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It’s a lovely afternoon in Smiling valley, and all the critters are getting ready for the starlight-themed autumn dance that was happening this evening.
Putting up decorations in the park, making snacks, choosing the music, deciding what to wear, etc etc.
Catnap was walking to Dogday’s house, mentally preparing himself to ask him to be his date to the dance, as he figures it might be a good opportunity to advance their relationship from just best friends to maybe something more…
But when he got there, someone else was already at the door.
Crafty.
Catnap panics and hides behind a nearby bush as she rings the doorbell.
Dogday answers the door, seeing her.
“Oh hi Crafty!” he says with a smile. “What’s up?”
“Dogday?” She says with a shy smile. “I have a question.” She asks softly.
Dogday tilts his head. “What is it?” he asks.
Crafty smiles shyly.
“W-will… will you be my date for the dance tonight?”
Catnap’s eyes go wide, biting his lip.
‘Please say no, please say no!’ he thinks.
Dogday looks a little shocked. “U-uh…”
He looks at Crafty, who was using the puppy eyes.
A trick she’d learned from him, clever girl.
“Uhh, s-sure!” Dogday says with a nervous smile..
Catnap feels like his heart shatters.
“Oh thank you!” Crafty says, hugging him. “This will be the best night ever!”
Dogday smiles awkwardly. “Haha… yeah…” he says, reluctantly patting her back.
The two then walk into the house, holding hands.
Catnap feels angry, stomping off in the other direction.
‘Fine, I'll just go with someone else then.’
As he walked off, he saw and heard the other critters talking about the dance.
Hoppy had asked Picky to be her date, and Kickin had asked Bubba to be his.
Well, there go Catnap’s other options…
By the time Catnap got back to his house, he sadly leaned against the door.
“Maybe I won’t go…” he says sadly to himself.
He goes to sit on his couch, looking sadly at the floor.
After a few minutes of moping, Catnap hears a knock on the door, perking up.
‘Who could that be?’ He thinks as he gets up, walking over and opening it.
It was none other than Bobby Bearhug.
“Hi Catnap!” She says happily, waving.
Catnap waves back, smiling a bit and letting her in.
‘Hi Bobby.’ he signs. ‘What are you doing here?’
Bobby giggles. “I have a question for you!”
Catnap nods. ‘What is it?’
Bobby looks a little nervous. “Do… Do you have a date for the dance yet?”
Catnap’s smile fades, shaking his head. ‘I’m not going.’ he sighs.
Bobby frowns. “What? Why not?”
Catnap sighs. ‘Everyone I kinda wanted to go with already has dates.’
That was kind of a lie, there was only one person he really wanted to go with, and he got snatched up like a butterfly in a net.
Bobby giggles. “Well I don’t have a date either.” She says.
Catnap tilted his head. “Really…?”
Bobby nods. “So I thought I'd ask you!”
She steps closer. “What do you say, Catnap? Wanna be my date?”
Catnap thought about it.
Going with Bobby might not be so bad…
On the other hand, at the dance, he’d have to see Dogday and Crafty be all lovey-dovey… and that would suck…
On the OTHER other hand… it’d be really rude to say no to Bobby… and she seemed so excited…
‘Fine…’ He signs. ‘I’ll go with you.’
“Oh yay!” She says, hugging him. “It’ll be so much fun!”
Catnap sighs. ‘Yeah… fun…’
She takes his hand. “Now come on, we gotta get ready!” she says, leading him outside. “We only have an hour or two before the dance!”
Catnap internally sighed.
This was gonna be the worst night ever…
~Dancy transition~
Catnap was wearing a cute blue bowtie and standing in the corner of the park, watching everyone have fun.
Bubba was watching Kickin attempt to dance, admiration in his eyes, while Picky was feeding Hoppy some of the lemon meringue pie she’d brought from one of the little plates.
Then, his eyes involuntarily drifted over to the center of the dance floor, where Dogday and Crafty were attempting a slow waltz.
Crafty looked as happy as a young girl in love could be, hugging Dogday and leaning his head on her shoulder.
But Dogday looked… a little uncomfortable… he had his hands awkwardly around Crafty’s waist, just intently staring down at his feet.
“Hey kitty.”
Catnap’s thoughts were interrupted by Bobby, who walked up holding two cups. “I brought you some grape juice.”
Catnap smiles, taking the cup. ‘Thanks Bobby.’ He signed with his free hand.
Bobby nods. “No problem!” She says as she sips her Cherry juice.
Catnap then looks back to the dance floor, where Dogday and Crafty were still slowly spinning around.
“Is something wrong?”
Bobby Asks.
Catnap looks at her. ‘What? No!’ he quickly signs. ‘Why would anything be wrong?’
Bobby points to the dance floor. “You’ve been eyeballing Crafty and Dogday all night…” she says. “Is something about them bothering you?”
Catnap looks at them again. ‘Well… kind of…’ he signs, taking another sip of grape juice.
Bobby pats his shoulder gently. “What’s up…?”
Catnap looks at her sadly. ‘I… earlier today, I wanted to ask Dogday to be my date for the dance…’ he signs. ‘But right when I was about to, Crafty came in and swooped him away like a pesky seagull stealing a kid’s French fries.’
Bobby winces. “Wow, tough break…”
Catnap nods. ‘Yeah…’
He looks back at them. ‘And now I have to watch her be all over him like a chameleon on a bag of skittles…’
Bobby sympathetically rubs his back.
Catnap sighs softly.
‘All I want is some alone time with him.’ he signs. ‘He was the whole reason I even wanted to come to this dumb party…’
Bobby thinks. “Hmmm…”
After a minute or two, she comes up with an idea.
“I might know a way that you can get some!” She says happily.
Catnap tilted his head. “How?”
