Into the Swing of Things (H,R)

“I-wow.” Richard’s career relied on being able to talk smoothly. Between his years as a lawyer and his time as a politician, he’d had a lot of practice. But Hazel had taken him off guard. He’d gotten used to her around in the past few years, the stoic bodyguard that never stepped out of her suits. She’d become his stepsister Helena’s shadow after she had to take over the family business. While he’d grown used to her and come to see her as a comfortable figure, her voice waiting for him when he came back to the manor for special occasions, she’d always kept some layer of separation between them.

She’d stepped out of her suit and away from that veil used to separate them. That humming steadiness of her voice was colored with emotion she usually only let out on days like Christmases or one of their birthdays. “Is everything alright?” She asked. She brought her hands down near her hips, fumbling for pockets her dress didn’t have. “I hope it’s not too much.”

“No it’s- it’s definitely not too much. You look amazing.” He recovered. Seeing her reveal more of her anxiety let him bridge the gap. “I hope this is what you had in mind when you asked me to dress up.” He said, looking down at his own outfit. He had on one of his dark suits that he’d combined with a dark red dress shirt and a gold tie. He’d worn it on his first day in court.

“Can you move around in it?” Hazel asked, looking him up and down.

“I'm not up for wrestling in it, but I can move enough in it. I can take the jacket off if we need. Are we going somewhere we’ll be moving a lot?” He asked.

“I’ll explain on the way there. Can I take your hand?” She held out the one she’d used to brush her hair back when he’d opened the door. He set his own inside it and closed the door behind him. She gently led him down the steps and they slowly walked together across the plaza. As they retraced the path he’d gone on four times the day before, she began to explain more. “Have you ever been dancing sir?”

“Yeah, I used to go clubbing a lot in college.”

“That’s not what I meant. What people do at a nightclub can be fun, but it’s not really personal. You kind of just melt into the noise and the drinking. Real dancing is about learning about your partner. You choose and create a style together, from common steps that you could do with anyone. Real dancing is a conversation you can have without ever having to say a word.”

“I never knew you were so passionate about this.” Richard said as they walked together down the grassy trail.

“It never really had much time to come up while I was working. But back when I was in the Air ****, this was how I spent half my weekends.” When they reached the bottom of the hill where he and Aubrey had been at Murphy’s the day before, Hazel guided him to the left and they approached a palm tree lined building. She gestured at the building and its red door and asked him “Ready to give it a try?” He nodded and they went in together, Hazel leading the way.

As with Murphy’s the day before, the dance hall she had taken him to was bigger on the inside. Most of the room consisted of a dance floor that two dozen people could probably be at before they started to worry about bumping into each other. After the dance floor was a small group of tables with red tablecloths like the color of the front door. Next to the wall next to the tables was a phonograph playing jazz music like he’d heard on old movies before.

Hazel caught where he was looking and explained. “It’s not real. We usually used a boombox or the hall’s speakers when I was back in L.A, but Genet suggested it when I told her about what I wanted. It’ll keep switching to the next track like a radio station. I’ll take your jacket and bring it over to one of the tables for dinner later.”

Richard straightened his arms and allowed Hazel to take his jacket off of him. It was a strange feeling as she undressed him, even if it was just his sports jacket. He felt her chest brush up against his shoulder as she pulled off the sleeves. She was bigger than he’d imagined under the suit for so many years. Then she was done, and walking to the closest dining table to hang his jacket on one of the chairs. He found himself staring at her butt, flexing and warping the fabric of her dress. She bent over slightly and he felt himself growing hard.

She turned back around and he quickly looked away, trying to will himself to go back down. As she grew closer, he put his hands in his pockets and tried to pull at the fabric to help himself stop. Seemingly unaware of his predicament, she asked. “Ready to start? I’ll try to teach you slowly, step by step.”

“What type of dancing did you have in mind?” He asked. He was still confused on that part, but hoped the explanation would give him more time to calm down.

“I’m sorry, I could’ve sworn I explained that already. I wanted to show you a type of swing dancing. It’s mostly East Coast style, but I’ve modified the hand arrangement to make it a little easier for beginners. Can I teach you the lead’s steps, or would you prefer to follow?”

“Is following easier? I’ve never really done this type of thing before.”

Hazel tried to give him a reassuring smile. “They’re not easier or harder, just different. The lead has to be able to make more decisions and requires a bit of arm strength, while the follower needs to be able to understand their partner well enough to react quickly and the tough part of the follower's steps tends to be in the hips. Women usually follow, but that’s just because it’s tough to lead someone too much taller than you. We should be able to fit in whichever direction you prefer.” She said, looking him in the eyes. She was barely an inch shorter than him.

“If you’re teaching me what to do, I think I can try leading.” He answered.

