Hello everyone, and Happy New Year! I hope you have a marvelous 2017!

Once more, I would like to remind you that The Flash is a property of CW/DC/Warner and I owe nothing but Marie and some other side characters ;)

Also wanted to thank everybody reading this story, you guys have no idea how much this means to me. Étoile Tombée was just a test for me, but now I feel so inspired to keep writing thanks to you. You're awesome!

(and if you want to leave a review and make my day better, don't be shy! PM me too if you like!)

Enjoy this chapter! (the next will be coming soon and hopefully will be longer!)

Chapitre Trois

Créatures Éthérées

"Marie, you're an air spirit. A weightless, ethereal creature," Mistress Kane tells her during a rehearsal of the pas de trois from act one. "That's what differences the Sylph from Effie, the sharp contrast between elemental and human. Effie dances, but the Sylph flies."

Marie nods. "Of course," she says. But it's not what she feels.

Ballet dancers are ethereal creatures. They perform the hardest steps with a smile on their faces and make it look easy. They are trained for it, to be lightweight. And even though Marie was trained like any of them, she just couldn't feel lightweight.

It started when she was twelve. It was the year she decided that she would do the possible and the impossible to be a professional dancer. So her first decision was that she needed to lose weight.

Marie was a chubby child, what definitely made her stand out from her fellow ballet students. And then came puberty. Thankfully, she had small breasts, but everything else seemed... wrong.

Her thighs were too big, her arms didn't feel slender and beautiful, and her backside - generously inherited from her mother's side - was definitely a problem. So she started dieting. Never something too crazy, just enough to be in the shape she wanted.

And then she found out that you can't fight nature. At fifteen, Marie was at the edge of an eating disorder. Her mother had noticed, but Marie wouldn't listen to her: she did not know how much dancing was important to her. So her teacher stepped in.

"Marie, you can't do this anymore," Mrs. Robertson told her. "This is your body and you don't need to change it to the a good dancer."

"But... aren't my arms ungracious?" she asked, incapable of looking in her teachers eyes.

"Your arms are your best trait, don't worry about them. If you're really want this life, you will get in shape; professionals train eight hours per day. But you need to stop fighting your own nature. Accept yourself, embrace your uniqueness and then you'll conquer the world."

Marie never forgot those words. Six months later, she auditioned for a professional ballet school and was accepted. And yes, she couldn't jump as high as some of her classmates or had Sylvie Guillem-ish extensions, but she did made her teacher cry after her performance of the Dying Swan. And even if she wasn't accepted into the school's company later, this led her to Central City Ballet and she loved it here.

So Marie takes a deep breath and restarts the choreography, Mrs. Robertson's words in mind.

"I'm so happy you're here!" Marie says in her mother's arms.

"I couldn't miss your debut in La Sylphide. Did you liked the surprise?" Karen Sheperd's laugh sounds like music to Marie's ears.

"I loved it, mom!" she takes her mother's suitcase and leads her into the apartment. "But you should have told me, I would catch you on the airport"

Karen throws herself on the couch. "Nah, I don't mind," she waves her hand at Marie, her silky black hair shining against the fabric. Karen was seventeen when Marie was born, so she's still pretty young. Most people use to think they're sisters instead of mother and daughter, what makes Karen dazzlingly happy. Her natural curly hair is straightened now, and her eyes are accentuated by thick fake lashes. Karen's a make-up artist, what really comes in handy when you're a teenage ballerina with no idea of how applying eyeliner. Even nowadays, after years of practice, Marie knows she'll never match her mother's skills.

"How's Paige?" she asks, pulling out her boots.

"She's great. You should have seen her in Jewels, mom, she stole the night!" Marie answers from the kitchen. "Will you stay for Christmas?"

Karen enters the room and sits in a chair by the table.

"Let me see: my favorite holiday with my favorite daughter, yes or of course?"

Marie laughs as she serves juice for her mom. "I'm your only daughter."

She winks playfully. "That's merely a detail, darling."