Chapter 29: Reunions

Opening day for Fire and Ice fast approached, yet the Ice Prince's refrozen heart had yet to fully thaw toward his partner - a fact that soon became evident to almost everybody involved in the production. Mia Guillem, the head director of the show, was practically pulling out her hair as she watched a cold run-through of the production with May, the owner, his wife, and producer Yuri Killian. Yume couldn't be certain, but she thought she had heard Mia cry out, "This is a total disaster!" at one point in the show, although the director was all forced smiles afterwards as she gave the gathered cast a pep talk.

"Well, there are still some things we need to work on before we open, but that was a great start, guys," she lied through her teeth.

Beside Yume, Pilar snorted in disbelief. "In what universe was that great?" she muttered as Mia began going over the copious amount of notes she had taken during the show. "I wouldn't watch the show we just did for free, much less spend some of my hard-earned money for a ticket."

Clarissa jabbed Pilar in the ribcage with her elbow. "Pilar!"

"What? I'm just being honest."

"She's right," Yume agreed with a sigh, knowing that as the lead female star she was at least partially to blame for the lackluster performance. "I'm sorry I didn't skate my best today."

"Nobody is blaming you, Yume," Becca, who stood on the other side of her, said. "We all saw how hard you were trying, but with Mikhail making so many mistakes…"

"Hard to believe that he's an Olympic gold medalist after watching that performance, isn't it?" Zoe asked. "He didn't land a single clean jump today. I thought he was supposed to be the technically perfect Ice Prince."

"Nobody's perfect, not even Mikhail Vladimirov."

"I know, but still…"

Yume understood what she meant. As his partner, she had witnessed Mikhail miss the occasional jump here and there during practice, but it had been shocking to see him fall apart like that during the rehearsal. Even when they first started having problems in their off-ice relationship, he had managed to at least perform up to his usual technical skill level. Today, however, he had popped or fallen on every jump attempt, failed to give her the necessary height on their throws and twists, spun woefully out-of-sync, and even slipped during a footwork sequence. It wasn't like him at all, and he had stormed out of the rink immediately after the last number, not even waiting to hear what Mia had to say about the performance. After telling Yume to stay put, an irate May had chased after him, no doubt aiming to give him a piece of her mind.

"Is he injured?" Elizaveta wondered. "Has he mentioned not feeling well lately, Yume?"

"Um, no, not really…" She still hadn't told her friends that they were barely speaking, worried that it would cause problems just before the show.

"Okay, enough beating around the bush," Pilar said, hands on hips. "What is going on between you two? You've been acting more like strangers than boyfriend and girlfriend the past few days, and don't even try to deny it. We've all noticed it. Mikhail didn't even look at you unless it was part of the choreography. Are you guys fighting?"

"Well…um…"

Fortunately, Yume was saved from being put on the spot when Kalos scolded them for not paying attention to Mia's critique. Chastised, she gave her full attention to the director for the rest of the meeting, ignoring Pilar's continued whispered questions, then slipped away from her friends almost as soon as they were dismissed.

She was worried about Mikhail. Maybe Elizaveta's suspicions were correct and he was either injured or sick. She could think of no other reason for him to have such a disastrous skate. Assuming that he had headed back to his room after rehearsal, Yume checked out the men's dormitory, getting no answer no matter how many times she knocked on his door.

She frowned. Even if they weren't currently on the best of terms, she was getting frustrated with Mikhail's tendency to give her the silent treatment whenever he was upset about something.

"Are you looking for Mikhail?"

Startled, Yume turned around. Dominique's partner, Sebastien, was standing in front of the door next to Mikhail's, one hand on the knob, the other holding his keys.

"Have you seen him?"

"Yeah, I just saw him heading toward the beach. He seemed to be in a pretty pissy mood. Coach Wong must have really laid into him."

Well, at least he wasn't purposely ignoring me, Yume thought. "Thanks," she said, leaving to go find her partner.

However, when she reached the beach, Mikhail was nowhere in sight. The place was deserted, save for a pile of discarded clothes Yume found laying in the sand. She walked over and picked up the navy-colored sweatshirt on top of the stack, recognizing it as the same one Mikhail had worn during rehearsal. She glanced around for a second time, squinting her eyes and shielding them from the bright sun with her hand until she finally spotted him in the water, swimming amongst the waves.

It's not just on ice - he's so graceful, even swimming in the ocean, Yume thought, impressed with his perfect form and high speed as he crossed the water. She was only a decent swimmer herself, preferring water to be frozen, but if Mikhail hadn't decided to become a figure skater, she had no doubt he would have done just as well as an Olympic-level swimmer with the proper training.

She placed his shirt back on top of the pile and dropped her skate bag beside it, taking a seat in the sand to wait for him. It wasn't long before he emerged from the water, dripping wet and dressed only in a pair of tiny black compression shorts. Feeling her cheeks warm, Yume reached for her bag and began digging around for a towel as he walked up to her.

He came to a stop about a foot in front of her, his shadow announcing his close presence. "Yume…"

"Um, here," she said, finally locating a clean towel and holding it out to him. "You should dry off."

Mikhail hesitated for a moment before taking it. "Thanks." After quickly toweling off, he put his sweatshirt back on and, to Yume's surprise, plopped down on the sand beside her. "I'm sorry," he said, sighing as he ran a hand through his wet hair. "I skated terribly this morning."

Yume's first instinct was to assure him that he hadn't performed that badly, that every skater had "off" days when it seemed like they could do nothing right, but they both knew that rehearsal had been a disaster. There was no point in trying to sugar-coat it. "What happened?" she asked instead. "Are you sick? Injured? Is it a problem with your skates?"

Mikhail shook his head. "No, physically, I feel fine, and my skates are in good condition…" He stared down at his hands, rolling his fingers into tight, clenched fists. "I-I don't know why I skated like that. I just don't know."

He sounded so…lost. Defeated. Silently, Yume reached for his left hand, unfurling his fingers to thread her own between them. She expected him to immediately pull away from her, as he had done so often as of late when she tried to show him affection, so she was surprised when she felt him squeeze her hand back. The two of them continued sitting like that, hands clasped together, for several minutes, until Mikhail finally loosened his grip and let go.

"Sorry," he apologized again. "I shouldn't -"

"It's fine," she said. "More than fine, really."

"No, it's not. I keep sending you mixed signals, and it isn't fair to you." He stood back up. "I should go."

"Wait, Misha…please." She rose to her feet as well, reaching for him. "I wasn't lying when I told you I loved you the other day, and I think you feel the same about me. I'm not just imagining things, am I?"

"Yume, d-don't…"

"Why? Why are you so afraid?"

"Afraid?" He let out a laugh, although it sounded rather forced to Yume's ears. "I'm not afraid. Don't be ridiculous."

"I think you are."

"Of what?"

"I don't know…" she admitted, letting go of her hold on his arm. She wasn't even sure why she had said that, the words leaving her mouth without much forethought. "Getting your heart broken again? Isn't that the reason why Ekaterina tested me? Because she thought I would hurt you like Tatiana?"

"That's not the only reason," he said in a barely audible voice.

Yume's brow furrowed. "Not the only reason? What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Mikhail said, glancing away. "Nothing, it's not important. Besides, shouldn't you be heading to rink? You are still doing the Lovers' Maneuver training, aren't you?"

She glanced down at her watch and frowned. True, it was about time for her to leave, but she hated to run off in the middle of their conversation, especially when it seemed like they were finally getting somewhere.

"Go," he prodded her, sensing her hesitation. He gave her back the towel he had borrowed, then reached for his pants. "Don't let me keep you."

"I thought you said I was wasting my time with the training," she reminded him.

"It doesn't really matter what I think, does it? You're still going to do it anyway."

"Yeah, but…" Yume bit down on her bottom lip. A part of her wanted to ask him to come with her and resume his training, but she already knew what his answer would be. There was no point in even asking, so she gathered her things and threw her skate bag over her shoulder. "I guess I'll see you later, then."

"Yeah, later."


Mikhail's words continued to echo in Yume's mind for the rest of the day.

That's not the only reason.

