Disclaimer: D N Angel belongs to Yukiru Sugisaki.
Warnings: Side Satoshi x Risa.
Author natterings: Last minute entry to Damage Control contest! Whoo hoo! I actually wrote this in two days, heh. I felt like writing some more Dark x Riku hotness, so here it is. I don't dance at all, so I really have to wonder how many little inaccuracies are sprinkled throughout. Whatever, it was a blast to write. (Again, rating had me going 'huh?' so I've made it T. It's not, really.)
Also, this is named after a song called Libertango by Bond. It is a pretty hot song, if I do say so.
Libertango
"Alright everyone, pair off!" Risa adjusted the strap of her dress, snapping it back into place. She spun in her heels, her red dress flaring out behind her briefly, then settling back into place.
Leaning against a mirrored wall, Riku sighed. She righted herself, her white skirt brushing her knees. The item of clothing felt strange on her, even though she'd had several of these classes before. Not for the first time, she questioned Risa's motives for this. But it wasn't exactly like she could deny her sister anyway.
The fact was, Risa was getting married in two months, and she couldn't stand for her wedding dancefloor to be full of bumbling incompetents. At least not the guests on her side.
"Please, 'Ku! It's only a few classes. And you don't even have to pay!" one twin pleaded with another.
"I'm not dancing, Risa. You know me. I can't dance."
"You just don't want to dance. Pleeeease, do this for me. For my wedding."
Damn. She'd pulled out the wedding trick. "... Okay. But you're not allowed to use 'the wedding card' again."
Risa's brown eyes brightened and she beamed, appearing not to hear the last part of Riku's sentence at all. "Great! It starts at ten on Wednesdays and Fridays. Thank you so much." And she dashed off to pick out flowers or centerpieces or whatever the heck brides-to-be did.
Which landed Riku here, in her sister's studio, twice a week for a two months. Other people did take the class of course, but they were a lot more enthusiastic than Riku. Except for maybe one other person.
"Joyous as usual, I see," came a dry voice.
Riku looked up from her three inch sandals (how Risa danced in them was a mystery, because Riku sure didn't dance in them at all) to meet the face of a man who looked as if he were expecting the world to end.
"Get me out," she said to him.
"You know very well that we can't do that. Think of how she'd feel." Satoshi nodded toward his bride-to-be, who was conversing with another man. His eyes narrowed involuntarily.
Riku went on, not noticing this semi-jealous act. "Oh, I know. I just really don't like dancing in front of all these people--"
"Alright, everyone! Today we're building on the basic steps we've learned!" Risa's voice called out, echoing slightly in the large room. "We're adding a bit more chemistry to the dance. After all, that's what the tango is about!" she said happily.
See why Riku was suspiscious? She was pretty sure that the tango was not an orthodox wedding dance...
"Alright!" Risa clapped her hands while partners exchanged amused looks. "A review." She looked over her shoulder to a tall man in a collared shirt, and summoned him forward. He stepped foward and held out his hand for her to take.
That was a little strange. Risa usually had Daisuke come in for demonstrations and embarassed him beyond all belief. (The boy had a surprising sense of rhythm, actually.) Riku guessed he finally grew a spine and refused to help.
The new man was squarer in the shoulder, older than herself by maybe three years. He was striking in a red shirt that matched Risa's dress. The stranger thing though - it matched his eyes. His face was the perfect accompaniment to such a pair of eyes - well-structured cheek bones, solid chin, framing hair. His easy good looks did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room. Beside Riku, Satoshi simmered.
The pair danced a simple step together, finishing off with a tight twirl. "We're looking for clean movements this time. Not stiff, but fluid. The tango is very precise, but at the same time, very sexy."
Risa used the word 'sexy' many times unabashedly in class, and it really weirded Riku out, hearing her sister say it so much.
"Riku, move your hips more! We need it to be less boxy and more sexy."
"Sexiness is the aim of this dance. We want it to be hot!"
