Rise and Dip (R,L,M)

Finding Aubrey had been like trying to find a needle in a haystack. She hadn’t actually been on the beach when he and Luna had been searching. They hadn’t been able to find her combing the forest either. And when Richard and then Luna had tried texting her, it felt increasingly likely that his guess that his girlfriend had left her phone behind had been correct.

Then one of them had decided to try Hel. They’d received a response less than a minute later.

The businesswoman had given them detailed instructions on where to meet, and somehow despite spending nearly an hour searching the northern coast of the island for them, Helena and Aubrey had somehow still been at the beach. After a brief explanation of why they were searching for her they all made their way back to deliver Aubrey just in time for an early lunch.

Hazel had a bit of time where she’d been discussing something privately with Hel at a different table from him and his friends. Richard wasn’t entirely sure what they’d been discussing, though he’d heard Ava’s name mentioned a few times. Whatever it’d been, the assistant and bodyguard had seemed satisfied when she’d left with Ava.

Luna hurried through her lunch and left as soon as she finished eating, texting him a few minutes after she’d left to wait for her signal. So he’d stuck around making conversation with everyone as Stella pulled Aubrey into the kitchen to make a quiche with her.

He wasn’t entirely sure how long it’d been when he’d received another text from Luna letting him know that she was ready when she was. He waited a moment longer to speak. “Maeve?”

His therapist looked over at him, offering a faint smile. She placed her hand on his as she’d taken to doing increasingly often in the round.

Having rejoined the main table after her girlfriend left, Hel gave him a look as if trying to decide whether to intervene. The redhead eyed them both, not entirely sure who to be more concerned for.

Maeve either ignored or didn’t notice. “Yes, Richard?”

“I’m not sure if you’re still hungry enough after lunch that you’d like to stay for the quiche, but if not, could you come with me?”

“If you’d like.” She hesitantly agreed.

Neither of them missed Felicia and Hel gesturing at each other, both of them clearly trying to be subtle but utterly failing.

“I’ll meet you outside.” He promised, and waited for her to put away her dishes. Once she’d left, he turned to the two of them and let his frustration from the morning bleed into his voice. “Is there anything either of you wanted to say?”

Felicia glared at Hel, daring her to speak.

His stepsister frowned at suddenly being treated like the problem. “Just be careful, for both of your sakes.”

“I will, trust me.” He turned to Felicia to give her a chance to air any grievances. His girlfriend just gave a mock salute as if telling him not to worry.

The problem hopefully resolved for now, he joined Maeve outside.

“So, you decided to plan the 'date' this time?”

“I hope you don’t mind that.” Technically it’s not all my plan.

“No, I- no.” She tried to follow as he started down the hill into the forest. “I knew it was technically my responsibility, but I had some difficulty deciding what might be appropriate.”

“That’s fine. While it makes it easier for me of course that I don’t need to plan for everyone, it still feels silly for it to be all on you guys.” He changed the subject. “Loon told me that you’ve been spending more time together?”

She turned slightly pink. “Did she go into much detail?”

“Just that you’ve grown closer recently.”

“I see.” Her steps grew closer to his as she began to realize where they were heading. Her hand reached around to hold him by his opposite hip.

“Maeve?!”

She quickly disentangled herself. “Can we go to the library first? I’d like to drop off my book.”

“Of course.” He let her change their path and they walked in silence to the library. He felt like he should say something, but he was still so unsure about Luna’s advice earlier that he wasn’t sure what to say. Normally I could talk to her easily, but God- she’s going to be miserable and disappointed in me if Luna’s wrong.

She found the mystery section and reshelved her Holmes book. It didn’t take as long as she’d hoped. Not being able to justify any more delays, she returned to where he was waiting at the empty help desk and went with him into the dance hall.

The gentle brass of the phonograph in the corner did little to distract either of them from their concerns about the date. Despite his misgivings he tried to urge her further into the room. As they were about to cross the dance floor, she stopped them both.

“Richard, I appreciate you putting in the effort to plan this. But this approaches an important line. I’ve told you before that I cannot be your therapist after entering a romantic relationship with you. Are you sure that you want this?” She gestured to the dance flor in front of them.

Luna was supposed to be here by now. This is exactly what I told her would happen. I should’ve listened to Hel. “I’m sorry. I know that we’ve discussed this before. I promise you, whatever you think is happening isn’t what I meant. I invited Luna and she told me she was going to be here before us.

With most women, telling them that another person had been invited onto their date without consulting them would be one of the worst mistakes you could make. Even Hazel had taken some persuasion yesterday.

But he felt the tension in his therapist’s arm ease. “You invited Luna? Can you explain why?” Her tone was lighter than the firm walls she’d suddenly thrown out a moment ago.

“We’re supposed to spend all afternoon and evening together. We could spend some of it with me going to you for advice like we’re both used to. But that’s making you work. You obviously don’t want this.” Richard said, gesturing first to himself and then to the dance floor like she had. Obviously was possibly an unnecessary addition, but he’d warned Luna that her original idea was terrible and this was turning out to not be much better. “But you like Luna. I figured maybe I could help you learn what Hazel’s taught both of us.”

