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[wildlyconflictd]

Boring. If there was one word to describe the island, that definitely had to be it. Nice weather and a couple of tiki bars might have seemed exciting for the middle-aged set, but for seventeen year-old Pepper Potts, it was like being in exile. There was nothing to doThis was why when the subject of prom of come up between Karen and herself, the two

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[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe had been hoping for a party, and she should have known that the people of the island would provide. The clothes box provided, too, and she had a shiny red dress with the right amount of sparkle and a long skirt that flared pleasing around her ankles when she spun in a circle.

So here she was a party, all fancified, and she had no idea what to do with herself.

[_kinginthenorth]

Reynald is entirely unclear on just what goes on at this sort of thing. (And his dad, being now ten years old and utterly uninterested in dances, wasn't a whole lot of help.) But maybe Zoe knows more about it than he does, though from the look of things, it involves twirling in circles.

"Hello," he says. "You look like a princess. Or a mermaid."

[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe spun around again and laughed, delighted at the idea of being a mermaid. "If I was a mermaid, I'd live in a giant sandcastle with lots of starfish and play hide and seek in the seaweed with the fish."

Her mother had told her stories of a friend who'd been a mermaid, so she knew it was possible.

"I don't think they dance, though. No legs."

[_kinginthenorth]

"Oh, they can probably dance," Reynald says, thoughtful. "Just, only in water. I expect it looks lovely. But you're right, a tail wouldn't be terribly useful here."

[crazyspacegirl]

"A tail would be okay, as long as you had legs, too. Simon Chicago's is very nice. You can always tell what he's thinking when you look at it."

The dog in question was not too far away, attention firmly fixed on his not-so-small charge. His tail expressed vague approval that Zoe was now in a relatively safe indoor space instead of outside with wild animals that might attack at any time.

"We can dance on the land, though. Do you know how?"

[_kinginthenorth]

Reynald looks over at Simon Chicago, and nods agreement. "I like his tail. Grey Wind's is like that, too, but he's more likely to chew on you if you pull on it." The last comes out a little awkwardly; he expects this is not something grownup men of sixteen say. Dancing is a good change of subject. "Not really. A little. My father showed me some, but--" He shrugs. "He's younger than me right now, and not very interested."

[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe took after her mother in the area of not noticing awkwardness. Her family excelled at slightly odd conversations.

"Simon will just lick your face, no matter what you pull." It hadn't ever occurred to Zoe before to be grateful for her very tolerant dog. "I hope I remember when I go back to how I usually am to be more gentle with him. I climbed on him a lot."

She found it very interesting that Reynald and his father had switched ages just like she and her mother had.

"Mama's younger than me, too. Maybe they're out playing together." She liked to think they could keep each other company. "I only know performance kinds of dancing, from watching Mama's classes. Maybe someone else will start, and we can do what they do."

[_kinginthenorth]

"Maybe. He went to find someone to play with. Grey Wind's smaller, too," Reynald adds, not really finding this any strange than the rest. He looks around at the others for a minute, but finds there seem to be a lot of variety, actually, in dancing. "...There seem to be about ten ways to do it," he says, sounding lost.

[crazyspacegirl]

Zoe watched the other people dancing for a few moments, not any less confused than Reynald. It was one of the few times that day she really wished her mother was around and her normal self; she was feeling kind of useless as a dancer's daughter.

"Maybe we could just pick someone and copy them. Or else we could just make up our own kind of dancing."

[_kinginthenorth]

Reynald is generally aware that his father--when his regular grownup self--likes dancing, but has never paid much attention to the details. "Suppose we just grab hands," he suggests, "and spin around? I don't know how it compares to regular dancing, but it could be fun."

[crazyspacegirl]

"Yes, let's try that." Zoe was a big fan of both fun and spinning. "There's no reason we have to do it like anyone else. I like being unique."

She held out her hands and waited for Reynald to be ready to start.

[_kinginthenorth]

It has the advantage of also being a game that Reynald really likes when he's small, sometimes accompanied by an odd little chant about snowflakes and falling leaves. "Me too!" Reynald declares, beaming at her, and takes her hands. They're different than usual, which makes sense, of course, but he's not used to it. He tightens his hold, just enough he won't lose her, and starts to turn.

[crazyspacegirl]

They spun, and Zoe felt her hair fly out behind and her dress float around her legs, and she laughed.

"I don't even care if we're doing it right or not. This is the best dancing ever."

[_kinginthenorth]

"Definitely!" Reynald agrees, thinking maybe there isn't so much difference between being big and small after all. "I'm getting dizzy!" he declares after a moment more of manic twirling. "Shall we fall?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"It seems like the right time," Zoe agreed. She was dizzy, too, and pleased to discover that being taller and older didn't make this activity any less fun than she had always thought it was.

They collapsed in a pile of giggles and the skirt Zoe's red dress.

[_kinginthenorth]

Reynald giggles happily, one foot caught in the hem of Zoe's dress, his head tilted back to watch the ceiling spin. "It looks like the room's turning," he declares, as if this is the most wondrous thing in the world.