Alone together ✕ Wayhaught

one

Fuck.

Slowly, Waverly opens her eyes. She stares at the hotel room's ceiling for a moment to readjust to the feeling of being awake and, unfortunately, in the process of that, she remembers where she is. For months now, she has been dreading this day. It had already been hard for her to wake up every single morning in a different city and find the energy to blend in as much as she could, but today, in all sincerity, she would rather die. For a minute, Waverly just lays there, contemplating whether she should just give up and close her eyes again – which will hopefully magically transport her to a different reality – and hell, she even tries it. She tries really hard. But it won't work. So she decides to just face these unwanted feelings and get up.
After maybe ten more minutes because the bed is just so comfortable.

She presses play and soon the sound of hot coffee streaming out of the machine is overpowered by the classic pop songs you can catch Waverly listening to at any given moment. As the coffee pot gets filled bit by bit, Wave jumps and dances around exactly like she does every morning. She doesn't know about the other people in her group, but to her this feels like a daily ritual every dancer has. Speaking of her fellow dancing mates, just like every other day, she hears the familiar knock on her door.
"Good morning!", an enthusiastic voice singingly yells.
"Hi", Wave says as she opens the door for Asiel. He looks at her and raises an eyebrow.
"Someone's in a bad mood today?"
"Not exactly, you just interrupted my morning routine, that's all", Waverly half-lies. Asiel hesitates a minute to questionaly look her up and down before he tells her: "Sure, babe, whatever you say", as he raises his eyebrow yet again, only this time with his eyes opened more fully, indicating he's not buying her excuse one bit. But he seems to have forgotten Waverly's difference in attitude as quickly as always. "Do I smell coffee?"

After catching up on Asiel's latest 'sexting' experience he had with a boy he met on some kind of dating app - and Waverly being forced to rate the sexual nude photos he had sent him – while drinking their coffees, they were picked up by Richard, who is their choreographer. As it was a performance day today, they did some basic stretching techniques and then went over the whole show, practicing the difficult parts one last time. As soon as they were done, a couple of the other dancers walked over to Waverly and asked if she wanted to join them when they'd go into the city center for a while before the concert would start, but Waverly politely declined. Honestly, she'd rather sit in a room by herself all day than that she'd be faced with the streets of her own hometown. So, that's what she did.

-

"Haught, situation?", she hears from the intercom on her shoulder.
"Everything clear", she confirms into the device. Nicole watches the stage closely and observes if she sees any suspicious activity, but luckily there's none. What she does see is the famous pop star singing and dancing energetically in front of her huge audience, along with her skilled dancers. Nicole's eyes explore each of them, mentally trying to figure out what sort of people they are and if she'd get along with them. When it's the end of the act, they all stand still in their final positions and catch their breaths while the fans cheer loudly. The lights dim and the focus now lays on the musicians, who are impressively playing an interlude to give the performers their chance to slip off to the backstage area to change their outfits. Nicole is still closely watching the big crowd of people, making sure everything is going alright. As quickly as the other dancers disappear, a new group of dancers is already standing next to Nicole, waiting for their cue. Within seconds they all run on stage and one by one, they all do a little solo dance that Nicole could never in a million years replicate. The lighting changes into a deep shade of red and the dancers line up to start the choreography that belongs to this specific song. Soon, the band starts playing one of the most popular music lines. Immediately after hearing it blast through the speakers, the crowd reacts wildly and there's a deafening noise of screams and applauding. The famous singer appears on stage again now, too, and Nicole no longer has time to look at the show, she has to follow every move and be prepared to jump in whenever something bad threatens to happen. This all works fine, until about halfway through the song. A specific part of the choreography makes them all stand in a circle and twirl their hips around, followed by a slow grinding. Since they're standing in a circle, there's a girl facing Nicole. And this girl might be exactly the reason why Nicole is getting so distracted from her job. The way the young woman is moving her body to the beats of the song is intriguing to Nicole. She is mesmerized. She feels as if the image in front of her is going in slow motion; the way the girl's abs tighten when she moves her hips, the drips of sweat rolling down her exposed stomach, the strands of hair falling over her face because of the movements she's making and the way she softly bites her bottom lip in concentration. All of it seems to be going in slow motion. Nicole can't deny the feeling between her legs when she looks at the brunette on stage. It's clear the young dancer is in a state of concentration and is only focused on getting all the moves right, so when her eyes land on the red-haired security guard behind the scenes, she doesn't actually look at her. But that doesn't stop Nicole from feeling even more aroused. Yeah, of course she realizes that this gorgeous creature doesn't really see her, but her eyes looking in Nicole's direction still does things to her. At this point, Nicole is breathing so heavily, the tech guy next to her has to ask if she's doing okay. But she doesn't reply, her eyes are fixated on the dancer and she can't speak. And just like that, the lights go out, the song ends and before she even has time to find the girl again, she's ran off the stage. Throughout the rest of the night, Nicole watched out for the singer's safety, but still occasionally glanced at the girl from the corner of her eye.

