A/N: I've been excited for this chapter, because I spent a long time trying to figure out how to change the details to make it fit Radrian, instead of just being a rewrite of Jack and Rose. Hopefully you'll like what I've done!

The Secret Life Of The Titanic

Chapter Six

"Are you sure this is appropriate?" Adrian asked as they swept into the Underwood cabin.

Richard shut the door and locked it. "Just my father and I in this room, so it's fine."

"I doubt Underwood Senior would agree with that. When, by the way, can we be expecting to see him?"

Richard laughed bitterly. "The man's a drunk," he said simply. "He won't be back as long as the cigars and brandy hold out."

Adrian looked about the room in awe. "Looks like a right hotel in here," she breathed. Then she tapped her foot as Richard began to rearrange the furniture in the room. "Y'know, I'd normally be suspicious of a man asking me for a favor and then locking me in his room, but I trust you. However, should I be wrong about your good intentions, Mr. Underwood, know that I won't be having sex with you…not after only two dates."

After moving a sofa, Richard lifted his head slowly. "Why, Miss Lee, I'd never! I'm hurt that you'd still have such low thoughts of me."

"What's the favor you're requesting of me, then?"

Richard motioned his hand towards the now cleared center of the room. "What does this look like to you?"

"A bald spot in the middle of a luxury room. Is it supposed to look like anything else?"

"A dance floor."

"A dance floor?"

Richard nodded. "I want you to teach me how to dance."

"You do tap dancing well enough."

"I mean real dancing. The kind I saw you do in the belly of the ship last night. The kind that makes your soul shake. I know you have it in you, Adrian Lee. It's part of what makes you so free. I want that; I want to be like that."

Adrian shrugged off her smudgy coat and tossed it over the back of the sofa. She moved to Richard and tugged him out of the dashing dress coat he also wore and tossed it on top of hers. Then she untangled the bowtie Zoe had made that morning and pulled it off of his neck, casting it into a dark corner of the room. "First you need to free yourself up," she said, unbuttoning his cufflinks and the top button on his shirt.

"And then what?"

"I need a stick."

"A stick?" Richard blustered.

"Yes, you know, something long and hard and–" She covered her mouth with her index finger as she began to search around the room for something that could fit her requirements.

Richard suddenly bounced into the next room. "I think I may have an idea."

"Oh?" Adrian queried, hot on his tail.

Richard fumbled with a large safe, twisting and turning the combination until the heavy metal door popped. He reached inside, explaining as he did, "This is my father's. He lugs this thing around with him wherever he goes. It contains the last valuable thing to the Underwood name."

"You mean you're–"

"In debt, yes. Drowning in it. All the booze and the drugs and the gambling…it's his fault. This is the last thing left: it's my mother's, a family heirloom." He extracted a silver, diamond encrusted staff, topped with a heart shaped blue gem and held it out to Adrian.

Adrian took the staff with the utmost carefulness. "It's – it's gorgeous," she breathed. "Is that a sapphire?"

"A diamond."

"A blue diamond?"

Richard nodded. "A very rare blue diamond. Fifty-six carats, to be exact."

"With the way you talk about your father, I'm surprised he didn't sell it."

"He thought about it, then he realized he could use it as a selling point."

"To sell his son?"

"Exactly. He had me present that to Zoe's parents. It's a wedding gift. They have no idea I'd be bringing my debts to the marriage bed, but they certainly have the money to cover them, with enough leftover."

"Without having to sell this?"

"Yes. And, of course, the plan would be to pass it onto my firstborn, to keep the heirloom in my mother's family. It's a win-win."

"Except for the part about you marrying a woman you don't love."

"Except for that."

"May I ask: how did it come to be in your mother's family?"

"This diamond was worn by Louis XVI and they called it Le Coeur de la Mer."

"French?"

"Mhmm."

"What does it mean?"

"The Heart of the Ocean. It used to be a necklace, see?" Richard held up the staff, pointing to the hook on the top miniature diamond on the heart. "Legend has it that it was ripped from Louis's neck by Marie Antoinette in a jealous rage, after learning of a lovechild he'd had with a mistress, while failing to produce any heirs with her."

Adrian narrowed her eyes. "Are you telling me–"

"That my mother's family is descended from the bastard line of Louis XVI?" He shrugged. "That's the legend, I didn't say it was actually true. But, he did wear the necklace and it was fashioned into a staff and lost for many generations until it turned up in the late eighteen-hundreds in my maternal lineage. So…who knows?"

"It's a good story for the kids, anyhow. What's family history without drama and an affair here or there anyway, right?"

