Fic - Just Dance
Inspired by and dedicated to pandammit Because this the sort of thing that us talking leads to.
Title: Just Dance
Summary: Cadmus didn't teach Conner a lot of things. One of the things they didn't teach him was how to dance.
Conner likes school, for the most part at least. He likes learning new things, the real way instead of inside a tube, and he likes that he isn’t the only person that’s learning. He even likes some of the other kids that go to school with him beside M’gann.
None of which means he has any more patience when waiting for Friday’s class to end than any other kid (and he kind of likes that too. That he’s almost normal. That he can even think “like any other kid” in relation to himself without the word not in front of it).
He has Math last on Friday, and he already knows most of what they go over, so he doesn’t even feel all that bad about ignoring Mrs. McCormack to watch the clock. So he knows that there are exactly three minutes left of class when she stops her lecture and begins passing out flyers.
For a school dance.
In two weeks.
Cadmus never taught Conner how to dance. It was one of the many things that they hadn’t thought he needed to know.
Conner likes school, but he thinks he might be terrified of its dances.
-
“I want to learn how to dance.”
Wally smiles at Conner, wide and happy. Wally likes to teach him how to do things; it’s why Conner decided to come to him first. “Then you’re in the right place, young grasshopper, for I am a Master of Dance. Come on, let’s go to the training room.”
Once they arrived at the training room and Wally set up music on the computer he turned to Conner again.
“Alright. So this is called the Melbourne Shuffle. I’m gonna show you first, and then I’ll take you through the steps. Kay?”
Conner nodded and focused all of his attention on how Wally moved. It was…interesting.
At first it mostly looked like random flailing to him. Wally’s arms were waving about, his knees were coming up high, and everything was jerkier than what Conner had expected, but after a few moments he could see how all of the sharp edges ended in time with the beat, and how his feet seemed to be almost gliding as he danced around.
Wally stopped, his usual wide smile stretched across his face, and turned off the music. “So there’s three parts you’re gonna need to learn, big guy.” Wally held up his fingers and counted them off. “ There’s the Running Man, the T Step, and Spins. I’m gonna teach you the T Step first.”
Conner nodded, even though he could feel nerves building up in his stomach.
“Cool. So to start you’re gonna stand like this, with your feet together at the heels, then you move the front one so that it faces forward and pick your back foot up, and you end by putting your foot back down.”
Wally demonstrated, slowly this time.
Carefully Conner followed the steps, and somehow ended up with his legs tangled underneath him, arms and eyes wide as he tried to regain his balance.
“It’s alright,” said Wally. “These things take practice.”
-
An hour, three falls, and one ripped shirt later Wally was finally ready to admit defeat. Sort of.
“Don’t worry, man. There are lots of dance styles out there. We just have to find the one that’s right for you.”
Conner grunted and pulled on a new shirt.
Wally apparently took this to mean that he agreed.
-
Robin’s dance style, something called Break Dancing, had a lot of spinning. It had spinning on hands, spinning in the air, spinning on heads. It had spinning vertically and horizontal, and occasionally on an axis.
It made Conner dizzy just to watch him.
“C’mon,” Wally pleaded. “At least give it a try.”
Conner had learned that the look Wally was giving him was called a puppy dog look. He wondered how it was that he went from asking to learn how to dance to being guilted into it.
“I figured we’d start with the Six Step. It’s pretty easy.” Robin said.
Conner was unsurprised to find out that the Six Step was a kind of spin, although it did at least use both hands and feet.
He was surprised to find out that Robin was a horrible teacher, who seemed to take for granted that Conner knew how to get from one position to another. Conner almost expected to end up tied in a knot for how much he seemed to get caught up in his own limbs.
Wally, who had left at the beginning of the lesson, comes back from grabbing something to eat in half an hour, just in time to stop the two of them from tearing each other apart.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Wally stood between the two of them, arms spread as though holding them apart even though they all know that he or Robin could easily get around or through him. Wally looked back and forth between the two boys. “So I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say that Break Dancing was a no go.”
-
Later that night M’gann asks to show him something after dinner. And that’s how he learns that the rest of the team has heard about him wanting to dance.
She pulled him into an empty room and turned on some music without letting go of his hands. She changed the grip on their hands and the next thing he knows, between the pull and push of her hands and a few nudges from her telekinesis they’re dancing together. Even if he was a little bit stiff about it.
