Rockette Me (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter One

I drove down the street fuming. This was the last time that Harry fucking Styles would one-up me at my dance studio. I spend my hard earned master's degree in dance and choreography to give this studio the best show we can get, I buckle down when I'm sick and show up and work hard, and he shows up with his long legs and soft, curly hair and his dumb bright smile and good attitude and he gets every solo that I deserve.

I cut someone off who was trying to merge and felt bad, so I waved, until I saw the type of car. It was a black Range Rover, like the one Harry drives. I rolled my eyes and just turned up the radio to distract and calm myself. I was so sick of him. I remembered the first day I met the prettiest, pettiest man in our studio...

***

I was working on some choreography and had the lights at half bright and fell on my ass after a bad double turn. I heard a deep laugh behind me and I scrambled up in embarrassment. I saw him in the mirror, in grey joggers, a plain white tank top, and the top half of his hair in a man bun. He was wearing foot undies and holding a water bottle with his enormous hands, laughing at me. I brushed myself off, completely mortified.

"You were looking good until you fell," he said in a rich voice. He started forward and held out his hand. "I'm Harry. I'm new to this studio, and Ash told me you were the choreographer and to learn the dance from you."

"Yeah," I shook his hand. It was warm, but in a good way. "I'm Savannah."

"Pretty name," he smiled brightly at me. "I'm ready to learn."

"Sure," I was honestly a little shocked. This very attractive man was staring at me like I was the most interesting piece of art in a museum and was going to be dancing with me-- "I'm sorry, did you say you were joining us? At this studio?" Harry simply nodded. "You're aware that we're the Rockettes, right?"

"Yes, I'm aware," he laughed again. It was beautiful. "I auditioned for a different company, and Ash saw my audition and she let me join. She's planning to let a few more join, too, and she asked me to help her audition them." He looked very proud of himself, but I was wary.

"Will you excuse me for a second, Harry?" I smiled and quickly skirted out of the dance room and to the main office in the front, down the hall, to find Ash. She was sitting at the main desk, on the phone. I signaled for her to wrap up her conversation and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Ash, this is important!" I angrily whispered at her. She put up a hand and said goodbye to whoever was on the phone.

"Savannah, that was one of our main donors, I couldn't just hang up on them--"

"A boy, Ash? Really?"

"Okay, but you haven't seen him dance--"

"Ash, I don't care if he's fucking Fred Astaire. You know I'm all for equality and shit, you took me to the pride parade last weekend and it was a blast, but we're the Rockettes! We've always been female! I get the wanting to move forward and end sexism, you know I do, but--"

"Alright, Savannah? I'm going to stop you right there," she put a hand up to stop me and walked around the desk to stand close to me. "I know you aren't saying this because you're sexist. I know tradition is ridiculously important to you. But the Rockettes are the best dancers in all of America--"

"Mmmm--" I made a noise to start to disagree, but she cut me off.

"Some of the best dancers in America. And I saw him dance. He improved his whole audition, and girl, he's almost as good as you. With the skill between you two, we could have some fierce-ass choreography."

"But he's a boy," I complained. "And there's no way he could be a Rockette anyway, he's too tall!"

""Yeah, I know," she said cautiously. "If and when I let boys in, their goal height is going to be 6'1"."

"You're going to give the guys heels?" she nodded. "What if they don't want to?"

"Are you listening to yourself? Any guy who wants to be in the Rockettes will be okay with wearing heels." I rolled my eyes at myself.

"Good point,"

"So are we okay?" She asked me, raising an eyebrow. I thought about it. I was all for giving every gender equal opportunities, and this was the perfect way to do it. No one but me would have the say in if it was okay or not, besides Ash, and I really didn't want to be on the wrong side of history. But I'd been with the Rockettes for years and it's been decades and decades of female only dancers and precision and pride. What would the founders say? I sighed. If Ash said that Harry was as good as he was, he certainly would be an addition to this group. I was worried about how the rest of America would react, considering all the regression we've made in the past three years, but this was the right kind of progress that we needed right now.

"Yeah, we're okay," I said. Ash's face immediately lit up. "I'll go teach him the routine. I guess he's gotta go next to me, in the middle, because of height."

"Yes! Savannah, I promise you won't regret this. He'll be great." She was wrong, but she was also right. I did regret it, but he improved our team a lot. But at that moment, I wasn't aware.

I jokingly rolled my eyes at her one more time and walked back to the dance room, but heard different music playing and I cautiously walked in. Harry was shirtless. And dancing. He was one of the most graceful dancers I'd ever seen. He was doing what looked like jazz, but it was almost too fluid and soft and emotional to be typically sassy jazz. It honestly took my breath away. The song he was dancing to was absolutely beautiful too. He turned while the voice filled the room and melted through the speakers and he leaped like a frog, but better. His height was astonishing. The song ended and he broke out of his focus and saw me looking at him. He smiled at me through the mirror and turned around.

"Oh, how the tables have turned, eh?" He laughed light heartedly. "Like what you see?" I knew he was talking about his dancing, but the way he gestured made it look like he meant his shirtless torso. Either way...

"Yeah, it's great," I cleared my throat. "You're great. Your dancing. It's. Really good."

"Thanks," he blushed slightly. "I know you're the best one here, so that means a lot."

"You choreographed that yourself?"

"No, just... improv," he said. I raised my eyebrows.

"I'm impressed. No one here is that great at improving. Ash was right,"

"About my dancing?"

"That and," I took a step towards him and stuck out my hand. "You being a good fit for the Rockettes. Welcome, Harry."

"That's so formal," he laughed, shaking my hand. "Where in the line do I stand?"

"You'll be in the middle, next to me," I said. "I'll set up the music." I walked over to the stereo and unplugged his phone and plugged mine in. I saw the song he was listening to was This Town by Niall Horan. I'll have to remember that and look it up later. I put our dance song on and counted myself in. "I'll show you, then I'll teach you, okay?" He shot me a thumbs up and I started the dance. I didn't do it full out but he seemed very impressed every time I looked at him. When I was done, he clapped for me.

"You're very good," he complimented me. I thanked him, and he put his hand on my arm gently. "No, Savannah, I mean it. You're wonderful."

"Thank you, Harry," Now it was my turn to blush. "But I've had a lot of training that I owe my talent to. Now, starting position is in fifth."

a/n So if you guys read the description you'll know that this is a joint story with my best friend, username: d_h_p_l. Go read  their stories and vote and stuff, so yeah hope you liked the first chapter (: