Alright, alright. I said I was going to make you guys wait, but I lied. I'm in a really good mood so I wanted to post this.

At last, Homecoming sans Royal Pain. Enjoy.

Chapter 9-

Homecoming had finally arrived. Every year there was a great big hubbub made over it (though last year's had been more of a let's-hope-we-don't-get-turned-into-babies-again thing), but never had Emm seen it so bad as this year. She figured it had something to do with being a senior because she knew that in the past three years even her most enthusiastic classmates hadn't made as big a deal over it as they were now. All she'd heard on Friday was talk of the dance and dates and dresses.

She was relieved when the day of the dance finally arrived and knew that after Monday's post-homecoming chatter ended the world would return to normal. Even with the madness she enjoyed herself while she and Maggie got ready.

Maggie looked resplendent in her wine colored cocktail dress and the permanent blush on her cheeks. She insisted she looked a little like a cupcake but Emm couldn't see anything wrong with that. Maggie had been, as always, late in getting to her house and getting ready but Emm's presence was enough to get her back on time. Somehow Emm had gotten her all set up with a good half hour to spare.

The door to Emm's room had been uncharacteristicly shut all night and Emm had refused to let neither Dan nor Elijah in until Maggie was ready. Maggie had always been a little rubbish when it came to hair and it fell upon Emm to pull her reddish-brown hair into a pretty little up-do. Emm herself had been ready a good hour ago and had only needed Maggie to do her makeup. Maggie had insisted.

When the last bobby pin was set in place Emm stepped back and admired her handiwork. Her best friend looked marvelous and she knew her other best friend would think so as well. Dan and Maggie had been subtly skirting each other for years now but Emm figured Dan would eventually have to make his move.

"Look at you. You look stunning."

Maggie turned in her seat and smiled at her. "You think so?"

"Oh, absolutely. Mags, you look gorgeous." She held up a mirror so she could see her hair. "You'll need me to beat them off of you. Or, you know, Dan could do it."

She loved watching the blush creep up to her cheeks. "Actually, Dan might not be of much use, he'll be too stunned by your beauty to see anything else." Maggie was almost entirely red now.

"You'll be too busy fighting off your own boys to worry about mine." Maggie leaned down to adjust the straps of her heels and smiled widely at her. "You look awesome."

Emm looked past Maggie at her mirror. She'd chosen a pale butter yellow for this year's dress but it was really the skirt that she liked. She fingered the hem of her dress fondly and smoothed it out. The dress fell from above her knee on one side to the floor without her heels, which where a matching strappy pair that she'd yet to put on.

While Maggie grabbed her purse Emm leaned forward to look more closely at the mirror. She'd been right about her cuts, they'd mostly disappeared and the one or two that remained where hidden with makeup. Her eyes definitely looked blue too, thanks to Maggie's skillful hand with an eyeshadow brush. She'd like to see Peace miss that now. Not that she cared.

With some final spritzes of perfume they were set to go. On cue there was a knock at her bedroom door. She knew it could only be Elijah because she'd given Dan very specific instructions to stay downstairs.

Sure enough Elijah was standing at her door, looking flustered and fumbling with his tie. Emm smiled fondly at him and waved his hands away while she straightened out his light blue tie.

"You guys are ready then?"

Maggie gave a chipper "yep" behind her, popping the 'p' and slid in beside Emm, holding her forgotten yellow heels in her hands.

'Lijah gave them both a brilliant smile and stepped back when Emm was done with his tie to look at them. "You look great. Both of you."

"And so do you. Anna won't know what hit her." Her brother flushed and smiled at her.

"Let's hope so. Put on your heels and let's get this party on the road."

Heels safely in place Emm ushered Elijah down the stairs first and heard their mother cooing at him in a way she was sure was making Elijah blush as brightly as Maggie. After Elijah was all the way down she turned to Maggie and insisted that she not come down until she was all the way down as well, there was no way she was missing Dan's face.

