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It had been a while since the two of you had done anything fun. The cookies and wine were fun, but it had been almost 2 weeks since then. And by golly, were you okay with that.
You remember how a drunken Yancy had made your heart leap in ways it had never before. You weren’t sure if you welcomed the feeling just yet, but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
So now, as you sat in the car, waiting for Yancy to talk to his old prison buddies, you formed a plan. A plan to see if he was into you. Not that you were into him, of course, but you wanted to see nonetheless.
There were so many different things you could do. A picnic in the park, go stargazing, go dancing…
On second thought, going dancing seemed like a good idea. You pulled out your phone and searched for the ad you had come across the other day while mindlessly scrolling through your social media.
“Want to learn how to dance? Have two left feet, and want one right one? Well, this is the place for you!”
It was a silly advertisement for a dance class, and a waltz class at that. You pondered for a moment if that was the right thing. Besides, you only knew the basics of waltz, so it’s not like it would be too hard. Yancy, on the other hand… You didn’t know how much he knew. He’d been in prison for so long, you weren’t even sure if he knew how to dance.
You shook your head and laughed at yourself. Of course he knew how to dance. All you had to do was remember that fun little musical number he put on for you when you came into the prison.
You were deep in thought, when a knock on the window shook your from your thinking. It was Yancy, grinning ear to ear.
“Youse still alive in there?” His muffled voice came from outside. You laughed a bit at that and unlocked the car door for him. Sliding in, he took off his coat, and sighed deeply.
“You have fun in there?” You asked him, starting the car. He nodded, putting his buckle on.
“They miss me a lot. Havin’ a good go with the Warden, though.” He chuckled, the deep sound making your cheeks heat up.
“That’s good.” You pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive back to your shared home. “Anything special going on in there now? It’s been a couple of weeks since you last saw them.” Yancy nodded eagerly.
“They’s all getting ready for Thanksgiving.” He looked out the window, watching the trees pass as he talked to you. “They’s said it ain’t gonna be the same without me this year.”
“Well,” you started, treading lightly, “you’ll have me this year. You could be my family this year.” You hoped that was the right thing to say to him. He just sighed again, and didn’t speak for the rest of the ride home.
After getting home, Yancy had gone straight into his bedroom and closed the door. You figured it was best to give the poor man some space. He always got down when you took him to visit his friends in jail. That was his real family after all, not you. You were just the friend that he happened to be staying with. Nothing more, you had to remind yourself.
You sat down at the kitchen table, and looked at the ad again on your phone. It seemed like it would be fun, but you didn’t want to pressure Yancy into anything he didn’t want to do. You bookmarked the ad so you could talk to him about it, and decided it would be a good time to take a nap. Or binge your favourite show. Whichever one came first.
You had ended up taking a nap. It’s not like you had meant to, your body just kind of forced you to fall asleep. Groaning, you tried to sit up, but something was holding you down. You started to panic, not knowing what the mysterious force was. Opening your eyes, you saw Yancy seated next to you, hands knotted in your hair. A blush crossed his face once he realized you were awake, and he quickly pulled his hands from your hair.
“Sorry,” he apologized, quickly shoving his hands in his lap. “I didn’t means for youse to wake up.” You felt your hair to see what he was doing, but didn’t feel anything different.
“What were you doing?” You questioned him, pushing yourself up into a sitting position. He refused to make eye contact with you. “Yancy?” You pressed, starting to become a little anxious. “Come on, you know you can tell me. How am even supposed to judge you?” You placed your hand on top of his leg, meaning to comfort him. Yancy jumped a little, but he breathed out slowly.
“I was uhh…” He fidgeted a bit. “Youse promise not to judge?”
“Yancy, I already said I wouldn’t.” You let a small smile cross your face. “Just tell me?”
“Fine. I was playin’ with yourse hair.” He quickly spoke, covering his face with his hands. You blanked in surprise. He was… playing with your hair?
“Why?” You blurted. You weren’t trying to be mean, but it was an odd thing to be doing, especially while you were sleeping. Yancy looked away from you in shame, and you tried to salvage the situation. “I’m not judging, I swear! I’m just curious!” Yancy got up from the couch and started to walk away from you. “Yancy, please, I’m sorry,” you pleaded. You stood up and grabbed his hand. “I didn’t mean it, just please talk to me, okay?”
“I…” Yancy turned around and faced you, eyes cast towards the ground. “It’s calming, and yourse hair is soft.” He all but whispered.
“Oh.” Is all you could manage to say. You both stood in awkward silence for a moment, before you spoke again. “I uhh, found us a class that might be fun to take.”
“What kind of class is it?” Yancy perked up at this, finally looking back up at you.
“It’s kinda stupid,” you started, not expecting him to be this excited. “It’s a dance class? For waltz?”
“Waltz?” Yancy scoffed. “Youse don’t need a stupid class to learn an easy dance like thats.”
“Why, you think you could teach us better? Do you even know waltz?” Yancy pulled you in close to him suddenly, holding your right hand up, and placing your left hand on his large bicep. Your cheeks heated up, and you were flabbergasted. “Yancy!”
“That’s my name, doll, don’t wear it out.” He chuckled, and you thought you could die at that very moment. You were just so close to him, closer than you had ever been. You could smell his cologne, a nice fresh smell. “I can teach youse how to dance better than any phoney instructor.” He started moving around, following the basic step pattern of the waltz. You followed, and he laughed. “Youse know this dance already?”
“Just the basics,” you confessed.
“Well, youse dance like a natural.” Yancy complimented.
“Thank you,” you squeaked out.
The two of you danced for a little bit longer, Yancy correcting you every so often, leading you into little spins and twirls every so often. With every spin, the two of you got closer and closer, so close you could swear you could hear his heart beating.
There was no song playing, but the two of you swayed like no one was watching. Yancy’s breath was hot against your cheek, the two of you closer than you had ever been, yet alone even allowed. It was… thrilling.
Yancy suddenly stopped, and you looked up at him. His cheeks were a gorgeous pink, and you could pick our his little stubble of hairs in his otherwise clean-shaven face. His lips were plump and pink, and your tongue darted out to lick your suddenly dry lips. Yancy’s chocolate brown eyes stared into your (e/c) color eyes, almost searching for something. Your breath came out in what seemed like little puffs to you, and you tilted your head.
“Yancy?” You murmured, eyes fluttering shut.
“(Y/N),” Yancy breathed back, leaning in.
You waited, but nothing came. You opened your eyes slowly, and Yancy looked towards the ground.
“I...I’m sorry.” He muttered, before dropping your hands and sulking back to his room.
You stood in place, stunned. Had you done something?