Disclaimer: Standard, you know it by heart.


I hope you all continue to enjoy.

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To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth

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"Miss Dorlian! Mr. Yuy!" Treize's voice cut through the piano music, bringing the two dancers on stage to a startled halt. At seven days exactly until the curtain rose, the ballet master wouldn't stop rehearsal unless it were a matter of life and death.

Relena ran a hand down her sweaty throat. Her heart pounded under her fingers with the pressure of the performance. She could feel Heero next to her, hear his heavy breathing, smell the clean scent of his own sweat as Treize approached the lip of the stage.

He looked up at them with murder in his expression. "Do you two want to explain just what the hell you're doing?"

"It's usually called dancing," Heero muttered. Relena winced, fervently hoping Treize hadn't heard.

But he had. His eyes narrowed. "Funny. Because I was going to call it what it looks like. Shit." Treize's glared alternated between his two principal dancers. "You two have been on a downward spiral into a huge pile of it the last few days, and I'm sick of it. In one week, you'll be on this stage in front of a paying crowd of New York's most elite citizens. Both of your careers hinge on how well you perform. It's no skin off my ass if you keep on the way you are right now." He pointed at them. "But, if you want to have a career at all next year, you'll put those pretty heads of yours together and figure out a way to look like you're having some semblance of a good time up here. 'Cause right now, you're going through the motions. And I don't have time for it."

Treize turned around for a moment to collect his thoughts. Relena snuck a quick glance at Heero. His face was molded into a mask of boredom and indifference. She rolled her eyes skyward. He was such a bastard.

Finally, Treize turned around. "Get off my stage. Both of you. Don't come back until you're ready to be Siegfried and Odette again."

Heero cursed, in a lower tone this time. Relena bit her lip, the bright red flush of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. She could actually feel the accusing stares of the other class members boring into her. Treize clapped his hands. "See you all tomorrow. If Miss Dorlian and Mr. Yuy are ready to work by then."

"Way to go, Relena." The smooth voice of Dorothy Catalonia made her wince. A moment later, the repulsive girl was at her side, all too eager to rejoice in Relena's chastisement. "I guess it just goes to show that sleeping your way to the top isn't always a good idea."

"Learned that the hard way, did you?" she managed to throw back.

Dorothy grabbed her arm, digging her nails into Relena's flesh. "Listen, bitch. Go ahead and dance as badly as you can....and we all know that's pretty damn bad. Because the worse you dance, the better it makes me..."

"Leave her alone." Heero turned his cold stare onto Dorothy. When he was sure he had shut the girl up for good, he started off towards the wings. Relena blinked, unsure if what had just happened had really happened.

"Ugh." Dorothy made a face. "You two make me so sick."

"And amazingly, it's a better look for you, Cata-lonely-a." Relena relaxed at the comforting sound of Duo's voice. As he came up behind them, Duo draped an arm over her slender shoulders. "Run along, Dorothy, before I get the urge to drop a house on you."

After letting out a particularly foul string of curses, Dorothy stomped off, her wooden shoes clomping across the stage. Relena let out a slow breath. "Thanks, Duo."

He flicked a mock salute. "No need to tip, princess. I get my kicks out of knocking that girl on her padded ass." Duo glanced at the wings where Heero was sipping a bottle of water. "How are you doing?"

"You saw us dancing." Relena started walking the opposite direction from the one Heero had taken to the other side of the stage. "You tell me."

Duo jogged after her, his braid flying. "He's a dick, Relena. We established that, right?" She didn't say anything as she headed towards the girls locker rooms. "Remember? A dick, Heero is."

Relena stopped and looked down at her pink satin shoes. "He stood up for me against Dorothy." She brushed away impending tears. "Why did he do that? Why does everything he toss my way have to be confusing?!"

"I don't think Heero knows how to speak in anything but 'confusing', princess." Duo gently turned her around to face him. "I know you can't exactly avoid him, but you can't let him drag down your dream either."

"Are you suggesting I talk to him after the way he treated me?"

Duo lifted his shoulders. "Do you have a choice?"

Relena sighed. "I guess you're right. I can't fail Biology. And I don't really want to make an idiot of myself in front of a couple thousand people."

"So, you're going to..."

"Try to talk to Heero in school on Monday." Relena titled her head to the side after a moment to study her friend. "Duo, how's Hilde? I wanted to go see her the other day, but the nurse I talked to on the phone said she was asleep."

