Unexpected

Mischievous idea

Chapter 5

The smell of coffee and soap permeated Leon's apartment as he stepped from the steaming bathroom, wrapped only in a towel, and why not, it was his apartment anyways. There were many who would have killed to see Leon so barely covered that his hip bones showed over the edge of the towel and his lean, corded muscles could move freely without the hindrance of clothing hiding what could have been carved by the god of beauty, whoever he, or she, may be.

His still wet hair swished against his back as Leon walked through the door of his bedroom that lead to the small kitchen near the entrance and pored himself a cup of caffeine; he'd need it considering the amount of practice he'd be putting in over the final days before opening night. They nearly had their routines perfect, but nearly wasn't good enough. He walked back to his tidy bedroom, coffee cup in hand, and thought over the events of the past few days.

It had been 5 days since Annette arrived, an event for which he was overjoyed, it had been such a long time since he'd last seen Annette. They had been friends since they were children and even attended dance school together for a short while along with Pierre Demerchant. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Pierre in a quite some time either.

He missed his friends, but now Annette was there, he wondered what Sora thought of Annette. There he goes again, thoughts once again returned to his lovely Japanese stage partner. With her sparkling brown eyes that glinted with a hint of mischief when a challenge was presented, her toned body when it was pressed against his-

He slammed his coffee cup down on the dresser, pushing his own thoughts from his mind, thankful the cup didn't break. Sora only thought of him as a co-worker and that was it, no matter how much he may have wished otherwise, not that he'd actually admit it.

Leon walked to his closet and chose a pair of black slacks and a black buttoned shirt to wear for the day; he'd change into his practice clothes later. He stepped back after laying his clothes out on the bed and felt a sharp pain in the sole of his right foot.

"Damn!" He said not too loudly and looked down for what he thought must have been a thumbtack or something of the sort. What he found instead was what appeared to be a small silver chain with various ornaments hanging from it. Leon picked up the charm bracelet and inspected it for damage, not finding anything wrong, Leon noticed that it looked very familiar but couldn't quite place where he might have seen it, or how it ended up on the floor of his bedroom.

Scratching his head, Leon tried to remember where he'd seen it before. He shrugged, deciding that it wasn't important at the moment and would find out later.

Sora stood in her dressing room staring at her new Christine costume. Today was the last dress rehearsal before the show which would premiere the next day. Sora's dress consisted of a white corset with puffed lace sleeves and a skirt that ended about six inches above her knees. Her corset was laced with a white ribbon in the back and her skirt consisted of 3 layered skirts with different lengths, almost as if it was torn, resulting in a very unique and interesting flare when she spun.

Sora felt like an angel in all of the white she was wearing, or better yet, a princess and she loved it. Sora tied her hair back, put on a pair of white ballet flats and made her way to the stage.

Leon just stared at his costume. It was even more atrocious than he thought. He looked down at his black pinstriped pants. Now you may ask, "What's wrong with pinstripes?" The problem with this particular outfit was that the stripes along with the shirt and cape were a ghastly shade of orange some kind of mint green which in no way helped him put on an air of a "Phantom." They didn't even make the correct type of mask. He felt like the inhuman spawn of a freaking clown and Zorro!