Hi! I'm the newest (as far as I know) member of this group. You'll probably know who I am sooner or later, but for the time being, I think I'll keep my identity in the dark.

I'm not part of the roleplay, I'm just a community contributor.

And an avid writer though, so enjoy this little oneshot ;)

Also, there's no official ship name for Aru and Aiden, so let's go with Ariden

Post-writing edit: who am I kidding, this ain't little. It's 1900-ish words composed over less than 42 hours, for Parvati's sake.

Maybe I should do more of these...

-𓃰𓃰𓃰-

"Oh, c'mon, Aru, pleaaaseee?" Mini begged her soul sister.

Beg about what, you ask? Well, the Otherworld was hosting a formal for its trainees, which was basically a school dance, but a bit fancier. Like, this time the decorators night actually care about making the colors of the streamers and tablecloths match, for once.

All the Potatoes, minus Aiden, who was helping his mom with something, were all currently hanging out in the front of the museum, and five of them were preoccupied trying to convince the remaining one to attend the dance with them.

"Yeah!" Sheela said from across the room, where she was playing with a small doll Nikita had made her for her birthday. "It'll be fun!"

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah, you should come," Brynne said. "Of course, if they're gonna force me to come, Im'ma force you to come."

Aru rolled her eyes. Oh, joy, she thought.

"And I'll make you all some new and stylish outfits!" Nikita said excitedly.

"What's the worst that could happen, Shah?" Rudy asked.

Aru bit her lip. It was a quiet but persistent memory of the last time she'd attended a school dance that kept resurfacing in her mind's eye, over and over again. She didn't exactly want to go, but how could she explain that?

"Uhhhh," was her brilliant response.

-𓃰-

And so here was the reincarnation of the great and fearsome warrior demigod Arjuna the Triumphant a week and a half later... awkwardly standing in the corner of the huge ballroom where the dance was being hosted.

The music was so loud that Aru could barely hear herself think, let alone hold a conversation. If a song with a drumming part came on, she was almost certain that some traces of the noise would get through to the normal world and people would think it was thunder.

Aru remembered when she was a kid standing at the windowsill as a summer thunderstorm raged over Atlanta. Bright lightning would arc through the grey sky as raindrops made a rhythmic pitter-patter-pitter-patter-pitter-patter noise on the glass. And then, the entire world, it seemed like, would shake with a mighty BOOM!

Most kids would've probably hidden under their blankets and covered their heads with their pillow, but not Aru. She'd always liked thunder and lightning, for some reason. To her, it was like the gods were holding a rock concert. At the time she had come up with that as a little girl, it had seemed cool, but now she decided that she'd rather not envision Indra with an electrical guitar sliding across the stage. Or any other god, for that matter.

She was startled out of her thoughts by Brynne walking up to her and nudging her shoulder with hers. "Aren't you gonna dance, Shah?"

Aru blinked and looked at the dance floor, which was filled with a mob of teens.

"Meh... no."

"Oki," Brynne said cheerfully. "Wanna go raid the snack and refreshments table, then?"

"No?" The way Aru answered, it sounded like a question.

"Your loss. More for me, then." With that, Brynne left, quickly disappearing into the darkness, which was illuminated only with the flashing disco lights, phone screens, and the occasional glow stick.

Aru rubbed her temples. All this noise and bright colors was starting to give her a headache. Scratch that, her brain felt like it was slowly liquefying inside her skull.

She could just imagine what Mini would say to that. Most likely something that ended with 'and then you could DIE!'

Ah, overprotective sisters. They can always be relied on to not desire your brain melting like a popsicle on a hot day.

But she digresses.

In the back of her mind, she wondered how Sohail the chakora bird would handle in this environment. Then she decided that she did not want to know the answer.

A few minutes later, the song changed to a slow one, and someone poked her shoulder. Aru looked up to see Rudy's figure standing in front of her.

"Hey, Shah. Wanna dance?"

Aru's eyes flickered behind his back to see Mini standing alone near the DJ.

"Uh- I'm a bit tired. Maybe you should ask Mini," Aru said. She hoped that Rudy hadn't noticed that she'd barely moved ever since they'd gotten there.

Thankfully, he didn't, and walked off to join Mini. Aru smiled as she saw her sister start to dance with the naga prince.

When she turned around, another boy was standing right behind her.

Aru jumped, then punched Aiden in the arm. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry."

From the barely discernible smirk on his lips, Aru could tell that he wasn't very sorry.

"Yeah, yeah," Aru kept her voice even. "Where have you been, Wifey?"

Aiden rolled his eyes at the nickname. "What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen you around all night. When did you even get here?"

"Eh, ten minutes ago, more or less. I was editing some photos and sort of lost track of time."

