Demon Dancing

Chapter one: Practice Always Made Perfect.

Day: 1

In the Netherworld, there was an age-old custom passed down through royalty, generation after generation. This custom was practiced once a year, in order to maintain the ability to complete this custom. This was an important practice... unfortunately, Laharl had not practiced this tradition in about four hundred years, leaving him in a predicament.

For you see, it is also the custom to take a mate by the age 2,000, which is where the dance ritual tied in... because Laharl was 1,999, and he was to have a mate by the end of the week.

Laharl sat in the castle's ballroom. It had been completely cleaned out and polished yesterday, at his request. He sighed heavily. 'The only way I can earn respect' he thought reluctantly, 'Is to dance.. Pft how girly.' he chucked at his last thought. Customs did not make being an overlord easy.

The sun flickered through the large windows on the east side of the room. It was almost sunset.

'If only I had listed to my old-man. He always said ' practice Laharl, practice everything you do, doing so, you will not forget how.' but... I didn't really think that this would be important...' Laharl leaned against a wall. ' practice always made perfect...'

He stared at the reflection of himself in the marble flooring. He was lost in deep thought for hours, one thought leading to another, until...

" Laharl-San!" Flonne called."Laharl!" She ran into the near-empty ballroom, taking laharl by surprise.

"Laharl-San... I was reading in a book that you are supposed to have a mate by now!" her voice was filled with panic. He looked at the fallen angel with amusement.

"I know." she was amazed at how non-chalant his voice was.

"W-what do you mean 'you know'?! You have a week o-or you could be de-throned!"

"I know." He replied once more.

"Okay" Flonne began. " now you're starting to creep me out..." her speech was dotted in nervousness. "Are you, okay?" She felt his forehead, as if looking for a temperature. Laharl swatted her hand away. " I'm fine, Flonne"

"Oh..." She thought for a minute, "then you must have someone in mind, right?"

"Right."

"Then... there is no need to worry?" She sounded slightly sad and maybe a bit hurt, but Laharl wasn't going to worry about that now.

"That's right," he sighed.

"Gomen ne, Laharl-San. I didn't mean to bother you like this." Flonne left the room, in a skipping motion as she returned to the library.

Laharl made sure that no one was around before returning to his idle thought

' hmm, so I've known Flonne for about 687 years...' A smile took form on his face. 'She'll be glad...' he began, ' when I tell her that she is the one I want to be with.'

It was only a few minutes later that he decided to go talk to Etna. She would be useful, at least in making this work.

"Etna!" Laharl barked. Not soon after she could be heard running down the hall.

"H-hai, denka..." she stuttered. She eyed him nervously.

"You..." he began cooly, " heard me in my sleep last week, correct?"

"Umm.. What do you mean?" She held a fake smile on her face.

"You know very well what I mean. I overheard you talking to Artemis. You heard what I said." Laharl kept his voice low, as to not draw attention to the situation.

"Uhh... then yeah, I did hear. You are talking about you liking Flonne, right?"Etna's tail twitched uncomfortably. Laharl nodded and Etna sighed in relief. Laharl stared at his right-hand vassal before closeing his eyes. " You also understand that I have not practiced my dancing-..." He was cut off by Etna's snickers of amusement which quickly erupted into laughter. Several people walking down the halls stopped and stared at Etna.

By the time she stopped laughing, a whole mass of Laharl's vassals had stopped to see what was going on. "You can leave now..." Etna dismissed the rest of the servants still giddy from her master's last comment.

"Okay.. Continue..." Etna smiled at Laharl.

"Are you sure you're finished?" Laharl hissed sarcasticly.

"No ♥"

"Don't make me kill you..." Laharl was joking , or at least Etna thought he was, but knew not to push the subject.

"Okay..." he began again... " I need you to help me out... Will you practice with me tonight?"

Etna stared half surprised that he would even ask her to do such a thing.

"M'kay" She shrugged.

Flonne walked down the seemingly endless halls of the castle and sighed. She wasn't too sure that Laharl would actually pick her to be with him. She hoped he would though.

Her footsteps echoed about the halls as she made her way to her room. She sat on her bed to relax, but it wasn't long before she got to thinking about Laharl.

"I should go tell him good-night before I go to sleep." Flonne yawned. She reluctantly got out of her bed and set down the halls once more, finding it difficult to concentrate on where she was going. Finally she came across the large, more beautifully decorated, doors that gave entrance to the ballroom. Flonne pushed the door open slightly with one hand and peered in. It was the most beautiful sight she ever saw.

In the middle of the dance floor was Laharl, his wings spread out fully and barely levitating above the floor. Etna, who was on the opposite side of Laharl, stood in the exact same pose as him with her wings at full length. They seemed tense, as if they were going to kill each other, but before Flonne could say anything, Laharl flew crosswise on the floor toward Etna and she did the same.

Flonne closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands, but heard no sounds of battle. She slowly opened her eyes and removed her hands to find Laharl and Etna dancing. ' Of all things,' She thought, 'I didn't think I'd ever see Laharl dance... hmm, it looks like there ice-skating' Flonne giggled quietly. She used to always ice-skate in Celestia.

The dance was so amazingly, beautiful to Flonne that she had to stay and watch. Every glide seemed expertly planned, and every move seemed as though it had been practiced for centuries... except when Laharl crashed face-first into a pillar, that didn't seem planed at all.

Etna ran over to his side " Are you okay... that was the fith time you did that and I'm not sure you can get this down by the end of this week."

"I'm fine. I just... I just haven't done this in a while, that's all...It won't take me long before I remember how to do this..."

Flonne just kept smiling as she looked through the door watching her beloved fail miserably at dancing.

Please review.

Japanese:

Denka : Prince

Hai : yes

Thank you for reading, I accept anonymous people, flames and good reviews are always apprieciated. please tell me what you think if you want to continue the story...

Please, If you like this story, read some of my others.

Disclaimer: The above is not really owned by my, howerver, the idea for the story is.

Thanks!

Adana fukettei