DWTS 100 Prompt Challenge!

Last Time It Rained This Much

"Ugh!" Sharna scowled, opening her umbrella at the sight of another dismal, New York City thunderstorm.

"Man, it is really raining out there." Her boyfriend, Val, exclaimed, throwing on his coat.

"No duh, Sherlock!" Sharna chuckled. "Grab an umbrella, we still have rehearsals."

"I know, I know." Val chuckled as well, and took the keys Sharna was handing him.

"You know how I feel about driving in the rain."

"That's why I'm driving." He smiled and kissed her cheek as she got into the passenger's seat of the car.

One ten minute jam-session of a car ride later, the couple was running into the abandoned warehouse, they called "Studio A", as fast as possible to avoid the rain.

Being the dedicated dancers they are, they got to the studios with enough time for a decent fifteen minute time period for warm up and self rehearsing.

"He said..." Sharna muttered to herself, following a bunch of nonsense syllables like "ca" and "ha ha" as to have them represent dance steps as she marked through the movements.

Val was warming up, watching Sharna run through choreo. He's always told her that seeing her self rehearse was one of his favorite things to do, to just appreciate how dedicated she was.

"...2...4, ha h--" Sharna stopped her marking midway through. "Valentin, how long has have you been watching?" The chuckle she had started was quickly drowned out by a clap of thunder.

"Long enough to see that I could help you improve those triple flicks." He smiled.

"Be my guest." Sharna helped him stand up.

"Okay," Val began before being halted by more thunder. "Where do you want to start from?"

"How about the..." She said a few more nonsense words to represent the lift then the "now we're back in frame" movement before the said triple flicks.

"Alright." Val nodded, the executed the previous sequence. "Now the triples go more like..."ca-ha-ah", rather than the "hey-ah-ha" that you've been marking." He nodded once more, making sure his use of the syllables made sense to his girl.

"Oh!" She had her movement of realization when she heard the quicker pace of Val's counting, rather that her slower counting. "So it's more..." She demonstrated a nearly flawless set of twenty six triple flicks.

"See?!" Val exclaimed, stepping back, allowing for Sharna to see for herself how close to perfection she had gotten her triples. "It's perfect!" He exclaimed once more.

Sharna blushed as another clap of thunder, paired with a blinding streak of lightening echoed throughout the warehouse.

"WILL IT EVER STOP RAINING?!" The couple heard Derek yelling through the vacant hallways.

Val turned to Sharna, "There's Derek."

"Yes, here I am!" Derek laughed and sat his belongings down in one of the corners of the studios.

"Morning, Derek!" Val exclaimed, pulling a bottle of water from his bag and tossing it to Sharna.

An obviously tired Derek turned to the Aussie. "Shar, we have our jive today, right?"

"Yep! I was just working on the triples."

"Good."

Another clap of thunder shook the building.

"Want to run it now?" Sharna asked.

"Sure." Derek yawned and clapped his hands to wake himself up.

"Ready?" Val asked, seeing as the two had hit frame for the jive.

The two nodded as the music filled the warehouse.

The jive was executed once again, nearly flawless.

The ending pose was where trouble began.

"Derek," Sharna began, indirectly telling Val to turn off the music. "Was it a real kiss?"

"Um..." Derek couldn't remember. "Well, I mean, I remember something about it being real...but in character, you know?"

Sharna nervously bit her lip and turned back to Val.

"Go for it, Love." Val smiled. "You're in a character anyways." Val nodded and reassured his anxious girlfriend that it would be perfectly fine for her to kiss Derek, in character of course.

So, as almost as if the two had been a couple their whole lives, Derek leaned in and brought his lips to Sharna's.

Once they had pulled apart, Sharna turned back to Val for a sense of approval.

"You two sold that perfectly." Val exclaimed. He knew it was harmless because they were obviously just in character.

Then, as routine as the day, more tunder clapped.

But as against the routine of the day, the power flickered, sending Emma (who had just arrived) into an involuntary shriek.

"Shh, Slater, you're fine." Derek laughed as Emma came to studios and warmed up.

Emma laughed and continued warming up.

"One more time?" Derek asked Sharna.

"Sure. Val?" She turned back around.

"You got it, Love." Val nodded and clicked the music on.

The dancer's jive soon caught Emma's attention, especially during the in character kiss at the end.

Val and Emma's applause filled the warehouse of a studio when the two broke apart.

"I love you." Derek said to Sharna, almost breathlessly.

"You what?!" Sharna exclaimed as more lightening brought the lights completely out, followed by another shriek from Emma. "Derek," Sharna began to panic. "You what?!"

Derek couldn't see Sharna's eyes because the power had just gone out, but he could envision the worry in them.

"Derek, please tell me that was in character. Please tell me that was a heat of the moment thing."

"Sharna, I don't know if I can do that."

"Then I need space." She grabbed her phone, using the screen as a source of lighting, and left the studio with Val following after her.

"The heck was that, Hough?!" Emma questioned Derek.

"Fake. It was fake." Derek tried to convince himself that his feelings were truly just heat of the moment. "Heat of the moment."

"Then why'd you freak out my best friend?!"

"Slater, I don't know!" Derek yelled, rattling the chair that was folded out on the Marley. He took a few deep breaths. "But she loves Val. I know she does."

Sharna and Val came back in right when the power came back on.

"Sharna!" Derek exclaimed.

"D, breathe, I heard what you said to Em. It was just the heat of the moment."

Derek nodded and gave Sharna a hug as a text came to Emma's phone.

"Mandy canceled rehearsals, the rain and all the sorts."

"Oh, alright." Val said as everyone began to shuffle and pack up.

Just as Sharna and Val got back into the car, Derek smiled to himself. Gosh, I love her. He thought.

~~~~~

Almost a month and a half later, Sharna was staring at another NYC thunderstorm.

"You know," Val put on his coat. "The last time it rained this much, Derek confessed his love to you." He chuckled lightly at the memory of that day.

"He did, didn't he?" Sharna asked, beginning to get lost in the thought of how perfect of a couple Hayley and Derek was, now that they had gotten together.