The Tango
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- Bella finally did the one thing she thought she would never do with anyone – let alone Edward. By the way, mistakes when describing the tango moves are all mine. I'm one of those wedding guests you don't want to see at the dancing floor. Do please read and review! -
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"Guess what!" Jessica suddenly popped into my view after the bell for the English rang.
"Mike proposed," I responded with fake boredom. "Congratulations. Can I get away now?"
Jessica pouted prettily that I had to stop. That pout meant she was about to discuss something important. Oftentimes it would include new shades of nail polish, the latest fragrance she'd seen in a magazine, or maybe a pair of jeans she saw in Port Angeles last week when she had gone window shopping. I rose slowly from my seat, allowing her time to stand beside me and walk me toward the class door.
"That would be my ultimate dream, but, okay – this takes the second class." She shoved something under my nose.
It turned out to be a form. A form for a competition of some sort - I'd miss the heading intentionally, trying to tune Jessica out. "Huh," I exclaimed when I saw the heading. "Good luck on that."
"Now you're being mean, Bella!" she said. "It's three weeks away, and Mike and I have already planned to work on this together since last week."
"What? Isn't it a bit expecting too much, too soon?"
"I know!" she fluttered, the sarcasm in my voice missed the intended mark by far and large. "And we're going to do something a lá 'Dancing with the Stars' will do..."
I smiled, congratulated her, watched as she walked off in a hurry toward the main hall, and saw Edward coming out of nowhere.
"Jessica is ecstatic," he drawled out the last word. "I wonder what's gotten into her."
"Take a guess," I said with a smile. Not that he had to second-guess anything at all. I saw his fair forehead creased a bit, then the crease deepened.
"Hoo, boy," Edward snickered. "I don't think Mike likes the idea."
"Well, she said Mike had agreed upon the matter."
"Did you see any signatures on that form just now?"
Umm... nope. I shook my head. "I guess not."
"Well, let's go home and leave them to their miseries."
"You're mean today. Did you snag yourself a good mountain lion?"
Down the hall, I saw plenty of notices that weren't there when I entered the school this morning. Pink, yellow, fluorescent green, white - lots of colours in fact. But they all were announcing one thing.
DANCE NIGHT
SHOW YOUR TALENT
MEN, SHOW THAT YOU CAN DANCE!
(Whoever came up with that?!)
The annual Dance Competition will take place on X day of X month in the Town Hall
Couples Only!
Dance is freestyle!
Join now! No Participation Fees!
Below were stated the rules and regulations for the competition. I raised an eyebrow at Edward. He in turn shrugged.
"Thank goodness you're born with two left feet," he said as we walked outside. "If not, I won't hear the end of it."
"Thank goodness for that," I said with a laugh. "But -"
"Oh dear," Edward groaned. He stopped and turned around, a wounded look on his face. I grinned at him.
"Supposing, Edward," I said, my hands out to placate his fears, "supposing that I can dance."
"You can't even balance a plate on your hands. Without skidding across the kitchen," Edward commented with a sour expression on his face. His voice, though, was teasing.
"If that were so, Charlie and I had moved from our current home a long time ago," I said. "Would you entertain my wiles, if, say, was a good dancer?"
Edward's brows shot up in relief. Maybe he was thinking that I was not a good dancer and he was thankful for that. He leant forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. Then in a voice far lower than necessary - meant only for me - he whispered, "I'd do anything you ask me to, Bella."
I should be happy. Ecstatic, really, with that kind of declaration.
But did that declaration cover my utmost desires?
-
Charlie was leaving for work. "Night shift all week," he muttered as he bit into my lasagna creation. "Um, Bella?"
I cringed. "Is it bad?"
Still chewing the piece, Charlie shook his head. "It's good!" he said after he managed to swallow it down.
"Bring some for your buddies at work," I told him, already taking out a Tupperware.
"Oh, they'd love it." He patted his stomach. "You being here, Bella, makes me wanna jog again. I gained two pounds this spring."
Smugly I said, "Then I won't cook again. Less kitchen work for me."
"No, no, I don't mean it that way, it's just that -"
I never knew his side of argument, for I heard a polite knock on the door. "I'll get it, I'm getting out, anyway," Charlie said. I passed him the Tupperware containing the lasagna as he walked into the living room. Then I heard him exclaim aloud.
"Who is it?" I asked over the running water.
"It's Edward!" Charlie replied, his voice marked with hostility. "Don't you dare stay up too late!" I heard the door close, his patrol car start and move away. Soon as I turned around, I saw Edward standing beside the fridge.
"Hey," I said, ready to melt into his honey-brown golden eyes. But I noticed his frown. "What's the matter?"
"It's Alice," he said, pulling a chair and sitting down. "She saw something – I don't like it."
Oh, what now?! I tried to downplay my own anxiety. "What's the worse thing that would be? Another of Victoria's newborn that was somehow missed?"
Victoria's demise was already in its two weeks' anniversary by now, if someone was marking the calendar.
"No," was his reply. Simple, succinct, and evasive. The man knows how to bluff so well, he should be on a bridge team, I thought.
"Then...?" I sat beside him, placed an arm around his back - too wide for me to touch his other shoulder - and stared at his eyes. "Come on, tell me."
He shook his head. "Forget it. It won't happen anyway," he breathed out.
"Need I remind you that somehow, anything that Alice sees do come true?" Her vision of me lost in the forest with Seth was not 100 percent correct, but I was with Seth in the forest.
"The future is like a chameleon, remember?" Edward pointed out, a smile creeping on his lips.
"Yeah," I said, "but a chameleon is a chameleon is a chameleon. It cannot be a rose."
"I should have stuck with 'changeable',"he muttered. "Anyway, it really doesn't matter. It's not scientifically possible."
Now he had me wondering what in the world Alice saw. "Your whole existence is scientifically impossible!" I rebutted. "Now tell me, or I'll call Alice and have her tell me every little detail of your scientific impossibility."
When he didn't make a move after I spewed out that threat, I gave him a look that said "Fine!" and turned toward the living room where the telephone was. I turned too fast, though, and somehow my house slippers slipped beneath me, catching my left leg under my right, and like most mortals, I fell forward.
Unlike most mortal, however, I had a vampire beside me whose speed rivalled those make-believe ninja stories I had been following for the past few months or so. Before I was halfway down, Edward caught me bodily in his arm, his wonderful eyes staring into mine, wide with concern.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Um... beside feeling ridiculously helpless, yeah, I am." I realised that Edward had bent down, his legs spread apart, one arm out while the other arm was holding me in a loose but confident bind.
Suddenly I realised what was bothering him. And somehow, I knew what did Alice see. I giggled in his arm as he straightened himself, and was still giggling as we both sat down.
"These slippers are hazardous," he complained, taking them off my feet. Then he stared at me. I was still giggling at him, shaking my head. "I'm pretty sure," he went on, his expression quizzical, "that your head did not hit the floor. I grabbed you as fast as I could."
"Didn't," I replied, still grinning and giggling. It was what one might refer to as a giggling fit. "It's just that," I managed to say through the fit, "that I think I know what Alice saw. And that bothers you a lot."
Edward's eyes widened in surprise. "You do? How in the world did that come about?"
"She saw us competing in the dance competition, didn't she?" I said, barely able to contain myself from giggling aloud. His expression - one of defeat and horror-stricken - did it for me. My giggling fit mutated into a laughing fit.
Edward continued to look at me, horror-stricken. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"
-
I met Alice the next evening in their home in the middle of the forest. Emmet and Rosalie were away - "They didn't tell us where, but my best guess would be Seattle," Alice had said - while Carlisle was still busy in the hospital. Esme, however, was at home, and was very happy to see me. Jasper, too, but he kept a safe distance away, as always. He later excused himself and disappeared in a flash.
"You guessed right!" Alice said with a big goofy grin. "Really, Bella, if you're not so clumsy all the time, you could have been a veritable Nancy Drew. You connect things very fast."
"It was coincidence, really," I said, trying to be modest.
"Well! Do you really want to participate in the competition?"
"I don't really want to kill one of the audience with a high heel," I said with a downcast look. Really, aside from being a danger magnet, indirect murder is my second curse. If I wasn't planning on becoming a vampire, I could have made a killing by becoming an accidental assassin. Just give me a name and I can walk toward the person and simply be clumsy.
"Anyone can learn how to dance," she twittered on happily. "It just takes time and learning from the best."
"And you know someone who is the best?" I asked her, sparing the sarcasm. Sarcasm is lost on Alice.
