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“Miss Ayase, do you like to dance?”
The words slip out of Ken’s mouth before he can think better of them. She looks up from her homework with questions in her eyes, and he’s filled with a rush of embarrassment.
“I mean, it’s okay, I guess. Why do you ask?”
Ken adjusts his glasses and points his face at one of the new posters on her wall. He can’t actually focus on the design right now, but anything is less mortifying than looking at her while he explains.
“I was just thinking about that one time. You know. When we were all staying here for Jiji.”
It was a small, silly thing. Jiji was goofing off and grabbed Miss Ayase’s hand to spin her around. Her laugh was easy and free, light as bird song and just as beautiful, and Ken longed to be the one making her happy so effortlessly. Miss Shiratori tried pulling him up from his spot on the floor to dance with her, but he refused - he didn’t want to make a fool of himself or give Miss Shiratori any new ideas.
Anxious to fill the silence, he continues. “It’s just - it made me wonder. We spend so much of our time fighting or worrying about aliens and yokai, but there must be all sorts of things you had more time to care about before we met. Things you miss. Maybe… maybe dancing is one of them? That’s all.” Ken chances shifting just his eyes to peek in her direction and finds Miss Ayase staring at him, head tilted to the side and eyes narrowed slightly with curiosity.
“Hmm. Okarun, do you like to dance?”
He scratches the back of his neck. The room feels warmer than it did a few minutes ago.
“I don’t know? I mean, I don’t know how. So I don’t know. If I like it, that is.”
Miss Ayase looks back at the math problems she’s supposed to be working on and hums again. He doesn’t know what she means by the sound and the repetition of it is making him nervous. Even with no idea what to expect from her, she still surprises him. “I could teach you a little if you want.”
Ken gulps. “You would - you would do that?”
Miss Ayase keeps a carefully neutral expression, but he can see the tips of her ears turn pink. “Sure. But only if you want.”
“O-Okay! Yeah!”
“Okay.”
His breathing feels deafening against the silence.
“So, um, when do you, I mean…” He’s interrupted by her textbook slamming shut.
“No time like the present!” And just like that, she hops off her bed and walks straight out of her bedroom. He remains frozen to his spot on the floor for a moment before shaking off the shock and following her downstairs.
When he reaches the living room, Miss Ayase is digging through her grandma’s CD collection. She examines their covers one by one until one of them seems to satisfy her, and pops a disc into the stereo system.
“I have no idea what any of these are, or if they’re even good, so we’ll just have to find out.”
“Do you think Miss Seiko will mind that we’re— ”
Cheesy 1980s synth drums all but shake the room as they cut him off, and Ken claps his hands over his ears. Miss Ayase swears and rushes to turn it down to a reasonable volume. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was up so high.”
She walks to the center of the room, where Ken is trying and failing not to be anxious. People are very close to each other when they dance, right? Can he handle being that close to Miss Ayase without the armor of the curse? He doesn’t want to transform for this.
Miss Ayase seems to pick up on his anxiety, if not the reason for it, because she answers his question. “I don’t think the old bat will care as long as we don’t crack a case. Anyway, do you think this music is good enough? It doesn’t feel super slow or fast, which is probably good for practicing.”
Ken catches a line of the lyrics, which he wasn’t really paying any attention to before, and it’s obviously a love song. He blushes a little at the thought of dancing to a love song with Miss Ayase. ‘But a lot of songs are love songs, aren’t they? And it’s not like Miss Ayase chose one on purpose.’ He swallows and tries to focus on just the notes of the melody instead. “Yeah, it’s - it’s fine. How do we start?”
Watching her tuck a lock of hair behind her ears, it occurs to Ken that Miss Ayase might also be a little flustered. He always thinks of her as having nerves of steel, but dancing isn’t a battle, so maybe she can’t tap into them here.
“First, put your hands out in front of you. Like this.” She extends her arms into the space between them, palms up. Ken copies her, and then she flips her hands over to place them on top of his own, their fingers overlapping. “I guess let’s start with just swaying back and forth?”
Miss Ayase starts taking rocking steps back and forth, and he follows awkwardly behind her.
“Wait, no - we need to go to the same side at the same time. Start with your left first. I’ll count, okay? I’ll go up to four, and then we’ll start on one again.”
Ken nods. “That’s a good idea - Turbo Granny made me count when we were training, and it helped.”
“Okay. Remember to go to your left first.”
Miss Ayase nods her head slightly with the music and does her count, but as soon as he lurches off to the side, the song is over. The new one is really fast and sounds a lot more aggressive.
“Oh for— sorry, Okarun.” Suddenly his hands are lonely, and he thinks it might be the first time that he’s tensed up because somebody stopped touching him.
A few button presses and apparently unacceptable tracks rejected later, the stereo is playing the first song again. “Okay. I put it on repeat, so we don’t have to worry about that again. We can change it to something else if you get sick of it, though. Just let me know.”
“I— I will. Thank you.” Ken wipes his palms on his pants before holding them out again. Then her warmth is back, she counts, and they’re swaying together. Kind of. Miss Ayase is swaying smoothly, but Ken is doing something closer to jerkily switching his weight from side to side.
“You have to move through it slowly the whole time, don’t go the whole distance all at once. Like, land on the beat, don’t do the whole motion on it.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll try…” Ken watches her feet while he moves his own, trying to match her speed, and somehow he feels even clunkier than he did before. “I don’t think I’m getting it, Miss Ayase.”
