Author's note: Hello again, fellow lagomorphshippers! (watches the crowd cheer) What do we love? "PIKA/BUN!" Why do we love it? "COZ IT'S ADORABLE!"
Ahem... anyway! This one-shot was based off something. Telling you what it is will give away the mystery, however, but most of you should know it when you come to it. Lol.
The title is inspired by Strictly Come Dancing. Do you know that show? It's a ballroom dancing competition. :)
Also... this was meant to be out a LOT sooner, but laptops breaking down meant that I lost the first half to the archives. XP I finally got it back and finished it, after so long!
Come Dancing
After a long morning and afternoon of travelling through the land of Sinnoh, Ash, Dawn, Brock and Pikachu happened upon what they'd assumed would be a forest clearing. In their line of vision, however, was a huge and beautifully-kept mansion. The four of them stared at it in awe for a few moments.
"Wow..." Dawn breathed out.
"What's a mansion doing in the middle of a forest?" Ash asked.
Brock pulled out his guide book and flipped through it. Stopping on a particular page, he read it. "Hmm..." he said, "I'm guessing this is what the locals call Heaven Manor."
"Heaven Manor?" Dawn asked, as she, Ash and Pikachu looked at Brock.
"It's a mansion that belongs to a nice old lady, who allows trainers and pokémon a rest stop, as well as a place to play, on their travels."
Ash grinned. "Sounds great!" he said. He looked at Pikachu, who was on his shoulder. "What do you say we pay the old lady a visit, buddy?"
Pikachu smiled and nodded. "(Sure!)" he replied.
Dawn clapped her hands together, beaming. "Yeah, let's go!" she said.
"So nice to see some new faces around here," the old woman said at the front door, as she leaned on a walking stick and crinkled her face into a smile.
"We heard you rent out your mansion as a rest stop?" Brock asked politely.
The woman nodded. "Indeed I do. Feel free to stay as long as you like. All company is welcome." She turned around and hobbled inside. "Do come in."
Ash, Dawn and Brock followed her inside, Brock being the one to close the door behind them. The three humans and one pokémon gazed around the gigantic and lavish room in amazement.
"It's so beautiful..." Dawn said.
"Why, thank you, dearie. My name is Mary, by the way."
All four looked at her and began their introductions. "I'm Ash," Ash said.
"I'm Dawn," Dawn said.
"And I'm Brock," Brock added.
"(I'm Pikachu!)" Pikachu said with a smile.
"What lovely names," Mary replied. "Perhaps the three of you would like to call out your pokémon? They're allowed to play anywhere in the mansion they want. There's also a pool out back, if you want to go for a swim or a sunbathe."
"Awesome!" Ash exclaimed.
"Oh, wow!" Dawn cried. "We can go swimming?"
"I'm up for some sunbathing!" Brock said.
"One last thing, though," Mary said. "If you have any large pokémon, could I ask that you let them out in the garden? I'm terribly afraid they might break something."
"Sure," Ash replied with a nod, "no problem."
Pikachu was finding that he really loved Heaven Manor. He'd explored as many of the different rooms as possible - mostly through playing hide-and-seek with the other pokémon - and was currently in the room he'd decided he liked the best. It was the mansion playroom, which consisted of many stuffed pokémon toys, action figures, cars and dollhouses. His favourite part, though, was the fireman pole that dropped down from a hole in the floor above.
He slid down the pole, giggling happily. "(What I wouldn't give for a fireman pole in every pokémon Centre!)" he said.
"(Pikachu!)" Buneary's voice called out.
He turned to look at her, as he moved away from the bottom of the pole. "(Oh, hey, Buneary. Having a good time?)"
Buneary nodded with a smile. "(Yeah!)" she replied. She suddenly looked anxious. "(Although, I just found out this place has a basement.)"
This perked Pikachu's interest, as he hadn't noticed such a room. "(A basement?)"
"(Yeah... I wanna have a look, but it's really dark and dusty down there. Not a very nice room...)"
As a born adventurer, his pulse raced in excitement. He was very eager to explore that basement now. "(Cool! I'm gonna go check it out!)"
Buneary looked alarmed. "(Check it out?!)"
"(Yup. Wanna come with me?)"
Buneary paused a moment, looking unsure. After a moment, she nodded. "(Okay... but only if you let me stick close to you.)"
Pikachu beamed. "(Sure thing!)"