That's sad, Aru kind of wanted to say, but she kept her mouth shut. A major accomplishment, given her track record for keeping in snarky remarks.

"Cool," she said instead.

Through the darkness, she could just barely make out his outfit- jeans and a plain long-sleeved shirt with a vest overtop. Shadowfax hung from his neck. It was simple enough, yet Aru still felt a little underdressed in a pair of harem pants that Nikita had made for her and her favorite t-shirt. Her only accessory was Vajra, in bracelet form on her wrist.

"Uh, nice outfit."

"Thanks. Although-" he lowered his voice a tad. "I don't think Nikki approves."

Aru's eyes found the twins on the dance floor with Mini, Rudy, and Brynne. The slow song had ended, replaced with an upbeat pop song that she couldn't remember the name of.

"Yeah... she wouldn't."

Compliment him, Urvashi had said.

Yeah, she dun goofed up on that one... sort of.

The song ended, replaced with yet another slow song.

Aiden's head snapped up at the first few bars.

"You know this song?" Aru asked. She herself had never heard anything like it. The lyrics were in another language- probably Sanskrit, which Aru wasn't yet fluent in- but judging from the tone, it sounded sweet, like a love song. With maybe some sadness thrown in.

Aiden nodded. "My mom- my mom wrote this song. Before she gave up the Otherworld. That's her singing."

Aru listened closer. Strangely, it wasn't too difficult for her to conjure up an image of Malini Acharya, twenty years younger, performing this very song for an audience of gods.

"Do you know what it's about?" Aru asked.

Another nod. "She wrote it after she met my dad, while she was debating giving up the Otherworld for him. It's about love, mainly, but also confliction..."

Aru didn't press. She knew how Malini had turned out, and how much Aiden hated how hurt she'd been, and still was.

"The only reason I know about this song is that it came on the radio," Aiden continued after a short stop.

"I've never heard it," Aru commented.

"That's probably because it was on the Amaravati radio station. Anyway-"

"Whoa, back up a sec. There's an Amaravati radio station?"

Aru could've sworn she saw him smirk. "Yeah. Accessible only by deities and the like. Apparently, they forgot to take my mom off the list of creatures that could access it, and yada, yada, yada."

It didn't sound like a bunch of yada, yada, yada to Aru, but she let it be. Malini's voice still flowed through the room, but there was silence between the two of them.

Until Aiden spoke again. "Um, wanna dance?"

Aru stared at him. She thought she'd misheard something, until he repeated the question.

"I, uh-"

Shiva's underpants, Shah, pull yourself together!

"I can't dance," she blurted out.

Okay, the sixth-grade dance incident was only half the reason she didn't want to go. The other half was that she didn't want to try to dance and end up either actually spraining her ankle or embarrassing herself in front of her friends. Especially Aiden.

"Nonsense," Aiden said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the floor. "It's not rocket science."

I'd rather be set on fire, Aru thought, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. For the first time that night, she was glad for the darkness.

Aiden leaned closer to her. "I once tried to teach Brynne to dance. So, whatever you do, just know that you'll never be half as bad as her, even if you try to."

Aru laughed lightly as he raised their hands and put his other one on her waist. Her skin tingled where his hand touched her shirt. She wasn't well versed in the art of dancing, but she rested her hand on his shoulder, like they did in the movies. Aiden didn't correct her, so she assumed she did at least that right.

"Follow my lead," he instructed. "Right foot forward. No, your other right."

If it was possible, Aru was sure her cheeks darkened even more.

After a while though, she got the hang of it, and she and Aiden glided across the floor. At one point, she spotted Brynne giving her a thumbs-up. At another, she saw Mini and Rudy dancing together again, albeit a bit awkwardly.

Dare she admit it- she was a bit disappointed when the song came to a close. They stopped, though Aiden didn't move his arms. Not that Aru minded that much.

She felt his warm breath on her scalp, and when she looked up, he quickly leaned down and kissed her.

Just like that. Without any hesitation.

The kiss was short, but Aru felt like it could've lasted an eternity.

Aiden broke away and released Aru from his grip. A light briefly flashed on him, letting Aru see his scarlet-red cheeks that now matched her own.

He looked like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth. Instead, he winked at her and slipped away.

Aru stood there frozen for a minute until Vajra literally shocked her back to her senses.

"Dammit, Wifey," she muttered, hurrying off in the direction he had gone, ignoring the loud whistles from Brynne and Mini's quiet giggles at the scene.

Meanwhile, Sheela had seen the whole thing play out. Exactly according to plan. She had foreseen it, after all.

"Once upon a time, Aiden's soul lived within a beautiful and powerful princess who married all five Pandava brothers- which was sometimes strange, but mostly okay, because she got five times the presents of her birthday and anniversary. The only sad thing was that she loved one brother more than all the rest... Even lifetimes later?"