Open Yule always be my other half

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio never understood the guys that wore full on suits and jackets for the Yule Ball. It was New Zealand, it was hot. The middle of summer and the last thing Elio wanted to do was dress up and overheat. He was wearing a pair of smart trousers and shoes, and a dark button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and forgoing any sort of jacket whatsoever. He'd been looking forward to this for long, the last time he'd gone out with Rowan for a school event it had ended in disaster, but now that things were more than great between them he couldn't wait to pick up where things had left off. "Roowwaaaaaaaaannnnn!!" he'd shouted up to the girls dormitories once he was at the common room, waiting for his best friend to come down so that they could go to the ball together. He was excited and could barely keep still as he watched others head out of the portrait, while he stood back and waited impatiently. ​

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Once they'd made it to the Great Hall, the party was already in full force. Some people were still slow dancing with their couples, and some had clearly already managed to wear themselves out and they were trying to cool down at the refreshments table. At some point during their walk down, Elio and Rowan had linked arms and so he followed her through the crowd to enter the scene. "You look amazing by the way," he said, eyes bright as he grinned at the Gryffindor, talking a little louder than he usually would to compensate for the music around them. ​

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan quickly moved her hands out of her hair. She was pretty sure the curls weren’t going to stay in the whole night, but it was the best she could do short notice. She could hear Elio impatiently calling her from the common room, honestly he was such a baby about waiting sometimes. He was the worst person she knew patience-wise, second only to Chrysander, not that she’d seen much of him lately. He was holed up somewhere else she didn’t know. She quickly took the stairs two at a time, accustomed as she was to heels on stone staircases by this time, since she’d been running in heels since she was a child. “Elioooooooo.” She matched him, looping their arms together as they headed out of the cooking room and to the Great Hall.​

Rowan was so ready for the distraction of the Yule ball since next semester would be their OWL exams. This whole year had been crazy and she was so happy to finally be past all the terrible stuff with Elio. For a while there shed thought they’d never be friends again, but she was so glad she’d been wrong since she loved Elio more than anything and not having him in her life had been harder than she’d thought possible. He was the person she wanted to tell everything to and he probably knew her the best beside her family, and even then, she was pretty sure he knew things about her even Elsie didn’t, though there were also things about her that Elsie knew that she was pretty sure Elio didn’t, but she wasn’t about to ask, because then if he didn’t know before he would after that. Rowan turned and smiled brightly at Elio when he complimented her. “Thank youuuuu, I didn’t think about how well the grey blue would compliment my eyes until I was wearing it.” She told him, though as someone who worked so closely with style and colour ( though admittedly not recently) she should have known better. She poked his arm just below the fold of his sleeve. “Just so that you know, because I think it’s very important, but you look like 100 times hotter with your sleeves rolled up like this. Don’t be surprised if people are staring at you, there’s just something about guys rolling their sleeves like this that just does it for people.” She told him winking as she slid her hand down his arm to squeeze his hand. “Shall we dance?”​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio didn't really think a whole lot about pairing the right colours together, so much as he knew when something would look good even if he wasn't sure why. As Rowan mentioned the colour of her dress, he gave her another look up and down and realised that she really did look complete, and everything she wore seemed to just, suit her. "Well I think it's safe to say you made a very good choice," he grinned, looking down again when she poked his arm. Elio loved it when Rowan essentially called him hot. It was a sign that even though things had been strange in some regards with them before, that she was still comfortable on calling him out on it and trusting that it wasn't going to make things awkward again. He gave a knowing shrug, playing on the joke, "Well, people stare at me anyway so I guess there will be more attention on us now," he winked, squeezing her hand. "You see, last year, I think I remember telling you that I don't actually dance?" he tilted his head, moving in front of her to take her other hand in his before starting to walk backwards, pulling Rowan toward him. "Do you think that's changed?" Elio raised his eyebrows with a grin, pausing his steps and letting go of one hand to move it to her waist, holding her close and smiling down at her. ​

 

[Rowan Baros]

Rowan didn’t care about anyone else when she had Elio complimenting her. Why would she need anyone else? Elio was her person and he always would be, even if she was convinced he’d eventually find some guy he meshed well with and would prefer that over what they had, but until then she’d make the most of him. “You’re so good to me,” she told him, grinning. She was happy they were able to banter and flirt opening without it getting weird any more. She’d so dearly missed Elio when they weren’t speaking so she was making it for lost time as much as possible. She noticed Elsie with Agnes earlier so she knew her sister was here, but so far she’d not seen Zennon. She wondered briefly where he was before focusing her attention back on Elio. Rowan had never been anyone’s centre of attention, so it was definitely a nice feeling. A feeling she wouldn’t want to associate with anyone else. He took her other hand and walked backwards further into the hall and she made sure to watch behind him incase she had to warn him of any impending students he was about to run into. “Hmm, I don’t know, but I’m determined to get this Zephyr to dance,” she said, moving her free hand up to his shoulder. “I can dance, need me to lead you?” She asked with mock seriousness. She’d been dancing since before she could walk, all of them had really, Zennon, Elsie, Azelea. Grace, it had just been something they’d chosen to take up as a family. “It’s all about the rhythm and movements you know.” She added nodding. “So, you got the moves, boy?”​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio grinned, all he'd wanted was for them to make up for what they'd missed out on before, and that meant doing things properly and making sure Rowan knew what was going through his head, "Oh, honey, I haven't even started," he teased. He was being dramatic he knew, but that didn't extinguish the fact that she deserved the world and he intended to give as much of it to her he possibly could. Elio was chuckling as she was explaining rhythm and movements, "Let's get this clear, just because I don't dance, does not mean I don't understand music," He'd grown up learning so much music that he could happily move about in time to it, although what he did behind closed doors he wouldn't have called dancing. "Hey, you tell me," he winked. Elio knew he had the moves, although in that moment it wasn't dancing he was talking about. He fell into the song that was playing, moving his feet in time to the rhythm, although he was relying mostly on the people around him to know what he was supposed to do. That being said he could have sworn most people were just moving left and right, it wasn't like it was a complicated movement. "See, I've totally got this," he quietly and proudly announced a smirk on his face for a moment, before it softened and he kissed the top of her head. ​