As promised, this is the betaed vdersion. Please leave pleanty of tea and cookies for the author and her beta!
Naru wasn't sure why he was surprised. After all, he had seen a little of Mai's grace when they went ice-skating in December. Still, seeing his sweet, modest little assistant shaking her hips in time to the Salsa beat while wearing a skimpy one piece red halter Salsa dress and dancing with her dance partner was very surprising.
Oh, he knew that Mai danced. She had a habit of turning on the CD player that she had brought to the office and dancing around as she did her filing. And he knew that she knew all the steps to most forms of ballroom dancing. He supposed the most surprising part was the fact that the woman who wouldn't wear traditional figure skating outfits because she 'didn't feel comfortable doing jumps in those things', was wearing a very small Salsa outfit to practice for an upcoming ballroom dancing competition that Mai's instructor had, with Mai's permission, entered the girl and her partner in.
Naru swallowed hard as Mai's back bent into a sensuous c-shaped arc while her 'partner' held her up.
Despite common belief, Naru wasn't immune to hormones, he just did a better job at hiding the effect that they had on him than most people, but Naru is a man and a man can only take so much. He was pretty sure that he was going to need a lot of cold water after this. One shower was not going to be enough!
Oh why, oh why was he here?
Flashback…
"Good Morning, Naru! Here's your tea."
Oliver Davis, more commonly known as 'Naru', looked up from his computer as his cheerful assistant breezed into his office with a smile. She set his tea and a small piece of yellow paper on his desk before floating out in the same manner that she'd entered.
Naru picked up the cup and took a sip, reveling in the blend of green tea, sugar and sakura as they swirled around in his mouth. He wasn't sure exactly what type of tea Mai had bought but he liked it. If his memory served, which it did, the tea was called Sakura Green.
His eyes opened a fraction as he looked at the paper sitting on his desk. He opened his eyes all the way and sat his cup down before picking up the paper.
Ballroom Dancing Competition
Join us at Totamo Park Community Center
For a night of glitz and glitter!
Watch as couples spin, twist, flip, and glide across the dance floor
While performing ballroom favorites from the Western world!
Enjoy the daring of the Salsa, Mambo, Tango, and Cha Cha Cha
Or the simple beauty of the Waltz!
So come and support our dancers
Friday April 25th
The gala starts at 6pm, sharp!
On the back was Mai's neat script:
I will be performing and would be forever grateful if you would come!
Really, she was easy to please and…
Wait a minute! Ballroom dancing? His Mai knew how to do that? Why wasn't he informed?
After a brief argument with Mai, it was decided that he and Lin would come to watch her practice on the 23rd. Of course, Bou-san walked in at that time, so by the end of the hour everyone else from SPR had decided that they would come to watch the practice as well as the actual event in question.
Naru wasn't sure what Lin was smirking about. After all, it was just dancing.
End Flashback…
Naru swallowed again. Oh, there was no way one cold shower was going to be enough, no way at all. He had never really given much thought to the curves of Mai's body before but he was finding them all too obvious at the moment, as Mai's hips shimmied at ninety-nine miles per hour.
He glanced over at the others. Yasuhara had unbuttoned three buttons on his shirt and Bou-san looked ready to kill someone. Probably Mai's partner and most definitely for a very different reason than the one Naru had on his mind. John hadn't been able to come and Lin was watching the dance as though it were nothing strange.
Naru figured that Lin had already known about all this, especially considering the fact that his girlfriend, Yuki liked dancing and often came to the gym to relieve stress. The man had probably known about this long before Naru had and he probably had seen her dance before, hence the smirk.
The music ended and not a moment to soon. If she had kept dancing like that for a few minutes longer, Naru would have had to start unbuttoning his shirt. As it was, he felt like opening a window and a glance over to the left where Yasuhara stood, he wasn't the only one. He wondered if he could get away with punching the young man. He had to have some sort of death wish to even look at his Mai like that, much less to act like that.