Buneary felt a growing fear gnawing at her heart, as she led Pikachu down the stairs and towards the basement door. The fear intensified when Pikachu pushed the door open and revealed the same pitch blackness as before. She could understand his curiosity, but she honestly thought that some places were best left unexplored. She assumed that the other pokémon in the house – even the ones that didn't belong to Ash, Dawn and Brock – also seemed to think so, as she'd noticed them avoiding this place like the plague.
Possibly noticing her hesitance, Pikachu stepped in front of her and began to descend the stairs. Unable to allow him to go alone, she followed. Her sensitive nose could smell dust thick in the air, as though the room hadn't been cleaned in a decade. This was surprising, since the rest of the house was completely spotless. She was beginning to regret asking Croagunk to open the door for her earlier.
Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Pikachu peered around. "(Hey...)" he said, "(I think I see something.)"
He walked off to one side, so she followed him. The two of them stopped in front of a large box that was coated in dust. Pikachu brushed some of it off the front with his paw, then sneezed.
"(Gesundheit,)" Buneary said.
Pikachu sniffled. "(Thanks. Hey, check it out!)"
Looking at the box, Buneary noticed large colourful letters in the spot he'd wiped clean that spelled out 'Toybox'.
"(A toybox? Down here?)" She paused. "(Why isn't it upstairs, with the rest of the toys?)" She looked at Pikachu and sl
a,6tg excw a sparkle in his eyes.
"('Why', indeed...)" Standing on his tiptoes, he attempted to push off the lid. After considerable effort, he eventually managed it. Grabbing the edge of the box, he hefted himself up onto it, then began rooting around. "(Huh...)"
Buneary watched as he flung several broken toys onto the dusty floor, away from where she was standing. There were action figures that were missing limbs, stuffed pokémon toys that had giant holes in them – where the stuffing was falling out – small cars that were either missing wheels or bent in half, and dolls that were naked and headless. A lot of the stuff also bore various pokémon teeth marks.
"(Pikachu?)"
"(Man, everything's broken. There's gotta be something in here worth playing with.)" He paused, then smirked. "(Guess I gotta go for a dive, huh, Buneary?)"
Her eyes widened. "(A dive?)"
Without warning, Pikachu lunged at the pile of toys, throwing them haphazardly in every direction, as he burrowed like a diglett. She yelped and dodged whenever one flew near her. Eventually, he stopped.
"(Hey! I found something cool!)"
With a slight struggle, he pulled himself back out of the remaining toys and leapt back onto the floor. With a grin, he held something up for her to look at.
It was a metal ball, about the size of a bowls ball - which she knew some humans liked to roll along grass for sport – and it was covered in flat circles that she assumed were buttons.
"(What is it?)"
"(I've no idea.)"
"(Huh...)" Curious, she pressed one of the buttons. It turned out to be quite stiff, so she pressed harder. There was an audible click, but nothing seemed to happen. "(What a weird toy.)"
Pikachu looked puzzled. "(Huh... well, I guess the batteries are dead...)" He suddenly brightened. "(But maybe we can still use it as a kickball, or something!)"
She blinked at him. "(Are you crazy? We'd hurt our feet, kicking that thing!)"
He lifted it up and down, examining it. "(Hmm... I guess you're right. It's not very heavy, but it is made of metal...)" He brightened up again. "(Let's take it upstairs anyway. Maybe we could play catch with it.)"
He really seemed to like the thing, whatever it was, so she couldn't bring herself to object. Instead, she smiled. "(Okay.)"
"(Hey! Guys!)" Pikachu called out as he entered the playroom. Every head, whether they belonged to Ash, Dawn and Brock's pokémon or not, turned in his direction. He proudly lifted his prize up for them to see. "(Check out what me and Buneary found!)" Several pokémon wandered over to have a look.
"(Ooh, what is it?)" a female bellossom asked.
"(Looks kinda cool,)" Piplup said.
"(Is it heavy?)" Pachirisu asked excitedly. "(Can I hold it? Ooh, it has buttons!)"
"(What does it do?)" Buizel asked.
"(I've no idea,)" Pikachu replied. "(I think the batteries are dead... but who wants to play catch with it?)"
"(Me!)" a chorus of pokémon called out.
"(... Basement?)" Croagunk asked.
"(Huh?)" Buneary replied.
"(You find that in the basement?)"
"(Oh! Yeah.)"
"(Ah.)"
"(Alright, then...)" Pikachu said, backing up, "(go long!)"
The other pokémon scattered around the room. He tossed it to a female meditite, who caught it easily. "(Whoa,)" she said. "(Kinda heavy, isn't it?)"
"(Yeah, a bit.)"
"(Not very good for catch... but what the heck.)" She tossed it. "(Buizel, think fast!)"
