Who taught you how to dance?
The machine beeped as the final scores went down on the screen. A whooping 100297 versus 10874. Crow couldn't help but smirk as Bibi leaned on the bars around the pad, trying to catch her breath.
He nimbly jumped out of the small enclosure as his friend reached for her trusty bat before following him through the colorful arcade.
The bird paused for a moment, weighing his answers.
Bibi snorted with frustration, squishing the pool ball that hanged from Mr. Bat.
"Okay, then why did you learn how to dance"
"Guess, guess, I get it!" She cut him off furiously.
Crow retained a smile as he leaned down to the toy grabbing machine, where Penny was trying to get a dog plushie, and failing miserably.
"Your parents wanted you to be a dancer"
The small girl impatiently put one coin after the other, taking all of them out of her gun. Crow wondered how long it would take for Brock to realize that they were fake.
"You didn't know what to study so you took a random class"
"You wanted to impress your crush"
"And I don't have any more ideas!"
Penny kicked the game in frustration, the dog once again escaping the claw. Those things were rigged to fail anyways, there wasn't really any point in trying.
"You learned because you wanted to, or was it for some else?"
Bibi's lips twitched. The filling in the ball was starting to leak out of her fingers. Penny wasn't helping with her noisy cursing either.
Penny leaned on the pad, and introduced one more coin.
She carefully controlled the claw.
Quickly bouncing from one side to the other, she checked the prize from all the corners
"So, someone was helping you prepare for something"
"But it wasn't related to actually dancing, was it?"
Her face was almost touching the glass. She couldn't tell, but her tongue was peeping out of her mouth. With meticulousness, the claw got placed right above the dog.
"Part of your training as an assassin?"
The stuffed animal made a squishy noise when the claw tightly wrapped its body
Letting out a victorious scream, Penny ran across the arcade calling for Jessie, swinging her treasure around.
Bibi was dumbfounded. "Are you serious? I was joking!"
"Very" He replied, trying his hardest not to break into laughter at the sight of her face.
Leaning on the now very battered clawing machine, her fury was replaced by pure confusion.
She tilted her head "But what does dancing have to do with- You know what"
She stormed off, accidentally bumping into the love birds that were fawning over the toy. Still they were too excited to notice it.
Crow chuckled to himself, feeling a bit relieved. Maybe this wasn't the most efficient way to open up to them, but it was something.
He started to amble towards the entrance of the arcade. But he wasn't there anymore.
The flashy arcade carpet had been replaced by moldy grey tiles. The lively music had turned into the soft melody of the wind. The blinding lights gave way into the clarity of the full moon.
And the shadow of the cold but familiar mansion welcomed him as he paced towards the entrance.
