define dancing | • e m m a

Warm sunshine filtered through the attic’s large windows, painting the boy and his bed in rich golden light. The crinkled sheets made for odd shadows, like the bed had been broken up; cracked into pieces. Rémi soaked up the warmth. Even though summer had just begun, Brittany barely made it much past twenty degrees most days, and his father hadn’t had a chance yet to extend the house’s magical heating system to the attic. With his eyes still shut, Rémi reached out, feeling through the sheets for his radio. His thumb and forefinger found the volume dial and he turned it up, loud. What better way to start the day than with a little alt rock?

Rémi’s father had asked him to swap rooms so that the girl moving in could have his ensuite, but Rémi didn’t want to be in a bedroom next to hers, so he’d opted to move up to the attic instead. His new room was still very much an attic – it had previously been a storeroom-meets-laboratory-workshop – and one half of the room was covered in junk. Boxes and boxes of junk. Rémi didn’t really mind that too much, though. He liked being surrounded by weird gadgets and desks covered in kooky bits and pieces.

Tiny gears, screws, packets of various potions ingredients, string, broken clocks and puzzle boxes were some of the many things that were littered around the place. Half a desk was visible under a pile of old telescopes and lenses. It was pretty chaotic, but held some kind of regressive appeal; this was the room where he and his father had spent time working on projects and learning about how things worked. Rémi's thoughts wandered over this. Would he and his father would do any of that this summer? Something made him feel doubtful.

Without warning, a large dark red creature pounced onto the bed. Rémi cracked an eye open as his cat crawled over to him, climbing onto his chest where he settled and curled into a ball. The Korean boy ran a hand down his back, smiling as the creature began purring. “You wont fall in love with some vagabond and bring her into our home, will you Haru?” he asked, his voice completely drowned out by the sound of the music. Rémi scratched his cat's ear affectionately.

"Okay, fine! I'll go get him."

Rolling her eyes, Emma stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Seriously, why couldn't her mum just let her cook on her own? She was perfectly capable of preparing a decent meal and she definitely didn't need any help. Especially not from someone who didn't even want to help. But no. It would help them grow closer. They needed to spend more time together, get used to each other. Blah, blah, blah. It wouldn't help at all. She knew it, Rémi knew it. The only people who didn't seem to accept it were their parents. Why couldn't they just let them be? Moving in together that quickly had been one of her mum's worst ideas ever and over the years she'd had quite a few bad ones.

The closer she came to the attic, the louder it got. Knowing that he'd never hear her if she knocked, Emma just opened the door to the Lune's room. It was a mess. She'd felt a little guilty after she'd found out that his father had forced him to swap rooms but of course she'd never told him that. They weren't exactly friends, after all. Sure, she'd never disliked him or anything, they had just... coexisted. It had been just fine that way, they were way too different to really get along and the current situation was proof enough for that.

The music was swallowing all her steps and realising that, a devilish grin appeared on her face. They'd never become friends anyway so why shouldn't she have a little fun with him? The blonde took a few steps forward, hoping that Rémi's cat wouldn't reveal her. Fortunately, Haru seemed to be sleeping happily and so she took the last few steps towards his bed and bent down, her head almost next to his.

"Boo!"

The boy swore loudly as he shot up into a sitting position. He instinctively pushed himself away from the thing that had so offensively brought him into full awakeness. Haru tumbled off of the bed with a loud meooww! Rémi frowned.

After staring at her for a moment, eyes narrowed slightly in a mix of disbelief and disgust, Rémi swung his legs over the side of his bed. His bare feet hit the wooden floor with a thud. The boy ran a hand through his hair, his dark eyes sliding away from her dismissively while he gathered himself together. He watched his cat instead, who was obviously as grumpy as he was about being jerked out of the peaceful reverie they’d been sharing before she had so rudely interrupted.

“What’s up, Emma?” he asked, replacing the scowl on his face with a cocked eyebrow as he turned to face her again. After realising that she probably couldn’t hear him (he could barely hear himself), the boy reached out to turn his music down. “What’s up?” he asked again, his voice thick with annoyance and sleep.

