You'll never guess who I ran into!

Esmerelda leaned over, with a sharp glare. The little shit! She sped up, catching up towards him, determined not to let him win... She would play clean. For now... Hrm... She needed to pick up some speed though... maybe losing some weight would help?... She reached over and, forming a blade from the darkness around her, slashed at the other seats in the car before tendrils handily grabbed them and threw them out.

Yes, she thought as her car began picking up speed, closing the gap on Shinya, much better.

One thing Shinya couldn't learn about cars in arcade games was the use of side and rear view mirrors. He didn't know the purpose of them so he ignored them. Aaaand ignored the fact that Esmerelda's car was quickly coming up from behind. He figured he'd get a warning light when someone was gonna try and pass him.

This will bite him in the ass shortly.

All that was on the Arrancar's mind was that he's gonna win. Soon his fraccion came into view and soon enough he'd circle around him and head back. Shinya was so excited to see how far behind Esmer was that he didn't even think she'd be directly behind him already! Uh oh!

Esmer came in close, almost close enough to sideswipe Shinya's car as she pulled up along side him. She was on the outside of where they'd have to turn, but that was okay. She didn't get into this many races without knowing a FEW tricks. She wondered if the racing games Shinya had played even HAD drifting. She wasn't going to count on them not though.

She turned the wheel and spun the car around. It looked like someone with the front end of the car on a string had just swung it in a half circle as she pulled a 180 around the fraccion and took off like a shot, gaining ground on Shinya as she hauled ass back the way they'd came.

And just like that, she passed him!

She was right in assuming that Shinya's games haven't taught him how to drift, which was true. Shinya swerved around his fraccion, taking a wide circle which allowed Esmer to shoot past him, much to his surprise. "Whoa!" He exclaimed, then grinned. This was getting interesting! He was beginning to think Esmerelda was taking it easy on him since it was his first time racing in a car, but she was just waiting to make her move!

"Hahahaa! This is great!" Shinya yells as he floors the pedal to shoot off after her. She gained herself about a ten second lead which Shinya was happy to try and close that distance rapidly! He fell in line behind Esmer to draft her to prepare to overtake her but there wasn't much time for that either so he'd have to make his move in the next few seconds if he wants to win..!

Esmer looked in the rearview mirror with a smug smile. He could speed up however much he liked, but there was no amount of speed on earth that would let him pass her if she stayed in front of him. It was a douchebag tactic but she wanted to win and, well... she was a douchebag. Hurrahs all around.

Of course, as she approached the finish line, it turned out that the world was also a douchebag. Some wind blew the sand off of a bump in front of her, giving her far too little time to react. There was a jagged rock sticking vertically up.

"OH." Was all she had time to say before the rock caught on her axles, decimating them and pulling it up with her. The car skidded aside, axle pieces flying off of it before rolling.

Esmer sat, still buckled in the car, but upside down now. What...What the hell?

"Lucky!" Shinya exclaimed, not worried for her safety as if such a thing could harm her she wouldn't be an Espada. He zoomed on past her to the finish line, where his fraccion waved him in as the winner. He then turned around and rode back to where Esmer wrecked. Climbing out the car and getting down on all fours to peer into Esmer's vehicle, Shinya asked her the obvious: "Hey! What happened? You had me beat!"

It was true. With the way Esmerelda was driving, Shinya couldn't get around her and would've lost the race had it not been for a freak accident.

Esmer took a long... SLOOOW breath.. not gonna get mad... Just... She slowly reached up and unbuckled her seat belt, dropping to the roof. She groaned and crawled out of the car, standing up and dusting some of the dirt off of her. "I... Hit a rock... whatever." She sighed, more than a little sullen that she'd lost and turned to face away from him arms crossed.

"WELL. Congratulations." She said coldly.

Surprised by the cold reception he received, Shinya's shoulders drooped a bit. Was it really that upsetting to lose in a real life race? If so.. maybe he won't wanna do this again for a while. Or maybe it was something he did? Shinya couldn't think of anything he did wrong but Esmerelda was clearly upset with him.

"Y'know what? Let's just call the whole bet off.. you don't need to play with me or anything like that." Shinya said after a long pause of thought. "I like you better when you're smiling.. so I guess I'll go now.."

With that said, Shinya opened a Garganta to his room and stepped through, closing it behind him. He didn't have any hard feelings about it, so he hoped Esmer wouldn't either. He guessed only time would tell.

Esmerelda looked over her shoulder, wondering what he was talking about. They'd stolen two cars and drag raced them through the desert and now he didn't even want what he bet on? She turned around to follow him only for him to shut the garganta. "H-Hey!" Well that was.. She.. She wasn't that upset... She just didn't like losing...

