Chapter: 7
The Dance

    The next morning, Ash was woken by the sound of a phone ringing.  He reflexively grabbed the object and made as if to answer before noticing it was Jenny’s cellphone.  He ran to the closet and pulled the suit out, which read his intention and detached the head.  Jamming it on, aligning the features as quickly as he could, he opened the phone and said in her voice “Hello?”
“Hi.”  Gary, of course. “Hope I didn’t wake you.”
Jenny found herself brushing her hair back self-consciously and Ash stopped “it’s OK.  What’s going on?”
“I’d like to see you on the hill overlooking the town, is an hour long enough.”
“More than enough, see you there.”
    Ash pulled the head off and stored it back in the closet.  After having breakfast and “leaving for work” Ash went back upstairs and put the suit back on, Pikachu doing the same with her vulpix costume.  Jenny decided that a pokeball print dress with a bow on the back and skirt down to mid calf would be good for today.  Pulling it on, she brushed her hair and put Vulpix on her shoulder.  As she reached the top of the hill, she noticed Gary, sitting on the ground.  She sat down next to him and pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them.  “Hi.”
Gary looked out into the distance “hi.”
“What’s so absorbing?”
Gary looked over at her, and those big luminous eyes “I was just trying to think of the best way to ask this, but I suppose there’s no easy way for a guy to do this.”  He half-smiled and said, “Dance, tonight, wanna?”
While Ash was cursing himself for not remembering the League Dance, and hoping Duplica could cover for him, Jenny was giving Gary a long kiss.
“I’ll take that as a yes.  It’s a fancy dress party this year, and I’d like your opinion on some of the details.  My stuff is at the lab.”
“Let’s go.”
    They got up and walked back into Pallette town.  Ash was still cursing his luck that Gary would ask him to this dance, but realizing it was inevitable.  The League dance was where all the higher-ranking members of the Gyms and organizations met to have fun together, as a change from all those meetings they had to endure.  Frequently, battles would break out in the middle, though never for any stakes higher than the next drink.  When they arrived at the lab, Gary left her in a room with a “wait here” and hurried off into another.  Ash noted that this was the more residential area of the lab, where Gary and the Professor actually lived, although it was rumored that the Professor hadn’t slept one night out of twenty in this area for thirty years.  He’d never been in Gary’s room, and was curious, though perhaps looking like this; he’d best not enter the bedchambers of his beloved.  Getting that low of an opinion of Gary in his head cleared it for a while, and he found only a little of the loving cloud that had choked off his connection to his senses now.  That way, unfortunately, left him vulnerable to almost losing his control and laughing as an anthro arcanine entered the room.  It was so clumsy with all the bits of fur flying around, which would normally be flowing out of the way on the pokemon.  It took its head off and Gary said, “Maybe I should show you plan B.”
Ash allowed Jenny a giggle and replied, “perhaps you should.”
Gary went out and soon after, came back as an anthro umbreon, with humanlike white hair on its head down to the shoulders.  Ash whistled appreciatively and said, “much better.  Sleek, but strong, much more your sort of thing.”
Gary pulled the head off and said, “The rings even glow in the dark.”
“Nice.”
“I’ve got something for you, if you’d like to try it on.”
“If it’s half as good as yours, I’ll take it now.”
Gary handed Jenny a box and Ash almost began stripping in front of him, but stopped himself long enough to allow Gary to walk out and close the door.  He pulled the dress off and for good measure everything else, then opened the box.  Inside was a familiar creamy white; a morph version of what he’d been wearing the first time he dealt with pokemon husbandry.  Duplica again.  He found the zipper in front this time, and pulled it down to reveal the same material that was in all of her work.  He sat down and repeated the ritual he’d gotten used to by now, pulling the legs up, standing, giving it a good tug to make sure things were all on tight.  Putting his arms in the holes, though, he found that this costume had more maneuverable hands, and he had no trouble pulling the zipper up.  Picking up the head, he found several things on the bottom of the muzzle he’d never seen before, but figured he knew the meaning of the one on the base.  The humanlike hair, just a little darker than the fur, reached all the way down to the base of the tail, and he was careful not to get it caught in the neck.  He was correct about the one part, as he pulled the zipper just a little bit further into the muzzle, locking it in place and pulling a flap over to conceal it.  He looked in a mirror and scanned himself over, appreciating every nuance.  The rather cute teenage girl had been replaced by an elegant and slightly sensual ninetails morph.  The curves of his Jenny suit had been enhanced, and the tails just increased that impression in the way they were arranged.  When he was satisfied it was all perfect, he opened the door to find Gary right in front.  Gary took one look at the new appearance of his girlfriend and wolf whistled, “that’s incredible.”
Jenny put her hands to her face, turning it slightly in an embarrassed gesture, her words unintelligible through the mask of the costume.
“One moment, I found something that might help that.  Open your mouth.”  Ash complied and Gary twisted a hidden knob on the muzzle, opening it somewhat.  “Now try.”
