Where the dance begins dynamically, proceeds smoothly, but ends in a rather shocked mood.

https://youtu.be/bZk8DBSGua0

No one's POV:
-

A quiet, dramatic but tender melody from the one guitar filled the air, introducing the intro. Geno and the other approached each other with slow spins and quiet steps. Only 2 breaths away they stopped coming closer but kept dancing. No intense moves and such.

You could say that with such intro, the 2 dancers had the chance to have their first meeting quietly. The guitar stopped playing and the last chords echoed, slowly vanishing. Geno and the other stood absolutely motionless, staring at each other intensively.

"You wanna go first or me?" The siren asked quietly, serious but also kinda jokingly. The other chuckled deeply.

"Hagamos un espectáculo que nadie aquí olvidará fácilmente. Especialmente nosotros." He said. And then suddenly he folded his arms on his chest and fell back.

"WHAT the f-?!" Geno was about to think.

(at 0:20) the stranger instead of falling, did the most graceful spin and kept his balance stomping his foot exactly the moment the one guitar started playing, now more dynamically, dancing again to the new rhythm and tempo.

Obviously he had fallen on purpose, to surprise and catch off guard everyone watching. But no one would prevent to stay mad for that. Because by his first moves only and after giving that first surprise not just to Geno but all monsters, the crowd started cheering and applauding excited.

Only the first seconds and he was already showing he was amazing! Geno was actually really impressed. It almost caused him to freeze completely, mesmerised by the stranger's moves. But he allowed himself to remember he had a dance to dedicate.

As (at 0:35) the second guitar started playing alongside the first, Geno started dancing together with his partner. His moves and the other's were completely different. But they were impressive in their own way, leaving the monsters with wide open mouths either way, not knowing on which one to focus and admire more.

And it wasn't even a minute they were dancing! (at 0:50) Geno started relaxing his moves and allowed the stranger to show off more. He might not really liked him, but a dance was a dance, both him and the other had equal time on this floor to dedicate to the brides.

However soon the stranger started approaching the smaller, who immediately felt 'threatened'. Geno slowly started stepping back while dancing. But the other wasn't even intending to be aggressive. In fact he looked like he wanted to play. As playful as the melody was, so was he.

Like he was challenging Geno to do as good as he was doing. (at 1:04) The smaller, pouting stubbornly started dancing with more elegance and passion. At the same time the stranger backed away gracefully, twirled once and fell on one knee while clapping to the rhythm of the music.

He was cheering that way for Geno to keep going. The smaller felt grateful for being given some more space and at the same time surprised with the stranger's games. But he fought back the snicker that wanted to come out of his mouth and just kept vibing to the rhythm, allowing it to run through his bones.

(at 1:19) The melody almost repeated again like after the intro. At exactly that moment the stranger had stand up to dance alongside Geno again, receiving more applause from the crowd of monsters. Strangely enough, their moves instead of different started kinda looking the same.

Was indeed happening, Geno thought, what Alter told him, that the more 2 monsters dance with all passion the music allows them to show, the more their moves unconsciously become alike? Of course and that was taking nothing over how amazingly Geno and the other were dancing.

But a small disaster almost occurred and it wouldn't end well for the smaller if it actually happened. The guitars (at 1:34) made the melody a little more playful again. There, one of Geno's worst worries when considering if he should accept the dance or not came true.

As he was about to approach his partner he stepped on the skirt of his dress and stumbled. Though it was in such way that any of the observers could think that Geno was fake falling. Only someone really sharp and observant would see that the small skeleton wasn't falling on purpose and that he was going for the floor very soon.

"Uh oh. Mi*rdAAAAA!" He yelled and cussed in his mind unable to keep his balance. Ready to fall prone he closed eyesocket, almost accepting that turn of events, there was almost no way to wash off such shame coming. But (at 1:37) then, he felt a pair of arms wrapping around him, saving him at the very last moment from 'eating' the floor.

Geno opened his only eyesocket and saw his partner's masked face staring down at him. Now that they were this close, the small skeleton could see almost clearly 2 purple eyes behind the mask. He held onto the stranger from his shoulders, making it easier to stand up normally.

But the 2 didn't let go just yet. They kept dancing really close, at times their faces only inches away. (at 1:52) Geno didn't know why or how, but something felt electrified and fiery between him and the stranger. He couldn't name it, but it was somehow relaxing and... reliving him?

"No te preocupes, es solo un pequeño error. Nadie entendió nada." Geno heard the other reassuring him in his really deep but calm and playful voice, unfamiliar and at the same so familiar (why can i hear the readers chewing their pillows from happiness? 🤔😂). Geno wondered why did the stranger speak spanish so casually and confidently, as if he knew he could understand him.

