Tiempo Pasado by Jenn
Summary: A random piece of character fluff. I read somewhere that Linda Park did
ballroom dancing, and I ran with it.
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
Swiped Pan Pacific Grand Prix from Strictly Ballroom, because
that movie's the bomb and I don't know enough about ballroom to come up with
something half-viable on my own. ;-)
PG-13 for some language.
Sixteen-year-old Hoshi Sato eyed the clock on the wall like a hawk. She still had a full half hour to go. It wasn't that she didn't like ballroom dancing classes; in fact it was exactly the opposite. She especially loved the rhythmic sambas and mambos. Just today, it was taking forever, and she really wanted to be working on that Latin Virgil.
Lately, Hoshi felt like she was being pulled in two completely equal but opposite directions. She loved dancing; she loved it with all her heart, but then there was language... more and more these past few months, she felt like she needed a definite direction to focus her energies. Limping along doing half this, half that wasn't going to cut it anymore. She'd already missed eleven Spanish classes for the Pan Pacific Grand Prix, and her five-day French oratory finals had almost cost her her ballroom partner.
Thwam! Suddenly, Hoshi was drawn out of her reverie as she knocked her knee into the barre lining the mirror-covered studio walls. "Merde," she muttered under her breath.
"Hosh!" her partner Paul rebuked her. "You haven't been with me this whole class! Could you please focus just a little?"
Más mierda, she thought. "Sorry. I'm just a little out of it today, that's all. Can we take it from the top?"
"Yeah, okay, sure. Just remember that turn is on five, and six and seven, eight. You keep coming in late."
Hoshi nodded softly, groaning inwardly as their instructor walked over to them. Well, maybe she was headed towards Alison and Sergey. Then again, maybe not. No such luck.
"Are you two doing all right?" she asked, her clear blue eyes coolly assessing the situation.
"I'm doing considerably well, Elena, thank you."
Paul can be such an incredible bastard, Hoshi thought as she gritted her teeth and forced a smile for her instructor. "I'm just having some trouble focusing today. I'm doing the best I can."
Elena patted her shoulder gently. "I'm sure you are. Such a talented dancer...you have so much grace! I know you can put it to use." She offered an encouraging smile before sauntering over to another nearby couple.
Hoshi narrowed her eyes. People always thought she was some fragile desert flower, needing every ounce of protection and encouragement she could soak up from the harsh environment that was the world. Rubbing her knee ruefully, she glared determinedly into Paul's overconfident eyes. "Let's do it."
*