Chapter 7

Day 2 Rehearsal

Lizzie groaned as she stretched out her poor limbs the next morning before rehearsal started. Luckily, some of her cast mates had showed her some of the dance moves before it started so she could have a good idea what was expected of her, and this part of the number wasn't difficult. It was a lot of sashaying, hip swaying, and some grinding. Satine, you tramp! She laughed to herself before wincing as she stretched out and massaged a particularly tight muscle in her shoulder.

She jumped as she felt a pair of large hands set down on her shoulders before relaxing as she realized that it was just Jeremy, who had noticed her discomfort and was now giving her possibly the best massage of her life.

"Jeez, Eli! You've got a knot the size of a baseball on your back!" He exclaimed, digging deep and eliciting a loud groan from Lizzie.

"I know…" She continued groaning with her eyes closed as she rolled her neck, stretching out those muscles too. "This always happens to me on the first day after break that's longer than a week and a half, and it's definitely been longer than a week and a half. It'll be better after I get used to this."

She hummed as he continued working out the knot as Lizzie started to slowly drift off to sleep. She sat up quickly and opened her eyes when the warm hands and pressure suddenly stopped. "Why'd you stop?" she whined, pouting at Jeremy who was still sitting behind her.

"Well… Darcy is staring at me like he's going to kill me, and I'm not sure how I feel about that." Jeremy murmured as his hands returned back on to her shoulders. "Oooh I think I see steam coming out of his ears now." He exclaimed joyfully.

Lizzie's eyes popped open as she sought out the brooding figure that was sitting, once again, in his dark corner. (Okay, she was exaggerating again. His corner was just as light as the rest of the room) Lizzie rolled her eyes before looking away. "Sorry J, he's not glaring at you. He just hates me for no reason. Has since my audition." She shrugged, wincing as he dug in particularly deep.

"Somehow I highly doubt that's the issue." Jeremy leaned in pretending to swat a fly out of her hair, trying to hold in his laughter as he saw Darcy's form stiffen. Oh, Jeremy knew what was going on, but he wasn't going to say anything just yet. He was going to have fun with this.

Before Darcy could lunge across the stage at Jeremy, or at least that's what Jeremy thought was going to be the next thing he did if he kept up the fake flirting with Eli, Fitz called the room to attention. Lizzie stiffened as she felt the presence of Darcy right next to her, tall and brooding as always. Fitz explained that they were going to go through the Sparkling Diamonds part two, where Satine had mistakened Christian as the Duke and proceeded to dance against him and mistaken everything he said as sexual innuendo.

The moves were easy enough as she stood in front of Darcy as he awkwardly guided her through the moves while the rest of the cast surrounded them. They started out slowly, and Lizzie had to admit that Darcy was a wonderful teacher. He seemed to know exactly how to correct her without being overbearing or rude about it, which could not be said about some people that she's had to work with. Still, she couldn't say that she was entirely comfortable around his presence, especially since she couldn't read him. The glaring didn't really send the message to her that he was tolerating her presence. More like he hated her with every fiber of his being, however, when he worked with her he seemed much more agreeable.

Finally, after four hours of nitpicking at Lizzie's dancing, mostly at the hand of Darcy, they broke for lunch. She really didn't mind it; she wanted to be the best when they finally opened. It was exhausting, nonetheless.

She groaned in appreciation when she saw the lunch display that the studio had organized for them. Her stomach jumped in anticipation the glorious piles of sandwiches, chips, and… oh the cookies! She walked over in awe at the large plate of cookies at the end of the table and quickly grabbed a double chocolate chip one and shoved it in her mouth. She stiffened when she heard the unmistakable whiny voice of none other than Catherine DeBough, exclaiming to herself about how "utterly unladylike the women of New York nowadays are when it comes to table manners," which Lizzie promptly turned her head, gave Miss DeBough a large, cookie filled open mouth smile, and shoved the remainder of her cookie in her mouth and chomped loudly as she stared her down.

She jumped when she heard an unfamiliar deep chuckle to her right. Upon turning, she was shocked to find Darcy looking at her exchange with his aunt with a slight smile on her face. His smile quickly disappeared when he saw Lizzie looking at him in shock.

"What?" He grunted.

"Nothing!" She replied. "It's just… I've never seen you smile! It's probably number one on the endangered species list, it's so rare!"

"I smile." He frowned, furrowing his eyebrows together.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and laughed at his confused expression. "Yea, that's why half the cast is afraid of you. Because of your sunny personality." She joked, nudging his side as she tried to push him out of the way to grab another cookie.

"They're afraid of me?" He asked cluelessly.