"Well, not only the best, it's someone you know!"
We were entering the living room as she spread out her left arm toward Esme who was beaming at me. Only then I noticed that she was wearing loose pants and leotards.
"Alice, you shouldn't have," I said, knowing that once she set her mind into something, she would never leave it until she saw it to the finish.
Esme shrugged gracefully. "Learning to dance is fun," she said apologetically. "So, have you and Edward decided which dance will you choose? Cha-cha, foxtrot, waltz...?"
My face must have been obvious in showing my mystified mind, that Alice came to my rescue - or my doom. "Tango it is," she said with such conviction, that I believed her opinion was more dependant on her visions rather than my agreement.
"Alice," I said drily, "I don't even know what a tango is."
"You'll see," she said, a confident smile wreathed her impish face.
Then Jasper suddenly appeared beside her, and there was music in the air. I supposed this was tango music, for when a loud note was struck by the music, Jasper and Alice started to dance.
His movements were neat, measured and precise, and Alice matched his like graceful clockwork. There was a moment where Jasper twirled her twice and stopped her, only to push her away from him. Alice stopped herself with a stomp on the floor - thank goodness the floor was concrete! - and that act coincided with loud chords played out by the music. Then the music became tentative, as if unsure, as Alice walked - no, stalked, her way back to Jasper. All this while, their eyes never once wavered from each other.
He dipped her once, but to me, there was no gentleness in it - only raw desire, as if Jasper would swallow her whole if not for the smallest restraint on his part. Then he would drag her - forcefully - for two feet or so, before somehow Alice gained her footing and pushed him away, only to have Jasper pulling her back into his arms. The music ended with double blares from the orchestra. So did their dance.
I didn't even notice when did the music expand - from a violin playing the simple melody to the full orchestra taking part. I was too caught up in Alice's and Jasper's movements to notice. And only now, too, I realised that I was breathing heavily.
Alice's twitter, however, broke the spell. Jasper released his hold, grinned shyly at me, as Alice practically skipped toward me.
"So, how was it?" she asked, eyes all eager and bright. There was not even a sign that she had just did the most rigorous tango I had ever seen, which was quite a lot for a tango virgin like me.
"I think I need to sit down and take it all slow," I said, reaching back for a couch or something. Instead, I felt familiar, cold, hard arms that gathered me into his cool embrace.
"You managed to freak her out with tango?" Edward asked, his voice light and teasing.
"Seems like it," Alice mumbled.
"I'd do that a long time ago if I knew her reactions. Just to keep you away from me," he said, now looking down at me.
"You don't want me?" I asked. A totally pointless question.
"You know what I mean," Edward said. When I still looked at him with that questioning glare, he sighed, preparing his elaborations. "I mean, when I first saw you. If I knew you would be freaked out by dancing, I would have studied Fred Astaire and then leap in front of you and start dancing, instead of avoiding you or running away."
"Rubbish!" Esme said, as she turned off the music. "Don't dwell too much in the past, okay? So," she went on, her mood cheerful, "will it be tango?"
"Edward?" I turned my head so that I could see his face. Hmm, his profile from below was as beautiful as any other angle, I thought absently.
"I don't know how to tango," he said in a tight voice.
"Liar," Alice said accusingly. "What about South America?"
"Yeah," I goaded him, "what about it?"
He looked at Alice like he was about to throw her out of the open window. Turning to Jasper, he found no ally there - Jasper was grinning ear to ear and shaking his head. Esme was all patience. He groaned in defeat - I hope - and finally said, in a small voice, "Fine."
"Oh goody!" Alice screamed.
"But it's only three weeks away!" I protested.
"And the weeks will be filled with dancing lessons," Esme said, oblivious of the fact that I did not agree to this.
"I won't be able to learn much in that period of time!" I tried again.
"We're the best dancers around, don't you worry." Alice smiled.
"The closing date is today!"
It surprised me that even Jasper had something to say. "Alice has arranged that bit - she sent the form yesterday."
Edward looked at me and ran a hand up his tousled bronze hair. I nervously bit my upper lip. "Guess I can't say no," I said, after a long, long pause.
Screams of happiness ricocheted in the house. I, however, was grim.
