Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Plotting to Win ❯ Shall We Dance? ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Dragonball Z and its characters are owned by several people, including Akira Toriyama, Shonen Jump, Bird Studios, Toei, Viz, and Funimation. In other words, it doesn't belong to me. No money was made from the creation of this story, and in fact money was lost from the use of utilities needed to power the laptop I work on.

Chapter 2: Shall We Dance?

Goten stood next to Trunks, both men watching Bra. The young woman laughed and chatted with the girls at her table, occasionally encouraging one to go ask some boy to dance. Goten also noted that Bra herself had no shortage of young men asking her to dance. Most she declined, shaking her head and then offering one of the other girls as a replacement. The few times she did decide to dance, she did so with abandon. She seemed to embrace the music as if it were a lover. Her partner seemed unnecessary. Bra danced for herself.

Goten discovered he could watch her dance forever. Her body curved in just the right places, making his hands itch to explore the dips and valleys. As he watched her, Goten realized that she never danced to the slow songs, preferring to sit them out. A glimmer of an idea began to form and a slow grin slid across his face as it fleshed out.

Glancing at Trunks, he pushed off from the wall. "Well, no time like the present. I think I better go have a dance with the prettiest girl here tonight. Give my regrets to Dr. Black would you? I think I shall be unavoidably detained this evening."

"Tell her yourself. I am not doing your dirty work."

"You're no fun!"

Trunks nodded. "I suppose I should wish good luck. But I don't think that is going to help you."

"Nope I don't need luck. I have skill. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

The president of Capsule Corporation grunted his expression even more sour than when Goten had come over. "I don't think I can put up with much more of this torture. I'm going to make one final round and get the hell out of here. 'Night, Goten."

"'Night, Trunks!"

Sparing no more thought to his best friend's bad humor, Goten smoothly strolled over to the stage. He waited for the current song to come to an end and motioned frantically for the lead singer's attention. Starting the band up on an instrumental number, the singer, a blonde in a slinky green sequined dress, smiled warmly at Goten. They were old acquaintances.

"Heya Lover Boy, I was wondering if you were here tonight."

"When you're here, always. You're looking good, Erasa. How are Sharpener and the kids doing?"

"They're doing well. Sharpener got a raise and Quill is in school with your niece, Pan. Chalq is a bit of a handful but he's just turned thirteen, it's that age. But I don't think that you came over here to talk about my life. What can I do for you, sugar?"

"You know me too well! There's this girl I want to dance with, so do you think you can a few slow numbers in a row? For me?" He gave Erasa his patented puppy dog eyes.

She laughed. "You little rascal. Smooth. But a rascal."

"Can you do it?"

"Of course I can. Give me a couple of songs to pass on the change in playlist to the rest of the band and you should be good to go."

"Thanks, you're a doll," he said, planting a kiss on her cheek.

"You're welcome, Goten."

True to her word, Erasa slowly started circulating among the rest of the band, whispering in their ears when they had slow sections or breaks. When she finished speaking to the last musician, she turned and gave Goten a quick wink.

He blew her a kiss and started threading his way over to the table where Bra sat surrounded by a gaggle of teenage girls. Behind him, the band segued into an old ballad, and Goten couldn't stop a smile from coming to his lips. Good old Erasa, right on time.

Coming to a halt behind Bra's shoulder, Goten leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Evening, Bra. Want to join me for a dance?"

Bra started and whipped around in her chair to see who had startled her. The wary, almost angry, expression on her face melted into a welcoming smile. "Goten, don't sneak up on me like that! You're lucky I didn't deck you."

Holding out his hands in a mock attempt to ward her off, Goten apologized. "Sorry, Bra! I didn't mean to startle you, but I wanted to ask if you would be willing to dance with me."

A couple of the girls sitting at her table started whispering among themselves, and a few gave Goten assessing looks. Unable to resist the temptation, Goten flashed them a quick grin before returning his attention to his objective. Bra was looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes. Goten flushed.

"Please, Bra."

"Oh, all right," she acquiesced, giving a short wave goodbye to the girls at her table.

Goten led her to the dance floor, ignoring the glares he received from several of the younger men. Taking Bra into his arms, he started to lead them around the floor. They danced in silence for a few minutes while Goten waited for Bra to say something. When he realized that she wasn't going to give him any openings, he found himself feeling a bit uncertain and awkward. If something didn't change soon at this rate, Trunks was going to win.

