Chapter Text
On Saturday, nine in the morning, little Alex Mercer was warming up before his ballet class in front of the stuffed animals on his bed.
He was moving his feet, covered by blue socks, with all the elegance a seven-year-old kid could have, to the rhythm of the imaginary music playing in his mind.
His mother interrupted him when the more focused he was, making him look at her with a frown.
"Oh, I thought you were sleeping yet", she said entering the bedroom.
"No, it's Saturday", he shook his head, back to what he was doing before. "I'm getting ready for the class."
How could it be possible that his parents, the 'pink is for gays' type of parents, allowed their kid to have ballet classes?
In part thanks to his older sister, Anna, who convinced them, telling them that the best football players took ballet classes to perfect their moves.
And he wasn't the only boy in the class. There was one more. It wasn't a big difference between one or two, but it was something.
Alex always loved dancing. All the children dance, but he did it all the time. His favorite movie was 'Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses', of course. He was scared of the monkey, but who wasn’t? Barbie could be whatever she wanted to be, and he wanted to be like Barbie. He already had two things: blonde hair and a pair of dance shoes. He wanted the pink ones, but for obvious reasons they bought him black ones.
"There’s still two hours left for the class, ballerino", his mother smiled sideways, arranging the clothes that were folded in a terrible way on the bed. "Let’s go have breakfast."
Alex nodded and hopped out of the room, doing a pirouette before reaching the staircase, although he had already been told not to. He clutched his two hands to the ladder and stepped down first with one foot, then with the other, one step at a time.
He ran to the kitchen, sitting at the table with the rest of his family to have breakfast.
He drank a sip of the chocolate in front of him, having a milk moustache as he lowered the cup. His sister was building a Froot Loops tower, stacking them by color in the order of the rainbow.
The youngest child saw that and thought it was an incredible idea to do the same, making use of all his ability to concentrate to prevent the pile from falling and all the cereals spilling on the table.
This wouldn’t have happened if the girl hadn’t blown in his direction, causing Alex to screech and hit one of her sister’s towers.
"Annabeth, stop bothering your brother," her father told her, reading the newspaper while drinking his coffee.
The mentioned showed her tongue to the boy, who grimaced for a moment after drinking his milk again and kept accommodating cereals as if nothing had happened.
After breakfast, Annabeth asked her mom to brush her long hair, and Alex snuck into her room for his hair to be brushed as well. His hair was short, barely covering an inch of his small ears, but he loved having it bright as the sun.
Later, he put on his white coat with little animals and went outside to dance among the trees, waiting for the time to go to the studio.
"Get in the car, Alex," his mom called him, leaving the house with the keys in her hand.
The boy didn't take a second to obey, running towards the garage with a big smile.
They got in the car, fastened their seatbelts, and finally took a trip to where ballet classes were held. It was not more than ten blocks from their home, so Alex couldn't play 'Rainbow cars', which consisted of finding a car corresponding to each color, in order.
He started patting his thighs when he recognized a big red house, which meant they were about to arrive. Mrs. Mercer parked the car in front of the building and went downstairs, opening the door and helping the kid unbuckle his belt.
Although he was very happy to already be in one of his favorite places, Alex was actually very shy out of home, so he didn’t show it. Some of the other parents thought he was forced there for the same reason: he always hid behind his mother and seemed not to want to let go of her hand to get in.
He left his backpack on the floor next to the other children's, approaching the center of the room and seeing his reflection in the huge mirror in front of him.
They started stretching their legs and arms before dancing, with the teacher making funny faces and naming each exercise in funny ways to make it look like a game.
Her assistant changed the music to start rehearsing the choreography they had been practicing since the middle of the year, then presenting it at the theater at Christmas. It was going to be Alex’s first show, so he didn’t feel nervous about it. He loved Christmas, and what better than dancing to celebrate it? Maybe even Santa would go see him.
Some girls were clumsy, others very abrupt with their movements and others had no idea what they were doing there. Reggie was not a girl, yet he had all of those characteristics. Sometimes Alex felt scared for him, even though everyone else laughed at what he did.
