Beach City never got any new additions. It was a small town that ran on the tourists it received in the summer. But this time was different. They received a much larger wave of college students on spring break than usual, and combined with the funds they raised over the summer, enough money had been put into the public works project to get a new building in. Nobody knew who suggested the dance club, but it got the unanimous vote and since then had spent over a year building, and tonight was the opening night.
Lars stared nervously at the clock from behind the counter. 10 minutes left until his shift was over. He glanced over at Sadie, who was bagging a blueberry muffin for a last minute customer, and when she smiled as she handed it to the customer, Lars felt a blush creep up onto his face. He was going to ask her. He had to ask her. He couldn't let Ronaldo come in and undo the relationship he had built with Sadie every day since they were 12. He couldn't lose her that easily.
"Hey, uh, Sadie?" He asked, clearing his throat to avoid cracking it.
"Yeah?" Sadie asked, throwing her coat around her shoulder
"Are you, uh, doing anything later tonight?" He had to look away from her. God how he hated how nervous she made him sometimes.
She didn't answer for a moment. "Nah, I think I'm just gonna head home and read until I crash. Why?"
He cleared his throat again. "Well, I-I guess I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the dance club?"
"Oh shoot, was that tonight?" she asked, and before Lars could reply, she threw on her jacket. "I'm sorry Lars; I forgot I already had plans. Maybe we can meet up, though? When you get there?"
Lars felt hurt. He couldn't let Sadie know that, she'd just think he was being selfish. "Oh, sure thing" he mumbled, and she smiled.
"You're the best!" she yells, and rushes out the door in a hurry. Lars watches her until she's completely out of sight, and then sighs. He flicks the lights off, grabs his own coat, and heads out the back door. He gets in his car and drives home. It's okay. It's okay. He repeated to himself in his head as he walked through the front door. She didn't say no. She said she was going to be there. He opened the door to his bedroom and flicked the light on. He took a deep breath as he took the suit that he had left on his bed, and took off his shirt to put it on. He exited his own room and walked into his bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.
"You can do this" he said to himself, turning on the sink and splashing himself in the face a few times to get his worsening blush to go down. He opened the door to his medicine cabinet and took out a can of hairspray. He spritzed it in his hair to get it to stay down, and put it back before closing the cabinet again to make sure his suit didn't look crooked or too dumb. He sighed one more time before heading out the door. He grabbed his car keys off of the hanger and left.
He could hear the club music from at least a mile away, and he immediately regretted wearing the suit. You're doing it for her. Who cares what everybody else thinks. He parked the car on the sidewalk once the club came into view and stepped out, taking his time to calm himself down. One dance. All he needed from her was one dance. When he pushed the door open, he almost turned back and went home. Although everyone in Beach City had come, the first person he noticed, excluding Steven of course, was Sadie. She was in the back at the snack bar with Ronaldo, and they were laughing about something. Probably me, he thought, but he sucked it up and headed further in. He must have made bad timing, because the door slammed shut behind him as soon as the song that was playing ended. A few people turned, but he looked down at the floor too quickly to be able to tell if Sadie had seen him. The music starts right back up again, so anyone who had looked to see who came in had continued with what they were doing. He gradually made his way over to the snack bar, and nervously reached out and tapped Sadie on the shoulder.
"Lars!" she shouted happily as she spun her chair around to look at him. She had a bright blue dress on that fit her figure perfectly, and her hair had a bow in it to match. "You look great!" she says, and Lars blinks a few times, in the realization that he must have been staring at her.
"Me? Oh, thanks"
"Yeah, great timing! Ronaldo and I were just talking about you"
"Huh?" he cleared his throat again and looked over at Ronaldo. "What about me?"
"Oh not much, just your childhood together, mostly"
Lars' face darkened.
"And especially about how you used to be a bigger dork than you already are, like that's possible" Sadie joked, and Lars laughed nervously.
"Oh come on, it's no big deal, really." Sadie said again, and then jumped up off of her seat. "Let's go dance. That's what a club is for, right?"
This is it. Go for it. It's one simple word. All you have to say is
"Yeah! Let's do it!" Ronaldo yelled, and they began laughing as they ran out onto the floor together, and Lars sighed. He glanced at them, and then at Steven who was returning to the opposite side as him holding hands with his friend and giggling. Lars couldn't believe what he was about to do, but he had no other choice. He walked the long way around the floor and kept going until he was next to Steven.
"Hey, Steven?" he asked, and when Steven grinned widely when he turned over.
"Lars!" he yells gleefully, and Connie waves nervously from behind him.
"What are you doing here? Is Sadie here?" he glanced down and noticed his suit. "Are you two on a date?!" he asked, and Lars hushed him.
"No, that's kind of why I'm over here talking to you" he said in a hushed whisper, and Steven and Connie exchange glances.
"What do you mean?" Steven asks, and Lars gestures to Sadie and Ronaldo as he slides down the wall into a sitting position on the floor.
"Oh!" he says as he looks back over at Lars. "You want to dance with her, is that it?"
Lars doesn't respond.
"But you can't, because Ronaldo's there?"
Again, no response.
"Why don't you just ask her? There's going to be a slow song in five minutes, isn't there?"
Nothing.
"Do you want me to help?"
Lars looked up at Steven. "Help? How can you help?" he asks, but Steven grabs his hand and runs onto the dance floor. He heads over to Sadie.
"May I?" he asks, and she glances at Ronaldo, who backs away in response. Steven takes Sadie's hand in his free hand and begins dancing with them both.
