"Care to explain why you're avoidin' me?" Rayla asked.

Callum, who had been, hunched over his sketchbook on the balcony, jolted so violently that he fell off his seat and into the flowerbed behind him, crushing a bed of white lilies. "Rayla!" he exclaimed, trying to get back on his feet."What...what're you doing here? I thought you were with your brother-in-law."

Zym had been asleep on the ground, but he woke up and watched the scene with confusion, glancing between Rayla and Callum.

Rayla gave Zym watched him struggle to get back up, a bit like a turtle on its back. She could have helped him back up, but it was more amusing to watch him suffer. "Ah, so you did see me come back after gran made me go change. You just admitted to it."

He was almost back in his seat, but his grip slipped, and he wound up back in the flower bed again. "Could you maybe help me up?" he asked, exasperated.

"Could ya maybe answer my question and stop wreckin' the luna lilies?" Rayla countered.

"I'm trying!" Callum argued, trying to tug his leg free and finding it still stuck between a tine on the bench.

Rayla rolled her eyes and gathered up her skirts, which were elaborate and massive, draped them over her arm, got onto the bench. She wedged her foot under his leg and used it to pop his ankle out of its trap before grabbing his hand and yanking him back onto the bench. "I don't know if you know this, but sometimes I think you're kind of hopeless."

"Thanks," Callum said skeptically, giving Rayla's bare, exposed legs a wary glance before looking up at her. He'd thought that seeing her in the dress from a distance had an adverse effect on him, but from up close it was worse. Much worse. The gown draped off her hips and rolled elegantly past her toes when she released the fabric. The rest of the deep violet and silver fabric hugged her body tight, ensuring that the dress wouldn't slip down, as there were no sleeves or straps to hold the bodice aloft. Callum had seen dresses like it on the other elves, but it looked better on Rayla, in his opinion.

"It's because of what Alya said, isn't it?" Rayla asked, letting go of the dress and jumping down from the bench, sitting down next to him.

Callum felt his palms clam up and the hair on the nape of his neck stood up. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Callum lied.

Rayla elbowed him and said, "You know perfectly well what I'm talkin' about. Alya said that you fancied me and then she dragged me away to change my clothes."

In an attempt to play dumb, Callum said, "I have no memory of that."

Rayla smirked and said, "I know you're lyin'. Do you know what I think of liars?" Callum shook his head and swallowed a lump in his throat when Rayla crossed her legs and arms then said, "I think if you're a liar...you're a jerk face."

Callum groaned and rolled his eyes, "You don't get to call me a jerk face. Only Ez gets to call me a jerk face."

"The funny thing about that is that I did just call you a jerk face," Rayla smirked. "You have to do the thing now."

"You lied to me and Ez, and I never called you a jerk face for it," Callum grumbled.

"Yes, but then I saw the error of my ways and have been nothin' but honest with you ever since. Plus, being called a jerk face doesn't mean as much to me as it would to you...because I wouldn't have to do the dance. There's actually music playin', so it won't be as bad as last time."

"Someone could come out here and see!" Callum argued.

"Yes, but I wouldn't count on it. Besides, the longer you wait, the more you risk it," Rayla argued.

"If I do it will you drop it?" Callum asked.

Rayla nodded and, grumbling, Callum got off the bench, tapped his foot to get the rhythm right with the music and then, the jerk face dance began.

Zym watched, confused at first, but then he started yipping and following Callum, which led to Rayla laughing. Callum tried to keep his face as 'jerk face dance' appropriate as possible, but her amusement made him smile.

He took her hand and pulled her onto her feet, still doing his jerk face dance. He would never have anticipated that she would join in. Rayla danced better, in Callum's opinion, but before long they were both laughing at themselves at each other, a baby dragon prancing around their feet. Rayla did a spin under his arm, her dress spiraling around her like a tornado and on her way back they almost fell over, but ended up catching each other instead.

"You're a bit of an idiot," Rayla laughed, her hands holding his face, which was flushed from all the dancing.

"It's part of my charm," Callum panted.

Rayla laughed, shook her head, and said, "Yeah, it kind of is."

Callum was about to argue that it was rude of her to agree with him, but before he could, Rayla's mouth got in his way. He hadn't expected that his first kiss would be like this. He might have hoped, especially after how things had ended with Claudia.

He had just started to kiss her back when a loud 'ooooooooh!' shocked Rayla and Callum into pulling apart, him putting his hands over her hands as if that would hide something.

Tarron was standing in the doorway leading back into the ballroom, a grin on his face and Alya at his side. "Do I hear wedding bells?" he asked.

"You're not funny," Rayla snapped, glaring at her brother.

"I thought it was funny," Alya said.

"Will it be funny when I actually cut off one your heads?" Rayla threatened.

"You'd better not," Alya said. "Gran's still quite upset about that."

"Speaking of gran, she wants to talk to you," Tarron said. "Boring provision talk, you know the thing."

Rayla heaved an annoyed sigh and said, "Fine, I'll go talk to gran,"

Alya, sensing that Rayla wanted them to leave, pushed Tarron back into the ballroom, ignoring his efforts to get past her and singing 'Rayla and her boyfriend on the balcony, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.'

Once they were gone, Rayla and Callum finally dared to look at each other, both of them blushing. Rayla took her hands off his face, and he, in turn, released her hands, but neither of them moving away.

"I didn't realize how dangerous the jerk face dance could be," Rayla said, hoping to fill the silence.

"I keep telling people, but they just don't listen," Callum replied.

Rayla chuckled at this, but there was still tension between them. "I'd better go see what gran needs," she said, taking a step back.

"Wait a minute," Callum said, snatching her hand before she could get too far.

She raised an eyebrow and looked down at their hands before looking back at him, waiting for an explanation.

"Save a dance for me?" Callum asked, his cheeks turning scarlet.

Rayla smiled and said, "Only if you stop avoiding me."

"You have my word," Callum said, bringing her hand to kiss mouth and giving it a peck.

Rayla left with a smile on her face, and Callum was too stunned to know what to emote. When he finally got back to his senses, he returned to the place he had fallen, gathered his sketchbook, opened it back up to the drawing he had left off on before Rayla had interrupted him.

A smile came back on his face as he remembered her hands on his face as he got back to work, sketching a moonshadow elf who had kissed a human in a dress that looked like the night sky.

behold, it is done. might do more Rayllum stuff in the future. Anyway, leave me a review and let me know what you think. byeee