Another fic I've been thinking of writing for some time... Different of course, in an alternate universe, but still centered on Sora and Leon and what could be if they made that damn show a love story. It has drama, thoughts of unrequited love and romance and many other interesting things. It will have a few chapters that I can tell you now but I don't know just how many those will be. Depends on my muse!
Disclaimer: You want a disclaimer? You can't handle a disclaimer! (Ahem) No one is mine.
Shadowed Dreams
By Royal blueKitsune
Life was like a rose garden. Beneath each flower, there was a thorn...
At least that was what her mother always used to say - a fond memory Sora had of a childhood where a beautiful woman with a gentle smile played with her hair and braided rich carnation flowers in it. Her favorite pastime had been the shamisen and she had spent many a days in the garden spinning tales of fated lovers to her wide-eyed daughter.
Of course, she had only been five at that time and her mother's voice was just an impression of what it had once been. Nevertheless, she loved the memories and cherished whatever she did remember.
Sora hummed to herself and set the cup of tea on the table; leaning down to kiss her father's cheek fondly and tuck the blanket around him so he wouldn't feel the mild spring breeze, which was neither too cold neither too warm. He had fallen asleep she noticed offhandedly and she didn't have the heart to wake him up to tell him she was going to school.
He looked peaceful; the circles under his eyes making him look almost haggard and in definite need of some decent sleep. She blamed his all consuming job and the long nights that he spent bent over documents and signing different papers she couldn't even imagine.
It wasn't easy being the head of a rather successful chain of restaurants. Sora could only give him her support and hope that he didn't strain himself too much.
She covered the tea so it didn't get cold and with a whispered goodbye jogged towards the gate, jumping over it with easy grace, and hurriedly checked her clock. A quarter of an hour left and if she caught the bus she was going to make it in time too...that was always a good thing.
Having the doors close in her face didn't sound so promising anyway.
She smiled to herself and swung her bag on one shoulder, decided to start her day in the best possible way and enjoy the pale rays of the sun peeking from behind the thick foliage of the trees on both sides of the road. It was, if one could call it that way, a vivid day full of bright colors and mellow dispositions - at least for her. Spring had always made her melancholic and dreamy for some reason.
Maybe because she was forced to stay in school and listen to teachers drone on and on about things she already knew when there were so many other more interesting activities to enjoy. Lounging beneath the old willow tree with a good book and something sweet to stimulate her senses, preferably the foreign confection called chocolate, or maybe even painting or planting some iris and lilies.
The bus was crowded today but Sora resolved not to pay any real attention to the crush of bodies. If she didn't acknowledge it, maybe the combined smell of sweat and hot, closed space would also disappear. She wrinkled her nose.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...
It only took a look over her shoulder to make those thoughts come true and she blinked, feeling confused for a moment, before offering a bright smile and a wave to the man watching her lazily from his position leaning against the windowsill.
Should she be giddy or nervous? Sora decided on a mixture of both as Leon Oswald, the boyfriend of one of the most popular girls' in her school, nodded in recognition and then - with a weary look she couldn't quite pinpoint - ducked a group of gaggling girls (eyeing him like he was made of gold) and started towards her.
It wasn't much the status that impressed her but like the aforementioned group before, she wasn't indifferent to his good looks and intelligence. The only difference was that she kept her feelings to herself and chose not to fawn over him like a love struck puppy.
Today, she noted to herself, he had opted to keep his hair tied at the nape of neck, which was really a shame since she really loved seeing the thick, silky stuff cascading down his back.
"Leon," his name was a bit personal considering that she really didn't know him that well, but he always insisted that he didn't like his last name with the honorific, "coming over to see May again? She's really a lucky girl to have such a considerate person take care of her."
Being that he was a foreigner, Sora had grudgingly accepted to call him by this given name and chose to ignore the little voice in her head that insisted she liked it better this way anyway.
"She has been insisting lately...though I can only fathom the reason why she wants me to come so desperately." His eyes crinkled at the corners in a fleeting smile and Sora again berated herself for letting her mind run away with her. "Is there anything that I should know?"
'Well, May and myself aren't at all good friends contrary to popular belief,' even her inner voice sounded dry from her perspective, 'but I can only bet that she wants to flaunt you again like last time.'
