Chapter 2

In the early morning darkness, the red lights of an alarm clock all changed to read the coming of 6am and music abruptly started playing. However, the melodious tune went by unnoticed by those it was meant to rouse, and it was thirty minutes that passed by before Leora's ears twitched in response to the noise.

Blearily, she woke herself up and sought out the source of the sound. For a moment, she merely stared at the red glowing numbers before going completely rigid. "Six thirty-one? Oh, no! ROWEN!"

Rowen awoke with a start, startled by the suddenness of the call and immediately sought her out in the darkness.

"What is it?"

"We over slept!"

"We what? NO!"

They both scrambled hastily from their bed and dressed, finding how convenient it had been to have packed the night before.

Half an hour later, as their bags were checked in and tagged, the couple realized the closeness of their arrival to their flights' departure. The final call for departure was ringing through the intercom, and they were still a floor below their ticketed gate. Rowen grabbed Leora's arm and raced with her up the escalator, grateful that there weren't too many people blocking their path.

"Hurry! Faster! Go, go, go!"

Leora followed Rowen closely, feeling the grip he had on her hand tightening significantly. "WAIT!" Rowen skidded to a halt in front of the boarding gate, holding out their passports as quickly as possible. The attendant laughed at their expressions and motioned them forward.

"You just barely made it,"

Rowen and Leora exchanged exasperated glances and made their way quickly down to the plane. "I can't believe we over slept!"

Leora grinned at her lover's obvious aggravation and followed him obediently to the two first class seats assigned to them. Some of their fellow passengers gave them knowing smiles as they stored their luggage and took their seats. Leora, despite loathing flying with a passion, took the seat by the window, making the flight easier on herself because leaning on Rowen would be that much more comfortable without someone else on the other side of her. She wheezed for a moment, much to Rowen's displeasure, but helped herself to a dose of her asthma medication before he could say anything.

If she had a fit, he'd blame himself for making her rush so quickly.

"You ok?"

"I'm on a plane that's about to take off and fly over the ocean for a few hours, what do you think?"

He patted her leg and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her cheek a little. "You'll be fine. Just close your eyes and sleep and we'll be there before you know it."

"I'm too anxious to sleep," Leora muttered, but she leaned in and snuggled against him anyway. Besides, if she knew her brother as well as she did, she wouldn't be getting very much snuggle time with Rowen over the course of this vacation. Her brother was a snarly little ass at times, but even more so when it came to his sister dating one of his best friends. He'd always said that he didn't like the idea simply because he just didn't like his little sister dating a friend of his, but Leora knew better. It was because of what Rowen had revealed to her last night. Sage was a jerk to have kept that from her for so long! How could he not like her dating Rowen when he'd done more damage than Rowen ever could have? At least her blue-haired beau had told her what life with him could mean! Sage had just vanished all together with no calls, no letters, no nothing.

And that upset her.

"I know what you must be thinking about," Rowen said as the plane was lead out of the gate towards the runway. "You're getting yourself riled to face Sage,"

"It's the only way I can face him, Rowen. If he can't get it through his head that he doesn't run my life, then I don't really know what I'll do. I refuse to let him walk all over me. He says I can't date you because it's not right, but at least you've been honest with me about everything! He's been lying to me for five years, to my face, without even twitching! The jerk…"

"I understand you're anger towards him, Leora, but it's Sage. He's thick headed,"

"Thick haired," Leora grumbled, making the mistake of looking out of the window. "Oh wow…"

"You'll be fine," Rowen chuckled, turning her to look at him. "I promise, you'll be fine,"

"If you say so,"

"Go to sleep," He whispered, letting her snuggle against him again. "When you wake up, we'll be in Toyama,"

Rowen's eyes snapped open at the noise and he lifted his head to see that the captain had reactivated the seat belt light. He checked his watch as he reached over and fastened Leora's seatbelt while she continued to sleep, then did the same to his own. Problem was, they couldn't have been close to the airport for the decent because it hadn't been long enough.

