You Shook Me All Night Long

Sarah Dupont called Sora when the latter was out running errands in the city, so Leon was not witness to his girlfriend's reaction to having gotten an offer so quickly. Her first impulse was, of course, to jump and fist pump in the air, before doing an elaborate imitation of Angus Young's guitar solo right there, in the middle of the street. Then… then came the other things. Like guilt. And worry. And fear.

She swept them under the carpet for later. At the moment, she focused on listening to Sarah-san's instructions. Kaleido Stage was an acting company from Cape Mary, USA, where they combined dance and elaborate magic tricks to create a show for the audience. Sarah had come to talent-scout for the boss, Kalos, but she couldn't stay for long in Oxford to interview Sora in person.

"You'll have to meet Kalos, of course, and come to an audition, but from what I saw that night, I'm more than certain you'll get the spot." Sarah's voice was bright and cheerful, all sunshine and fields of daffodils. Sora couldn't help but feel the soft caress of it, and thought that if everyone in Kaleido Stage as like her, she had just found her dream job.

But as soon as she hung up, the questions toppled over her like a tidal wave. She had gotten a job offer, but the audition was held on the other end of the globe. Where was she going to get the money to travel? Sarah had said she got it in the bag, but was that enough of a reason to call her parents? Sora made some rough calculations to determine whether or not the money she had earned as a model for Leon would be enough for plane tickets and board for a couple of nights.

Speaking of which, she had to tell him before she reconsidered and chickened out of it.

"I got a job!"

Leon paused with the brush halfway to the canvas and looked up at his girlfriend. Sora's hair was disheveled and her cheeks were flushed from excitement. For a split second he wondered how he could reproduce that color, and then her words caught up with his brain.

"What?" he blinked.

"I… I got a job…" she said breathlessly. Her chest heaved, and it became painfully obvious she had run. But he put that thought aside just as he put the easel aside and stood up.

"That soon?" Disbelief and wonder laced in his voice.

"Yeah. I got a call from Sarah Dupont of Kaleido Stage… they're inviting me over for an audition."

"Sora, that's amazing!" Leon exclaimed, grabbed her around the waist and gave her a twirl, before setting to the business of kissing her breathless. Neither seemed to register that they didn't know where Kaleido Stage was, or that Sora would have to travel. They kissed for a while, before moving to the couch in the living room, where they sat down to drink tea and talk. It wasn't until Sora gave him every detail of the conversation that it dawned on him. She had gotten a job. It was very likely that she would have to move.

He refused to dwell on it, and focused on being the loving, supporting boyfriend he was supposed to be and not some possessive jerk that couldn't stand the thought of his girlfriend separating herself from him for ten seconds.

Still, some of his inner turmoil must've shown on his face, because Sora decided to forgo telling him all about her new job in favor of asking him if he was alright.

Leon shook his head and tried to make up some feeble excuse. However, she didn't need more incentive, because the next thing he knew, he was being tackled on his back and his girlfriend commenced a round of what was lately her favorite past time – wrestling with him.

Naturally, the concept of wrestling with Leon was doomed from the start, given his height and build. Trying to bring him down (or, at least, in Sora's case), was like a little pup trying to take down a large oak by itself. At first he had preferred to let her have her fun and wait until she got tired, until he discovered just how fun it was to fight back. Like when she tried to tackle him, he wrapped his hands around her and flipped them over. Or like when she tried to put him in a headlock and he flipped her to her back. Or when, heaven help them, she wrapped her legs around his waist, and he got to do what was probably the initial purpose of the exercise.

Yeah… it had become pretty clear that wrestling was her way of initiating things, and God bless her for that.

At that particular moment, she tried tackling him down. Leon fell off the couch, conveniently taking the bigger hit, before turning so that Sora was on her back, her legs trapped between his and her hands pinned above her head. She was laughing hard even when he bent down to kiss her.

Only when he moved to pick her up and carry her to the bedroom, she turned and, with one dexterous flick of her leg managed to flip him over. Next thing he knew, her legs were wrapped around his neck and she had him immobilized. "Gotcha." She grinned. Leon raised an eyebrow, before considering their position and deciding that he liked it.

"Now that we got all this animosity out of the way…" she said "How about you tell me what's been eating you?"

Leon frowned. "Who says anything's eating me up?"

"Me. You looked like you got a knife in the gut back then." She loosened her hold on him and skidded back until she was straddling his waist and he could sit up. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. Just slightly swarmed with finals coming up and stuff." He shrugged. "I'm sorry I can't appreciate your success like I ought to right now…"

"It's ok. It's not even certain I got the job. Sarah-san was optimistic, but I imagine she usually is…"

"No, no, that's a great thing for you. There aren't enough people who get to do something they love for a living."

"Yeah. We're two of the lucky ones." She said as she caressed his face "Well, if finals are all you're worried about, we can arrange for a distraction. The girls have been preparing to move out. They're telling me we should come over this Saturday and have goodbye dinner at their place, and I've been thinking we could go earlier and help them haul."

"That's your idea for fun?"

"It's a distraction. Of course, if you'd rather we do something else…"

"There's a million other things I'd rather do on a Saturday, but let's put that aside for a second." Leon let her laugh to her heart's content, before saying "What about May? Are the girls positive she won't make a scene?"

