Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah...not mine, 'cept for the story line.

Author's Notes: Yall are just too sweet about this story. Thank you for sticking with it. Don't worry....Heero/Relena sweetness is coming in bucket-fulls. In fact, soon you'll be going, 'Okay, Kristen, we get....you like Heero and Relena. Sheesh, can't you write about anyone else?' Hehehe....

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To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth

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"Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of a dancer." -Sylvie Guillium

"We should consider everyday lost in which we don't dance." -Neitzche

****

"All right, people. Places for the Act Two coda. Mr. Yuy, Miss Schbeiker..."

Hilde shook out her arms and moved across the rehearsal studio to her designated place. Heero came up behind her a moment later, wiping sweat from his brow. "Holding up?" he asked her.

She nodded. "But I swear...if I hear anyone tell me to be more swan-like one more time..."

Trieze walked to the side of the room. "And Miss Schbeiker," he called out. "Remember...you're a swan princess. You have to move like one!"

Hilde gritted her teeth. Against the mirror, where he was relaxing with some of the soloists, Duo snickered. "Bird-like, babe. Bird-like!"

She threw her boyfriend the most withering look imaginable before she let Heero grasp her waist. The pianist struck up and Hilde gave herself over to the role of Odette. After four weeks of rehearsals, her focus was less on the steps and more on the role as a whole. As she moved into an arabesque with Heero's hand as an anchor, she let the music wash over her. For a brief moment, she was the swan princess, reveling in the love of Prince Siegfried as they danced his promise to marry her and return her to her human state.

Heero lifted her into the air and then set her down; her back curved over his arm.

"Miss Schbeiker!!" Treize clapped his hands. "You're a swan! Flap your wings! Preen your feathers!!"

Duo cupped his hands around his mouth. "Give yourself a bath!!" There was an eruption of giggling from the corps.

Treize sighed and halted the pianist. "I'm going to take this outburst of Mr. Maxwell's as a sign that everyone is tired. We'll call it a day. Remember ladies of the corps, costume measurements will be taken tomorrow, so plan on staying a little later than usual. Class dismissed!"

Relena stood up along with the rest of the corps, brushed off the back of her tights and walked over to Duo. "You are so bad," she admonished him. "You're also the only fun thing about this damn ballet."

Duo tipped an imaginary hat at her. "Thank ya, little swan lady."

Hilde approached, her toe shoes clapping angrily against the floor boards. She ignored them and dug into her bag.

"Hey, babe," Duo reached for her, but she stepped away. "Hilde?"

Relena cleared her throat. The air was suddenly uncomfortable. "You and Heero looked really good today," she offered.

The other ballerina pulled on a light sweater. "Thanks."

"Babe," Duo tried again. "What's wrong?"

Her blue eyes narrowed. "I know you only dance because you can and you're bored in the afternoons, but for some of us...this is our life. This is our way out. It would be nice if you didn't mock that in front of everyone who matters!"

Duo's jaw dropped. "Hilde...baby...I wasn't..."

"Just...in the future, can you try to keep all your comments to yourself?"

Because he didn't want to argue in front of the entire corps and because he was too stunned by her outright bitchy attitude, Duo folded his arms over his chest and simply said, " Fine."

There was a pause. "Um...Duo and I were talking earlier about going to grab a hot dog in Central Park," Relena said. "It's really lovely outside and..."

"I can't." Hilde slung her bag over her shoulder. "I have an actual job. You know...that thing where you work in exchange for your money?"

Relena swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Hilde sighed. "I should be the one apologizing. It's just...." She put her hand to her forehead. "I'm sorry. Just ignore me." Without looking back, she walked out of the studio.

Duo released a breath. "Fuck."

"Duo, is she all right?" Relena frowned. "I know I haven't known her for very long, but...that doesn't seem like..."

"Her," he finished. "It's not her at all. This whole thing...she's obsessed. It's getting a little scary." He picked up his own bag. "But what the hell can I do about it? The only people she listens to anymore are Treize, your brother and..." His lip curled up. "Yuy."

Relena tried to smile. "If I didn't know better, I would say you were jealous."

Duo scowled. "Maybe I am. He's gotten to touch my girlfriend more in the past two weeks than I have." He turned a pleading look on Relena. "Princess...would you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" she asked, suspicious.

"Can you just out right *seduce* Yuy so I can have my girlfriend back?" *Because,* he added to himself. *My efforts don't seem to be getting us anywhere.*

She blinked. "I think you're greatly over-estimating my appeal, Duo."

"No, I'm not. You're hot, princess. I can say this under the defense that I'm a normal guy, girlfriend nonwithstanding. Do you have any idea just how gorgeous you are?" She blushed. "I mean, really, you stand out, even in the corps."

Relena stared at him for a half-second before bursting into laughter. It was impossible to take his words seriously. She tugged his braid. "Come on. You need a hot dog...badly!"

