Winds of Thyme

By Sakura Takanouchi

~*~ Winds of Thyme Chapter Nine: The Dance ~*~

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing *breath* I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing I own nothing, I own nothing, I own nothing. THERE NOW, YOU HAPPY?

Sakura smiled at her reflection. She had chosen a red Chinese-print and Chinese-style dress with an embroidered dragon on the back. She wore her heir up and put chopsticks in them. Just then her doorbell rang.

"Coming!!" She shouted, and walked down the hallway to see if it was Kurama that was there.

She flung open the door, and Kurama was standing there. He wore black pants and a red shirt with random Japanese characters on it. She gave him a quick hug. "Konban wa, Kurama-kun," She said.

"You look nice," He returned, and gave her a rose that he had been holding.

"Arigatou!" She said happily, and took the rose inside to put in water. They then proceeded to take a long and leisurely half-hour walk from her apartment to the school gym, where the dance was being held.

~*~ At the Dance ~*~

"I hope they decided to go to the dance together," Yuzuriha said hopefully as she danced with Yuki.

"Ah... I should've known that your intention was to put them together all along," Yuki replied intelligently. "You don't need to hope anymore, because here they are."

Yuzuriha looked at them out of the corner of her eye. "Aww... that is so cute!" She squealed. "Kurama-kun looks like he's actually going to have fun at a dance, and Sakura-chan looks... like... she's in love, actually,"

Yuki frowned. "Isn't that a good thing?" He asked.

"Yeah, but... I don't know... It just looks like they haven't told each other how they feel," Yuzuriha said.

"That will be the smartest thing you've ever said in your entire life," Yuki commented, and calmly walked towards Sakura and Kurama, who were now having punch and sitting at a table, talking.

"Hey, guys, so you decided to come together after all!" Yuzuriha said.

"Yeah, we did," Kurama replied. Yuzuriha took a glass of punch and they all sat down and talked for a while. Takeru and Kirameki joined them a little later. They were all talking when Change the World by V-6 came on.

"Hey, I love this song!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Let's go dance, then!" Yuzuriha said, as she dragged all of the girls on the dance floor, leaving the guys to talk and drink punch.

"I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD!" Sakura sang along to the song as she danced. She was too busy dancing to notice that Kurama was watching her.

"Hey, Minamino, what are you staring at?" Takeru asked.

"Uh... nothing, Akitaka, Nothing," Kurama replied.

"Oh, I get it. You don't need to be embarrassed about it," Yuki said. "They're all good dancers."

Kurama sighed a bit when the song ended but another one came on. This one was Strength by Kohei Koizumi. "Come on, Minamino," Takeru said, standing up. "We wouldn't be much of dates if we never danced, right?"

Kurama nodded and they all walked over to whomever they had come with. Yuki put his arms around Yuzuriha and they started to slow dance. Takeru went up to Kirameki and they started to slow dance, but Takeru was still talking, telling some sort of joke he had heard a while ago.

Sakura turned around and saw Kurama standing there. "I wouldn't be much of a date if I just sat there, would I?" He asked as he put his arms around her.

"You're right. You wouldn't," Sakura replied as she put her arms on his shoulders. They swayed back and forth to the music, not really going into eye contact for more than a second. But the song was over after three minutes and another fast song came up, this one was eX Dream by Miyuji. Kurama let go of Sakura, and he looked like he was going back to the table to drink more punch, but Sakura stopped him. "Are you afraid to dance to something other than a slow song?" She asked.

"Iie, of course not," Kurama replied, and he tried to dance to the song. They soon were surrounded by other people wanting to dance to the song, so they were cut off from Yuzuriha, Kirameki, Yuki, and Takeru. But they didn't mind it very much.

"See? You can dance after all!" Sakura exclaimed as they kept dancing.

"I'd just... never danced in a really long time," Kurama replied, a little embarrassed.

"How long?" Sakura asked.

"Three hund-oh, I mean three years," Kurama said defensively. Sakura nodded, feeling sorry for the dancing-deprived kitsune.

"Did you ever go to any of the school dances before this one?" Sakura asked. Kurama nodded, and smiled.

"Yuzuriha always dragged me to the dances because she thought I was spending too much time studying and not enough having fun. I never really danced, though," Kurama said.

"Hey, guys!" Yuzuriha yelled as she danced her way through a crowd of people surrounding Kurama and Sakura. "Sorry it took me a while to get here," she looked at all the people surrounding them, shrugged, and started to dance. Her jaw dropped when she saw Kurama. "Minamino Shuiichi, were you just... dancing?" She asked in shock.

"Hai, I was just dancing," He said.

"I've brought you to every dance for the past four years in an attempt to make you dance and she does it the first time?" Yuzuriha asked again, still in shock.

"It's okay, Yuzuriha-chan, you can have the credit if you want," Sakura said, and Yuzuriha raised her hand in triumph. She then danced her way out of the crowd.

Sakura checked her watch. It was 8:15. Another slow song came on. "Shall we?" Kurama asked as they started to slow dance again.

Sakura looked up at his smiling face and smiled back. 'I'm glad I've still got plenty of time left,' She thought.

~A/N~

So, was this good or bad, minna? Next up, (still from my dream) how they get home and if they run into some obstacles. *foreshadowing* *Cough, cough* educational *cough* spooky.