"Attention passengers! The captain has asked that all seatbelts be fastened immediately. Please return to your seats and return your trays and seats to their upright and full position."

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking! It looks like we've got a bit of a bumpy ride ahead of us. We're about to fly through a pretty nasty looking storm. We will be experiencing some minor to mild turbulence, but it's nothing to be worried about. Again, please make sure all seatbelts are fastened and your trays and seats are in their proper positions. Thank you!"

"Leora," Rowen nudged her gently, saddened that he had to wake her to a possible nightmare. She stirred and he gave her the news, watching her face pale a little. She didn't like flying, finding herself very untrusting of airplanes. It was just the way she was. "I'm right here. The Captain says it shouldn't be too bad,"

Leora, regardless of this news, reached out and pulled the shade down over her window, not really wanting to see the storm they were now soaring into. She latched onto Rowen's arm and kept quiet, her eyes darting about the cabin in case she might catch the panicked faces of the flight attendants, but they all seemed pretty calm and laid back, even if they were strapped into their own seats.

"The good news," Rowen offered, giving her body a gentle squeeze. "Is that we only have a few hours left,"

"That's good," She whispered, unable to hide the tremble in her voice.

"It's all right," Rowen soothed, stroking the chill from her arms. She seemed to relax with that gesture, but the second she relaxed, the plane rocked wildly and tensed up so much he thought she was going to snap. Clearly, the captain had been wrong about the minor turbulence. There were a few exclamations of fear from some passengers, but as soon as the plane settled again, it stopped.

"Another reason I'm getting myself riled to face my brother," Leora declared, still trembling nervously. "I can't stand flying over water and the bastard makes me do it every year just to spend two weeks listening to him bitch about me being with you. The prick! I should hurt him-ahh!"

The plane shook wildly again, but this time, the turbulence didn't stop for several long minutes. Kids were crying, some women had cried out in fear, Leora just clung to him with all of her being, breathing so heavily he just knew her asthma was going to take the opportunity to act up on her. She seemed ok for a few minutes, but she soon started crying quietly as the plane dropped a few hundred feet and then rose up again. The darkness of the cabin because of the thick black clouds outside of the plane made it hard to see towards the cockpit where even the flight attendants looked a little panicked.

"Breathe, Leora," Rowen urged into her ear, squeezing her again. "Get control of it before it gets bad,"

She tried to obey, but with every jolt of the plane, she lost that little control she had and just started wheezing again. And then, quite suddenly, the plane flew out of the storm, sunlight flared in through the windows, and the plane was calm again.

"Here!" Rowen reached into her bag and dug around frantically for the inhaler, aware now that several of the passengers had caught on to Leora's predicament. "I have it!" He pressed it into her hands and helped her get the inhaler to her mouth were she took two doses from it. When her breathing calmed again, Rowen let himself relax at last.

"Is she ok?" It was a passenger in the first class seats in front of them that inquired, turning to look down at Leora in concern. Leora regulated her breathing enough to nod, taking one more puff of medicated air from the inhaler before she was back to normal again.

"Better?" Rowen asked as she lowered the inhaler and tried to regain her composure, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Again she nodded, but Rowen could clearly see how scared she'd been and how scared she still was. He hugged her, drawing her against his chest, stroking her arms and back again to try and sooth her. "It's all right, love, I promise. We made it through that,"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking again! Sorry about all of that. I suppose that was a bit more turbulence than anticipated, but we have cleared the storm and you'll be happy to know that you won't have to deal with that one again. You may now release your safety belts and feel free to move about the cabin. We'll be arriving at our destination within the next two hours. Again, we have smooth sailing ahead of us,"

"Smooth sailing my foot!" Leora snarled in a small voice, trying not to smile when the passengers closest to them, Rowen included, all began to chuckle. If no one had known she didn't like flying when she'd gotten on this plane, they all knew it now.

Leora was surprised that the passengers in first class with them had fervently offered to let her and Rowen off the plane first, but she thanked them and scurried off as quick as she could, glaring at the captain as he apologized to her and those who followed for an unpleasant and bumpy ride. Once she was in the terminal and back on solid ground, she started to relax.