But he didn't pay much thought anymore soon and quickly focused again on the dance. The moment the melody started changing (at 2:04), the small skeleton smiled and suddenly backed away as now him and his partner kept dancing.

(at 2:08) But without realising, his moves and the other's were now suddenly... completely alike! Unknowingly, the 2 had developed such passion in the dance, now they were compatible to their steps, even in the arm movement with so very little differences!

And even more cheering came from the crowd. Any worry and any dissatisfaction had suddenly leave Geno. He wasn't looking at his partner with insecurity anymore. All thoughts about 'accidentally killing' him upon the dance had vanished. They both had a harmony he didn't even really believe there would be.

With that too, his partner was coming closer and closer, probably wanting to dance again nearer Geno, like finding the chance from that one almost unfortunate moment the small skeleton almost fell down, saving him. Geno allowed him to come closer with a secret playful smirk on his face.

The guitar (at 2:50) started doing a small climax and the stranger almost was ready to move and wrap his arm around Geno's waist. But the smol instead turned to face him and (at 2:53) placed his hand on his partner's chest, pushing him back gently, stepping away at the same time.

He kept dancing alone, in a playful way, like what the stranger did to him from the beginning. At the same time his half closed eyesocket was nailed at him, with a focused but serene expression upon the passion of the dance. If anything, in his red dress, the way he moved and the way he stared was an amazing, beautiful icon.

"Prepare for a second catch soon." The dark dressed dancer stood still for a few seconds, his body posture betraying surprise hearing the smaller whispering.

But then he shook head left and right and chuckled quietly. He did again his move to approach Geno. As he was only a few steps away, Geno suddenly turned his back at him stretched his arms high and fell backwards. Remembering immediately the smaller's words, he gracefully caught Geno and brought him close.

Now (at 3:08) Geno's back was pressing against his chest. There, he felt all of a sudden a huge cold shiver running down his spine and after so much time dancing without problem, he felt again threatened. But it didn't feel unfamiliar. That cold threat... was familiar too for him.

(at 3:22) But instead of loosing his focus, when the siren turned to face the other, despite they kept dancing without issues, the confusion and wonder was clear on his face. As his partner stared back, he had to fight not get completely distracted by his thoughts, the aura and the other's purple eyes behind the mask.

And at last (at 3:35), the melody climaxed once again, this time truly about to come to an end. On the final chords the 2 dancers did together sharp quick moves. On the very last chord, while still holding him from his waist with his left arm and the other placed on Geno's back, the stranger bended forward.

The smaller wrapped his arms around his shoulders. They both stayed motionless, panting from the whole dance as the crowd around them bursted in an even more crazy cheering and applauding, while also throwing near them small twigs of lavender.

It lasted and kept going for so long! Literally Skate had teared up, touched from the dance and hugging Fuku, who was... crying too, but fire, as they were both looking at the dancers. Geno kept staring intensively at the stranger. All cheering was reaching him like very distant sounds.

When he finally stopped panting he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something. 2 times no sound or words formed to say anything. But he smiled. The other seemed to wait to hear him. Eventually though the purple of his eyes dissappeared behind his mask. Probably had closed them.

"Gracias por este maravilloso baile-."

And then with an abrupt move, Geno pulled his mask and backed away.

In a matter of a few seconds, all cheering got cut. Now gasps of shock and surprise filled the plaza. Together, a few children started screaming scared, many hiding their faces in their hands or burying them on their mothers' skirts.

Geno looked at the other with mouth slightly open from shock. Behind that mask was hiding something... hideous! Now, a skeleton with bruised face, cracks all over his skull and especially around the eyesockets was exposed to everyone's eyes.

He seemed surprised for a moment, from what Geno did. Slowly however he turned serious and streched his hand towards him, asking silently for the mask. The smaller just stood motionless, still shocked staring at the other skeleton.

An almost complete awkward silence filled the plaza after a while, interrupted only by some children still commenting shocked about the stranger's appearance. Geno felt... bad. Because of his action to reveal the other's face, everyone was now agitated.

"Ugly."

"Hideous."

"Freak."

"Get lost."

But mostly, he recalled what people and monsters have been telling him back in the village. He was seeing himself in the place of the other skeleton all of a sudden, even if most monsters, probably out of kindness was saying nothing. For a moment Geno froze in one place, recalling all that. It agitated him and annoyed him and-...

More over, it irritated him.