"Ah, nothing, nothing. May probably likes to have you around more often because she likes spending time with you." She tugged at her navy, pleated skirt awkwardly, feeling miffed that she was still forced to wear her ordinary school uniform while he was allowed to wear day-to-day clothes without anyone bugging him about rules and more rules.
He looked unaccountably good in a simple pair of blue jeans, a white shirt and a black coat.
"How is college going?"
Heart be still. Be still you traitorous thing!
"Good."
Ah...he was truly great at making small talk wasn't he? Sometimes she wondered what May had found so attractive, other than his roguish looks, in him. Hell, most of the times even she asked herself that question.
God worked in mysterious ways...really.
The bus rattled and screeched and the redhead, with no small amount of embarrassment, noticed that her three stations had come and gone and that school was looming just a few feet away, doing what any self respecting school did in the opinion of those who frequented it - in other words looking gloomy.
"Well, I hope your day goes well Leon." It had been on the tip of her tongue to ask him if they were going to see each other later. Definitely she would've sounded too...flirty. She didn't want Leon to think of her anything other than respectable - he seemed not to like batting lashes and sickeningly sweet perfumes and she was not that type of girl anyway.
So instead she bowed and turned on her heel, mingling with the many students talking animatedly. Not waiting to see if he returned the gesture.
"Sora!" The chorus of happy voices couldn't belong to anyone other than Mia and Anna - it was a well-known custom they had made to meet before the beginning of classes and enjoy each other's company before they were to, and she quoted Anna here, 'listen to a fire breathing dragon drone on and on about dead people who would've done them all a world of good if they had just stayed dead and forgotten.'
Mia - the creative one with a happy-go-lucky personality that was just a bit too happy at times for anyone's tastes. Blue eyes, long, bright orange hair, freckles - cute.
Anna - the funny one with a troublesome streak that tended to end in mischief and angry teachers. Sora still thought that she was a very good friend. Hazel eyes, short, dark violet hair, tanned complexion - bad girl type in a way but she was still salvageable.
From time to time though...there were doubts.
"So...how was the ride with Leon? Any pouncing done yet?"
Mia gasped as Sora's eye twitched.
"Anna?"
"Yes?"
"It would be very, very good if you started running now and didn't look back."
"Yeah...gotcha!"
There was nothing more pleasant than spending time with your friends on a sunny, Saturday morning. The weather was just right and the day had been chosen especially on grounds that it wasn't Friday, school day before weekend, and it wasn't Sunday, the day before the dreaded Monday.
"Plum blossoms!"
"Sakura flowers!"
Sora muffled her laughter by taking a sip of her strawberry ice cream and gave the occupants of the nearest table, who had been throwing them queer glances for the last half hour, a sheepish look that conveyed without words that the situation was now beyond her control.
"What do you mean you don't like teddy bears?" Mia recoiled, stabbing her chocolate shortcake in a downright dangerous way. Sora stared at the fork, willing it not to suddenly jump and attack her. "They're adorable! So fluffy and soft and cuddly...and they have those red ribbons."
More stabbing! Was this a normal outing or a pretense for homicidal tendencies?
Anna sniffed primly and took a hearty sip of her black coffee, rather unusual for a girl who loved her sweets, before giving her friend an affronted look.
"Rubber duckies."
Mia sulked.
"You guys, can't you put your differences aside for once and just spend a quiet day...talking?"
"Preposterous."
"Where's the fun in that? I feel accomplished only after I manage to ruffle her feathers!" Anna squealed and used her purse as a shield when Mia bristled and made to smack her over the head. "No violence! No violence! Aren't nerds supposed to be peaceful?"
The blue-eyed girl took up the book she had bought on their earlier shopping spree and growled.
"How would you feel if a nerd hit you over the head with a book?"
"No wonder all men pick up their skirts and run out of your way." Anna mock fought back, earning bouts of laughter from Sora and even Mia who suddenly found it very hard to keep her purse airborne.
"You cross dressing sicko!" Smack. "You aren't even allowed to talk - you don't own one rag in your closet that could even come close to being called a skirt. I doubt you even know the meaning of a dress...that would be like admitting you have breasts."
"Someone is jealous!" Anna cooed, pretending to throw her hair over her shoulder. "It's called being in touch with your masculine side."
