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The collective groan that swept across the Mother of Invention rec room as a small CD player was deposited in the middle of the floor would have been off-putting to most people. However Florida was the one to settle the compact device onto the floor, and since day one of his work with the Project, Florida had established himself as being anything but 'most people', so for him to stand unfazed was not appreciated, but not unexpected either.
In truth, Florida was very proud of the fact that he had managed to obtain the disk player; despite not being as high-technology as the previous one, which had been destroyed in an unfortunate accident involving Agent Maine and a skateboard, it was still a lucky find. Having spotted it in the window of a shop while running to the rendezvous point at the end of a mission, Florida had been unable to resist darting into the shop, leaving a handful of money on the counter in order to pay for the CD player, and also hopefully enough to cover repair costs for the door- getting into closed shops was an activity that was hard to carry out without at least a little property damage.
"What are you expecting us to do with it?" Connie nodded towards the CD player, eyeing it as if it was offending her in some way.
"Well, I just thought we could use a little music to lighten the mood!" The tone of Florida's voice was practically dripping with cheer, to such an extent that it would most likely seem like sarcasm to anyone unused to hearing it on a daily basis.
"I think that's a good idea, actually." Carolina spoke up from where she was sat at a table in the corner, removing the armour from her arms. "We haven't had a good run over the past few days, and we're all agitated by it. We could do with something to calm us all down. Some of us could benefit from it more than others." The pointed glance towards South that accompanied her last statement was unmissable.
"See, Carolina has the right idea!" Florida clapped his hands together gleefully. "Anyway, I don't see it causing any harm!"
"Well, that all depends on which CD you choose to play." The rebuttal from Wash was muffled, but still audible. Florida blinked in the direction of the man in the grey and yellow armour, but evidently chose not to respond, instead heading over to the corner and selecting a disc from the drawer, slotting it into the CD player and setting it to play. The moment cheery, upbeat sounding notes started to bounce around the room, South stood up, the boots of her armour thudding heavily against the ground as she jumped to her feet.
"Fuck this, I'm leaving." The shorter Dakota twin stormed over to the door as if to exit the rec room, but found herself with Florida's hand latched around her arm, his perpetual grin looking a lot less cheery than usual.
"South, I'd very much appreciate it if you sat back down." The eye contact between the two of them was withheld for a significant amount of time, hostility radiating from South, before she grumbled something under her breath and lowered herself back into her seat. Florida’s expression immediately snapped back to it's usual sense of joy. "Well isn't that just peachy!"
Florida tapped his feet against the floor along with the beat of the music, bobbing his head along with it a little, before moving over to where York was stretched in a lethargic state across a damaged armchair, still fully armoured aside from his helmet, having collapsed into the chair upon returning from a long, unsuccessful mission and not moved since then.
"Up and at 'em, York!" Florida held out a hand beckoning for the other agent to stand up and dance with him. York opened one eye blearily and shook his head in refusal, swatting the outstretched hand away lazily.
"Nah, lemme sleep." The Infiltration Specialist's eyes closed again and he went limp against the armchair again, either genuinely exhausted, or just trying very hard to avoid dancing. Florida shrugged slightly, then spun on his heels to face Wash.
"How 'bout you, Wash?" He offered his hand to the grey-armoured Agent, who sighed, and hauled himself to his feet.
"I guess this song isn't so bad." Wash shrugged, and Florida clapped his hands together again happily.
"That's the spirit!" Florida grabbed Wash's hands and swung them side to side, grinning as the younger man stumbled a little, trying to tap his feet to the music but falling completely out of rhythm. Attempting to swing the taller agent around, Florida let out a startled laugh as Wash slipped out of his grip, tripping over his own feet and falling onto the ground, pulling Florida down with him. Wash sat back up and scrambled back to a standing position, readjusting his helmet and offering to help Florida to his feet.
"Sorry." Wash's posture was sheepish as he apologised, his hand reaching around to rub at the back of his neck. "I don't dance much." Florida dusted himself off, still grinning.
"Oh, don't worry! It's all dandy- it'd take a little more than that to hurt me!" He waited for Wash to sit back down, then darted over to Connie, offering his hand. The glare he received in response was incredulous.
"Florida, there is no way in hell that you are getting me to dance to 'all the single ladies' with you." Connie waved Florida over to South, who dismissed him with a glare that should have been intense enough to shatter any glass present in the room.
