"Shouldn't you be downstairs for this?"

Orion stared down at Culver, who was happily dancing in his arms, absolutely unaffected by their bleak surroundings. He couldn't figure out why on Earth they were even dancing at all, especially at a time when Culver most certainly should have been one floor down, dancing with a lady.

"They're going to be looking for you," Orion tried again. "It's going to cause a stir -"

"My father's here, remember?" Culver finally spoke. "He gets to do the first dance."

"Well, you'll be next."

"Geez, would you stop worrying and just enjoy the moment? And why are we spinning on the spot like mechanical toys?"

"Excuse me for not being in the mood," Orion snapped.

Culver gave a challenging grin. "Step up your game," he said, "or I won't tell you why we're - whoa!"

Orion suddenly spun Culver out, then back in before dipping him in the same movement. The sonata had ended and the music had picked up pace, prompting Orion to switch to a fancy quickstep. Culver whooped in enjoyment as he was guided through a reverse pivot, his head and heart lighter than they had been all day. "Where did you learn this?!" he asked.

"Answer me first," Orion said shortly.

'"Fine." Culver let Orion spin him twice, unable to resist a laugh of enjoyment. "You said you were not strong. Yet you came here, knowing full well how painful it would be."

They both changed direction, smoothly dodging the coffee table. "You said you were capable of no good," Culver continued, "yet you saved my life, even though you were mad at me."

Overwhelmed already, Orion jolted to a stop, but Culver tugged him through a clumsy fishtail that nearly sent both of them flying. "You said you can't get your life back, yet you never stop trying." They paused at the desk by the window, and Culver roughly pushed it out of the way with one leg before resuming dancing. "Six times you tried, and you gave your own dealer away."

"Stop it!" Orion roughly shoved Culver away and turned his back to him. "I wasn't thinking when I did any of those things." Turning a little, Orion gave Culver a deeply apologetic look. "It was all blind impulse," he said, and walked away.

No. No, he cannot leave. "That's the point!" Culver yelled as Orion reached for the door. "If it was all instinctive, it means your strength and goodness is too!"

Orion paused. Culver's words made him look at himself in a new light. He wanted so desperately to believe that there was some vestige of virtue left in him, but his mind kept assaulting him with the faces of every person he had hurt.

"I'd never have come here if it weren't for you," Culver said, his voice lower and thicker. "I always hated it. I didn't want to dance with girls. I didn't want to hear people say how good Miss Something and I looked together. Then my brother died, and I didn't want everyone to say how I had to rise to his standards."

Culver's voice broke, and Orion turned in alarm to find the Prince walking slowly, shakily towards him, face distorted with grief. "I hated...that my sisters weren't around to sympathize with me," he continued, voice quivering. "I hated that my father spent Christmas eve sobbing in his room instead of dancing with my mother. And I hated that all I did was sit on the other side of his door and cry with him."

By then Culver had reached Orion and grabbed the lapels of his tuxedo in anguish. A wistful smile spread across his face, squeezing a couple of tears from his eyes. "And when I finally thought I could be happy again, my precious person was taken away." A bitter laugh escaped him. "I cursed my fate, Orion. I hated it more than anything else in existence. But then I met you, and I saw how you are your own worst enemy yet you keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting."

Stepping away, Culver wiped his eyes and set his jaw. "You inspired me to take my shitty fate by the horns and wrench it to my will," he declared, fiercely. "That is why I'm here with you - because only I get to decide what today means to me and with whom I want to spend it, and I'll be damned if anyone but me decides who I want my first dance with!"

Unable to contain the storm of emotions within him, Orion let out a half-laugh, half-cry and practically swiped Culver into his arms. "Only you," he blurted, crushing the shorter man against him. "Only you!"

Culver laughed too, not knowing exactly why. Maybe he was relieved after saying things he had suppressed for twelve years. Maybe he was simply happy that Orion stayed. Maybe it was both. He didn't care. He simply hugged Orion back as tightly as he could, allowing the last of his tears to soak into Orion's jacket.

"Alright," Orion sniffed after several seconds. "You got me. Well - if it's a first dance you want, the dismal performance so far is no good. Let's go have a first dance you'll never forget."

