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merryfortune · 1 year

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(I’m Not) Scared of Dancing in the Dark

Written for Femslash February 2023

Prompt: Dark

Title: (I'm not) Scared of Dancing in the Dark

Ship: Eriko/Hinata

Fandom: Healin’ Good Pretty Cure

Rating: T

Word Count: 1,988

Tags: Established Relationship, LGBTQ Themes

“So how about it?” Hinata asked over text. “Do you want to come with?”

Eriko stared at her phone. The invitation did look nicely presented, even if it did come in the form of a CureBook link and CureBook was so lame these days. The poster was glossy and corporate, mostly blue in the colour palette with anime style drawings on it to visualise the dance floor and that sort of thing. In the middle of it, bold lettering, it listed the who, what, when, and where of the party that Hinata was inviting her to.

“It’ll be, like, totally safe.” Hinata added after a moment passed and Eriko hadn’t replied yet. “All chaperoned and stuff.”

Obviously, Eriko wanted to reply to Hinata. It was a blue light disco at a youth club down in the main part of Sukoyaka, it couldn’t have been safer in theory but even so. Eriko felt her stomach stir in a very bad way.

“I’ll have to ask my parents.” Eriko finally texted back, diplomatically.

She still wasn’t sure if she wanted to go or not. She was kind of, really hoping that her parents would say no and that’d make saying no to Hinata so much easier because she didn’t have an excuse. She had a boundary set by her parents that she had to respect.

It was so out of the way, after all. Six PM on a Saturday, in the next town over. Surely it would be too much of a hassle for her parents to go through just for, like, three hours worth of a dweeby teen party at a youth club.

But... Apparently not.

In fact, her parents thought it was a great idea. Especially now that she was friends with Hinata again. They used to be so close. Such a good friends. They were really happy that she and Hinata had mended up over the lost time and lost connection. It was really, truly great that they were best friends.

Heh. Yeah. Best friends.

Try… girlfriends.

Okay, well, not really. Eriko would be mortified to say that word aloud. She wasn’t like Hinata. She wasn’t born always knowing and happy enough with that with really, super accepting parents. Eriko wasn’t even sure if she was accepting of herself and her own sexuality.

Her parents were… fine about that sort of thing. They would vote to allow same-sex marriage but anything beyond that, they didn’t really get. Like her Mum didn’t get the whole transgender or gender X thing, for example, and her Dad had really come around the bend for the most part ever since he found a respected coworker was gay.

So it seemed probable that they would accept her for being a lesbian, she didn’t feel unsafe or anything, and loved them both dearly but at fifteen years old... Eriko just was not ready to test the waters just yet. She wanted to come out when she felt completely and wholly certain about her own identity and all the baggage that would come with it.

Even if she did already have a long distance girlfriend on the downlow.

One she was even getting all dolled up to see in an hour and a half’s time. She put on a modest white dress with spaghetti straps and a skirt that fluttered with lace when she spun with strappy dancing shoes to match. Nothing that would give her blisters later on or be too smutty for the boys, her mother made her promise. Eriko adhered to it as she chose gold bangles and earrings, too.

She sat in the back of the car, more excited than she had been expecting to be. Eriko guessed it was because she was all dressed up with somewhere to go, for once. It was a quiet excitement that once again settled in her stomach but when they finally arrived at the Sukoyaka City Youth Club, it erupted all up through Eriko, especially when she laid eyes on Hinata.

Hinata flagged her and her family’s car down from the kerbside. It was still pretty light out but also kind of dusky with orangey-purple hues hiding behind the city skyline. Hinata was wearing all sorts of chunky and obnoxious bead necklaces to complement a patternless and floaty yellow shirt and her distressed, dark blue jeans. She bounced on her heel and was super excited to see Eriko.

Eriko hadn’t even closed the back door before Hinata bear-hugged her. She snuggled her and dragged her closer to the kerbside. Eriko’s Mum got out of the car and laughed.

“You’d think you hadn’t seen each other in years,” she joked, “we’ll pick you up here at nine o’clock, okay, sweetie.”

“Okay, Mum.” Eriko replied in that very teenager cadence which meant no harm but still sounded condescending.

“And there had better be no boys.” her Dad added from the driver’s seat.

“Not a problem, sir,” Hinata giggled, “it’ll just be me, Eriko, and my friends Chiyu-chi and Nodo-chi, we’ll be together at all times, promise.”

“Have fun, girls.” Eriko’s Mum said before she got back into the car.

Eriko waved her parents off. They were going on a date of her own and she was really glad that they hadn’t mentioned that as that would have been super embarrassing in front of Hinata but once they were gone. So was that initial excitement that Eriko was feeling.

She had come. She had seen. She would really like to go already but there was no way that she could tell Hinata that as the fun had only just begun.

They linked up with Chiyu and Nodoka who were inside already, staking out some place on the edge of the dancefloor for them to sit and keep their stuff. They welcomed Eriko warmly but she always felt awkward. She was Hinata’s friend even though Hinata had been her friend first. Not to mention the whole secret pact of superheroism thing they all had going on. Not that Eriko would mention that, nor was she even meant to know but they weren’t exactly subtle and had saved her bacon before.