Across the room, Heero pulled off his black shoes and watched Duo and Relena leave together. Her laughter drifting over into his corner had affected him much more than he could ever admit. He ran his fingers through his sweaty hair before lacing up his sneakers and standing up.

"Oh, Mr. Yuy," Treize stopped him before he could leave. "Good rehearsal today. But there's just one thing..." Heero waited for him to go on. "I want you and Miss Schbeiker to schedule some individual rehearsal time outside of class."

Heero frowned. "Is there something wrong? Something we need to work on?"

"Well..." Treize scratched the back of his head. "Technically, you're completely in sync. But there's just something I'm not seeing in the pas de deux. It's lacking...." He searched for a word. "Emotion, I suppose. Feeling. I need to see the love. The passion. Right now, all I'm seeing is two people dancing in time to the music."

"I see. I'll speak to Hilde about it."

The instructor nodded. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Yuy."

****

That night, Hilde expected to receive Duo's call of apology. The only call that came was Heero's, relaying the message from Treize. Hilde agreed to the rehearsal time quickly, eager to free up in the line in case Duo was trying to call. When two hours passed after Heero hung up and the phone hadn't rung once, she began to get worried.

Was it possible that he wasn't going to call to apologize? The thought became more and more likely as more time slipped by. He was angry at her. Hilde stomped around the apartment as she prepared for bed. What right did he have to be mad at her? He was the one acting like an idiot in the middle of the biggest thing that had ever happened to her. If he really cared about her, he would see that.

When she got into bed and turned out the lights, the only thing she could see was the hurt on his face when she had accused him of using dance as a hobby. It was then that she realized her mistake. After his family and her, dancing was the most important thing in Duo's life. To belittle that was to wound him deeper than if she had gouged out his eyes.

Hilde groaned and rolled over onto her side. "I am such a bitch," she informed her ragged teddy bear. "But what am I going to do about it?"

The answer seemed perfectly clear. An apology of her own. Another groan escaped her lips. Should she apologize to Duo? Probably. Could she?

Probably not.

****

"Listen up, seniors." Mr. Berardis crossed his arms over his thin chest and stared down his first period biology class like an old-fashioned school marm. "Quite frankly....your test grades are bringing me down." There was a wave of discontent. "Yeah, you think you're upset hearing that..." He held up a stack of recent quizzes. "Just wait until you get these back."

"Why don't you keep them?" Kyle shouted out, to the amusement of his friends.

Mr. Berardis thumbed through the papers until he reached Kyle's. "Take, for instance, Mr. Longheim's answer to question number three on yesterday's quiz." In his seat, Kyle squirmed uncomfortably. "In response to 'define a virus', he has cleverly written, 'something you catch from gay people'." Snickers filled the room; for the briefest second, Kyle's impenetrable mask of cockiness faltered. "I'll be seeing you after school in detention, by the way, Kyle," the teacher continued.

"So, because my evil scheme to make you learn by sheer terror of a daily pop quiz doesn't seem to be doing much..." He replaced Kyle's quiz in the stack. "I have decided to brush off the oldest teacher trick on the shelf. The final project."

"Final project?" Amanda Masterson wanted to know.

Mr. Berardis smiled. "There's an echo in here. Yes, Amanda, a final project. Audio, visual, written paper, class presentation, the works. Due in three weeks or else you fail. Because I like the way I paired you up as lab partners and I'm too lazy to shuffle you all around, look beside you. The person sitting at your table with you is now your project partner."

Relena and Heero glanced at each other at the same time. Relena was the first to look away and return her attention to the teacher.

"The topic is yours to pick. Just as long as it has something to do with biology." The bell rang out, signaling the end of the period. "Get out of here, all of you."

When most of the students had streamed out of the room, Relena picked up her backpack and approached the front of the room. "Mr. Berardis?"

"What's up, Relena?"

"Um..." She shifted her bag onto her back. "Is there any way I could maybe...I don't know...be paired with someone else?"

The teacher frowned. "Do you and Heero not get along?"

"I just think...that he'd probably want someone else," Relena said, quietly. "That's all."

"Easy way to settle this." Mr. Berardis looked at the back tables. "Heero. Come here for a minute." When Heero had joined them at the front, the teacher addressed him. "Can you work with Relena or are you going to mess up my partner system?"

Heero glanced at Relena. Her eyes were downcast; her arms folded tightly across her uniform sweater-vest. He blinked and made his decision without allowing himself time to think. "I can work with her."

Mr. Berardis looked at his students with satisfaction. "There you go, Relena. Now, scram...both of you. You'll be late."

As they left the biology lab, they headed in the same direction across the courtyard. Heero waited until they were in the open air to speak. "Did you think I didn't want you to be my partner?"

"Yes. I did."