Something changed between them that night. In the years to come, they both would wonder what it was that made that one dance to a song that didn't even suit it, such a beautiful experience. After all, there was barely enough light in the room for them to see where they were going, the music was but a dull hum filtering up from the vents and floorboards, and they kept colliding into or tripping over something. But to them, that mysterious something made the music swell so it filled the room and the light more than enough to see on each other's faces an expression they would never show to anyone else for the rest of their lives.

Was it even necessary to name that feeling? It was too frightening to be friendship, too nascent to be love - and too precious to be named, for naming it would only give the world something to jinx. All that mattered was that because of it, they were healed a little, freed a little, bolstered a little, so when they left their little haven and faced the world outside, they would be able to smile a little.

The music reached its crescendo, and in time with it, Orion lifted Culver in a giant, splendid arc. In that one moment of weightlessness, gaze locked, heart drumming furiously, chest heaving, Culver felt everything plaguing his heart and soul float away, and suddenly he was free - "WHOOOOOO!" he laughed, throwing his arms in the air.

Orion laughed too, happy that he was still able to bring such joy to someone else. As the last few notes of the song sounded, Orion put Culver down and held him close, swaying gently to the music. "That was amazing," Culver said, placing his head on Orion's chest. "You're a man of your word."

"Mmm?"

"I really won't forget this dance. Ever."

Orion placed his chin on Culver's head and smiled a relieved, grateful smile. "Then I consider tonight a success."

"We should go now...it'll be my turn soon."

"Right."

They both returned to the room with their hearts much lighter than they had ever been since they met. The King ambushed them the moment they set foot in the ballroom. With his right hand he grabbed Culver and shoved him towards the nearest female, and with his left he grabbed Orion's forearm and dragged him to a quiet spot. "Where have you two been?" he demanded.

"Culver came looking for me, but I was already inside and we missed each other. It took a while to find each other and come back. I'm sorry, sir."

"No, no harm done," sighed King James in relief, turning to watch his son dance with a bespectacled octogenarian. "I feared he'd run away."

"He's braver than that," Orion said defensively.

"You're right. He's stronger than I am." The King smiled affectionately. "Maybe even stronger than Caolan."

There it was, that constant comparison Culver couldn't escape. In fact, the name Caolan was distinctly audible in the room as the murmuring audience talked about the dancing Prince, and the smile on said prince's face was growing increasingly tight.

How cruel, Orion pondered, to hate so much a person you love so much, all because the world buried you in your beloved's shadow.

Culver ended the dance in a couple of minutes, quite unlike the long dances traditional of Mevinje, but the age of his partner saved him. He rejoined his father and Orion while rolling his shoulders, all previous brightness gone from his face to be replaced by a frown.

Orion felt a twinge of pain. "That was good," he remarked. "I've never seen a man successfully spin a taller partner."

"It's simple. Just let go - ladies will spin quite gracefully on their own. But God, my shoulders hurt."

"Get used to it," King James said. "You'll be doing this for decades. Fortunately, I can pretend to be old and use my arthritis as an excuse."

"Dad, you are old, and the last time you danced you had gout. The year before that it was athlete's foot, then osteomalacia the year before that, a hip fracture the year before that -"

"Hey! The hip fracture was real!"

"You were dancing an Irish jig on the dining table with Uncle Finn the weekend you used that excuse."

"Gnuh, whatever." Defeated, the King slouched away, mumbling about children who couldn't keep secrets and excessively tall dance partners.

Orion finally released the snort of laughter he'd been holding back. Culver smiled a little, gratified to see him in such a good mood. "I'm sorry, but I have to go too. I have to move around, you know, network, socialize, ask how the holidays have been -"

"Yeah, yeah, rich people stuff." Pulling an expression of disgust, Orion pinched his nose and waved Culver away. "Go on, shoo. You stink of money."

Culver chuckled and left, but not before shoving his hand in Orion's face. The latter contented himself with watching the eccentric, foul-mouthed and endearing Culver he knew transform into the suave politician and businessman the world knew and admired.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Orion almost dropped the glass of wine he'd just taken off a passing tray. Too afraid to turn, he remained frozen stiff. Suddenly, he felt very cold. "Paul," he rasped.

Paul Barron walked around Orion so they were face to face. An elegantly aged man as tall as Orion himself, Paul Barron was the owner of the Memoria and Orion's mentor, the man who had made Orion manager six years ago and who had suspended him after discovering his drug habit. "Answer me," he snapped.