She stopped just as she picked up a sugar cookie that was covered in sugar crystals, just like she liked it. "Umm… what? Noo… I –" She said sputtered as she shoved the entire cookie in her mouth so she wouldn't have to explain herself anymore. She shouldn't have told him that. Now he was going to hate her even more and although she didn't care about his opinion about her, it would be extremely difficult to act out characters that were in love while they despised each other in real life. "Ah mern… dey dun ate yew." She mumbled with a full mouth of cookie.

Before she could continue defending herself, he shoved a huge cup of milk in her face, which she accepted gracefully. Truth be told, she was seconds away from choking on the sugary pastry.

"Here. Fitz would kill me if I caused the production to lose another Satine, especially if I told him that you preferred death by cookie over having to converse with me." He deadpanned, jumping when Lizzie snorted on her cup of milk at Darcy's unexpected joke and proceeded to cough and choke. Darcy stood helplessly, unsure about what to do as the rest of the cast who were around to witness their interaction stared in shock as Darcy attempted to shove another glass full of water at her with one hand and some napkins in the other, looking extremely frazzled unlike his usual, uptight, and put together self.

He relaxed as Lizzie finally took a full breathe after freeing her windpipes of the residual poison cookie. "You made a joke!" She gasped as she pointed accusingly at him.

"I'm a funny guy." He said sarcastically as he slapped her hand away from the cookies as she attempted to get another one. He glared at her as she continued to look longingly at the innocent looking pile of cookies still sitting there. He was not going to go through watching her almost die from inhaling her cookie too fast.

"Don't even think about it." He said before he pushed her towards an empty table, grabbed some sandwiches off the display for the two of them, and shoved them towards her as he grabbed whichever one she didn't want. They ate silently, Lizzie looking over his shoulder every once in a while to look at the cookies once again, only to be chastised by the glare that Darcy sent her every time he caught her looking. And this was how they spent their first lunch hour together, in a slightly more comfortable than usual, if not extremely strange, silence.

After an eventful lunch, Fitz called them back and decided it was time to do a run through of the scene starting from the top, incorporating what they had covered yesterday. They weren't going to incorporate all the elements yet since it would take a while to get all set pieces together and that would wait till tech, but they were going to run it from the beginning to the end, albeit without the swing.

The first half ran went off without a many mistakes, and Lizzie was thankful that she remembered all of it. It was still a bit rough around the edges, but that was something that more time and practice would hopefully fix. The second half with Darcy went surprisingly well. He helped lead her through it while also playing the part of nervous and uncomfortable Christian. The more she sang and swayed her hips as Satine, the more comfortable she became in becoming her character. In the end, Lizzie was having a blast playing the seductress. She'd never been the type of girl that Satine was, sexy and bold, and Lizzie loved the fact that playing Satine brought on a wave of confidence that she didn't know she had. Lizzie had always been confident as a child, but in her sexuality? That never came easily to her, especially growing up with an older model-esque sister and two younger sisters that flaunted theirs any chance they got. She would never admit it, but Lizzie's self confidence was never as high as she played it off to be. Years of hearing her mother talk down to her made her constantly question herself on every aspect of her life.

At the end of the day, after another 10 hours of grueling practices, Lizzie was satisfied with their work for the day. They had pretty much gotten the entire number down. All she wanted to do now was curl up and pass out on her bed with her huge ass horse-dog next to her. She missed Remy, and was guilty that she hadn't spent much time with the big brute since she started working. She quickly bid her friends goodbye as they were dismissed, eager to get home to her warm bed and dog.

These quiet nights were what kept her sane, and she felt that as soon as they finished rehearsing, these nights would be few and far in between.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Will sighed as he finished off his beer at the bar, ignoring his cousin go on and on about the show. He loved his job, but sometimes he needed that time away and not live and breath it even after rehearsal was over. He was exhausted, and the day had been more trying than usual.

He signaled the bartender for another beer as he mulled over the events of the day. His blood boiled as he was greeted by the sight of the dancer that Elizabeth had danced with at her audition giving her a back massage and leaning into her like they were a couple. They were at work and public displays of affection were on Will's list of top 3 pet peeves, right after Caroline Bingley and people that chewed with their mouth open.

And yet, when the charming Elizabeth rebelliously chomped at her cookie with a look of defiance after his dreadful aunt attempted to chastise her to the room, he couldn't help but chuckle at her attitude and how adorable she looked.

Will wrinkled his nose. Adorable? Since when did he ever think something as adorable?

And then she had to go on and choke on that bloody cookie. Seriously he should have known that it would happen, seeing as every time that he was in her company during a meal, she would devour her food like it was her last meal on earth, and the cookies at the table were definitely receiving the same treatment. For the first time in a long time, Will found himself panicked and unsure about how to react as she choked on her milk because apparently he said something funny, and she was not expecting him to have an ounce of humor inside him.