She pursed her lips. Well she was free of the bet, right? But he was all mopey... She felt... kind of bad. She sighed and opened a garganta, following through to his palace where they'd been before leaving. "Heeyyyy? Shinyaaaa? Where'd you go! You won, I have to play with you now. I don't want out of the bet, I'm just a sore loser is all..." She sighed and slumped her shoulders a little.

"Sore loser..?" Shinya repeated, blinking as he turned around to hear Esmerelda's voice somewhere nearby. Leaving his room, Shinya followed her voice until he finally came across Esmer again. "I thought you were angry at me for something.. that's why I left." He told her, resting his head against his palm.

"But really, you don't have to if you don't want to.. I realize that you've got things you wanna do as well, right?" Shinya spoke up after a moment of silence, smiling at her. "So last chance! Give up the bet or be doomed to play with me!"

Esmerelda turned to see Shinya come in and gave a little half smile, still feeling a little bad at how she'd upset him. "No. I was angry at that rock maybe, but I wasn't angry at you for winning when you did it completely fair." She was also angry at herself, but she didn't make a habit of admitting things like that.

She shook her head and walked up to him, crossing one arm over to hold her other one. She gave him a little smile. "I accept my fate. What shall the game be, sir?" She asked with a teasing little smirk at the word Sir.

Thinking about it, Shinya sat down crosslegged as he hrm'd aloud. He didn't actually expect her to say she'd do it so this left him in a rather confused spot at the moment. Should he just pick any game and just enjoy it with her? Or should he pick a game he's not good at to practice with her? They all were really tough choices!

"I'm.. not sure! I didn't actually think that far ahead!" Shinya laughed innocently, scratching the back of his head. "Any ideas?"

She sighed. She should have guessed. She leaned backwards, her shadows rising up to form a seat for her to fall into, lifting up a bit to allow her to lounge in it almost like a hammock, one leg crossed over the other.

"Well don't look at me. I haven't played children's games in over 600 years. And I hardly doubt you would enjoy the sorts of games I tend to occupy myself with." They tended to be rather bloody or rather carnal, depending on the game and the players.

"Booo.. that's no help!" Shinya replied, puffing out his cheeks as he pouted. He was hoping she'd have an idea for a game they could play but she just pushed it back onto him! That's cheating, right?! Right. "Hmm.. how about Dance Dance Revolution?"

That was a game he wasn't great at but passable at. He could keep up with the Corona with it but he'd never be able to match her score in it.. not without lots of practice. "That's pretty fun! You step on these arrow things to match up to the ones on the screen." Shinya explains with a happy smile.

She raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, I actually know that game.. RATHER well." She said, her lips parting into a grin as she slipped from her makeshift hammock and stood up. "If that's what you like to play, I'd be more than happy to." She said with a playful tone to her voice.

"Lead the way and we can play." She said with another mischievous grin. She flicked her wrist and her shadow enveloped her. Instead of forming her normal stealth suit, she formed the same general material, but only covering her where a pair of gym shorts and a workout shirt would. "I think this will be suitable for such an active game." She said, all too happy to tease Shinya.

Blushing, Shinya nodded and led the way to the Corona's area where she keeps her DDR machines. He was allowed there as long as he didn't cause trouble, which.. this is Shinya we're talking about. Normally the boy wouldn't harm a fly. Anyway, Shinya sat his large blade aside and walked over to the latest machine.

"This one's the newest one and I'm pretty okay at it." Shinya explains as he stretches a bit to limber up. "They're all on free play mode so you don't have to waste money trying to play. Do you wanna pick the first song or should I?"

Esmerelda looked around, nose twitching as if she were sniffing the place, sort of a display of her curiosity. She'd never been allowed in the DDR area herself... She trusted Shinya that she wouldn't get in trouble, but it was still all new to her.. She followed him to the machine and gave a low "ooooooh" upon seeing it. "It looks very nice." She said with a little nod.

Hmm... "Why don't you go first?" She suggested. She didn't really know what she wanted to do... But letting him pick a song would help set the tone of how she could tease him.

Nodding to her, Shinya stepped up on the machine and hit the button to start it. He cycles through the songs, pondering over what to start with as he's decent at this game but he can't hold a candle to the Corona. Picking a song that she enjoyed previously, Shinya began his game. Judging by his footwork and overall skill with the song.. Shinya has potential to be pretty good, but he relies more on reaction than feeling the beat.

Once the song was over, Shinya stepped down with a blush. He had tripped himself up a few times trying to react to the quicker arrows and only saved himself from taking a tumble from reaction speed alone. "Ehehehe.. that wasn't my best performance.." He admitted with a sheepish smile. "Let's see what you can do, Esmerelda!"