And etcetera. Riku would've rolled her eyes, but she had to watch Risa and that guy pull off some pretty difficult looking stuff. Right now, they were walking across the floor, Risa pushing him back with an arm while he complied. Her arm didn't look stiff, but not flimsy either. Their eye contact was incredible - Risa could really put on a show.
They finished and clapping from the class followed. Risa bowed, smiled wide and talked some more.
Where was Daisuke? Now that Riku really thought about it, Daisuke was her partner the past couple times. She didn't want to dance with someone she didn't know! Especially when the aim of the class was to create chemistry. At least with Daisuke, she could joke about it after. But with some stranger...
"Riku, you've stolen my partner!" Risa exclaimed, false crossness in her tone. She was striding over to Satoshi and Riku.
Riku looked up wordlessly. The assisstant was following her sister. A thought struck Riku - since she didn't have a partner, she'd have to... oh, great.
Risa clamped onto Satoshi's arm. "Come on now, Satoshi. We've got to get some rhythm in you." Remembering something, she then turned back to Riku, who was now leaning against the mirror again. "Oh, yes. Riku, this is Dark Mousy. You guys can be partners today."
She looked politely to Dark. "Meet my sister, Riku Harada."
"Hello," he said to her. It was the first time she'd heard him speak. His voice was quite nice actually; warm, with certainty in his tone.
"Hi," she greeted him a little absently, still going through Daisuke-abandonment issues.
"Right! So, we'll leave you to it!" Risa chirped, and tugged Satoshi off to the other side of the studio.
Riku and Dark stood there in silence for a little while, Riku completely immersed in theories on what could have happened to Daisuke. It was only Dark who felt the awkward pause.
"Ahem," he said.
"What?" she said.
"We're... supposed to dance?" He gestured away from the wall to suggest that maybe she should stop leaning on it.
"Oh, right," she said, and put her weight on her feet again. The skirt swished around her knees and her heels gave precise taps on the floor. All around them, couples were reviewing their moves, and there were many other sounds of heels hitting the floor.
They gravitated to their own space on the floor. It was just now that she felt anxiety about dancing in front of another man.
His left and right hands found their way to around her ribcage and her own left hand, respectively. She was by now fully undazed and completely apprehensive.
"Before we start, I have to admit something."
Dark looked down slightly at her. Even with her heels, she was still two or three inches shorter than him. "What is it?" he asked, and this close, she noticed again how striking he was.
"I- I um. I can't dance very well." Her face heated up against her will.
Dark crinkled his eyes at her in a friendly way. "Well, that makes sense. That's why you're here. To improve." He was still holding her hand. She could felt her palm start to get sweaty.
"Actually, um. I'm here because Risa asked me to." She was getting really flustered. "I don't have a dancing bone in my body!" She attempted a laugh. (It sounded shaky, of course.)
"We'll see in time," he said simply. He adjusted his shoulders and his grip on her hand. His hand was warm in comparison to hers, which felt several degrees below zero.
They started. Her skirt rode up, the hem now above her knees. It swished back and forth, brushing the backs of her thighs as he moved her backward.
"You're too far away," he said in the middle of a step.
"Sorry? I don't..."
He blinked those red eyes at her, a little spark of comedy in his eye. "You're at least a foot away farther from me than you should be."
She looked down at the gaping space between them. "Oh." She actually blushed then, and was disappointed that her hair was tied back and could therefore not hide her pink cheeks. The distance thing wasn't conscious on her part, really. She didn't dance this far away from her partner usually. He was just kind of... intimidating.
"Right." And he promptly closed the distance between them. His red shirt was nearly flush against her black one.
She cleared her throat, and turned her head awkwardly to the side to avoid touching his face with her own.
"What are you doing?" He arched his neck to better see her face. He was smiling by now, she could just tell. Was she really that entertaining?
"I'm, um. Admiring the view," she said with her eyes unfocused. It was too late when she finally realized she was looking in the mirror.
He cocked an eyebrow at her in the mirror. "You're admiring the view, huh?" He couldn't keep the smirk from his face. "Well, we do look quite nice together, don't we?"
