Chapter Four:
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"Sora, wake up," Leon whispered softly in her ear. He gently shook her shoulder. "We made it." Their direct route plane from Los Angeles to Montreal had just landed.
Sora blinked open her caramel eyes slowly. She shook her head slightly to clear the fog that had gathered from her slumber. She immediately leaned over Leon's body, one hand on his thigh and the other pressed flat against the wall next to the window and stared outside at the airport's runway.
"It doesn't seem like much," she said, sighing in disappointment. Sora leaned back in her seat, unsnapped her seatbelt, and started to gather the backpack on the floor between her feet.
"This is just the airport," Leon pointed out. His pale cheeks were flushed at just how close Sora's hand had been to his privates. Just an inch higher and she'd have brushed against a part of him she'd never touched before.
"Jacques and Marie are picking us up?" Sora asked. She stood in the aisle and struggled to pull down her carry-on.
Leon unbuckled and hurried to get both her carry-on and his. He slung the straps to both duffle bags over his shoulders. "They will meet us after we pass through customs."
The Beaucamps didn't have a car, but they assured Leon that the metro on Montreal was efficient. Since Leon hadn't ever driven a car, he wasn't too bothered. Back in Los Angeles, he got around fine using his Triumph motorcycle. However, that morning, he and Sora had taken a cab to the airport as he'd had his bike secured in storage for the length of their travels.
He and Sora went through the process of entering another country, using his European Union and her Japanese passports. The Beaucamps were waiting for them as promised. Before long, they were in downtown Montreal at the older couple's townhouse.
There was only one guest room and Leon had magnanimously offered to sleep on the floor and gave Sora the bed. Knowing her generous nature, she'd feel sorry for him and make room for him on the queen-sized mattress in the middle of the night.
"So what do we do first?" Sora asked. She shoved her suitcase into the closet and turned towards him with her hands on her hips. "Maybe we can go to a restaurant and have some poutine! That's the gravy fries Marie told us about on the train."
"While I'm sure those are delicious," Leon said, inwardly cringing at the thought of all that cholesterol and fat. "Maybe we should walk around downtown. Perhaps we could visit the Notre Dame Cathedral."
"Are there gargoyles?" Sora asked.
Leon frowned. "I'm not sure."
"I have a camera!" Sora turned back to the closet, unzipped the side pocket of her bag, and pulled out a hot pink digital camera. "My parents got this for me before I came to America. We bought it from the Sony Store in Ginza. I'll have to take you there when we go to Tokyo. There's a staircase where each step is like a keyboard and you can play an entire song!"
"Let's focus on Montreal for now," Leon said with an amused smile. They moved to the mudroom between the front door and the hallway of the Beauchamp's townhouse and were putting on their shoes when Jacques leaned against the wall opposite of the pair.
"Marie and I can go with you downtown," Jacques offered. "However, we cannot stay long. We have to meet with some of the other cirque choreographers to set up for this week's complimentary circus."
"Don't worry about it. I think we shall manage to find our way around," Leon said.
"Just be back by ten," Marie suggested. "I'd like to work with Sora on some dance steps before it gets too late."
Jacques shook a pair of keys. "Extra set for the front door and to the bike."
"Bike?" Leon asked. "I thought we might just take the metro."
"A Voxan Cafe Racer," Jacques said.
"You'd be more comfortable on the metro," Marie argued. "The seat on that little crotch-rocket is so small. I'm not sure there's room for two people on it."
"That sounds like a challenge," Sora said with an eager grin. She grabbed the keys from Jacques' outstretched hand and started racing down the front steps to the street. A bright green motorcycle was parked in front of the house.
Leon took the keys from her and started the Voxan Cafe Racer. At least with the vibrant paint job it would be easy to spot the bike. He eased onto the seat and Sora settled behind him, her body pressed flush against him. There wasn't any wiggle room and if they hadn't been partners for the past six months, it could have been a lot more awkward.
Sora wrapped her arms securely around Leon's torso and tucked her cheek against his upper back. "Ready!"
Leon revved the motorcycle and set off for downtown.
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OoO
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"This place is so cool!" Sora spread her arms out to her sides and spun in a slow circle with her face tilted up towards the sky. A gentle mist of rain fell over her and Leon.
They'd been wandering around Saint Catherine's Street for hours. The city often closed the street down for holidays and various celebrations. In preparation for the Cirque Complement, various merchants filled the streets with wares while pedestrians strolled along at a leisurely pace. The light rain that started to fall served as little deterrent to the merry-makers laughing cheerfully down the street.
