Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine, plot's mine. Yeah, that's about it;)

Author's Notes: Again, thank you for all the awesome feedback. I'm glad yall are liking and are open to this story. It's been a lot of fun to write it and to hear what you think.

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To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth

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"Any problem in the world can be solved by dancing." -James Brown

"You don't have to know about ballet to enjoy it, all you have to do is look at it." -Edwin Danby

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As she had expected, Relena had little trouble persuading her mother to let her sit with Hilde and Duo during the benefit gala showing of *The Sleeping Beauty*. In fact, the only opposition she received in regards to the idea was from Millardo. But after she assured her brother that she would be available for press photos after the ballet, he had no further problems. It was the first time she realized just how high of a position her brother held in the company.

She did accompany her mother, Millardo and Lucrezia in their limo to Lincoln Center where the gala was to be held. It was much the same as traveling to a state function to meet the President of France with her father. Relena smoothed a wrinkle out of her ice blue evening gown and folded her gloved hands in her lap. Millardo and Lucrezia chatted easily with her mother, but she said nothing for the duration of the limo ride. When they arrived at the Center, she parted ways with her family as soon as she was helped out onto the sidewalk.

"Have a good time, Relena!" Lucrezia called to her as she went off to search for her friends. She gave her brother's fiancee a genuine smile over her bare shoulder.

It didn't take long to spot Duo, even in the thick crowd of evening gowns and tuxedos. His braid easily distinguished him from anyone else. He spotted her at the same time her gaze fell on him and he gestured wildly. Relena moved over to him, the hem of her slinky gown brushing against the floor.

"Hey, princess! You look great!"

She blushed. "Thank you. So do you." She gestured to his tuxedo.

Hilde appeared beside him, wearing a simple black dress and heels. Her hair was curled around her face and dusted with glitter; Relena had only ever seen it clipped back in class. The other girl forced a smile to her lips. "I love your dress. Is that the same one they had in the window of Dolce & Gabbana last week?" Relena reluctantly nodded. Hilde's smile was even tighter. "It's beautiful."

There was an uncomfortable moment. Duo slung a casual arm around Hilde's shoulders and lifted up on the balls of his feet to scan the crowd. "He's late. I mean, for him."

"Who's late?" Relena asked.

"Heero," Hilde replied. She watched Relena's reaction carefully. Rather than the flash of anticipation she had expected to see, a streak of worry ran through the other girl's blue eyes. "He always sits with us when he comes. Didn't Duo tell you?" The blond girl shook her head, curled locks of her hair brushing her shoulder blades.

"There he is!" Duo announced, dropping back down. The lights in the lobby flickered several times, signaling the audience to take their seats. "Just in time."

Heero joined them a moment later, clad in a tux very similar to Duo's. His hair was less mussed than in class, but not by much. Thick bangs flopped over his forehead, framing those Prussian blue eyes. Relena swallowed as he came even closer.

"Hey, Yuy," Duo greeted him, holding out his hand. Heero shook it rather reluctantly.

"Heero." Hilde put a hand on her pas de deux partner's sleeve. "Look who's decided to join us."

Relena felt his gaze swing onto her and she forced a smile onto her face. "Hello, Heero. It's nice to see you away from the dissection table."

"You, too," he replied after a second's pause. The lights flickered a final time. "Let's go." Heero started for the theatre doors. Relena followed him.

Duo and Hilde hung back. "See what I mean?" Duo said. "He can't keep his eyes off of her."

"If you say so, Duo." Hilde took his hand. "I think it's the two thousand dollar dress, though. Nothing more."

****

When the ballet began, Heero figured he could lose himself in the music and the dancing and completely ignore Relena Dorlian's presence. She was intruding on his world. In dance class, in regular class and now, even his weekends. The strangest thing was that he wasn't upset as he thought he should be about it.

He shot a little look to his left just before the lights went down. Somehow Hilde had managed to manipulate things to where he was sitting on Relena's right side. She had not, however, been successful in putting herself between Duo and Relena.

"Anna's playing Aurora tonight, isn't she, Hilde?" Duo asked his girlfriend as the music started.

Hilde nodded. "She is so wonderful."

"Anna Une is the one I was telling you about. The one Treize is shacked up with this week," Duo explained to Relena.

She nodded. "I met her yesterday at the studio."

