Who: Minato and Hannah What: Dance Lessons When: Mid/Late August Where: The Dance Studio that Minato works at Rating/Warnings: Status: Complete
Minato was excited to spend more time with Hannah. He'd enjoyed their last date, and he was looking forward to seeing how this one went. He worried, if not for the first time, that she might not like it or find it comfortable. Still, Minato was determined to make sure that she had a good time and maybe afterward they could head out to get some ice cream or something.
His classes had gone well for the day, although they were over with by the time Hannah was supposed to be there. Minato was just cleaning up the studio space when he heard a light tapping at the door frame. His friend was standing there, a brow quirked up at him as she told him that there was a young lady waiting at the front desk for him.
Minato laughed, moving past her and then made his way toward the front desk. He greeted Hannah with a bright smile, "Hey," he walked over to her, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek, "It's good to see you."
Hannah had been entirely uncertain what you were supposed to wear to dance lessons. Movies were a bit uncertain about these things. Either you wore dresses or yoga pants...or short shorts. Sometimes sweatpants. She’d opted for a pair of comfortable shorts and a tank top. On top of that, she was anxious about the dancing portion of things and even more so about being somewhere she didn’t know, but she forced herself not to act like she was. Especially when she had to ask someone if they knew where she could find Minato.
The moment that he showed up, she felt a little less anxious. Even though they hadn’t known each other for that long, she at least knew him. It made it easier to be in strange places with other people. When he kissed her cheek, however, she felt her whole face heat up, her ears and cheeks being the hottest parts. “Hey,” she replied, hoping that blushing did not make her the biggest loser ever. “It’s good to see you, too. How are you?”
A light smile tugged up one corner of his mouth at her blush, and he personally thought it was cute. "I'm doing well." Minato replied with a small nod. So far his day had gone according to plan, he'd enjoyed his classes, and well, he had no complaints. "My classroom is this way." He tipped his head in the direction that he'd come from, and took a few steps back.
"So," he started as he turned to start toward his classroom, "how are you doing, Hannah?" He knew that she'd been having a hard time of it with her dreams, and he hoped that they had calmed down for her to some degree at the very least.
“That’s good,” she replied, following after him and looking around at the rooms as she walked past them. She’d never taken lessons on dancing before. She’d played tennis before, but that was about as much as she did. She was good at tennis, she had the awards to prove it, but she hadn’t really played nearly as much now that she was older.
“Oh. I’m okay. I’ve probably bought a lot of school supplies that weren’t strictly necessary, but my parents sort of insisted on helping me get them, so I guess I took a leaf from Josh’s book and let them buy more things than I needed.” She didn’t mention the dreams because she didn’t honestly know what to do with them. It wasn’t really something she entirely understood except that whoever Mike was, he probably wasn’t worth even half the effort she put into trying to get his attention.
Pushing the door to his classroom open, Minato held it open for her and chuckled. "Well, I can't say that I blame you. Besides," he offered her a grin, "you never know you might need those supplies at some point even if you don't need them now." Minato figured it was better to have things and not need them, than to need them and not have them.
Stepping into the classroom, Minato took a glance around. There were mirrors on one side, the walls were painted gray with graffiti art in various colors decorating them. That had been his friend's idea, and she'd asked someone she knew to do the art on the walls. Minato liked it, thought that it added a little bit of flare to the room. "So, we can start with something slow like a waltz, or if you'd rather learn a few quicker steps we can do that. Whatever you want to try."
“True. It’s definitely better to be safe than sorry.” She wasn’t sure she’d need everything she got, but it wasn’t like her parents would miss the money even if she didn’t use it. There was always a chance someone would need it and then she’d be able to give it to someone else if she had to. “Plus, they won’t miss any of the money they spent. And I don’t ask for much usually.”
She looked around the room as they walked inside and took in the graffiti art. It wasn’t something that she’d ever seen indoors, but it did make the gray walls a little less gray. “We should probably start slow. I am pretty sure my dancing might need a moment to get to quicker steps.”
That was something Minato could understand, which was why he took to practicing his jutsu's every day so that he could master them. The one that he could not seem to get down was the Rasengan, but it made sense considering it had taken him three years to complete it. Maybe one day he'd manage.
With a chuckle, Minato gave a nod of his head. "We can do that." A basic waltz would probably be easiest, and it was something that she could use at those parties her parents had. "I think starting with a waltz to get your feet used to moving in a certain pattern would be good." He walked over to the laptop that sat in the corner, queueing up the playlist for after he taught her the basics of it. "Since I'm leading," he started as he moved back to where Hannah stood, "for you it'll be forward, together, right, together, back, together, left, together." As he spoke the movements he showed them to her, his moves slow. His moves would be opposite hers whenever they started dancing together, but for now he wanted her to feel comfortable with what she was doing before he added himself into the mix.
A waltz. At least she’d heard of that before. She’d seen it in some movies, too. Most of them were Jane Austen novel adaptations, but she didn’t think that changed anything. She watched as he moved, very slowly trying to mimic the actions as he moved. She had no idea what to do with her arms, so she felt a little awkward, but she hoped that she wasn’t making too much of a mess of it. Though, that hope was dashed when she nearly tripped on herself. Her face felt hot and she cleared her throat. “As terrible as I remembered. And this isn’t even that complicated.”
