Dance it Out (Eric)

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie waited after sending that last message. She knew that the one to give her the best advice in her troubled state was Eric, but by not being able to see him, it made her stress out. Being able to stand in front of him and talk it out was much easier than trying to depict her feelings through a message.

He could always see it in her eyes. She'd say she was fine but her bright blue orbs would break through her reassurance. Things were not always fine. And this was stressing her out.

She was fairly sure it was just first-date nerves.

Callie leaned over her desk and reached for the volume control on the stereo. If Cam were home, he might even know something was up. He knew her long enough to know what a Calliope-Gallo-Irrelevant-Crisis looked like. Eric would appear and save the day, reminding her to calm down. Sometimes she just got too in her head about things.

She reached for the small stereo remote, holding it out in front of her as she faced the door. Eyes closed.

Calliope Irrelevant-Crisis Gallo hated this about Eric Teleport-Trick Jones.

[Eric Jones]

As soon as Eric had recieved Callie's text, he'd slipped his phone into his pocket as he rose to his feet. Straightening his collar, Eric checked himself in the mirror by his desk and flashed himself a smirk. Looking at his brotherly best, good.

Closing his eyes, Eric drew the familar mental image of door to Callie's room to the front of his mind. There was a tug behind his ribs, a sudden sense of compression then a pop as the air around him was shoved aside . The door was there, and after knocking (he didn't check for Cam; Callie's dorm mates were used to him popping in and out.

"Oh hey~" he sung, opening the door and closing it behind him and leaning against the wall. "My room was bigger."

That bed spread. There was a lot of... it was... it was very bright. "Should have brought my sunnies," he said lightly, blue eyes directed straight at his little sister. "What's happening, Calliope? You don't seem your usual I-love-life self."

[Calliope Gallo]

"Hey." A little less brightness in her voice. "I'm pretty sure they're all the same size..." Callie tilted her head slightly at the notion of needing his sunglasses, rolling her eyes. "I like yellow." She almost wined. Yeah yeah, very funny.

"Don't call me Calliope." She said with a huff, feeling herself avert back to being a little girl again every time he said it.

Callie took hold of his hand and pressed the stereo remote to his palm; he could pick the style of music when he decided what would best fit the situation. She stepped past him and ran her hand along the wall that was covered in photos. A lot of him, if he cared to look. "How come you never forget the things I say when I ask you to?"

[Eric Jones]

Reaching out, Eric grabbed the remote. He started at it then back up to his sister, and then flipped it in his hand before whipping around like the remote was a gun and he was in a cop show.

Bam!

Perfect. Eric started shifting his weight from one foot to the other in time to the ridiculously upbeat beat of the most addictive song of the year. "My memory is just like my abs," he said with a grin, "Rock solid. Come on Callie," he spun on his heel and... out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar, extremely good looking face. That was one, two.... six of him, seven... eight.

"That is one good looking guy, Cee," he said, gesturing to a picture of him in trunks and a lua from their holiday in Hawaii. "He is devestatingly handsome."

She would bring it up when she was ready, as long as it was in the first five minutes. Then he'd start pushing the issue. But she had five minutes to start the conversation herself. Raising an eyebrow, Eric glanced at Calliope and tapped his boot to the music. Watching her, he slowly rose one arm up and did a very straight faced fist pump.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie was surprised by his song choice, so much so that she paused for a moment or two when it started. Was he a freaking mind reader as well as a teleport? Her laughter roared out as he started dancing; two-step style. "Hawaii was insane." She said, pointing to the picture in question. "I still haven't forgotten how you pushed me off the jetski..." To emphasise her point, she tossed herself down to the bed on her side, bouncing back and getting to her feet again.

But she supposed she should really get to the point.

"I like... Just met her. And..." She grinned, looking over to him and singing in tandem with the chorus; "It was crazy. But here's my number, so call me maybe!" She spun around him once and moved to a more open space in her room, turning her back to him. Dodge successful?

Callie kinda doubted it.

[Eric Jones]

"You are the worst, Callie," Eric called after her as the story of how his sister got a date with a girl disolved to pop lyrics. And that jet ski thing had totally been an accident... he had just taken a turn a little faster because someone had been calling him a bad driver. Callie had been fine anyway, and she s't the one who had had to deal with an angry Gia yelling in a mixture of english and greek for half an hour.

Reaching out, Eric caught Callie as she moved past him by the wrist and spun her under his arm. Hey, dancing was something they both enjoyed. "Where'd you meet her? She from Hammel? Meta? Name, age, social security number," with a well practised move he went to pull Callie back under his arm. "Do you like her?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie locked her hand perfectly into his as she moved under his arm. She listened to him speak as she stood outstretched, spinning back under his arm again and stopping perfectly in front of him. Her free hand fell to his shoulder as their hands remained connected.

"Student lounge. Yes, she's from Hammel. Yes, she's a meta. Or... She wouldn't be at Hammel." She answered.

"She was talking about a bo staff, and then I was like; Oh, I don't know what that is. And she explained it to me and she was all: check these out!" Callie let go of his hand, indicating to the muscles in her arm with a flex, "And I was like: Oh, wow. So you must really like that, and you look great so that always helps." With a slight lean back, she launched forward with her foot. He should really be leading buuut...

He could battle her for that. "And then she asked me if I had a boyfriend. And that was it." Her blue eyes looked up to him with curiosity; what did she say?

[Eric Jones]

Eric digested the information slowly, even as he dipped Callie and swept her back up again. Once she'd gotten started, it was much easier to get a sense of what had been going on then when she'd been sending those disjointed text messages. He had to sigh a little as his baby sister started giving the directions. She was better than him, sure, but traditions were traditions and he was leading, thanks very much.

