Meet Us at the Barre: A Series of SAB Oneshots

in front of the mirror

Tiny bits of creature influence. Credits for Max to my love coffeesandcacti
TW: sh, negative body talk

To say Max was mad would be the understatement of the past two centuries. Max was beyond furious, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Company class felt empty that morning. The entire company except one girl was there. Everyone instinctively left a spot at the barre for Katherine, assuming that the usually punctual and immensely early ballerina had gotten caught up in traffic, had a morning appointment, or was trying to sleep off a flu just enough to come to afternoon rehearsals.

Max knew that Katherine wasn't coming to class. When everyone pried, asking where his girlfriend was, he simply had no comment on the matter. It wasn't his place to explain.

Hell, he barely knew the extent of the whole matter, himself.

Max only had one rehearsal that day, and was grateful for the lighter day. His stomach had been churning since he left the apartment that morning.

In all honesty, he was eager for that one rehearsal to end so that he could get to the bottom of this whole thing. All he knew was that Katherine had a last minute meeting with Peter the night prior, and this morning, she slept through her usual alarm and Max's alarm.

Max thought for a split second she might have been dead, or at least passed out. She didn't move a muscle until Max tried to coax her out of bed, worried she was sick.

She wasn't sick, just insistent on not going to class. She didn't have the energy to fight.

Max went to class, Max went to rehearsal, and Max left Katherine in their bed all day.

He returned mid afternoon with a worry weighing on his heart. He was determined to figure out what had happened the night before to send Katherine into an absolute shut down mode.

Max set his bags at the door and slowly approached their bedroom. He cracked the door open and glanced in, seeing Katherine still in bed, still in the same t-shirt and shorts from the night before, just in a slightly different laying position.

"Hi, Baby, how are you?" Max asked softly, sinking into the mattress beside Katherine.

"I'm fine." Katherine stated simply. "I feel better...got some tension out."

Max smiled, rubbing Katherine's back as she laid, still facing away from him. He rested his chin gently on her shoulder. "That's good." He kissed just behind her ear.

"How was rehearsal?" Katherine asked, and for the first time in 24 hours, she was starting to sound like herself.

"Lonely without you, but okay." Max explained, snuggling up and just taking a moment with his girl.

"Did they miss me?" Katherine asked, trying to hide her voice breaking.

Max snickered. "Of course they did. Nobody would leave me alone, kept asking about you and everything. Even left your barre spot open all class."

Tears brimmed in Katherine's eyes. She sniffled. "Good to hear, I guess." Her voice cracked, and that sent Max into fight or flight mode.

"Baby, baby, hey, what's wrong?" He put his weight into his elbow and used his hand to turn Katherine to face him.

She covered her face with her hands as she cried. Max leaned her into his chest.

"Why are you cryin', darling, what's happened?" Max kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. He let Katherine sob against him. He pulled her tighter and didn't stop kissing her hair.