Eleven - Copacabana The transport was near the brim with soldiers and technicians all going off to leave. We piled on and grabbed seats in the back. I always knew transport could get crowded; I've been on more than one should be. But those were military transports. This was worse. This was a civilian transport. This redefined cramped. But it was all we could take. So there we were, crammed into the back, with Suzie to my one side, Ashley to my other, and Stephanie on my lap. Not that it was bad or anything, but my legs would lose all feeling halfway into the trip. And I do like to know my legs are still there. "Where are we heading to?" I asked Ashley. "We're going to a small town," she replied. "Name of D'Terra." I had heard of this place before. It's a lovely little trade town, more like one of those Arabian markets on Earth with the conviniences of the modern world. "D'Terra it is." Stephanie smiled and tried to get comfortable. I held her, trying to aid her, as the transport rolled away. Three hours later, we arrived in the small trade town. It was a neutral area, where if Leo pulled a gun on Lupus (or the other way around), the local peace keeping force would suddenly appear and tear the offenders to shreds. It's fun to watch Lupus and Leo troops try to get along. I almost always laugh my ass off. "The first thing we should do," I said as the transport rolled away. "Is to find a hotel." There was a general agreement amongst the group. "But where?" Ashley asked. She pointed to a small block with a large number of hotels. "We've got such a choice." I chuckled. "So, what do we want?" I looked at my cash card. "Do we want super luxury or super economy?" She chuckled and gave me a playful jab. "We're spliting the bill, remember?" I chuckled. Stephanie chose that moment to point to a super ritzy hotel. "How about that one?" We approached it. There was no doorman. "I guess we can go right in," Suzie said. I opened the door. We - rather, I - approached the front desk. Behind it was a feline of some sort. A small pair of glasses sat on the tip of his nose. He looked up as I approached. "What do you want?" he said in a most snobish way. "I was curious. Do you need reservations to get a room in this place?" The feline looked me over. "We don't serve military grunts here. Go find a barracks or something." I resisted the urge to knock the guy's head off. "By all technicalities, I'm not military." He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I'm a mercenary commander. The only military here is her." I pointed to Ashley, who promptly stepped stepped forward. "And what are you?" the feline asked her. She showed him her ID tag. He quirked a brow. "Oh, you're an officer." He turned back to me. "Terribly sorry about that. Now, we don't require reservations here. Not many people stay for too long. You just pay us up front and we'll give you a room." I looked at the other three and smiled. "Whadda ya say?" They all nodded. I turned back to the clerk. "Two suites." The clerk nodded. "One or two beds?" I looked at the girls again. Amber raised three fingers. "Ya got any with three beds?" He nodded. "One of those and one with a queen sized." The feline took two sets of keys out from under the counter. "How long will you be staying?" he asked. "A week at most," Ashley replied. I handed him my card. He deducted the ammount from it and returned it to me with our keys. "Floor 7," he said. "Rooms 8 and 9." The room was like the one we shared on the transport to this planet, save the heart shaped loved nest. "So, we've got a week?" Stephanie said, tossing herself onto the bed. I chuckled. "No," I taunted. "We've got all the time in the world." She smiled and tossed a pillow at me. I caught it and tossed it back. Not waiting for her reaction, I crept up on and pounced her. She smiled and kissed the tip of my muzzle. I smiled and kissed back. "Let's save that for later." I pouted. "Why not?" "We've still got dinner and dancing." I chuckled. "Are you sure?" She shot me a look. "All right. Let's get going." We all had dinner at one of those fast food restaurants. It wasn't ritzy, but it was quick, cheap, and tasty. Afterwards, we strolled around a bit, looking for a nightclub. "To think," Ashely kept saying. "You'd surely find a nightclub or dance hall in a town like this." Her complaining eventually it got to me. "Well Ashley," I said. "You can't expect to have everything, now can you?" She smirked and kept walking. We rounded a corner and ran smack into.....a night club. She looked at me and smirked again. "You should lose your cool more often," she taunted. I growled and we headed for the enterance. The bouncer there quickly stopped us as we approached. "Hold it," he said. "Are you on the list?" I gave him a quick once over. He was a grizzly, so it'd be pointless to argue with him. "It depends," I said. "Who is?" He grinned. "Probably not you." He pointed to a long line down the side of the building and around the corner. "End of it." I nodded. "C'mon girls, let's go." Stephanie looked at me. "What?!" "Let's not piss the man off," I said with a wink. "Let's go." She caught on and nodded. We started to the end of the line. As soon as we reached the side alley, I grabbed the girls' arms and pulled them in. "What are we doing?" Ashley asked. I smirked and removed a lock pick from my wrist box. "Breaking an entering." She looked shocked. "What?! That'll tarnish my record!!!" I smirked. "Either that or we face off with the bouncer." She winced. "Okay. Go ahead." I picked the lock and we all snuck in. The club was alive with activity. All sorts of lights were flashing. The band was playing something pleasing to the ears (i.e. it wasn't rap or hiphop or something of the sort). We found and empty table and sat down. "Nice place," Ashley said. "Gives ya that homely feeling." I chuckled. She knew how to wield sarcasm well. A young doe came up to us. She kinda remined me of Mary back on HQ. "What can I get y'all?" she asked. I blinked. She had a southern accent? That was too uncanny. "A glass of your finest Vodka," Suzie replied. "Your hardest ale," Amber added. "A glass of red wine," Ashley said. "White wine here," Stephanie responded. They all looked at me. Boy, didn't I feel foolish. "A Bloody Mary," I said. The doe smiled. "Two problems: One, I ain't getting into no fights. And two...." "It's not that time of month," I finished. She blinked. "Boy, you're good." I shruged. "That one's