From the moment Link had walked into Motormouth Records and gotten a good a look at all the kids grooving to the rhythm and blues, all he could think about was getting to dance with her.

They had watched each other dancing, they'd danced near one another; but aside from that one time Corny had them do a demonstration, they had never actually danced with each other. He wondered if they would move as well together in a dance they hadn't practiced for hours before hand. He wondered if she really felt as soft as he remembered or if his mind was playing tricks on him.

He'd almost gotten his answer too; he'd been moving closer, ready to pull her in and try out some of the moves going on around them when her mother had burst through the door like a mama hen coming for her chick.

Her very cute chick, he thought now, as he looked over at Tracy. They were sitting on Miss Maybelle's sofa, sampling rich brownies and talking… justtalking… about anything and everything and nothing at all. He was once again surprised at how easy it was to carry on a conversation with her - secretly beyond pleased that he was finally here, in her world, and that he was the one who had her laughing so freely. An unprecedented giddiness settled deep in his chest as he watched her small hand politely cover her brownie filled mouth; head tipping back as she giggled happily at his well-placed comment.

He looked out again at all the kids dancing near by, squeezed in between shoved to the side record displays and the over flowing buffet table. Their moves were incredible… some of them very risqué; others quite complicated. He wanted to figure out every one of them. They moved so smoothly, kind of like water, and he was intrigued. He was used to a stiffer form… after all that's how he'd been dancing his whole life.

"Look at them go," he found himself saying aloud and Tracy moved a little closer as if trying to see what he was seeing. He could feel her warmth and again her scent invaded his senses; and he thought whatever words he had just spoken must have some sort of magic because her closer to him was exactly what he wanted right then.

"Isn't it fantastic? Everybody's doing their own thing, and yet it works together," Tracy said, her face aglow with enthusiasm, and he remembered then that he'd said something about the dancing. He drew his gaze away from her face to look back at the dancers and spotted Seaweed amongst them. He was showing Tracy's friend - Penny was her name, he remembered - a simple move with the hips and the girl was giggling each time she did it wrong, holding her red lollipop up out of the way, her eyes locked intently on the boy in front of her.

Damn, that kid was smooth.

"If my legs were a little longer; I think I'd try that one right there," Tracy said and he followed her subtle pointing to a couple in the corner.

"Nah, your legs are fine; I'd just have to bend my legs a bit more…" he stalled, realizing what he'd just said. Tracy was looking at him very intently now and he stuttered a bit as he tried to recover. "O-or the guy you were dancing with… or you could dance with a shorter guy…"

"I wouldn't mind if it was you," she said, and he finally looked at her again.

He managed to contain what felt like an outrageous grin and turned toward her mother who was discussing recipes with Miss Maybelle. "Excuse me, Mrs. Turnblad," he began, and she turned toward him with a pleasant smile. He'd been making a bit more positive progress since the whole wink fiasco; which he still couldn't believe she had hated. The Wink had tested 90 percent positive on all women under the age of 70…

Of course, he hadn't been dancing with any of their daughters.

Then again, he hadn't really been dancing with Tracy either; and he wanted to fix that right now.

"I'd like to have your permission to ask Tracy to dance, Ma'am," he said in his most conciliatory tone of voice.

"I think that would be just fine," Mrs. Turnblad said, "long as you promise to be a gentleman."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you Mrs. Turnblad," he finished giving her an innocent smile. Then he turned to Tracy who, to his relief, was smiling widely. "Trace?" he asked. She took his offered hand and they moved out onto the floor.

He turned her gracefully until she was standing in front of him, and then looked around at the other dancers. He wasn't a hundred percent sure he could do this type of dancing, and that wasn't a common feeling for him; yet it was all the more thrilling because of that fact – not to mention who he was dancing with.

In all honesty, he knew he shouldn't be attracted to her; he wasn't stupid. He wasn't supposed to find her sexy – with the way she was shaped and the size that she wore – but none of that mattered to him. When she moved; when she shimmied and swung her hips from side to side, he was definitely attracted. And when she sang he was attracted; and when she smiled all big and bright, when she laughed… aw, hell he was just plain attracted.

But there was something else there, too.