What did he mean by that? Was there really another reason why Ekaterina had schemed to cause problems between them? And if so, was that why Mikhail kept pushing her away even though Yume suspected that he still cared about her? What was he so afraid of, anyway? No matter how much he denied it, Yume knew something was scaring him, something other than the fear of a broken heart.

Still not wanting to discuss things with Pilar and the others, she decided to skip dinner in the cafeteria and ordered takeout from a Japanese restaurant near the skating center on her way home from training. She ate alone in her dorm room, then headed down to the beach for a walk, half-disappointed and half-relieved to see that Mikhail had decided to forgo his usual habit of watching the sunset. She jogged along the shoreline for about fifteen minutes just in case he was running behind schedule, but when he had yet to appear even after the last rays of sun had dipped into the horizon, Yume gave up and headed back to her room.

After taking a long soak in the bath, she went to bed, but sleep was elusive. She tossed and turned for a couple of hours, unable to stop thinking about the conversation she had with Mikhail. Finally, Yume got back up and brewed herself a cup of tea, hoping that the chamomile would relax her enough to cure her insomnia.

She took a seat at the table in the kitchenette, relying only on the moonlight that flowed through the sliding glass doors for illumination, and tried to push all thoughts out of her mind as she sipped the hot drink. The crisp apple-like taste was pleasing on her tongue, and she soon calmed down, enjoying the peaceful tranquility of the midnight hour - although it was not to last for long.

I wish Fool was here, Yume thought to herself, staring down at the tea leaves at the bottom of her empty tea bowl. Even if his fortune-telling was just a bunch of hocus-pocus nonsense, she was desperate enough to try almost anything to find some answers to the questions swimming around in her head.

Absent-mindedly, Yume twisted the bowl in her hands around three times, then flipped it over, draining it of the last bits of remaining liquid. She then peered again inside the upright bowl, laughing at herself when realized what she was doing.

"Yume, you are being ridiculous," she lectured herself, pushing the bowl away and standing up. "You're not going to get any answers by reading tea leaves, of all things."

Yet…

With a roll of her eyes, she sat back down at the kitchen table and reached again for the tea bowl. Maybe she was being ridiculous, but Yume supposed it wouldn't hurt to at least give it a shot - not that she would ever admit that to Fool, should he ever choose to reappear.

However, she couldn't make heads or tails out of the pictures the tea leaves supposedly made. They just looked like…well, normal tea leaves to her. Maybe, if she stretched her imagination, she could see something that might have been a gun, but it could have just as easily been a capital letter "L" turned on its side.

"L, L, L… For the Lover's Maneuver, maybe?" she thought aloud. "But if it really is a gun… Bullet? Blood? Danger?" She shook her head, not liking where that train of thought was leading her. "No, it's definitely an L," Yume decided and turned her attention to another area of the cup.

The next image she spotted in the leaves was another letter turned on its side, this time a lower-case T…or maybe a cross? But she wasn't particularly religious, so she tossed that thought aside. The letter "t" seemed wrong, too, as she couldn't think of any words that began with "t" that might apply to her current situation except for Tatiana, but wouldn't a capital "T" be more appropriate in that case? Besides, Mikhail had assured her several times that he no longer loved Tatiana, and despite her earlier doubts, she finally believed him.

Yume frowned, trying to think of what else it could be. There was a thin line cutting through the "t"/cross/whatever it was, making it look like it was cracked. It made her think of a broken arm, or perhaps a wing. Maybe a bird? Or a plane? Some kind of accident?

Again, she didn't like what she was seeing.

"Oh, this is silly! I don't even know what I'm doing," Yume said, making a motion to stand up again, but something kept her glued to the chair. She decided to try looking in the bowl one more time, hoping that she found at least one symbol that was unambiguously positive. A heart would be nice; she remembered from one of Fool's previous readings that hearts meant "love".

There were no hearts in sight, though she did spot an umbrella, which boosted her spirits a little. After all, in Japan, sharing an umbrella was considered a romantic gesture. She remembered how her classmates often "forgot" their umbrellas at home on rainy days, just so that they could ask to walk home with their crushes, and it was a common sight to see love-struck girls drawing umbrellas with their names underneath it, similar to the more Western tradition of surrounding the names of a couple with a heart.