Duo snorted softly. "She's been asleep every time I've tried to call, too." His gaze darted up to the ceiling. "She's completely cut me out, princess. I don't know...I guess I underestimated the power of all of this to change her."

"I'm so sorry," Relena whispered. She sniffed suddenly. "This was supposed to be our time, you know? Hilde was supposed to be shining, I was supposed to blending, you were supposed to be happy, Heero was supposed to be...um...I don't know, but you get my drift, right? This doesn't feel like where we're supposed to be. And I don't know where it all went wrong."

"Me neither." Duo made a move to stick his hands in his pockets, realizing too late that he was only wearing tights. "It's all a big fucking mess that I can't figure out how to talk my way out of. For the first time in my life."

Relena wrapped her arms around his torso, squeezing with all her might. "It's going to be okay, Duo. I have to believe that. Or else I'd have to just give up."

"All right, princess. If you believe, I can believe."

When Heero stepped around the corner of the hallway and stumbled upon the sight of their mutual embrace, he watched for only a brief moment before he had to turn around. The urge to punch out Duo was too overwhelming. But it wasn't as strong as his desire to hit himself.

****

"I'm home."

Relena reached for the pile of mail on the hallway table and began to sift through it as she started for the kitchen. "Hello?" she called out again. "Mother? Millardo?" She found a letter with her name on it, but looked up from it before reading who it was from when she felt her brother's fiancee sweep into the hall.

"I'm so glad you're home, Relena."

"Lu...is everything okay?" She lowered the hand holding her mail. "Wait. You're sort of....glowing."

Lucrezia nodded. "They say that happens to pregnant women."

Relena's jaw dropped along with the letters. "Oh my god...you're...oh my god!!"

"I know! I've been dying to tell you, but we wanted to be sure." Lucrezia and Relena flung their arms around each other. "And then this last week, you've been under so much pressure. So, after the doctor finally confirmed it today, I couldn't keep it all bottled up inside anymore....well, anyway, now you know and..."

"What's going on out here?" Helen entered the foyer, gesturing wildly with her cocktail. It was not the first of the evening, nor would it be the last. "You two are making so much noise."

Lucrezia lifted her finger to her lips, giving Relena the international sign to keep the news to herself. Relena nodded and smiled at her mother. "We're sorry. We'll try to keep it down."

Helen nodded, took a long sip and stumbled back into the parlor. Relena sighed and looked back at Lucrezia. "This is so amazing." She bent down and scooped up the unopened mail. "When are you due?"

"Mid-December. We've pushed the wedding back so I can still wear my dress." She winked at the younger girl.

"Oh...it's going to be a really long fall then!" Relena laughed and set the mail back onto the table without another look. She linked arms with Lucrezia. "We're going to have to stock up on pickles and ice cream. And Millardo's going to have to get rid of his cigars. And we're going to completely buy out FAO Schwartz."

"And Baby Gap." Lucrezia grinned. "I want a Gap baby, sue me."

She and Relena headed into the kitchen to grab a snack, still making plans. It would be a long time before Relena remembered the letter waiting for her on the hall table, or recalled the writing on the envelope. Imperfect English in Quatre's tiny script.

****

"Knock, knock?"

Duo looked up from his history book. His mother was standing in his open doorway, arms folded over her paint-splattered smock. "What's up, Mom?"

"Oh, not much. I was just getting ready to head to bed and I wondered if you wanted a study snack or something."

"I'm okay. Thanks."

Sara wandered into her son's room. "By the way...studying on a Friday night? Should I be worried?"

"I like keeping you and Dad on your toes." Duo closed up his book. "All right. That's about enough of that."

"There's my son." Sara studied him for a moment. "Tomorrow night is the prom, isn't it?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "I guess."

"Are you going?"

After rolling off his bed, Duo reached for a set of hand-held weights. "Nah. We have a long rehearsal tomorrow and I'll probably just crash afterwards."

"Hilde doesn't want to go?" Sara asked as gently as possible.

Her son continued his bicep curls without pause. "I wouldn't know. I never got a chance to ask her."

"I can't even imagine what she's going through, Duo. Maybe she just needs some more time."

"I can give her time, Mom. But it's more than that." He lowered his arms. "I think you were right."

Sara frowned. "Uh-oh...what did I say?"

