Disclaimer: Standard. As usual;)
Author's Notes: I can't tell you how much your sweet reviews and
general interest in the story means to me. I'm verclempt. That's
the only way to describe it.
One more note: I have given Duo parents in this fic. They're sweet
and wonderful and probably very out of the usual Duo family life
sync. But I couldn't help it. The boy deserves some goodness for
once;)
****
To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Hey!" Duo burst into his parent's Chelsea loft and
dropped his school and dance bags onto the wood floor. "I'm
home!!"
His mom, Sara, bolted in from the living room, spattered head
to toe with paint from her latest series of modern art. "Well?!"
She wrung her hands, smearing the colors together. "Did you
get it?!"
He grinned at her. "Where's Dad?"
Robert Maxwell appeared from the same direction as his wife, tying
the sash on his terrycloth robe. "So, are we looking at a
Baron von Rothbart or not?"
Duo made a face. "Tell me you weren't just posing for Mom
in the buff."
His parents exchanged a look. "Sure, son. Whatever helps
you sleep at night," his dad replied.
Their only child shuddered. "Moving on..." His grin
returned. "You're not just looking at a Baron von Rothbart....you're
looking a particularly evil Baron von Rothbart with a hell of
a lot of hair!"
"Oh sweetie..." Sara enveloped him in a huge hug, forever
ruining his shirt and sweat pants. "I am so proud of you!!"
His dad clapped him on the shoulder. "Good work, kid. And
what about that cute little girlfriend of yours?"
****
As soon as Hilde got home from her five hour shift at the dance
store, she started dinner and set two places at the table. For
once, the chores didn't bother her. In fact, she didn't think
anything would bother her ever again. Cloud nine was a nice place
to be.
Katja Schbeiker arrived home just as Hilde took the lasagna out
of the oven. She threw her mother a bright smile. "Hi! Dinner
just needs to cool for about ten minutes, so I hope you're hungry."
"Thanks, precious." The older woman peeled off her coat,
revealing her pink and white waitress uniform, and dragged herself
over to the couch.
Hilde searched through the fridge for salad fixings. "So...we
had class today."
The reply she got was muffled by the couch cushions. "Good
one?"
"Very." Hilde examined the head of lettuce she found
and decided the meal could do without a salad. "You know
that workshop? Swan Lake?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well...." She filled two glasses with ice and water
and carried them to the table. "Just guess who landed the
lead role of Odette?" There was a pause. "Mom?"
Hilde glanced over at the couch. Her mother was fast asleep. After
double shifts at a second rate diner, it was hard to blame her.
With a sad smile, she went over to the couch, picked up a plaid
blanket thrown over the back and tucked it around her mother's
exhausted body.
Hilde served herself a helping of lasagna and sat down to eat.
She lifted her water glass. "Here's to me."
****
Ethan was already passed out for the night when Heero arrived
home from ballet class. He was hanging out of his wheelchair,
a thin line of alcoholic drool leaking out of the corner of his
mouth. Heero set down his stuff, turned on a few lights, drank
a glass of water and ordered pizza for dinner before he went to
help his father.
After he had dragged the crippled man into his room and deposited
him onto his bed with much disgust, Heero went back into the living
room and started on his homework. When his pizza arrived, he ate
quickly, finished his work and took a shower.
Heero stacked his pillows in the usual arrangement and climbed
into bed. Lifting the photo on his night stand, he spoke to his
mother's picture. "I got it, Mother. Prince Siegfried. Are
you proud?"
She smiled back at him, her face frozen in time. Heero turned
the frame down and stared at the ceiling. Lost in his thoughts,
he reached for the portable phone. He wasn't quite sure why he
had memorized Relena Dorlian's home phone number from the school
directory, but he dialed it without hesitation.
It rang several times before a voice answered. A man; her brother,
presumably. "Hello?"
Heero pressed the talk button to end the call. After another few
minutes, he set the phone aside, turned off the light and closed
his eyes to sleep.
****
Millardo hung up the phone and returned to the dining room. Lucrezia
looked up from her crepes suzette. "Who was it?" she
asked.
"They hung up." He sat back down at the head of the
table. "Where were we?"
"You were about to offer your *sister* a justly deserved
explanation as to just why in God's name you allowed her to be
cast in the corps de ballet!" His mother took an angry sip
of wine.
At the other end of the table, Relena's hand trembled as she lifted
a bite of dessert to her lips. "Mom, please. It's okay."
Millardo sighed. "Mother, when I cast the show today, I put
on blinders to anything but the dancer's raw talent. The girls
I chose for solo roles were best suited for those parts. It's
as simple as that. But Relena is a good dancer and she'll do very
well in the corps."
