Barking up the Wrong Tree - An Object "Fanfiction"

Chapter 5 - Party Time, Part 2

"Hi," Remote said shyly. She apparently had dropped her complete neutrality from earlier this afternoon.

"Oh, hello Remote," replied Tree distractedly. Due to the fact that he was distracted and also had recently drunk two alcoholic beverages, he didn't detect the shyness in Remote's voice.

"..." said Remote.

"LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!" Pancake bellowed as she turned up the volume on some unseen speaker somewhere. She then proceeded to fall over. Music reverberated around the room, causing everything to shake slightly. Tree's skull did not appreciate this.

"Ugh," he complained. "This music is giving me a headache."

"Why don't you dance?" suggested Remote. "It'll help distract you from the music."

"That doesn't seem like it would help," replied Tree. Unfortunately for him, he was currently surrounded by a sea of dancing bodies and was unable to escape without severely injuring someone. He sighed, accepting his fate.

"Ugh, fine."

Unlike most greater-than-zero-intelligence-modifier protagonists, Tree was not all that bad of a dancer. He had gone through a brief phase in which he had thought that dancing was great. He had lessons and everything. He no longer thinks that dancing is that great, but is able to do it sometimes if he absolutely has to.

Or if he's just consumed two alcoholic beverages and is surrounded by a bunch of random people with very loud music playing and Remote standing in front of him.

He started to dance.

This isn't actually too bad, Tree thought. Just move to the rhythm. Don't fall over. It's been a while since I last danced.

"Wow," remarked Remote. "You're a pretty good dancer."

"              ," replied Tree. This is because he didn't reply.

Tree and kept dancing. The music was still very loud, but Remote was right about the dancing distracting him. Tree no longer had a headache.

The music changed to a faster song, and Tree started dancing faster. His surroundings began blurring together as he started to lose himself to the music. He started to let go of his thoughts, his stress. He almost started to have a good time.

And then a particularly alarming arachnid changed the song.

"This one goes out to all the lovebirds out there!" Spooky Spider cried before disappearing into the crowd again. Everyone paused for a moment, and then people started pairing up.

"Oh, thank goodness," said Tree with relief. "It's a slow song. No more headache. No more dancing. Why are you looking at me like that?"

This last sentence referred to Remote's bashful expression. 

"Uh, actually, I was wondering if you would... dance with me?" she whispered hopefully.

Tree wasn't actually interested in Remote. It wasn't that he disliked her or anything, but that he also wasn't interested in romance in general. This is because he generally didn't give much care to anyone at all. Maybe some day, he sometimes thought. But that day isn't going to be for a long while. In any other scenario, he would have refused.

Of course, Tree was half drunk, so he replied, "Sure."

And so they danced. It was a simple routine, and Tree led it with his somewhat-better-than-average skill. They moved in silence as the music enveloped them. Suddenly, a thought came to Tree, and he didn't have the mental willpower left to push it away.

She looks nice tonight.

They kept dancing.

Then someone changed the song to Crab Rave, and that ruined the moment.

Then someone was stabbed, and that really ruined the moment.