Pas de Deux

THREE

The next morning, Scott made sure to arrive at the theatre at 8.30, just to be sure that he would be ready once Mitch arrived. He warmed up and stretched his muscles, before he went through a few easier and then more complex steps.

While he was dancing, his thoughts wandered to Mitch and about how working even closer with him would be like. He really dreaded fighting with him over and over again, especially because the premier was more important than anything else.

The sound of the opening and closing pulled him from his thoughts and he turned to look at Mitch.

"Hi" he greeted, unsure of what to say.

"Hi."
Mitch answered, somewhat unsure himself.

Silence fell between them and the two dancers looked at each other awkwardly.

They hadn't talked since Mitch had almost slapped Scott yesterday, their fight was still hanging in the air between them like an disgusting smell.

But Scott knew, they had to work together now, if he wanted to or not.
And he had worked way too hard to get where he was now to allow anyone, not even Mitch, to mess with his success.

So Scott took a deep breath and tried to ignore the strange vibes between them:

"So. Pas de Deux?"

Mitch nodded:
"Yeah." he said simply and with an uninterpretable voice.

"How far along are you step wise?" Scott wanted to know while he waited for Mitch to get ready.

"We started with the Pas de Deux. Gina can't be here today, so we did that first so we could start working you know..." Mitch said all this without looking directly at Scott. He stood up and stretched his arms and legs quickly but thoroughly and then looked at Scott.

"Ready?" The blonde asked.

"Of course."

Scott turned on the music and began the routine. It felt weird to be dancing with Mitch instead of Lia, but that was mainly because his physique was different, because he was a man. But it worked out better than he thought it would.

"That was not bad for the first run through" he commented carefully once they got through it.

"I agree. I mean we need to work on details, but so far so good" Mitch replied and Scott thought he had seen a hint of a smile on his face.

Scott nodded:
"Once again from the top?"

Mitch nodded and straightened his position.

They floated through their routine easily and Scott was amazed by how quick and flawless Mitch had learned these new steps.

Once they stopped again, Scott looked at his new partner and this time there was no doubt: Mitch was smiling. Scott couldn't help but smile as well because now he saw Mitch happy he realized, he hadn't seen his smile before.

Since day one, Mitch had always kept his serious, concentrated face throughout the training sessions, but this honest and wide smile was completely new to Scott.
New, but not unwanted.

"How are you already this good?" He asked before he could think about it, "I mean, you started working on the female lead routine yesterday? This is impossible!"

"Actually..." Mitch looked at his hands "I didn't... I danced the female part since I started dancing your part as well. I don't know, I just love dancing female parts in ballet, the point shoes, the tutus... All of that always mesmerized me. Being lifted and so on... Yeah..."

"And dancing with men whose job it is to make you look pretty?" Scott joked.

"Hmm?"

"Oh." Scott gasped and put a hand in front of his mouth. "I didn't mean to assume your preferences. I just thought..."