DISCLAIMER.
It ain't mine. Go away now, and let me go cry in my corner.

AUTHOR'S NOTES.
I'm back! After... far too long, I'm back! OH MY GOD, I HAVE UPDATED!

Eaeaxa... It's pronounced yah-YAH-zah... All of the a's in the dance names are pronounced 'ah'... All these weird dance names and their -cough- being so much like each other will be revealed eventually... -evil grin-

The other chapters of this have been edited A LOT. I strongly suggest rereading, because I'm just making SO MANY changes. All the characters created just for the anime—POOF, there they go! And Rebecca, my gosh, she deserved the axe WAY before now... -ahem- On with the -coughs, voice gets quite small- four-month-late fic... No flames, PLEASE... please...

Dusk Dancing

Eaeaxa - Steps on Ice

Atemu stepped cautiously onto the frozen Greathen o Hanara—Eythereauian for the amazing Winter Pond that stayed frozen even through summers in the warm climate of Eythereau. Its ice glowed many different colors from within its unfrozen center, a center no one had ever reached. No one knew what lay a mere ten feet beneath them. He reached a hand out to guide Anzu on after him, heart pounding. Screw this up, and it was all over. The gods were going to come down on them with all they had. Ironic, though, that no one even knew what that was. Human has always feared the unknown more than anything.

"Calm down," she commanded, easing herself into a graceful spread-armed twist to calm herself. She needed to dance. Dance, and everything would be fine.

"You think I'm not trying?" he snapped, voice raising with the tension between the two.

"I think you're not doing a very good job of it," she replied, voice matching the temperature of the ice below them.

He grabbed at both her hands, tugging her to him. "Anzu, I can't do this. We're going to start, and I'm going to be so close to you, and I'm going to fall apart."

"No, you're not." Her figure was perfectly erect and determined, though her eyes betrayed her. "We'll be fine, both of us."

"This isn't fair."

"Oh, Atemu..." She leaned into him, hands gripping his tightly. "I... I love Johnny, but... I don't... I don't want..."

"I know. But Anzu, it's been three weeks. Just one more, and we're free. One more. We can do this."

'Can't we?'

"Come on, people, hustle your budge! Geez, you'd think Eythereau's best-trained competition dancers and students would be able to get their bearings on some cold water! Warm up time, five minutes!"

Atemu turned to the brunette. "What now?"

"We dance."

So they did.

Atemu, fighting for control of his body, flicked her into a tight spiraling curl around himself. She grasped his shoulders, and he dipped his body low to the ground, slinking forward on the ice. She felt a huge rush in her chest as she did the same, stomach flat against his back. More rush, and suddenly, they seemed to be moving in slow motion. More... needed more... faster...! FASTER!

"You need more speed."

He nodded silently, gaining some. "Better?" he called over his shoulder.

"Much."

"Let's go for something more exciting."

"Wha- AH!"

Without any warning, she felt herself thrown from her pacific position on his back, her feet performing intricate lacework they had never before known in an effort to simply stay up. Her lungs tightened as she felt herself losing control, and she tripped, careening face-first for the ice.

Then, stealthy and silent as a skilled assassin, he slipped beneath her to catch her up in his arms and bring her up into an easy glide. He grinned.

"Adrenaline pumping yet?" He knew his had been since the moment they got on the ice.

"You, Prince Atemu, have a twisted view of excitement."

"I pride myself on it." He smirked at her dazed expression. "Like it?"

"Well, I have to say..."

She found it draining merely to speak, looking up into his face and finding herself utterly lost and breathless...

"What... what do you have to say?"

He was experiencing much the same suffocating sensation. Dusk Dancing... They were coming dangerously close. He tried clearing his throat of cracks before speaking, failing tragically.

"Anzu..."

Nothing was in his control anymore. Their hands were linked, their feet skipping across each other's to what they never realized was the perfectly in sync beating of their racing hearts. The movement of their legs sped up with each passing second, as they leaned slowly closer to one another, time and the rest of the world nonexistent.

She could feel his panting on her cheek, taste the need in his skipping breath, sense what was about to happen in the dangerously extremely near future.

And she could do absolutely nothing about it. She couldn't stand it any longer. So what if they were hell-damned, or banished for all eternity? Surely this was worth it... completely worth it... worth it...