Esmerelda watched him on the machine, noticing his footwork. Hm. He had good reflexes but he didn't really seem to feel the flow of it. No rhythm, really. Still, he was pretty good. She wasn't THE most skilled at the game but she was pretty good. She had a few.. advantages on her side. "Sure thing!" She said with a sly grin when he stepped down. She got up to the machine and picked one of the harder songs, almost immediately. She didn't know the song, but that wouldn't matter TOO much.

Once it began she went into a flurry. Her footwork was fairly good. Good enough that one would have to be watching her feet intently to notice an oddity. Occasionally, her feet more graced a panel than touched it. And very seldomly, while he feet were touching one panel or another, they wouldn't QUITE reach one. This was of course because her shadow happened to fall on the platform and she could press any of the buttons with a thought.

But she was close enough that one really would need to be watching her feet to catch that. When she finished, she didn't have a perfect, but she's gotten a rather solid score. She reached up to wipe a bit of the sweat from her forehead. "Well. That was fun." She said with a light huff.

Shinya, bless the poor arrancar, wasn't watching her feet like he probably should've. Instead, he was watching her dance and was entranced by her apparent ease at which she was doing this hard song with.

...

...

OKAY OKAY, he was staring at her butt the entire time! Happy now?! He didn't mean to! Honest, he didn't! It's just that he was watching her footwork, then happened to look up and her booty caught his attention. It was so round and soft looking.. HE COULDN'T LOOK AWAY! Shinya blushed and clapped after she finished like he was paying attention. "Awesome! You're really good!" He praises her, glad his pants was kinda-sorta hiding his little shinya trying to stand at attention. He mentally willed it down for now, taking a deep breath in relief that she didn't spot that.

"Okay, I'll do a hard song this time!" Shinya exclaimed as he moved to take Esmer's place. He cycled through the songs to a hard one he liked to play with the Corona, then paused. "Wanna do it with me?" He asked it so innocently, unaware of the double meaning those words could hold for some people.

Esmerelda, quite aware of where the other espada was looking and crossed her arms with a very slight, but devious, chuckle as he praised her. "Well, I do my best." She said with a shrug, as if it were no big deal. Granted, she WAS pretty good at this game, but taking pride when you cheated tended to get you caught. She was about to sit down and watch him do a harder song when he asked THAT.

She snorted, keeping in laughter. Going by his tone, he had no idea what he'd said. That was fine. She shook her head with a smile. "Not likely." She whispered to herself under her breath before standing up and approaching the platform.

"Why I would love to!" She said, happy to indulge him in this.

Happily, Shinya selected the song for them to dance to and started the game once she was ready. This particular song was a fairly hard one for Shinya as he has no rhythm and was only reacting to the arrows on screen. As one might guess, this can take him only but so far and he was beginning to show signs of frustration with the song.

Shinya, after the song was over was having mixed feelings. One one hand he did have fun with Esmerelda.. on the other, he also lost in the process. "Aww man.. I just can't get good at this game!" Shinya pouted, wanting to kick the machine but knew better as Sarai tended to hear such things and he didn't want a stern talking to to go with his loss. "Is it just practice I need, Esmerelda?"

Esmerelda found this song easier than the last one. Which was good because she didn't want to risk even the very subtle cheating she'd done when he was dancing next to her. It was all fun and games, but she still wasn't too sure about his emotional maturity. So she wasn't sure that wouldn't be a big deal to him... Still, Esmerelda DID have a good sense of rhythm and did well at the song, though not as well as her solo effort.

She sighed, pulling her hair back into a ponytail (tying it off with a little length of shadow, of course) and leaning against the rail on the back of the platform. "Don't beat yourself up. It takes practice. Plus you need to relax. Feel the rhythm and all that. Be more in touch with the song, yeah?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. But how do I feel the rhythm? What do I do?" Shinya asked curiously, staring at Esmer as if she was the great teacher of DDR. ...Well, at least one of them. "I like the game, it's fun! But I'd really, really wish I could get better at it. So any other tips would be great Esmerelda!"

Shinya leaned against the rail as well, waiting to hear her advice. He wanted to get good at the game so the Corona would have a good dance partner for when she felt like playing in the human world. Though, that wasn't the only reason.. he's just also very stubborn when it comes to things he doesn't get and tries to bruteforce his way through them, which doesn't always work. Okay, it never works.

Esmer slowly frowned, an odd awkward little frown. "Uhhh..." Her mouth opened crooked in a little cringe. She... Well she knew a few ways to try and teach him how to feel the rhythm, they just... Well.. They were all sort of .... physical...

Esmerelda suddenly blushed, considering her responses to that. With how she was acting, well... She could hardly expect him NOT to do something awkward in a situation like that. Just... He was so childlike. It was cute, but it made it.. odd to say the least when he oggled her...

"Well.. I could try and show you, it just... might involve a bit of touching..." She quietly crossed her arms, glancing away.