Stardust sighed, her arms crossed, and looked down at Angel hopelessly. He was sitting in the kitchen sitting in a chair in front of her, impatiently being interrogated as he had been for the past half hour.
"What are you thinking?" she said. "Your girlfriend is a villain! She's evil, and she's out to kill us."
Angel drummed his fingers on his knee. "She's not evil. I've already told you, she's not doing this wilfully. She's being forced to work for someone, why can't you understand that?"
"She may be telling the truth, but do you know how easily she could be setting us up with this? Maybe she just wants your sympathy to lead you and the rest of us right into a trap."
Angel growled through his teeth. "Who do you think knows her better, me or you? I'm sure she's telling me the truth."
"You don't know how to be careful, do you?" Stardust said, leaning forward challenginly.
Angel stood from his chair to confront her further, but Rorek finally stepped into the argument, separating them with himself and holding up his hands. "Stop this," he said, the frustration clear in his voice. "Stardust, what if this girl is telling the truth and something bad happens to her because we don't help? We may be gambling with her life."
Stardust gave one last glare at Angel and turned away. "That's why we're going to help as much as we can, but I'm not putting the whole team in danger. Angel's going to have to figure this out on his own, then we'll help when the fighting comes in."
Talon spoke up from the far wall beside the refridgerator. "You sound a lot like your father right there."
Stardust turned her guns on Talon. "Don't compare me to him!"
Rorek caught her gently by the shoulder and looked at her sternly. "Let's not be fighting amongst ourselves. It won't help anything." She submitted under his touch and looked at the floor.
After a brief silence, Angel brought up the subject again. "Believe me, I'm going to prove to you that she's telling the truth. And we have to help her before something bad happens."
"Well, she's still a villain," Stardust mumbled, and Rorek stabbed her with his elbow.
"Did not your mother say just yesterday that you cannot help who you love? It doesn't make it safe, but you still cannot control it."
Yes, Kory and Stardust had had a long talk the night before, involving mostly Angel and Miss Metal, but Rorek as well, little did the rest of the team know, and she did not want them finding out now, so she dropped the subject completely.
Talon cleared her throat a few minutes later and held up a piece of paper. "On a lighter note, there's a dance being held in a few days, sorta like a prom. We could tell Miss Metal to come to that and we could find out more about her."
Stardust choked on her own spit. A dance? She was too embarrassed to go, and besides, she didn't even know how to dance. And she didn't have anything to wear. And she didn't have a date. The list of her excuses went on and on in her head, but they wouldn't come out of her mouth.
"That sounds like fun," Rusty said. "And it would be a good way to find out more about Angel's girlfriend."
Angel just crossed his arms and didn't agree, though he didn't protest either. He merely said, "I don't have anything to wear."
Later on that night, Rusty dragged a reluctant Rorek into a tuxedo store in the mall, the former excited about finding something fancy to wear, though the latter was completely silent until poked in the shoulder and told to pick something.
"I have no idea what I'm doing," Rorek said in obvious confusion.
Rusty frowned at him. "Come on, it's not that hard." He glanced to his left and laid eyes on a black tux about in Rorek's side. He grabbed it. "Look, this is very... you. Try it on." He handed it to Rorek, who only stood there until shoved into the changing room.
Talon and Stardust were in the mall as well, only looking at prom dresses. Talon had decided on hers an our ago, a short red little thing that looked liked something a salsa dancer would wear, but Stardust didn't say that. She was too busy searching for the perfect dress, which she was still yet to find.
Talon finally weaved through the people and sat down on a bench. "Come on, Star, it can't be that hard." When there was no answer, she saw that her friend was across the hall and staring into a store's display window that held a long blue gown. She got up and joined her. "You like that?"
Stardust nodded, her mouth slightly open. She walked into the store like a hypnotized zombie, and Talon followed her. Stardust pulled a the same dress, only a different size, off the rack and held it up to her, gazing in the mirror. Talon smiled behind her.
"That looks real nice," she said. Stardust litterally flew towards the dressing room, then quickly dropped to the ground, looking around sheepishly to see if anyone had been paying attention, though they weren't. She walked the rest of the way to a stall.
Talon stretched out in the floor in front of the door, fighting sleep. She had laid awake practically the whole night before, then walked around the mall half the day without resting. She glanced at herself in the full length mirror beside her and ran her fingers through her boy-shirt hair. She had thought about letting it grow back, but decided to just keep it short. Long hair was a job in itself to take care of, and she didn't know how Stardust could put up with it; no less Rorek.