"It is nice," Leon said blandly. "Though, what they call French here is hard to understand. It's nothing like Parisian French."
"Who cares!" Sora grabbed hold of Leon's wrist and started to pull him across the street towards one of the many cathedrals they'd passed. This particular cathedral was no longer used for church services, but was actually a fitness center. Many of the cathedrals in Montreal had been converted into secular businesses. "I found the gargoyles! Let's do a selfie together!"
"I believe that if it's a picture of two people together, it's not technically a selfie," Leon muttered. He waited patiently while Sora tried to stretch her arms out far enough to capture both their faces and the gargoyle on the church's facade behind them.
"Let me," Leon said, taking the camera from her, and using his much longer arm-span. He snapped the picture of them from the torso up with the smiling gargoyle behind them.
"You're so good at this!" Sora squealed. She held the camera up for him to look at the picture. "We look great!"
Leon's lip curled up into a smile. They did look good. The smile on both of their faces was genuine. He hadn't looked this happy, since he and Sophie won their first competition.
"Oh! Let's imitate their faces!" Sora suggested. She pointed towards a menacing gargoyle on the far right of the building's front. She shoved the camera at Leon and posed under the statue making a similar menacing grimace.
He took a picture and as soon as he lowered the camera, Sora rushed to his side, and pushed him to stand under another gargoyle. This one's mouth was opened in a wide O. Leon mimicked the expression while Sora took a picture of him.
Sora tucked the camera into her pocket and then hooked her elbow through his. "Let's get some of that poutine now."
"Are you sure? I don't know if we'll still fit on the motorcycle if we binge on gravy fries," Leon said.
"You worry about the strangest things," Sora said. "Besides, I'll need the extra energy for my dance lessons with Marie tonight."
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Sora clutched her pillow and stared at the floor to the side of the bed. Leon looked very uncomfortable sleeping on the hardwood floor on the meager pallet of blankets.
"Hey, Leon, are you asleep?" Sora whispered.
"I was," Leon answered, cracking open a lavender eye. "At least until you started talking."
"Are you comfortable?"
Leon rolled over onto his back. "Not particularly."
Sora sat up and patted the edge of the mattress. "We can share. It's a big bed. There's no need for you to sleep on the floor. That motorcycle seat was pretty narrow and we managed."
Leon sat up and stretched his arms behind him. "Are you sure?"
Sora scooted to the opposite side of the bed and laid down with her back facing him. "Yeah, it's no problem." She held her breath and only released it slowly once she felt the mattress dip under Leon's weight as he settled on the bed alongside her.
"Good night," Leon murmured.
"Sweet dreams," Sora said with a small smile.
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OoO
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The next few days were a whirl of activities. The Complement Cirque lasted throughout the day and Sora and Leon worked late every night with the Beaucamps on dance choreography. There were jugglers in the streets, acrobatic routines on the balconies and rooftops of buildings, and stations set up for audience participation. Earlier in the day, Leon and Sora had competed alongside several tourists and a couple of cirque performers for longest stretch of time hula-hooping. Leon had proved victorious over everyone, even Sora, though he only just barely beat her.
Earlier that evening, Leon and Sora had attended a show involving seventy horses and a troop of highly specialized circus performers. It was beautiful to watch the humans and horses working together seamlessly to create an unique experience pleasurable to the audience members of all ages and walks of life.
It was eleven o'clock when Leon and Sora returned to the townhouse. Leon sat on the couch in the living room and turned on his tablet. Almost immediately, the Skype application indicated an incoming call. He didn't use Skype, but Sora had borrowed his tablet to Skype before. "I think you have a call," Leon called out, holding the tablet into the air.
Sora finished brushing her teeth and rinsed her mouth out in the bathroom sink. She hurried over to Leon's side, leaping over the coffee table, and narrowly avoided knocking over Marie's flower vase centerpiece. Sora landed snugly beside him and took the computer. She accepted the call and grinned widely as Layla's image filled the screen.
"Layla! How are you?" Sora asked.
Layla narrowed her eyes. "What took you so long? Normally, I can catch you easy on Skype around at eight o'clock your time."
"My time is no longer west coast," Sora explained, her smile never wavering at Layla's irritated tone. "I'm the same as you - east coast."
"You're in New York?"
