Well, hey there again. Here is the second chapter to The Perfect Partner fic.

I hope it is as entertaining to you as it has been to my wonderful tester.3

Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Debut, peirod. x3

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Chapter Two: The Dangers Of The Samba…

After the incident with Carmen the other day, I decided to change our dance today to something a little bit more upbeat and fun, that way I would be able to forget about my current dilemma by dancing to the catchy rhythm.

Oh how I was wrong.

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During our practices we had switched between my two favorite songs, in order to see how adaptable I was - Tony's reasoning - and to calm my nerves: the Funiculм funiculа and the Turkish March. While we were dancing, Kip kept yelling out steps - "One two three four!" - as loud as his little body would allow, which caused my steps to be off the beat a few times, but Tony didn't seem to mind. If anything, he seemed to be in a wonderful mood today, all smiles and compliments.

"Very well done, Ven. I'm very thrilled to know that the hardest pieces that I had for you to learn are your easiest and most liked." He praised for the umpteenth time that day. I felt my face grow hot from both embarrassment and pride at the look he was giving me. He seemed so proud of me at that moment that I felt invincible.

By the time we had practiced both songs twice, I was covered in sweat. My mentor didn't seemed to be fairing any better than me, his suit seemed to almost stick to him in such a delicious way that I had to keep myself from openly staring - and we won't even get into his pants! My favorite outfit, the purple dress I was adorn each time I put on my Magical Choker I won from my very first dance contest I had ever entered, was sticking to my torso so much that I felt a little uncomfortable being around both males. True I was only a 15 year old girl (?) and I had no reason to worry, but I was rather developed for my age, and I felt extremely self conscious about my noticeable bust. Now with my skin tight dress top clinging to me, I couldn't help but feel even more nervous.

Of course, my wonderful, always the gentlemen teacher either paid no mind to my sweaty attire or simply did not notice it. He never commented on my choices on clothing when we danced, which I was both saddened and happy by that. True, I did not want Tony to be noticing every little thing about my clothing choices due to his perfectionism, but I also wouldn't have minded him noticing a new wardrobe selection every once in a while…

"Wow Princess! You sure are sweaty!" Came that oh so lovable Kip once again, deciding that the obvious just had to be spoken. I felt myself flush before hissing at Kip to keep quiet. Ugh! Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut? Everything was going so well too… Placing a hand over my face in shame, I felt myself begin to move away from both Kip and my mentor, wishing to escape for the room.

"Don't be ashamed Princess," Tony's voice broke the silence after a moment, causing me to look up at his ruby eyes in surprise. A gentle smile was adoring his face as his ears flickered to and fro atop his head. "Think of the sweat and exhaustion as a sign of your progress. You've done exceptionally well, so a little sweat is to be expected." Staring up at him for a moment more, I placed a hand over my mouth as a laugh escaped, my other hand flying to my stomach. I felt my eyes well up with tears, and doubled over in an attempt to hide them. Kip, the ever present observer, quickly saw them and floated to my aid, shouting some nonsense about how he didn't mean to upset me with his comment and that there wasn't any need to cry. His fretting only caused my laughter to increase in its fever, which caused me to eventually fall to my knees in hysterics.

After some time I was able to come back to my senses and I looked up at both of my companions, my face red from both laughing and crying as hard as I had. "S-sorry you two," I giggled, lifting a hand to my mouth once more to try and calm my nerves before speaking again. "I guess…I needed to laugh." I simply stated, looking from Kip to Tony in order to judge their reaction to my strange behavior.

Kip still looked dumbfounded. He seemed to be fighting with himself on whether to reassure me that it was alright that I laughed or to again apologize for his incompetence. Tony, on the other hand, found the whole situation to be amusing and had been chuckling silently to himself during my whole confession, grinning down at me with the handsomest of faces. With a wave of the hand, he motioned for me to stand back up in front of him, which I did, and his smile widened.