Reaching out, Minato helped to steady her, a light smile on his face. "I think you're just overthinking it. Here," he placed her hand on his arm and took her other hand in his holding them up, "just follow my lead, and don't worry if you step on my toes. I promise, it's fine." Minato thought she would do just fine especially if he helped lead the way. Well, maybe. Even if this didn't work out there were plenty of things that he also teach her. "Forward, together, right, together…" he repeated the words, slowly doing his own footwork as the music played.
Hannah felt her face grow even more hot when her hand was moved and he took her hand in his. It was incredibly embarrassing, but she guessed that was her life: incredibly embarrassing. “Okay,” she replied, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. Even if he said it was okay if she stepped on his feet, Hannah knew that she'd feel guilty. She took a breath as they started to move again. It was a little easier with him there, but she still winced when she stepped on his feet. “Sorry.”
Minato kept his eyes on her face as they moved, knowing that if she did step on his toes it would hurt but at least she wasn't wearing heels. He winced when it happened, clearing his throat before laughing softly. "It's okay. Really. I used to dance ballet, my toes have been through a lot." Minato knew that he could never make a career out of being a ballet dancer, mostly due to his height, but he'd trained just as hard as the rest of them and proven that he could keep up. Modern dance had been his true passion, and he'd taken everything that Juilliard had to offer in that regard and supplemented with dance classes from other places during his downtime. "Just take a deep breath," Minato removed his hand from her waist and reached down into his pocket. Pushing a few buttons on his phone, the speakers in the room came to life with music. Come Away with Me started and Minato repositioned his hand. "You've got this." Music sometimes helped, and he hoped that this might be the case as he started moving again.
“You did ballet?” It probably shouldn’t have been surprising. Men did ballet. She knew that. She just hadn’t known that about him. She glanced down at his feet for a moment before looking back up at his face. When he told her to breathe, she nodded and took in a breath, letting it out slowly. “I’ve never done any kind of dance. Just tennis. I’m really good at tennis.” She had the trophies to prove it. But she didn’t really do as much tennis these days. She should probably start up again.
The music started and and Hannah smiled a little. “I like this song.” When they started to dance again, Hannah tried to focus on the music as well as the steps. It wasn’t so bad. She still felt a little shuffled, but she hadn’t stepped on his toes...yet. She hoped it wouldn’t happen again.
Minato nodded, "I've studied a lot of different dance techniques. I also attended Juilliard, their primary focus is in ballet. It would've just been harder for me to make an actual career out of ballet due to my height." It was fine with him though, he could still teach classes if his friend wanted him to, and apparently she did. Maybe he would teach a beginners class at some point, but for now, he was focusing on his hip-hop classes. "We'll have to play one day, but I think we've already talked about that." If memory served him correctly they had talked about it.
"I do too, and it's good for a waltz." He could feel that she was a bit stiff, and he thought she was probably focusing on her movements too much. "I think you're doing well, by the way. Just let the music run through you."
“Oh. I didn’t realize that was something that stopped people.” It seemed such a strange thing, that height factored into it, but she guessed that it wasn’t the strangest thing. If movies were anything to go by. She smiled when he mentioned playing tennis. “I’d really like to. We probably did, but sometimes my mind doesn’t keep all of that in my head. I’d say I’d go easy on you, but I’m probably going to be accidentally brutal, so I probably shouldn’t make any promises.” She was really bad at not doing her best at the things she was able to do well. Plus, if he’d ever played before, it shouldn’t be too bad. Maybe.
“That makes sense. Sort of. Just the...I guess I can tell because of how easy it is to move with it? I don’t know if that makes sense or is even right.” Even if she wasn’t really effortlessly moving with him. “That is...I don’t know if I know how to do that. But I’ll try.” And she was trying to just focus on the music and not the possibility that she was going to step on his feet...or the fact that she had no idea what she was doing. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes in an effort to block out everything else. But once the song was over, she felt herself stumble forward, fingers instinctively holding tighter. “Oops. Sorry.”
"Well, sometimes the casting notes call for certain things. Mikhail Baryshnikov was only 5'6" and he's amazing. I could've taken a shot at it, but it wasn't my real passion. Hip-hop was my first love." It was easy enough for Minato to say that, he'd fallen in love with dancing from the first time he saw dancers at his school and had never looked back. "That's okay, it's hard to remember everything especially when you've got a lot going on." Chuckling, Minato gave a small tip of his head in her direction. "That's fine with me. I'll do my best." He wasn't sure how well he'd do, but he was willing to try.
"No, that makes a lot of sense actually. It's the timing of the music with the waltz. So it makes sense." The song was slow enough to where they didn't have to rush things, and Minato was thankful for that. They could move on to different things eventually, and he was sure that things would be fine. Eventually. He gripped her tight as she stumbled forward, smiling a little. "It's okay. You'll get it. It just takes time like everything else." He shifted slightly, "Want to go for another song?"
She nodded at his explanation. It made sense. She probably wouldn’t choose something she didn’t enjoy entirely. Even if it was in the same sort of playing field as what she wanted to do. At least not forever. “I wish I knew who you were even talking about, but I know so little about dancing or people that dance.” But it was probably because dancing had never really been an interest. She knew tennis players and geologists that made incredible discoveries, but that’s because those were her hobbies. “It’s a lot of fun, but sometimes doubles is easier than singles. It really depends on how you play and how good you are at it. But then doubles can be difficult when you aren’t in sync with your partner.”
She looked up at him, glad that he’d been able to hold onto her even when she was hideously clumsy. She was going to force Josh to practice with her until she got it down. At least he already knew she was embarrassing, so he’d only sort of tease her. She’d just have to punch him in the arm if he laughed too much. “Yeah. Another song would be good.”