Mission accomplished! Emma shot an apologetic look at Haru but couldn't stop the wide grin from appearing on her face when she saw Rémi. She'd totally scared him. The boy began to talk but instead of hearing anything, she could only see his lips move. Still grinning, Emma pointed at her ears and shook her head. If she'd been allowed to use magic outside of school, the Belle would have turned the music off a lot earlier but there's was no way she'd risk a howler.

Once he'd turned the music down and repeated his question, Emma shrugged slightly. "It's nothing. Or well, I said it's nothing but the old ones want you to help me cook. Bonding time they call it. Utter crap if you ask me but unfortunately no one asked." The blonde tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before she shrugged again. "I know what I'm doing so you'll just have to chop some vegetables. I guess they also expect us to talk, though. Believe me, I'm just as annoyed about it as you probably are but the sooner we get it over with, the better."

Without waiting for a reaction, the girl turned around, expecting him to follow. Her gaze stopped on a particularly messy part of the room and one eyebrow shot up. "Hell, it's even worse than in my room up here..."

For almost an entire second, Rémi considered just saying no. Just pointing at the door and lying back down and waiting for her to leave. It wasn’t her fault that seeing her put him in such a shitty mood, and he knew that. That being said, it wasn’t his fault, either. Why should he have to censor himself or make change his behaviour for her? Snap out of it, he told himself internally. The boy patted the cat that had returned to rubbing itself on his legs before speaking.

“Right,” he answered, dissatisfaction written all over his face, “the old ones.” For some reason, Rémi decided that it had to have been her parent that had forced this. Probably just his natural prejudice. The Korean boy ran a hand through his short hair as he got to his feet. No time to shower, it was straight to bonding time today.  “It was basically a storage room,” he answered tiredly, as if this exchange of sentences was already exhausting.

The two made their way down the attic ladder and headed to the kitchen. Rémi didn’t bother to change out of his pyjamas, despite the respite that would surely follow such a decision. His father wouldn’t like the messiness of it. But if they were going to be living in his home, they should get used to seeing him half-dressed. His father would just have to deal with it. “Where do you need me?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at the blonde beside him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," the blonde waved her hand in dismissal. "I'm not judging you. My room doesn't look muuuch better. Just a little." Emma hadn't even bothered to open most of her bags yet, it wasn't as if she had that many things anyway. They'd moved so much over the years that the girl had learned to keep only her most important belongings with her and next to that they'd never been able to afford much. It had never been a problem, though. Emma had loved their life and being confined to a house during the summer holidays was something she would never get used to. Probably.

Once they'd reached the kitchen, the Belle pointed at the bunch of carrots on the kitchen counter. "Could you please start chopping them?" Ha! She'd said please. Her mum should be proud. Glancing around the corner, the girl raised her voice so that Amélie would hear her. "Dinner should be ready in about thirty minutes!" Good. Now she'd know that they were actually working together. It was unnecessary but at least it would prevent her mother's accusations that they weren't even trying to get along.

"So, will any of your friends visit over the summer?" Aka did she have to leave the house some time during the holidays to avoid his boring bookworm friends? Of course that wasn't something she'd say aloud but somehow she got the hunch that he knew exactly what she meant. Ah well. Whatever.

“What are we having?” Rémi asked, heading over to begin on the carrots. One thing that he’d observed in the past couple of weeks was that Emma was capable of cooking. He wasn’t sure if the fact made him like her more or less. The Ombrelune picked up the knife she’d left by the vegetables and examined it thoughtfully. He twisted it a little, looking at the way the light bounced off of it before he started chopping. Did they know that the knife set had been a gift from his father to his mother years ago? They were charmed to stay sharp.

There were so many things in this house that still brought up memories of her. He wondered if it made his father uncomfortable. If it was strange for the new woman to walk through the vegetable garden that his parents had planted. If she even knew about that.