Buizel leapt and caught it. "(Heh,)" he said. "(Easy.)" He tossed it. "(Pachirisu!)"
Pachirisu jumped to catch it, but it was a little too heavy for him. He fell to the ground in a heap, laughing. "(Wow, it is heavy!)" He stared at the metal ball on his chest. "(Ooh, what's this button do?)" He pushed one of the buttons, then scowled. "(This thing's stiff!)" He pressed it harder and an audible click was heard. All the buttons on the ball suddenly glowed yellow. He stared in awe at it. "(Ooh...)"
"(Weird...)" Pikachu said, "(I could've sworn-)" He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a familiar polka tune ring out around the room. "(Oh no...)"
"(Cute tune,)" Buneary said with a smile.
With horror, Pikachu saw every head in the room bob in time to the music. Soon enough, he found himself doing the same. The memory of what was happening caused his blood to turn to ice. Worse still, no one in that room had been with him back then, so they had no idea what was coming.
"(Quick!)" He grabbed Buneary's paw. "(We've gotta get out of here!)"
He moved to run towards the door, but the music picked up, stopping him in his tracks. His face pulled itself into a grin, his paw released itself from Buneary's and his body danced around the room, along with everyone else's. He couldn't believe this was happening again.
"(Wh-What's... going on?)" Buizel asked with a huge grin on its face.
Pikachu stepped from side to side, spun around and continued to step along to the accursed polka tune. His body refused to do otherwise, despite how hard he tried to fight it. The annoying thing, though, was that a small part of him actually enjoyed the fun exercise. The rest of him was screaming in protest.
"(Pikachu, what's... happening?!)" Buneary yelped, dancing beside him in perfect synchrony to his movements.
"(Why... can't I stop... dancing?!)" Piplup cried, his emotions contrasting with the grin on his face.
Every single pokémon did an ocean wave with their arms before starting to hop around. Pikachu had never been able to explain this situation to Ash. He'd wanted to forget it and put it behind him, actually, but it was also pretty difficult to explain the feeling of being forced to dance and smile, for as long as a song played in the background.
"(We need...)" He pointed his finger and moved it around the room. "(To...)" He switched hands and did the same thing the other way. (Turn that...)" He started hopping around again. "(Thing off!)" He spun in time with the music.
"(Well... why...)" Buizel said, hopping around and waving his arms. Every other pokémon followed suit at the exact same time. "(Didn't you... say so?!)"
Pikachu might have found this amusing if he didn't know how annoying it was. He knew better than anybody in that room how annoying it was. It was time to end this, before something either embarrassing or dangerous happened.
"(Someone...)" He swung his arms in circles and stepped to the left. "(Grab that...)" He threw his arms in the air and posed, then did it again the other way. "(Thing!)" He spun around.
Everyone in the room tried to dance their way over to the metal ball, but, as Pikachu soon noticed, this was a rather difficult task. The bellossom got close, but had to break away when the tune called for a twirl. The meditite tried to get near it, but ended up jumping straight over it. Even Croagunk, who normally sat back and let others do the hard work, was fighting to get to the metal ball. Apparently, he didn't like being forced to dance either.
Eventually, Buizel managed to pick it up, but had to dance around the room with it. "(Where's the... off... button?!)"
"(I don't... know!)"
Buizel slammed his paw on one of the buttons. It clicked and the polka music slowed down to a tango. Everyone instantly turned to the nearest pokémon and grabbed them. When Pikachu did this, he noticed that he'd grabbed Buneary. Well, it certainly could have been a much worse choice. It was a vast improvement on Meowth, at any rate.
There a loud clunk and, when Pikachu spun Buneary and started doing the tango across the room with her, he noticed that Buizel had dropped the metal ball on floor to dance with Croagunk. It was rolling under the table, the buttons obviously far too stiff to be affected in any way. He would have grumbled, but his face was still stuck in a grin.
As he turned around to tango the other way, he noticed that Buneary's face had gone very red, and that her eyes were sparkling. She looked like she was enjoying this.
Buneary had never felt so little control over her body as she did right now. She had no idea what was going on, only Pikachu seemed to have been through this before, and her body was growing very tired from the excessive dancing. A small – well, maybe not so small – part of her couldn't complain, though. Pikachu was doing the tango with her!
She knew that this particular dance was romantic - as she'd stayed up late with Dawn a few times, watching dance shows on TVs in pokémon centres - but to actually be doing it with Pikachu was amazing. True, she'd like it an awful lot more if her body wasn't dancing on its own, but she'd take what she could get.
