Hi Everyone! I've been reading/writing fiction for a few different fandoms, for quite awhile, but I'm always too scared to share what I've written. But this challenge sparked an idea, and I decided to just bite the bullet, and go for it. So any advice/praise, any comments at all would be great! Thanks for reading!

Title: Dancing Author: Jessica, Jeckastar33 Summary: Watching River dance. Rating: G Characters: River Spoilers: None really Timeline: After the BDM Word Count: 330 Author's Notes: Written for ff_friday challenge #106 (100-1000 words about dancing) on Live Journal. Disclaimer: It’s not my ‘verse, I just like to wander into it every once in awhile. Joss is God, no copyright infringement is intended.

Dancing

Focus. First position. Long lines. Arabesque. Support. Stretch. Écarté. Fifth position. Lift.

Her determined eyes follow the flowing movement of her arms. She doesn’t notice that he has been watching for at least ten minutes. She can read his thoughts, so she probably knows that he’s watching, but it doesn’t stop her from dancing.

As she bends in half to skim her fingertips along the ground her long hair falls over her face like a curtain. Her pink dress contrasts sharply against the black of the cargo bay walls. Her hand rises from the floor to rest delicately on the bar of the catwalk again.

Simon had said once that she excelled at dance, but it’s different when you see it first hand. It is a piece of society, calming and smooth, in the middle of dark space. The engine bellows from upstairs, the ship is still riding a bit to the right, and still she dances. She seems to float.

As she spins down the catwalk, her arms raised above her head, the ship seems to melt away and there is nothing but her. Her face whips around to look forward with each turn, and he can see that she’s smiling.

There is a natural grace in all of her movements that comes alive when she dances. Maybe that’s what makes her a good pilot. There is precision in her flying, like the dance.

He wishes they had the money to buy her ballet slippers. Maybe he’ll start setting aside a bit from each job to save up for them.

“What do you think, Captain?” Her voice pulls him out of his trance – he had forgotten where he was.

He stands. “You’re an amazing dancer,” he says as he smiles, and walks away through the entryway to the infirmary.

Six months later, as she gracefully steps into her room she already knows that they're there. Sitting on her bed, wrapped in brown paper, is a pair of perfect ballet slippers. They’re pink to match her favorite dress.

Ballet Terms: Arabesque: A position in which the dancer stands on one leg with the other leg extended in a straight line to the rear. The positions of the arms and the height of the raised leg may vary. écarté ["separated"]: A position on stage in which the dancer faces one of the front corners with the working leg in second position, either on or off the floor. The body is tilted slightly away from the working leg. The arm on the side of the working leg is raised; the arm on the side of the supporting leg is in second.