The King's Dancer

Chapter 9

Xie Lian was highly aware of the king's presence the moment he opened the door, even though he kept his eyes closed, and his body still. He heard the king pause, before he properly entered the room. Xie Lian listened to his steps until the king stopped where he remembered the divan being located. He heard the sound of him sitting down, and could feel himself becoming increasingly nervous.

There was a long stretch of silence, during which Xie Lian could positively feel the man staring at him, before the king finally said "begin", and the music started playing.

In order to gauge the music first, Xie Lian didn't start right away. Instead he let it play for a few beats until he was sure that this slow tempo was what the piece was really going to be like, before he finally opened his eyes and started moving. He forced himself not to look at the king for now, and instead tried to immerse himself in the dance.

He still didn't quite know what exactly he was doing when it came to dancing, but thanks to the Guoshi's efforts, he at least knew how to move in some ways. He danced with much less bum shaking than Miss Fang had taught him, and instead focused on moving as gracefully as he could, even when lifting his leg or twirling. When he felt like he was halfway through the dance, he allowed himself a glimpse at the king, but only for long enough to take note of his expression as well as his clothes.

His expression didn't tell him much; if Xie Lian had to describe it, he would say it was relaxed. His clothes were all black, and slightly more decent than usual, with a comparatively small part of his stomach exposed.

Xie Lian didn't have any trouble at all catching his eye this time, for obvious reasons, but he decided he was going to pretend to be extra shy today. After all, he was an omega, and the king was an alpha, and this was the king's entertainment room. Who knew what sort of wicked plans the alpha had for this unassuming omega?

Xie Lian thought this was a good start for the narrative he wanted to go with in his head, while he danced. Starting as a shy omega and developing into a confident one would be his theme of the evening, he decided.

Eventually the music came to a stop, and Xie Lian paused, closed his eyes, and waited for the music to start up again, or to be dismissed.

Everything was silent for a few long moments, and only Xie Lian's slightly laboured breathing could be heard inside the room. It was wearing on Xie Lian's nerves a little bit, if he was honest.

Eventually however, the king spoke.

"Gege, why won't you look at me?", he asked in a deep voice, and almost sounded cranky.

Xie Lian opened his eyes then, and looked at the slightly displeased king.

"One more dance. Look at me this time."

Xie Lian inclined his head slightly, and kept his eyes on him. The king's request didn't quite fit his intended narrative yet, but he figured he was still allowed to look away from time to time. Which he did, somewhat often. Xie Lian could tell that, whenever he looked away from the king, he started frowning, and the longer he didn't look back, the deeper the frown became. Once Xie Lian had noticed it, it was hard to suppress his laughter. He managed it though, and enjoyed teasing the king like this for the whole duration of his dance.

When Xie Lian was done with the second dance as well, the king sighed.

"Come over here, sit", the king said, and Xie Lian figured being a private dancer wasn't as easy as Mei NianQing had made it out to be, and his whole job did not simply consist of being 'easy on the eyes'.

At least Xie Lian had a little bit of practice when it came to talking to the king.

So he walked over and knelt on the floor, since it had worked out rather well for him last time he'd done it. He positioned himself right next to the one leg the king had hanging off of the divan, before he hesitantly looked up at him. After all, he wasn't sure if this was still going to be a part of his performance, but he decided to stay in character for now.