Meet Us at the Barre: A Series of SAB Oneshots

whatever it takes

Ben x Emmie for the endlessly wonderful maeve_valentine

Grown up AU, they both dance as soloists for the NYCB

TW: rape

Ben's fingers danced around Emmie's back, tracing the lacy cutouts on the back of her dress.

"What are you doing?" Emmie giggled, tilting her head back to look at her fiancee.

"Nothing." Ben joked, kissing right near Emmie's shoulder blade.

The party had been dead for a while, and the two had a hotel room upstairs. That's where the entire wedding party was staying, afterall.

They had had a wonderful evening celebrating the marriage of some of Ben's friends from back home in Massachusetts.

"Why don't we go upstairs?" Ben whispered into Emmie's ear, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves.

A smile broke onto Emmie's lips, and her smile was still bright, though her lipstick had faded away hours ago.

"Sure." Emmie whispered back with a wink, stealing a kiss from Ben's lips before he could respond.

He helped her out of her chair, giving her his hand to hold onto as she stood up on her tall high heels. Ben could never understand how in the world Emmie could deal with those kind of shoes! In his opinion, they were just flat out dangerous! However, pointe shoes were probably more dangerous.

The two made their way to their hotel room and were very quick to relish in the comfort of a soft bed, and not having to wear dress shoes anymore.

"C'mere." Ben coaxed, pulling his bride-to-be into his arms. Ben pressed a passionate kiss to Emmie's lips, pulling her in impossibly closer to himself.

Emmie giggled sweetly into the kisses, only stopping to take a breath. She gently started trailing kisses down Ben's neck and towards his collarbone. Her fingers worked at undoing the buttons of his dress shirt.

"Mmm..." Ben hummed as Emmie started focusing her kisses in the crook of his neck.

He shrugged off his now undone shirt, taking his fingers and weaving them into Emmie's hair.

Suddenly, Ben picked Emmie up in a bridal-style hold, carrying her and propping her back up against the hotel room wall. They were now standing, still kissing and taking small moments in between breaths to remind each other just how much they loved each other.

"Wait, stop." Ben backed himself away from Emmie, making her instantly feel self conscious.

"Did I hurt you? I'm sorry, I--"

"No, no, it's not you, it's just...I can't." Ben started, rambling slightly as he threaded his belt back through the belt loops on his dress pants, and searched around for wherever his button down had ended up.

"Benjamin...Baby, what happened?" Emmie asked gently, reaching out her hand, but getting a flinch in response. She frowned. "Ben, we're going to be getting married soon. You can trust me. What's the matter?"

Ben slowly turned around to face Emmie. "Emmie..." Ben cleared his throat, looking down at the floor.

"Let's sit down." Emmie led Ben to the fluffy, white hotel mattress. She took his hands into her own and rubbed her thumbs over his knuckles. Something to keep him grounded.

Ben frowned, his eyes scanning Emmie's face as if she could tell him the right words to say in that moment. "How do I begin?" There was a pause. "When we were back at SAB, I was...um...I was raped. I just, um, never told anyone about it." He stammered, fiddling with his wedding band.

Emmie's concerned look immediately became one of shock. "Oh, Benjamin..." She coaxed, pulling him into a brief and gentle hug.

"It was showcase week, and it was late...I was in an open studio, rehearsing a whole lot later than I probably should've been." That last comment forced a rough, and painful, chuckle to fall past Ben's lips.

"Ben, you don't have to talk about this." Emmie shook her head.

"No, we're getting married. You...you deserve to know." Ben retorted.

Emmie silently nodded.

"And, um..." He looked down and toyed with the hem of his pant leg as he sat cross legged on the mattress. "Um, that apprentice girl, Mari, approached me. We...we'd never really talked much before, but um, she said that she saw me rehearsing alone, and offered to go rehearse with her and her roommate over at her apartment. Now that I'm saying it back it sounds like a red flag, but at the time...it didn't." He took in a sharp breath. "So I agreed, thinking that rehearsing with other people might be beneficial. So, I followed her back to her place, and--"

Ben began to get choked up, as did Emmie. Tears were pooling in both of their eyes.

"And when we got there, nobody else was there. She didn't even have a fucking roommate! Um, and I didn't leave, I was so focused on getting this pas right, and then she proceeded to...you know..." At this, Ben completely broke down, starting to cry against Emmie's shoulder.

"Hey, hey it is okay, I won't hurt you. Did you think I was her?" Emmie asked, and her breath hitched when Ben timidly nodded against her skin.

"It's just..." Ben continued. "I didn't know how far we were going to go, and you're the first person I got that close to having sex with since, and I just got scared. It all started coming back, and--"

"Breathe, Benjamin, I'm not her, Sweetheart, and I'm never going to let anyone hurt you like that ever again." Emmie interrupted her fiancee, but she saw it as for the better before Ben threw himself down this spiral. "I love you."

"I love you too, Em." Ben looked up, brushing his tears away. "We can..." He forced his throat to clear once more. "We can go continue if you'd like, I'm sorry about--"

Emmie shook her head. "No, Love. Not tonight." She gingerly kissed his forehead. "Not tonight." She repeated, still shaking her head as she gently rocked Ben in her embrace.

It was from that moment forward that Emmeline Savett was determined to make sure that absolutely nobody ever hurt her future husband like that again. And she would do whatever it takes.