Iris often found himself staring off into space, constantly elsewhere mentally, whether it was in classes or arts lessons, he could never get through a full class without an instructor scolding him about paying attention. This moment of complete blankness and pure imagination vanished when he'd see Lupine, the boy who often practiced alone after hours. A wave of focus would suddenly wash over him and he’d perk up.

In many ways, Lupine was the reason that Iris started dancing at the academy. From the first tape he ever saw of Selene Garrison on stage dancing, he fell completely in love with ballet. The gracefulness of the entire performance kept his attention the entire time and at the end, as the audience cheered and Selene held her son, Lupine, in her arms and they waved happily, Iris always admired it. That beautiful-looking boy. How strange that a boy could do that. That a boy could capture Iris' attention so easily when everything else, no matter how much he loved them, could fade away in daydreams.

Everest and Sunny sat with Iris on the upper balcony as he stared at Lupine while he spun around the room. He was practicing several different positions as the date for casting in the Spring performance quickly approached.

The Spring Performance was similar to a talent show, but it lasted a month with different departments performing dances, plays, showcases, and speeches. Every year, a group of students from one of the dance departments were tasked with writing a shortened play for the season that included the type of dance they learned. According to Everest and Sunny, last year's was amazing. The Jazz department had done a story inspired by Cinderella. This year's was the story of two royals running away from a destroyed kingdom, only to find themselves up against an evil queen in which they made friends along the way to defeat her and finally find a new home. It was a bit generic, but the students in the ballet department loved the concept.

He most definitely would get a lead role, he was one of the best dancers in their class and most of the other ballet students were urging him to think about taking the role.

Earlier that day as everyone was practicing, Adriana Domingo had talked up to the other students that Lupine would eventually lose his momentum up on his high horse, likely messing up easy moves and flubbing up during auditions. About 15 minutes after that comment, during their pas de deux practice, Adriana tripped up over Jaden Daniels and she made him have to go to the nurse to get his legs checked, luckily he was fine but Adriana ended up embarrassing herself. She kept quiet after that.

"I can't believe she said that," Iris grumbled.

"She's just jealous 'cause he didn't want to dance with her last time we practiced." Sunny snickered. "Don't get too worked up about it, Iris. She got her karma anyway~"

Iris grumbled a bit more as he watched Lupine warm up for one more combination.

"Look," Iris whispered.

Sunny and Everest approached the edge of the balcony, looking over with Iris as Lupine positioned himself then did several grand pirouettes.

"He sure is incredible," Sunny whispered before giggling a bit at Iris' blank expression.

He was completely entranced, watching every turn. There was something about how Lupine danced that set him apart from everyone else in Iris' eyes. He was mesmerizing. Even from this distance, Lupine still looked like he was dancing right out of a dream.

Once he had finished, Sunny and Everest started clapping and cheering, much to Iris' dismay as he didn't want them to be seen. Lupine would definitely think it was weird that they were all watching him without him knowing. He'd shushed them as Lupine turned and looked up.

He smiled a smidge and waved up at the trio, making Iris blush and Everest lightly snort through his nose. Iris shooed them away as the other two teased and walked out. Lupine stood there a moment longer, watching to see if maybe, Iris would come back and clap too.

See, Iris hadn't been the only one watching. Lupine had as well. It started the first week of classes back last spring, when he was warming up and saw Iris peeking into the lesson. He looked like he wanted to join at that time, that day when Iris had a tour around with many other prospective students.

During the latter end of auditions, Lupine decided to sit in with a few other students and they watched some completely fail and others do an amazing job. The academy was large but housed both children talented in performing and/or visual arts so they could only accept so many. Thus, the academy only accepted a handful of new students ages 11-17 for the dance department a year, and many times students came to giggle at the failures of so many unprepared kids. Lupine didn't usually come, but the kid who peeked into the studio that day piqued his interest. He had this look of complete admiration and wonder. Lupine wondered if he'd made it to the final auditions, and if he had, how he'd do during his solo audition. Or if he was even going to be joining the ballet unit. Lupine’s curiosity was answered when the next name was called to take their turn.