She lost all consciousness, leaning into his kiss with a relieved sigh and throwing her arms around his neck as he sifted his fingers through her silken hair. He held her tightly around the waist, hugging her so close she was literally swept off her feet and into his arms, still skating blindly forward. Only his feet knew where to go; his mind wasn't present.

"Atemu..."

"Anzu..."

"ATEMU, ANZU!"

But Cynthia's enraged scream—and the dagger-stares of their fiancés—were cut off from the senses of the two lovers.

All of the dancers' faces reflected the same complete shock and terror as the ground beneath them erupted in a blast of radiant color with a bone-breaking roar, and Atemu suddenly found himself unable to breathe—drowning ever deeper in the long-feared depths of Greathen o Hanara.

That one... was not as good as the previous ones. But at the very least, I updated... feh. Mucho gomen nasai for the shortness. Sessha ish very sorry.

I'll only be responding for chapter five reviews, because if I went through and looked for new reviews for chapters before that, it would take me longer than the half-hour computer time I have left.

Big thank-you to ImCrazyAndProudOfIt, A. Valentine, SeaBreeze-YamiAnzu, Silver Dragon, Attic Flower, and Jessica Morgan.

Thank you, Micahtommyboy, but please don't be offended that I'm not reading yours. I'm quite adamant concerning my dislike of Mary-Sue fics; I much prefer ones that stick to the original characters from series, though not necessarily canon couplings (I love Shizuru x Kurama. Tell me if that isn't weird). -points to author note at top- I am even starting to passionately hate characters just created for animes. Eh... fangirls, huh?

I'm afraid I didn't exactly do it "ASAP," dreamcloud516, but at least I didn't ABANDON it. And now the updates will be many and frequent. He has stomach problems for two reasons, the first being that I love sick-fic-form Atemu, but it wouldn't fit his character for this one to really have him fully sick. So I gave him a bit of a testy immune system. The second reason, the reasoning behind the first reason... yet to be revealed. Muahaha.

glomps Jess-chan of the Nya Nya Neko- ICE CREAM! THANK YOU! (for both the review and the ice cream) Wow... you really flatter me. Too much. Yipes. That makes me feel so guilty for not updating earlier... but now, as I've said, updates a plenty to come.

"Temu: Dear God woman... I think you need the control... not me." That had me cracking up SO BAD, Ninqe! For anyone that's reading this that doesn't know Ninqe, she is the HUMOR QUEEN OF REVIEWS. Your reviews always make me smile, what with the length and how you can get way deep and be funny at the same time! Arigatou! And arigatou again for waiting SO LONG for this update.

Ah yes, Mah-Xien, the epic mystery of Daddy-o's parents' naming skills... or lack thereof. It has now been reduced to the five-syllable "Akhenemkhanen," because Shounen Jump really had a much better pronunciation of it than the site I found his name on. -nod nod-

It IS cruel, HealingOpal, I know. It's the whole torture thing... -twitch- It's just so -twitch- addicting! The gods... they work in funny ways, that they do. We must wait and see how they twistedly decide to resolve this dilemma, that we must.

Yeshyesh, Little Atemu. A rather... harsh... test. Ironic that I haven't decided between my two ideas for that yet. -sweatdrop- I humbly apologize for the horrible delay in updating.

Ten fingers and two thumbs, QueenofHearts4u? That's twelve digits, that it is. Yes, Osiris is rather sick-minded. But what can we say, it must be pretty boring watching us humans all day (I would imagine).

Lock himself up, Electric Fire-kun? But then there would be no fic! LOL. It's like... Alex getting sick the day of our play, so there's no Lawrence, so there's no case against earthlings, so the aliens never come to try to blow it up, so the cast gets cut in half, and the audience spends their time sleeping! Boring, methinks. You've caught me; I "just like making him sick." So true, so true... I just can't resist him in that oh-so-cute and oh-so-dependent mode... XD

I didn't think of Osiris as a girl at first either, TheOldOne. But all the gods, with the exception of Horakhti, were going to be male, and that just seemed... blah. So enter "'Siris," the hyper, mischievous, sly, slightly sick-minded sky dragon! Will they survive? Hmm... good question, that is. XP

singing along to anime music video of I Want it That Way, the only song by that group I like-

"tell me why-
Ain't nuthin' but a heartache
tell me why-
Ain't nuthin' but a mistake
tell me why-
I never wanna hear you say
I want it that way"

Well, I took fifty minutes on just these review replies. Yipers. But my dad let me finish them, so it's all good, all good. Until next time, dudes! Peace-ouT.