Shall We Dance?

Chapter 5 - The Midnight Dance

~ When you see the asterix (like this one *) start the music ~

Hiccup could only stare. Was this Merida or had she been replaced with some goddess? That dress, that hair, that everything - it was so stunning he couldn't even speak. He felt so insignificant standing there in only a suit and bowtie, he wasn't good enough to deserve someone this gorgeous, surely?

"What are you staring at?" Merida laughed. Hiccup could only shake his head until he found his voice.

"You, you look - amazing..."

Merida blushed slightly and smiled.

"Told you," Rapunzel whispered to her as Jack still didn't speak. "Close your mouth Jack, we don't want flies getting in there."

Jack blushed a pale pink and closed his mouth quickly, helping Rapunzel into the taxi. Hiccup offered Merida a hand:

"After you mi'lady."

"Why thank you my good sir," Merida grinned, playing along. They climbed into the taxi and they drove to the venue of the dance. All through the relatively short journey Hiccup and Jack couldn't take their eyes off of Rapunzel and Merida. They just looked so - different, in a good way. They looked gorgeous.

They arrived and they could already hear music being played from where they were outside. Hiccup paid the taxi driver after he refused to let Merida pay; they presented their tickets and walked inside.

A blast of Olly Murs hit them as they walked in:

Everybody cries -

But not today. Not today. Cos I won't let ya.

Everybody dies -

But not today. Not me. Cos I've never been better.

Ooh - I've never been better... 

The song was drawing to a close though, however a new one came up almost instantly. Avril Lavigne boomed out of the speakers as Rapunzel and Merida screamed.

"I LOVE THIS ONE!" 

They all ran to the dance floor, smiling as wide as the Grand Canyon. They yelled the lyrics, stomping their feet to the drum beats that flowed through them and coursed through their veins:

Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs,

With the boombox blaring as we're falling in love,

Got a bottle of whatever but it's getting us drunk,

Singing 'Here's To Never Growing Up'...

They collapsed after an hour of hardcore dancing, Rapunzel and Jack started kissing on a sofa a little further away. Merida took out her phone and snapped a photo while Hiccup tried hard not to laugh. She stowed it away in her bag and grinned at him. Hiccup could only smile weakly back. How could one girl get so beautiful in the space of one evening? Not that she wasn't pretty already, but how was it possible to get any better?

"Why are you staring at me?" Merida asked, smiling.

"Because," Hiccup started, then gathered his confidence and said what he had to say. "Because you're beautiful."

Merida blushed beet red and waved him off like he was being silly.

"Stop lying. I know I'm not -"

"No," Hiccup said, taking her hand and enclosing it with both of his own. "You are."

They sat there in silence for a few moments, then a new song came up, one by P!nk that they both knew.