When she launched forward, Eric vanished, reappearing to catch her by the waist from behind. "Those were your exact words?" he asked, both hands there so he could give her a lift then set her down to one side. "You look great?" Her eyes were wide and totally without understanding as to just what Callie might have said to, if not lead the girl on, to let her think asking was worth a shot.

"Callie-face, If you're complimenting a girl, most of them will take it as a pass." Eric spoke with the confidence of a speaker in his known field. "Checking the boyfriend thing was probably to test out the homo radar."

This song was stupidly catchy. Even while turning all his attention to Callie, Eric hadn't been able to tear his mind away from the lyrics. "You excited? You never said!"

[Calliope Gallo]

By now she was used to her brother-dance partner's tricks; he liked to teleport to break the flow of his steps and just be there in the next moment. She pressed her hands to his as he lifted her gently. "That's what I said." She nodded. What was wrong with that? For a moment or two she was actually worried that she'd done something wrong. But his tone didn't suggest that.

"Ohh." The realistion hit her after he spoke. That's what had happened! She turned to stand in front of him again, taking both hands with her own and bringing them to her eye level. Her fingers entwined with his as she looked down to her feet.

The point of her foot traced along the ground in a circular motion, stopping beside her other foot. Her body reacted in segments; falling out of line and back again as though a shockwave had been sent through her body. And she caught his eyes again as it reached her head, sending the waves through her arms and into his.

"Yeah, I am. I think you'd be jealous." She teased, poking her tongue out and screwing her face up in his direction. "That's not really why I worried."

[Eric Jones]

Eric wasn't nearly as good at the break dance styles Callie could pull off, but when she passed on the shockwave he did a semi decent job of mimicking her actions. It wasn't easy for him to separate his limbs the way that was really required, but more than a few years of dance helped. He was more liquid though, less a shockwave, more just a wave.

"Oh, for sure," Eric said, voice heavy with sarcasm even as he grinned. It was good to see her excited. "I'm very jealous of your date." He quickly tapped out a quick pattern on the floor (and that was something only family would know, his tapping days were over) and threw jazz hands over towards Callie.

"So, what are you worried about?" he asked finally, raising his eyebrows. "Is she older than you, or something?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie laughed for two reasons; the sarcasm that he spoke with, and the sudden use of his tap dancing skills.

"She might be older than me. I don't really know. I more wanted to ask you something." Callie thought about it for a second or two, throwing her hand out to catch his. Her other hand look the stereo remote out of his back pocket so she could change the song. Something fun that was less of a pop anthem, that's what she was looking-

Found it!

She tucked it into her back pocket. "I don't go on a lot of dates. I figured it's always better to just be myself, y'know? But... I have been on a few dates that I never told you about." Launching forward, Callie drew herself into the partner position again. "Are you mad?" She asked, taking a step back with one foot so he could step forward. Fiiine, he was allowed to lead.

[Eric Jones]

Smirking as he raised a hand to do an over the top hair brush back (exaggerated sure but he still was checking his hair), Eric grabbed her hand as she reached out for it. "Go for it," he said quickly, then chuckled as his sister stole the remote for the stereo. No more Call Me Maybe? Aw, but he was gonna miss it so so bad. Miss it so. so. bad. And she should know that.

But Miss Jackson wasn't bad either and he pulled Callie back towards him then stopped. The smile dropped so quickly it was almost comical, as was the disbelief that took its place. "What?" he said slowly, and ignoring the beat of the music he teleported to appear behind Callie and turned her shoulder to turn her to face him. "I'm not mad, little sister," One arm behind her waist, he spun, braced himself with one bend knee and tilted her down until her back was only a foot away from the carpet.

"Ok, you have two seconds to spill, Calliope. I want names," he dropped an inch, "dates," another inch, "genders, since that's a thing now!" One of his eyebrows arched over his blue eyes as Eric sailed on indignation.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie's mouth pulled into a frown at his response. She so knew this was going to happen. She did not expect him to teleport! Callie jumped as he appeared behind her and forced her to face him. He wasn't mad? Her blue eyes lit up a little; she was sure she would have really upset hi-

"Hey!" She called suddenly. What was he doing!? She couldn't help the small scream that escaped her when she felt herself falling. Saved a few inches from the floor.

Every drop felt like a death sentence.

"Nothing. What? You don't know them. And nothing happened!" It was a little obvious from her tone that she was panicking. What was it with the guys she knew and their threats to drop her!? "With people that I didn't really like." She sighed, confessing at least that much. "So it... Wasn't worth... Mentioning..?"

She shut her eyes tight, awaiting the impending fall.

[Eric Jones]

"Calliope Rhea Gallo," Eric said sternly, "Why would you date people you don't even like, and more importantly," he was making a quick guess how far away from the floor she was. Only a few inches. Hardly headbump worthy. "It is too worth mentioning!"

Seriously! She had kept something like that from him? Sure, Eric didn't exactly tell Callie about all the people he saw, but that was mostly because 'dating' was replaced with 'nailing' and he didn't exactly want his baby sister to see him as some sort of player...

Shaking his head, Eric sighed and then vanished. Gravity would do the rest of the work.

[Calliope Gallo]

"I didn't know at the time that I wouldn't like them!" Callie called back. Isn't that why people went on dates?

But before she could say anything else that might save her life, he was gone. She dropped the last few inches to the floor, hitting it with her back first. Her blonde hair fell over her face. A quick huff and it flew up and out of her eyes. "ERIC!" She called. "ADERFOS!!" She called again.

"S'AGAPO~!!" No good. The Greek had failed her. She translated it for him. "I LOVE YOU!!" Callie folded her arms. Was he really gone?

No fair.