Disclaimer: The author of this fanfiction does not, in any way, profit from the story. All creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
One Waltz
by Pout
“Eh, Your Majesty, no- it’s more like… oh no.”
“Yuuri!” Wolfram screamed. “What are you doing, you idiot?!”
Günter closed his eyes tiredly and sighed. There was a formal ball within a week and trying to teach the young Maou to dance properly was giving him a fairly proper headache.
“Ah, sorry, Wolfram,” Yuuri said with a sheepish smile. “Can you demonstrate again, Günter?”
The pale advisor danced the steps with delicate grace and perfect ease, but before he had finished, Yuuri was waving his hands and shaking his head. “It’s easy enough when I look at it like that,” he said, “but it’s harder to do it with another person in the way.”
Wolfram scowled. “Are you saying I’m in the way?!”
“No, no!” Yuuri cried, his instincts for self-preservation still very much intact. “It would be helpful if I could see how you dance with a partner, though.”
Günter thought it was a novel idea and turned to pull Konrad into the mess, but the gentle swordsman was already shaking his head. “I really can’t dance very well,” he said. Günter was about to dismiss it as an inadequate excuse when another figure entered the ballroom.
Gwendal strode across the floor towards Konrad and was about to ask his half-brother about the guard detail when Wolfram suddenly said, “Oh, aniki dances really well. He can do it.”
“Eh? Really?” Yuuri said, obviously in doubt.
“Of course,” Wolfram responded.
Gwendal’s brows twitched when he realized what he had just walked himself into. “Never mind,” he said, turning on his heel before he had even reached the quartet, but before he could make a retreat, Konrad was gently guiding him back into the melee.
“Just one dance, Gwendal!” the Maou was pleading.
Before the stoic man in green could protest, Günter bowed before him and proffered his hand. “A simple waltz, that is all,” he said with his most persuasive smile.
“One dance,” Gwendal said, confirming the deal. He took the other’s hand and they began to dance.
They were perhaps only peripherally aware of the awed expressions on Yuuri and Wolfram’s faces and the gentle smile that Konrad was wearing. Instead, they focused on the graceful flow of the dance that twirled them across the floor.
A part of Günter recognized that Gwendal was a perfect dance partner. He followed beautifully and his movements were neither stiff nor reflexive, they were responsive. Would he be as perfect if he were to lead?
It was over all too soon. They had made a full and thorough circuit around the ballroom and ended up back where they had begun. Gwendal bowed and Günter mirrored the action, then the taller man pulled Konrad out of the room to discuss business. Günter watched them go before finally turning back to his student.
Yuuri had a pleased smile on his face and beside him, Wolfram looked as if something he had known all his life had just been affirmed. “What?” Günter asked, quite confused.
Yuuri just smiled and turned to his fiancé and bowed. Wolfram spared the violet-haired man one more condescending, almost sympathetic look before returning Yuuri’s bow and taking his hand.
“What?” Günter asked again. But the two were already floating across the dance floor in a slightly less graceful echo of the dance they had just seen, leaving Günter alone in the middle of the ballroom to ponder his thoughts.
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