Etain wasn't the only one in the couple who had a secret which had yet to surface.  The purplenette's eyes got big at the mention of a big secret which Etain had, since she too had something she had not divulged to her girlfriend.  Every time they kissed Esther was taken off to a wonderful place where just the two of them existed and could melt into each other, become one.  Yet she had kissed another girl before this, the goddess she'd met under cherry blossoms and encountered on a stage later.  Though she had yet to see the goddess since that fateful auditorium encounter Esther had not forgotten the feeling of being kissed by someone of such stature.  Maybe she could tell Etain about her secret too, right now.  Then Etain explained how she'd confessed to someone in the past and been rejected in an incredibly painful way.  As though it had been herself experiencing it Esther's eyes started to tear up a little at the thought of Etain being called a freak and left behind. Who could do that to the redhead?  This pretty girl who made her feel like the cutest person in the world, certainly the most loved girlfriend.  Thoughts of telling Etain about the encounter with Shoka were dashed as she angrily thought about suplexing the girl who'd laughed at Etain's feelings.

Esther blushed after the thought occurred to her, realizing how unladylike it was to desire physical harm be visited upon anyone.  Being provided the distraction of dancing with Etain was just what Esther needed in order to get her mind off of such things and back onto what they should be focused on anyhow.  Her girlfriend was reaching out to her when something incredibly emotionally difficult had come up, so she wanted to support Etain however she could.  Whatever the big secret she had was it wouldn't change how the purplenette felt.  That much she was certain of, even though she didn't know anything about the nature of the secret.  Rather than worry about it she followed Etain to the dance floor with her arm firmly around the girl's waist.  They were each other's anchor it seemed, and she was going to do what she could to be a solid one for Etain right now.  

"Whatever it is, you're not going to lose me.  I promise," she smiled hopefully, "You're stuck with me, Etain, and no big secret's going to change that.. is it bad if I really want to just keep kissing right now?  That won't look weird to everyone else will it?"

Smiling at Yulecat, the blonde catgirl couldn't wait for them to do more things together! Such as baking smackdowns for everyone! Now, Tiernya didn't know what a smackdown was, but it had to be a kind of food, as you only baked food, right? And cakes at that! And if there was one thing Tiernya liked more than napping, and playing with her friends, it was food, and cake! The thought of how many smackdowns the two catgirls would bake for everyone, and how many friends they would make made Tiernya so happy!

Yulecat talking to her brought her back from her thoughts of smackdowns and cakes, and she focused on Yulecat. The other catgirl was saying things that Tiernya didn't understand. But she knew that Yulecat was happy saying them, which made Tiernya happy. So she just nodded and smiled. Then Yulecat patted her on the head, which made Tiernya purr, nuzzling against the hand. Tiernya tried to focus on what Yulecat was saying, but the words were confusing, and the petting was just so nya! Until Yulecat mentioned baking smackdowns again, at which point Tiernya's ears pricked up. 'Nya!' she said, nodding. 'Baking smackdowns together will be fun, nya! Tiernya can't wait.'

Seeing the tears forming in her girlfriends eye made Etain feel bad. She hadn't meant to upset Esther, far from it. She just wanted her to know why she had a hard time saying those three words. She almost regretted telling Esther about that, worried that her girlfriend would be upset that she wasn't Etain' first love, nor her first kiss. She now wished she'd saved her heart, and her first kiss for Esther.

But for now, it was time to dance! Etain lead Esther to the dance floor. She then spun the purplenette around, the held her to her, wrapping her arms around the taller girls neck. 'Thank you,' she said, leaning her head on Esther's shoulder. 'I... I don't want to lose you. I... don't know what, I don't want to think what I would do if I lost you.' Etain swallowed. 'And I'm not going anywhere either. So I guess we're stuck with each other.' Etain chuckled, then arched an eyebrow. 'And how is kissing your girlfriend bad?' she asked, a half smirk on her lips. 'We're together, we're girlfriends. This is a dance. It's romantic. How could a couple kissing at a romantic dance be weird?' Etain shrugged, held Esther tighter to her. 'Besides, I don't care what others think. I want to kiss. And I will, no matter who's around us.' With that she brought her lips to Esther's and kissed her girlfriend.

The two hit a snag in their journey towards the dance floor.  Namely, in the form of Haruka planting her feet and refusing to budge much further.  She always seemed so hesitant when it came to accepting a compliment.  Unless it came from Ubu.  But, Ubu could say anything and it would be magnificent.  The silver haired prince could always make Takara blush and sigh happily.  Much in the way she was doing now, when the girl thought of the Grand Prince in all her glory.

"Hm?" she turned her attention back to the unusually quiet Haruka.  "Oh, I see!"

She grinned and turned, to take both of Haruka's hands in her own.  A light color was still dusting her cheeks and beamed a wide smile, "Well, I wouldn't call myself an experienced dancer...but, I could still help you!  Plus, these dances should be pretty easy to pick up.  You'll do fine!  And I'll make sure you don't look foolish, at all!"