She put up little resistance as he spun her, then dipped her. Yep, this would be heaven if she had full control of her own body. Maybe she could convince him to dance with her without magical music one day.
Pikachu was getting tired now. If he could just get to that accursed metal ball, then he'd be freed from this nightmare. Not that dancing with Buneary was a nightmare, of course. The way she was blushing, smiling and following his exact movements was, altogether, pretty cute. Heck, her species was cute anyway, but he still thought she was one of a kind.
"(Bellossom!)" he called out, spinning Buneary again. "(Grab the...)" He dipped Buneary. "(Ball!)"
Honestly, this whole thing might even have been fun, if he could control what he was doing. The dancing would probably be a lot clumsier – since he wasn't much of a dancer in real life, and he didn't know how good Buneary was – but it'd be a lot more special. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to ask her to dance properly, one of these days. Today, though, he'd had quite enough of dancing already.
The bellossom spun Pachirisu, before taking a dive at the metal ball. Her continued dancing, however, sent her crashing into the table. Pachirisu then came back over and whisked her away.
"(I got it!)" the meditite called out, crawling across the floor in a vain attempt to fight the music. She managed to knock the metal ball out from under the table, and it rolled across the room. She jumped up and danced away. "(Whee! That's me... done!)" She grabbed Piplup and spun him around. "(Sorry!)"
"(Mine,)" Croagunk said, reaching out to grab the ball. However, his dancing made his hand jerk, which knocked the ball and caused it to roll away again. "(Oops.)" Buizel pulled him into a twirl.
"(I got it!)" a male whismur said, pulling away from a male sandshrew and pounding a button on the ball. It clicked. "(I did it!)"
The tango faded into a hula, which immediately had every pair separate to dance the hula. Pikachu shook his hips, as though he was wearing a grass skirt, and waved his arms in time to the soothing music. At least, it would be soothing if he didn't have to dance to it.
"(Somebody...)" Buneary said with an ever-present grin, "(turn that thing... off...)"
Now it seemed even Buneary had had enough. This spurred him on to fight his way over to the metal ball, no matter what the cost. Never once stopping the hula dance, he shimmied his way towards the ball. It was difficult, he wasn't going to deny that. His mind wanted to reach the ball, but his body wanted to dance until it dropped. However, he was not about to give up.
Battling his way across the room, he noticed the bellossom get to the ball first. She slammed her paw on one of the buttons, causing the hula to melt into a waltz. His body jerked into a different dancing pattern, grabbing the bellossom and twirling her. Getting into position, the pair of them began to step in threes around the room, perfectly in time with one another.
He discovered that it was much less pleasant dancing with the bellossom. He was sure she was a very nice girl – and he had to admit that her species was cute – but she was no Buneary. He felt rather weird for thinking that, but it was true.
Forcing his way over to where Buneary was now waltzing with the sandshrew, he fought to swap partners. Heck, if he was going to suffer, at least he'd be suffering alongside someone he knew and liked. Not to mention, someone he knew liked him. He twirled the bellossom, using every ounce of fight in him to let go of her paw. She automatically twirled towards the sandshrew, who let go of Buneary and started waltzing with the bellossom. Pikachu cut in and grabbed Buneary, waltzing in the other direction with her.
"(Pikachu...)" she said in awe.
"(Hey, I'd...)" he said, stepping in time with her in a circle, "(rather dance with... you...)"
Her eyes sparkled again, and he felt himself blush. She was awfully cute when she looked at him like that. It made him nervous.
Buneary was getting exhausted now, but she felt it was somewhat worth it. While the lack of control was still annoying, Pikachu had purposely chosen her to dance with. She felt so happy and flattered. Did he really like her, deep down? She'd always assumed he did. He was always blushing, being modest and getting embarrassed around her... She could feel butterfree and beautifly fluttering inside her stomach. He may really truly like her!
"(It's mine!)" Piplup called out, which instantly distracted her. It was followed by a click and the polka tune from earlier. "(Whoops!)"
Buneary felt herself push away from Pikachu and start dancing on her own again, once again to the fast polka tune. Oh, great. She was completely exhausted, but her body refused to slow down, even a little bit. It just kept on hopping and stepping and spinning. She wanted it to stop!
Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn't want them to fall. She was stronger than this! She wasn't the little crybaby from the day she'd first met Pikachu. She looked over at the mouse in question, eyes wet and mouth still grinning, to see a strange fire in his eyes. He was also grinning, but his eyes were angry. Was he angry because she was crying? She found that thought very touching.
