CHAPTER 51
I do not own skip beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.
The Christmas ball
Part 4
I still highly recommend to listen to the songs I selected for all of you while reading this. It really is a plus in this part of the story as the masquerade does is a lot about music. I really wanted to give the most perfect ambiance for the ball. Honestly if had been able to make the music I would have done it.( I can do lyrics but it's not the same) And yes I admit I'm a music addict, lol.
The references are still at the bottom.
- like a fairy tale-
The break came to an end and soon they were going back to the dance floor for the following songs. Some were perky, others were quieter but while Kyoko, now reassured Ren wasn't in that bad of a state, enjoyed herself, Ren was displeased. Or rather, more than a little frustrated. No, people hadn't uncovered Kyoko after she had put back her gloves though he was pretty sure some had also their doubts on her gender.
But it didn't change quantity of people were dancing with her and he could see she was enjoying herself. And he was happy. Watching her smile or dance freely was a great joy to see for him. And it should have stopped there. But no, he couldn't help but feel possessive over her, greedy and he didn't even have the right to. But after even more days without sight of her, he couldn't help wanting to monopolize her. He knew the instant people would know who she was under, he wouldn't get much more chance to have alone time with her. And he wasn't talking about the ball right now. But about all of her. She had just came back, she wasn't famous yet in Japan but she would soon be and things would get even more complicated to spend time together.
He didn't want to miss that chance. He had waited far too long already. He didn't know how he would do it but he was hell-bended in not letting go. Of course he knew he just couldn't drop his feelings right there right then at her feet, the time for that had slipped by his fingers but it didn't mean he was going to behave like before. Now was different. He couldn't do that but in a way he was freer of his moves than he ever had been with her. She was far less guarded in front of him. Now, he could casually touch her without having her freaking out. She was still taking it as teasing but she didn't back away. She was even teasing back sometimes!
He was going to take advantage of those new liberties he had. He was going to do his upmost in getting closer.
But for now, he needed to keep his temper in check. He shouldn't be jealous to see her dance with Momose, Kotonami-san and even Kijima. He knew it was irrational to want to hog her to him as the theme progressed and they danced through second and third ones.
Not like knowing it was pointless helped him in any way but it managed to keep him distracted until he was able to shove back those ridiculous feelings to the back and appreciate to its full value her joy at she danced.
But as soon as the third theme ended and the second real break began, it didn't prevent him to be on her trail immediately.
It didn't come as a surprise when he found her just a minute later and asked:
"More fun?"
She turned to him with a big smile and he had to remember how to breath.
He didn't need to know that each time she had been groped it had brought back awful memories and put her on guards or that she had been immensely grateful to dance with more partners she already knew than unknown ones in the themes that just passed.
"Absolutely. Less groping and more agreeable company"
"I'm glad to hear that, you might not have much use in the ointment" he teased.
She drew her tongue at him to hide her embarrassment and his eyes darkened, thinking about much more depraved things he would wish to do with this. She looked so much more spirited than in the past. No, it wasn't that. She had always been spirited. But she was less bashful, less tamed; freer.
She would never have pulled her tongue at him before neither would she have hugged him. Even less let him kissed her on cheek as a casual thing.
And that evolution for him was hotter that anything he could have imagined. She had changed so much. She was still changing but the confident woman he had in front of him was already blinding him at every moment she looked at him.
But the weapons she now possessed over him were threatening to drive him to the walls. And she didn't even realize she was doing it. As always. He smiled. He guessed this would be something that wouldn't change too.
Darting his eyes away from the tempting sexy pink appendage slipping back in her mouth, he took a deep breath, trying to suppress his desires to twirl that little rosy tip with his own tongue, to suck on it, to tease it; to let it do whatever it would want on his body.
Holding back a new groan at the direction of his thoughts he noticed she was talking and grabbed at his sanity.
"…about you?" she asked.
"Hmm? He did, what about me?"
She smiled.
"Was this time more okay?"
In front of his lost look, she specified.