"It takes a dancer far above average to make the corps, Helen,"
Lucrezia reminded her future mother-in-law. "So much more
work goes into a role like Relena's because she has to be absolutely
in sync with the other girls."
"No one will see her!" Helen set her wineglass down
with a bang. "She'll just be one of the swans, no different
from any other swan!! How could you do this to your sister?!!"
"Mom!" Relena set down her fork without eating. "It's
all right! I'm not good enough to play Odette and if Millardo
had cast me, it wouldn't have been fair to the girl who *is* good
enough! Okay? So, can you please just drop it?!"
Silence followed her outburst. "How dare you raise your voice
to me, young lady," Helen whispered. "I am trying to
think about the rest of your career. Do you think that the Paris
Ballet is going to take someone who was just in the corps?"
"Since I'm not planning on returning to Paris, I suppose
it really doesn't matter, does it?"
Lucrezia cleared her throat. "I thought you had your heart
set on it, Relena."
"Yeah, well..." Relena blinked back hot tears. "That
was then; this is now. Actually, I'm thinking about just putting
in some college applications for the fall."
Helen threw up her hands. "I don't know what's gotten into
you, Relena, but I don't like it. You are a dancer; you were born
to be one. It's in your blood. How can you just throw away twelve
years of hard work on a lark?"
"It's not a lark!" Relena stood up. "I'm not good
enough! You can close your eyes and pretend, Mom, but I can't.
I have to think about my *real* future. The one that doesn't include
dance." She pushed away from the table. "I'm excusing
myself for the evening. If anyone calls, which they won't, I'm
already asleep."
She slammed every door in her path until she was back in her room.
It was one of those moments when a girl just needs to throw herself
onto her bed and sob. Heero's rejection, Duo's fights with Hilde
that she knew had something to do with her, only being cast in
the corps...it was all a bit too much to take at once. She was
tempted to call Quatre, but then remembered that it was his two
year anniversary with Trowa. A smile peeked through her tears.
At least someone would be getting lucky that night.
****
"Ladies. Ladies of the corps, can I have your attention,
please!" The corps master clapped her hands, silencing the
twenty ballerinas in the rehearsal studio. "We're going to
begin now, as we're all nicely warmed up." The older woman
began pacing in front of the dancers. "You'll have three
weeks with me to learn the swan dances before you join the rest
of the cast to rehearse the entire ballet. Miss Schbeiker will
be joining us occasionally in these next weeks, when the schedule
calls for Odette to dance with the swans."
She stopped and looked down at her notes, as though she had forgotten
something. "What I'll be teaching you in the time we have
together will be fairly simple. The choreography for *Swan Lake*
is far older than you...far older than me, in fact. I'm sure many
of you are already familiar with it, but it's an entirely different
thing to learn it by heart. The first thing we'll do today is
arrange you all in lines according to height. Our most important
task is synchronicity. In many ways, the corps of *Swan Lake*
is the hardest part of all. In the next three weeks, you will
all learn to move as one unit. You are no longer just a single
dancer. You are a swan in a corps of swans. If you don't like
that..." The woman pointed to the studio door. "Leave
now. There are no prima donnas in my corps. Understood?"
There were murmurs of consent from the dancers. Relena added her
voice to the group with a quiet, "Yes ma'am."
"All right. Line up." The corps master clapped her hands
again; she was even worse about the motion than Treize. As Relena
stood up and formed the requested line with her fellow dancers,
she had a sudden longing to be back in Treize's ballet class with
Duo and Hilde. And Heero.
But that wouldn't happen for another two weeks. Her friends were
soloists; she was part of the corps. She accepted that with a
fair amount of grace, believing herself to be only good enough
to be a swan. *Although,* she thought to herself, gritting her
teeth when Dorothy Catalonia pushed her way in front of her. *It
certainly wasn't easy.*
****
"And one...two...three...four...five...six...seven....head
up, Hilde!!" Lucrezia Noin lifted her own chin to demonstrate.
"Two...three...four...lift!!! Five...six...seven...eight...."
Duo watched Heero lift his girlfriend into the air without any
visible effort. He set her down again and she spun away in the
choreographed pirouettes. Heero backed up and waited; in just
a moment, Hilde turned and gracefully ran back to him. He lifted
her again, this time higher. In mid-air, he twisted her body to
hold onto her lower back instead of her stomach. Her spine curved
until she was draped over his shoulder. He turned and turned,
slowly lowering her to the ground with each rotation.
It amazed Duo how, after only two weeks of daily three and a half
hour rehearsals, Heero and Hilde already managed to have most
of their pas de deux pieces memorized, although far from perfected.
As if to prove this, Lucrezia held a hand up to the pianist.
