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.
****
To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"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
****
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.
****
To Be Continued