Vanitas × Noé

Dance With Me

It had truly started out as a peaceful night for Vanitas. He had watched the sunset, from his spot perched on the roof of Hotel Chouchou, and stared up at the ever-darkening cloudless sky as the stars slowly twinkled into view. It had been pleasantly warm even after night fell and Noé was blissfully missing from his side for once.

But, like all good things in Vanitas's life, this did not last. It started with an increase of voices from the street below, loud and irritating but not bad enough to ruin the mood. Then came the music, quiet at first, as the musicians tuned their instruments before bursting into an uproar together with a dozen voices. Neither the singing nor the instrumentals were particularly professional, obviously the result of a group of people without access to any real music tutors. Still, the sound wasn't the most bothersome thing Vanitas had ever heard and he was curious about the commotion.

Hazarding a look down into the street below, Vanitas caught sight of a throng of people. As he watched the people they began to shift in time with each other, often in partners but some on their own. It was a fast paced dance, with a lot of skipping and bouncing in the unrefined manner of common dances. The women's skirts flared as they twisted, creating a mosaic of changing colour from above, and Vanitas found himself watching closer. Though it had disturbed his relaxation he couldn't deny that it was somewhat fascinating to him. He had only a little experience dancing, certainly none as wild or unfettered as what he was witnessing.

"Vanitas," a voice spoke right beside his ear and he jerked away with an embarrassing scream.

"Noé?" Vanitas scowled as he came down from the tiny rush of adrenaline. "What are you doing!?"

Noé tilted his head, "I called out to you but you weren't responding. What's going on down there?"

"Hell if I know. It's not a special occasion to my knowledge, just some impromptu revelry."

"Hmm, looks like fun."

"Does it?" Vanitas drawled.

Noé ignored him, moving away from the edge of the roof. He swayed to the music a little before, somewhat clumsily, moving in an imitation of the dancers below. Noé was grinning, despite the limited movement afforded by his precarious position, as he pranced about by himself.

"What are you doing?" Vanitas laughed, all his focus now on Noé instead of the other dancers.

"Isn't it obvious?" Noé twirled, which definitely wasn't a part of the dance he was trying to copy. "You should try too."

"No thanks," Vanitas scoffed. "I'm perfectly all right with my dignity intact."

"Come on, we've danced together before."

"Yeah, and you stepped on my foot!"

"Dance with me," Noé held out his hand.

Despite himself, Vanitas found his feet moving towards Noé until he was standing right in front of him. Something about the earnestness on Noé's face completely disarmed him and made grasp the outstretched hand.

"Now what?" Vanitas huffed. "I don't exactly know this dance and neither do you from the looks of it."

"We'll figure it out," Noé tugged him a little closer, "do you mind if I lead?"

"Do as you please," Vanitas glanced at their feet, "This isn't exactly the widest part of the roof though."

"It's fine." And with that Noé started to lead them.

They were mostly stepping back and forth, with little to no sideways motion due to their precarious position. Their hands sometimes came apart as they'd seen the dancers do but they always came back to each other with no other partner to switch to. It was stupid and embarrassing in Vanitas's opinion. Noé was making it all up as he went along and Vanitas was just copying him. But it was kind of fun somehow. And the longer they continued the easier it was to forget how silly he felt.

It was beginning to get tiring and, as they'd done multiple times already, Vanitas and Noé separated for a few moments. But this time, for whatever reason, Vanitas's foot slipped as he stepped backwards and the world tilted rapidly. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited to hit the ground, he'd fallen from greater heights, it was no big deal. Instead he felt a grip on his forearm, bruising at first but easing up quickly.

Vanitas opened his eyes to see Noé, breathing heavily and keeping him grounded. His eyes were fading from red to their usual purple and Vanitas found himself wondering exactly how fast vampires could move. With a tug Vanitas was pulled back to stability and crashing into Noé's chest. Instinctively, Vanitas made to step back and away from the close proximity but Noé tightened his grip.

"You'll fall again if you do that."

"You're right. In that case, get out of the way Noé."

There was some awkward shuffling but they both ended up standing beside each other, no longer at risk of falling or uncomfortably close. Looking below, Vanitas saw the crowd still going at it with the same fervour they'd started with. It was exhausting just watching them, though Vanitas was almost certain he'd caught a glimpse of Count Orlok amongst them which was terribly amusing.

"Did you enjoy it?" Noé asked.

"I nearly fell off the roof! So... I'd say about as much as last time we danced."

"We'll have to work on it then."

"Whatever you say. I'm leading next time though."

"That's fine with me."

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I'm not that happy with this but I finished it so I thought I may as well post it anyway. I wrote it while listening to the Pandora Hearts ost on Spotify! It's been a while since my last update but I need more vnc content and the manga won't get a new chapter again for a while so I had to write something. Hope you enjoyed!