Is it Dating or a Date?

A valentine's dance with a date was something Linette had not pictured happening to her. It was something of an achievement in her opinion and she was extremely proud of her date. During the summer, when shopping with her mother, and feeling rather embarrassed and uncomfortable over the way the woman spoke of dancing with her father at the Valentine's dance Linette hadn't been as excited. She likes being social and in her mind that was exactly what this was. A chance to be social. She hoped what happened to her parents wasn't signs of what was to come between Christian and herself. She wasn't even quite sure if they were dating or just on a date. Maybe tonight that could be cleared up.

She looked around the decorated Hall and the number of sixth and seventh years all dressed up fancily and smiled. Her dress may be second hand but it'd likely only been worn once before and so looked just as elegant as any warn by the other girls in the room. Linette thought the satiny floor length dress was perfectly elegant and she was doing very well in the heels she was wearing having taken her mother's advice on practising in them every day. With the added cushioning charm there will be no blisters for her this night.

Linette smiled up at Christian. "So would you like to take this girl out for a dance on the dance floor?" she asked him. "I've been practising and you can't let all this practise go to waste."

A Valentine's dance was definitely not some place Christian thought he would ever be caught at, but it seemed like that was what was excepted from him as a well known guy. Having a date was something that most people were supposed to have so the Cerisier had asked the only person that he thought would fit that bill. Thankfully she had said yes and he didn't have to think of a plan B, he hadn't thought that far before. Only problem with all of this was now it appeared as if they were dating to everyone else and he wasn't sure if he was ready to go as far as to call it that, heck he wasn't even sure if Linette wanted to call it that either.

Christian had waited at the end of the Cerisier corridor for his beautiful date and escorted her down the stairs to the grand hall. Once inside they came to a breath taking site of the whole hall that had been transformed into an amazing dance hall. "You look beautiful." He said giving his date a once over. He saw that there was already lots of people out on the dance floor, some looked like this was their first time and others seemed perfect, he wondered where he would fit into that. He had been taught at a young age how to dance by his mum, but his last lesson had been when he was eleven and she was still alive. He hasn't danced since so would he be able to remember how?

He would find out soon enough as Linette had just asked him to dance. He bowed and offer her his arm, "Shall we?" He asked with a small smirk. He lead her to the floor nervously hoping he could at least remember something helpful. She had been practicing so she was probably really good but he'd have to lead.

Linette beamed at his complement. No-one had ever told her she looked beautiful before. "Thank you handsome," she replied. This date had started out better than she could have imagined with Christian waiting for her and telling her she looked beautiful. The walk down to the grand hall had been wonderful too. She would not think of her parents in their place who divorced when Linette was eight. This was different. It was just one date. That was all.

She was now going to see if the dancing lessons her father had given her would pay off. He was, after all, a man who probably hadn't danced since his final year at Beauxbatons or maybe his wedding. There she was again, thinking about her parents and what happened after the marriage. It was silly to be thinking of that when she was just having a dance with her 'date' to her first Valentine dance. She followed Christian's lead out to the floor just as her father taught her. Now to see if he followed the rules of dancing the way her father had instructed her. Would he lead in such a way that Linette was not liable to step on his toes?

Christian tried to make himself remember all of the lessons his mum had given him so long ago, and he tried to rush the memories into coming back. Unfortunately that simply didn't happen, maybe it had been too long ago for him to recall all of that, or maybe he was so used to running from memories of his mum he couldn't make himself remember now. With any luck his body simply remembered how it went on its own without the visual from the unobtainable memories or the actions. He lead his date out to the dance floor and turned so they faced each other, he might not know how to dance but he knew the position so he placed his hands on her waist without hesitation.

"Bear with me here." He said quietly with a small smile. It was his form of warning her that this much become a disaster. With that he started moving in time with the music, he started out with some simple movements, forward and backwards and what not. After a few moments he realized that he could handle dancing and started leading them into more than just simple steps. He smiled brightly at the realization that he didn't suck at dancing.

Linette placed her hands on his shoulders as he placed his on her waist. Christian didn't sound very confident about his dancing when he asked her to bear with him. Was he going to step on her feet? Drag her too fast? Whatever the problem was it was bound to be entertaining. Only it wasn't. He was dancing perfectly fine. Not quite the way she was taught with the hand placement but her father was likely very old fashioned. What did she mean likely? He was old fashioned. Linette would have been better off asking her brother but she preferred to have as little contact with him as possible.

"You're not a bad dancer," Linette remarked to Christian with a smile. "In fact I'd go so far as to say you're the best in this room. Look at the rest of them out here on the floor." She found it easy to follow his lead but wondered if it were possible to step a little closer to him without upsetting his rhythm. Maybe not. There were far more important issues to think upon. "Christian," she began, "do you think that perhaps we could..." She paused and shook her head. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to ask now. Wait a little bit.

