Author's Note: Heya! So, like...I'm not very fond of this one. It was a good idea when I had it, so I followed through with it and as I read the actual result, I'm not completely happy with it. So, I hope you guys will get more enjoyment out of this tickle fic than I did. The reason for this fic was I did Hour Game night for Virgil, Hide in the Mood, Confide in Food for Patton, then Noisy noticklefications for Logan! So this is for Roman and Thomas. Let me know if I should do some that encompass Thomas plus the dark sides or if you would like to see a fic like that in the future. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

Dancing With Confidence

Ship: None

Words ~ 2,187 ~

Warnings: Second-hand embarrassment, Thomas is in this.

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     The picture painted in his mind was clear as day. Images had swirled around his head and quickly settled into their correct spots, until a spectacular ballroom surrounded him on all sides. "Oh...wow..." A voice whispered from behind. Turning his head, he saw his fanciful aspect spinning slowly in awe at the glorious sight in front of them. The prince giggled in glee as he danced the length of the ballroom.

     Thomas couldn't help but smile at him. "It's amazing Roman." He commented, reaching out to touch one of the towering columns that held the glass ceiling in place above them.

     "Well of course it is!" Roman jogged up to him, his cape flowing elegantly behind him. "Everything I make is amazing."

     Thomas chuckled and patted his side on the shoulder. "It sure is." He took one last look before continuing on with his thought. "So..." He began, suddenly finding himself in the costume he would be wearing for his performance as the beast. "You're helping me practice the ballroom scene...right?"

     Roman chuckled, but felt his smile falter at the lack of confidence he felt himself reflecting off of Thomas. It was true that Thomas was a little clumsy and sometimes uncoordinated, so Roman had felt it was absolutely necessary to practice this scene before the show that afternoon to avoid any mishaps. But Thomas had no one to practice with, so Roman had appointed himself to be Thomas's dance instructor for this mini-lesson of sorts. "Yes. We'll have to make due without a physical dance partner, but Logan told me that mental practice is still practice. And you have a special gift that no one else has! Why not take advantage of it?"

     Roman bowed and held out his hand towards Thomas who eventually took it. The viner took a deep breath and closed his eyes, remembering the movements he learned in his rehearsal. He let his other hand not currently occupied fall on the prince's waist. "Let's just do one cycle through the ballroom dance, okay?" Thomas's eyes snapped open at Roman's voice when he realized just how close his fanciful aspect was to him. He and Roman were in dancing position, their held hands out and raised just below eye level.

     "Okay..." Thomas felt himself beginning to second guess his abilities, but he began the fancy footwork regardless. "One, two, three." He recited in the rhythm as he lead with Roman following him perfectly. Thomas grew just a bit more comfortable after the first cycle so he decided to continue. He knew the steps, the patterns, and every move that went into this dance, but he just didn't trust himself enough to perform it correctly. He was sure he would be the first one to mess up and fall. Then, he would have a chuckling Roman catching him just before he hit the floor. But to his surprise, it was Roman who got a case of two left feet first.

     Thomas didn't recognize Roman had tripped. It seemed like he was trying to do something to show off, until his weight was ripped from his hands and he had collapsed to the floor in classic princey dramatic fashion. Roman gave a little shriek as he fell directly onto his side, the sheath of his sword clanging against the marble floor.

     "Roman!" Thomas exclaimed in disbelief and knelt down at his side, hooking an arm around his waist to pull him back on his feet. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

     Roman rubbed his temple, feeling behind him with his feet as he tried to regain his footing. "Ah...ugh. I'm sorry Thomas." He resumed an upright posture and slipped his hands back into position. "I'm not sure what that was, but I won't let it happen again. Should we continue?" Thomas felt a pit of uneasiness grow in his tummy, but he ignored it knowing that this was what he needed to practice the most.