"Heero, that was very good, only try to get her even higher.
You started lowering her too fast because she wasn't up high enough
and it threw you off the music." Lucrezia smiled at Hilde.
"You can help him out by running to him with even more speed,
only don't lose the swan quality. Flutter, but with force."
Hilde nodded. "All right."
"Also, your pirouettes were technically perfect, although
I would like a little more power behind them, too," the choreographer
continued. "All in all, you're both doing wonderfully and
we still have a week until the whole cast joins together."
Lucrezia turned to the other soloists. "I'd like to go back
and rework Rothbart's entrance at the ball; I'm going to deviate
from the standard choreography a bit to give you some more to
do, Duo."
He shot to his feet. "Really?" The evil Baron might
have been a wonderful way for him to dance and keep his hair,
but the part was very small.
"Really." She motioned him over. "Let's take it
back to the ball. Hilde, you're Odile now. Remember, she might
be impersonating Odette, but she's not her. They're two characters
that require two styles. You're trying to fool the Prince, but
you're still a different person. It's a fine line you're going
to dance, but I'm confidant that you'll manage it."
Hilde smiled. While everyone started for their ball scene places,
Duo came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her tiny body.
"Looking good, babe."
"You'd say that even if I had fallen on my face." She
looked across the studio to where Lucrezia was consulting with
her fiancee. Hilde was almost positive that they were discussing
her. "What's important is that they think it looks good."
"Yeah, well..." Duo frowned. "I guess I'll just
have to find my own company to run." His girlfriend tweaked
his nose before moving off to join some of the other girls. "Then
maybe you'll give a damn about my opinion again," he finished,
scowling.
He looked around the room of soloists, some of the best, most
promising young dancers in the world. But there was something
missing. Relena, he realized. She should be here with them. Not
stuck in the corps, learning how to blend in.
Heero approached him, readjusting the strap on his soft shoe.
"Good for you. Getting more to dance."
The congratulations caught Duo off guard, considering the source.
He blinked. "Thanks, Yuy." The thought of Relena persisted
as he suddenly remembered his vow. His full lips curved up into
a mischievous grin. "Bet you can't wait to join up with the
corps, eh?"
"A full cast won't afford us the one-on-one rehearsal time..."
The other boy stretched his arms over his head. "But it'll
be good for us to know where we stand with everyone together."
Duo had to stifle a sigh. The guy didn't get it at all. "No...no,
I meant it'll be fun to be with the rest of our class again. Don't
you feel like something's missing?" He gestured around the
room. "Someone, maybe?"
Heero lowered his arms and debated whether to answer or ignore
the braided dancer. The truth was, Duo had hit upon a truth. Something
had been missing from his life for just over a week. True, he
still saw her in class and around school, but there was a distance
between him and Relena now that they no longer shared a ballet
class.
Until Duo pointed it out so plainly, Heero had been ready to accept
it as a blessing, rather than confront the fact that seeing less
of Relena Dorlian on a daily basis had created a hole in his entire
life.
"If you have something to say, say it," Heero said.
"I don't have a lot of time."
Duo cracked his knuckles to loosen his joints. "You should
ask her out sometime. Take her to a movie or out dancing again.
Or just a walk in the park...she's not one of those high maintenance
society chicks you've known your whole life."
"How do you know who I've..."
"Hey." Duo shot him a look. "My dad's a Wall Street
investment banker. My mother's a highly respected artist. They
might have been the hippies from hell at one time, but they still
move in the upper circle. You don't think I spent summers in the
Hamptons and Christmases in Aspen like everyone else on your block
just because I decided to go to public school?"
Heero shrugged. "I guess I hadn't thought about it."
He flexed his foot. "And I've never been to Aspen."
"All I'm saying...and you're making it damn difficult...is
that Relena doesn't buy into all that crap, even though she lives
it. The same goes for you, so you already have a lot in common.
She's not cute like my Hilde, but she's more than a little pretty,"
Duo took a breath and prayed for Relena's eventual forgiveness
for what he was about to do. "And.....she told me she has
dreams about you."
"Dreams about me," Heero repeated. He regretted his
next question before it even left his mouth. "What kind of
dreams?"
Duo lifted both his eyebrows. "Wouldn't you like to know..."
Heero's eyes grew darker just as Lucrezia called for places a
second time. He simply shot a cold look at his braided companion.
"Maybe you should just keep stuff like that to yourself."
"Maybe," Duo said, once Heero had walked away. "But
I won't. You are going to sweep Relena off her feet if I have
to lie, cheat *and* steal. As god is my witness...you will make
her happy, Heero Yuy, even if it kills all of us."
****
To Be Continued