(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

Anonymous asked
just want you to know your imagined greenhouses movie dance brought me so much joy.

thank you! i actually love imagined dancing scenes. dancing has a really nice intimacy to it. it’s one of the few times it’s okay to be very close to a person (though of course this depends on the dancing, but also what the context of ‘very close’ is). as a plot device it’s a neat way to create privacy in very public spaces.

my other favorite imagined dancing is from stella by cereberus bright: well i know you’ve danced a hundred songs / but stay with me one more

imagine. a political function. not the best. they both knew it wasn’t a good place for alex, but they talked it out, and honestly they weren’t going to get away with him not showing up. not only is his rising in his own status with the treasury, but they were recently seen looking adorable together in town, so they decided that alex going was better than alex not going and all the ramifications of that, including but not limited to the “hey your boy didn’t come to the ball, are you guys in a fight? you’re definitely in a fight.”

but alex is just sort of trying his best to stay in the corner and talk to his majesty prince du motier, who always seems to have an open ear with him. they became fast friends, honestly. he talked with general schuyler too. you know. he just tries to not talk to too many people who could light his fuse, and especially alone.

it’s hard for him to get a word in edgewise with washington at places like this. there’s practically a fucking line to talk to him, and a worse one to dance with him. alex tries not to feel jealous but it’s hard. he knows objectively they will go home and he will have washington all to himself and washington will shower him with attention and devotion but right NOW, right now, watching washington barely look at him and move from one lord or diplomat or general to another. alex has gotten better at seeing the mask now. he’s still plenty angry about it, though. using the mask wears washington out. sometimes after nights like this if they get home washington just flops into bed. (they don’t always sleep in the same bed but they always do after social events where they display apart.)

anyway. washington’s such a good dancer; alex likes watching him. [float like a feather / you never touch the ground]. he’s even better because he can make anyone else look like a good dancer - it’s the general in him and all that.

finally washington has a moment to himself and he just wants to sit in the corner and drink some wine and get off his achey feet. and alex knows that he should just let him, that this is hard, that he’s exhausted. and yet … he hungers for that moment, and he’s long since been done starving. washington looks tired when alex watches him, the mask heavy in his shoulders, but when washington notices he’s there and looks at him - and looks at him, and alex’s heart skips a beat, and no one looks at him like washington looks at him - he becomes brighter. smiles at the corner of his mouth in the way that he does. shines through the mask like sun.

they dance and it’s like the first dance of the night and washington kisses him tenderly. the jealousy evaporates like steam.