#closr

They never got a Rumba.

She knows that it’s nothing personal. Everyone in the final four missed one type of dance: Aly never learned Paso, Jacoby wasn’t taught Samba, Kellie didn’t get a Salsa. In the end, there just weren’t enough weeks for everyone to get a chance at everything. And it makes sense that of all the dances Rumba was the one she specifically was not given. Being sixteen years old the sensuality and sex appeal is a little much for a Disney star, especially one under age with her parents watching. She gets that. But she still wishes she could have had that chance, because she’d like the opportunity to explore passion in such a deep and personal way, especially with Val. Because he’s amazing and wonderful and beautiful and… kind of perfect.

Okay, so maybe she doesn’t just want to explore the passion. Perhaps she wants the chance to really go to that level of fire with him. After ten weeks of searing glances and subtle touching back and forth, the rising tension between them is enough to take her breath away and she really wants to know what it feels like to pour everything out on the dance floor once and for all. 

But that can’t happen. Because she’s sixteen and as attractive as Val is, she really doesn’t think he can pull off an orange jumpsuit.

When they’re exchanging final goodbyes at the New York airport after a whirlwind of press following the finale, he pulls her back one last time before she leaves.

“I promise you Z, someday, when time isn’t working against us, we’ll get our Rumba.” He says quietly.

“Promise on the bracelets?” Zendaya holds up her wrist where the bands rest against her skin, given to her to signify a lifelong bond between them.

“On the bracelets and everything that we are.” He vows. “Someday.”

“Someday.” She repeats with a nod. Val kisses the bracelets and then pecks her forehead one final time before releasing her.

“Go conquer the world, my Zendayachka.”

Z smiles. “Don’t forget me, okay?”

Val holds up his wrist where his own set of bracelets lay. “Never.” They quickly do their handshake one final time before she walks off to the terminal where her parents are waiting.

Someday. She can hold on to that for now.

[This is a page break]

It isn’t like she expected. She hoped that it would be easy. That they’d call and text all the time and even though they’re on opposite ends of the country they’d still be just as close as they were for those ten weeks. That maybe, just maybe, things wouldn’t change too much.

She was wrong.

It was a little unrealistic to expect, of course, but she’s always been a dreamer and it isn’t something you can just turn off at whim. But yeah, things don’t go the way she hoped. Over the past year and a half they’ve seen each other once, about six months after their goodbyes at the airport when he was able to stop by for a few hours one random weekend he was in LA. They don’t called or text all the time and they’re not just as close as they were for those ten weeks. They email once or twice a month, text every now and then or say hi on Twitter, but for the most part they aren’t in close contact. Everything is busy and crazy and hectic and they both have their own lives to lead. They don’t drift apart because they want to, far from it actually. It’s just… life.

Dancing with the Stars was magical and one of the best experiences they’ve both ever been through, but nothing lasts forever. It’s clear that they both have to move on. So Zendaya forces herself to forget about the lost dance and focuses on the future.

She never should have doubted him though. Because Valentin Chmerkovskiy is a lot of things, but a liar is not one of them. And he never goes back on his word.

It still shocks the crap out of her though when he shows up at her eighteenth birthday party in LA. Disney is throwing her the ultimate bash at some new restaurant and the place is filled to the brim with people. But low and behold after blowing out the candles on her five tier cake covered in neon icing Zendaya’s jaw drops to the ground when he emerges from the crowd. Her face lights up like a thousand stars as she lets out a shriek and jumps into his arms, clinging to him for dear life. It’s a good thing he prepared himself for such a reaction or else they’d both be on the floor right about now.

“What are you doing here?” she nearly screams, making him chuckle. “Did anybody know you were coming? You’re staying right? How long are you here for?”

“Calm down, Zendayachka. That’s a lot of questions.” He lowers her back down onto the floor and follows her to an empty table while several caterers begin to cut up the cake. “A few people knew I was coming. Your parents gave me the information for the party.” He explains. “And yeah, I’m sticking around for a while.”

“You didn’t come all the way here just for me, did you?” the bewilderment in her tone is clear and he scoffs.

“Of course. It’s not every day you turn eighteen. This is a big deal. I’m sorry I missed seventeen, by the way.”

Z frowns. “I’m sorry I missed twenty-eight and twenty-nine.” She hate hate hates that she missed two of his birthdays. Birthdays are huge and the fact that she couldn’t be there for him twice breaks her heart.

