Disclaimers: This is not for profit, what more can I tell you?
Spoilers: None.
Notes: I cannot say what compelled me to do a small thing on the subject of New Year. I hope that it is worth something, though…after all, I have taken a small hiatus from my other spec….this was just in my mind tonight, so I thought I would share it with you all.
Dedications: I like these and this is to: Addie, MOM, Violet, Ralza, Seth, Stolen Samurai, Nicole, Stumbeliene if I spelled that right which I know I didn’t, Kabuki and all the other same sounding K people, you aren’t insignifigant, there is just a bunch of you (!), Maggie, Kokopeli, and bunches I know I am forgetting because my mind is just not functioning….I am not enjoying this seasonal sickness, colds, ick.
Enough with my babble…sorry!


It had been so long since they had danced. Her hair had been perfumed that night, with jasmine and rose hips, and he took a deep breath of the scented strands. What she had been wearing escaped him, but now a silken thunderhead wound itself around her body. Across the room she stood, in a dress of graying possibilities, and the men struck up for the dance. They stood and straightened their jackets and skirts, reading their violins, their cellos. A sea of warmth swarmed over the polished floor, and the music filled the air. He was immediately drunk and suddenly seasick.

In the center of the room they met, their arms entwining as they ebbed and flowed with the crowd, waltzing carelessly over light, cheery notes. Her neck smelled of the same jasmine and rose hips, and her eyes still grabbed him with countless fingertips, and as they caressed him, they spun faster with the masses. The only sound he heard was her laughing in their past, and then the sound of their lips meeting for a celebratory kiss. He had always been light on his feet, and she was always quick to reward him for his efforts. If only he could feel that warm crush again it truly might have been paradise.

She wore a necklace to hold in her marble incandescence and the light reflected by it sent him reeling into memory. On that night vision had been granted by the moon and candles and something like fireflies, but now it was harsh and artificial. She still looked soft and her lips broke into a smile, right on schedule, proving her beauty again. They were remembering the joke he had whispered into her neck as he had gently stolen a kiss. He took the advantage again and pressed his mouth just below her jawbone. Flawless as she had been, she remained.

This was the moment, this was their one precious night. The second telling was just as sweet and they looked heavenward to the stars, seeing only intricately molded plaster. So they pretended, just as they had pretended this night had never happened the first time around.

“It has nearly come,” she whispered again, moving her hand lower on his back. He only nodded. Each knew that there would be one more song before their parting. His shoulder bore up the weight of her head and they sighed and breathed as one, both thinking that they had waited to long for this. The lights now dimmed and the music tapered. A lone voice began to count off the seconds, and as before no one joined in. She stood straight before him, moving deeper into his burning embrace. When he had been alive with lust and heated passion they had exchanged words and sealed them properly. Now, that he was no longer living though lust and passion remained despite the cold, they repeated these long lost acts.

“Happy New Year, Maharet.”

“Khayman…for you as well.” They only gazed for a moment, waiting for the ground to fall out from beneath their feet. They only gazed and tentatively, unsurely, they moved closer, closer. They cut their gaze and shut their eyes as they shared a kiss deeper and more electric than any other couple around them. This was not a ritual, nor a game. For them, it was a renewed vow of love, trust, and equality. In the midst of the raucous celebrating they parted, turning without a word. Their hands remained touching until neither could reach any further behind, but they did not look back, their night had passed for the second time. As she walked she thought of nothing, but he remembered their first New Year’s…the one they had just mimicked and revived. He almost thought his heart was again pounding, but it was only a drunken mortal, dancing to his own tune. The night air laughed and enveloped him like silken thunderheads, and he wished that it had crushed him the first time it had threatened. As always, he walked alone, thinking and sighing to himself.
It had been so long since they had danced.

END