“Maybe,” he answered. An uncomfortable idea popped into his head. Would her friends be coming here over the summer? Had this whole arrangement opened his life up to whoever she was friends with from school too? Ugh. No. Rémi dropped his knife down next to the chopped carrots. “Good talk,” he said, before turning to leave.

"Thai curry," she replied, while pouring the coconut milk into a huge wok. Sure, it would be a lot easier for her mum to cook with magic but Emma liked doing it all on her own. Cooking was relaxing and seeing the happy faces after a nice meal was always a great reward. Even when it came from someone she didn't even like much. Glancing sideways, the blonde looked at Rémi and wondered what he was thinking. She didn't like it here but it was obvious that she wasn't the only unhappy one. It must be weird to be forced to share one's home with strangers all of a sudden. The Belle almost raised her voice to say something about it but stopped herself before a single word left her lips. He wouldn't want to talk about it and neither did she.

Maybe, huh? Oh well. If anyone came over they'd surely just sit in his room and read or study. It was just so... boring. At least they wouldn't bother her then. Maybe, if her mother saw that she was trying to behave, she would be allowed to visit some of her friends during the holidays.Quite a few of them were at the International Summer School but definitely not all of them. And everything would be better than sitting here for the next few weeks.

She turned around at Rémi's words and shook her head slightly. "Not so fast. The leek needs to get chopped as well." See mum? I'm at least trying... "You know? You could help a little instead of letting me to everything on my own." And this time she wasn't talking about the vegetables.

Rémi didn’t know why he was suddenly so angry. A moment ago it had been more like detached apathy. He’d been reluctant to come down here. Now, though? Now he wanted to get out as quickly as he could. He just needed to be out of this house. He needed breathing space. The boy had to stop himself from clenching his fists as he turned around to face her.

“Oh, I’m sure you can cook a meal by yourself,” Rémi snapped condescendingly, pointedly ignoring the subtext in her words. Wait, scratch the idea about getting out of the house – he wanted them out. A surge of anger filled him, and it showed on his face. This time it was aimed at his father, though. How dare he bring these people into their house when Rémi had met them only twice. He just wanted to smash something.

"Indeed I can but that's not the f****** point." Her voice grew louder at that and she forced herself to calm down again before Amélie would come over. "You think I want to be here?" she hissed, glaring at the Ombrelune. "You think I want to be stuck in this boring house even though we've had a perfect life before? I can think of a billion places I'd rather be at but no, I'm stuck here because our parents are so very much in love." At that, the blonde rolled her eyes. "I know they're happy, even a blind one would see that, and that's why we're here. Not because I want to destroy your life."

That was the biggest problem. Her mum was happy. Happier than she'd been during the past few years. Emma could see that and it hurt. As much as she enjoyed seeing her mother smile and laugh, it was still a weird feeling that she wasn't the reason for her happiness. The witch hadn't missed a father in her life but her mother had obviously missed a man in hers. Sure, there had been boyfriends but they had all been idiots...

"You can be as angry as you want, it won't change a thing."

If Rémi were a dog, he’d feel his hackles raise as she spoke. Boring house? She wasn’t even thankful that his father had let them move into his beautiful home? Maybe she should talk to her golddigger mother and get out then, if it was such a hassle. She was missing the point. Of course he knew she wasn’t here to destroy his life, but that didn’t make her presence any more bearable.

And sure, she could be as friendly or snappy or whatever as she wanted to, but that didn’t mean that he would be any less angry or like her or her mother any more. Right now, Rémi didn’t know if there was something that could make the situation better. “So, what?” he started, not bothering to hiss like she was. Let them come! Let them see! He didn’t give two shits about them, or her, or anyone at the moment. “I help you chop some carrots and then we can play happy families? What do you want, some help around the house?” His voice was thick with condescension. If her mother hadn’t felt uncomfortable about having a maid in the house, there wouldn’t even be any cleaning to do.

No. This was complete crap.