"That coming from a woman with a pixie cut should say something." Sora teased, ducking what could've been a fatal teaspoon had it connected with its target.
"This was definitely the dictionary term for dangerous cutlery. I might have to start believing those corny scary movies if you don't stop, Anna." Mia pretended not to notice the possessive look Sora gave her after finding several chunks of her ice cream missing.
"Oooooh...a challenge! Mia, you must definitely want to face a dragon's wrath. Teachers aren't enough for you?"
"Very funny you guys." Impossible as ever and she still found them positively endearing...and a little sugar high but if Sora were to consider that factor, she would've never seen the end of it. 'No sweets' didn't exist in Mia's dictionary and she had quite an extensive one to brag about if one thought about her future career as a successful writer and scenarist.
She allowed their bickering to wash over her, not the healthiest activity but if she wasn't corrupted yet than it would never happen, and leaned her head on the glass window overlooking the wide streets of Tokyo - brimming with people as usual and with a slight melancholic air to them. Even from this side of the glass pane.
If she had to warrant a guess, the spring breeze was almost imperceptible outside; sweet smelling and yet with a hint of freshness that carried with it the distinct feeling of warmth and sunny rays. It was, in her opinion, a day meant to be spent outside - so maybe she could convince her friends to stop lounging around, give up their favorite occupation of drawing blood and go for a walk.
Best under the wisteria. It was bound to be lovely.
Something entered her field of vision, glowing in faint kaleidoscopic tones, and Sora reflexively turned her head sideways more to catch sight of what had left bursts of green and yellow dancing beneath her eyelids.
The dominant color proved to be silver mixed with white and she blinked as Leon's figure, standing on the other side of the road, caught and held her eyes effortlessly.
What was he doing here?
Well...waiting was probably the best way of putting it. He was checking his watch and looking somewhere in the distance like he was expecting someone to materialize and put an end to the incessant bored air surrounding him.
This time, she couldn't help but notice, if she decided to go talk to him they would be on even grounds - definitely no boring uniform that made her seem like an utter child.
The thought was ridiculous, completely out of nowhere and lacking common sense, but what was more ridiculous was that Leon had suddenly noticed her - like he had some sort of radar on her - and was now looking at her in the only way she could call fixed.
Sora reddened and allowed herself to be swayed back by a Mia who was curiously looking through the menu, trying to find something on her liking for lunch, and an Anna who was sulking for some reason she couldn't remember.
Maybe she had missed something?
She hoped not because if they asked her, she had no idea at all what that could be.
The question was simple - ramen or udon? - and Sora was glad to answer, given that it she had time to mentally berate herself for having been caught staring at a man who probably thought she was now stalking him.
How embarrassing!
Still...she smoothed down the wrinkles from her flowery skirt, pretended to pick the invisible lint from her white blouse and in the end found herself compelled to see if Leon was still out there. It should've seemed likely that he hadn't wanted anything with her and had moved from his spot to sit somewhere where someone wasn't openly gawking at him, but he was there.
And so were some other people from which she could recognize May and another colleague of his which the raven-haired girl seemed to look up - if rumors and her memory were correct, May had introduced her to this woman, blonde and beautiful Layla Hamilton, a few weeks ago. The adoration had been there then too and it was just as obvious now.
Then again May seemed to look up to Sora herself and fancied following her around from time to time; a fact, which thoroughly annoyed Mia and Anna because May and her friends tended be a somewhat...conceited. A little more than full or herself and a little less than conceited and snotty.
Sora smacked herself mentally for having such horrible thoughts. Positively mean that's what they were!
Her curiosity pushed her to look back just as they relatively large group was preparing to leave and the redhead wanted to smack herself over the head yet again for her idiotic ideas.
Of course she couldn't just go out there to talk to Leon again and most definitely he wasn't coming inside to greet her.
May was his girlfriend. Not her.
She would be deluding herself if she thought otherwise.
...but she would also be deluding herself if she pretended that she hadn't seen that last glance he had thrown over his shoulder before he left.
Wouldn't she?
Meetings were chances of fate and in Sora's case fate was a very fickle thing.
So it happened that she met the snow-haired youth at the Hanami Festival one week again...ironically, it happened under ivory and pink sakura trees. His color. Her color.
