A/N: So this was a fun piece that I did at ten at night while streaming on Twitch, so I would actually get this done before midnight.

Took me a full hour and five minutes to finish this, edits and all, so apologies if I missed any.

Thank you all of you that came to my stream (find me at twitch dot tv slash ikunihattori). I'm planning on doing more writing streams if I can't reach my word count during the day :) Tuesdays I also stream Monster Hunter Rise with Friends at 7pm cst, and Wednesdays we play Borderlands, also 7pm cst. We just finished Borderlands 2, so we'll be starting one of the DLCs this week.

Anyway, I've done my spiel long enough. Please enjoy this High School!AU that I someone managed to squeak out of my brain more than a decade after I left my own high school experience.

Summary: At the Masquerade that was her High School Winter Formal, Tooth was losing hope that her new friend would make an appearance. What she didn't know was that he was there the whole time; highschool!AU

Words: 2128

Prompts:

(Dialogue) "Any chance you'd say yes if I asked you to dance?"

Human!AU

High School!AU

"Shall We Dance?"

With a sigh, Tooth lowered her Peacock Masquerade mask in order to take another sip of the tepid punch that tasted like someone had made it in their bathtub. With the drinking fountains out of order in the auditorium, it was the only thing to quench her thirst. But as the taste began to get more fetid with every sip, Tooth eventually admitted defeat and set her plastic cup down, letting it get lost to the oblivion that was the High School's Winter Formal. Retying her mask on and gathering up her skirts-Peacock green with brilliant blue embroidery on the back for the male tail display feathers–Tooth beelined it over to where her friends stood on the side of the dance floor, all bemoaning the fact that their dates had abandoned them for better pursuits.

"Why are we even still here?" she found herself asking Jack, Nick, Sandy and Aster. Jack wore a blue suit with a blue mask covered in snowflakes and icicles, Nick wore a brown over robe with a deer-like mask–he had proclaimed it was a reindeer, but the would-be antlers were more like nubs than anything else–Sandy wore a golden glittery mask with a golden robe and pants, and Aster chose to dress in gray with a rabbit mask, tall ears and weirdly enough, antlers. He had called it a Jackalope, and Tooth just went along with it while Jack tried to convince Aster that Jackalopes weren't real animals. With a laugh, Aster pointed out that unicorns also weren't real animals, but that didn't stop other people from gluing horns to the foreheads of their masks for the night.

Jack had admitted defeat the only way he knew how when up against Aster: by loudly denying it and doubling down on his position.

The majority of their classmates around them all chose some sort of animal or plain mask with no decoration, but weirdly enough, no other mythical creatures, which Jack had gleefully pointed out the further into the night they got. There were a few that leaned full in on the Masquerade theme and had full Venetian masks and accompanying outfits, but that was typically the theater kids who already had the outfits lying around the costume cage. And herself, of course.

Her glimmering peacock outfit was one that her grandmother had made her last year for Halloween. The mask was new, and Tooth had to travel four hours one way to pick it up from a custom made shop in the city. This was probably going to be the only night she could wear this mask, but gosh darn it, she was going to feel like a princess and enjoy it too!

"Because you have yet to find your Prince Charming," Nick teased her, a grin dancing over his lips. Being best friends with four guys did very little for her romantic life, and she was tempted to sign up for one of those dating websites just to start talking to people.

It didn't help that these four also liked to pull the big brother card, despite being the eldest out of all of them, and all of their classmates knew not to mess with her.

It made her dating life very lonely.

Her one saving grace had been her new-found friendship with the new transfer student, Pitch Black, however she hadn't seen him yet in the three hours they had been here, and Tooth knew she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up that he would come at all.

"Guys, I don't think he's going to show up," she pointed out. She grabbed her skirts and rustled them, trying to create some airflow. Despite this being a Winter Formal Dance, the air in here was decidedly too hot and stuffy for any actual fun to go on. She was surprised someone hadn't already spiked the punch.

"What do you mean? He's been eyeing you from the stage the whole night!" Jack pointed out, drawing her gaze to the live band that was playing on stage. They were just wrapping up their second set, and judging by the iPod that was just whipped out and plugged in, it was their break time. A slow dance came on, and Tooth silently watched as a dark figure in a tux with a black beaked mask jumped off the stage to make a beeline for her.

"I didn't know you could play the bass!" she declared once Pitch got close enough. He grinned at her from under his bird mask before taking her hand and bowing over it, placing a kiss on her knuckles.

Tooth would never admit that she felt her heart flutter at the action.

"Any chance you'd say yes if I asked you to dance?" Pitch asked, his low voice suave and even.

"We'll have to see," Tooth replied primly. Pitch faltered, unable to interpret her words, causing Aster to lean forward and add in his two cents in his native Australian accent.

"You need to ask her to dance, mate, not just ask about your chances for asking," he pointed out, and in the dim lighting, Tooth saw Pitch blush a bit. He straightened before her, and Tooth felt more than saw her friends take a couple of steps away to give them space.

"Toothiana," Pitch started. "Will you do the honors of dancing with me?" he asked smoothly, offering up his hand in an elegant bow. Tooth grinned in response.