“We’ve both been busy. Besides, those aren’t a big deal. Just two more numbers to add to the list.” Val says carelessly. “Anyway, the main reason I’m here is to give you this.” He pulls out a gold envelope from the inside pocket of his blazer and hands it to her.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” Zendaya says, her eyebrows rising in surprise at the sudden gift. “Seriously, just you being here is more than I could have asked for.”

“Actually, I kind of did.” He smirks and gestures to the envelope. “Open it.”

She can’t help but grin in return as she gives in and carefully slides her finger under the seal. Zendaya’s eyes grow wide as she pulls out the contents. It’s a single white piece of cardstock with one word printed boldly in the center:

    “No,” she breaths, looking at him with tentative excitement in her eyes and refusing to fully react until having received a complete explanation.

“So back in the day when our season was winding up I mentioned to the producers how upset you were about not getting the opportunity to learn Rumba.” He begins. “And long story short, they said you could come back when you were older. And since season eighteen started a few weeks ago and you’re officially legal now...”

“No!” she cries in disbelief.

“You’re performing on the results show next week.” He says with a grin.

“Shut UP! No way!” Z squeals. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“I’m one hundred percent serious.” Val swears. “Now if only you had a partner to dance with… Hmm. It’s very hard to book people these days, especially on such short notice. Maybe if you look someone up in the phone book? Or, hey, your dad could do it!”

Zendaya smacks his shoulder playfully. “Very funny. Because my dad knows so much about ballroom dancing and that isn’t vomit inducing at all.”

“Great! I’ll go get him right now-” he pretends to rise from the chair and laughs when she pulls him back down.

“Seriously though. This isn’t a joke?” she repeats. “We really get to go back and perform?”

“Better than that, I’ve already cleared it with your parents and management team and got you the next few days off so we can rehearse.” Val grins. “I swore you’d get your Rumba, remember? I don’t break my promises.”

“I know, it’s just… hard to believe. I mean, we haven’t seen each other in so long and we’ve both been so busy.” She murmurs.

“Z, do you have any idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this? I’ve been counting down the days until this day came.” Val lowers his voice. “It was driving me crazy being around you when I knew I couldn’t do anything. So I kept my distance and waited.”

“Wait a minute, you mean-”

“I’m not saying I haven’t been out with other women.” He says quietly, a hint of shame in his tone. “I won’t lie to you. But it was never anything serious and it wasn’t often.”

“Well, we never said we couldn’t- I mean, I went out a few times.” She admits. “With Trevor and some others to see if there was something there. There wasn’t though. I always found myself thinking about you.”

Val smiles. “Me too, Dayachka. I could never do anything more than kiss them goodnight because your face always popped into my mind.”

“I smacked a guy.” Zendaya confesses, making him laugh. “He deserved it! We were at the movies with Bella and her boyfriend and he kept trying to put his hand on my thigh. After the third time of telling him to cut it out I hit him.”

“Seriously?”

She nods. “Yeah, then I walked out in the middle of the movie and Bella had Tristan take us back to her house. We didn’t even give him a ride home.”

“You left him at the movie theater?” Val is nearly in stitches by now. “That’s amazing.”

“So this is really happening?” She has to check one last time because it feels too good to be true. Val nods.

“It really is.” He assures her, and once again is nearly knocked backward when she hurls herself into his arms.

“Best birthday present ever!” she murmurs, making him smile.

“Who knew one dance could make a girl so happy?”

Z shrugs, still hugging him tight. “Not just the dance. Mostly you.”

He smiles. “Me, huh? That’s a pretty big compliment. I’ve never been somebody’s birthday present before. What’d you ask for at Christmas? Brad Pitt?”

“I’ve wanted you for a lot more than just my birthday. A lot longer too.” She says quietly as they pull apart.

Val stares at her for a minute. “Well you don’t have to worry about that anymore.” He tells her finally. “I’m all yours.”

“Promise?”

He holds up his wrist, showing off the worn bracelets to her with pride.

“What do you think?”

Z grins, lifting her own arm and grinning. “I’ve had so many people at photo shoots and stuff get mad because I refuse to take them off.”  She confesses.

“I’ve had the same problem.” He chuckles. “They don’t get why it’s a big deal. I always tell them that they don’t have to understand, just respect that it’s personal and accept that they’re not going anywhere.”