He didn't mingle with the common folk that had come to the shrine on this festival day and despite the traditional clothes, which by the way fit him like a charm, Leon's height, his broad shoulders and lean build differentiated him from Japanese men and women...who tended to be quite small if one compared data.
Sora peered at her kimono, looked around for May or perhaps even Leon's family, peered again at her clothes and, realizing that her shyness was getting the better of her, stepped forward and next to the strangely beautiful foreigner.
"I didn't think you celebrated the Cherry blossom festival. I'm glad I was wrong Leon." He smiled almost as if he had known she was there all along, something Sora really wouldn't put past behind him, and caught a stray falling blossom, not throwing her even a sparse glance in favor of admiring it carefully.
She toned down the urge to glare, fume and make a scathing remark. Perhaps all at once, Sora thought feeling her face flushed with anger. He didn't need to ignore her so blatantly...
"Green really suits you. You should wear a kimono more often."
Sora blinked, for a second lost, looked down at her attire and blushed with renewed vigor. Then again maybe he had indeed noticed and she silently patted her back for making this choice - even if it had taken more than two hours to look proper on her; because that was how it was with kimono - they were beautiful, like this one, but difficult to put on and a tad uncomfortable to move in. They tended to be heavy if you weren't used to them.
"How can you tell? You haven't taken a closer look."
To prove her point the redhead twirled and lightly touched the flowing silk of her traditional garb, feeling very much flattered when Leon's eyes praised her silently.
The kimono was the vibrant shade of the forest during summer and embodied in it were red-trimmed carnation flowers that brought out her rose shaped earrings; her hair contrasted nicely with the deep shaded, jade ribbon that kept it in a high ponytail and her obi was light amber with dark patterns of all shapes and sizes.
"You were praying earlier at the Meiji Jingu shrine with your friends. I recognized you by your hair."
Sora grudgingly gave him points for his observational skills and hoped that the dark hid her furious blush. To think that Leon had seen her and recognized her...that would imply that he was looking.
She didn't mind such a good-looking man looking after her in the least bit. Girlfriend or not. It was only looking and that didn't cause any harm - especially from a man, a foreigner nonetheless, who could wear a simple pair of black hakama and a white haori, with blue patterns, and look so good and so belonging of this place.
And that high ponytail was so...sexy. Oh my!
"Where is May?" The redhead fiddled with the long sleeves of her kimono. "I thought she would be with you - it's all she's been talking about these last few days."
His eyes darkened.
"Her father can be a little too strict sometimes and she was being punished for something I didn't catch on the phone." Sora entertained the thought of feeling sorry for him but for some reason she didn't think he regreted having to come alone. Or at least he didn't seem to regret being here without May...
Though, for the love of God she couldn't understand why.
Still, he had to feel lonely with all these people walking in pairs around him. Sora knew she did.
"Call me presumptuous and nosy but I'm also alone at the festival. Would you mind if I accompanied you tonight, Mr. Leon?"
The Mr. was added as a bonus. She needed to remember that this was just possible, blooming friendship and nothing more.
Besides, how could he even consider her as anything more than an acquaintance with the - almost - ordinary way she looked? If not for the exotic shade of her hair, from her foreign mother, she would've blended perfectly with others.
He on the other hand...well, where should she start?
In an uncharacteristic display of playfulness she had never thought him capable of, Leon offered her his arm and a bone-melting smile as an answer to her earlier questions.
For a moment Sora was awe-struck, caught between blinking dazedly up at him and gaping like a fish on land. She had read of this western custom in her history class but - honestly? - she had never thought something like this could ever happen to her. Japan still held to the tradition of bowing and such western actions were considered very intimate.
It was either that Leon didn't know or he purposefully chose to ignore what such a gesture meant. If she were to believe that raised eyebrow, Sora would go with the first one - this man really was too oblivious sometimes.
"I'll take that as a definite yes." She piped up cheerfully, taking the invitation with her most innocent grin. She would leave him be just this once because he didn't know any better.
"As you wish" Leon answered enigmatically, easily swerving his way through the ever-growing crowds.
Well, Sora thought happily, he did top half of Tokyo's population by a long shot.
Well, there you go. First chapter up and ready and almost ten pages! Yay for the moderately long chapters.