"The dancing"
"oh. Yes, it was okay"
He hadn't had any more groping though a few people still walked on his feet but he didn't really pay it more than a little thought. It wasn't with her.
She arched a brow.
"It doesn't sound really convincing"
He smiled softly at her concern but didn't answer back.
"I saw you had Momose-san and Kijima several times for partners" he said.
She nodded.
"They are good dancers. It makes it more pleasant"
He eyed her.
"Are you saying it's not my case?" he prodded.
She glanced at him with amusement.
"You know that's not the case, Ren" She chuckled. "If you are hoping I will fall for the same jokes and teasing you were giving me in the past, you are up for a surprise" she typed.
His heart jumped at this and he had to keep the hyped shudders he was feeling out of his voice.
"My apologizes milady" Ren scrambled out hiding with brio his new jittery. "I might need an update on how to tease you properly nowadays"
She glared at him.
"You could also skip that part altogether" she deadpanned.
Ren grinned and countered.
"But what would be the fun in that?"
"Yes, what indeed? " she sombrely commented.
He bite back a new grin and wait until she would turn back again toward him.
When she did, he raised a brow in false stern silence and it only took her a second before a wide smile made its way high on her cheeks.
He replied to this with his own soft gaze.
"Fine. I know it's impossible to stop for you. You are just being you" she said with a shook of the head.
She checked the time on the giant pendulum in the corner to see when they would need to go back and he stared at her, amazed at her new incisive but feeling always higher thrilled by this new her. Alighted with peaceful yet vivid life.
The time came and they led themselves to the dance floor once more. The romantic theme began with Christmas Canon rock and Kyoko merrily spin with her partner, Kanae, highly amused by the fact she didn't recognize her the all-time they danced even if they had already danced once in the precedent section.
When the second dance came, bittersweet-desire&decorum, Kyoko had the surprise to discover Koga as her new partner and she warily took his hand. But she was in for a huge surprise when he suddenly started to hit on her even while thinking she was still a dude. She also had to suppress countless little giggles to escape her at every turn as the gentleman complimented her in all sort of ways.
He was especially fond of her allure and butt and Kyoko was divided between feeling bashfully embarrassed and laughing at the absurdness of it all.
He kept the babbles on for all the duration of their turn together and even proposed her some less innocent offers. Which ended up making her a little bit shocked and it's in that state they changed partners again.
The song Valentine's Waltz broke in and she began to twirl then gasped softly when she came back to earth to see in whose hands she had hers and with whom she was dancing. Again.
He smiled at her, the eyes softs and inviting as his brawny hands guided her in the new whirls of this low-pace waltz. The slow motions meant to entrance any ear that would hear, any dance that would occur. They didn't utter any form of speech for a while and their gazes anchored to the other appeared to do the all the talking.
He wanted to talk. He wanted to joke about what he heard Koga told her. But he couldn't. The light pressure at his shoulder. The soft pads of the strong but delicate fingers in his hands. This inebriating rhythm.
Those warm eyes set on him for his upmost pleasure.
He felt like he wasn't moving. He didn't have a body anymore. He felt so light. His sole anchor her eyes.
He was blind. Only her could make him fall or rise. Because he was flying.
He was flying.
Everything was a blur beside this woman in his arms.
…
She gazed at him. She needed to escape. She didn't want to.
Her feet were moving. She knew they were. She knew but she couldn't she feel them. She felt numb. Pressure against her hand. Hard muscles under the other. Stringent scorching arch around her waist. Those were her security net. The ones preventing her to fall, to disintegrate into thin air. They were as much what could make her disappear as what was preventing her to.
Eyes that intoxicated her at each instant she gazed into them. Pumping heart. She felt alighted. Pulsing with the world that was him.
She felt bashful, she was tingling everywhere. But she couldn't tear her eyes away.
In the infinite of the present, time seemed to distort and stretch on this perfect second where there were no self-loath, no questions, no doubts; just two people. A man and a woman dancing together.
And oh, heavens know how powerful It can be; when a man and a woman dance together.
At this instant,
She felt family. She felt Home.
