BIG 👏 THINGS 👏 HAPPENED 👏 TONIGHT 👏
@chromochaotic and my kids…….we’ve made it y’all……
It had been too long since they’d done this.
Not that Silas had been missing the music and the dancing itself, exactly. It was just nice to see Riley smiling like this again.
The dancers swirled around the room, happy and laughing and reveling, and Silas and Riley kept right up with them, both in rhythm and in spirit.
Riley paused, then, looking like she was thinking about something, and it gave Silas a moment of pause as well. But the dancers around them continued forward, and Silas gave Riley’s hand a gentle tug to pull her forward.
This pulled her out of her thoughts, and she grinned at him as she compensated for her pause by bounding forward, pulling Silas along with her.
Silas withheld a noise of surprise at the new speed and stumbled a bit before catching himself. He gave Riley a wry smile, causing her to laugh, and Silas felt the warmth in his chest growing.
They went a few more times around the circle, enjoying each other’s company. Silas took one turn extra dramatically, hoping to amuse Riley, and was rewarded by her laughing again, clear and happy and very, very missed.
It had been a rough few weeks. Riley had been through hell and back, with everything that had happened at the circus, the ball, with her sister.
Silas couldn’t imagine going through all of that. He couldn’t imagine continuing to fight through all that pain- never breaking down, never giving in. He couldn’t imagine coming out of all of that stronger, more loving and kind and joyful than ever, so soon afterwards.
But then, Riley was a lot of things Silas could never hope to be.