"Steven, what are you-" he begins, but when he hears Sadie laughing he looks at her and notices that not only did she have just about the biggest smile on her face that he'd ever seen, but also that she had taken his other hand in hers without him even noticing. What he also didn't seem to notice, was that Steven had been right. A slow song was starting. They started out the way they were, but as the song went on, Steven became less and less involved, and eventually he backed out entirely. Sadie moved in closer and placed her hands on his shoulder, and Lars hesitantly placed his hands on Sadie's waist.
He was doing it. He was really doing it. He spun her, and she laughed. He began laughing, and soon they were both laughing messes who kept stepping on each other's feet. As they pulled in even closer for the song's climax, they were too busy to take notice of the bright pink light that was surrounding them.
They blinked their eyes open, to the realization that Steven and Ronaldo were staring at them, Ronaldo with his phone out and Steven in sheer confusion and shock.
"What are you looking a-" They began, and clamped their mouths shut when a different voice than usual came out of their mouths. They looked around, and when they couldn't seem to find each other, they looked down at themselves and became frozen with fear and shock. Other people were starting to take notice. "I need to go" They said, clamping their mouth shut again upon hearing the unfamiliar voice coming out of it. They ran out the door, and into the alley, leaning against the club wall.
"Sadie?" Lars tried to ask, but the only voice that came out of his voice was the unfamiliar one.
"Yeah?" Sadie replied, sounding just as nervous in the same voice.
"Where are we?" He asked, and suddenly the doors to the swung open. They peak their heads around the corner, only to find Steven looking around with a worried expression on his face. "Steven?" Sadie asks, and Lars brings a hand to their mouth and backs further into the alleyway.
"Guys?
"We're over here"
Steven walks over to the alley and takes a flashlight out of his pocket and turns it on as he approaches the source.
"What's going on?" Lars asks, backing up further every time Steven takes another step closer.
"Hey, calm down!" Steven said in a worried tone. I don't know. I think I might have fused you two together"
"What?!" Lars yelled, and Steven backed up a step.
"Hey, take it easy. It's no big deal. It's happened to me before, and I'm fine"
"Yes, but that's because you're supposed to do this kind of things!"
"I'm half human! The gems never thought I'd be able to fuse because of my human body!"
"But you-" he began, but Sadie interrupted before they could finish their current sentence
"He has a point, Lars. Maybe we should give this a shot"
They close their mouth, and frown for a moment. "Fine".
"Okay, good. I'm going to go back in with Connie. See you guys later!" Steven waves at them from behind as he runs back into the club.
When Steven's completely out of sight, they step forward. "So what do you want to do?"
"Go for a walk on the beach?"
"Sure."
They grin as they run from the alleyway, and their grin grows wider as their speed picks up. When they hear ocean waves, they begin laughing. They do a few cartwheels, and the laughter increases as they slip on their landing and flop down on the sand.
Instead of standing up, they lie where they are for a while, admiring the twinkling stars in the night sky. It must be midnight by now. A shooting star dashes across the sky, and they sigh happily. They reach out their hand to the space next to them, and frown when they feel cool sand instead of the other's hand. They sigh, and drop the sand out of their hand.
"Is this it? Is this all we can do?" They ask each other, but then they stand up.
"No. We have to make the most of this, like Steven said"
"Sure" Lars replies sadly, and they stand up and begin walking around the beach. They watch the rest of the lights of the closing shops turn their lights off. They look down at their hands, and then they turn around to look at the path they had already taken.
"We should go back and try to catch Steven before he leaves. If he hasn't left already"
"Okay"
They head back to this club, slouching this time with a much slower and somber gait then when they had left the alleyway in such a happy, positive mood. Just as they reach the newly added crosswalk that connects the dance club to the beach, they notice a dark reddish glow become more intense as the person approaches them. And as they get closer, they start to notice an intense pain forming all over. The pain becomes almost intolerable to keep their eyes open when the person catches up to them, but they can tell without keeping their eyes open who it is.
"Guys, Guys, my gem is acting up, are you guys okay?" He asks, and runs to their side as they fall over onto the ground. Steven looks down at his gem and notices that it's beginning to return to its normal color, and he begins to notice Larsadie's body glowing beams of the same light on different parts of their body. More and More beams begin forming, and just as Steven backs away, a small puff of smoke appears, and when it disappears, Lars and Sadie appear to be in their own separate bodies again. Not wanting to do any more damage, he backs away and runs back across the street, but instead of going back into the club, he turns right to go home.
Lars and Sadie jump up and take big gasps of air. When their eyes meet, they begin laughing, and standing up, they run towards each other. Lars picks up Sadie in a hug and swings her around in a circle.
"I'm so glad you're here. Tonight wouldn't have been fun without you here" Sadie says, and Lars rubs the back of his head awkwardly.
"Oh, yeah, about that"
Sadie laughed. "I know. You were going to ask me out. I could tell you were thinking about it when we fused"
Lars looked down at the ground. "And you were thinking about the island Steven took us to. Look, I'm sorry, I really didn't know."
"Yeah" Sadie smiled. "Although now I know how you feel. How you felt when I came with Ronaldo instead of you." She tried to laugh, although it didn't sound sincere. Lars chuckles lightly, but he seems to have the same issue. They stand where they are awkwardly for a moment, but when they catch each other's eyes, they pull each other into a kiss, tears streaming down both of their faces.