Mistakes Can Be Good Finished PV Ruka

A part of Ruka felt like he wished he'd never figured out that he was able to send his dad letters.
Ever since the first one had arrived he had been on edge, and once the second arrived, he was just completely tense.
It was for that reason, that he had thrown on a pair of baggy sweats and an oversized white shirt that had belonged to his dad before. His feet were bare as they usually were as he made his way to the rehearsal rooms.
He had never actually been there, had always opted to go out to the lake, but today he felt unusually safer within the castle walls.
The floor was cold underneath him, but it was nothing he wasn't used to, and he had decided to leave his cloak in the common room today; Today was a day for going through the types of choreographies his father had taught him when he first learned to dance with fire.
It was the only thing that really still connected him to his dad, and he hadn't really focused on any street arts since before he came here.
Feeling a little unsure, Ruka tiptoed around various doors, hoping he wouldn't disturb anybody, but eventually he gathered the courage to open a door, slowly popping in his head.
The sound of music filled the room, and while Ruka really didn't want to interrupt anybody, he couldn't help but enter the room completely when he saw a boy, probably around his age, in the middle of the room, moving to the melody.
The boy was short, probably around Ruka's size, if not a bit shorter, which was really rare to come by for him, and he was doing moves that were far more technical than anything Ruka had ever attempted himself.
He looked graceful and completely at one with the music, and as Ruka watched, he got so caught up in the dance the boy was doing, that he didn't realise as he was moving closer to the mirrored walls until he tripped sideways into one and fell, hitting the ground with an agonised groan. "I'm so sorry!" he apologised quickly, getting back on his feet while rubbing his head. "I didn't mean to... I was just... I got distracted because... Well, you're really good! That... That was amazing!"

Alex wiped the sweat off of his forehead slightly when he was finished before he jumped from surprise at the boy on the floor. When did he get there? The music switched to the next song on his list, Pas de Deux from the Nutcracker. He couldn’t be bothered to turn it off, he was too surprised. He blinked a couple of times before he felt his face go red. He was so embarrassed. The other boy seemed to be his height, but a little taller, maybe by an inch or two. He had a messy head of hair and seemed to be wearing clothes similar to Alex’s. Alex ran a hand through his hair, super embarrassed. He looked at the boy with his doe-like brown eyes. ”Eheh, it’s fine. I’m sorry you had to see that. Are you okay?” he said, worried about the other boy and sending a crooked smile. He shook his head slightly and blushed slightly, still embarrassed.I-I wouldn’t call it amazing. And again it’s fine.” he said, looking down at his feet. He never really thought about his dancing. His mother taught him, and then after that his father continued it, or tried to at least before getting him a private instructor, then he moved here and got another one.

Ruka didn't quite understand how this boy could be so humble about his dancing. He had seen fire dances and illusions with sparkling lights at night time before, and none of it had ever looked quite as graceful as what this boy had just been doing by himself in a rehearsal room.
"No, really," Ruka insisted with a smile, blushing furiously as he looked down at the ground, than back into the boy's warm brown eyes. They were a welcome contrast to Ruka's own clear green ones, like earth and grass. He smiled sheepishly and took a small step toward the boy. I'm Ruka, by the way," he introduced himself quickly, resisting the urge to shake the other boy's hand. He'd already made that awkward mistake with a couple of people, and he really didn't want to repeat it much more often. "I just... I didn't mean to interrupt, I just saw you dancing and... I've just never really seen..." He drifted off, feeling awkward and embarrassed. Here he was in his oversized clothes and no technical dance experience; He could hear the music in the background and couldn't tell what piece it was, didn't know if it was part of a ballet, a play, an opera. He'd never been to the theatre, had never seen professional dancers before, and he really didn't want to make a fool of himself by admitting all of that.
He already felt enough like an outsider here as it was.
"Anyway," he said, running a hand through his hair to muss it up even more than it already had been. "If you want me to leave, that's okay, I can go but... But if you don't mind me staying... I feel like I could learn a lot just by watching you. He blushed a bright red again as he realised how that probably sounded and, good lord, when had he turned into such a blabbering fool, "I mean by watching you dance."

