Allegro

Natasha Romanov was so easy to mess with. When they had both just started at the company, Elektra was determined to befriend her. It quickly became obvious that Natasha didn’t want to be friends with her competition. It also became obvious that Nat was easy to rattle. And when Natasha was rattled, Elektra became more successful. Just one smirk or word could turn around Natasha’s whole attitude. Elektra loved the power it gave her.

Nutcracker auditions were never a big deal for Elektra. They happened every year and the show honestly bore her. The only reason she gave them effort was in hopes of beating out Nat for a good role. She didn’t even audition for any specific part, all she wanted was whatever Nat wanted.

When it was announced that Elektra, Nat, and Karolina were the three principals being considered for large roles (presumably Sugar Plum Fairy), Elektra was incredibly overjoyed. She’d already psyched out Natasha during the large group audition, it would be easy to do it again.

Elektra walked into the audition room with her head held high. She was the first of the three in there. She did a few brief stretches to make sure she was warmed up and ready to go. It wasn’t long before Natasha and Karolina came in. They walked in together, talking so quietly about something that Elektra couldn’t hear. They were probably talking about her: Natasha was obsessed with her.

“I think you all know why you’re here,” Tony, the company director, stated, standing in front of the trio. “We need a Sugar Plum. She’s a fan favorite, everyone loves her. It needs to be the most impeccable dance on that stage. Of course, we have other good roles for the two of you who don’t get it, but it needs to be done justice. Obviously Maria is here, obviously she is one of your instructors. I’d like to take over this audition. I want to see a variation from each of you, of your own choosing. Prove to us that you can do this.”

Elektra had had a repertoire of variations memorized since she was eight, this was no big deal. But what would be a variation to play to her strengths and show that she was better than Natasha? Oh, Esmeralda, of course. She could be strong and sexy, which was her strong point. And what was Natasha’s strong point exactly? Well, there wasn’t really a specific one. And if there was, Elektra could out-do it.

“We’d like to see Karolina perform first,” Peggy Carter said from her chair.

Natasha and Elektra both stepped to the side of the room, giving Karolina her space. Elektra didn’t have much experience with Karolina, but she knew she was a company favorite. She had that bubbly personality that the press loved, and of course she was talented. Elektra wouldn’t be too upset to lose a role to her. She didn’t know what variation she would perform, however. It could go either way, playing into her strong suit or vying for the Sugar Plum Fairy.

When the music started playing, Elektra didn’t notice the variation right away. It took about five seconds of performing for Elektra to realize that Karolina was performing the bridesmaid Don Quixote variation. It wasn’t the most popular variation  out there, but it certainly fit Karolina. With the amount of leaps in it, Elektra wasn’t sure it was very competitive for Sugar Plum Fairy. Of course, Karolina wasn’t necessarily going for that role.

It was a short variation, so next thing Elektra knew, Maria was requesting that she perform her variation. She’d been performing Esmeralda since she could walk, so she breezed through it. It was no big deal for her. She played to her strengths and it showed.

“Well, now all that’s left is Natasha,” Maria stated. “Go ahead.”

Even more exciting than Elektra’s own performance was Natasha’s. She had no idea what she would pull out of her hat. Part of Elektra thought that she would just straight up perform the Sugar Plum variation. It would be a power move, which Nat loved to play.

This music Elektra immediately recognized. Natasha was performing Balanchine’s Emeralds, a bold choice. It was a gorgeous variation, but completely unexpected. Elektra noticed the judges looking up from their notes to watch more intently. So Elektra had failed at her job of psyching out Nat. She was doing better than ever. There was absolutely nothing that could be critiqued about her performance.

“Wonderful job, ladies. We won’t be able to release the official cast list until next week. The children auditions won’t even take place for a few days,” Peggy stated, getting up from her chair.

“But it wouldn’t be hard to convince me to give it to you ahead of time,” Tony commented, smiling at them.

The three girls all thanked their judges before promptly leaving the rehearsal room. All the top male dancers would be performing next, they didn’t want to take up their time.

“It was a little unusual for them to allow us to pick our own variations and just audition with that,” Karolina stated.

“Well I, for one, enjoyed it,” Natasha responded. 

