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Epilogue 2

Upbeat classical music blared from the Music Room's speakers. Ryoko Asakura stood in the middle of the cleared floor facing me. I held her left hip.

"Now you take my hand," she said, holding it out.

I took it.

"The guy is usually supposed to lead, but, since you're new to this, do your best to follow along." She pressed my shoulder, nudging me to my left. I took a step in that direction.

"Which one are we doing now?" I asked as our feet moved to the beat of the music.

"This one is called a waltz. The music is metered in three-quarter time so it might help if you count along. One-tw0-three. One-two-three."

I wanted to ask her why we were doing this, but thought better of it. Ryoko seemed to be enjoying herself. We'd already sampled several different dance styles including the tango and the cha-cha. As we whipped around in circles to the three-quarter beat, the hem of Ryoko's uniform skirt flared.

I kept up with her fairly well. At one point, I felt comfortable taking the lead.

"Very nice," she said with a cheery smile. Then, "Ouch. That was my toe."

"Sorry."

I managed to keep from stepping on her feet for the remainder of the song. Once it ended, she pulled me into her arms for a hug.

"Thanks, Kyon. That was fun."

We eased back into our dance stance. Another three-quarter beat piece started.

She asked, "Do you have time for another?"

I checked the clock. "Sure." I took the first step. "You've really gotten into dancing since the final event," I said as I swung her around the dance floor.

"Yuki and I had a blast coreographing our strip tease. I must have looked at a hundred videos of duo girl teams taking off their clothes. We took the best moves from all of them."

"Your performance that night was phenomenal." I chuckled. "And hot as hell. I'm sure Haruhi thought so too."

Ryoko's shrug deflected a wry smile. "I suppose."

"It's cool that you two are friends." When Ryoko squinted, I added, "Or whatever you are now. At least you're not enemies."

"No, we're not that."

"What did you two talk about?"

Maintaining a conversation while dancing took extra concentration, but Ryoko didn't seem to mind our chatting while waltzing in a holding pattern.

She asked, "When?"

"That night. When you took her in your arms while she was tied up and naked. Right before you and Yuki fried her circuits. I'm amazed the whole thing went off as well as it did."

"It really wasn't that surprising. All the dick she took up to that point softened her up like warm butter. She would have let me do anything I wanted to her… which I did."

"She wasn't exactly in a position to stop you," I added.

"That's true. Anyway, after the first time I kissed her, Haruhi went stiff as a plank. My attack caught her off guard. Then I told her, 'I bet I can make you come so hard you forget your name.'"

"To which she replied…?"

"'You're on.' That's when she started kissing me back. Now, whenever we see each other in the hallway, I ask her, 'What's your name?' and she always answers, 'Beats me.' Don't worry. We're not going to start dating or anything."

The waltz ended and we stepped apart. "Thanks," I said. "That was fun." I checked the clock again. I still had time for another. A third waltz played through the speakers. I looked at Ryoko, but had a hard time reading her. "One more?"

"One more. And less talk. We focus on the dancing this time."

"Okay." I stood there like an idiot.

"You have to make a suggestion, remember? Ask me to dance or I can't move."

I bowed deeply and extended my hand. "M'lady, may I have the honor of this dance?"

A wide smile lit up Ryoko's face. "But, of course." She took my hand.