The more he thought about it, what was the boy doing here? Was he going to dance like him or play music, for there were a lot of instruments in here as well. Alex is a small smile on his face. ”I-I don’t really think of it as amazing, but thank you.” he said, a soft smile on his face. The other boy had clear green eyes. It reminded him of someone, but that didn’t matter. They were quite beautiful. His eyes widened and walked over to the music, temporarily pausing it, totally forgetting about it earlier. He walked back to the other boy, who had introduced himself as Ruka. ”It’s a pleasure to meet you Ruka. I’m Alex. Alex Cheong.” he said with a smile. Just a note, Alex’s voice was a soft tone, but when he sang it became fuller in a way. That was random, but that’s a fact about him. Alex tilted his head to the side. ”Seen what?” he asked. He blushed a bit when he said he wanted to watch him and was a bit confused, but then he corrected himself and it was okay. ”Oh, I don’t mind, do you dance as well?” he asked quietly.

Ruka watched curiously as the boy - Alex - went to stop the music for the moment, making it a bit easier to talk to each other now that the room wasn't filled with the echoes of music anymore.
Still, a part of him felt a little sad that the music was gone; it had been quite hauntingly beautiful.
"Alex," Ruka repeated with a little smile and a nod, as if to test out how the name felt on his tongue. The name suited the other boy, soft and gentle and no real hard edges. "Seen... Anybody dance like that," he finished his sentence from earlier when Alex asked about it. He could feel his ears going a bit red at his words, and he quickly shook his head when Alex asked if he danced.
He didn't.
Not really.
"I mean, I do, just not... Not like that." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, turning his head to the side where he could see himself and Alex in ghe mirrored wall. They were quite a contrast; one with dark hair, one with light copper, one with a pretty golden bronzed skin, the other with a pale complexion. Even their clothes stood in stark contrast, with Alex' tightly fitting and Ruka's looking like they belonged to someone twice his size.
It made him feel almost inadequate.
"I mean," he started to explain, smiling lightly as he shrugged his shoulders. "My dad used to be in the circus. We used to do performances together before... before Hogwarts. Mostly Fire Dances, but it's not... it's not as technical as what you do so I wouldn't really say I dance." He chuckled a little embarrassed. "But I still like to practice it when I can. It makes me feel better. Like, comforts me, you know?"

Alex shook his head slightly at the boys words. ”If you wanted to see better dancing, you should’ve seen my mother. She taught me for a while,” ha said with a soft smile. As he said before, his mother was amazing. She could do the most complicated moves without breaking a sweat. It really was amazing. Alex’s father said that Alex inherited her love for dance. Alex fiddled with the small silver moon pendant around his neck. It used to be his mothers. He shook out of that thought and turned his focus back to Ruka. Alex tilted his head to the side. ”I bet you’re still good at it. My dancing is not special,” he said. He saw Ruka look at the mirror and Alex’s eyes followed. He was slightly shorter than Ruka and they looked quite different. He brushed some hair out of his eyes and looked back at Ruka. He looked at Ruka as he explained how his father was in the circus and the things he did. Alex’s eyes brightened. ”The circus? Really? I’ve never been to the circus before. And what you’re explaining is still dance. Dance doesn’t need to be technical in any way. You just have to be passionate about it. And what you do sounds amazing. And it is quite comforting when you feel down. You just let all your feelings out,” he said with a smile on his face.

