Fandom: Step Up
Characters: Tyler Gage, Camille, (Malcolm)
Rating: G
Word-count: 1 262
Disclaimer: I own nothing. This story is based on the characters and situations created and owned by Touchstone Pictures, Summit Entertainment and various producers/choreographers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A Carefree Afternoon
By Hannah
Tyler laughed as he threw the ball against the brick house, waiting for Camille to catch it. She'd not stopped asking about what he was doing and why he was so tired since she'd come into his room earlier and told him he was baby-sitting. So he'd finally given in and told her about the dancing with Nora. Only... He'd left out the part where Nora was a beautiful girl he really didn't need to help but did anyway.
"Dancing?" Camille asked, sounding amused. "You can't dance."
Tyler snorted when she threw the ball and bent down to grab it when it bounced down on the ground instead of into his hands. "Who can't dance? You never seem me dance," he protested. He knew Camille didn't know much about him other than what he'd told her and he certainly hadn't told her anything about dancing.
He frowned slightly when Camille's expression turned smug as she caught the ball when he threw it. Whenever Camille had that expression it meant she had something planned and he usually had to cover to his foster parents. Not that he seriously minded, but it wasn't good.
"Then do something."
He laughed at his foster sister and watched her throw the ball. "Do somethin'?" he asked, catching the ball and turning to Camille. He grinned a little. "What you want me to do?" Not waiting for an answer, he started to just move, doing basic things that he knew looked harder than it was. "What you want me to do? Huh? Huh?" he prodded, playing around with the ball as he continued to move, now just holding it out for Camille to grab before yanking it out of the way.
They both laughed as he let her grab the ball and he wondered if she'd been at all impressed. He knew some of his friends thought he was good at stuff like that, but there was no telling with Camille.
"OK, it was fine, it was OK."
He caught the attempt at being nonchalant and grinned. So he actually had made and impression. "OK." Camille threw the ball and as he was catching it, he saw her move in the corner of his eye and turned to see her finish off a rather impressive move. "Whoa, what was that?"
She gave him a look but didn't answer and instead gestured towards the wall. "Throw it."
He shook his head, moving the ball away from Camille in case she made a grab for it. "Wait, what was that? Where'd you learn that from?" he asked. He hadn't known Camille could dance. The girl was the exact opposite of him, telling him about herself and her days even though he didn't want to hear, but he'd never actually heard or seen her dance.
"It's nothing," she protested, sounding annoyed, making as if to grab the ball.
He shook his head again. "No, I'm not throwing anything until you show me what that was." He let a smile play on his lips as Camille reluctantly showed him what she did again. She was really good. He chuckled. "Yeah, all right." He grinned. "All right, I get you with a little..."
Muttering slightly to himself, he polished off some of his older moves that were relatively easy to do and he wondered if she could be taught to dance. Now that he was on the road to a better life, he might as well try to see if he could help Camille too. If she was good, she might be able to do like Nora and go to MSA to learn more and get a good education.
He bounced the ball behind his back to Camille and grinned when she threw it away, obviously ready for anything he'd throw her way. That was the Camille he knew, always ready for a challenge. And he knew exactly what to do.
"All right... You can do that, you can do this."
He stepped forward with his right foot, moving his right arm up vertically, his left horizontally under it and then mirrored it to the left before stepping closer with his right foot, parting his hands as if he was opening a sliding-door, letting out a "haaah".
Camille laughed and shrugged lightly. "OK."
He grinned as she copied the moves, going "Hah! Hah! What?". He laughed and clapped his hands together, ready to teach her more, loving that she caught on quickly.
"I love it. All right, you got that?" He gestures to the last move.
Camille nodded "Yeah?"
He grinned. "So after that..." He lifted his right leg and arm and 'hit' with that side before mirroring it to the left, muttering "Hit, hit". Then he cramped together and twisted his arms back and forth until he was "sitting", right leg over left, left arm on his right knee, resting his head in his right hand before falling over slowly, putting down his right foot to step out of the move.
He grinned when Camille shrugged again and nodded. "OK, let's try it all."
"You got the whole thing?" he asked in disbelief. It usually took people more than someone just showing it once before they got it.
"Yeah."
He grinned, scratching his head. "OK, all right. On 'Go'. One, two, three, go -- all right?"
They both got in position, standing face-to-face with a couple steps between them. He started to count them in, pumping his right arm with the count, both bouncing their knees slightly to get the rhythm. At 'Go' they both started and went "What?" at each other, like Camille had done. He laughed, mumbling "hit, hit" and they both spun out of the last move before jumping around each other going "Hey!".
He laughed, it was amazing how fast she'd picked that up. Now he really wanted Camille to improve that and learn more and go further in life than her own parents and their foster parents. With her talent she could go far. He laughed when she started to do the "running man", her ponytail bouncing.
"Can you do 'running man'?" she asked, sounding cocky. "You don't know nothing 'bout that."
Unable to resist, he joined in and goofed around with her for a couple seconds before turning to Malcolm who sat in the shadow, drawing. Since he was baby-sitting, why not include all of them? Malcolm rarely had the freedom to be crazy and wild like he wanted to since Bill wasn't patient.
"Hey, Malcolm, can you do the 'running man'?" He laughed when the young boy immediately dumped what he'd been doing and came running out into the yard.
"Yeah!"
"Oh, yeah, what's up?" he laughed when Malcolm pushed himself up on his hands, starting to walk around.
Camille laughed. "Oh, here we go."
Grabbing hold of Malcolm's legs and he lifted the boy until Malcolm only had one hand on the ground.
"He's doing it one-handed. He's like 'look at me'," Camille announced, sounding amused.
He laughed with his two younger foster siblings as he started to spin Malcolm around, the little boy crying out "Whee!". These were typical moments that he loved, just being crazy and childish without his foster parents or any other adult supervising and shaking their heads at him.
Being carefree like this, as they all three were whenever they were alone in the house, could almost, at least for the moment, make up for the fact that they were living in a house where at least one adult didn't want them other than for the money they brought.
Author's Note: Reviews make me happy!