"I...I..." Orion swallowed convulsively, but the lump in his throat only grew larger. Paul had been more of a father to him than his own had ever been, and  he had missed the man terribly these past two years. Seeing him in a place holding his happiest memories was overwhelming to his weakened mind. "Paul, I-"

"Did you go to rehab? Are you clean?"

Orion's heart ached. "No."

"I'd told you not to set foot in this place until you were clean. These are respectable people, this is a respectable establishment! You even went up to the King and the Prince! Do you have no shame?"

"But Paul, I'm their-"

"Don't you dare argue! I protected you from your family, I even held your job for you, and all I asked in return was for you to not cause me trouble by coming here before you'd fixed your addiction. Even that was too much for me to ask?"

"No, Paul, please hear me out. I'm the King's guest. He invited me."

Paul blinked once. He blinked twice. Then his face twisted into a mask of such rage as Orion had never seen before. "You bastard, are you high even now?" he growled.

"What? No!" Orion trembled as he pulled out his phone and held it out. "Look, he even gave me his number. You can ask him, Paul, I'm really not lying -"

"Get out."

"If you'd just -"

"Get out, before I call security." Paul scowled bitterly at Orion as he looked him up and down. "In the suit I gave you. Unbelievable."

Paul not-so-helpfully took the glass Orion was holding and showed him the door. With a broken look that was completely ignored, Orion turned and left, trying not to cry.

He was almost at the street when a hand closed around his wrist. Tiredly, he turned to find Culver standing before him. "Please," he said. "I'm sorry, Culver. Let me go."

"Who was that man? Why was he so angry?" Distraught, Culver grabbed Orion's hand in both of his. "What happened?"

"That was my boss, and he asked me to leave because I hadn't cleaned myself up yet."

"But you came with us!" Now outraged in addition to upset, Culver turned and tried to pull Orion back into the hotel with him, but the latter didn't budge. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Come on! I'll talk to him! You're a guest of the royal family, he can't just -"

"I'm tired, Culver. Please let me go home."

"No!" Culver's desperate cry echoed in the quiet night. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone outside in the wind and cold. "No, you...you have to stay. You'll use if you go home, and what if you overdose? And I -"

"I'm going to go home anyway, and I'm going to use anyway!" Orion jerked his hand out of Culver's and glared at him. "And what's it to you if I overdose?"

"I told you, I want to help you. Is this about my selfish motives again? It's not like that anymore!"

"I know that! It's not so you can feel good about yourself, but it certainly isn't because you care about me!"

Culver stepped back, wounded. "Why...would you say that...after everything..."

"I am nothing but a placeholder to you, Culver. You're the one who said you couldn't leave me alone because of how you felt when someone died two years ago. You think I didn't notice? Every time you look at me, you see him!"

"It can't...Orion, that's not..."

"Then look into my eyes and tell me you don't use my arms to forget the feel of his." Taking one large step towards Culver, Orion grabbed him by the arms. "Every time I say something you like, tell me you don't wish you were hearing it from him."

Culver had fallen silent. He only stood there, his face parallel to the ground, hands clenched into fists. "I don't need to look like him for you to see him in me," Orion continued. "The reason you want to help me - the reason you don't want me to die - is that you don't want to remember what you felt when he died. You want me with you because when I am around, you can forget about him."

Tenderly, Orion wrapped one arm around Culver. With his free hand, he coaxed Culver's face upwards to look at him. The haunting agony in his eyes pierced a hole through his heart. "You're using me to run away from your grief," Orion said. "You're using me as your drug. I don't want that."

"No," Culver whispered. Tears jumped into his eyes. "Don't go. Please. I'm lonely."

"I know." Orion hugged Culver tightly, protectively. "But I cannot fix that, Culver. To alleviate loneliness, you have to let people in, and you refuse to do that."

Just like Orion, Culver began to shake. "I've told you things I've never told anyone!" he cried.

"You told me what was necessary to keep me near you, and only when matters came to a head. I understand why you're reticent, but that line you've drawn between us is painful. I want to help you too, but I can't do it from the other side." With that, Orion let go.

"Stay," was all Culver could say. "I'm begging you."

Orion shook his head sadly, turned, and disappeared into the night.