[ ADRESTIA ]
"Are you not participating in the ball tonight?"
She had noticed Ronan working as part of the staff, and while she did not wish to bother him in the middle of his job, she could not help but feel it must have been rather lonely watching everyone else have fun while you simply stood by the side. That feeling of missing out... it was deeply familiar. Flayn pouted.
"It would be a shame to come all this way and not even be afforded the opportunity to dance. Come with me—I happen to hold some knowledge about waltzes!"
Flayn drew herself up to the fullness of her height, which still wasn't very tall, but it helped straighten her back and square her shoulders. She bent the elbow of her left arm, forming a crescent shape with it, and extended her right arm to Ronan—ah, this was how Siegbert began it, was it not?
"It shan't take long, I promise."
"Oh, no, there's--" It's the crook of her arm that stops Ronan from finishing, and he stops shaking his head in refusal to give it a perplexed look - a look he raises then from elbow to earnest face. His eyebrows knit together (wasn't it the man who was supposed to offer his arm?), and then slowly smooth out again as he gives in with a sigh.
"You're serious?" He hesitates for another beat, waiting for the punchline or for Flayn to back out first, but she doesn't, and her face answers his question even before her words do. Of course she's serious.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." But there's a note of play in his voice as he loops his arm around hers and allows her to take the lead out to the ballroom floor where other couples have gathered around for the next number. What he knows about waltzes extends about as far as the name, and a little into the rhythm of the music even if he doesn't have the language for it. The orchestra ebbs in slowly, and Ronan turns to face Flayn like all the other pairs do all around them, but he fumbles with where to put his hands until she guides one to her arm and anchors him there. He flashes her a smile, equal parts apologetic and grateful.
The rest of the piece passes in a blur for Ronan, who hardly hears the details of the music, so focused instead on the beat and where Flayn's feet will guide his next. It's only at the end that he finally raises his head and glances around at the other guests departing for the sidelines again.
"It's already over? You don't think I did too bad, did I?" His cheeks flush faintly pink and he laughs to hide his disappointment in having hardly been able to admire the elegance of his own dance partner. On the other hand, he'd seen enough of his old shoes by now that he could probably draw every crease and crack in them with his eyes closed, which hardly felt like a fair trade. At least he'd only stepped on Flayn once, right at the beginning, before he'd picked up on the rhythm.
"Oh, let me give you a thank-you."
He's still holding her hand, almost as if reluctant to let it go, and gives her a small tug to follow him back toward where they'd left their bundles of flowers on a pair of chairs. He bends over to pull a white hyacinth from his own and then turns to her with a sheepish smile.
"It's a shame that this isn't really the kind of flower you can tuck into your hair, because I think it'd look pretty with your dress." Twirling its stem between his fingers, he holds it out to her and retreats a step almost as if the mere suggestion had been too intimate. "And, um..." He scratches the side of his cheek and glances away. "I'd love to dance with you again, now that I know how."
@cotharach
