Time to Face the Music

Ronnie pulled Nils over to the section of the room she had cleared of furniture and left him standing there for a moment as she went over to her stereo.

"Too much doom and gloom. Too much seriousness. I need to clear my mind, and so do you."

She touched a few buttons on the CD player and a moment later the opening electronic bass riff of a techno song began to play.

"Nietzsche once said he would only believe in a god that knew how to dance. I'd say the same applies to the children of the gods."

Nils shook his head and pulled away, eyes wide. "Oh, no. I don't care whose name you invoke, the answer is no. You know I can't dance."
He backed away as he spoke, waving his hands wildly until he smacked into a wall. "Ow. If you need to practice, just say so and I'll leave. I don't dance."

Ronnie laughed and grabbed Nils' hands, pulling him forcibly back to the center of the floor.

"Oh, no you don't Mijo! Just try some basics. Come on, it'll be painless, I promise. Who knows, you might even enjoy yourself for once."

He glared at Esperanza as she pulled him back onto the floor, but did not further try to pull away. "Alright, then. What do you want me to do?"
As he spoke, he pulled off his boots and emptied his pockets, placing everything neatly off to the side. The last thing he wanted to do was fall wrong on something and break it or him.

Ronnie laughed as Nils made his elaborate preparations and then took his hand. The song was beginning to ramp up slightly and she began swaying in a simple rythm.

"Ok, watch me... move your feet. Keep it simple. Just move naturally. Good..." she giggled as he began akwardly stepping side to side. "Go slowly... step to the music..."

Nils discomfort only grew as she guided him to dance with her. It was a good song that was playing, but he found he couldn't appreciate it when he was so busy worrying about trying to keep the rhythm and trying to not trip, and what on earth was he supposed to be doing with his arms? He'd been less nervous the first time he had sex, for cripes sake!
"This is supposed to be fun?"

Ronnie had to stop moving for a moment to laugh with her hand over her mouth, but she quickly caught herself when she saw the look Nils was giving her.

"You're thinking to much! Stop worrying and just let it happen. No one is watching but me, and trust me I've seen a lot worse. We had one girl come into the club who was barely coordinated enough to walk, much less dance. All I'll say is it's a good thing she was pretty."

Ronnie started moving her hips again, fluidly and hypnotically. Her arms were lifted and bent slightly, her fingers inaudibly snapping to the beat of the song.

"Relax..." she said, closing her eyes and feeling the pulse of the music "...don't think about it... just do it."

Nils sighed and stepped back a step, nervous about bumping into her as she danced. "I'll try, but thinking is kind of what I do."
He closed her eyes with her, willing himself to relax and move with the music. If he could move with even a tiny fraction of her grace, he'd be satisfied. He'd seen her dance, and he was amazed with how much control she had over her body.
He let his mind drift along to the music, singing along in his head. It was fast, which was kind of a problem. He let himself move along with it without much actual incident for a moment or two, although he was jerky and awkward.

With her eyes closed, Ronnie was lost to the world, the only universe being the beat of the music pounding through her veins. Her body rocked and swayed in graceful curves as Nils danced along in a clumsy but dedicated attempt to mimick her movements.

With her eyes closed and her mind occupied, however, she was completely unable to see Nils' socked foot touch the spot of bare tile floor near the carpeted part of the room. The sudden loss of traction threw him off balance and his arms pinwheeled in a vain attempt to keep him upright. A moment later he fell forward, crashing into her as he did so.

When she opened her eyes she was lying on her back, her arms pinned to the side by Nils', looking up into his face. Somehow, she had managed to avoid hitting her head, and the only thing that hurt was her left elbow where it had broken her fall.

For a moment she couldn't think... couldn't even breathe. Their faces were a mere inch apart and the weight of his body pressed down on hers. She stared into his eyes unable to move. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She knew she should move... say something, do something... but somehow she couldn't.

Somewhere deep inside, a part of her didn't want to.

Nils was getting almost comfortable in his clumsy efforts to dance. And her eyes were (hopefully) still closed, so Esperanza couldn't even see how badly he was doing. This was indeed, a little fun.
Then the world suddenly tilted as his feet flew out from under him, and next thing he knew he was lying right on top of a stunned looking Esperanza. In the moments it took him to process what had happened, he realized with horror that Esperanza didn't exactly look displeased about this turn of events.
All the speed and grace he'd lacked while dancing made itself evident now, when he jumped off her and quickly retreated to the far corner of the room. "Oh, god, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
He'd known for a while that Esperanza had a thing for him, but it was something he'd been ignoring, prefering to instead believe that she'd gotten over him. He already could hardly stand to share his pain with her, valuing her far too highly as a friend to want to inflict that kind of pain on her. But now he knew, without a doubt, that she still felt as strongly as ever. That was something that could hurt worse than anything he could tell her, because he could never return her feelings. The guilt was overwhelming, and it took every ounce of self control he had not to bolt from the room right then and there.

While surely it was only a moment, it felt like an eternity before the awkward pair hear a knocking at the door, and a sleepy sounding Simon calling from the hallway,

"Y'all alright in there?"

The spell broken, Ronnie Bolted to a sitting position.

"Yes! We're fine! I mean... I'm fine! ...in here, now... Thanks. How are you?"

she looked up at Nils with a grimace that was half embarassment and half shock. That had not turned out like she had planned.

Nils jumped a foot in the air upon hearing Simon's inquiry. "We're alright." He said, sounding anything but. " I just tripped."

Simon hesitate a moment. This whole "nawlhins" vacation thing didn't really seem to be working out, yet somehow he wasn't entirely surprised. As long as they weren't getting attacked by some kind of dance demon, or abducted by aliens, or whatever, it was probably okay to go bad to sleep. or get back to that email he'd been trying to compose for Ambrose... Still, better make sure.

"Are you sure?"

Ronnie managed to squeak out a nervous "Yeah... we're fine..." as she pushed herself to her feet. She stood there a moment, blushing deep red and waiting to hear either Simon's reply or his footsteps leaving.

Looking at Esperanza's blushing face just made Nils feel that much worse about the whole thing. He started edging for the door,completely unable to formulate a proper response to Simon. He couldn't make a break for it until Simon left, unfortunately. He didn't want to make a scene.

"Al...right..." Simon was getting the distinct impression that he probably didn't *want* to know what was going on next door, but felt strangely compelled to add a "be careful?" before he retreated.

As Ronnie heard Simon's footsteps retreating she let out the breathe that she'd been holding in since he knocked. She looked up at Nils and immediately looked away again as she felt herself beginning to blush once more.

"So..." she said hesitantly, her hands gesturing weakly and randomly, "...I should... probably... I mean I'm sure you have... ummm... research... things... I have to.... Ay cogida."

Nils winced at Simon's confused comment. If he'd been careful, none of this would have happened. This just added to his already massive levels of guilt.
He nodded greatfully at her attempt to calm things down. "Yes. I should... go. Research. Maybe go ask Connie, she's a literary type. If she's helping we can cover more ground. I'll talk to you later."
He all but ran out the door at that point, slamming the door behind him and rushing to his room. Unfortunately, he found once there that his door key, along with his shoes and the rest of his things, was still in Esperanza's room. He sheepishly went back and knocked.