been played from where I come from." She smiled and went to fetch our drinks. The others looked at with questioning looks. "You know the waitress at the Pub back at HQ?" I asked. The ones who knew nodded. "Doesn't that waitress look and act vaguely in the same way?" Stephanie laughed. "Coincidence. Don't knock it." I chuckled and dismissed the incident. We had just finished our drinks when the band began to play. The crowd on the floor dispersed, revealing the multi-colored dance floor (Saturday Night Fever, anyone?). "What do you think's going on?" Suzie asked. I shrugged and continued to watch. The crowd divided again to let a tiger couple pass through. The male looked at the band and nodded. The band started to play a really harsh music and the couple started to dance. Now, I don't mean to be insulting any tribes or their dances (they were doing some sort of tribal dance), but it really sucked! Plain and simple. The couple could not dance. "Heh," Stephanie said. "We could dance better than that." Suzie laughed and looked at me. "Heck, WE could do a better job Crash." That started Ashley up. "That's not a half bad idea! Crash, Suzie, why don't you go down there and make them look foolish." I chuckled. "They're doing a fine job themselves. Besides, Steph's the only dance partner I need." Suzie smiled. "C'mon. It'll be fun." I hesitated and looked at Stephanie. "Go on. I won't mind." I smiled weakly and looked at Suzie. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked. She grabbed my hand and got up. "Let's go," she said. We reached the floor just as the couple were taking bows to a fake round of applause (trust me, it was fake). "Well," I told Suzie. "Let's go." We took a step onto the floor. Instantly, we became the center of attention, with everyone looking at us. "No stopping now," Suzie said. We made our way to the couple. "How dare you disrespect us like this," the male growled, sounding superior to us. Confidentially, he wasn't superior to a speck of dust. "What do you want?" Suzie stepped up. "We just wanted to see if we could dance as well as you two." I smirked. "Nice cover," I whispered to her. She smiled. The tigress looked us over. "A wolf and a skunk want to see if they can dance as well as us?" We nodded. She smirked. "You're not even the same species! What makes you think you can do better than us?" I shrugged. "Hey, we're just curious. "Okay, I can go for that." She wasn't as stuck up as her friend, but she still was arrogant. "What do you plan on dancing to?" I looked at Suzie, who just shrugged. "Well, we didn't have anything in mind, so...." "Be ready then." She grabbed her man by the shirt collar and dragged him over to the band. "Is it just me, or are they gonna pull the dirty on us?" I asked Suzie. "You got that feeling too?" The band started to play shortly after. "Tonight, I'm gonna have myselfa real good time," the singer started. It sounded horrible. He was only warming up his vocal cords, thank the Guardians. "Shit." I knew which song they were about to play. "Crash, I know that song. What're we gonna do?" "Just follow my lead and do exactly as I say. Understand?" "Yes." I looked over to the band. The singer shrugged. I nodded and took a step back from Suzie. "Here we go." I winked. She giggled. "Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time," the singer sang. As he did, I slowly razed my hand up to Suzie. "I feel ali-i-i-i-ive!" She caught on and did the same thing. "And the world, is turning inside out." I pulled her closer, causing her to twirl. "I'm floating around in extacy..." I shall spare you the gruesome details (mostly because I don't know how toput whatever the hell it was we did into words). All I can really say is that we felt like fools out there. We were dancing to a song that was NOT meant to be danced to. By the last few notes of the song, both our faces were red. We were blushing THROUGH our fur. I looked into her eyes. "I want to crawl into a corner and die," she told me. "Well, move over. You're gonna have company." She smiled. I hear the last few notes being strummed out. "Big finish. Ready?" We were in a classic ballroom dancing position - I just realized how much useless shit I know - and therefor one of her arms was around my waist and one of mine was around her back. "Oh, we shouldn't. That'd piss Stephanie off." "Don't worry about it. She'll understand." "All right." I leaned forward and kissed her. A gasp went up from the group watching. Our lips parted and we looked at each other. "I could go for another one." I smiled. "But Stephanie would NOT understand that one." She smiled and rested her head on my chest. The song was over. The dance was finished. We felt foolish. But, to our surprise, someone started to clap. A second person slowly joined in. Still other added to the clapping until the whole room was deafened by the enthusiasm. We smiled weakly and took bows. The applause was authentic. "We did good," I told Suzie. She smiled. I looked to the band. The tiger couple had split. Their respect, pride, and fame were probably gone. "That was fantastic!" Amber exclaimed as we sat back down at our table. She handed each of us a new drink. "Thank you," I said, taking the drink. I reached over, grabbed Stephanie, and kissed her deeply. "What was that for?" she asked. "For kissin' Suzie down there." "I'm not angry." I smiled and let go of her, letting my hand dangle at my side. She smiled and took it up, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I had fun," Suzie said. "Maybe we can do it again sometime." The band started to play again. "Well," I said. "How about we all go dance for this one?" They all laughed. We left around eleven that night. We had to go out the way we came in, otherwise that bouncer wouldn't be too happy and kill me. "Did we all have fun?" I asked. "Most definately," Ashley responded. "Totally," Amber replied. Stephanie and Suzie remained silent. Stephanie had wrapped my arm around her like a feather boa. Suzie hovered close by, all but holding onto me. Both wore smiles. Whatever I did for them, they were happy about it. "Maybe we can do this tomorrow." "Nah." Ashley said. "We should wait a day. We don't want to OD on it, do we?" I chuckled. "But Ashley, I had fun making that tiger couple look like fools." Suzie giggled. "That was fun." "Well, I say we go in two days. Is that okay?" "Yes it is." "Good." We strolled back to our hotel, ready to sleep for the night.