But umbrellas were hardly an universal symbol of love. More likely it represented something like rain…or maybe tears? Yume shook her head, going back to the rain idea. Maybe it was warning her that she would get in an accident during a rainstorm? She failed to see how that had anything to do with her problems with Mikhail, however. Besides, it rarely rained in Cape Mary, and even when it did, it was usually just a light sprinkle.

No, Yume didn't think that was it, but she couldn't think of any other possible interpretations either, even after thinking about it for a good five minutes. A gun (or "L"), a broken wing, and an umbrella…

"I guess I'm just not cut out for fortune-telling," she said, giving up and rinsing the tea leaves out of the bowl. It had been a stupid idea anyway.

Yume headed back to bed, but her head had barely hit the pillow when she sat back again, having found her answer. In fact, the answer was so obvious, she couldn't believe that it took her so long to realize what was going on.

"That has to be it!" she thought, grabbing her robe from the foot of the bed and dashing out of the room.


As soon as the door to Mikhail's dorm swung opened, Yume blurted out, "I understand it now. It all makes sense."

Mikhail, who had obviously been woken up by her knocking, rubbed one of his eyes. "Yume, do you realize what time it is?"

"Yes." Without waiting for an invitation to come in, she brushed past him and entered his dorm. Normally she wouldn't be so rude, but she was determined to confront him and didn't want to give him the chance to lock her out. "We need to talk."

Mikhail sighed in resignation and closed the door behind her. "Fine, make yourself at home."

Yume glanced around, looking for a place to sit. His dorm room was even messier than she remembered it, his couch buried underneath a pile of clothes, magazines, and assorted exercise equipment. "Do you ever clean in here?" she asked, shaking her head and deciding she'd rather remain standing. "Never mind. I didn't come here to discuss your housekeeping abilities."

"Why are you here? Couldn't this have waited until morning?"

"Sorry, I just couldn't sleep until I talked to you."

"About what?"

Yume turned back around to face him. "I figured it out," she said. "I know what it is you are so afraid of."

He scoffed. "I told you, I'm no-"

"It's the Lovers' Maneuver, isn't it? That's why you've been trying to push me away. You are afraid to perform the Lovers' Maneuver."

"Yume…" His voice was almost pleading for her to stop, confirming that she was on the right track.

"I knew it! You were hesitant to do it in the first place, but you agreed to it because you knew how much it meant to me. However, when your sister set me up to be caught with Sergei, you saw an opportunity to back out of it by claiming that you couldn't trust me anymore, although you knew what happened wasn't my fault."

"T-That's not -"

"Misha, stop it." She stepped forward, reaching for his hands. "Please, stop shutting me out and tell me the truth. I'm right, aren't I?"

Mikhail didn't immediately reply. Yume sensed he was debating with himself over what to tell her. After a while, however, he pulled his hands away and asked, "Do you know what the Lovers' Maneuver is?"

"No, of course not. Fool said he wasn't going to tell us anything about the actual mechanics until he had judged us worthy, remember?" Yume frowned. "I don't know why, but it seems really important that we don't know until we're ready. Even Merle and Sam were careful to make certain that we didn't see each other's special training."

"But Katia did," he said. "The truth is, when I went to see her right before she went back home, she confessed that's the real reason why she 'tested' you. She had seen both of our training sessions, and from that, she was able to put the pieces together. She realized right away that the Lovers' Maneuver was more than just merely dangerous; it was downright suicidal. That's why Katia wanted to break us up - to stop us from attempting it."

So that's what he had meant earlier. Another one of her questions answered. Still… "Coach Palmer warned us about the risks the day we asked her to train us. You didn't seem to mind that much at the time."

"I thought she was just exaggerating, trying to convince us not to attempt it, you know? I knew it would be hard, and that there would probably be some risks, but I never imagined…"

His voice trailing off, Mikhail closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, as if trying to compose himself before a big skate. However, when he opened them again, there was an enormous fear in those ice blue eyes that rarely showed emotion. Yume felt a small shiver run up her spine that had nothing to do with the light draft she had felt from the moment she entered the room, and she reached again for one of Mikhail's hands.

They were shaking.

"Is it that bad?"

