A week later, Nagisa fidgeted nervously in his seat on the bus. Gachou, who was now officially Nagisa's puppy, was nodding off in the top of his backpack. His new partner was a member of an actual dancing club and had access to a small studio on the edge of town. Nagisa would bike there, but he couldn't leave Gachou in his apartment in case the landlord discovered the tiny puppy. The bus also didn't allow dogs, but at least on the bus Gachou was with Nagisa.

"His voice was very handsome sounding, Gachou." Nagisa thought aloud. "I wonder if he will be equally as handsome. And his name is Rei! I wonder if he's Japanese like me..." Nagisa frowned in thought before pushing Gachou's tiny little head back into the pack. "Time to get off, Gachou!" He swung the pack gently to his shoulders and hopped off the bus stop, which took him right to the front door of the grungy looking studio that occupied the end of a sad looking strip mall.

"Well, this means Rei is not rich after all... Let's hope he is a good dancer." Nagisa said, extracting Gachou gently from his backpack.

When Nagisa walked through the front door of the door, Rei was already stretching in the middle of a well worn floor with six different colors of gaffing tape markings and daaang his butt was very well toned. Dancers really were the cutest, Nagisa though to himself as he bounced nervously on his toes.

Rei spared a glance through his legs at the excitable kid. He was the perfect height to match Rei, and his mop of honey hair contrasted well with Rei's dark blue. But he moved without the grace of a regular dancer, and his muscles were no where near toned enough. To make matters worse, the blonde promptly pulled a little dog out of his backpack.

"Animals aren't allowed in here," Rei said gruffly through a stretch, matter of fact.

Nagisa's smile didn't falter and he slipped off his shoes. "Sorry, he's too young to leave at home yet~"

Rei wrinkles his nose. Without rules, the world would surely fall into straight anarchy, but from the unapologetic grin on the blond, it looked like pressing the issue would be too much of a bother. "Just make sure his nails don't scratch the floor. And that he doesn't... you know."

"It's okay, he's trained. I brought his bed with too!" Nagisa hopped up on to the worn dance floor. At least even if this Rei guy wasn't rich, he was cute! And very tall, just the way Nagisa liked them.

He plumped the puppy down on one of the old plastic lawn seats and pulled out the bedding, giving the puppy a kiss on the head before spinning around to his handsome new dance partner.

"So, what first?"

Rei rolled his eyes. Great, another hopeful with more energy than sense. "Warm up. You're late, by the way. I take my training very seriously, and if you don't, this is already not going to work."

"Sorry, public transportation, you know?" Nagisa was determined not to show any weakness to this stern and unyielding partner. The best conquests were the ones he had to work for. He shed his sweat shirt and began doing the basics. The mirror in front of him was cracked and he couldn't get a good view of Rei's lovely, toned butt.

Rei sighed but relented for the moment. It was because he didn't want to waste time, not because his new partner was just as cute and bubbly as the little dog in the corner. Since he had finished his stretching, Rei watched Nagisa with a critical, expert eye.

Nagisa was never renown for patience, and it showed in his stretching. He pouted in the mirror, lingering on the stretches that felt good and rushing through stretches that were easy or hurt too much. The only place where he took care was when stretching out his pelvic area. He could do a perfect split from any position. This was primarily because he had dabbled in pole dancing before moving to ballroom dance, but it was the most impressive move he had in his arsenal, and he spent a lot of time maintaining it.

It also made a for great sex appeal to some men, but that was just added bonus.

Rei felt his cheeks heat, even as he was noting down Nagisa's mistakes. The younger kid was certainly very flexible for a man. He turned away and pushed his glasses up his nose. He wore contacts when he performed, but right now Rei was glad for the extra barrier between him and his alluring partner. He coughed. "Ready?"

"Yep!" Nagisa chirped cheerfully and hopped up. "So... what were you thinking for the next audition?"

"I have a textbook set of moves that are guaranteed to garner a win." Rei looked down at Nagisa, his mouth tight. "Provided the instructions are followed to the letter."

"Hmmm... I think we should do a tango." Nagisa replied, obviously not having listened to Rei. "It's a dance of passion, and we're the right height for it!"

