Vivian felt like this woman was familiar, but he couldn't place where from. She wore a solid dark green dress that clung to the little bit of curves she had. Her mask was also a forest green with silver swirls that enhanced her green eyes. She was already tall to begin with, but still wore black heels that added even more to her height. Vivian did have to admit that her beauty did succeed in warding off the crowd of girls, but he didn't know about slow dancing with her suddenly.

Before he could reject her, she leaned down towards his ear and started to whisper in his ear, pretending to be very intimate with him. "It's fine Vivi." The voice purred in his ear. "Just because I convinced my sister to let me wear something less frilly, doesn't mean that I can't help Princey protect you."

Hearing a new variant of his nickname along with the mention of Philip help him realize who the mystery woman was. As soon as Azazel saw the recognition he continued.

"Your best bet to avoid them is to dance a few with me. Anyways, I feel like we should get to know each other better since we rarely meet." Azazel had a twinkle in his eyes as he dragged Vivian back to the dance floor. Vivian also thought he saw a quick smirk towards something or someone behind them.

"I understand, but I don't want to dance… And what about Philip? I got separated from him just now. He could be looking for me." Vivian tried to find a way out. The last time he danced a couples dance it turned out bad with his mother extremely mad.

“Don’t worry, he knows where you are…” Azazel pulled Vivian towards him so that Vivian was chest to chest with him, then intertwined their fingers. “In fact it looks like he just realized who I am.” Azazel smirked again at someone behind Vivian, who Vivian assumed was probably Philip. Vivian went to look over his shoulder to see where Azazel was looking, but Azazel immediately stopped him. “The song is about to begin, you do know how to lead a ballroom dance right? I dragged you to the more experienced dancer section since I assumed you picked it up before you came here.” Vivian did notice that there wasn’t a lot of people nearby and a lot more people watch as audience on this side of the gym. “I thought that since Theodore sounded like a huge drama buff, he most likely had you help out in some plays in your old town. There was bound to be a dance scene in at least one of those plays, so you most likely learned at least a few types.”

Vivian nodded curtly, frustrated at someone other than Philip trying to lead him around by the nose. “Yeah, I know how dance, I can dance almost every tempo. I even know which dance is which.” Vivian didn’t tell Azazel that the reason he knew was because when he was seven he had once begged the choreographer of the community drama club to teach him in her free time as he waited for Theodore’s practice to finish, and then that she had insisted that he learn and try to master as many as he could. He didn’t know at the time that she was actually a professional dancer who retired to take care of her children, and that professionals usually start young.

Azazel smiled mysteriously. “Sounds like I really will be able to get you to dance all the songs then.”

Vivian quickly realized by his tone that Azazel was trying to challenge him and his skills. Vivian’s eyes returned the challenge. “Fine, you’re on. I’ll dance the rest of the songs with you. We’ll see if you are still smiling at the end. Don’t blame your heels when you can’t keep up.” Vivian returned the smile. It wasn’t anything like the smile he showed Philip, yet it still was full of excitement and joy. Vivian really couldn’t remember the last time you went full out and enjoyed himself.

As the music started Azazel spoke up a final time..“And you don’t have to worry about Princey. Even though he knows how to dance, he has never participated in the final songs of the dances.” Vivian just gave Azazel a confused look. “If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then never mind… Let’s get this competition started. They play the same order of song styles each year so those that want to dance seriously know when to come to the dance floor, and which ones to sit out and relax. We’ll start with a waltz if that sounds good with you.”

“Of course.” Vivian started to lead Azazel in a classic waltz, never missing a single step. Once he realized that Azazel wasn’t that bad and wouldn’t mess up their pace, Vivian decided to start chatting with his competitor. “I’m surprised you can dance so well. Is it common here to learn how to dance? You mentioned that the dance floor is split up by dancer experience?”

Azazel didn’t miss a beat as he smoothly continued dancing and replied. “Not by experience per say, but more of if someone wants to dance seriously, there is a place to do it, and if someone wants to just dance to dance, then they don’t have to worry about running into and ruining someone else's dance. The gym is large enough to set up such a system, so the original planners of the first Halloween Masquerade ball requested it. Since the final five dances became more popular the school decided to set up an optional dance class to replace gym class. It isn’t grade specific, so you can see students from each grade participating and pairing up. Sometimes they even have middle schoolers join. Since my sister and I are in special classes, we also got put in the dance class so we could get gym credit.” Azazel went for a twirl and came back to facing Vivian before continuing. “The teacher in charge even is giving extra credit for each dance attempted tonight.” Azazel winked and smiled at Vivian. “Thanks for helping me.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Philip watched the two of them on the dance floor as they danced each song. He couldn't find a reason to interrupt and take over the role of Vivian's dance partner. The two of them were successfully dancing the waltz, foxtrot, tango, and even the rhumba… on top of that Vivian was taking the man's roll and Azazel the female role, so if he did interrupt, he would be switching with Vivian not Azazel! In dance class (since you know that Philip immediately signed up for dance in middle school and had been participating since to become the perfect prince...) Philip only ever learned the male part of the dance due to his physique. He knew a few moves of the female role, but not enough to move like Azazel and keep up with Vivian.