“It’s called Swing.” said M’gann. “I learned it from some old television shows. Isn’t it fun?”
He smiles at her a bit. It’s definitely easier with someone showing him how like this.
They kept going like that for a while, Conner following the push and pull on his limbs, and M’gann’s feet doing extra little complicated steps that was like dancing inside of dancing. Her skirt flared and spun about prettily with every movement. “Perfect! Now, I’m going to let you lead.”
The pressure disappeared and suddenly the repetitive movements that he had been doing scattered from his brain. He stepped forward with his left foot when he should have stepped back with his right. M’gann and he tumbled together and fell to the ground. He supposed at the very least he could be grateful that he fell on top of M’gann instead of Robin or Wally. M’gann was a lot sturdier than either of the two boys and with her he didn’t have to worry about broken bones.
She blew the hair up off of her face and smiled up at him. “I guess you weren’t quite ready to lead yet?”
He could feel a blush rising up his face, and he pulled himself up as quickly as possible. He was about ready to storm out of the room when she grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Thank you for dancing with me Conner, I had a lot of fun.”
He nodded hesitantly and left with a blush for a c completely different reason.
-
“You and I are going to tango.”
Conner looked up from his homework to see Artemis in his bedroom doorway looking at him like she was sizing him up.
“Tango?” he asked, trying, and failing, to not feel nervous under her gaze.
She nodded, and pulled him up and into the center of the room before he thought to protest. She put her palm onto the center of his chest, and took a step back before slowly circling around him, heels (and when had she put heels on?) clicking rhythmically on the floor with each measured movement. Conner slowly turned around, unable to break eye contact with her, or show his back to her when she was leveling him with that look.
Finally after she had made a full circle around him she moved back into his space, arms going up to circle around his shoulders, back arched in a way that made him automatically hold onto her waist to help balance her. She leaned sideways slightly, trailing her left arm down his right and pulling at his hand so that hers intertwined with it, held up off to the side of their bodies. One of her legs snaked out between his, adjusting his stance so that it was farther apart and snapping her lags back and forth around it, pushing here and there as she did so in a way that had them moving across his bedroom floor without even realizing it.
They held still for a moment and Artemis leaned back into his hold, letting go of his hand so that they were both at her waist. Both of her legs wrapped around one of his, and slowly slid up, supported by nothing other than his hand at her waist, and hers around his neck. She held the position for a moment before sliding back down, grabbing one of his hands, and dancing away again on the staccato beats of her hells. When she reached the end of both of their arm lengths she tugged herself back in so that their arms wrapped around her when spun and leaned back, one leg raised high off the ground. He barely had the presence of mind to grab her with his other arm before she fell to the ground, and so she was only inches off the floor.
Conner held her, eyes so wide they felt as though they would pop out.
Finally Artemis pulled herself up onto her feet and strode over to the doorway. When she was there she turned around and gave and said, “There, now you know how to Tango,” before walking away down the hall.
…
…
Conner had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
-
The next day Kaldur attempted to show Conner a traditional Atlantean dance.
Instead Conner learned that he could hold his breath for a very long time, and that, while he did perfectly fine playing in the shallows at the beach, he did not actually know how to swim. Or float.
Conner figured it was okay though, the school didn’t even have a swimming pool, so he was pretty sure no one was going to be doing the dances Kaldur knew anyway.
-
The next Friday after a week of silence on the issue, Wally told Conner to meet him in the same unused room he had danced with M’gann in. He was somewhat suspicious of Wally when he got there, but Wally was his friend and he knew he wouldn’t set up anything to bad. Not on purpose at least.
When Wally finally had shown up it was with Red Arrow in tow.
“Wally,” said Red Arrow, a warning in his tone. “What exactly is this urgent, super secret, special mission?” The look Red Arrow gave Wally is one that Conner recognizes. It says that he knows Wally didn’t tell him the truth, that he probably knew even before they got to the room, and he’s doing his very best to humor him. (Artemis says that people just give in so that Wally will shut up, but Conner figures it has at least a little something to do with Wally’s puppy dog eyes.)
Wally’s speech was fast enough to run together when he answered. “ConnerwantstolearnhowtodanceandeveryoneelsehasalreadytriedandyourtheonlyotherpersonIcanthinkofbecauseaskingBatmanisjustcreepyandsonowyoucanteachhimhowtodanceandeveyonecanbehappy. K? Bye.” And with that Wally turned around and left the two of them alone in the room.
