Editing It's Your Party, You Can Dance If You Want To

<span style="color:#800000"> '''''We all got together on Christmas evening and did this in one go in group chat. You guys totally ROCK!--Maer.''''' </span> <br> <br>





'''Friday, 14 Nov 2521'''<br>
'''Johannsen/Earhart Ranch'''<br>
'''1630hrs, local time'''<br><br>


Rina and Beglan quit the bridge and walked into the quarters Joshua was using for office space on the ship. Rina rapped her knuckles on the jamb and stepped over the door seal. <br><br>

"Joshua. Got a minute?"<br>

---<br><br>

"Yes yes. What's up?" He looked over at Rina, wondering what SmartShip problem had popped up now.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Beglan, you tell him." Rina gave the Irishman a brisk nod. "You've been working on the damned thing all afternoon and have a better picture of the landscape."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglan looks a little surprised by this. He wipes his hands as though trying to clean up a bit. "Er well, Captain. Rina and I were thinking that the problem might not be the SmartShip program, but the computer, it's not up to specs. We need something bigger."<br><br>

---<br><br>


Meanwhile.... over at the barn, Nala Johannsen has pulled together the rest of the crew at Rina's behest. She has the ranch hands setting up tables and the crew toting foodstuffs out of the kitchen to the barn for a party. Larry and his brothers have run streamers and lights across the barn's rafters and moved the horses out of the front stalls to open up the entire floor. Just like they would for a barn dance! She points Arden to one side, "Desserts on that table, Arden. And when you're done, please go roust my sister from her primping and bring her out here. Rina's bringing Joshua in less than ten minutes."<br><br>

“What?” Arden asks. “I thought we should wait before digging in. And shouldn't the deserts be eaten last?<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Really? How much bigger?" ''And more to the point'', Joshua thought, ''how much more expensive?''<br><br>

--<br><br>

Beglan starts to put his hands apart and measure out the difference mentally. He tries five or six different combinations. "Well, I'd say, a bit bigger." Then he starts spreads them a bit further. "Hmm, quite a bit I'd reckon. Maybe... well ideally we'd want something big enough.... So, ya, bigger." <br><br>

---<br><br>

"Ok." Joshua sighed. "So what can I help you with? You realize we have no funds. "But anything within my power, I'll do. We need our ship sailing smooth."<br><br>

---<br><br>

"We've got skills and we've got Langiappe. Short hops, small packages. Could net us some money." Rina nodded aft. "Wanna talk it over some coffee? Maybe Nala's made cookies to go with that bread I know she's baking."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Joshua shrugged. "Sure, coffee is good. Lead on."<br><br>


---<br><br>

Rina hustled for the stairs, leaving the men to follow. "Ideally we should gather everyone together to discuss it. Nika and Arden ...," she trailed off, hitting the treads down. It was the work of a minute stepping off the ship and closing up the cargo doors. The mule waited just outside and she slid behind the wheel and turned the engine over. "Get in. That coffee isn't getting any warmer."<br>

Rina put the mule in gear and sent it down the familiar path back to the main house. The sun was lowering visibly toward the horizon and with it the temperatures grew colder. Still, she was warm inside with anticipation. She cut a look at Joshua riding shotgun. ''Hasn't a clue. Nope''. She grinned through the windshield. Not long now.<br><br>

She parked it at the barn in its usual spot and slid out. <br><br>

"Hey, there's something I need you to help me with in here. Won't take but a minute. If I tried to do all the work myself, I'd rip my stitches and Arden would kill me. Gimme a hand?"<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Very thoughtful, Rina. You're learning." Joshua smirked a little as he got out of the mule. "And of course I'll help." He walked over to Rina and waited for her direction.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglans hops out and follows them in.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Rina grabbed the door and hauled it open, saying, “It’s just inside, I had Nala get some of the hands to make it easier to get at.”<br><br>

---<br><br>

Joshua walked inside, turning towards Rina as he strolled through the door. "Wanna give me an idea exactly what I'm looking for?" he called over his shoulder.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Keep going. You'll know it when you see it," Rina called after him and hauled the door shut. ''No escaping now''.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"SURPRISE!" yells Beglan.<br>
"SURPRISE!" hollers Kiera, sitting contently on a rafter.<br>
“SURPRISE!” comes Arden’s response.<br><br>

As Joshua steps in, everyone in the room yells "Surprise!" and the lights come up and there's suddenly music as some of the hands play fiddles and such. Nika stands against one of the back walls out of the way of being stepped on and grins slightly at the sounds.<br><br>

