Disclaimer: You know...the usual stuff. Nothing new. Nothing fancy. Just not mine.

Author's Notes: Thank you for everything; I can't say that enough. I'm so glad you all like reading this little story of mine.

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To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth

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Tuesday came and went, although for Relena, it was the happiest day she had experienced in what seemed like a very long time. School was uneventful; the seniors were so close to graduation that no teacher, save for Mr. Berardis, were forcing any real work upon them. She and Heero held hands underneath their lab desk for the entire lecture on plant reproduction. They ate lunch together in an empty classroom, and after school, rode together to the theatre in Relena's limo.

Rehearsal was a dream. Relena felt light as feather, as though Jean-Paul were still halfway across the planet and not living in her house. Her heart and soul were in her performance, matched only by Heero's own enthusiasm. After the run-through was over, there was a smattering of applause from the few people in the audience.

Duo met up with them in the wings, having already changed back into his street clothes while they received notes from Treize and Lucrezia. "Now that is why you two are going to blow New York away on Friday."

"Thank you, Duo." Relena hugged him, then stepped back and took Heero's hand. "I know it's short notice, but would you have dinner with me, Heero, and my friends who just flew in from Paris?"

"I don't know, Relena. I mean...I should probably just get home in case Hilde...or, um, anyone for that matter calls. With big, important news. And if I wasn't there..."

Relena exchanged a look with Heero. "We're going for Thai food."

"I really shouldn't..."

"Bahn Garden on East 73rd," Heero informed him.

Duo lifted his shoulders. "I guess I could get away for a few hours."

The meal Relena ended up sharing with Heero and her closest friends in the world went over like a dream. She could sense that Quatre and Trowa were wary of Heero, although they both took an immediate liking to Duo. Eventually though, due in no small part to the large quantities of Asian beer that were consumed, they loosened up and began to treat Heero like part of the family.

In fact, the only sticky spot of the whole evening came at the very end when the cab she, Heero, Quatre and Trowa were taking uptown stopped in front of the Plaza to drop off the French couple. Trowa leaned back into the cab after the door closed to address Heero with a single English sentence that he had probably been practicing to say all day.

"If you are ever hurting Relena again, I cut off your deek."

As the cab pulled away, Heero frowned. "My deek?"

Relena put a hand to her mouth to cover her smile. "Oh come on."

After another second, Heero winced. "The French are ruthless."

"Oui," she agreed, giving him a deep kiss. "I suppose we'll have to keep being this happy. Because I kind of like your deek."

In the front seat their driver snickered, putting a permanent blush onto Relena's cheeks. But it didn't stop her from accompanying Heero up to his apartment when they reached it and spending a few hours backing up her claim.

****

When Duo arrived back at his parents flat, still fanning his mouth from the spice flames of his dinner, he found two pieces of mail waiting for him on his plaid comforter. The first was yet another college brochure which he set aside. The second was a plain, white envelope addressed to him with the return address of New Hope Hospital in Brooklyn. The writing was in Hilde's looped script.

He tore into it.

**Dear Duo,

No, I'm not dead. And I'm not in St. John's either, as you've probably noticed by now. I'm sorry for moving without letting you know. I have a million reasons and none of them sound good now as I'm thinking about them.

But that's not why I'm writing. I simply want to wish you luck on the workshop. You should get this before it. You're an amazing dancer, Duo. I know your dreams are going to come true. I'll be thinking about you, even though I'm no longer part of that world.

Please don't worry about me. I'm going to be all right. I just don't want to be around people right now. Maybe someday. I don't know. Take care of yourself, Duo, and tell everyone to break a leg. Just not an ankle. Kidding.

Hilde**

****

"I can't believe it's tomorrow."

Heero reached for one of Relena's baked potato chips. "Are you nervous?"

She glanced up at the noon sun as he chewed. "Yes," was her honest answer. "What if I don't make the company here?"

"How could you not?" He stole another chip. "You're the best."

"I wasn't before Hilde's accident."

