Winter Dance: Angel and Julio

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Angel and Julio sitting in a tree.  K-i-s-s-i-n-g.  First comes love, then comes...Mr. Marko?

Uh-oh.

Angel smoothed down her dress one more time and took a deep breath. This didn't mean anything, they were going as friends. It was the easiest way to go about things, anyway. Checking her make up just one last time--because she never wore it--she headed out.

The dress was a dark green number with silver highlights throughout. It went well with her hair and coloring but it had been such a long time since she'd put on anything like a dress.

Julio was waiting for her in the front hall, hands stuffed in his pockets and trying not to fidget. His jacket was a little tight around his shoulders, even though he'd had it adjusted in the summer. The charcoal gray shirt was new, though.  He just didn't have the time to get anything fitted, after finding out that he was going to the dance on Tuesday.  He hoped he wouldn't have to wear his jacket long, Kyle had already given him crap about the chain to the gold saint medallion that was visible under his shirt collar.

A flash of green caught his eye, and he turned, only to have his brain smack into a brick wall.

"Whoa."

A smile broke out at his expression and she twirled, laughing. "I take it you like?" she asked, looking very pleased.

He took her hand and after a slight bow, kissed it like a gentleman. "You look beautiful," he said with a grin. "Now, you will have to forgive me because I do not know what comes next. I think I offer you my arm?" He held out his elbow for her.

A slight blush crept up her neck but she took his arm, placing her hand in the crook of his elbow. "I think that's how it works," Angel replied, her free hand keeping her dress from touching the floor. "And...and you look very handsome." And he did, even if she didn't understand the medallion he was wearing.

He could feel himself flush a bit. He cleared his throat and shifted a little in his jacked. "Yes, I believe the dance has started. You are fashionably late, no?"

As best she could, Angel struck a pose. "I am always fashionably late, which makes we either make a grand entrance..." She grinned. "Or sneak in and try and steal Kyle's punch."

"We could make him flail. You poke him in the side and I will steal his date." Julio winked. He'd felt a truly bizarre surge of jealously when he found out Kyke was going with Laurie. But that was stupid, Laurie was pretty, yes, but it wasn't like he liked her like that. "It is for her own protection. Kyle may be able to dance, but I have seen him with a partner. It is not pretty." He made a face.

She gave him a look but brushed off whatever irked feeling that gave her. He was a boy and boys sometimes didn't think. "I dunno, what if I want to steal Laurie for myself?" she asked with a sniff. Angel grinned. Now that would make the boys flail.

"I would say that would be awesome." Julio said with a grin. He would not make a threesome joke, no way, no how. "I get to watch, yes?" Okay, so it wasn't a threesome joke.

"..." Angel grinned up at him and tilted her head. "Only if you're very nice," she said in a sing-song voice. She had no idea where that had come from but this was funny.

"Ah, so dance? Yes?" Julio said quickly, changing the subject. He steered her towards the ballroom. "I say we make a grand entrance."

"Grand entrance it is, then! Though I'll, you know, refrain from setting us on fire. There's grand and then there's way too grand."

"Good, because I will not be able to dance with third degree burns."

 

 

~~

Giggling, Angel spun off the dance floor and back to her date, waving at the classmate who she'd been dancing with. Julio had gone to stand in line at the punch bowl and now that he was back, she came over. "I'm hoping for the electric slide," she said, voice raised to be heard over the music.

"Mmm," Julio agreed absently, handing her a glass and downing his own.  He'd discarded the jacket and rolled up his sleeves, in order to have more freedom of movement. "I cannot claim that I do not know it, unfortunately. We learned it back in October in Dance."

Before responding, Angel killed her own glass of punch, taking a deep breath. "Oh wow, I needed that. Unfortunately? Aww, it's a great dance song. Much like the chicken dance, actually. Though I doubt that'll get played tonight."

Julio snorted. "Of course, if you say so," he grinned to show he was kidding. He titled his head as the song changed, to something with a salsa beat. "Ah, now this one I can do. Dance with me?"

Glancing around, Angel threw her empty glass away. "How can I say no to that?" she asked, laughing as she let Julio lead the way. "I can't say that I won't step on your toes though, I'm normally better at this behind a camera."

"You will be all right," he promised. "Just follow my lead." Julio lead her through the first few steps of the dance. "Yes, just like this, only more hips-" he put his hands on her hips and moved them along with the beat of the song.

