And I Will Follow
By Yukirei (a.k.a. Cosmiko Ling)
Pairing: Ban x Ginji x Ban
Warning: saaaaap
Disclaimer: I do not own Get Backers or any of its characters. This is a non-profit fanfiction written by a fan, for the enjoyment of other fans.
Summary: Ginji is mesmerised when he catches sight of a couple dancing on television. And upon Ban's haughty remark with regards to its simplicity, a curious Ginji gets Ban (i.e. begs till he relents) to teach him how to dance.
A/N: New to the Get Backers fandom, only after completing this piece did I learn from a friend that dance lessons is a pretty common plot in this fandom. Well, I hope the actual fic wouldn't be too cliche and that it'll be enjoyed nevertheless!
"Never mind."
We took a few more steps, my eyes remaining glued to my feet - I was very determined not to step on the back of Ban-chan's feet again!
Suddenly, Ban-chan halted, and I bumped lightly into his back.
I quickly stepped back as he turned, and stared at him with large, questioning eyes, puzzled by his abrupt cessation of motion.
Did I do something wrong? I was beginning to regret my earlier persistence in asking Ban-chan to teach me to dance. The couple on the television who had me mesmerised watching them had made it look so natural! - moving beautifully together in synchrony like they were two pieces of weightless magnets!
Ban-chan had remarked, resuming his pace after a haughty glance at the television screens, that it was fairly simple.
My eyes jerked away from the screens, my mouth (which had hung open watching the twirling couple) dropping further as I stared after him. And then, getting over my initial amazement, I quickly shut my mouth as a broad beam - of delight, for Ban-chan never failed to surprise me with every revelation of his many hidden talents - stretched my lips. My curiosity piqued, I hastily chased after him (after a last lingering look at the television sets in the electrical store) and begged him to teach me to do what the couple was doing.
"We've to finish distributing these flyers, or where do you think you're going to get your next meal!" Ban-chan had snapped at me then, dismissing my request despite my best effort to look earnest. But after a full day of pleading, he had relented (as I knew he would ♪).
And that was how it came to be that Ban-chan was giving me a private dance lesson on an empty road with music from our car's radio filling the otherwise silent early morning.
Ban-chan said as we begun the lesson that since we were both men, our steps would take us in the same direction and we wouldn't be dancing together like the couple I saw on TV.
Disappointment stabbed at my heart at that, causing some of my excitement to leak out.
Then Ban-chan continued with a lop-sided grin that learning it this way would be more useful for dancing with girls in future.
I immediately cheered up at this thought.
Eyebrows knitted together in concentration, I paid close attention as Ban-chan demonstrated the "basic steps", counting aloud as he moved. Then I tried copying what he did. But, standing across him, I ended up mirroring his steps and did what he said were the female's steps instead.
It was most confusing, and after a while, I got angry - with myself, for not being able to do what seemed so simple, and with Ban-chan, for not being able to hide his laughter properly!
I stopped, pushing my bottom lip out to show my displeasure, and all hint of laughter slid off Ban-chan's lips instantly.
"How about this?" Ban-chan turned around so that his back faced me, and suggested I follow his movements from behind instead. Yet, even though I tried my utmost best to follow closely, I was somehow always a step behind and repeatedly stepped on the back of his heels...
Ban-chan eyed me through his purple shades, lips slightly pursed in thought, head cocked to a side, arms akimbo.
I couldn't read what he was thinking, but at least he didn't look angry.
When Ban-chan finally spoke, it was to make an astonishing suggestion.
"How about trying it on your own?"
"Eh!? But I can't even do it right following you!" I exclaimed.
"I think you know the steps," Ban-chan stated confidently with a decisive nod. "It is being too fixated on following me that hinders you from getting them right."
He turned me around by the shoulders so that I faced away from him, then removed his hands.
I remained stock-still as uncertainty pumped through my veins, wanting to take the first step, but peculiarly, incapable of even moving. Ahead lay a stretch of empty road lined with specks of glowing street lamps; the road disappeared down a slope and reappeared amid a spread of houses and trees that lined the horizon.
Even if somewhere in the back of my mind, a barely audible voice reminded me that Ban-chan was standing right behind me... I felt unsettlingly alone.
"Oi, Ginji."
Ban-chan's voice pulled me out of my reverie.
"Don't worry too much. Just go with your gut feeling."
"Huh?" I twisted my head around, not quite comprehending.
"Just relax."
"Ok, Ban-chan," I smiled at Ban-chan as I caught his eyes. Then, I obediently turned back to the front.
Relax. I told myself, letting my eyelids fall.
My mind drifted to the times when Ban-chan and I lay back on the hood of the car, letting the still-warm metal return some of the heat we had lost to the chill of the night, gazing into the dark sky and twinkling stars that were barely visible in the luminescent glow of the city's lights.