Heero swallowed and took her hand. "It was all in there. You just had to let it out."

Relena squeezed his fingers. "I think that with you as a partner, any girl is an Anna Pavlova."

Their kiss that followed was abruptly interrupted. "Hey, Relena..." Kyle knelt on the grass beside them, a dumb smile on his too-perfect face. Heero's expression soured instantly.

"What do you want?" Relena asked. "You're making us lose our appetites."

"Some of us were wondering..." Kyle gestured back to his table where all the popular eyes in the school were directed towards their corner of the courtyard. "Relena...when you and Yuy are fucking, does he ever accidently slip and stick it in the right hole, or is it just up the ass all the..."

Heero's fist slammed into Kyle's nose. The lunchtime buzz of the courtyard was silenced by the sound of cartilage crunching. Relena paled as blood spurted out of the football player's nose, drenching the starched white of his uniform shirt.

"Don't you ever talk that way to Relena again," Heero hissed, grabbing Kyle by his collar. "Got it?"

"Fuck! You broke my nose!" the other boy spluttered around the blood that seeped into his mouth. "You are so going down for this, faggot!"

Relena pulled at her boyfriend's arm. "Heero...he's not worth it..."

"Let him run to the Dean. I don't give a fuck." Heero released him; Kyle covered his nose, glaring at them. "He's had that coming for four years."

Just then, Mr. Berardis walked by. "Red's a good color on you, Mr. Longheim." He pulled the boy to his feet. "You should have the nurse take a look at this."

"Did you see what he did, Mr. Berardis?" Kyle looked back at his friends who had been stunned into silence. "Everyone saw him hit..."

"Sorry." The Biology teacher shrugged. "I wasn't looking." He glanced around the courtyard, raising his voice. "And I'm pretty sure no one else was either." He led the bleeding football player towards the nurses' office.

After they left, it took several long minutes for the student witnesses to settle back into their lunchtime routine. Heero looked down at the grass. "I'm sorry, Relena. I should have waited to do that."

Relena shook her head. "I was wrong. He got what he was asking for." She cupped his face with her cool palms. "Nice right hook, by the way."

Heero managed a weak smile through his lingering anger. "My hand hurts."

She touched her forehead to his. "I bet it does." A moment passed before she reached for her bottled water. "Hold this to it for awhile." Heero pressed the bottle against his knuckles. "Will you be able to lift me at dress rehearsal tonight?"

"I can lift you anytime," he assured her, sealing his words with a kiss.

****

"Duo?" Relena entered the Green Room ten minutes before the curtain was set to rise on the final dress rehearsal after a ten minute search for the braided dancer. "Are you in here?"

In full costume, holding his paper mache head with its larger-than-life villainous features, Duo stood up from one couch. "Hey princess," he greeted her in a numb voice. "You look really great."

She glanced down at her snow white glittered costume. "Duo...they're calling ten minute places, you know."

"I know. I was just..." Duo sighed. "Taking a minute. That'll give me nine to get into places."

"Are you all right?" When he didn't reply, she pressed on. "Is it Hilde?" He looked away, confirming her suspicion. "I know it should be her in this costume, but..."

Duo cut her off. "Don't think that, princess. If you believe in fate at all, things end up the way they do for a reason. In the grand scheme of things, this was your part all along."

"I still think there might have been a mix-up with the fates up there." She approached him. "Part of me will be dancing for her tomorrow night."

"Dance for yourself," Duo replied, firmly. "That's the only reason to dance at all. Hilde made her choices and she doesn't deserve your attention while you're on stage. Go out there and dance for Relena Dorlian. Soar, but not because Hilde can't. Just because you can."

Relena quickly kissed his cheek. "Are you going to be all right?"

He pulled on the head. "I'm going to be better than all right," he said, his words muffled. "I'm going to be evil." He struck a pose before running on exaggerated light feet to the door. "See you at the pond, little swan lady."

****

The curtains fell as Prince Siegfried drowned in the waters of his swan princesses lake. As soon as the lights went down, Heero stopped floundering behind the row of foam waves. Relena was standing in the wings, watching him with a smile on her face.

