Shut Up and Dance with Me

Date and time Evening, 24/06/2022
Place Where ever Kemuel has hidden
Outfit Blue and silver two piece
Dedicated to @Kemuel

Mary-Jane had been just on her way out of the door wearing a long dark grey dress when she had been stopped by her sisters. She was not allowed to leave dressed like that. A boring flat dress that would make her blend in like anyone else. With not much choice and a little bit of laughter, she changed into a two-piece outfit, that she would never have chosen herself. It was a blue and silver striped set; a cropped top and a knee-long, high-waisted skirt. She was allowed to keep her grandmother’s jewelry on. A simple necklace with a grey gemstone, a giant ring, and a watch. Besides that, she carried her stabilizing wristband, but as an ankle bracelet. It had transformed and contained lively red and orange energy in multiple small gemstones that sparked a little from the blue high-heeled shoes. Mary-Jane hadn’t been able to say she disliked the outfit; she had left home with a smile, been picked up by Oliver.

When she arrived, she was quick to find people she enjoyed hanging around with. Some of them she met in groups, others she simply greeted as they passed each other. Rose, Yan, Taylor, Katelyn, Roman, and Seraphina. However, it took some time before she found the other half of the latter. When she spotted him, she tried to tip toe to her best ability; something the kitsune in her allowed, despite the disadvantage of wearing high-heeled shoes that she never used. She had almost gotten all the way up to him, when she lost her shoe halfway through a step, making the shoe land underneath her, and she quickly stepped down to gain balance, cursing, “Fucking stupid shoes,” she hissed before she kicked the other shoe off. She was now her normal height, and not ten centimeters taller. She glanced toward her target who should have heard her by now. “Hey,” she greeted. She picked up her shoes and approached the last bit on bare feet.

Why had he agreed to this? He was sticking out like a sore thumb, dressed in a suit like his brother would probably have done, how his sisters had been gushing over it—they had even managed to convince him to cut his hair! So instead of the long mane, he had been having for the last couple of months, it was buzzed cut in the sides and in the back, while it was a little longer in the top. It wasn’t because he hated it, but he didn’t particularly enjoy it either—‘you just need to get used to it’. Yeah sure, he was a few seconds away from finding a witch and getting the person to make it grow back.
So much like Daphne or Yan as she was called by so many, he had found a corner and stood there nursing a drink that didn’t even have alcohol in it. He had already seen Iris walk around, beautiful much like her sister in a dress that would draw anyone's attention, much like the princess and well—Okay, if you were being honest, everyone at this bloody school looked nice, beautiful even. The person that had surprised him the most, had been Aurora. She had looked so out of place, even more than him, but she had quickly found a book and a quiet corner.
He was just about to take a sip of his soda when he heard a well-known voice curse. A chuckle left him as he looked up and gave Mary-Jane a small smile “Hi, you look nice” he said with a brighter smile, very different, but she really did look nice.

What a greeting. It made a shy smile spread on her lips before she looked down once and the smile grew more comfortable and relaxed as she looked back up, “It’s not really my style, tho,” she laughed, placing a hand on her hip, making her elbow point to the side. “But you look like a model, or some shit,” There was still joy in her voice. She meant everything as a compliment. The curse words simply flew out without any meaning to them; he certainly didn’t look like shit. If she had known Zadkiel better, she would probably have asked if it was him who had tried to make a mini-me in a taller size than himself. “We can’t compete on the longest hair anymore,” She had always been the one with the longest hair, but she had been imagining that one day, his hair would be longer than hers. Even though the new hair looked fine on him, it was something one would have to get used to. After all, she believed his style was that long mane of his. That was what she knew him by. “How comfortable are you right now?” she wondered, narrowing her eyes a little. It was about everything, the hair, the clothing, and their surroundings. Everything had an impact because she definitely didn’t feel as comfortable as she used to do, simply because she wore this two-piece. The surroundings were somewhat okay, even though she wasn’t that comfortable with the fact that people had been able to invite two people each. The majority of the students didn’t respect the personal space she wanted, and she was certain that each and every one of the students plus two’s didn’t respect her personal space either. It was odd how she both could feel so much smaller, and so much bigger.

