DANDELION || Nikolai Lantsov

15. DANCE PRACTISE

"Well, you know if it, so I guess you're my accomplice now."

Aneela laughed as she turned and then faced him. "I do not remember agreeing to it, Your Highness."

"The matchmaking isn't easy, I need somebody on the inside to get Kheru on track with it," he disagreed with a grin. "I can peruse Tolya but I need your help with Kheru."

"Oh, now you need my help with her?" She chuckled. "And what's in it for me?"

"You get to spend even more time in my glorious company."

That made her laugh again. I love it when she laughs, she seems so genuinely happy, her joy is radiating and gives me comfort immediately. "Well, in that case ... I can hardly decline." She added before she turned again, facing away from him as she changed to his other side when he took a step to make room for her at his right. "I just hope your plan is not going to fail – Otherwise Kheru will hate us forever."

"Us?" He grinned, causing her to bite another grin away as she shook her head at him once again. "All we can do is to gently guide her to her happiness and if it doesn't work out, that's alright as well. She deserves to be in a good relationship, filled with love and compassion and I have a feeling that Tolya can provide that for her. But if it that's not what either of them want, then so be it."

"And what if he isn't interested in her the way she is in him?"

"Have you never noticed how good his posture suddenly gets when she shows up in the room? Always a proud look on his face, standing strong like a Saint when she approaches him. How he quickly looks away when their eyes meet because he can't bare looking into her eyes without drowning in them? He is the first one to help her out if she can't think of a word in ravkan. And he is a hopeless romantic like Kheru."

"And they both love their poetry," Aneela added. "Never forget about that."

"How can I?"

When she turned back around, he could hardly breath because of how she looked at him. Her eyes were sparkling with joy, her skin seemed to glow, and she had the biggest smile on her lips, he had ever seen. Seeing how she enjoyed herself and them dancing was made his heartbeat faster. Both of them had forgotten the world around them, they only existed together with the music around them.

"Alright, it seems like the attraction goes both way," she laughed. "Your plan sounds a little bit too good, my dear cupid."

Nikolai couldn't resist but to laugh as well. "Matchmaking is only one of my many good qualities."

Now he needed to turn and aligned himself with her, taking her other hand across her body as they faced the other dancing pairs. As soon as they stood in this figure, all heads were turned into the other direction, focusing either on the face of their partners or staring over their shoulders while continuing to dance. Nikolai didn't miss the death stares of the bachelorettes that had been directed towards Aneela just a second ago.

"They do look adorable together." Aneela noted, not paying attention to the ladies in the room and Nikolai followed her eyes when they made a turn together.

Tolya and Kheru were dancing across the room – or were trying to – they were both not sure with the steps. They were awkwardly laughing as they kept looking at the ground, watching their feet move but they kept talking throughout the whole experience.

"Oh no, he's going to ruin their moment." Aneela mumbled as she noticed Master Bellatrant quickly making his way over to them, a narrow line was between his brows. "No, that was so cute, he can't interfere just because they don't know the steps! Doesn't he have eyes!"

"For one, he doesn't have any empathy and now we need to pray for them; He might not leave them alive – they just messed up the double turn, that's his favourite step."

"How about you safe her and I him?" She suggested.

Nikolai nodded heavily. "Good call."

They let go off each other and quickly made their way across the room towards the fuming Master Bellatrant. Nikolai had his troubles to calm the little man down but eventually, he got himself with Kheru back on the dancefloor. Tolya and Aneela were close by, turning around the other couples in big circles – his guard never had been the best dancer and Aneela had troubles to keep up with his huge steps.

Kheru kept on talking about the difficult dance steps but at the moment, Nikolai couldn't listen because him and Aneela exchanged quick looks of reassurance here and there before they were turning away from each other again. When she held his gaze, Nikolai could tell how she zoned out of the room and was only focusing on him.

And all he could do then, was to smile dreamingly at her.