#aracron

Aranea had a feeling she'd be rolling her eyes a lot during their little 'dance session'. He'd explained the gist of how he'd recruited her, but then again, not quite. Before he'd approached her with his proposition, she'd been sure that she knew everything worth knowing about the cocky violet blooded troll. After he'd told her of his plight to become who he truly was inside; a human, she wasn't so sure any more. At first she wanted to scoff and brush him off, just like she had his absurd 'religion', but something in the way his voice cracked, the ways his eyes glossed over, made her want to believe him. Her psychic powers had told her that he wasn't just telling her sugared words meant to seduce her any more, for once Cronus Ampora was telling her the truth.

"Y-You should probably know that I've never danced before." Aranea stammered quickly as music began to sputter from the ancient radio in a foreign tongue; he'd gotten a hold of human music. 

Cronus chuckled and slicked back his hair, checking to make sure it was in mint condition in the mirrored wall. Had he manipulated the dream bubble to make a dance studio for them? To be honest she was little impressed. She didn't know he had it in him. Meenah had spent at least a week trying to make Aranea's information stand disappear with no luck. "No worries, I haven't gotten much practice in myself. I only found out about this whole human dancing thing a few weeks ago. I've figured out a few moves so far, but not much."

Aranea stood up and shuffled toward where he stood in the middle of the floor, nodding slowly but still holding her arms close to her sides. She refused to admit it but she was nervous. Having people listening to her voice (if she was lucky) and not paying attention to her body was what she was used to.

"Now for this kind of dance we're going to have to, you know, have some physical contact. Okay, a lot of physical contact but rest assured, I only have the best intentions at heart." He gave her a wry grin as if to say, 'what can I do?', then reached toward her. 

Catching sight of her expression he slowly let his hands drop. "Look Aranea." He began, biting his lower lip. "I was serious about that thing I told you before. About me being human. I really want to learn how to do this dance. I saw some videos of real life humans doing this kind of dance and they looked like they were having a ball, just good vibes and good tunes and good people. I want to do that too, but I need a partner. And I actually do appreciate that you're willing to do this for me when no one else was even though I know we aren't on the best of terms."

Aranea let the words sink in. This side of Cronus was rare and about 20 minutes ago she could've sworn nonexistent, but maybe, just maybe, she'd give him a chance.

"We're just two *cough* attractive *cough* individuals, learning to dance together from the ground up. End of story. Can I count you in, cool cat?" He held out a hand, his eyes turning serious, no hint of a smirk of grin to be found.

"Alright." She agreed hesitantly, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Aranea took his hand, her voice the only thing that wasn't shaking. "You get one chance though! I won't tolerate any inappropriate or immoral behaviour from you!"

"Who, me? Why I'd never..." Cronus joked, grabbing a hold of her hand and spinning her in toward him. Aranea let out a little shriek, wrapping onto his shoulders to steady herself, ready to give him a scolding. As she glanced up, she immediately shut her mouth. Their faces were closer than she's ever hoped to see and she was pressed up against his chest.

"Heh, uh, my bad. Really. Won't happen again." He coughed, sounding almost embarrassed as she took a step back. Aranea took calm breaths to calm down her heart as it raced. It was just dumb ol' Cronus. Why was she getting so nervous? There was nothing to be nervous about. Absolutely none! At least that's what she told herself as she let him slip a hand to the small of her back, surprised to find that it was positioned correctly and not snaking down to cope a feel for her rear. 

Gulping, they joined hands and she placed hers on his shoulder, feeling the texture of his thin blanched shirt and also the smooth muscles underneath. She'd never really thought of how Cronus' body was built, but upon further inspection he wasn't as lanky as she'd thought him out to be. Aranea also didn't like that she noticed that but for some reason her brain kept giving her information she didn't want; Was this how Meenah felt when she gave her lectures?

Having always imagined Cronus smelling ike B.O or cigarette smoke but instead, now that they were closer, all she could smell of the cigarettes were hints of tobacco on his fingertips that made them smell like the remnants of a camp fire mingled with the scent of aftershave. 

Almost half expecting him to comment about something on her appearance, she was surprised when his voice went gentle as he said, "Watch my feet, would you cat? It's all in the feet." Dutifully she peered down and watched in amazement as he pulled off a combo of back steps and shimmies, making his legs look like they were turning to liquid. 

"H-How did you...?" 

"Think you can try and catch onto the groove here, kitten?" Trying her best to ignore the pet name he'd called her, she attempted to bob her hips to the beat and follow along as he led her in circles around the room. Her whole body felt awkward next to him, her joints stiff and her face flushed. This room didn't have windows right? More importantly though, she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Cronus for some crazy reason. He was just some low charactered rebel rouser, wasn't he? Why would it even matter to her? Repeating those words in her mind like a mantra she felt herself slip away from the world and into the music that seemed to be blaring from the speakers.

"You're doing fine." Cronus whispered in her ear, and that was all it took for her to finally lock onto the foot moves. 

"Hey, you've got it!" He cried just as the chorus came on and they were moving in sync, feet spinning and bodies gliding across the hall. The room was a blur for a few seconds as he spun her, laughter filled the room as her head went dizzy. She thought she might have even added in a few arm movements of her own before they both spun and spun until they crashed into the mirror. Cronus' back connected with it, knocking the wind out of him, Aranea was thrown into his lap as they were splayed onto the floor.

"You know, if I didn't have all my hopes and dreams of wizardry being real, I'd say that was magic." He beamed, unaware of the heat growing in her cheeks as she realized her predicament. She was sitting in the lap of the most precarious and flirtatious troll she knew.

Stammering apologies and covering her face with her hands Aranea hopped up, tramping towards the exit in a hurry.

Cronus muttered his own string of sorries, following after her and pressing a button hastily on the stereo that sent the hall into silence. Just as she was about to march off, thoroughly mortified, he laid a hand on her shoulder, gentle but still firm. She stopped.

"You'll... come back tomorrow, won't you?" His voice sounded vulnerable and the moment they'd shared seemed far away, a dream that they'd both woken up from.

But still, she had had fun and the way that the dance had suddenly clicked in her brain made her feel euphoric, if just for a moment. Having a warm set of arms wrapped around her, leading her, wasn't all that bad either, even if she wasn't exactly trusting of who they belonged to.

Despite herself she shrugged off his hand, taking hesitant steps before turning around and mumbling,