- N - = Nicky's part
- J - = my part
Chapter 031 - Dancing at the Reynardine P2
- J -
"Well, you look… quite beautiful, really. The colour suits your eyes."
As usually, nothing but pretty words. He hadn't even looked at her when saying that! Serena'd mentioned Riley was in a cheerful mood everytime he talked to Amethyst. Well, Amethyst wondered, where had that cheerful mood gone to, now?
Roark stiffened uncomfortably on his seat while Serena made her speech about 'Lucarios and Zoroarks'. He certainly didn't want to know anything more about that topic. At least for the rest of the day... Amethyst was the only one who never talked about the Zoroark issue, but she was drunk now, so...
"…but he didn't attack you, did he?"
The miner remained silent, but secretly appreciated Serena's concern... and relief to find he wasn't hurt. No matter how many things she did wrong (like forgetting the toy inside the cave), he would always forgive her, because... Because...
"We only have one dance – let's make it count."
In matter of seconds, Roark found himself leading Serena to the dance floor. That way, he could take a small break of all his problems and make Serena stop worrying about the Zoroark issue (which only caused him to be annoyed).
"Don't worry," Roark said, smiling. "I'll make sure to make this a great dance."
The Joy's hot-pink hair flowing in the wind was an incredibly relaxing thing to him. The miner felt himself drowning, little by little, into the rhythm of the music, while they danced in circles, faster and faster. The sparkles on Serena's eyes, the tiny excitement scream that escaped her lips... made Roark feel not only excited as well but also proud. Proud to make Serena feel so happy...
"Hehe." Roark chuckled when Serena squeaked, pulling themselves closer to the other. "Well, maybe I don't hate dancing that much."
"I'm so scared, I've never felt so alive before."
There it was. That was his moment! But Roark hated being direct and blunt as his father, anyway, so he gulped as Serena rested her head on his shoulder.
"Well, you totally should." He murmured to her ear. "You feel prettier than ever when you're 'alive'."
Suddenly, he noticed some couples at the other part of the dance floor spliting up. Crap, crap, crap. Better make this fast. But how? Roark was gentle and soft, how could he make anything fast?
"I-eh... uh." The miner muttered, nervous; he noticed Serena clinging to his shirt - so she didn't want to leave him either, uh? "Well, you see-"
Too late. Roark felt a hand grabbing his left arm and noticed, desperately, how a tall, burly, blonde man grabbed Serena's right arm.
"Eeh...!" Was all Roark could say while he watched the Joy move her lips (as if whispering something) before getting lost in the crowd.
The normal plan would have been to wait for the next partner-changing to go back with Serena, but the brunette who was dancing now with him was leading him in the opposite direction.
"Damn, damn!" Roark was thinking, desperate. "My plan's going down! Gah, this is so frustrating!"
Despite his worried expression, the woman in front of him looked at him enthusiastically. He could even notice a light blush on her face. Oh, no.
"It's such a pleasure to dance with the Gym Leader Roark!" She exclaimed, pulling herself closer to Roark.
Too close for his taste.
"Eh, yeah. Thank you." The ginger said, reluctantly. Right, he was the Gym Leader (hence, he was famous in the town) and he HAD to keep his good manners.
...But what if he didn't want? What if he didn't want, for once, to be so correct and nice? He wanted to let his feelings lead him that time, and he would definitely do it. What Roark wanted was to finish that song with Serena, no more no less.
"Now I remember why I hated this type of dance." Roark sighed while the brown-haired woman looked surprised at him. "Partner-changing, uh."
When had he turned into such a jealous bitch? He wondered, perplexed. There was a moment when he and his new partner danced in circles, their arms interlaced; it was then when Roark tried to spot Serena amongst the crowd. He saw her, dancing dangerously close to the blonde man.
"Eh... uh, let's... let's move."
Roark changed drastically the rhythm he and his partner were keeping and forced her to dance towards the part of the dance floor Serena was in.
Everytime she ate another piece of her steak, Amethyst turned her head back to the dance floor to look at the couples... and, of course, at her new friend playing.
"Hehe." She giggled, happily.
Oh, how badly she wished Riley took her to dance... But maybe staying sitting would be the right thing - she didn't trust her feet enough in her condition, after all. It was then when Laelaps came back with that cute kid named Cora.
"Are you really Sir Aaron? I wanna dance with a knight."
Amethyst flickered as the child talked to Riley. What was she talking about? How could a small girl know something about Riley that Amethyst -who'd been living with him for a month- didn't?