He was so wrapped up in thoughts of the dare that it took him a while to register that he was holding a particularly attractive woman and that said woman's body was molding his erotically. She smelled good, like warm spring day after the rain. She swayed against him in time to the music. Goten looked down at her, surprised to find her eyes closed and her lips moving, mouthing the words of the old love song.

She looked so sweet and fresh, that Goten longed to kiss her, to see if she tasted as good as she felt and smelled. His body echoed his mind's sentiment adding that it would like to do more than just kiss her. Trying to distract himself from his rising desire, Goten anxiously tried to start a conversation. In his desperation, he settled on the oldest and most tired topic in the known universe: The Weather.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

Bra opened her eyes and stared at Goten.

"Sorry," he apologized. "But, your beauty has driven all coherent thought out of my head. You should feel proud, you have managed to render me speechless. A feat achieved by no one."

"I don't think that I could quite manage to do that."

"Ah, but you have! My mind is unable to find adequate adjectives to describe your loveliness."

"Ok, stop right there, Goten. What's the deal here? You're talking to me as if you are a knight in shining armor and I, your lady fair. This isn't like you."

"Sorry. I just don't know what to talk to you about. You really have me tongue-tied."

"Well, then say so! Don't go spouting flowery phrases just because the intelligent part of your brain has decided to take a holiday."

"Okay," he agreed with a laugh. "So where does that leave us."

She paused considering. "Well we could just keep dancing."

"We could do that. Anything else?"

"You could try talking to me like I am a person and not on some kind of a pedestal."

"I think you're asking a bit much there, Bra."

"Really?"

"No, really. I don't know what to talk to you about. I only remember you as a little girl. And all of a sudden, I've found that you've grown up into a stunning woman right under my nose. It kinda makes it difficult to know what to say when my mind is still struggling with the concept."

"Okay, I can give you that. So what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Now that's a tall order. Narrow it down to something more manageable."

Goten thought about it for a few moments, considering and then discarding questions. There was so much he knew and yet didn't know about her. He understood her family better than almost anyone else present, but he never really knew Bra. He and Trunks were so much older than her that the few times they had actually done anything together it had been as a group. He knew that she played a mean game of croquet and that she hated strawberries. But he didn't know what she did in her spare time, since he doubted that she played with dolls anymore like she did as a child. He didn't even know if she was still in school, since like her brother and mother, she was a genius. He didn't even know if she had a boyfriend, and it would be just like Trunks to challenge him to try and win a woman who was in love with someone else.

Finally he settled on a question that would hopefully answer the question of whether or not she was dating anyone else. "Why don't you dance to the slow songs?"

Bra threw back her head and laughed. "I was not expecting you to ask that!" She smiled and locked eyes with him. "I don't dance to the slow songs because all of the guys who ask me are clumsy fools. If I dance with them during a fast number, I can get away with controlling how I dance with them. I can even dance around them, if they are particularly graceless or grabby. With a slow song, they would step all over my feet as they try to lead me around the dance floor. Not to mention, that I would have to put up with their roaming hands and stinky cologne."

"So why do you dance with them at all?"

"I like to dance and I don't like to dance alone, although I will. Besides it's impolite to turn the poor men down over and over again. They're nice. But not really my type."

"So I am your type?"

She smiled mysteriously at him. "Let's just put it this way, you're a better dancer than they are."

Goten chuckled. Bra had a wicked sense of humor on her. "Duly noted."

"So did that answer your question?"

"Yep."

"Good. Now I have one of my own. Why did you decide to dance with me?"

"Because you're the prettiest girl at the party, and your beauty bewitched me so much that I could not control myself."

"Uh-huh." Bra did not look impressed. "Try another answer."

"No really. I thought you looked so lovely that I wanted to score a coup against the rest of the men panting after you and get you out on the dance floor for a nice, slow, romantic dance."

"Why is it that I don't believe you?" she asked, archly. He gave her his 'who me?' look and shrugged. "Goten, I know you too well. The only other times you have ever associated with me while at one of these parties was when Trunks dared you to. Remember the time when I was five and Trunks dared you to propose to me in front of everyone?"