She nodded at him. “Okay, to start you’ll want to put both arms loosely out in front of you, with your hands sideways and your fingertips angled towards your head.” He followed her instructions. And I’ll place my fingers over yours.” While his fingers were sideways and pointing each other, hers were pointing down with her palms at the upper edge of the structure she was having him make. “Now gently put your thumbs over my fingers. You want it to be tight enough to guide me, but not tight enough to hurt me." He placed his thumbs at her middle knuckles, trying to err on the side of being too gentle.

“Good. Now I’d like to show you the basic steps. If you’re leading, you’ll want to start with your left foot and take a total of three steps. The left foot, a quick right step with your right foot, then another strong left foot. I’ll move when you do.”

He tried to do as she explained. But Hazel ended up getting there sooner on the second step and with how their hands were linked she ended up needing to recover her balance on the third step. But she didn’t look phased.

“That wasn’t bad for your first time. Try to do the middle step faster, it should be half the time or less of your other two. “

He tried again. He brought his right foot over the moment his left had touched the ground, barely lifting it up. They moved in sync this time, arriving together.

“Good. Now we’re just going to do the same thing, but back. You’ll take a strong right with your right foot, a quick step with your left foot, and another strong right to end up about where we started. I’ll follow when you’re ready.“

He tried to flip it as she explained. It was a lot easier after he’d had to figure out the timing going the other way, and they were able to end up together again.

“Perfect!” She said, smiling at him. It felt nice seeing her smile like that “Now you’ll want to finish the basic steps with the rock step. Put your left foot back in between where it feels like the middle of your weight is and your right foot. Don’t let your heel touch the ground, just rock back and then let your weight come back to settle on the right foot you're keeping still. This’ll let us slowly turn in our spot on the dance floor, as each of your rock steps should shift us a little to your left.”

He followed her directions. He found it a bit easier than the triple steps, since he didn’t need to worry about timing as much.

“Now let’s put them all together and practice until it feels smooth. As you get more confident with it, try to spend less of your concentration on your feet and more of it on the music and how our hands are moving.”

They continued, blending the pattern. He still felt wobbly at times with the rock step, and sometimes lingered a bit too long on the middle part. But they kept rotating, and she kept adjusting to the little surprises he accidentally threw her way. After they’d continued like that for three or four songs, she asked: “Can I show you more?”

“As long as you think I’m ready.” He answered.

“Then I’ll teach you to spin me. You can work it in almost anywhere, but it’s easiest after the rock step. You’ll want to drop your right arm, then bring your left arm up and out to pull me a little, and I’ll go under your arm. Once I’m under, you’ll just bring your arm back like you’re drawing a circle to bring me back in. Why don’t we do a few more rotations of the basic step, then you spin me when you’re ready.”

He kept going through the rotation, trying to get a feel for the perfect moment. He kept noticing it after it was already too late to act, and so he had to move on and try again. After enough tries that he got worried that she might be getting frustrated with him (not that she’d ever tell him that), he decided to go for it. He brought her out and back in, the hem of her dress lifting a bit to spin in the air with her. He was leading, but it still felt like she was doing all the work.

“What’s next?” He asked. He felt like he wanted to try more, so she didn’t need to go quite as easy on him.

“If you want to try something new already, we could try a leader’s spin?” She offered.

“How do I do that?”

“Pull your left arm up like you did to spin me, but not out. Duck under your arm and turn back around in three steps. Offer your right hand back to me and you’ll be able to take me back into a triple step.”

He nodded and gave it a few more rotations before giving it a try. Triple step, triple step, rock step, drop. He lifted his arm and ducked under. He felt Hazel twist around him, still linked by their hands. They came back around to face each other and fell back into the pattern.

They went back into the triple step and its rotations. He tried to take more initiative, cueing her more to be ready to spin. She started doing less of the work for when he wanted to spin her and just leaned into the pull of his arms. For her part, she’d occasionally offer tips, ways to modify the few moves he knew to do something different with her.

The music changed and changed again. He didn’t think he’d ever listened to so much trumpet and saxophone. She had melded perfectly with him, responding and moving as he did. Things continued to become smoother until she asked him if he’d like to try one more thing before dinner.

“Already? Richard asked. “Didn’t we just get started?”

She looked almost as confused as he was. “Sir, we’ve been here almost five hours.” She pointed at a clock on the wall that read five fourty.

“Oh. Are we done then?” He hoped she could here the disappointment in his voice.

“We don’t have to be. I can show you one more thing like I mentioned, though I want to warn you it’s a bit complicated.”

“I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to do it, but I’d like to try.”

She wound them out of the dance to be able to explain more easily. “You know how the spins always have started by dropping your right hand and lifting your left up?” He nodded. “You’ll keep both hands with me for the cast away.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a bit more of an intimate move. You’ll hold onto me from the back and then spin me out sideways instead of just backwards or in place.

“What do I need to do?”