"Fine, just one dance and then back to my seat, I hope you're satisfied."
What? Riley was going to dance with a little girl? As much as the idea was adorable, the purple-eyed woman wondered why would Riley accept to dance with the kid but not with her.
However, Amethyst remained silent as Riley and the little girl disappeared amongst the crowd. Suddenly, Laelaps extended his paw to her. The chestnut-head flickered, her big, purple eyes fixated on the Lucario, who was... smiling?
"Do you... do you wanna dance with me?" Amethyst asked, gasping.
There was something special on his expression; Amethyst wondered what would that mean. She sighed, resting her eyes on her already empty plate.
"Who's that... Sir Aaron they were talking about?" The tiny woman asked although she knew it'd be in vain. "There're yet... so many things I want to know about Riley..."
She got engrossed in her thoughts again. She couldn't understand Laelaps, right, or at least hear what he was saying. But they had been living together for a month, and since Amethyst had a relaxed nature, she'd ended up getting along very fine with the Lucario. Unlike her brother.
"Uh...?"
Amethyst shook her head, confused, when another soft growl came out of Laelaps' throat. He was, definitely, inciting her.
"B-but I... I-I'm..." Amethyst stuttered, a blushing that wasn't embarrassment on her face. "in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit drunk... I don't trust my feet, Laelaps..."
Then, something made her look up. Partner-changing, and now Riley was dancing with an old woman. A lucky old woman... Suddenly, Amethyst stood up and took Laelaps' paws.
"Okay, let's go, Laelaps." She said, firmly. "But please, don't let me fall or whatever."
Another silly giggle came out from Amethyst's mouth as she started dancing with the Lucario. She would have never imagined herself in that stuation... Laelaps was indeed reliable, noticing how he danced smoothly and not drawing too fast circles to not make her feel even dizzier.
- N -
Under normal circumstances, Serena would never have minded changing partners – but not today. Not when she finally got her chance to dance with Roark and make it count.
Her partner wasn't a bad dancer, gentle when turning, and never grabbing too hard. But, still, she found herself darting glances to the other end of the room where Roark and his new partner had found themselves.
"Why are they so far away?" She hissed in annoyance.
"Pardon?"
Her head snapped back to attention, the blonde man who was now her partner staring quizzically at her.
"Sorry," She muttered. "I was just thinking out loud."
The music kept its pace, consistent and painfully gleeful in the face of her misery. The girl Roark was dancing with seemed absolutely delighted. Serena felt a stab of jealously – how dare that little hussy run off with her man? However, as much as she tried being furious, rage wouldn't come to her. No, what she was feeling wasn't anger but, she realised… sadness.
She'd never felt so upset and lonely in a long, long time. Roark was enjoying the company of someone else, and it put her off dancing. Her feet refused to follow the music – not when they couldn't dance with the one person she wanted.
The signal to change partners came again, the large blonde man breaking off with her to hold on to a plucky green-haired teenager with a nose ring. Serena waited for another partner to come to take his place, but, oddly enough found no one. Everyone else had changed partners, leaving her alone.
Well… how about that?
She looked around the room for Roark and his new partner, but couldn't mind him amidst the mass of bodies. Well, maybe it was for the best. She shouldn't – couldn't – ruin his fun just because she was jealous.
Excusing herself, she stopped standing still and began to pick her way cautiously back out of the dance floor.
Couples spun, nearly bumping into her in their exuberance, the song thrilling and fast around her. Serena flinched, ducking, nearly-running to escape the dance, and was almost at the edge of the crowd when-
"Raticate."
Stephanie Brown's Raticate stood between her and the gap at the edge of the crowd.
"Move it, Chubby," Serena snarled. "I'm going back to my seat."
"Rrrrrati!" The Raticate stood on his hind legs, and laid two firm forepaws on the front of her legs, nearly pushing her back into the dance floor. "Cate, raticate!"
Serena stared at the gesture, taking a step backwards from the force – for a tiny rat, Rodent was strong. "You don't want me to leave, do you?"
"Raticate." Rodent nodded solemnly.
"Listen, you," Serena narrowed her eyes, "I don't know how your tiny little rat brain works, but in case you haven't noticed, I don't have a partner."
"Rati," Rodent slicked back the hair at the top of his fuzzy brown head in a debonair fashion, then raised both his tiny arms into the air like a toddler begging to be carried. "Raticate!"
The Joy stared even harder, an eyebrow arching in surprise.
"You mean… dance with you?"