Red Arrow sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “I swear,” he said, sighing. He eyed Conner from behind his mask. “You want to learn how to dance?”
Conner shifted from foot to foot, and finally nodded. He would still like to know how to dance, even if his other attempts were horrid.
“Why?”
“There’s a school dance next week. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes if they ask me to dance. Or fall over.”
He turned on some music, slower than anything the others had danced to, or even then the beat of Artemis’s heels. “Alright then come on.” He waved Conner closer. “If it’s just a school dance the only time your ever really going to get asked is during the slow songs. And if anyone asks you to dance the rest of your time just nod your head to the beat.”
“Really?” Nodding your head could be dancing?
Red Arrow shrugged. “It’s not exactly a party stopper, but it’ll be enough to get you by. Slow Dancing is pretty easy too. You put your arms on the girl’s waist, and try not to let them wander down to far okay? I might be teaching you how to dance, but there is no way I’m giving you The Talk.” He placed Conner’s hands on his own waist as an example.
“The Talk?” he’s talked people plenty of times. Has he been doing it wrong?
“Don’t worry about it. I think Bats is working on getting Superman to do it.” Red Arrow slung his arms around Conner’s neck and smiled. They were almost the same height. “So you hold each other like this, then you sway to the music, and if you want the girl to move you apply a bit of pressure on her waist, like you’re pushing her over, only really slow.”
Carefully Conner worked on finding the beat and swaying back and forth to it. Red Arrow waited patiently as he figured out how to do it, eyes on his feet.
“Good, but you want to keep your eyes on mine. As long as you keep the same distance between us you shouldn’t have to worry about stepping on my feet, and if you are anyway just make sure you never lift your toes all the way off the ground.”
Conner looked up at him, meeting his eyes. “What’s next?”
“That’s it, everything you need to know for a high school dance.”
“Really? You’re sure?”
“Trust me. You’re going to be a big hit. Now, while we’re practicing, let’s talk about lesson payments.”
Conner frowned. “Batman said I don’t get an allowance until I bring home a progress report.”
Red Arrow laughed. “Dude, that’s fine. What I really want is a little bit of help setting something up for Wally. Think of it as paying him back for setting all of this up.”
Title: Just Dance
Summary: Cadmus didn't teach Conner a lot of things. One of the things they didn't teach him was how to dance.
Conner likes school, for the most part at least. He likes learning new things, the real way instead of inside a tube, and he likes that he isn’t the only person that’s learning. He even likes some of the other kids that go to school with him beside M’gann.
None of which means he has any more patience when waiting for Friday’s class to end than any other kid (and he kind of likes that too. That he’s almost normal. That he can even think “like any other kid” in relation to himself without the word not in front of it).
He has Math last on Friday, and he already knows most of what they go over, so he doesn’t even feel all that bad about ignoring Mrs. McCormack to watch the clock. So he knows that there are exactly three minutes left of class when she stops her lecture and begins passing out flyers.
For a school dance.
In two weeks.
Cadmus never taught Conner how to dance. It was one of the many things that they hadn’t thought he needed to know.
Conner likes school, but he thinks he might be terrified of its dances.
-
“I want to learn how to dance.”
Wally smiles at Conner, wide and happy. Wally likes to teach him how to do things; it’s why Conner decided to come to him first. “Then you’re in the right place, young grasshopper, for I am a Master of Dance. Come on, let’s go to the training room.”
Once they arrived at the training room and Wally set up music on the computer he turned to Conner again.
“Alright. So this is called the Melbourne Shuffle. I’m gonna show you first, and then I’ll take you through the steps. Kay?”
Conner nodded and focused all of his attention on how Wally moved. It was…interesting.
At first it mostly looked like random flailing to him. Wally’s arms were waving about, his knees were coming up high, and everything was jerkier than what Conner had expected, but after a few moments he could see how all of the sharp edges ended in time with the beat, and how his feet seemed to be almost gliding as he danced around.
Wally stopped, his usual wide smile stretched across his face, and turned off the music. “So there’s three parts you’re gonna need to learn, big guy.” Wally held up his fingers and counted them off. “ There’s the Running Man, the T Step, and Spins. I’m gonna teach you the T Step first.”
Conner nodded, even though he could feel nerves building up in his stomach.
