Alex was really starting to enjoy Sunday Tango at Trocution lately. First she went with her grandfather and had an amazing time, and now Danny had suggested it and she simply couldn’t say no to it again. She needed to let out all the stress she had been building up that week after deciding to talk to Brent and break things off. She knew she had done the right thing, even if she felt like shit sometimes. Being a responsible adult sucked certain times.
She gave everything she got at Trocution, even if she still had no idea how to tango. But she wasn’t there to properly learn how to dance, she was there to have a great time. Learning how to tango was just a plus.
“My feet hurt so much... But in a good way,” she sighed with a small laugh as the two of them made their way back to Alex’s place after Sunday Tango.
Danny glanced down at the heels Alex was wearing and smiled. He realised that his cheeks were beginning to ache from all the smiling he’d done that evening. Neither of them had known how to tango and, although it hadn’t been the effect he’d been aiming for when he’d suggested they go out for an evening of dancing, they’d spent most of the night laughing and stepping on each other’s feet.
“I hope I didn’t have too much to do with that hurtin’” he replied with a soft chuckle, although he felt sure she’d been talking about her soles. “I had no idea tango would be so complicated.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I could say the same thing. Sorry I stepped so much on your feet,” she looked at him and smiled. She didn’t remember stepping on Dede’s feet so many times when they were there. But oh well, at least they had a great time. Alex’s stomach hurt from all the laughing. And she was pretty sure the tango instructors didn’t want to see them again in a long time after they had to shush them so many times.
“I had a lot of fun. Thanks for taking me,” she said, nudging him lightly with her arm. “You got some moves in you.”
Danny looked self-consciously down at his feet, although he couldn’t quite hide the smile spreading out across his face. He and Rafe had taught themselves to dance in one of his daddy’s barns when they’d been about seventeen or so and found themselves earning enough money to go out into Memphis of an evening.
“Being able to dance is kinda expected of a fellow in my time,” he told Alex, lifting his chin to look up at her with a bashful grin. “Rafe was always a lot better than me, though. I’ve got two left feet.”
“I love the music from your time. And the dance moves,” she commented. “Much better than the ones in my time, trust me.”
Then she had an idea. Maybe he wasn’t up for it, but there was no harm in trying. “I had an idea, Mr-Two-Left-Feet.” she teased lightly. “Why don’t you teach me how you dance in your time and I’ll teach you how not to step on anyone’s toes when dancing.” Not that she was a master at not stepping on people’s feet, but whatever. “And together we’ll learn how to tango, because that’s clearly not our forte, but it’s a lot of fun,” she ended with a small laugh. Yes, it was probably an excuse to spend more time with him and be close, literally, but could you blame the girl?
Danny’s eyebrow rose in amusement as he quietly considered her proposal. He was surprised by how much he liked the idea of spending more time with Alex. It was something that had always surprised him. He felt almost ashamed of his heart for being so fickle, so ready to open itself up to someone new so soon after losing Evelyn.
Still, the cold, hard truth was that he was never going to see Evelyn again. She had lived and he had died. Rafe was going to be a father to their son and live the life he always should have done if he hadn’t gone to join that damn Eagle Squadron. Pining after her wasn’t going to help him adjust to his new life in Atlantis. He had to find a way to move on somehow, even if that meant just putting her out of his mind. He knew he would always love her but he had to try to stop missing her.
Danny stopped walking, a strange, determined look crossing his face.
“Okay,” he replied. “Let’s do it.”
They were in the middle of the street, beside the pond, which twinkled reflections of the lights from the city and the surrounding housing, but that didn’t deter Danny. If they were going to do this, why wait? With a polite, little dip of his head, he offered Alex his hand to dance.
Her brows furrowed a little when he stopped walking, giving him a curious look. She was about to say if he didn’t want to they could just forget it, when he agreed, which made her smile. “Okay,” she nodded.
She started to take a step forward to keep walking toward her house, thinking they would do it the following day or maybe the following weekend. But then he dipped his head and offered her his hand and Alex felt like she was melting. Literally. Could that be any more romantic?
Her lips curled in a grin, her cheeks turning pink. She took his hand and placed the other on his shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled softly. “Wait a sec.” She grabbed her phone with her free hand and in a matter of seconds, music was playing for the two of them.
Danny laughed as Alex started the music playing from her device. It hadn’t even occurred to him to do that.
“I was gonna try to hum something,” he told her. “But this is a much better idea.” It certainly created a much nicer mood than he ever could have. He recognised the song that was playing too, slow and steady, although he couldn’t put his finger on the name or the artist, but it did make him feel a little more sure of himself.
He guided her hand into the right position on his shoulder before dropping his own hand to her waist. He took a steadying breath as he stepped close to her, adjusting his hand in hers so that they fit together just right. They’d been standing close to each other all evening but this felt different. He ran his tongue over his lips, trying to moisten them.
“Now, just follow my lead,” he murmured in a low voice. He realised that the humour had dropped away from the situation and had heel replaced with a kind of charged tension. “I’m gonna move my right foot first, your left, towards you.”
