A/N: This is a sort of sequel to my previous story "The Fickle Whims of Passion." While I would like it if you read that one, you certainly don't have to. Also, this was done by request of Funkywatermellon. Please read and review.

I sighed and rolled onto my back. My mind was still buzzing with too many thoughts for me to even think about going to sleep and, even if it wasn't, my skin was still tingling from the fire that had burned within me when I had been with him earlier. Even thinking about what I saw in his eyes when he held me as all of those balloons rained down around us after we had made the Trapeze Americano a reality was enough to reignite that fire.

I didn't really mind losing sleep over this, of course. With the exception of that one moment that I try not to think about, every moment I spent with him seemed to be better than the last. I had wondered, for a moment, how it could possibly get any better than what we already had but several ideas, some of which were very embarrassing, answered my question. It could certainly get better and, as far as I could see, my future, no, our future looked to be as bright as the sun. If only I had known just how right I was and how little time we had then maybe I would have acted sooner. Oh well.

I rolled back onto my side as my mind replayed the events of our daring rescue for the millionth time. Just as the penguins had said, that crazy lady, DuBois I think her name was, had targeted Alex first. While I was hanging there from that hoop, waiting for the elephants to move me close enough, my heart had stopped when I saw her fire a dart from that foam hand. While a really odd side of me had to admit that killing him with an "Alex is #1" foam finger held a certain sense of comedy, I couldn't help but imagine the worst would happen before I had managed to grab him and pull him out of the way. I don't think I'll ever forget the look in his eyes when he saw me and the smile he had when I told him that circus stay together.

I honestly don't remember what the next few parts of the plan were. At that time, all I knew was that we were together again and, even without any specific words, all had been forgiven. I just lost myself in the joy and love I felt. Looking back, I have to wonder what made me think that I could have lived without it. Without him. Anyway, my part of the rescue was finished so, while the others carried out the rest of the plan, we just enjoyed each other and had fun on the hoops.

Of course, our moment couldn't last forever, sadly, so we jumped back onto the platform with a spectacular spin I don't think we've ever done before. Everything seemed fine as everyone else got back in short order but, right as the penguins' leader, Skipper, called the mission a success, we heard Stefano call out to us from the ground. Apparently, the plan didn't include a way for him to make it back up. To make matters worse, that crazy woman who had almost killed Alex was back and was coming after him. Vitaly used his throwing knives to make steps that Stefano could use to get back but, right before he could make it, that woman managed to grab his flipper with her telescopic rope stick.

As she started talking about taking Stefano's head with her, I turned to Alex for what we should do. I saw his eyes become very focused and they started to move rapidly, which is a look that I've figured out means he's thinking very quickly, as he looked between several things. Finally, he picked up the trapeze swing and asked Marty to shoot him a line. As the zebra did that, I asked Alex what he was going to do when he said that we were doing Trapeze Americano.

Now, I remembered that the Trapeze Americano was something he made up. I remembered about the various lies he told us to secure our approval at first. I remembered the hurt that I, that everyone went through because of him and his friends. And I remembered how I had inadvertently hurt him by not listening to him then. However, in that moment, as I looked into his eyes as he handed me the trapeze swing, I accepted the plan without hesitation. All had been forgiven between us and I knew that, so long as we were together, we could do anything. So what if he hadn't done the Trapeze Americano before? So what if it had never even existed before then? I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we could do it together.

The first part was easy. All we had to do was get on the swing with me holding him by his ankles, swing down, and pick up Stefano. That went off without a hitch but, while we had also picked up that crazy lady, I think Alex had expected that. He quickly freed Stefano and, right as we were at the apex of our swing, he handed Stefano to me, forcing me to let him go, as he continued upwards with that crazy lady. I shouted and reached for him but I knew that there was no way I could help him anymore. I just had to trust him.

I'm not entirely sure what happened next since I had to focus on getting Stefano back to the platform but I heard Alex whistle and saw Frankie and Josey rocket off towards him. When we finally reached the platform, I just tossed Stefano onto it and stayed on the swing. I had no idea how I could help but, if I could, I wanted to make sure I was in a position to do so. While he didn't need my help, it did put me in the perfect position anyway. As he was just about to fly past the apex of my swing, I flipped off and let him catch me as he flew up to the cluster of balloons on top of the main platform for the final part of Trapeze Americano.

It was here that we had that moment that was part of the reason I was still awake. I can't even begin to describe all of the emotions that were running through me and all of the emotions that I saw in his eyes. All I knew is that we had made Trapeze Americano real and that we were together again as we should be. All of the hurt from before was gone and the memory of it was already starting to fade away. No matter what awaited us I knew that we could handle it so long as we were together.

Of course, reliving that moment didn't get me any closer to going to sleep. After a bit, I gave up on sleeping and decided to step outside and get some fresh air. However, when I opened up the door on my train car, I was surprised to see the one I had been thinking about standing there looking like he was getting ready to knock.

We froze for a moment and just stared at each other before he kind of jumped backwards slightly. "Oh! Um, good. You're awake. Um…" It was cute, the way he seemed at a loss for words. I had never really seen him that way before.

"Could you not sleep as well?" I offered.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, not really. Um…"

I giggled and smiled playfully at him, which just made him stammer more, as I leaned against the door to my car, "Is there something you wanted?"

"Well, I couldn't sleep and this is your first time in New York so I was kinda, um, wondering if you were awake and if you would like to see a bit of the city while you had the chance."