His lips lifted a tiny bit when she spoke about it not being her style, he would agree, but that didn’t mean she looked any less beautiful. Then she turned it around, and by how he averted his eyes and looked somewhere behind her, it was clear her comment made him a little uncomfortable. This wasn’t his style either, more his sisters and maybe his brothers, but he would have gone to the party in some old jeans, sneakers and a band t-shirt if he had gotten it the way he wanted to. But this was fine, too, he just couldn’t wait to get back home and get out of it, but that was another matter.
“Hm?” he turned his gaze back to her when she spoke about that they couldn’t compete on who had the longest hair. His fingers glided absent-minded through the shorter locks of hair “well, you’re right about that”, he said with a soft chuckle; it still felt odd, even more so when he now let his fingers glide through his hair.
“Somewhat, I’m not particularly happy about the situation, but here we are” he looked up and saw Iris walking toward Daphne and then to the guy that had seemed like he was the king of the party or something, the way he had started arguing with a person after spilling a drink on them. If this continued, he would much rather disappear into the library.
“You?” he asked and turned his attention toward her with a soft smile on his lips.

She could see how the compliment didn’t fit well, but she understood. None of them felt fit in their clothing and probably both wished to change into something more like them. Something they found comfortable. She pulled a slightly bigger smile when she noticed how he turned his eyes back to her. She knew how it felt to have short hair from whenever she shapeshifted into a person with shorter hair. Hell, she even knew how it felt to have grey hair and to be balding.
The smile turned crooked as he replied. Once again, she noticed how his eyes fled to something else. She didn’t mind it that much since his eyes found hers again. “I wish I could crawl into a hole and hide until this was over,” she told him with an almost nervous smile, “Wanna go somewhere,” she looked around shortly, “Quieter? And with fewer people?” she looked back at him. Even though she most often didn’t mind having eyes on her when she did odd things, she felt particularly vulnerable in this outfit. Of course, she could just change it, but she also knew that if she was seen in another outfit, the words would reach the family, and god forbid that she changed her clothing.

His smile grew a little wider, and a slight chuckle left him; “yeah, sure, let’s get out of here” he was just about to move as a guy came closer to them; he remembered him from one on the third year, Kemuel was quite sure that they had had some classes together. He saw how he looked at Mary-Jane, and something in Kemuel stirred—“would you like to dance?” now his stomach flipped, and he had to fight every fibre of his body not just to place an arm around Mary-Jane and flip him off, telling him that Mary-Jane was off-limits.
But he didn’t; he just stood there and starred—or that was until a voice in his head told him that maybe it was time that he took the steps forward and didn’t sit back, waiting for the world to turn around him. He softly placed an arm around Mary-Jane's shoulders “sorry, she is with me, and we are going outside,” he said before he slowly guided the Kitsune toward the terrasse overlooking the rose garden, that seemed to be more overgrown than usual, maybe it had something to do with Juniper having brought the flowers inside at as well. It was only then that he let go again “sorry, I, I didn’t even let you get the chance to say yes,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed.  

