Chapter Nine
Comings and Goings
"Stupid little machine!" Briar swore under her breath, looking at the small silver radio sitting on the bed next to her. For almost an hour and a half she had been tinkering away at the piece of junk trying to get any sort of sound to come from its busted speakers.
Fingering a small screw that was almost close to falling out, she swore once more as her thumb slid off its metal surface. With a frustrated sigh she just shoved the batteries into the back and turned it on, not even bothering to re-attach the back panel.
"You had better work, damn you. Or I am putting your metallic ass back in the box of useless shit Dais has...." her voice was almost a growl. Briar was not the most technologically inclined of people, but she knew how to toss a good threat. Fiddling with the dial, her ears were met with only static for the first few moments. Just as she was about to give up, the sound of some old folk song hit her ears. Now moving the dial back and forth like she was performing some sort of surgery, Briar finally found a station playing music loud enough for her to hear. It was an oldies station, songs that no one had heard in years and whose talent trove of singers and musicians had fallen into obscurity.
"Haha!" she shouted, pumping her fists in the air, only to regret it seconds later. Bent over slightly she continued her celebration. "Heh, I KNEW I could get you to work! Almost had me beaten you robotic like piece of.."
Suddenly from behind her she heard a voice. "You have gotten it to function properly?" his voice came right from behind her ear, and Briar stiffened.
"Oh SHIT!" she gasped, letting all the air she had been holding in her lungs out in one large burst. Scrabbling to get her breath back, Briar turned one wild eye on the cloaked man behind her. "For the love of everything holy Dais, say something before you sneak up on someone!" she clutched one hand to her chest, glaring at him.
His voice was hearty, and could she have seen his face, she perhaps would have seen a smile stretching across it. "I did. I asked you if you got it to function. Any sneaking was done unintentionally." He held up both of his black claws in the air is if to signify that he had in fact meant no harm.
Briar smiled at him, the sight warming his heart. "Why Dais De Beaumont, did you just make a joke?"
"I do posses a sense of humor Briar." he replied coolly. At this Briar feigned a gasp and fell over dramatically.
"The world has come to an end!" she sighed, putting on her best hopeless accent. Dais let out a slight growl, then chuckled.
"If you continue to move in such a manner you are going to hurt yourself once more. The wound you obtained has not fully healed yet."
Being the respectable and mature adult she was, Briar stuck her tongue out at Dais. This was something she soon regretted as the moment the pink organ left her lips, it was being clutched between two of his large pointed claws. It did not hurt, as Dais was not putting any pressure on her, but he held her so that she could not escape his grasp.
"This organ should stay in the mouth of its owner." he drawled, voice playful. Suddenly he let go of her tongue, her body instantly recoiling it into her mouth. Briar swallowed the lump in her throat, then looked away to hide the blush spreading across her face, against her will.
"I got it to work. This might be the only station we get, but so far it hasn't played any really bad songs." she smiled, turning up the volume on the small radio. Lithely she slid off the bed and looked at Dais from over her shoulder.
"I love music, there is just something about a good beat that makes me want to move." slowly she began to rotate her hips, rocking slowly to the tempo of the song that flowed from the speakers. Moments later, she was moving across the room, body sliding in and out of dance moves like water. From his spot on the bed, Dais could not take his eyes from her. Never in his life had he seen someone move so lightly.
"It is almost as if she is made of smoke, should I touch her, she would fade from my grasp." he muttered under his breath, staring at her shaking form. Now everyone knows that smoke is always in the company of fire, and Dais was soon feeling it. Briar winked at him over her shoulder as she slid to the floor and back up again. His face was on fire, a blush heating his face as it slowly spread across his cheeks, tracing a path between his eyes.
Briar looked over her shoulder as the music faded into another song, and the deep throaty voice of the stations DJ took over the room. Smiling, she slid over to Dais. Her steps light, not yet out of the beat of the music. Standing before him, she bent low to his ear and teasingly whispered to the hood of the cloak. "Dance with me."
Dais sputtered, his breath hitching in his chest. "Wha, what?" he stuttered, tongue failing him for a moment. She laughed one of the few true laughs he had heard her utter.
"Dance with me, ya big lug!" the laugh had reached her eyes, making them sparkle. "Come on, the DJ said the next song will be a slow one." With a mischievous smile stretching her face, Briar grabbed at one of exposed hands setting on the bed.
"I...I do not know how to dance." Dais resisted, using his weight to stay in his spot, trying to root himself in place.
At this Briar dropped his hand, staring at him. " You poor thing! You don't know how to dance? This is a situation that must be fixed." Again she gripped his hand, leaning back as she tried her best to haul his mass from the bed. For a few seconds she tried in vain, until begrudgingly, Dais came to his feet in front of her.
