argyle_princess | Winter Formal, Neptune High School

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Winter Formal, Neptune High School

Even before they reach the dance, in the dressed up Neptune High School Gym, they can hear it, a jumble of voices and laughter over something that passes for music.

(The band, it must be confessed, is really nothing all that impressive. The lyrics, if they were intelligible, would be quite forgettable. The music is, however, basically danceable.)

This year's theme, whatever it is, seems to have called for a great deal of pale blue and silver streamers and balloons, though only so much can be done to disguise the fact that the room is really intended more for basketball than dancing. But the Winter Formal Committee has tried. And what the room looks like doesn't matter nearly as much as who wore what and who showed up with whom. It's hard to get quality gossip out of crepe paper.

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"I think I could deal with a pool, easily." Wellard chuckles, but his hand is still tight on hers.

"But... this is all how its supposed to be?" Quietly.

Hannah looks around, trying to imagine what it would be like to be seeing all this for the first time. It's loud. And the mirrorball could potentially be rather dizzying, she suspects. It's really loud. Given Derek Greggory's dance floor impersonation of a dying fish, at least some of her schoolmates have not waited to get to the dance to start on the night's liquid refreshments. Really, very loud. And Robyn Ellis and Kyle Morton are busy bringing new meaning to the phrase get a room. Oh, and it's loud.

"Well," she says finally, "it's how is usually is."

Supposed is such a judgement-laden term.

"Are you okay?"

The school faculty would like to argue, but as long as this was normal for a dance?

Wellard takes a deep breath, and nods at Hannah with a slight wry smile.

"I'll be alright. Just wanted to make sure this is how things are supposed to be."

"This is normal," says Hannah. "For a dance."

He gets a smile that's not wry at all, just very Hannah. "I'm glad you're here."

And then there's a call of "Hannah!" from the other side of the gym, and a girl with elaborately arranged black hair and a deep green dress waves her arms. Hannah waves back.

"And that would be my friend Em. Emily. And the guy with her is her boyfriend, Geoff. We should say hi, if you don't mind."

The wryness from his own smile fades, at Hannah's comment. "... I as well. Thank you."

Wellard follows her wave with a friendly nod over to the two others."Not at all- I'd be quite happy to be introduced to your friends."

Which is good, because Em has taken the wave as an invitation to come over, with Geoff in tow.

"Hannah," says Emily, "you look wonderful. I love your dress."

This, Henry, is a pretty standard dance greeting.

"Thank you. So do you. And Em, Geoff, this is Henry Wellard. Henry, this Emily Conlin and Geoff Adams."

Emily gives Henry a bright smile. "So you're Henry. Nice to finally meet you. Hannah has mentioned you just once or twice. You're right, Hannah. He's adorable," Em adds.

"Em!"

Wellard's 'Quite nice to meet you both as well' gets a bit lost in a coughing fit as he starts blushing. Geoff gives him a wry, sympathetic smile.

"Ah. ... Thank you, Em." Wellard manages. "And nice to meet you both."

"You'll have to forgive Em," says Hannah, cheerfully, elbowing her best friend in the side. "She's kind of, well, she's Em."

Em looks not even a little apologetic. "Right, like you didn't march right up to Geoff freshman year and tell him I wanted him to ask me out."

"You did," Hannah points out.

Geoff shakes his head slightly. "They'll be like this for a little while," he says. "You're here visiting, right?"

He watches Hannah and Em for a moment, amused, before turning to Geoff with a nod.

"For a bit, yes- I'm looking at some of the Universities out here, and the timing worked out well- very well, rather." Wellard chuckles quietly. "Hannah had told me a bit about Neptune, so it was nice to be able to see what she had been talking about."

Hannah and Em are fairly amusing.

"So you're looking at Hearst? Or just swinging throgugh Neptune to see Hannah?"

Geoff has known Hannah since they were both five. He's just . . . checking.

"Hearst was a good reason as far as my family was concerned." Wellard grins a bit, which softens into a faint smile.

"I had rather checked to see what schools were in Neptune, when Hannah said she was coming back here. When we talked, and she found out when I was going to be here..." He chuckles quietly. "She invited me for the Formal here."

Hannah has been paying more attention to this conversation than it might have appeared.

"OK," she says, mock-sternly, to her friends, "if you two quite done interrogating and/or embarrassing my date, I'm going to go dance with him now."

Well, it was not that bad of an interrogation (really, teenagers from Neptune have nothing on senior naval officers in that area), but Wellard is hardly going to argue with this exit.

His grin may be a little bit smug, as he offers Hannah his arm, and gives Em and Geoff a nod.

"By your leave."

(Teenagers from Neptune can put senior naval officers to shame in that area, when they make an effort, actually.)

"What did he just say?" Geoff asks, as Hannah and Henry leave.

