Rumble's Offbeat Yet Tender Romance

by Daemonabacus

A Dance Lesson with Hiccups

Author's Note:

Well, its been a while. Sorry guys, I've hit a dry spell as far as motivation is concerned, school tends to do that to people. Anyway, here are another 2, yes 2 chapters. Hope you like'em.

Hopefully my writer's block dies away as things bet better. See'ya.

Today Tender Taps found himself in an unfamiliar position, typically he would be standing at attention to Miss Step’s choreography, however, today he was to be the teacher. Oh, the nerves!

A complete stranger, albeit a rather kind and generous stranger, wanted to help make his dream of dancing in the big leagues a reality. But in order to do so he would first have to teach him the rather complicated art of dancing. How would he even begin doing that? Tender Taps had never tried to teach anypony anything, muchless something with a learning curve as steep as that of dancing. But alas, the show must go on!

Rumble looked at Tender Taps, and asked kindly “So, how do we start?”

“Uhm, well,” Tender Taps thought while scratching his head, “I think I remember Miss Steps started my lessons with simple movements and keeping with the beat…” Tender Taps walked over to a record player and fumbled through a collection of records in a chest.

Rumble, out of habit, began preening one of his wings as he waited. “So… we just start with music? I thought I would have to learn other things first.”

“Well, you could, but it's better if you just jump right in and figure it out as you go.”

“Huh. So dancing is like flying?” Rumble replied nonchalantly.

Tender Taps turned his head away from the box of records in surprise, “You learned to fly by just taking the leap!?” The mental image of foal-Rumble plunging off of a cloud to learn how to fly came to the forefront of Tender Taps’ mind.

“Basically…” Rumble answered, not quite sure what Tender Taps was getting at.

“Wow, in that case, this should be a walk in the park for you.” Tender Taps closed the records chest and set the chosen record to play, a little shaken. A simple and melodic waltz began humming from the record player, its 1-2-3-4 beat set the pace and mood for the upcoming lesson.

Rumble seemed to enjoy the beat, it was slow and soothing and he absentmindedly bobbed his head to it. Tender Taps found his bobbing…amusing and it helped him be put at ease too.

“Ok, so to begin you need to learn to make movements along with the beat, that will help you pace your dancing as well as make it easier to sync with other dancers later on.” Tender Taps walked up to Rumble to stand at a hoof's length from him, face to face.

Rumble nodded.

“How about you try taking a step forwards then backwards? Like this...” Tender Taps swayed his body to the beat of the music, at first standing in place, then counting each beat aloud as he shifted. “One,” he stepped backward, “Two,” he waited, “three,” he stepped forward, “four,” he waited; then he repeated the cycle again.

Rumble watched Tender Taps for a bit, nodded, and began imitating him.

“Like this?” Rumble asked as he stepped back and began a cycle of his own.

“Excellent! Now try to do it at the same time as me.”

Rumble noticed he wasn’t entirely in sync with Tender Taps, he adjusted and soon enough he was stepping in tune with him in only two beats of the music.

“Nice, you got it.”

“So… What’s next?”

Tender Taps smiled at hearing Rumble’s eagerness for a challenge, “Well, how about you try copying this?” Tender Taps looked at his hooves while he continued stepping back and forth, he flicked and knocked his hooves on the floor with each step in a swaying motion that added just a little flair to his movements.

Rumble tried imitating, a bit jarring at first but he eventually got it right. “Like that?”

“Uhm, good. But you need to stay in tune with the music.”

“Oh, right.” Rumble noticed that he had stayed mostly in place trying to perfect his hoof steps while Tender Taps continued stepping back and forth, and in rhythm. Rumble was able to catch up in a few beats though.

“There, that’s better,” Tender Taps encouraged.

Rumble smiled, he felt rather proud of himself.

“Alright, now we can get moving!” Tender Taps mused happily, he finished his cycle to where he was standing the farthest from Rumble and then he stepped to the sides; sort of doing a side shuffle. It was basically the same dance pattern from before, only that now he was now moving side to side rather than forward and backward.

“Ok Rumble, now you try.”

Rumble watched Tender Taps dance side to side as he continued to pace forward and backward himself. Rumble counted the beats in his head and prepared to make the switch on “four”.

Rumble took the plunge. He began dancing side to side.

Tender Taps observed an overall success; Rumble was doing fairly well for a first timer. Maybe Rumble’s coordination skills from flight training were giving him the advantage? Perhaps dancing wasn’t so different from flying after all…

Rumble on the other hoof, didn’t feel too great. He had managed to make the change on-beat, sure, but he definitely wasn’t doing the steps right, he could feel it. He wasn't good enough.

Tender Taps smiled appraisingly, “Good job Rumble, you did great again.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. Let's keep going.”