Rei sighed loudly. "Frankly, I don't care what you think. I have the most experience here, and when you signed up to work with me, it means you follow my lead. We'll start with a waltz." He took a beginning stance. "Since you are shorter than me, you will be performing the role of the female. I hope you know the steps."

Nagisa stiffled a groan. This guy was going to be more strict than his last dance partner. "Yeah, but I still think tango..." he grumbled, placing one of his hands delicately on Rei's shoulder and laying his other in Rei's hand. Rei started the music, a boring classical, no doubt the epitome of the perfect waltz, Nagisa thought dryly.

The two began to move, and as Rei expected, Nagisa was stubborn. When the man did move with him, it was with slithery, rolling movements, nothing like the graceful tilt the waltz deserved. Rei held him tighter and forced the blond just so. There was no time left. He'd have to mould this partner into what he wanted if it killed him. "Your footwork is sloppy. Stop relying on your hips so much." And stop looking at me as if you're going to eat me up, his uneasy thoughts added.

"Only if you agree to dip me~" Nagisa trilled, but he started minding the placement of his feet and stiffened his spine.

Rei frowned at that, but only because that was his usual response to everything. As the music drew to a cressendo, Rei spun his partner around, calculating the timing to catch him at the last moment. However, Nagisa squawked in surprise, flinching away from Rei's arms and falling gracelessly to the floor.

"You dropped me!" He protested from his position on the floor, with Rei awkwardly looming over him.

"I would have caught you! Don't you have any trust in me?" Rei replied, flustered that his maneuver hadn't worked as planned.

Nagisa replied with a pout and got up, ignoring Rei's outstretched hand. "You should've at least warned me..."

"You are the one who asked to be dipped!" Rei responded, equally upset at this point.

They glared at each other awkwardly before Rei sighed. "If we are going to be functional partners we need to trust each other." He said, trying his best not to sound as grumpy as he felt. He couldn't believe his partner had turned out to be spoiled and inexperienced. "Let's do some trust exercises. Stand with your back facing to me, and close your eyes and fall back. I'll catch you!"

Nagisa smiled. "Sounds fun! But you do it first."

Rei sighed and looked at the blonde in front of him, calculating the distance between them. The perfect angle. He turned around, closed his eyes, and promptly fell backwards. The strength of the arms that caught him was surprising, and then Nagisa crumpled beneath his weight, and they both fell to the floor.

"Ah, you're so heavy!" Nagisa said, giggling.

Rei harumphed and rolled over. "You've got to be stronger if you want to dance professionally. Are you really serious about winning this competition?"

Nagisa opened his mouth, and then thought better of saying the truth to someone who obviously took dancing so seriously. "Yeah, I love dancing! I'm just used to dancing with the girls..."

Rei examined his partner. "Well in that case we will end tonight with strength exercises. We should practice every weekday. Does this time work for you?"

"Yep!" Nagisa replied, trying not to let his reluctance show.

"We will do a waltz for our first dance. It is the perfect form of ballroom dance."

"Only if I get to pick the music."

"We're dancing to the song you heard just now." Rei responded shortly. He wasn't used to being challenged. He might still be an amateur, but he'd been dancing longer than almost anyone he knew.

"We're not supposed to be perfection or whatever, we're gonna be performing at a casino! We've gotta be exciting and new." Nagisa said matter-of-factly. "And Beethoven is not exciting or new."

Rei weighed his options, and decided that having a slightly imperfect performance might be worth it in this case. "Fine, but you need to be on time. And no complaining about the exercises."

"It's a deal~!" Nagisa grinned at the stern Rei.

"Alright, now start with 80 sit ups."

Nagisa's jaw dropped. "Start?!" He blurted.

"No complaining." Rei responded, a note of smugness in his voice.

Nagisa screwed up his face. "Gachou thinks you are no fun." He grumbled, laying down to start the sit ups.

AN: Thank you to all of you following this story, and special thanks to Shannon for helping me find the voice of Rei. Please let me know what you think! I also have a mix for this story on 8tracks. Just search for "LV is for Love" :)