-
I did not learn much from my crash course in tango. For starters, I am one of those who really are born with two feet. Secondly, grace comes up short in my department. Through the course of three weeks, I managed to sprain an ankle, bruised my knee (from accidentally knocking Edward's knee), pulled my hamstring and occasionally breaking the glass window. Somehow, my heels would come off whenever I try to do a healthy kick in the air. (Alice had to get two new pairs of high heels because of that. They actually had to replace the living room's glass wall twice before deciding that the dance would not have that move.)
Three days before the competition, Edward decided that we would not have another lesson. Besides, the rest of them had to go on a hunt, so nobody would be able to teach me at all. He had called me in the afternoon to inform me about that, and I was divided inside - happy that there would be no lessons and I could rest; anxious because, despite that I hated dancing and this competition, I should have been more grateful toward Esme, Alice and Edward. They had hoped that I could dance - or at least be able to pass my clumsy efforts as dancing - after all that they had pitched in together. But I had simply let them down, again, with my clumsiness.
So I was surprised to receive a call from Edward later that evening.
"What's up? You're not going on a hunt with the rest"
"No, I think I should be with you."
"But you should! I mean, go hunt!"
He chuckled over the line. "It's not like period; I won't be in trouble if I miss it."
"Chauvinistic pig." I uttered aloud. Charlie was already gone; I had the house all to myself.
"I want to come over," he said slowly.
"You're always welcome. And you don't have to ask, you know."
"I have a movie you might be interested in," he muttered. Just then there was a knock on the door.
"Drop the phone and open the door," he continued.
I smiled to myself. He was already at the front door, I thought. Edward didn't even give me a chance to say no. I dropped the handset and went to the door. True enough, he was standing there, grinning. A DVD box was in one hand. I read out the title, and was surprised.
"Do you realise that you're holding a musical?"
"I don't mind - the storyline fascinates me."
So we sat down, huddled in front of the TV, as the nun sings to the hills, the children sings Do, Re, Mi, and the happy ending. I was nodding as he turned off the DVD and brought me upstairs.
"Do you think we can make it?" I asked him.
"Make what?" Edward asked back, his hands lazily twirling my hair.
"The dance competition."
I felt his whole body shrug. "Who gives a damn about the competition? It's just something that people do to attain name, have their names immortalised in some way."
From the way his fluid body suddenly stiffen, I knew he thought I'd read too much between the lines. And yes, I did. We both fell silent.
I decided to break the curse. "Do you think you'd like me? After - you know..."
"The competition?" he asked, trying to be light.
"You know very well that's not what I mean."
He dropped a kiss on my neck. "I will," he said as he held his lips there, so that I could feel his every word, "not only like you, but love you - no matter what you are - mortal or not."
Somehow all of my tiredness were washed away by that promise. I fell asleep to his scent surrounding my senses.
-
"Does this dress make me look fat?"
It was competition day. The school gym had been converted into a dance hall. From what I had seen, as I entered the school compound earlier, the turnout was rather high. Cars spilled out of the school yard, into the main road. People gawked at the school gym. If the gym previously had a masculine soul, then tonight it was emasculated. It was bedecked with red and blue glittering curtains, lights and ribbons. Yes, Alice had her way with the organising committee. Courtesy of Carlisle, who was one of the member of the committee – AND especially Jasper.
In these high heels and flashy dress, I felt like somebody else. The dress was risqué, with either sides of the skirt were cut high up my thighs. Alice had said that it would show better when Edward ran his hand up my thigh. As if I needed the world to know about my thighs.
"Silly, no!" Charlie said with such fierce loyalty. "You never looked better!"
"I can't help it; Mike's been gawking at me since I entered the dressing hall."
Charlie turned to where my eyes were pointing. Mike, who indeed had been gawking, immediately waved at Charlie. Charlie moved one hand neatly across his neck and jabbed a finger at Mike. At this gesture, he immediately looked away.
"You shouldn't have," I said, but thankful inside.
"Hey," he smugly smiled, "I do what fathers do."
"Killing potential suitors?"
"More like picking the weeds from the wheat. Speaking of which."
Charlie was looking over my shoulder. I turned around. At first I could see nothing but the glittering costumes the competitors had on. But slowly the glitter spread apart. Amidst it, Edward walked toward me in that slow, steady stride of his. He was wearing a black coat and a pair of khaki pants that seemed to hug his legs. His hair had been slicked back, but a few strands got loose and tangled in his head. His eyes were dark - a small shiver ran down my spine when he got close enough to see that.