He sighed and approached the other skeleton. He handed him his mask quite abruptly, took a sharp turn and walked towards Danarei, now with clenched fists too. He hopped on the stage, quickly turning to face the crowd.

"Woah, Eugenia-!"

"I'm sick and tired of this, witnessing it so many other times in the past! So what if he's not as pretty as most of us?! Did you already forget what spectacle he gave tonight?! Does beauty matter, or the amazing dance he dedicated for the brides huh?!" He started, pointing at his partner when referring to him. No one said anything. Now the monsters that had kept commenting about the stranger's looks had started showing guilt. All monsters did, even if most didn't take it further than their first reaction. Heck, even the children were the most guilty. The dark dressed skeleton was staring at Geno surprised, so much that he hadn't even put his mask back on. The small skeleton sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked again at everyone. "I... am sorry. But, why aren't we all clapping and cheering? What happened to the mood, huh?! Come on! Cheer!" He kept going as he had stopped clapping but flailing his arms to motivate the others to start clapping. The silence prevailed for many more seconds. Until suddenly, 2 monsters from the crowd finally started clapping. Everybody focused at Atalanta and Alter, the ones clapping.

"The girl is damn right! Come on punks, why are you just standing doing nothing?! Applaud! Clap! Cheer!" The mermaid yelled. Then 2 more, 4, 8, very soon every monster started clapping again and applauding, the musicians too.

Geno jumped off the stage and as he started clapping too again, he approached with fast steps the other skeleton, who was still staring at him surprised. He stood on his left and a few seconds later held his hand and raised it in the air. The other didn't resist. They both stood there, getting showered once again in glory and praise.

"I'm sorry for pulling your mask like that." Geno said quietly not looking at him. The other laughed quietly.

"Don't worry, it's fine." He replied. Geno turned to look at him and saw him staring back. The stranger grinned wider and closed eyesockets. "You have a really interesting ability to get anyone's attention when you want to easily. I was surprised to hear you talking calm and collected and easily making everyone listen."

"Being ugly might sometimes make you feel less confident, but it doesn't defy the real skill." Geno said a lot more serious and with a sophisticated expression. The other hummed and wore his mask back on. The smaller inhaled quietly and did the question that had been bothering him from the beginning. "Who are you?"

The other didn't reply. First he let go of Geno's hand. He kneeled down, picked up a twig of lavender and looked at it. A few seconds later he turned to look at Geno and placed his free hand on his shoulder. The smaller looked up to him confused and almost ready to start getting on guard.

"We've already met." That first answer started making Geno more anxious. And when the other leaned towards him, he froze completely. Suddenly he couldn't move. He had started shaking. And then he heard the taller's voice, still very deep but soothing and really quiet whispering to him. "If you were to hear who I really am, I can almost predict you would deny all fun we had in this dance." The smaller skeleton listened surprised and even more confused. The strange monster stood normally. With a slow quiet move he pinned the lavender twig he was holding on Geno's right side of his headscarf. Then stepped back and bowed down lightly. "Even if it will sound like mockery, you look really wonderful in a dress." He walked and stood behind him. "I've come for 2 reasons but ended up completing 3. May you enjoy the rest of the night. Geno."

Hearing his name, the small skeleton turned to look behind him sharply. The other had disappeared. He stood there motionless and shocked for long. Only when all applauding started vanishing he felt like moving again. He sighed and walked to find Alter.

"What the hell was that???"

~

Reaper teleported far away enough so he could barely hear the crowd. Chilly, he walked and jumped from rooftop to rooftop, knowing no one was following him. After minutes of casual parkour he finally jumped down on the empty quiet street slowly.

He walked towards a near house and pressed his back against the wall. Slowly he slided down and sat. He took his mask off. Then his hands slided and stopped on his chest. Fast explosions were occurring in there. Or that was just how he felt his soul was beating.

"He truly is amazing..." He said out loud and smiled wider than he already was. So many times in the dance him and Geno shared he felt amazed and mesmerised. He couldn't stop thinking of... everything about him in his time of glory.

The way his hands, his feet, his whole body moved in the rhythm of the music. The way he was staring back at him in wonder, confusion but also an absolute focus and seriousness in the passion of the dance. And when he would hold him in his arms or when facing each other with their faces only inches away...

Reaper felt his soul wouldn't be able to contain all this huge rush of emotions in him. Even if Geno didn't know that he was dancing with him, he was uncontrollably happy from what had happen just minutes back. Of course and he had ask Alter how things were so far with the mission.

