Meet Us at the Barre: A Series of SAB Oneshots

puppy

Plenty of rumors always flew around the studios about artistic director, Alexander Mooney.

"He told me once that I danced like a virgin."

"I heard he was fucking one of the soloists."
"Yeah, wasn't that Emmie?"
"No, if he was fucking Emmie, Benjamin would have killed him by now."
"Fair."

"Every suit in his closet is custom made."

"He only gets his watches from France."

"He drives a car worth more than his house!"

It is up to interpretation if any of those above statements were true.

Except for one.

Alexander Mooney had, in fact, been sleeping with Katherine Garland.

It wasn't public information; it was anything but. Nonetheless, James Ayre had a few suspicions that he'd been keeping on the down low, as well.

He'd seen the looks Alexander would give her at pas de deux rehearsals, or how his fingers would linger on her chin ever so slightly longer than necessary when he'd remind her to lift her head while working on barre combinations.

It was Nutcracker season, and James knew what that meant.

Nutcracker season meant money, company donors, and stardom for the dancers. One leading Nutcracker role, and your career was set to take off.

It was Katherine's second ever season as Sugar Plum -- her sixth Nutcracker with the company, which was impressive seeing how young she was -- and she was determined to make it better than the first.

And James also that Katherine would do anything to make this Sugar Plum the best one the company had ever seen.

~~~~~

Katherine peeled her eyes open to the sound of a car horn. It was suspiciously loud, considering she was easily fifty-something stories up in the air.

Only one person had that obnoxious of an alarm.

Katherine sighed and reached over the sleeping man to turn the alarm off and set it to go off in another fifteen minutes. It was a show day and the director couldn't afford to be late.

Katherine shifted her weight and sat up, trying her hardest not to move the mattress too much.

"Stay." Alexander mumbled against his pillow, eyes still shut. He threw his arm to the side Katherine slept on, only hitting mattress.

Katherine smiled halfheartedly. She pressed her cold hand against Alexander's knuckles. "I can't." She sighed. "It's show day. I need to go home and get ready."

Alexander had opened his eyes by now, but they were now rolling. "You're probably right. I'll see you soon then, puppy." He smirked, calling Katherine the nickname she hated.

She didn't have the guts to tell him that the name made her skin crawl. Katherine only forced her smile to deepen. "I'll see you soon."

Katherine pulled her sweater and leggings back on, and threw her hair into a ponytail on the elevator ride down.

The elevator ride was lonely, as all nights at Alexander's were. Katherine was so caught up in her thoughts of anger and self hatred for letting this go on so long, that she barely exited the elevator at her floor before the doors closed again.

"Oh, my God! I'm sorry, I--" She rambled, completely bumping into someone as she dashed out of the elevator.

"You're good, Kath." James laughed, forcing Katherine's head to snap up.