Bobby smiles. “Just stay here.” she says.
She then walks over to Dogday and Crafty and ‘accidentally’ trips, splashing the cherry juice that was in her cup all over herself.
“AUGH!” she says as she gets covered in the sticky red liquid.
Crafty and Dogday gasp, turning to her.
“Oh no, are you okay?!” Crafty asks.
Bobby nods. “Yeah, I'm fine, but I got all sticky.”
She gently takes Crafty’s arm. “Can you help me get cleaned up please?”
Crafty sighs and nods. “Okay, okay…”
She takes Bobby’s arm, leading her towards the washroom…
And leaving Dogday all alone.
As the two girls were walking away, Bobby turns to Catnap and winks, smirking.
Catnap smiles brightly, signing, ‘I owe you one!’ to her before drinking the rest of his juice and walking over towards Dogday.
“Hi.”
Dogday looks at him, brightening up. “Oh Catnap! Hi!” he says happily. “I was wondering where you were.”
Catnap giggles. ‘I was just over by the snack bar.’
“Oh, really?” Dogday says, giggling as well. “I didn’t see you, I was too busy trying to avoid getting my feet accidentally stomped on.”
Catnap laughs. ‘Oh my.’
Dogday nods. “Yeah, I mean I really like Crafty and all, but she’s an awful dancer.”
Catnap smirks. ‘I bet.’
The two smile for a minute before Catnap gets an idea.
‘Say Dogday, it’s kinda noisy here.’ he signs. ‘Would you wanna… go somewhere more quiet…?”
He asks nervously.
Dogday nods. “I’d love to, it’s getting kinda boring here anyway.”
Catnap smiles, relieved. ‘Ok, follow me.’
He then leads Dogday away from the crowded park and up to sunset point, the cliffside overlooking the entire valley.
The two stand together, admiring the stars.
‘So besides the bad dancing, how have you been enjoying the dance?’ Catnap asks.
“Ehh, it’s going okay.” Dogday responds, making a ‘so-so’ motion with his hand. “The decorations are neat and the food is pretty tasty.”
Catnap nods. ‘I agree.’ He says.
Dogday then looks at him. “I heard you went with Bobby,” he says.
“Do… Do you guys like each other or something…?”
Catnap blushes a little. ‘What? N-no of course not.’ he says. ‘It’s just…’
He giggles a bit. ‘We were the last ones without dates, and she really wanted to go, so I decided, what the heck, I'll go to make her happy.’
“Ohhh.” Dogday says with a smile. “That was sweet of you.”
Catnap smiles a bit. ‘Well, you know, I didn’t want her to be disappointed.’
He looks away. ‘Even if I wanted to go with someone else…’
Dogday tilts his head. “Really? Who?”
Catnap blushes a bit. ‘U-uh…’
He looks at him. ‘Promise you won’t get mad if I tell you?’
Dogday smiles and nods, drawing an “X” shape over his heart with his finger.
Catnap sights. ‘Okay…’
He looks at Dogday, looking deeply into his eyes.
“I… I wanted to ask you…”
He signed guiltily. “But… you were already taken…”
Dogday’s eyes sparkle.
“Really…?”
Catnap nods sadly.
Dogday laughs.
Catnap looked a bit angry. “What’s so funny…?”
Dogday smiles and giggles, stepping closer.
“Catnap…” He says.
“I actually wanted to ask YOU to be my date!”
Catnap’s eyes widened.
“W-wait what…?”
Dogday nods. “I was planning to, but then Crafty asked me first, and…”
He looks nervous. “I knew she’d be really upset if I turned her down…”
Catnap smirks. ‘Yeah, seems like her.’
Dogday nods and they both giggle.
Catnap then blushes.
“You… you really wanted ME to be your date…?”
Dogday nods. “Absolutely!”
Catnap blushes more, smiling.
He notices the stars sparkling above them.
“Well, in that case…” He says quietly, offering a hand to Dogday.
“Care for a dance?”
Dogday smiles gently, taking it and nodding. “I’d love to.”
Music played from nowhere as Catnap put his other hand on Dogday’s wrist, spinning him around under the starlight.
He looks deeply into Dogday’s eyes as their feet move in tandem without a single misstep, their bodies swaying and twirling as they dance, both of them feeling happy and free.
At the end of the dance, Catnap sweeps Dogday off his feet, dipping him and causing him to go “woah!”
He looks up into Catnap’s eyes. “Wow, Catnap, I never knew you were so good at dancing…”
Catnap giggles. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”
Dogday smiles, leaning closer. “Well I think you’re amazing, kitty…”
Catnap leans in as well. “You’re more amazing, my sun~”
The two share a warm kiss under the starlight.
After they pull back, Catnap stands Dogday back up.
They embrace again, touching foreheads as they look into each other’s eyes.
“You know… I don’t really wanna go back to the dance.” Dogday says.
Catnap giggles. “Ditto,” he says.
Dogday smiles. “Wanna just leave?”
Catnap nods, letting go of him to gently take his hand. “I’ll take you home.”
And so the two start off toward Dogday’s place, with Dogday messaging Crafty on his phone that he had a sudden stomach ache and had Catnap help guide him home, and Catnap messaging Bobby that she was the best and that he owed her a big-time favor.
Once they were at Dogday’s house, they curled up in bed together, happily snuggling with maybe a little kissing mixed in.
“Hey Catnap?” Dogday softly asks.
“Hmm?”
“Did you enjoy the dance?”
Catnap smirks. “Only after I left to be with you.”
They both giggle.
Dogday nuzzles him. “Do you think we could dance together sometime?”
Catnap nods. “Anytime you want to, sweetheart.” He says, kissing his cheek.
“I’m always happy to dance with you.”