"Raticate."
She turned to the stage, where Stephanie Brown was looking at them both. Catching her eye, the blonde girl gave a wink to her Raticate and the Joy. It took a full minute of perplexed staring before the Joy finally shrugged, boosted the rat into the air by his armpits, and spun around in merry circles with him in her arms.
Rodent's tongue lolled out of his mouth and flapped in the breeze – looking, to Serena, surprisingly adorable.
She drew them in circles, faster and faster, until she remembered the feel of Roark's hand on her waist, the gentle look in his deep brown eyes… and suddenly it dawned on her that there would be no other person in the room he'd act like that to but her. A new determination edged its way to her face.
"C'mon," She led her new partner back to the center of the room, "let's find Roark – I'm going to be his partner again if it's the last thing I do."
"Raticate!" Rodent wagged his tail in agreement.
Riley had been glad to trade away his over-enthusiastic partner for a timid waif of a thirteen-year-old – only to find out his new partner had a bad habit of stepping on feet.
"Sorry." She muttered, after the fifth time she'd put her foot down on his. Riley bit – hard – into his lip to keep himself from screaming in pain. It would've been a lot easier for the both of them if the girl hadn't worn cleats.
"That's perfectly alright." He forced his voice to stay level. It felt like she was attacking his toes with a blunt fork again and again. "Just… try to focus on dancing."
He craned his neck and caught sight of – wonder upon wonders! – Amy dancing slowly with Laelaps. They were going slower than the rest of the crowd, no doubt because Amy was still slightly tipsy and Laelaps didn't want to make her any dizzier than she already was.
Carefully leading his partner, he edged them closer to his Lucario, narrowly missing getting smacked in the face by a woman's long flowy hair as the music grew again, changing into something triumphant, final and definite.
"Last dance!" Stephanie Brown's voice boomed across the room. Followed by the violinist on the microphone: "Change partners one last time, folks!"
Gladly, Riley reached out his hand, scooping Amy to his side by her waist. His other hand reached out and held her left hand in a waltzing position. His face was dangerously close to her's and he thought he could feel her gentle breath against his cheeks.
He looked into her clever purple eyes, glimmering in the light of the dance floor, his heart thundering against his ribs. This was it. This was exactly what he'd wanted.
"Hello, Amethyst," He smiled, chuckling despite himself. "I hope you don't mind ending the dance with me."
Taking a step to his left to begin the spin, he tripped, stumbling slightly in her arms before getting back up.
"I… really don't know how to do this dance." He admitted cautiously. "Do you?"
"Last dance!"
Upon hearing his trainer's voice, Rodent's ears pricked and he dropped down out of Serena's grasp. He waved a little goodbye to his partner with a tiny paw before rejoining Brown on the stage and resuming his tambourine drumming.
The music was stronger now, as if each note was counting down to the finale, becoming louder and louder, building up into a climax that no one wanted to be alone in when it arrived.
By herself in the middle of the room, Serena looked about, wondering who would be her partner now.
- J -
It was surprising how gentle Laelaps was. He seemed just like his trainer... and Amethyst hadn't even danced with Riley before! Not even a trip, not even getting dizzier...
Laelaps' gentleness sounded so much like Riley's, really... It made Amethyst wonder how would dancing with him be. She looked around. A tornado of colorful hairs and clothes spinning around her.
"Uuh." Amethyst regretted it, her head getting dizzier.
The purple-eyed woman decided she'd focus exclusively on her dancing partner, just in case. She didn't want to trip and make a mess of her dance with Laelaps. It'd happened that people had changed partners again just when she and Laelaps entered the dance floor.
"I wonder who's Riley's dancing with now." Amethyst muttered, bitting her lip.
A flash of familiar-looking pink hair passed quickly by her. Amethyst risked to turn her just in time to see Serena dancing with Rodent in her arms. With Rodent.
"S-Serena...!" Amethyst exclaimed, but Serena didn't hear her; she was probably going to the centre of the dance floor, surely where Roark would be.
The chestnut-head wondered where would be Roark dancing with, too. Would Serena get to dance with him in the end? Amethyst hoped so.
"Haha!" Amethyst laughed, her cheeks still burning. "This is too rich! Serena's dancing with Rodent and I'm dancing with you, Laelaps. Diversity is such a good thing!"
Amethyst, control yourself, Laelaps doesn't have to know how drunk you are, she thought. She chewed her lip -in a very familiar way- and gulped.