A more generous smile grew on Mary-Jane’s lips as he agreed to get out of there. After all, she wasn’t really looking for anyone else but him. If he hadn’t been there, she might actually have taken the form of any of the teachers, so she could get some peace and so every student would keep away from her. Who knew?
She heard a voice and turned her head to see who was speaking to them, noticing that the guy talked to her. She blinked a little. The mere thought of dancing- no, the thought of dancing with someone she didn’t know very well creeped her out. She was just about to tell him to fuck off when she felt Kemuel’s arm wrap around her, a short second she was surprised by the movement, but almost immediately relaxed and waved. As soon as he heard his words, she could feel sweet butterflies spread in her stomach. “Exactly,” she agreed and looked up at Kemuel once before she looked back at the rejected guy. She raised the hand, closest to Kemuel to wave with her fingers to the guy to sweetly tell him to fuck off. When they turned around and left the guy she wrapped her arm around him, though it was more his lower back.
He let go of her, and for a second, she hesitated about leaving his side, but she chose to walk over and stand with her back against the fence.
She kept a crooked smile as he apologized and scratched his neck. “Do you honestly think I would agree to dance with a stranger?” she teased and placed her hands on the fence. “But on the other hand, I think you owe me a dance,” she told him with a wide smile.

He shrugged, giving her a crocket smile when she asked if he honestly thought she would dance with someone she didn’t know. Maybe, maybe not—but she hadn’t even considered her feelings when he had just pulled her away, but then again, he should have known that Mary-Jane would probably just have cursed him out and told him to, as she would put it; fuck off.
Kemuel’s eyes widened; however, when she told him that he owed her a dance, “what?” he shook his head. “No–no, no, no”, the words rolled off his tongue as he shook his head with a laugh. “Nah, I might owe you a dance, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get one” he pointed out that if there was something he never did, it was dance. His hips were so stiff he looked like he was walking around on stilts, not something he wanted the entire academy to laugh at, the pureblood angel being far too self-conscious to do something like that.
He put his hands in his pocket and walked toward the balcony overlooking the rose garden that was made into a maze “want to walk around?” he asked, hoping he could distract her from the dance talk, his eyes wandering from the garden toward her giving her a half-smile.

He seemed shocked about her telling him that he owed her a dance. Of course, it could be him or simply him setting her up – though she wouldn’t really appreciate being set up with a stranger. However, she could dance with Rose if she was attending the evening. She nodded slowly with a pout. She was about to suggest that they could go somewhere else and dance without everybody looking. Now, she didn’t mind eyes on her, but maybe dancing wasn’t the thing she felt the most comfortable about. He asked her about walking around, which made her hum in approval. She looked over her shoulder and towards the rose maze. A sneaky smile spread on her lips, “Yeah,” she replied and turned her front towards the balcony fence, placing her hands on it again. She looked towards him as he stood beside her. She had a wide smile on her face, and one could almost believe she would burst out laughing at any moment.
“Catch me if you can!” she exclaimed before she with her hands pushed her up and over the balcony fence. At least the skirt didn’t tie her legs fully together, but it did, however, slide up to the middle of her thighs. She landed with a beautiful rolling fall, not taking any damage. Thanks to being so agile and flexible. As soon as she was on her feet, she started sprinting towards the rose maze.

He stood there looking at her while she was thinking; at first, he thought it was because she might be a little sad about the fact that he didn’t want to dance, but then he was clearly mistaken as she had just thought about her getting away with the small scheme she had been plotting. “What, MJ—Hey!” he shouted with a laugh as he saw how she decided to spring over the fence on the balcony that was just one store above the level of the garden. He rushed over and looked down just in time to see how she landed in a perfect roll and then got up again, running with her bare feet to the rose maze. He laughed and shook his head—now there was no way he could do a jump like that, and he wasn’t about to ruin a perfectly good suit just because he wanted to get his wings out. So instead, he casually walked down the stairs until he got to the grass, and with the same calmness, he walked toward the maze. He would find her; there was no problem—the only thing was how she would like it when he started using his ability on her. Well, time would tell when he got to the maze and needed to find where she had gone.