Hilde lifted an eyebrow. "She actually talked to you? Anna doesn't ever talk to us students."

Relena shifted in her seat. "Well...I was a bit upset. She was probably just being nice."

"Anna's not known for being nice," Hilde retorted.

The lights on stage rose. "Quiet," Heero said, effectively ending all conversation.

Thirty minutes later, after the appearance of the ballet's Lilac Fairy who dances a promise to baby Aurora's parents, protecting her from the Fairy Carabosse's curse, Duo dared to speak. "The Lilac Fairy is Sally Po. She just became a principal dancer this season. She probably would have sooner if she had fucked Treize, too. But she's totally in love with the company's tech director."

"Who's that?" Relena asked, genuinely curious.

"His name's Wufei. Chang, I think. I've only met him once or twice when we were rehearsing on the mainstage."

Hilde snickered softly. "He told Duo to hack off his braid so the tech crews wouldn't have to sweep up his long hairs."

Relena seemed to catch the dangerous look growing in Heero's eyes although his stare remained glue to Sally Po's solo piece. "Shhh..." She put a gloved finger to her lips to quiet Duo and Hilde's gossip before Heero could.

After a ten minute intermission, during which Relena and Hilde braved the line in the ladies restroom and Heero was stuck with Duo and his endless chatter, the second act began. It would be another forty five minutes until Anna Une finally appeared as the grown-up Aurora. After the prince's kiss, she woke and began the ballet's lovely pas de deux.

The second intermission started as soon as Anna and her partner finished. Next to Heero, Relena let out a little sigh. "I always love that part when he wakes her up."

"Me too," Hilde agreed. Her eyes were misty.

"I like it when the Prince kicks the evil fairy's ass," Duo announced.

Heero could feel Relena's eyes on him. "What's your favorite part, Heero?" she asked.

He didn't have to think about it. "When Aurora is lying on that bed. Completely silent."

Relena looked down at her hands. "Yes, I suppose that would be your favorite part." Duo took her hand and squeezed it comfortingly. Hilde grabbed her boyfriend's other hand.

"How did I get so lucky?" Duo asked before the lights went back down for the third act. "My best girl and my princess and I'm right in the middle."

Heero rolled his eyes and focused on the wedding of Aurora and her prince as it unfolded on the stage.

****

Even though Hilde was party to Duo's master plan, she was nonetheless surprised when, after the final curtain call, he dared to present his idea to Heero and Relena.

"The night is young," he started off. "And the party they're gonna have here will be boring as shit." He guided Hilde to the aisle with Heero and Relena behind him. "I have a suggestion."

"What's that?" Relena asked. Hilde gritted her teeth. The girl always asked her questions so innocently, like she'd never think of the answers without help.

"It's a surprise," Duo grinned. "Are you brave enough, Yuy?"

Heero snorted softly. "I have to go home."

"Aw, c'mon, Heero!" Hilde pulled at her partner's arm. "It's just a swing club."

"Then I definitely have to get home."

Hilde played her trump card. "You know...Treize recommends well-rounded dancers to the company. Ballet, jazz, modern....swing..."

They emerged with the crowd into the lobby. "I suppose I don't have a choice then."

"Excellent!" Hilde clapped her hands together. If she could get Heero to dance with Relena then the other girl wouldn't have to get anywhere near Duo for the rest of the night. "We'll grab a cab together, then."

Duo reached into his tuxedo pockets. "I have a friend in Soho who made us fake IDs this afternoon. Princess, I didn't have a picture of you, so Mitch used one of his older sister."

Relena reached for her fake ID and examined it critically. "Duo...the person in this picture outweighs me by about fifty pounds."

"We were all amazed by your miracle diet and the bouncer will be, too." He snatched it back and tucked it away for safe keeping until they arrived at the club.

She laughed. Then, she remembered her promise to Millardo. "Oh! I have to take some press pictures with my brother!" She bit her lip. "I guess you'll have to go without me."

"No way!" Duo declared. "We'll wait for you, princess. Where's your brother?"

Relena pointed to Millardo and Lucrezia. "Over there."

Hilde's gaze followed her arm. When she ended up looking at the company's artistic director and choreographer, her eyes narrowed. Relena's brother was in charge of the entire company and would decide who made it in after graduation and who didn't. Her fate lay in Relena's brother's hands.

