The characters and elements I own are those I created for this story. Everything and everyone else belong to William Joyce and Dreamworks Animation.

This was not how Anansi intended to spend his Friday.

After a stressful and tedious morning of tending to his Web, which overlooked the intellectual progress of each and every living human being on earth, the Guardian of Wisdom planned to spend a relaxing afternoon in his favorite armchair, books upon books scattered around him as a warm fireplace roared before him, his mind forgone into the gorgeous world of literature.

Unfortunately, a certain leprechaun had other plans for him.

So now here the African man was, stuck at the sidelines of a particularly wild party, standing all by himself with only bottled water from home for company—he knew better than to trust anything even remotely liquid at these raves. Seriously, though, weren't raves supposed to be for teenagers? Because the Guardian of Wisdom honestly never expected he'd see the Groundhog, of all spirits, trying to bust a move on the dance-floor. It was somewhat disturbing.

Willing the odd sight to vanish from his mind, Anansi rubbed his eyes in both annoyance and impatience, rare emotions for someone usually so calm and collected. 'How in the name of the gods did I get roped into this?'

Roy G. Biv, of course, who else? He and Anansi shared a rivalry comparable to that of Bunny and North due to the men's conflicting viewpoints: Roy thought imagination surpassed wisdom and Anansi vice versa. The argument in itself was virtually endless and thus, also like with the Guardians of Hope and Wonder, often required someone to break it up. However, this rivalry didn't mean the African and the Irishman could not be civil towards each other every now and then. In fact, there were times they could quietly tolerate each other save for a few words passed between them, mostly jokes from Roy's end and sarcastic replies from Anansi.

Now did not count as one of those times.

'I can't believe that idiot managed to drag me out of my home.' He still had to admit, though, the leprechaun's idea to drag him here by tricking him into believing that the Spirit of Summer was hosting a book club displayed some serious cleverness. 'Amazing that someone as poised as Summer would host a party such as this—people can be surprising sometimes. On the bright side, at least Roy's distracted with his dancing partner. Maybe if I can get out of here and still salvage what's left of my day before—'

"Well, well, well, I didn't expect to see someone of your stature and intelligence in this neck of the woods."

Anansi froze in mid-step and stiffened with alarm at the silky voice behind him, the one he could recognize anywhere.

With a sigh of dread, he dared a look in the direction the voice came from. A young, shapely Japanese woman dressed in a shimmering and stunning V-Cut red dress that reached her ankles approached the scholar, her all-too-familiar brown eyes hiding halfway behind faintly violet eyelids and full of mischief. Her shoes, which were a slightly darker shade of red, clink-clanked against the tiled floor with every step taken until she finally reached her 'favorite' rival. Her painted-ruby lips formed a smirk that would've sent chills down any other man's spine.

Anansi was not like other men.

He subtly darted his eyes to the woman's ebony and usually long, flowing hair for a moment, taking note of the bun she'd put it in and the purple needles she'd added. Chances were that she had her kunai knives stashed somewhere up there, too. Some people sure knew how to make elegance look deadly.

Crossing his arms over his chest in cool nonchalance, Anansi narrowed his eyes at her. "Ah, Kurayami...to what do I owe your unwelcome and quite frankly unneeded presence this time?"

Kurayami pouted in mock hurt as she hid the lower half of her face behind the red fan in her right hand, its golden dragon design staring back at the unflinching scholar menacingly. "Oh now, Spidey, let's not get nasty—well, not yet anyway."

She trailed her crimson-nailed index finger up Anansi's front, the scholar showing no emotion at her touch save for his continued glare on her. He was far too used to the shinobi's guiles to be ruffled by her insinuating advances anymore—at least that's what he preferred to believe. To his silent triumph, the lady assassin finally backed off, her face a begrudging mixture of resignation and disappointment.

"Okay, fine. Be a stick-in-the-mud as usual. I'm sure Roy will prove a better partner; he knows how to have fun."

Oh brother. Anansi rolled his eyes at what he considered a weak complaint. 'Oh spare me. If she honestly thinks playing the jealousy card will bait me—'

"And I don't mean dancing."

That got him! Anansi almost choked on his own breathe. At the intellectual's widened eyes and profuse blush, Kurayami flashed a toothy grin of success behind the cover of her fan. Just like every other man, Anansi dropped his cool-guy act like a can of sashimi.

"You're right," with an uncaring shrug of her shoulders, Kurayami turned to walk away, "I should leave you alone. I wouldn't want to spoil your 'fun', anyway."

Forget embarrassment. Anansi boiled from the inside out, his heated blood making him begin to see red, faintly wondering at the back of his mind whether this was how Bunny felt most of the time.

Ever since he and Kurayami encountered each other nine years ago in Burgess, where the Guardian of Wisdom prevented her from taking out Jack Frost as part of a mission given to her by April Showers and Pitch Black, the Japanese demon had been a thorn in his side with her periodic teasing and flirtatious behavior. What's worse, she even tried roping in the other male Guardians as well from time to time, though not with the same fervor as she did Anansi. Being sharp in mind, the scholar knew she only did that in order to get a rise out of him.

Well this time, Kurayami finally got her wish...just not in the way she expected.

Before she took her fifth step, a strong hand grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around with such force that she nearly lost her grip on her fan. Her trained instincts naturally screamed at her to retaliate against whatever fool dared touch her in such an audacious manner.

