A/N: I really appreciate shotgunhero and her help beta-ing this story. There are two chapters left and then I'll start working on my original works again.
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Chapter Eighteen:
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"Since the showcase is here in Paris, is it really necessary that we stay at the hotel?" Sora asked. She'd come to appreciate Leon's condo and was anxious about leaving it. Over the past several weeks, they rarely left the place. Aside from the rare trips to the surgeon, they'd only left for groceries and one or two other errands.
Leon continued to fill his suitcase with a couple of nice slacks and button-up shirts folded very carefully. He gestured towards the garment bag laying across the bed, it contained their performance outfits. "I want us to have the full experience," Leon explained. "Besides, the Beaucamps would be very disappointed if we didn't stay in the suite with them. They're hoping for a sneak peek at our dance routine."
"It's only a short metro ride away," Sora argued. "It seems like an unnecessary expense."
Leon stared down at the suitcase and zipped it up, avoiding Sora's eyes. "If Sophie and I hadn't been worried about saving a little money, maybe we'd have stayed at the hotel for the ICF, and maybe she wouldn't have been hit by that car."
Sora's heart ached just thinking of Leon's pained memory. She walked towards the dresser and pulled open the top drawer. She'd been worrying about finding the right time to give Leon his present. Now seemed appropriate. She took the velvet box, headed back towards the bed, and held it out for him. "I have something for you."
"What?" Leon shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He stared down at her outstretched hand for a moment in confusion. "What's this?" He took the box and opened it, sucking in a breath sharply as he picked up the angel charm necklace.
"It's an angel pendant," Sora explained. "Turn it over."
Leon turned the silver pendant over to discover a heart sketched on the back with the letter S in the middle of it. "S is for Sora?" Leon wrapped his arm around Sora's shoulders and drew her close for a hug, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"It's for both Sora and Sophie," Sora explained, winding her arm around his waist and hugging him back. "She's watching out for you in the afterlife and I'm watching out for you here on earth. You can take the angel charm off and add it to your regular chain."
"This is very thoughtful,"Leon murmured, his voice choked with emotion.
"I'm glad you like it," Sora said with a nervous smile. "Since you're determined to stay at the hotel, we better start heading for the Sofitel hotel. The taxi driver should be here any minute now."
Leon hooked his finger under Sora's chin and tilted her head up towards him. He smiled lopsided down at her. "Thank you."
The sight of his imperfect smile warmed Sora's heart.
"Besides, the Sofitel Hotel is a beautiful site," Leon said. "And more so than not offending the Beaucamps, we'll get a good look at the competition. Aren't you curious about May's partner? Or about making all those former partners of mine jealous that you're on my arm?"
Sora laughed, relieved to see that Leon's old arrogance was back. "Now, that makes more sense!"
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The host hotel was bustling with activity for the European Showcase. Crowds of fans formed outside the hotel hoping for a glimpse of their favorite performers who registered for the event. Sora smiled at several enthusiastic children calling out her name, only Leon's impatient tug on her arm kept her from going over towards them.
Leon checked them into their room, which they were sharing the Beaucamps. As the hotel worker gave him their keycards, he explained that the rest of their party had arrived the day before and were already checked into their suite. A bellhop delivered their luggage while they rode up in the elevator.
When they entered the suite, Marie tackled Sora with a hug. "Bonjour! You're finally here!" She kissed Sora on both cheeks. "Jacques is anxious to give you two a grand tour of the place."
"That won't be necessary," Leon interrupted. "I'll settle for a good place to eat, but otherwise, I want to stick close to the showcase grounds."
"Why?" Jacques asked. "It's not like you need to scope out the competition, my friend. From what you've been telling me about your progress, I don't think you have any real threats out there."
"My rival is my past self," Leon answered wryly. He reached for Sora's hand. "We need to check in downstairs in the banquet hall for the showcase."
"I for one can not wait to see your performances in person," Marie said. "Watching the little video on my computer does not do it justice."
"I have explained many times how to stream the video to the television," Jacques muttered irritably.
Marie waved her hand dismissively. "You know I get confused with all that technology."
Sora shuffled towards Leon and took his hand. She entwined their fingers and glanced up towards him and smiled. "Be nice to our friends," she whispered.
The corners of Leon's eyes crinkled in amusement. "Jacques, why don't you tell us everything you can when we're on our way to the restaurant later. For now, Sora and I need to register." Leon squeezed Sora's hand.
"Of course, of course, you do not need any distractions before your performances," Jacques said, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. "I should know better than that," he muttered to himself.
"It's no problem," Leon assured him. "We'll be happy to tour around the place after our performances are completed."
"He will hold you to that!" Marie said with a laugh.
"Of that I have no doubt," Leon murmured.
