notes: For one of the best - Mad (chasingafterstarlight). Don't be too hard on me, I haven't written in months!
Dan Schneider/Nickelodeon ©
It thrived. The notes thrummed in the ears of anyone who passed and bounced off the walls of the empty room, and in the mirror a girl spun once and twice and three times, eyelids dusted finely with the subtlest of dusk. Dark curls wrapped in an almost too-tight bun, she listened for the quiet ticking of a rusty metronome, propped carefully on the barre.
She opened her eyes, brilliantly blue-green and hazy with languid delight, and watched herself pirouette horizontally across the hardwood floor. The tips of her ballet slippers skimmed easily across the smooth oak, and as the music emptied into its last fading notes, she let her breath out and smiled at herself with the stiff air of someone who wasn't quite sure how to.
"Loosen up," Beck said, breath gentle on the side of her neck. Jade jerked away, body going immediately into a defensive stance, then glared when she saw it was only him.
"Beck, seriously," she snapped. "Just because we're supposed to be working together doesn't mean you can just sneak up on me whenever you feel like it."
He laughed easily, throwing his head back. Jade looked distastefully at his hair, mouth pursed at the length of it. She thought almost spitefully that it was practically long enough to braid.
Sensing her irritation, Beck only smirked and put out his hand. She looked at it for a long moment and then sighed, placing her palm on his. "Let's just get this over with."
It was not her first time dancing with a partner, but it was certainly her first time with someone like him, easygoing and relaxed and body fluid.
She led him to the old stereo, acutely aware of his presence behind her, acutely aware of the slight dampness of his palm and the laziness of his eyes on her. She pressed the button.
And suddenly her hand was empty and his hands were at her sides, and they were pressed so closely together that if she breathed at all he would be breathing in that same air. Jade glanced up and Beck looked down at just the right moment, and he swallowed and she followed the bob of his Adam's apple, the curve of his throat.
The music played and he began to move, twisting fluidly around her. She stopped thinking about his throat and danced, spinning in a dizzy circle until he grabbed her by the waist and dipped her down, slowly, indolently, without a care in the world. His nose almost brushed against the hollow of her throat; she could feel his breath on her skin and an image flashed through her mind, just for a moment, of his face pressed into her shoulder and her shaking, gasping underneath him –
She felt the pull of his hand and let herself be pulled back up, and they continued with this dance, this swift movement of feet and twisting of arms and legs. Jade danced as she always did, tight and controlled until his hand touched the small of her back, and something in her uncoiled. His firm hand on her back, she felt, for the first time in a long time, her body loosen almost imperceptibly. And then she really, truly danced like she never had before, with a sense of volatility, an impulsiveness she'd never really dared let herself use. She considered the parabola of Beck's smile, the arch of his eyebrow, the curvature of his body underneath fluorescent lighting. She considered his hot breath against her neck and the gooseflesh that rose on her pale skin, and him counting the beat quietly under his breath. She considered the almost-smile tugging at her lips.
Tchaikovsky played.
notes: Please do not favorite without reviewing! I'll try to put up the next chapter as soon as possible.