“What did that do?”  Jenny asked, as the mouth of the costume opened and closed with her words. “Ah, never mind.”
“It’s a couple hours yet to the party, anything you want to do?”
Jenny looked Gary over “I think we’d both better get ready for the party.  I for one have to find a decent dress with a tail hole.  With these paws, gloves and shoes are out of the question, although...”
“These are our clothes, we don’t need evening dress.”
“This is an official dance, and besides, that umbreon outfit would look great with a tuxedo.”
Gary closed his eyes for a moment and said, “Fine, we’ll meet outside the lab a half-hour before the dance to pick up the limo.”
“Right.  Well, see you.”
Gary stepped forward “wait, don’t you want to take off that suit first.  It’s hot out there, and what if someone recognizes you?”
Jenny put a hand on her hip, “no one will recognize me in this, and the heat won’t bother me, this thing has a cooling system.”
“How do you know that?”
“Trust me, I know.”
    Ash walked back home and scaled the lattice under his window.  Collapsing onto his bed, he undid the costume head, then the head of his Jenny suit and pulled both off.  “This is getting hard.”
Pikachu extricated herself from the vulpix costume and leaped onto his chest.  “I get a feeling it won’t last much longer.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You may be a gentleman, and Gary the same under normal circumstances, but the League dance has a tradition that certain things are done between dates there that you don’t know about because you were never old enough to find out.  I know because I overhear things, and Gary knows because he listens to gossip and you don’t.  Gary believes himself old enough, and this action, even its intent, keeps up your end to the Professor and you’re free to go when he tries.”
“You mean–“
“Yes.”
“Oh, no.”
    Ash put Pikachu down next to him and swung his legs onto the floor "I'd best get that dress picked out.  Her and my big mouth."  He went to the closet and programmed in an ornate red gown of leather and silk.  Trying it on, he said "nice, but I could do better."  After half an hour, he'd narrowed it down to the red one and a light blue chiffon.  Looking at himself with the female anthro ninetails body in the mirror with one on and then the other, he turned to Pikachu "any opinion?"
"The blue looks better to me."
"Right, then."
    Ash stripped everything off and put his trainer's outfit on.  There was a lot to do this evening, and he was sure his mind and body would appreciate the respite of some TV and video games about now.  Delila was watching Golden Girls, which he enjoyed, but was not in the mood to pay total attention to.  He went over to the computer in the corner and brought up Magestorm, which though it was almost a decade old now, was still really good.  He split his mind between listening to the show and playing the game, not difficult since they were totally separated abilities as long as the speakers were off, and let out a sigh of relief to be doing something almost normal.  He who was the leader was on, and Ash let out a groan, not again.  That man was the only person he’d ever met who took stonewall at fifteen and pulled it off.  Ash preferred a wizard or eldritch, but those fell easily to the tactics of seal and drain.  Ash switched to a mentalist and was only partially beaten, while more experienced players dealt with the walling cleric.  He fell into the rhythm so much, he barely noticed as two hours went by, and his mom was mildly surprised and puzzled to see her son suddenly jump out of his chair and run upstairs muttering under his breath
Since he still had a half-hour, Ash didn't have to rush too much, but he didn't have much time to admire the view in his mirror.  The Jenny suit fixed its own hair after he put it on, but his ninetails outfit wasn't an automatic, and its hair was a mess after being thrown in the closet so carelessly.  Not sure what to do, Ash thought a moment, it would be annoying to have to brush out hair that long attached to him if he didn't have to.  He remembered seeing a movie where one of the actresses had a stand for such things, and brushed wigs that she put on it.  Leaving that for the moment, he got the Jenny suit and the rest of the ninetails outfit on.  He then programmed the closet to create the closest thing to a wigmakers dummy he could think of and put the mask on it.  He found that the hair brushed much more easily that way, and after five minutes, he had it on, locked in and adjusted.  She noticed that the costume was a little loose in certain places and a little tight in others.  Figuring Gary would barely notice the minimal improvements to her figure this would cause, she thought 'computer' and imagined the changes, which had the desired effect.  He put the dress on, which needed to be redone after his figure changes, and picked up Pikachu, who'd been ready for fifteen minutes.  With a coquettish twirl and a blown kiss to the mirror, Jenny went to meet her dance date.
Gary was already dressed and outside the lab, waiting for Jenny to arrive.  The evenings were starting to get cold now, but that barely mattered inside the suit.  If anything, it was too warm in there, and promised to get warmer as Jenny arrived, and he couldn’t help but stare.  He was almost ready to bet money that she’d only gotten more beautiful over the last couple hours.  Aware that Gary was staring at him, Ash took his arm and led him to the door of the cab.  “Ready for a fantastic night?”
“You bet I am.  I was leery at first, but that dress certainly brings out your looks.”
Jenny slid closer to him “the same goes for you.”