"Montreal," Leon said, leaning over and allowing himself to be caught by the tablet's camera. He smiled inwardly at Layla's shocked expression, though she quickly recovered, it was satisfying to surprise her.
"You two are together in Montreal?" Layla asked carefully.
Sora nodded. "For another week. We're visiting some of Leon's friends and taking part in the Cirque Complement."
"I didn't realize Leon had friends," Yuri said, moving into the frame behind Layla. He placed both hands over her shoulders in a familiar and possessive grip.
"Behave," Layla warned, patting one of his hands over her shoulder.
"How is your show going?" Sora asked. "Madam Butterfly?"
"They might rename it Madam Moth with the way things are crashing and burning," Yuri teased.
"Hush," Layla said, scowling at him. She turned back to Sora and Leon. "Opening performance is in five days. Since you're on break from Kaleido Stage, I wanted to invite you."
"We have box seats," Yuri explained. "You'd be sitting with me and Layla's father."
"That sounds great!" Sora said, clasping her hands together. She turned to Leon with a bright smile and he certainly didn't want to disappoint her when she looked so happy. "That's not too far from here, is it?"
"It's a short flight," he answered. They actually had a layover in New York for their flight to Japan. He could probably contact the airlines and change the dates of their trip to accommodate an evening at Layla's show and maybe an extra night of exploring the Big Apple. "It might be neat to visit Coney Island."
"My father can pay for your plane tickets from Montreal to JFK," Layla said.
"That won't be necessary," Leon said quickly. There was a knock at the door and Marie poked her head in to see what was delaying Sora. She'd been teaching Sora different dances every night for two hours until either midnight or one in the morning, depending on when they started.
"I've got to go," Sora said apologetically. "We'll be there for your opening night! Break a leg!" She giggled. "Try to keep your shoulder intact though."
Layla rolled her eyes. "Ha. Ha. I'll have the tickets waiting at will-call under your names."
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"Leon! Get in here!" Marie called.
"You better not keep her waiting," Jacques said. He popped a handful of popcorn into his mouth and turned up the volume for the action movie they were watching on Netflix. They'd been enjoying a marathon of cheesyJean-Claude Van Damm movies.
It had been a lazy day, the first day after the Cirque Complement had ended. Marie and Sora had started their dance lesson that morning, while Leon and Jacques had lounged around the living room.
Leon pushed himself off the couch and started for the small dance studio in the back of the townhouse. Classical music from Tchaikovsky floated over the air from the stereo system. Sora was wearing a pair of lavender leotards and pale pink ballet slippers as she spun around in tight, precise moves about the space. Her posture was absolutely perfect, and yet there was a lightness about her graceful movements.
"That's enough, Sora," Marie said. "Balance has never been a problem with you." She gestured towards Leon. "Are you going to stand in the doorway? Or are you going to enter?"
Leon stepped inside and folded his arms over his chest. He arched his eyebrow at Marie. "You called."
"I want the two of you to dance together. I've been teaching Sora Swing, Salsa, Tango, and Ballroom dancing. I want you to just start dancing and she'll follow your lead." Marie used a small remote and changed the music to another song. It had a basic beat that worked well with Swing.
Leon walked smoothly towards Sora and took her right hand, her left rested lightly on his shoulder. He placed his right hand at the base of her back and started the simple rock-step with basic East Coast Swing. Sora followed him easily enough and smiled up at him.
Leon's hand upon her back tightened marginally, as he dipped her back. He then started to lead into Lindy Hop, swinging her in towards him and out away. When he brought her back towards him, he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her into the air. He brought her back down and slid his hands onto her arms and swung her between his legs and then back up.
Sora smiled all the while, as Leon continued to ad-lib to the big band music. The song wound down and he ended with Sora above his head, his face pressed against her cloth-covered belly. Sora laughed breathily.
The music stopped and Leon set her slowly back on her feet.
Marie was clapping slowly behind them. Leon glanced over his shoulder to see both Marie and Jacques standing together. "I didn't know that you could dance that well," Jacques said to Leon.
"Oh, hush," Marie said, shoving him gently in the upper arm. "You know our Leon has trained in many different types of dance." She smiled, directing her approval at Sora. "You, Sora, are a fast learner! You're a natural talent!" She nodded at Leon. "You are as graceful as I remember, Leon. And it actually looked like you were having fun."