She could hear how he shouted, laughing. She didn’t bother to look over her shoulder, either he knew that she would land perfectly on her feet, or he would make sure before he acted.
She got into the maze and made sure to take as and turns as possible, and as soon as she reached a dead end, she would be quick to sprint back from where she came from and walk another way around. She did her best to make sure that her clothing wouldn’t get caught in thorns from the perfectly cut, tall, dark green, rose hedges. Giggles left her whenever she had to turn around to find another way in. She was confident that she could find the middle of the maze quickly, but she had honestly never been running around in the school’s maze. Why did the school even have a maze? She could just imagine how many students got stuck in the maze and couldn’t get to their lessons on time. Funny. Who knew, maybe she could manage to get out before Kemuel? That would be a tasty win, even though there was something in her that wished to get caught.

He started to whistle and put his hands deep into his trousers, walking into the maze he looked around, at first, he didn’t use his power nor his senses that much, he had a feeling whenever he came close, there was a small giggle and the ocean of her reddish locks of hair that danced behind her as she ran away. His smile grew in tack with each step he took, and he was quite sure he looked like a fool at this point.
Then he started to get impatient; he had never really been the one to hold back when he wanted something—and right now, his only goal was to find her before she found the middle. So, he closed his eyes, letting his mind wander until his link caught up with her. He opened her eyes, and suddenly, he could see what she saw, not that it helped her much, but the link gave him something else, the exact point of where she was hiding. “If you cheat, I cheat”, he laughed, then he picked up his pace, letting his long legs carry him at a far greater speed than before toward where he was sure to find her. And there she was; he manipulated the link, making her believe that he came from another way than he did, and with that, he rushed in and let his arms lock around her waist. “I got you” he laughed against her ear but didn’t let go—not at first, at least.

She could feel a small tingle, and she was certain that she had felt it before. Was he using his powers to cheat? Oh yes, she could hear him laughing somewhere, and immediately started to seek the opposite direction. Eventually, she found a cross where one could go many ways and she could feel her own heartbeat increase. She stood with her back close to the wall of roses, almost hiding while she tried to figure out which way she should be going. Her head turned quickly as she had the feeling of him coming right in front of her. She, therefore, kept her eyes towards the direction he should be coming from and started to walk backward. A moment before he caught her, she sensed his rightful spot and with all the confusion, a laughing squeal left her, almost wiggling in his arms. Her own hands had wrapped around his arms to be certain that she wasn’t going to fall. Her laugh slowly subdued, but she was breathing heavily from running and the shock. It was clear that she had thought it had been fun. She felt more and more connected to the ground beneath her again and slowly turned her head to look up at him with a wide smile. Seemingly, he had enjoyed the hunt too, the way he smiled. “You took your time,” she complained to him, with such a wide smile, but she wasn’t moving out of his arms. She stood with her shoulder closet to his chest, sideways some might say.

He furrowed his brows, and a slight ‘ssh’ sound left his lips while he shook his head with a grin forming over his lips. “I took the time that was needed, no more, and no less”, he laughed; he wondered for a moment if he should let her go, it would be so easy—just to unfold his arms. Take a step back, and then the reasonable distance between them would be restored. But something in him wouldn’t let him. Which he, for a moment, found rather curious. Almost as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of this feeling spreading in his chest, he just stood there, with his arms still around her.
“So—” he said, looking down at her as the smile slowly subdued in strength “, what now?” he wondered, his eyes connecting with hers—sucked in without really noticing what was happening around them. The music in the background almost faded into a silent white noise that didn’t make much sense. There was a cricket folding its legs together not far from them, but not even that he heard. Only the rush and pounding of his blood rushing through his veins.

She hummed, laughing a little as he tried to defend himself. Clearly, she disagreed, but not in a stern way – just in a way to be cross and teasing. She folded her lips, with a wide smile. For once, not really having the uncomfortable feeling of being close. Hell, she even believed there was something in her that wanted to lean closer to him.
Her brows raised slightly as he broke the silence that had been created for a moment. She hadn’t even realized how they had just been looking at each other.
What now?
As the words left him, butterflies started to rumble in her. And she could almost feel how her cheeks flushed. He wasn’t letting go of her. It felt like her thoughts were running like crazy. She slowly turned her front towards him, letting one hand glide up his arm, and the other to her back. Her lips were once again folded. Maybe that was just a thing she did when she was plotting. “We dance?” she spoke softly and folded her fingers around his hand, even if it was on her back. “I won’t judge,” she said with a wider smile. It was only the two of them, so how wrong could it go? Now, Mary-Jane wasn’t really one who danced at all. The closeness was way too much for her. But things were different with Kemuel.