**Don't be jealous,** she told herself. **I'm sure Relena got into the class on her own merits and you know you're going to make the company no matter what. Just take a deep breath and relax.**

Duo ran ahead with Relena, leaving Heero and Hilde in the middle of the crowd. Hilde let out a little sigh and it seemed to attract Heero's attention. "You shouldn't be jealous of her," Heero said. "Your turnout is a hundred times better than hers."

The statement was appreciated, but did little to squelch Hilde's jealousy when photographers from every major paper began snapping photos of Relena and the Ballet Conservatory Company's artistic director. Tomorrow, those pictures would be in every art and entertainment column in Manhattan. But to Heero, the fact that she was a superior dancer should have been all that mattered. Heero didn't see anything beyond that.

Maybe trying to get him and Relena together was misguided.

When Hilde saw Duo posing for pictures with Relena, she decided that having Heero Yuy for a boyfriend was exactly what Relena deserved.

Fifteen minutes later, Duo and Relena emerged from the reporters and rejoined Heero and Hilde. "Can we blow this joint now?" Duo asked, throwing his arm around his girlfriend.

"I was ready to go ten minutes ago," she replied, pointedly.

Relena nibbled on her lower lip. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it would take so long."

Heero, who had by this point twisted his program beyond recognition, shook his head. "Maybe we should forget the whole thing."

"Well..." Hilde twisted a glittered curl around her finger, weighting the possibility of having several Relena-free hours with Duo if they didn't all go out dancing together. "It would be kind of hard for you to swing in that long dress, Relena."

"Oh, that's not a problem." Relena reached behind her back and a second later, detached the overskirt of her dress, leaving her in a gown now a good four inches above her knees. Hilde blinked and shot a look at Heero. Her jaw nearly dropped when she saw him checking out Relena's smooth legs like a normal, warm-blooded, heterosexual male. "You don't think it's too short now, do you?"

Duo whistled. "Nice trick, princess!" He felt around Hilde's waist. "Does yours do that, too?"

She glared at him. "Mine's already short, Duo. Lose anymore and it would be indecent."

He winked. "I wouldn't be complaining." Duo looked back at Relena. "The gloves don't work now. Doesn't balance." Relena nodded and peeled them off her arms.

"Can we just go?" Hilde didn't mean to sound so forceful, but her tone caused the other three to blink.

"Yeah. Sure." Duo reached for her hand. "Let's go grab that cab."

****

An hour later, Relena found herself shivering on 56th Street, presenting a very bad fake ID to the very large bouncer outside of Swing Kids, a small, but hot swing club Duo had read about in the Village Voice. The burly man looked at the ID, then looked back at Relena several times before he finally handed it back to her.

"Congrats on the diet," he told her, before lifting the velvet rope and letting them through.

Once inside, Relena breathed a bit easier. "Sneaking into a club with a fake ID. I knew my life was going to change in America, but I had no idea. I can't wait to tell Quatre."

"Who's Quatre?" Hilde asked. "French boyfriend?"

She shook her head. "No, but he has one." Hilde laughed...and it wasn't fake or forced. Relena's smile grew brighter.

The brass band was alive, filling the room with colorful music. Couples on the dance floor were in full swing with the crowd cheering them on. A haze hung in the air from all the cigarettes, but Relena ignored it. The music was already entering her bloodstream. And she wanted to dance.

"All right!!" Duo grabbed up Hilde. "Let's go, babe!" She nodded with great enthusiasm and they were off. Duo called over his shoulder, "Ask the princess to dance, Yuy!"

After they disappeared into the throb of swinging couples, there was a long, awkward pause. Relena was having a hard time keeping her feet still. She delicately cleared her throat. "If you don't want to, I can find someone else..."

"No." Heero shrugged out of his tuxedo jacket and draped it over a chair at a nearby, empty table, before undoing the top buttons on his shirt. "We can dance."

His hand was warm and strong. But then, what had she expected from the hands that could hold another person over his head for five minutes at a time? Together, they pushed their way to the center of the dance floor. As they passed Duo and Hilde, Relena blushed at the wink she received from her braided partner. She took a deep breath as Heero stopped and faced her.

"Ready?" he asked. Relena nodded, but she was completely unprepared for his hand gripping her waist, his other hand clasping hers. She swallowed and put her free arm around his muscled shoulder. A moment, no more than a heartbeat, passed as they stared at each other.

The dance began.

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To Be Continued