Work Text:
The piano echoed through the dark temple. Low notes in minor chords filled the temple ceiling, covering for the roaring clouds above them. It sounded like something from a messed-up children lullaby, uneasy yet somewhat familiar and comforting.
The floor beneath them was cold, freezing even as they continued their dance. Clouds rumbled around the two dancers, flashing lighting for a second afterwards, and a breeze of wind, gentle unlike the current weather, ran through Elliot’s hair, messing it up slightly.
But that didn’t matter, because his hands were still intertwined with theirs. His own rough and calloused hands from working at the pizzeria gently clasped together with its own mismatched ones, a side effect of holding the Void Star for this long. The skeletal on Elliot’s shoulders while the purple, more fleshly one grabbed his waist ever-so gently, leading this dance between the two.
The both swayed side-to-side, moving slowly across the frozen floor of the temple as clouds began to roar again, only to get interrupted by the piano’s ominous song. Noli hummed the tone quietly while his eyes closed, but enough for Elliot to hear, and it sounded like a hymn.
Noli then lifted their left arm up Elliot’s head, and he, being somewhat suspicious and confused, narrowed his eyes in return, wondering what they were thinking.
Noli instead cocked its head slightly to the side, its smile still unsettling wide. “W-what the [matter], E-elliot?” There was a hint of playfulness in its voice, like they were actually enjoying it–which, now that he thought of it, Noli probably did.
Elliot’s brows furrowed, feigning annoyance at the cultist, only earning a static chuckle for his efforts. “Um, what are you doing?” He asked the obvious, eyes darting back at Noli’s face and at their raised arm.
“W-well i-isn’t it [obvious]?” Noli said, his voice becoming more glitchy by the second. “W-we are [dancing]! W-what an [amazing] performance w-we’re doing!” Elliot didn’t reply back, only stared into Noli’s mask, where their eyes should be. “[N-now, now], d-don’t be [shy]!”
Elliot sighed but obliged anyway. And so, just like that, he twirled around, with Noli’s hand guiding him of course. Afterwards they went back to the starting position, swaying slowly to the piano’s rhythm again.
Noli was fully satisfied with this. “Y-you’re [not b-bad] at t-this,” they laughed out as the two continued dancing to the piano’s music; thunder clouds, once again, cried out, letting out a loud, yet extremely loud, rumble–Elliot was starting to believe that this place was always storming now.
Elliot rolled his eyes, not actually meaning it. “And you’re terrible at this,” he joked, now it was his turn to chuckle playfully, a smirk already on his face.
Noli scoffed in mock offense. “[M-mind] y-your manners! Y-you’re talking t-to the [number one!] d-dancing champion!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Elliot muttered back as they swayed to the other side of the room now, almost at the end of their dance–their performance.
Just like it was planned, the music stopped, the piano now silenced like it was never there before. The clouds gave one last rumble, now quieter than before. It was only their footsteps now, echoing through the temple and finishing this up.
Until they both stopped, with Elliot leaning backwards now and Noli supporting him with their hands on his waist, making sure he didn’t fall down (it would be funny if that happened, though.)
Elliot’s chest puffed up and down as the two performers were finally done with this little dance–well, almost done, because there was one last thing to do.
Noli leaned a little closer to Elliot as the latter leaned towards them in response. Now the two were closer than ever together, faces (and lips) almost touching each other, and Noli could feel Elliot’s heavy breaths, which only brought more giggles out from them.
“L-look at y-you,” it teased in the typical Noli fashion, “we’ve o-only [slow danced] and y-you’re already [t-tired]! G-good thing i-it’s the [e-end], eh?”
Elliot smirked yet rolled his eyes at the same time. “Just shut up and finish this already,” he said.
And Noli obliged. They closed the gap between its mouth and his. At first, they were very gentle, very tender, then that changed, chewing on his lower lip, having more, and earning an adorable sound from the latter. They didn’t want to pull back, no, yet the performance, unfortunately, ended with this shared kiss, and Elliot pulled back–but Noli still held him in its embracing arms.
He tried acting annoyed by how far they went, furrowing his brows and scornfully. Yet Noli only found this to be entertaining–what a great actor Elliot was, but no one was a better actor than the one and only Noli.
“It wasn’t….supposed to be that far, right?” Elliot finally asked, arching one brow.
“N-no,” Noli’s head shook, just adding to Elliot’s mocked annoyance. “B-but somethings y-you need to [improvise] d-during [performances], n-no?”
Elliot scoffed, “Should’ve told me that before then. You’re a terrible kisser.”
Noli snickered at the insult–if it could be called one. “W-wanna try [again], t-then?” He pulled Elliot up on his feet, their eyes–or rather its mask’s eyes-narrowed teasingly, like there was something more to this ‘performance’. Ready for act two.
Elliot went back to his position, left hand on its shoulder and right felt Noli’s own hands intertwining it with such softness.
“This time,” Elliot said before they started again, smirking nefariously, “try to kiss better, eh?”
Noli laughed, but it came off more glitchy and static than usual, meaning that they, too, were having fun. “I-I’ll [try].”
That was enough for Elliot, and so, the two performers continued on, dancing until the clouds finally rained on the temple–but even then, they continued on.