The music swallowed Daniel whole as the woman led him into the crowd, but his resistance was visible in every line of his body, like a compass needle fighting its magnetic pull. Every few moments his height would make him visible above the sea of dancers, and each time - without fail - his eyes found Juniper’s.
Then he vanished completely, swallowed by the writhing mass. Juniper felt herself rising onto her toes without thinking, her body stretching upward as if she could will herself taller than the crowd. As her heels met the floor again, she caught sight of him - his back to her now, the woman’s silver arms pulling him closer, her hands sliding up his chest. The fact that he couldn’t see Juniper watching made it worse somehow, more intimate - this moment stolen while his eyes weren’t there to reassure her.
When he turned again, searching for her, the relief in his expression hit her like a physical thing. Each glance carried more weight than the last, until the air between them dripped with their unspoken words.
The scene unfolded like a fever dream of royal dance gone primal - palms turned backward, toes twisting into earth. Daniel stood within it all, his suit marking him as something other, something pulled from their boardrooms and briefs into this world of writhing bodies and backward palms.