i was scared of a heart i couldn't silence

All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you

Song inspo (ish)- I Was Made for Loving You: Tori Kelly and Ed Sheeran
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He was an idiot. He knew it, and his friends never missed an opportunity to remind him.

He'd admired her from afar at first. They were so young when they met, but even at the tender age of 8, he knew she'd take the world by storm. Here she was, this tiny little human, standing a solid head below the rest of the kids in her age group. Regardless, she looked like she was ready to kick ass and take names.

And she did. At first, he was intimidated by her. She was THE Kaycee Rice, her videos went viral and artists were fighting over her for performances. Sure, they'd met a few times here and there, but the first time she walked into Will's class, he didn't know what to do. Did he say hi? Did she even remember who he was? Probably not. It'd been a few years, and he didn't expect her to remember anything about him. He expected her to be a total diva. All glitter and hair flipping. But, as always, she surprised him.

"Sean!" The small girl approached him and set her bag next to his. She hugged him, and he didn't know what to do. What could he say, he was at the age where any contact with girls felt awkward and uncomfortable.

"I was worried I wouldn't know anyone," her eyes were wide, and she tied her hair up in a ponytail. He realized he still hadn't said anything.

"Oh, oh yeah. Hi. It's great to see you again!" She giggled and he felt something churn in his stomach. She'd grown maybe an inch or so, but she was still the sassy little spitfire he remembered from the first time they met.

Their friendship progressed naturally from there. She joined the beasts, officially, and they started doing events together. Classes, conventions, concept videos. They'd formed their own little friend group, and hung out almost all the time. But she was never someone he was particularly close to. Yes, they were good friends, but not like he and Charlize or Julian.

Things changed when he was fourteen, she thirteen. He'd realized how funny she was. How unapologetically weird. She didn't care about her clothes or her makeup or any of that. She was a total goofball, and to be honest, he didn't know how he'd missed it before. She was exactly the kind of person he wanted to be around.

His early teens were his "rebellious" years. He was your typical teenage boy: he liked to cause trouble and act like an idiot. But he grew out of it quickly. In reality, he'd grown to have a crush on Kaycee, and he'd realized that he would rather spend the night watching funny videos with her than cause mischief with his boys.

He'd made her fourteenth birthday cake. It took him two days, making sure the entire thing was perfect and reflected her personality. He spent hours perfecting the rice crispies, knowing cake wasn't her favorite thing. And then it became tradition for him to make one for every birthday, each special and thoughtful.

When he was approached to do Wrong Words, it was originally envisioned as a solo. But something just didn't feel right to Sean. The choreography wasn't flowing, he couldn't come up with a story. Sean was stuck. He was napping when he realized the reason it felt wrong was because it wasn't missing something, it was missing someone.

Kaycee agreed, but was hesitant. She'd just got out of a partnership with Gabe, and it hadn't ended well. They were partners because Tricia asked them to be, both knowing that they were more competitors than anything. But Kaycee thought they were friends. Clearly, she'd thought wrong.

It was bizarre at first, dancing with someone other than Gabe. They challenged each other, but in a way that made one want to be better than the other. Most of their duets were them trying to out dance each other.

She hated people in her personal space. She didn't really know how to dance equally with someone, but she wasn't going to let Sean down. He'd asked her for this, and she knew it was a big deal to him. This was his story, his choreo. She wanted to do it justice, but she wasn't sure if she could.