Foxtrot Fixings Pv

At this point in the year, Flash was feeling off. It was warming up, which usually brought a sense of happiness back into his life. Instead, he felt like a wilted flower, too close to death for the sun to rejuventate him. He wasn't reading love poems, spending time with his friends or girlfriend, or even writing in his journal of decending sanity. Instead, he rested languidly in the courtyard, inert yet restless. He needed guidance, needed help, but was too proud to ask, or didn't know how. So he wallowed in despair.

On that day, however, as he indolently soaked in the sun's rays, he was approached once again by Adlai Rod. He perked up as she approached, wearing a very different outfit than he had ever seen her in. It almost looked like a jogging uniform, or something for sport. He knew she liked Tennis, but she hadn't been wearing that the last time they talked in the courtyard. It had been in that very same spot, had it really been a half an year since then?

"Adlai... yes, it's been too long, really." Flash's response would come a bit slow, but he was genuinely happy to see her. Their friendship was very uncomplicated, their time spent together was usually lovely. It was a bit like his relationship with Anastasia, though at that point, he was wondering if dating her had made it complicated. "I'm..."

He had to pause, his face turning into something like hopelessness. Such a simple question, yet loaded. He didn't want to just outright lie and say he was well, but what was the point in worrying her? "I've been a bit gloomy lately, I'm afraid." With a heavy sigh, Flash admitted his troubles, though in a way that attempted to make light of it.

"I feel better seeing you though, have you just come from some exercise again?" Swiftly, he tried to change the subject.

@Adlai Rod

@Flash Holmwood

As always Adlai gave Flash a metal covered smile, she was glad he remembered her as it had been almost half a year since they had seen one another. However, that smile faded once she learned that he was down. Perhaps she could fix that? He had done much for her, during her times of need. Especially when she was all but a stranger to him, who happened to one day be next to him during an astronomy class.

"Ah, yes actually!" she started, "I joined the dance club!" Though she was sure he may already be aware of this since Anastasia was the president of the dance club. Nonetheless she was glad that he was curious about what she had been up to despite his currently mood.
"I'll be honest with you, I have no idea what I'm doing. Ball room dancing isn't anything like gymnastics"

She also just realized that none of people she's friends with have seen her in her practice clothes, which made Flash the seemingly lucky first. However, Adlai made it her goal when she returned home from the summer to possibly turn her old gymnastics leotards and leggings into practice clothes as well. So that way she could have some sort of selection based on the type of dance they would be doing during practice.

Flash absolutely hated that moment. The moment when his own personal problems hurt someone else. Seeing Adlai's smile fade from her face felt like a sting from a wasp. He wouldn't be able to maintain eye contact as his adolescent fears had him feeling guilty for being cared about. He tried not to show any more obvious pain, he just needed to distract from it.

Thankfully, Adlai provided one herself. "On Pointe?"

Flash knew of only one, but there was a chance there were more for as big as the school was. It seemed odd to him all of the sudden how Anastasia could be running a dance club and he had yet to ever sit in on one of their meetings. He knew Anastasia was an exceptional dancer, he wondered what the meetings were like. This whole time, Adlai was part of that. For as much as Flash studied people's personalities and perspectives, he rarely got to know much about how they spent their time. How they had fun.

Before Flash even had time to pry, Adlai answered his question. His face brightened, now dawning on something infinitely better than wallowing in self pity. He could help Adlai, be responsible for bringing her smile back. He smiled, the faintest hint of a smirk at one of his dimples.

"If you need any guidance I'd be glad to show you the steps." Flash would stand from his seat, alight with newfound energy. "My sister taught me all kinds of dances."

@Flash Holmwood

"Yup On Pointe, Anastasia is the president though I'm sure you already know that." She gushed, a bit embarrassed that she said that. Of course he would know,- She thought. At the moment Adlai was in a boat gliding along still waters, everything was familiar. It was what Flash said next that rocked the boat she was metaphorically in.

She didn't know he could dance or had siblings. Well she had seen him dance before at parties and balls but she had assumed Anastasia had taught him. "I'd love that but only if you have the time, I wouldn't want you missing out on something you'd need to be doing."

Something else she noticed was that he smiled, it was small but it was still a smile. He hadn't been doing that before, and she hadn't seen that smile in a long time. It made her feel good. It made her feel like she responsible for that smile, but at the same time the thought that the mention of Anastasia being responsible for that smile crept into her mind.

It wasn't as if Adlai disliked Anastasia, she was lovely young woman who was strong and elegant. She was a perfect fit for Flash, who was charming and intelligent. Adlai just wanted, a bit more of Flash, and in all honesty a bit of all of her friends, to herself. She felt horrible for it, she felt greedy but it was what she wanted and she couldn't help it.

Flash's smile grew even more when she accepted, a confident shake of his head showing she needn't have anything to worry about. He had been lost in a haze before seeing her. His bouts of depression were always worse the closer it got to summer, nearly incapacitating. He had really ought to have been seeking people out, finding comfort with his friends, but his old habits were back. He didn't want to be a burden, and it was within his power not to be. He knew it was destructive, that he would just drive himself crazy, yet there he was, all alone. Really, Adlai rescued him from 'what he was doing'.

