Chapter Two: The Amazing Realizations

Leon squeezed Sora's shoulder gently as she watched the platforms slowly make their sky-high ascent. Sora felt so tiny in his grasp, like he could break her if he squeezed his hand any tighter, but beneath that facade was a precariously hidden great strength.

Sora's sky-high gaze didn't break as she gently asked in a near whisper, "Leon-san, why did you drop May during that Dracula performance?"

"Sora, do you really not know the answer to that question." His eyes dropped. It wasn't until the final performance of Swan Lake when Sora gloriously ad-libbed her flight from bar to bar to Leon. He would never forget that moment when he arched his back up towards Sora and her hands caught his shoulders and he sunk into the depths of her soft, angelic gaze. He could feel her breath on his lips as she sunk closer to him, her hair brushing his face, then so quickly pushed off in a pirouette and began her flight back to the skies. But he wasn't ready to let the angel soar away so quickly. In what seemed like slow motion, he reached out and grabbed her hand as she drifted upwards and away. He pulled her close to him, then almost afraid she would hear the pounding of his heart, he began to let her slip down the length of his muscular arm before hoisting her back up again just as in the beginning of the performance. It was the first time in the entire run of Swan Lake that Leon fully felt as if he was holding Sora and not Sofie's memory. The crowd roared at the improvisation, but there was a sadness inside of him as he realized, no matter the show, she would always be the angel; her wings surrounding him in comfort and strength, but then she would push away lending her heart to others. Always there, but not always close enough.

"Leon-san." Sora's voice broke him free of his thoughts, pulling him back to reality. Why had he dropped May? The answer was simple. "Do you remember when you were dropping the rose petals for Romeo and Juliet?"

How could Sora forget. It was the most humiliating return to the stage she had ever experienced.

"And you missed the bar and began the same fall as May," Leon continued, "You lifted yourself up like you were nothing. Just like Sofie. I didn't put you in that situation purposely, but with May, I did. It wasn't to crush her ego. It was just as Yuri said, I was proving to myself that no one would be able take Sofie's place as my partner."

Just saying the words to Sora and verbally reliving the experience crushed Leon. He had long been burdened now with the fact that the conflict brought to Kaleido Stage was very much his doing and nearly Sora's undoing. He didn't realize then that the tears that slipped from Sora's eyes and down her cheeks each time her heart felt the stage grieve, a little piece of his final promise with Sofie to find the True Star slipped through his fingers as well. He often wondered if all of the pain he caused her was an inevitability on the path to the Angel's Act; if it was all for kindling the spirit of the devil in him to raise up Sora's angel. Or was he just a road block that the ever persistent Sora overcame by never giving up.

Sora reached back, unconsciously placing her hand on Leon's. For a moment, they stood in silence.

A chill ran through Leon's body as he felt the warmth of Sora's hand, "Why are you asking this now?" He pressed, to break the silence.

The platforms just rose above where Kaleido Stage's roof normally stood, sheltering the stage Sora treasured.

"Because of Layla..." Sora drifted. "May's arm. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I've been through this before. I don't want to lose her like Layla." She and May had become so close now, filling in the missing parts in one another's personalities. May never failed to bring a smile to Sora's face with her precocious attitude and spunk, and Sora brought equal light and motivation to May's life and most importantly, smiles.

The two partners stood together, hands still connected, watching the platforms continue the last leg of their rise.

--

"Does it hurt?" Layla asked Ken in the control room. She had noticed his focus had shifted to Leon and Sora instead of the details of the act to come.

"No!" Ken choked in surprise. "I... I... what I mean to say," he stammered, "is just watching Sora grow is enough for me. I'll always be the man on the sidelines... at Kaleido Stage and in Sora's life as well." His stomach turned as he tried to push the pain away.

"Ken, you just have no idea how much support someone can get from a 'person on the sidelines.' Just think of what you have done for the stage, bringing it together and moving it forward. I can guarantee you that you have done atleast that much for Sora in her journey here."

Layla's words should have comforted him. But Ken knew things were different now. Instead of watching the ever smiling girl who burst in late to tryouts with a suitcase full of faults, he was now staring at the True Star of Kaleido Stage. Just that thought made her seem so out of reach to him now. Sora's love was for the stage, something he couldn't even step on. Even though he never let her know, he often cursed the fact that he had a weak heart. If only he didn't have to carry that burden, maybe he would be standing there as Sora's partner now. Maybe it would be his hand that her's was resting on. But still, ironically, even though it was his unrequited love for Sora that heavied his heart so, it was still her that could solely take away the pain. He would give anything for Sora to look back at him now and smile so he could bask in the warmth of its radiating glow.

But Sora didn't look back.

"Ken!" Layla said sternly. "Regardless, you still have a job to do here and now. Look. The platforms have stopped. Pull yourself together."

Truth be told, deep down even Layla had slight feelings of jealousy. She finally understood the pain Sora must have felt when she first told her that Cathy was her partner now. Saying it was one thing, experiencing it for herself from the other side was another. The old Layla would have brushed it off, dismissing this feeling immediately. However the new her that had gone back to her roots as the crybaby child of her past, she was and now letting herself truly feel for the first time. Emotions were almost a new thing and she was embracing for the first time, and dealing with them was far more difficult than suppressing them.

--

May and Rosetta stood far above Kaleido Stage. The audience below looked like a Monet painting, little colored spots coming together to make a bigger picture. But even at that height, the tension and anxiety of the audience drifted up towards them. May breathed in their expectations with delight. Fool had qualified her. The fact that she could even see Fool now was something still a bit unfathomable to her. May shook her head, telling herself that now wasn't the time to be reminiscing. "Just think about Rosetta. Think about the audience. Think about the smiles. The applause." She told herself, as she stretched out her right hand to grab the trapeze.

Rosetta took a deep breath and reached for the two tiny weighted diablos attached at her hips. She needed the extra weight to make up for the difference of size between her and May. Kalos had fashioned the weights as diablos especially for her to give her a little boost of confidence from the happy memories when she regained her smile during the Diablo Battle with Sora. "Sora," she thought, "Can you see me?" Almost robotically, she grabbed the trapeze and looked over towards May.

The two girls' eyes met, and simultaneously, they dipped their bars with their right hands and jumped off the platforms, both hands now gripping the bar tightly as their bodies sweeped through the air, their swings beginning to grow larger.

--

Sora's gaze fell from the sight above and her hand dropped lifelessly from its resting place upon Leon's and, losing the feeling in her legs, collapsed to her knees.

"Sora!" Leon yelled. Picking up the waifish girl and spinning her around.

She stared blankly past him.

"Sora! Damn it." He slapped her face, ending her trance.

Without a word to Leon, Sora dashed passed him and into the control room, toppling over Ken. "Layla!" She screamed. Their eyes met, seeing one another's expressions was like looking into a mirror. "Layla!"

Leon ran in after Sora, now struck with the same sickened feeling as the two trapeze queens whose eyes were locked in shock.

"They aren't going to make it!" Sora desperately cried out.

The room fell silent, fell dead silent.