A week passed by quickly and Shane both tried to learn how to dance and tried to reignite his relationship with Mitchie. Unfortunately, the dancing was working better than the romance. Maxxie was a fantastic teacher and Shane could tell that the entire class was learning not only willingly, but quickly. Everyone, including Shane, was inspired by the way that Maxxie's body moved with perfection and fluidity when he gave the examples at the start of every lesson. Shane found himself more and more entranced each day with the manner in which the boy's torso could remain perfectly still as he tapped out an entire number – or the way that he could do a back flip as though it were nothing.

"Hey," Maxxie tapped Shane on the shoulder after class. "You're really improving."

"Thanks." Shane smiled. "You're a good teacher."

"If you want to move ahead of the class I can teach you after hours," Maxxie offered. "I mean just like half an hour after the campers have lights out."

"Really?" Shane asked.

"Of course." He nodded. "You have potential, I really like seeing students improve and it's easier to teach well one on one."

"How do you so much about teaching?" Shane asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a hand towel.

"I used to teach younger kids at the studio in order to pay for all of my own lessons," he shrugged. "When you do a lot of different kinds of dance, lessons can really start to cost and my family didn't have a lot of money."

"Oh." Shane nodded. "Well it really paid off – I would love to stay and talk but I have a Stage Presence and Microphone Tricks class to teach in about 3 minutes."

"Tonight,' Maxxie smiled. "Right here, 10:30."

"I'll be here." Shane gave Maxxie a quick nod before running out of the door.

***

That night at 10:30, just as they had agreed upon, Shane showed up in Maxxie's classroom. Maxxie was already there, stretching out so that he was ready to start.

"You warmed up?" he asked, looking up at Shane.

"I went for a run about an hour ago and did stretches after that," Shane shrugged.

"Why don't you do a few more then while I'm finishing up and then we can get to work." Shane nodded and sat down, working on stretching out his lower back and legs, though he couldn't help but notice how flexible Maxxie was. "Ok," Maxxie smiled. "Anything particular that you want to work on?"

"I really enjoyed the tap…" Shane bit his lip. "If you don't mind?"

"I love tap." Maxxie grinned. "Here, hold your torso still, like this." Maxxie didn't move on top as he tapped out a few beats.

"I can't do that!" Shane frowned as he tried, though his torso wiggled around.

"Ok, here." Maxxie put his hand on Shane's shoulders, holding him still. "Now tap." Shane gulped. It was hard to remember the steps with Maxxie's hands holding him down, it was hard to focus on the rapid movement and the strong grip on his shoulders. "That's better," Maxxie smiled. "You're doing good."

"Thanks." Shane smiled, biting his lip as he focused as hard as he could on the dancing, trying to ignore the touch. "You know, it might help if you showed me again."

"Yeah?" Maxxie tilted his head to the side. "Do you want to see it with the shoes?"

"Yeah!" Shane nodded. "That would be awesome."

"Ok, hold on." Maxxie went to the corner and grabbed his old tap shoes, slipping them on. They were loved, but he wasn't able to afford new ones, so they would have to do. He smiled as he walked back to the center of the room. He hit play on the music and began to tap, putting everything that he had into his dancing. Tap was one of his favorite forms of expression – he loved the way that it felt, the noise that it made and the response that it almost always pulled from the audience.

"That was fantastic!" Shane applauded. "Show me?"
"You won't be able to do that for like…two years." Maxxie bit his lip. "That's hard stuff right there."
"Oh…right, well show me something basic?" Shane asked, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Of course." Maxxie nodded, smiling. "Here, come on." For the next hour, Maxxie worked on showing simple steps to Shane. "You're doing really, really well." Maxxie took a gulp of water. "I'm beat."

"You're beat?" Shane let out a low whistle. "I feel like I'm about to pass out."

"I think we're done for tonight." Maxxie grinned, taking off his tap shoes.

"Definitely," Shane stretched out. "I need to walk that out…"

"I'll come with you?" Maxxie phrased it as though it were a question, waiting for Shane's approval.

"Yeah," Shane nodded. "Of course."

"Just let me lock up and I'll meet you outside."

"Ok." Shane headed out to get some fresh air while Maxxie locked up the classroom before joining the pop star.

"You know, you're really nothing like the pop stars I've heard about," Maxxie said as they began to walk, heading instinctively to traipse around the lake. "They're all divas – I'd actually heard that you were a bit of a ponce, to be honest."

"I used to be," Shane sighed, raking a hand through his hair.

"Really?" Maxxie's eyes widened in surprise. "Must have been a long time ago."

"A year," Shane admitted. "Almost to the date, to be honest. I let fame go to my head and I pretty much lost control of who I had been."

"What brought you back?" Maxxie asked, slinging his tap shoes over his shoulder. "If you don't mind me asking, I mean."

"Mitchie," Shane bit his lip as he began the story. "I met her here. At first I didn't know who she was, I fell in love with her voice, with a song that I heard her singing in a spare room, but by the time I entered the room, she had gone. I didn't realize that it was her until the final night at the competition…that night it felt like magic had brought us together, to sing, you know…" Shane sighed. "And to be together."

"That's really romantic," Maxxie smiled, pushing his shoulder against Shane's in a teasing manner.

"Yeah," Shane kicked a rock on the ground. "It was great for a couple of months, then it was good for about 4 more and now…" he looked up at the stars. "The passion just seems to be gone. I really, REALLY wish that I could get it back, I mean I really did love her at first. The thing is, she still loves me and she doesn't seem to know that anything's wrong. I can't break her heart – the person that I was a year ago broke hearts like hickory nuts, but now…I don't play that game."

"Then put the passion back into the relationship." Maxxie shrugged as thought it were a simple matter, continuing to walk.

"I'm trying but it's not working." Shane frowned. "I thought that if we came back here that I would rediscover the person that I fell in love with, but so far…it's just not happening that way."

"I'm sorry." Maxxie sighed. "You know…if you'd be willing to try something…"

"God, anything, I don't want to hurt her."

"Tango." Maxxie bit his lip.

"Tango?" Shane stopped walking, looking skeptically at Maxxie. "Isn't that basically sex on the dance floor?"

"When it's done incorrectly, maybe," Maxxie shrugged. "But when a Tango is done correctly, there is no dance more passionate. I could teach you, if you want. If that won't put the passion back into your relationship than I don't believe that anything will. When the Tango stopped working for James and I…" Maxxie trailed off. "Well we broke up."

"So…you'll teach me how to Tango and that's the final test?" Shane asked.

"That's up to you," Maxxie shrugged again. "I'll teach you, you decide if that's that."

"Ok." Shane nodded. "Same time, same place tomorrow night?"

"Yeah." Maxxie agreed. "You heading back to the cabin?"

"Yeah, you?" Shane asked.

"Nah, I'm gonna have a swim to cool off, I think. You can join me if you want to."

"I'm good, you really wore me out." Shane smiled, turning to go. "Oh, and Maxxie? Thanks for the talk and the offer to help."

"Anytime." Maxxie nodded as he watched Shane walk away. Once he was sure that Shane was a safe distance, he pulled out his cell phone.

"This had better be good you fucking sausage jockey," Tony, Maxxie's best friend, grunted the insult from the other end of the line. "You woke me."

"I've got a problem…" Maxxie closed his eyes. "I've made a mistake, Tone..."