"You okay, Bells?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah... just chills." Edward stepped beside me and nodded politely at him.
"Good evening, Chief Swan," he said. Politesse was Edward's middle name, even if he was all hungry inside. "Looks like we have a lot of contestants tonight."
Charlie nodded gruffly. "Well," he said, moving toward the hall, "break a leg."
"Charlie." I groaned.
"Oh. I don't mean it literally... you know what I mean," he said, as the lights inside the dressing hall were dimmed twice. It was a sign to tell the contestants to be ready in five minutes. "Good luck!" he called out above the din of shoes and voices moving toward the hall
I looked around to see our rivals tonight. Mike and Jessica were here, and Lauren and Eric as well. I didn't have to look around for more because there was this very loud introductory music that blared over the speakers, and a rather haughty voice said:
"Welcome, folks, to Forks' very own DANCE NIGHT COMPETITION!"
The audience cheered and whistled. The announcer then proceeded to elaborate on the contest, the rules, judges – none of whom were known to me – and finally, the contestants. Us.
So we went out as our names were called, bowed and went back again. Yesterday, they had us pull out numbers to decide our turns. Luckily, Edward and me would be contestant number 9.
"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.
Contestants number 8 were doing a waltz number, and from the approval sighs of the audience, they were doing rather well.
Edward's eyes flickered over mine, and I dreaded the empty blackness that they held. "Edward?" I asked in a whisper, pulling him closer to me. "Did you hunt yesterday?"
"I know..." was his soft reply.
"You didn't, did you?" I was indignant. I mean, I was not angry that he would make a misstep or something - I was more afraid that he'd lose it out there, out of hunger, pure and simple. And that was not a pretty picture I'd want to paint in my overly active imagination, after it was fuelled with what I saw had happened to Victoria. "Why didn't you hunt? Edward..."
To my surprise, he smiled down at me, confidently. "Don't worry, Bella." But his cracked voice did not convince me enough.
"Don't worry! I can't help but worry! What if you flipped out?"
"Really, Bella, there is no reason to feel that way now."
"But you're hungry!" I whispered harshly at him.
Loud claps floated from within the hall. "We're next," he said, looking at the number flashing above the entrance. "You ready?" he asked, one cool hand hovering over mine.
I could only grunt at him as I caught his hand. "Don't blame me for missing my steps," I said as the announcer called our number and names. We stepped across the threshold hand in hand, stood in the middle, and immediately went into dancer's stance: smile like you mean it, and all teeth. No going back, I thought. It's all or break a leg.
Somewhere from the audience, I could hear Charlie's voice, cheering.
"Ooo, this pair will be doing a tango, too! If you noticed earlier, a couple also did tango, and boy! Can it get hot in here!" said the announcer, pumping the audience to nearly fever pitch. Judging from the screams, I could tell they expect a lot. Or maybe Jasper was somewhere controlling their emotions, like a master.
"They'll be dancing to this number right here! I won't give it away, just enjoy the show, ladies and gentlemen! Presenting, couple number Nine!"
I heard the uncertain trill of the guitar as the entire hall fell silent. A few nervous chuckles could be heard – maybe Alice; she chose this music – but my eyes were only on Edward. The melody line of the piano compelled me to separate from him, as we had trained earlier. I moved in measured steps, three steps in fact, away from him, as stray notes from guitar and piano sounded.
Then the guitar intoned the bass, getting ready for the suddenly rise of the strings. I turned on my heels – without spraining my ankles, thank God! - facing Edward, hands on my hips, and Edward facing me, his hands restless on either sides of his hips, like a cowboy in a duel.
The full string orchestra suddenly growled, as a solo violin screamed its protest and grumbled, following the orchestra, and I stomped my left feet onto the floor. Simultaneously Edward mirrored my move: stomped his right feet, threw open his coat, and cast it aside, in time with the forceful beat. I realised now that he was wearing only a singlet – his shoulders, noble as dawn and just as cold, were bare and marble-like. For a second I was dazzled. I bet a huge portion of the female audience were also dazzled.
We circled – stalked, each other, and the beat drew us closer until we barely touched each other. He looked down at me with that dark eyes, and I moved infinitesimally closer, as his hands moved about me – not touching me really, but rather as if he was touching some invisible barrier around my body.