Relax.
I felt the weight shifting in my feet.
And then, quite suddenly, I found myself falling backward - till my back hit something soft.
"Oof." I heard a grunt beside my ear as the "cushion" moved back a few centimetres under my weight before steadying. This was followed by Ban-chan's rebuke. "Not that relaxed, idiot."
I slowly opened my eyes and tilted my face to the side, meeting Ban-chan's eyes as he flicked a sideward glance in my direction.
Ban-chan's eyes were a most striking blue, I thought absently. It wasn't the first time I was making this observation. Sometimes, I found it an incredible pity how they were always hidden behind those dark lenses and almost all who saw them only looked upon them with fear, not realising their beauty.
Ban-chan looked away.
The abrupt break in eye contact snapped me out of my thoughts.
Standing back on my own feet, I looked back at Ban-chan, half-turning. I couldn't see his face, but I sensed discomfort and suddenly, it dawned on me that I had been staring. Was Ban-chan embarrassed because of that? I grinned because Ban-chan was cute like that.
"Ban-chaaan." I prodded at the silence after a moment.
Ban-chan looked at me out of the corner of his eye.
"Let's dance together?"
A thin eyebrow raised in sceptical question.
I answered it with a bright beam, because a brilliant idea had came to me!
"Like this!" I proclaimed. Turning away from him - almost stumbling over my own feet in my haste but steadying myself in time with a step back - I grabbed both his hands, then looked back at him.
If we danced like this, not only would we be able to step in the same direction, I would also be able to dance not looking at Ban-chan's steps yet without it feeling like I was left on my own. It was killing-what was that phrase... two birds with one stone (whoever thought of that expression must have had a rather violent nature).
I waited for Ban-chan to respond, silently beseeching him with my eyes. I could almost feel the steady rise and fall of his chest through the clothes on my back with our fabrics barely brushing and his breaths falling past my cheek.
"Whatever." Ban-chan finally gave in, scowling as a smile burst forth on my face - I couldn't contain my excitement. "Remember, right foot first."
I nodded happily, turning to face the front once more, ears seeking the music in the air.
A new song was just beginning.
Ban-chan's fingers shifted slightly against my hands.
"Ready, Ginji?"
"Whenever you are, Ban-chan!"
I heard the music hit a new verse and at the same moment, felt Ban-chan move behind me.
Instinctively, my right foot stepped out.
Next, my left.
Following the feeling, it was no longer about "right, left, right" nor "one, two, three".
Ban-chan was right - somehow, I did know the steps and could do them on my own without watching his feet. Yet, I was also still following him, my legs carrying my body into the flow of his chosen paths.
We glided over the road in sweeping curves, rounding lampposts and moving from one side to the other and back.
My eyes widened, an overwhelming emotion stirring within me--
The early morning air was cool against my face, tugging my hair in different directions as we turned again and again.
Ban-chan was warm against my back, a steady presence guiding the both of us; and I felt safe letting him lead our next step, our next turn, whichever direction we headed.
--It was joy - a pure elation that spilled forth from my heart that sang along with the music - not only from the exhilarating sensation of dancing, of weaving past lampposts and gliding through all the scenery that whirled and never stood still, of being two pieces of weightless magnets! but also from being led through it all by someone who I trusted, who trusted me, and whom I willingly followed.
We danced and danced. And all too soon, it was over. A soothing voice followed the song on the radio, announcing that it was time to take calls from the audience.
As we came to a stop, I pulled away from Ban-chan and spun around to face him, breathless and beaming from ear to ear. The joy of the dance was still overflowing, resonating with every beat of my heart.
Ban-chan was already patting his pockets for his cigarettes. Some of his hair that weren't standing fell across his eyes.
"THAT WAS AWESOME, BAN-CHAN!!"
His eyes flicked to me, an unlit cigarette between his lips.
Feeling delightfully high, I sprung forward without warning and threw my arms around him, hugging him over his arms. To this, he made a noise of protest around his cigarette. But I was too happy to care and merely squeezed tighter before letting go.
"Idiot," Ban-chan muttered, knocking the top of my head lightly with his knuckles.
I only laughed as I watched Ban-chan tug at the bottom of his rumpled shirt to straighten it and then search for his lighter. I was so happy.
"Thank you, Ban-chan," I said, still smiling as we turned to head back to the car.
"Aa," Ban-chan merely uttered in response. But as I walked forward, I caught a smile brush his lips for a fleeting moment. And that made me even happier Because Ban-chan looked so adorable when he smiled, which he so rarely did!
"Excuse me, are you the owner of this car?"
I turned in the direction of the voice to see a big sister standing beside our car parked by the side of the road. She was dressed in an all-too-familiar uniform.
Uh-oh.
