The Dance

:::wakaba-chan grumbles and stalks to the front of stage::: Ahem. The only reason I've been gone for so long is that FanFiction.net is a total jerk of a network, and I had also gotten a new computer, so I had to wait to post until everything was transferred from one computer to another. So, here's the Takari chapter - though Takari fans will probably not be pleased. :-P I am so cruel to Takari fans. And, if you don't get why Kari's so jittery, don't worry; you'll find out about it in the sequel.

Yep; there will be a sequel.

There is also a long-awaited Cody part in this chapter, so eat up. I've decided to stop fooling with his story and just get to the point. There aren't any more secrets in Cody's story, and the next time I write a Ken chapter, you'll know even more. (Ooh, wait, did I give something away there? ^_^)

8:03 P.M.
Wednesday 16 May
Odaiba High - Gymnasium

T.K.

Maybe we both were.

I guess you could say I was a little scared about tonight, in more ways than one. Okay, more like terrified. Sure, I'm in love with Kari, and I'd be a shame to all fourteen year old boys if I said I wasn't interested in having sex. But Kari's sexy ensemble reminded me of just how young we actually were. I had read the statistics, and I know that a lot of teenagers were having sex a lot younger these days, but I wasn't so sure if Kari and I were ready to become one of those statistics. I wasn't so sure if I was ready for it.

But still, there was a part of me that wanted to go through with all we planned for tonight. I mean, I was going to lose my virginity eventually, and there was no one in this world I would rather do it with than Kari. I couldn't see why I would possibly want to wait to prove to Kari in the ultimate way how much I love her.

Kari's arms around my neck felt cold; the gym's air conditioning must have been on full blast. I wanted to wrap my arms around her on that dance floor, make her thin body warm again. I wanted to be there for her, always, in every way I could. And even still, her icy touch felt like a noose around my neck, one that was becoming as tight as Kari's dress on as the hours at the dance went by. My mind felt so conflicted, as the floral smell of Kari's perfume both embraced me and suffocated me at the same time. I wanted to love her, in the most complete way I know how, but I also felt this strangling feeling wouldn't go away if I did have sex with her. I was doubting that everything would be all right if I had sex with Kari. I even felt that, maybe, new problems would arise if we went to bed tonight.

The slow song ended, and Kari and I broke apart, saying nothing. I looked into her eyes, and all I could see was uncertainty.

Were we really ready for this?

Our awkward silence that seemed to never be between us before ended when a fast-paced song erupted from the speakers, and once calm couples danced wildly to the music - and into us. I grunted in discomfort as I received an elbow to the ribs, and held Kari close instinctively and ushered her off the dance floor.

I think the strange shift from peaceful to frenetic shocked us both a bit, and neither of us looked energetic enough at the moment to return to the dance floor. Actually, it was more about my reflections on out relationship - and its next step - that kept me out of the dance and on the sidelines...but I didn't want Kari to know that.

I scratched my head nervously. "Um...you wanna go get some punch?" I asked, pointing in the direction of the refreshments tables, my gaze transfixed on the lowered head of my love, who, right now, wasn't even looking me in the eyes.

Kari shook her head, her eyes on the ground. "Not thirsty," she said simply.

"Maybe something to eat, then?" I suggested. Anything to take my mind off the ticking clock, and my ultimate decision on actually going through with sleeping with Kari tonight. "I heard the dance committee made sandwiches."

Once again, Kari shook her head, not meeting her eyes with mine. "Too many calories," she replied.

Her answer left me concerned. She was never worries about her eight or eating habits before. What was going on with her? "Kari, you didn't eat lunch this afternoon in school, either," I said in a serious tone. "Is something wrong?" I put my hand on her shoulder lovingly, urging her to open up to me.

She looked up, out eyes locking in on each other, and she smiled weakly, a smile I knew to be the one she uses when she's trying to hide something. "It's nothing, T.K.," she responded, patting my hand assuredly. "I've just been a little...nervous lately." I blinked, and I knew she had been thinking about tonight as well. "You understand, right?"

I nodded. How selfish was I being? I was believing that only I was having second thoughts about us sleeping together. Why didn't I ever think about how Kari felt about the whole thing? Losing your virginity is different for girls, I guessed; it wasn't the "wham, bam, thank-you ma'am" guys always talk about. She must have been searching her soul for the right answer non-stop these three days, and I hardly even noticed.