As I moved in circles with him, I heard within the melody a signal for me to raise my hand, for him to hold. Raising my hand, I was surprised – and so were the audience – when my hand was slapped away, I was twirled twice and he grabbed my other hand.
I pulled my hand away, and quickly moved away from him – for I was still following the lesson Esme taught me, and the music dictated me to do so – but he followed me, even as I stepped backward and away, thinking almost hysterically I will fall I will fall, but I did not fall, and he was still following me!
I had to stop; I stomped my feet onto the floor and miraculously the orchestra dropped a loud chord at the same moment – Edward was before me, looming like some graceful angel of death, and grabbed my wrist. With that, he pushed me backward that I had to slide on one foot – one heel, really – and realised, with shock and surprise, that I had done a half-split – without pulling my hamstring!
I could hear the whole audience gasped, sharing my feelings.
I looked up at him with what might be mistaken as a pleading look, but really I was surprised. Edward grinned, and under the harsh spotlight it looked more like a sneer.
Now Edward was pulling me upward slowly, painstakingly slow, my eyes wondering what was coming next – and then he did something I did not remember was planned – he turned around and walked away from me, as the music rushed into a premature climax, then fall into another mumbling verse.
I was clueless – panicked, really! There were none of these in our lessons! Edward, thankfully, stopped about five feet away from me, as if waiting for my turn, holding up his left hand as turned towards me. My hand went up to my chest, feeling the heart there flutter nervously – excitedly? All that under the space of three seconds.
Then I saw Edward moving toward me with desire and anger all melding into the darkness that were his eyes. I was all but rooted to the spot if not for his touch on the small of my back, and guided me to move across the floor, him leading me – my mind was telling me to reflect his movements, right, left, slide, left, right... that I remembered... keep with the beat, stay with it... the beat is your friend... our feet doing a lot of parleying as we moved about...
The new verse had earlier begun on a low rumbling, still same forceful beat but gentler, but now it was spiralling, as if out of control, and I found myself in his arms, being twirled, once, dipped, twirled twice, now he would be behind me, smelling into my neck and back, now he would be before me, forcing me to wrap my hands around my back.
All the while the music was rising, the beat got stronger, only to fall into obscurity again, where his movements and mine became gentle, tight and almost caressing. We circled each other, separated for a while, and he twirled me gently once, touched my neck and back as we touched again. The violin solo tried its best to console the orchestra as we danced slowly.
Then I felt it coming, the tension – intoned by the solo violin at first, as a lilting melody, that seemed to be tired of waiting, stopped short of it, and surged upward in a superhuman effort across maybe five staves, tried to stay there by jumping here and there, but finally relented to the full orchestra, and got drowned within its thunderous climax.
In these moments, Edward was almost frenzied in his movements, I could barely keep up. His gentleness was suddenly replaced by crazed movements – crazed, but graceful, and tuned to the music. He twirled me not once, not twice, but three times – it made me dizzy as he twirled me in half rotations, me in front of him, my neck vulnerably exposed to him, but he whipped his head away. There were variations of the movements in between, but we somehow ended that way, again and again, with his head turned away from mine. Beneath the loudness of the music I could hear him growl hungrily.
"Trust me, Bella," he whispered into my ear as I stood before him again, as he, this time, whipped his head to my direction. We were now staring into each other's eyes, brown into black, the orchestra swelling in my head, pushing tension to the bursting point -
I could do nothing but nod imperceptibly and braced myself for whatever it would be. His chest rumbled behind me, and I could hear air rushed through his nose, fanning the back of my neck, as if preparing me for this inevitability.
I suddenly nearly floated in the air when he spun me away forcefully, and I could not repress my cry – but he was suddenly there, behind me again, grabbing my hips, and his lips on my jugular, him and me both landing on our shod feet with a loud thud – and simultaneously the music ended with a loud, final chord.
When the music ended, all that I could hear was my breath, coming in and out fast like never before. Edward, meanwhile, was quiet and motionless upon the juncture of my neck. He must be feeling my pulse racing there, and secretly stole a lick. I held my breath.
A heartbeat later, the hall broke into a thundering applause. The audience all but jumped off their seats, clapping, cheering, whistling. I was about to throw up, but swallowed the notion down and with shaky hands, took Edward's in mine, and bowed, all smiles.
"What was that all about?" I asked him from between my teeth, still smiling.