Rumble tried his best to avoid looking down at his hoofs, he was sure he was doing something wrong.

“Alright Rumble, now that you have the basics down I’ll have you try one of the moves we’re doing for the dance.”

“Already?”

“Don’t worry, it isn’t anything crazy, just follow my lead.”

Rumble nodded as he continued pacing side to side, he had forgotten he was still dancing. Tender Taps was also still pacing side to side, in beat and majestic as always.

“So this move is from the opening of the play, all the dancers do it to enter stage,” Tender Taps stopped dancing and walked up to Rumble, he put a hoof on Rumble’s shoulder giggling, “You can stop dancing now.”

“Oh! S-sorry.”

Tender Taps walked around Rumble to be at his side. “You’re doing great, now imagine that’s the stage,” Tender Taps pointed to a white line on the floor of the dancing room then to themselves, “and we’re backstage, behind the curtain.”

Rumble looked at the white line in anticipation, it looked like quite the distance.

“We’ll use the music as our que, as we’ve done before. On “four” we’ll walk on stage but there's a certain way we have to do it.” Tender Taps listened to the music, counting the beats out-loud to make it easier for Rumble to follow.

On “four” Tender Taps stepped to the side, shuffled his hoofs and body in a familiar way that Rumble had seen ballet dancers move. Tender Taps took a step on every beat until he was standing at the center of the room behind the white line, once there, he struck a pose and relaxed to a standing position. He opened his eyes and looked back at Rumble.

“Now you.” Tender Taps gestured to him with a hoof.

Rumble gulped and took a breath, he waited for the que and took the plunge, closing his eyes and trusting his body to imitate Tender Taps as best as he could–without mistakes. As he went through the motions, Rumble imagined he was doing ok, probably much better in his head than in reality but Rumble didn’t let that thought break his concentration. He was going to do this as best he could for Tender Taps.

“Uh, Rumble… you-”

Rumble opened his eyes but it was too late, he had underestimated his movements. He flared his wigs to try and slow down but he collided into Tender Taps. The impact caused Tender Taps to fall backwards.

In a quick reflex Rumble caught Tender Taps in his hooves, holding him in a tight embrace as he used his wings to rebalance and stop them both from falling to the ground.

Once he gained his bearings Rumble opened his eyes to greet Tender Taps with an embarrassed and apologetic grin.

Tender Taps was shocked; hadn’t been too surprised by the crash, he saw it coming. No, Tender Taps was shocked for a different reason. Tender Taps realized that his and Rumble’s chests were gently held close together, Tender Taps could feel Rumble’s warm breath on his lips, his heart beating rhythmically with the music. Tender Taps was stunned, locked in an intimate tango-like pose with Rumble to avoid tumbling over.

Tender Taps spoke softly, “Um, thanks for catching me.”

“Y-yeah. S-sorry for um, knocking you over.”

“It’s ok… um,” Tender Taps tried to look away, he was certain he was blushing and didn’t want to make this more awkward for Rumble.

Rumble began to move his limbs to try and rebalance without letting Tender Taps go. “I’m sooo sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, I-I got distracted annnd…”

“It’s fine, dance class is full of… surprises. You did well! Uh, until the end anyway.” Tender Taps tried to chuckle to ease the tension.

“Really? Be honest. I did the steps wrong again, didn’t I? Was I out of tune? I probably was…”

“Well, you were a little, but hey this is your first time! It’s impressive you’ve only almost fallen down just once.” Tender Taps knocked the floor as he remembered something. “You know, there was this filly…Apple Bloom, when she joined the class she somehow managed to knock everyone over, and she was soloing!” Tender Taps chuckled at the scene in his head.

Rumble smirked at that, “Oh, I totally believe that. I know Apple Bloom, she’s in my class and she and her friends cause trouble all the time!” Rumble no longer looked embarrassed, Tender Taps used the opportunity.

“Yeah, but in the end they worked together and fixed everything, friends are great like that. You know, I think dancing is sort of like flying after all.”

“I told you so!… Wait, how?” Tender Taps smiled, the return of Rumble’s inquisitive personality assured him that the situation had not become awkward.

“Well, dancing isn’t something you can learn from a book or flashcards, you have to jump right in and do it. You, despite a couple of minor hiccups, got it all down. To learn to dance you need a partner, like… like a…”

“Like a flying buddy?”

“Exactly, like a flying buddy! Somepony to catch you when you mess up.”

Rumble chuckled, “Sorry about that, but yeah, I like that idea. We can be dancing buddies then.”

“Great!” Tender Taps beamed. “Let's try the intro again then, dancing buddy!”
Rumble smiled, “Ok, buddy. But keep your eyes open, I don’t want to crash into you again.”

Both colts laughed together as they started again.