Chapter 37: First Tango in Paris

[Scene: Nighttime in Paris. Kunzite and Zoi are drinking white wine at a romantic sidewalk bistro with a good view of the Eiffel Tower.]

Kunzite: According the doctor's note the school has on file for you, you've suffered a hairline fracture in your ankle. It should be okay for you to return to Biology class tomorrow, but you'll be out of PE class for quite some time.

Zoi: [smiles] I'm sure half the boys are going to be devastated when the other team doesn't get stuck with me.

[Kunzite sees the waiter approaching with the appetizers]

Kunzite: Are you sure you don't want to try any of my escargot?

Zoi: [wrinkles his nose] I don't eat snails.

Kunzite: They're delicious.

Zoi: I highly doubt it. I make it a point not to eat things that don't have any natural predators.

[The waiter brings out the appetizers. Zoi takes one look at Kunzite's escargot and makes a face]

Zoi: Ugh, Gross! They could at least take them out of the shells so I don't have to look at those nasty things while I'm eating!

Kunzite: [laughs as he fishes out the escargot with a tiny fork] Usually, I forget how young you are, and then you say things like that, and I'm reminded of what an innocent child you still are.

Zoi: [sulks] I'm not a little boy, you know.

Kunzite: That's a very little boy thing to say.

Zoi: [dips his toasted bread in the garlic herb butter for his mussels to soak up the juice] Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?

Kunzite: Does it matter much?

Zoi: No, but I still wonder…

Kunzite: To be perfectly honest, I can't be sure how old I am exactly.

Zoi: Oh? Really?

Kunzite: [gives Zoi a sly look] I wonder if it would upset you to know that when I was young, the calendar hadn't been invented yet?

Zoi: You're ancient?

Kunzite: Let's just put it this way. When I went to pick up our lunch the other day, I could help but notice Arizona has changed a lot. The last time I was there, it was a jungle. With tigers.

Zoi: So you have been around for a long time, have you? [Looks down sadly and eats his mussels in glum silence]

[Kunzite didn't know what type of reaction he was expecting, but it wasn't sorrow]

Kunzite: What are you thinking?

Zoi: I'm thinking…there must have been lots of others…before me… I assume.

Kunzite: [Nods] Lots of others. None of them worth remembering.

[From the tone of Kunzite's voice, he knows he's being reassured, but Zoi can't help but feel miserable that other people have gotten closer to Kunzite than he has.]

Zoi: [sulks] Maybe, in a few years from now…you'll find someone else, and I won't be worth remembering.

Kunzite: That won't happen. Even if you decide this ends tonight, I could never forget you.

[Zoi smiles a bit at that]

[The waiter clears the flatware and crumbs before he brings out the entrees, coq au vin for Kunzite, roasted trout for Zoisite.]

[Kunzite smiles as a crispy whole trout crusted with herbs and with a side of green beans almandine is placed in front of Zoi–bones, eyes, tail and all.]

[Zoi, unfazed, picks up the fish knife and extracts the flesh from between the skin and bones with the skill of a surgeon.]

Kunzite: You're quite good at that.

Zoi: I watched some people at another table. [Eats some of his fish] Were you always a Shitennou?

Kunzite: No. Like I said, Mother adopted me… She found me in a desolate wasteland and she rescued me from the very brink of starvation.

Zoi: What happened?

Kunzite: I lived during an ice age. The sky was perpetually dark and the earth was frozen over. My people were nomads, wandering the tundra in search of food. Eventually the sun came out and we found ourselves trapped on an island where there was nothing but water and rock. I probably wasn't the first of my tribe to resort to cannibalism, but I was certainly the last.

Zoi: Oh…I'm sorry…

Kunzite: I don't remember it well. It was a very long time ago. I do remember how it felt, when Metalia elevated me. That's not something you can easily forget.

Zoi: How did she… save you?

Kunzite: I don't know how to describe it to someone who is mortal, but she filled me with her power, and it was incredible.

[The waiter brings out coffee and Crème brûlée with fresh berries for dessert.]

Zoi: Why did she do it?

Kunzite: I think she needed her creatures to be ruled by beings forged from her own essence. I was the first, though she found Beryl shortly afterwards. Beryl presided over a city of amazons that enslaved neighboring villages and practiced human sacrifice. As a high priestess, she had entire chambers decorated with the skulls of her victims. A more advanced civilization sacked her city and threw her from a cliff. She was dead when they left her, but Metalia brought her back.

Zoi: So Metalia can raise the dead?

Kunzite: When it suits her. Which is seldom. And never with benign intentions. Have you ever read the story "The Monkey's Paw?"

Zoi: I can't say I have.

Kunzite: Let's just say it's not a favor I would consider asking her for. The request alone would probably anger her enough to bring a thousand curses upon your head.

Zoi: So I assume you must be dead or near death to become a Shitennou?

Kunzite: Very observant. [smiles] No, that's not a requirement. It's just that she doesn't believe in harvesting her young until they've reached their fullest potential. Death places a cap on one's achievements. The only thing Mother truly despises is weakness. It's far more important to Metalia that you have the heart of a killer.

Zoi: [shudders] I don't think I could ever kill anyone.

Kunzite: I don't think you could either.

[Kunzite pays the bill and they go to their motorcycle. Kunzite hands Zoi the helmet. Zoi straps on the helmet and climbs on behind Kunzite and holds on for dear life.]

[Kunzite takes Zoi along the Seine river and stops at a riverside amphitheater where a battered radio is playing tango music at full volume while hundreds of couples are dancing the tango in the moonlight. Zoi is mesmerized by the sight of so many skilled dancers moving so seductively.]

Kunzite: Watch carefully. The tango can be dangerous if you are not careful. Notice the pattern of fast and slow movements, and how each partner's movements are a mirror image of the other's.

Zoi: [anxious] We're going to dance together?

Kunzite: We're going to dance together. But first watch.

[Kunzite walks up to a well-dressed woman of about seventy with heavy makeup and jet black hair. She takes his hand and she dances with the grace of a fairytale princess. Even though she's old enough to be his grandmother, and she's probably waited decades to be asked by a partner of Kunzite's beauty and skill, Zoi finds himself becoming jealous since their motions are so suggestive.]

[From the way they move, it almost seems as if she is offering herself up to Kunzite as a willing conquest and Kunzite is deciding on the precise moment when he should ravish her. Even though he knows he's being silly, Zoi's getting a bit angry watching what looks very much like a courtship ritual.]

[When the next song start and Kunzite offers him his hand, he accepts without hesitation and only remembers a few seconds later that he doesn't know how to dance. Kunzite has to guide him firmly and correct his movements, but eventually he starts to get the hang of it. Kunzite pairs him up with a tiny brunette who looks to be about the same age as him and watches as they dance together, until he finds himself another partner among the scores of heavily made up women in beautiful dresses sitting on the sidelines.]

[The girl seems shy at first, until she realizes how inexperienced of a dancer Zoi is, and takes the lead, bending him to and fro and jerking him about with all the nurturing patience of a dominatrix. To Zoi's surprise, he finds he's having the time of his life. When the song ends he goes to dance with another of the wallflowers. Then another, then another.]

[By the time Kunzite offers him his hand again, he's gotten a lot better at dancing, so their movements become more fluid, more natural. A time later he finds himself getting tired so he's just standing there, holding Kunzite and just swaying softly to the music. Kunzite smiles down at him.]

Kunzite: Had enough for one day, or should we check out a jazz club?

Zoi: Jazz club, most definitely.