Free Dancing Lessons by R. Cooper

to do.”
    He immediately dropped his head again to giggle into the sugarplum fairy’s skirts.
    “Are you all right?” Rafael moved again, probably sitting up.
    Chico shook his head, then changed his mind and nodded. “It’s that . It’s when you do that. You care, and you actually react to what I’m doing and what I’m saying. You’re the complete opposite of him, and that must be what triggers it. I think of him and how he’d compare, and God, what a loser.”
    “Thank you?” Rafael replied hesitantly, no doubt thinking Chico was crazy.
    Chico sobered up. “What does it say about me that I thought a loser was too good for me?” The question was real. But it was also something for therapy, or maybe another evening on his balcony, not the costume closet of the Winters Dance Studio. Chico sat up. “You know, it could be the nights up here. I’ve had nothing to do but think and stare at the stars.”
    “They’re a nice view, aren’t they?” Rafael offered sincerely, bringing Chico around to face him. He gave Chico a friendly grin. “Clarifying, somehow.”
    “Yeah,” Chico agreed, smiling without any hysteria in it this time. “They’re almost worth everything. Every weird, horrible thing I’m still getting used to, like how long it takes the two cashiers to ring people up at the grocery store. Or everyone knowing my name. The stars are great.”
    Rafael smiled back. “I’ve always thought so.”
    Chico flashed back to the articles and pictures in the foyer, although he really couldn’t think of a way to ask why Rafael had given up professional dancing. He bit his lip and gave him a careful look. “They helped you too?”
    If the subject was painful, Rafael hid it well. He rolled his shoulders. “They still do. After a bad day, there’s nothing like going out to let the view soothe my weary body and somewhat tired soul. Maybe I should feel alone, looking at them, but I don’t.”
    “Oh yeah?” Chico opened his eyes wide. “I find it hard to believe you don’t have anyone to stare at the stars with you.”
    He ought to keep pins in his mouth to keep from saying things like that in Rafael’s presence. But Rafael only gave him a long, toe-curling, intense study, before curving his mouth up in pleasure. “So you say, but I noticed a few more gray hairs the other day, and yet again no one was in bed with me when I woke up.”
    Chico released a relieved breath at the lightly flirtatious reply. He hadn’t meant to sound like he was inviting himself to stargaze with Rafael and would probably have frozen if Rafael had offered. All the same, he frowned because Rafael was entirely too good at reading him already.
    He put his nose in the air. “Don’t even start. You know you’re sexy,” he scoffed, making Rafael’s smile grow. Now that he’d said it, Chico kept going with his hand in the air to forestall any more of Rafael’s denials. “First, there is your face, and your jawline and your eyes and the way you smile. Then you’ve got that athlete dancer thing going on. Like, your thighs and arms and stomach, are just… there aren’t words. And we won’t talk about your ass out of respect for your parents in the next room. But let’s not pretend it isn’t there.”
    Rafael was outright laughing now. Silently, but in a way that made his whole body shake.
    Chico wrinkled his nose at him. “You probably get all kinds of attention, even in a small town like this.” His throat wasn’t tight at all. He wasn’t drooping down with terrible posture while he thought about that baker. “Any gray hair you get is only going to make everyone even more hot for teacher. I was thinking that before you came in.”
    “Crushes on teachers are not my thing.” Rafael’s laughter tapered off, although his eyes were still bright. “Were you really thinking about me before I got here? Because that is information I am very interested in.”
    “Uh,” Chico said, stupidly, and cast about for a less