"Step, ball change, step, ball change..."

One thing was becoming abundantly clear.

"Hop, shuffle, st- NO!"

Taiki could not dance for shit.

"No, no, no!" the choreographer screamed in his affected French accent (which made understanding his Japanese more trouble than it was usually worth). "How many times do I have to repeat myself? How many times must we go over the steps before you get it right?"

Taiki dragged his wrist across his damp brow (Yaten knew there was a 'big forehead' joke in there somewhere, but he was too frustrated to look for it). "I'm sorry. Really. I'll try again."

"Not with me, you won't," the choreographer pronounced, flipping his scarf over his shoulder. "I quit!" Then he turned and flounced from the room, and none of the Three Lights had the heart or the energy to go after him. They waited until the door slammed to physically deflate.

Yaten decided to just collapse and have done with it. "Unbelievable. Four choreographers we've gone through, and they've all quit because you've got two left feet."

Taiki narrowed his eyes. "I'm pretty sure the second one left because you said her tap shoes were tacky."

"No one would quit because I told them the truth," Yaten insisted. "She was just too nice to tell you how much you sucked."

Taiki bristled silently, refusing to respond.

Seiya sighed and tugged on the towel slung around his shoulders. "Look, maybe we ought to just forget about this dance number. We've already got a great concert planned. We've written the songs, we've learned to play the instruments, and God knows you've spent enough time on the clothes for it to be a success."

Yaten slammed both of his fists against the stage. "Are you giving up? With everything that's at stake, are you, of all people--"

"No," Seiya snapped, instantly serious. "I'm just suggesting we forget about this one thing. We can do something else to make up for it. But we're wasting time killing ourselves over this choreography if it's just going to get us laughed at."

Yaten growled like a pit bull backed into a corner. "Tap is the most important dance genre in Japan right now! If we don't do this, there is no way we'll succeed!"

"Where did you hear that?" Taiki asked. Again. "You keep saying that, but I have yet to hear anyone else say that."

"I know what I'm talking about," Yaten said, his voice a warning. "And we will tap, la-- gentlemen. We will tap, or we will die trying!"

Seiya and Taiki both sighed.

"God damn it."

"I hate it when sh-- he gets intense like this."

"I just don't see why it's so impossible for you to do," Yaten cried, dragging himself to his feet. "It's not rocket science, and you can master that easily enough."

Taiki tilted his nose up. "My genius is in the mind, not the feet."

"Clearly," Yaten snapped. "But it's so simple! You pick up your foot on the shuffle; you leave it on the slap. Piece of cake!"

Taiki just sighed. "Yaten, why don't you just accept the fact that I'm hopeless and have done with it."

Yaten leapt at his face, his hands splayed out as if he would gouge Taiki's eyes out. Seiya quickly stepped forward, deciding the last thing they needed was the headlines saying that Yaten fought like a girl. "You will tap, Taiki!" Yaten raged, flailing against Seiya's iron grip. "You will tap, or I will kill you in your sleep!"

Taiki shook his head and walked off. "I'm getting a mocha."

"I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!"

"Whatever."

"YOUR FOREHEAD IS MASSIVE!"

"Yaten, let it go."

"But, the tap dance--"

"Just let it go."

And that is why the Three Lights never tap danced.

But Yaten kept the shoes.