Prologue


I see him light up in the reflection of the mirror.

“That’s a bad habit and it’ll be the death of you” I chastise him from the bathroom.

I hear him chuckle. “No, you’re the bad habit that’ll be the death of me”

I roll my eyes and tell him that if he must indulge in that particular vice he can do it on the balcony. I hear him grumble under his breath but he goes. He always goes. The exchange is as familiar as an old friend, a ritual we indulge in every week when he has stayed over and I do not have to leave my apartment at the crack of dawn.

I finish tying my hair back and roll my neck to iron out the kinks of sleep. I have no training today. It’s the only day of the week I get to stay in bed late. Of course late is a subjective thing – and I usually end up waking him earlier than he’d like with my morning routines. I tell him that if he dislikes it so much he needn’t stay over. But he doesn’t dislike it that much – not enough to give up our one morning together.

‘No training’ has an equally fuzzy meaning. It means I don’t have to spend hours at the studio in classes and rehearsals. It does not mean no ballet. Nothing short of doctor’s orders could mean that.

He’s sitting on the wall of the balcony when I move into the main room of the apartment. I put on some music – the ancient classical music that he detests – and start my exercises, moving through my port de bras, exercises au milieu and on to some adage work. He watches me, the way he watched me the first day we met, the smoking little stick of death hanging forgotten by his side. He was ‘security’ – some militant types had taken umbrage at the ballet we were performing for some political reason or another. I did not know what – I have no time for politics. My life is the dance.

I glance over at him as I move through my final exercises and smile. It won’t last, we both know that. My life is too full of regiment and order, he seems to stumble through life. How he avoids disaster I will never know. But for now… for now it is good.

Of course, he doesn’t know who or what I really am. But then here, in this moment, I don’t either.

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((Having returned to AO after a good couple of years hiatus I've decided to throw myself into the roleplaying as never before. So here's hoping I see some of you around, and that you like the story - which is to be continued *dramatic music*))