“Carolina, how about you?” He gestured to the center of the room and the redhead mulled the prospect over in her head, then pushed herself to her feet, accepting Florida’s invitation.
“Yeah, I don’t see why not.” Carolina grinned good-naturedly, and laughed slightly as Florida spun her around, the action amusing due to the fact that Florida stood at least a few centimeters shorter than her.
“He’s brainwashing you, ‘Lina. Don’t let him.” York’s drowsy, slurred statement only seemed to spur Carolina on, and she leaned up against Florida, the two of them managing to dance decently well, both of them laughing quietly all the while, their movements composed and balanced, until Florida attempted to spin around dramatically, his braid flying loose and hitting his dance-partner in the face, sending them both into hysterics, unable to continue dancing, the whole thing disproportionately hilarious to the two of them. Carolina made her way back to her seat, still laughing, and Florida threw his hair back over his shoulder.
“Do I even want to ask what’s going on in here?” North’s voice from the doorway caught Florida’s attention, and he positively beamed in the direction of the door, skipping mirthfully over to where the older Dakota twin was standing in confusion, latching onto his arm and pulling him into the middle of the room.
“You’re not getting out of this too, North!” Florida grabbed the purple-armoured agent’s hands and attempted to maneuver him into dancing. North, picking up on what was happening, began to shuffle in a way that resembled dancing, causing Florida to grin impossibly wide, moving fluidy around North, who’s quiet laughter was muffled by his helmet, but still audible.
“Not you too, North.” York’s muffled voice sounded from his position on the armchair, his arm thrown over his eyes.
“Sorry, York.” North’s voice was apologetic as he attempted to swing Florida around, but the height difference between the two of them made the movement awkward, almost resulting in the smaller of the two of them toppling over.
“Maine, come and join us!” The man in blue armour called over to the tallest of the Freelancers, who was sprawled across one of the armchairs next to Wash, all his armour removed aside from his helmet. From where he was sitting beside Maine, Wash halted his attempts at attacking Freelancer’s helmet with a marker pen, and switched to trying to shove him off the armchair instead, encouraging him to go and join North and Florida in the middle of the room. Letting out a sighing growl, Maine compiled and rose to his feet, walking stiffly over to Florida, before finding himself dragged closer by his arms, the much smaller man doing all of the movement, while Maine only bobbed his head slightly along to the music. North excused himself from the dancing and headed over to the corner of the room where a coffee machine sat and began making himself a drink, heralding the stupidly large height difference between Maine and Florida with a mild sense of amusement.
“Done now.” After less than a minute of ridiculously one-sided dancing with Florida, Maine secured his hands against the smaller man’s shoulders and pushed him out of the way, flopping back down next to Wash and inclining his head towards the grey-armoured freelancer in an accusatory manner. Florida swept his gaze over the room, and made his way over to Wyoming, who had been sitting at the back of the room cleaning his armour for the prior few minutes.
“I decided to save the best till last!” Florida grinned widely at Wyoming, who chuckled slightly and rose to his feet.
“I’m guessing this is your way of telling me that I’m up next, hmm?” Wyoming offered his hand to Florida, then, when the smaller man took it, he walked him into the center of the room, where they began to dance in precise, rehearsed movements, Florida smiling gleefully, and Wyoming watching him with a sense of fondness in his eyes.
"So, have I seen you around before, handsome?" Florida's voice was gently teasing as he and Wyoming swayed gently to the music.
"I don't know- possibly." Wyoming smiled down at the smaller man. "in your dreams, perhaps?" Florida laughed at Wyoming's response.
"Why, Reggie, aren't you quite the charmer!" Florida let out a surprised chuckle as Wyoming pulled him
in closer so that they were standing flush against one another, one of Englishman's arms wrapping itself around Florida’s waist.
"I guess you could call it that." Wyoming continued to move, taking lead of the dance, allowing Florida to lean forwards and rest his head close to Wyoming’s neck, humming along quietly to the music.
"Well, whatever you'd call it, I recommend that you continue doing it." Florida blinked up at Wyoming, grinning joyfully, however the only response he received was for the music to stop abruptly, and for South's voice to call across to them from where she stood by the CD player.
"Get a room, assholes."