CHAPTER 10
Dance Dance Revolution

"Did you hear about it?" I asked Cunningham as soon as I saw him in front of the candy store Takeshi and I had went to a few days ago. He must have thought it was odd that I wanted to meet in front of a candy store, but he didn't say anything.

Cunningham just nodded, looking solemn. But then he smiled at me. "I was just glad it wasn't you."

I smiled back, happiness bubbling up in me. Usually, a wave of happiness would be cool at first, but then become sickening because I knew that in a moment it would fade again. But this happiness was probably as sweet as the candy in the shop we were standing in front of. "And I was just glad it wasn't you," I said in response. Cunningham's smile seemed to grow wider.

At my insistence, we went inside and had to get some candy. I got some watermelon gummies that were sour and sweet and that looked like tiny watermelon slices. Cunningham took forever to pick out something, but he finally decided on a bar of chocolate and a bunch of small lollipops. I happily popped a watermelon gummy into my mouth as we walked out of the candy shop.

"So, where are we going today?" I asked Cunningham. He looked very nice today. He had chosen to wear something other than his blue-collared button down shirt and slacks, as that would have made him too easy to identify amongst the abundance of fans. Instead, he had on a plain black shirt and pants. It was simple, but it was nice.

"Well, there's a carnival that came into town recently for the IGPX season. We could go there," he said, opening up the silver foil on his chocolate bar and breaking off a piece for me. I took it and popped it into my mouth. I knew that by the end of the day, I would have the feeling that my teeth were rotting, but that was fine for today.

"Okay," I said, not really caring where we went. As long as I was with him, I would be…

"YOU!"

Both of us jerked our heads up at the loud accusation, wondering which unlucky person it was directed to. Surprisingly, we found that it was us that was being pointed to by Bjorn's index finger. He crossed the street in a hurry, narrowly missing being run over by a car and got right up in Cunningham's face.

"You killed her, didn't you, you fag! I'm going to get you for this. I'm going to kill you like you killed her, believe it…"

"BJORN!" I heard a female voice call out from across the street. There was Edgeraid's Midfielder, Bella DeMarco. She was looking a bit ticked off at Bjorn. When she had made sure there were no cars present, she marched across the street.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Johannsen," Cunningham said coolly, which made Bjorn even crazier.

"You killed Sola. I know it. Murderer, murderer!" he screamed, drawing stares from people around us, which (thank goodness) wasn't that many individuals. "You were jealous and you killed her. You knew that would hurt me the most. You are a jerk…I'm going to strangle you right now!"

Bjorn lunged, hands out to close around Cunningham's throat. Cunningham stepped smoothly to the side, hands in his pockets, not even caring. It turned out he didn't even need to do that. Bella came just in time and caught a hold of the crazy man by the back of the jacket collar.

"You dunce," she scolded him. "Stop trying to blame every person you see!"

"GET OFF ME, WOMAN! I KNOW THAT CUNNINGHAM KILLED—"

"We lost to them, idiot!" Bella roared back, jerking him a little bit away from us by the collar she held onto. "Why would he need to kill her if we LOST to them?"

Bjorn thought about this, silent for the first time since we saw him. Bella pushed him so that he was facing the street. Then she leaned into us and whispered, "Sorry about that. He's been insane ever since he found out that Sola was gone. It makes sense but whenever something like that happens to Bjorn," she rolled her eyes, "he goes crazy."

"Don't worry about it," Cunningham said, giving her a slight smile. She looked at him, her eyes going up and down over his whole body appreciatively. I could feel the urge to clench my fists and growl at her. He's mine, "you dunce".

"Come on, Bjorn, time to go," Bella said, steering Bjorn back across the street safely. Their bickering voices faded slowly as they walked away.

Cunningham broke off another piece of chocolate and popped it into his mouth. "He always cracks me up."

---zoOM---

How he had convinced me that this was a good idea, I would never know.

"Here," Cunningham said, handing me a little round plate with a huge sandwich on it.

"Uh, thanks, but I don't think I can eat all this," I said, holding the plate up to my line of sight to view it from the side. Let's see, there was lettuce, tomatoes, some kind of cheese, roast beef, mayonnaise, and, well, bread. White bread. Geez, he was good.

