Dance Fighting

The Dance

Notes:

My best friend is a 4-time national champion dancer. My in-laws are ballroom dancers who have won awards. My grandfather was the talk of Franklin, North Carolina, with his unbeatable Charleston moves. Me? I tried ballet lessons and was told that my sense of balance is abominable. I can't even waltz. I got the idea of dancing as a sexy way to fight after reading the One Piece fic "One Moment's Heat" and the doujinshi "Pirate Ship Noah." Both are really hot stories!

Fan art: http://fav.me/d4tl25m

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For a stripper, he was a phenomenal dancer. Although Natsu felt a brass pole might have served Gray better...no, it was best not to imagine him pole dancing. Just seeing him take to the guild's dance floor was bad enough. As much as the ice-bastard annoyed him, he was graceful, his movements refined, and so long as he was dancing with a partner, his clothes somehow managed to stay on.

Gajeel's guitar and Mira's vocals were mere accessories to the main show of Gray dancing. He completely owned the floor, and all the girls wanted to be his partner. Lucy, Erza, Cana, Levi, Lisanna, Evergreen, Bisca, Laki, he danced with Mira during one of Gajeel's solo songs, and of course Juvia weaseled her way into her precious Gray-sama's arms almost every other song. Even when his partner was little Wendy, Gray managed to make the pre-teen look as glamorous as a supermodel. That was his talent, to take frigid dancers and mold them into something beautiful.

He clapped to the beats, slapped his heels, twirled, jived. Sometimes it was more like he simply floated along to the flow of the melody. He could spin a girl and grab her without the lady losing balance. He could time their movements until it was like he was forcing her to move in a certain way by magic. His body twisted like flurries in a blizzard, fluttered as light as a snowflake, and made the girls melt like frost on the first day of spring. His hair was as dark as midnight in winter, his eyes like noon in summer, his skin as rosy as sakura in the spring, and his moves as crisp and colorful as an autumn leaf.

Natsu hated to admit it, but Gray's dancing was pure perfection. His sense of the tempo was flawless. His hips snapped as he swung his partner into a spin that was just enough to send her skirt flaring, yet never enough so the audience saw her panties, then he caught her just before she could feel dizzy. He was gentle with each partner too, sensing when she was out of breath and adjusting to less exhausting moves, doing the fancy work himself.

More than anything, Natsu was annoyed by that subtle, smirking grin that showed plainly to everyone that he was enjoying every minute of being the Dancing Ice Prince. That look made Natsu's heart thump in his throat, as if only his scarf choked back the pounding sensation. His chest burned. His lower stomach tightened each time Gray gave a well-timed thrust against a lady, making her eyes pop open and her cheeks blush hot. Fucking exhibitionist! The fact that he looked so damn good doing it was even more frustrating to the dragon slayer.

The music got faster. Natsu smirked that it was as if Gajeel was privately challenging Gray. Who could keep up the fastest: Gray's nimble movements or Gajeel's fingers of iron? The guild recognized this for the silent fight it was and gave him the dance floor. Even Juvia stopped trying to get a chance to dance again. They stood along the sides, clapping a percussive tempo to Gajeel's guitar, cheering as Gray's body spun and his legs worked, arms moved, hips swung, flawlessly hitting each accented beat with a thrust that made Juvia swoon. Still that smirk curled on his face, so confident in his talent as a mage and as a dancer!

Natsu realized he was staring...and sweating. He, who never felt hot even standing in the midst of an inferno, was flushed as he watched Gray's flexible body twist and spin.