Pas de Deux
Summary: 'Her plié's were beautiful, her battements were perfect, her jeté's were exquisite and her pirouettes were flawless. She was the most graceful ballerina he had ever seen.' Seto Kaiba had not expected to see a dancer of her level at a high school talent show. He had also not expected her to be the most wonderful woman he had ever met. A Silentshipping request.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is property of someone who isn't me.
Author's note: Good evening, Silentshipping fans! I, BlackKitt, have returned to the Silentshipping community after an unplanned hiatus of a year and a half with a new story! This story was requested by me by fellow Silentshipper loveSetoxSerenity4ever. She wanted a story in which Serenity is a ballerina and impresses Seto with her dancing. I thought the idea was adorable, so she and I shared some thoughts and it resulted in this masterpiece! Well, maybe not a masterpiece, but I am very happy with how this is turning out so far. This is not only thanks to me, but also thanks to loveSetoxSerenity4ever, who helped a lot with the creative aspects of the story, and my new beta-reader, Hug-The-Antihero. She has helped me tremendously with spelling, my inevitable Dutch-to-English cultural errors and silly mistakes overall. She is an amazing beta and I am proud to call her a friend. Thank you for listening to my rambling, and please enjoy reading!
Chapter 1: The Talent Show
Seto Kaiba tried to ignore the stares and whispers from the people around him the best he could as he sat himself down on one of the uncomfortable seats in the back row of the auditorium. He placed his briefcase on the free seat beside him, thus making sure no one would bother to try and sit next to him. Ugh, how he hated public affairs such as this one.
Tonight was the Domino High Talent Show, and his younger brother Mokuba had signed up to perform with some of his classmates. When Mokuba had invited him to come see the show, Kaiba just hadn't been able to say no, although he now sincerely wished he had.
He sighed as he opened the program given to him by the far too cheerful lady at the entrance. The talent show was divided into four categories; first came Theatre, then Comedy, then Music and lastly Dance. Since Mokuba was going to break dance with his friends, he was in the last category, and Kaiba groaned when the program showed Mokuba would be the second last talent to perform. He had hoped Mokuba would be on stage as one of the first so he could leave once his little brother had performed. Now he would have to sit though the whole damn thing.
Kaiba huffed. This stupid show was going to take up hours of his precious time, and he still had a sizeable workload waiting for him back home. It seemed he was in for yet another sleepless night.
It took at least ten more minutes before the doors to the auditorium were closed and the lights were dimmed. A spotlight sprang to life, illuminating the red velvet curtain concealing the stage from view. From behind said curtain emerged a thin bald man wearing a turtleneck and overly large spectacles.
"Welcome, family and friends, to the sixteenth annual Domino High Talent Show!" he exclaimed enthusiastically into the microphone set for him on stage. Most of the audience members applauded his words. Kaiba was not one of them.
The man then introduced himself as the school's drama teacher, and went on to explain some things about the upcoming acts and the break in between the Comedy and Music categories.
"And now, without further ado, please welcome our first talent: Henry!"
The audience clapped again as the curtains were drawn back, revealing what appeared to be the décor of the third act of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the centre was a mousy boy with brown hair, quite obviously a freshman, dressed in the classic medieval costume of the title character.
"T-to be or n-not to be, that is the q-question," the boy managed to choke out, stage fright making it impossible for him to speak clearly.
Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose. To sit through this entire talent show was one thing, but to hear such a beautiful monologue being butchered so brutally was absolute torture. The boy on stage didn't manage to say even one sentence without stuttering, failed to pronounce the old English words correctly and actually forgot his line halfway through his pathetic performance.
When he finally finished, he nearly ran off the stage, rightfully embarrassed by his sad display. The audience clapped for him out of politeness, but it was half-hearted applause at best. If this was any indication of the remainder of the evening, Kaiba would definitely need some painkillers when he got home.
Luckily, the acts that followed little Henry's were not as awful as his had been. Some others were nervous too, and it showed in their performances, but most kids were just trying to have fun. One pair of juniors actually pulled off an acceptable interpretation of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. It was the only theatre act Kaiba applauded for.
After all the actors and actresses had performed, the stage was set up for the comedians. Kaiba never cared much for comedy, let alone the stand-up kind, so the half hour of talent after talent cracking lousy jokes seemed to last for an eternity. Out of all the comedians, there was only one who made Kaiba snicker: a ventriloquist boy named Jeff who used his dolls to make fun of himself.
When the Comedy category was finished, the drama teacher announced a fifteen-minute break for the audience. Most people went for a drink, as they had all been given a coupon for one free refreshment, but Kaiba didn't think the cheap wine the school served was worth getting up for, so he stayed in his seat.
After the break, it was time for the musicians to take the stage. In other words, it was time for the real torture to begin. Music was the largest category in the talent show, yet there were few who didn't make Kaiba wish he had brought earplugs with him. From shrill singing to badly tuned instruments, most of the talents had no idea what they were doing. Much to Kaiba's relief, none of them attempted anything too complicated like Bach or Mozart, for that would have made the torture complete.
The last off-key note of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, sang by a blonde sophomore named Melissa, marked the end of the Music category. Kaiba sighed in relief. The only category left now was Dance, and it wasn't nearly as big as Music. If he was lucky, he'd be back home in an hour.