She watched as Pikachu danced away from her and across the room, towards the metal ball. He hopped, he stepped and he spun, but he kept on going. Her heart pounded with affection for the electric rodent. Truly, he was one of a kind. She'd always loved that about him.
He ducked and dodged out of the way of the other pokémon, dancing all the while, until he eventually made it to the metal ball. Picking it up, he proceeded to dance with it, seemingly unable to force himself to turn it off.
"What's going on?" Ash's surprised voice called out.
Everyone turned to the doorway to see the four humans standing there, and continued to dance for them. A step here, a twirl of the arms there, a spin here and a hop there.
"Why are all the pokémon dancing?" Dawn asked, her eyes wide.
"And how are they all dancing in perfect synch?" Brock asked. He raised an eyebrow. "... Does anyone else hear music?"
"Oh, dear..." Mary said, looking concerned.
"Well, they look like they're having fun!" Ash said with a smile.
Mary shook her head. "They're most certainly not having fun. Quick, where's the-?"
Suddenly, there was a loud click and the music stopped. Buneary - and every other pokémon, by the sound of it - slumped to the ground in exhaustion. He'd done it. Her beloved Pikachu had actually done it. She smiled warmly at the ceiling. He was so amazing, she could hardly believe it sometimes.
"... What just happened?" Dawn asked, blinking at the scene.
Mary sighed in relief. "Thank heavens..." Her expression turned sad. "I'm terribly sorry about that. The pokémon seem to have gotten their hands on my dancing poké ball."
"Dancing poké ball?" Brock asked curiously.
Mary nodded. "Yes... Ten years ago, I bought it in a store, thinking it was just a toy for pokémon... but, when I got it home, I realised that it held a great and terrible power."
Ash frowned. "What does it do?" he asked.
"After some research, I discovered that it's part of a chain of instruments that force pokémon to dance for entertainment."
Dawn gasped, her hands flying to her mouth in shock. "That's horrible!" she cried.
"Those poor pokémon!" Ash added, frowning deeper.
"So, then, why weren't we affected?" Brock asked calmly.
"I have no idea how it works," Mary replied, shaking her head, "but it only affects pokémon. I'm terribly sorry they had to find it. I purposely keep the basement filthy, so that no pokémon will ever want to explore down there... but I guess they can get a little too curious sometimes."
"That's quite alright, Mary."
Mary sighed. "No... no, it isn't. I recently unlocked the basement to place some broken toys down there, but I guess I forgot to lock it."
"Well," Ash said, relaxing his frown as he glanced around, "the pokémon look exhausted, but I think they'll be okay." His gaze landed on a spot across the room. "What do you think, Pikachu?"
"(Yep... all good...)" came the weak reply.
The following day, Ash and Dawn had trouble finding Pikachu and Buneary. Getting rather anxious, they checked all around the mansion. It was time to leave and head off for the next city, but the pair were nowhere in sight.
"Ohhh... where's Buneary?" Dawn asked in concern.
"And Pikachu, too..." Ash added with a worried huff.
"Pi, ka, chu..." a voice said from the nearby room.
"Hey," Dawn said, pausing to listen, "did you hear that?"
"Bun, nea, ry..." another voice said.
"It's coming from the playroom..." Ash replied.
The pair poked their heads around the doorframe, and were quite surprised to see Pikachu and Buneary waltzing around an otherwise empty room.
"(One, two, three...)" Pikachu said as he waltzed.
"(One, two, three...)" Buneary said, matching his every step. She beamed. "(I think I'm getting it!)"
Pikachu grinned. "(Me, too!)" It relaxed into a smile. "(Thanks for asking me to do this. It's much more fun when I can control what I'm doing.)"
Buneary giggled, blushing. "(Oh, it's no problem. I'm having fun!)"
"(Me, too- Whoa!)" Pikachu tripped and fell onto Buneary. He chuckled nervously and pulled away, blushing. "(Whoops, sorry.)"
Buneary let go of him and pulled her fluff over her face, giggling madly. "(No problem! We're both still learning.)"
"(Heh heh, yeah.)"
Ash and Dawn moved away from the doorway and Dawn squealed quietly, so as not to disturb them. "That... is... so... cute!" she said.
Ash sighed, but couldn't help smiling himself. "Yeah, I guess it is," he replied.
Dawn giggled. "Come on." She nudged him and pointed elsewhere. "Let's leave them to it for a little bit."
Ash shrugged. "Alright." He glanced back at the doorway. "Hope they don't take too long, though..."
"Oh, hush."
The End