Disclaimer I don't own any of the HYD characters nor the original plotline of HYD, but I certainly own this particular plot and all the characters I created for it...
Thanks : to my kinds reviewers az09 and chibiriaz... it's always nice to have some feedback ! Hope you enjoy the new chapter !
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17-A bad surprise and a suggestion
"And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once." Friedrich Nietzsche
As he was driving her back to her family house, they were talking together, arguing over the propriety of the last pattern Shizuru and Kensuke had shown them. As soon after the demonstration, Sophie had found herself blushing violently and swearing she'd never do anything of the sort for anything in the world. After all, the double wave can be very closely led – in fact, by the entire body of the leader against his partner's back.
Her reaction had made everyone laugh, first of them all Akira. Not that he had not anticipated her reaction when he had heard Shizuru announce the name of the pattern – he had guessed she would not accept his leading the pattern to her.
Her reaction had made Shizuru show another way of leading it – more suitable to girls who don't appreciate too much closeness, or to 'virginal prudes', if you listened to Akira's nomenclature.
"Anyway, I'm speaking for the guys, my reaction would be the same as Sophie's if a guy that was not my partner or my boyfriend – they are the same, but who knows what can happen? – dared lead this the first way that I've explained. I might even choose to exert a revenge he would remember for a very very long time... But since Sophie and Akira are not a couple, I can somehow understand the reticence of Sophie in that matter. So, here's an alternative way of leading the pattern."
Akira was still laughing at Sophie's spontaneous outburst during the ride back home. After all, it had been nearly a month now since they had started the salsa classes together, and she should have been able to handle this kind of closeness. Especially since she handled a lot as a dancer : like mother, like daughter, he guessed. She had revealed herself to be quite a natural salsera. It had taken two weeks, but, now, she rarely rebooted herself in the 'automatic dance partner mode' when he danced with her. And her hips ! Well, they had not been stiff for very long... Even Kensuke looked at them with an appreciative eye when she danced. She loved the music, she loved the dance, and it showed. Of course, it was always strange to see her reluctant to do some patterns, when the whole dance was so sensual in itself. But Akira had learned not to question anything about her behavior, by then.
She had accepted him – sort of. She still felt mistrustful towards him, still called him a pig, a moron or a moronic pig most of time. But it had lost some of its violence. Their dancing together demanded it, after all. Akira would never have thought that the popular saying that you could win a girl over through dancing had some part of truth to it. She had to obey his command during the dance – and he had to admit he liked to have the power to show her off dancing.
They had managed to become a good enough salsa couple. It really never matters as much when it is the woman who is the less advanced in the pair – with a good sense of rhythm, a good basic step and a nice following sense, it can work out very well. And it sort of did. Between Sophie's focus on getting the patterns right so as not to let Akira use the situation to his advantage, and Akira's focus on not doing anything she could detect as not being salsa per se and therefore wish to punish by violence, they were acquiring a good technical level, that helped them dance nicely. And already, the tension that had been between the F4, Tsukushi and Sophie during their meetings had begun to ease.
"So, what are you up to tonight ?
- Nothing that would really concern you – you're not in my plans, she said with a smile. But I'm planning to enjoy being alone in the house with a pizza that I will order in – my parents' business trip to Hong-Kong and my sister sleeping over at a friend of hers makes the house mine for the night !
- You seem quite happy about it.
- Well, having a little time alone with junk food in front of a romance movie is nice occasionally. Of course, you wouldn't know...
- And why would you think that ?
- You're the most social person I've ever met – when you're not chatting up women, you're out with the F4, or up to some mischief, dancing salsa or whatever... And with your sisters and all, the Mimasaka house must be full of life.
- You couldn't be more wrong about that. I feel alone all the time, even with people."
Sophie looked at him after this remark. There was something in his voice... but no, it could not be.
"So, up to no good as every other night of the week ?
- Hmmm? Oh, you mean am I going out ? You've exhausted all my remaining energy out of me for the week – I could not possibly go and do my thing tonight. I feel so sleepy – because of the extra leading effort consequent to your oversized modesty.
- The size of my modesty is nothing compared to that of your moronic playboy ego.
- You had not told me this one in a while. I missed this affectionate nickname.
- Shut up and drive, Mimasaka."
As he pulled over in front of the house, Akira noticed something felt wrong about it. Sophie was getting ready to jump out of the car, but his voice stopped her.
"Wait, Sophie."
She turned towards him.
"What is it ?"
He got out of the car and stood by it, watching the house attentively.
"I don't think this is normal.
- What is ? Just spill it...
- This window, there ? It seems as if you house has been broken into.
- That's impossible. We have a very sophisticated alarm system – my dad made sure of it.
- Well, then, there has to be another explanation about this broken window, I'm sure ? Are you trying to bring some fresh air in the house ?