He could be funny! He's a funny guy. Will thought resolutely.

And then the way that she kept looking back at the cookie table while he tried to block her view was too adorable for words. There he goes again, using the word adorable. He scrunched his nose again. Adorable made her seem like a child, and from the way that she sang and danced the past two days, he knew that she was anything but a child.

She was enchanting.

Will found himself completely enchanted and bumbling like a fool, just like his slightly clueless character Christian. Luckily, it worked out for his part and no one questioned him when he stared too long at her or stumbled during rehearsal as she swayed her hips in front of him. He nearly groaned thinking about her during the Sparkling Diamonds number today, and she was only wearing her typical dance outfit. He couldn't even imagine what she would look like in costume.

Actually, that was a lie, he could imagine.

He was brought out of his thoughts as his cousin snapped his finger in his face as if he were trying to catch the attention of his dog.

Darcy scowled as he pushed his cousin's hand away from his face. "You know I hate it when you do that."

"Well you always ignore me!" Fitz whined like the man-child he was. Before Fitz could continue, the door of the bar opened and a familiar redhead stepped in through the doors. Luckily, he was quite alone and wasn't accompanied by his sister like usually was, who made it a habit to latch onto him like a barnacle whenever he went out in the hopes of running into Will.

"Charles!" He waved as he called for another round of beer. He hadn't seen his friend in a while, since he was so enraptured by the Elizabeth's blonde sister who he could never remember the name of.

Bingley had no problem reminding Will her name as he launched into a story of how he had been and how much time he'd been spending with Jane. Will was perfectly content with listening to his best friend, but of course his annoying cousin sitting on the other side of him decided to butt in, in his usual abrasive fashion.

"So what do you think of our new lead?" Fitz asked, scooting closer to Will and stared expectantly at his face for any reaction. Bingley's attention was quickly piqued by the eager look on Fitz's face.

"Jane's sister, right? Jane told me that her sister had gotten the role of the lead next to Will."

Unfortunately for Fitz, Will was well practiced at schooling his features and staying neutral. "She's very talented." He said, unwilling to admit that the reason that he hadn't been listening to Fitz before Charles walked in was because he had been thinking of her.

"Aww come on! Don't tell me that the reason you've been daydreaming since we've gotten her is because of her!" He teased.

"Daydreaming? Will?" Charles raised his eyebrow and looked quizzically at his best friend. Will didn't daydream. He just pointedly ignored people.

Darcy sputtered as he tried to come up with excuses and defend himself. His cousin had the annoying ability to be extremely observant when Darcy wished he wasn't, despite being obtuse most of the time, coupled with Charles's knowledge of Darcy's behavioral patterns after being friends for years, he was pushed in a corner and put on the spot.

"She is perfectly tolerable." He muttered.

"You're a horrible liar." Fitz smirked. "But I'll let you go for now."

"You guys are assholes. I'm going to go now and get to bed early because my slave driver director is killing us at rehearsal." He muttered as he finished off the rest of his beer, paid his tab, and got ready to leave for the night.

"I resent that!" Fitz called out as he walked out the door.

He turned the corner and decided to walk the short distance it took to get to his apartment.

That is, until a huge wolf-horse-dog ran straight towards him and shoved him onto his ass and proceeded to maul his face with its tongue and revolting breath.

Oh, what a day it was turning out to be for William Darcy.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The night was wrapping up quite nicely for Lizzie. She had gotten home after ordering some takeout on the way, greeted by her enthusiastic dog who whined until she sat down and petted him for a good 10 minutes, which she didn't mind, she turned on the TV for some mindless noise and ate her delicious feast of amazing Thai food.

As she finished up the rest of her meal, she was nudged (more like shoved) by her dog that was trying to get her attention. She looked over at him and he looked expectantly at her with his lease in his mouth, big puppy dog eyes pleading at her as he smiled his doggy smile and wagged his tail. She groaned as she instantly got the message from Remy. While she knew she was going to walk him, she was hoping he was going to forgo it for the night. But since she failed to walk him yesterday, she should've known that the chance of that happening was slim to none.

Lizzie didn't bother to change out of her clothes as she slipped on her favorite pair of ratty converse, grumbling to herself as she grabbed all the necessary things she needed to take Remy for a walk. While she was preparing, her dog was scrambling from the living room to the front door as he panted with excitement. Lizzie finally managed to get him to sit still while she attached his leash, praying that he wouldn't rip it out of her hands this time since she wasn't taking him out for a run like she usually did.

Lizzie felt bad for neglecting her puppy, but she promised herself that she would go on a run with him during the weekend to his favorite park.

