Chapter Text
“Alright Percy, you’re up,”
Percy looked at his artistic director, Chiron Bruner, who was looking back at him with a deadly seriousness.
He had been standing in the back of the rehearsal room, not dancing, for days as Chiron tried to cast their company’s upcoming production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.
Percy knew from the minute he had been brought into the room that he wasn’t a favorite for the Prince, the male principal role. As a first soloist, he had had opportunities to play principal roles (a few times even in the first cast), but big classical ballets like The Sleeping Beauty were long, intense pieces that drew in big crowds and, more importantly, big donors. Big name stars like Charles Beckendorf were always shoo-ins for principal roles and first cast spots.
In fact, Beckendorf had pretty much been guaranteed the spot until his knee popped when he landed a jump last week. He was out for the season at least.
Percy was the fifth man they brought into the room to start learning the choreography. Of the five of them, four would lead a cast (first cast would open their run of the show), and the fifth would likely be an understudy.
It wasn’t a good sign that it had taken four days for Percy to be offered the opportunity to dance at all. If he was getting the chance now, it was his only shot.
He had been watching the choreography for days and practicing it alone in his apartment at night (a challenge without a partner, but he made do). He hoped that was enough to get it into his body. He did a few small jumps and rolled his shoulders to make sure his muscles were warm before stepping into the center of the room.
“Annabeth, you’re with Percy,” Chiron said.
Annabeth. She looked like the figurine in a little girl’s music box had come to life to dance in City Ballet. She was stunning – long arms, legs, and neck, beautiful blonde hair, and sharp features. Percy couldn’t even think of a time she had so much as fallen out of a turn.
Nothing was ever set with ballet casting – Chiron could like a pair better than another, or a dancer could get hurt – but if Percy was betting man, he’d bet that Annabeth was already set (in Chiron’s mind at least) as first cast Aurora.
Being able to dance with her was a privilege. She was only a year older than him, but she had been in the company for a decade already. She had been offered her apprenticeship at sixteen. He’d only been there for seven years, earning his apprenticeship at eighteen. She was made soloist the next year – the same year he entered the corps.
Last year, they had been slotted to dance Balanchine’s Diamonds pas de deux in Jewels. But she dropped out a week before the performance. All he got out of Chiron was that she was dealing with a personal loss and would be taking a short leave from the company.
Silena, the woman who ran the costume shop, seemed to know everything, though. “Dancers like to talk to me or around me,” she told him.
“So, what happened?” He didn’t want to pry, but he wanted to know if she was okay. He hadn’t had may opportunities to dance with her, but everyone was close in a company. They had talked, they had shared barre space. She’d even used his foam roller once.
Silena pinned some fabric on his doublet into place, “She broke off her engagement,” she said.
“What?” He asked, turning so quickly that Silena accidentally poked him with the pin.
“Stand still,” She said, adjusting her measurements again.
“What happened?” He asked, being sure to stand still and composed.
“That I can’t tell you,”
“You don’t know?” He asked.
“No,” she said, “I know. It’s just … really not great,”
“And it’s not your place,” Percy said, finishing the sentence for her. Silena nodded and finished her alterations.
It had been nine months since Jewels, and Annabeth had been back for months and dancing better than Percy had ever seen. Her ex-fiancé, Luke, had retired just before her comeback and had moved out west. It was a young retirement – he was only thirty-three – but Percy had never liked him. (“Yeah, and your dislike of him has nothing to do with your major crush on her,” his best friend, Grover, said after Percy admitted his schadenfreude at hearing about their breakup and Luke’s retirement. Percy tried to deny it, but Grover knew him too well for that. “Crush on her or not,” he said, “I still think he was a dick,”)
Nine months later, and Annabeth was walking towards him the rehearsal room, already looking like a young and beautiful princess. Just don’t forget the choreography, he thought as he got into the right starting spot for the wedding pas de deux, don’t forget the choreography, and don’t drop her.
Throughout his life, people had critiqued Percy for acting without thinking – jumping to action without considering all the options or the consequences. That had gotten him into trouble when he was younger, but in dance it proved to be his strength. He was able to turn his brain off when he danced. He didn’t have to think step-by-step; his brain heard the music and his body knew what to do. He let his body move on its own and used the extra mind space to focus on his artistry.