“Cool. So to start you’re gonna stand like this, with your feet together at the heels, then you move the front one so that it faces forward and pick your back foot up, and you end by putting your foot back down.”
Wally demonstrated, slowly this time.
Carefully Conner followed the steps, and somehow ended up with his legs tangled underneath him, arms and eyes wide as he tried to regain his balance.
“It’s alright,” said Wally. “These things take practice.”
-
An hour, three falls, and one ripped shirt later Wally was finally ready to admit defeat. Sort of.
“Don’t worry, man. There are lots of dance styles out there. We just have to find the one that’s right for you.”
Conner grunted and pulled on a new shirt.
Wally apparently took this to mean that he agreed.
-
Robin’s dance style, something called Break Dancing, had a lot of spinning. It had spinning on hands, spinning in the air, spinning on heads. It had spinning vertically and horizontal, and occasionally on an axis.
It made Conner dizzy just to watch him.
“C’mon,” Wally pleaded. “At least give it a try.”
Conner had learned that the look Wally was giving him was called a puppy dog look. He wondered how it was that he went from asking to learn how to dance to being guilted into it.
“I figured we’d start with the Six Step. It’s pretty easy.” Robin said.
Conner was unsurprised to find out that the Six Step was a kind of spin, although it did at least use both hands and feet.
He was surprised to find out that Robin was a horrible teacher, who seemed to take for granted that Conner knew how to get from one position to another. Conner almost expected to end up tied in a knot for how much he seemed to get caught up in his own limbs.
Wally, who had left at the beginning of the lesson, comes back from grabbing something to eat in half an hour, just in time to stop the two of them from tearing each other apart.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Wally stood between the two of them, arms spread as though holding them apart even though they all know that he or Robin could easily get around or through him. Wally looked back and forth between the two boys. “So I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say that Break Dancing was a no go.”
-
Later that night M’gann asks to show him something after dinner. And that’s how he learns that the rest of the team has heard about him wanting to dance.
She pulled him into an empty room and turned on some music without letting go of his hands. She changed the grip on their hands and the next thing he knows, between the pull and push of her hands and a few nudges from her telekinesis they’re dancing together. Even if he was a little bit stiff about it.
“It’s called Swing.” said M’gann. “I learned it from some old television shows. Isn’t it fun?”
He smiles at her a bit. It’s definitely easier with someone showing him how like this.
They kept going like that for a while, Conner following the push and pull on his limbs, and M’gann’s feet doing extra little complicated steps that was like dancing inside of dancing. Her skirt flared and spun about prettily with every movement. “Perfect! Now, I’m going to let you lead.”
The pressure disappeared and suddenly the repetitive movements that he had been doing scattered from his brain. He stepped forward with his left foot when he should have stepped back with his right. M’gann and he tumbled together and fell to the ground. He supposed at the very least he could be grateful that he fell on top of M’gann instead of Robin or Wally. M’gann was a lot sturdier than either of the two boys and with her he didn’t have to worry about broken bones.
She blew the hair up off of her face and smiled up at him. “I guess you weren’t quite ready to lead yet?”
He could feel a blush rising up his face, and he pulled himself up as quickly as possible. He was about ready to storm out of the room when she grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Thank you for dancing with me Conner, I had a lot of fun.”
He nodded hesitantly and left with a blush for a c completely different reason.
-
“You and I are going to tango.”
Conner looked up from his homework to see Artemis in his bedroom doorway looking at him like she was sizing him up.
“Tango?” he asked, trying, and failing, to not feel nervous under her gaze.
She nodded, and pulled him up and into the center of the room before he thought to protest. She put her palm onto the center of his chest, and took a step back before slowly circling around him, heels (and when had she put heels on?) clicking rhythmically on the floor with each measured movement. Conner slowly turned around, unable to break eye contact with her, or show his back to her when she was leveling him with that look.
Finally after she had made a full circle around him she moved back into his space, arms going up to circle around his shoulders, back arched in a way that made him automatically hold onto her waist to help balance her. She leaned sideways slightly, trailing her left arm down his right and pulling at his hand so that hers intertwined with it, held up off to the side of their bodies. One of her legs snaked out between his, adjusting his stance so that it was farther apart and snapping her lags back and forth around it, pushing here and there as she did so in a way that had them moving across his bedroom floor without even realizing it.
