As Penelope began to walk him through the steps of the dance, Crow did his best to follow along without breaking the rules that she and Naida had taught him. Early on, he realized it was going to be difficult to keep his gaze fixed on her face instead of her feet. He wanted to look down at the floor to make sure he was matching her steps. However, he managed to avoid the impulse for most of it, his green eyes only flicking downward every once in a while as he focused on holding her gaze.

It turned out that the steps to the dance—the very first ones, at least—were as easy as Penelope had told him they would be. He was glad to find out that he could keep up with her easily, if only slightly behind her since she was leading. The slight bounce in their movements was new to him too, but even that wasn’t hard to do as long as he didn’t forget about it.

His gaze briefly wandered to her right hand as he caught sight of her raising it on the other side of her body, and he mirrored the motion to meet hers above their heads. The posture felt strange, but when the knight smiled at him, he returned the expression, reassured that he’d done the move correctly. Even though he had been hesitant to learn noble dancing before, he was starting to like it a bit more. It was probably just because he was able to dance with Penelope though, if he was honest. He doubted he would enjoy dancing with a woman he didn’t know nearly as much as he did with her.

As Penelope went on to tell him how to do the next part of the dance, Crow listened carefully, trying to keep up. Fortunately for him, the next part didn’t sound too difficult either. That is, until he felt the sudden urge to yawn. He lightly bit his tongue to stifle the feeling. Though he was usually quick on his feet when taking on something new, he could tell his exhaustion was catching up to him fast. He hoped there wasn’t much more to learn, because he wasn’t sure how much more information his tired mind could absorb that night.

“I think so,” he nodded, casting her another smile that was a bit less energetic than before. “I’m ready to try it when you are.”