"Look at it this way," Rowen offered as he shouldered both of their carry on bags and took her hand to lead her towards the luggage bay where he knew a few of the group they were meeting would be waiting. "at least you don't have to get on a plane again for another two weeks,"

"I'd rather not think about it," Leora grumbled as they stepped onto an escalator and listened to the familiar noise of an airport terminal building. "I thought you said the radar had been clear of storms?"

"It had been when we left, but this one must have manifested out of the blue. You know how those climate shifts through everything off. Besides, if the wind changed suddenly, it was bound to head our way eventually. Judging by how wet it is here, I bet everyone here had to suffer it, too."

"Yes, but in the air in a plane? Rowen, that scared me!"

"I know, love," He hugged her, kissing her temple. "But we're on solid ground again, so you can relax for a while," As they stepped off of the escalator and began the long walk towards the luggage hall, Leora did finally start to relax again. Being on solid ground helped her out more than any of his positive coaching could, and as they reached the assembly line to snag their luggage, she was in good spirits again. At least until they looked around and noticed that no one from their group seemed to be waiting for them. That just got her riled up over Sage again.

"The jerk forgot about us,"

Rowen chuckled, knowing that trying to talk her down would be pointless and nothing but a waste of time. She needed a good outlet for the stresses of the day and he wasn't going to keep Sage from being that outlet, especially since Leora was determined to use him that way. Besides, if it got Sage to hold off on being a pig-headed jerk about their being a couple, he wouldn't dare try and stop her. Sage was getting on his nerves just as badly as Leora's lately. It wasn't fair that Sage acted so angry towards the couple when it was so obvious that there wasn't a problem with it. But Sage reasoned that his sister was in danger constantly now because of her involvement with Rowen, which was bogus because she was Sage's sister, and he was a Ronin just like Rowen, so it sent them in a huge circle.

At any rate, if the Dynasty really wanted to involve the family of the Ronins, they would find them all just as easily as they would if they were all dating. Leora was in no more danger dating Rowen than she was by just being Sage of the Halo's sister!

Now, if they could just get that through Sage's thick hair and into his equally thick skull, they might actually get through this vacation without a hitch. That, of course, was wishful thinking.

"They're not out here, either," Rowen murmured as they stepped out of the building and into the sunlight of the late afternoon, mid-evening hour. Mia's jeep was no where to be seen parked along the terminal, nor could they see any sign of it on the horizon.

"Should we call them?" Leora asked as she reached into her purse for her cell phone. "Ah, damn, no service!"

"Airports hardly ever have any service," Rowen muttered as he set their luggage down and claimed a seat on one of the bigger bags. "We might as well just wait. They knew we were coming, so they're bound to show up soon,"

"Hopefully," Leora plopped down onto the bag next to him and rested her head in her hand and her elbows on her knees. Rowen smiled softly. She looked so damned cute when she was pouting that it was hard not to smile at the sight.

It was dark outside by the time Rowen and Leora reached Mia's estate in a cab, having finally given up on waiting for a ride from the group. It was obvious that they'd forgotten that the couple was coming, which was unlike Mia, but it didn't matter at this point because they were there now.

As they climbed the steps and stepped in through the unlocked door, Leora sought out the room where the group was gathered and glared at the back of all their heads. The only one that seemed to be missing from the group was Kento, but that didn't matter to her at this point.

"It's so nice to know that we're loved!" She announced, her hands resting on her lithe hips. Six heads, and one feline head, turned in her direction with the announcement, looking stunned.

"Of course you're loved!" A woman that had been sitting on the ground next to Ryo hopped up and approached her, wrapping her into a hug. "We were starting to wonder what was keeping you all. Did Kento get lost?"

"Kento?" Rowen questioned as he dropped their bags by the door. "You sent Kento to come and get us? No wonder!"