He wanted to play dirty? Fine. She could do dirty. If there was one thing she'd learned over they years, it was fighting back. Emma had stopped counting the mean comments she'd received from other girls about her old clothes and her vagabond life and no matter what they'd said, she hadn't let their comments hurt her. They just didn't know how amazing it was to feel free and not to be confined to a single room day after day. The Belle had experienced so much in her young life and while not every experience had been a good one, she wouldn't want to miss them. In fact, the bad experiences had only made her stronger and she was proud of that.

"I want my mum to be happy. Obviously, you don't care about you father's happiness." That was a low blow, she knew, but he hadn't left her any other choice. Rémi was acting like a petulant child and he'd learn soon enough that hiding in his room wouldn't change the situation they'd found themselves in. She hated it as well but at least she was trying to accept it. In a few weeks they'd return to school and who knew what would happen within the next year. Maybe Amélie and Jonghyun wouldn't even be together anymore next summer.

The blonde looked at her kind of step-brother challengingly, daring him to fight back or to run back into his attic to hide again.

 “Will it make your mum happy if I cut some leek?” Rémi was being totally facetious. Totally pretentious, nit-picky and petulant. But he didn’t care. He honestly didn’t care about her opinion of him, and he didn’t care what her mother thought either. “What about my dad, hmm? Will chopping this leek make him happy?” To make a point, Rémi stomped to the bench and picked up the knife he’d been using and brought it down a couple of times on the chopping board, pieces of leek flying off and hitting the ground. He raised his eyebrows at her.

Alerted by the commotion (though Rémi had been far too angry and focused to notice), their parents had come upstairs from Jonghyun’s bedroom. The two were standing at the kitchen door. Rémi could feel it – all of them were against him right now. They all wanted this, and he didn’t, and he was totally powerless to stop it from happening.

“Taemin…”

Emma’s mother was speaking to him, but he cut her off before she could go any further. “Don’t call me that,” he snapped, brown eyes flashing dangerously. He knew his father would punish him somehow for this tantrum, but it wasn’t like he could make his life any worse right now. The boy dropped the knife back on the bench.

He was being ridiculous. Seriously. Emma couldn’t believe they were the same age when she heard his words but instead of getting even angrier, the blonde just rolled her eyes. Rémi still didn’t get it or – more likely –  he did but instead of acting in a responsible way, he was behaving like a child. Just when she wanted to tell him to fuck off and go hide in his room, the Bellefeuiile heard footsteps coming closer and then her mother and Jonghyun appeared in the kitchen door. She had no idea how much they’d actually heard and honestly? She didn’t care. After all, she’d been the mature one here.

Emma flashed her year mate a nasty glare when he snapped at her mother but before she could throw an insult at him, Jonghyun raised his voice. “Would you two leave, please?” He sounded calm but Emma was pretty sure that he wasn’t. His eyes looked hard and she didn’t want to be in Rémi’s place now. But well. He deserved it. Without wasting another glance at the boy, Emma walked over to her mother and shrugged her shoulders slightly. Together they left the kitchen and Amélie closed the door behind them. It wasn’t her fault. She’d tried.

Rémi fumed, unable to control his anger. Somewhere deep, deep inside him, the boy knew that getting angry and taking it out on these two wouldn’t have any positive effects. But he didn’t really care. The boy had snuck out of his window a couple of times to meet up with friends who lived nearby. It helped, because that meant he could sleep more in the day and avoid everyone in his house. If that was how he’d be spending the rest of the summer, then so be it. He hated it here.

Rémi couldn’t stand the use of his other name on her tongue. He really couldn’t. He’d asked her to call him Rémi once before, but the woman must have heard his father refer to him with his Korean name so many times that it had just slipped out. As far as Rémi was concerned, that name was only for family. Only for people he cared about. Someone like his father. Someone like his mother.

His fists were tight balls as Rémi’s father asked the others to leave. Jonghyun was “cool” for a dad, and had always treated Rémi like an adult, but right now the boy wasn’t acting like one. Even though he knew he was about to have a big fight with his father, the Korean boy felt a little tension disappear. He just hated being around them. Rémi breathed out slowly through his nose, turning to his father and awaiting the man’s words.