![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spinspinsugar320 words. Takes place during the Hand, Foot, & Wand ceremony.
Keep calm.
Those are the words written on his t-shirt, straight across his chest. He needs the reminder sometimes. Especially when the crowd's cacophony starts up, and all he wants to do is turn back. Just run and seek solace in dark corners. Breathe in and out about twenty times. It's just nerves. It doesn't matter how many times he's forced out there, he'll never get used to this life.
But it's always easier when he isn't alone.
Dan is to the right of him, slightly anxious, slightly excited, always overdressed. Emma, to his left, a smile plastered on her face, the edges of her black dress frayed and the chains around her neck swaying back and forth with each step up to the stage.
And then, once they're all up there, they need to figure out who goes first. Rupert and Dan immediately look at Emma, because that's what gentlemen do, and she's pleased, because seeing all those faces made it real for her, and she just wants to get it over with. Dan points out a particularly amusing sign to her, to calm her down, Rupert knows, because that's what Dan does: He comforts Emma with no problem. Rupert wants to, but he still hasn't learned how. So instead he just smiles, and listens to her deliver her speech. And then she slides back into place beside him and it's his turn at the podium now.
He barely remembers what he's just said as he steps back and makes sudden impact with Emma, who, it seems, has appeared out of nowhere. She grins, and when he feels her place her hand on his back, there's a rush of butterflies in his belly. It's nothing to do with the crowd now. The crowd, as of this moment, no longer exists. Maybe now. It has to be now. He can reciprocate. And so, finally, he just does. He pulls her closer.
end.
Keep calm.
Those are the words written on his t-shirt, straight across his chest. He needs the reminder sometimes. Especially when the crowd's cacophony starts up, and all he wants to do is turn back. Just run and seek solace in dark corners. Breathe in and out about twenty times. It's just nerves. It doesn't matter how many times he's forced out there, he'll never get used to this life.
But it's always easier when he isn't alone.
Dan is to the right of him, slightly anxious, slightly excited, always overdressed. Emma, to his left, a smile plastered on her face, the edges of her black dress frayed and the chains around her neck swaying back and forth with each step up to the stage.
And then, once they're all up there, they need to figure out who goes first. Rupert and Dan immediately look at Emma, because that's what gentlemen do, and she's pleased, because seeing all those faces made it real for her, and she just wants to get it over with. Dan points out a particularly amusing sign to her, to calm her down, Rupert knows, because that's what Dan does: He comforts Emma with no problem. Rupert wants to, but he still hasn't learned how. So instead he just smiles, and listens to her deliver her speech. And then she slides back into place beside him and it's his turn at the podium now.
He barely remembers what he's just said as he steps back and makes sudden impact with Emma, who, it seems, has appeared out of nowhere. She grins, and when he feels her place her hand on his back, there's a rush of butterflies in his belly. It's nothing to do with the crowd now. The crowd, as of this moment, no longer exists. Maybe now. It has to be now. He can reciprocate. And so, finally, he just does. He pulls her closer.
end.