"Apparently, May moved out not too long after the little showdown we had the day your aunt came to see you." Sora said "Anna told me that after we fought, May started to argue with them more, trying to set them against you and me. The girls were having doubts to begin with, so when she made them pick sides, they decided to go with their guts."

"I can imagine the scandal."

"Yeah. Anna wouldn't give me the details, but basically May accused them of betraying her when they got ready to come and see me, and when they returned, they found out she packed up her things and left. Apparently, she moved in with Ken."

Leon raised both brows. "Now that's a surprise. I didn't know they were that close."

"We weren't that much close either when you took me in." Sora reminded him.

"I beg to differ. We were working together for a long while, we'd known each other for even longer, you slapped me once and we stayed together in Paris."

"Which reminds me. I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"For slapping you." She touched his cheek and traced it with the tips of her fingers, before cupping it in her hand. Leon, however, looked indignant.

"Why the hell should you apologize for that? I barely even remember that." She'd bestowed so many caresses he'd completely forgotten about that single slap. She didn't hit all that strong anyway. "And anyway, I believe we already established that you're not making a saint of me. In spite of the current… state of affairs, May was your friend at the time, and I hurt her. Moreover, I hurt you. I think the slap was well deserved."

"Yes, but I usually don't fight my battles with fists. It was rash of me to act like I did."

"Why do I get the feeling that there is more to this than just guilt over one slap?" Leon cupped her cheek and lifted her face to go on a level with his "What's wrong, Sora?"

"I was just thinking about May…" she mumbled "We were friends once, too, weren't we? There were times when I could barely stand her, but we were still friends. And then, because of one lie she turned me out of the house, called me a traitor and jumped down my throat. She was acting on impulse because no matter what we say, we hurt her, and she felt betrayed. Maybe it wasn't justified…" she said when she saw him open his mouth to object "…but to her, it was. It made plenty of sense to her. As it made sense to me to be mad at you, even if I had no idea why you fought or why she broke up with you."

They were silent for a while as Leon considered what she had said, and finally said: "Sora, you do realize there's a difference. You both may have done things in blind anger - we all have – but when you came down from it, you were sorry. May held onto her petty anger and finally convinced herself she was right. She never apologized. She never tried to see things in another way. You did. You don't have to apologize."

"Please let me do it…"

"If you do it, I won't come with you to your friends' place to haul books and furniture."

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun! Layla-san even promised to bring her boyfriend over."

"Well, that wins me over."

"Really? That was fast."

"It's a good deal." He shrugged "They spend so much time speculating about that guy I won't be the main attraction for once."

"Leon! You're not an animal!"

He grinned evilly. "Oh? I'm not?" he asked in an eerily calm voice.

"No. Not one bit."

"Oh, Sora…" he said in a mock sorry voice "You really shouldn't have said that."

Later, when they were blissfully naked and tired in bed, Sora remembered Sarah Dupont's instructions and told Leon she might have to go to Cape Mary around the end of the month for the auditions. She delivered the news in a casual tone, the type people use for setting up dentist appointments and making grocery lists, even though it hardly corresponded with her state of mind. In spite of the happiness she felt for having gotten an opportunity to start earning money on her own, she felt reluctant to leave and have him left behind.

She was in love. It was natural not to want to be separated. Even now, with three weeks until she had to take that trip, she felt dread about it all and fear about what would happen to their relationship. A fear which, she admitted, made her want to beg him to come with her and never let her go. What would become of their relationship, their easy intimacy, she wondered, when they were separated by thousands of miles of water and land? She'd heard enough horror stories about long distance relationships to be worried.

At the same time, the link that closed the vicious circle was that she would never, not in a thousand years, ask him to come with her. If she did, she would easily come off as the sort of clingy woman May was, and it was not something she was willing to put up with.

Leon listened to her explanation, before bending over the bed and searching for something underneath it. He pulled his laptop out and opened it on his knees, shifting slightly so that she could cuddle him without getting accidentally elbowed by his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked, curious.

"Booking plane tickets." He replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "I heard that it was nice there at this time of year."

Sora blinked slowly, trying to determine if he was serious or not. "Leon, you don't need to buy me a plane ticket, I could do that myself." She said, trying to sound sincere, even though she had already been wondering what kind of shock this trip would give to her credit card. Leon seemed to have come to the same conclusion, because he snorted contemptuously.

"I'll make you a deal – when you're rich and famous and considerably better off than me, I'll let you buy me a plane ticket, and I'll buy you one, and we'll go to some nice tropical island together." He said, kissing her nose. "Now, do you prefer isle or a window seat?"

A/N - *singsong* I'm baaaaaaaack! Missed me?

I'm hap-hap-happy, relaxed, refreshed, and I'm enjoying my last holiday as a schoolgirl as much as I can. There's a lot I could talk about, but most of all - thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews you left, they made me smile until my face hurt when I returned. Unfortunately, and some of you guessed it, this story is coming to an end (whines), but I have another idea (cheers) which involves Sora and Leon, but also Layla and Yuri, for all their fans. I'll talk more when I write it, but I've also started working a little on the Angel/Demon story (La Derniere Nuit), which is in English, and is posted on the site. I'll start updating it as soon as this story is finished.

Optimistic, isn't it?