Chapter Text
Eugene did it. He actually got a date to the Rave’n this year.
It had taken weeks upon weeks for him to build up enough courage to do it, but he finally asked her – Amelia, his desk mate in botany, had finally taken notice of his feeble, often embarrassing, attempts at flirtation. She seemed absolutely perfect to Eugene; skilled academically, skilled socially, amazing in the creative arts, amazing at dancing-- Dancing.. That’s something people tend to do at school dances, isn’t it?
CRAP!
Eugene didn’t know how to dance! What if he made a fool of himself!
Eugene barrelled into the dorm room, completely out of breath, completely full of panic. Pugsley, who was sitting at his desk attempting to complete his two week overdue maths homework, glanced up at the frazzled boy.
“Hey, ‘Gene!”
“Pugsley! You know how to dance, right? Your family has all those fancy parties and whatever, you have to know, right?” Pugsley cocked his head, bemused by the randomness of the question.
“I mean, I do know I guess – only like, ballroom and stuff though.”
“Perfect! I need you to teach me!” Pugsley’s homework was all but forgotten now. Why would he want to learn ballroom dancing? What use was the waltz to Eugene Ottinger?
“Uh- I mean, sure, I guess. But.. like.. what for?”
“For the Rave’n, duh.” Eugene stated as he walked closer to the desk, calming down slightly.
This only confused the monochrome boy more.
“Isn’t the dance just regular party stuff? Like jumping around to weird pop songs?”
“Well- yes- yeah for most of it. But! There’s a slow dance section at the end, and I need to learn how to do that!”
“You need a partner for that, Abejorro.” This earned a scoff from the boy who now stood beside him.
“I have a partner, Pugsley. Shocking, I know.”
“Oh. Ok, uh- do you want to start now?”
“Yes! Uh- If that’s ok?” Eugene glanced down towards the calculator and open textbooks, only now noticing that Pugsley was willingly doing schoolwork.
“Yeah, ‘course. I was done for before I even started these stupid worksheets, don’t worry about it.” Pugsley rose from his desk and wandered towards his box of vinyls. “Music, or no?”
“Yes please.”
He grabbed out one of his more modern mixtape discs and placed it on the player. The first song was a fairly good pace for beginners like Eugene, he had made sure of that – the tempo was slow and easy to follow. Pugsley walked back over to Eugene, his hand outstretched in front of him.
“Since your- oh actually, wait- who is your date?” Eugene shot him a questioning look,
“Why does that matter?”
“I need to know if you’re gonna be leading, that’s all.”
“Oh, uh- yeah- It’s Amelia, so I guess I will be?”
Hearing that, Pugsley took Eugene’s hand in his, ensuring that his hand was the one atop Eugene’s.
“This feels so wrong.” Pugsley chuckled as he dragged Eugene across the floor to the empty space by the window.
“Alright, let’s start off with something simple. Box step is the easiest, so let’s do that.”
Pugsley grabbed Eugene’s left hand and placed it on his waist,
“This is where your other hand has to go, and this-”
He placed his own hand lightly on Eugene’s upper-arm.
“Is where her other hand will go.”
He then squeezed Eugene’s right hand,
“You also need to loosen this one up a little, if you wanna do it properly that is- it is just a school dance though, so it doesn’t matter too much.”
Eugene’s grip loosened slightly, earning a satisfied nod from Pugsley.
The latter then began to shuffle his feet,
“When I step forward, you step back- then we both step to the side. Sound good?”
Eugene nodded, eyes following Pugsley’s stripey socked feet as they began to glide across the shabby wood of their dorm. They drifted slowly through the movements until Eugene became confident enough to bring his eyes up from the floor. He found Pugsley’s eyes already locked on him a toothy smile crossing his face as they continued their slow stepping.
Pugsley began to speed up ever so slightly, with the bug boy following suit.
They stuck to this simple box stepping motion for the remainder of the song, falling into a natural rhythm.
“How about we try turning box now?”
“Uh- try what?”
“Basically what we’ve just been doing, but bigger diagonal steps. Just keep following, alright?”
They began their stepping again, this time with Pugsley’s backward strides widening, swinging a little further to the side. They glided across the floor with ease, falling back into a calming rhythm. Eugene raised his eyes once again, and they continued their slow pace of turning and stepping.
Electricity crackled within Pugsley’s chest, warming his neck and ears. He used every ounce of free concentration to prevent any of the sparks from flying towards his dance partner, focusing harder on the music that surrounded them. This aided very little as the song that had begun playing was one of romance.
Hopefully Eugene was too focused to notice the subtle undertones that permeated the cramped space.
As Pugsley sped up slightly once again, Eugene found himself locked back onto the floor – just in time to watch himself step right on top of Pugsley’s foot.
“Oh god, sorry!”
This just earned another chuckle from the other boy.
The bee boy’s face warmed with embarrassment at the sound, keeping his head tilted towards the ground so as to ensure it didn’t happen again.
~~
The second song came to an end and Eugene decided that he had learned enough for today, thanking Pugsley, and heading to the shower.
Pugsley settled back at his desk, recounting the short lesson, feeling slightly guilty at the red flush of his cheeks. Was that why Eugene ended it so quickly? Was he uncomfortable?
The pale boy slumped in his chair, huffing a sigh and closing his eyes. I hope I didn’t make him uncomfortable.