiled as his beloved vixen, Skye, walked from behind the stage. She was donning a red velvet dress and Santa hat. To the striped buck, she looked like the incarnation of the Christmas spirit itself.

She prepared to perform before the audience that remained silent in their seats. The music started to play throughout the small performance theatre, an orchestrated take on an iconic Christmas tune. As the melody played through the speakers, and the sound of string instruments got gradually louder, Skye started to dance.

It was the first year Jack and her were spending the holidays together, and it was tonight that he had learned that his beloved companion had a passion for the art of dancing. Every year she attended the event held at the local cultural center, where her and several others performed dance routines that were set to festive music.

For Skye, this year's dance was the most special, since the buck he loved was watching her in one of the seats closest to the stage. She was going to perform with more grace than she had in previous years.

Jack's smile never faded as the arctic vixen danced across the stage that had been decorated like a winter landscape. He watched as the white-furred vulpine leapt and spun with much beauty, much elegance. And he was the first to applaud before the others that were sitting around him. He could watch her dance forever and would never look away from her.

Her performance carried on several more minutes, and she concluded it with a larger leap and a twirl in the air. She landed gracefully and curtsied before the audience the moment the music came to a close. The clapping commenced immediately afterwards, and Jack stood up from his seat as he applauded Skye.

Some would have told him that he was being biased for saying so, but her performance had to be the best one of the night. The wolf everyone was in the audience had been talking about, the one that wore a headdress of colored feathers and performed some time before, had nothing on Skye's dancing.

Not by a long shot, he thought with a smile.

The buck sat back down in his seat, watching as Skye walked backstage and the cougar that had been talking throughout the event came back. He simply listened as the feline discussed the charities this show was supporting, up until the moment he looked back and saw Skye over towards him. Once she made her way over to him and took the empty seat on his side, he took her paw and squeezed as he held it closer to him.

"That was beautiful," he said to her.

Skye simply looked back at the rabbit and breathed, "Thank you."

She had been nervous before going on the stage that she would mess one of the moves up, but it ended up being a great performance overall. It didn't matter what the rest of the strangers in the audience thought of her dance, nor did it matter if they favored the other performers that danced before her. The praise from Jack was all she really needed to hear.

Once everything concluded, the lights came on and the audience behind the two started to make their way towards the doors they came through earlier. Jack and Skye got up and joined the others, heading into the main hall of the cultural center. As soon as they walked over to where the main desk was, the arctic vixen spotted a clipboard that hadn't been there when they first arrived. She started to quickly scribble something onto the page.

"What is that for?" Jack asked out of curiosity.

As soon as he tried to sneak a peek at what she had wrote, she turned around and hid the clipboard from his vision. She then tore the sheet of paper from it and placed it in the box beside it, where other sheets of paper had been put in. "Well, I was going to keep it a surprise, but since you asked I'll tell you," she answered. She leaned towards the buck's perked ears and whispered, "I signed us both up for next year's dance show so we can do a duet."

Jack was quite surprised to hear those words from Skye. He was definitely not the world's best dancer, but she had already signed them up. Even though he it wasn't something he was good at in the present moment, it didn't mean he couldn't become better at dancing over time. The image of him and his companion sharing a dance together on the stage, the audience beaming from ear to ear as they watched, came to his mind.

He officially had three-hundred and sixty-five days left until that performance came along, and it was time he started doing some practicing.