“Ever.”

“Ever.” He agrees. “Until they fall to pieces and we have them glued to our skin permanently.”

“Or maybe we could just get tattoos one day.” She offers instead. Val nods.

“I wouldn’t say no to that.”

“Really? Because I wasn’t kidding.”

“Neither was I.” he tells her. “We can look into it.”

“Awesome!” Z grins and watches as he gently takes her hand in his own, playing with her fingers. “So, a minute ago you said something.”

“That’s a habit of mine, saying something.”

“So funny.” She rolls her eyes and he grins.

“What’d I say?”

“You said you were mine. What exactly does that mean?”

Val shrugs. “What do you want it to mean?”

“Well… I’m hoping it means those women you went out with were the last ones.” Zendaya says softly. “And that you’re sticking with one person from now on.”

“Hmm. And is there one person in particular you’re hoping I stick with?” he questions with a smirk. “Someone in this room maybe? Wearing a blue dress that shows off her amazing figure and eyes that you could get lost in?”

“Perhaps someone of that nature.” She nods. “That sounds like your type.”

“The only type I have is you.” Val says seriously. “I wasn’t kidding earlier. I’m yours and only yours, if you’ll have me.”

Z smiles. “Did we just become an official We?”

“Seems like it.” he nods. “Except that to make it official we have to seal the deal.”

“Oh really? And how do we do that? The old handshake?” she teases.

“You know, I think we’re past the handshake at this point.” He kisses her then, the first real kiss they’ve shared, right in the middle of her birthday party with a million people including her family and the press around and neither of them care one bit. And it’s perfect, of course, because he’s perfect and wonderful and charming and gorgeous and all hers finally. So the rest of the world can just back off for a minute because after waiting nearly two years for it to come, they’re not letting anything in the world stop this moment.

[This is a page break]

It turns out that learning the Rumba isn’t as easy as she thought. It takes a little while to get back into the swing of ballroom after nearly two years of no practice, her posture is crap again and she doesn’t point her toes, but overall falling back into that frame of mind isn’t too hard. The steps are new, but they’re not crazy difficult and overall it’s not bad by any means.

It’s just sort of hard to get a routine down when you continually stop to make out.

They’re not doing it on purpose though, they both fully understand how serious this. Because even though it is her birthday present it’s still going to be on live television and the network has pretty high expectations. But there’s a lot of hip action and they’re pressed up against each other for most of the dance, sending smoldering looks back and forth and holy hell is it warm in here?

“We have to keep going.” Val murmurs, reluctantly breaking another kiss. Zendaya nods wistfully.

“Yeah. What’s next?”

“Okay, so you’ll go forward while I go back and it’s slow, slow, quick, quick, slow... and turn, roll under the arm, spin, slide. Now back to me and- oh fuck.” His mouth moulds perfectly against hers, their tongues sweeping together passionately. 

“We’re getting distracted again.” Zendaya mutters with a grin.

“Well if you’d stop doing that-”

“Doing what?”

“That thing that distracts me. With your eyes and your face and your body- all of it.” he grins. “This would be a lot easier if you just sat in the car.”

Z laughs. “I don’t think I’d learn the routine very well out there.”

“That’s just it, you don’t get to do the routine. You just have to sit there by yourself while I dance this alone.” He teases. “Because otherwise I keep getting distracted.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Crazy about you.”

“Oh god! That was terrible!” she giggles. “Okay, back to the routine. We only have two days left to get it perfect. What’s after the second count of eight?”

“Crossover.” He instructs, snapping back into teacher mode. “Then back spot turn, extend and break. Remember on two you have to side step and then cross again.”

Zendaya follows his orders slowly, listening in part as he speaks while trying to go from muscle memory as much as possible. “And then back for the dip, right?”

“Yeah.” Val wraps her in his arms and leans forward, bringing her body down to the ground. “You’re too loose. Tighten up your form a little.” He says, refusing to raise them up until she does it correctly. “Not that much, find the medium. Now extend your arms and point your hands. Good.”

“Enjoying the view?” she can’t help but chuckle when Val smirks from his spot directly in front of her chest.

“You know it.”

Z fuses her lips to his again. “I’m really glad we’re finally getting to do this.”

He nods seriously. “Me too, baby. Me too.”

