Bracelets for the soul

"Hey..."

"Like I said, you'll be ok...understand?"
She hugged him, in an attempt to reassure him.
After all, that helped her when she was scared.
"Look, Aberdeen got the doors open, and we can get out from here...and if anything..."
She paused.
"I'll make sure nothing happens to you, alright?"

Vale blushed lightly beneath his mask, glad no one would be able to see it. Was this the first time she'd shown affection of her own accord? Slowly, he allowed himself to wrap his arms around her too. "Maybe I'm a little scared." He whispered. "Heights aren't really my cup of tea. Don't tell anyone, alright?" He tried to lighten the mood with a low chuckle.

"Oh, I don't doubt that." He pulled away from her before looking up towards the opening. "You go up first, I'll have an easier time getting out on my own." He squeezed her good shoulder for a moment before putting his hands around her waist. "Get ready." He said, before lifting her up and towards the opening.

    Cyrus smiled a little bit and nodded, watching his soulmate enjoy himself as he watched the ballet. "Ah yeah, there's a lot of types of dance out there. Judging by our time on the plane, probably way more than you thought previously, huh?" he chuckled, glancing up at the TV. While it wasn't his personal choice in entertainment, it was a refreshing change of pace to see his partner so genuinely invested in something. "They even have some performances you can go watch in person," he suggested a little sheepishly, shooting a little glance towards Alti.


    The scientist chuckled a bit and leaned forward, somewhat surprised by the remorse Alti seemed to be showing for last night. Smile softening, his eyes darted around the unoccupied floor space. Probably about 15 square feet or so, should be ample room. "Sounds like someone wants a first date part two, eh? Come on, stand up," he grinned, patting him on the shoulder and standing up with him. Frankly, he was not the most graceful on his feet but out of all the formal events he'd attended at various points in his life, the basic formula of a waltz was something he had tucked into his brain.

    "Alright so, you wanna learn about the waltz, eh? First things first, we gotta get into position. I'll be the lead, and your job as the follow is the mirror my steps, 'kay? Okay so your hands, go here," he instructed, gently taking Alti's hands and placing one on his shoulder before holding the other. "And my hand goes here," he replied, placing it on the small of the other man's back. He swallowed nervously as he watched his soulmate, his cheeks tinted pink. Despite all the silly teasing and flirting, something about the more serious moment was... intimidating.



    "Now, I'm pretty good at many things. Dancing is not one of those things, so bear with me here," he smirked a little bit. "I'll count us off and start slow, alright? Ready... 1-2-3" Cyrus started to ease into the waltz as he counted quietly in triplets, albeit sometimes off rhythm, along with the music playing from the TV speakers. The first few sets of movements were slow and deliberate so that Alti could observe and follow along, but soon he increased the speed to match up with the flow of the music. The carpet of the hotel room kept catching under the rubber soles of his sneakers as he danced, making it harder to move as smoothly as he would've liked.

    "G-Got the hang of it?" he asked, his voice blurting out a lot more shaky than he expected, and he couldn't do anything to stop the blood rushing to his cheeks as he realized just how flustered he must've appeared and sounded. The scientist was using every bit of his willpower to fight the urge to make a wisecrack or joke to ease the anxiousness he was currently feeling, a small nervous chuckle falling from his lips instead as he made eye contact with his dance partner.

She let out a small yelp of surprise as she was lifted into the crawl space. 
"Alright..." she looked back down at him.
"I'll see you on the other side, ok?" she inquired.
Alraada began to crawl after Aberdeen where they would seemingly make it out.
Or would they? Who knows, Aberdeen seemed to know what they were doing anyway.

Alraada made her way out of the elevator shaft and passed Aberdeen. They simply waved to them as they looked back into the shaft, down at Maicy and Vale. Maicy seemed to be doing fine but Vale seemed to be scared out of his wits. The bartender rolled their eyes inside their head as they stared down at the two.

"Maicy, c'mon, get up here. Vale, the longer you stay on there, the more likely it is to move with you on the top. You don't wanna fall, do you?" They chuckled. "If you don't get your starburst-lookin' ass up here, I'm gonna have to do it myself."

"I know that!" Vale tried to call out defiantly, but it came out more like a whimper. His hands were still glued to the hatch, and it seemed no amount of mental will power could force him to let go. He frowned. Worst come to worse he could detach his arms, but he didn't have any replacements with him and he certainly didn't want to with Maicy and Aberdeen watching. Well, next best thing then. Although this certainly would look just as strange.

With a sickening metallic screech, the hatch was torn off the elevator. It was heavy, and would be difficult to maneuver out of the shaft without the use of his 'talents'. He looked up towards where Aberdeen was, shouting a quick, "Get out of the way!" before pressing off the elevator and gliding through the open doors above. He fell onto his side, clutching the hatch to his chest as his fingers still would not cooperate. A few moments after he'd managed to gather the courage to jump, the elevator could be heard plummeting to the bottom of the shaft with a loud CRASH. They'd made it just in time.

His eyes lit up. “OK!” he responded giddily, immediately shooting up from his place and onto his feet, ready for further instruction. With how sour last night’s events had gone, he welcomed the opportunity to not only complete the “date”, but to hopefully get closer to his soulmate. And he’d get to learn another style of dance, so getting this right was crucial. Alti was determined to get this down. Just gotta…. not mess up! he thought as the other man went on to speak, straightening up once the call to get into position was made. The beginnings of a new song hummed through the room as the dancers began their next routine. Alti broke his focus for a split second to glance at their forms, taking in as much as he could before his lesson began without realizing just how enamored he grew with their movements, so much so that the following actions caught him by surprise.

Alti blinked a few times as he snapped out of his trance, rummaging through his thoughts and picking up the last bits of what his partner instructed. “M-Mirror.. your steps..” he mumbled, cursing at himself silently for not paying attention so early in the lesson. He watched carefully as his hands were placed into position, his breathing hitching once he felt the scientist’s hand hold onto his lower back. “Oh!” he said, chuckling softly after to ease the sudden tension despite the pink on his cheeks refusing to fade. This was… a whole different kind of close. Wasn’t quite like the more direct forms of intimacy he had grown accustomed to. In fact, it was far more subtle, but yet all the more interesting? And… a bit scary? He thought to say something snide to shake off the sheepish expression he knew he must’ve been sporting, something along the lines of Ohhhh, I think I like this part the most already~ to show that he wasn’t shaken by any of it.

“I… I-I like this…..”

Fuck.

Alti kept his mouth shut at the risk of fudging up a reply. It didn’t matter to him much if the other wasn’t the greatest dancer. It just… has to be you, teaching me, he thought, his cheeks flushing even more before the actual demonstration started. “Alright.” he replied, looking down at the floor to observe the steps, freezing up whenever he missed one. Slowly, he began to get them down, counting in triplets under his breath. Every now and then there’d be a flub-up, but as the music played he felt himself to be familiar enough with the movements that he could do without his visual crutch for a few rounds. Slowly, he brought his head up and looked into his soulmate’s eyes-- right as the other man began to speed things up.


“U-uh..” he stammered nervously, too caught up in his own shortcomings to even notice the similar shakiness in the other’s voice as he struggled to keep up. With every rushed step, he could feel his movements lagging behind Cyrus’, and with the fibers in the carpet seeming to work against the soles of his boots, his efforts at mirroring the scientists grew clumsier and clumsier until--