Dandelions ~Daveed Diggs

one on one

The next day Misty hangs back after rehearsal, knowing that she told Daveed she would teach him the choreography early since he would be gone. Groff already knew this two not arguing when he left the studio without his best friend. Soon enough the studio was cleared out except for two people, Misty, and Daveed. 

"So," Misty starts walking towards the center of the room. "This won't be a perfect fix obviously because we don't have the whole group but it will be easier to slide you back in if you already know what you're doing," Daveed nods as he meets the girl out in the middle of the room. " So, we can do stuff in order, we can go shortest to longest, longest to shortest, whatever feels best for you and we can also record them if you think that will help," 

"Yeah, I say we just go for it, do it in order, all that good stuff," Daveed replies looking at the girl. 

"Ok, let's start then, with... 'right hand man', which is super easy so I feel like that's a good start,"

"Great,"

"Great," Misty replies with a smile. "Sooo you're off stage for most of the number actually, then just before Leslie comes on for his lines with Chris you come to stand on these back steps with Anthony," Misty starts to explain walking through the number with Daveed. That number, being mostly walking and standing, went by quickly and soon enough the duo was walking through 'A Winters Ball' which was also mainly walking and therefore an easy walkthrough only taking about 10 minutes. Soon enough the two were working on 'Helpless' a number that required some extensive coordination. 

"Well those two were pretty easy," Daveed says as they take a quick break.

"Yeah, you got to give people some time to catch their breath," Misty says. "Moving right along, Helpless and Satisfied are probably the hardest without the full group so I think it will be in our best interest to skip them and just revisit them with the full group once you get back," Misty says once again walking to the middle of the room. "But I wanted to teach you the partner ensemble part in case we're ever an ensemble member down. That way someone has it under their belt, and you already know part of it anyway from helping me the other day,"

"Ok, where do we start?" Daveed asks meeting Misty in the middle of the room. Misty starts walking him through things occasionally giving him corrections.

"Loosen up dude," Misty said as she playfully shook his shoulders. "Your acting like this is some middle school formal and it's your first time dancing with a girl," She says causing Daveed to laugh. "I don't bite I promise," she says laughing when Daveed gives her a look. 

"I've heard otherwise," he says causing Misty to pause. 

"From who? Groff?" Misty says smiling. "What is that guy telling you?" she says after seeing the look on Daveed's face. "I haven't bitten anyone since I was like six,"  

"That's an old age for biting people," Daveed laughs looking at Misty. 

"Ok, ok, ok, so maybe I shouldn't have bitten anyone at the age of six, but you don't know the context, and the moral of the story is I don't bite people anymore," Misty says getting back into position to start the number. 

"Ok, ok, if you say so," Daveed says his hands falling back onto Misty's waist. 

"What did I say about loosening up, Diggs?" Misty says with a laugh. 

"I am loose,"

"Your elbows are literally locked," Misty says flicking Daveed causing him to bend his arms. She takes a step closer not knowing why her heart was beating so fast. "There," she says quietly looking up at Daveed. "Now uhm... let's try it," 

•°•

"That was, yeah, that was it," Misty said slightly out of breath. She didn't register how close she was to Daveed. 

"That's good, that's great," 

"How about we take a break then finish up," Misty backing up a little. 

"Yeah, yeah that works for me," Daveed said walking backward towards his stuff. 

"Yeah, ok," she said before turning around and walking the short way to her stuff, the only thing she could think about was the comment Groff made a couple of days before. Did she have feelings for Daveed?

•°•

"So yeah that's all of it," Misty says as she lays in the middle of the studio floor. 

"Easy enough," Daveed says sitting on the floor a couple of feet away. 

"Yeah?" she says turning her head to look at him. 

"Yeah, I'll survive,"

"good, cause I am done for the day," Misty replies looking back up at the ceiling. 

"Good to know," Daveed says with a chuckle. "weird question," he says causing Misty to once again look in his direction. 

"I love weird," She replies with a smile.

"who exactly were you biting at the age of six?" He asks bringing back the earlier conversation. Misty goes silent as she stares at the ceiling. 

"It was my mom actually," she says after a moment of silence. 

"your mom?" Daveed cautiously asks not wanting to overstep any possible boundaries. 

"Yeah she wasn't the nicest person when my dad was at work," she says with a sigh. " she was chasing me around the house, I don't really even remember why I just know that I was scared. So scared that when she eventually caught me I did the first thing to pop in my head, I bite her. Ran away when she loosened her grip, locked myself in my bedroom before climbing out the window and going to Groffs until dad got home," 

"I'm sorry, that must have been scary," Daveed says quietly after a moment of silence. 

"yeah, little six-year-old me was terrified," Misty said sitting up. " it only got worse after dad died though, so I had to get over that fear rather quickly," Misty said before falling quiet again. 

"You don't have to tell me you know?" Daveed said looking at Misty. 

"no I know, I want to though," she says looking up and meeting Daveed's eyes. " I've gone so long only telling Groff these things, it's hard hiding it from everybody,"

"I get that," Daveed says before moving closer to Misty. "I'll be here to listen or as long as you want to talk," and so Misty told him everything, how her mother was abusive, and a druggy, and how she quit dancing after her dad passed. She talked about her struggles with alcohol, and how her job at the bar helped her get over her addiction, and prevent her from relapsing, she also talked about how her mother constantly tries to get back into her life only to turn around and ask for more money, for more drugs. 

"And yeah, that's about it," she says looking at Daveed again. 

"I am so sorry you had to go through all of that," He says causing Misty to shrug. 

"It is what it is, the only thing I can really do now is accept it, move on, make a better life for myself,"

"Well, you sure on our way to doing that," Daveed says with a small smile. "I mean lead choreographer for what will be a hit musical, sounds pretty great to me,"

"yeah it is pretty wild isn't it?" the girl replies before looking at the time. "I should get back to the apartment before Groff goes crazy," she says standing up to get her stuff. 

"let me drive you back," Daveed said also getting up. Misty nods her head with a small smile knowing that she couldn't argue with him. The drive to Misty's apartment was rather short, even for the New York traffic. "Hey," Daveed says stopping Misty as she gets out of the car. "thank you, for trusting me enough to tell me all of that stuff today,"

"Thank you for listening," she replies with a small smile. 

"I'll always be here to listen," he says returning the small smile. 

A/N: Ok, this one is more my speed, I have no idea what happened for the last couple of chapters, but I am back in business, this one is a lot longer too. Big things are happening for this story I'm so excited and I can't wait to keep writing it :) I hope y'all had an absolutely amazing wonderful spectacular day!! ~ M