     "Of course." So they began again. "One. Two. Three." Thomas recited, not at all having the confidence that he had before. It almost felt like with each step he took, small pieces of his confidence were chipped off and left on the floor in their dancing wake. He tried to ignore the feeling, until inevitably Roman tripped once again this time taking Thomas down with him.

     "AH!" They collapsed together in a heap of limbs and he could feel Roman flailing about to get a hold of himself, but utterly failing. Thomas felt his knees hit the floor first before his head collapsed straight into Roman's chest. That's when he felt his ego, his confidence, shatter into a billion pieces right there on the marble floor of a brilliant concoction of his own imagination. A scene filled his mind with hundreds of people watching him as he falls to the ground, unable to get back on his feet because fear overtook him.

     A violent sob awoke him from the horrendous daydream. He felt the Prince crawl out from underneath and scamper away to a corner. Thomas followed. "Roman? Roman! No wait come back." He watched the disheveled prince put his back against one of the columns and hide behind his knees. Thomas sat in front of him and reached a hand up to lift Roman's tear-streaked face into the light. Thomas almost gasped. He had never seen Roman so broken.

     "I-I'm sorry Thomas." Roman began. "I-it's my fault."

     "Hey. No, buddy. Shhhhh..." Thomas crawled up next to him, slung an arm over his shoulder, and brought him into a side hug.

     "It is!" Roman insisted, using his sleeve to dry his eyes and wipe his nose. "I'm afraid..."

     "Afraid of what?" Thomas asked, doing his best to listen to the side that would almost never open up about his wrong doings unless he was alone with Thomas.

     "Afraid of...failing you on stage." Roman admitted and hid his face with his hands.

     "What do you mean?"

     "Its confidence, Thomas!" Roman threw up his hands in frustration. "I want to tell you that you can do it! I want to have the utmost faith and tell you that you will perform this waltz ballroom dance, flawlessly. I want to give you the morale boost you need to make sure you stay upright through the whole dance and never miss a step! But I can't! I can't Thomas! I'm afraid of what would happen if you did fall." Thomas nodded, recognizing all those fears in himself. "I...don't want to fail you." Roman added straight to Thomas, tears once again streaming down his face.

     "Oh Roman..." Thomas began, reaching up a hand to wipe the tears away. "I first need you to know that failing and making a mistake are two different things. You aren't failing, because you are trying. No one can really fail if they tried their best." Roman nodded and Thomas felt the knot in his belly slowly begin to unravel. "Secondly, I don't know if I'm going to fall or not in a few hours, but I do know that the more I think about it, the bigger the possibility of it happening is. And lastly Roman, confidence isn't a constituent of how well I--no we perform this evening. There are many people who have nerves before going up to present projects or act in movies, but they do it because it's their job. And you remember what broadway says even if someone does make a mistake?"

     Roman took in a large breath of air before answering Thomas's question. "The show must go on." He mumbled quietly and Thomas gave him a pat on the back.

     "That's right. The show must go on. We have the rest of the show down extremely well, so we shouldn't let one little scene tear our confidence down." Roman nodded and Thomas knew that things were going to be okay. "Alright?"

     "Alright." Roman however, still looked disheartened.

     "Okay. What else his bothering you?" Thomas asked with keen insight, wishing to get to the bottom of Roman's troubles.

     "I just...It's still bothering me!" Roman slapped his thighs in frustration and sprung to his feet. He slightly stomped to the center of the ballroom and crossed his arms. "I guess we just keep practicing until we get it down perfectly.

     Thomas couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Not with that attitude we're not. You and I are just going to keep getting more frustrated when we don't do it correctly. Maybe we should take a break. Relax?" Thomas offered, walking up to his slightly taller creative counterpart. "Maybe not be an overdramatic drama queen?"

     Roman scoffed in mock offence. "And not be myself? It's what I do!"

     Thomas just shook his head fondly. "You're tense Roman. You're uptight. It's time we got our mind off of it. Alright? We can do this. We both know we can." Roman continued to huff, turning away from Thomas's whereabouts.

     "Unbelievable. I called you here to practice and you don't even want to!"