"Sorry." She mumbled. "And thank you very, very much for dancing with me, Laelaps."
She felt so assured dancing with the bipedial dog she even dared to dance in a more free way, like crossing their arms and spinning - not very fast, of course. In matter of minutes, Amethyst found herself getting lost in the music rhythm, letting each musical note enter her small body...
"Last dance! Change partners one last time, folks!"
Amethyst opened her big eyes -yes, it was then when she realised she'd had them closed- but wasn't able to say anything. Laelaps was holding loose on her, which made Amethyst feel completely insecure; what if she fall off? What if noone wanted to dance with a dizzy tiny woman?
"Lae-" Was all Amethyst could say.
...Until she felt a hand holding gently her waist. Softly but firmly, her new partner turned her to him. With a gasp, Amethyst looked up, finding out her new partner was no other than Riley.
"Ohmi-" She panted.
"Hello, Amethyst, I hope you don't mind ending the dance with me."
Amethyst simply didn't -couldn't- say anything, as she found out Riley's face quite close to hers. But he was immensely taller than her! Was he... approaching his face to hers on purpose? Amethyst's face totally reddened...
"O-Oh, of course I d-don't mind..." She stuttered. "In fact I'd love- Ah!"
Suddenly, Riley tripped. As much surprised as Amethyst was, she couldn't help but starte at him, oddly. Why him, and not her?
"I… really don't know how to do this dance. Do you?"
Was he, like... nervous? Riley, nervous? Just what in the world was happening? His chestnut partner stared at him, without noticing they were stopped at the dance floor.
"Heh, no." Amethyst mumbled, looking down. "If you can't dance, how there would be a chance that I -being slightly drunk- could?"
However, the cheerful 13-years-old teen Riley'd been dancing with earlier just passed by them with her new partner and blinked at Amethyst, as if trying to cheer her up.
"How cute." Amethyst giggled, sounding dumbly innocent.
I can do it! She thought. She looked directly into Riley's deep blue eyes, firmly but still blushing.
"I'll do my best." She said. "C'mon, just do what music tells us to!"
After a first, quite quick-for-her-status spin, Amethyst held onto Riley's hand and waist, completely forgetting about her shyness as she drowned in the music rhythm again. She even forgot about her drunkenness...
...which wasn't entirely a good thing because it implied Amethyst forgetting about her limited movements. After another spin, Amethyst tripped, somewhat dizzy, but clinged to Riley's body, which helped her not to fall. The total contact with his warm blue-suited body made Amethyst blush uncontrollably.
"Oops... sorry..." She muttered, not even daring to look at his face, totally embarrassed.
However, other couples had gotten separated from Riley and Amethyst after her tripping, leaving Roark a completely empty corridor to make his way to Serena, who was alone in the centre of the dance floor.
"Serena!" Roark exclaimed.
He held loose of his most recent dance partner (a 52-years-old woman who just wouldn't stop complimenting him for being so young) and quickly made his way amongst the other couples.
"I... I must...!" The miner thought.
He was afraid another man would catch her before him, she was pretty enough to get that. Anyway, Roark managed to get in time. Serena was back to him, so he grabbed her by her waist, completely catching her in surprise, and starting to spin cheerfully.
"Hello again, Serena!" Roark exclaimed, happily. "I couldn't leave you alone for the last dance, hehe."
The ginger caressed Serena's shoulder blades before pressing his hand firmly onto her back, swinging her gently in the air, her hot-pink hair flowing within the movement. Oh yeah, like a boss.
"How was it?" Roark winked at Serena. "I saw a couple do it earlier, and I wanted to try it myself, haha!"
He put her up again, moving slowlier, just in case she'd got dizzy. Maybe he had been being to fast, after all.
"I-I think I'm getting too enthusiastic at this, am I?" Roark asked, coyly. "I just... want to improve for tomorrow's Dance, because I want it to be very special..."
That's it, if the full moon let him... Roark bit his lip, now his right arm crossed with Serena's left arm as he felt the song was coming to an end... it was now or never, but Roark didn't even know how to start...
"I know! I'll give her a small kiss on her nose and then ask her out for the Dance!" He thought.
Definitely, a kiss would make everything softer. Last night he'd given her a kiss on the forehead, now he would for the forehead and later that night...
However, things didn't go as planned. Due to Serena's movements Roark ended up planting the kiss on her lips. It was plain and not very passionate (since it was aimed for the nose), but definitely not what he wanted at that moment.
"Uh..." He muttered, blushing. "I'm sorry..."