- Take My Hand and Let's Dance (Or Else) -
Sometimes, Demon Lords just make you do the darndest things to survive.
Etna's just nasty. But she did something that the two "enemies" could thank her for one day.
Adell x Rozalin.
Disclaimer: I do not own Disgaea, Disgaea 2, Nippon Ichi Software, nor am I affiliated with any company involved in making the game. I am but a mere fan writing this fanfic.
"Okay, okay, guys. I'll cut you some slack. Instead of hanging you up there and leaving you dangling from the ceiling so I could meet Princess Spoiled Brat's father, I'll just let you through. Of course, since you beat the crap out of my Prinnies, I'll just have to give you a consequence. Follow me to the Battle Arena." Etna looked behind her and flashed a frightening grin at the party. "Unless you want me to go along with my original plan."
"Fine, fine. We'll go," Adell said, raising both his hands up. "Come on."
They followed the Demon Lord (and her legions of Prinnies) down the winding stone corridors and past overconfident combatants ("See these big guns o' mine? Yeah, I'll pump the Overlord full of lead with these baddies") and down stinking and repulsive-smelling monster cages, until they reached the large Battle Arena. Etna spread her arms out wide and had the Prinnies surround the square battlefield. Obediently, the exploding penguins followed their master (lest they suffer the terrible punishment) and in no time at all, an army of penguins wound around the area. Etna smiled with satisfaction then faced the confused crowd.
"Okay. Since you're gonna be my apprentice, and you're just a little boy, and you're just a stupid flying frog ("Sacre bleu! Tink eez not eh ztupid frog! I demand ze respect I dezerv when one eez referrink to moi!"), it's just gonna be you, human boy. And you, princess."
"And what exactly is it that you want us to do?" Rozalin stepped up and asked the self-proclaimed Beauty Queen.
"Ha. This won't really be hard to ask. Benedict!" Etna pointed at the largest, most fearsome-looking Prinny in the bunch. He nodded and and jumped away, appearing again with a large disco ball, a sound system, and a cage with an oversized level 1,000,000,000,000,000 White Dragon roaring fiercely. Everyone's eyes (including the Prinnies) widened in fear, seeing the large, dangerous monster.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot." Etna snapped her fingers and each Prinny strapped on thirty dynamite sticks to themselves. "So, what you're gonna do is, the both of you will dance. With each other, no less. And any form of refusal will be rewarded in the form of blowing up everybody in this building. So step up and dance."
"And this is cutting us some slack how?" Adell raised a questioning eyebrow, only to be laughed at by Etna.
"I just wanna have some fun. Is it wrong? And besides, if you don't do me a favor, better say goodbye to your dreams and aspirations!"
"Ugh, no! I do not want to bother myself trying to dance with this... imbecile!" Rozalin exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously in disgust.
"Me too. Last thing I want to do is go dance with her."
"Okay, fine. If you say so." Etna took out a switch from her pocket and was about to send Veldime blasting off when Adell (who seriously wanted to keep all of the promises he made) spoke up. "O-okay, okay! We'll do it!"
He went to the middle of the battlefield, Rozalin staying behind and stubbornly refusing even after Hanako, Taro and Tink's efforts to convince her ("Oh, come on, Rozy! Show Adell your love!"). It took much to make her finally get up there, though it was more of the three of them dragging her up the arena. She tried to fight back and resist, but thinking everything through, she couldn't possibly leave Veldime into bits. Especially not when her father was there. And she definitely won't allow anything happen to Veldime after Adell's parents' hospitality and Hanako and Taro's friendliness. And maybe even Adell was okay. Yes, he was, but she certainly did not admit it openly.
"Heh, this should be fun," Etna said to herself. "Benedict!" The largest Prinny nodded yet again and pushed a button, turning on all the speakers. The room was enveloped with music, and the disco ball started turning, shades of red and pink and purple coloring the dreary battle arena. Hanako hugged herself and said, "How romantic!", while Taro was close to tears, resisting the urge to laugh at Adell. Tink smiled dreamily. Well, it was dreamy. For a frog.
Around the arena, the Prinnies started to spin around and dance, submitting to their master's recent request. Adell looked at Rozalin and nodded. "Come on. Let's do this."
"I refuse!" Rozalin answered. "She's just trying to make us look like complete idiots! And I don't want to dance with you." Well, maybe she did. But that was another story. Adell frowned.