     Thomas smiled, approaching Roman slowly from behind. "I didn't say that. We'll continue to practice right after I feel you loosen up." Before Roman could even reply, he felt two fingers quickly wiggle into his sides. He arched his back and squeaked, now quickly shuffling away from the unsuspecting onslaught.

     "Huh! You guys are ticklish! I honestly didn't think that would work!" Thomas grinned, tiptoeing mischievously up to where Roman had ran from him. The prince began to giggle nervously.

     "Th-thomas! Thomas no...Thomaahahas..." Roman squeaked again when he felt a finger poke into his ribs. One of Thomas's hands grabbed at his wrist to hold his arm away from his side. The other hand quickly snaked into the exposed armpit and Roman quickly busted out loud belly laughter.

     Thomas quickly intertwined his fingers with Roman to better grasp his hand and after seeing the position of their hands, he developed a brilliant idea. And Roman already knew it. "Oh no no no nonononono!"

     "What? I thought you wanted to practice?" Thomas pulled a half-hearted Roman into their former dancing position and rehearsal began again.

     "Nohohohot like thihihihis!" Thomas just smiled at Roman as they began to move their feet like before. He chuckled and began counting, only this time tweaking something different about his numbering system.

     "One...two...squeeze!" On the third step, he squeezed Roman's waist with his hand, causing the prince to flail about a little. But Thomas kept a firm grasp on him, believing that he wouldn't fall down again. "One...two...squeeze!" The hand on his waist, quickly plucked his ribs before settling back down to his waist.

     "ACK! Nohohoho! This is unfahahair!"

     "But it's helping! You aren't worried anymore, and I'm more confident in my abilities to dance." As much as Roman didn't want to admit it, it was helping. He just couldn't believe he had to be tickled every third beat for Thomas to feel confidence within their capabilities. He was tickled practically all over his body and subject to Thomas's little grin whenever that dreaded third beat would roll around. But as they danced together, it gave him something to look forward to because he never knew what tickle spot Thomas was going to go for next. It let their knowledge of the scene flow freely, without any overthinking to cloud their judgement of where to put their feet.

     They only messed up once and that was because Thomas dug his fingers in Roman's hip, causing him to double over in laughter. The viner allowed himself to fall down again with his creative aspect and instead of shouts of surprise there were happy giggles. They quickly helped each other back up and continued through the dance number.

     After their fifth time of completing that ballroom dance, Thomas ended the third beat with a cute tickle to Roman's neck, eliciting an adorable whine. Both of their eyes were shining with determination.

     "We did it." Thomas commented, letting go of Roman's hand to give him a hug.

     "We did it?!" Roman looked around the room in disbelief and searched himself, all feelings of self-doubt had miraculously disappeared. "We did it!" He then echoed attempting to sound confident. "Huzzah!" Another poke in the armpit drew out a squeak. "EEk! Nohoho!"

     "Okay okay. I'm done. You have awesome laughter by the way Roman." Thomas commented before stepping back from the hug. "Thank you, for letting me follow through with the idea. It worked. We can do it. We got this."

     Roman chuckled, returning the hug and rubbed the back of his neck afterwards. "We...do got this." He chuckled before continuing on. "Now, just remember not to tickle your real life dance partner in the middle of the show. Get all of your tickles out now while you still can."

     Thomas smirked. "Get them out now you say?"

     Roman squeaked and fled. "That's not what I meant! Go pester another side and see if they're ticklish!"

     Thomas let Roman run away and the great ballroom quickly faded into his dressing room as he opened his eyes to let reality overtake him once again. "Maybe I will Roman. Maybe I will."

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Author's Note Part 2: So! There it is! Please let me know if you liked it in the comments and press f to pay respects to my sleeping schedule. I think the next fic I will upload is a prinxiety fic I was working on for a good friend of mine's birthday, so keep an eye out for that. And until next time, take it easy guys gals and nonbinary pals. Ceffy out!