The blonde leaned in and planted a quick little peck of a kiss on the samurai's cheek.

Miyamiya had accepted her and even asked if she was ready. The ball gown that she wore was slightly surprising to Eri though she thought it looked quite wonderful. Taking Miya miya's hand she blushed, she knew how to dance that wasn't anything to worry her but the real reason for her to choose to dance was that she wanted to impress Miyamiya, hopefully that is. 

Eri still wasn't sure on why but as they began to dance it seemed as if she got closer to the girl, her body wasn't playing along with her mind as she had pretty much fallen into Miya, oh goodness she hopped this wouldn't freak her roommate out. At these thoughts she had noted her body was still betraying her as she found her head lay between Miya miya shoulder and neck. Though they had a slight height difference it seemed quite comfortable. Though of course this lead to her cheeks red as the reddest apple, darn you body. 

Now that she had come to terms that she had forcefully made a rave song a slow dance, that was possible unwanted on both ends she found the words that left her lips surprising, guess her mind and body were working together again " Thank you ..."

She whispered softly as she enjoyed this moment. 

( SO SO SORRY for the power play i hope its okay if not let me know i'll change it )

All of the things which were going on at the Ball served to reverse the role Haruka typically adopted when in pleasant company.  She'd always thought of herself as a strong samurai standing in protection and defense of someone she deeply cared for or believed in.  The very much manly interpretation of a samurai despite how obviously female she was.  At the Ball she had been put in a position where her vulnerabilities were visible to the world and moreover to Takara.  Rather than taking the lead she needed to be lead where it came to formal things which did not involve martial arts or samurai-type culture.  She found herself deferring to the blonde freely and openly, which was something she'd never have done when they'd first met.  That first meeting had involved dropping artwork only to have an annoying blonde think they were expressionist or something.  Now the annoying blonde was pulling her out to the dance floor; it was clear that she wasn't reacting the same on account of her feet not dragging again.  That might have something to do with being pecked on the cheek by Takara, which had Haruka back in bashful mode.


"I meant you're more experienced than I am.. obviously you're not an incredibly skilled dancer.  I can only imagine how blinding your bumble bee outfits would be if you were," Haruka responded with a defiant pout, not acknowledging how she was feeling.  She couldn't really bring that out despite the obvious sheepishness with how she followed the girl's lead.

"Takara.... tell me something and be honest.  Why do you like me?  I think all I've done is call you names and stuff, so why are you so nice anyway?" she asked, suddenly feeling as if it was something she  had to know.

Bashful Haruka was a very cute version of Haruka.  Even as she made an attempt at an insult and pouted, she still looked adorable.  Takara tilted her head to the side, as the samurai posed her question.  It did seem like a good one, even though it appeared to be coming out of nowhere.  Perhaps it was because the other girl seemed to be becoming aware of her reactions to the blonde.  Not that she was really pondering this point.  Regardless, she pressed a finger to her chin and stared up at the ceiling.  Haruka wanted an answer and Takara wanted to make sure that she was making herself very clear.

"Well...you're not a bad person, Haru-chan." she said, "Miyase-sama likes you.  So does Mi-chan.  And you've always been very kind and gallant with them.  And that's something I really admire about you.  So, the way I see it.  If you like Miyase-sama and Mi-chan and they both like you, then I don't see why we can't like each other!"

Takara smiled at the dark haired samurai.  While she wasn't dressed as the part in this instance, it was always hard not to see Haruka as that brave and noble warrior.  Not that it wasn't nice to see Haruka dress up and look pretty.  Perhaps she had made her explanation a bit too simple, but it was the truth as she saw it.  She knew that Haruka was a nice person.  And even if the other girl had a bit of a..."dismissive" approach to the blonde, Takara knew that they could get along.  It was just something of a gut feeling.

"In fact," she added, "you're an amazing person.  So I can't see how I could feel any other way about you."

As far as evenings went, Margeaux couldn't ask for a better time. Really, though, any time she could spend was Rin was always going to be wonderful. The pinkette just had the ability to always make her smile. The bright and admiring grin was reflected in the lone blue orb of the American. She had taken the lead and danced around, alongside the other couples on the dance floor. Not that either of the two seemed to be paying much attention to them. For the moment, they appeared to be lost in each others company. Margeaux, for her part, was only paying enough attention to make sure they weren't about to collide with anyone else.

Not that it was easy to do, when she had Rin with her. As Rin leaned in, she heard the other girl sigh and say, "I love you, Margeaux-kun." before leaping back and bringing an abrupt end to their dance. A look of shock appeared on her face, as if her own words were something foreign. It was...well, it was actually kind of cute. Was this the right way to explain how they felt about each other? They had already shared a few kisses (especially if you counted the first time at that Halloween Party). Margeaux blushed, but smiled. While her heart pounded away at her chest, she took a step forward.

