OMG I'VE WANTED TO DO THIS STORY FOR SO LONG NOWWWWW...
Anyway, if you've followed me for a while, you'll know I have a recurring headcanon that Caitlin can tap dance. This is one of my favorite headcanons, because for some reason that I can't figure out, it is so much fun to write. No idea why either!
But anywayyyyyy I've wanted to do a Snowbarry dancer!AU for so long now and I finally get to do one and OMG I'M SO EXCITED TO LET'S GET TO IT :D :D :D
ps - a lot of research went into this first chapter alone, so next chapter will be more ballroom-based XD
Barry Allen had not danced for ages - ever since he was 11, he had not really ever broken into a move.
Yet here he was, ten years later, making his way across the college campus to his first dance class in ages. It was being held by his great friend - and closest thing he had to a sister - Kara Danvers, who had been dancing since she was five - she had fifteen years of dancing experience underneath her belt. So in other words, this shouldn't be the hardest thing. Kara had a way of explaining things so simply that it was almost impossible to not understand her.
Anyway, he would be taking ballroom and tap - the two styles he remembered. If only vaguely. And he knew Kara absolutely adored tap and loved ballroom, so it should be easy.
And speaking of Kara, he saw her the moment he went down the hall to the dance room.
"Barry! Hey man!" she smiled, dropping her dance bag to engulf him in a hug. "Oh my gosh I'm so happy to see you!"
"You too Kara!" Barry said happily, hugging her back. "I'm so glad you got to teach these classes."
"Me too!" she said. "Wanna know something cool? You're my only guy for tap... you lucky fox, you."
Barry raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah, I forgot - you're still the same innocent guy from third grade," she said, pinching his cheek.
"Wow, that was a bad one," Barry laughed.
Kara giggled - she was so happy to have such a wonderful "brother" like Barry.
"Anyway, tap's up first, because ballroom is a bigger class of people," Kara said. "I'd recommend meeting your fellow dancers beforehand - and you've got, like, twenty minutes to do so - because believe me, every woman in that room is the purest thing out there."
"Will do," Barry nodded.
In reality, he was kinda nervous - he remembered certain girls who had been relentless when he was in high school because he was part of the glee club, and one of his paranoias when he signed up was that one of them would be there, just waiting to say "OH MY GOSH YOU WERE IN THE GLEE CLUB!"
Thankfully, that was not the case.
There were about five other women in the room besides Kara, and there was actually another guy, who was seated at the piano in the corner of the room.
Upon closer inspection, however, he saw that this person was his roommate - Cisco.
"Oh, hey dude!" Cisco smiled. "Forgot you had signed up for this class!"
"I didn't even know you played piano," Barry said. "Its good to see you man!"
"You too!" Cisco smiled. "Oh, I gotta introduce you to someone."
Before he knew it, Cisco had pulled him away from the piano, and over to a corner of the dance room, where a woman was just getting her shoes on for class - she had a mixture of dark and light brown hair, and she wore a STAR Labs t-shirt and sweatpants, which were currently rolled up. Her tap shoes, for whatever reason, made her look even more adorable than she already did. When she looked up at Cisco, she revealed her chocolate brown eyes, which just screamed loveliness.
Barry had barely laid eyes on her and he was already pretty confident he had a crush on her.
"Caitlin, this is my roommate, Barry Allen," Cisco said. "Barry, this is my best friend, next to you - Caitlin Snow!"
"U-Uh, hi!" Caitlin said, seeming a little flustered by the sudden meeting.
"Hello t-there," Barry said. "Uh... that kinda came out of nowhere, didn't it?"
"Yeah, sorry, Cisco can be like that sometimes," Caitlin giggled. "Uh, well, I'm Caitlin, as you already know."
"And I'm Barry, as you already know," Barry said. The two shook hands and laughed with one another for a minute. "So... have you ever taken tap before?"
"Uh, when I was a little girl, yeah," Caitlin said, beginning to put her hair into a ponytail. "I've recently had to sit through a lot of old films thanks to my girlfriend, Felicity - not romantic, mind you - and her love for that stuff. She convinced me to take this class with her... so yeah."
"I think I know Felicity," he said. "She's the one with glasses right?"
"Yep!" Caitlin smiled. "Now, what's your tap experience?"
"Uh... danced from five to eleven," Barry said sheepishly. "I just heard Kara was holding a dance class, so I wanted to join to try and pick up some old skills."
"Cool!" Caitlin said. "I haven't done much besides my science work, so I think this class is gonna be really refreshing. I'm very excited! But also a bit nervous."
"Don't worry, its a lot of fun," Barry told her, smiling. "You'll do great, Caitlin."