"Oi! Jou-chan! Where'd you learn to dance like that?" Bou-san's ugly overprotective big brother side reared it head with a growl as he glared at the young man that Mai had been dancing with.
"Oh, I took classes. Ballet, jazz, tap, burlesque, belly dancing, even a few classes on traditional Japanese dance. You can find classes for almost every form of dance out there." Mai smiled as she opened the window to allow some cold air in to cool her sweating body.
"What, exactly, is burlesque?" Masako asked, before Bou-san could continue.
"Burlesque is a type of dancing that I believe was developed in the 18th century. It focuses on female empowerment, although I believe it was once associated with strip dancing. Nowadays, many women take classes in order to build confidence. I mean, it's not every dance class that you strut around in fishnets, short shorts, and stilettos." Mai laughed while reaching for her water bottle, and for the first time in his life, Naru wished he had been the one hit by the car. The pain from that was nothing compared to the agony of watching a beautiful woman, wearing a skimpy halter dress and sweating, as she drained a bottle of water, not moments after mentioning the word 'strip dancing' and 'fishnets'.
Oh, he was screwed. No number of cold showers could help now.
April 25th, 5:45p.m…
It was fifteen minutes before the competition began when SPR settled down at their table to wait for the dancing to start. By the time they had received their dinner, the dance competition was ready to begin.
Had Naru been a man of lesser discipline his jaw would have dropped as Mai and her partner (What was his name?) strutted out onto the dance floor with complete confidence. He had thought that he was prepared for this, but it seems that he was mistaken.
Hanging low on her hips was a red handkerchief cut skirt that was longer on the left side than on the right, and wasn't very long at all. A form fitting black halter-top clung to her upper body, a silver bead design drawing attention to the bust and the low back. Upon her pale feet were strappy black heels. Naru began to wonder if he wasn't paying a little too much attention to what his assistant looked like when he realized that her toe-nails were painted black with little silver and red roses on them, and that they matched her fingernails.
The music started and once again Naru wondered what sin he had committed to deserve this torture. Perhaps it was being arrogant? Her body dipped and he swallowed hard before reaching for his drink. Naru had never been the type of man to drink alcohol but he was beginning to wonder if he should start.
Finally, and not a moment to soon, the Latin Ball room portion ended. The last dances of the night were the foxtrot and the waltz. That would be easier to handle. Or so he thought.
Now it may or may not come as a surprise but Naru is a very jealous man. He doesn't like to share certain things and Mai's smile is one of those things. Mai herself is another but she doesn't know that.
Mai and her partner walked back out onto the dance floor for the final dances and Naru, for one, was grateful that her dress was not skimpy any more. It was a simple maroon colored halter dress with a maroon chiffon shawl draped gently over both arms.
The music started, and the dancers began to move through the steps of the foxtrot until finally, it was time for the waltz.
If Naru hadn't been jealous before now, he most certainly was as HIS Mai twirled around in a waltz, a soft smile tugging at her lips. In that moment, Naru would have loved to kiss her. Would her lips be as soft as they looked? Her eyes were shining, and he could have sat there watching forever.
However, soon the music ended and the results were announced and as Mai and her partner accepted their winnings, Naru clapped with the rest of them. Her smile was contagious, and Naru found that, unconsciously, his lips had turned up ever so slightly.
So, a little while later, when Naru found himself standing next to her on a small wooden bridge that stood over a small stream, watching as the gentle breeze played with her hair and the moonlight illuminated her face, revealing that same soft smile, he wasn't to surprised at the feeling that welled up inside of him. As he kissed her he smiled, her lips were even softer than he imagined and the taste of sakura would be his favorite thing for the rest of his life. When she kissed back it seemed as though nothing else mattered and for a few moments, it didn't.
Because the only witnesses to the cherry blossom kiss were the minnows in the stream and the stars in the sky.