    They arrived to find themselves the most done up people at the party.  Many of the League members were notorious for being too busy to do anything but last minute preparations, too embarrassed that they’d make fools of themselves or uncaring of costuming and just wanting to party.  There were a few exceptions like Blaine, who tended to take the opportunity to make a total ass of himself, and Duplica, who couldn’t turn down a chance to show off.  When they joined the League, Misty had made sure to circulate that under no circumstances was Ash to be challenged to do a good costume.  He usually did something lame and hackneyed, but Misty and Delila remembered the time a couple years back when Gary had made that challenge and Ash came as... well, even he didn’t like remembering it.  Ash noticed that Duplica had replaced him in the pokemon professor outfit he was going to use, and felt a little guilty that he’d forgotten to tell her.  Of course she knew, though, since she had given Gary the costumes they were wearing now, and she always came to parties like this anyway.  If all went well, this would be a rare occasion in which her audience was kept in the dark about who she was this time.
    After an hour of dancing, Jenny hadn’t even broken into a sweat, although she was feeling very warm towards Gary, who thought she hadn’t noticed how he was getting closer and closer during their dances.  During a faster number, Gary swung her out, and when he went to pull her in, she jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist, and pressing him into a muzzle-to-muzzle kiss.  Neither could feel the other’s lips, but it was having the desired effect nonetheless, and Gary soon dropped all pretenses and dragged the weakly protesting Jenny into a side room she hadn’t noticed.  Ash figured that Gary had used a pocket dimension door to create this bedroom-like mansion in the middle of a dance hall, but Jenny didn’t care.  She locked the door behind them and pushed Gary down onto the bed, following on top of him.  After ineffectually trying to stop her master from going further, Pikachu sat down on the floor to watch and see if he’d get himself out before things got any more serious.
    Ash was clawing at his consciousness, trying to break back into his motor functions.  He’d been locked out again, dammit!  What was this inanimate object playing at?  He was stuck, the only way to stop this thing now would be to pit his mind against its servos and telekinetically stop it.  After that, he could override it while moving himself like a puppet.  The problem was, Gary would undoubtedly notice a psionic burst like that.  The hell with it, Gary might not let him live it down, but he’d figure out how to deal with that later, his bargain with the Professor had ended the moment Gary took him in here.  With a blast of mental energy, he stopped his body, which had been just about to undo some latches he hadn’t noticed down lower and wrenched its behavioral circuits off.  With some difficulty shifting limbs, he got up off the bed and turned towards Gary, hoping that perhaps he hadn’t noticed.  “I’m sorry, I’m just not ready.”
Gary sighed “you can stop pretending, Ash.”
Damn.  He took off the ninetails mask and then the Jenny one.  “That psychic burst gave me away?”
“Ha, ha, haaaa.  Right.”  Gary said sarcastically, pulling his umbreon mask off “Ash, you’re neither an actor nor an actress.  You made a convincing girl sometimes, but mostly, you were you even though you hid yourself under a rather thin veil of femininity.  Do you think I’m an idiot?  Asking the questions you always wanted to, not being surprised at anything I told you about the transcendents, beating the crap out of a metalevel with a vulpix by inventing attacks.  You slipped so many times it’s not even worth trying to go through the entire list.  Sufficed to say that I gave Jenny the benefit of the doubt until this morning, but that display in the gym was way too much.  You took a dive, but you fought far too well before that.”
Ash bent down to pick up the two masks “I’ll slip out then.  No point in prolonging this, I’ve done my job.”
“Grandpa put you up to this?”
“Yep.”
    As Ash went to put the masks back on, Gary grabbed him.  In a more tender tone, he said, “I never said I didn’t enjoy it” and put his arm around Ash and gently kissed him.  Ash had been through enough today, and bolted for the door, scrabbling at the lock.  Just before he got the door open, Gary cast a quick invisibility spell on Ash out of pity, used his mind to push the zipper down and pulled the costume off him.  Ash didn’t notice as he ran out, still Jenny from the neck down, though without any clothes on.  Gary closed the door again, sure that the only person who saw Ash was Duplica, who’d been discretely watching.  He sat down on the bed chuckling, though a tear rolled down his cheek.  It had been fun, and he’d sure got Ashy-boy at the end.  He did want to go on, but Ash had his own problems, and Gary had grown up enough to realize that it would be too much to try and get Ash to go out with him too.  But, he thought, pulling off the umbreon costume, that didn’t mean he couldn’t have fun.  He pulled on a sports bra, a corset and a few other things before squeezing into the ninetails costume and pulling the Jenny mask on.  The voice still worked, a relief, and the mask for the ninetails costume was already calibrated for it.  Jenny would have a few more dances, explain that her boyfriend had left early, and that she’d better go and see if he was all right, and leave herself.  The next morning, he found the rest of the Jenny suit pushed through his window.
Author’s note: OK, OK!  By the end I couldn’t restrain my “fast paced” half and just capped it off like I always do.  Sosumi!  I finally have everything in place for my BR and I’m feeling good.