"Aww... thank you, Barry!" Caitlin said, her confidence already brought up from earlier, when she was dreading this. Now, she looked forward to it. "Well, I need to finish getting ready, but it was amazing meeting you!"
"Amazing meeting you too, Caitlin!" Barry smiled. "See you on the dance floor!"
"See you there!" Caitlin smiled.
For the next ten minutes, Barry met with the other women of the class - Kara's sister Alex (who he already knew), Felicity Smoak (who he also knew), Sara Lance, and Dinah Drake. All of them were extremely sweet, and he was happy to get to meet them... but he was happiest of all to meet Caitlin.
For some reason she just made him smile... and he had only known her for about fifteen minutes.
"Alright ladies and dude," Kara said, obviously nodding to Barry, "lets get this class started, shall we?"
The seven moved to the front, and Kara turned to face them. "Okay, so, who here has not had any years of tap beforehand?"
No one raised their hand. "Alright, sweet! Today we're going over all the simple stuff, so don't sweat it. You all will be pros when I'm done with you. And speaking of that - I'd like to show you what you will be able to do by the end of this class if you focus. Mr. Ramon?"
"Right on it," Cisco said, facing the piano.
Cisco then tore it up on the piano - Barry was taken aback. He was really good! And Kara... well she might as well have had wings, because she was flying. And keep in mind - she was in heels.
It astounded him. It really did. His friends were all so talented.
"She's good," Caitlin whispered to Barry.
"That isn't even all she can do," he chuckled.
When Kara was finished, everyone in the room applauded for her - Cisco received a very generous amount of applause too.
"Alright, so our first piece will be learning the Shim Sham - just a basic routine that shouldn't be too hard," she smiled. "Uhh... Barry, Caitlin, could you all help me?"
The two nodded, and noisily walked up to the front of the room.
"Okay, so does everyone know what a paradiddle is?" she asked.
"Yep," they all said.
"Okay, so the first part of our routine is basically just that," Kara began. "So, do about four of those to start us off. Guys?"
Barry and Caitlin nodded, and then did the step - they were so in sync already, for some reason. Kara was extremely impressed.
"Okay, that was smooth," she giggled. "So, they did about four - do that four times over, and let's all try it. Ready, 5, 6, 7, 8!"
The whole class followed their instructor's movements, and pretty soon, the whole room was just one thing - noise.
Barry found himself subtly looking at Caitlin as she concentrated too. She was really focused on keeping her moves as compact and well-executed as possible, and she was smiling as she looked down at her feet.
Why had she caught his attention so quickly... he knew for a fact that no other woman had done this to him before.
When Kara finally spoke again, everyone's attention was grabbed, and he was glad - he didn't want Caitlin to think he was weird, or anything.
But he could already tell that he was going to love these dance classes.
He had never been so happy to pick something back up again.
After the tap class was over, Barry changed from his tap to his ballroom shoes - which were just regular tennis shoes.
However, as he was doing this, he heard someone sit down next to him. It was Caitlin.
"Oh, hey Caitlin," Barry smiled. "What's up?"
"Uh... well, I just wanted to know if you had a fun class," she said, putting her tap shoes back into her dance bag.
"Definitely!" Barry said happily. "And you?"
"Oh, I loved it," Caitlin beamed. "Hey, uh... okay I'm really shy because you seem like a wonderful guy who I'd love to get to know better, so, uhm... he-here's my number."
She had written it down on a little piece of paper, and he smiled as she gave it to him. "Thank you Caitlin! You're a very wonderful and extraordinary woman."
Caitlin blushed madly. "Aww... you're too sweet, Barry. I look forward to getting to know you better!"
"I look forward to knowing you better, too," Barry said happily.
Caitlin beamed. "I would stay for the ballroom class, but I actually have to be somewhere, so I'll be back on Monday. See you then?"
"See you then, if not before," Barry smiled. "Have a great evening Caitlin!"
"You too! Talk to you soon!" she smiled.
And with that, the new dancer walked out of the room, happy with the fact that she had a brand new friend - and she may have skipped a bit as she walked.
Barry, meanwhile, just knew his parents were gonna take the most out of this that they could when he called them tonight - but that was okay. Its just how they were.
He was just excited to get to know Caitlin Snow better.
And that's that! I hope this first chapter was fun to read! :D In case you're wondering - yes, Barry's parents are alive, and Caitlin's are both still around, just a bit distant.
PLEASE leave a review and let me know what you thought of this! I'd love to hear your all's feedback! And plus, this is my first AU, so I'm a bit nervous lol. Next chapter we're gonna get to know more characters better :D There's also gonna be a small group Cisco's a part of later on XD
I know dancing probably isn't the most interesting thing to make an AU out of, but I hope this was still enjoyable nonetheless. Hopefully the story I've got planned will keep y'all intrigued :D I'll see you guys next chapter! :D