CHAPTER 6. June 7th/02/4:46 PM/3rd person.
"You're going to teach me…how to dance?" she asked with slight confusion in her voice.
"Eeyup."
"I didn't even know you could dance," she said as she scratched her brow with one finger accompanied by a befuddled look.
"There's a lot that no-one knows about me," he said honestly pointing out a very true fact.
"What else can you do? Let me guess you're also a good singer?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah wouldn't say Ah'm a good singer, but Ah guess y'all could say Ah can sing," he said modestly.
"…You're a complete enigma, you know that?" she asked as she gave him a deadpan look.
"Well, nobody really tries ta get ta know me, so Ah guess in a way that's true," he said as he shrugged slightly.
Fluttershy seemed slightly saddened by his last choice of words. "…That's not fair, you deserve friends just as much as anyone else," she said defiantly catching Big Mac somewhat off guard.
"Ah have friends. An' in the end, even if Ah can only count 'em on one hand, at least Ah'm lucky enough ta have 'em," he said genuinely.
Fluttershy stayed quiet for a while, thinking about what he said. "…So what dances do you know?" she asked curiously, changing the subject.
"Well, Ah only really know how ta waltz, but Ah used ta be able ta tap dance an' Ah knew how ta swing dance…but it's been about ten years since Ah had trainin' of any sort, so Ah doubt Ah can do those energetic ones anymore," he said honestly, never ceasing to surprise Fluttershy.
"You used to tap dance and swing dance!?" she asked in utter shock.
"Well Ah never had a partner ta swing dance with, so Ah guess Ah never did that. But Ah did tap dance when Ah use ta have more free time," he said plainly.
"…Wow…but how can you know how to swing dance without ever doing it?" she asked curiously.
"Well, ma an' pa used ta dance a lot. Ma taught me the ins an' outs of dancin', but Ah wasn't strong enough or tall enough ta swing dance with her, so Ah ended up just watchin' an' copyin' pa's movements. Eventually, Ah got pretty good at it, but…Ah never got ta see if Ah could actually do it," he said in a somewhat glum tone toward the end.
Fluttershy considered apologizing but decided against it, as she didn't mean to bring up his parents. "…So…you want me to be your partner?" she asked curiously.
"Ah suppose so, but Ah'd have ta teach ya first, if yer alright with that," he said with a raised eyebrow, half expecting her to decline.
"…Well, I don't know, this is kinda sudden," she said somewhat hesitantly.
He chuckled lightly before responding. "The last day an' a half has been nothin' but sudden!" he said half-jokingly and let out another short series of chuckles.
She reared back slightly and donned a look of thought, before letting out a series of laughter herself. "You're right!" she said in agreement as the pair began laughing together for a short amount of time.
"Ya know what, fine, let's do this!" Fluttershy said gleefully.
"That's the spirit!" Big Mac said enthusiastically in response.
After Fluttershy was done eating, the pair headed into the living room, it was a relatively scarce room with a decent amount of space. Perfect for dancing or parties (not that they ever hosted any).
Big Macintosh offered his hand to Fluttershy, who took it gently. Big Macintosh gingerly held her significantly smaller and softer hand with his own, the pair then walked into the center of the room and faced each other.
The two then took the appropriate positions, albeit, the transition was somewhat awkward and clunky. He cupped his free hand and rested it on her shoulder blade, while she raised her left arm and rested her hand halfway on his shoulder and halfway on his upper arm. The two then stared at each other, donning different looks.
Fluttershy had a slight blush mixed with a small and slightly nervous looking smile, while Big Mac was almost the opposite.
He seemed much calmer as he stared down at Fluttershy with a reassuring smile on his face.
"Follow my lead," he said as he waited for her response before taking action.
"O-ok," she said somewhat nervously.
The pair then began moving slowly (and rather awkwardly) in a small square pattern as they stared at each other.
"Try ta relax a bit," he said, taking note of how tense she felt under his touch.
"Alright," she said quietly in response.
The two continued rotating slowly in a square, becoming slightly more fluid as Fluttershy relaxed her muscles slightly.
