I don't own Loonatics Unleashed

Enjoy!


Duck was overjoyed that he didn't have to go to the pool today. Any days off that he had, he wanted to use them to his own advantage. There was nothing better than staying at home and sleeping in without having to wake up to an annoying alarm clock. It was also nice having to wake up to a quiet atmosphere, without the constant noise of kitchen gear clattering everywhere. He was grateful that he was living with someone that he admired, but it could get too much especially when Miranda didn't know how to cook.

Where was she anyway? No matter how much Duck enjoyed the peace and quiet of the morning, it was just odd that she wasn't there. All these rehearsals that she was doing made it hard for both to be home at the same time. The moments where they were, it was great! The one thing that came to his was that he assumed that she was probably rehearsing in one of those last-minute phone calls from the dance lead. He had never paid a visit to Miranda when she was rehearsing at the studio nor had she ever invited him to come. Could it have been because Duck enjoyed too much of his time alone and she wanted to respect that? Maybe and she had been right about that. However, Duck thought that it would be better to not spend the day waiting for her when he could just join her. He knew where the studio was. He passed it many times when he returned home from work but never got to see her practicing her dance moves in there.

As he walked down the street and approached the studio, he walked inside the building. A receptionist stopped him before he continued any further. "Not here to dance," Duck said to her when she stopped him, expecting that her question might be 'are you here to tryout?' "Just coming to see my girlfriend. Miranda Duck."

No visitors were allowed inside the area where the choreography was happening but he was able to sit and watch them by the bleachers. The glass window was visible in front of him where he could see the dancers but they couldn't see him. That was one of the greatest inventions that existed. The dancers could concentrate and they wouldn't know that anyone else was watching. As he sat there, he surveyed one dancer after the other. Each girl seemed to be good at what she did, but he could see that there was one who was hungry for the spotlight. That must be Olivia Mink that was dancing upfront with some dance moves that were considered a little risqué.

Then there was Miranda, right at the back of the group trying to keep up with the others. He wondered why she didn't consider going solo. Okay, it was better to start somewhere before moving into other things but she didn't look so happy being with them. He watched as Miranda missed a beat on one of the dance moves and winded up crashing against one of the other dancers.

"Ugh," came Olivia's voice from inside the studio as she put her hands over her platinum blonde hair and turned around. "Again Miranda? How many times do we have to go through this? You must turn on the eighth beat, not the sixth! Otherwise, we'll all be falling like a bunch of dominos and there goes our first-place prize!"

The female mallard's only response was just a glare and silence. If Duck was in there, he wouldn't have said more than what Miranda gave her.

"Even in the back you're horrible," Olivia muttered with a shake of her head as she counted off. "Five, six, seven, eight…" and there they began the dance from the beginning.

Duck could see that Miranda was struggling with this dance and that it wasn't her style. And he was glad that it wasn't because in his opinion, she wasn't that good at it. Please just stop he thought, feeling that secondhand embarrassment coming to him just by seeing her trying to dance.

After a long while of practicing, Olivia Mink clapped her hands as she whipped around and looked at the group. "Whoo that was some practice," she had a smile upon her lips as she looked from one dancer to another. "That's a wrap for today ladies. We'll meet up early for the next couple of days before the competition next week. Hopefully no rookies ruin it."

"You talking to me?" Miranda dared ask Olivia as she pointed to herself.

Olivia rolled her eyes at Miranda's attempt of 'joking around as she and the other dancers gathered their items and talked with one another, but Miranda decided to remain back.

Duck wondered why she didn't leave with the rest of the group. Once the last group of girls had disappeared, Duck watched as she got in front of the mirrors and began to freestyle. The moves were different than from what Duck had just seen. This was more hip-hop and from what he could see, she was a lot better in this form of dancing. He didn't know the names of the dance moves, but she seemed to know what she was doing.

Through the end of her little routine, Miranda finished it with a body roll as she looked at her reflection and upon that, she tried to muster up a smile to herself. Even though her reflection tried to show joy, she just didn't feel it. She turned on her heel and began to gather her items when the door opened from the other end of the studio.

"Hey there, Rookie," came Duck's voice as Miranda looked up in shock and saw him standing there.

Miranda's hand shook when she tried to pick up her water bottle. She looked up in shock and saw Duck standing there by the door but she hid her shock with an attempt to laugh at his words. Though they were futile. "Not you too," she said as she slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder and walked over to Duck. "I didn't know you were going to show up."

"It wasn't on my to-do list," Duck said to her, "but I had the day off today and thought of catching up."

"And you watched us dance," Miranda said.

"All of it," Duck said as he noticed Miranda looking down. Whenever she looked down, Duck knew that she was trying to hide her blush from embarrassment. "I enjoyed the last part."

"Which part?" she asked.

"The…what looked like a hip-hop routine," Duck said to her.

"Oh," she said nonchalantly, "that was something I made up many days ago. Didn't have the chance to perform at the studio due to Olivia's obsession with cleaning the floor with her face…ugh," she flinched when she thought of that dance style.

"Yeah, you were terrible with that dance," he told her and quickly jumped out of the way before she slapped his arm.

"As much as I hate your honesty, I appreciate it," Miranda said knowing that he was right about that. Even she didn't feel comfortable dancing like that but she had to go along with it if she wanted to expand her experience as a dancer. Unfortunately, there weren't many dance studios around Acmetropolis that had hip-hop dance studios. "Anyway, let's get out of here before Olivia comes back and decides to keep us for another five hours."

Linking her arm with Duck's, they walked out of the dance studio and into the streets of Acmetropolis. Duck took a turn on one of the roads, dragging Miranda along with him. "I believe home is that way, Duck."

"I know," Duck said to her, "but I was hoping we could spend the day anywhere else but at home. It's a nice day."

Miranda blinked upon that suggestion but she didn't say a single word. The only thing she did was let Duck take charge of the day, where she knew that they were going to enjoy together.