True to his word Aosh was on time to his private lesson. The Alpha entered the room as Tiza was slipping on his ballet shoes, he caught a glimpse of the Alpha in the mirror wall from where he was sitting on the floor.

“You certainly are punctual aren’t you,” Tiza glanced at the others’ reflection.

The Alpha smiled before he answered.

“I guess I don’t want to waste this time we have together, since I am paying extra for it.”

“Well, suit up and get on the barre and start with first position. Your core positioning is deplorable. It’s the base of ballet and as such needs to be fine tuned and practiced thoroughly.”

Aosh did as he was told and held the position to which Tiza made the proper corrections.

“Good now begin your tendus starting with the left leg going front, side, and then back.”

Continuing to execute positions and make corrections as he was told, Aosh kept silent up until Tiza gave him a five minute break halfway through the lesson.

“So what made you want to teach ballet?”

Tiza was quiet as he sipped his water contemplating whether he should humor the Alpha with an answer.

“If I answer your question you have to answer one of mine.”

“Ok, deal.” Aosh was just glad they were finally having a conversation. He could answer a few questions in return for his own curiosity. Tiza shifted his weight and looked to the side.

“Necessity. I’m good at it so why not make a living off of it,” his answer was blunt and indifferent, “Why are you taking my class? Because of your friends?”

The Omega leered at the other pointedly.

‘So he knows,’ Aosh thought.

Aosh had to choose his words wisely. He wanted to use this opportunity to get close to Tiza and couldn’t risk saying anything that would make the other upset, but at the same time if he thought about it wasn’t he just doing exactly what Marcus wanted to do? Use the dance classes as a guise to get close to the Omega and eventually make him his mate.

His mind fought back and forth on the moral truth behind his actions. Yes, he was using the ballet class as an excuse to be close to Tiza, but his intentions weren’t like Marcus’ in the least. Aosh had to come clean now about him agreeing to take this class with his friends, to lie about it would be handing himself the shovel that would dig him deeper in the lie he was already sitting in.

“We’re not friends. At least not anymore, I can’t stay friends with someone who would prey on someone weaker than them. I don’t even know how to begin to apologize. I shouldn’t have listened to him in the first place. If I knew where the bastard was I’d drag his ass down here to apologize,” Aosh sighed, “I didn’t think he was capable of doing something so terrible…I guess I didn’t know him that well in the end.”

“So why stay in my class? You’re not cut out for it, I assume you bodybuild?”

A delicate hand gestured towards Aosh’s upper body, where his pectorals peaked from behind the white top he wore and his tattooed biceps stretched the arm holes to its full extent. It was obvious to see the Alpha put a lot of time into his upper body.

Sadly the only thing those muscles would help him with in ballet were lifts; otherwise the muscles used in ballet were tragically underdeveloped.

‘It’s a shame,’ Tiza thought while tapping his water bottle, ‘he would instantly enthrall any who saw him perform on stage with looks like this.’

“I just lift weights recreationally not for competitions. I started about six months ago, it became a way to release stress and then started to love it. I assume ballet is like that for you too; I can tell you don’t dance merely for necessity like you say you do.”

There was no way dance was just a means to an end for Tiza, Aosh could see the passion he truly had for it.

Tiza was quiet for a moment.

“I guess you could call it that,” looking at the clock he went up to the barre and rapped the slender pole with the tips of his fingers, “If you’re intent on asking questions then do it while doing relevés. Four count intervals.”

Aosh assumed the first position again, his hips whining in pain. Lifting his body onto the balls of his feet and holding it there for four counts he began his line of questioning once more.

“Have you taught anyone like me before? Is there any hope for me in getting better or am I hopeless?” Aosh smirked after rising again.

“I haven’t taught any Alphas.”

“I meant someone with as much muscle as me.”

“Oh.Well…no,” Tiza looked him up and down and came up closer to the bars. While Aosh came down he pointed at his abdomen, “The problem with you besides the lack of muscles built in your legs is your core balance. You have to make a mental effort to keep yourself centered in ballet. Imagine there is a zipper on your stomach and that you need to have both ends zip into the middle like so.”

Tiza demonstrates what he meant by this by holding two fingers to himself one at the bottom of his rib cage and one at the top of his pelvis. Making the two fingers meet in the middle his posture straightened, sucking in his stomach. Aosh copied the movement at the barre.

“Good. Now do a relevé and keep your core tight. Does it feel different?”

Aosh nodded doing a few more.

“If you’re actually serious about doing ballet, then yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, there is hope for you to get better. But it’s an art that requires discipline and practice, much like lifting weights.”

Aosh hummed in approval. The two continued until the time was up and the actual class was about to begin.

Aosh and Tiza continued to play this game of questions during the private lessons; the Alpha found Tiza becoming more open to talking to him, which made his hope for this working out higher than they were before. From this game Aosh learned quite a lot about his mate.

Tiza came from ‘a town you have never heard of so I’m not going to bother you with the name’ and moved here only three years ago. He also found out that Sean wasn’t actually his brother but his cousin who was married with a child on the way; Aosh assumed he was called such because the two were just that close.

Other miscellaneous things about his mate included: his love for fresh baked goods and true crime shows, America was the only other country he’d been to, his extreme dislike for cold weather, and he really wanted a dog but Sean refused to let him get one.

It was hard to get Tiza to talk at the beginning, he was often cold and standoffish and still was to a degree, but the man had times where he’d let his guard down just enough so Aosh could squeeze through the harsh facade he wore. Although, Aosh learned if he asked too many questions or the wrong questions he’d get ignored.

In more than one lesson the Alpha tried to get the other to talk more about his family beyond his brother. Tiza refrained from talking about the rest of his family, skirting around the topic or making Aosh do burpees for asking too many questions and not paying attention to his form.

Tiza liked to work him ragged in these private lessons and expected him to be raring to go when the actual class started right after. The Omega was like an intense personal trainer, always pushing him to his limits; but all the hard work paid off. Aosh was beginning to feel confident in his dancing ability, which was truly something he’d never thought would happen in this life. He didn’t truly believe he possessed any real skill, but that his mate was just that great of a teacher.

There was an indescribable feeling when the pair would get together in private for these lessons. It was what he assumed the female lead in a novel would feel when she saw her love interest for the first time; pure electricity, butterflies, stars in their eyes, any of those tragically cliche stereotypes. When they talked it seemed to help make the Omega warm up to him, if  only slightly, but Aosh would take what he could get.

The last class was at the end of this week and they would have to perform a dance sequence that would showcase all the moves they had learned and a final grade would be given. Aosh felt fairly confident he wouldn’t look like a total fool in front of the rest of the women. He was looking forward to impressing his fated mate, showing him how much he learned, and confessing to him shortly after.