"I can't do it, Yume," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I cannot ask you to put your life in danger like that just for the sake of some damn figure skating move. I won't do it."

"Shouldn't that be partly my decision to make?" she asked. "Didn't we agree that we would make all our major decisions together, like true partners?"

Mikhail stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "We aren't talking about where to go on our next date, Yume," he said. "This is about you risking your life on some silly maneuver, and I won't let you do it!"

Yume released his hand, suddenly furious. "You won't let me?"

"That came out wrong."

"No, I think you said exactly what you meant to say." She crossed her arms over her chest. "So all your talk about having an equal partnership, that was really just all talk? You never meant any of it?"

"Of course I meant it. I still do, but…" He shook his head in frustration. "Damn it, I'm trying to protect you! Can't you see that?"

"I didn't ask for your protection."

"Maybe not, but I swore that I would never hurt you again." He pulled Yume into her arms, her ear pressed up against his chest. His heartbeat was racing so fast, it was as if his heart had been replaced with a jackhammer. "I-I can't lose you, Yume," Mikhail said, his voice cracking a little as he tightened his embrace. "You are far too important to me."

Her anger fading, Yume didn't know quite what to say. She knew Mikhail still felt guilty about her accident during the throw triple axel, but she had never realized until that moment just how much it had affected him. "Misha…"

"Do you understand now? Why I don't want to do the Lovers' Maneuver?"

Yume nodded, then pulled away from his embrace. "But I still want to do it," she declared, dead-serious, staring him straight in the eye.

"Yu-"

Before he could finish his protest, Yume placed a finger on his lips, silencing him. She did understand Mikhail's apprehension over performing the Lovers' Maneuver, and she appreciated it, more than she could ever put into words, but she refused to let his fear dampen her own determination.

"I understand why you don't want to do it, but can you please at least try to understand why it is so important to me to perform the Lovers' Maneuver?"

"Okay, fine. Tell me why you insist on putting your life in danger. Do you have some kind of death wish?" he asked, not joking in the least.

"Of course not!"

"Then why?"

Sighing, Yume turned her back to Mikhail, hugging herself. Despite what she had said, it was difficult to admit the truth, even to herself. "What I am about to tell you," she said after a long pause, "I've never told anybody else before. I don't even like to admit it to myself most of the time, but no matter how hard I try, I can't deny it."

She felt Mikhail come up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "What is it?" His voice was gentler than before.

"I love my sister; you know that, right?" she asked. "I've idolized her since I was five years old and old enough to remember seeing her perform at Kaleido Stage." Remembering that day, Yume couldn't resist a smile. "I still remember that show. It was Beauty and the Beast. Sora was Belle, of course, and Leon Oswald played opposite her as the Beast. I had never seen anything so incredible in my entire life. It was like…magic, and Sora was just so amazing. I couldn't believe it."

"Your sister is a remarkable performer."

"She is," Yume agreed, losing her smile, "and that's why I'm jealous of her."

"Jealous?" Mikhail turned her around. "Why are you jealous of Sora? Yume, you are a wonderful performer in your own right," he said. "I saw the tape of you at All-Japan, and I was awed by your ability to make the audience forget about your mistakes in the beginning by sheer strength of your performance alone. You looked so beautiful and free… All I am is my technique. Had I made as many mistakes as you, I probably would have given up in the middle of the program, but not you. You… What's that American idiom? You took lemons and made lemonade. That was the thing I admired most about you."

"Thanks," she said, her cheeks flushed at the compliment. "Still, I was never able to reach Sora's level, no matter how hard I tried. Do you remember the first time you took me to the beach, the night of Clarissa's birthday party?"

Mikhail smiled. "Yes, of course I do. I'll never forget it. After all, that was the night we shared our first kiss."

Yume had nearly forgotten about that part, so focused on her story, and blushed even brighter. "Besides that, remember how I told you the reason why I chose figure skating over gymnastics was because I felt destined to be a skater?"

"That's not true?"

"It is, but it's not the whole story," she confessed, her eyes downcast. "The truth is, I quit gymnastics because I knew I would never be as good as Sora. I just didn't have the talent."