Ruka's eyes sparkled a little as he listened to Alex talking about his mum and how good a dancer she was. He wondered if she would get along with his dad who lived for performance arts, music and acrobatics. "She taught you well," he said with a smile, not wanting to delve too deeply into the topic in case it was something Alex didn't want to elaborate.
Ruka watches as the other boy closed his fingers around a pendant dangling from his neck, and he was immediately reminded of the bracelet charm he had under his pillow in his bed; The charm in the shape of an A, the only thing his mother had left him when she had dumped him outside his father's tent like old clothes she didn't want to wear anymore.
He shook his head off those thoughts and turned his attention back on Alex, smiling at the way he reacted to hearing about Ruka's dad having been in the circus. He nodded along with the other boy's words, smiling gently. He thought the same about dance and music; it was something you did with passion, with enthusiasm, with all of your emotions, no matter if bad or good. "Yeah," he agreed breathily, completely captivated by the way Alex talked and thought.
He hadn't really met anybody here yet to share his passions with, and he hadn't realised until now how much he'd really missed it. "Would you... Would you like to see some of my routine? Usually it's done with torches but I don't want to accidentally set the room on fire." He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders a but to show that it was alright even if he had to do it just with his wand and a thick branch he'd taken with him from the Grounds the other day. "Maybe I could teach you some of the things my dad taught me, and you could teach me some of the things your mum taught you?It's been a while since I was able to, well, dance with anybody!"

Alex nodded with a soft smile. ”Yeah, she did, she taught me everything I know,” he said. He looked down for a second. He missed her. He looked at the mirror again. If you could do a side to side comparison of him and his mother, you’d see the same features. Ebony black hair, pale, lips a little fuller than usual, short, same delicate features, and the same doe-like eyes. The only thing that was different was that she was beautiful, and Alex thought he wasn’t. Alex turned back to Ruka who seemed to understand what Alex was talking about. ”Sorry if my words were all over the place and didn’t make sense,” he said sheepishly. Ruka asked if Alex wanted to see him dance. His eyes brightened and he nodded. ”Yeah! It seems really cool!” he said. Again, he had never been to a circus before, but he wanted to see what it was like. This acted like a small preview in a way, and he was excited. He nodded. ”Yeah! I’d like to learn what you do, it seems much more exciting than mine, mine’s just contemporary and ballet,” he said. He sat down by the mirror in front of Ruka.

Ruka really hadn't met that many people yet at Hogwarts, and certainly none that were this excited about dance. He couldn't help but think that it was lucky that the first person he should meet that shared a passion with him, was someone as captivating as Alex.
Whatever the other boy thought of himself, Ruka found him eloquent and interesting and kind of... Cute, maybe? Either way, Ruka was more than thrilled that Alex was still talking to him and seemed interested in what it was that Ruka had learned from his dad.
"Ballet is interesting," he pointed out with a smile. "It's such hard work. I admire everyone who does it!" He smiled and then shrugged a little sheepishly before pulling out both his wand and the branch he'd been carrying around with him. "Well," he said, a little awkwardly as he moved a bit more to te middle of the room, further away from Alex. "Like I said, I usually do it with torches, but..." He smiled before taking a deep breath and placing his wand in his right hand, the branch in his left.
He started out with his legs crossed, back turned to Alex, arms crossed in front of his chest. He had no music, no phone or radio to play it off of, butbe could hear it in his head, accompanying his every move.
With his first step he twirled around himself four times, arms slowly stretching to the side as he twirled his two unlit torches around his fingers.
More and more he gained his confidence as he skipped lightfootedly through the centre of the room, eyes sparkling in excitement, toes pointed as he twirled and risked small jumps without dropping his makeshift torches even once.
He knew he was good at this; he felt like his dad had taught this to him before he was even able to walk. He could feel the air moving to make way for the rapid movements of the branches, and he took the moment to start juggling the two 'torches', turning around himself each time he caught one of them again. It was strange doing this without fire, less heated, less dangerous, but it still got Ruka's adrenaline rising like nothing else ever had. Not even almost dying in the Great Lake just some time ago.
He stopped his performance by catching both the wand and the branch in his left hand after a particularly difficult juggle, dropping onto one knee and taking his bow in front of Alex. "Tadaa!" he said, chuckling lightly as he returned to Alex' side, only slightly out of breath.