Christian felt much more at ease once he started to get back into the rhythm of dancing, he started to move more than just small steps forward and backwards. He almost wanted to look down but he knew the first rule in dancing was to not watch ones feet so he stopped at his dates beautiful face and smiled. "I wouldn't say I'm the best in the room, but I'm better than I thought." He said with a crooked grin. "You're pretty graceful yourself." He complimented. The teen guided the two of them through the crowded dance floor and closer to the center of it all thankfully not hitting anymore. They were naturals at this.

Christian considered pulling her closer to him but wasn't sure if she'd be okay with that. He kept all as it was for now not wanting to ruin anything. He looked at her questionably when she started to ask something before pausing and shaking her head. "What is it? You can ask me anything." He said softly meeting her gaze. It wasn't fair to start a question and then end it like that, now he needed to know what she wanted to ask.

"That's me," Linette replied with a smile, "ever graceful on my feet." It wasn't something she'd ever given much thought to before but right now Linette felt more graceful and in tune with the music than she'd ever been before. Maybe it was her dance partner which played a big part in that.

Of course now that she'd started to ask and stopped he wanted to know what she was about to ask. She needed to come up with a different question and fast. Only nothing else was coming. What did she ask him? "Do you think we could date? For real?" That was not the original question. It was worse. Linette was not a naturally shy person lacking in confidence but right at that moment she felt like she wanted the floor to come up and swallow her whole. "Forget I asked. It was..." She trailed off and shrugged. Bad idea. Permanently bad idea and Christian would never want anything to do with her ever again.

Before this dance Christian had never given much thought to how graceful any of his friends might be, aside from being graceful in the sky of course he noted that. He wasn't sure if Linette always was graceful on her feet but she seemed to be at the moment as did he. They hadn't hit anyone or stepped on each others toes yet so they were doing alright in his book.

Christian met his date's gaze trying to decide what it could be she wanted to ask. Thankfully he would have to guess because she had decided to finish the previously cut off question, after a pause for thought. He had never seen the girl at a loss for words but there was a first time for everything. Whatever it was she was about to ask must be something she was very unsure about. He understood her timidness once he heard the question, of course it was on his mind as well. Neither of them were quite sure where the other thought the relationship was at. "I don't know if I'm exactly boyfriend material, I mean I'm sure you could find someone much better." He said a bit shyly himself.

Linette frowned, not certain if Christian was turning her down, or genuinely thought he was not good enough for her. Well in that case she would go for the latter. She'd already gotten the difficult words out. She was not going to continue being afraid of being turned down. "Now who would I find better around here?" she asked in a teasing voice. "The booksniffer or my fellow prefect? Nah. They're both into guys and each other. Maybe that boy over there stepping on that poor girl's toes or..." She trailed off and smiled up at Christian. "You really should test your theory before you make a decision." She dropped her hands from his shoulders and stepped back. "I'll give you five minutes."

Christian knew as soon as the words left his mouth that he probably shouldn't have said them for they weren't what Linette wanted to hear or something he honestly wanted her to hear. He saw her frown at his response and wished he could take it back. She seemed to recover quickly though and started teasing about her other options. She made a good point and he knew that since she was asking she had probably already thought it through and he was just delaying it with his insecurities. She dropped her hands and moved away and he instantly missed her touch. "I don't need five minutes." He said stepping forward to close the gap she had made. "I want to be your man, if you'll still have me." He said hoping his previous insecure statement hadn't made her change her mind about wanting to make things official between them.

It was a gamble but when Christian told her he didn't need five minutes and closed the gap he created it'd paid off. Linette smiled up at him and nodded her approval. She'd been right to trust her instincts. Cowering achieved nothing. "Much better and of course I want you to be my man." She reached up and again placed her hands back on his shoulders where they were before. "To seal the deal we should kiss here in public." Christian did tend to be a private person but again Linette was willing to take a gamble. Besides how many people were looking their way? None was her guess. They'd be too busy looking into each others eyes or arguing.

Christian didn't usually think of himself as anyone of major important to the people around him. He was used to people knowing who he was and liking him, he was even starting to get used to the idea of having close friends that cared about him but this was something entirely different and new to him. He thought he had already screwed it up before it even started but it seemed to be fixed when Linette replaced her hands on his shoulders and seemed happy.

Perhaps if Christian hadn't just about screwed things up he would have paused a moment at her request to seal the deal with a public kiss being mostly private about important things in his life. But he wasn't about to mess it up again, and he was so happy to hear he hadn't been the only one wanting to make this official he didn't even pause for thought. He wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her as close as possible before leaning down and pressing his lips against hers lightly. That was when it hit him that he now had girlfriend and he deepened the kiss happily.