Flames of Love

Disclaimer: Don't own Shake it Up.

A/N:

Chapter 14 (Stalking the Night)

Saturday, after the dance, Cece made her way towards the parking lot that she and Gunther had been practicing the salsa at. They usually didn't go to their meeting places together, in case someone saw them. Although the chances of anyone they knew seeing them was slim, most people that saw them together didn't even go to the same school as they did, so there wasn't a whole lot of risk. They were just worried about the ones they knew possibly telling the ones they didn't want to know at the moment. "Danger Zones", such as the school, were places where more than one person who knew them might refer the news that they were dating to someone else.

Last thing they needed was Rocky or Tinka finding out by word of mouth, through someone else.

Cece found Gunther in front of the empty store parking lot, he was wearing the hood jacket he had on when he showed up at his house some time later. He smiled at her and waved, chuckling nervously as she arched an eyebrow up. "Cece, I kind of got ambushed leaving the house, so I didn't get to change. I had to throw my jacket over my outfit." She shrugged and reached out, taking her hands in his, smiling cheerfully. She met his eyes and breathed in deeply as he smiled in return. "Great dancing tonight, Cece. I knew you could do it." She didn't know a damn thing about the Salsa, so Gunther had to teach her a few things that she could try while practicing with Rocky, who knew how to put those moves into action. Luckily Rocky never figured anything out.

"I had two great teachers. You, and Rocky. Now…" She reached up with her hands and gripped the edges of his hood. "Let's take this hood off your head." Before she could move it back, she heard a crash nearby. The two quickly turned around and spotted a teenager grabbing his foot and hopping to a fallen cart. She recognized the boy immediately as Travis. "Crap! Gunther hide, it's Travis. I don't know if he's seen us yet."

"Travis?" She pushed him behind a nearby car and knelt down low. She was busy trying to figure out what the hell Travis would be doing here. Was it just a coincidence? She peered over and frowned, he was wearing baggy clothing.

"Travis is the first guy I dated. The cheater." She put her hands on the hood and narrowed her eyes, watching with slight panic as Travis stood and began looking around. "God I swear the leader of the group he's with is the only cool guy…" Travis turned his gaze to the car and she quickly ducked below, but when he called her name, she knew he spotted her. Gunther put his hand to her shoulder and she lifted up her eyes.

"Are you going to be all right?"

"Yeah, I'll deal with him, just stay here. If I need anything, I'll touch my hair or something." She rose from the hiding spot and walked over to Travis, being sure to stand beneath one of the parking lot lamps. She didn't know why, but she had a very strange feeling growing inside her. A darkness, almost. When Travis's eyes met hers, they were very dark, it scared her a little. "Travis, how did you know I was here?"
"I followed you." She froze and her eyes widened for a brief moment. He followed her? "I saw you go inside. I have to say, Howard's not going to be happy that Rocky lied to him, but I don't care about that." She crossed her arms and hummed to herself. So far there wasn't anything but red flags, he only ever was creepy.

"You do know stalking is bad enough, but stalking the daughter of a police officer? Also the best friend of a karate enthusiast. You're just asking to get pounded silly by someone…"

"Stalking? I've only been checking up on you."

"Yeah well-wait, what?" Her heart exploded into a rapid beat and her body started to grow cold. What did he mean by 'checking up' on her? "What do you mean you've been checking up on me? We've been over for nearly three years now."

"Oh I know that. Not what I was talking about." He waved his hand through the air and she chuckled nervously, half tempted to give Gunther the signal. "What I mean is I've been following you around, I know you've been seeing someone for the past week, learning that salsa dance." She'd been meeting Gunther at night on some days, it was always dark, so it was hard enough to see him. Travis pat his clothes down and exhaled softly. Cece took a step backwards and saw something shiny and metallic, poking out from his chest pocket. When he moved, it created a nice, narrow bulge. Her eyes widened as she assumed it was a knife, but why would he have a knife? "Anyway, I was wondering if you remember when you and your friend stood in the cafeteria and told everyone I was cheating on you. You never gave me a chance to explain."

"I saw you making out with a girl dressed up in a medieval costume…"

"Yes! We were role playing."

"Were you also role playing with Abigail Reynolds when you were kissing her in the school library?" Travis rubbed his forehead and sighed. He moved his hand towards his shirt pocket and she watched closely. She was preparing herself to run, she knew she could outrun him long enough to put him out of commission if he tried anything.

"Look, I was pulled out of school for a little bit after that. All right? I went a little batty, so what. I haven't seen you in a long time, and I think it's a good idea for us to talk about what happened." She wasn't too sure it was a good idea, she thought they'd finished talking about it long ago.

"I gave you your chance a long time ago, and you trampled over me. Sorry, but when I said 'we're through', I meant it." She was no damsel, she could handle herself just fine and didn't need Gunther stepping in, but by no means did that mean she didn't want him to.

"Come on, you know we had something special. How 'bout we let bygones be bygones. Forget the past, it never happened, we're just meeting. Right? Go on a date with me." She scoffed and narrowed her eyes, she couldn't believe he was seriously doing this.

"Screw off."

"What? You're not dating anyone."

"I'd rather date a brick wall." He frowned and let his lip curl into a tiny smirk.

"Look, Howard hasn't seen you and your friend's dance on Shake it up. Date me, and I won't tell Howard that Rocky is a big fat liar." She scoffed and turned around, she had nothing more to say to him.

