Session 21

Still slightly bleary-eyed, Spike reached for the door. Their rehearsal time was early today, and as little as he knew about the paso doble dance it was going to be a challenging one to pull off. Something about mimicking bull-fighting, an archaic Earth blood sport. He knew what a bull was, having seen the ornery beasts on a farm before. He couldn't imagine anyone being foolish enough to try and purposefully fight one with nothing more than a tablecloth between them and the horns. Seriously, if that served as entertainment, how did Earthlings manage to survive long enough to make it to space? It of course dawned on him that all of humanity really came from Earth, regardless of where they were born now-a-days. But still, considering some of the stupid shit they were known to do before the gate collapse made the surface inhospitable it seemed improbable the same minds could achieve such a feat. … until he considered the behavior of the bulk of the morons on the bounty list. Had humanity really come all that far after all?

Faye's hand on the door paused him. She locked concerned eyes with him. "Are you ok?"

He turned the reach into a stretch, a few joints crackling. "Eh, I'll loosen up once we get started."

"That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it. Yesterday. How you came back here. Worried about being exposed. I need to know, are you going to be alright?"

Spike heaved a sigh and shrugged. "Come on, or we'll be late."

Out in the hall they walked side by side, a tension between them. Not like before when she'd wanted to kill him, now it was all in questions that she wouldn't ask in public. Spike shoved his hands in his pockets, closed off from her passive stare. He would be fine, he tried to convince himself. Surely he had done enough the other day to secure silence.

A man walked around the corner preoccupied by his phone. He glanced up inches from colliding with Spike, who came to a preventative stop. Spike stared down into Gunter Keller's eyes as the man turned white and stumbled backward, tripping over his feet and hitting the wall with the back of his head. He scrambled to get his feet underneath him. The second he did, Gunter took a headlong flight down the corridor with Spike wordlessly watching him flee.

Faye blinked and pointed, "Let me guess, that was the guy."

Spike nodded, and released the tension he hadn't even known he'd been holding as he chuckled. "Yup. Kinda looks like I'll be alright." He pressed the elevator button, letting an amused smile cross his face as he savored the terrorized jerk's expression.

They arrived at the practice room to find Fernando and Cygne in the midst of dancing a tight pattern. The two smiled as Fernando brought Cygne around him as if throwing a jacket around his shoulders. That was the closest analogy that Spike could think of. The two looked so intent in the pattern that he didn't think they'd noticed they were no longer alone.

That was until Fernando, still engaged in the tight dance, spoke without looking at them. "The Paso Doble, otherwise known as the bullfighter dance. The man is the fighter, and the woman is his cape. This dance portrays a narrative all about intensity, team work, precision. For if the man falters, his protection is lost and he will have nothing with which to defeat the enemy."

Spike scratched the back of his neck as the image of a red cloth being draped over a bull's face ran through his mind. All that resulted in was a seriously miffed animal. How could that possibly work? He shrugged and chalked it up to his earlier train of thought. There was no way, unless he'd been forced to, that he would ever try something so foolish with a real bull.

"The steps of the dance itself are not so complex. The difficulty comes from keeping the flavor of a fight."

Faye crossed her arms. "We have enough experience in that regard."

"I can piss her off again if that would help." Spike winked.

She offered him a glare.

He lifted a shoulder. "What?"

Fernando and Cygne turned in tandem and stared at the two. "Please don't. Remember in this dance you are allies against an invisible foe. You can't embody that imagery if you do not trust one another."

Faye reached out and took Spike's hand. "After that last round … I think the trust is obvious."

Cygne approached them and placed her hand over theirs. "I would agree. Your latest brought your cumulative into threat zone with the Espositos, they are well aware of this. That means they are rattled. If they push too hard, they're likely to make a mistake. So let's get you two a solid routine."

Turning her gaze up at Spike, Faye offered him a sly grin. "You say you don't belong here. I say that's bullshit. Let's show these snobs how this is done."

Fernando tossed a cape into Spike's hand. He wielded one himself flinging it around his shoulders with flare. "First things first, while Faye works with Cygne, you copy what I do. You need to get a feel for swinging an actual cape."

The fabric was light in his hand as Spike turned it around and around, striking odd dramatic poses. They felt stiff and awkward. Not actual fighting, but a representation of it. Still, he settled into the postures along with all their flare. The core of this resembled some of the non-combat flow patterns he'd been taught by his sensei. But instead of being smooth and fluid, it was staccato and stiff. That rigidity would be something he'd be fighting to capture. That just wasn't his style.

"Focus, Spike." Fernando jabbed a hand forward and struck Spike's hip. "If I were a bull you would be gored. The hips should be shifted forward, out of the way."

Spike exhaled a slow breath. "I'll be honest, if you were a bull I wouldn't be standing here in the first place."

From across the room Faye chuckled. "So says the genius who stared down a robotic allosaur as it charged him."

He glared over his shoulder. "We were already targets, I just demanded its attention."

"By yelling at it." She put a hand on her hip.

"Not like I was going swish a cape at the damn thing." He flicked the fabric like Fernando had shown him. "Besides, the plan worked. Nothing short of a collapsing building was going to take that brute down."

"Sure, that was a plan." She air quoted the final word. "Honestly, just admit it, you'd lost your temper. If the thing wouldn't have been a skyscraper with legs, you would have found a way to hit yourself."

"Geh!" He stiffened for a moment before he folded his arms across his chest. "Would you have rather we sat down and discussed how to take care of that massive shredding machine as it charged? I'm sure it would have waited to try and kill us until we finished a brainstorming session. I could have just sat back and let it have the lot of you. But frankly, the main plan was we'd all make it back to the ship, so somebody had to do something."