“You enjoyed being able to dance in front of Tony, and nothing more,” Elektra remarked. “I saw you eyeing him the entire time. I won’t be surprised when you get your top role, you’ve slept your way there.”

Nat rolled her eyes at her. “Oh please, we both know that isn’t true. I wish you’d just let that go. Tony is my friend, it would be absolutely disgusting to sleep with him. But I know for a fact that you’d sleep with him if you got the chance: he just doesn’t want to sleep with you. Why can’t you just admit that I get roles because I’m good?”

This was exactly what Elektra thrived on. She did know that Natasha didn’t sleep with Tony, but she also knew that it got her fired up. The more fired up Nat was, the better roles Elektra could get. Though, it was a little too late now for that. But Elektra had a really solid performance, she didn’t doubt that she’d get a good role.

Since her auditions were over, Elektra decided that she’d just go home. She could take a studio and do some extra rehearsal, but she really wasn’t in the mood. She just wanted to go home and eat some food.

Elektra’s apartment was, unbeknownst to Natasha, in the same apartment building Matt and Natasha lived in. It was actually how she met Matt in the first place. She lived on the fifth floor and they lived on the second floor, so it wasn’t like their paths would ever really cross. The apartment complex was absolutely gorgeous: not to mention the fact that Elektra had a loft.

The walls were mainly exposed brick, so Elektra decorated with lots of greenery. Something about bricks and greens was just absolutely gorgeous. Everything in her apartment was quite minimalist. She had a sleek white couch and a white bookshelf with carefully color coded books. It looked like an apartment straight out of a style magazine. One of Elektra’s favorite things in life was to be as fancy as possible.

Because she was hungry, Elektra decided to drink one of her pre-made protein smoothies. She made about three smoothies in one batch and put the rest in her fridge. This was a peanut butter banana smoothie, a common flavor. Elektra never got very inventive with her flavors because she wanted to stick with what she knew she liked and what she knew was healthy. 

A well-guarded secret of Elektra’s was that she did, indeed, have a boyfriend. It seemed like a boyfriend made young women less marketable, so she didn’t really tell anyone. He worked for the government doing something Elektra wasn’t qualified enough to know about. Bobby Saint was his name. If she was being honest, she’d much rather have a boyfriend with a name that… wasn’t Bobby. But, you get what you get.

Elektra sat down on her couch with her smoothie and called Bobby. She could tell him all about the auditions.

“Hey, baby,” Bobby greeted, picking up his phone after the first ring.

Elektra smiled. “Hi.”

“What’s up? How was your audition?” Bobby asked.

“I think I did really well,” Elektra bragged subtly. “Probably better than Natasha. I hope I can beat her out this time.”

“Well why wouldn’t you? You’re certainly more talented than her,” Bobby assured.

“But it’s obvious that Tony strongly favors her, and he has the ultimate say in casting,” Elektra explained. “They’ve been friends for a long time, I don’t stand a chance against that.”

“I think they should cast based on talent, not who they like best,” Bobby stated.

“I mean, Natasha is talented. I can’t say she’s not good,” Elektra said.

“But not as good as you.”

“Why don’t you come over, darling? You know I don’t like talking on the phone.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

Bobby had brown eyes, brown hair, and a small amount of facial hair. He was gorgeous, of course. Something about him felt special to Elektra the first time they met. They were at a party. Not a getting drunk party - a full length gown party. He had looked so sophisticated in his suit and soon proved to be intelligent and well spoken. Elektra loved a man who could hold a conversation. 

When Bobby walked in, Elektra was still sipping her smoothie on the couch. He lived only about a block away, so it was always fast.

Bobby walked over to her and softly kissed her. “Hey there.”

Elektra smiled up at him. “I missed you.”

“I brought you something,” Bobby stated.

“I’m ready for it,” Elektra said.

Bobby held out a small box to her. Upon opening it, Elektra discovered three chocolate covered strawberries. They looked delicious. 

“Thank you, darling. This looks absolutely wonderful,” Elektra thanked. 

“I stopped by the chocolate shop this morning and they reminded me of you,” Bobby stated. 

