Somebody Else's Space Program
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Chapter Forty Seven "A wonder to behold it was, with many buttons bright."
One day to find where everything was. Envyss tagged along after Ross, Ross's journal in his hand, something he read whenever he had a spare moment. And the kid's mind was on the rockets, not on his new lover.
Most of the time. Once in a while, the sun would catch Ross's hair and it would blaze, and Envyss would just stand there, looking at him. But Envys never lost his concentration when Ross or anyone else was talking, only when there was a pause.
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Dinner was with the rest of Ross's staff. Envyss listened, asking the occasional question.
Test schedules drawn up for the rest of the week. Some of the others poured wine -- Envyss waved the offer off, as did Ross.
Up late, talking, suggestions, then plans for the future, then flights of fancy. "Rockets are so wasteful, but there isn't any alternative."
"There aren't any alternatives _yet_."
---
"Let's go dancing."
"What?"
Envyss looked at Ross. "You haven't been to one of our dances?"
"I never considered it. I don't know the local steps, and I don't want to dance with a woman."
"No one's asking you to. Come on, it'll be fun."
Ross winced, but allowed the teenager to draw him to his feet. "I don't know how."
"Hold on." Envyss disappeared into the room his luggage was stored in, returned with a recorder. He slipped a coil of wire into it. Then he took Ross's hands. "Basic steps, like so." Four different elements, then combinations. "Now we add music."
The first piece was slow, almost hypnotic. Ross let the music soak in -- he had been living with the hruss for the whole span of Envyss's life, he had an idea of the tempos and changes they liked -- it had just never occurred to him that he could have gone dancing with an earlier lover. Every once in a while Envyss would push him just a little, lining him up properly.
The music changed -- a faster piece. It sounded a bit like one of the waltzes at home -- Ross tried to shift into that positioning, but Envyss kept going somewhere else at the oddest moments. Finally, Ross let Envyss lead, and after he had the pattern down, Envyss waited for _his_ lead.
Two dances at that tempo, patterns slightly different. "Alright. Now a fast one. I'm not going to ask you to try this on the dance floor your first time -- just watch the others when you see it."
Envyss posed Ross a couple of times, no music. "You move from here... to here... to here... and again. But it's fast."
It was also very familiar, a variation of a dance his aunt taught the kids before they were old enough to go to school. "Let me hear the music." Envyss played the piece through, re-wound it. "Alright. Let's try it."
"Are you sure?"
"Follow my lead if you can. I might have some slightly different moves."
Intro. Ross was bouncing on his heels, ready to go, and... away! Envyss looked startled, but followed, fighting not to correct, then moving into the rhythm. And at the end, a hug and a kiss. And Ross held on, still swaying. "It has been so long... I didn't realize how much I missed dancing."
"You should have mentioned it -- one of us would have taken you. My mother loves to dance -- you wouldn't have had any problem with her, would you have?"
"I don't know." Remembering the frequent hugs over the years, with no further expectations on either side, "Probably not."
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A social hall in the nearest town. About one in eight of the couples were same-sex pairings, but some of those were young girls who wanted to dance but didn't want to deal with boys yet. There was more than one pair of adult males on the dance floor -- Ross's shoulders unknotted when he saw them. None of them were over-feminine, either, good.
Envyss spoke to the band leader at the break. "Okay. I asked him to play the music we've already rehearsed to, that should help. Then we'll take a break and you can watch everyone else."
"Arranging for me to rest? I run a couple of miles every morning."
Envyss flashed a wicked smile at him, "Not the last few mornings, you haven't. Okay, ready, position..."
The medium speed one, no problem at all. "Another medium, then the fast." But the band started something different -- something much slower.
Ross slipped his arm around Envyss's waist and pulled him close. It wasn't much more than swaying together with Envyss's head resting against his shoulder. And no one was staring, and certainly no one was becoming hostile.
The music stopped, and the two stood together for a long moment, just holding each other. Then the music started again, the faster dance Ross had half-learned, half-taught.
"Not bad at all. Now, watch this one." A much faster piece of music started.
"Are you going to dance with someone else?" Envyss's hand came up, no, of course not, push the thought away. "Good. Match me."
Envyss matched. The push-away and pull-back were easy. The underarm twirl and return brought a smile to Envyss's face. Then Ross pulled Envyss in close, planted hands on either side of the younger man's waist, and lifted. Full arm-extension above Ross's head, then down ago. And half the room was watching.
"What are you _doing_?" Envyss half-whispered.
"Next time, tuck, put your hands on my shoulders, and come all the way over."
"You're mad," Envyss said, but he was smiling.
The music stopped before Ross was able to line up another lift. Envyss tugged him gently over to where drinks were being served. "What were you thinking?"
"A move I saw as a youngster, never got a chance to try. We should have rehearsed it in private. I'm sorry if I embarassed you."
Envyss laughed softly. "When we walked in, the others saw your age, and there were bets being placed. I wish I had covered some of them -- they really underestimated what you were going to do."
"Did they? Good." Ross sipped the sweet concoction -- fruit juice plus something, no alcohol, not from this end of the table. "Ready for more?"
"No flips. Not without a lot of rehearsal."
"Agreed."
More sedate dances, generally. Ross watched, adapted... "I should have done this sooner."
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Home. "Show me what you meant, about the flip." Sketches on a notepad, just stick figures, but... "You've done this with a partner?"
"No, actually. Some of my friends were practicing the move, but that's when I started spending all of my spare time on rocketry. The physics of it intrigued me, in a spare moment or two over the years." Ross drew acceleration arrows around the figures, curved and straight.
"I'm not a gymnast."
"No, but you're a dancer. Let's start with just a lift to a handstand on my shoulders."
"No."
"No? Don't you trust the math?"
"It's after midnight. We can try it when we're both rested. I have no interest in having you collapse under me when I'm six feet in the air, math or no math."
---
"How do your shoulders feel this morning?"
"No problems here. I'm used to supporting more than your weight on my arms. Ready to try it?"
Envyss covered a yawn. "Let me wake up completely first."
A lazy grin and a hand tickling, teasing, "I think I can wake you up."
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