"That was easy!" Sora said smiling broadly. She looked up at Leon. "I wasn't expecting you to pull me under you and back up high. I didn't know you could do that with swing. It makes sense, with the name. It reminded me of the stunt we did on the third act of Swan Lake on our twentieth performance."
Leon nodded. During that particular performance, the trapeze Sora was on fractured down the middle, and Leon worried it would snap completely. He'd grabbed her and swung her onto his own trapeze to avoid the dangerous possibility.
"Would you like to try another song? We can decide later which type of dance we can use for our performance," Leon said.
"Sure," Sora said. She looked past Leon's shoulder and smiled at Marie. "Are you going to keep surprising us with which type of music?"
Marie nodded. "Of course, we need to keep this challenging! It helps with handling pressure when you learn to cope with the unexpected."
"How about we show these kids how it's done, Marie?" Jacques said, holding out his hand to his wife.
"A dance off?" Marie asked. She smirked across the room at Sora. "What do you say, Sora? Which of us makes the better dance partners?"
"That's hardly fair," Leon argued. He looped his arm around Sora's shoulders protectively. She'd only just learned these types of dances over the past two weeks.
"Leon is right, we have an unfair advantage over you," Sora said, addressing Marie and Jacques. "But, it's all in fun! You're on!"
Salsa music began to stream over the loudspeakers and the two couples began to dance.
Leon and Sora danced throughout the day, until their feet were sore from many hours of the activity. By the end of it all, they had a good idea of just what sort of dance they wanted to incorporate into their routines.
It had been with a great deal of reluctance that Leon agreed to let Sora and Marie leave the townhouse together for a pedicure and foot-massage. He and Jacques stood together on the porch watching as the women headed a few blocks down the street for the shop.
"I've never seen you like this, Leon," Jacques said.
"Like how?" Leon asked. He stuck his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and frowned.
"You're in love with her," Jacques said. "I recognize that thunderstruck look on your face. I used to wear it all the time when Marie and I first started dating. Heck, I still wear it all the time, when I think about how lucky I am."
"I'm not in love with Sora," Leon scoffed. "We're just very good friends. We're close. I trust her."
Jacques turned back to the house's front door and shrugged. "You should be good friends with your lover. All worthwhile relationships are built on trust."
Leon followed him inside, but said nothing.
"I've noticed there's no sleeping pallet in the guest room. You can't tell me, you've been sharing a bed with her, and that you aren't attracted to her."
"I didn't say I wasn't attracted to her," Leon protested. "And nothing happened. We're sharing a bed. It's no big deal."
"Have you ever traveled around the world with any of your previous partners?" Jacques asked. "Especially, without there being a competition to perform at in whatever city you were venturing towards."
"So maybe, I do have feelings for Sora. So what? It's allowed, isn't it?"
"Oh, my boy," Jacques said, laying his hand over Leon's shoulder and smiling at him in a paternal way. "Why don't you join me on the balcony and we have a couple of cold ones? I can tell you the story about how Marie and I met, and how she stole my heart, and how I finally got the nerve to ask her to be mine."
"I know how the two of you met," Leon said.
"You know the PG13 version," Jacques said with a cheeky grin. "Let me tell you the dark and gritty version. Then maybe we can figure out how you can take your partnership with Sora to the next level."
"I've never slept with any of my previous partners," Leon was quick to point out. He didn't want to give Jacques the wrong idea. He'd never mixed business with pleasure. Though, that didn't mean he was an angel. He hadn't ever had an actual girlfriend before. Most of his relationships didn't last past a night or two.
"I could care less if you slept with half the women in America, Leon," Jacques said with a laugh. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of imported ale from Scotland. "Or any men for that matter. What I am interested in, is helping you catch the heart of the woman you so obviously love."
"How long will it take before Sora and Marie return from the pedicure?" Leon asked. He accepted one of the bottles of ale. He popped off the top by hitting it on the kitchen counter's edge at an angle.
"I do have a bottle cap opener," Jacques said, shaking his head. "I'd say we have an hour before they get home. Since you two leave tomorrow afternoon, Marie was really looking forward to a few hours of relaxation with Sora. This particular pedicure shop offers margaritas, so Sora might be a little more cheerful than usual when they get back."
"I've never met someone's parents before," Leon confessed. He took a greedy gulp of the ale. The dark flavor exploded on his tongue. "We'll be in Japan for a while. She wanted to spend time with her baby sister, Yume."
"You remember the sister's name!" Jacques held the bottle out towards him in a salute. "That's a good start."