“When you’re ready, you’ll come out of the rock step and lift both arms up and to your right. I’ll spin halfway and fall into you, you may want to try and brace yourself. Once you catch me, you’ll let go of me with your right hand and extend your left straight to the side. Then you’ll just pull me back in. Ready to give it a try?”

“Ready.”

She offered her hands back to him in the follow position. He took them and led her through one rotation to get back in the swing of things, then a second to lead into what she described. Rock back, lean forward, pull her in. He brought his arms around her as she nestled into him and stopped. Her perfume smelled like almonds and vanilla. Her ass was nestled perfectly against him, making him hard again. He hadn’t fully realized he’d stopped until she said something.

“Sir, is everything alright?”

He couldn’t see her face as she asked. But he still felt guilty and ashamed for how he was acting. “Y-yeah, everything’s fine. I’ll finish it now.” He tuck his hand off her right shoulder and spun her out, the hem of her dress dancing in the air again. He brought her back in and she smiled, slipping her fingers out of his grasp.

“That was really good for your first time. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry.” She walked over to the dining tables and he followed. She pulled out his chair for him, as he had been planning to do for her if she hadn’t beaten him to the table.

After they both sat down, he asked: “What did you plan for dinner?”

I’ve got some sushi options and karaage in case you’re not comfortable with the sashimi.”

“Genet let you get multiple kinds of sushi? How much did you spend on this place?”

“Just two BP. I only had one, but Felicia agreed to loan me one of hers if I gave her two back when I could. Genet seemed like she didn’t understand there were multiple kinds of sushi, so when I started describing it she just gave me all the kinds that fit my description. Did you want to try some?”

“No, I think I’ll stick with the karaage. What is that by the way?” Before he locked himself into something, he wanted to make sure it wasn’t even worse than raw fish.

“Protein fried in potato flour and soy sauce. I asked for tofu karaage because I know at least one person here is vegetarian.”

“Yeah, that sounds good then. How is the food brought here?”

“It’s already here.” She grinned at him. He looked down and something that kind of looked like fried chicken was on his plate. He gave it a try, and found that it was a bit more savory and moist than fried chicken normally was. Across from him, she started dipping the rolls on her plate into a green paste he was pretty sure was wasabi. They both dug in and were quiet for a while.

“I wanted to mention something to help.” Hazel mentioned later in the meal.

“What’s that?”

“I know that some of the others got transformations that they’re not really happy with. The only thing my transformation does is let other people give me theirs for a while. If any of your friends are having a hard time while they’re with you, you can come find me and I’ll take it for a while. It only lasts twelve hours per round, but hopefully it can give them some relief if they need it. I already told Ms.Turner that she can give it to me when she needs to.”

“You can take someone else’s transformations?”

“Technically, no. But if someone asks the question, then whichever transformation they’re thinking about most when they ask gets transferred for twelve hours. I can’t take them willingly, they can only be given by someone else.”

“Oh. That’s a lot less powerful for you than it sounded at first. If I decide to do it, I’ll still try to get your permission first.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

***

After their meal, they went back to the master’s cottage together. They both changed into pajamas and got into bed.

“Can I tell you something, and you’ll try not to get upset?” Hazel asked when they were in bed together.

“I’ll try. Is something wrong?”

“You know how you’ve been trying to hide being… aroused for a lot of today?”

Richard blushed. He thought he’d been doing a better job than that. “I’m sorry.”

“I was looking for that.”

He was confused now. “I’m sorry?”

“Why do you think I wore that dress today? It was so tight you could practically see my belly button, and I don’t think I’ve ever worn something that showed so much cleavage. I wanted to see how I’d feel about you having… those feelings about me.”

The way she was talking, it sounded like something she should feel guilty about. But honestly, knowing she’d been doing it intentionally just made him feel better about what she'd caught him in.

“That’s alright. I’m definitely not mad about that dress. After this evening, how do you feel about that?”

“I like you. I always have of course, but I think I might be able to see you differently in the future. Maybe we could do something next time we see each other, I just need a bit more time than tonight. I haven’t slept with anyone since I was discharged."

“That’s fine. I never want you to feel **** to feel like you have to do something with me you don’t want to.”

“Based on some of those competitions the others and I have seen, you might not be able to promise that. But I do have two more requests.”

“Yeah?”

“May I kiss you?”

He nodded. She leaned into him and kissed him. It started out gentle, then she put her hand to his hip and he almost wondered if she’d changed her mind as she grew more passionate. But she pulled back, satisfied.

Hazel Singh, +6 VP (Kiss) (First)

“For my other question, is it still alright for me to call you by your first name?”

“Of course. I know I’ve offered it plenty of times.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Goodnight Sir.” Hazel flicked off the light switch and wrapped herself around him and he lay on his back. He fell asleep wondering what the last question and her reaction to the answer meant.