"A long time ago when we started going out...you told me I shouldn't limit myself to just one girl for the rest of my life after I told you Hilde was the one." Duo flopped onto the edge of his bed again. "I put everything on Hilde. And she doesn't want me anymore."

"Oh, baby." Sara approached him and ran her fingers through his bangs. "When I said that, you were fifteen years old. Now, you're eighteen. Almost all grown up." She lowered her head to look him straight in the eyes. "Does your heart still tell you the same thing it did back then?" After a moment, Duo nodded. "Then, your old Mom was wrong. Not right."

Duo looked down at his hands. "She doesn't want my help, Mom."

"But maybe...just maybe, she needs it all the same."

A minute passed as Duo considered this. Finally, he shook his head and stood up. "I don't think so." He grinned a little too brightly. "Are there any marshmallows left? I could use some smores if that snack offer still stands."

Sara nodded with a heavy head. "As long as you don't mind whole-grain graham crackers and carob bars."

Duo made a face. "Maybe I'll just have some leftover pizza." He bounded out of the room. But by the time he reached the kitchen, his false burst of energy had died. As he reached into the fridge for the pizza box, his thoughts had already slipped back to Hilde. He missed her so much. His hands itched with the desire to touch her; his lips ached to feel hers.

"Get a grip, idiot." He lifted a cold slice from the box. "You're starting to think like a bad romance novel."

****

It was well past midnight before Heero finally fell asleep. Before he did so, he tucked a thick folder into his school bag. A completed biology project charting the cycle of water on earth and the effects of industry on it. An overdone topic for sure, but it had been quick and simplistic and had gotten the job done.

Now neither he nor Relena would fail Biology. Heero settled back into his pillows. He could almost smell her perfume on the sheets, although he had long since washed them after their night together. His fists clenched, balling up handfuls of cloth. Why was he still thinking about her? Why did he care if she passed Biology? Why had he wanted to hit Duo and felt the need to defend her to Dorothy?

She had lied to him. Told him he had been her first when in fact, he hadn't been. He hadn't thought it strange at the time, but he now remembered that she hadn't reacted in pain when he had entered her. It must have been old hat for her, having sex. With her French boyfriend. Jean-Paul.

Heero flipped over onto his side. "Damn it all," he muttered, looking at his mother's smiling face from her picture. "Why do I miss her?" He closed his eyes. "Why do I still love her?"

****

Halfway across the world, in a small, outdoor cafe in the heart of Paris, a tall, green-eyed young man carried two cups of delicious coffee over to a wrought-iron table at which a beautiful blond man was already seated.

Trowa Barton handed his boyfriend one cup after sitting down across from him. "What are you thinking about, Little One?" he asked in French.

"Relena," Quatre Winner replied, accepting his breakfast. "I'm worried that she won't receive my letter in time."

"You wrote and sent it several days ago." Trowa sipped his coffee. "There's no reason why you can't call her though."

Quatre nodded, but continued to stare at the Seine River as it flowed past the stone arches of Notre Dame. "I will if she doesn't reply after this weekend. I'd rather not just show up unexpected."

"You know Relena would never make us feel unwelcome."

"Of course not." He finally took a tiny sip of his drink. "I can't wait to see her again. And to see her perform such a role. She was born to do this."

Trowa reached for his boyfriend's hand. "Little One, I've been putting off telling you something."

"What is it, love?"

The taller dancer hesitated. "Jean-Paul. I heard he has been invited to New York."

"Invited?"

Trowa inclined his head. "This workshop of our Relena's. It's sort of audition for companies the world over. The bastard has been invited to find new talent for the Theatre."

Quatre's fingers curled around his cup as he softly cursed. "I have to tell her, Trowa. You know him; he'll seek her out. He try it all again and maybe this time, she won't be so lucky."

"Yes," Trowa agreed. A breeze blew over them. "So, what do you propose?"

"We arrive in New York early. Give her ample warning." Quatre stared into his lover's eyes. "I'll change our plane tickets today."

Trowa lifted Quatre's hand to his lips. "New York has nothing on Paris in the spring, Little One. But it should be a good time at any rate."

"Ah, but this won't be about us, love," Quatre reminded Trowa, cupping his clean-shaven cheek. "We're going to help Relena."

"Of course. But I still get to share a hotel room with you at the Plaza." Trowa arched an eyebrow with much innuendo. "Despite everything, I still feel that I'll have fun."

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To Be Continued