He swallowed a strange lump that sprung into his throat. Why did that cut him so deep? "We work well together. In school. I don't see any reason to change that."

Relena looked up at the sun, peaking out from behind a grey mass of clouds. "All right, then. My mistake."

Heero stopped walking and turned to look at her. "It might have been a little of mine, too." The warning bell rang. He opened his mouth to say more, but she interrupted him.

"See you in rehearsal, Heero." With a little smile, she continued on past him, towards her art class.

He watched her until she disappeared into the building. The clouds enveloped the sun at the same time and the last thing Heero heard before breaking into a run for his history class was the distant rumble of thunder.

****

A thin trickle of sweat ran down Hilde's spine underneath her leotard. She had the overwhelming desire to reach behind her and rub away the slight tickling sensation, but it was rather impossible at that particular moment, seeing as how she was six feet up in the air, over Heero's head.

Outside the studio windows, a steady fall of rain drenched Manhattan, casting a gloomy, grey atmosphere over the city. It fit Hilde's mood. She was not accustomed to being on the receiving end of criticism for her dancing. But it seemed that today, everything she did was wrong. And Treize wasn't hesitant to point it all out to her.

Her feet touched the floor as Heero set her back down and immediately Treize shouted, "Pick up the pace!! You're both lagging behind. The weather is no excuse!"

She bit her lip and took Heero's hand into an arabesque. She held the position as he walked around her, spinning her body as he went. When he made a full circle, Hilde let her heel drop. Heero was already behind her for the next piece of the dance.

"Passion, Miss Schbeiker!! I'm not seeing it!" Treize clapped his hands. "Show me the emotion, not just the movements!"

From the sides where she and the rest of the corps formed a perfect box around Hilde and Heero, Relena bit her lip. Anyone could see that Hilde was trying her hardest. It was undeniable that her technique was perfect. The problem was, Hilde wasn't just trying, she was trying too hard. The effort upstaged the dance.

"Corps, go!" Treize yelled. Relena snapped to attention and ran forward with the other ballerinas. Alternating pirouettes and tiny jumps, they formed a V around Hilde as Heero, as the Prince, moved off to the side to watch Odette's solo piece. As the Baron/Sorcerer who lorded over the swans, Duo slunk in the background, watching the dances and just generally enjoying being evil.

The perspiration on Hilde's throat shone in the studio lights. On her left leg, she performed a series of turns without ever letting her right leg touch the floor. After the last one, she continued going, only this time moving forward down the line of corps ballerinas.

As she passed by Relena, Treize began shouting again. "Faster, Miss Schbeiker. Faster. Flutter. You're a swan! Tighten up those pirouettes."

*Faster,* Hilde told herself. *You're too slow...speed it up.* She put all of her energy into her next turn...and all of her weight on her left foot. *Faster...faster...faster!!* So intent was she on the mantra that for a long minute, it didn't even register that something inside her ankle had torn.

Relena broke formation and ran forward when Hilde's leg gave out and she dropped like a weight to the studio floor. By the time she reached the girl, the pain had caught up with her. Hilde cried out, clutching her left ankle.

Duo dropped his arms the second he heard Hilde's scream. Turning around, he looked past the line of corps members. Hilde was crumpled on the floor, crying. Relena was kneeling beside her, murmuring soothing words. His horrified eyes shot over to Treize and Lucrezia who were running towards Hilde. Even Heero had stopped everything and was watching in utter disbelief.

"Hilde!" Duo pushed through the corps and joined the group of people around his fallen girlfriend.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. "My ankle..." she was telling Treize. "It hurts!"

Treize ran a hand through his ginger curls. The room was silent as the other stunned dancers looked on. He glanced at his choreographer. "Go get the company medic," he told Lucrezia in a low tone. She nodded and was off. Ever so gently, Treize reached for Hilde's leg. "Can you move it at all?"

Hilde shook her head, still crying. "I can't....it hurts too much." Duo knelt behind her and she leaned back against him. "I felt it....tear," she sobbed.

A few minutes passed before Lucrezia returned with the company's sports medicine specialist. Duo held Hilde's hand as the older man examined her ankle. Silence still cloaked the studio. After a minute, the doctor looked Treize directly in the eye. "Call an ambulance."

Relena's heart dropped into her stomach. She stood up and backed away give everyone more room. An ambulance meant only one thing. It was beyond the help of the company medic; it was very bad. She looked across the room at Heero. He wasn't blinking; his chest rose and fell, still catching his breath from the abruptly halted rehearsal.

His piercing eyes met hers. There was fear in his eyes as there was in hers. Dancing injuries were not to be taken lightly. Relena herself had shin splints that still gave her pain every now and then. Heero had dislocated his shoulder three years earlier lifting his first pas de deux partner. In fact, there wasn't a person in the room who hadn't suffered some sort of injury as a result of their art.