"Bribing me isn't going to work, Travis. I know I wouldn't sell out my own best friend, but I also have some more moral and ethical reasons not to go out with you." She didn't mean anything bad by her words, she just wasn't about to date him when she was going out with Gunther.

"Damn it, I'm trying to be nice…" She heard the sound of something whipping through the air and turned to see what was going on. Her eyes widened and fell onto a small pocketknife in his hands. "You won't give me a chance, you reject anything I send to you…" She raised her eyebrows and tried to think back, remembering months of flowers, letters, chocolates, and gifts being sent her way. Eventually her mom had to go down to the post office and tell them to stop sending anything of the sort to her house.

She chuckled nervously, sweat rolling down the side of her head. "That was you?" She reached up and casually flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I can't say I ever knew." She was going to have to tell Rocky about this, there was no way around that.

"Yeah."

"Look. I have a mom, she is a cop." Well, for the most part. She still didn't want people thinking Georgia was anyone but her mother, but at the same time, she didn't like it. She swallowed and began practicing a form of slow breathing that her real mother taught her growing up. She tried to stay calm under pressure, and actually got that from her mother. "You know, remember back to when you were younger and the popular expression of kids was 'I'm going to tell mom on you'?"

"What of it?"

"Well. If you don't put the knife away, I'm legally, and personally, obligated to tell my mother on you. Also, no, that is not me being a 'tattletale', that is me saving my own skin." Travis raised an eyebrow and spun his pocketknife in his hand. "Also, again, my best friend is in karate, and is protective as hell, so…I can't say all is going to end well there if you do anything you're going to regret." If reasoning wasn't going to work, there was running to find the nearest thing she could use in self-defense. Of course, in this empty parking lot, there was nothing, except carts that he would likely just piss him off. There wasn't anything she wouldn't give to be the one that was good at martial arts. "And another thing, once Howard hears of it, don't you think you'd be pretty much cut off from him?"

"Not important enough to me."

"Okay…" So he was desperate. She flicked her eyes over to see Gunther sneaking up behind Travis. In his hand was some sort of pipe. Great, he found the self-defense item. She was both relieved that he was responding to the signal, as well as the danger of the situation, but upset that she didn't get the chance to fight for herself. She put her hands to her hips and thought of the cliché aspect of the situation. Nothing to do with feminism, but the whole Prince-takes-out-bad-guy thing was seriously old. How many Disney movies had she seen like this? "Well Travis. Would you believe me if I told you there was a Prince with a pipe of some sort, sneaking up behind you, to hit you over the head?"

Travis stared at her for a moment and began laughing while Gunther rolled his eyes and shot her a glare. She smirked and crossed her arms. She loved to tease him about his status as a Prince, albeit exiled, only because he hated the fact that he was one to begin with. "You…you expect me to believe that?" Travis wiped his eye and threw his hands up, mocking her. Gunther shot him a bored expression and Cece turned her attention to her fingernails. "Sorry Cece, but this isn't a fantasy land. There's no such thing as magic, and there's certainly not a Prince-"

Gunther swung the pipe against Travis's head, bored with sitting there. Travis flinched and chuckled awkwardly before falling forward. "No such thing as Princes?" Gunther asked curiously. "So what does that make me? Your imagination?" Cece lifted her eyebrows as he gazed up to her with a slight smirk. "I'm almost afraid to ask if pigs will really start flying if I mock him by saying that they'll fly if aliens actually land on earth. Honestly, royalty exists, sci-fi doesn't."

"Whatever Gunther, let's leave. Now! I don't want him waking up."

"Good idea." The two of them started rushing off and glanced back in time to see Travis sitting up and rubbing his head. Gunther put his hand to the small of her back and sighed. "This was not how I hoped our night together would go."

"Same. Uh, for the record…" She looked over her shoulder as they ducked behind the building and watched Travis once more look around. "Don't start thinking I'm a damsel, but also don't think I'm unappreciative. I'm grateful that you just helped there, because I honestly didn't know what I was going to be able to do, there was nothing to grab…but I can definitely fight my way out of trouble if I have to."

"Well that's good to know, I never doubted you for a second." Gunther glared at Travis as the boy walked off, scratching his head. "I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I was waiting for the signal, but when I saw him pull that knife out, I was already acting…are you okay?"

She was a little shaken, but otherwise, she was no worse for wear. She smiled slightly and nodded. "I get a lot of resilience and calmness from my mom. She's shooting for me to be a police officer myself, when I get older."

"It's a good career. Maybe you could be someone's bodyguard." She laughed and leaned her back against the building. She was definitely feeling relief, no more worrying about Travis for the night. She had to tell someone about this, though. Her social worker, definitely. As long as it wasn't a risk to Flynn.

"'He was threatening to tell Howard that Rocky didn't have a surgery today, if I didn't go out with him. I said no, of course. I'm already going out with someone, anyway."

"Oh? Who is it?" He flashed a prideful smirk and folded his arms over, wagging his eyebrows. "Is it anyone that I should know about?"

"Hmm, some people say he's a Prince." She tapped her finger to his lips and started walking away, smirking back at him.

"Prince, Shmince…just some dumb ass title that means nothing." He muttered and followed after her. After tonight's excitement, neither were really sure what to do. Cece was still a tad freaked out and wanted to get home to her little brother. So perhaps, it was best to rest and let the stress go away.

That Travis, he is a freak.