Ballroom Dancing

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies a LOT Closer.

We started later in the day, thank god, I actually slept in. All of us gathered in the ballroom and stood in a line before Allura. Was I really going to tell them? I guess so...
Allura began to explain how the practices were going to be set up: "Each of you will get a partner-" I glanced over at Keith. He glanced over at me. I looked away quickly. "-to practice with. At the end of the week, we will hold the ball. During this time, Coran, Shiro, and I will be making other preparations. While you all will be practicing, you will also be helping with the preparations. Does that sound good?" Everyone nodded their heads. I gulped. "Um..." I started. Everyone turned to me. I'm not sure if that's good or not. "Before we start... dancing, I should say, I-" I choked on my words. Why was this so hard? It must have been really obvious I was nervous because everyone looked concerned. I felt Keith press the back of his hand on mine. I felt my face get hot.
"I can't dance."
The group blinked. "I'm sure you're fine, Lance," Pidge said. "Yeah," Hunk replied, "We're all practicing."
I sighed. "No, I mean, I really can't. I even took lessons when I was younger. When I danced, I would always step on them, or trip them, or I would fall. I would mess up in literally any way possible. I even sprained someone's wrist once," I looked at Keith. He smiled lightly. How come I didn't notice how... how pretty that was before? I mean, I had to notice his smile was cute, I'd be dumb not to. It's common knowledge. "It sounds silly, I know, but I really like dancing. I want to be able to. So, I'm going to try my best this week. I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but I'm sure I'll be a little better, so..." I continued and sighed. "This sounds a lot worse out loud," I finished.
It was silent for a tick, and that was the worst tick of my life.
"I'm sorry, Lance. We'll do what we can to help, and I'm sure we're all just as bad at something we love," Offered Allura. "Yeah," said Pidge. "I love horseback riding, but all horses are scared of me. Also, I've always been too short for it. One time I fell off and broke my arm." She laughed. Laughed. How? I'd be terrified if that happened to me. I wouldn't be able to look at a horse again!
"I think the best thing in these situations is to keep trying," Said Shiro, placing his hand on my shoulder.
"Thanks, guys. This means a lot to me..."
"I promise, by the end of this week, you'll practically be a pro," Keith says, giving me a sideways smile of encouragement. Well, that's certainly new. Despite the creeping feeling, it's only out of pity, I laugh along with the rest of the group.
These guys never fail to make me feel better. I don't know what I'd do without them.
As much as I miss my family on Earth, I still have a family here.

Allura splits us off into pairs. Pidge and Hunk, Keith and I. She says she'll dance around with each of us occasionally. We all agree she's the best dancer out of us; she's been dancing since she was three while most of us haven't at all.
"Alright, Paladins. Do we all know the box step?" Allura begins. Pidge nods slowly, although she looks slightly confused. I knew what it was, it's the most basic step that's used in most ballroom dances, but I hadn't danced in so long I wasn't sure I could even do that. "Oh! Isn't that the one with the four steps that make a box?" Hunk chimed. Allura chuckled. "Yes, Hunk, that's the one. You should all learn this first, as it's used in many dances." She began to explain the dance: right steps right, left closes the gap, right steps behind, left steps spaced apart but in line with the right, then steps where you began, and repeats. We do this a few times on our own before Allura asks us to do it with the music. Hunk is surprisingly graceful, Keith is doing it like he's been doing it all his life, which, to be fair, he might have been. Pidge and I tripped quite a bit, but Pidge got ahold of it way before I did. Surprisingly, after a while, I got it down. I stopped tripping. It felt awesome. I could do this!
Just as I was perfecting it, Allura paused the music. "Now, try to do it with your partner!" Pidge shot a glance at me and snickered. I stuck my tongue out at her. Just because Keith and I were dancing together didn't mean we weren't still rivals. You can learn a lot from your enemy.
"Put your hands on me." My head snapped back to Keith as Allura walked over to Pidge and Hunk. "I- What?" I stuttered. I felt my face get warm. Keith rolled his eyes. "Obviously, I'm leading. But you need to put your hands," he grabbed my wrists, "here and here." He placed my left hand on his right arm and my hand in his left, holding them up and placing his right hand in the center of my back. My face definitely got warmer. "This is... kinda gay," I say awkwardly. "It's only gay if you want it to be, Lance. Do you want it to be?" he counters. "No! No, I don't," I say, maybe a little too enthusiastically. But I don't! That's gross. Keith? No. Never. I definitely don't want that... Right?
"We should probably practice," Keith says, sounding annoyed. I hadn't even noticed that Allura's had the music on for a bit now. "Yeah," I said, the blush fading from my face as I tried to focus on what I had just practiced. "So, it's basically the same thing, yeah?" I looked down at our feet. Allura had given us dress shoes that were roughed up versions of the ones we'd be wearing. "Yeah," Keith agreed. "But you have to move your feet between mine as I move mine between yours."
"It sounds really difficult when you put it like that..." I say, attempting to figure out what he meant. "Here. I'll start," Keith offers. "I mean, I'm leading anyway," he mutters and steps forward for the first step of the box. I immediately stumble and try to get into the box step.
It takes me three minutes before I finally fall in step, and even then I'm still tripping. Allura has mostly been sticking to Hunk and Pidge, teaching them the details of it. Honestly, I'm thankful for that. If she came over now I'd probably end up falling on my elbow and taking Keith down with me (I have a tendency to grab whatever I can when I feel myself falling).

The rest of the afternoon is spent practicing box stepping with a partner. Allura does come over once, but thankfully that was after I had already stopped to regain some balance. When I finally get to go back to my room, I'm sore and exhausted. It seems like the others are, too. I collapse onto my bed and sigh. I haven't had a moment to myself and this feels like heaven. I take off my shoes and jacket, turn off the light, and close my eyes, not bothering to take off my clothes. I try to clear my thoughts and establish a nice breathing pattern. This is usually fairly easy, but tonight my head is spinning. I have those stupid waltz-y songs in my head and Keith comment keeps replaying.
"Do you want it to be?"
I keep telling myself, no, but there's a tiny, annoying voice in the back of my mind that doubts that. "If you don't want it to be, then why do you blush every time you mess up in front of him?" it says. "I would do that in front of anyone!" I retort.
"Okay... sure... But why do you feel the need to impress him?"
"Because he's annoying and thinks he's better than me! And I don't feel the need to impress him."
"Why are you even that annoyed with him?"
"I just said! He thinks he's better than everyone!"
"When has he ever acted like that without you provoking him?"
I pause at that. I think. I think hard. I can't think of anything.
Quiznak.
"Okay, if you're so smart, why do you think I'm annoyed by him?" I say quietly to my room. The voice doesn't respond.
I turn over and go to sleep.