There is nothing she could have wish for, more than this moment of stolen eternity.
Everything melted in a blur besides the man holding her in his arms.
The dance ended without either of them caring and they fell straight into the next one not even taking note of the fact they had been chosen to be partners again or that there wasn't a break as planned normally.
All I want for Christmas is you made its first measures as they swirled again.
It was a much faster rhythm and not even a waltz anymore but they were too entranced with the other to be disturbed by that. Their steps just accelerated to match it and they smiled and laughed at some tempo of the song, not caring, not seeing anything but them. In their world bubble composed and lightened only by them.
When the song arrived to its end, it came as a clash of their time that had seemed to be without an end and the reality.
The last notes echoed and it's with regret and a sudden sadness Kyoko stepped back when one of her former partners was assigned to her number for her next dance.
She stretched her lips in a mild smile toward Ren and let go of his hand before turning around as smoothly as she could.
But from the first step she took away her left hand was firmly grabbed back and engulfed at the last second, his rough fingers grazing on purpose the heart of her palm as the grave voice of him asked her.
"Stay"
She turned her head around perplexed before pointing with the chin the setting of the game already happening.
"But the-"
"We are allowed to choose one partner by section from now on" he recalled her.
He pushed no more.
Just tilted his head, his eyes begging her and her feet as animated with a life of their own stood back in front of his own ones.
She nodded and received such a breath-robbing heavenly smile of his for it she did not care if she was breaking rules or not after that. She let her hands be held again.
The song launched as the measures of Lair of Luxury were heard.
She wouldn't have trade her place for anything. Here, dancing with Ren. Even if he didn't know that. Yet, the moment the tune began she started to sweat. She couldn't pinpoint what was wrong. The song was beautiful. The tempo slightly more picked up than a waltz. But not quite. It was slow yet catchy. Smooth. It had a slow beating time to time. Pon-pon clac. Pon-pon clac. It was alternating between parts of violin and piano. Then again. Pon-pon clac. Pon-pon clac. There was also a little bit of guitar at moments.
Danger.
She noticed. Because the song wasn't as safe game as the others. It was having a deep impact on the atmosphere of all the dancers. It had been instantaneous. The moment the notes were echoing in the ballroom, the mood changed.
Pon-pon clac.
Her breath huffed out heavier and heavier as the song progressed.
Pon-pon clac.
She didn't want to run.
But as she lost herself in the consuming eyes facing her she knew she should. It wasn't a tune that would easily let her hide what she felt.
Pon-pon clac.
She didn't how or why but she was under the impression his lids were now half-closed as he looked at her. She was surely dreaming it. But his eyes blazed such a furnace in the dim lights it was making her heady with supressed urges. Her stomach coiled. It was like all the garlands were reflecting in his eyes and if she looked keenly she could even have a glimpse of the forest green under the brown of the lenses.
Pon-pon clac.
The sensation was torrid. Her mouth parched and she gulped. Humidity drenching between her legs.
The scorching of the sudden warm taking hold of her nerves were too much for her system and she could feel her crimson inflamed face and the moist liquid drops of sweat skidding down the hollow of her back under the cloth violently clamped by the gigantic hand upon it; though it came unnoticed by her.
Pon-pon clac.
Air weighed all around them clouding their senses, their touches. Barely able to let go of their own breath once in a while, they danced and danced. To this slow torturing beating rhythm. Not noticing the rapprochement of their bodies. Not noticing their fingers threading, the hands crushing each other with so much restraint from both sides. Not seeing they were walking on thin ice at just a hair of breaking loose. A hair of lips touching.
And then the song ended. Spell broken.
And they both took a shaking breath as they took a step back and let go of the other hand.
Ren chuckled warily before rumbling out in a sandpaper voice far rougher than usual:
"I think I can affirm with great certitude who is the person who chose the songs"
She faintly laughed back in return, trying to sound composed but not really there yet. Her hands shook a bit and she put them behind her back. It was one of the most unnerving experience. She still had goose bumps going on and her breath was far to be back to even. Her back was going from chill to too warm on repeat.
