Just Dance!
AN: Flinx numero tres! They're gonna play a little DDR in this one. I've had to tweak a little of the game to fit my story though. Enjoy, and remember that I don't own it, and I mean ANY of it.
Also, this one is dedicated to SnowyFlame. I don't know if they particularly like DDR or hate it, but they were the first to review both of my first stories, so I wish to thank them in this small way.
Jinx stood and stretched as the credits began to roll. The movie had been pretty good, actually. Really, she had wanted to see the romantic comedy (she Was a girl, she was allowed to have girly tendencies), but Wally had visibly deflated when she suggested that one for their night out at the movies. She had equally grimaced when he had advocated seeing the action film. You know, the one with twenty explosions in the preview alone? Ick. No thanks. So, they sort of compromised by seeing the newest adventure movie. It had some explosions for him, and the lead characters obviously were attracted to each other, quenching her thirst for a little love in her movie. All in all, it had worked out better than expected, and if they hadn't met in the middle, she probably would have missed out on seeing it, at least until it came to dvd and they needed a movie to rent on a slow night.
The pink haired girl chuckled at that thought. Yeah, cause they had a lot of slow nights… To actually have made it to the theatre, gotten seats, and seen the entire movie was an amazement in and of itself. The last time they had tried to go to the movies, some crazed munchkin from another universe or dimension or something had screwed it up by giving Kid Flash an unwanted mob of fangirls. Thank goodness they had the sense to stay back when Jinx threatened to hex them. Well, after the first two or three tries to get by her, anyway. At any rate, it was why they had opted for civies this time. Jinx had on black pants and a green top, her hair in a braid and brown-eyed contacts to help her blend, and Wally was wearing blue jeans and a white undershirt with a blue plaid button-up that went beautifully with his eyes, if she did say so herself.
Speaking of her boyfriend, he was now gazing up at her pleadingly from a mound of wrappers, empty popcorn buckets, and two or three soda cups. "Um, a little help here?" he asked, gesturing with his eyes to the trash accumulated around him.
She snickered at him. "You made the mess. Now, you can't clean it up? How did you get it all to your seat anyway?" she returned. But, being the dutiful girlfriend, and since he had shared one of his popcorns and a drink with her, she grabbed a few of the amassed garbage items.
Very seriously, he said, "I think it multiplied once the food and stuff was gone. Plus, the plastic wrap on the boxes, which is totally unnecessary anyway, just adds more." Wally gave her a small smile as he rounded up what she hadn't and stood to follow her, "And, it's not my fault that I need so many snacks. It was a long movie."
She laughed as she climbed down the stairs. "The fact that this was just a snack for you is the part that really kills me," she teased gently, "I suppose we'll have to get you some real food soon, too?"
Hearing her laugh made him laugh as well, and he replied, "It's that or I starve. Don't be a hater, though. Most girls would kill to have my metabolism."
"The feminist in me wants to hex you, but I reminded her what our food bill looks like," she replied as she dumped her armload of refuse in the garbage can. He chuckled and followed her deposit with his own. She lead the way through the lobby, and they almost made it when suddenly she heard Wally gasp.
"Wh-," she managed to get out before he had a grip on her hand and was tugging her toward the arcade area with a spark in his blue eyes that was part hungry and part determined. He stopped them in front of a big machine with a directional pad in front of a screen scrolling arrows as a demo of the game. She arched an invisible eyebrow as her boyfriend looked at the machine with the same look Mammoth had given pie.
"DDR…," he muttered as if in a trance. Then, he turned to her with a slightly manic gaze and, like a little kid, yelled, "DDR!"
Jinx leaned away from him a little and inquired, "What's DDR?"
Wally gasped again, this time at her. " 'What's DDR?'! Jinxie, you must be kidding me! It's only one of the best games Ever! It's a dancing game. You pick a song and then put your feet on the right arrow as they scroll up the screen. I can't believe you've never heard of it. You gotta play with me!" he yelped and he started jerking on her hand again, this time trying to pull her on to the platform.
