Things haven't changed much since you began performing together. You still hate her. Loathe her, really. She's awful, and horrid, and the only time you can bare one another is when you're performing. Without having to talk with her, she's tolerable. That's why together on stage you work as smoothly as silk, as slick as the steel toe on a tap shoe sliding along a hard floor.
You're not so different in bed.
Though you live for the stage and the thrill that the crowd brings, neither of you can help but feel the heaviness of day-to-day life in the city. It's a given that the awful tension between you has to be resolved in some way, and since you rely on each other for a living- well. Murder just isn't an option in this case.
The first time you did it, you were so sure she was trying to make you slap her right in the mouth. But she got too close, and your mouths and bodies were so suddenly pressed firmly against each other it was difficult to stop when her nails were scratching your thighs, and your teeth were sinking into her neck- so you didn't. It was rough and hot and loud and you really weren't sure how you got on the coffee table screaming her name with an arched back- but you got there. (And then you got there again, and again, and again...)
The first time she let you feel her- it was a moment of weakness, you convince yourself, though the fact that she was smirking the whole time tells you it was the opposite- you suppress your moan at her softness (you know she can tell, though). And just as you were about to get her off, she flipped you both over, wouldn't allow you that victory, just like with everything else. You melt into her easily even though it hurts you too, like slipping out of your dancing heels after a night on the floor (you soon feel better, but you know you're gonna have to slip right back on into 'em soon).
She's never gentle. It's not in her job description to be. She's all lights and passion and fierceness and precision and bites and scratches- but it doesn't scare you. You're in the business, you live for it as much as she does and for it only, as she does. But what does scare you sometimes is how easily you become her audience, how easily she plays you and thrills you, how easily you're not the main act anymore. Because Velma Kelly is always the star of the show, no matter the format.
(But you never realise she will always need you to make her so).