They held still for a moment and Artemis leaned back into his hold, letting go of his hand so that they were both at her waist. Both of her legs wrapped around one of his, and slowly slid up, supported by nothing other than his hand at her waist, and hers around his neck. She held the position for a moment before sliding back down, grabbing one of his hands, and dancing away again on the staccato beats of her hells. When she reached the end of both of their arm lengths she tugged herself back in so that their arms wrapped around her when spun and leaned back, one leg raised high off the ground. He barely had the presence of mind to grab her with his other arm before she fell to the ground, and so she was only inches off the floor.
Conner held her, eyes so wide they felt as though they would pop out.
Finally Artemis pulled herself up onto her feet and strode over to the doorway. When she was there she turned around and gave and said, “There, now you know how to Tango,” before walking away down the hall.
…
…
Conner had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
-
The next day Kaldur attempted to show Conner a traditional Atlantean dance.
Instead Conner learned that he could hold his breath for a very long time, and that, while he did perfectly fine playing in the shallows at the beach, he did not actually know how to swim. Or float.
Conner figured it was okay though, the school didn’t even have a swimming pool, so he was pretty sure no one was going to be doing the dances Kaldur knew anyway.
-
The next Friday after a week of silence on the issue, Wally told Conner to meet him in the same unused room he had danced with M’gann in. He was somewhat suspicious of Wally when he got there, but Wally was his friend and he knew he wouldn’t set up anything to bad. Not on purpose at least.
When Wally finally had shown up it was with Red Arrow in tow.
“Wally,” said Red Arrow, a warning in his tone. “What exactly is this urgent, super secret, special mission?” The look Red Arrow gave Wally is one that Conner recognizes. It says that he knows Wally didn’t tell him the truth, that he probably knew even before they got to the room, and he’s doing his very best to humor him. (Artemis says that people just give in so that Wally will shut up, but Conner figures it has at least a little something to do with Wally’s puppy dog eyes.)
Wally’s speech was fast enough to run together when he answered. “ConnerwantstolearnhowtodanceandeveryoneelsehasalreadytriedandyourtheonlyotherpersonIcanthinkofbecauseaskingBatmanisjustcreepyandsonowyoucanteachhimhowtodanceandeveyonecanbehappy. K? Bye.” And with that Wally turned around and left the two of them alone in the room.
Red Arrow sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “I swear,” he said, sighing. He eyed Conner from behind his mask. “You want to learn how to dance?”
Conner shifted from foot to foot, and finally nodded. He would still like to know how to dance, even if his other attempts were horrid.
“Why?”
“There’s a school dance next week. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes if they ask me to dance. Or fall over.”
He turned on some music, slower than anything the others had danced to, or even then the beat of Artemis’s heels. “Alright then come on.” He waved Conner closer. “If it’s just a school dance the only time your ever really going to get asked is during the slow songs. And if anyone asks you to dance the rest of your time just nod your head to the beat.”
“Really?” Nodding your head could be dancing?
Red Arrow shrugged. “It’s not exactly a party stopper, but it’ll be enough to get you by. Slow Dancing is pretty easy too. You put your arms on the girl’s waist, and try not to let them wander down to far okay? I might be teaching you how to dance, but there is no way I’m giving you The Talk.” He placed Conner’s hands on his own waist as an example.
“The Talk?” he’s talked people plenty of times. Has he been doing it wrong?
“Don’t worry about it. I think Bats is working on getting Superman to do it.” Red Arrow slung his arms around Conner’s neck and smiled. They were almost the same height. “So you hold each other like this, then you sway to the music, and if you want the girl to move you apply a bit of pressure on her waist, like you’re pushing her over, only really slow.”
Carefully Conner worked on finding the beat and swaying back and forth to it. Red Arrow waited patiently as he figured out how to do it, eyes on his feet.
“Good, but you want to keep your eyes on mine. As long as you keep the same distance between us you shouldn’t have to worry about stepping on my feet, and if you are anyway just make sure you never lift your toes all the way off the ground.”
Conner looked up at him, meeting his eyes. “What’s next?”
“That’s it, everything you need to know for a high school dance.”
“Really? You’re sure?”
“Trust me. You’re going to be a big hit. Now, while we’re practicing, let’s talk about lesson payments.”
Conner frowned. “Batman said I don’t get an allowance until I bring home a progress report.”
Red Arrow laughed. “Dude, that’s fine. What I really want is a little bit of help setting something up for Wally. Think of it as paying him back for setting all of this up.”