Work Text:
“Miss Odette?”
The sudden sound in the silent room seemed to startle the dancer. Still, she barely faltered, giving a little “hm?” in acknowledgement.
“Forgive the unsolicited comment,” Albedo continued, “but you really do look exhausted.”
“Oh. It's okay. I get that a lot, but I'm fine.”
Odette simply carried on with her routine as though there had been no interruption at all.
Thanks to the Traveler's broad network of connections, it had become a sort of routine in and of itself over the last week or so for Albedo to spend the mornings working in the Korolevskiy Theater's practice room with the Troupe's prima ballerina while she rehearsed: he arrived early in the mornings and made himself comfortable on the couch in the back of the room, working on his commission until lunchtime, while the Traveler and Paimon showed Klee and Durin around Snezhnograd. He would meet up with them again later for lunch and spend the rest of the day with them. Most days, Odette arrived shortly after Albedo and got to work on rehearsing for her next show.
Neither Albedo nor Odette usually spoke much, both content to simply co-exist. They'd found that neither was disturbed by the other's work, and perhaps were even able to focus more easily with the knowledge that someone else was there.
On this particular day, however, Odette was already practicing by the time Albedo made it backstage. She’d greeted him with an absent look in her eyes that he instantly recognized as sleep deprivation.
In the short time they'd known each other, Albedo had learned that Odette was extremely hard on herself. He supposed she had to be in order to have become the prima ballerina in the most renowned troupe in Snezhnaya. Even so, her obsession with perfection sometimes seemed to border on self-harm.
Case in point: he hadn't seen her take a single break all morning. On any other morning, this wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for Odette, but she clearly hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. She was apparently making more mistakes than usual today, too- not that Albedo knew enough about ballet to tell the difference more often than not, but because every time she did, she would let out a small noise of frustration and restart her current routine from the very top.
“You should at least have something to eat or drink,” Albedo tried again. If it got to a point where his nagging bothered her, she would tell him to stop. “You must be using a lot of energy.”
“I ate an apple and a hard-boiled egg before I came here. I'm not really hungry.”
Even Klee is rarely this difficult anymore. Albedo idly wondered how she and Durin were doing right now, but he knew they were in good hands.
“Please, it's obvious your body needs rest. You're not making any progress by pushing yourself like this.”
At last, Odette seemed to consider this, still staring straight ahead at her own reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors as she held an outstretched position. A moment later, she said, “...Fine. I'll take a short break after I finish this set without any mistakes.”
At this rate, that wasn't going to be anytime soon, but Albedo suspected this compromise was the best he'd be able to get out of her for now.
However, as he returned his gaze to the sketchbook in front of him to continue with his own work, an idea began to form.
“...Actually, if it's not too much trouble to put that on hold for a moment, could you come take a look at these drawings and give me a second opinion?” he asked, feigning innocence. “You can say no, but it’d be a big help to me.”
“Hm? Oh, well, I'm not much of an artist myself, but I suppose I could try to help…” she trailed off, finally dropping her stance and making her way over to the couch as Albedo adjusted to let her sit next to him, careful not to express his relief. He began showing her the sketches he was working on and talking her through his thought process, and every so often she would chime in with a noise of agreement or a muttered suggestion. Though the request had originally been a guise, he found that he valued her advice nonetheless.
Albedo reached down to grab some of the snacks he’d packed in his everyday bag for Klee, eventually pulling out some granola and dried fruit, then setting it down between them and gesturing for Odette to help herself. She reluctantly picked out only the granola, leaving the fruit for him, but at least she was eating something. For her part, once the snack was gone and the cloth napkin had been returned to Albedo’s bag, Odette reached into her own pocket and pulled out a couple of honey candies. She began unwrapping one as she offered the other to Albedo, which he accepted.
At one point, she leaned in closer to get a better look at the drawings. When Albedo didn't shy away from the proximity, she'd allowed herself to stay there, resting her head on his shoulder. As he continued talking, he finally felt her breathing begin to slow and her responses stopped. Content with this success, he set his things off to the side, shifted to a more comfortable position, and allowed his own breathing to match hers.
He was technically supposed to meet back up with the others at Podvorye Restaurant soon, and he was never one to be late. That said, if he wasn't there on time, they'd know where to come find him.
Later, when the Traveler and Vodyanitsa peered into the practice room, they found Albedo sprawled out on the couch, with Odette practically laying on top of him. They were sound asleep, not even stirred by the sound of the door opening.
The two onlookers turned to each other, both sharing the same bewildered expression: How on earth did he manage that?