"Dear Ven, if all you needed was a laugh then you should have simply said so, I could have been of some assistance to you." He gently scolded me as I took my spot to his side, facing him, in order to practice the Turkish March one last time. Both our smiles remained as the music began. Our bodies floated with the music with such ease that I felt I had just danced for the first time today. And, according to the look in my instructor's eye, he could feel the weightlessness as well.

As the move I affectionately named "the pinwheel" approached, I readied myself, my hand outstretched to lightly catch his waste. We spun in perfect time before abruptly coming to a stop in order to begin the "hip shake" - as Kip likes to say - with flawless precision. But, there was something different in the way we were positioned. We were too close to each others bodies, and I could feel the heat radiating off of Tony as he placed himself behind me. I must have miscounted my steps in my head, I reasoned as I blushed scarlet. Our hips moved in perfect rhythm, shaking side to side in unison, as they should have, it was just...I could feel him move. I shouldn't have been able to feel the material of his pants against my backside; feel the gentle nudging of his knee against my clothed upper thigh as he shifted his hips; I could have almost sworn I felt the lightest grazing of his pelvis against my hip as we danced. All at once I lifted my head up in shock, breaking the rhythm completely as I looked up with confused eyes. My mentor, who obviously noticed the closeness as well, shifted his gaze to mine for a brief second, allowing me to see the embarrassment and shock in his own, before he gently pulled my right hand out and away from himself, pushing me into the rest of the dance, effectively brushing off the uncomfortable moment as best he could.

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"That was amazing you guys! You looked like you were both walking on water! Especially in the beginning! It was like magic!" My little pink, floating friend shrieked loudly as the dance came to a close. I could still feel my heart racing from the first strange contact me and Tony had witnessed in the beginning of our dance, and I wasn't sure if I was happy for that contact or not yet… Tony hadn't looked at me throughout the rest of the dance, which caused me to believe that what had happened was not considered acceptable in the least. I felt my face flame up as my body came back under control and I suddenly realized what actually happened. Oh goodness…when we were dancing, we got too close! I wasn't sure if I was ashamed or embarrassed, either way, I knew that things were going to be extremely awkward if I didn't apologize right away!

"T-Tony," I began as I looked up at my instructor once again, my face darken even more, if at all possible, from the understanding of what had happened. "I am so sor-"

"Ven, I think we are done here for today." Came my mentor's voice, booming throughout the small practice hall. My eyes widened at the cold tone he held and I bit my lip hard to stop myself from whimpering. His eyes were pricing my own with such a look, but I couldn't tell what it meant to say. They seemed blank, void of any emotion at all, and it scared me to think that Tony, my friend and dancing instructor, had become so indifferent to me all because of an accident.

Fearing my own voice, I bowed low and turned towards the exist, desperate to get out of the uncomfortable room and away from his gaze. I took off at a run, never looking back as I made my way back to the Princess's small, cozy little room to hide. My blood was pounding so hard in my ears that I was deaf to Kip's calls of concern behind me; the only thing I wanted was to get safely behind the Princess's bedroom door, and curl up in her sheets and lock myself up in shame of what happened.

If I had stayed a little longer, if I had not run to the safety of the small little room beside the castle as fast, I would have been able to see Tony standing in front of the practice mirror inside of the practice hall. Seen his ears dangle low in front of his face as he bent his head. See his fists shake with tension as his knuckles turned white. See the look in his eyes as he looked at his own reflection - the pain and longing that were hidden deep within those ruby depths. All before he cried out and smashed his gloved hand into the mirror, forever distorting his pained reflection from himself and the world.

If only I had stayed a little longer…

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Well, there you have it.

I felt a little iffy with the dancing explanation due to the fact that I find it extremely difficult to describe things like that without fumbling. The cute nicknames were my only escape from what would have been an extremely awkward wording problem. ^^;

Please review with your comments, concerns, advice, suggestions; whatever you feel like, really. I'm all ears for anything you all might have to say.

Until next time.