“Oh, I see. That was very kind of you. I’m sorry I overreacted, although I do wish you could have explained before we arrived.” She said, still holding onto his arm.

“Yeah, I probably should’ve. I was nervous myself about making you upset. I guess I made it a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

He saw the main door of the dance hall open out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything important.”

Maeve finally let go of him as she turned around, seeing the Latina enter with a white garment bag in her arms with a crescent moon on it. “Richard was just explaining to me his plans for us both.”

“Good. I got this from Ata for you. I know it’s a little out of your normal color scheme, but I wanted to get you something nice to wear.” Luna held out her arms, encouraging Maeve to take the bag.

“I- thank you.” Maeve partially unzipped it before accepting it to see what she was being given. She saw the plunging neckline and couldn’t stop herself from being disappointed, but tried not to let it show. It’s still a gift, and… “You want me to wear this?”

“I think it’d look good on you, and I tried to find something subtle so it wasn’t too far outside your normal greyscale. We can leave it on one of the tables and put it away later if you want.”

Dr.Petrov shook her head. “No, I’ll go get changed.”

***

Maeve opened the door of the dance hall’s bathroom, stepping back out into the main area where Richard and Luna were waiting. Her new dress showed even more cleavage than most of her clothes had when Genet altered them, and fitting into it had shown her just how much she had grown from her first transformation. The pale blue dress was pretty, she had to admit. The way it hugged her waist felt nice. She had mixed feelings about the way it showed off her breasts, feeling that they made her look good but unsure how much she wanted to look good today. They were bigger than she could hold in one hand now, which felt strange after so many years as a much thinner woman.

“How do I look?”

“Fantastic.” Luna gushed, striding over. “Don’t you think so?”

“Yes.” Richard replied, notably more stilted than usual. He followed halfway. “Now, I don’t know if Luna told you anything about the lesson she had with Hazel and I, but there’s usually someone in the lead position that is making more of the decisions and a follower that is trying to read cues from the lead. Do you have a preference which one I try to teach you?”

“I believe I could be comfortable in either one with enough practice.”

“With how good you are at reading people, the follow position would probably be much easier for you than most people.” Luna suggested.

“You’d need to be able to lead then.” Dick reminded her.

“I can watch you and work on flipping the steps that way.”

“Alright.” He accepted. “Maeve, ready to go back to the dance floor, I’ll try to start slowly like Hazel did for me.”

She started to accept his hand, then paused as her earlier recalcitrance took over.

“It doesn’t have to be anything romantic. Aubrey’s taught you her games, and that was something casual.”

She finally nodded, taking a hand as she followed him. He adjusted them both as he showed her the positioning that would allow him to tell her that he was starting one move or another, then tried to advise her on how she should balance her weight between each foot. She caught on faster than he had to the eight beat back-and-forth of the basic faster than he or Luna had, though even after she figured it out her movement didn’t have the bounciness that Hazel had tried to encourage.

“Are you ready to try the first spin?”

Maeve nodded.

“Cool. Follow my instructions and we’ll take it one step at a time, then we’ll try it again and blend it all together.” He tried to narrate out loud what he was starting and what she was supposed to do in response so that she and Luna could try to remember.

Everything went as perfectly as he could imagine. The older woman picked up his instruction quickly, following his instructions and then quickly being able to follow his timing. He had them do several cycles of the basic triple step while occasionally throwing in a new cue for a spin to try making sure she was comfortable moving between one or the other.

Satisfied that she was ready, he moved onto the leader’s spin. Like the basic spin she took to it quickly, and it didn’t take long for her to be able to keep up with him as he mixed into rotation with the triple step. Even chaining several spins in a row she comfortably read his cues, though she was still markedly more passive than Hazel or Luna had been. The only bits of personality she was showing were the brief bits where she would glance at where Luna was observing them from a table at the edge of the dance floor.

I might as well let her switch at this point. He decided. “Luna, you feel ready to take over?”

She stood up. “I can tag in.”

So he took her seat at the table and watched as Luna tried to act as the lead for the first time.

It was… enthusiastic. He wasn’t willing to say bad, because it was working. Luna’s signals were often less precise or given with less warning than he or Hazel tried to do. But whether she was doing it intentionally or not, she was managing to make extra signals that at the very least she was planning something, and Maeve was picking them up as well as anything she’d done with him. They looked good together, Luna’s pink skirt spinning as she moved and Maeve’s- I shouldn’t let myself engage that train of thought.

Maeve herself seemed slightly more animated as well. Which mostly just meant that she was smiling now. It’s like she’s trying to disprove Hazel’s statement about this sort of dancing showing who you are.

He noticed that the phonograph switched to louder and faster music a couple minutes after he let Luna take over. I’m still curious if Genet controls it or if it just acts on its own sort of intelligence.

When he realized that he’d zoned out thinking about the magical music, he looked over again and the two dancers were talking. He couldn’t hear what either were saying, but every so often it seemed like one of them would glance his way. Whatever they were talking about, they seemed to be having a good time; He couldn’t imagine either of them talking more negatively about him than he deserved, so judging by Luna’s occasional laughter and Maeve’s continued smile it was probably good for the awkwardness they’d all started the date with.

