Chapter 15: Hidden Talents and Surprising Skills

Mattius2k04: I've been getting some really good reviews lately, and I'm glad you people like my story enough to read up to this chapter! Thanks to all of you (especially my friends *cough cough* you know who you are. . .), because if it wasn't for your lovely reviews, I wouldn't have made it past chapter 10! Well, as for an update, I am currently 'dreaming' up an ending to this story, but that won't be for a while. I'm planning on a 30-40 chapter size of this story, so you all still have a good bit of reading to do. Anyways, chapter 15: Yuna and Tidus have paired together, but how did Wakka fare in trying to thaw Lulu's heart? This chapter will go through Wakka's adventures in the dance that set Yuna and Tidus together, but will Wakka fare as well with Lulu?

Wakka leaned against the wall, nervously sipping from his drink. He stood there anxiously, hoping in one way that Lulu would show up, but hoping in another way that she wouldn't. He was hoping she would for obvious reasons, so he could ask her to dance. He was a fantastically good dancer after having trained for four years four times a week with Tidus. But he was hoping she wouldn't show up so he wouldn't have to go through the nail- biting, finger-twitching nervousness that followed lots of people when they planned on asking their crush to dance. Not to say he was one of those people; oh no, he was anything but. He was brash, reckless, and if one girl turned him down he never cared, because in high school there was always someone who liked him. But Lulu was the challenge he (almost) never had, and this wasn't high school anymore. No one knew him, save for a few friends and a few girls who'd developed a clumsy but intriguing crush on him. There'd only been one or two girls that had ever turned him down, but then, none of them acted like Lulu. Now that he thought about it, no one had ever come across as this challenging.

And there she was. Part of Wakka told, no, SCREAMED at him to run, but the other half told him to take it in stride and just ask her, calmly and confidently like the usual Wakka. But she was there, he couldn't do nothing about it. She was wearing a formal dress, actually, a rather odd dress. For her, anyways. First of all, it was a light blue colour. Lulu almost never wore light blue. Oh well, it looked good on her. Her high-heeled shoes clicked on the floor as she elegantly walked through the entrance about four metres from his standing spot. She looked to her left and right, and when she looked at him, he waved and smiled. Surprisingly, she waved back (but, of course, it was definitely not in her character to smile, which she did not). She resumed walking down the stairs, and she then got herself something to drink.

"Okay, I guess it's now or never!" Wakka grunted firmly. "Okay brudda, come on man, she's jus' a chick!" His heart said go to her, but his mind told him to stay put. His experience told him to play it cool, play hard-to- get, but his emotions told him that his normal strategy wouldn't work on her. He decided on the latter, and he wiped his forehead and rubbed his hands together (after putting the now-empty beverage cup on a nearby table, of course). He straightened his suit out, not wanting to look scruffy (Wakka wore a suit after thinking long and hard about it, but decided that Lulu was more of the organized, straight-forward-clean type person) for his chances. He walked, almost tripped once, then inwardly cursed himself, but was thankful Lulu hadn't seen his blunder.

"Okay dude, let's go awright?" Wakka muttered. He walked up to Lulu, thankful for no more mess-ups, and walked up besides her, asking for a drink himself. "One of 'dose, please." He pointed his thumb towards Lulu's drink.

"It's called tomato juice." Lulu corrected, sipping from her tomato juice.

"Dat's alright, I love tomato juice." Wakka was thankful Lulu picked a drink he could at least enjoy. The bartender served up his drink and he slapped a couple pieces of gil on the table. "Lulu, eh, what're you doin' here? Thought you weren't comin', ya?" Wakka asked.

"I decided against it." Lulu replied, staring straight ahead and avoiding his gaze. "I suppose I decided I might as well go out and take a break rather than another night of homework."

"That's brutal, eh?" Wakka laughed. "I just finished my homework yesterday, I was hopin' to have the night off. Guess I got it, huh?"

"Indeed."

"Well, how are you?" Wakka asked her.

"I'm fine."

*Man, she's tough!* Wakka pondered. In his mind, he formulated a new plan, one that had never failed him yet. "Me too. Hey, I'm gonna go dance, if you wanna join me, just come on over and we can dance, ya?"

Lulu actually looked at him this time. "You. . .you can dance?" She actually looked surprised and interested. Wakka sensed, and pressed his advantage, and once again thanked those years of dancing experience.

"All the time. Used ta do it with Tidus, we were the best in our classes." Wakka explained. "I can dance all types of 'em."

"I see." Lulu replied. "Well, I'll think about it. You should go dance, go have some fun." She actually ended the last sentence with a note of emotion in the back.

*Oh, is Lulu showin' some emotion after all? Guess she isn't quite super invincible after all.* Wakka thought. He smiled, gave her a double thumbs up, and jogged off to the dance floor. He immediately recognized the dance, a more recent, fast-paced song, as it began slowly and wound itself up. He looked around for a young, single woman to dance with. Finding his single dancer, he walked over to her and, without saying a word, offered his hand. She looked him up and down, and took it. Risking a sideways glance over to the bar, he noticed Lulu was indeed staring at him with some interest in her eyes. Looking to his right, he also noticed that Yuna and Tidus were walking, hand-in-hand, out to the balcony. *Good going, brudda!* Wakka congratulated his amigo inside.

As the dance begun, he took the girl and swung her away from him, pulling her back in to his body and tipping her over for a bit of excitement. He instantly realized that she too, was an experienced dancer. They danced, and without even noticing, a large crowd had formed around them. They danced, and danced and danced. The song kept going, and they kept dancing. Left and right, front and back, the moved their bodies, like water, with perfect timing and rhythm. As Wakka risked a glance, he noticed that a crowd had formed around them, and Lulu herself was watching in the very front, with a thin but visible smile on her face. This encouraged Wakka, and he danced even better, weaving his body around like a god controlled him.

Thankfully, he could tell the girl had no interest in him either. She was attractive, but he noticed that she too was interested in someone else. *Thank Hyne, that coulda been awkward!* Wakka thought. The song ended to great waves of applause, including Lulu, and Wakka and the girl took a bow before hugging and walking their ways. Wakka walked over to Lulu, confidently, and she gave him a small thumbs-up with her left hand.

"Impressive." She commented.

"Like I told you, I'm good ya?" Wakka asked, rubbing his head.

"You know, I think I will take up your offer. Would you care to dance?" Lulu asked, holding out her hand. Wakka smiled in return, and took it.

Later on. . .

As Lulu sat in her bed, reading one of her favourite books, she found herself thinking about Wakka, the flamboyant, orange-haired magnificently talented dancer. At least he had one thing that was interesting. *Still, he's not the brightest light in the lamp* she thought to herself. *Or he just covers it up, but I doubt that.*

She herself was a talented dancer, but nowhere near him. They had danced, thankfully one she was experienced with, but still Wakka had predicted her most difficult moves and taken them to a whole new level. Dare she think it, if he was as good a student as he was a dancer he would beat her hands down. Impressive indeed. She dismissed these uncomfortable thoughts, thoughts that might give her respect to someone she hardly knew, someone she wasn't even sure she wanted to know. Regardless, she lost these thoughts purposely with trained efficiency, and continued reading her book. As she eventually folded it closed, placing a velvet black bookmark on her page and turned off the light, she once again found herself wondering what little she knew about him and what else he hid inside that frame of his.