"Come on Dais, let me show you how to dance." she smiled, locking her fingers in his, not knowing how the small touch was effecting her unwilling partner. "You do so much for me, yet I do nothing for you. Let me pay you back."
Shakily, he stepped forward into the middle of the room, watching as Briar readjusted the volume on the radio. A slow, classical song poured from the speakers, setting an almost Victorian feel into the room. She dropped his hand suddenly, smiling as she turned to face him. "What is your favorite music?"
For a moment, Dais could not think of anything to say, then he muttered something to himself. "What?" Briar asked, frowning slightly as his muttering.
"I...I have rarely ever heard music."
"Really? You are serious?" she stared at him, stunned.
"Old hymns, and sometimes a few bars and notes from the old masters will float down here. Once, the music book from "The Phantom of the Opera" floated down here, the music on the page looked so beautiful...." he trailed off, lost in reverie for that long forgotten piece of paper.
"I loved Erik, the master of music and magic. He was a creature of the night, hidden from the world because of his..." again he trailed off, shaking his head violently. "No such matter." he muttered.
"Haven't you heard anything new? I mean, surely you must have been in the subway tunnels once or twice."
Dais scoffed, waving one clawed hand about. "Oh yes, I have been in those tunnels." from the tone of his voice, Briar could almost imagine the scowl on his face. "Filthy cans of the poor and those too busy to care. Oh yes, I have heard the music in those places, but I have never stayed long enough to catch anything more than the rare snippet."
'Okay then!" Briar clapped her hands in front of her face, a determined look crossing her face. "We are starting out with the basic slow dance." Throwing her arms forward, she grabbed both of his arms, and pulled them to her body. He jerked back, surprised as she tried to get his arms to wrap about her body.
"Dais! Let me show you how to hold me." she bit out, trying to remain patient. Relaxing only a tiny bit, she managed to get his hands in their proper places. One clawed hand rested on the small of her back, the other settled against her shoulder. Both of her arms were wrapped about his shoulders, Briar standing on her toes to be able to even reach the mass that made them up.
"Wow, he is muscled up here...." Briar caught herself, making herself stop thinking such thoughts. "He has claws girl....CLAWS. DO. NOT. GET. ATTACHED." A voice called from a small part of her mind, and she bit her lip trying not to ruin the moment.
"Now, move with me." she swayed her hips slightly, motioning for him to do the same. Stiffly, he shifted his weight. "Dais, move WITH me." she looked at him with a pout, trying to make him understand.
As she babbled on about the dance, Dais's head was in a whirl. It had been enough that she had started sleeping holding his hand, but now here he was with his arms wrapped about her. The warmth of her skin rested against his, soft and silky under his touch. Something like a heat grew in his chest, images of him holding her racing through his mind. Desperately, he tried to control his thoughts, force such fantasies from his mind.
"Never." he muttered.
"DAIS!" Briar's sharp voice cut into his thoughts, grounding him once more in the moment. "Are you even listening to me? I said move your hips from side to side." she slipped her hands from his shoulders to his hips, guiding them from side to side.
He followed her motions, earning himself a smile. At that moment, he gave up on fighting her, deciding a smile was worth anything she wanted to put him through. Soon they were moving across the floor, Briar sometimes switching up the moves, watching as Dais quickly took her cues. For ten songs they danced, sliding across the floor.
***************
As a slow classical symphony played through the room, Briar stood, her arms around the neck of her large friend, his arms wrapped about her, holding her almost as one would a lover. The candle light in the room gave them just enough light, allowing an almost romantic atmosphere to take over. Sighing, she rested against him.
"You know if this was some novel, or some sort of Victorian romance, this would be the moment when we kissed." she tossed off, blushing. Dais froze for a moment, then smiled to himself. Just at that moment Briar looked up, right into the hood of his cloak.
Seconds later, she found herself standing alone. Dais slipped through the curtain, leaving the room in a hurry.
"Dais?" she called out, not understanding what had gone wrong, her own heart beating fast.
"I have to run out, chores. Yes, chores, I forgot to do." he stuck one claw through the curtain and waved at her lightly. "I shall see you in a few hours, thank you for teaching me to dance, it was quite....enjoyable." his voice cracked slightly, then he was gone.
"Sure.....anytime." she trailed off, face getting red.
"What on earth were you thinking?" she screamed in her head. "You were planning on kissing him right then!" Briar fell to the bed, holding her hand above her mouth.
"My god, I was wasn't I?" That line about the novel, and the moments before, something in her had wanted to kiss him passionately. "He is not that kind of guy, we know this. Do you want hurt?" she shook her head. "Then never do that again." Briar nodded, pushing such thoughts from her head. Dramatically, she collapsed against the bed, face red with embarrassment.