"What do you mean?" Jenna, the woman who had hugged Leora, stepped back in surprise. "Damn it, Ryo! I told you we shouldn't have left that fat brat go to get them! He probably stopped to eat and ended up in the arcade!"

"What a baka," Sage snarled as he stopped up and approached his sister, noticing the flicker of something feral flashing in her eyes as he came up to her. "What? I can't hug my own sister?"

"That depends," Leora muttered as she allowed him to wrap his arms around her, stiffly returning the gesture.

"On what?" Sage pouted cutely as he stepped back from her, but he already knew why she was so predatory. "You know my standing on that, Le," He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't like it,"

"Do you feel better now that you've said it, because I'm putting my foot down this time. I don't want to hear one word about it during this trip! I've had a really stressful day and I really can't handle any lip from you over who I choose to date,"

"Fine. And what's been so stressful?"

"We flew through a storm on the way here, which scared me so much that I had an asthma attack," Leora muttered as she moved to grab her purse from off the floor to search for her inhaler again. "And thank God I refilled my prescription before we left, or I would have been screwed. What's Kento's number so I can curse the baka out for forgetting about me!"

At this, Sage smiled and gladly dished out the digits while Ryo and Cye helped Rowen get the bags up to his room, all three of them chatting along about how much they'd all missed over the course of the year. The three women in the room, Mia, Jenna, and Cye's girlfriend, Sarah, all approached Leora and shared tight hugs and chatted along while Kento ignored his phone. Sage tried calling after that, with the same fruitless results, and vowed to beat the idiot into a pulp once he got back home.

"We could always start dinner without him," Yuli offered, stretching as he rose from his spot near White Blaze. Leora smiled at him, amazed at how much the fourteen-year-old had grown over the year she'd been gone.

"That would probably be a more effective punishment," Jenna chuckled as she looped her arm into Leora's. "So, girl chat,"

"That would be our cue to leave, Sage," Yuli chuckled and the last two remaining males fled upstairs with the others, White Blaze not far behind.

"So?" Jenna questioned as she lead Leora to the couch so the woman could relax for a little while. "That phone call a few weeks back ended rather abruptly, and you never called me back with details, so now I want to know! Did you two…?"

Leora's cheeks flushed red when she realized what Jenna was asking, and she turned to look over her shoulder to make sure that Sage hadn't lingered around and then nodded. The second the gesture was made, all three of the women cheered and laughed, which made Leora laugh.

"You all act like it's some big accomplishment,"

"You and Rowen have been together for three years, Leora! And you two hadn't had," Jenna paused and whispered, just in case, "sex at all! So, yes, it's an accomplishment!"

"Sage was always breathing down our necks about us being together, and he still is, but I finally just put my foot down on the situation. Still, don't tell him!"

"Honey, you've got nothing to worry about," Mia promised as the reflection of headlights on the mirror above the fire place drew her towards the window. "Oh look who's home,"

"Kento? Let me at him!" Leora leapt off the couch the second she heard the front door closed and then she marched straight out and punched the hulk of muscle in the arm. "You forgot about me!"

Surprised, Kento just stared at her and then, as realization dawned on him, his eyes got really wide. "Ooh! I'm sorry!" The second it looked like she was going to accept his apology, he bolted up the stairs in fear of her wrath, but Leora followed him, cursing his name under her breath. Luckily, it was about that time when the rest of the males in the group stepped out of Rowen's room and blocked Kento's retreat.

"Hello, baka," Sage glared, his arms folded over his chest. "I believe there's something important that you were supposed to do this evening that you didn't?"

"I…uh…" Kento, knowing he was completely cornered, scratched the back of his neck and plastered the biggest grin he could manage onto his face. "I'm sorry? Guess I got distracted…"

End Chapter! Sorry, again, for the lack of updates. Moving, new job, etc, all very stressful and time consuming. But here is a chapter that I hope you shall all enjoy!!! I apologize for the lack of attention that I've been giving to my stories lately, but, like I said, it's been hard to move so far from home and then get settled into a new job. Thanks for your patience!!