The Reaping [malexmale]

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

"This is impossible." I snapped impatiently.

Blaine heaved a sigh, covered his face with his hand, and seemed to be trying to calm down his fiery temper, not that counting to ten would probably do him any good. And it was probably my fault, but it was mostly his fault and Akin's. It was their idea to ditch everyone and drag me into the living room where Akin convinced Blaine to teach us some dance moves.

Now we stood on a long mat Blaine had set out, the sound of Celtic dance music pulsing out of the surround sound speakers. The music was nice enough. I felt like I normally didn't listen to this kind of music, but it wasn't bad for traditional folk music. The problem was dancing to it. And even though Blaine was blind, he knew when I sucked ass at dancing because apparently my feet didn't hit the mat in time, so he'd stop, kick me in the butt, then force me to do it all over again. I was about ten seconds away from trying to get him into a headlock.

"It's all right, Blaine," Akin told him, more relaxed than Blaine and I, "He's learning. He just learned how to walk yesterday." Blaine wrinkled his nose. He looked like he wanted to argue, but he seemed to finally relent as he went back to restart the song. I ran a hand through my hair, then glanced at Akin, who'd pulled his hair up into a loose bun and had changed into a pair of silky black pants that only came up to his knees, and a matching tank top. Blaine had also forced us to wear loose sashes around our waists that were covered in little gold coins that jingled. I had a feeling it was so he could locate us.

"Do you know how to fight?" I asked out of the blue. Well, not totally. The more I scanned Akin, the more I realized he was pretty ripped. While lean and slender, I could see the hard muscles in his legs when he moved or did a sharp spin.

"Not really," Akin admitted with a shrug, "I'm not a huge fan of the whole fighting thing. I mean, I could probably defend myself if it came right down to it, but I wouldn't go looking for a fist fight at the bar, if you know what I mean. Nah, Hannibal and I go to the gym every week." I glanced over at Hannibal, who'd fallen asleep on the sofa. He looked like a big dog just sprawled out on the couch with one arm tossed over the sofa's arm, and another resting across his stomach, his legs so long that they reached the other end of the sofa no problem. And how he managed to sleep through this blasting music was a miracle.

"What'd you guys do last night?" I asked, looking back at Akin, who grinned.

"A lot." Was his only answer. Oookay, I thought awkwardly. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Akin and I turned back as Blaine clapped his hands to get our attention as he switched the song to something a little more exotic and ancient. It sounded Egypt-y, but I could be wrong.

"All right," Blaine commanded, taking up position in front of us, "This one's easier. It's from the CD Ambrosius sent me. Anyway, I want you to stand with your feet shoulder width apart... Should width, Alaric. I can hear you shifting to get your balance. If you have to catch your balance, you're doing it wrong." I rolled my eyes, but said nothing as I obeyed, shifting around until I managed to get in the right place and Blaine stopped pestering me about it. I glanced at Akin, who had no problem with it. He looked over-excited about the whole thing.

"Now," Blaine said and started to move his hips slowly, "Move your hips like mine are moving. A slow rotation. This isn't a fast song. It's slow and gentle. It's actually a hypnotic dance. It's meant to distract you from everything, meant to relax you. So move your hips like I am. Don't move your arms yet either." I frowned for a moment, then started to move my hips. There was a dull throb each time I moved from all the playing with Stanton I'd done, but oddly enough, the throbbing made my heart swell tight in my chest.

I missed Stanton already. I wanted him to come back. I wanted to see if he could do all this. He was pretty big and muscular, but Blaine said even Cerberus could dance and Cerberus was a few inches taller. It'd still be pretty funny to see Stanton trying to dance all sexy like. Thinking about it made me smile and it was easier to rotate my hips after a while.