The elevator outside of their suite was being constantly delayed by trips to other floors. Whenever it did stop, it was jammed pack and Leon declined cramming in like sardines onto the crowded elevator.
"Let's take the stairs," Sora suggested. "This could take forever."
"No," Leon answered, pressing the elevator call button once more.
"But we're only on the tenth floor," Sora argued. "It will only take a couple of minutes to navigate the stairs."
"And all it takes is one twisted ankle on the day of our performance to ruin months of practice," Leon explained.
"Are you kidding me? I won't sprain an ankle walking down stairs!" Sora's hands flew to her hips and she craned her head back to stare up at him.
Leon looked down at her expressionless. "Maybe it's my ankles that I'm concerned about."
"Oh please," Sora said, rolling her eyes. "With all the strength training we do, walking down ten flights of stairs is child's play."
The argument ended when the elevator arrived with only two very familiar passengers.
"Sora!" Anna Heart squealed and grabbed Sora by the upper arms, yanking her into the elevator. "It's so good to see you! You look good! How are you? Are you good?"
Leon stepped casually into the elevator and the doors shut behind him.
"Hi Sora," Ken said, almost shyly. His eyes fell upon Leon, settling on his facial scar. "Leon," he greeted dryly.
"I'm well, Anna. What are you two doing here?" Sora asked, smiling at them both, amused by the hideous combination of an orange blouse and lime green pants that Anna wore. She was always clowning around. "How are things back at Kaleido Stage?"
"Busy," Anna said, releasing her grip on Sora. "Without you dominating Ken's time, he has finally come to realize his true talent." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "My sweetie is a natural comedian!"
"Hilarious," Leon agreed in a bland tone.
Ken's cheeks reddened and he pointedly ignored Leon. He forced a smile at Sora. "Anna and I offered to come with May and Felipe as managers." He shrugged. "It seemed foolish to decline an all expense paid trip to Paris on Yuri's tab. He still has a pretty guilty conscious about trying to destroy Kaleido Stage a few years back."
Yuri's guilty conscious was a pretty deep well of remorse. His two biggest regrets were when he tried to sabotage Layla's chances with Kaleido Stage and force her into movies, and of course his role in the accident that led to Sophie's death. "Felipe?" Sora asked. "Oh! Layla mentioned him. I'm looking forward to seeing their performances."
"We're looking forward to see you and the Ice Devil," Anna said. She leaned close to Sora's ear and dropped her voice to a whisper. "I swear, he almost seems human around you."
"Oh, he's human," Sora assured her. "We've shared enough blood, sweat, and tears to be certain of that!"
"Blood? He's not hurting you, is he?" Ken asked, his voice laced in concern.
"I'm right here people," Leon muttered. The elevator chimed and the door slid open.
Sora patted Ken on the arm gently. "I'm fine, but I appreciate your worry." She followed Leon out of the elevator and hooked her elbow through his. She glanced back at them over her shoulder. "I'll see you two later!"
"I could sign us up without you if you'd rather catch up with your old friends," Leon said quietly.
"No thank you, we're a team. Where you go, I go," Sora said cheerfully. They continued on towards the banquet hall for the event registration.
Leon stopped abruptly, his eyes scanning the line of participants. "What sort of Hell is this?"
"What's wrong?" Sora asked, staring up at her boyfriend. "Did we show up too late? Are we at the wrong hotel?"
"No. Right time, right place." Leon took a deep, shuddering breath. "But, I see at least six of my former partners in that line and that doesn't even include May." He reached up self-consciously and touched the bottom edge of his scar.
Sora snatched his hand away and kissed his knuckles. "Well let's go over there, register, and them make them all insanely jealous with our amazing performances."
Leon's lip twitched in amusement.
"Leon!" the fiery red-head Sora met outside the Versailles Palace waved, the deep cut of her blouse leaving a generous portion of her excessively large bosom visible.
"Breasts that big are a hazard on the trapeze," Sora grumbled under her breath.
Leon snorted. "It was one of many reasons why I dissolved that partnership."
"Uh huh," Sora said. "I'm sure it was high on that list."
"What's her name again?"
"Seriously?" Sora asked.
"Jane?"
"Janet!" she whispered vehemently. "And that brunette man beside her is George."
"Hello, Janet and George," Leon greeted smoothly, stepping easily into the end of the line.
"You might want to put some concealer on that," Janet said, gesturing towards Leon's face. She started to fish through her massive purse and pulled out a thin tube of concealer. She held it out for him.
Sora could hear Leon's teeth grinding and tightened her grip on Leon's hand when he automatically jerked it to touch his hand to his scar. "There's no need," Sora answered. "He's still the best looking man at this event."