"Oh, yes! Wait a second!" Ban-chan sprang forward ahead of me.
This will throw us into the red again, I wailed in my heart, mentally bidding those delicious, hot meals farewell as I jogged after Ban-chan.
"We merely stepped out for a minute to get some fresh air." Ban-chan stood beside the traffic police officer, leaning casually on the Subaru's door, an elbow propped on the roof.
"Please turn off the radio." The lady flatly indicated the car's radio with her eyes.
Ban-chan did so and then swiftly returned to his previous pose. "As I was saying, surely a gorgeous lady as yourself would understand how stuffy it can get in a car."
"Flattery isn't going to help."
"But it was only a minute!" Ban-chan changed amazingly fast from Charming Pose into Pleading Expression of Pitiful Misery.
However, the police officer remained completely unaffected, merely speaking in a crisp voice, "We have received complaints from residents of loud music disturbing their rest. Please be reminded that you are near a residential district. This is your first warning."
"A-ha-ha." Ban-chan let out a stilted laugh. "So they were just complaints about noise?"
The woman raised an eyebrow in a way that seemed to question Ban-chan's intelligence. (I could have told her that Ban-chan could be very, very clever when he wanted to be.) "They were not 'just complaints about noise', they were complaints about noise that you were making at this early hour of the morning and which was obviously affecting the neighbourhood."
"But it's just a warning?"
"Yes."
"No fines for them?"
"No."
We both let out a huge sigh of relief.
"However," the policewoman continued. "I'm afraid that you have left your car here for a few minutes too long. This is not a legal parking spot."
We froze.
"But if you give us a ticket, we wouldn't be able to afford delicious, hot meals anymore," I spoke before Ban-chan could, turning tearful eyes upon the policewoman.
The policewoman turned to look down at me. I could see her eyes slowly soften and she made a sympathetic noise as she tore a paper off her booklet.
"I'm sorry, young boy, but I've already written the ticket. Try to get your friend to park legally next time."
I fell forward onto the car hood, moping the loss of delicious, hot meals, as Ban-chan reluctantly took the ticket from the policewoman.
"Oi, Ginji, get into the car. We're going to find some breakfast." Ban-chan's voice sounded above me.
"Breakfast?" Instead of moving, I only raised my head weakly to stare at Ban-chan, tears still streaming from my eyes. The policewoman was apparently gone.
"Yes, breakfast," Ban-chan said with a look of annoyed exasperation as he lifted me by the back of my collar, opened the door to the passenger seat and threw me in.
Ow.
I sat up properly, waiting for Ban-chan to reach the driver's side and open the door before speaking, "But we don't have money for both breakfast and the ticket, Ban-chan..." My stomach growled lowly in protest of my statement. I looked down at it. "Even though I am hungry..."
Ban-chan paused for a moment before slipping into his seat, muttering, "We don't have enough to pay the whole fine anyway. Might as well fill our stomachs so that we can find some work to do later."
I lit up. "Breakfast! Breakfast! Breakfast!" I cheered excitedly, hopping in my seat and then pouncing on Ban-chan, attaching myself firmly to his neck
"Sit properly, will you. How am I to drive like this?" Ban-chan snapped.
I immediately shrunk back into my seat, watching quietly as Ban-chan turned the key, starting the engine.
The car coughed for a bit, grousing about the cold, before settling into its usual rumble.
Ban-chan's long fingers moved to grasp the steering wheel.
I leant back into my seat and let my eyes drift to the scenery outside the window, watching as lampposts, telegraph poles and houses rush to fall behind, and the sky turn from deep black to pastel shades of white and pink and yellow and blue.
The song we had danced to was still playing in my head. Softly, I hummed it. When I hummed this tune, I could imagine the dance and feel its joy all over again.
I felt Ban-chan flick a glance at me. But when I turned to look at him, his eyes quickly returned to the road.
"Ban-chan?"
"Nothing." Ban-chan said tersely.
I smiled to myself, because that was cute too, like how Ban-chan's rare happy-smiles were cute, though this was cute in a slightly different way.
"Where do you feel like eating, Ginji?" Ban-chan asked after a while. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood in spite of all his snappiness. "Sandwiches from a convenience store? Some soup from a vending machine? See what Paul will give us on tab?"
A drop of sweat rolled off the side of my forehead. When you said we didn't have enough to pay the whole fine, we really didn't have much left at all did we, Ban-chan...
But it was alright.
"Wherever you want to eat, Ban-chan."
Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, I would follow.
I felt safe letting him lead our next step, our next turn, whichever direction we headed. Because he was Ban-chan, and Ban-chan knew everything that the Get Backers needed to know. And it didn't matter even if he didn't.
Date started: November 2006
Date completed: 16 June 2007
Feedback and concrit are welcome and appreciated.