This is your wedding day, he told himself as they began. You met her in a dream and saved her from a curse. This is fairytale love. Show Chiron how much you love Aurora.
He was lucky. It wasn’t hard to pretend to love Annabeth Chase.
Most days, he loved being in a Balanchine company – the arrangements, even for classical ballets, were faster and more exciting. Typically, this suited his ADHD. But as he supported her in the final signature fish dive, he wished they were dancing in London or Moscow just so he could enjoy a slower arrangement and let this moment last longer.
But, of course, that couldn’t happen. All he could do was wait for the music to end, before gently lifting her out of the dive and back on to her feet.
She was smiling at him. That has to be good, right? He thought. Annabeth, of course, had no say over casting, but she knew good ballet when she saw it.
Chiron was a master of the poker face, though. He just nodded at them and said “Good,” before calling an end to the day.
Percy went to the side of the room where his dance bag was to grab his water.
“Good job today,”
He looked up and saw Annabeth sitting down next to him to take off her pointe shoes.
“Thanks. You make it easy. You’re a great partner,” he said. He moved a little back towards the center of the room, looking for a place to stretch.
She joined him soon after, pointe shoes replaced with warm-ups.
“I don’t think I ever apologized for leaving you high and dry with Diamonds last year,” she said.
Percy shrugged casually. “Don’t worry about it. Piper’s a great partner. I think we managed to pull it off,”
Annabeth nodded, sliding into her split and bending forward over her front leg. “You guys did a great job,” she told him.
Percy looked at her. “You came to see it?”
Annabeth nodded before bending backwards towards her other leg. “I didn’t stop loving dance just because I wasn’t doing it,”
Percy smiled, “Well, I’m glad you're back. Things weren’t the same around here without you,”
“I’m glad to be back,” she said, coming out of her split. “I hope we get to work together again soon,”
Percy tried to think of something funny or kind to say in response, but after hearing Annabeth express a genuine desire to work with him, he could really only manage to pull of something articulate: “Me too,”
~*~*~
Percy found himself humming along to The Sleeping Beauty score as he made dinner that night, dancing around his kitchen like he used to when he was a child. He still wasn’t confident that he’d be chosen as a prince for any of the casts, but he couldn’t help but daydream about dancing the ballet with Annabeth. If, for nothing else, the opportunity to dance with such an artful and technically skilled dancer. Sure, all the women in the company had good artistry and technicality – they’d mad it into the company for a reason – but Annabeth was something else.
The next day, Chiron had Percy and Annabeth run the pas de deux one more time, and then he had him run it with Reyna. Three chances, he thought, maybe that will be good enough for Chiron.
Annabeth didn’t say anything to him afterwards, choosing instead to stretch near some of the other women on the other side of the room. He didn’t take it personally; it wasn’t like they were close friends.
As he left the studio to head home, he passed a room with just Chiron, Annabeth, and one of their ballet mistresses. Percy recognized the dance already – Aurora's act one variation. That’s it then, he thought, she’s going to be first cast for sure.
He wanted her to succeed. Of course he did. But there was a small part of him that hoped that, if he didn’t get first cast, maybe she wouldn’t either. First cast didn’t really mean anything, anyway. It was more for reviews and promo photos. Every cast danced the ballet. The only thing that changed was who you danced it with. With only his three chances next to all the other men’s four, five, six, or seven chances, he was not going to land any higher than third cast.
That was if he got a cast at all.
Percy tried not to worry about it too much as he walked to the subway. If they were both lucky, he and Annabeth both had at least another decade of dancing left. There would be plenty of time for partnering.
But she’s going to be a beautiful Aurora, he though.
~*~*~
Percy sipped his coffee as he walked into the studio the next morning. He headed towards the office where he knew the cast list would be posted.
It was old fashioned to post the cast lists on a bulletin board outside Chiron’s office like they were in some high school theater not a world-class ballet company, but Chiron had always been old fashioned.
He started reading from the bottom and made his way to the top, never the optimist about his own chances. He made his way through the third cast without seeing his name at all.
His heart rate started to rise as he became more and more sure that he hadn’t been cast at all.
Not in the second cast. That was it then. Nothing.
He looked at the first cast to confirm his suspicions about Annabeth.
There she was, at the top of the list:
Aurora: Annabeth Chase.
He almost dropped his coffee when he looked at the line below:
Prince Désiré: Percy Jackson.