Richard nodded. "So, will it work for your purposes?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh!" Adrian grinned. "It'll more than work! !Perfecto!" She tossed it between her hands, getting a feeling for the weight of it, then she moved out into the cleared area that Richard had made in the middle of the room. She began to twirl the staff between her fingers.

Richard rested his head against the doorframe, watching as the light in the room caught the diamonds and caused the staff to look like a sparking firework as it danced between Adrian's nimble fingers. "Sure you're not going to drop that?"

"I thought you trusted me?"

"I do."

Adrian tossed the staff behind her with her right hand, reached back with her left, and caught it safely in her palm without looking. She pointed the blue heart at Richard and tilted it up twice in quick succession. "Ven aquí."

He had no idea what she'd said, but the message was clear: he strode up to her and lifted his arms as he'd done on the bow of the ship. "I'm at your mercy."

Adrian tapped his chest with the staff. "Strong man," she complimented, before ducking under his arms and moving behind him. She entangled their hands as she'd done on the ship and then slipped the staff into Richard's palm. "Get a feel for it," she instructed. She guided his arm up and down. "How does it feel?"

"Heavy. Overwhelming."

"Good. Absorb that. Let it consume you." Suddenly she swatted his arm, knocking the staff into the air. It somersaulted as it came back down and Richard lurched out desperately to catch it, only for Adrian swoop down and catch the staff centimeters before it could hit the ground. "What did I tell you? Loosen up, Ricky. You can't learn to dance without breaking down those barriers you've built up." She stepped behind him again and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Take the staff again. Toss it between your hands, slowly."

Richard did as instructed. Every few tosses, he spread his hands a little further apart, making the potential for dropping error much greater. All the while he felt Adrian massaging his midsection with her fingertips. He stiffened briefly when her hands moved to his hips and began to instruct his legs to sway as he was tossing. Soon he found himself moving in swishing semi-circles as he tossed the staff. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"Would you believe me if I said I ran away with the circus?"

"Would you expect me to?"

Adrian grinned. "You don't expect me to tell you all my secrets at once, do you?" She skirted around him until she stood in front of him, took the staff from him, and spun it with one hand around her neck and it ended up in her other hand.

Richard relaxed as Adrian guided his hands to her hips. He held his breath as she bounced a little under his touch and twirled the staff around their heads. The rush of the air created by the motion felt like angels' fingers stroking against his neck.

"Keep your eyes on me."

"That's not hard to do."

"I believe you are blushing, Mr. Underwood."

At that moment, he became keenly aware of the fire in his cheeks, especially as she closed the gap between their bodies. "What happened to dancing?"

"I like a little music with my dance. You're a musician, are you not?"

"I'm no musician."

"You're a drummer, that's a form of music."

"Not according to my father."

"Well your father's not here right now, is he?"

"No," Richard agreed. "No he's not." He pulled a chair and a small, round wooden table closer to the space he'd cleared out and sat down. "If I drum, you'll dance?"

"Sounds like a proper working relationship to me."

Richard grinned. He applied his hands, palms flat, to the table, then he tested it by tapping his fingers alternatively against the grain. Satisfied with the level of noise it created, he bent and flexed his fingers, then began to drum an unfamiliar tune against the wood. With a twinkle in his eye, he looked up. "Ready when you are."

"We'll see about that." He drummed a traditional, fast paced introduction for her and with the final slap of his hands he observed Adrian tossed the staff into the air. At first he found himself drumming something completely nonsensical; completely original. He'd watch her body, moving as fluidly as the Atlantic waves, and he'd slap his hands against the table in whatever beat her body moved him. Then as he caught sight of the rainbows reflecting on the walls and her skin from the diamonds on the staff, as he watched the staff itself fly through the air as though on invisible wings, he found himself reverting to a familiar song: "Come Josephine in my Flying Machine." Richard could practically hear the words as the staff somersaulted through the air.

Soon the drumming had died out completely and Richard was just watching Adrian, entranced by the power she conveyed with each step, each jump, each breath. He stood up and made his way up behind her, encircling her waist with his arms. "Up she goes…"

Adrian turned completely in his arms until they were facing one another and she delicately encircled her hands around his neck. "Up, up he goes."

"I think this is the most secure I have been in my whole life. Right here, with you, Adrian."

Adrian stopped swaying with him and stepped back. She gave him a careful once over and then touched the Heart of the Ocean to his forehead. "Ricky Underwood, I hereby bequeath you your own person."

Richard bowed his head. "Thank you." He pursed his lips. "Adrian, can you go put that back in the safe for me?"

Adrian looked faintly confused, but nodded. "Sure."

While Adrian was distracted, Richard hurried into the next room and hastily handwrote a note. When he was done, he moved into the next room behind Adrian and embraced her in a kiss. As he kissed her, he slipped the note into the safe beside the staff and closed it.