He watched her as she moved around, placing his arms and hands where she wanted them to be. A brow lifted ever so slightly when she told him they would dance. A scoff left him that sounded more like a snort than anything else.
Then his eyes narrowed playfully; “you won’t judge?” he laughed and shook his head “yeah, that would be the day, wouldn’t it” he teased her, as she was quite the character that always judged people before they had a chance even to open their mouths.
“Fine”, he hummed, he took it slow, letting his feet start moving, and even though his body was quite stiff, he managed to move at a pace where it wasn’t needed for him to show just how bad he was. They weren’t really dancing, only moving around in small circles, being relatively close to one another, as his eyes sought hers and didn’t really stop looking, it was magnifying how much he suddenly wanted to kiss her—but he managed to pull his gaze away and looked at something behind her instead.

“Shut up!” she laughed giving him a small nudge on the shoulder, but nothing that would affect him more than moving his shoulder a tiny bit. Her smile stayed because she knew she judged everyone all the time. She couldn’t help it. She simply just wrote the information down in the back of her head. She remembered things that people did and said, and that might be one of the reasons why she felt it was difficult to have friends. No one was perfect, she knew that, but some people were simply just so stupid. And by stupid, it wasn’t grades, school things, but how they walked, what they wore, communications, actions, how they read others, and so on. She had high expectations of everyone all the time, and few managed to meet them. But maybe she was just protecting herself from things that could hurt her?
He agreed, and her eyes almost shined with appreciation and excitement. Now it wasn’t because she just wished to dance all night long with everyone, but it was because she knew that if things went wrong, and Kemuel and her one day didn’t talk, she wanted a memory of someone she trusted to be close with.
They moved slowly, just like one should do in a slow dance, right?
She looked down between them shortly, only to make sure that she didn’t place her feet underneath his shoes. After all, she was barefooted. She didn’t mind that they were just circling around, it was quite nice anyway, and she believed it was more than okay. She didn’t need more. When she looked up their eyes caught each other, which made her smile grow a little wider. She felt the small butterflies flapping their wings again, but then he looked at something behind her. It made her brows shortly move a little closer to each other. For a moment she tried to pick up if it was something of importance, and when she noticed that he didn’t seem to correct his eyes back to her, she took a decision. She grew in height and when she was tall enough, she leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his lips, which lasted longer than just a quick kiss. When she leaned away she looked at him and could feel how she got goosebumps and immediately felt how her back tensioned, afraid that she might have ruined something.

There was always a fine line between friends and lovers—especially when it came to friend couples that were attracted to that sex or gender. Because when did one not have the urges to explore it further, especially when a friendship was as easy as the one that Kemuel and Mary-Jane had. Even though they were so incredibly different, they clicked in a way most people didn’t. But one thing was certain; he didn’t want to make another mistake like the one he had made with Taylor. Not that he regretted that they slept together, but he regretted how it had happened. How he hadn’t been honest with her, and she with him. Even if he would still argue that what she had held back from him had been what had made sure they hadn’t been able to work.
So, he didn’t push it because he wanted to be sure—the last thing he needed was taking another person’s first and then ending up not being able to reciprocate the same feelings in the same way they had towards him.
Then he noticed how she grew in height; his eyes quickly found hers raising a brow, not understanding what was happening—more so when her lips finally met his.
His eyes closed, and even though he didn’t reciprocate immediately, he didn’t pull away either. Then with a soft inhale, his hands found their way around her back and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.

