notfaking_it

Entry tags:

gathering

May 4

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.

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"This doesn't feel dry." He wasn't even entirely sure he knew what she meant - except he did, somehow. More in the feel of the word than anything else. And her face when she said it. "And you look happy." He paused, feeling his way through the idea. Strange how some things still gave him pause like this. "And... beautiful."

"I feel good," she answered, trying to ignore the way her chest felt at the compliment, but she was smiling anyway and it was difficult to ignore. It was far from the first time she'd been told she looked beautiful, but it was different coming from him and she liked it. She reached up, fingertips brushing along his jaw briefly. "And I hope it doesn't feel dry," she added, laughing a little. "I'd hate to think of a party I threw as stuffy or uncomfortable."

Although, despite her best efforts, she knew a few people in attendance weren't completely comfortable, which was probably obvious in the way they were hanging at the outskirts, watching the party instead of involving themselves in it.

He shook his head. "The only thing is that I hardly know anyone here." He smiled again, fainter. "But that is hardly your fault. Who are all these people?"

"Mostly other dancers," Lily said, turning to stand beside him so she could look out at her apartment. It was strange, even as she said it, she found herself feeling weirdly possessive. She knew what the women she worked with could be like and she'd already caught one or two of them glancing at Delta. "That big guy over there is Kaine and his girlfriend Cass is around here somewhere. And Nina..." She trailed off, looking for her, then pointed through the crowd. "She'll be dancing the Prince's role in this show."

"Nina..." He followed Lily's pointing and made a note to say hello to her later if the chance arose - and then looked back at Lily again, one eyebrow raised. "The Prince? But she's a woman." He paused, then let out a slightly awkward laugh. Of course this was a world he still mostly didn't understand. "I'm sorry, I think maybe that was a silly thing to say."

"No, you're right," Lily said, smiling up at him. "Most companies are still fairly traditional, so something like this is rare. We have to rework choreography because this casting makes lifts impossible and a lot of artistic directors like to stick with what they know. It's definitely unusual, but I'm excited for it." Her smile grows a little and she shrugs. "It's a challenge and I've always loved a challenge at work."

The longer he considered it, the more it did make a kind of sense. He had been here for long enough, had learned enough, that it was clear that a man and a woman wasn't the only kind of pairing possible. That being a man or being a woman weren't even necessarily the only options. So why not the same fluidity in a ballet?

He thought he liked it, actually.

"I can't wait to see it."

"I'll put tickets aside for you and Eleanor," she says, pausing for a moment on that. Though she's still not generally inclined to date, she likes Delta and she doesn't want to put an end to whatever they're doing, which she thinks might mean dating him. It doesn't immediately spark her usual thoughts of trying to ease out of it, but it is a little strange to think of dating a man with a daughter, even in this sense.

"Should I meet her?" she asks, pulling her hair over her shoulder. "I mean, I'd like to, but would you want me to?"

"Eleanor?" It was strange that he hadn't thought about it one way or the other - like the kind of thing that he might miss simply by virtue of not being used to thinking about it. But now that he did think about it...

"Yes. Yes, I would like that very much."

"Alright," she says, then smiles a little. "Maybe we can take her out for dinner after the show." Putting it off in the future like that makes it seem less like something she's committed to, which makes it a little more comfortable for her. She realizes this even as she's saying it and it makes her think of Sawyer, strangely, a thought she tries to chase away as soon as it's there.

"That would be nice." Eleanor should meet her, really. It was strange to not have the two of them meet. Given that one of them was intensely important, and the other...

"She knows about you. I've told her a little."

"Really?" she asked, trying to ignore the smile that brought to her lips. She hadn't spoke much of Delta to anyone, but the reasoning wasn't that she wanted to hide him, simply that most of her friends were also people she'd been romantically involved with at some point. That didn't often lead to talking about new romances or the dates she'd been on. "What have you told her?"

"That we went on a date. That I like you." He shrugged. "Not a lot. I haven't..." His smile turned slightly awkward. "I'm not sure what to tell her. Like I told you before, I've never done this before. Going on dates. Being a father, like I am now. Any of it."

"I think you're doing a fine job. At both," Lily said. "And I like you, too." It was easy enough for her to say, she liked plenty of people, but she knew, even as she said it, it was different somehow.

"We should even try going on another date," she teased. "That's how much I like you."

"I would like that, too." If he was honest he had been thinking of it before now. Wondering what he should do, wondering what the next steps might be. Wondering where those steps might eventually go.

"Do you like the beach?"

Lily smiled and said, "I grew up in San Francisco," before she realized that might not actually mean much of anything to Delta. In fact, she imagined there were plenty of people on this city who might not know what she was talking about. It wasn't very different from the island in that regard. "It's on a peninsula, so I spent a lot of time in and around the ocean. Which is to say, yes, I love the beach."

"Good." San Francisco, at least, he had heard of, from books... And he was almost sure from somewhere else, too. But it didn't matter just then. "We should go together. Some day soon when it's warm."

"Alright," she agreed, still smiling. "I'd like that." It wasn't California and never would be, but she'd always loved the ocean and even though she knew she couldn't leave by her own free will, being able to see it somehow helped her feel better about being stuck here. "You like the beach?"

"I didn't use to. It reminded me of... unpleasant things." He gave a half shrug, smiling faintly. "Now it's just the ocean. There's no threat in it, and nothing is going to come out of it and pull me back down."

"And even if something tried, I have a feeling they'd have a hell of a fight on their hands," she said, her smile growing a little. She had a feeling that if anyone tried to take him away from his daughter, they might be surprised by just how hard he fought back and there was something interesting in that. Something she'd never experienced herself.

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May 4

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