Dream Man

They say that the people you see in dreams are the people you have seen in real life, but that only provided a problem for Thomas Sanders. The small town he moved to in Florida knew him as the new guy in town who owned and ran a dance studio. However, Thomas had yet to know if it was safe for him to introduce himself as the new gay in town who owned and ran a dance studio. Over the course of his first few weeks of being in town, he has had dreams involving meeting a gorgeous stranger who was a tad more muscular than him, had entrancing eyes of copper, had a godly jawline, and, in some dreams, showed that he could dance incredibly to the point of making the heads of everyone else turn. Sure, the stranger was stunning, but what made Thomas want to cling onto this dream man was that he made Thomas feel safe and not alone.

In Thomas's waking life, he ran a dance studio and he managed to make his love for Disney films a little more productive. If it wasn't obvious enough, a lot of the musical numbers in Disney films had their fair share of choreography, so Thomas thought it would be a good idea to share his appreciation of the dance numbers to others who like to dance. Fortunately for him, the denizens of the town (and even those visiting) have spent money on dance lessons for different reasons (exercise, practice for a show, killing time, etc.) so nobody saw it as queer in either sense of the word.

Even with the dance classes he held for kids and adults, though, Thomas wasn't the most social person in town, and some parts of people-watching might put him at risk of making inaccurate assumptions, so he didn't know if some people were queer or homophobic or whatever. He knew it would make it harder to find the source of his dream man (whom he guessed he was supposed to be slightly familiar with), but his lonely daydreaming sessions made him feel less alone.

Thomas was alone in the dance studio and set up his laptop to the music video for "Bet On It" to be absolutely certain if he got the choreography down to a t. Before he could punch the "water," he heard a knock and he paused the video before he turned towards the door. What he saw made him consider pinching himself in places on his body with less cushioning than his butt: the gorgeous man from his dreams was at the door in a white tank top that showed off his muscles and what he assumed to be red denim pants.

"Oh, um, are you the teacher of this dance studio?" he asked Thomas nervously.

"Well, you found the right person," Thomas retorted as he walked towards the man while trying not to be clumsy.

"Well, I'm partaking in a show at the community center, and they recommended coming to you for extra help since I couldn't focus on the choreography there. Do you provide one-on-one lessons?" the man asked.

"Oh, yes, absolutely!" Thomas replied a little too eagerly, but at least he got a giggle out of the man that was able to make him melt.

Thomas had yet to provide one-on-one teaching, but he ran the dance studio, so he had the freedom.

"I'm Thomas Sanders, by the way," Thomas introduced himself.

"Roman Ellington," the man replied with a sweet smile.

Thomas made his way back to the laptop, and Roman followed him. He glanced at the paused video and chuckled.

"Disney fanatic?" Roman asked.

Thomas blushed as he looked at Roman.

"Is it weird?"

"If it is, call me Prince Weirdo."

They both shared a chuckle before Thomas sat down.

"Alright, what's your role in this?" Thomas asked as he was looking up YouTube videos.

"Well, I'm filling in as one of the Muses in Hercules since one of the original ones had an emergency, but the combination of the conflict of both directors about having a male muse, and one of them not being enthusiastic about teaching choreography has been putting me to sleep, so I was recommended to come here," Roman explained.

"Honey, you should've been Hunk-ules," Thomas thought out loud without really noticing.

The two of them stared at each other with wide eyes until Thomas looked away with embarrassment. He didn't look at Roman again until he heard laughter from Roman's direction.

"Oh my god! I thought my brother and I were the only queers in town!" Roman declared with such joy.

A smile grew on Thomas's face as he was slowly understanding Roman's response. Even with the house he felt, he still felt slight embarrassment from calling Roman a hunk.

"If it makes you feel better, my current dance instructor is a cutie," Roman told him with a wink.

As Roman was showing off his dancing, and Thomas was doing his best to help the man improve, it was clear that he had the right moves, but needed inspiration. They grew closer to the point of exchanging contact info and Thomas promised to see Roman's show with both of them knowing he wasn't just coming to "inspire" Roman.