cinderella | sting x reader

Bonus Chp 3- Dancing Lessons

I was irked.

Irritated, annoyed, disgruntled, whatever you want to call it.

How can someone correct another more than ten times on the same, unimportant detail?

Well, apparently you can, and then twenty times more. It was all about the right position of the fingers, the color of napkin you can pick up, the only position of your legs that you can sit in even if you're wearing a floor length dress and no one can see them.

And that went on, and on, and on.

Even if I grew up in a formal household and I have had basic ettiquette, this roya business went beyond that.

By the time I moved on to dancing, my teeth were gritted and my back hurt, fingers intently and tightly laced infront of me to release some of that anger.

Does everything have to be so precise and traditional? What is wrong with something new and and different?

"Does anything rebellious or different happen here?" I ask, intent on making Ultear and Meredy as irritated as I was. All intent of impressing them was gone.

They didn't take the bait. "Just once."

"What was the occasion?"

Ultear pressed her lips together, as if she didn't want to tell me. But then again, I was technically a princess. "That only occasion was when his Royal Highness the Prince acquired his... adornment though his ear."

I bite back a laugh. Oh Sting, I'm so happy that you, as a noble blood, did something rebellious. "That sounds like him," I reply, grinning slightly when Ultear's lips become even whiter after my reply.

We came through an archway to the ballroom.

I can't help but instantly smile, the memories oh so familiar to me. I danced here just a few days ago- looking exactly the same as it had been. Except the fact that it was eerily empty, not a sound save the clacking of our heels.

"I will teach you different dances, dances that only the higher folk in hierarchy participate in. Little waltzing for that matter," she added, throwing me a sly glance.

I shrugged it off, and noticed Kagura on the high second floor.

Her aubergine hair was tied up, scrubbing the floor in a slow pace, her pace.

I wave lightly, and she nods back in that solemn, serious way of hers.

"Hey (y/n)."

I turn around, my pink dress twirling while my hair stays annoyingly put by the hairspray.

"Sting!" I cry, flinging my arms around his neck. Having temporarily forgotten I was wearing a humongous crinoline, I quickly pulled myself off, blushing.

He laughed, airily waving that off. "Where's all the excitement from?" he teased. "From your lessons in etiquette?"

My lips pulled in a frown. "Those are inadequatedly boring, mind you. Enough about that, how are you?"

Sting's eyes seemed to darken, unnoticeable to most. Not to me, and I gently placed my hands on his cheeks in a comforting manner. "What's wrong?"

He looks surprised, that I had noticed his disturbance. "They won't let me see my father."

"You're highness? It's time to start the dancing now, if you please," Meredy says smiling, curtseying at Sting.

Between the two, I liked Meredy far better- she had a softer voice, and is much more compassionate. Nevertheless, I knew Ultear's only intention was to help me, and she was doing a great job at teaching.