A/N: Ok - Ms Fi, Dani, betty-boo and Jet - thankyou all so much for your reviews, and thankyou to all the other people who read but didn't review as well. I know you're reading - i have a hit counter people!.. stupid damn thing..

"No."

"Oh come on – live a little."

"I'm perfectly capable of living without an extra hole in my body!"

Leon glowered up at Ruby from his spot on the bed. "I can't believe you talked me into this." He muttered, looking down as the tattooed lady wiped an alcohol swab across his left nipple. He flinched at the cool drag across his skin and looked at the woman.

"Is this going to hurt?"

She smirked as she snapped on the wrist of her rubber gloves and picked up a clamp. "Not at all." She told him, pinching his nipple between the clamp.

Leon winced, silently holding his hand out to Ruby. Once her fingers were tightly gripped in his he looked at her.

"I think I'm going to throw up."

Ruby giggled, sitting beside him as she watched the woman prepare the needles. "It'd just be like getting bitten really hard."

Leon frowned, incredulous. "That hurts, Ruby!" He whimpered as he noticed the piercer watching him. "Oh god.."

The blonde woman shook her head, looking at Ruby with a quirked brow. "Is he always this much of a pussy?"

"No," Ruby squeezed his hand. "He's usually pretty good."

The woman gestured to the hot pink cast on Leon's wrist. "Did you cry?"

He shook his head. "It hurt a little, but it wasn't so bad."

"Then you've got nothing to worry about." She held up a needle. "Alright, this is a canula. I'm going to push it through your nipple and then thread the jewellery in – it'll all be over in under a minute."

Leon nodded, calmer now and looked down as she pressed it to the side of his nipple.

"Ow.. ow, ow, ow." He blinked at the woman's confused look. "Just getting it out of the way."

Ruby clipped him in the side of the head and leaned forward to watch, enthralled. They did piercing at the Spa but she had never sat in and actually watched it being done. Now here Leon was doing it just because she'd harped at him about being boring. She grinned up at his less than confident face. He was really scared. Her grin dimmed slightly and she ran her thumb across his knuckles, then dotted a kiss onto his palm.

He was too busy watching her to realise that the needle was being pushed through until it was too late. His face contorted with pain and he let out a loud four lettered curse.

"You could have warned me!"

Ruby shrugged, winking at the woman. "Where's the fun in that?" she stood up and leaned over him, grinning at the shiny gold hoop hanging from the sensitive bud. "That looks hot, Le."

He was still glaring at her, but his head ducked to see. He went to touch it but stopped and made a quiet noise in the back of his throat. "I suppose it's not so bad." He muttered, brows furrowed. "It hurts."

The piercer laughed as she checked to make sure the bead in the centre of the ring was secure.

"It should do for a little while – it'll be tender. Now try not to play with it too much for the first six weeks, you don't want to risk infection."

Leon prodded at the skin around it. "Can I go swimming?"

"In the ocean, absolutely – I wouldn't recommend a chlorine pool. They're breeding grounds for bacteria."

He nodded, pulling his shirt back on. "Anything else?"

The woman handed him a sheet of paper as they walked back out to the front of the shop. "That tells you what you can and can't do – how to take care of it. Just get in contact if something seems wrong."

After paying and thanking her, Leon followed Ruby out onto the street, still frowning. He held a hand over the sore spot and winced. "That seriously fucking hurts now."

She grinned, bouncing on the spot. Her bracelets and anklets jingled at the movement and her skirts swayed around her ankles in a multitude of colours. She grabbed his shirt at the waist and bunched it up over his chest right there in the street. Her bubbly laughter made him feel less self conscious about the bystanders staring at them. She was blissfully oblivious to the looks she was getting, as usual.

"I love it – do you like it? You have to like it too."

Leon shrugged, letting her do as she pleased. "It's ok, I guess." He busied himself reading over the care instructions as she ogled his new piercing and exposed him to the entire street.

"Just ok?" She eased his shirt back down, smoothing it over his abdomen with her ringed fingers. "What do you mean it's ok?"

He didn't even look away from the sheet of paper. "I'll know how much I like it when I can play with it."

"That's six weeks!"

Leon nodded, folding the paper and tucking it into his back pocket. "We'll see then."

Ruby hooked her arm around his and skipped along beside him, the older man watching her out of the corner of his eye with a bemused expression on his face as they walked down the street toward the park. Bethany was waiting for them with Cade. She had no clue what they'd been up to but had agreed to watch him until they got back.