The heels were a little taller than what she was used to, but she managed to keep her balance all the way down with only a little work. The cooing began again and she smiled at her mom. She was surprised to find a camera in her hands and was momentarily blinded by the flash. Dan gave her a little hug and pulled at one of her curls.

"You look great."

"Wait till you see Mags."

His eyes immediately moved to the staircase and Emm's face split into a wide grin when his jaw dropped a little. Emm slid away from him and moved to stand next to 'Lijah, who gave her a knowing look.

Maggie's blush was in full force and she couldn't bring herself to look at Dan directly for a good few minutes, even when he complimented her. Repeatedly.

An excessive number of photos were taken by both her mother and father before they were allowed out of the house. Emm smiled fondly at the three love-sick saps in front of her and gave her parents one last hug before following them out.

Ryan lived just down the street with his father and was already at the bus stop when they arrived. He looked dashing in his suit and Emm wolf-whistled as they joined him. "Well, damn, look at you." The hugged briefly and he laughed. His face had fully healed by now and he was as boyishly handsome as ever. "You're a dolt for not asking her."

"Oh, but you look beautiful. I'll ask her to dance, like we agreed, but if she says no I'll still have a great date." He looped his arm around her's and turned to Maggie. "And you, Mags, wow. Dan, you'll have to beat them off her."

Emm laughed. "Exactly what I said." All the hype and endless chatter was worth it when she was assured a great time with such excellent friends.

"Thankfully, you can beat them off yourself." Ryan gave her a look. "You could always just break their jaws." He laughed when she shoved him into the road.

Warren had to wonder how he always got conned into coming to these dances. He blamed Layla and her hippie ways. She made it hard to say no.

His bus had arrived a little late and it took him a moment to locate everyone through the crowd. Apparently they were sharing a table with Garwin's friends again and he realized she'd been onto something with her integration bit.

Layla smiled and waved when she spotted him. "Warren!" She was too enthusiastic about the whole thing. She grabbed his arm and pulled him along to their table before moving next to Will. She looked nice in her bottle green dress and he had to admit Will had put in some effort. They all looked alright, actually even if the glowworm better known as Zach was still dressed far too brightly.

He could only imagine the blinding yellow Garwin would show up in. He looked around the table quickly but saw no sign of her. Patterson and Maggie were sitting and chatting with Magenta and he nodded to both of them, but there was no Garwin. Elijah returned to the table hand in hand with Anna who looked quite happy.

"Hey Warren."

He nodded. "Hey." He gave the room another quick glance before determining that Garwin wasn't anywhere to be found. "Where's your sister?"

Ryan Aarons came up beside him holding a cup of punch. "She had an epiphany of the scientific sort." He laughed. "She's probably in the Mad Science room." He looked anxious and kept glancing at a blonde girl at the next table.

Warren nodded, unsurprised.

"You're kind of late, what happened?" The hippie grinned at him and took a sip of her own punch. "You missed four songs already."

He gave her a look that clearly stated he wasn't too worried about that but shrugged. "Bus was late."

Aarons set his cup down on the table and squared his shoulders. "Mags," Maggie looked up at him, "if Emm doesn't get back in time to see this, vouch for me alright."

Maggie grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. "You can do it, Ry. Remember that Emm will be very cross if you don't get that dance." Patterson laughed beside her.

"Alright. Alright. I can do this. If I don't do this, I suffer Emm." With a few deep breaths Aarons strolled over to the next table and began speaking with the blonde.

"Hey, Warren." He looked over to Maggie. "Could you please see if you can find Emm?" She gave him a shy smile and he realized that the ability to make it impossible to refuse wasn't the hippie's alone. "I'd go, but she'd give me a lecture about missing the dance. Which is a little hypocritical, isn't it?"

Elijah laughed. "Yeah, but that's Emmy."

With a sigh Warren nodded. "I'll find her. Mad Science, right?"

They all nodded and, after Layla told him to hurry back, he left.

The Mad Science room wasn't far from the gym and once he'd gotten far enough away from the music he could hear the scrape of a chair and knew she'd be the only person who would escape there during a dance. He leaned against the door frame and made to knock against the open door but stopped.