All of that had come out in a rush. As I said the next part, I reached over to a stand and grabbed my necklace, "Are you asking me out on a date?" That got him stammering again as he tried to say five different things at once. While he was distracted, I slid on my necklace and hopped out of the car before standing on the tips of my toes and kissing him on the cheek. I giggled as he stiffened and stopped talking. "I would love to."
What followed was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Alex mentioned some street names and I know that our train was at the Amtrak station but, other than that, I don't really remember them now. That doesn't really matter though. What I do remember is that New York City is absolutely beautiful at night (and still very noisy). I remember when Circus Zaragoza went to Paris once a few years ago and while the City of Lights was certainly beautiful, New York had its own beauty that, in some ways, was better than Paris but that's like saying an apple is better than an orange.

Anyway, we couldn't go by the streets, of course, so we made our way onto one of the rooftops and worked our way around from them. We had to go a bit out of the way at times, I think, and some of the jumps were almost too far for us to make but the challenge was fun and I honestly couldn't have cared less about it at that time. As for where we went… I really don't remember anymore. It was only a few years ago but it feels like an eternity. But where we went isn't important and I do remember what is.

It had been, oh, an hour since we had left and we were sitting on a ledge of a rather tall building. Alex was pointing to a few buildings and was rattling off various facts about them as I listened intently. While what he was saying was interesting, there was a particular fact about the weather that I didn't know before that was distracting me. Perhaps I knew about it already on a certain level or maybe I had just forgotten but, as you probably know, it gets colder the higher up you get and when the wind is blowing while you're on the roof of a very tall building during mid-Autumn, it gets cold. Alex didn't seem to notice but my fur isn't very thick so I most certainly did. I had apparently shivered because Alex interrupted himself mid-monologue. "You're cold? Oh! I-I'm sorry! I didn't think about you not being used to it!"

I casually crossed my arms to try and keep myself warm without making it appear that way, "No! I'm fine! The wind just got a little cold all of the sudden is all."

Alex made a weird face as if he was still blaming himself. I was about to speak up, to try and get him back to talking about the buildings, when he cut me off by wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. "Well, I brought you up here so the least I can do is keep you warm," he said in a soft voice.

While I can't say much about the rest of my body, I can certainly say that my face got very warm very quickly (thank goodness you can't see skin through fur). My mind had stopped completely as I tried to get what had just happened to register so I just sat there and stared at where his paw rested on my waist with my mouth open. He apparently took my silence as something completely different because he very quickly removed his arm and scooted away from me before trying to stammer out some sort of apology. My mind still wasn't quiet working but having his arm around me felt right and my body apparently wanted that feeling back because I just as quickly scooted over to him and threw my arms around him while closing my eyes and placing my head on his shoulder. I said nothing as I felt Alex tense up for a second before relaxing and then hesitantly placing his arm back around me and resting his head on mine.

I can't tell you how long we were like that. Objectively, the wind was still cold but I couldn't feel it anymore. The fire in me was burning brightly again and I felt like everything was right with the world.

Eventually, Alex spoke up again, "Well, we should get going. There are a few more places I wanna show ya." Reluctantly, we let go of each other and stood up. We lingered for a moment but we were soon on our way to another part of the city.

I hadn't noticed it before but it seemed that Alex had been nervous earlier because everything about him became much more relaxed after our little moment. He also seemed to have become more confident as he hesitated a bit less when making jumps. He wasn't the only one though. I certainly felt like I could have taken on the whole world right then.

The rest of our date was a bit of a blur. Alex showed me a few more places and what he was saying was really interesting but the events of that day were finally catching up with me as I yawned pretty loudly.

Alex chuckled slightly, "Yeah, it's getting pretty late, isn't it? Don't worry. We're almost back." I dropped out of my stretch and stared at him before looking around. The area we were in didn't really look familiar at all and I knew my memory wasn't that bad. I obviously looked puzzled so Alex offered this as an explanation: "I had kinda planned this out ahead of time. The path we took looped back around to the train station which is right over there." He pointed in the direction we had been headed and, while I couldn't see the station or the train, I could see signs of the train tracks and the area a bit past that did look a little familiar.

So our little date wasn't as random as I had thought. It was no wonder he had blamed himself for me getting cold (not that I cared, given the end result).

Alex came up beside me and took my paw in his before smiling at me, "So, shall we get going?" I just smiled back and nodded. While a part of me didn't want that night to end and didn't want to leave his side, the rest of me was tired and reminded that other part of me that I'd see him again in the morning.

It took us a bit longer than it should have to get back since neither of us had been in any particular hurry. While I knew this moment had to end sometime, that one part of me that was ignoring how tired I was wanted to make the moment last as long as possible. When we finally got back to the train, Alex skipped his car and walked me back to mine. We lingered in front of it for a bit before I finally gave in and hugged him. "Thank you for showing me the city, Alex. I had a lot-a fun," I said as he hugged me back.

"Nah. It was no problem. Thank you for agreeing to come along in the first place." It wasn't much longer before we finally said goodnight and parted ways.

Gia sighed as she finished her tale. The idea to recount funny or touching moments with Alex had certainly been a good one but the dissonance created when they came out of their memories only to be confronted by the reality of their situation wasn't pleasant.

"Heh. Who knew Alex had a romantic side to him?" Marty said with a faint smile. "I remember when we were livin' in the zoo and I was tellin' Alex how I wished they would bring in a lady zebra. When I asked him what he would do if the people brought in a lioness, he just shrugged and said that he didn't really care about that. I never woulda guessed that he would fall so head-over-heels for someone."

Their small group was silent, each one lost in their own memories, before Vitaly spoke up, "Ve should be getting back to vork. As they say, 'The show must go on.'"

With a sigh, Gia nodded, "You're right. We need to get packed up and get going." With mutters of agreement, the group slowly dispersed leaving Gia behind. She looked out over the ocean with longing and sorrow in her eyes as she whispered Alex's name before taking her leave.