Joshua whipped around towards the door in the dark when Rina shut it, and then whipped back around when everyone shouted surprise. "Good god, people, this is why I don't use guns. I would've sprayed the whole place with bullets." He took a deep breath and looked around at the sight, a wholesale party. "Wow," he said simply.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"C'mon, you. " Chuckling, Rina hugs him from behind. "Let's get you some birthday party."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Arden stands near Nika, smiling as well. The whole community thing is frankly beyond him. But he's willing to throw himself in to it if it seems like it would be fun.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"You all totally rock." He hugs Rina back and then looks around for the rest of the crew to give them hugs. Nika is next on his list. Spotting her standing out of the way, he walks over and says, "I know you're involved with this too, Nika. You get a hug." And he leans forward to hug her.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera watches from her perch, away from the whole thing, a part of the festivities, yet separated. She smiles gently, even fondly, watching like a cat at the whole of the party laid out below her.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Nika laughs and returns the hug. "Not me... talk to the girl who looks like me. I think she might be somewhere that way," she gestures out into the crowd. Too many people to trip on for her. "She's been cooking all day, too. Even lemme lick the bowl!"<br><br>

---<br><br>

Arden and Beglan get more manly hugs, but are not excluded. After all the hugs are given out, he turns to the whole group and says, "Once again, thank you. I am 175% surprised.<br><br>

"Now lead me to the food." And he smiles.<br><br>

---<br><br>

“Is that possible?” Arden quipped.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"I had some leftover surprise from earlier that I saved for this occasion," Joshua explains.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Rina slips away to the table with the punch and begins ladling out the liquid refreshments with Nala. "Please tell me you spiked this," she murmurs to the blonde.<br><br>

---<br><br>

He looks for Nala in the crowd. If she threw all this together, she definitely deserved a hug too.  He wandered over in the general direction that Rina had walked in. If there wasn't Nala there, there'd be a good chance the food would be there, at least.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Nika would normally roll her eyes, but well... you know, some things just aren't reacting the same way anymore. Instead, she nudges Arden. "You are such a literal man, I swear." She listens to the party swing into gear and there's a nostalgic smile on her features as she remembers parties past and how the barn's always looked. "Go enjoy yourself," she murmurs. "You dont' have to pull up a patch of wall with me."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglan strolled about the barn enjoying the moment. It was good to see smiles on the faces of the crew and to see them all together.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"This ..."Arden says, "Well, it's really alien to me. This is how normal people behave. People with families. Not creches. I don't know how to have fun here."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Joshua wonders where Kiera is. He is still angry...or something with her, but it wasn't right for her not to be at least eating food and enjoying music.<br><br>

He frowns a little as he gets a glass of punch and leans over and gives a one-armed hug to Nala. "You didn't have to go to all this trouble, Nala. But it is appreciated."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera threaded her way along the rafter until she reached a point where she could jump down onto the baled hay. Slipping her way silently, she makes her way to the band of fiddlers and gets the attention of the leader between songs. "You know Mauri's Wedding or Whiskey in the Jar?" she asks, eyeing Beglan with a grin. The fiddler smiles and with a count rolls into the rollicking caleigh tunes. She laughs and then fades back behind them to dance a jig by herself. It's been forever since she's worn a skirt; it is odd and yet she is enjoying it.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Rina gives Joshua a warm smile as he draws up to the refreshments table. "Hey, you. No frowning allowed. You need your attitude adjusted." She holds out a dripping cup of punch, a coffe mug scrounged from somewhere. Not all of the cups match.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Nika laughs quietly. "Yes, Arden... this is how regular people behave," she tells him easily. "Someone has a birthday, you celebrate their life. Their presence in your life. Make fun of 'em for getting older." She reaches a hand out to put it on his arm and says, "Do me a favor and walk to the nearest hay bale, okay? I'm going to pull up a corner and just sit. That way I can't get stepped on. Depending on how spiked the punch is, the hands might wind up dancing later. It's usually a lot of fun."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Nala glances up as Joshua hugged her, and she laughs and turns to hug him with both arms. "Happy birthday, Joshua. I hope you enjoy the celebration -- everyone deserves cake and music on their birthday." She makes sure he has a full plate -- cake, munchies, the works, and shoos him. "Go on with you. I loved doing it."<br><br>

---<br><br>

He drains the one cup in his hand in a long sip and puts it down just in time to grab another cup from Rina and a plate from Nala. "Heh," he chuckles," now I need a guide to someplace to sit down."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Arden leads Nika over to a hay bale then asks her if she wants anything, punch? birthday cake?<br><br>

---<br><br>

"That's my cue, Nala. Back in a bit." Rina rounds the table and snagging a cup for herself she links arms with Joshua and leads him to a hay bale.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera sidles back to the band leader again and whisper into his ear. "The Irish Rover" plays next and she dances merrily in the darkness. Soon, she will ask them for some proper square dance tunes, but she knew that most were not yet drunk enough to dance.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Arden will (at one point) go by Keira and see if she knows any of this dancing calling (square dnacing) that could be done by some one who can't see....<br><br>

