Satisfied with Joseph's position in her mouth, Dark took the time to look through her doppelganger's perspective. She was greatly surprised to see that the crowd hadn't thinned much- perhaps Light was taking her time with selecting people. Finding a supporter of her own in the crowd, Dark decided that there was a human deserving of a reward.

------

Marie was, understandably, a little miffed. She had been attending a school dance, and it was just getting to the late afternoon where the slow songs would come on. Marie had learned to slow dance in both the guy's and girl's position, because she kinda just wanted to have a warm body to dance with. 

Being kinda geeky, and with fashion choices that leave you all alone, Marie knew exactly why she couldn't get a date. However, she had hoped that cleaning up her look would let her snipe a bored guy or curious girl away from whoever their date happened to be. 

As it was, she was dancing alone in an evening gown.

Now she was expected to make some kind of decision for two goddesses, and they hadn't bothered apologizing. However, there was one who had caught the bisexual junior's eye- the black-garbed goddess, whose body was shrouded in shadows. The calm, collected gaze of this titanic woman resembled twin moons, which pleased the selenophile greatly. 

Once she disappeared from the main room in a puff of black smoke, Marie found herself standing in the pale woman's palm.

"Hello, Marie. I am Dark, the Goddess of Darkness. Thank you for supporting me," the titan said, smiling brightly, yet not showing her teeth.

"H- how did you know my name?" Marie asked, confused.

Dark laughed at this, a musical sound not unlike the quiet babbling of a calm river. "I supervise Earth's nighttime side. Anything that happens at night, I see and hear."

"Anything?" Marie blushed, remembering all the particularly embarrassing things she did at night. "You- you're a pervert."

------

Dark laughed again. She liked Marie. This girl spent hours gazing at the moon, and was one of a few people Dark knew that had never been scared of her. "Yeah, a little bit. I watch most of the world's sex and masturbation. I should enjoy it by now, or I'd hate my job."

Marie giggled, and Dark was barely restraining herself from jumping for joy. "So, are you going to be doing anything to thank me?" she asked sultrily. 

"Well," Dark asked, smiling, "what would you want?"

------

Marie was flabbergasted. A goddess- THE Goddess, as far as Marie was concerned- was giving her a blank check to ask for anything she wanted. The gears in her head turned.

The secrets of the universe? No, it wasn't like she'd do anything with them.

Sex? Marie had to be honest with herself and realize she'd never be able to please the Goddess of Darkness. 

Power? Immortality? Money? No, no, no . . . Marie had simpler interests, and if she got something like that from Dark, she'd never feel accomplished. 

Marie realized exactly what it was she wanted.

"Can I dance with you?" She asked timidly. "I mean, a real dance. A waltz or something. It's not like I would've had the opportunity to show everyone I could waltz back home. No one likes me."

------

Fighting herself to keep from crying, Dark softly said, "I know exactly how that feels. Of course we can dance."

With that, Dark formed a duplicate of herself down on Marie's scale, robed in a black duplicate of Marie's cherry red evening gown. Dark manipulated her shadows carefully, creating a dim, nearly romantic atmosphere around her palm, where Marie and Mini-Dark stood. She set herself to humming classical music.

------

Marie found herself ogling the miniature double of the Goddess of Darkness. Here was a confident-looking woman, a mysterious beauty whose black makeup provided a stark contrast to her bright silver eyes, whose black dress hugged her in all the right places, and who stood proud on black pumps.

Marie uncomfortably noticed how she didn't really compare- she had been unable to wash all the blue dye out, leaving her with a mess of blue-blonde strings where hair should be. Her makeup hadn't been applied by a very steady hand, and it only made her look like a little girl pretending to be grown up. Lastly, even though it looked like Dark had specifically opted to wear a black equivalent to her own dress, Marie didn't fill hers out nearly as well as the goddess did. Everywhere Dark was sexy, Marie was awkward. 

"May I have this dance?" Mini-Dark said, offering her hand to Marie.

The sixteen-year-old girl nearly began hyperventilating. She did crazier shit like this in her dreams every night! Why couldn't she just accept the beautiful woman's hand in a dance? Oh, right- because there was a voice in her head that let her know that a woman this sexy was way out of Marie's league, let alone her knowledge that this was the avatar of a goddess.

"Y- y- yes," Marie stuttered, her heart trying to escape her chest through her mouth.

Without warning, Marie found herself face-to-bosom with a human-sized copy of the Goddess of Darkness, waltzing in the palm of the real thing. She found herself barely suppressing a moan and a heart attack when Dark's hand rather forcefully gripped her rear end. However, the slow pace of the dance eventually calmed Marie to a level where she was comfortable dancing with Dark. Marie was overcome with joy at how good it felt to finally have someone focused on her.

------

Dark let the piece she had been humming come to an end, as the poor girl dancing on her palm looked tired. As if to prove her conclusion, Marie yawned against mini-Dark's chest, snuggling in closer.

Mini-Dark looked down into Marie's eyes. "You are a fantastic dancer, young lady. Before I take you to bed, perhaps I might kiss you?"

Marie nodded in assent. "Of course you can . . . Ahn . . . kiss me. It'd be my first, so I wouldn't be all that good at it, but-"

Mini-Dark clamped her mouth over Marie's, snaking her tongue about to explore the girl's mouth. Once Marie began to slump to her knees, the Dark doppelganger released her. "I hope that I gave you a first kiss you won't soon forget."

Marie made happy noises, and yawned an affirmative. 

With that, Dark dismissed her duplicate, and created a comfortable place for Marie to sleep- the pendant of a necklace that dipped slightly into the goddess's pale cleavage.

"Good night, and sleep tight my beautiful little lady," Dark murmured.