"So the little geisha does speak English!" George cried out, his eyes wide in mock shock.
"How fast is the line moving?" Leon asked.
Janet shoved her bottle of makeup back into her purse irritably. "Not fast enough, apparently."
The banquet hall was buzzing with murmured conversations of idle chit-chat and awkward pleasantries. Leon adopted a defensive stance with a rigid posture, arms crossed over his chest , and a glare that turned even the friendliest of people away. Sora shifted her weight anxiously, not liking the oppressive silence between her and Leon and the other teams. Janet wasn't the only former partner of Leon's milling about the room. A few of them had walked over to greet him while they waited in line, they weren't openly hostile, but they weren't especially friendly either.
"Sora!" May hugged Sora from behind, her chin resting easily on Sora's shoulder as the dark-haired woman pressed a kiss to Sora's cheek. "Leon," May greeted him, stepping back from Sora. She gestured towards a tall, lanky dark-haired man in his late teens. "This is my partner, Felipe."
"Layla told me about you," Sora said, smiling at Felipe. "It's nice to meet you."
"Do not be too eager to meet us on the field of competition," Felipe answered with a cheeky grin. "I intend to make sure we leave everyone in tears — the audience in pure awe of our performance and our competition in tears of defeat."
"That arrogance of yours will be your downfall," Leon said, raising an eyebrow.
"You would know better than anyone about the downfalls of arrogance," May countered. "It won us the ICF championship!"
"Talent won us the ICF," Leon argued. "Passion will win Sora and I the showcase."
"There are no medals in this competition," Felipe said with his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
"There are always winners and losers," Leon said.
"And if everyone does their best, they are all winners," Sora interjected, trying to ease the rising tension.
May chuckled. "Here we go, Sora wants a performance without competition."
Sora smiled thinly. "I want everyone to do their absolute best. I want the audience to be entertained."
Leon shrugged. "It's simple truth that some will be better than others."
Sora sighed. "Yeah, okay."
Leon smiled down at her, his violet eyes flashing in mirth, and Sora's heart skipped a beat at the sight.
"The line is moving," May pointed out, an amused look on her face.
Sora stepped forward just as Janet and George finished registering.
Leon spoke with the registrar and they received their participation numbers, the schedule, and rules of the showcase. They were given armbands to wear with their numbers.
"Are there really that many of us that we need armbands?" Sora asked.
The registrar stared at her blankly, not seeming to understand the question.
"How many participants are there this year?" Leon asked.
"Oh, thirty couples," the registrar explained. "There is only a little amount of time between performers. The armbands are an extra identifying marker to ensure the performers aren't mixed up, especially for the commentators. There will be live streaming of the event."
"Thank you," Leon said. He and Sora waited to the side while May and Felipe finished registering.
A few minutes later, they stood huddled together near the exit of the banquet hall, scanning the schedule.
"Today's competition starts at four and ends at nine," May said. "That means ten minutes per routine including set up and take down."
"They have stations already set up for the different types of acts, so there will be more time than that to prepare," Leon explained, pointing out the section of the rules. "The dances are in the morning. There will be even less time between those performances."
"What about the trapeze?" Sora asked. "We'd need to do safety checks. They can't have too many trapezes set up. Maybe two at the most."
"Only the top ten pairs will be participating on the trapeze," Leon said.
"We'll just make surety be in the top ten," Sora said. She grinned at May. "We'll see who has improved the most since last we faced off."
May cocked her hip to the side. "You can congratulate me when I take first place and you can be crowned First Loser!"
"We'll see how confident you are after you pick up your jaw from watching our performance this evening," Sora teased.
"It seems as if everyone is watching us," Felipe whispered quietly.
Sora glanced over her shoulder and blushed realizing that most of the other athletes were watching and listening to their banter.
"Of course they are," Leon murmured. He slung his arm over Sora's shoulders possessively. "May and I are the reigning ICF champions." He pressed a kiss to Sora's hair. "They wonder how they can compare."
"We're going to be meeting some friends for lunch," Sora said, thinking about Jacques and Marie. "Would you two like to join us?"
"Thanks, but no thanks," May answered. "Ken and Anna should be back by now with our food." She flashed Sora a grin. "Yuri gave him the Kaleido Stage company credit card. Since he and Layla couldn't come, he thought a limitless expense account was the next best thing."
"Mostly, this one wants to see the anime Yuri on Ice," Felipe explained. "There is a new episode and she's dying to watch it. She won't be able to concentrate until she has."
"An anime?" Leon asked, amused.
"It's about a figure skater from Japan," May explained. "And the most talented figure skater in the world, a Russian heartthrob, decides to become his coach." She grinned at Sora. "You should watch it later. You might find the coach looks familiar - silver hair, pale eyes."
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