"Places for the curtain call! C'mon...just like we discussed the other day." the stage manager whispered loudly. Heero jogged off the stage as the long row of identical corps members ran on.

Relena reached for his hand. "Almost too convincing," she said into his ear. "I was all set to throw you a life preserver."

Ignoring the sweat that dotted his forehead from the exertion of dancing and the strong lights, Heero kissed her full on the lips. "Wait until you see how I drown tomorrow night."

"Relena...Heero...go!"

Taking her hand, Heero led her in a light "ballet run" to the center of the stage in front of the corps and the other minor principals, including Duo. They held hands as he bowed and she curtsied. After a moment, Heero stepped back to let Relena take a solo curtsy. Clasping hands again, they bowed in time with the entire cast before the curtain began falling again.

It rose a minute later. Treize was standing on the stage, the entire audience still in the dark to the people on stage, due to the lighting hitting them. "Congratulations," he told them. "There were enough mistakes to ensure a fabulous performance tomorrow night, but not enough to send me on a job search." There was polite laughter, but mostly just relief, from the dancers. "Make sure that your costumes are returned to wardrobe and remember, you are all to be back here at *exactly* six o'clock tomorrow night for warm-up. No exceptions if you want to perform at all. Get a good night's sleep. You're going to need it." Assuming he was finished, the cast began to move off the stage. "Wait a minute. Mr. Yuy...meet me in my office upstairs as soon as you're out of costume."

As they walked towards the dressing rooms, hand in hand, Relena puzzled over this. "I wonder what he wants."

"Maybe I did something so stupid that he couldn't point it out in front of the cast for fear of embarrassing me."

Relena smiled. "I don't think Treize would have any qualms about that. Plus, as far as I could see, you didn't make any mistakes tonight."

"Then, I have no idea." Heero held the girl's dressing room door open for her. "Wait..." He closed it before she could go in. "Are you going straight home after this?"

"I don't want to." She smoothed down the stiff tulle of her skirt. "He might be there."

Heero reached out to touch the feathered band set into her hair. "Come to my place. My father left for Hong Kong on business this morning."

"He's not coming to the workshop?!"

"I don't want him there." He pulled her into his arms. "Spend the night with me."

Relena licked her lips. "All right. I'll meet you upstairs?"

Heero nodded and kissed her again. "Take your time. You know how Treize can ramble on."

"Hey!" One of the corps members came up behind them. "Are you going to let any of us in there to change, Heero?"

He held the door open and gestured her and Relena in. His girlfriend let the other girl go first and took the extra time to give him another kiss. "See you in a little while."

It only took twenty minutes for Heero to shower and change into his street clothes. Running his fingers through his wet hair, he took the elevator up from the stage level to the offices above the rehearsal studios. Treize's office was at the end of the hall, across the way from Millardo's private suite. Heero knocked on the door lightly.

"Come in, Mr. Yuy."

Treize wasn't alone in the room. A man and a woman sat in the plush chairs in front of his desk. Treize indicated for him to close the door. "Don't look so panicked, Mr. Yuy. You haven't done anything wrong."

"I really wasn't worried," Heero replied.

"You see? Confidence." Treize smiled at his guests. "At his very core, a true dancer needs only to believe that he is the best and he will be." Heero folded his arms over his leather jacket and waited for Treize to go on. "Mr. Yuy, I want you to meet two people who caught the dress rehearsal tonight. They were most impressed." He stood and came around the desk. "Now, usually we don't open up to company scouts until the actual workshop, but Mrs. Cunningham came all the way from San Francisco to see tomorrow's performance and unfortunately she has to get back there as soon as possible. I agreed to let her watch tonight instead. Heero Yuy, Marissa Cunningham of the San Francisco Ballet."

The woman smiled at him. "You were wonderful, Heero. May I call you Heero?"

He nodded. "I'm not sure this is entirely fair to the other guys in the cast..."