The first half an hour or so, probably more, of the party wasn’t exactly exciting. People were still coming in and arriving, there were announcements on a speaker about the rules for the night. That sort of thing but even after that, things didn’t really pick up.

For Eriko at least.

The other girls were having fun and it just made her feel like she was intruding all the more. Even if she was Hinata’s closeted girlfriend and yes, they knew and were really sweet and caring about it but Eriko was still, ultimately, being a wet blanket outside of that. The music was pumping out the top forty hits from both here and even America which was kind of cool and the small snacks and light refreshments were fine but Eriko really wasn’t in the mood.

Even as she watched the party unfold. People were laughing and dancing and she really wanted to be up on that dance floor with Hinata, as well as Chiyu and Nodoka, but she felt cemented to the plastic chair that she was sitting on. She was pretending she was just minding the other girls’ handbags, as well as her own, but it was also incredibly obvious that she was miserable.

It was at a quarter past seven or so that Hinata had finally decided to sit down with Eriko since Eriko was the person she had spent the least amount of time with here at the party. She sat down on the chair next to Eriko’s and sprawled out over the table.

“Are you okay? Are you feelin’ good?” Hinata asked.

“Yeah, I’m totally fine, I’m just… not feeling it, tonight.” Eriko said.

“Should we call your parents so you can pack it? Maybe the trip here tuckered you out.” Hinata suggested.

“No, Hinata, it's not that.” Eriko said, frowning and frustrated. Deep down, she knew that Hinata was never going to get it, being so free and casual with her own sexuality. It made Eriko both jealous and furious. “It's just. I don’t… I really want to dance with you and have a good time but…”

“But?” Hinata prompted her.

Eriko took a breath, “But does that out me? I don’t want all these people to know about me. But some of them do. I feel like a stranger here but this is my hometown. It's really confusing and…”

“And it's fine.” Hinata said and she sat up a little straighter, her arms receding from over the table. She looked over her shoulder, at Chiyu and Nodoka who were dancing very daggy dad type dances, “You’ll blend in, trust me.”

That was… That was probably true, Eriko conceded, at least to herself. She chewed her bottom lip. Even though something like this, though a little nerdy given the decorations, was totally her scene. She loved music, she loved fashion, she loved being out and about and dancing, she was being a wet blanket.

Hinata extended her hand to Eriko, “There are so many people here, everyone’s dancing with everyone else so… will you dance with me?”

“I’d like that.” Eriko said and though it was scary to her, she felt awful in her stomach because of it and as though every eye was on her, she slid her own hand into the palm of Hinata’s.

Hinata’s hand was soft and felt like a perfect match to her own. With that token of acceptance, Hinata’s face split into a grin. She practically raced to drag Eriko onto the dancefloor and though Eriko did drag behind her, she was glad to finally be up and on it.

In the dark. In the strobing lights that flashed every which way in quick, laser-like successions of every colour of the rainbow. It was disorienting and at their feet, there was a mist from a smoke machine off to the side that was hazy and ticklist. The dance floor, which was a basketball court by day, pounded with everyone’s dancing shoes and the good time that they were having.

So, in the end, Hinata was right. Everyone was dancing with each other, with everyone else. She would blend in. There was too much going on as the music blared and the crowd roared for one person to simply be the main focus.

Hinata laughed and Eriko squealed as Hinata spun her around. Together, they jingled and they jangled with all their accessories as they danced. Chiyu and Nodoka danced to the side of them, close enough to hide but far away enough that Eriko was comfortable to say she was dancing exclusively with her girlfriend. The song on the speaker changed soon enough and Hinata’s eyes lit up in the dark.

“Oh my gosh,” she squealed, “it's our song.”

“It is, too.” Eriko replied, just as excited and even loud.

The music was familiar and saccharine. Eriko’s heart pounded and in a messy, moshpit duet, she and Hinata yelled out the words to the song as their hands intertwined and they spun and twirled and danced among the crowd, bumping into people but not apologising because they were just so off in their own little world. It was the absolute best, Eriko was grinning.

Deep down, though, beneath the roar of the music and the pace of the dance and the fizz of euphoria of finally getting to enjoy herself, Eriko knew that dancing with Hinata didn’t make anything else not scary. Whether it was about being on a date with her girlfriend publicly or coming out to her parents or any other number of things which weren’t important to this moment in time, right now… It was the most fun that Eriko had had all night and she had a rising feeling that it was only going to go up from here, finally.

#femslash #femslashfeb2023 #femslash february 2023 #healin good precure #healin good pretty cure #healin good #eriko saito #saito eriko #precure #hiramitsu hinata #hinata hiramitsu #cure sparkle #writing tag #(I'm not) scared of dancing in the dark #the irony of choosing the dark prompt with a light associated precure is not lost on me #do they have blue light discos in japan? no clue #edit: apparently i've been misremembering eriko's name slightly wrong this whole time oopsies

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