Unfortunately, right as she made that promise when they made it outside, her dog shot off like a bat out of hell, causing her to stumble, lose her grip on the lease, and fall onto her ass. The first thing she saw when she righted herself was her dog's tail disappearing around the corner a block away. She groaned, and then cursed as she heard a guy scream out in surprise, undoubtedly knocked over by her mutant dog.

"Remy! You stupid mutt!" She yelled out as she sprinted around the corner in pursuit of her dog. "I am so sorry." Lizzie apologized profusely as she attempted to drag her 100 pound dog off of the poor man, while she thought over and over in her head please don't sue me, please don't sue me.

She nearly lost control of her dog again, since Remy was still squirming and trying to run off again, when she got a good look at the man that her dog had run over.

"Darcy?!" She exclaimed.

They stared at each other while they took each other in, her still in her dance clothes and her hair in the a messy bun, using both hands to keep Remy from running off, and him still on the ground, his face shiny from the Remy's lovely drool, a look of bewilderment and confusion on his face.

All of a sudden, they both burst out in loud guffaws, once again catching Remy's attention and causing him to drag himself back onto Darcy who was still sprawled out on the sidewalk. Lizzie snorted with laughter as she watched the pile of flailing limbs and wagging tails while Darcy struggled and pleaded for Lizzie to help him. Finally having mercy on the poor man, she whistled at Remy, who perked up and instantly trotted over to Lizzie and sat at her feet, looking up at her proudly.

"Good doggy." She cooed as she pet him.

"That's all it took? A whistle to call off your horse dog?!" He exclaimed, still on the ground as he lifted his shirt to wipe off the copious amounts of doggy slobber that had accumulated on his face and neck from 2 licking attacks.

Lizzie would never admit it, but she lost her train of thought for a bit when she saw what was hiding under his t-shirt. Instead of replying since her brain seemed to be incapable of doing so, she walked over with one hand firmly holding Remy's leash and the other hand outstretched to help him up off the ground.

"What're you doing in this neighborhood so late?" Darcy inquired, in which Lizzie raised an eyebrow at him and held up Remy's leash. Dumb question.

"Oh right. So you live around here?"

"Are you trying to stalk me, Darcy?" She inquired scandalously.

"What? No! I just – " He sputtered.

"Relax Darcy. You're going to put yourself to an early grave. It's called teasing."

Darcy relaxed minutely as they walked in comfortable silence, stopping every once in a while when Remy found an interesting spot to sniff around. It was odd, usually Lizzie imagined that it would be extremely uncomfortable walking with Darcy, but their quiet stroll was exactly what she needed after a long day.

"How's Charles?" Lizzie asked, her usual ADD coming back and making her break the silence.

"He's good."

"You're not a man of many words, are you?"

"I… find it hard to meet new people." He replied stiffly.

"Come on Darcy. I'm hardly 'new people.' I think we moved past that phase when I dumped coffee all over your nice dress shirt the day of my audition." She teased.

Darcy shifted uncomfortable. "Sorry about that, by the way."

"About what?" Lizzie asked innocently.

"You're not making this easier for me, are you?" He asked roughly.

"I enjoy watching you squirm." She nodded, smiling. "It brings me joy."

"You scare me sometimes, you know that?"

"Only sometimes?" Lizzie frowned. "I must be getting rusty. Anyways you were saying?"

Darcy sighed. He was never good at apologizing. "I'm sorry for being rude to you the first time I met you."

"And…?" Lizzie pressed on.

"And the second… really just every time I've spoken to you." He sighed, running his hand through his messy hair.

"Apology accepted." Lizzie smiled softly at him. "You should be grateful that I'm feeling so forgiving tonight. I can hold a grudge like nobody's business. Once my dad accidentally ate this cupcake that Jane had brought back for me from New York and I didn't speak to him for two days while I was at home on holiday."

"How recent was this?"

"Oh, it was last year." Lizzie replied, laughing. "Maturity is not my strong suit." She admitted. "We all have our faults, I guess. What about you, Darcy? Do you have any embarrassing faults? Or are you just perfect like all the magazines seem to think, mister most eligible bachelor on Broadway?"

"I don't give second chances." Darcy replied after thinking hard for a moment. "My good opinion once lost, is lost forever."

Lizzie paused, unsure of how to respond. "Damn. And here I was hoping that you'd admit to having an extra toe or a nasty hairy wart or something. I can't make fun of you for that."

"Do you always make it a habit to poke fun at other peoples' expense, Elizabeth?" He teased back as they stopped in front of her building. Lizzie was shocked to find that they had been walking for at least 10 minutes and had made their way back to where she started.

"Only you, Darcy. Only you." She bid him goodnight, gave Remy's leash a sharp tug so that he would leave Darcy's side, and walked through the door to her apartment building.

What a weird night indeed.