"Hey, there's no shame in that." He lifted up her chin. "People are good at different things. Sora may have been the better gymnast, but you are by far the better figure skater. I've seen that recording of when Coach Wong played Mina Murray in Dracula. Your sister was good, but nowhere near your level on the ice."

"Did Coach Wong also happen to mention that Sora learned to skate just weeks before the show?"

At that revelation, Mikhail seemed a little more impressed. "She was that good after only a couple of weeks on the ice? At sixteen years old?"

Yume rolled her eyes. "See? If she had continued with her skating, she would have even been a better skater than me. I'm just lucky that she never had more than a fleeting interest in it."

"Yume, you're being silly. You don't know that. Besides, you and your sister aren't in some kind of competition."

She sighed, realizing how ridiculous she must sound. "I know, and I don't want to compete with Sora. I really don't. I love her and admire her a lot for all that she's accomplished, but…"

"You want to prove to yourself that you can be just as great a performer as your sister," he completed, and Yume nodded, glad he seemed to understand.

"And it's not only that. Whenever Sora talks about performing the Legendary Great Maneuver and the Angel's Maneuver, it's like she's describing…I don't know, a religious experience, or something. I've always want to feel something like that. I thought I had at All-Japan, but now I think that was only just a taste of what could happen if we actually pulled off the Lovers' Maneuver," she said. "Don't you want to share that kind of experience with me?"

"What I want is to keep you safe."

"I will be."

"How can you say that, after what happened with the throw triple axel?"

"Because I trust you with my life," Yume declared, and then she kissed him.

Soft at first, the kiss grew more passionate as Mikhail began to respond to her touch. All thoughts of their current argument faded away, replaced by a fiery need that Yume feared might consume her if she held it in any longer. She truly did trust Mikhail with her life; he would do anything in his power to keep her safe from harm. That knowledge gave her courage to not only tackle the Lovers' Maneuver, but to give herself completely to him as well - heart, body, and soul.

Her heart pounding in anticipation, Yume's fingers moved downward toward the hem of his plain white undershirt. Mikhail sucked in a sharp breath, realizing what she was planning to do, and reached for her hands. Not a word was spoken between them, but the look in his eyes as he looked down at her clearly asked, "Are you sure about this?" In reply, Yume pushed the shirt up his torso and pulled it over his head before slipping out of her robe, leaving her only in her camisole and shorts.

Yume expected to experience some nerves right before her first time, but she felt strangely calm about what was about to happen, not even a hint of a butterfly fluttering in her stomach. It was the more practiced Mikhail whose hands shook as they roamed up her bared arms, sending pleasant shivers up her spine.

"Do you really want to do this?" he asked is a soft voice. He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

She nodded her consent, and Mikhail swept her into his arms, carrying her the short distance from the living room to his open bedroom. He closed the door behind them with his hip, then gently set Yume down in the middle the unmade bed. Moonlight trickled through the curtains above the bed, providing the only illumination in the room until Mikhail turned on the lamp on the nightstand table and began rummaging through a mishmash of miscellaneous items in the drawer. When he found what he was looking for, he tossed the small foil-wrapped package on the table, then turned his attention back to Yume as he stripped off his pajama pants. She followed suit, taking off the rest of her clothes and tossing them on the floor.

After slipping on the condom, Mikhail joined Yume on the bed and situated himself between her legs. "You are so beautiful," he said, trailing feather light kisses down her neck and chest.

Yume let out a low moan, squirming with barely-contained excitement underneath him. She wanted to feel him inside of her, yet Mikhail seemed content to take his time, preferring to explore almost every inch of her body with a combination of his hands and mouth. His hot breath warmed her cool skin, only inflaming her desire even more.

Closing her eyes, she drew in a deep breath and tried to relax. There was no need to rush. It was her first time, and Yume wanted to remember everything… Every kiss, every touch, every murmur of her name on Mikhail's lips… Even his scent - a mixture of soap, shampoo, and some fragrance that could only be described as distinctly his - left its mark on her, a memory that she knew she would never forget for as long as she lived.

She particularly enjoyed when he played with her nipples: tweaking them, licking them, sucking them. Her breasts were small, but they were quite sensitive to the touch. As he continued kissing her chest, Yume buried her fingers in his hair and lightly tugged at the roots, a move he seemed to like judging by the sounds he made. His reaction emboldened her to lower her hands further, running them over his back and shoulders.