"I'd love to! I've been waiting for you to ask me all night, you know, but I see you were a little tied up," Tooth teased as she took his hand. Pitch led her onto the dance floor with the rest of the slow dancing couples. Pitch placed his hand on her waist and took her other hand, as if to start a waltz, and she couldn't help but laugh.

"What, did you grow up on ballroom dancing lessons, or something?" she asked, a grin dancing along her lips. Pitch gave his own laugh.

"Something like that," he replied. He went to start with a box step and Tooth refused to move with him, causing him to stop short. She took their clasped hands and rested his hand on the other side of her waist before her own arms snaked around his neck and drew him close. Being so close to him now, Tooth saw his breath hitch and she grinned widely.

"So where did you learn to dance?" she asked as they began to sway in place.

"Actual ballroom lessons. So all of the standard dances, the foxtrot, the waltz, the-"

"The tango?" Tooth teased, loving how flustered he got.

"Yes, the tango too," Pitch replied. "I've been taking these lessons since I was very young. They helped with balance and coordination, and as I grew older, I grew to like them much better than other physical activities, like sports."

"When did you start playing the bass?" she asked next, suddenly realizing that all of these months that they've spent together as friends, she never really asked him these questions. He knew a lot about her, her family, her friends, but she always was one who easily chatted to fill a silence. Pitch was a very good listener, and he always seemed to ask the right questions to get her to keep talking. Well, now that she had him stuck in place for at least another three minutes, it was her turn to do the listening.

"I got into music probably about fourth grade. Started with the cello in orchestra, then moved onto the standup bass, then once I hit high school I transitioned to the full percussion section, and then picked up the bass guitar in my spare time," Pitch explained. Tooth tried to think of another question to keep him talking, but he offered up the next bit on his own. "I did refuse to join the Marching Band. Too physical for me. I will watch marching bands and drum cores all day long, and enjoy the musical masterpieces and choreography that they do, but that just isn't for me. Give me a stage and sheet music and I can go all day."

"Did you go to a lot of sports games at your old school? Cosmos High, right?" she then asked, wracking her brain to try to remember what exactly he had said about his previous school. He had moved here with his family because his father worked in the military and they had to move around a lot. Pitch himself had aspirations to go into the military right out of school, and upon remembering that tidbit, Toothiana couldn't help but feel…disappointed at the thought of him going away.

"Right," he agreed. It sounded like their slow dance was coming to an end, but Pitch lifted a hand from her waist and waved to the stage before she could try to disengage, and as the current song ended, another slow song began, drawing a few more couples onto the dance floor. Pitch spun them a bit so Tooth now had a new wall of gaudy budget decorations to stare at while talking to him. "I went to most of the soccer games, because my friends played, but there were a few football games that I went to in order to socialize. And I can tell you right now, I spent more time watching the game than I did talking to anyone my friends invited along." He laughed, and Tooth noticed his laugh was as deep as his voice and just as rich. She shivered in his grasp, and relished it when he pulled her closer, as if she was cold.

There was absolutely no way she could be cold, not with how warm she felt whenever he was around.

"So you didn't socialize too much at your other school?" Tooth asked next, enjoying their closeness. Pitch nodded in reply.

"I had my close group of friends, much like you do with the boys, and I didn't really see the need to expand," he replied.

"But now you're looking for a new group of friends," she pointed out.

"Yes, but also more than that. This is our last year of High School, Toothiana," Pitch said. She shivered again in delight when he said her full name, and had to force herself to pay attention to his words. "I'm looking for friends, but I'm also looking for a possible girlfriend. Someone I can trust and have a good time with, and at the end of the year, if she wants to break up in order to go to college, then that's how it will go," he replied.

"And if she wanted a long distance relationship with you?" she asked breathlessly, drawing closer as she stared into his eyes.

"Then I would agree to it and make it work out," he agreed, his hands slipping around to her back to draw her closer.

"Are you taking applications?" Tooth then asked, tilting her head just so, so that if she quickly jumped up on her tiptoes, she had the chance to steal a kiss.

"Are you thinking of applying?" Pitch asked, his grin widening.

"And if I am?" Tooth replied. Pitch paused their dancing, pulling away slightly, Tooth missing his comforting warmth immediately. Before she could misinterpret anything, Pitch reached up to untie her mask and pull it off. One hand palmed her mask, his other pulled his own off, and then he was kissing her, the tips of his fingers touching her jawline to angle her just so. Her mask dug into her cheek, but Tooth didn't care as her arms tightened around his neck. She kissed him back just as the song ended and the third slow song came on in a row.

Tooth belatedly heard her friends hooting and catcalling in the background, but she didn't care. She did shoot them a certain finger in their general direction, but that only got a couple of laughs from her friends and other classmates who saw the exchange. She got what she came for, and she knew, if she could convince Pitch to not take the stage for their last set of the night, she'd be asking him to take her home.

She really should get her crush on him under control, but really, what else was she supposed to do when presented with this opportunity?

When they finally parted, Tooth pulled back and grinned widely back at Pitch's unmasked face.

"So, where do I sign up?" she asked cheekily, drawing out another laugh.

"Consider your application accepted," Pitch replied before placing a chaste kiss on her lips.

"I can't wait to get started," Tooth replied teasingly and she joined him in his laughter.

This night couldn't have gone better.