“That would’ve made this a scene straight from ’The Notebook’,” she murmured, thinking of the scene where Noah and Allie danced while Noah hummed the tunes.
Danny gave her a quizzical look and, realizing that he had probably no idea what she was talking about, she shook her head lightly. “Never mind. We’ll watch it sometime.”
She swallowed and bit her bottom lip, feeling her heart beating a million times faster than a couple of seconds ago. They were close. Very close. And even though they had been this close during the tango lessons, now the situation felt different. There was no laughter. No one was stepping on anyone’s feet. It was intimate.
She looked at him and nodded, moving with him, letting him guide her. “Like this?”
Danny nodded and smiled as they began to move together in time with the music, lowering his chin so his eyes could flicker between her face and their feet. Eventually, though, when he was sure she had the hang of it, he closed the rest of the distance between them until his cheek was next to hers. He had never danced with Evelyn like this; he had never danced with anyone like this, cheek to cheek, beneath the stars.
Alex was pretty sure she had never danced like that in her life, so close to him, feeling his even breathing as they moved to the rhythm of the music. It was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her.
She rested her cheek on his and closed her eyes, closing even more whatever distance was still between them. She relaxed in his arms, letting him move her wherever he wanted.
She knew she had said she would be okay if nothing happened between them, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t want to kiss him right there. But she held back, not wanting to ruin the moment by being too forward.
Eventually, as one song faded into another, Danny lifted his chin and pulled back a little so he could look down into Alex’s face. Something had definitely changed between them since the last time he’d been in Atlantis. They had been friends before but this wasn’t the way you acted with your buddy. He felt nervous and he could feel his heart beating fast. He wasn’t like Rafe, he never knew the right things to say, but he did know how to listen to what his body was telling him and when to act on instinct. Now was one of those times. He swallowed hard, then dipped his head to press his lips to hers.
Alex had been so comfortable with her cheek against Danny’s, listening to the music and moving to the slow rhythm of it, she had almost forgotten they were dancing in the middle of the street. It wasn’t until Danny lifted his chin that she came out of the little trance she was in.
She looked up at him, her heart beating faster again. She could kiss him. It’d be so easy; just stand on her tiptoes a little and press her lips against his. But something stopped her again. She didn’t want to go too fast and scare him away. So she just swallowed and watched him.
When he leaned in, Alex closed her eyes and waited for their lips to touch. Her heart almost exploded inside her chest when they did. She returned the kiss, the hand on his shoulder grasping his shirt as she tried to make the kiss last as long as possible.
Alex filled every one of Danny’s senses as he kissed her. That was a good thing. There were all sorts of conflicting emotions that jostled for dominance inside him, and not all of them good, but he couldn’t focus on anything but her, the softness of her lips, the scent of her perfume, the rise and fall of her chest against him. He held her close and breathed her in as his lips moved against hers. Eventually, though, he lifted his head, his dark-lashed eyes fluttering open to study her expression.
She didn’t want the kiss to end. She wanted his lips against hers forever, the feeling of his arm around her waist keeping her close to him, the warmth of his body against hers keeping her from feeling too chilly that night. But eventually the kiss came to an end and Alex looked at him, licking her bottom lip, his taste still lingering there.
She smiled at him and leaned up to press another kiss to his lips, shorter but a little more intense than the first they shared.
Danny was a little taken aback but the shock was short-lived and he responded quickly, before the kiss ended. His hand, which had held hers while they’d danced, moved to join its pair at her waist, holding her against him. He could feel her body pressing into the tender parts of his torso where the fresh scar tissue had formed over his wounds but, far from being uncomfortable, it felt good - a reassurance that he was alive.
His eyes met hers hungrily when they broke apart, his flushed lips parted slightly. He forced himself to take a deep breath.
“You know, I’m about as good with words as I am at tango dancing but…” He paused, trying to collect his thoughts. “I just wanted to say, uh, I like you.” He pressed his lips together in an embarrassed smile. “If that wasn’t obvious already.”
Alex couldn’t help but chuckle and grin at his words. God, he was so damn adorable sometimes. “It was pretty obvious, yeah,” she chuckled, teasing lightly. One of her hands played unconsciously with the collar of his shirt as she looked at him. “I like you too. Like, a lot,” she said. “I feel like the luckiest girl on earth right now,” she admitted, smiling at him.
Danny felt a warmth radiating through him. His chest rose and fell slowly as his gaze danced over her face. She wasn’t Evelyn and she didn’t make him feel the way he’d felt when he was with her but this… this was nice. Really nice.
The second song came to an end as they stood looking at each other and the one it was replaced with had a more upbeat, Swing beat. Danny chuckled and looked down, breaking eye contact with Alex and disengaging from her to run a hand over his face.
“This might be a dance for Lesson Two.”
She felt a small shiver run up and down her spine when he moved away from her, suddenly feeling the cold weather of the night. “I look forward to it,” she said with a small wink and a smile before she turned the music off on her phone.
She grabbed his hand and pulled at him lightly, motioning him to move with her toward they destination. “Come on, my ass is starting to freeze a little,” she chuckled. She linked her arm around his and leaned lightly against him for a moment. It felt nice. So nice.