After the conversation between the two of them appeared to have grown less frequent and they’d repeated the same two moves about as differently as you could sequence them, he decided to step back towards the dance floor to reinsert himself.

Luna had other plans, though.

“Do you mind if I switch partners for a moment?” She asked.

The older woman shook her head. “No. At this point I could definitely use a water break.”

So Luna released her, and Maeve sat down in the dining area of the room. The Latina turned back to him and offered her hands in the follower position that they’d previously practiced in. He started them through the basic steps together while giving her a chance to talk.

“It’s going well so far. I think we may have made up for my being a few minutes late.” She said.

“Good. I’m glad you’re here. I still don’t think she wants change as much as you seem to think she does, but we probably would’ve stalled out if you hadn’t been here.”

“I’m always here to seduce your therapist when you need it,” she joked. “You came back at a good time, she’s tried to joke twice about not having the stamina of ‘people our age’.”

“Is her age something that bothers her a lot?” Dick asked.

“Yeah, though I can’t tell exactly how much yet.” She changed the subject. “Once she’s ready to come back, you should introduce the casting move. Just don’t linger in the middle like you keep doing with Hazel and I. Even I don’t think she’s ready to feel your bulge.”

He rolled his eyes, feeling a little more relaxed as he spent more time flowing into the dance with her. “I can have a little self control. Do you think it’d be awkward for her if she saw us doing that or the hip trace Hazel taught us?”

Luna shook her head.

Dick grinned, after their current triple step pulling her down to his waist. The path she was supposed to make with her fingers along his back ended up closer to his butt, but he didn’t mind. He was ready to take her again at the end of the move, spinning her back into place. As the music played he led his best friend from one move to another, letting Maeve rest awhile.

He tried to use the opportunity during the leader's spins to keep an eye on Maeve’s table, and saw that at a certain point the older woman had begun giving them both more attention.

“Should we try inviting her to come back up?”

“Probably good to,” she agreed. “Mind doing it?”

He nodded, and she disconnected from him. He strode over to his ‘date’ and offered a hand. “Can I show you something else? I’m pretty sure it’s Loon’s favorite.”

He heard her scoff behind him. “You’re not wrong though.”

Maeve slowly nodded, brushing back her silver hair as she stood and followed him back to the main dance area. As she linked hands with him again she asked, “I know that this is supposed to be relatively fast, but would you be upset if we tried to go slower? While I can read both of you easily enough I’ve never been the most athletic.”

“As you wish.” He agreed, and the trumpet from the phonograph suddenly clicked to a different track, a brushed snare taking the beat along with a quiet horn and trombone. Once again he found himself wondering how exactly it worked, but instead he tried to concentrate on making things easier for his date. “I’ll try to ease us into an easy triple step and an occasional spin, and once we feel comfortable with that I’ll try to show you the new thing.”

She nodded, and they eased into the music together. Some combination of her time with Luna and her rest had helped her relax, smiling a bit more like she had when the other woman had been leading.

He noticed her smile suddenly dip. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” She tried to lie.

“Seriously, what is it? You can tell me if I’m doing something.” He slowed them down even further to give her a chance to speak.

“The dress I was gifted. It’s the same shade of blue as your shirt.” She pointed out.

“I guess it is?”

“Was that planned?” She stared at him as he asked, and it felt like she could’ve looked into his soul if she’d wanted.

He tried to be honest. “I don’t know. I knew that she was going to buy you some new outfit, but I wasn’t involved in the decision for what she picked out.”

“I see.” She looked back at Luna, sitting on the table. “Thank you for explaining.”

Her mood slowly seemed to recover as he kept them at their slow pace. She asked him a few more questions about how he’d planned the day, and if he’d put any specific thought into his own outfit.

“Is there anything else before I tried to show you the cast?”

“Go ahead, Richard.”

He started to narrate again, so both she and Luna could pick up what to do. “So let's keep both hands together, and I’m going to take my left arm up and wrap it around you as I pull you in.” He felt her come within a breath of him. “You and your partner brace for a beat to make sure you’re balanced. Ready?”

“I-I believe so.”

“Next your partner drops their left hand and swings their right arm out so you can spin out on the momentum.”

She followed his lead, having to stop herself from stumbling. “What happens next?”

“Next we’d need to find a way back into the triple step. Hazel’s shown me a few ways, but the one I’ve practiced most has your partner signal with a little tug that they want you to spin back in, then they quickly reverse the move they did to pull you towards them. Can we try to do that?”

“Y-yes.”

He gave the tug, and as she’d been told to do she tried to propel herself towards him. But at their slow pace she had trouble building momentum, and made the first real mistake of the lesson.

A misplaced step pushed her forwards mid-turn instead of back to his side. She tried to right herself but was still off center. She began to fall, and she was in an awkward position preventing him from pulling her back in like he normally might be able to. She gasped as she felt him let go altogether, not knowing if anything could stop her fall.

Only for him to use both hands to grab her a second before it was too late. Richard had abandoned the dance to dive down for her, pulling Maeve’s waist into his. They locked eyes as his muscles strained, working with all his strength to keep her safe.