May 4

[notfaking_it]

When their roles are posted, Lily smiles knowingly at Nina across the small crowd of mostly disappointed dancers, then crosses over to her and tells her they're going to have a party to celebrate. She tells Nina to invite whoever she wants, says she'll host it, it'll happen this weekend, then she disappears to make plans. She leaves Nina without time to protest on purpose.

On the night of the party, she has drinks and food set out in her kitchen. She's invited most of the people she knows and even a few she doesn't -- dancers, mostly, because she doesn't want to leave them out -- and there's already music playing even before anyone has arrived. The intention is to be casual, relaxed, but there are pills in Lily's pocket, for anyone who knows her well enough to ask, for anyone she thinks might need to relax a little.

Nina's doing better now, but Lily has no problem helping her come out of her shell if it comes to that. And she has no problem helping anyone else either.

Comments

[itwas_perfect]

When they'd read the posting, Nina had smiled along with Lily, she'd given her congratulations, she'd agreed to the party, but deep in her gut, she'd felt a tug of worry. Of disbelief. Not because she'd been given what was, undeniably, the lesser role of the two -- the female lead would always be considered the headliner, when it came to ballet -- but because she'd been given the masculine role. The prince.

She'd never been accused of exuding masculine energy in her life.

The director had explained how the adaptation would work, how the dance would change to accommodate two women, but that didn't change the fact that she'd be expected to portray a kind of strength that had never been asked of her.

And there was something else, something nagging at the back of her mind. Something she couldn't put a name to, but it left her jittery and scattered, the world around her closing in, suffocating so much of the progress she'd made over the last years.

In the apartment, Nina grabbed a drink. She hadn't eaten all day, but she couldn't stomach the idea of food. Smiling and accepting a few congratulations, she weaved through the apartment, pointedly refusing to seek out Lily's familiar shape in the small crowd.

[notfaking_it]

Lily was moving through the crowd as well, greeting people, stopping to speak with them now and then, but she was looking for Nina. She had a drink in one hand and when she finally spotted Nina, she moved in that direction, slipping up beside her, a smile curving her lips.

"Tell me you invited some people," she said, tipping her head closer to Nina's to be heard over the conversation and the music playing. She was excited for their roles, excited more for Nina than she was for herself. She'd danced Sleeping Beauty before, but to play the Prince would be a challenge, an experience not a lot of dancers were given.

[itwas_perfect]

"Um, I might've mentioned it to Eduardo?" she said, sounding unsure of herself. She'd never thrown a party, in her life. For the gala to announce her debut as the Swan Queen, she'd come on her own. Without even her mother. It wasn't until she'd arrived that she realized the other dancers in the company seemed to have invited dates.

"I... still don't know that many people, I guess."

[notfaking_it]

Lily smiled a little, but it was different now. She was more careful than she might have been in the past and although she didn't want Nina to notice, she also didn't want to act too much like she had in New York, especially with the roles posted and their jobs beginning all over again.

"Then this would be a good opportunity to meet some new people," she said, looking around the room. "I'm surprised some of them showed up, actually." She pointed to where Kaine stood with Cassandra. "That's Kaine and his girlfriend Cass. She doesn't talk much, but she's nice. And that uncomfortable looking gentleman over there is Booker. He's interesting."

[itwas_perfect]

"People don't seem to have any trouble showing up for parties, here," she pointed out with a soft huff of laughter, her eyes lingering on the tall, uncomfortable looking guy Lily had pointed out.

"He looks... interesting," she said, but she meant something else entirely.

[notfaking_it]

"Kind of terrifying and yet still appealing?" Lily asked with a laugh, because even though their initial meeting had been strange, it was impossible to ignore the fact that Booker was a good looking man. "That sums up what I know of him pretty well. He's from a completely different time than we are. I had to show him how to use his phone and I'm pretty sure the only reason he's here is that he couldn't figure out how to respond to my text to say no."

[itwas_perfect]

With another laugh, she said, "At least he was nice enough to show up, anyway."

She'd noticed that the people who felt like outsiders, the ones who didn't belong, seemed to be drawn to each other. The other dancers, the ones who saw nothing strange about this place, weaved in and out of smaller, tighter groups. The rest of them. The others. Clinging to each other through a common, shared psychosis.

[notfaking_it]

Lily isn't sure if she'd call him nice, but he's interesting, to say the least, and she suspects he might actually be quite kind to Nina. The fact that he'd pointed a gun at Lily during their first meeting isn't the sort of thing she has to share when she knows he was under stress. "You should talk to him," she suggests. "I talked to him earlier, he'll be coming to one of the performances."

[itwas_perfect]

"I don't know..." she hesitated, a frown turning down the corners of her mouth. She immediately drew into herself, shrinking herself even smaller than she already was.

"Maybe. Later, I guess."

[notfaking_it]

Lily knew better now than to push too hard and so she smiled and nodded. "Maybe later," she agreed, because maybe was better than a firm no and if she could put another drink in Nina's hand, maybe get her to take one of the pills, that maybe would almost certainly turn into a yes.

"I don't know if I've said it, but I'm really excited about this performance," she said, changing the subject. "I know the choreography will have to be reworked, but I think it'll be good."

[itwas_perfect]

"Me too," Nina said, her smile warming, "I... wasn't completely convinced it would work, during casting, but it sounds... really interesting."

Really terrifying, but she didn't want to be that girl, anymore. That little girl who was afraid of everything.

[notfaking_it]

"It'll be incredible," Lily said. "Something new for the audience, something new for us, and you already know we have chemistry." She wasn't worried at all about what they could do together if Nina let herself. What she didn't want was another artistic director who would lean too hard instead of coaxing it out of her. "Who better to work with than me?" she asked, grinning.

[itwas_perfect]

Nina couldn't help but return the grin, feeling a rush of giddiness, a kind of hopefulness that she hadn't felt since the day she'd been giving the part as The Swan Queen.

"At least you're not my alternate," she said, the first time she'd ever been able to joke about what had happened back in New York.

[notfaking_it]

Lily laughed, though at first her throat tightened and she had to push past that. What had happened was over. This city was another chance and things could be different here. "Not this time," she agreed. "It'll be better, working together like this. We can help each other." And she really could this time, without it seeming like she wanted to take Nina's role.