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“I take a step and then…. you take a step,” Annette slid her feet over the floor. “So on and on and so.” she continued, tapping her feet to the flow of the waltz. “Alright, now the dance is tomorrow so I’m gonna have to practice.”
“Oh the horror.” Linhardt sighed, but with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Okay…” Ann continued the halfway irony of letting Lin wallow in his perceived laziness with an exasperated groan. “Imagine the faces, breezing through Der Amélierwalzer” Annette said as she struck the next pose, undercut by quite anachronistic jazz hands.
“I have quite the sense of rhythm actually.” Linhardt noted. “Oddly enough, just not when it comes to sleep.” he said as his nods gently slowed down and his yawn resonated through the room.
Ann smiled and tilted her head in just the right angle so that it could very well be taken as a threat. “I’m gonna practice all day. This ball is gonna be great, so dreamy.”
Lin’s dream was a literal dream, and by closing it eyes he got pretty close by chasing it.
“Poor choice of words Annie.” she said to herself as she carried Lin in the style of “Weekend at Bernie’s”, a term popularized by the Black Eagles after Bernadetta went into shock at her surprise birthday party and Rhea insisted on officially congratulating her. To the Black Eagle’s surprise, the trick actually worked and Rhea simply chalked up the fact that Bernie seemed to float to “the calming influence of the herbs and a blessing off the goddess.”
Ann chuckled and gently dropped off Lin on his bed. His room was right next to Annette’s, so it never took too long to come over and chat about whatever. Not that they did it too often, Ann was fine with being a bit on her own and Lin liked dividing his own time into naps and non-naps.
Even then, if those needs didn’t happen to line up. Lysithea’s was right down the stairs so Annie could always step in and have a girl chat during Linhardt’s hiatuses of consciousness.
And so, Ann stepped out, practicing the dance steps on the whole way over to Lysi’s. After carefully stepping down the stairs, she ended in front of her doorstep with a perfect pliér. “And on and on and so.” she said to herself on the last few steps.
“You know Lorenz, I misjudged you.” she heard from the other side of the door. “Because I thought you were a single-celled organism, but apparently you’ve got the fucking nerve to ask me out like that, what with your corsage looking like the crumpled pies your mother gnashed away after being so depressed from pushing out your watermelonhead in what I can only assume was the biggest act of desperation of your bloodline until your daily routine. Now get the fuck out of here.”
In a few seconds, Lorenz stood outside, looking at Annie in what he hoped would be a moment of shared understanding.
“Oh hey! Lorenz, right? Yeah sorry, I kinda forgot you existed.” Ann replied to the sulked puppy stare with an innocent smile as she knocked on Lysi’s door and promptly entered.
“What happened there?” Ann asked Lysi in an honest tone that the wording of the question usually doesn’t imply.
“I was thinking about pie.” Lysi said curtly. “Tea?”
“Surely, there must be something between you two! Something happened at the Golden Deer that I don’t know about?” Ann asked, trying to juggle her fear of missing out in not only the class of her friend, but also her own old class and her current class, the Black Eagles.
“No, he just bugs me. Must be the hair.” Lysithea unconvincingly mimed a bowl cut, trying to move the conversation away from her choices in pragmatic discourse.
“I suppose so.” Ann shrugged.
“How’s Lin?” Lysithea dug the final nail into the coffin of Lorenz’ rent-free grave in her mind.
“Asleep. I don’t want to move too fast, but I always imagined we’d be dancing at the ball together. Y’know, couples stuff. Together. It’s just an idea of mine so I.. I haven’t told him why…I just have been dropping hints of this dance…” Annette nervously bopped her head and smiled. “...y’know. Keep it light and breezy but…”
Annette mimed a hand waving in front of her.
“...nothing. To be fair, I’m still used to us not being *actually* together, if that makes sense. He’s so...dreamy. It still doesn’t feel real so I don’t want to ruin it by dreaming too much and there’s always a next step to take for us both but...at this point it should right? Feel a little real? Next step?”
Ann sighed. Lysi nodded.
“Oh, that’s Lorenz in a nutshell.” she said. “It’s all pie in the sky with him. Speaking of pie, again. He’s always talking about the future and the Alliance he will build.”
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about Lorenz?” Ann grinned, sassily sipping her tea and wagging her non-existent tail at the upcoming gossip.