Garwin wasn't wearing a blinding yellow number like he'd assumed but instead a pale satin dress that pooled around her where she was kneeling on a table. He had no idea what it was she was working on but her arms were buried deep within it with what he assumed was a wrench by the sound.

Her hair was pulled away from her face by some sparkly clip and curled as it fell down her back. The dress, he realized, criss-crossed and laced up in the back and he found himself following the yellow ribbons with his eyes. She moved, coming off of one knee to get a better look inside the machine.

He cleared his throat and knocked on the door finally. She jumped a little and looked at him. Her eyes were definitely blue.

"Maggie sent me to look for you. And Aarons wanted to make sure you knew that he was asking some blonde to dance."

She smiled. "Damn straight he is. Stupid boys not asking the girls they like to dances." She shifted again and her dress moved to reveal its asymmetrical cut.

Emm gave a bolt one final turn before pulling her wrench away. "How many dances have I missed? I danced the first one." She reached inside to shift a set of wires. When he didn't answer immediately she looked over at him.

He was pointedly not looking at her and she looked down to make sure everything was fine. Her dress was in place and, despite showing a bit of leg, she was perfectly decent.

"Hippie says I've missed four so I guess you've missed three." He was still not looking at her.

She looked around in confusion. Nothing was wrong anywhere and there was absolutely nothing interesting where he was looking. He was acting like she had when- Her eyebrows shot up. He was acting like she had when he'd walked in shirtless.

She almost laughed but managed to keep it to a silent snort. Was it her leg? A leg was hardly equal to a bare chest. And she'd worn skirts before. No matter what it was, it was funny.

"Oi, Peace." He finally turned to look at her. "You alright there? You looked a little distracted."

He cleared his throat. "I'm fine." She grinned deviously when she realized he was now pointedly only looking at her face. "What is that thing?"

She gave her baby one last look before replacing the top panel and stroking its side. "It's a secret. I'm almost done with it." She slid one leg off the table to balance herself before sliding off fully. He was looking out the door now. She snickered to herself.

"Well, let's go before Mags comes looking for me herself." Now that he was beside her he seemed to return to normal.

"I don't know how you can manage to always be with her." She shot him a demanding glance and stopped walking. He sighed and clarified. "I meant, it's kind of impossible to disagree with her, or deny her anything."

Emm laughed. It was extremely comforting to know Maggie had the same affect on Peace. She knew he could be trusted with her and she wouldn't be opposed to having them be paired off if need be. Except for the constant Save the Citizen challenges.

"Yeah, Mags does that. I think the only time I didn't do as she asked was when I beat Thompson into the ground." He nodded and she looked at him closely for the first time. She sighed and stopped walking again.

When he stopped to look at her she turned him and pushed him against the lockers. "Wha-"

"Your room is spotless but you look a mess in a suit." She shook her head at him and began to undo his tie. He shrugged but made no move to stop her.

"I don't even know why I'm here half the time."

"Layla." She slid the tie off and slung it over her shoulder before straightening out his collar. "She's got that Maggie vibe. I bet she talked you into it."

"Damn them."

She chuckled and slipped the tie back over his head. Her room might be constantly cluttered with engine bits and high powered oscillators, but she was something of a stickler for neat clothing. He looked nice, in any case. Even with a messy tie his and his dress shirt partly untucked he didn't look bad. Once she was done with him though his fangirls would be swooning all around. Satisfied with his tie she smoothed out the lapels of his jacket.

"God, Peace, must you always be so obnoxiously warm?" She could practically feel him roll his eyes at her as she moved her hands to his shoulders.

"Maybe you're just always cold." He brought his hands up to her shoulders and he felt more than warm against her bare skin. "Yep, you're just freezing."

She cleared her throat and wasn't sure why the nervous tick came up before stepping back. "Nope, that's Dan. He's the ice man around here. Tuck your shirt in."

He watched her for a moment before doing as she said. Emm looked down the hall. She could hear the song change from where she stood and figured they should probably be getting back soon. He sighed when he was done and she looked back at him.