Those instincts numbed in seconds at Anansi's fierce glare.

"You wish to see fun?" he asked her in low yet daring tone. The corner of his lips upturned into a dark smirk. "Very well then...let's have some fun."

Roy was beside himself.

'Oi rememba' leavin' 'im 'ere! Where could Poindexter be?'

It was only now that Roy finally noticed the crowd growing around a certain part of the dance floor.

'Wha' on earth...?' the redheaded man thought in curiosity as he marched up to the wall of imposing legs and gave it a long hard look. He scoffed at it with a smirk. "Oh please..."

He only had to teleport via his light powers to get near the center of the action, earning himself a few cries of surprise from some of the spirits near him. His jaw dropped.

"Wha' the...?"

Anansi was leading Kurayami, of all people, into a tango. A very aggressive tango, to be more precise—Roy could tell that the scholar's behavior didn't quite match that of the mild-mannered man he remembered. As for Kurayami herself, she appeared to be at almost as much of a loss at her dance partner as the leprechaun and the other onlookers were; and as Roy listened closer, he overhead a snippet of conversation taking place between the two dancers.

"Uh, Anansi, you're getting kind of rough."

"Ease yourself, my femme fatale. You're in very good hands."

'Alrigh', am I the only one who heard dat? Cuz I'm pretty sure I'm seein' somethin' out o' a dream.' No, the rest of the crowd evidently heard that, too, on account of either their gaping mouths or expanded eyes. Roy could not blame them.

And yet out of everyone in this situation, Anansi showed the least apprehension or embarrassment, if at all, in spite of the sea of disbelieving eyes set on him, including Kurayami's even though she began to settle into the groove of the tango.

In fact, Kurayami had to admit that she admired Anansi's sudden aggressiveness. She considered it such a refreshing change of pace from the scholar's pacifistic nature that for a while she had trouble deciding whether to give into the unnaturally girlish feelings that made her want to squeal and melt like a school-girl or continue with her more mature and sarcastic side and tease Anansi on how he finally 'decided to come out of his shell.'

Neither impulse won out. She smiled at her dance partner, yes, but she also retained her composure and simply let her body move with the beat. No man ever managed to make feel this content, not after so long. 'Eh, I'll enjoy it for a little longer. Besides, I have the perfect way to get back at him.'

Nobody could figure out where Anansi and Kurayami went after their dance, not even Roy.

Smoke-bombs were made for a reason and when Kurayami let some slip from her dress after Anansi dipped her one last time, all bets were off on where those two could be.

To say the Guardian of Imagination feared for his colleague would have been a gross understatement. Roy G. Biv knew all too well the sort of danger Kurayami could pose if given the chance. Even though Anansi had dealt with her before, the assassin could still use the momentary and initial surprise from being teleported to take advantage of the scholar and kill him—and that was if she was merciful.

Over and over, Roy traced the arcane energies around him with the dagger he'd hidden under the sleeve of his jacket. 'Unprepared an' reckless me, my arse, Anansi' he mused with pride. 'Besides, I ain't the one who ended up gettin' kidnapped.'

Now where could they be?

His dagger indicated that Anansi and Kurayami were still in the Summer Spirit's home. The real question was: where?

Answers soon revealed themselves in the form of loud banging noises of a struggle that echoed down the hall Roy emerged on. He narrowed his emerald eyes on the closet door that hid his best friend and his captor.

"Ah, there ye be, ye wench."

"Roy?" a sweet and airy voice said behind him.

With a startled yelp, Roy spun around to face whoever followed him. Before him stood a beautiful, tall, and slender young-looking sprite with radiant golden skin and equally dazzling light-green irises, her waist-length hair golden as well and flowing down her slim shoulders like a waterfall of light. She wore a silky dark-green dress decorated with a string of various colorful flowers that ran across the hem. Similar adornments were tied around her head and wrists, too. Only her dainty feet lacked any attire.

The Guardian of Imagination quickly relaxed and lowered his weapon once he realized his tracker's identity.

"Summer, wha' are you doin' 'ere?"

"Here to talk sense into Yami instead of knocking it into her like some I could mention," she regarded the dagger with a skeptical and quite frankly disapproving glare. Roy rolled his eyes with a haughty huff.

"O, gimme a break, lass! He is my friend, ya know!"

"And Kurayami is my friend. I know she seems like nothing more than a ruthless killing machine, but there's more to her than that, believe me. And you know what? I bet Anansi could testify to that, too—maybe even better than me."

Roy rolled his eyes again as he marched up and opened the closet door, the glowing spirit right at his heels in an attempt to dissuade him. "Oh please, Summer, wha' makes ye believe Spidey, o' all people, would know anythin' abou'—"

Both spirits went dead-silent at the scene before them.

Anansi and Kurayami were making out on the floor, moaning loudly and giddily whenever one groped the other and rolling around and about like two dogs in heat. They were so enthralled into their lip-lock session, they never noticed their friends that stood in the doorway, gaping at them with eyes as large as the Moon and still no words to say at all.

Roy slowly and quietly shut the door then turned to the shell-shocked Summer.

"Let us agree we neva' saw dat."

Summer nodded and nothing more. "Agreed."

Uh, yeah let's pretend we saw nothing so none of us end up with kunai knives in our backs come tomorrow morning.