Starved, she couldn't help herself for a second and hungrily eyed down Ren from the corner of the eye letting her desires came at the front of her thoughts. Running up every muscles back and front, kissing, biting, teasing every spot of skin. She wanted to be the one able to grab his glorious sexy butt's cheeks. And not some molester. She wanted to taste those full sinful lips she knew to be soft. She wanted to glide her fingers in his smooth hair. She wanted to be the one to make him groan and sigh. More than anything she wanted to feel his hands on her body.
She did her best to chew back on a sudden upcoming whine before grasping back at her control discreetly and quickly hiding what she was feeling under a placid mask. Thanks to him, she had really improved in hiding her emotions compared to back and then.
Last song of the theme started and she didn't even had the time to wonder if she was supposed to go somewhere else that Ren had once more took hold of her hand.
Again?...Wait…I need a break…Too much fairy dose in one slot…
"Wait. We can't. We need to switch" she protested but Ren's eyes shined and he pulled her back to him soundly.
"You can, you didn't choose a partner yet"
"But-"
"Kyoko", he interrupted clearly showing no concession on this even though his eyes melt to an endearing gleam,
"Dance with me"
The rough murmur, completely unfair in her opinion, still got reason of her and shoulders slacking, she admitted defeat.
And at start the next song, It must have been the mistletoe, they both groaned, not because the song was bad mind you, and she replied to his previous statement with a slightly amused-slightly grumbling tone.
"You're absolutely right. There is only person that could have chosen all those songs"
He chuckled and nodded.
"I thought you would agree with my opinion on that matter" he humbly said with a little bow of the head, highly entertained.
And for the remaining of the romantic song, they happily swirled in the tad lighter atmosphere. Though the weight of the precedent song and the person with whom they were twirling prevented them to relax in its entirety, this one had not much less power.
It just attacked at another angle.
It was such a sweet tune. Bubbly yet slow. Poetic. And it didn't take long for it to inspire melancholic feelings in both of them. Because more than just a song, it was a story. A very cute tale about the first Christmas of two lovers. A tale about a chance, an hazard in the form of mistletoe. One kiss to know they were in love.
Just a little tale. An innocent Christmas song.
But for the desperate hearts of two people dancing tonight it made them wish for so much more than a dance than an ephemeral moment than a kiss. It made them wish. Wish they weren't just dancing, just there in the same room. Wish they would be together. It made them wish they were celebrating their first Christmas together.
That for a mere second, the moment happening was so much more than it was. And the dream was the reality, the reality the illusion.
And that one kiss would have been able to grant a wish. To seal destiny.
They wished. And their longings rose and their hearts ached as they did.
They wished for it with all their hearts as they chatted and whirled to this lovely song. Because it was Christmas and for just one second, they wanted to believe.
PS: I hope you'll love this one. It became of my favourite chapters. And yes, I know, there are a lot of teasing. But well, it's only the beginning so you should be prepared to a regular teasing from now on. We are slowly moving to the full fun side of the second of this fanfic, one of the most if not the most fun in my opinion. So I really hope you are all having fun. I don't know for much longer I will be posting regularly but for now enjoy.
I'd say we still have 2-3 parts to this one. Lol. I hope I'm not boring you with this. The next chapter might be the last one will dancing part…^^ I think. At worse, there would still be too with part of dancing and other things and then we would switch to second part of the party.
Anyway, I'm pretty proud of this chapter though I know it could have longer but again I'm sure you noticed by now that I'm not functioning by choosing the number of words to determine a chapter but my feelings and when it seems to be a good place to stop.
Songs:
canon rock by Tran Siberian orchestra
&Decorum:Bittersweet
I want for Christmas is you, Maria Carey.
's Waltz by Derek Fiechter and Brandon Fiechter
of Luxury-Nightbound.
6. It must have been the mistletoe Barbara Streasand(One of my favourite song of all times, I highly recommend it)
I wish you all well. Reviews are food. Feed me. Kisses.
AUTHOR OUT.
Mimagfan.