Fernando and Cygne eyed one another. Cygne raised an eyebrow at Faye. "When you told me you were bounty hunters I had no idea it entailed … uhh … "

Faye flicked a dismissive hand. "Usually it doesn't. We ran into some rather bad luck on that run."

"Not as bad as our mark did." Spike shook his head. "Or rather, what was left of him by the time we found him."

"He picked an unfortunate place to try and hide from us."

Spike cleared his throat. "Something else found him first. At least if it would have been us he would have had a pulse."

Faye smirked. "Well, that depends."

"Hey."

Fernando waved his cape between them. "Alright you two, before this sidetracks us, we have a routine to figure out."

With the narrowing of the entrants in the final two rounds, the division in the dining room now showed all the more. A handful of tables near the windows featured the assigned seats of the twenty semi-finalist couples. The remainder of the hall had unassigned tables with the couples mingling in tight circles. Faye couldn't help but notice the shunning. No one on their side seemed to spare a glance for the other side of the room. The losing tables had subdivisions, the length of time a couple had remained in the contest evident by who they sat with.

No amount of style could cover the shallowness on display. And yet, in any other circumstance she would have been exploiting that very rift.

Tonight she couldn't help but feel the tension at their table. Why did they have to be seated with the Espositos? Carlos and Roberta stabbed at their salads, eyeing Spike and Faye down their noses. Not even making snide remarks, the champions actively ignored them. At least they had the Dunninghams as a distraction. Phillip and Eliza kept up a lively chatter concerning their plans for an asteroid resort. The other couple, Batu and Ima Ido didn't remark much. The tension increased in the void left when Eliza and Ima excused themselves to the restroom, lasting beyond when they returned just in time for the main course. Faye poked at the unappetizing delicacy, some strange dish made from whole Venus slugs. The fancy garnish did nothing to make it taste better. There was simply no escaping the knowledge of what was on the plate. The texture akin to eating rubber.

This dinner rivaled the disaster of their first aboard the Golden Calf, back when Spike had no clue about table manners, however this time it wasn't his fault. She glanced at him and had to at least admit he was playing the part well enough. Not that there was much conversation at the table. In general everyone seemed to want to keep their eyes on their plates, stealing glances between bites. Somehow Spike didn't make some wry remark about the garden-crawler that was their meal. She only knew his distaste by the way he poked at it on the plate. That was something she'd thought she'd never see. Spike reluctant to eat something.

Oddly enough, after forcing down the dish, Faye's stomach turned into tight heated knots. She stood up, "I'll be right back."

Spike glanced up as she fled the table, almost a pleading expression in his eyes, but he stayed at the table.

In the restroom Faye fought down the nausea as the heat intensified and her gut threatened to let her see dinner again. Gasping for air she rested her head against the cool wall. Gourmet certainly didn't mean appetizing. There was no doubt that this was not a delicacy she'd be sampling again. No amount of garlic butter could make a slug not resemble a slug. All she had to do was somehow keep from puking.

On the marble floor the sparkle of a jewel encrusted hair comb caught her eyes. She reached down and picked it up. Simply gorgeous! Diamonds, sapphires, and amethysts sparkled arranged in clusters to form elegant flowers. With her hair color this comb would be simply breathtaking. It even matched the color scheme selected for the cabaret, their final round.

No one else was in the room. Tucking it into her clutch she walked to the mirror, feeling a bit better now that the nausea had passed. Perhaps dessert would be better, something not based on a garden pest?

Returning to the table she discovered, Spike leaning back smoking. He offered her a cigarette. As she took it, and glanced down for him to light it, she noted the jelly like blobs on the floor peering out from beneath the tablecloth. No wonder he wasn't looking sick. He'd avoided eating the little pests altogether. Faye flicked her eyes from the floor to met his. He only grinned.

Phillip folded his hands. "Well, tomorrow is the last chance we get to break into the final round. I trust everyone is ready?"

Roberta inclined her nose. "There is no reason for us to be concerned. We're already guaranteed a position in the final round."

"How do you figure that?" Spike stared at the ceiling, even as Faye fought the urge to punch the arrogance out of the champion.

Carlos didn't look at Spike as he replied coldly, "It's all in the math. Even if we didn't show up, we're far enough ahead. There is no way we're not going to be in the finals."

Spike replied blandly. "That makes two of us."

When both Espositos flinched, Eliza chuckled into her hand. "You know, he's right. The only real competition is between the rest of us and who makes it in. That's quite a respectable margin."

"Respect, hah!" Carlos snorted. "I swear they'll let anyone into this now."

Phillip cocked his head. "That's not what you said—"

"Shut up!" He pounded a fist on the table. "We won this contest the moment we accepted the invitation to return!"

Faye cocked a grin and leaned forward. "Touchy. You'd almost think someone was worried."

"I am not! We are champions!" The two stood and stormed out.

"Well," Phillip shrugged, "that was quite the huff."

"Some men can be such drama queens." Faye took a deep drag of the cigarette. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Dr. Adenine conversing with security, his complexion quite ill. Wait, was the food poisoned? No … can't be. More would be showing signs.

Adenine tugged his tie down with a finger, shifting his gaze around the room. Was he sweating? Yes. His skin glistened beneath the lights. He shook his fist, declaring something with no small amount of anxiety. Still, she couldn't hear what he was saying from this distance. The head of security shook his head in return. Adenine buried his face in his hands, nearly collapsing.

She narrowed her eyes. Wasn't he going to be leaving soon?

See You Space Cowboy