"That's okay," Cunningham replied, sitting across from me on the window seat that was built into the huge bay window of their mansion. I placed my plate of food on my lap and leaned my back against the cool glass of the window. From this vantage point, it felt like I was hanging suspended above the whole city. All you could see spread out in front of you was city lights. The view was beautiful. It was a bit far from town, but it was worth it.

Besides, I adored any house with a window seat.

The sound of crunching had begun from across from me. I glanced over at Cunningham and saw the lights without make little patches of red and green and yellow on his skin. Smiling to myself, I picked up half of the sandwich Cunningham had made for me—perfect and neatly sliced in half—and took a bite.

Ohhh, man. This was good.

"Step up from peanut butter and jelly, huh?" Cunningham asked me with a smile.

"Mmmk…" I said, my mouth still full and not wanting to open for words lest something came flying out of it. After a minute, I swallowed and sighed, leaning back farther against the window, "Yummy."

Cunningham gave a small laugh and took a huge bite of his sandwich, looking out the window to the view below. I took a good firm hold of the half of the sandwich and took another bite. I was going to have to work my butt off for this, but it was so worth it.

It took maybe a good thirty minutes of intensely concentrated eating to finish the whole thing. Cunningham had finished in half the time and was currently reading across from me, having already gotten up to put his plate away. Still chewing furiously, I got up and looked at the kitchen that would have swallowed up the living room in my house back in the United States. This was going to be difficult. Okay, so, if I were a dirty plate, where would I want to go? Crunch, crunch, crunch.

"Here, I got it," Cunningham said, placing hands expertly on the small of my back and the side of the plate at the same time. Damn, he's good, I think, pausing momentarily in my chewing to smile up at him. Then I watch as he gives it a rinse in the sink and slips the plate into the dishwasher. Finally, I get to swallow and lick my lips, getting the very last of the delicious aftertaste.

Cunningham came toward me, grabbing something that looked like candy out of a nice glass bowl on the countertop. "Mint?" he offered, holding it out to me.

"Why thank you," I said, taking it, ripping open the plastic around it, and popping it into my mouth. The intense freshness made my eyes water.

"So," Cunningham said, going back to the bay window and sitting, "what would you like to do now?"

"Ummm…well," I said, moving the mint to a side of my mouth with my tongue, "what time is it?"

"Not yet time to go back," he said with a teasing smile. I pouted and then pointed at him.

"I'm going to hold you responsible for my safety and welfare, okay?" I said. "If I get drunk at any point tonight it is your job to bring me back to HQ nice and safe."

Cunningham laughed, got up, and walked toward me. When he was close enough, he poked me right in the side. I squealed and backed up a little, covering up my side and stomach with my arms. "Don't worry, you are not going to get drunk," he said, rolling his eyes and proceeding toward the huge living room. I trailed behind him, crunching on my mint.

What waited surprised me.

A glowing TV playing upbeat techno music, two dance pads, a gaming console…these did not really seem to fit into an equation in which Cunningham was involved. But I guess the media can't really get the dish about everything in a celebrity's life.

"We're going to play DDR instead," Cunningham said, beaming down at me.

They certainly failed to report that Alexander "Cunningham" Hume had a thing for DDR.

---zoOM---

"I give up!" I pouted, dropping down to sit in the center of the dance pad. No matter how good I thought I had been at this game, Cunningham was better. Now, we both were sweating and we both had gone through two water bottles and I was still losing.

"You said that five minutes ago," Cunningham pointed out, confirming our results and then searching through the songs for another one to dance to.

"Yeah, I know, but I really mean it this time," I said emphatically, wiping my moist forehead. So much for working my butt off in exchange for burning off that sandwich. I pretty much just did, and then some.

"Sure you do," Cunningham said, his voice complete sarcasm. Meanwhile, I hadn't really heard him. I was thinking really hard about something that I seemingly forgotten, but partially remembered just now because of something we had said. "Come on, get up," Cunningham said, looking at me and tapping his foot against the pad. "Let's just play one more."

