I would never outright admit to Alfred that I had forgotten about the homecoming dance, but I had indeed forgotten about the homecoming dance. I'm on my way home from the doctor Saturday morning when I get a text from Elizabeta.

{ Hey (y/n)! Need some help getting ready 4 the dance? }

I look over at my mom in a panic. "Mom! I forgot about the dance tonight!"

"Forgot?" she asks confused. "How did you forget something like that?"

"Well, I guess I just got so busy with marching and this whole concussion business that it...uh...slipped my mind," I admit sheepishly.

"So you don't have a dress?" Wow mom, straight to the point.

"Yeah."

She sighs and turns the car into a parking lot to turn around. "We can't let you go to your last homecoming without a dress, now can we?" She glances over at me as I text Elizabeta a response. "Are you sure you'll be up for that with a concussion?"

"The doctor said it was only a minor concussion. I'll be fine mom. It's not like I'm doing another field show." I try to sound as convincing as possible.

"I knew you'd say something like that," mom says. She drives in the direction of some of the clothing stores in town. I don't get to answer because my phone buzzes.

[ hey! so i scored us a reservation 4 dinner 2nite! i'll c u at 4:30 ]

I was expecting it to be Elizabeta, but it was from Alfred. "At least he didn't forget," I murmur to myself as I type back a response.

Alfred arrives at my house at 4:25, and knocks on the door. My dad answers, of course, and invites him inside. I can hear the two of them talking about the homecoming game as I carefully walk down the stairs. Alfred has his back to me, so I say something to spook him.

"You're here early Alfred." He jumps at the sudden proximity of my voice.

"Dude! I almost dropped your corsage!" he exclaims as he turns around. "Well, you always said early is on time, and on time is late," he says after regaining his composure.

"I guess you're right," I say with a smile. Alfred smiles back as he takes a beautiful white corsage out of a box and slips it around my wrist. I look at it closely and see it's made out of white roses, baby's breath, and a few small white lilies. "It's beautiful," I breathe.

"It looks better when you wear it," Alfred tells me. "I'm glad it matches the dress since I completely forgot to ask," he say embarrassed. "At least white matches everything."

I nod as I glance down at my newly purchased dress. My mom and I had a tough time finding anything decent, but we had found this in the back of a rack full of other pretty weird looking dresses. My dress is a dark blue halter top that goes down to just around my knees. There's white lace and frills accenting the left side of it, which matches the corsage.

"Picture time!" my mom announces as she and Kate walk into the room. I'm not overly fond of pictures, but I figure I'll look decent since Elizabeta helped me with the makeup and hair.

I stand next to Alfred as my mom snaps a few pictures.

"Closer," she instructs us. "Closer," she says again after me move. "A little bit closer."

I am literally standing as close to Alfred as I can. Senior year or not, if she tells me to move closer one more time I'm going to walk away. Alfred must sense my growing tension because he gently wraps his arm around my waist in a soothing way. My mom starts snapping away again.

"Finally," I say when my mom finishes.

"It wasn't that bad hun," Alfred teases and places a kiss on top of my head. The camera flashes again.

"MOM!"

I'm relieved to finally get out of that house. Alfred has reservations for a nice restaurant in town, so he drives us there after we get in his truck. The place is packed full of people. Some are other high schoolers with their homecoming dates and others are just adults out to eat. We get our table and look at the menu. I'm not feeling super hungry, but I'm not going get just a salad either.

"I'll take a chicken wrap," I tell the waiter when he takes our orders. Alfred gets a burger. A really big burger.

"Are you going to be able to finish that?" I ask him after the waiter leaves.

"HAHAHA!" he laughs. "I've eaten bigger." I can tell by his face that he's not joking. "I didn't get a chance to really say this earlier, but you look amazing (y/n)."

I blush and take a nervous sip of water. "Thanks. Elizabeta did it."

"Well, not just that," he explains. "I've never really seen you all dressed up like this, but it suits you. Just like marching with the band suits you. It's what makes you amazing."

I blush a darker red. "You look good too," I say in an attempt to get the attention away from me. "I've never seen you dressed up before either."

I look at Alfred who's wearing a white dress shirt with black slacks. He has on a dark blue tie with a swirly design on it. I assume he just wore school colors, but the funny thing is that his colors are like an inverse of mine, so we kind of match.

"Thanks!" he says with a big grin.