Eventually, Mikhail turned his attention away from her breasts, his mouth moving down her stomach to the inside of her thigh. Her pulse began to race, and Yume found it difficult to breathe, a feeling that reminded her of her first time taking the ice for a major competition. She dug her fingers into the cotton bedsheet as Mikhail's kisses reached their ultimate destination, panting as the sensation growing inside of her grew more and more intense.

"Misha…" she whimpered, unsure how much more of his teasing she could take. "Please…"

Mikhail abruptly stopped what he had been doing and lifted himself a couple of inches off of her. "What is it? Is this too much? Do you want to stop?"

Yume shook her head. That was the exact opposite of what she wanted. "I want to be one with you. I'm ready."

"Are you positive?" he asked one more time, staring down at her. "I know it's your first time, and it may hurt a little…"

"I trust you," she said, reaching up to caress his cheek. "Completely."

"Yume…"

"Can you trust me, too?"

He didn't answer, but it didn't matter as Mikhail caught her lips in a long lingering kiss and finally melted into her.


Yume was the first to awaken the next morning, Mikhail's arms still wrapped around her like a protective cocoon. She smiled to herself, remembering what had happened between them. Making love to Mikhail had been even better than she had imagined, and she wanted nothing more at that moment than to stay forever in his warm embrace. Unfortunately, a glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand table informed her that it was almost time for the other skaters and performers who lived at the dorms to start getting up for breakfast. If she didn't want to be caught sneaking out of Mikhail's room - Pilar in particular would want to know all the details if she knew they had spent the night together - she needed to head back to her own dorm.

Being careful not to awaken Mikhail, who was still sleeping so peacefully, Yume untangled herself from his arms and reached for her discarded clothes on the floor to get dressed. She had just pulled her camisole over her head when she felt the mattress shift beneath her as Mikhail rolled over on his side.

"Hey, where are you going?" His just-woken-up voice was low, husky, and incredibly sexy.

"I need to go back to my place. You know Marion doesn't allow sleepovers. If I leave now, we might not get caught."

"Don't worry about it. We're both consenting adults. What is Marion going to do about it anyway? Kick the stars of the new show out of the dorms? I doubt it." He moved behind her, one of his hands traveling underneath her camisole to cup a small breast while the other slipped in between her legs. "Besides, it's Sunday. No practice," he reminded her, his mouth right next to her ear. "We can spend the entire day together if we want, making love in this bed…"

Yume moaned as he brushed a thumb over one of her erect nipples. She had to admit, it was a tempting suggestion…

She turned around to face Mikhail, straddling his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck. Her mouth found his, thirsting for more of the kisses to which she had grown addicted. He placed his hands on her bare buttocks and lightly squeezed the cheeks, causing Yume to let out a high-pitched squeal.

Laughing, the two of them fell back on the bed. Mikhail rolled on top of her, taking the dominant position, and buried his face in the crook of her neck. Yume let out another loud moan, feeling herself becoming more and more aroused. However, when she caught another sight of the alarm clock out of the corner of her eye, she reluctantly pushed Mikhail off of her and climbed out of bed. As much as she would have loved to take him up on his offer, she remembered that did have other plans for the day.

Confused, Mikhail swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat back up. "Yume?"

"Sorry, but I really do have to go," she said with much regret, shimmying to pull her shorts up over her hips. "I forgot that I still have special training for the Lovers' Maneuver to do today. Coach Parker is expecting me."

"Oh."

The mention of the Lovers' Maneuver was like a bomb, killing the happy mood between them. Until that moment, Yume had forgotten the main reason she had come to Mikhail's room in the first place, and judging by his reaction, he had as well.

Taking a deep breath, she sat down beside him on the bed and reached for his hand. "I really want to do this," she said. "With you, Misha. You know I can't do it on my own. The Lovers' Maneuver requires a partner."

"But it's so dangerous. If something were to happen to you, I-I…" He shook his head, unable to put his fears into words.

"I'll be fine."

"You can't know that for certain, Yume."