-

Last one, now. She stands waiting until the music starts blasting louder than ever through these enormous speakers. Suddenly, all of the pushed away memories stream through Waverly's mind like a waterfall. She's dancing, she can feel her body moving, but her mind is somewhere else. She dances like she's never danced these past six years.

You're not even one of us! Waverly, why are you even in this family?!

Her legs hurt but it doesn't matter, all Waverly wants right now is to erase her mind. The screaming faces around her all blur together and the colorful stage lights seem brighter than usually. Her whole body is sweating but it doesn't stop her, she dances harder and harder.

Mom and dad never wanted you! I wish you'd just leave forever!

Fine, then I fucking will!

Loose memories flash before her eyes. At this point, all Waverly cares about is finishing this show and getting the fuck out of this building. It feels like the walls are closing in on her, and every sound is too loud. All that she sees in front of her she doesn't process, it just flashes by, except for that one person sitting in the bleachers right there. It's not real. It can't be. Is it? She shakes her head and tries to dance it off, and when she looks up again, the girl indeed is gone. She swears she saw her sister sitting between all those crazy fans. Waverly stays in her confused, paranoid state until it's the end of the song and finally, the show has come to an end. When it's her turn, she walks off stage and as soon as she's backstage, she runs. She runs off the stairs through the hallway of changing rooms. She runs as hard as her legs can handle it. Everything is going so fast. At one point she grabs her leather jacket and before she knows it, she's running up the steps and there she is at the very top of the venue. When she opens the door to step out on the roof she's met with the chilly November air.
"Shit", she breathes out. From here she can see every part of the city that she thought she'd never see again, along with all of its lights. It should be around 12 by now and the buildings around her faintly light up the dark night skies. It's been so long. Waverly is so busy looking at the view, she doesn't even notice the person standing on the other side of the roof, also silently taking in the view in front of her. After a while though, she does. Waverly sticks a cigarette in her mouth and walks over to her.
"Don't trust anyone", Waverly mumbles, the cigarette poking out of the corner of her mouth.
"Excuse me?" The other girl looks at her surprised. It takes Nicole a minute to realize who she's talking to. She gulps.
"Nothing is ever, ever what it seems. Your family will betray you, your parents really aren't that fucking great, your sisters will turn their backs on you." Waverly suddenly finds herself ranting to the stranger about all the things she's held in for so long. When she feels herself getting emotional, she drifts off and looks off into the distance. After a moment she finally lights her cigarette. The bright orange that arises when she takes her first puff, grimly lights up her face.
"What makes someone like you sit here at this time of night?", Waverly has to ask the other girl.
"Just... clearing my mind, I guess. I sometimes go here after my shifts. I like the view up here and besides, it's not like I have anyone to rush home to." She smiles which Waverly finds strange, since what she just said is rather sad. A minute of oddly comfortable silence passes.
"I'm Waverly."
Nicole is met with a pair of eyes that nearly seem dead.
"Nicole", the taller girl held out her hand for Waverly to take. And when she does, she immediately notices how soft the security guard's hands are. She smells of vanilla. Waverly, on the other hand, has a strong scent of cigarette smoke mixed with cheap men's perfume. For some reason, that makes Nicole's chest tingle even more. Waverly has still not let go of her hand and she uses it to pull Nicole forward. She tilts her head and leans it into Nicole's neck. Her nose lightly grazes it while she inhales Nicole's smell. Nicole swears her heart rate went up from mildly high to out of the roof. Waverly placed her other hand on Nicole's arm to steady herself and Nicole is pretty positive she can feel the goosebumps she's creating there.
"Vanilla and... cinnamon?"
Waverly is so close to her face and Nicole doesn't process what the hell she's talking about at first but soon realizes she is referring to the way Nicole smells, so she manages to blurt out an answer about her shower-gel. Boy, is she glad Waverly can't see her blush in this darkness. They stare into each other's brown eyes and it's like they can read each other's minds at this moment. And they both happen to be thinking of the same exact thing. Waverly is about to do whatever she does when she feels like this, the thing she's done so many times before and what she's been planning to do the minute she laid eyes on the other woman.

"Wanna go to my room with me?"