I'm sorry if the story seems a bit slow at the moment, I just think that with their situations as gymnast and coach, and their mutual stubbornness, it would be so...for now :)

"Payson?"

He expected her to be sitting on the changing room bench, maybe still crying and shaking, but instead he found her standing upright, a grim look of determination in her face.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out.

"I'm sorry?" repeated Sasha, confused.

Payson furrowed her eyebrows as she met his perplexed gaze.

"Yes," she offered, "I'm sorry."

She felt rash and temperamental, her hands clammy as she rubbed them awkwardly together. She couldn't make out why she more frustrated about disappointing Sasha than embarrassing herself in front of the entire gym. She didn't understand why she had rejected his offer of help, why she had run away from him. Perhaps it was because she couldn't deal with disappointing him. All Payson had felt was the empty void encroaching closer upon her until now when Sasha's face seemed to break the stifling silence of her mind.

Looking up, she saw his eyes, slightly glazed with a tender thought. She instantly felt wretched at pushing him away, guilt creeping into conscience as she saw he only wanted to help her.

"What's wrong Payson?" Sasha asked gently, leading her towards the bench and sitting down himself.

His gymnast gave a long slow sigh.

"It's just-" she hesitated as she wondered whether to sit down next to him. She did, averting her eyes around the room as she spoke.

"It's just everyone expects me to be great, just like before and-"

Payson's voice trembled as she broke off. She didn't understand this turbulent rollercoaster of emotions she was suddenly experiencing, it was as if her world had suddenly been thrown of its axis, and the only thing that was keeping it together was Sasha.

"I'm scared Sasha," she whispered, turning to face him.

"Scared of trying something new in case people think I'm…ridiculous," she concluded, in lack of a better word.

In case you think I'm ridiculous.

"Payson, you don't have to be scared of anything," Sasha assured her, "you can start anew, reinvent yourself with me, who cares what others thought of you before. Trust me, we do anything together."

Payson gently blushed: not enough for Sasha to detect in the low light of the changing room, but enough to feel the hot flush fill her face. She looked down. Sasha's hand was resting lightly on her knee.

How long it had been there she didn't know, but strangely it seemed natural for his hand to be there, protectively. It was oddly…comfortable.

Woah.

Payson Keller shot up into the air, bounding up from the bench.

Sasha seemed to have noticed his uncontrolled limb too and was quickly trying to cover himself. Swallow, he thought as he realised his throat had become uncontrollably dry, swallow and gulp. Just gulp, gulp Sasha now!

"You and me, starting afresh," he managed to croak.

She smiled, her lips curving serenely, entrancingly as she bent forwards. For one joyous, fleeting moment Sasha believed Payson Keeler was going to kiss him.

Instead, she hugged him, and he hugged her back.

Payson sunk her chin deeper into his shoulder, tracing the arch of his neck with the curved contour of her own face. Sasha let himself brush against her hair lightly, so as not to disturb the shining radiance. He breathed in deeply, purposefully.

Definitely coconut. Coconut and…lemon?

It seemed to be a moment suspended in time. Payson could only feel the slow rise and fall of Sasha's ribcage against her front, her hand which was on his back unconsciously mirroring the expanding lilt. She could hear his breath, unsteady and halted, almost feel the pounding of his heart against hers. Payson's mind seemed to block out everything else, all that remained was undoubted confusion, but rapidly rising out of that was something new. Something torturous and ecstatic, radiating pleasure and pain, burning her heart yet soothing her soul.

If Payson Keeler had known anything about love, she would have recognised the beginnings of it. If Sasha Belov was a man who let his heart guide him, he would not have withdrawn from the embrace. But she was untouched by experience, still a wide-eyed observer, and he was too used to listening to his head.

Gymnast and coach looked up at each as they sat opposite on the bench.

"I want to do it again."

Payson spoke. She was watching him, twisting her hands near her stomach.

"But not in front of the others," she said determinedly, "just for you. I mean in front of you."

She gave a nervous laugh. He smiled. That was his gymnast: strong and resilient, you just had to know how to coax it out of her.

"Come on."

Coach and gymnast walked back into the gym. Neither noticed if anybody stared, or muttered or whispered. Both simply strode into position, girl to the floor, man to the CD player.

Payson tried to remember to breathe. Poised on the mat she slowly let everything else fade away, blurring her peripheral vision until there was only one thing she was focussed on. One person. The music began. Through the void of sound and speed she tried to remember his face.

Sasha watched, entranced. It was…beautiful. Then it ended.

She looked up at him from across the room, shyly, expectantly. Sasha gave her a small nod, a smile, then gestured for her to go to lunch. His pulse had shot up, he could feel his hands writhing as he attempted to control his beads of sweat and walk calmly, measuredly up the stairs to his office. He tried to ignore Payson's forlorn face as she wandered to the door.

In his office, Sasha held his head in his hands, leaning heavily on his desk. Staring across the glass pane to the gym, he tried to ignore the chaos in his head.

Amidst his conflicting emotions, strangely he felt calm. He felt as if everything that just happened was simply normal. That was maybe the strangest part. He stared into the doorway where Payson had left, then cursed himself for looking, snapping his head away.

Then he looked back again.

I wanted to show how these feelings arise from friendship and trust and stuff. Impulsivness and passion come later :P

I hope it's going ok, and coming across all right!