"Iris Welling?" One of the three judges asked.

"Yes," The boy entered, walking to the center of the floor and responding with a nod.

'Iris Welling', that was the boy's name. It seemed fitting somehow. Iris bowed his head slightly to the judges, a polite gesture.

"Are you ready to start?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am." He responded.

Then, the music began. A few days before their final auditions, ballet students were given the three categories to dance in, classical, neoclassical, and contemporary. They could pick any one of the three and were instructed to demonstrate whichever they picked through a small set of basic warmups and combinations that needed to last at least five minutes.

Iris, much to Lupine's surprise, wore pointe shoes. The music playing was the classic, Once Upon a December. He had danced solo and with others to this song so often that he knew every word by heart.

Iris started barre exercises and Lupine sat quietly, observing from the back row of the auditorium. Iris started with a minute-long warm-up before starting his combinations. He performed some pirouettes, fouettes, and on from there. And while he wasn't performing anything particularly new or groundbreaking, his footwork and form were excellent. Much better than Lupine had expected after some of the poor performances previously. The five minutes went by quickly but Lupine hadn't even noticed, he was locked on watching Iris' performance. At the end of the performances, the judges would give their feedback and criticisms before sending the dancers out as they waited for their results. Lupine would have stayed that day if he didn't have vocal lessons with his instructor that evening. He wish he had stayed because a week or so later, Iris along with two other new students were introduced. The oddity was that from the very first day Iris became a student, it seemed like he kept his distance from Lupine. Lupine wasn't the most sociable person but he noticed that Iris often seemed like he wanted to speak to him but he'd always pull back or run off. Iris' gaze always was set on Lupine whenever he would pass in the halls or during lessons but not once did they share any words beyond simple greetings or a quick question.

Now, almost a year later, as he stared at the balcony, he decided that perhaps, it was time to approach Iris first. The next day, during practice, just when Lupine expected that he wouldn't get a chance to speak with Iris, Adriana asked to practice with him. As Lupine, to be completely frank, hated Adriana, he stated, “I already have a partner.”

When she chuckled or well, scoffed irritably and asked, “Well then, who is it?” since it seemed most everyone had been paired up, he turned his gaze to Iris, who was talking with his friends and seemed to not have found a partner.

"He is." Lupine said, Iris turning his head and blinking. Iris’ ears shot up as he saw Lupine looking straight at him. He looked around and then pointed at himself and Lupine nodded. Iris' face went red and so did Adriana's, although their faces were red for completely different reasons.

Lupine and Iris stood near the wall mirror as everyone else around them practiced.

"Uhm," Iris muttered out. "You could've danced with one of the girls, they all wanna dance with you..."

"I want to dance with you." Lupine responded frankly, taking Iris's hand into his and walking behind him.

Iris went stiff, not sure what to do, how to move, if he should breathe, he certainly forgot how to! And was it always this hot in here?!

"Relax," Lupine leaned his face near Iris' which made Iris twitch a bit but he relaxed and held his other hand upwards. He pulled back his leg into the air and Lupine held one hand to the side and the other on Iris' leg as it was lifted upwards.

They did a small routine, Lupine holding his hand, then spinning him, a small tilt down, a few lifts. All throughout their practice, Lupine had only now noticed how red Iris' face became when in close contact with him, how shaky and clammy his hands felt when he held them, how uneven simple moves were when he held his waist.

Now it was clear that Iris liked him. It made sense why he'd catch him staring during lessons and after hours, it made sense why he'd jump and scurry off if they tried to go for the same fruit during lunch. Lupine smirked a bit at this, how had he not noticed before? He spun Iris around once more before coming face to face with him and staring at him for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, the music stopped, and the instructor clapped her hands.

"Alright everyone, we'll now change partners, I'd like to see what you've learned and implement it with your next partner."

