Dancing In The Moonlight

"Another elegant dress?" Kathryn remarked as she saw Sara getting ready once again.

"I don't know if 'elegant' is the right word," Sara did a little twirl showing off the fiery red dress she had chosen for the night, hugging tightly around her body and reaching down to around her knees. "I was going more for classy, but thank you."

"You're really gonna pull out all the stops two nights in a row?" Kathryn asked, lounging in bed and eating a sandwich she had just made at the kitchen.

"Well, I might leave some of them in," Sara joked. "Hey, by the way, I never got to thank you for helping me out in the challenge. With the necklace and all? It really helped out a ton."

"Oh, that was nothing," Kathryn would've brushed back one of her wavy strands of hair, but they weren't long enough for that. "Just helping out a friend, no biggie."

"I appreciate it nonetheless," Sara reiterated. "Anyways, I'm off. Don't burn the place down while I'm gone."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Kathryn responded. "Go and paint the town red."

"Oh, we will," Sara confidently said. "See you tomorrow."

"'Bye," Kathryn responded.

It was the second of two date nights that Sara felt really confident about the way the night was going to go. While that had mostly worked out in her favor the first time, she was prepared for it to work out even better tonight. She'd learned in her week...multiple weeks now...that Kathryn wasn't really one to give out many compliments, so the fact that she was a source of encouragement was really paying dividends. It really was lighting a fire under her.

She knew she had told Turner to meet her on top of the hill, but she wasn't really planning on going sunset watching or stargazing again. The only reason they were meeting there was because she wanted to give him some sort of subconscious memory of what had happened last time, in order to pick up from where they had left off their last date only a couple short days ago. On a whim, she had told Kendra to give the information to Turner in the form of a poem. It wasn't supposed to be something overly dramatic, just a nice little gesture. She hoped that the host hadn't gone all-out with delivering the invitation.

Sara picked up the pace a little bit, speed walking along the twisted trails among the tree trunks. She saw faint colors of orange and blue as she neared her destination, then learned it was Turner's chosen shirt for the night, an orange and blue flannel. It was a combination she wouldn't have expected, but damn he could pull it off.

"Hey Turner!" she called out, getting his attention before either he or herself had to delve any deeper into the thicket.

"Oh, there you are," he responded, moving over to meet her. It was a simple gesture, but it made her heart flutter, which in turn, gave her a small jolt of pleasure that she was able to subdue.

"I know I—Kendra, whatever—told you to meet me at the hill, but that's not exactly what I had in mind for tonight," Sara explained.

"I mean, she didn't exactly say that, she told me to meet you 'where we first kissed'," Turner raised an eyebrow. "How did you get her to do that anyways?"

"Oh, a little here, a little there," Sara coolly responded. "Turns out she's actually pretty receptive to a lot if it's 'keeping in line with the goals of the show' or whatever. And I guess...these date nights are in line with her goals, so...here we are."

"That makes sense," Turner said, before he remembered what he really wanted to ask. "Oh! That reminds me, if we're not going up on the hill for the night, why did you want me to meet you there?"

"Just so we could continue last week's date," Sara flirtatiously smirked. "Although that one did end in the bedroom, but...it's the closest I could get. No stargazing for tonight, at least, I didn't plan on any of it, and we've got an appointment to make."

"Appointment?" Turner echoed as Sara led him towards town. "Are you taking me to like a masseuse or something?"

"I'd say it's more of the 'or something'," Sara answered, still acting mysterious.

"What then, is it gonna be some sort of doctor and patient role-play?" he tried again.

"You're getting colder," Sara said, still with a tantalizing ring in her voice. "You're never gonna get it."

"It's something completely outlandish then?" he asked.

"Strike three!" Sara giddily responded. "I didn't say it was something strange, I just said you weren't gonna get it."

The duo continued to walk around, with Turner continuously trying to guess what Sara was leading him towards, but always coming up short. Eventually, she suddenly stopped, grabbing his arm to motion for him to stop as well, in front of a building that said "HH Dance Academy".

"Dancing?" he simply asked.

"Yep!" Sara looked proud. "I knew you went to a concert with Kathryn last night, and I figured music was on your mind still, so...dancing it is!"

"Are you any good at dancing?" he continued asking, as they were still standing in front of the building. "Because I'm no good at it myself; the closest thing I've done to dancing is at my senior prom, and that was more swaying than dancing."

"Nope, I've never gone dancing," Sara was still smiling. "But I figured we can learn together, it sounds like a fun idea! It's the perfect opportunity to as well, because if we did this back on Earth, there'd be a million other couples in there. Here, though, it's just gonna be the two of us."

Turner couldn't argue with her logic. He did notice that she seamlessly worked in the phrase "other couples", but it was pretty harmless.

"Alright, you won me over, let's go," he relented, and the two of them walked in.

The inside of the building was pretty plain, as open and empty as a high school gym, with tall white walls and large windows surrounding them.

"You remember the poem that Kendra relayed to you, right?" Sara asked, with still a mischievous undertone in her voice. "Especially the second line?"

"Where we first kissed, where we first danced-" Turner started reciting to the best of his memory.

"Bingo," Sara interrupted. "We didn't fulfill that part yet, and here we are to do so. Have you ever been salsa dancing?"

"No, I haven't done any kind of professional dance," Turner repeated. "Isn't salsa fast-paced?" He didn't add the fact that it was incredibly complex and definitely not something he had the coordination for.

"Usually, yeah," Sara admitted. "But we don't have to learn that fast, we can start slow."

That was reassuring to Turner. Sara was a bit more level-headed than Emma was, more realistic than dreamy (whether that would change remained to be seen though). It wasn't like Sara was gonna throw both of them in the deep end learning something new like Emma did on the ice. Plus, how hard could dancing be?