Stardust opened the door and turned, modeling herself and looking at Talon for advice, who gave a thumbs-up. "You'd just better hope it looks good with what Rorek's wearing."
Stardust ran her hands down her hips. "What makes you think I'm going to the dance with Rorek?"
Talon grinned. "It was just a notion. I only figured..."
Stardust felt that hiding the fact that she wanted to go with Rorek was pointless, so she said, "He hasn't asked me. So I guess I'll just go alone."
Talon raised her eyebrows. "Why don't you ask him?"
"No way."
"Too embarrassed?"
"Too busy."
Talon shook her head. "Yeah right."
The next afternoon, Stardust was washing dishes in the sink and was tapped on the shoulder. She dried her hands and turned to see Rorek. She smiled. "Hey."
"Hello." He stared at her for a moment, and by the way his knuckles were pressed to his mouth, she knew that something exciting was coming. "Stardust, I wanted to ask you if you were going to the dance with anyone."
"No," she replied, keeping her face straight, but inside was fighting her unbridled joy so she didn't fly away while he was talking.
"Well, perhaps I could escort you there, then?"
"Yes, I'd love to."
Now that that was done, neither of them knew what to say, so they only stood there giggling at each other stupidly until Rorek said, "Well, I guess I'll leave you to your... work."
"All right," she said, a smile plastered to her face.
He started to leave the room, then stopped and turned back to face here. "Stardust, there's something else I have been meaning to ask you."
"Yeah?"
He stared at her briefly, and she saw him take a deep breath before he said, "I would like to ask if you will allow me the honor of courting you."
Stardust couldn't control her emotions now. Her feet left the ground and she hovered in the air. "Yes, you can! Yes. I... I thought you'd never ask me."
He looked startled. "You have?"
"Yeah. I was gonna ask you, but figured you'd find that a little inappropriate, so..." She didn't finish her sentence, but she shot forward and threw her arms his neck, then quickly drew back, ebarrassed. "Uh, sorry."
"No, it's quite all right." He bowed briefly at her, then left the room in a hurry, and Talon came in right after.
"I wondered what was taking you so long," she said, continuing the dishwashing job that Stardust hadn't finished yet. Then she said sarcastically, "What, too busy with your boyfriend? Oh, I forgot, you're not dating. My bad."
"He is my boyfriend," Stardust said coolly.
Talon laughed, then looked at Stardust's face, her mouth circular. "Seriously? Are you two an item now?"
"Yeah, he asked to court me right after he asked me to the dance." She grabbed Talon's hands and they jumped around in a circle, screeching like crazy fangirls. Then the collapsed on the couch, and after a moment of calming down, Stardust asked, "Are you going with Rusty?"
Talon blushed. "He didn't really ask me, but we just kinda decided on it together." She suddenly grinned deviously. "You know, Star, I only brought up this dance so I could hook you and Rorek up. Meeting Miss Metal there was just a... cover-up."
"Are you serious?" Stardust said, laughing. "You evil thing." She stood up and punched Talon's shoulder. "But thanks. You just did me a really big favor, so I guess I owe you."
Talon laughed too and rubbed her arm. "You sure do."
Two nights later, the team met up on the dock for the prom. Stardust held her dress to keep from dragging the ground in one hand, the other on Rorek's arm. She thought he looked very nice in his black tux, then tried to imagine him in eleventh century garb, but failed. Talon and Rusty were pushing each other around as they waited on Angel and Miss Metal, who still hadn't showed.
"I hope Angel's girlfriend is coming," Stardust said, struggling to fight down her nerves.
Rorek suddenly stepped out in front of her and bowed at the waist, his hand out, palm up. "Would you like to dance?"
Stardust giggled and took his hand. "Yes, but I don't know how."
Rorek moved her free hand onto his shoulder, then placed his on her hip. "Just follow my lead." He took the first few dance steps gracefully, and Stardust did her best to mimick his movements, though she was not as good as he was. She didn't think she had ever seen someone waltz so gracefully.
"You're good at this," she said.
"Thank you, you're doing quite well yourself. Follow me," he reminded gently, when she stepped out of line.
She laughed. "I just hope we don't get attacked, like my parents did at the prom."
"Really? What happened?"
"It's a long story, but I'll-" She was suddenly interrupted by a giant explosion in the water, and people running and screaming. A huge repltilian creature burst through the dock and roared loudly.
Rorek hesitated before releasing Stardust's hands, who said irritably, "As I was saying about getting attacked..."