The Dance category started with a group of seniors performing something the overly-enthusiastic drama teacher announced to be 'street dance', which Kaiba wasn't familiar with and, he realized when the act ended, didn't particularly care for either.
After the first one, it took another eight acts before the drama teacher finally called the name of Mokuba's group, the B-Boys.
Despite the torture he had endured the past few hours, Kaiba couldn't help but crack a smile when his little brother jumped out from behind the curtain. He and his three friends were clad in identical baggy pants and overly large shirts, which Mokuba had explained were easier to move around in than regular clothes. Kaiba thought it looked ridiculous, but he hadn't said a word about the outfit when Mokuba had showed it to him a few days ago. Break dancing, it seemed, was something his kid brother enjoyed very much, so Kaiba had decided to support Mokuba the best he could, which included keeping his snarky remarks safely locked in the back of his mind.
The four boys took their stance, and loud music blared through the speakers in the auditorium. Mokuba and his friends sped around the podium, spinning around on their heads and performing some moves Mokuba had told him were called 'swipes' and 'floats'. Kaiba didn't know if their act was going as planned, as he didn't know how the strange moves were supposed to be executed, but since all four of them were doing the moves nearly perfectly in sync, he assumed everything was going smoothly.
After about four minutes, Mokuba and his three friends struck a pose just as the music ended, marking the end of their performance. The audience erupted in applause once again, only this time, Kaiba joined in, clapping as loudly as he possibly could for his little brother, who stopped and waved at the crowd before disappearing backstage again.
For the last time that evening, the red curtains were closed as the décor was changed for the final act. Kaiba briefly considered leaving, but he quickly decided against it. Mokuba probably wasn't ready to go yet anyway, and getting up right before the last performance would seem rude at best. Besides, he had already sat through what seemed like hundreds of acts, so just one more wouldn't kill him.
The curtains opened, revealing a background made to look like a simple medieval village. On stage was a girl with auburn haired tied in a bun, wearing a modest brown-and white costume and a pair of pointe shoes. From the looks of it, she was going to dance the solo from the first act of the ballet Giselle. Kaiba had to repress a snort of disdain. It seemed yet another piece of art was going to be butchered by an ignorant teenager tonight.
As he had expected, the famous music by Adolphe Adam soon echoed through the auditorium. The ballerina bowed to the audience before she started her dance by lifting her arms over her head in a bras en couronne.
Kaiba watched, at first uninterested, but soon amazed, as she danced, floating around the stage as though she really was a peasant girl granted the opportunity to do what she loved most in front of the princess of Courtland. Her plié's were beautiful, her battements were perfect, her jeté's were exquisite and her pirouettes were flawless. She was the most graceful ballerina he had ever seen.
All too soon, the music stopped, and Giselle made a curtsey at the feet of an imaginary Bathilde, ending her dance. The audience, which was mostly ignorant towards fine arts such as ballet, gave her a modest applause as she bowed to them again before disappearing off the stage. Kaiba, who had completely forgotten to clap, was left to stare in wonder at the red curtains as the drama teacher walked to the centre of the podium and started his end-of-a-wonderful-evening-speech.
What was this girl doing here? Why was a ballerina of her level performing in a lousy high school talent show alongside people like Henry, the worst Hamlet ever? Why wasn't she making a living by dancing Giselle in the largest theatres all over the world? Kaiba was mystified.
It was only after a few minutes of pondering the last act when he realized the audience had been dismissed, and a large number of people had already left the auditorium. Shaking the dazzling performance from his mind, Kaiba got up slowly and started to scan the room for his little brother, hoping to finally get home so he could get some work done.
He soon spotted Mokuba, who had luckily changed back into his normal attire, standing in a corner of the auditorium, talking to… Ugh, of course. The geek squad. Like this evening couldn't get any worse.
Knowing there was no way to avoid them, Kaiba started to make his way towards the group. He was about halfway there when a figure emerged from the stage door and was almost immediately pulled into a bear hug by Joey Wheeler. Kaiba froze where he stood. The figure was Giselle.
He stared, a bit dumbfounded, as she wrestled out of Joey's grasp and straightened her long hair. Then, a sudden realization, as well as a sense of disbelief washed over him. She was Wheeler's sister, the one who had been on the blimp in Battle City nearly five years ago. Kaiba blinked, not entirely sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. How could anyone related to Joey Wheeler be so graceful? It hardly made any sense.
Just then, she turned, a smile on her face, and looked him dead in the eye. For a moment, it seemed like time had stopped, until Yugi noticed what she was looking at and waved Kaiba over enthusiastically.
Kaiba groaned. This was definitely not his evening.
And there you have it! Ah, it feels good to write Silentshipping again. For those of you waiting for an update on Random Stranger, don't worry, I'm working on it. The past year hasn't been very kind to me; in fact, I can honestly say it was the worst year of my life, and both the time and inspiration for writing has been very scarce. However, things have been looking up for me lately and this story has really helped me get my inspiration back. Since the chapters of this story are a lot shorter than those of Random Stanger (2000-3000 words as opposed to 6000-8000 words), I should be able to get out a fair number of chapters before I go to university on September 2nd. Thank you for reading, I hope to see you all again soon!