The Love That Bonds Us

Chapter 14 : Can You Feel The Love

IDUNA

"I like it." Agnarr's voice was low and his eyes sparkled mischievously.

I opened my mouth to retort, but found the words lost on my tongue. Instead, all I could do was stare at him stupidly.

He gave a laugh, straightened and took my hand again, placing his other on my waist, and gently pulling me close again.

My breathing shallowed.

"Arendelle." he said it wistfully, as if testing the way it sounded, "Hmm. Clever."

"I am known for my wit." I managed to say, slowly recovering.

He grinned down at me.

"And what's with the Waltz?" I asked, slipping my hand out of his to spin in a little more playful fashion to his traditional ballroom, "This is a party after all."

He just shrugged, "I'm better at those kinds of dances. All that Royal conditioning kicking in."

"Not knowing how to dance?" I was aghast, and immediately hopped back into my ordinary self, "How do you get by without knowing how to dance?"

He laughed again, "Quite easily. Say, you couldn't teach me a more casual dance, could you?"

For a moment, I froze. Of course I knew some dances, but they were all Northuldran. I wondered if I could risk teaching him one and simply play it off like a dance from my home country, seeing as he thought I was foreign. But I didn't know where he'd travelled to and what dances he would have already seen.

"Umm. Well. There is this one that is native to where I come from." I stumbled over my words a little, but was still able to keep a confident expression.

Agnarr watched as I performed the dance.

It was quite an old one, but whenever the harvest came around, we would always hold a celebration and dance this dance. It was all about new birth and growth, and often the 6-year-old's would start it.

I had a very fond memory attached to the dance actually. It had been my turn to start it, along with Iona, Calda, Emory, Igor, Asta and the other children our age. My mother had been teaching me the dance so I wouldn't mess it up, but I'd been so excited that when the time came I forgot my timing. I would have been rather embarrassed if it wasn't for Iona doing the same thing for my sake. And that was how we became such close friends.

In fact, I became so immersed in the dance, from the fluid movements to the memories it awoke, that I completely forgot I had an audience. It wasn't until I finished and took my curtsey (the dance always ended with a bow or curtsey) that I remembered Agnarr had been watching me. A few other people around us had also stopped to watch, and I grinned at them despite the hammering of my heart.

"That was beautiful." Agnarr said wistfully.

"Thank you." I said, rather shyly.

Someone whistled then and distant giggling was heard; Agnarr whipped his head around and frowned when his eyes fell on the culprits. I turned too and saw Arianna, Nuru-Baako and Frederic watching us with broad grins and teasing eyes.

Agnarr rolled his eyes and took my hand, dragging me off through the crowd saying, "Sorry about them. They clearly don't have any sense of privacy."

A hand hid my laugh - he'd been doing the exact same thing to Arianna and Frederic earlier. "Why are you so concerned?"

He stopped for a moment, before trudging on even faster, "I'm not concerned, it's just common knowledge. Right?"

"Oh yes, indeed." I humoured him, he probably needed it. "Where are we going?"