2 hours ago he arrived at Lisbon, fast traveling and nonstopping, managing to enter thanks to the darkness covering him and his eyesockets trained to see in the dark. However when he arrived he was surprised to see that the monster town was almost empty. He could sense a very few souls still in the houses.

The biggest gather was further ahead. But it wasn't difficult for him to guess a wedding was occuring. Taking a mask from the ones offered to the monsters and covering his 'ugliness' with the darkness his only cover until then, he managed to blend in easily amongst the other monsters.

Seemingly just another one participating in the marriage and the dances after the dance of recognition. As him and Alter danced, supposedly randomly pairing up, he learned everything he wanted to know. He felt satisfaction with most of the news.

He also felt concern when his priest told him there was a little issue hours ago with Geno. He connected that with his unexpected encounter when he found the smaller skeleton in the monster afterlife. However Alter eased his concerns and narrated other fun things that had happen the past few days.

And the one of these fun things that caused Reaper to literally make up at the very last moment a poem using all his writting skill and thinking speed was when Alter told him about the event at Grillby's restaurant, when Geno offered an amazing show and demonstrated his skills in flamenco against 2 expert human dancers.

"He was amazing Sir. You can't even imagine if you don't see it with your very own vision. Very few I've seen so young dancing so well and even less I've seen dancing with his passion and emotion. And to me you're considered as one of them Sir."

He couldn't hide his interest hearing that. The siren? Was he really that good and amazing at dancing as Alter claimed? He knew how things worked after the 2nd important dance of the marriage. And an idea had popped in his mind, faster than a knife stabbing and penetrating butter completely.

The plan came fast too. He asked a ghost in puppet body monster for paper to make a poem, assured him that he knew his would be read last and once getting paper and pencil started writting. Luckily for him finding words and not make mistakes at all most of the time was easy for Reaper.

He had finished the poem in less than 10 minutes. After all, his old life before becoming pirate, where he had to learn stuff he wasn't even sure most of them would ever be really useful had payed off a little. By using his poetry skills. Though he used to do that for his mother only...

"Oh my little boy. If you can write so beautifully just to dedicate them to mommy, imagine how much more beautifully you will write for the one you will fall in love with when you grow up more."

"Maaamá!"

That was kinda how she would reply to him every time he would finish saying out loud to her a poem he would write. He was so little then but he was really good, choosing and matching his words splendid. Maybe because he was doing it with his free will. And because sometimes, if really in need, Athena was also helping him...

Reaper's smile dropped and sighed. He hugged his knees, looking at his mask silent for many seconds. Then he took one of his gloves off and watched from all directions his fake-bruised hand. He shook head left and right. Ironic how he remembered that, considering the situation he knew and couldn't forget he was in now.

"How many times have I've been told. And how many times have I've tried to tell myself not to think of such feelings? I can't touch him but he only attracts me more and more. Why? Why in such time? Why... being in love now? It sounds so unreal! I'm in such a big conflict..." He thought and sighed again, pressing the back of his head on the wall. He looked up to the sky silent for long. "Sophocles you genius, you were damn right when you talked about eros." And as Reaper recalled the moment he held Geno at the end of their dance, for long and close, his mouth started moving, whispering. Reciting while smiling gently.

"Ἔρως ἀνίκατε μάχαν,
Ἔρως, ὃς ἐν κτήμασι πίπτεις,
ὃς ἐν μαλακαῖς παρειαῖς νεάνιδος ἐννυχεύεις,
φοιτᾷς δ᾽ ὑπερπόντιος ἔν τ᾽ἀγρονόμοις αὐλαῖς•
καί σ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἀθανάτων φύξιμος οὐδεὶς οὔθ᾽ ἁμερίων σέ γ᾽ ἀνθρώπων, ὁ δ᾽ ἔχων μέμηνεν."

3870 words. so, how was that? was it not what you expected? you wanted more and felt it didn't satisfy your thoughts and expectations at all? too bad if you didn't get satisfied and i am sorry, cause i'm done here and the marriage has to proceed further. see ya later, but not quite soon bembehs.

for, my exams are coming in less than a month and i gotta study more than writting the fanfiction (or else they are gonna take my liver :'). yaaay).

i thank everyone who took my call for help more seriously and actually did vote to choose the music for the afterdeath dance when i asked. lastly before finishing with this chapter, special shout out to PetiteCreatrice, for creating a cute little comic based on one of her thoughts about 2 certain monsters' relationship in the fanfiction and an amazing accurate fanart of aldo the pirate beaver. go to her account and give to the bean attention and love for her art (or else imma replace my liver that will be taken by the examiners with YOUR livers =D)