Anti-OTP: Hamlet/Salome

[danceinblood]

*She sits, her veils spread out before her on the floor, stroking the fine fabric and thinking. She cannot recall the last time she danced, and there's a vague feeling of wrongness to the not-memory, so the Princess strokes her veils, as if troubled memory will be soothed by silk in her fingers*

Comments

[thanitohercules]

*when the prince stumbles upon her, perhaps he first notices the silk; he likes silk and before he went into mourning, much of his wardrobe was coloured silk-- but then again, perhaps he merely looks at the silk to avoid gazing at the barely-clad girl who tends to it*

*after a moment, awkwardly, politely* Good morrow.

[danceinblood]

*she glances up, with a small smile* My thanks. *and, not shyly (she hasn't much of shyness in her) but with a certain hesitance, she holds out one of the veils to him, to touch*

[thanitohercules]

*smiles a very little back* 'Tis--most fine, this. *runs his fingers across the silk, slowly, almost lovingly* My garments are sometime of it.

[danceinblood]

'Tis very fine. And fair, very fair.

[thanitohercules]

'Tis much of both. 'Tis soft-- and look you how catcheth it the light.

[danceinblood]

*and she does look, seeming quite struck with admiration of it* O--!

[thanitohercules]

*moves it to make it shimmer, because Hamlet likes nothing if not the shiny* No small wonder 'tis fair-- and when thou dost dance, the fairer.

[danceinblood]

Wouldst see the dance? *smiles (it's a startling sort of smile on such a young girl, though it suits the reddened lips)*

[thanitohercules]

*he's a little surprised; perhaps he even colours a very slight bit* Would you wish to. 'Twould bring truth to my utterances.

[danceinblood]

I wish't so. *she shifts, to remove her sandals, in the absence of her servants, and her eyes move over the veils as if taking inventory*

[thanitohercules]

I thank you. *already can't quite keep his eyes off of her*

[danceinblood]

*she takes up the veils, and she meets his eyes with a certainty, a self-assuredness, that is rare at her age but comes of being raised a Princess, and knowing you command those near to you-- the smiles broadens, slightly, as she takes the first steps*

[thanitohercules]

*he's a Prince, of course, and not one to be commanded-- except that he is also a man, and as a man, has certain weaknesses that very well might includes Princesses in silk veils performing private dances-- and so he smiles, at her more than to her, and leans forward*

[danceinblood]

*the dance is skillful, well-practised, but perhaps it isn't in the steps so much as the knowing when to catch the eye of a watcher-- and that skill she has learned well. when the dance is through, she lowers her eyes surprisingly demurely, but that, too, is a practised motion*

[thanitohercules]

*he moves forward, then, just a bit, not quite a practiced motion but an instinct; he's not quite sure how one ends these things, with an applause or a coin or something else entirely--but is he quite taken and a little more breathless than he should be* Thou'rt-- thou'rt--

[danceinblood]

Ay? *meets his eyes, tilting her head to one side, watching, waiting*