"Look, I think Etna's serious. And we might look like complete fools, but I promised you I'd protect you. I can't protect you if Veldime's all rubble. Just look at the Prinnies." He gestured at the spinning, dancing, dynamite-strapped penguins around the arena. "You might refuse, but what choice do we have? I'm willing, so why aren't you?"
Rozalin eyes widened with surprise. "You want to dance with me?"
"Just so we won't risk destroying the whole town. You know how powerful Etna is. If her Prinnies didn't do the dirty work, she might have just finished us off herself."
"QUIT BABBLING AND START DANCING, YOU TWO!" yelled Etna from her throne (which wasn't there five minutes ago).
Adell and Rozalin's eyes met, and Adell, again, tried to convince Rozalin to start dancing. "Let's do it."
"I won't allow myself to be... involved with a person such as you. I simply refuse." But do I really?
Adell gave a halfhearted glance at the detonating switch Etna was fumbling with. "Come on, Rozalin. Take my hand and let's dance. Or else."
"For the last time, I simply do NOT want to-- ahh!"
Despite her protests, Adell resolved to just take her hand to satisfy the Demon Lord. He put Rozalin's free hand on his shoulder and put his own free hand to her waist and started moving. "Just follow my lead."
Rozalin's cheeks turned pink, and although she grumbled unsavory comments about Adell's footwork and style, she, too, was silenced and soon, the both of them were dancing so well that even if they swore they hated each other, one would think otherwise. The both of them moved smoothly and looked so well together that nobody could tell that there was something sort of like hate between them. Adell spun Rozalin around, and, before she could fall, caught her quickly. They stepped around the arena beautifully, Rozalin stealing glances at Adell's eyes every once in a while. "One last move," was all Adell said before he suddenly grabbed her towards him with such force that she almost stumbled, and he carried her. Rozalin's face turned into a much more vivid scarlet color, and her eyes simply told Adell that she was surprised and maybe mad (or perhaps even pleased). She wrapped her arms around Adell's neck to stop herself from falling, and although her face tried vainly to show contempt, her eyes and cheeks betrayed her. Adell grinned and let her down.
Rozalin put on the most threatening tone she could muster. "If you are to do that again, I will see to it personally that you will be taken care of in the most efficient way possible."
"Glad you liked it!" he replied, and watched Rozalin walk to the edge of the arena with knees shaking. She was about to collapse and fall down the steps when Adell caught her, his lightning-fast reaction time saving the princess yet again. Etna stood up and clapped.
"That was excellent! Bravo, bravo!" Then she chuckled. "I can't believe you guys fell for THAT!" Etna submitted herself willingly into a hysterical fit, much to the surprise and confusion of her acquaintances, before straightening up and demonstrating what she meant. "See this?" She produced the detonating switch she took out and pressed the button. Twice. Thrice. A dozen times. "It's fake. And that?" Etna pointed to the still-roaring White Dragon, which suddenly dropped dead. "A puppet. A good one, at that."
She hopped down the platform her throne was on and stretched her arms. "Man, it's fun to play around with you guys. Come on, Prinnies!" She pointed at the other exit of the battle arena and marched off, followed by her pets, who took off the plastic dynamite sticks strapped to them. Tink, Taro, Adell and Rozalin's reactions were hard to explain. Hanako was nowhere to be found. When the four collected themselves, they left the battle arena in silence, Rozalin the last one to exit. She gave one last look at the battlefield, and stared into her own hands, before going out. She didn't feel the color spreading to her cheeks yet again, but she did feel quite uneasy and... satisfied.
"Here's your 1000 HL. Thank you so much, Etna!"
"No problem, kid. You know, I think you'll grow up to be a fine, young, sexy demon. Second best, next to me." Etna replied smugly. "So you really think they'd work out?"
"Well, yeah. I'll have to do something so they'd stop bickering. I'm tired of hearing Adell and Rozy fight," Hanako said, crossing her arms. "I asked you to do that partly because I want them to realize that they have feelings for each other. And partly because I so don't want to hear anyone arguing over small stuff."
"Awww, how cute," Etna said in the most childish way she good think of. "Well, got to zip. I need to command them exploding penguins. Bye!"
"Bye!"
Hanako was silent for a moment. Then smiled. Then she giggled. Then her smile disappeared, after realizing she had to part with a lot of money just for this. "Oh well. Love stories are the best kind."
A/N: Third AdellxRozy fic and second for the day! Dang, the idea just gushed out. Inspired by the opening scene where Adell and Rozalin dance. So, yeah, the dancing part of the story isn't much and I'm not good with writing dancing scenes and stuff, but I hope this worked out a-ok. Comments?