Work Text:
It was one of their rare movie nights with Tao and Elle, and Charlie and Tao had gone to get the pizzas, leaving Nick alone with Elle.
"This is nice," she said. "I don't usually get just Nick time."
Nick smiled. "Actually, I'm really glad. I wanted to ask you for some advice."
"Sure!"
"Do you remember when Charlie said we were going to a spinning class and then it turned out he meant yarn?"
Elle laughed. "He was so proud that he pulled that off. Thank you for the yarn, by the way. It's beautiful!"
"I've been trying to come up with something similar. I was thinking about a dance class, but I can't figure out the twist."
"Why not belly dance?" suggested Elle.
"Do men belly dance?" asked Nick.
"I mean, my family is Egyptian, so as far as they're concerned, it's just dancing. But if you're thinking about the sparkly costumes, yeah, there are totally men who dance!" She pulled out her phone, pulling up TikTok. "See?"
Nick was entranced as the man's hip went up and down in precise synchronization with the sound of a ball bouncing on a drum. "Wow!"
"Look, they're even based in London! I bet you could reach out and set up a lesson for you two," she said, flipping to the profile of Darin and clicking over to the website.
"Send me that link?"
"Absolutely," said Elle with a grin. "I can't wait to hear how Charlie reacts."
—
That night, while Charlie was in the bathroom brushing his teeth, Nick shot off a quick note through the contact form on the website Elle had sent him, and watched a few more videos. How on earth was he able to move just one body part so precisely, let alone when there was one really sharp thing happening and something smooth over the top? Growing up as an athlete, Nick had always thought that he had a really strong connection to his body, but that kind of control was mind boggling. He lay on the bed, his hand on his stomach, trying to get his abs to do anything besides contract as a unit and failing. Quickly, he swiped away as he heard Charlie exit the bathroom.
Charlie gave him a confused look. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah. Everything's fine. Normal."
Charlie burst out laughing. "Ok, so trying to keep something secret. I'll be nice and not pry…" He crawled into the bed. "Is it something for us?" he asked saucily.
"Ummm…"
"Or are you doing research again?" Charlie slipped his hand under Nick's shirt, lips hovering.
"Something like that?" squeaked Nick.
Charlie sat back, laughing. "Ok, ok, I'll really stop teasing you now. Go brush your teeth. You smell like garlic."
—-
Two weeks later, they stood outside a small dance studio. "So are you going to tell me what kind of dance, love?" asked Charlie.
"Nope," said Nick.
"My original guess was ballroom or swing, but you have me dressed like we're going to a yoga class," mused Charlie. "Is it hip hop? Krump? Contemporary? Ballet?"
"No, nuh uh, no and nope. You'll just have to wait." Nick grinned at Charlie and pressed the buzzer. They went up a flight of stairs and entered a mirrored studio with warm wooden floors, black and silver metallic fabric draped over the corners of the room, and drums and tambourines against the front wall.
A person sat on the floor in the front of the room, stretching. His low cut tank top revealed tattoos highlighting his top surgery scars, hair tied back in a ponytail and a neatly trimmed goatee. Fluidly, he stood up from the floor in an almost boneless motion without using hands.
"Hi, welcome, I'm Darin." The instructor introduced himself with a handshake. "Which one of you is Nick and which one is Charlie?"
"I'm Nick, and thanks so much for doing this. We've done a lot of different classes together, but never anything like this."
"Charlie. Are we drumming?" he asked excitedly.
"Not in this class, but hand percussion is a big part of belly dance." Charlie looked at Nick, who was grinning.
"But you have, like, zero sense of rhythm," said Charlie.
"It still looked like fun! I'm not expecting to be good at it!" Nick shrugged.
"So we'll start off with a warm up. As you probably know, the roots of belly dance are in the Middle East, but there are actually a lot of different regional variations and styles. And men absolutely do this dance. My main style is called transnational fusion, but I started out learning from an Egyptian teacher. My partner has more of a Lebanese style background. If you decide this is something you're really interested in, I encourage all of my students to learn more about Middle Eastern and North African dance, music and culture. But today, we're here to move your bodies in new ways and have some fun!"
Nick and Charlie nodded along, smiling. Charlie always wanted to know more history, as a life long Classics nerd. He was really happy Nick had found this particular instructor for them.
Darin gestured for them to face the mirrors and follow along, starting music playing in the background. As they were led through a series of deep side stretches, Charlie was becoming aware of how much less he moved these days, enjoying the slight crackling of his spine as he extended in different directions. They moved into shallow squats, first with both feet flat, then each foot elevated, before then a set done entirely on tip toes. Nick found himself surprisingly tired after just the warm up.
"Alright, let's sit on the floor, legs spread out in front of you. We're going to get to know our butts!" said Darin perkily. Charlie snorted and gave Nick a saucy grin. "You two may be familiar with each other's but now it's time to learn your own. Go ahead and reach back and make sure you're sitting on your tailbone. You may have to grab things and move them, that's fine, but it's very hard to engage a muscle when you're sitting on top of it." Darin demonstrated as he spoke.
Nick's face was crimson as he adjusted his well rounded arse to make sure his glutes were free to move, Charlie looking over and admiring with zero shame.
"We're going to try and engage this muscle," said Darin, holding his gluteus medius. We don't want to use our back muscles for this, because that's an easy way to injure yourself over time, and the gluteus maximus may wind up helping, but it shouldn't be the main driver so that you can do this while walking." Darin squeezed one butt cheek, somehow lifting it visibly off the floor.
"Just as important as the squeeze is the release. So starting with just the right side, let's squeeze, and release. And squeeze, and release."