“I’m going to let go, but you keep going, okay? I just want to get a better look.”
He keeps his hands where they are even after she backs up, even though it feels weird. He wants them to be ready for her if she comes back.
She watches him with a critical eye and analyzes his movements. It doesn’t feel like she’s being judgmental, but the unusual softness from her this afternoon almost makes him worry more than if she were making fun of him. “Okay Okarun, stop for a second. I think I know what’s happening. You’re trying to control the speed you’re moving, right? To make it precise?”
He nods. “I wanted it to be smooth like your movements, so I was trying to match the speed your feet were going.”
“Maybe… think of it more like running? But slow?”
“You mean walking?” He doesn’t mean it to be a jab, but as he’s saying it he finds it difficult to hear any other way.
“Shut up.” A blush blooms on her cheeks and Ken realizes he needs to be careful about embarrassing her, or she might end the lesson.
“Sorry Miss Ayase, I’m just nervous. I won’t interrupt you again.”
Her blush gets a little deeper, but the frown eases. “Well, you were right, anyway. Walking. When you’re walking, you don’t think about how fast your foot is moving. You just swing it forward and move the rest of your body at a steady pace, and you land when and where you need to. Dancing is kind of like that, just in different directions.”
“Oh!” It sounds so simple that way. “I think I understand now, Miss Ayase. Can we try again?”
A small, proud smile takes shape on her face, and she steps forward to meet him again. “Let’s do it. One, two, three, four…”
They sway through a verse and a chorus, and the song ends again. “I think I’m getting better, but I still don’t feel like I’m quite in sync with the way you’re moving. I’m landing at the right time, but we’re different in the middle.”
“Hmm. What if we try…” She pulls Ken in closer and sets his hands at the top of her hips, before resting her own on top of his shoulders.
“Miss Ayase!” Ken’s voice squeaks.
“What? It’ll be easier this way. You’ll be able to feel me moving back and forth, and I’ll be able to sort of move you along with me.”
“But what if Ms. Seiko comes home and sees us like this?”
“It’s only dancing, Okarun, we’re fine.”
Her face takes up most of his view now, and he swallows thickly. He feels like he should protest more, but he doesn’t really trust his voice at the moment, and an increasingly loud part of him doesn’t want to object at all.
She counts with the music and they try again. For a short time, the new position does seem to help, but Miss Ayase is looking right into his eyes. Even though Ken is terrified of what she’ll find there, he can’t seem to tear his own gaze away. Would it really be so bad if she knew how he felt? His heartbeat is so loud in his ears that he can barely hear the music anymore and he stumbles, stepping on her foot.
Instinctively, Ken grips her tighter to help keep them both steady. “Oh, sorry, Miss Ayase, did I hurt you?”
“No!” Her voice is high and tight, and Ken thinks she must be trying to spare his feelings at first, but then he realizes he’s still holding tightly onto her hips. He lets go and backs away, embarrassed.
“I’m - I’m so sorry. It was just a reflex, I was worried you were going to fall, and—”
“Stop,” she interrupts him. “Okarun, I’m fine and it’s okay. Come back here.” Miss Ayase holds her arms open, beckoning to him to emphasize her words.
Ken obeys sheepishly, and once her palms are back on his shoulders, he puts his own back in place. This time, though, he looks down to the floor and watches their feet. It ought to help - seeing what’s happening instead of being overwhelmed by her beautiful face - but he finds himself trying to anticipate the beat and moving jerkily again.
“I told you, you can’t try to control it. You have to feel it.” Faster than he can process what’s happening, her arms snake around his neck and she pulls him into a close embrace.
Ken’s muscles stiffen all over in surprise.
“This way you won’t be able to see our feet, alright? Just let me guide you.”
“But! Ms. Seiko—”
“If Granny comes home, you can sit down, and I’ll take the stereo off of repeat. There will be plenty of time for that before she can get through the entryway or see anything, and I’ll just tell her we were exploring her music collection. Is that okay?”
“O— okay…”
“Good. Now hold me back.”
Slowly, gingerly, Ken wraps his arms around Miss Ayase’s waist. He rests his hands on his forearms, not quite brave enough to put them anywhere new on her. His heart is beating even harder than before, and he’s certain Miss Ayase can feel it trying to escape from his chest and give itself to her.
“Are you ready?”
Ken focuses on the sound of the music and tries to calm down. It would be so embarrassing if he passed out in her arms. “Ready, Miss Ayase.”
He whispers the count along with her this time.
She’s right - it’s much easier to feel the beat with her this way. How could it not be? Her whole body is pressed up against his, pulling him inexorably along in perfect sync with her movements, the same way he’s been following her into adventures since they first met.
“See, Okarun? It’s easy now, right?”
“Miss Ayase?”
“Yeah?”
“I—” He wants to hold her like this for as long as she’ll let him. He wants to press his face into her hair. He wants to tell her everything, but he’s uncertain how to say anything. “I think I like dancing.”
Miss Ayase squeezes him a little tighter, just enough that he starts to notice another heartbeat against his own. Her breath tickles against the nape of his neck. “I think I do, too.”
Ken’s heart swells with hope. Someday soon he’ll figure out the words to say. Right now, it’s enough simply to hold her and sway together.