His mom said he had to try to be his friend, but he was too shy to do it. What was he supposed to do? Say "hello, do you want to be my friend?" Definitely not, they weren’t in kindergarten anymore. Now they were in the first grade, they were big kids, unable to keep doing that stuff.
"All right! Time for rest," Miss Claire clapped, telling them to go drink water and sit down for a few minutes.
The blond sat on the wooden floor with his legs stretched out, uncovering his bottle to take a sip of its contents. When he opened his eyes again, a dark-haired boy with green eyes looked at him curiously, making him nervous.
"Hi!", the boy smiled sweetly. "Can I have your water? Please", he added, remembering the manners he had been taught at home.
"What happened to yours?" Alex asked, slowly bringing his bottle to his chest to protect it from the Disaster kid.
"I forgot it at home", he scratched his hair. "I’ll give you a sweet if you let me have some."
"You have candy but not water?" he raised an eyebrow, looking at the small hands that offered him three different sweets.
"Do you want one or not?" he grimaced, impatient.
The blond nodded, a little frightened, and spread out his bottle, begging him not to fill it with saliva. Reggie smiled and handed him the candy, allowing him to choose the one that most called his attention.
"What flavor is this?", he pointed at one with pink wrap.
"No idea, I can't read", he put it on Alex's hands, keeping the rest. "I guess it's strawberry."
"You can't read?" He asked surprised, saving his sweet after checking that it was in fact strawberry flavored.
"Nope. I'm learning", he opened the bottle again, taking it to his mouth and filling it with fresh water. "But I can count to fifteen. Can you read?"
"I learnt last year", he nodded proudly.
"Super", he smiled, giving him back the bottle. "Do you wanna be my friend?"
He asked the question... But he couldn't read, that’s why. If he knew, he would know that those things were only said by little kids.
"Okay", he answered after thinking about it for a couple seconds.
"Great! I’ve wanted to be your friend since you put your shoes backwards."
He noticed that? Alex thought everyone had forgotten, just as he was trying to do. He felt ashamed.
"Why would you like to be my friend after that?" He asked, confused.
"Because it was really funny", he smiled widely, showing the empty space that one of his fangs left some days ago. "Is that your coat?", pointed to the wear on the ground.
"Yes, it's mine", he answered.
"Oh, I really like it. I like the horse."
"I like the bear one", he added. "Is the horse your favorite animal?"
"Yeah, I have a stuffed horse, the Toy Story horse, a horse towel and Dad said that he's gonna buy me a real horse for my birthday", he said proudly.
"Wow, a real one? Where's it going to sleep?"
"In my room, of course. Imagine if I let it sleep outside, it's very cold in winter."
"When is your birthday?", he took a second to move a lock of hair that bothered him.
"I don't know, it's a number bigger than fifteen", he scratched his right arm, frowning his lips. "I know it's in winter, that's why the horse couldn't be outside."
"You're right", he nodded. "I had a kitty. But he left when I was little, and he never came back."
"Oh, I'm sorry", he gently caressed his shoulder. "What was his name?"
"Roquefort."
"What's that?"
"No idea."
They both kept quiet, thinking.
"I think that's why he's gone", Reggie said finally. "He went to change his name."
Alex looked at him surprised, and after a couple seconds, both of them started laughing.
"Maybe he's Louis now", he frowned.
"I'd like my name to be Patch", the brunet nodded, winning a curious look from the blue-eyed. "You know, like the dalmatian. It's really cool, Reggie isn't."
"I think that your name is cute", he smiled softly.
Reggie was going to thank him with a hug, when the teacher called them to proceed with the class.
"Do you wanna go to my house when the class is over?", the blond asked.
He wasn't used to talking and making friends that quickly, but in only ten minutes he had a lot of fun with Reggie. He was still being a little disaster, but at least Alex wasn't scared of him anymore. He was actually very nice.
"Sure! We can make a tent."
"I could ask Mrs. Molly if we can play with her dog."
"Who's Mrs. Molly?", he asked, cocking his head.
"She's my neighbour. She's like two hundred years old."
