it starts because mari pulls you up without asking.
one second you're sitting on the kitchen counter watching her make tea, the next her hand is in yours and she's tugging you into the middle of the living room with the expression she gets when she's decided something and isn't taking questions.
"Mari, I'm in socks," you say.
"So am I," she says. "Ideal conditions."
she puts one hand on your waist and keeps the other in yours and sways like it's the most natural thing she's ever done which is typical mari, fully committed to everything always, no halfway.
"You're leading," you say.
"Obviously~" she says.
"I didn't agree to that!"
"You got up didn't you?~" she says.
you did get up.
she's not a graceful dancer exactly. she's a confident one which is different and somehow better. she knows where she's going and she takes you with her and you follow because you always follow mari when she's like this, certain and warm and completely in her own world.
your foreheads drift together without either of you deciding it.
neither of you moves back.
"This song is so old..." you say quietly.
"It's romantic." she says. equally quiet.
"You're romantic!" you say.
"Don't tell anyone~" she says.
"Mari."
"I mean it."
"You pulled me off a counter to slow dance in the living room."
"That's just dancing!" she says. her hand tightens slightly at your waist. "This is just dancing."
you look at her.
she's looking back.
"Okay," you say softly. "Just dancing."
the song ends and neither of you stops.
the next one starts, something slower, and mari doesn't let go and you don't pull away and you're barely moving now, just swaying, her chin finding the top of your head, your hands still together.
outside it's whatever time it is. the tea is going cold on the counter. the kitchen light is the only one on and it spills warm into the living room and catches mari's face and you think about how you get to have this, this specific thing, her pulling you up without asking because she already knows you'll say yes.
you always say yes.
"Hey..." she says, lips pressed to the top of your head.
"Hey..." you say.
"Good?"
you close your eyes.
"Really good..." you say.
her arms wrap around you properly then, both of them, the dancing becoming something else, something quieter, and you stay there in the kitchen light while the music plays to no one.