Philip knew that he couldn’t let Azazel steal Vivian’s last dance from him though. Even if he had to dance the female role of the nightclub two-step slowdance, he would cut in. He knew enough of the female part for the upcoming song that he could wing it when he got there. So as the announcement played about what song was next, and told everyone that it was the final song, Philip made his way to the couple on the dance floor.

Philip noticed that they seemed to be debating something as he walked up to tap on Azazel’s shoulder. “Mind if I cut in?”

They both turned to look at Philip’s sudden appearance. Azazel then started to smirk as Vivian seemed to blush slightly. “If you can’t dance the male role and only the female role, then you should just switch partners Vivi.”  Azazel took Vivian’s hand and pulled it to Philip’s. “He’s all yours Princey. Enjoy the last dance you two, and don’t forget to catch Vivian up on our traditions here since he doesn’t know most of them yet…” Azazel winked as he quickly jetted off the dance floor to leave the two alone. It would be surprising to see how fast he was in heels, if Philip didn’t already know the twins’ as well as he and most of the other Eccentrics did.

Philip was praising his friend inside his head, but he knew he still had to check that it was ok with his Prince. “May I have this dance?” Philip pulled the hand that Azazel had placed in his towards his lips and bowed slightly. As he looked Vivian in the eyes pleadingly and waited for Vivian’s answer, he also secretly crossed his fingers behind his back.

After what felt like forever, Vivian finally nodded. “It’s better than being surrounded by girls I guess… I haven’t danced an actual slow dance in about three years, so I’m a bit rusty…” Philip noticed pain flash through Vivian’s eyes when he mentioned the last time he danced a slow dance.

Philip wanted to ask about it, but knew it wasn’t time yet. “After the wonderful dancing earlier, I won’t be able to say anything about how quote and quote ‘rusty’ you are… I was left speechless, and I’m unsure if I will be able to smoothly keep up and not get in your way even when you are rusty. I want to try though.” Philip smiled sweetly at Vivian.

Vivian didn’t have time to respond because the music had already started. As they slowly danced together, they synced up perfectly and left all the watchers sighing for different reasons. No one cared that they were both boys, the chemistry between them was obvious, and they made the dance seem even more magical. The older teachers that had been there since the start of the tradition all were reminded of another couple years before that portrayed the same fairy tale aura.

As the song ended, they were both mesmerized by each others eyes. They didn’t snap out of it until they heard everyone around them start the countdown to midnight. They quickly stepped away from each other blushing.

Philip then realized that he still didn’t tell Vivian about the traditions so he quickly tried to instruct Vivian about what to do next. “When the countdown is done, just look at me and take off your mask, then try to catch as much confetti as you can. I’ll try to explain everything else later.”

As the countdown quickly reached zero Vivian turned to Philip and did as he instructed hesitantly. Philip immediately noticed that Vivian’s usually pale face was bright red, and he wanted to look away out of embarrassment. Vivian held on though and followed Philip’s instructions exactly. As the confetti started to rain down on them they both reached and grabbed at them until the throwers were done throwing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vivian came out of the bathroom after he finished changing back into his during the day outfit. Philip had opted to wait until they arrived at Azazel’s place to change, and was waiting with Azazel by a dark green Volkswagen Beetle. Philip opened the door to let Vivian in first, but before he could get in Philip handed him a package.

“I searched everywhere for the perfect one, and only just got it in the mail yesterday. I made sure it was extra large like your current one.” Philip smiled as Vivian was looking it over curiously.

Vivian sat down in the back before he opened it. Inside the package was a large black hoodie that had black and purple cat ears attached to the hood. It also had thumb holes at the bottom of the sleeves. It was Vivian’s dream hoodie. He didn’t know how to feel though, his old hoodie had been with him through a lot of his past, and the previous owner used to be someone that was only second to his step-father in his heart. Yet Philip had just mentioned that he had been looking for this hoodie in secret just for him, and it really was his dream hoodie. It would be another step to putting his past behind him.

Vivian started to get emotional, he did his best not to show it to the other two boys though. “Thank you Philip, I really like it.”

“Try it on and see how it fits and feels.” Philip looked expectedly at Vivian with puppy dog eyes. Vivian complied, it wasn’t like he had the old one with him anyways.

It immediately comforted him to his very core. It felt so much more plush than the other one, and had more room he could curl up in whenever he felt upset.