"Are you quite alright?" He asked, lulled by the sound of all the jingling metal. He never thought he'd get used to that.

Ruby nodded. "Couldn't be better." She stopped. "Well – unless I got a piggy back that is."

Leon stared at her blankly. "You've got to be kidding me." He looked at her for a moment, then rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine." He shook his head at her squeal of glee and turned around, bending back slightly. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he hooked her legs over his arms then lifted, settling her on his back.

Ruby rested her chin on his shoulder as he walked along, her wrists draped down over his chest.

"This is my first piggy back you know."

Leon stopped and set her down on a nearby ledge, then turned to look at her. "Are you kidding? Tell me you are."

She rubbed her arms self consciously, then tucked her hair back behind her ear and adjusted the flower Cade had given her earlier.

"I grew up in the home, Leon." She said quietly, "I didn't have a mother or father or older sibling to give me one. Is that wrong?"

He ran a hand over her smooth hair. "Of course it's not – it's just a little sad that you didn't get a piggy back until you were nineteen."

Ruby smiled shyly. "You seem to be giving me a lot of firsts." She didn't dare look at his face after she'd said that, only looked at her swinging feet off the edge of the wall she was perched on. His hand curled around her calf just beneath her skirt, his thumb rubbing a small circle over the lily white skin.

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Ruby," he said softly, resting his head against the swell of her breast, "-not with me." He was standing between her knees, his one good hand still on her calf the other with the cast on just resting against her knee.

She nodded, smiling a little more confidently now. "I know – I may be a slow learner but you wouldn't laugh at me."

Leon pulled his head away and blinked at her. "Slow learner? Jesus.." he shook his head and turned back around, this time ducking lower and drawing her legs over his shoulders. "You're not a slow learner."

Ruby flushed at his matter of fact tone and squeaked when he stood up straight, lifting her with him. Nervously she grabbed hold of his shirt just at the front of his shoulders. His arms were firmly holding her in place over six feet off the ground. All previous conversation was forgotten.

"Never done this either?"

She shook her head furiously. "Nope – hands, Leon! Hands!" She grabbed for his hand when he lifted it to her and held on tight. After a few more paces she started to relax and by the time they'd reached the park she was completely calm, loving every minute of it.

She scanned the grassy area looking for Bethany and Cade, then pointed them out when she saw them.

"Over there!"

"Ruby – you're above me. Be a little clearer!" he snapped.

She wriggled her toes, grinning. "Oops – over there, to your left." She waited until Leon had sat on one of the benches before sliding back onto the back of the seat and fixing her skirts.

He quirked a brow at her. "So how was your five minutes as a kid?"

Ruby grinned, hopping down to walk beside him. "It was fun – thankyou."

She looped her arm around his again and leant her head against his bicep as they walked. He was actually making an effort not to shut her out lately. He still had his pig headed 'I don't need you' moments, but the fact that he was trying comforted her. She was still his sounding board when he was angry although now he didn't take it out on her, or her fridge. They'd not had sex since the night before their fight almost a month earlier either – he was determined not to push that on to her at any cost. Ruby found herself comforted by the fact that he just wanted to spend time with her and Cade, not just sleep with her as it felt like they'd been doing before. They felt more like friends now – albeit friends who occasionally shared a bed.

"Don't tell Cade about the ring." Leon muttered as they got closer, "He'll grab it."

Ruby nodded. "Not a word."

Leon glanced down at her. "I still can't believe you talked me into that," he shook his head slowly, "-you're so getting something done. Be it a piercing or a tattoo, you're doing something stupid like I did."

"Only way I'll get a tattoo is if it's something small, I can hide it if I want to and I want you to design it."

He paused mid step, "You want me to design it?" He hadn't picked up anything to do with his art since he'd left LA two months earlier. "Why?"

"Because your art is beautiful, precious." She shrugged. "I don't want anything tacky to be permanently plastered across my skin."

Leon gave her a hesitant look, then slowly nodded. "I – alright, I suppose. What do you like?"

"Fairies," Ruby grinned, "I love fairies."

He nodded to himself as she ran ahead and buried his hands in his pockets. For the first time in over two months, almost three, his head was starting swim with ideas. She'd said one word and already his fingers were itching to start sketching out designs for her. It felt strange being inspired again. Still, she'd have to wait until he could properly hold a pencil before anything was done. It was another two weeks before his cast was removed.

Taking a deep breath, Leon followed her toward his son and little sister.