She'd been right. Warren Peace cut a nice figure in a suit and she smiled. "Better." She adjusted his right lapel again. "Now I can feed you to your fans."

He shoved her away with a huff but caught her before she could trip over her heels.

The dance was at least half over by this point and Warren had managed to avoid dancing with almost anyone. Layla had insisted and soon afterward so had Maggie. He suspected Garwin had something to do with that.

She had been quite the opposite. She had danced with everyone. Patterson, Elijah, Aarons, Will, Glowworm, Popsicle, Ted Jones, Robert Stonewall, Maggie, Layla, Magenta, Logan Ayers, Juliette (yes, she'd even danced with his ex-girlfriend), Katie Lee, etc... He didn't know how she did it. Her heels looked painful even when she was siting.

She dropped into the seat beside him with a huff. Her face was flushed. He imagined the dance floor was a bit warm with so many people.

"You know, Peace, the point of a dance is to dance." He gave her a look and continued to drink his punch. Until she took it from him. "Too lazy to get up."

He watched her drink it with a raised eyebrow. When she was done he snatched the now empty cup and set it on the table. They were the only ones not dancing right now.

"Don't give me that look, you eat my fries every day. Least you could do is share some punch."

"You're too lazy to get punch but not to dance twenty songs in a row?"

"Conservation of energy, Peace."

She poked his shoulder. "So, why aren't you dancing?"

With a sigh he turned his chair to better face her. "Do I look like I do much dancing?"

She smiled a little and shook her head. "Don't be so selfish. Look over there." She subtly pointed to a table against the wall where a red haired girl was sitting with her friends. "She's been watching you all night. I bet she's just too shy to ask you to dance."

"That's nice for her." She swatted his head. "I'm not going to dance."

"You danced with Maggie and Layla."

"A lion would have to dance with them if they asked."

She snorted but Emm knew he was right. Sensing the end of the current song she stood up. "Alright, up." He looked at her but didn't move. She rolled her eyes and tugged on his arm. "Let's go, you're dancing this next one with me."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because I said so, that's why." She gave him another tug and finally, with a sigh that suggested she was asking him to jump off a cliff, he got up.

"Will you leave me alone if I do?"

She pondered this for a moment. "No, probably not."

He gave the same snort she'd realized was his way of laughing without laughing and let himself be pushed out onto the dance floor. Stupid boys. She smiled at Layla as they passed.

The song ended only seconds later and was replaced by a much slower one. She groaned. Still, when he tried to move past her she caught his arm and kept him in place. "Oh no, you're going to dance."

She crossed her wrists over one another behind his neck and waited for him to move into position as well. The tips of his fingers reached past the end of her dress and brushed against her bare back. She swallowed.

"Exactly what happens when you have a fever, Peace?" Just because they were dancing didn't mean she had to be nice. "Does the thermometer just explode?"

"I stand by the fact that you're too cold. You've been spending too much time with Patterson."

"My body temperature is perfectly normal. I'm not the one who periodically bursts into flames here, you know."

"I still think you're exaggerating."

She could feel him heating up and glared at him. "I'm not exaggerating in the least. And if you burn my dress I will bash your head through a wall." She felt his temperature drop back to normal, well, normal for him. "Remind me to use you when winter comes along."

"I'm not a fireplace, Garwin."

"Not intentionally, I'm sure. But after I piss you off enough I'll be able to bask in the warmth."

"Warmth which is too warm now."

"The dance floor isn't exactly a winter wonderland."

"You're going to have to find yourself another personal heater, Garwin. You're getting nothing from me."

"You say that now, just you wait. I'll have a heater and the never ending joy of driving you insane."

"I'm going to chuck you off the side of the school one day."

"Mhm. Keep telling yourself that. Your day would feel so empty without me."

"If by empty you mean wonderful, then yes."

"I'm not worried. I have a nice plan in place for if you ever decide to back up your threats. I die, every girl in the school gets your address."

"... You know, I really hate you."

"Yep. Me too."