"I love you, too, Rinko-chan." the response came out as easily anything that she could have said. A knock from behind sent the redhead right into Rin. She wrapped her arms around the girl as she steadied herself and prevented them both from falling to the ground. But, she didn't move away, either. With a nervous chuckle, she moved in and went for another one of those kisses. At the moment, it just felt like the right thing to do.

On the dance floor Haruka was at her most vulnerable and the shy expression she wore told the whole story.  Normally overly confident, demanding and dismissive of Takara's affections she was holding the blonde's hand and blushing.  As much as she hated to think of it that way the world was changing for the daughter of Oh.  Lady Tachibana was incredibly busy, Haruka hadn't seen her in a while and though worried oddly found that her heart didn't ache as much as she'd thought it would.  In fact she started to feel like that about someone else the more she thought about  it.  Thinking about a pounding heart and the feelings that went with it wasn't hard in an environment filled with girls who were close friends or more.  As she listened to the odd response from Takara she even thought she'd seen a couple kissing right in the middle of the dance floor.  

She couldn't bring herself to say anything as the blonde looked at her and smiled kindly.  Despite herself Haruka still felt her heartstrings being tugged when this girl looked at her that way.  Haruka would've been in rougher shape if the blonde hadn't thought  to praise how brave and gallant she was; feeling girlishly attractive wasn't something she as a samurai had really experienced before.  Takara knew to use compliments more fitting of a warrior in this situation, which made her appreciate the advances which had been made toward her more.  For whatever weird reason this girl liked her, and Haruka knew that she didn't totally hate Takara.  In fact she found herself nodding while trying to hold back the really weird instinctive motivations which suddenly began to plague her thoughts.

"Such words from a mere peasant are acceptable to mine ears," she responded in her most formal voice before suddenly finding herself embracing the girl form the side, "You're kind of amazing youself.. that you keep coming back no matter how many times I reject your approach, question your taste or outright question your lineage.  I do all those things and still you feel this way.. I owe you at least this dance..."

MiyaMiya hadn't really danced before, that she was aware of anyway.  All the same she tried her best to follow along with the rhythm which Eri started moving to once they arrived on the dance floor.  The principles were pretty much the same as doing recon on the halls of a school building or dorm - you watched for patterns, analyzed them and prepared for how you might deal with them or just go with them.  Magical energy grids could move to a certain beat or rate as well so adapting to audible patterns was all in a day's work for her as an agent of OSTPOLDM.  Agent Snake thought that Agent Bunny must be in the building somewhere but they were both running important missions.  Too important to impede each other's progress by meeting.  That and she found herself quite suddenly dancing with the whitenette's head on her shoulder.  Noticing this, she simply adapted and fell into some slow dance steps she'd probably picked up by osmosis or something.  That was what her imagination told her.    As they danced she started to hum a song that fit their dancing a little bit better.

"You're welcome, but don't thank me.. thank Our Divine Lady of Mercy," MiyaMiya suggested with a smile, reaching up to stroke the girl's hair.  Then she smiled and added, "You're way prettier than me, but that's what you'd expect from an angel isn't it?  Don't worry about anything, Snake is here to watch out for you."

(OOC: No problem!)

It was one thing to have her say it, but to be immediately embraced and then kissed...like this. Something in Rin's heart seemed to flutter free and burst forth in all directions. She sighed a little, kissing her back, relaxing into her arms. Is this what love really felt like? It felt...good, free, pure, perfect, all these things.

She tightened her hug and soon the kiss ended, her blue eyes fluttered open dreamily finding only the kind of face of her....friend? Was there a better word for this situation? They loved each other, but friends didn't kiss like this, she wasn't sure if her parents had even felt this way for one another and shared it in a kiss like this. As even the embraced subsided, Rin wasn't ready to let it go and held Margeaux's hands.

This made her shy and her gaze drifted to the floor, "Margeaux-kun...are we..?" she was going to ask if they were dating now, but couldn't bring herself to say it for real just then, something made her look up at that solitary blue orb and sigh, just take in her pretty face, everything about this person was so wonderful, could it really be that all of their moments together were leading to this perfect moment?

There may have been a few more eyes on the pair than Margeaux had expected. Or would have expected if she had been paying attention. After all, the two were in the middle of the dance floor and this was the sort of thing that would draw attention at the Ball. But, the kiss had felt very nice. As had the embrace.

"I..." she started to answer the question that Rin had asked. Only to realize that the question had trailed off somewhere around the halfway point. Not that she had let go of her hands, either. A slight smile appeared on her face, as the blush lingered, alongside the silence. Or at least it was a dip in the conversation. Around them, things continued as they normally did.

"Yes?" it was an answer, even if she didn't sound as confident about it as she wanted to. "At least...you know...I'd like us to be..."