To date, Bragi was the only person to ever see her withing glare, and Idun now realized this was only because her mind had no other way of reacting to the groundbreaking realizations of her heart. She loved him even then, but glaring was the mask she hid behind, keeping out of Bragi's sight and her own. She tried to give him a withering glare, but what she mustered up probably wouldn't have frightened a chipmunk. Idun knew she failed, but she didn't care. It was only because Idun already knew she'd keep reminding him that she was unsuccessful, anyway. "You are a terrible liar." Overlooking the way he'd fooled her about that whole Jondi thing, of course.
Once she abandoned all hope of glaring him into some sort of submission, Idun was able to properly appreciate the feel of his hands laced behind her back. It would've been very easy to just start swaying. The music would've caught up to their dancing eventually. His arms were already in a very nice place for it, after all. But they were talking. They had all the time in the worlds to dance. Bragi looked impossibly attractive when he was pondering things. That was distracting. Idun swallowed back a content sigh and chuckled softly instead. "Well, I look forward to the results of your consideration."
Something changed. Idun noticed a few scattered notes beginning to pick up through the tavern. It seemed very different to Bragi. As she listened, she glanced his way and couldn't help but watch as the sounds presumably washed over him. His eyes were suddenly brighter. His smile was more impressive. Everything about him seemed to breathe life, and Idun was smiling privately without realizing. He grinned and she was caught staring, but it didn't matter. Idun was allowed to stare now. He was the god of her heart. The title came with staring perks.
She laughed when he told her to hold on and then vanished into the crowd. Bragi could disappear like he was born to do so. It would've been frustrating if he didn't always come back. Instead of frustrating, it just ended up being exciting. When Bragi returned, he was carrying an instrument and Idun finally let out that sigh. It took a moment before she realized what he was saying, and then her eyes widened and her lips spread into a smile.
It wasn't that he was asking her to dance. That was an easy request to fill. Idun loved to dance. It was their conversation. It felt like decades and decades had passed, but it wasn't truly all that long ago. The dance was meant to mark a victory, a moment of gloating because Idun had shown she was right. Bragi had found his home. That was why Idun had to reveal her victory dance. There was a shocking warmth that blossomed from her heart and fanned out, little tendrils of heat touching every part of her as she breathed in what he was saying, what he was revealing.
Home wasn't a place for Bragi, just as Idun had suggested. Bragi's home was a person. It was her.
When the warmth reached her smile, Idun couldn't help but laugh. Her chest ached in the most beautiful way imaginable and it was all because of the god telling her to dance as he took all the jumbled notes and brought them together with the addition of his instrument. She closed her eyes for a moment, just feeling the sound, and then she looked at him and started to dance. Idun barely moved beyond a gentle sway, but feeling the music like she was feeling it, it made it impossible not to breathe for the rhythm.
She wasn't content dancing alone. Not when he was in plain sight, not when she already knew what his arms felt like circled around her waist. Spinning playfully, Idun twirled until she was right in front of him, then she covered his hands with her own and slowly removed the instrument from his grasp. She pushed it into the hands of a passing skald, and then moved into Bragi's arms. The swaying continued, but her hand held his now as her other rested on his shoulder. This felt right. It felt better than dancing alone ever could. In his arms, touching him, moving with him, it felt more like victory than anything else in the worlds.
"You owe me a dance too. I've decided," she informed him, grinning all the while.