My other arm wrapped itself around Kari's slender waist, and I bent down to brush a soft kiss against her lips. "I understand perfectly," I said softly. I raised my head to kiss her forehead, her perfume scent in the air surrounding us not so foreboding anymore to me. God, I loved her. There was only one way I could think to be closer to her than I was now...damn, this decision was so tough to make!

Kari looked up at me and grinned, her smile finding new energy at the beginning of a new song filling the air. "Come on, let's dance!" she yelled over the fast-pounding drum beats. "This is my favorite song!"

She pulled me by the arm to dance once again. I inwardly groaned, already imagining Kari's grinding and writhing body next to mine on the crowded dance floor. Coupled with her outfit, I was about to have a hard time - no pun intended - keeping my emotions in check.

It was going to be a long night.

8:15 P.M.
Wednesday 16 May
Shinohara Cemetery

Cody

My mother was at work tonight. She wasn't going to show up at all.

Now, I was truly alone.

I touched the dark gates with my fingers, the tips running up and down each pole. It was so cold, even now, in the middle of May. It didn't seem normal...it just didn't feel like May should.

But May was never as warm for me as it should have been.

My eyes watered with unwanted tears as I thought of tomorrow. Tomorrow was going to be my birthday. I was having a party - my mother arranged it to lift my spirits, like she always does. I think she also does it to make up for all the birthdays I wasn't going to have with my father. Kari and T.K. were most likely going to make a fuss about me turning thirteen during school, too. I wasn't going to be happy about it - I might even avoid them the entire day, if I could. I didn't want to be reminded constantly that tomorrow was May the seventeenth.

I bit my lip and fought back my tears, as the surly guard waddled out from his small cubicle of a guard station and opened the gates to allow me into the dreary compound. He grumbled about having to open the gates for night visitors twice in one night. That's strange, I thought to myself, as I walked through the cold iron gates. I didn't think anyone else besides me would be here this late.

"Hey, kid," the grumpy old guard, who stood beside me after he closed the gate once more, pulled his arms up over his head and yawned audibly, his tone of voice clearly annoyed with my presence. "Why don't you just come back tomorrow? It'd make my job a whole lot easier."

Tomorrow... The tears welling in my eyes were threatening to break through and erupt, and so I shut my eyes as tightly as I could and turned my head away from the guard, pushing the tears back as far as they would go. "Because," I said with a strained voice. "Tomorrow will be too late."

The guard dismissed me with a sigh and a muttered "whatever" under his breath. He returned to his guard post and left me where I stood to find my own way around the lot. I wasn't usually that curt to my elders, but then again, they usually weren't that surly to me. That guard just didn't understand why I had to be there, tonight, and why I couldn't just come back tomorrow. And that made me angry.

He also made me think about tomorrow, once again, and right after I had tried to shake it out of my mind. I didn't ever know the man, but I hated him for making me remember the seventeenth of May. I hated to remember the 17th of May. I didn't want to remember that date, ever, because...because...

"I'm here, Daddy," I whispered to the newly-cut lawn of the Shinohara Cemetery.

...because it was the day my father was killed.

Am I here? I asked myself as I walked up to the dark, foreboding iron gates. This didn't look like the place I had remembered from the visits I have had before...but then again, I had always visited during the day, in school hours, when my mother would let me take off from school to come here. All my friends thought that I was just playing hooky for Youth Day, but my teachers, my mother, and, most importantly, I knew that it was something far more serious than that. Now, it was eight o'clock in the evening, and the brisk night air was uninviting and it chilled my small body to the bone. I also had never been here alone before. I had always come here with my mother as the years passed, and her presence always made my pain seem less the emptiness within me seem at least shared with someone else.

The Trojan condom packet burned in my pocket as Kari held me close dancing to one of the Teenage Wolves' uncharacteristically slow songs. As we swayed slowly to the music, I felt rather uneasy about the plans Kari and I made for tonight after the dance, which was only intensified by how close I was to Kari's body and the barely-there dress she was wearing. If it was any other night, I would have gone nuts over Kari's slinky black outfit - hell, even tonight I had to stop myself from taking her right there on the dance floor - but this particular night, the night we were planning on losing our virginities to each other, it all just made me feel differently. Kari looked so grown up tonight...a little too grown up. It was like she was trying to prove to herself that she was mature enough to go through with this.