Nick was frustrated. When he tried to squeeze, his whole body pitched to the side, his quads tightening and leg pressing against the floor. "I can't do this." Next to him, Charlie had his hand on his butt and a thoughtful expression as he seemed to be getting it.
"Is it ok if I touch you, Nick?" asked Darin, making eye contact in the mirror.
"Sure?" said Nick. Darin turned around to face Nick and lightly put a hand on his thigh.
"Ok, try to squeeze again." Nick tried, to a similar effect. "Do you feel how tense your thigh is? Without releasing anything else, try to relax just this muscle."
Nick looked at Darin as if he'd grown a second head.
"Just try," Darin smirked. "Charlie, work on your left so you don't get too unbalanced right away."
Nick took a deep breath and tried to let his thigh disengage. "Good job! Now think about how that feels, release everything, and try again. It can help if you put your hands on your thighs as a reminder." Darin slid back to the front of the room. "Squeeze, release, squeeze, release," his own cheek lifting and dropping. "Let's try the other side. Squeeze, release, squeeze, release. Much better, Nick! And now alternating, making sure to fully relax each side when you're squeezing the other." Nick's brow furrowed in concentration, Charlie much more relaxed but still focused.
"And both! Both! Both!"
They finished out the set of squeezes, and Darin had them shake out their legs and loosen up before standing.
"I think we're warmed up. Since this is just a short introduction, I'm not going to try and do too many things, but I wanted to at least give you a chance to try what most people think of as the signature moves in bellydance - the hip drop, the shimmy, shoulder shimmies, and belly rolls. Since our glutes are nice and awake, I'm going to start with the shimmy." Charlie and Nick nodded along, pretending they had any clue what that meant.
"First things first, dance posture. You want your knees softly bent, and your pelvis in a neutral position, straight spine, head and chest slightly lift. Turn sideways in the mirror."
Nick looked at his profile, subconsciously sucking in the slight pudge he had developed over the years. "No sucking in your gut," chastised Darin. "This is belly dancing, and a little jiggle will make your shimmies look better." Darin demonstrated, peeling off his shirt. The rhythm of his hips rippled across his torso and the slightly soft flesh of his stomach, though his physique was overall quite lean.
"Charlie, try to relax a little more and let your butt come back like a duck. Nick, opposite problem, try to bring your hips more directly under your body."
Darin came over and lightly adjusted them both, turning them towards the mirror again and having them take a deep breath.
"Just like with glute squeezes, we're going to try and use the same muscle, but you can help it along with your legs. It's not cheating, it's just a different style. I like to start off slow and even and then gradually speed that up. Your goal is more about symmetry than speed. I'm going to put on some music, and we'll just take this song and shimmy."
Charlie immediately burst out laughing when the first notes of Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" came over the studio sound system. Nick grinned and relaxed, his body suddenly responding to him more than it had all evening. Charlie seemed to be in his element, hips perfectly subdividing the beat.
"Looking really good Charlie. Now try to relax a little more as you release and don't be afraid to let your butt jiggle!"
By the end of the song, they were both surprisingly tired and grateful for the water break. "What do you think so far?" Nick asked Charlie.
"I'm really enjoying it! It kind of feels like whole body drumming, if that makes sense? Like each part of my body is a different drum." Charlie gave Nick a dimpled grin, sweaty curl plastered to his forehead.
Hip drops were a little simpler, balancing on one foot and lifting and dropping a single hip. Nick only almost fell over twice. Once, because he leaned too far, and once because he was watching Charlie's graceful fingers mimicking Darin's fluid hand movements and somehow managed to kick his own ankle.
Shoulder shimmies, Nick almost was good at, but that may have been because Darin had them do it as a couple's exercise, where one partner helped the other by holding their hands in place while they tried to move just the shoulder forward with pectorals and lats. It was fascinating to watch Charlie's body move in new ways that Nick had never seen before in all their years together. It was a nice reminder there would always be new things to try together.
As the session wound down, Darin had them lay on the ground and put their hands on their abs. "Belly rolls are a lot easier to learn laying down, because when you're standing, your abs and other core muscles are actually doing quite a bit of work fighting the harsh mistress of gravity. First we're just going to try and find major groups. Think of your belly as a seesaw, and try to contract just the top, and then push that out and contract the bottom. It's ok if it feels weird, it's a weird thing to try!"
Charlie frowned as he tried to engage his muscles. "I feel like there's a muscle deep in my pelvis?" he asked, perplexed.
"Yes! That's awesome! You've found your lowest ab! Most people think of the six pack, but there are actually typically eight abs the way most people visualize them. They're actually bands of connective tissue across the two rectus abdominus muscles, but you can trigger them in some fairly complex ways, and it's often easier to think of them separately."
Nick, on the other hand, had no idea what his abs were doing.
"Think about doing a really slow sit up, but without using your back muscles," suggested Darin. Nick closed his eyes, and planted his hands flat on the floor, visualizing doing a sit up without letting himself actually move.
"Yes! You got it! Do it again!" said Darin.
Nick opened his eyes and tried again, and Charlie grinned, watching Nick's abs ripple up from his hips. He managed it two more times before giving up, tired. "That's a lot of work!"
Darin laughed. "Right now, everything is the hardest it will ever be. Your body has never tried to do this before. It takes more energy to build connections. But it can be really rewarding to develop that relationship with your body."
They ran through a final stretching sequence, tired but happy. Leaving Darin, they walked down to the car together. "Thank you for picking that, love," said Charlie. "I had a really good time. I might want to come back for a regular class, actually."
"I'm glad! I am surprisingly tired after that, though. Want to take a hot shower when we get home?" asked Nick.
"Together?" asked Charlie, sliding his arm around Nick's waist.
"I was hoping so," said Nick as he put his arm around Charlie's shoulder and kissed the side of his head.