(Chapter 113) Dance Lessons

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"You're absolutely the worst teacher!" Lucy huffed, storming away.

"No, you're just too impatient to teach," Algernon replied, briskly following after her.

They had started the dance lessons for the first time that night, and only a few minutes in began the yelling.

"Who wouldn't be impatient to get away from such a horrible teacher!"

"I wouldn't be so horrible if you just listened to what I have to say," Algernon shot back in hardly held back anger.

"I listen to everything you have to say!" Lucy insisted. "You just don't say it well enough for it to be understood."

Algernon locked eyes with Lucy's combative gaze for only a second, before lowering his. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his emotions. Positive or negative they swelled in Lucy's presence, but after Luke's lesson, he was beginning to realize how much that could affect her too. "Maybe this was impossible from the start." He muttered, speaking to himself more than to her.

Lucy's gaze dropped, disappointed in herself to have already failed at yet another thing. "I guess so."

Algernon read the sadness in Lucy's slumped posture and decided on a different approach. "How about we try again."

Lucy bit her cheeks. "I don't want to fight." She admitted, afraid that was all they could accomplish.

"It's not like I want too either."

"Then why is that all we do?" 

Algernon looked Lucy up and down before tearing his gaze away. His entire life's purpose was to fight, and it seeped into more than just a battlefield; it became how he reacted to just about everything, always ready for the battle. But Lucy didn't, and he had to stop acting as if she was always starting one.

"Come here." Algernon directed Lucy, and seeing her reluctance upon the order added, "Please."

Algernon held out his hand in an offering, and Lucy gingerly took it.

"I'll try not to lose my patience," Algernon said, wrapping his other hand around her waist. Lucy's face rushed with color as Algernon drew their bodies together. That snaring fever always seemed to appear near Algernon, no matter how much she wanted to hate him for past aggressions, and was probably the reason she was so reactive to a fight tonight. "So just bear with me."

Lucy wondered if this was as much as Algernon ever conceded to anyone. He didn't seem the type to ask for anything, and even asking for her patience was probably a very abnormal and painful thing for him.

"Ok," She replied, suddenly gazing up to his eyes and causing Algernon's hair to uncontrollably curl. It was the first time in a while he had heard that tone of her voice. The one that was mind-numbingly sweet and blocked out every bad thing in the world, as dangerous as that was.

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