Gaim is amazingly special to me, and I've wanted to write a fanfic for it for so long. Hope you enjoy.
(Unbetaed, unedited really; all mistakes are my fault.)
Summary: "She could have been a dancer for Team Baron. Except no one knew that." — Team Baron has long since stopped looking for female members. Kaito was never happy with the choices available anyway. — [Kamen Rider Gaim]
Disclaimer: Kamen Rider Gaim is not mine; every character mentioned in this story is mentioned at least once somewhere in the Gaim universe, and therefore not mine either.
BARONESS
Chapter 1: Dance
18:"Farewell Beat Riders"
—{~}—
i. Azami
Peko's sister never really fit in with the rest of the dancers; Kaito knew that from the moment he stepped up onto that stage for the first time. He had nothing against her, and he still doesn't. But it was something about the way she moved; she was the only female member on the team since he had joined (the other female members had, conveniently, left the team in support of that coward who had tried to attack him from behind on the first day: Shura was his name), and the new dance moves that had appeared along with him - and yes, that signature Baron dance was his fault - didn't quite fit her style.
It was her choice to leave the team. Kaito hadn't even said anything to her; she told him out of the blue one day, and he had shrugged and accepted it. She and Peko needed money, was her reason, and dancing didn't make money. Kaito could see it in her eyes when she told him this. Although he thought it was a stupid reason, it was also a legitimate one, and if she couldn't keep up because of it, then she wouldn't be able to be strong with the rest of them.
It's hard to say that the current members of Team Baron, the ones who had joined after Azami left, share the need to be strong like he does, but at least they don't have anything like money to be concerned about yet. They can focus on being the best.
He let Azami leave without protest because he was already dealing with more recruits at the time, and Baron was gaining its footing as a team to be reckoned with. He didn't have time to deal with stragglers. And now, if any of his member approached him with a request similar to hers, he probably would let them go. If they weren't able to keep up, they shouldn't try.
Zack was sad to see Azami go. His dancing was affected by her departure from Team Baron - Peko's was too, although less so; he still saw her. Zack didn't. Kaito wonders how long it's been since his right-hand man saw the woman he so obviously has feelings for. Even now, as Zack leans back at the table, watching the TV with a bored expression on his face, Kaito could see the differences. The ratings for Baron were shooting up, and yet Zack remained the same as ever: apathetic towards ratings, relaxed, but hidden behind a guarded gate that no one dared to knock on (even Peko, although the youngest member of Team Baron seemed closer to Zack than anyone else).
Kaito wasn't sure whether he himself was sad about Azami's departure. She wouldn't have fit in Team Baron because she chose to prioritize other things over the team's strength. And Kaito wasn't going to look down on her for that, but he wasn't going to look back either.
He continues to shuffle the cards in his hand, turning one over every now and then absentmindedly. Azami hadn't been the best member Team Baron had ever had, but it wasn't like the other options were better.
—{~}—
ii. Meiya
The now member of Team Invitto would never have fit in with the rest of Team Baron, just like Azami. When Kaito formed that "alliance" with the weaker teams, he saw her more frequently than he would have liked, because Jounouchi Hideyasu is a little slimeball who won't leave him alone, and as a result his team was close to inhabiting Baron's headquarters. (The acorn still hangs out at Baron's from time to time, when he isn't with his own team or under Bravo's thumb. Because goddamn, the kid still wants Lockseeds, even after all that happened with Hase Ryouji - oh but wait, he didn't know that had happened...)
The preppy clothes don't help Meiya in Kaito's opinion in the slightest. When she showed up to the Baron headquarters for the first time, she was about as Invitto as one could get without actually being on the team. She was also the one who introduced the bandana as part of the Invitto uniform, Kaito recalls now; the pink one that Jounouchi proudly sports whenever he demands new Lockseeds from Kaito.
Kaito hadn't turned Meiya down for her preppy clothes, or her nerdy glasses, or that pink bandana he hated so much.
He turned her down because she didn't even have the passion for dancing that Azami had. He didn't ask for her motivation when she had asked to be on the team. It was pretty clear that she had none. She was dancing because there was nothing else for her to be doing while she "figured things out." (Zack occasionally gruffly uses the phrase, and he used it once when asked to describe Meiya. It seems fitting, Kaito thinks.)
A knock on the door, and he looks up to see the telltale pink bandana and glasses, small but confident, although overshadowed by Zack's towering height. Jounouchi.
If Meiya had no motivation to do anything, and was using dance as a backup...well, to put it nicely, Kaito could tell from the get-go that a member like that on Team Baron would clash with the others. Hence why his idea for that "alliance" was doomed to fail from the start, but there had been no harm in trying it out.
There had been no reason for Meiya to be on Team Baron. She was better suited elsewhere.
It looks like Team Invitto was that elsewhere. Kaito wants to be elsewhere at times, especially when he's locked in a strategic battle of strength and cunning with Jounouchi. But he doesn't regret when he wants to be in the here and now, either.
—{~}—
iii. Mai
It had been odd to see her there, the girl in the black cap that stated "GAIM" across it in shiny silvery lettering. Takatsukasa Mai, they called her. The one who challenged Team Baron the very first time they had taken a stage.
She could have been a dancer for Team Baron. Except no one knew that.
She purposefully didn't look in their direction; she had her back turned pointedly towards the few members of Team Baron in the crowd as she high-fived the clear newbie on the team - the small, lithe boy in the oversized hoodie and pink capris.
Kaito had left before the Inves Game started; Zack and Peko and been the ones to initiate it. It was no surprise that they won. The strong would wipe out the weak, after all, he had said when he met up with them later.
But Kaito really, really has to resist laughing, thinking back on that dance now. That second encounter with Mai, way back before he even became Armored Rider Baron, felt so long ago. She had been trying to act like she didn't have a history with his team during that dance, but that was the last thing that was true.
Takatsukasa Mai, when she had first shown interest in the street dances of Zawame City, hadn't gone straight to Team Gaim like so many believed. No, not at all. She had shown up at Team Baron's headquarters first, with this cheerful smile that no one in Team Baron could pull off if they had their dreams come true every day. And unlike Azami, unlike Meiya, she positively glowed with the want to dance; she had made that her absolute motivation. She didn't want to do anything else, she had said to him when he asked her, and he could tell that that was nothing less than the truth.
She had left with that smile still on her face. That familiar smile, that he vaguely remembers as being familiar from all those years ago, before Zawame was transformed into the city it is, when he clung to that shrine and its ancient tree.
He turned her down because he wanted to be at odds with that smile. It's a strong smile. He isn't sure how just yet - and that's why he keeps asking her. He knows it's something to pay attention to, but he would only acknowledge its strength if she knew it herself. The last thing he wanted to do was to realise that he was wrong; that that smile was merely a shining mask that he couldn't stop being fixated on.
"Kaito-san!" Peko's voice calls him down the stairs, and Kaito snatches his deck of cards before coming into view. He can already sense exactly who it is.
Mai would never give up in trying to get him to dance, but Kaito has no intention of bending to her concept of strength. Because he only needs to bend to his own. And his own concept of strength does not involve dancing for fun. (She's holding a handmade poster for something. Something dance-related. Damn, she never quits.)
He still doesn't regret turning her down from Team Baron. Taking stages from Team Gaim wouldn't be nearly as important to him if Mai wasn't on Team Gaim. Of course, no one knew that either.