She straightened her spine. She whipped her head away from the blasted mirror. "Come on," she said with mock impatience, and they started again.
He had a dancer's body. His shoulders were back almost constantly, and the tension in his legs required for some of the moves came naturally. He also had a dancer's grace. He was smooth silk, trying to bundle around Riku's awkward steps.
"You're thinking too much. Let it just come," he told her as she adjusted her skirt.
"I'm not good at this, I told you," she was surprised at how irritable she could be with someone she hardly knew.
"You're just holding back," he said dismissively, and took her hand again.
"I'm not! I'm bad!" she argued as he leaned her over. Her body arched backward gracefully with his help. A rush of air came as he bent her over, and she could smell his cologne.
"You're not," he told her, and reversed her quick as a whistle. He spun her immediately away from him, and she could only comply, unconsciously spinning tight, perfect circles. His arm came out for her again, and pulled her close.
"I don't need to tell you anymore, I don't dance!" she exclaimed, and her hand was on his shoulder, and he had one on hers, and they were turning with each other, not even watching their own moves anymore.
He only smirked again - curse him for being so attractive! - and challenged her with his eyes, the glint in them a tell tale sign that he was enjoying this.
She resisted the urge to growl. She advanced on him, pushed him backward with her arm (not stiff, but not flimsy). Her feet moved heatedly, her heels punctuating the steps they both took. He didn't even stumble. Instead, he turned back around.
Some of her hair had come out of its knot, the wavy strands straightening in the air as she whipped her head around to meet his eyes, anger flaring.
His hand came up and dislodged her pushing hand from his shoulder. He looked into her eyes the entire time he was doing it, and it set fire in her veins ablaze. Suddenly, he spun her into him, her back against his chest, and she was winded temporarily, breathless from the contact. She barely registered his fingers brushing her neck before he spun her away from him again, his stance daring.
Come get me, his movement said, and so she did.
She strode over to him, her arms moving fluidly with her, and placed them firmly on his shoulders again.
So there, her eyes told him.
He lifted her with her hands bracing his shoulders, and spun them together. Her skirt trailed as a white blur in the air around her legs, one bent and one not. Some of her hair caught on her lips.
He placed her firmly back down, some feet away from him. He was breathing hard, his lips parted. She blew the strand of her hair at him, sultry, just before he pulled her in again, to close the distance between them. The pull of his arms was strong, commanding. One of his arms wrapped around her torso and one of her hands was gripping his shoulder, her thumb touching the soft skin of his neck. Their faces were mere inches apart, and she realized she was breathing hard too. She didn't want to blink. His red eyes kept her brown ones open.
They broke their stance just as the applause began. "Now that was something!" Risa exclaimed, coming over to them through the crowd of dancers. "You two were amazing!"
Riku half-turned away from Dark, the hem of her skirt brushing above her knee again. She let her hair out from its ruined knot.
"The both of you had no problem with the chemistry lesson, I see," Risa commented slyly. "I'll invite Dark back next week, mmkay?"
Riku just nodded, waves of auburn falling over her collarbone.
Once Risa had slinked back to her side of the room, Riku turned to face Dark again. When their eyes met, she averted her gaze.
"Next week," Dark enunciated, still having problems breathing evenly.
"Yup," Riku said in a small voice, running her hands through her hair. She had a flash of how his fingers felt between hers instead - how his fingers could feel in her hair - and she shook herself from her daydream to see him standing right in front of her.
His skin shone the tiniest bit from sweat, the dip in his collarbone looking particularly nice to her right now. "There's more classes later on. A flamenco class is starting next week too," he said, the words echoing in the studio. The others had gone for a break.
Her fingers grabbed the tip of his red collar absently. "I don't dance," she said.
Then they smirked at each other. Laughter grew in their eyes, finally escaping their lips. And they started again, this time with Riku proudly waving her skirt between her fingers as she moved with Dark around the dancefloor.