At first, he didn’t reciprocate the kiss and she was starting to doubt if she had ruined everything, but eventually, he pulled her closer. It made her take a deeper breath feeling completely light in his arms. The hand on his shoulder slowly glided to his neck and only just to the start of the short hair. It was odd, feeling the short hair when she was so used to the long hair, not that she played that much with it normally. The hand that had been left found his shoulder and tried to pull them closer to each other.
She pulled her lips away from him and let her forehead rest against his. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, furrowing her brows a little. Why was she apologizing? It was only going to make things confusing. “I think I’ve thought about that for way too long,” she explained with a soft sigh before she managed to open her eyes and look up at him, “I really hope I didn't misunderstand something or-” she stopped herself, folding her lips shortly and kept herself the same size. She didn’t want to flee, not yet at least.

When she pulled away, he was just about to say something, but the words died on his tongue as she apologised. It was like ice infested his stomach, and he had no idea how to interpret those three words.
The following words that left her just confused him even more. Hadn’t she liked it, or what was going on here? He moved away, placing his hand on her shoulders, letting his eyes lock with hers; “I—what are you saying? Because right now I’m not really following”, he whispered, still not able to let go of the pain that was infesting his heart and slowly turning it black, emotionless even. Maybe he was just scared that he would get hurt like last time. This time it would just be worse because he would lose a friend in the process. Something he would never be able to get back and then lost because of something as stupid as impulses and a kiss.

He moved away, and it made her feel some kind of hollow, even though he placed his hands on her shoulders. “I-uh,” she licked her lips and felt her stomach swirl, “Ah really like ye, Kem,” she said and pulled a smile, though her accent was getting the best of her. She bit her lip while she thought about which words would be the most correct. He was one of the first friends she really got here in Gaia, and it would be shitty to lose him, just like she had lost the few friends she had had in Scotland. “I jist- want to be sure Ah didne, ye ken, step oan ye boondaries,” she took a short and sharper breath in before she continued, “Ye ken, since Ah kissed ye an’ ye hesitated… Ah thooght Ah micht have misunderstuid somethin’,” She once again took a greater breath in “Did Ah?”

His eyes widened, not because he didn’t know that MJ liked him—but he had never dared to think that it was in that way that he felt that she was suggesting at this moment. With a small sigh, he scratched his neck, feeling a slight heat form in his cheeks, colouring them in a rosy colour.
“Well—no”, his tongue slowly glided over his lips as he gave himself some time to think about his following words, not that he didn’t know what to say. It was more a question of how he wanted to say it. Because there were so many things, he was scared that she might get a little overwhelmed if he just started talking. Mainly because he wasn’t really the talkative guy, to begin with.  
“I hesitated because it took me by surprise, not because I didn’t want to”, he finally decided to say and gave her a small smile letting out a bigger breath feeling how it managed to let his shoulders sink down, and he felt more relaxed “I really like you too Mary-Jane, I’m just afraid” he confessed letting his eyes fall down on his hands as he started picking at his nails.

She hadn’t misunderstood, but he seemed hesitant which made her brows furrow just a little toward each other. A slight smile spread on his lips as he explained that he was taken by surprise. It relieved her. Just like him, her shoulders relaxed. She saw how he looked down at his hands, and without hesitation, she took them so he couldn’t pick at them. “Look at me,” she said softly, seeking his eyes. She didn’t even notice how warm her hands were.  “You are one of my greatest friends, Kem,” she gave his hands a little squeeze. “I understand why you’re afraid,” she said, feeling how her own heart started racing. “It is a hell to feel…” she clenched her teeth. She didn’t wish to say they both were lonely, but darn, she had the thought. “I don’t want to neither lose you because of a goddamn kiss nor a potential relationship,” the words burst out of her mouth, and as soon as she realized what she had said she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She let go of one of his hands, looking away and letting a hand run through her hair, not wanting to say she spoke wrongly nor wanting to apologize. Her hand ended behind her neck.