But in twelve years of dancing, Relena had never seen anything like what had just happened to Hilde.

The paramedics burst into the studio ten minutes later and immediately lifted Hilde onto a stretcher. Duo grasped her hand, refusing to let go even when ordered by one of the EMTs. "I'm going with her," he said in a tone that left no room for discussion. The medic gave in and nodded.

After the EMTs, Hilde, Duo and Treize were gone, the silence that had plagued the studio broke. Quiet, worried sobs and loud whispers hummed in the air. Lucrezia held her hands to the group. "Everyone," she began. "We're through for the day. Unless otherwise notified, I still expect to see you all tomorrow afternoon." As the students started for their bags, she continued. "Keep Hilde in your thoughts tonight." What she didn't add to that was, *She's going to need all the help she can get.*

****

Millardo took a cab from St. Luke's Hospital on one side of Central Park to his penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side. Martin held the door to the building open for him, but Millardo was too lost in his thoughts to thank the man. He rode the elevator to the top floor in silence and when he stepped off into the grand hallway, Lucrezia was already waiting for him. Waiting for his news.

He had to smile when he saw her; she was too beautiful, even in her loose dance clothes with her dark hair hastily pulled off her face. She went to him, wringing her slender hands. "How is she?"

"They have her traction." Millardo shrugged out of his coat. "But the first set of X-rays...they're not good."

Lucrezia licked her lower lip. "Torn ligaments?"

"Just about every single one," he replied gravely. "The poor child did a number on herself."

"Oh god..." His fiance pressed a hand to her throat. "So...what are they going to do?"

Millardo started for the kitchen, to fix himself a late meal. He had been at the hospital, along with the younger dancer's boyfriend, ever since he had been informed of the accident. Hilde was the top choice for a coveted position in his company upon her graduation, after all. It was his place to help her through this injury.

If she could be helped at all.

"Well," he began. "An orthopedic surgeon is going to go in tomorrow morning for some exploratory surgery. See just how extensive the damage is. And then they'll take it from there."

Lucrezia nodded and handed him a can of soup from the pantry. "I hate even saying this so early on...but where does this leave the workshop?"

He watched the can turn as the electric device on the counter cut open the tin top. "I don't know. Treize and I will discuss it in the morning. There's no set understudy..."

She approached him from behind and slid her arms around his muscled stomach. "Like I said, I was thinking prematurely." She kissed the white cotton shirt covering the flesh between his shoulder blades.

"Love you, Lu," he told her, bring her fingers up to his lips. After a moment, he took his can off the electric opener. "Where is Relena?"

He could almost see her pretty frown as she spoke. "In your studio. Your mother guilted her into practicing." She sighed. "The last thing Relena wanted to do was even look at her pointe shoes tonight."

Millardo turned around and gave her a long kiss. "I'll go tell her she can stop."

"What about your dinner?"

He was already heading towards the tiny rehearsal area he had built when he bought the apartment. "I'm not hungry anymore." Twisting his head, he gave her another smile. "For food, that is." Returning the knowing smile, Lucrezia started for their bedroom.

The music pouring into the hallway from his studio was too loud to be heard over, so Millardo entered without knocking. Relena was dancing like a woman possessed, but it wasn't gentle piano notes that she moved her slender body to, but the fast beats and high energy of the latest pop music. Millardo stopped in the doorway and watched his little sister.

Her movements were fluid and passionate and without flaw. Looking away would have been impossible; her dancing captivated the eye. If she noticed him, which was unlikely, she paid him no attention and kept dancing, moving in perfect rhythm with the music pouring from her radio.

In his sister's dancing, Millardo could see the very deepest part of her soul. Until that moment, she had always hidden it from the world. But it was very clear right now. The pain pent up inside of her, her passions, her sorrows, her frustrations. It was heart wrenching to watch.

Heart wrenching and beautiful.

When the music stopped, Relena let herself slow down to catch her breath. Her chest contracted and expanded with each struggle for air. Perspiration soaked her dark blue leotard and her crown of blond hair. It was then that she noticed her brother watching her. If her cheeks hadn't already been bright pink from her exertions, they would have flushed with sudden embarrassment.

"Millardo." Swallowing, she took a deep breath. "How is...Hilde?"

He saw no sense in lying. "Not good." After he had filled her in on the other girl's condition, there was an awkward pause. "Relena," Millardo carefully began. "Why don't you dance like that in class?"

Relena looked down at her toe shoes. "I...I try. I just...I get so...flustered, I don't..." She stopped. "Millardo, does this all mean that the workshop is through?"

"No." He walked into the room, picked a gym towel off the barre and handed it to her. "Don't worry about it now, all right?" Nodding, she took the towel and patted her neck and forehead. "You just keep dancing like that, little sister."

"Like what?"

He backed out of the room. "Like if you don't, something inside of you would die."

****

To Be Continued