Archive of Our Own

The silence was deafening in the wee moments after everybody had bid their temporary farewell and Kanade found herself back in a dress and a pair of flats as she waited for the vending machine to spit back her change. The hallway was silent and empty, with all her school friends nowhere to be found and her ballet school-friends nowhere to be seen.

And yet minutes passed and the greedy little contraption did not return her change. Rage at making her parents wait in the car outside at the theater's parking lot and at the audacity of this blasted machinery; Kanade clutched the can of fizzy water on one hand and her bouquet of flower on the other and delivered a swift but sure kick to the side of the vending machine. When she missed the kick because of the items on her hands she placed them down on a bench to thee side before attempting another assault.

She of course made sure to kick in a manner that would not cause any injury unto her precious legs, to be fair resembled an ungracious stomp as opposed to a graceful kick.

A small chuckle to the side alerted Kanade, only to heave a sigh of relief at the sight of her pas de deux partner, before turning red in embarrassment at the unsightly display she showcased to him. If there was one thing Kanade didn't want, it was to let her rivals and dancers she respected see her in such an embarrassing manner. And to make matters worse, Akito-kun rarely showed any emotion surface on his visage and to see him trying so badly to contain a smile just made her embarrassment roar and rise like a monstrous beast to be slain.

"What did the machine do?" Akito smiled at her, clearly not over the surprising display of the so-called famous Kanade rage.

Kanade let out a whine as she buried her burning face in her palms before composing herself, squaring her shoulders to look him in the eye and solemnly, with the most serious tone she can muster said, "it stole from me."

A gleeful bark of laughter escaped his surprised expression and at once all that prior embarrassment she felt vanished, finding herself laughing alongside him. "Well can you move aside so I can try to bully it into giving back your money as well?" Kanade took a step to the sight and did a you're-welcome-to-try bow which led to the boy stifling a grin and landing a powerful stomp similar to Kanade's on the poor, battered machine (whose crime is really just not being maintained enough that change gets stuck on the way out and if we're being fair here, that did not warrant powerful stomps from muscled ballet dancers).

The machine groaned and spat out both Kanade's change with a bunch of others that has been lodged there for a while and a small can of grape soda. The pair looked at each other and burst into louder laughter.

"Really," Kanade found herself smiling, stealing a glance at her partner, "you really should laugh like that more often Akito-kun, it's very refreshing." She looked up from clutching her stomach to see him eye to eye and found herself taken aback at his frozen expression mid-laughter.

"Uh yeah.." the frozen smile melted into the resting expressionless face Kanade was used to as he looked away from her gaze. Kanade, realizing at once that she hit a sore spot back-tracked and apologized profusely,

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it as you're usually dead-looking or anything—" realizing that she made things worse she could only face-palm and meekly took a peek at her friend's face. She was surprised to see a small, wistful smile on his face,instead of the severe strain she expected his face to be.

"Well, I guess that's only because it's you Kanade-chan. I remembered Yuuki and Mitosho mentioning that it might be your doing, that I'm able to express and act out in ballet, and maintain a more carefree expression than my normally reserved one. His smile turned somewhat bashful as one hand reached up to rub the nape of his neck in a show of nervousness.

Kanade found her eyes shining with unshed tears as she scrounged her bag for a handkerchief, "C'mon you can't say that Akito-kun, I can't take sole credit for that, I'm betting that everybody has contributed to helping you open up one way or another.

He smiled warmly at her, "But i can say uncontested that you'd definitely contributed the most. You definitely are a very important FRIEND to me."

Kanade found her chest warming and butterflies exploding in the pit of her stomach as she fired back with an exclamation filled with passion, "And RIVAL, don't forget that we're rivals Akito-kun! I hope to be able to dance with you again once we come back from abroad!"

"Yes," Akito smiled, "with you from The Royal School of Ballet and me from The Jeoffrey Ballet." He continued helpfully, inciting a twinkle from Kanade's eye as she opened her arms with a 'come here you' expression.

They hugged, and Kanade found herself comforted by the familiar hold that they've shared in countless practices. She smiled feeling comfortable and peaceful. But still good things will end and so they wrapped up their hugging session with a fond smile at each other they reserved for only their closest friends.

"Until the next time we dance together."

"Until then."

...

Extra:

Julia gritted her teeth in annoyance from behind the wall as she spied on her daft and incredulous friends with Shoko, "Those damned ballet nerds! When will they realize it?"

Shoko nodded numbly along, "I was skeptical when you mentioned love some time ago but I see now where you got that idea."