"I'm really hungry at the moment," he said, also from between his teeth. "I must confess, though I have good restraint over my desires, your blood really sings for me tonight, especially, and I have to channel them out – constructively."
We were walking away from the hall into the dressing hall, and I hissed at him, "Constructively! I felt like a rag doll!"
"Well," Edward shrugged, "we did dazzle them, didn't we?"
"Shut up," I said, finally feeling the fatigue seeping into my bones. "I'll forgive you this time."
He suddenly looked up. "Emmet's got something for me. I'll be right back," he said, not even bothering to explain why.
I ignored this, and instead looked at a mirror that was placed beside the entrance. At least there were no wardrobe malfunction scene, I thought warily, and Edward did not flip out and feed on the judges... or me. And from the way they kept on clapping and cheering, the audience loved us, too. That was not too bad at all.
"Bella!"
It was Alice. She was smiling widely, Jasper tailing behind her. She opened her arms and I walked into her arms, and hugged her.
"That was amazing!" she gushed out. "You guys burnt the floor out there! And that mid-air twirl!"
"Looks like the lessons paid off, after all," Jasper said.
"Of course it did! We are the ones who coached her, after all!"
"Not forgetting Esme," I added, breathlessly. "Thank you, guys."
"Next time," Alice said, "don't you ever say no before you try!"
I agreed, albeit a little begrudgingly. Then I saw Charlie walked through the door. He spotted us and immediately walked to us.
"Unbelievable!" he exclaimed. "I have never known you could dance! Not like that!"
"I don't," I confessed, "Edward did most of the footwork. I only followed his lead."
"Doubtless, it was amazing," Charlie said. He turned to Alice and Jasper "Thanks, guys. I know it was never easy to coach someone with two left feet, but somehow you did it."
I ribbed Charlie and he feigned pain. "Where is your partner?" he asked, noticing Edward's absence.
"He's gotta go to the little man's room," Alice quickly offered. "He'll be here soon."
"Lucky for you he didn't have to go in the middle of the dance, huh?" Charlie asked cheerily.
"Yep," I conceded, thinking of an entirely different scenario in my head. "Ah, there he is."
Edward sauntered toward me and I held out my hands. He quickly grabbed them and pulled me toward him, doing a half-twirl as I moved. Charlie had to grin at this, while Edward could only smile charmingly.
I looked into his eyes, and noticed that they were slightly golden at the edges. "You okay now?" I asked carefully.
Edward nodded. "Better, thanks."
Charlie repeated his compliment to Edward, which he modestly accepted. After a few polite exchanges, Charlie excused himself and went back to the hall. Alice and Jasper followed suit.
"Emmet is very thoughtful," I began.
"He is," Edward agreed. He tightened his loose binding arms around me. "And so did Jasper."
"You mean, he helped you control yourself?"
There was nobody around – all of the other contestants were now looking at the final couple. We could talk freely.
"Sort of. Calmed me down, stretched my hunger a bit... do you know, the hardest thing for me to do was to keep myself from sinking my teeth into" - his cool fingers moved to that juncture of my neck, where my pulse was beating - "here? To restrain myself from feeding on you?"
I thought about all of his moves on the floor, which were devastatingly beautiful and precise, and I shook my head. "I thought we are past that."
"I thought so too," he said. "But have you ever seen yourself sweat?"
"I do, and it's unpleasant," I said lightly.
Edward chuckled, and my back rumbled from it. "Obviously you also have no idea how delicious your scent is to me right now... it's heady. Makes me high." His words dissolved into rumbles and growls.
"You don't want to listen to the results?" I asked, my knees were already weak from his administrations.
"I don't need my name," he said as he pulled away from the crook of my neck with a regretful sigh, "be immortalised on some metal plaque that shall rust as years go by." His eyes, as I saw it when he turned me about in his arms, were now a calm, golden lake of honesty. "I only need you."
I smiled at him. "Ditto," I said breathlessly.
- THE END -
P/S: They did not win, because Alice saw that they would become too famous for the Cullen's own good. Jasper immediately tipped the scales in favour of Angela's and Ben's, who were rather good on their feet, too – they were the ones who danced the waltz. However, the judges did give Bella and Edward an Honourable Mention... poor Charlie spent a week in total denial, trying to see whether there had been any elements of bribery...