---<br><br>

There's a grin upward and Nika shakes her head slightly in the negative. "Help yourself, though. Nala had a ball cooking for this," she tells Arden in amusement. She herself will simply stay put. Far far safer!<br><br>

---<br><br>

And with only a tiny bit of awkwardness, Joshua manages to sit down cross legged without losing his plate or spilling his punch. Well, not a lot of his punch, anyway. "How long have you been planning this, my dear?" He has the sneaking suspicion the punch was spiked - maybe he should forgo the second cup. He thinks about it for a few seconds. Nah. He takes a sip from the new cup.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Rina taps her cup on Joshua's and grins at him over its rim. "''Z'drovieh'', Joshua. Many happy returns of the day." And she knocks her punch back in one go, licks her lips, and puts her cup aside. "Since this morning, after taking Nika's measure for the ship. While she was sunning herself on the bridge, I slipped back to the house and got Nala in on it. I was prepared to wait and just cook you something special at the guesthouse and that was what I'd originally proposed to her but she wouldn't hear of it. So it quickly turned into this." Rina sketches a wave at the barn floor, a couple of the hands already doing a line dance to the fiddle's tune. "I'm glad she did. Nothing like a party to lift the spirits and quite frankly, we needed some lifting."<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Arden, you'd need to ask Nika if she knows the calls." Kiera grins at him. "It's the dancers who have to know what she's calling, not her. But I'll bet that she know them and so do most of the people here." Her eyes twinkled. "You could slow dance with her. I'll ask the fiddler to play something slow."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Arden actually blushes but nods his head. He’ll then head over towards Joshua...<br><br>

"So, Joshua. Nika says I need to make fun of your age. Should we strip off your shirt and count the rings?"<br><br>

---<br><br>

Joshua laughs as he tips the cup back for another cup. "Considering how out of shape I feel, there are probably a few more rings than I would like. And not just the age ones. But thank you, Arden." He glances over at Nika. "Go get that woman of yours dancing, Arden. No one is allowed to not have fun at my party, for pete's sake."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Kiera finally breaks herself free of the shadows at the edge of the barn, going to Beglan. She smiles at him shyly. "The tunes were for you. You're the one soul I don't know and one of the ones that I owe an apology to. I'm sorry that you were caught up in my childishness. I hope in time that you'll find it in you to forgive me, but I'd understand if you don't."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglan looks a little embarrassed at the request, but shakes it off "I won't forgive you if you don't give me this dance, he smiles roguishly." Then he grabs her wrist and pulls her into the center of the barn.<br><br> 

---<br><br>

"Oh!" she yelps helplessly as she's dragged off. But she laughs as he catches and spins her into the dance, her red hair and skirt flying.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"This is amazing." He was saying it to Rina, but really it is just a statement loosed into the wild. It really was amazing. Birthday parties hadn't been a big Blue Sun thing, for sure. It always had been low key celebrations. He takes a bite of his cake and just about dies in delight. If Nala was a good cook, she was a fantastic baker. Baking had never been his strength as a cook, but it certainly had to be Nala's. "Mrmrmrd, rhrhrh,d eehwhee dhehhe (This cake is delicious)," he tells Rina, his mouth stuffed with cake.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Mm-hmm." Rina smiles a secret little smile and wipes some frosting off his chin with her finger and pops it in her mouth.<br><br> 

---<br><br>

And one assumes that Nika and Arden dance. And if Arden drinks too much he get Joshua to dance with him, too.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Joshua puts his plate down and downs the rest of his punch. "Are we going to dance?" He looks at her and gives her a smile. The punch was giving him a nice pleasant warm buzz and he wanted to dance with his fiancee. "C'mon, you." And he stretches out his hand to help her up.<br><br>

---<br><br>

She takes his hand, he hauls her up, and she’s pleased her gut doesn’t complain beyond a whisper.  She lets him take her out to the floor and grins up at him through her lashes.<br><br> 

“What’ll it be? Waltz? Square dance? Tango?”<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Considering I'm starting to feel a pretty good buzz, I'd say a graceless tangle of legs and arms. How's that sound for you?"<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Perfect." Rina laughs and steps on his foot.<br><br>

---<br><br>

There was whooping from the hands as Beglan hauls Kiera out into the center of the floor to dance a reel with him. Nika starts to laugh. She recognizes that whoop, and the fiddles pick up their pace to see how well the two in the center can keep up! In the hilarity, one of the younger Johannsen brothers approaches Nika and murmurs in her ear. There's a brief demurral but a rueful laugh and she lets the young man take both her hands and draw her through the group of clapping, stomping, laughing people toward the fiddlers.<br><br>