When he was near her, he felt right. He wasn't even sure why or when he had started feeling not quite himself when she wasn't around; but that's the way it was. He wasn't certain what that meant, but he just didn't want to fight it any more.

He pulled her close, but not too close since her mama was still watching. Cautiously, he slid his right foot between hers; then bent his knees so they were almost face to face. She looked a little nervous, her cheeks flushing prettily as his leg brushed the inside of her knee. He took a deep breath and smiled at her.

"Next time you can wear some high heels," he said softly, trying to ease the tension a bit, and she giggled.

"Oh, so you think there's gonna be a next time do you?" she returned, though she sounded as breathless as he had. He decided he liked it when she was sassy.

This position wasn't bad at all in his mind; although he thought they might get in trouble no matter how gentlemanly he tried to appear, since she was practically sitting on his thigh the way they were standing. He wrapped his arms around her and knew his memory had been deceiving him; she was even softer than he recalled. She put her arms around his neck and they started to move together, hips rolling one way and then the other, moving together but not touching.

He thought it felt like a song; one of those really great songs where the music, and the voice, and the lyrics all worked so well together that you felt it in your soul. Even though at first they were carefully following steps to a dance they didn't know, there was no awkwardness when they moved together, and he marveled at how that could be.

The warmth of her beneath his hand seemed to shiver up the length of his arm, and his fingers flexed self-consciously, sinking into her softness. She took in a somewhat shaky breath, and her hand on his shoulder squeezed gently. Hyper aware of every place her body touched his, Link's gaze drifted to her mouth, pink lips softly parted. He tipped her back as they moved together and his eyes followed the line of her throat to where her skin disappeared beneath the fabric of her modest blouse. He brought her back to him, a little closer than before and her eyes locked on his as the move caused her to be pressed fully against him.

As he looked into her eyes an idea, as sudden and overwhelming as a flash of lightning, filled his thoughts. What if he could feel Tracy in his soul? What if that was why all this was happening, shifting and changing everything he thought he knew? His heart was pounding in his chest and as the last strains of the song drifted away, he had to pull back from her, but his eyes didn't look away.

"See," he began, sounding a bit breathless, and he mentally cursed the outward sign of his internal state of distress. "I told you, you're legs are fine. You're a great dancer."

She was looking up at him a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. "Um… thanks, you aren't bad yourself…" her tone didn't quite mesh with the wit of her comment, but since he was feeling completely off keel himself, he simply took her hand in his and led her back to the sofa. When they sat down next to each other, he didn't let go.

They sat quietly together for several minutes and Link listened to the conversations around them, waiting until he felt he could speak without sounding like a complete dude. He was in the middle of wondering if that moment would ever come when Inez came over and plopped down on his other side.

"You were doin' pretty good you know, but you gotta loosen up a little," she said looking at him, all serious in her short pigtails.

"Yeah, I think you might be right," he said in a friendly tone. Seaweed's sister was spunky and funny and he'd decided right away that he liked her. "Maybe you could help me out with that, show me…" he didn't even get to finish his sentence before she was pulling him out onto the floor, pulling him from Tracy's side and the warmth of her hand in his. He chuckled softly as they came to a stop right in the middle of all the other dancers.

"Girl, why are you bothering with him?" One of the older girls asked her; and Link once again felt very uncomfortable about the differences between his self, and this group of kids he found himself in. He knew it was, in fact, just skin; and yet in reality, it was somehow so much more.

Inez saved him from the awkward moment by tossing the girl a look. "I can't stand to see all this wasted potential! I think he can do it, so move your skinny self." The girl in question laughed and moved away, and then Inez proceeded to show him how it was done. After a few moments, everyone was in on the process; they were all trying to help the white boy dance. Tracy laughed, coming to his aid, standing close and doing the moves along with him. Maybe he would've been embarrassed if he wasn't having so much fun – but still, the discomfited tension with her from before melted away; and after a short while, he was doing every move right along with them, completely caught up in her eyes.

Maybe it was her or maybe it was him, he didn't know; but what he did know was that despite being completely out of his element and with the "wrong" crowd – for this one moment, everything made sense again for the first time in a long, long while.

A few hours of happy, easy moments spent with Tracy, dancing or close together on Miss Maybelle's love seat, feeling like he could never remember feeling before - then everything came to a sudden, screeching, stomach twisting halt…