PeaceMaker

Annabeth blinked blankly, looking up at him with slightly taken aback eyes. "What?"

Antonio flinched, touching his nape, "You don't have to if you don't want to but I wanted to dance with you…"

Annabeth continued to stare at him with blank eyes, her hand loosely holding her next cake victim. 

"Y-You can just think of it as repaying me if you want since you did that little thing earlier.. But I'm not using it as a reason to force you to dance or anything, just a way for you to think of it. If you don't want to, you can always just hold the paying me back thing on the backburner," he muttered nervously, "and- and you don't have to dance with me if you don't want to! I'm not trying to rush you or anything neither am I just trying to force you to dance with me in general so you can always refuse if you want-"

"Ok," Annabeth replied.

"-I won't take any offense if yo- what?" Antonio paused, looking at Annabeth with wide eyes, "you… you will?!"

"Sure, why not," Annabeth chuckled, "Haha you always start ranting when you ask for something so it lowkey makes me feel like accepting."

"Oh…" Antonio muttered, his eyes and shoulder's drooping. "Then never mind…"

"Hm?" Annabeth asked, looking up at him, "what do you mean?"

Antonio looked up at her shyly with dimmed eyes before looking away, "I don't want that to be the reason why you dance with me. I don't want you to dance with me simply because you pity me or som-"

"NO!" Annabeth exclaimed, "Why would you think that?!"

Antonio flinched, "Because of your sentence and everything…" 

"Nonono," Annabeth chuckled lightly, "that's not part of it at all. You asked me to dance and you weren't forcing me to dance either. It wasn't like a, 'she must dance with me!' and more like you were actually asking me to dance and would be ok if I refused you. I like that. But that's not why I agreed, I agreed because you seem like a nice person. You're easy to talk to and stuff. For goodness sake, I almost cried in front of you and was in a nervous state more than twice but you helped me each time."

"Ah.." Antonio uttered, a little smile forming on his face.

"So I would love to dance with you," Annabeth grinned. 

Antonio blushed. "Ok then…"

"But it's not to repay you, I'm sure they'll be something else I can do for you to repay you," she chuckled, finishing the cake in her hand.

Antonio looked up at her again, and she nodded. He reached over and wiped off the cake crumbs. 

"Ok!" Annabeth exclaimed standing up from her seat. She looked down at Antonio with a grin on her face. "When do you suppose we should dance?" 

"O-oh.. are we going right now?" Antonio stuttered standing up from his seat. He looked down at her food and then back up to her with a nervous gaze. "You-you didn't finish your food so.."

Annabeth looked back down at her plate and shrugged. "Well… a more than half-eaten plate is good enough to me," she grinned, looking back up at him, "besides it'll be sad if dances suddenly stop when we get up there right?"

Antonio nervously chuckled. "Right…" 

"Exactly," she smiled, "let's go then."

Antonio nodded. He walked up in front of her and gave her his arm to which she slid her arm and held it. She looked up at him and gave him a little smile to which he blushed. They began their walk back into the majority of the people, out of the little corner that they had hidden in.

Annabeth could feel the eyes on them as they walked. It was intense, their gazes. Her eyes scanned the audience and her heart skipped a little beat. 'This is a little nerve-racking than what I remembered with Falls,' she thought to herself as she and Antonio walked into a little empty spot and turned to look up at each other. 'I hope I'm not too nervous for t-' she began looking up to Antonio. She let out a little chuckle. 

"You look a lot more nervous than I am," Annabeth giggled, "and you're the one who asked me to dance with you." Her arm raised softly and her hand laid on his shoulder gently. She looked up at him and they locked eyes.

Antonio flinched from eye contact, his heart immediately skipping a beat. "Right… sorry," he muttered, his hand touching her waist so softly that she barely felt it. "I'm just…" he continued his voice trailed off as he looked down at her hand, his hand slowly sliding into hers. He looked up and locked eyes with her, "...a little nervous."

THUMP

Annabeth twitched, her eyes brightening. 'There it is again…' she thought to herself as she gazed up into Antonio's eyes, 'that… thump…'

"Ready?" Antonio asked, his voice snapping Annabeth out of her mind. 

'Has his voice always been so… deep? And… clear?' she thought to herself. "Yea… I am," she replied with a smile. 

Antonio grinned and with that, they began their dancing. 

It was awkward. 

Annabeth couldn't look up into his eyes and neither could he in hers. They just danced systematically like the others. One step, two step, three step… it was normal. The thumping in their chests was not. 

'One step... Two step… three st-' Annabeth thought to herself. 

"Ah!" Antonio exclaimed slightly and they immediately paused, Annabeth looking up at him immediately. 

"Are you ok?!" she asked. 

"You- your foot-" he stuttered, his eyes closing slightly from light pain. 

Annabeth flinched, looking down at their legs. Her foot was on his. Immediately, she stepped off and looked up at him, an apologetic gaze in her eyes. "Omg! I am so sorry, I didn't mean to step on your foot at all! Please forgive me!" 

Antonio let out a nervous smile, immediately shaking his head. "Nonono, don't worry about it."

"But-" Annabeth muttered, looking down at his foot again, "does it hurt?" 

Antonio shook his head. "Nope, not anymore."

"Anymore?!" Annabeth exclaimed, letting go of his shoulder and hand, about to bend down and look at his foot. "Are you sure? You may have injured i-"

"No," Antonio replied, grabbing her hand. "It's not injured," he assured, his fingers intertwining in hers, "I promise."

"Ah…" Annabeth stuttered. "Oh ok…"

They stood there for a moment, awkwardly looking away. 

"Should we-"

"I think we-"

They paused and turned back to each other, their eyes making contact. They stared for a moment before bursting into laughter. 

"Hahaha, Why are we like this?" Annabeth chuckled along with Antonio. 

"I have no idea, hahaha," Antonio replied, giggling with Annabeth. 

They calmed down and looked at each other, a smile on their faces. "That was so dumb…" Annabeth chuckled. 

"Agree-"

"Marquess Antonio?" a voice called out behind them. They both turned to look at a lady who looked at Antonio with a little blush on her face. "Ah… I was wondering if I could have a dance with you…"

Antonio looked down at the girl and turned to Annabeth then back to the girl. 

"It's fine if you want to go with her," Annabeth smiled, "I can always wait for you to come back…"

"Is it?" Antonio asked, his eyes staring into hers. 

"It is," Annabeth nodded her head. 

The girl stared at them for a moment before continuing. "Then should we go-"

"No," Antonio replied, turning back to the girl. "I can't dance with you, I'm currently dancing with someone else right now."

The girl looked at Annabeth and then back to Antonio. "But she said she was ok with you leav-"

"I said I'm dancing with someone else right now," Antonio replied, "sorry."

The girl flinched, her head lowering immediately as her face fell. "Oh.. sorry for interrupting then…"

"Ok… sorry again," Antonio smiled gently as the girl bowed and walked away.