Methods of Dance... by wytchcroft

WYTCHCROFT'S BLOG

wytchcroft

Methods of Dance...
Sunday, October 14, 2007

(final version can be found here: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=18206&nid=25795

It was so like a ballroom that the music swelling from the speakers seemed right somehow. The décor was spare but plush, all purple cotton padding, dark recliners edging the wide dark wooden floor. Red and amber spotlights picked out the graceful shifting bodies dancing under their beams.

It was typical of Inara to have found this place. Spacious, quiet – wrapped in privacy like a lacy shawl. Somewhere she could feel calm, free of the tensions of the crew. By the same hand, it was not atypical of her to seek to share. She swayed with careful movements, keeping her body in time to the exotic tinged rhythms and her eyes on the girl, her dancing partner, River Tam.

River wore a look of pleasure not seen in a fair run of days. But she was also frowning in concentration. This sort of careful dancing was not her way – by nature far freer and ecstatic than Inara – but she was studiously following the proscribed steps.
Inara smiled encouragingly into the dark fringed eyes.
Had she been this way herself before times? She wondered, keeping her arms and legs in even balance – guiding the girl in the formal manner. Had she once been a wild, raggedy darkling girl moulded into civilised shape by the halls where she had studied, by the stern tutors that patrolled them, the long hours of study… emerged as a fledging – companion in waiting – a girl no longer.
Mmm… she tried to see – but all of that could be said of any… dammit, sometimes she felt like – yes, an Operative – all identity, memory, Self – erased and reconfigured by the process of learning, of training – and of doing.
And then she cursed herself again – she was forgetting the most basic rules she had learned! Be in the moment - let the moment be in you. River had that. Naturally, like a gift.
For herself it was… learned.
“You doing very well, sweetie,” she smiled.
“Not the fun of the fayre…” murmured River. “Not like lanterns bobbing on the evening water, not like – dancing…” She grinned – high kicking with sudden elastic release. That cracked Inara – she grinned wide and sudden at the girl – darn those legs of hers… the knees all grazed, the feet all bare – the damage she knew they could do. Well…
“Ok, then I guess we can bring tonight’s prestigious soiree to a close.” She smiled again – in a more fitting manner - and moved to the music machine, lowering the volume. “I think we can say you’re making progress.”
“Right – but yer won’t be makin’ no laady outta the likes a me now will ya?” River’s cockney accent was rusty – but no less funny for it. Inara caught herself grinning again. This was more like it – be in the moment. Then River added, “Not if you leave…” and the spell broke again.
“River – you know… and I said, it won’t be – might not be for always – and just from here… I promised you could come to Sihnon, see the halls, the guild, my Sisters… but as with… everything – good things come to those that wait.”
“Good things come in small packages.”
“That too.”
“I came in a box.”
“Hell of a present you were too, sweetheart.” Inara reached out then and stroked the wide white face.

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LockJaw - out now .............
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(posted for SpaceAnjl and Kimber)

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more dancing: http://fireflyfans.net/showblog.asp?b=6943

COMMENTS

Monday, October 15, 2007 2:18 AM

THEQUICKBROWNFOX

I liked it! I don't know 'bout an Inara/River pairing though...unless Jaynes also involved!(wicked grin) Mal doesn't approve of shipboard romances, but would a threesome be a romance?Guess that would be something. ;)

Sunday, October 14, 2007 8:13 AM

PLATONIST

Oh Yeah, dance, dance, dance... forget M/I or M/R bring on Inara and River!

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