"Oh, no you don't!" she said as she dug her heels in before he could get her on the mock stage. "There's no way I'm playing this game in public against you when you've obviously played before. Besides, you'll probably just speed through it, anyway," she said, accenting the one part in warning. The last thing he needed was to get so caught up that he went a little too fast. His mask was barely concealing as it was.
He grinned at her, "Huh-uh. I can only go as fast as the game, and I'm actually not that good." Seeing that she was still not going for it, he nudged her gently with an elbow. "I'll make you a deal," he added, still smiling, "I'll play a couple of songs, then, if you feel up to it, we can play a last one together."
Her cat eyes narrowing, Jinx crossed her arms in front of her chest and regarded her child-like boy. "Fine," she eventually conceded, "but if I say no, I mean it, Wally."
"Ha!" he whooped, already anticipating her playing with him, "Fair enough! Ok, Jinxie, watch this!" He said as he jumped on the game and put his money in.
'Famous last words,' she thought as she watched him get into position on the dance pad. He picked a character with a black fedora, yellow jacket, and red pants, and she resisted the urge to facepalm. So much for not being obvious… Then, he did something unexpected. He put it on "Beginner" mode.
He saw her skeptical look out of the corner of his eye and he smiled as he waited for his song choices to load, "I told you I wasn't very good. My timing gets all off."
Jinx nodded, accepting this explanation. It made sense. Going so fast all the time, waiting on the arrows to be in the right place must really make the game difficult in a different way for him. She turned her attention back to the game and groaned when she saw the song he picked.
"Really? 'Ice, Ice, Baby' is one of the songs you want to use to get me to play this game?" Jinx grimaced while the horrible 90's bass started the equally atrocious 'dun da-da dun-dun-dun da!'.
To her chagrin, he glanced at her mischievously and sang rather loudly, "'All right stop, collaborate and listen! Ice is back with my brand new Invention!'"
She glanced around the theatre arcade, taking in the people who started to look over and snicker, and growled at him, "You'll stop that or I'll leave!" She was rewarded doubly when he missed a few steps and stopped singing to make sure she had stayed put. She sighed relief and concluded, "That's better."
He grumbled a bit, but went back to his game. In time, the abhorred song came to an end, and Wally was awarded a double A for his efforts. The redhead whooped his satisfaction, and Jinx conceded, "You did pretty well, even if your song sucked."
"Thanks," he considered the game for a second, then nodded decisively with a dogged grin, "Moving up to medium! Woo hoo!" he congratulated himself.
She smiled slightly at his antics. Boys and their video games. Only a guy could view stepping on arrows on par with winning an actual battle. Honestly though, this game didn't look that hard. For someone with her reflexes it should be easy enough to… Oh God! She was really considering it! How did he always manage to talk her into things without even really trying?
Meanwhile, Wally had switched his difficulty level and chosen another song. As it flashed across the screen in big bold letters, she furrowed her brow. "What is 'Super Eurobeat'?"
He shrugged happily and said, "No idea. But that's part of the fun with this game. A lot of these songs are from other countries, so you just sorta go with it. Oh, snap!" he said as the arrows took off, this time with a vengeance.
Jinx watched as his feet hit the arrows, but almost always just a bit too early to count for any progress. It was like he was a step or two ahead of the game. She felt the urge to shove him off the dance pad to try and rescue his ever dwindling progress bar, but he lost before the urge became a need so she managed to keep that particular shred of her dignity.
Wally beamed at her hopefully and said, "So, you're gonna give it a shot, right?" She looked hesitant still, so he added, "Unless little Jinxie is scared she's gonna get beat."
That got her. She growled and leapt up on to her own dance platform. "Oh, you are dead already, Wally West!" she answered his challenge. The first character she could choose was a girl with short blond hair and a black and purple outfit and she decided she liked that well enough, so she tapped the button for approval and the screen went on.
Unfortunately, she was looking down to orient herself better when the difficulty setting came up, so she didn't see him hurry the machine into 'Expert' mode.
The songs came up and he glanced over to her. "Any requests? We could do 'Ice, Ice, Baby'. I don't mind doing it twice," he snickered.