 [This is a page break]

It’s really sort of stupid that she’s this nervous. After all, they’ve performed on the show together countless times and she knows she’s a good dancer. Plus, it’s not even like they’re competing anymore. They aren’t being scored, there’s no chance they’ll be sent home. It’s just for fun. But she’s about to dance the most passionate of dances in front of a live audience with cameras sending out the image to millions of people all over the world and oh yeah, her parents are in the audience. And it’s been almost two years since she was last here, so maybe the nerves are to be expected. More than anything else though she just wants to prove that she’s still got the skill and this isn’t just some pity performance she got as a favor. She wants everyone to see that she’s not a little girl anymore and not only capable of performing such a mature type of dance, but that she completely knock it out of the park.

“You’ve got this.” Val says quietly just before they walk out on stage. “Don’t even think about it, okay? Just focus on me and you and the music and the rest will fall in place. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“By the way, in case I haven’t said it enough, that dress looks incredible.” He murmurs. Z glances down at the deep purple gown. She’s sort of in love with the way the fitted bodice hugs her frame and the skirt that flows in just the right way when she moves.

“Thanks.” she smiles when he leans in for a brief kiss, accepting his offered hand and a final peck before they walk out to the dance floor. Zendaya reluctantly lets go of his hand and takes her place across the way, looking off into the distance while they’re introduced.

“And now, back in the ballroom and reunited after nearly two years since claiming the silver in season sixteen,” Brooke Burke begins, the sound of her and Tom Bergeron’s chipper voices bringing a warm sense of familiarity over Z’s mind.

“Performing their long lost Rumba, please welcome Zendaya and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy!”

Out of the corner of her eye she notices Val give her a quick wink before slipping into the zone and lowering his gaze to the ground like they practiced when the music begins to play.

Heartbeats fast Colors and promises How to be brave How can I love when I’m afraid to fall But watching you stand alone All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow One step closer

Yeah yeah, so maybe the song is sort of cheesy. But they needed to pick something to dance to and it’s pretty, so why not? There’s no shame in liking Twilight and Christina Perry kicks ass with this song. The entire thing is so light and lovely and the lyrics tell such an amazing story- so what better to dance a Rumba to?

I have died everyday waiting for you Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you For a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more

It’s perfect. As cliché as it sounds, twirling around the dance floor in his arms is magical. For a moment Zendaya forgets that she’s on live television and that she’s eighteen years old dancing something incredibly mature with a man ten years her senior- for just a few fleeting seconds nothing else exists. It’s just her and him and the music in their own little world filled with wonder.

Time stands still Beauty in all she is I will be brave I will not let anything take away What’s standing in front of me Every breath Every hour has come to this One step closer

She’s weightless. When he lifts her into the air she soars high above the clouds, imagining this must be how Wendy felt to fly with Peter Pan for the first time to Neverland. And even though she’s been a Disney girl for quite some time now, nothing in her life has ever made her feel more like a fairy tale character than this. Just her and her prince, locked in each other’s embrace as they dance the night away under the stars.

I have died everyday waiting for you Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you For a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed that I would find you Time has brought your heart to me I have loved you for a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more

There’s passion. So much passion. And not just the sexual kind, although that’s present too. But mostly it’s a different kind of passion- something raw and untouched that starts at the very core of her being and works its way up through her soul, bursting out like pent up desire finally released after being captured for ages. She’s on top of the world.

One step closer One step closer

I have died everyday waiting for you Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you For a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more

It’s sort of funny what time can do. Suddenly it all makes sense. That passion and feelings stuff that she couldn’t quite grasp at the tender age of sixteen? She gets it now. And there is no real description for it, they were right. It just is and it’s wonderful.

And all along I believed I would find you Time has brought your heart to me I have loved you for a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more

For their final steps he tugs her back into his arms and she brings her hands to clutch his cheeks. Foreheads touch, noses brush together and in that moment the roaring applause from the crowd doesn’t register in her mind. Looking into his eyes, as dumb as it sounds, in that moment Zendaya sees her future. And it isn’t filled with world tours or awards or hit singles or red carpet events- it’s him. Just him.

“Well I think I can speak for everyone watching when I say that this dance was worth the wait.” Tom says loudly in order to be heard over the cheers from the crowd. And Zendaya can’t help but grin, because he’s completely right.

It was all definitely worth the wait.