And with that, Iris scurried away. That was the last time they had gotten that close for many days but their conversations started to shift, with a bit more words spoken. At that point, Lupine wasn't sure if he liked Iris, but he was interesting to him. Almost amusing.

Back with Iris, he sat on the sidelines as he watched the kids in synchronized swimming. Sunny took it twice a week and if Iris didn't have singing lessons he'd come to watch their practice. He ate some gummy worms as he watched them swim back and forth, not really thinking about anything. He'd kind of noticed that Lupine seemed to be getting closer with him, although he wasn't completely sure if it was a delusion since he daydreamed so much. Every recent interaction involving Lupine ended with Iris hoping it wasn't a dream he'd wake up from, only to realize he hadn't mustered the courage to talk to him. As a matter of fact, he never did. Lupine was usually the one to approach him. From their partner dance to the increase in interactions, it was almost always initiated by Lupine. Did this mean anything, or was Iris getting too excited and overthinking it? He had no idea and Sunny and Everest were not much help in answering this question. Sunny always teased and Everest had his own crush in progress, a boy from the Visual Arts department in the neighboring building. He was swooning and would therefore be absolutely no help during this crisis.

Iris sighed, continuing to munch on the gummies, starting to stare off into space before feeling a shuffle just above him on the bleachers. He turned, his eyes widening. Lupine sat on the seat behind him, giving him a small wave. Iris stammered, trying to say “Hello” or "How are you?" but nothing came out, so instead he shoved a handful of gummy worms at his chest. Lupine blinked, smirking and taking the gummy worms.

"You sure are jumpy," He said, eating one of them.

"Uh-" Iris cleared his throat into his sleeve, trying to calm himself. "Sorry...you just surprised me." He turned back around, staring back at the kids swimming.

"So," Lupine spoke, leaning forward. His elbow rested on his crossed legs. "How have you been doing?"

"U-Uh…Fine..!" Iris ate another gummy, his face slightly heated up as he looked to see Lupine’s head just beside his own. "What are y-you doing here...? Not like I don't want you here! I mean, I don't want you here!” He’d shake his head as the scrambled words poured out before he could catch them. “Do, do want you-" He shoved a handful of gummies in his mouth, trying to get his mouth to stop moving before his brain could fathom how embarrassing he’d sound. Lupine laughed, which only made Iris’ cheeks turn rosy, whether it was embarrassment or because Lupine looked so cute when he laughed, Iris would likely never know.

"I was looking for you, I haven't gotten to talk to you long enough to ask if you'll be auditioning for the Spring performance," Lupine smiled warmly.

"Oh! Yes!" Iris nodded. When he'd heard about it, he thought it'd be fun but he was nervous about participating. He came here after the last show had taken place, so he'd be not only seeing it for the first time but participating for the first time.

"Well," Lupine slid down from the seat behind Iris onto the one beside him. "I hope we get to perform together," He smiled.

Iris blinked, mouth agape, not registering the words. Had he heard him right? Was that a flirt? Was THE Lupine Garrison flirting with him???

"Iris? Irisss...?" Sunny called out, before she poked lightly at his forehead.

Iris jumped up. "YES!" He shouted.

Some of the kids still standing near the pool or heading to the locker rooms stared at them before quickly shuffling away.

"Good gracious," Sunny snorted. "You really know how to space out."

"What-" Iris looked around, Lupine was gone. It really was a dream...

"You were sitting there frozen for like 15 minutes. Lupine left not long ago and told me to tell you he would see you later. You looked like a deer in headlights so I thought I should wake you up before I changed."

"That wasn't a dream? He was here?" Iris was almost jumping for joy, his hands grabbing at her shoulders.

"Of course, he was here, you goofball. You almost had a chance to have a normal conversation and you sat there looking like you'd seen a ghost!" She laughed.

Iris wasn't even listening. Lupine Garrison's words were all he could hear now...

"I hope we get to perform together," is all he could hear as he swooned and Sunny had to drag him along.