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