Treize ignored him. "And when he heard that his main competitor in America was getting to see the workshop early, Mr. Chevalier insisted that he be allowed to as well, and I obviously couldn't say no. Heero Yuy, Jean-Paul Chevalier of..."

He never got finish his introduction. For the second time that day, Heero's fist flew towards someone's face, impacting with all the force of an eighteen year old's rage. Jean-Paul doubled over, clutching at his jaw.

"Heero!" It was the first time Treize had ever called him by his first name. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

Heero started for Jean-Paul again, but the ballet instructor held him back. "You stay away from her," he shouted to the injured French man. "Get the hell out of her house and leave her alone! Or I'll kill you. I swear it."

Jean-Paul straightened up, murder in his eyes. "Kushrenada," he began in his thick accent. "This is absolute outrage, it is!"

"I agree." Marissa Cunningham held a hand to her throat in shock. "I've never seen such abominable behavior. To attack with provocation..."

The door to Treize's door burst open. "What's going on in here?" Millardo demanded. "I heard shouting."

"This...this boy...attacked me and threatened my life!" Jean-Paul shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Heero.

Millardo looked at the boy. "Is this true, Heero?"

"Yes, it is." Heero balled up his aching fist. "And I'll do it again if he ever even thinks about Relena again."

"What does Relena have to do with this?"

Jean-Paul cried out; it was an obvious distraction tactic. Unfortunately, it was only obvious to Heero. "I believe he has broken my face! I demand that your security, your police, the French embassy, the...the FBI, the..."

Millardo cut him off. "I don't think it's a matter of national security." He looked at Heero. "Perhaps if you apologize to Mr. Chevalier."

"When hell freezes over," Heero replied evenly. "And if you knew what I know, more than just his jaw would ache."

"Are you not going to arrest him?" Jean-Paul demanded.

Millardo rubbed his temple. "I don't exactly have the authority. But..." He exchanged a look with Treize. "If you insist on pressing charges..."

"I do," the French man nodded emphatically.

"Then I guess I have no choice but to call the police. Heero..." The company director lifted his shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not." Heero sat in one of the abandoned chairs. "I'd do it again in a second."

Treize shook his head. "Fuck. You couldn't wait until after the workshop to develop violent tendencies, Yuy?"

Jean-Paul rubbed his swelling jaw. "I demand..."

"Save it," Millardo snapped. "You'll get to press your charges, so just go to my office and wait for the police." The French man backed out of the office, glaring at Yuy with triumph in his eyes. He was followed by Treize and the scout from San Francisco.

Millardo cursed softly after they were gone. "Are you going to tell me what Relena does have to do with all of this?" Heero crossed his arms. It was not his secret to tell. "Fine. Maybe I'll be able to get it out of her. Is she still downstairs changing?"

"Probably," Heero finally replied. "She's waiting for me to take her to my..." He stopped suddenly, realizing to whom he was speaking.

"Well, forgive me, but I'm not so sorry you'll be spending the evening at the precinct, then." Millardo started for the door. "I bet you have a good reason for doing this, though. I've actually wanted to pop that guy one since he came into my house. Still...this is going to be one sticky mess you've gotten us into, Yuy."

Heero closed his eyes. "Tell Relena...tell her I'm sorry."

Millardo sighed. "One fucking sticky mess." He closed the door, locking Heero into the office. Treize was waiting for him in the hallway.

"What about the workshop?" he asked.

"We'll get him out on bail before then," Millardo replied.

"But can you accept a company member with an arrest record?"

Millardo lifted his shoulders. "I've never had to wonder before."

"I'd start wondering," Treize replied. "He might just be a loose cannon. And do you really want a loose cannon representing the company?" There was a pause. "I'll deal with all of this. You can head home."

"Thanks." Millardo started down the hall. "Make sure they take care of him. And keep an eye on that French idiot. I don't trust him."

Treize snorted. "It would seem our lead dancer doesn't either."

"I'm sure he has his reasons," Millardo called back. To himself he added, "And I intend to find out what they are."

****

To Be Continued