Flowers

After the Show

AN: This is technically set in the save universe as my upcoming fic, The Company You Keep, but this is set so far in the future that it doesn't actually impact anything. The only important notes are that Ariana is autistic with a sensory processing disorder and often uses ASL to communicate.

I needed to put something good into the world today.

Ariana runs off stage almost immediately after the curtains close after their bows, nearly running into several other dancers.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Pascale teases her as she barrels past.

"Gotta get to the lobby," Ari says, even as she slams her hip into a table in the wings.

Suddenly she feels a hand on her shoulder and turns to see Margie stopping her. "You should change your shoes first," she says. "Jett will still be in the lobby after you do."

Ariana stares at the door to the lobby, but lets Margie guide her back to their dressing room first. She tugs on the ribbons of her pointe shoes and fumbles with the knot several times before she finally manages to untie them. If she thought she could get away with it she would go out to the lobby in just her tights, but she's pretty sure Ms. Emily would stop her before she got more than five steps outside the dressing room. So she settles for the next best thing and slips on her jazz shoes. She also pulls on her pink compression sleeves since she's already in the dressing room.

Most of the younger kids are already in the lobby when she makes it out which makes it slightly harder to find her friends. She weaves through the crowd until she finally sees Adele waving at her by the auction items.

She runs over to them and crashes into her girlfriend. Ariana feels Jett say something, the vibration rumbling through her, but all she processes is that Jett is talking.

"You'd think I'd be used to that by now," Jett repeats, signing as she talks when she pulls away.

Ariana just shrugs and rocks into the wall behind her, careful of her skirt.

"You were amazing, Ari!" Olive signs. "The snow was so pretty."

"You say that every year," Adele says.

"Because it's true every year!"

Ari grumbles. "I still have snow in my hair."

Jett presses up on her toes to brush the paper and glitter out of Ariana's hair. Ariana pushes off the wall to lean into her as she does.

"Thanks." There's probably going to still be glitter in her hair for weeks though.

Ariana lets Jett pull her closer and she relaxes into her girlfriend's hold as she talks to her friends. She rocks back every now and then as she signs, rocking both of them into the wall. Eventually most of the lobby has cleared out and most of the other dancers have gone back to the dressing rooms.

"I'll meet you in the parking lot," Ariana says when she finally pulls herself away from her friends. "I should be out in less than ten."

There's only a couple other people from the company in the dressing room when she gets back there. And they're all already changed out of their costumes. It doesn't take long for her to hang her flower costume back up for the next show, swap her tights for leggings, and throw a t-shirt on over her leotard. Ariana double checks the area around the vanity she claimed for anything she can't leave overnight.

"How are you not freezing?" Adele exclaims.

Ariana shrugs, the same answer she gives every time she gets that question. She's never been all that sensitive to temperature or pain so the fact that she's walking barefoot in the snow barely registers on her radar other than the fact that it's nice to feel the different textures on the ground.

She reaches out to interlace her fingers with Jett's as they walk to the car.

"Thank you, guys, for coming," Ari signs, when their group stops.

"Always."

AN: Height difference but the shorter one holds the taller one.