Work Text:
“I don’t see the need for it, but Maria said-”
“That you were like a herd of pigs trampling through a garden,” Alucard interrupted, one eyebrow raised. “Yes, I heard.”
Richter rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, well, not like I’ll be dancing much anyway.”
“Because you are like a herd of pigs?” Richter frowned--more like pouted--as his face gained a darker flush. Alucard barely stopped himself from grinning, sighing dramatically instead. “If Maria has determined it a necessary skill, I shall assist. I should warn you, I am three hundred years out of date.”
“The dances shouldn’t be that different.” Still, Richter perked up, looking eager while trying not to seem too eager. It was a contrast to his bouts of silence since the castle fell, and Alucard found he enjoyed the talkative Richter more. “I can show you if they are.”
“And who is teaching who?”
Richter shrugged. “I didn’t say I couldn’t dance. It’s like fighting.”
Alucard started nodding, then backtracked. “Wait. In what way?”
“It’s a physical skill, isn’t it? There’s a rhythm to both, though more for dancing, and you have to keep your eye on your opponent-”
“A dance partner isn’t an opponent.”
“You know what I mean!”
“I see.” Alucard sighed, this time a real one. “Then let’s start with a dance which was traditional even in my earlier life. We can move on from there.”
Despite Alucard’s misgivings, Richter was actually a good dancer. As he’d explained, he knew the steps, could keep precise rhythm, and had good perception of the space around him. What Alucard did notice was the sheer enthusiasm Richter threw into every movement. Perhaps that was what caught his partners off guard?
“Very well,” Alucard said after their first dance. “Show me one of the dances you will be doing at this party.”
Richter was a patient and thorough teacher, and Alucard found himself picking up the steps easily. Each step went in threes, which paired as sixes--up on toes, then bobbing down, spinning around each other with arms outstretched, all in rhythm. Alucard found it was less like fighting, which required quick thinking and improvisation, as well as some manner of aggressiveness. The dance was reserved, measured, each step taken mirrored in some way by the partner.
Alucard wondered how Richter, who threw himself wholeheartedly into everything he did had managed to learn such steps in the first place--or even where such patience to teach them to Alucard had come from.
When they were familiar with them, Richter and Alucard went through an entire set, gliding around each other like swans, each of their steps in harmony with each other. Up up down, large circles around, then meeting together briefly before they passed each other and spun again.
At the end, when they finally met up, hands clasped in each others, something struck Alucard. As though Alucard had become suddenly aware of Richter, he could feel the heat of his palms, hear the beat of his heart, smell the hint of sweat on his skin. His eyes too, beckoned to Alucard’s, the blues of a lake’s depths.
Feeling his own face gain some warmth, Alucard said, “I believe you have proven you are… exceptional at dancing. I’m not sure what Maria believed I could teach you.”
Richter swallowed, the motion of his throat bobbing capturing Alucard’s attention. “Yeah… not sure.”
Richter moved his fingers, but as Alucard made to withdraw his hand too, Richter laced their fingers together, instead. Richter looked as red in the face as Alucard felt. Something fluttery and bright bounced around in Alucard, flipping his stomach and speeding his heart. Three hundred years was a long time to sleep, and he felt it now more than ever as his distant memories offered him no words to say.
“Maybe,” Richter said, “we should call it off? If the other families have an issue with my dancing...”
Alucard frowned and cleared his throat. “I don’t see why you need to give up. More practice will surely give you the opportunity to improve.”
“Are you offering?”
Alucard’s breath caught, only for a moment--the silence of the room held an energy as potent as when Alucard teetered over a steep ledge. Then the hand holding his trembled, and Alucard found himself returning Richter’s hesitant smile.
“I am already here.” Richter relaxed, his smile wider.
“Great! Then maybe I’m not such a lost cause after all.”
“Richter.” Alucard squeezed the hand in his. He smiled, genuinely, at the increase in heart rate his action inspired. “You know the dances well enough to teach someone else. I, at least, am impressed.”
“...Yeah. Yeah, thanks,” Richter said, almost a whisper.
Nothing else was said out loud, but Alucard found plenty of emotion in Richter’s eyes, in the soft curve of his smile, the tilt of his head, and the way he leaned closer. Almost instinctively, Alucard copied, partner to a new dance--one far older than either of them.
Neither ended up attending the party.