"Ah, you must be Sara and Turner!" a lady inside the academy called out. Turner swiveled his head to look at her, and the resemblance to Kendra was immediately apparent. If this wasn't Kendra herself with just a different hairdo, different makeup, or under some different magic spell, this lady was created in Kendra's image. Tall, dark-skinned, dark-haired, dark-eyed, but had a smile that could melt anyone's heart. She was wearing a low-cut, light blue dress that clung to her body in the same way that Sara's dress did.

"Yes!" Sara eagerly responded, but got a little defensive after seeing the sheer beauty that oozed out of this lady who was apparently their instructor. "I'm Sara, and this is my boyfriend, Turner."

Turner shot her a glance, but didn't feel like countering Sara's offhanded remark. This was her night after all, and he was gonna try to live in the moment with her. Plus, hearing her get defensive over him made his heart flutter a little bit.

"Well I'm Georgia, and I'll be your dance instructor for today," the Kendra look-alike said. Even her accent was almost identical to Kendra's Southern drawl, and the name? Really? Georgia? Also, what kind of place would have some Southern lady teaching a Latin American dance? The whole situation didn't make a lick of sense to Turner.

"That's great!" Sara once again took the lead, stepping forward slightly. "We're so excited to learn from you!"

"Y'all'er gonna have to excuse me, I've been busy as a cat on a hot tin roof today," Georgia continued, stepping away and motioning for Sara and Turner to follow.

"Busy how?" Turner wondered aloud. Surely there wasn't much business on this island, on account of him and the ten gals being the only residents, at least he thought.

"Ah, it ain't worth gettin' into right now, let's get into some dancin'!" Georgia said, stopping and turning towards them once they were in the middle of the room.

Georgia led them through the basics of salsa music, teaching the timing of the steps. Turner found that the rhythm came naturally to him, as it was grouped in eight beats with a pause on four and eight, similar to a piece he and Kathryn had listened to last night. The moving and backwards part of it was a little more difficult to him, because he had the balance of a newborn baby giraffe.

Sara, on the other hand, was doing all of it like a champ, executing the pattern of steps nearly perfectly. Turner found it hard to believe that she had never done this before, but the truth is that she was just probably more coordinated than he was when it came to dancing.

"Here, let me show you another way of thinking about it," Sara offered, stepping next to Turner. "It's just forward and backward with your left food, then you reverse it with your right foot, going backward and then forward."

Sara grabbed Turner's hand as they both did it slowly, gradually picking up the pace until they mastered the first basic movement.

"I tell you what, that was the fastest I've ever seen anyone pick that up," Georgia mused. "Alright, let's learn the turns, because it'll be plain borin' if y'all just stay facin' the same direction when you're dancin' in the future."

The turns went a lot better for him, after Sara pointed out that everything was just a repeating pattern. He started to feel the dancing and just lose himself in the action.

"Well butter my backside and call me a biscuit, you sure picked that up mighty quick," Georgia nodded with surprise. "I guess s'about time to have you dance with each other."

Sara and Turner met in the middle, with Turner's left hand holding her right, and his right hand coming around her back, holding her close. As Georgia went on about how it would be different with a partner than just doing the motions yourself, he couldn't help but get lost in Sara's beauty. Her long black hair flowed all around her, with a few strands making their way around to her front side. Her eyes, greener than a lawn in the spring, sparkled with the reflection of the lights inside the building. Her carefree smile, content just to be here with him and not worrying about anything else in the moment.

"...and that's how you do the right turn with a partner." Georgia finished. "You two got that?"

Neither Turner nor Sara had gotten that, with Turner enamored by the woman holding on to him, and Sara completely smitten, which in turn caused her to feel worked up. However, it was the end of the time that Sara had reserved, so thankfully they didn't have to tell Georgia that.

"Well, you two kids go and have fun," she said after realizing that the time was up. "Don't go and overdo it now, else y'all'er gonna be worn slap out."

"Thanks, Georgia," Turner called back as he and Sara walked out of the building and back into the humid, salty air of the island.

"So," Sara let that word sit in the air for a second while she bit her lip. Whether out of excitement or nervousness, Turner couldn't tell. "What'd you think?"

"That was definitely not something I expected to come from you, but it was a load of fun," Turner responded honestly. "Where'd you get your dancing skills?"

"To be honest, I didn't really think I had any myself," Sara answered. "The only time I'd really been out dancing was with Phoebe and a few other gals at senior prom, and that wasn't really dancing either. I guess being able to let loose pays a lot better dividends than you'd think."

The mention of Phoebe's name struck a chord with Turner. He hadn't really been the closest with her lately, on account of him getting a job pretty far away from their hometown, and then the fact that he was transported to another dimension, but he couldn't help but wonder how she was doing. She would've obviously had to have noticed Sara was gone, but did she notice he was gone too? Was her mind connecting the dots in some way?

"Anyways, you wanna try the dance up in the penthouse?" Sara offered. "Then we don't have to have that little-or I guess, she's pretty big-temptress watching every move we do?"

"That little temptress?" Turner repeated. "What, did you think she was gonna try to take me away from you?"

"I'm not saying that specifically, I'm just saying that is sure seemed like she wasn't only in the business of trying to teach us dancing," Sara defended. "Anyways, do you want to?"

"Sure, we can go," Turner assented as Sara took his hand and they walked back to the hotel. He wasn't exactly sure what she was planning for tonight, because the last hour or so had been a complete doozy, as had his date with her last week, but she had to be up to something. She tried to go all out last time, why wouldn't she go all out this time?