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it-happened-one-fic · 6 months

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Dancing with Visions - Der Lauschaer Galopp - Folk Dance- Bennett

Author Notes: This is the fifth fic for my "Dancing with Visions" series. With the knowledge that Mondstadt was at least partially inspired by Germany, I wanted to use a German folk dance and found this one on Youtube. I am not entirely certain as to whether this dance is wholly German or just Germanic, or as to it's name, although it seems to be called "Der Lauschaer Galopp." A performance can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNamAy83NBE&list=PLVg_j5iznUjYWnT-fYAHMVVKxIxc0Yfb6&index=43. Just like the rest of this series, reader is female. I hope you enjoy!

If you would like to read more of this series, the fics can be found here: Dancing with Visions Masterlist.

Type: Female Reader/ Dance/ Fluff/ platonic/ sfw

Word Count: 1565

I shifted slightly as I glanced around the crowd, looking for my partner for the upcoming performance I’d agreed to put on for Jean.

We were going to be dancing a folk dance as part of a group at a fair, but my partner had yet to arrive, and I found myself growing ever more nervous. To be fair, it wouldn’t quite be a day without Bennett without at least one thing going wrong, but the idea of that one thing being him not showing up would be too sad.

Especially considering how much effort, bruised toes, and sore muscles both he and I had put into learning the dance we would be doing for this festival.

“Y/N!!” I whirled at the sound of his voice, the skirts of my costume flaring widely with motion as I looked towards where Bennett came running down the street. His vest wholly unbuttoned open and flapping in the breeze as he tripped and landed squarely on his face with an ‘oof’ that had me running over.

“Bennett! Are you alright?!” I knelt in front of the young man worriedly, only for him to look up at me with a wide grin.

“Yeah, I’m just glad I made it on time! My dads are going to be watching,” He scrambled to his feet as he spoke, hand finding mine before starting off a trot once more and pulling me with him. Both of us hurrying to reach the stage in time to appear in front of the crowd at the same time as the other performers.

We trotted across the stage, Bennett tripping in the process and earning a few chuckles from the audience as we took our places with the other dancers.

Looking out across the crowd, I could see a mixture of familiar faces and less familiar ones. The Knights of Favonius were here, of course, since they were hosting this entire thing, but so were several people from the Adventurer’s Guild, Dawn Winery, and elsewhere. All of them watching us with fond smiles on their faces as we got ready.

The music began, half startling me into motion as all of us began our steady, trotting motions interspersed with careful hops so that we all landed at the same time and the sound of our feet hitting the solid wood rang out. Almost like it was a part of the music that we danced too.

The men were all an inner ring, with the women surrounding them as an outer ring.

In truth, this dance wasn’t a proper galop and could better be described as a folk dance, but it was danced to the tune of a galop.

It had always been referred to as Der Lauschaer Galopp, but whether or not that was the actual name of this dance, I’d never known. All I did know was that it was an incredibly fast-paced dance that was surprisingly difficult for something described as a folk dance of old.

Without even making a full circuit around the stage, the partners met and switched places with an easy spin. And after just a few more steps, the two rings met once more before all of the couples entered closed hold. Trotting around the circle in the manner that gave the galop its name,laughter already began to bubble up among the dancers.

Bennett, for his part, was counting under his breath and glancing between my face and his feet with flashes of a smile before his eyes would fall once more to his feet and concentration would crease his brow.

But we’d struggled up until our very last practice with timing our galop, which was interspersed with pauses when he would raise his arm and allow me to dance around him before being twirled, and the circuit continued.

And we were surrounded by couples who’d known this dance for quite some time and were even the ones who taught us. Huffman and numerous other members of the Knights of Favonius danced with us, making us the couple who were the least experienced.

That said though, Bennett gave his best as we switched to our sideways steps, where we stood hand in hand facing the crowd and moved from left to right before he would let go of my hand so that I could twirl freely as he walked around me, clapping his hands to the racing beat of the song.

I found myself laughing slightly as he turned to face me and danced carefully, rocking back and forth before he picked me up over his head, holding me only by my waist, as he swung me first to the left and then to the right.

I tensed briefly as he stumbled before quickly setting me back down and flashing me a nervous smile. But that was a mistake we’d already made several times during practice, and it always ended with us landing in a mangled pile of limbs with Bennett frantically asking me if I was alright as our horde of teachers would rush over.

But I’d never actually gotten really hurt. Even for all of his clumsiness and well-known streak of bad luck, Bennett always managed to ensure that when we did fall or collide, he took the brunt of the hit.

Our music paused, giving us mere seconds to return to our galloping circuit as our entire group trotted across the stage in a wide circle. But this time without holding hands.

In fact, Bennett only had one hand resting on my waist, and I had one on his back. Our other hands, which would usually be interlocked, were instead outstretched as if we were showing our audience the direction our circuit would be moving in.

After making one revolution, we separated once more, now forming groups of three that trotted sideways across the stage. And inevitably, just as it had happened each time in practice, this was when grins started creeping onto everyone’s faces as we did our best to not stumble over each other and keep with the unerringly peppy song.

I could see Barbara in the crowd, next to Jean, already clapping along as we formed longer lines that switched from the forefront of the stage to the backwards section.

Both me and Bennett stumbled at almost the exact same moment but managed to stay upright as we kept going, making eye contact and grinning as we did our best to keep up the dance that was at long last at its halfway point.

But things were fixing to get hard on the guys; that was something both he and I both knew as we reentered our separate rings of men and women to spiral once more.

We rejoined briefly, with me grasping his elbow and spinning while holding onto him; before we stopped to watch Huffman, Donna, Porthos, and Margaret take center stage.

The two women were smiling giddily as the group formed a small ring, their arms locking together as they started spinning. And we all watched, clapping along and laughing as the women slowly lifted off the ground, swinging out from the momentum as the two men kept spinning.

After a brief moment, they slowed, and I was turning to Bennett, nodding at him and praying he was ready as I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and he grabbed my waist. Holding it carefully as he began spinning before slowly and timidly releasing so that we were spinning, with my legs swung out behind me where I’d attained lift off and he was no longer holding me.

A part of me wanted to cheer at our hard-won success after numerous trials that ended in him falling backwards and me landing on him with both of us laughing.

The crowd cheered even as we slowed, and I touched back down. But I wasn't meant to remain grounded, and none of the other women were either. Instead, couples began to start meeting up. Creating groups of four in a line with our arms clasped over one another’s shoulders. The women on the outside and the men in the middle as we all began trotting in a circle, gradually speeding up until the women, myself included, were able to curl up our legs and swing out to the side as the men kept spinning.

Both me and Margaret were grinning like fiends as the crowd applauded, even though I also knew that both of us couldn’t help but feel bad for Huffman and Bennett as they propelled us along.

After what felt like a few seconds, we touched down once more and resumed closed hold with our partners.

I eyed Bennett worriedly, but he only nodded with a bright grin, proof of his incredible toughness that he’d honed through years of bad luck.

We took off in our galop once more, stumbling at the start but making it safely into the final circuit as applause rang out from the crowd, accompanied by piercing whistles and loud cheers.

The dance at long last came to an end with each couple practically hugging each other and spinning together before breaking out to beam out at our audience, who cheered wildly. And as soon as it was over, me and Bennett were both laughing.

Half-stunned that we’d successfully complete the performance without any tumbles and still giddy from swinging around at such an incredible pace.

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