my demon~ Kino

poker face

Chapter 2:

A/N: Alaia = a-LIE-ee-uh  Aia = aye-yuh

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Alaia Monroe Stone, Aia for short, stood at least a good two inches above me in stature, and was well-known for being...assertive....to say the least.

Aia was a girl who never really...cared? No she cared she just--always had this poker face plastered onto her skin. Her eyes never glistened, her mouth rarely curved, she just stood--and listened. E-Even with the small bits of her dancing I've seen, she merely just lifted her eyebrows to express herself. Too busy listening to instructions or helping others with the choreography, I  never paid much attention to her. Even if I did decide to mingle with her, there wasn't any time for longer breaks until after all of the choreography, and even those didn't last but 10 minutes. I stood in my lane and she stood in hers.

Then came partner choreo.

Partner choreo, if you can't tell by the name, is with a partner, and most of the time you don't have a choice in who you want to dance with. In fact, there's NEVER a choice.

When the choreographers announced the next bit of choreo required partner selection, they lined each of us up in a row along the mirrors; one choreographer held a clipboard (with what I presumed was the partner combinations) and another was standing with a piquant look on his face--like he was unsure of how this would end, and we were only given one instruction:

Dance like yourself, but mesh into the other person. Feel how they dance and accommodate.

Cryptic huh?

But the music played anyway.

One pair after another people danced and twirled, desperately trying to be chosen. With each pair, it was either too individual, or lacking individuality. I, myself was even selected to dance with another girl--Maya I think it was--- while in mid-dance with her, in my mind I knew it wasn't going well, a gut-feeling; like how an animal detects danger without actually seeing anything. We continued anyway, and I still desperately tried to blend our dancing. As you can probably assume, my efforts were useless.

There was this one pair I'll never forget though-- Paul and Micah, the very first pair to be made. Paul was a blonde with blue eyes and muscled,  and Micah had long brown curly hair and a smaller--yet not frail--build. It was the most intimidating yet, beautiful thing I've ever seen. When Paul kicked aggressively Micah would swiftly duck under and clutch Paul's waist until his shirt bunched, swaying and spinning on pads of their toes. Micah picked up where Paul lacked, and Paul perfectly fit into Micah's sudden stops and flows, like he already knew they were coming.

Maybe it's because we saw their performance first, maybe it's because we really are that good together. But after Micah and Paul, they called for Alaia and I. My throat instantly went dry, and I'm pretty sure my eyes widened for longer than they were supposed to be. Alaia, like the dancing robot she was, stood up and gracefully walked over to the center of the mat--leaving me racing to her side. Just like the other pairs, the music played without warning.

And it was perfect.

Beyond perfect even--dare I say magical? Alaia had this talent for calling my next move before I'd even set for it, like she was a mind-reader. I knew how to blend well to Alaia's strangely perfect moves, as if she'd calculated them previously. Each perfect angle she bent into I counter with a different, yet complementary, one of my own.

The dance itself was like a chase. We started together, palms kissing and body weight spread onto both legs. Then I danced away, promptly pointing my toes as I walked, until Alaia turned me at the waist, and almost smashed us together. A slow, almost waltz-like dance then progressed. Alaia then spun out into a glorious twirl, leaping into the air before curtsying in my direction, a brief signal to join her. I quickly return the leap with an even higher one of my own, catching her waist when I whip my body to face her.

I still have a problem remembering how long we were dancing...or...what else happened after my first leap...but, I'll never forget the roaring clap of cheers that punched my ears. The music went silent, our heavy breaths filled the room, and then, an awfully loud CHAK CHAK CHAK CHAK CHAK CHAK of clapping. It startled me so bad, I stumbled into Alaia, whom I had forgotten was standing behind me.

"We...we're...really good!" she beamed, her first non-emotionless sentence since...since I've met her.

I was still looking at the ground when she was speaking. I mean--she scared me alright? I wasn't utterly terrified of her or anything...she just kinda freaked me out a little bit. But at the time, I was filled with adrenaline, pumped to the max, and I took a risk....I looked into her eyes.

And I understood.

I could see all of it right there, the mask once plastered on her face had melted onto the floor. In every millimeter of her face, was a pocket of longing, a want for someone else. A-a...A need for companionship. Her lips curved in an uneven smile, and her eyes pulled almost...downward instead of upward, like she couldn't remember how to smile. Right then and there I wanted to hug her--to protect her.

So I folded her body in my arms.