Closed The Thought that Counts

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot had never been more aware of his arms in his life. He'd had felt underdressed at all the previous dances so far, so he'd hesitantly asked him mom to help him find a suit over the holiday break, but now that he had it he felt stiff and awkward in it. What did he normally do with his arms when he wasn't using them? Trying his best not to fidget with his suit jacket too much, Elliot smiled up at Lars. At least Lars was a nice reprieve from the discomfort of his suit and the weirdness with Kace earlier. Though Lars was making Elliot nervous in his own way, but it was a slightly more exciting nervous.

"Do you wanna dance?" He offered, holding out a hand to Lars to tow him out to the dance floor. Elliot was pretty sure you were supposed to dance and stuff with your date. And it was a date, they were dating, he thought with a blush, trying to focus more on steering Lars to a safely clear spot on the dance floor than the nervous twist of his gut that that thought brought. It was a good distraction at least, Lars always seemed to have more limb than he knew what to do with and it felt almost like second nature by now to turn to him once Elliot had found a good spot and gently grab Lars' elbow to reel him. Though now they were facing each other, Elliot was a bit unsure how to begin actually dancing. Keeping his grip on Lars elbow, Elliot hesitantly rested his other one Lars' waist, glancing up at Lars. "Is this okay?" He asked, starting to sway them gently to the music.

 

[Lars van Houten]

Lars hadn't expected to go to the yule ball when he had packed his clothes for the year, so what he was wearing now were the most formal clothes he owned. A simple white button down shirt, with black pants that almost didn't have any paint stains on them, only on the right ankle if you looked really closely. Right before the ball, his sister had cornered him to give him one of his Christmas presents early. Lars had been surprised to find a bow tie in the box, but had allowed Fleur to put it on him and then try to fix his hair into something acceptable.

He supposed that going to the yule ball with Elliot was technically his first date, which was something he was trying to wrap his mind around. But they were dating, so it was only normal, right? He felt slightly off-balance in the great hall, and stayed close to Elliot, who always seemed to ground him. He nodded at the question, his cheeks turning pink. He let Elliot steer him to the dance floor and tried not to focus on anyone else. Lars wasn't sure what to do with himself, and was grateful when Elliot gently grabbed his elbow and helped him along. He smiled down at Elliot shyly, and nodded. "Yeah, more than okay." He said, as they started to sway to the music. "Have you done this before? I haven't. I've never even gone to the ball before." He admitted. "I... I'm glad I'm here with you, now." He added quietly, finally daring a glance around.

 

[Elliot Briar]

The fact that Lars always seemed about as nervous about all this dancing and dating stuff as he did helped Elliot relax. When they were together it was easier to feel a bit more in control since neither of them really had much of a clue what to do. At the mention of dancing, Elliot thought back to his first year and practicing with Alice so he'd know what to do. It was a nice memory, though it'd turned out mostly unnecessary since he'd pretty much been too scared to dance with anyone, even friends, until now. "I've uh, practiced a bit. I don't like not knowing how to do stuff.. but I've not really danced properly at a dance dance before," He said, trying to push the fear of stepping on Lars feet to back the back of his mind so he wouldn't spend the entire conversation staring down at their feet. "I'm glad you came to this one," He said happily. Elliot had been a little worried after the somewhat disastrous dance last year, Lars wouldn't want to do any more. "I really like Christmas and stuff," He added, shrugging and then mumbling an apology when the motion threw off their fragile swaying rhythm. "It's just.. Neat how holidays are always sorta the same no matter where you are," He said, again pulling his glance back up to Lars and away from their feet. "Oh, you're bowtie's crooked." He noted, lifting one hand absentmindedly from Lars' arm to try and gently tug the lopsided bow back into submission.

 

[Lars van Houten]

Lars smiled nervously at Elliot's words. Practice! Why hadn't he thought of that? But who would he have practiced with? His sisters? That made him wonder who Elliot had practiced with, but he felt like being jealous about a hypothetical person dancing with his boyfriend would be a waste of time and effort. He vaguely wondered if he should be, but then dismissed that. "Oh, that's smart." He said softly. "I never thought about practicing." He smiled shyly. "If I do badly, will you tell me?" He hoped he could notice on his own, but he knew he wasn't always the most aware. "I'm glad too." He said, and it seemed like he was unable to stop smiling. "I don't know... Christmas in New Zealand would be different because of summer, right?" He knew Elliot moved between America and New Zealand, though he wasn't sure if he celebrated Christmas in both places or not. He let out a small laugh as Elliot said his bow tie was crooked. "Of course it is." He muttered. Lars was never that bothered by his clothes being crooked, but he did always enjoy it when Elliot fixed them for him. He smiled shyly. "Did I tell you you look nice?"

 

[Elliot Briar]

"If it makes you feel any better I don't think the practice helped much," He said with a small smile. Dancing with Lars seemed a lot tricker than dancing with Alice, but Elliot wasn't sure if he was just more nervous, or maybe he was just out of practice. "You're doing fine now," He said firmly, smiling at Lars, though honestly Elliot wasn't sure if either of them were really dancing well. But he figured if they were having fun it was okay. And under all the nerves he figured he was having fun as they mostly just swayed about. He nodded when Lars mentioned the Summer Christmas, it had always been a bit weird to switch over to Summer during the holidays, but he rarely got actual Winter holidays in America so he was used to it mostly. "I guess, I usually spent the holidays here, so I'm used to it.. and yeah that's true, people experience it differently but like, even if it's all different, it's still kinda Christmas, you know? Does that make sense? My mom's on the other side of the world but there's still Christmas trees and stuff. Maybe it's silly," He said with a shrug. "I just like it," He added, leaning his forehead against Lars' chest more to stop himself from rambling too much.

Finishing fussing with Lars' bowtie, Elliot felt himself blush at Lars compliment suddenly unsure what to do with his hand again now, tentatively resting it on Lars' shoulder instead. "Oh, um, thank you," He said, smiling and shrugging, feeling the suit jacket shift stiffly as he did so. "You do too. The bowtie- It suits you." He added, letting his thumb brush against the collar of Lars' shirt as he said it. Elliot was feeling awfully conscious of how close they were standing together, but it was still nice. Being with Lars was nice, even if Elliot terrified the whole time he might say or do the wrong thing with how new all this dating thing was with them.