"Don't you let go of my hands, Finn Johannsen," she scolds where no one can hear over the music. And she is drawn into the reel with him out in the middle! There are some things you don’t need eyes for as long as the man in question can lead.<br><br>

---<br><br>

After they finish a dance or twelve, he heads to the table with the refreshments, pours Kiera a cup and one for himself. Then he sits up on a hay bale to watch offering Kiera a spot next to him. "You better a sit a spell, you're getting a bit ruddy." <br><br>

---<br><br>

"Might be because a you," Kiera responds, settling beside him. He had proven to be a brilliant dancer. It had been forever since she had danced, but she had kept up with him. One never forgot how to dance, especially when their partner was good. She winked at him. "You're a devilish charmer, Beglan," she stated with the hint of a brogue, "and once I'm less ruddy, this lass will claim you for a few more reels if you'll have her."<br><br> 

---<br><br>

Joshua dances with Rina until he starts to feel his legs get a little wobbly. He was surprisingly not bad at dancing, although no one would ever call him a great dancer. His aikido training at least gives him enough grace not to embarrass himself. And not like anyone would care if he did. Besides, it’s his birthday. If he wants to make a fool of himself, he can.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglan sucked down his drink, dismounted the haybale, and offered his hand to Kiera. "Your devil is ready!" He announces. "Get me behind thee."<br><br>

---<br><br>

Nika was handed from Finn to an unknown number of people as the music continued, each careful to have hold of her hands firmly. And then finds herself passed into Arden's hands for a slower dance. "Oh my goodness," she gasps when she hears his voice greeting her. "Arden, for heaven's sake, don't let go for a few minutes!" She's lost all sense of up, down, right, left. Around and around and around we go, where we stop, no one knows!<br><br>

---<br><br>

Rina tries keeping up with her partner but in the end settles for some energetic bouncing around in close proximity. Nothing she knows to dance fits the music pumped out by the fiddlers anyway and truth to tell, it isn't that kind of party. This one is all about letting go and dumping your cares and letting the evening take you where it will.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"Ha! More like casting you out!" Her emerald eyes twinkled as she looked back at him over her shoulder. "Show me what else you can do with those feet!"<br><br>

As the music slowed as they approached, Kiera pulled up, allowing Beglan to stand beside her. "All right then, slow dance and show me some kindness, Beglan." She smiled and waited for him to draw her onto the floor with the others.<br><br>

---<br><br>

As the music slows down a little, Joshua pulls Rina close gently for a slow dance. As they move to the rhythm of the music, he looks at her and with a smile says, "Can I get a birthday kiss? Please? Pretty please?" He gives her a small smile, followed by his best puppy dog eyes. "Pretty pretty please? Hopefully with sugar on top?" And then he grins, unable to help himself any longer.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglan's face turns a shade of red, and he looks a bit shy all the sudden. "I would, I would, but..." he struggles for a second and then seems to recover."It would be unfair for me to monopolize such a beauty, when there are soooo many desperate... and handsome, hardworking young men, here as well." He flourishes his hand at the assorted hands lining the barn. Then he gives her a little shove in their direction and retreats back to the punch bowl.<br><br>

---<br><br>

"I thought you'd never ask," Rina says and gripping his collar, draws him down for a hard and thorough kiss. Tonsil hockey, much? Yup.<br><br>

---<br><br>

The time with Arden is used by Nika to catch her breath. Get her bearings a little. And then she grins up at him and asks him to walk her to the punch. Although she would rather not get blitzed because of the lack of sight, there's water and such that doesn't have alcohol, and she settles for a glass of water once they're there. She keeps one hand on the table just to make sure she's got her balance -- as if the room is like standing in the ocean and the tide might pull her away.<br><br>

There’s a whole LOT of hooting and hollering and ribald remarks fired in THAT direction.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Her smile was minxish and her eyes twinkled wickedly as she watched Beglan retreat. Kiera pulled a lock of hair from her eyes and bit her lip, shrugging her shoulders as she turned to the waiting hands. Claiming one, she stepped into the dance and allowed him to guide her around the floor, her lips cast in a sly smile.<br><br> 

---<br><br>

Rina hears the noise and keeps right on kissing her man.<br><br>

---<br><br>

Beglan pours himself another drink, and slips with it out into the cold winter night.<br><br>

---<br><br>

When she finally lets him go, all Joshua can say is, "You know, I think I could use a birthday every day."<br><br>

---<br><br>

"_Absolutna_," Rina smiles at him. "Just ask."<br><br>

---<br><br>


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