Mirrors [Ayunli]

[Blaize]

Something was happening, and Blaize did not know what it was.

Emotion wasn’t a high priority for the dancer. His art was his priority, and it usually took precedence over his personal relationships. He had only a handful of acquaintances and only two close friendships – that with his sire, and that with his childe. And yet, these days, he’d been seeking the company of both more and more often, as if their presence was soothing to him. For months – it had been at least five or six since he was sired – he had not enjoyed the act of feeding. Blood bags were his diet, only because he had failed to develop the sharp canines that every other of his kind developed. Even blood bags caused him guilt, such uncharacteristic guilt. Who was he stealing from? What lives were lost because the hospitals lacked the blood that they required in emergencies?

And yet, recently – over the past couple of weeks – the urge had been there. Every now and again he would meet someone whom he admired, and he’d imagine pulling them close and biting into the tight tendons of their neck.

It was baffling, to say the least. It was a new and unusual development, and Blaize was not sure that he liked it. It was distracting, and deep down he thought he wanted nothing to do with anyone else besides those whom he had already chosen as his companions – or those who had been chosen for him.

The ballerino chewed at the inside of his cheek as he ignored the emotions that threatened to rise up, his brows creased as he leapt the two steps up to the entrance of the studio. This close to Christmas the campus was almost clear of students, classes and exams petering out to make way for the Christmas break. Laura, his hired teacher, was inside, a few students early to their dance lesson. They were scattered about, quietly talking with each other and doing their stretches.

Blaize meandered through to the back room, though he left the door open. There were some goods that he needed, a client off-site wanting delivery. Blaize’s main delivery boy was out of town, on holidays to visit family. Blaize had to pick up the slack, but the blonde was glad for the distraction. The door outside opened a couple more times while Blaize lingered, the crisp Winter air disrupting the heated innards of the studio, the eddies reaching Blaize even in the back room. But, he was a vampire. He was sensitive to these things.

Laura clapped to gain the students’ attention; the class was about to start. Blaize moved to the doorway of his ‘office’, leaning his shoulder against the edge of it, arms crossed over his chest and one ankle crossed casually over the other. He could afford to waste five minutes. He needed to make sure the classes were progressing as he wanted them to.

WEARING

[Ayunli (DELETED 9087)]

ATTIRE

Ayunli had been worried he would be late to class; the last bit of that last hack had taken him far longer than he had expected and as such he'd been literally trying to fly to class. Still; he somehow managed to get there with a few minutes to spare. He had slipped in quietly, unlike the other students of the class Ay kept mostly to himself, not one to make friends quickly; he was often too busy with the passion he kept secret from most of his other friends; his dance.

So he discarded the bag he had with his laptop stashed safely inside and started in immediately on stretching before Laura clapped to call the class to attention. His eyes lit up, wondering which bit they were going to be working on that particular day. He was secretly hoping she would give them time to work on their personal pieces later in the class; until then his attention came apt to her.

Plié fifth, Fondu second, retiré. " came the instructions and Ayu grimaced; he was clearly beyond these basics, but he would stick with the rest of the class; as he hadn't known if there was a more advanced one offered. His feet moved with poised ease, slipping into each of the familiar poses. There was a small part of him that resented having to basics when all he wanted to do was actually perform. Still, he kept his face passive of the emotions and continued through the next sets of movements, body moving with a fluidity.

His eyes closed until she called for an attitude promenade. His head lifted; he positioned his elbow, and wrist carefully. His leg came to rest at a 145 degree angle and he tucked in his tummy. He carefully moved as she came to observe him, of course she was a critic and pushed more at his tummy and lifted his chin just a hair. He tried not to smirk at her; mentally making note of the corrections so next time she wouldn't have anything to critique.

His attention was distracted for a brief moment as he noticed the man in the office doorway. He couldnt' remember ever seeing anybody back there but Laura; and this was the first time he had ever seen hide or hair of another male. His hopes raised, perhaps the new face was somebody that enjoyed dance as well; it would be nice to have another guy to talk to instead of just the chatty kathy females of the class; which he avoided most of the time anyway. His distraction was short lived however as Laura called for them to continue into the next set of motions.

[Blaize]

Blaize watched the class with avid interest; an interest he hadn’t shown in a long time. Of course he wanted to make sure that the dancers taught in his studio were taught the best, and left with all the proper training of a traditional dancer, he’d seen enough of Laura’s work to know that he could trust her.

The students, most of the time, weren’t up to par. Some would pass exams to get into good schools, but only a handful. But that was always the way, wasn’t it? In studios like this, far away from the professional dance scene, there were only one or two diamonds in the rough rather than a whole class of diamonds, with a couple of exceptional beauties. When Blaize watched, he liked to pick out the diamonds.

Whether he ever did anything with them was up to whim and fancy, but most of the time he let fate take them on their way. He wasn’t a naturally giving person. He didn’t give his time for free, nor his advice. Nor his praise. Tonight, however, something inside of him yearned for something more, and it was that yearning that had him watching one student in particular.

A male.

Men were rare in the studio. Although there were plenty of male dancers out there, they were spread out and scattered, and the ratio of men to women in ballet was… well, men were outnumbered. This one wasn’t just some regular Joe, though. If he looked like he was struggling it was only because the basic warm-up was too easy. Blaize had been dancing since he was six, and better at it than most since then, too. He knew how to spot talent, and this guy looked like he’d already been trained elsewhere. What was he doing in this class?

Pushing himself away from the wall, Blaize meandered around the edge of the room. He waited for Laura’s steps to naturally wander his way; he talked quietly to her, so as not to disrupt the class, with a nod in the male dancer’s direction. The instruction was to send the dancer – Ayunli, he was informed – into Blaize’s office once the class was over.

Once the instruction had been given, Blaize meandered back to the door and disappeared through it, making himself comfortable at his desk.

All the while, he had showed up in none of the studio’s mirrors. The dancers never noticed. They were all too caught up in their own lessons, their own bodies, the way their own legs and arms were poised. Blaize, too, had decided not to care. Yes, outing himself as one of the vampires could be a bad idea. But it was too difficult to keep it a secret in a business with so many mirrors. He never told anyone, but nor did he keep himself hidden.

He just didn’t care.