Jinx rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure you don't. No, anything but that."
He laughed and scrolled through the songs, finally stopping on "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada. "How about this one?"
She listened to the clip that was provided and said hesitantly, "I don't know… It sounds pretty fast."
Shrugging, the speedster said, "Well, it's got a slow part, too, but if you don't think you can do it…"
Her eyes glowed dangerously behind her contacts, giving the brown a really odd edge to it, and she rumbled darkly, "Play it."
If she hadn't been busy being competitive, the pink-hair sorceress might have noted the impish glint in his eye as he made the selection. As it was, she was getting into the same 'zone' she would if this were a training exercise. Fun be darned, she was going to win.
True to his word, the song started out slowly enough. Jinx did have too much difficulty with hitting the right areas. In fact, neither she nor Wally missed a single note of the introduction. After all, the first four steps were holds on each of the different arrows. To miss one of those would have been a personal blow.
But now, Jinx could hear the song gearing up to launch into its real speed and the notes were coming faster. It wasn't bad yet, but she wouldn't be fooled. That clip from the selection reel was in here somewhere. There was another hold note, and then they took off.
This was a lot more difficult than what Wally had been doing on "Super Eurobeat" and he was keeping time just fine. As the song built more and more and the notes came faster and faster, Jinx roared, "There is no way this is 'beginner' mode, Wally!"
He laughed hard and manically, but stayed focused on the game enough to maintain his streak, "Nope, Jinxie! Welcome to 'Expert'! I play here a lot."
She roared again, this time a wordless primal expulsion of outrage, and he again answered with a laugh. He tricked her! Twice! With the same stupid game! ARGH! Oh, he was so going down for this!
As the fury of the song reached its peak, Jinx and Wally were still tied and a small crowd had formed behind them, members of the throng picking a combatant to cheer.
"You got her, man!"
"No way! She's schooling him!"
"Watch out! You almost missed!"
"Go, go, go!"
And, the two were completely oblivious to all of it as all of their attention was set squarely on the screen in front of them and the arrows racing by on it. As one, they stomped, jumped, and slid to each arrow as it approached, moving in concert and completely against the other every step of the way.
Finally, the last two steps, a jump on both the right and left arrows at the same time, hit and the song died. Jinx was panting just a little as their scores came up. The crowd around them erupted into cheers and clapping, and the couple finally noticed that they had even drawn attention.
As she looked at the screen, she saw that they were matched exactly. Neither of them had missed a note and they both got a triple A score, presumably the highest possible. And there was Wally, grinning from ear to ear at her and for her. Without a word, she hopped off the dance pad and walked out of the theatre.
He caught up to her just as she was crossing the threshold. "Come on, Jinx," he said, knowing now was not a good time to use her pet name, "You aren't really mad at me, are you? You did great! We tied, even!"
His worries only increased when she still didn't answer him, but just kept walking. "Look, I'm sorry I tricked you. I was only fooling around," he said miserably. "Please, tell me where you are going," he pleaded to his unresponsive girlfriend. At least, he hoped she was still his girlfriend…
She said simply, "Cook's Electronics."
He paused a moment and blinked at her, then jogged a bit to catch back up. Confused as ever by the female mind, Wally asked, "Cook's? Why are we going to Cook's?"
Finally, she couldn't keep it at bay any longer and she broke her stony façade with a laugh that she had been holding since the theatre. Her eyes dancing merrily, she said, "'Cause we have to have that game. What system is it on?"
He laughed back and pulled her into a hug that was part joy and part relief. When he let go again, he still kept one of her hands as they walked. "I think it's for Gamestation 180," he told her happily, absentmindedly rubbing her hand with his thumb.
She was still smiling as she said, "We don't have one of those."
He nodded an affirmative, and remarked, "Then, Cook's is going to love us tonight. A game system, a couple of dance pads, and maybe a couple of different dance games. Instead of just the one?"
"You mean there are more of them?" Jinx asked, her eyes lighting up. Wally just laughed and pulled her closer with an arm around her shoulders.