018. Tease

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"Have you ever been interested in dancing?"

The question threw Shadow off guard from his computer screen, the clicking from his mouse momentarily pausing as he flickered his ruby eyes over to his guest. "No."

Such things he had no time for- nor the patience. He was never the 'dance' person anyway. Sure, he was forced to but he never did it. He'd been to parties and helped Rouge out with her club. There would be people dancing all over the place and he'd rather prefer sticking to a corner and look or just get the hell out of there when he could. The latter was always the case.

Tikal shot him a dubious look. "No?"

"No," he echoed and went back to work.

From his peripheral, he saw the echidna fidgeting in her seat and gave him quick glances of hidden hope. He noticed, of course. But he'd thought she'd give up within a few rounds. However after a few minutes glaring at his document and feeling the yearn in Tikal's gaze- with her irritable knee bopping, he stopped and teared his attention away from his screen with a slightly exasperated huff.

She seemed surprised for a split second but quickly smiled with satisfaction as he now looked at her. "...Would you like to?"

The hedgehog wasn't a fool. He knew what she wanted out of this; to break him out of his cage, to make him do something he didn't want to do because she didn't want him save himself from the embarrassment. She was cruel, so very cruel to him. A complete angel... but cruel.

Shadow slumped his shoulders, a stubborn frown passing. "Do I have a choice?"

-A giggle.

Followed by a bite of her lip as Tikal breathed in from her fit. "It would-" Another laugh let loose and Shadow was really considering to Chaos Control away but he stayed put as he watched her collect herself, "-It'd be nice if you would just admit it."

He squinted. "Admit... what?"

She sniffed. "That you can't dance."

Shadow stiffened at her atrocious statement and guarded himself whole heartedly. He leaned in, almost dauntingly. "...You think I can't?"

Tikal had pressed her lips, subtly gazing at his features and shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen you dance."

"I don't know any of your tribal dances," the hedgehog countered with a domineering look, "But I do know how to do such simple things like the waltz."

Maria taught him once back at the Professor's lab. And while it became a drag to do because of their massive height difference, he was perfectly capable to master it at the end.

He never did it with anyone else though, ever.

She gave him a look of confusion. "The... waltz?"

"A dance where two people hold onto each other and move about at the same time," Shadow explained with a cross of his arms, "It's not that... it's not simple."

Despite the ending of his statement, the woman in front of him was impressed and then suddenly stood up with an eager smile. "Let's do the waltz then," she said and held out her hand, "You can teach me!"

He lingered at the clock beside him. It wouldn't hurt to take a break... he was going to go home soon anyway.

Shadow mirrored Tikal's movements with a sense of pride and took her hand against his own before walking to the centre of his office.

"And don't try to exert yourself..."

He scoffed at her with a mini glare as they stood. "I'm the one teaching you."

Tikal only smiled.

"Place your left hand on my shoulder," he said and she complied. Shadow slithered his hand as landed itself on her waist. He then slowly intertwined his left hand with her right and squeezed them. The hedgehog swallowed when amusement filled Tikal's eyes at the action, "...Just in case you trip."

She stifled another giggle and nodded. "Okay."

He cleared his throat and paced his eyes. "I'm gonna take a step forward. At the same time, you take a step back," As he did so, Tikal followed his instruction, "Good."

"Is that all?" Tikal asked.

"No," Shadow shook his head and held back his tongue to refrain a retort, "There's one where we step to the side together," he told her. Tikal managed to copy his feet as they moved, "Yeah... like that."

They kept going at it as he remembered the other movements that were included in the dance. Tikal did tease him here and there but she was enjoying it. And he was too... not that he wanted to admit that in front of her.

"Shall we do this with music?"

Shadow prodded on the question. "Music?"

"People must usually do this dance with music, no?" Tikal elaborated for him before glancing at the storage behind him, "Don't you have that old record player somewhere?"

Indeed he did. The hedgehog pulled away from her and stalked over to his cupboard, rummaging through the things that were cascaded inside. He pulled out the record player she had been talking about and placed it onto his desk. Fingers gliding across the turntable, he turned it on. Luckily, he left the plastic disc in there the last time he had used it so he just lifted the needle and placed it on the record. Static first sounded before the music finally played smoothly.

He walked back to her but stopped suddenly. Tikal blinked at him and looked as if she was about to ask him what was wrong. Shadow decided he'd do this the proper way and closed his eyes. "Would you care to have this dance with me, Tikal?" he asked and bowed down his head.

Tikal was flustered by the sudden change in gesture and her cheeks dusted with pink. Nevertheless, she smiled and took his hand as she dipped her head in return. "Yes."

They carved back into the same position and moved again with the music this time. Strides to the left and right, steps forward and back... a twirl. Tikal picked up the movements faster than he thought... faster than he did, really. Perhaps the tribe back then had a similar concept of the dance? He would've thought so. It was a fairly old dance.

...Or maybe-

He was so lost in his conclusion that he stepped on something that wasn't the floor beneath them. A yelp escaped from his Tikal's lips before he realised that his shoe was pressed against her toe. Shadow wanted to pull his foot back immediately but the echidna also had the same plans of her own and so they subsequently lost balance. Tikal pulled him down with her, much to his displeasure since he wanted it to be the opposite for her sake, and their bodies collided with each other's displeasingly.

Thud!

Shadow immediately lifted himself off of her and looked down. "Are you-"

There were no signs of discomfort on her face. She just... grinned.

And then another giggle threatened to escape from her.

He narrowed his eyes dangerously. "You knew."

"And?" Tikal cupped his face with her hands and laughed freely, "It's not everyday I can force you to finally do something like this with me!"

The hedgehog couldn't say anything as he felt his cheeks warm up a little. He frowned and sat up properly, silently sulking with his back turned to her to know that he'd been outplayed.

She wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and placed her chin against his shoulder. "Aww, don't be like this."

"You're such a tease."

"Funny," Tikal said and he could just hear the slyness of her voice, "You weren't being less of a tease last night..."

Oh, now that was just uncalled for.

With a dignified huff and a embarrassing crack from his voice, Shadow ripped out of her hold and stubbornly marched out of his office. "We're going home."

Tikal just stared after him before calling out, "You left the emerald on your desk!"

Shadow stomped back in with a growl.