36 Questions: A Joanne Fanfiction

Question Twenty-Seven:

If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.

The salsa was taking its toll on Dianne, despite the fact that she had a smaller role in the dance she was struggling. Joe was worried, her face wasn't quite as bright as usual, and she kept stopping shakily. Still, they were pushing through, desperate to get to the magic thirty-seven runs. The salsa was something that Joe was enjoying a lot more than he had expected to, and for the first time, he found himself excited to see what the public would think of the routine on Saturday.

At present, it was late in the evening, and the pair were still going. Dianne was especially exhausted, after a gruelling opening dance rehearsal that morning. Her posture was slumped in between dances, and she looked as if every movement off of the dance floor was a great effort for her.

"You alright?" Joe asked, concern present in his voice.

Dianne shook of his worry, determination in her eyes. "I'm fine. Let's go again." She said firmly, hoping that Joe didn't detect the slight shakiness in her voice. They began to dance, and this made it clear to Dianne that something clearly wasn't right. She was a professional, and didn't want to let Joe down, so despite how awful she felt she tried her best to carry on, and was thankful that she didn't directly face her partner through the entire dance as she knew that she wouldn't be able to disguise that pale green colour she could feel spreading on her face. As they made their way through the routine, Dianne could feel herself getting progressively worse. She turned to face Joe, taking a deep breath in the hope of calming herself, but it was to no avail. For one minute she was present, the next her vision clouded with stars and she felt herself falling.

Joe quickly moved forward, catching his partner to prevent her from falling. Instinctively, Dianne had wrapped her arms loosely around his shoulders, leaving him with no option but to think fast whilst knowing she was fully dependent on him. He slowly carried her to the edge of the room, finding himself thankful of his training over the previous weeks to make it safely over there. He glanced at her, as he placed her onto the nearest chair. "Put your head in your hands." He said, thinking quickly. Seeing his partner so physically vulnerable was something he was not used to experiencing, but she was only human after all.

A wave of protectiveness washed through him, all he wanted was to look after her and take care of her until she was alright again. This was so unlike him, to be so concerned about another person. Quick, he thought, do something to snap out of this. He grabbed his phone from where it was placed to record their dance and turned it so it faced the pair. He pulled a few shocked faces, pointing to Dianne's position on the chair, before sighing and turning it off. He stood back in guilt. It was stupid to pretend not to care about his partner, he knew you only had to take one look at him to know the truth.

He sat next to her, a gentle hand rubbing soft circles into her back in an attempt to relax her. He picked up the bottle of water at his feet, offering it to his friend. She took it gratefully, taking slow sips as she sat back up and the colour gradually returned to her cheeks. Joe's arm had settled around her waist helping her to stay grounded. Eventually, she smiled up at his concerned face. "I'm fine, let's get going again." She told him, rising slightly unsteadily to her feet.

He pulled her down onto the chair next to him again. "No way."

"Why not? I promise I can go again."

"I'm not dancing with you again until I'm confident you're safe to dance. And that won't be for at least ten minutes." He said sternly, although he was smiling fondly at his partner's determination.

She settled back down onto the chair. "Fine, ten minutes."

He smiled, not having expected her to agree so easily. This could mean one of two things: 1) Dianne still wasn't quite right or 2) Dianne was actually listening to Joe's advice, or actually 3) Dianne wanted to spend some time chatting rather than just dancing. Joe was almost a hundred percent convinced it was the first option.

"Do you want to get the next question in?" Joe asked, knowing that they were running out of time to ask the questions. They weren't far into set three, but had the maximum of just over two weeks to answer them.

"Alright." She said, her voice still slightly quieter than usual, although her accent was somehow more prominent. He smiled at this.

"Okay, the question is: if you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know." He read quickly.

"It's my turn first right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay umm there's a few things that a close friend should know about me. You know most of them, after all by now you're one of the closest people to me." She confessed. "But what I'd like you to know about being friends with me is that I will 100% eat all your chocolate and snacks." She said seriously, looking into Joe's eyes until he cracked and broke into laughter, knowing that this was completely true. She smiled proudly, before continuing. "No, umm I am terrible at making plans and organising things. I'll want to hang out with people, I love it, but I can never plan seeing people in advance successfully. But the most important one is that I need to be reminded that you care about me, and that you need stop me from overworking myself. I have the tendency to just keep going until I break."

"Oh I've noticed." Joe replied. "You literally just demonstrated exactly that."

She laughed, remembering how he'd just forced her to take a break. "Oh yeah. But what about you, if I'm going to be your close friend, what should I know?"

He smiled. "You know most of it already. But I'll say the three main things again. Number one: it takes me so long to make a decision on anything, I can overthink everything. Number two: I struggle to deal with other people getting upset and not having any power over fixing whatever is making them upset. Number three: this is the one that might not have been so obvious so far but I hate the fact that it takes me so long to eat, so slow down if we're having a meal together." He joked.

"Noted. But can we please get back to the Salsa now?" she asked.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes, before getting up and getting ready to get going as he was now confident that Dianne was alright.

They danced for a little while, laughing at each other's mistakes rather than getting stressed. They were enjoying themselves and after their conversation were simply focused on having the most fun possible. This reflected in their dancing, their movements were lighter, and they moved with the excitement of the salsa and now, without his intense concentration face, Joe was smiling. So was Dianne, and the salsa was now something they were happy with for tonight.