"It's dancing that I don't want to miss out on." Flash's happy face would show his earnestness, even eagerness. "What kind of dance is it?"

Seeming to be uninterested in any peering eyes that might have been drawn to their conversation in the well-populated courtyard, Flash offered his right hand to her, facing up and ready his accept hers. While public displays were not something Flash ever really did, he was too adept of a dancer to feel worried about embarrassing himself. Most of dancing was quite easy, really. The power of it came from confidence, practice, and precision, all things Flash enjoyed from all his pursuits. While dancing wasn't something he had sought out to learn about, but rather something that was expected of him to know, it became a source of joy for him.

He had never thought about it that way, he never usually danced for fun, just when it was expected of him. Still, there was little that Flash enjoyed more than showing off his expertise, even better if it made someone's day brighter. It reminded him of the Masquerade, and how much he enjoyed dancing with Anastasia... before she disappeared to settle some kind of old dispute. Well... he didn't want to think about that.

@Flash Holmwood

Watching as Flash held his hand out to her, Adlai grinned. He truly was the princely type, wasn't he? "Just a simple fox trot. We aren't working on anything too fancy yet." She said allowing herself to take flashes hand.

She didn't quite often get to show it but Adlai was actually quite the extrovert. In fact she had gotten in trouble plenty of times in primary school and even at Hogwarts for talking to her peers during a lecture. She couldn't help it though, she just loved to socialize. She liked to learn new things about people, she liked people learning new things about her.

Time and time again her parents and other relatives would recall to her tales of when she was much younger than she is now, tales of how she would always find a new friend to play with at the park or to babble to in the grocery story when running errands with her father on the weekend. They also had quite the archive of tales of her making quite the little group of friends at the mosque.

However, even though she was social it always seemed to fail her when it came to important things. Plenty of people Adlai has met between her two years at Hogwarts had been affected by rumors one way or another, but Adlai had never heard a single one. Not unless she went out looking for them herself.

As Adlai took his hand, she gave him the go-ahead to finish the connection. He put his other hand under her other arm, barely touching but rather as a guide, and straightened his posture, putting both his feet together. Naturally there would be no music for them to keep tempo with, but this wasn't supposed to be a dance per se, but rather helpful instruction. Not that he didn't intend to have fun with it.

"Foxtrot." He repeated, nodding. It was a simple one. "You'll have it in no time."

Once their forms had both assumed the correct position, Flash gently correcting her if anything was out of place, Flash would begin instruction. "Perhaps you already know the steps. For the female part, it will be two slow steps back, and then two quick steps right, back to this position, feet together." He would attempt to step forward with his right foot, initiating the foxtrot to see where it was exactly that she was struggling with. He expected either the tempo, or the struggle of stepping backwards to match her partner. He would pay close attention to what she was doing and accommodate for any slowness or missteps by either slowing down himself, or stopping himself from moving forward.

As he stepped forward he would count, "Slow... slow... quick, quick."

@Flash Holmwood

Following Flash's lead Adlai did has he instructed, though Adlai had already memorized the steps for both the masculine and feminine roles of the foxtrot, she was incredibly and terribly stiff. She couldn't help it. The types of dances she was accustomed to were all centered around free-style movement, not decades of perfected choreography. She also wasn't used to having a dance partner, she had only ever danced solo.

This was indeed out of her comfort zone, but she didn't mind it. She wanted to learn how to dance amongst others who share the same passion for it as she done.
Having no music to keep pace for them Flash had begun to count aloud, it didn't take long for Adlai to join him before falling silent once she got into a steady flow, still stiff but not as bad as before.

She could now hear the music in her head, the music that she had heard being played a thousand times before in the practice room over the past couple of days. However, that music began to change and morph into something else and her feet wanted to do something much different than what they were supposed to in this very moment.

Adlai's steps seemed to follow his with no real issue, she did clearly know the technical steps. The problem instead was her confidence in taking them, her rigidity in the face of rules. She moved along with the momentum he set, counting along and paying far too much attention to each step. He couldn't blame her, her ability was on display and she had already admitted to not quite getting it. If it wasn't the steps themselves she struggled with, his job would be a little less dull. Having left his sorrow behind to reunite with later, Flash's counting stopped around the same time Adlai's did. Starting with a synchronicity, they could build from there.

"You've got it." Flash would add, perhaps erroneously as they continued the pattern around the courtyard. "Of course, once you know the rules, the next step is to learn how to break them."

With steps as simple as that, it would be preposterous to simply step around robotically. Dance was at its best when both of the dancers were on the same wavelength, regardless of how they pushed the limit of what could be called ballroom dancing. They were kids, also, it wasn't exactly like Flash was ever stodgy about tradition. His dance with Anastasia at the Masquerade was just that-- two trained dancers letting loose and cutting a rug. Dancing was supposed to be fun!

"Instead of your feet, pay attention to me." Flash would release the strict posture he usually kept and add superfluous flourish to his movements, a smirk now fully on his face if she looked. He wouldn't be pushy, and would instead accommodate for any stumbles or slowness with flair.