Dammit Janet

From"Stay Out of the Alley, Chapter 7:

It had been years since Jonathan had danced freely, and his first halfhearted attempts at movement marked him as an obvious outsider. He didn't belong anywhere near this dance floor. In fact, he was about thirty seconds away from making up his mind to blow the place up along with everyone inside.

Then Al laughed at him.

"Hey, come on, I thought you were supposed to be good at this!"

He wouldn't say his pride was stung, because that would be ridiculous. But he did pull her roughly closer to him to mutter in her ear, "You should learn to watch that mouth of yours. It's going to get you into trouble one of these days."

She smirked.

And he let go.

Forget the inhibitions. Who needed them? He was the Scarecrow, Master of Fear. He had the power. He was the dance.

Al gasped in surprise when she first realized he was dragging her along for the ride. Then they found their rhythm together, and it truly began.

She must have been saving all her grace for a moment such as this. He had never known her to move so freely, so beautifully, a perfect extension of the pounding beat, somehow transforming the annoying club music into something he could not only stand, but enjoy.

He had never danced with a woman before. He had learned to dance as a boy, and he had loved it, but he had always been alone. There had never even been music, other than what he made, himself, in his own mind.

This was different, and yet, in many ways, the same. He had to match himself to the music and to the movements of his partner, and there were two hundred pairs of eyes ready to turn on him if he made the slightest mistake. But somehow, that didn't matter. There was only the exhilaration of free, wild movement and the perfection of Al's joyous matching of his every move, while the other dancers swirled around them, a turbulent river free of any identity or responsibility in the world outside the beat and the flashing lights.

A pocket formed around them, flailing children making way for the masters. He spun her out and pulled her back to him. She looked up at him, flushed and laughing, temporarily cradled in his arms.

"Now there's the man I fell in love with!"

He stared at her.

Joking. Either she was joking, or she'd had something a lot stronger than ginger ale when he wasn't looking.

She had to be joking.

And since the music was loud and she wasn't following the statement up with any more absurdities, he was fully prepared to keep dancing and ignore the new development in her psychosis as a simple miscommunication.

And even if he had heard right, the dance was more important than the obvious bad joke.

~~~

Mmmmkay. I had planned to make a picture of "Year of the Snake," but as I was browsing through stock pics, I stumbled across this [link] and c'mon: look at that and try not to think of Al and Crane. ;3 It made me squee so much, I couldn't resist and I changed paths.

Umm, I think I still went to light on the shading, but fuck it I need a break from this.

Oh, and for those of you outside the CAT circle, they're dressed...er-hem, that way, because they went to a Rocky Horror Picture Show-ing in the park to stalk the Captain and her "boyfriend".

Crane is far too skinny. But, I like how Al's face came out _{and don't look at her shoes or legs, ooohhh gaaaawwwwddd}.

Critiques would be appreciated! Flames will be laughed at and fed to Nerak.

And I'm sorry about falling through on the "submit a picture everyday until the deadline" thing. After "Car Go Boom," I just...I felt like I wasn't giving the CATverse my best, and was only submitting pictures to...submit pictures. I will keep doing illustrations for their stories, but it'll be after this contest.

_{And besides, I've gotta start planning my Other Secret Project, which I hope everyone will love with all their lurve.}