"Maybe not, but I believe in myself, and I believe in you." She scooted closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "You know, you never did answer my question last night. I trust you, but do you trust me?"

For a long moment, Mikhail didn't say anything, and Yume unconsciously began holding her breath, anxious yet afraid to hear his answer. Had she continued with her training for nothing? She wanted to perform the Lovers' Maneuver almost more than anything, but she couldn't force Mikhail to do something he didn't want to do. Maybe it would be better just to forget about it, after all…

Her body relaxed when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "You really want this, don't you?"

Yume nodded. "But you have to want it, too," she said, looking up at him. "Don't just agree to do this because of me, and don't agree if you don't believe I will survive. Remember what Coach Palmer told us the day we asked her to train us?"

"Yes, she said we had to have absolute faith in our partner."

"And do you? Do you believe in me?"

"Yes, I do," Mikhail said, that time without even a hint of hesitation, and kissed her on the forehead. "Let's do it, Yume. Let's perform the Lovers' Maneuver together."

"Really? You really want to do it?" When he nodded, Yume couldn't contain her excitement, throwing her arms around him and knocking them both flat back on the bed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Mikhail laughed, hugging her tightly. "No, thank you for not giving up on us. I'm sorry I was such a jerk. I never should have doubted you."

"I'm just glad we've worked this out. I was so afraid that we would never get back together. I don't want to even imagine…" She shook her head, pushing those unpleasant thoughts away. "Now there's just one final problem."

"What's that?"

"Fool." In her excitement, she had almost forgotten that he had yet to reappear. "He's the only one who knows what the Lovers' Maneuver actually is, but if we can no longer see him…"

"Did somebody call for me?"

Yume and Mikhail, at the sound of the suspiciously familiar voice, both shot back upright. Sure enough, Fool stood suspended the air in front of them, a smirk on his face. "It's about time you two got back together," he said. "It's been so boring, having nobody to talk to these last few - Oof!"

"Fool!" Yume grabbed him around the waist and held him to her chest in the closest approximation of a hug she could give, considering their extreme difference in size. Until that moment, she hadn't realized just how much she had missed the perverted Spirit of the Stage. "You came back!"

"Um, not that I don't appreciate the view," Fool mumbled, his face buried in the fabric of her camisole, "but…"

She released her hold on him. "Oh… Sorry."

"It's fine. On the other hand…" He pointedly stared down at the still-naked Mikhail's crotch. "That is one view I definitely don't appreciate."

"Hmm, jealous?" Mikhail asked, reaching for a pillow to cover himself.

Fool huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Me, jealous? No, not at all. Why, when I was full-sized, Fool Junior was even -"

"Okay, I do not want to hear about Fool Junior," Yume exclaimed, handing Mikhail some clothes to put on. "I do want to know if we've qualified for the Lovers' Maneuver yet, though. I mean…" She blushed. "Well, we are true lovers now."

"You think having sex makes you real lovers?" Fool rolled his eyes. "Sex in the most basic terms is just a pleasurable activity that can result in procreation, nothing more. You don't need to be in love to have sex."

"I know that, but still… What more do we need to do to qualify? The show opens in less than a week. Everyone is depending on us to be able to perform it on opening day. Mia choreographed another ending we can use if we can't do the Lovers' Maneuver, but the audience will be expecting to see it. I don't want to let them down."

"We won't," Mikhail declared, coming up beside her and wrapping an arm around her waist. He was now dressed in a pair of jeans.

"You sound awfully confident for somebody who has yet to be judged qualified," Fool said. "I will say this, though - if Yume gets through today's training session with Merle, she will have fulfilled all her needed qualifications."

"I'm that close?" Yume asked. Merle had mentioned something about entering the final phase of their training, but she wasn't expecting Fool to qualify her so soon. "But what about Misha?"

"I stopped training, so of course I'm behind," Mikhail reminded her, running a hand through his messy hair. "I just hope Sam will agree to coach me again after I stopped coming to practices…"

"He will. He has to."

"I hope you're right."

DISCLAIMER: Kaleido Star doesn't belong to me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Next chapter should be the last! My goal is to finish by the end of the year, so fingers crossed. Thanks for reading.