Goten winced at the memory and at her accurate assessment of the real reason behind the dance. "Yeah, I remember. I also remember you telling me 'no' and your father coming millimeters away from beating me up."

"Do you know why Daddy almost killed you?"

"No."

"Oh dear. How like Trunks to never tell you. Well I'm not going to spoil the surprise. You'll just have to ask him. Or you could ask my father. I'm certain he would tell you the reason now."

"Why won't you tell me?"

"I told you. I don't want to spoil the surprise. It also isn't my place to tell you. You know, you still haven't told me the real reason you asked me to dance," she said pointedly.

Goten blushed and frantically tried to think of an answer. Bra watched him closely and shook her head sadly.

"Poor Goten. Trunks really did dare you to dance with me, didn't he?"

"Uh. . . ."

"It's okay. I had fun anyway. You really are a good dancer, much better than the other clods I've danced with tonight. I think that it is the martial artist in you, even though you don't practice much anymore."

"How did you know I don't practice much anymore?"

"Whose daughter am I?"

"Oh yeah, right. Sorry, wasn't thinking again."

"I noticed."

"I enjoyed dancing with you. Do you want to go for a walk, and talk some more?"

Bra glanced at her watch. "I don't think so. I really did have a good time dancing with you, despite my stupid brother's dare, but you really don't need to keep humoring me."

"I'm not humoring you!"

"You're protesting just a bit too much for me to believe that. I think that it is time for me to have a little talk with Trunks and let him know that I don't enjoy being the butt in his idiotic pranks."

"Nah, you don't have to," said Goten quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Bra to confront Trunks and possibly find out about the real dare. He needed to diffuse her temper, and fast. "I think that Trunks did me a favor by daring me to dance with you. I don't think your brother knows how good of a dancer you are, or how much fun your conversation is. If he did, instead of daring his best friend to dance with you, he would be setting up barricades to keep the men away from you."

Bra laughed again. "That was a lovely compliment Goten."

"You're welcome, my lady. True, though."

"Goten . . ."

"Okay. Okay. I'll try to cut it out. But you really do bring out the bard in me."

"I wish I could shove him back in."

"Ouch."

The music came to halt and Erasa announced that the band was taking a ten minute break. There was a smattering of applause, some of it genuine, although most people clapping were applauding the break not the music.

"Are you sure you don't want to go for a walk in the gardens. I hear they are lovely at night, with the night-blooming jasmine in season," he asked leading her off of the dance floor and toward the estate's well tended garden.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Remember, I live here. And I've put in a long enough of an appearance at this thing so that my parents won't complain much if I skip out now."

"You don't like the parties?"

Bra gave Goten and incredulous look. "Heck no! What's to like about them? The crappy music, perhaps? Or the toadies trying be my best friend so that they can milk me for my millions? Then there are the groping men who also only want me for my money. Thank you, but no. These soirees are boring, dull, and dreary. I have better things to be do than be bored out of my skull by inane conversation, a non-anesthetized root canal for example."

"But you looked like you were having a good time talking with them."

"That's only a mask, Goten. If you think that the shallow girl you see only at parties is the real me, then you have a lot to learn."

"I'm beginning to see that."

"Good. Now if you don't mind, I think I want to escape this thing before the band starts back up. Good Night, Goten," she said softly, tiptoeing up to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"'Night, Bra." He watched her disappear into the night, thinking about her candid statements and wondering if he really had a chance of winning against Trunks.

~*~
AN: I actually managed to get the next part out semi-quickly. Go me! This is not normal for me, but I am finding this story fairly easy to write. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the central plot for this idea came from the Fanfiction Challenge on the 0-DBZ-Fanfiction YahooGroups Mailing List. I have the next chapter plotted out so writing it shouldn't be too hard since I know where I am going with it. I don't know how much time I will have to work on it in the coming weeks since I have just been promoted at my job into a position with a lot more responsibility. But don't worry, I have no plans on abandoning this story. It wants to be written too much.

The Title of this Chapter comes from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical "The King and I." And Apparently I am channelling song titles when it comes to naming things.

This story is unbeta'd so any mistakes in it are mine.

Thank you to everyone who read the first part. And big double thanks and a virtual cookie for everyone who Reviewed. Thank you so much! They really mean a lot to me and encouraged me to write.

I also invite you to check out my other stories published here at mediaminer.org

Ja Ne
Lady Lark