This was why Elektra fell in love with Bobby in the first place. He was always a thoughtful and sweet guy. He always said that his love language was gift giving, but Elektra didn’t really believe in all that. Personality tests had no sort of scientific basis. It couldn’t be accurate from self-reporting. But she would never project that onto Bobby, that would be rude.

“I wish you worked for the company,” Elektra reflected, nibbling on a chocolate covered strawberry.

“You do? Why?” Bobby asked.

“We have some couples there and it just seems like a nice dynamic,” Elektra answered. “We’d definitely get to see each other a lot more frequently.”

Bobby suggested, “We could just move in with each other.”

Elektra blushed. “We could.”

The conversation of moving in with each other was dropped pretty much as soon as it had begun. It wasn’t that Elektra was uncomfortable with it, per say, but she also wasn’t comfortable with it. He stayed for the rest of the day, but the vibe was a little uncomfortable after the moving in stuff. The next day, there was company class in the morning. Elektra woke up early to workout and stretch before class, and have a smoothie, of course.

Elektra always made sure to leave extra early for the company, trying to ensure that Natasha wouldn’t see her. It wouldn’t be the end of the world for her to discover they lived in the same apartment complex, but it would surely be awkward. Because of this, she always got to the company about half an hour to forty five minutes before the first class or rehearsal.

When Elektra walked into the company, she could tell she wasn’t the first one to arrive. The lights were on in the halls and one of the rehearsal rooms had the door partially open with the lights on. Intrigued, Elektra peaked her head in through the door. Bucky Barnes, Natasha’s best friend, was rehearsing his jumps.

“Hello,” Elektra greeted, stepping into the doorway.

Bucky stopped and turned around. “Hi. Why are you here?”

Elektra shrugged. “I don’t know, I saw you in here, so I came in. I didn’t think anyone else would be here this early.”

“Neither did I. That’s why I come in early,” Bucky stated. 

“Your jete entrelace is looking very nice. Like, it looks better than most of the other male dancers here,” Elektra complimented.

Bucky blushed. “Thank you. Why are you being nice to me, this isn’t normal.”

“I don’t want to be mean to you: I don’t try to be mean to you. Natasha and I have a rivalry, you know how that is. You just get caught in the middle,” Elektra explained. 

“Well I don’t want to be caught up in it. So please stop being rude to me, it’s annoying,” Bucky stated. 

“I’ll do my best,” Elektra assured.

Genuinely, Elektra did not want to be rude to Bucky. She had nothing against him. In fact, she quite liked him. The issue was that it was so easy to use him to get to Natasha. She was more defensive when it came to herself than when it came to her friends. Bucky was very pleasant to work with and a good dancer. Elektra had danced with him at some Swan Lake rehearsals, and she felt he did an excellent job. Maybe it would be good for her to dance with him again. It was a non-harmful way to hurt Natasha.

Elektra slipped off her shoes and walked in towards Bucky. He gave her a weird look, but she was determined to dance.

"Remember that pas de deux combo from our summer intensive last year?” Elektra asked.

“I think so,” Bucky responded.

“Prove it,” Elektra challenged.

Dancing with Bucky for fun was one of the most freeing experiences Elektra had ever had. It felt as though she was flying. For a few minutes she was able to escape the outside world and just exist and dance.

“Wow,” Bucky exclaimed. “That was… amazing.”

“I think I may have found a new pas de deux partner,” Elektra said, smiling at him.

Coming from the doorframe was clapping. One person clapping. Elektra glanced over to find none other than Tony watching them. 

“I haven’t seen you guys dance together before,” Tony stated. 

“We did a few rehearsals together during Swan Lake, so this wasn’t our first time,” Bucky explained.

“It was stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. Any pas de deux classes in the future, you two are dancing together. No debate about it,” Tony commanded.

Elektra had no issue with that. In fact, she was glad he was forcing them to, that’s what she’d wanted. She didn’t want to dance with him just because it would bother Natasha, she just loved the way they could perform together. As Tony had said, it really was gorgeous.

“You don’t have to worry about any debate over that. I’d love to dance with her,” Bucky said.

Elektra smiled at him. “I feel the exact same way.”

“I’m going to keep this in mind for casting,” Tony said, walking out of the rehearsal room.

Well, now it was solidified: Bucky and Elektra would be casted as pas de deux partners.