Vampyra: Well, I'm happy that at least you are reading ^^ Are they really shortening? Oh... sorry for that, it's not intentional, but I just can't spend so much time on writing at the moment. Anyway, thank you!

CD One, Track Seven: Beauty & the Beast

Belle: Tale as old as time

True as it can be

Barely even friends

Then somebody bends unexpectedly.

"D, you wanna take a break?"

Jill's voice reached them through the earphones and the Chinese heaved a silent sigh of relief. His eyes sought Leon's, and the blonde nodded, smiling. "Yes, thank you, Jill-san," he answered and stepped out of the recording cubicle along with Leon who stretched and yawned.

"This is taking far too long," he complained.

His manager rolled her eyes. "Don't mop around, you know it's not easy to have you, D and the orchestra all in tune," she chided. "Go for a walk or whatever while they're trying to get it right."

"You wanna go for a walk, D?" The blonde turned to his lover.

"I would very much like to, Leon," he said and let Leon help him into his cloak, watching him all the time. The lover Leon was so different to the Broadway star Leon. He was considerate, warm-hearted, and almost anxious to do everything to D's satisfaction. As if he could do anything that D would hate. True, he didn't have much experience with relationships. The two or three times he'd had a crush on someone back in China, he'd been too shy to act upon it. The one time a girl had approached him, he'd been startled at first and then declined, although he did like her. But not enough to be together with her.

So all experience was limited to mere observation of the relationships of others. But D was a good observer. Being so shy, he barely was noticed behind the stage, he'd been able to watch a lot of different relationships. Most couples broke up with each other because they were more actors than lovers. Leon was not. To D, it seemed as if he was an actor everywhere safe when the two of them were together. As for himself, the Chinese knew that he, too, played his life more than that he lived it. But with Leon, he didn't feel like he had to hide himself behind that mask of an actor. He felt that he could just be the way he wanted to be.

"Let us go to the lake again, yes?" he said and smiled up into blue eyes that returned the smile warm and tender.

"Sure. We'll be back in half an hour, Jill."

Beast: Just a little change

Small to say the least

Both a little scared

Neither one prepared

Beauty and the Beast.

D's small hand stole into his, gripping it tightly, when they left the studio. For a moment Leon startled, but those violet-golden eyes were so pleading he just couldn't bring himself to pry his hand loose of the Chinese. Usually he didn't like such gestures. Too much intimacy in front of too curious eyes. Especially because they were outside in the streets now.

But D – he seemed to need these small gestures for some reason. He never was persistent, and he never made them obvious, for which Leon was very grateful. But he took every chance to touch his lover, and if it was only to brush a strand of hair aside. Jill thought it cute. Leon – Leon just let D do what made him happy. And somehow, for some reason, it was nice to know that the shy Chinese wanted to be in contact with him as much as possible.

On occasion, like now, he wondered. How come he'd suddenly decided to give it another try? He'd been so convinced he didn't need a boyfriend (or girlfriend, for that matter) again. No, he'd liked his life just the way it was. There were enough girls and guys who were willing to bed him when he felt like it after the performance. Not that he took advantage of that half as often as was rumoured, but it still was nice to know he didn't have to spend the night alone if he didn't want to.

Well, that was the past now. He couldn't do that to D. That would simply be mean, though until now they hadn't done more than kissing. But even kissing D was better than sleeping with those fans.

How come he'd fallen in love so suddenly again, when he'd been sure he never would? And though he tried to stay cool and calm about it all, he couldn't help it. D was so different than anyone he'd ever met. D didn't ask anything of him, he was just there and everything Leon did seemed to be perfect for him. He'd never met anyone who offered love so freely as D did, so trustingly, without doubt or hesitation. That unquestioning love set something in Leon free, something he'd thought long since forgotten or dead. But just one look from D's mismatched eyes, one touch of his hand, and he felt it living again. That was what D did to him, every day, every moment they were spending with each other.

Both: Ever just the same

Ever a surprise

Ever as before

Ever just as sure

As the sun will rise.

"Look, Leon, over there! Isn't that beautiful!"

D turned back to him, beaming like the sun above. The blonde gulped and pinched himself. Since he'd kissed D for the first time, he felt like being engrossed in an unreal dream. And now, walking with D through Central Park during their lunch break, holding hands with him, kissing him every now and then…

He had to be the luckiest man in the whole wide world. Not only that D had, with much patience and even more arguments, managed to convince his grumbling father that Leon was no danger to him, he was also clearly head over heels in love with Leon. With Leon. One just had to think about that. A beauty like D, an Asian princess. In love with Leon. Together with Leon.

No wonder he felt like in a dream. And he was quite determined to make this dream last. Perhaps his last relationships had sucked, true. But he wasn't going to blow up this here. It might be his last chance to find happiness in this life, with someone who was happy with him in turn. He didn't want to lose this again. Didn't want to miss D ever again, not one day in his life, how long it might be.

Belle: Tale as old as time

Tune as old as song

Both: Bittersweet and strange

Finding you can change

Learning you were wrong

Beast: Certain as the sun

Rising in the east

Belle: Tale as old as time

Both: Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast.

Do you really think it's too bland? Please tell me, I can only get better if you tell me what to do better!