The Dream

by Rentgirl 2

“Put the tape in, Jesse.”

Jesse stared at Robert in disbelief.

Here, in this flooded and frozen warehouse, was Robert's last chance to grab the gold and he was going to throw it away. Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacLeroy, arguably the two finest skaters to compete in the last decade, sat in front of Robert, ready to let him lead them to victory and he was going to blow it.

It was bad enough that Robert had destroyed their relationship years ago with this
crazy dream, now he was going to allow it to destroy Jimmy and Chazz.
Literally. By the time this was all done, Jimmy would be dead and Chazz,
who would no doubt blame himself, would wish he was, too.

Ten years ago Jesse and Robert had talked about forever. There’d been plenty
of compromise. Jesse had given up his fashionable flat over
the dance studio to move into Robert’s rustic cabin. Robert had let Jesse
cover the knotty pine floors with Berber and Jesse had let Robert replace his
vintage sports car with a Land Rover for the drive back and forth into the
city.

It hadn't been easy, but eventually Robert had won over Jesse’s friends and
Jesse had won over Robert’s family and it had looked like they would beat
the odds and make it.

“Jesse, put in the tape.”

Their break up wasn’t caused by any of the usual things. It wasn’t the age
thing or the race thing or the coming from two different-worlds thing. It
wasn’t a career difference thing or a hiding-our-love thing and it certainly
wasn’t a sex thing.

It was the crazy dream thing. That damned Iron Lotus.

Even after his pursuit of the Iron Lotus had driven Robert from coaching
pairs figure skating, he hadn’t been able to let it go. It had taken
death, the death of a Korean skater, to finally pull Robert from the Iron
Lotus’s clutches. By then, there was nothing left of what had been the life
team of Robert and Jesse.

They’d split up after the Korean fiasco. Jesse had wanted to stay; Robert had
needed to be alone.

Eventually, they’d reached a point where they could almost be friends.
Robert had even come to him a couple of years ago to ask him to work with
Jimmy on his routines. Professionally, he and Robert complimented each
other as well as they once had personally.

He loved the oaf. Pathetic, but true. All the years and all the hurt and
all the men in between then and now and still Jesse loved him.

“Jesse, the tape.”

He loved Robert too damn much to help him make the same mistake again.

Without flicking on the VCR, Jesse walked away.

~fin~