"Wow. Do you think she’s ever seen a dinosaur?"
"Dad says she used to be a dinosaur trainer."
"That's so cool!" He spoke too loud without noticing, and the teacher looked at him, raising one eyebrow. "I'm sorry."
They tried to hold their breaths but ended laughing, with Reggie holding the other boy's arm.
The music started playing again and all the kids were trying to coordinate while they danced.
Once the class finished, Alex didn't look shy anymore, he was smiling widely and talking a lot with his new friend.
He ran to his mother when he saw her, giving her a fast hug after asking if Reggie could spend the day in their house.
Their moms talked for a couple minutes to trade their telephone numbers just in case they needed anything.
Reggie gave a hug to his mom and then jumped into Mercer's car, sitting next to Alex.
"How was the class today?", mrs. Mercer asked.
"It was great", said Alex, "Reggie gave me a strawberry candy."
They played a new car game Reggie introduced to him, that was barking every time they saw a dog.
"Oh, is that your dinosaur trainer neighbour?" Reggie smiled after barking when he saw a dog next to the house where Alex said he lived in.
"Yes she is! Mom, can we play with Rocco?"
"You can", she nodded, slightly smiling because of what the kids were saying, "but please don't say that about the dinosaurs in front of her."
When she parked the car the kids ran to the neighbour's house, Reggie trying to call the dog's attention while Alex waved shyly to the woman taking care of her flowers.
"Hi, mrs. Molly", he said with his sweet voice.
"Hello, Alex. Is that a new friend?"
"Yes, his name is Reggie."
"Hi!", Reggie waved too. "Does your dog bite?"
"No, he doesn't. He only bites bad boys. Are you a bad boy, Reggie?"
Reggie thought for a moment, looking between the woman and the dog.
"No, I'm a good boy", he smiled.
"Then Rocco will love to play with you."
They spent the next hour running and playing with the dog, who wasn't exactly a puppy so got tired soon.
Then Alex's mom told the kids to come inside to have lunch, and after that mr. Mercer helped them to make a tent in the living room.
They were playing behind the sheets, making some animal toys run on the pillows as mountains, when Reggie got scared because of a thunder.
They were inside, so they didn't notice how the sky turned dark and that it started to rain softly.
After another thunder, Reggie hid under one of the pillows, with Alex laughing because he thought he was playing.
He did the same, hiding too and looking at the dark-haired with a smile.
He noticed Reggie was shaking, so he understood he wasn't playing.
"Are you scared of thunder?", he whispered.
"Mhm", Reg answered a couple seconds after. "I don't like rain."
"You don't have to be scared. I'm here with you. And we're under the tent, nothing will happen to us here."
Slowly, Reggie opened his eyes, looking at his friend. They sat normally again and the blond hugged him, bringing him a lot of comfort.
"I can protect you if you want", he offered, feeling like the brave heroes from the movies. "So you will not feel scared anymore."
Reggie nodded, hugging him tightly when the clouds kept making those loud noises.
No more than fifteen minutes later, they both fell asleep in each other's arms, taking the nap they always used to reject when their mothers told them to sleep at least one hour in the afternoon.
🧁
"Alex."
Reggie was under his bed cover, looking at his partner through the dark.
It was late, but it was raining too, so he couldn't sleep even if he wanted to.
"Alex", he whispered again. "Alex, Alex..."
"What", he mumbled, only wanting to sleep.
"Can I sleep with you?"
"No."
"Please?"
"You're almost eighteen years old, Reginald, for God's sake."
"Yeah, but I'm still afraid of the rain. Please, if I can't sleep, you won't sleep either."
Alex turned around, and even when he couldn't see his friend, he could feel his puppy eyes, begging him to say yes.
"Ugh, fine", he sighed. "Come here."
Reggie smiled and jumped off his bed, laying by the blond's side and cuddling next to him.
"Dumbass."
The blue-eyed kissed his best friend's forehead, protecting him so he could feel safe as when they were kids, as it was always going to be.
Maybe things could change in the future, but no matter where they'd go, they were always going to find each other again.