"Steady yer breathin'," he said, once again taking note of something Fluttershy was doing.
"I-I'll try," she said, stammering a bit.
The two continued for a few more minutes as they gradually became more in tune with each other's movements, making their square pattern into more of a circle.
"Yer doin' good," he said as he smiled genuinely toward her, causing her to blush slightly.
"Thanks…" she said quietly in response.
The two continued for what seemed like a while to both of them, but in reality it had only been a few minutes, the pair just continued dancing, forgetting about the world around them, their movements increasing in fluidity as they circled around the room semi-gracefully.
Big Macintosh then decided to speak up. "Do y'all wanna try goin' faster?" he asked curiously.
"Eeyup," she said simply in response, causing his smile to widen as they increased speed.
The bottom of Fluttershy's dress flaring out with each rotation. Her simplistic canary yellow flats lightly tapping against the hardwood floor in contrast to the thumping of her partner's work boots. Her nervous smile and tense muscles were now long gone as she smiled sincerely at Big Mac.
After a few more minutes, the pair finally stopped their dance and stared into each other's eyes, their smiles replaced with deadpan stares as they seemed lost in each other's gaze, neither one preparing to move until they heard a shrill girl's exclamation of excitement, snapping both of them out of their trance-like state and causing them to look in the direction of the noise.
"You two are sooo cute together!" squealed Apple Bloom happily.
For the first time in a while, Big Macintosh was at a loss for words.
"Ah always thought y'all an' Miss Cheerilee were cute together, Ah guess Ah was wrong!" she said with great enthusiasm.
"It ain't what it looks like Apple Bloom," he said, sounding ever so slightly nervous.
Fluttershy remained quiet, having a stunned expression on her face.
"Well, it sure did look like y'all was dancin' fer a good ten minutes an' then ya stared into each other's eyes all romantic-like," Apple Bloom said, bringing up a very valid point.
Big Mac didn't know what to say, he considered telling her about Fluttershy's confidence training, but she probably wouldn't understand how dancing has anything to do with confidence.
"Well, even if y'all deny it, y'all looked happier than ya have in a long time, so even Ah can tell there's more goin' on than what yer sayin'," she said, showing a surprising amount of wisdom for someone her age.
Big Macintosh silently cursed his sister's cleverness, but he took her words with a grain of salt. "Apple Bloom…" he said trailing off.
"Aw hush up, Ah'm gonna go hang out with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. See ya later Big Mac." she said briskly as she walked out the front door.
Fluttershy and Big Macintosh stood silently for a few moments before Fluttershy broke the silence.
"Is she allowed to talk to you like that?" Fluttershy asked curiously.
"…Ah may've raised her, but Ah'm still her brother, so there's no rules of speech for us." he said as he seemed to stare past Fluttershy absent-mindedly.
"Oh…ok."
"…Ah suppose we're done fer today," he said, still seeming as if he wasn't all there.
"…Alright," She said in an almost sad sounding tone.
Big Mac didn't seem to notice, but he snapped out of his half-minded phase and responded. "When's the next time y'all can be around?" he asked curiously.
She tilted her head slightly as her face donned a thought-processing face, after a few moments she responded. "Well, I can't make it tomorrow, or the day after, but I can probably manage Monday, if you're free," she said in an orderly fashion.
"Alright, Ah can make extra time on Monday, but what time is good fer y'all?" he asked curiously.
"Umm, a little earlier than when we started today…so around 2:30 or 3:00 would be good." she said, being as informative as possible.
"Alright," he said simply and continued. "Would y'all like me ta walk y'all home?" he asked curiously.
"No, I'm going to meet up with a friend soon. But thank you for the offer," she said honestly.
"Eeyup," he said simply and then the two headed for the front door.
"See you in a couple days," she said with a friendly smile on her face.
"Hopefully," he said in response as he opened the front door for her.
"Bye…" she said, her face looking as if she was unsure of what she wanted to do.
"Bye," he said simply, sharing a similar but more subtle expression.
She then walked away as Big Macintosh watched her go for a few lingering moments before shutting the door and heading back inside.