After the first few minutes of sheer "touching touching touching!", Angel forced herself to relax. Dancing wasn't her thing but Julio knew what he was doing; once she started to really follow his lead and the beat of the music, it started to go very smoothly.

Angel opened her eyes and laughed softly, enjoying herself.

Julio laughed and spun her, and then dipped her with a flourish as the song ended. "See? That was not so bad!"

Angel yeeked and clutched at him, feeling the ends of her hair trail the floor. "Not bad? That was great! Even if the blood is rushing to my head."

"Of course. I am an excellent dancer. And so are you." Julio said, and then pulled her upright. Before he could stop himself, he reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. The gesture was horribly familiar, and it made his breath hitch. He looked away quickly and cleared his throat.

She was suddenly very grateful for the blood having rushed to her head because it hid the flush from that gesture. At this rate, she was going to be glowing red enough to be seen from space. "I'm hungry," Angel spoke up, moving to diffuse the sudden odd tension, "what about you? I think they have cookies!"

"Cookies are good," Julio said, sounding only slightly strangled. Mentally he kicked himself in the head. "As is air, I think there's a space over there," he pointed. "Let's get some cookies and a take a break."

"Air is good. It could be worse, it could be gym class with half the people not wearing things to make them smell good." Sticking close to Julio, they started to make their way to the food table. "Man, times like this I realize how many students we have here."

"Even the little ones are here," Julio observed. "I think it is because we tend to stick to our groups, mostly." He ran a hand through his hair nervously. Where as this coming from?

Angel chewed on her lip as she watched Julio fidget. She hoped she hadn't done anything wrong. She didn't think she had. "Ooh, cookies." Dinner had been good so she just needed something to give her a bit of a boost of energy and to busy her hands.

Julio looked back at Angel and smiled. "The garbage disposal strikes again," he teased. "Between you and Kyle I feel anorexic."

That was more like it. "I'm a growing girl!" Angel mock protested. "I must feed the flames, yes I must."

"As long as you catch fire somewhere far away from me. I am not fireproof." He cast a meaningful look at the fire extinguisher thoughtfully placed near the buffet line.

"...you think they put that there just for little ol' me?" she asked, giving him the Bambi eyes.

"How many people here accidentally catch fire and can eat half the food table at one go?" Julio paused. "A lot actually, nevermind. I just answered my own question." He selected a sugar cookie but didn't eat it, the butterflies were still there.

She touched his elbow, her own cookie nearly gone at this point. "Want some air?"

Julio smiled, grateful. "Yes, please. Somebody here is wearing too much perfume," he made a face and waved a hand for emphasis.

"Thankfully that someone isn't me." Angel leaned over as they headed for one of the doors. "Maybe it's Mr. Marko?"

"Of course, he is such a big guy he must need a lot of it," Julio said.  They paused near one of the side doors, out of the way near a group of chairs. "That is better," Julio sighed, relieved.

Angel grinned. "Perk to being me is I don't get hot or sweat, but I can only imagine how icky the dance floor can get after a while." She leaned into the breeze from the door, though.

Julio threw her a wry look, and plucked at his shirt, fanning himself. It did get a little warm out there. Or was that just him? He really couldn't tell.

Peeking over, she caught the flash of gold and leaned closer. "Hey, Julio? What are you wearing?" It didn't hurt that she just might have seen a bit of chest. Dances rocked.

The boy blinked and then looked down. "Ah, this?" he reached inside of his shirt and held out his medallion. "It's my saint medallion. See? It is San Sebastian, my saint."

"Oh! Oh, that's pretty, I like that." Angel leaned back and grinned up at him. "My saint is St. Veronica and..." She paused for a long second, staring up. "Uh oh."

"Hmm?" Julio followed her line of sight. "Oh."

They were standing under one of their carefully hidden bundles of mistletoe. "I thought you were supposed to remember where we put those?" He said.

"I, um, don't remember putting that one there. Do you?" Keep staring up, that's it. Up is good.

"No..." Julio wracked his brain, but since Angel still had a hold of his medallion he was aware of how perilously close she was, and he really couldn't remember sticking any in the ballroom.

"Oh. Well. Then." When she looked back at Julio, she gulped. They were awfully close...mainly due to her death grip on his medallion. Something in her brain that sounded awfully like Marius went "Hey, why not? Go for it!" Except less Australian and more girl, but still Marius. Leaning in, Angel kissed Julio for a second before sitting back on her heels to wait for his reaction.