"Yeah, and you said that five minutes ago, too," I refuted and it was then that I remembered. "Oh crap, what time is it??"

"Time to dance to this song?" Cunningham suggested. I glared at him as I scrambled up and walked around the cavernous living room, searching for a time telling device of some sort. Cunningham could be really elusive sometimes, something he must have learned from his house, no doubt.

"Do you have any sort of clock in this—" I started to ask, when Cunningham replied, "11:55."

I turned to look at him snapping his cell phone shut again. He looked at me and shrugged, obviously missing my panicked look.

"I have five minutes until curfew?!" I said incredulously. Cunningham stepped back onto the dance pad. "And YOU still want to DANCE?!"

"Might as well," Cunningham said, turning to me and shrugging again. "Come on, Lotus, you know this house is on the outskirts of town and it'll take at least thirty minutes to get back to the track. You'll miss curfew tonight no matter what."

"But, but, but," I said, flopping down on the couch and reflecting on just how screwed I was, "I was holding you responsible for me!"

"Well, you learn something every day, don't you?" he said, grinning at me. Even though I was feeling very irked at Cunningham and how he seemed to have kept me from going back on time on purpose, his smile made me soften a little. "I'm not a responsible person."

"You can say that again," I muttered, crossing my arms resolutely over my chest. Then I let my head fall back against the back of the leather couch as I slid down a little. "Oh, what am I going to do? Addy and everyone will kill me. Heh, Beckem will kill me."

"Oh, Lotus," Cunningham said, coming over and sitting beside me, "I'm truly sorry about letting you miss your curfew and I'm also truly sorry about your impending and inevitable death, but there's nothing that can be done."

"Wow, thanks, I feel completely comforted now," I said sarcastically, glaring at him again.

"But listen, how about this," Cunningham said, leaning in as if he was telling me a great controversial secret. "We'll wake up early tomorrow morning and we'll see if we can sneak you into your building without anyone knowing. And then you can just pretend that you actually did go back tonight. Just no one saw you do it."

"Okay, now you are being helpful," I said earnestly, mulling his proposition over. Then a very important realization hit me. "Wait, what do you mean 'we'll wake up early tomorrow'?"

"Well, you're probably going to have to stay here for tonight. I mean, what other choice do we have?"

Okay, there were plenty of choices other than this one. This very, very, very obviously bad one. I knew the alternatives were out there, but I was so tired and so blank and so surprised that I couldn't even think of one of them to put out there.

"I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea," I said, even though I already knew I didn't have any forthcoming good ones.

"I agree, but I'm not going to throw you out into the street to fend for yourself. Besides, whatever rumors you've heard, they aren't true. I do not turn into a man-eating monster at night."

In spite of the sticky situation, I laughed. "Are you sure you aren't spreading that rumor yourself, because I'm pretty sure I haven't read that one yet in one of those celebrity magazines."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Cunningham admitted, "but you know what rumor I have read?"

"What?" I asked, aware that his face was slowly but surely getting closer and closer to mine.

"That we're together," he answered. I could feel his breath on my face.

"And what are you going to do about it?" I whispered, already knowing what was coming.

"Make it true," he whispered back before his lips touched mine.

The kiss was the best. I mean, yeah, all the doubt and guilt about what I had gotten myself into kind of dimmed the potential brilliance, but it was still more brilliant than the shiniest star or piece of jewelry. Starting from my mouth, warmth and an electric buzz spread all the way down to my toes. When he pulled away, I felt the warmth linger and knew that that wasn't going to be the only one this evening.

In fact, I was going to prove that point right away.

"I don't think that was enough to make it true," I said before I leaned in to kiss him again.

A/N: I have noticed that Cunningham is getting more and more OOC. That's bad. I'll have to keep that in mind as I write more.

Aren't I such a good girl? I updated! I'm in an updating frenzy right now. I updated one of my CL stories and now this one and I'm even thinking about updating my Naruto one. Wow. Be proud.

I'm still very thankful for my steady reviewers. I'm writing this for you guys. I do wish I could get more feedback from all the people checking out this story, but I shouldn't complain.

Hope you enjoyed it. Until the next steamy chapter...!