- Let me check this out."
Sophie got out of the car slowly, frowning as she was trying to make sense of what she was seeing. She began walking towards the door of her house, at first slowly, and then faster and faster. Akira followed her ; he definitely thought that something was wrong and that he should not leave her there all alone – she had just told him she'd be the only person at her house this night.
Akira's hypothesis was verified as soon as Sophie reached the living-room.
"Et merde ! Mais qu'est-ce qui a fichu un tel bordel ?" ("Shit ! What the hell happened in there ?")
Sophie had blurted out this exclamation at the sight in front of her. Akira didn't need any translation nor the little French he had managed to master from his private lessons with Rui to grasp her meaning. The room was a complete mess. Not only was the furniture upside down and all the electronics were gone, but there was blood all over the tiled floor. Sophie dropped her bag and brought her hands to her brow with anguish. She seemed completely at a loss. She kept cursing in her breath, while her eyes embraced the room repetitively, as if in hope to see all of this disappear. Akira broke the silence.
"You should call the police."
Sophie jumped, having obviously totally forgotten Akira's presence. She turned towards him, and he had trouble recognizing the strong tempered spunky French girl he was fighting so hard to prove he could be a decent guy to in the lost girl standing in front of him.
"You should sit somewhere, maybe outside. Come outside, we'll call the police from my cell phone. Come on, Sophie, gather yourself."
She followed his suggestions passively, elsewhere in mind.
"My parents !
- What of them ?
- They're going to be...
- You'll tell them afterwards. For the moment, you need to calm down and do everything that's necessary. Here, let's go outside. Come on, Sophie. Follow my lead."
As they proceeded outside of the house, he smiled inwardly at the involuntary pun he had just made. Not that she had noticed, but still. It felt nice to be able to protect her, for once, and not be called names, or dismissed.
It had not been easy to convince her, but his assurance that she's have a room of her own and that he would not try anything, combined with the inspector insistance she should not sleep all alone in an unsecured house had finally won her over. So here he was, driving her back to his house, for the second time since he knew her – only this time, she had agreed to it, and this time, it was to protect her, not to bed her. Amazingly enough, he had not been thinking for one single moment that he would try to take advantage of the situation. It would feel wrong to do so. Even if some part of him still wished to win her in a way Soujiro would disapprove of, he just didn't think it would be fair to seduce her while she was at her weakest. It would almost be like cheating.
Besides, now that he was beginning to know her a little more, he could begin to understand Soujiro's will to protect her from a ruthless seducer. She was indeed something. And her distress was not something to be taken advantage off lightly. He stole a glance at her. Her eyes were in a haze, unfocussed, and her facial expression was one of insecurity. After seeing her like that for two whole hours, he didn't think he liked it so much anymore. He had to do something to get her to snap out of it – even if it meant getting her to brand him a pig or a moron once again.
"So we're almost back where we started, gorgeous. Coming to sleep over at my place, aren't you ?"
He smiled to himself as he saw her features gradually lose their distress and regain their familiar expression of outrage. She opened her mouth to scream at him, but as she looked at his face, something clicked in her mind, and she just shook her head.
"Thanks. Not that I want to say you don't deserve a slap or something for that line – especially as far as the 'gorgeous' part is concerned, but... thanks, for the intent behind it. You really are a moron, you know. I could have reacted badly for this one, especially in this very annoying situation."
Akira just shrugged. She was back to her old self. It was all that mattered, in a way. And then he flashed his most seductive grin at Sophie.
"Life is only interesting when you take risks !
- Yeah, right...
- It's kind of late, and neither of us had dinner. Still ready for an ordered in pizza ?"
She smiled and nodded. So he had remembered. Maybe he was not as bad as he appeared to be – he was being nice.
That's when it dawned on her that she could have called Tsukushi, Rui or Soujiro to tell them and... well, maybe the whole thing would have turned out differently. He would certainly have been pissed for one. But then...
Well, she only had to hope he was going to keep his word to be a gentleman even as she stayed under his roof. Maybe he could do it. Maybe she had misjudged him a little. But that didn't mean she was going to drop her guard. No, it didn't.
He was still kind of a moronic pig, after all.
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Maybe this is the result of watching too much of CSI... But it's believable - something of the sort happened to my parents recently. Only there was blood all over the kitchen and the window was broken when they woke up in tthe morning... The scene was not secured for more than an hour, but, hey, I hope you're going to indulge me on this too... besides, it introduces the sleepover part... This is actually one of the parts I had planned since the beginning ! Don't you agree this is going to be interesting ?
Even more than you think, you perverted readers ! ;o) No, Akira is still nowhere near Sophie's pants... Or is he... ? Let's wait for what comes next, shall we ? (Signed, the sadist author, Frenchgal...)