Well. That was. Julio took a deep breath, Angel still had a hold on his medallion and he was aware of two options. Option a, withdraw quickly, and spend the rest of the night being awkward or option b, which was... well. She was cute, and nice, and...normal.

Oh, what the hell?

Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to Angel's.

The very tips of her hair ignited but since they weren't about to set anything else on fire, Angel ignored it. She'd kissed...and then...her brain officially melted down. The hand not clinging to Julio's medallion steadied herself on his arm as she leaned into the kiss.

Julio placed one hand on her shoulder and brought the other to cup the side of her cheek. Her hair was down her back, and judging by the heat, on fire. But he was used to that, so he barely paid it any notice. He broke the kiss first, before going back and kissing her again, this time deepening it, parting her lips with a little flick of his tongue.

She whimpered, just a little bit, as she felt the kiss deepen, Angel slid her hand up to clutch at the back of his neck. For a first kiss, technically second, this blew paltry imaginations out of the water. Unsure, she followed his lead.

At this point he would have put his hand on her back, but, well, fire. Instead he ran his thumb down the line of her jaw. A part of Julio was reminding himself that this was quite possibly Angel's first kiss and they should probably come up for air, but he was enjoying himself too much.

Little shivers were a good thing, Angel noted, her hand settling on the back of Julio's head. Why had she never noticed how soft his hair was before? Mainly because the only time she touched it was to pull it so he would put her down. Air would be good but this was too much fun.

"A-HEM!"

The loud throat-clearing from just inside the ballroom could not have been anyone else but Mr. Marko. "Gosh," the overly-loud groundskeeper proclaimed from the other side of the doorway. "I think I might need some air and I hope I don't trip over anyone who's too busy playing tonsil hockey where anyone could walk right by and notice..."

Julio jerked back, but only so far since Angel still had a hold of his medallion.  "Ack."

He had the decency to look slightly guilty.  But only slightly.

"Oh, bad, choking bad," Angel yelped, finally letting go.  She'd been holding on so tightly that the chain had left marks in her fingers.  Even without the clutching, she didn't move far away.  Though she did try to subtly put out her hair.  "Uh, hiya...Mr. Marko?  Um.  Enjoying the punch?"

Cain peeked over, having discreetly given the two enough time to separate themselves. "It's fine. Nice and cool and refreshing. Looks like the two of you might want to try some. You know, with other people around. I'm just makin' a suggestion, is all." Of course, despite the jovial tone and the smile, it was quite obvious that Cain's "suggestion" was anything but.

"We were just ah..going.  Yes, we were."  Julio reclaimed his medallion with great dignity and placed it back underneath his shirt.  He also discreetly tried to wipe away some of Angel's lipstick with the side of his hand.  "Oi, Angel, your hair..."

"Huh, hair?  Oh!"  Grabbing her hair, Angel gently ran her hand down the length of it.  It served to put the fire out but not mess it up too badly, though that was probably the last thing concerning her at the moment.  "Yeah.  Punch.  Punch would be good, very good."

Julio was about to wrap an arm around Angel's shoulders to steer her back towards the food table, but off Cain's look, he settled for a hand on Angel's back, fingertips barely touching.  And a great deal of distance between them.  "Yes, just going.  Good to see you, Mr. Marko," Julio said, while mentally cursing him. 

Cain smiled, then leaned down to Julio's ear while placing a friendly hand on his shoulder once Angel was a few steps ahead. "If you're gonna go where it looked like you were goin'," he whispered, "there's a time and place. At least take her out to dinner first." He patted Julio on the shoulder and stood up, talking in a conversational tone. "You kids go have fun now, get."

It was amazing how the earth never opened up and swallowed you when you wanted it to.  Cain wasn't aware of Julio's past history, as far as Julio knew, but what the groundskeeper said made the boy flush considerably.  "Y-yes, of course.  I will."  He turned and followed Angel, hoping to put as much distance between himself and Cain as humanly possible.

Turning, Angel gave Cain a sheepish wave as Julio caught up to her, turning back to face where they were going.  The punch table and as far away as they could from the adult.  "So, yeah.  Cookies?"  She coughed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Cookies," Julio agreed.  He looked over his shoulder at Mr. Marko, shrugged, and then slid an arm around Angel's waist. 

Angel beamed and leaned into him, enjoying...well, whatever was happening.  Very unexpected but very nice.

Maybe she ought to thank Marius the next time she saw him...