Our food arrives soon after, and we're too busy eating to talk much. I finish before Alfred, but he's still going strong. The burger he's eating is already more than half gone, and the fries have completely disappeared.

"That hits the spot," Alfred says after draining his coke. His plate is now empty.

"I still can't believe you ate the whole thing," I say with a shake of my head. "Unbelievable."

"You should have more faith in your hero," he says with a wink.

The two of us leave after paying the bill, or I should say after Alfred pays the bill. There's already a line forming outside of the high school when we arrive. We stand at the back of the line as we wait for it to become 6:30. The dance starts then and goes until 10:00. I begin to panic when I remember we don't have tickets. I really didn't prepare for this at all. Alfred pulls two out of his wallet and waves them in front of my face.

"You really are my hero," I tell him with a laugh.

The line begins to move as they start letting people in, and after a long wait we finally get inside. I check in my shoes at the coat and bag check before going into the gym where the dance is. I may have only had flats on, but even those get uncomfortable after a while.

The theme for the homecoming dance this year is 'Oriental Sunset', so the gym is decorated with paper lanterns and folding paper doors. The lighting is low, and a crowd is already forming by the DJ, who is pumping out some dance music. I'm not really big on dancing, and luckily neither is Alfred. We're about to go find all the food when we run into some familiar faces.

"(Y/n)! Alfred! You guys look great!" Elizabeta exclaims. She looks stunning in a floor length dress that flows around her when she walks. "Did you guys just get here?"

"Yeah," we shout over the loud music. I notice Elizabeta is here with Roderich. "Is he your date?" I ask her.

"Yes!" she answers with shining eyes. "I couldn't believe it when he asked me!" I look over at Roderich again who gives me a nod. "Let's go dance!" Elizabeta shouts.

She drags the three of us out onto the dance floor. She starts moving to the beat while we watch.

"Come on!" she yells as she grabs my hand. Now I'm forced to dance with her. It's not that bad, but I don't think I'll ever do it again. I try to imitate Elizabeta as I swing my hips to the music. Alfred and Roderich just stand and watches either us or the large crowd in front of the DJ.

"Let's get some food!" Elizabeta suggests after a while. She drags us all out of the gym to find food.

The rest of the evening goes a lot like that. It's mostly Elizabeta dragging the rest of us around from place to place. We run into Arthur once. He had asked Lili to the dance. I'm surprised Vash said it was okay, but Arthur's not a bad guy so I guess it makes sense. We also see Gilbert and his gang, which doesn't make Roderich happy at all. Elizabeta does her best to avoid them after that. We watch along with everyone as they announce homecoming king and queen. I have no idea who the queen is, but Feliciano wins homecoming king. He runs off the stage and gives Ludwig a hug, but Ludwig doesn't look too happy about it. I don't see what else happens because Elizabeta drags us away to get more food.

Things start to wind down as it approaches 10:00. The DJ announces the final slow dance and plays some love song. Couples start pairing up on the dance floor, and everyone else starts to leave. Roderich expertly spins Elizabeta toward the dance floor, and they begin to dance.

"Would you like to dance?" Alfred asks. He holds out his hand to me. I smile and take it. I'm not a fan of dancing, but just one won't hurt.

Alfred puts his other hand on my waist and starts guiding us to the beat. He's not an amazing dancer like Roderich, but he doesn't just go in a circle like some other guys either. Things are going really well until I start to feel dizzy. I hold onto Alfred tighter as the ground starts spinning.

"Dizzy?" Alfred asks. I nod. "Here, come a little closer." He pulls me in and holds me tight. We stop taking actual steps and just sway to the music instead. "Better?"

"Better," I agree. Having Alfred around makes this a whole lot easier. "Alfred?"

"Yeah?" He looks down at me.

"I'm really glad I ran into you that day," I tell him. "At first I thought you were annoying, but now I'm really glad it was you."

"Yeah, I am too," he says and kisses the top of my head.

We dance together like that until the song ends.

Looks like we all made it to homecoming in one piece :) thank you to everyone who followed this story to the end. I appreciate it very much *bows* I can't thank you all enough for your continued support. Also a big shout out to all the band geeks that read this as well. You are awesome. And to the non-band geeks, you are awesome for putting up with all the band nonsense in this story. Everyone is awesome! :D If you liked this then feel free to read my other stories too, and I'll hopefully continue posting new stories as often as I can :3