“Ugh, forget about it. I’m not even going to that stupid ball anyways.” Lysi sulked.
“Nooo, why not?” Ann shouted. “It’s the dance of the year!“
“Thanks Ann. But no. I don’t attend to frivolities. Plus, I don’t have a date.” Lysithea gruffed and took another cupcake.
“I actually think your potty mouth made Lorenz like you even more.” Ann chuckled as if telling something scandalous, “And it’s never too late to start. With frivolities. I mean, I am the biggest frivolity around and we’re getting along fine.” Ann tried to act casual after that amazing rhetoric but failed, laughing too much at her own play on words. “Do it for the free pie.” she said finally, trying to convince her friend.
She was right. Lysithea was quickly forced to warm up to Annette after she kept invading the library she had so often holed herself up in, leaving cupcakes and tea for what she swore was some sort of critter. Instead, it was Lysithea.
“Nah, it’s too late for me to start caring about parties and all that.” Lysithea replied in a much more sincere tone than the conversation had taken so far.
“What do you mean?” Ann asked, feeling the tone shift and adapting to it.
“I’ve never been to a party before. And I..I just don’t want to regret skipping the ones I missed out on before. I just..don’t want to feel like I missed out.” Lysithea added a quick eye roll to try to keep the conversation light and breezy, but that was a sunken ship. “I’m sorry Annie, that’s...such a stupid way to think but it works for me.”
“It’s not stupid. I had that thought a lot before I actually dated Lin and I just had a crush on him. I didn’t want him to actually like me because...the dream was so much more endless than a person could ever be. And I didn’t want to miss out on the dream yet. As long as you don’t attend those parties, you can pretend they suck and are worth missing out on. And as long as I didn’t tell Lin I liked him, I could pretend he was good enough to just admire from a distance.”
“The fear is that it’s worth the effort to care and step outside of your worldview.” Lysithea admitted.
“The fear is that it’s worth the effort to let others step into yours.” Ann formulated her fear in return. “But a dream needs believing.”
“Thanks Ann. I’ll ask Lorenz if he wants to go with me. I gotta make sure this party isn’t gonna be too good, y’know. I’m not in the mood to be right.” Lysithea rolled her eyes once again, but this time she didn’t have nearly as much existential fear to cover.
“Woah.” Ann sprung back into the most childish smile. “Who are you and what have you done to Lysithea?” A snorting sound involuntarily escaped her nostrils, which sent both into a laughing fit.
“Wilting pie, was it?”
“Shrivelled, I think? I also wanted to compare his hair with a raccoon that fell off a tree and then got pissed on by cicadas, but I guess I subconsciously knew I still wanted him to go to the dance with me.” Lysithea puffed her cheeks up and let the air out with her nostrils in the most hysterical laugh.
“Another tea?” Ann asked, walking towards the kettle.
“Sure, if you want it to come out of my nose. Actually that sounds great, I’ll have a cup.”
Later that night, Lysithea knocked on Lorenz’ door. Lorenz opened the door. “Lysithea, what a surprise,” he sighed, but he couldn’t hide his smile.
“I humbly accept therefore thy invitation to the ball. Don’t be late. And wear a different corsage. I’d hate to criticize a Gloucester on his style. Also bring pie.” she said before closing the door once again.
A few seconds later, a letter appeared from under the door. The sweetest. Lorenz Hellman von Gloucester.
“That’d better be the pie you’re describing.”
When Annette returned to her dorm that night, she saw the light on from under the door next to hers. “How is Lin not asleep by now?” She took the courage to knock. Lin opened and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You practiced the dance?” Lin asked Ann.
“I did.”
“Same.”
Annette’s eyes opened in shock. “Wait, did you…”
Lin nodded. “Yup, been practicing all day, and not just in my sleep.” Lin took a step and another step, and on and on and so. “Next time, you can just tell me what you want. I love to put effort into doing what you like, but mind reading is not invented yet.”
Annette came closer to Lin and took his hand. “It shouldn’t be hard to guess what I think right now.” she said with a huge smile.
“Please, tell me.” Lin took a step forward and took her hand.
“I think I kinda you know, love you.” Ann couldn’t use her hands to hide her face right now as they were both held by Lin.
“I’m thinking the same. Now, I’m thinking we’re gonna spend some time on my favorite hobby and take a long nap. Tomorrow’s a big day.”