"He's British or something," Em says, as if that explains it. And maybe it does.

Hannah shakes her head a little and tries not to giggle.

"Dance with me," she says, in the same way she says "walk with me" in Milliways, not a command but also with just barely enough of a rise at the end of the sentence to make it a request.

British, 200 years out of date... same difference, maybe.

It hardly needs to be a command, or a request either- Wellard just takes it as a subtle suggestion of what Hannah would like to do, and usually he is quite fine with the idea. Now is not an exception.

There are more people on the dance floor by now, and moving to the music in similar ways that Dr Brennan had showed him, so that is reassuring.

And while Wellard is coming to have a great deal of respect for Dr Brennan-

Hannah quite beats out the doctor for a dance partner, by a lot.

"British" is, at least, a rather less remarkable explanation than "Oh, he's from not quite 200 years ago, and possibly a different version of Earth."

Well, perhaps the best term is neither request nor command but statement of intent.

And Dr. Brennan probably would not find that opinion remarkable at all. In fact, she would probably have fifteen or sixteen anthropological principals in actions she would use it to illustrate.

All of which is to say, Henry's a pretty good choice for dance partner, too. It's hard to talk on the dance floor; the music is loud and talking's not really the point.

But her smile ought to make that pretty clear.

Sometimes you do not need to words to communicate. Hannah's smile is a perfect example of such a scenario.

To Wellard right now, her smile says it all.

There are no steps to have memorized, no set structure, so after a while it is rather easy to not have to concentrate on the dancing itself- and just pay attention to having fun, as well as to how Hannah is enjoying herself. However, soon enough the song ends, and the drummed beat softens and slows down quite a lot.

Ahha. Slow Dance.

This, perhaps, might require some concentration.

Then again, it might be rather difficult to concentrate during this.

Hannah gave a lot to thought to a lot of things about this evening. Not the least of these was her dress. Because with a date who is ~~200 years out of date~~ British, well, you don't want to go too . . . Neptune. So slits in the skirt were out, and her neckline actually qualifies her for a room in a convent, by local standards. But it's almost impossible to think of everything.

The dress is rather backless.

Yes. Slow dance.

Slowdance, and a backless dress, 200 years in the future. This was never covered in any of his etiquette lessons, and certainly never broached as a midshipman.

(If it was, he missed that class.)
Uncharted Territory
This was awkward enough when he was learning. That has not changed, except now it is for entirely new reasons, as Wellard Very Carefully puts his hands around Hannah's waist.

Awkward, yes, but in a rather wonderful way.

Hannah has been rather aware of Henry's hands, where they are and what they're doing, for some time now. These two have long communicated as much with gestures, with when and how they touch each other as they do with what they say. Sometimes, rather a lot more. But she cannot remember ever having been quite this focused on his hands before.

It suddenly seems very quiet.

And it takes her second or two to remember to put her own hands lightly, very lightly, on the back of his neck.

It seems like only yesterday that it was not right, it was not proper, to be able to reach up and touch the side of Hannah's face. When just a touch to her hand or arm was careful and daring.

Now, she is close enough to study the depth of her eyes, even if a good portion of his attention is distracted by the feel of both her skin under his hands, and her hands gently brushing his neck.

Thankfully, slowdancing is hardly any more complicated than slowly moving in time to the music.

Not complicated at all. It's actually incredibly simple. Hands on skin, and dancing and music. And while dancing and music may have evolved, hands and skin really haven't changed in the slightest in 200 years.

Of course, it's also possible that things are changing a good deal in the here and now.

Here and now being relative terms, of course. And the specifics of either really couldn't matter less.

Though, the elements of here and now are factors for figuring out opportune moments. And even being in the middle of a dance floor in the middle of Neptune-

Because of, or in spite of-

This rather strikes Wellard as an opportune moment, and he is quite learning how to not let such things pass him by without taking advantage of them.

He leans forwards and softly kisses Hannah.

Her hands are already on his neck; it's easy enough to slide them up into his hair, to pull him closer to her.

They could be in the middle of a dance floor in Neptune or a yak farm in Mongolia or a bar at the End of the Universe in this here and now and it would make very little difference. Hannah would still be aware of exactly three things.

His hand, slightly cool and slightly rough, on the small of her back.

His mouth on hers, and the soft, deliberate way he kisses her.

And the faint, sweet smell of the roses he put on her wrist and in her hair in a different here and now.

Even with his eyes closed- She is still beautiful.

Opportune moments, each with an exact detail to remember-

The soft warmth of her skin under his finger tips.

The still-surprising newness in the feeling of his lips upon hers.

The scent of roses mingling with the sweeter smell of jasmine that Hannah often uses.

The dim, colorful lights and the slow music of the dance just nicely serve as a background to everything else-

They are not that much of a component to this here and now, afterall.

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