PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 30 - Back to the Grind

Friday 6.05am

I tapped on Leo's shoulder lightly as he slept, now completely on the floor as oppose to leaning against the couch when he fell asleep a few hours ago. I got no response, so I shook him more forcefully, making the long dirty blonde strands of hair fall in front of his face.

"Leo. Leo wake up." I was still clutching his shoulder, shaking, and he was still knocked out. I sighed, coming closer to his ear "LEO," I didn't shout, but I raised my voice a considerable amount – I didn't think I had it in me to shout at 6 in the morning. Still nothing. One thing I had learned over our time as friends was that he was a heavy sleeper, and he didn't get up until he wanted to.

I sat back straight and considered my options, but I still needed to finish packing (more like start), and Leo had to get home to get his stuff together before we met at the airport, so I didn't have time for niceties. I pulled back my hand, and slapped him square across the cheek, wincing at the sudden sound of my hand on his skin. He shot up out of his sleep, hand gripping his cheek as he sat up with shock.

"Hey what the hell?!" he whined, rubbing his cheek with a pained look on his face. His eyes looked puffy from sleep and he was squinting, looking around him in a puzzled and confused daze.

"Yeah wake up you gotta go. Gosh you sleep like a log," I said, brushing the hair out of his eyes as apparently, he was incapable.

"Why'd you have to do that? That's borderline abuse Nel," he moaned, returning back to his old self as his disoriented state wore off.

"Well that's the only way with you, my love." I said with a sarcastic smile as I stood up to go make coffee.

"Yeah you always did like it rough right Nel?" He said teasingly with a smug look. I turned around to look back at him, an unamused look on my face.

"Leo get out." He burst out laughing at this, pushing himself up using the couch for support and coming over to me, hugging me from behind as he laughed, and I tried to keep my composure.

"You know you don't really want me to go," he said, chuckling as I tried to get out of his grip while he tickled my sides.

"Leo stoooop we don't have time, you need to get back and I have things to do still," I whined in between laughs as I tried to remove myself from his arms.

He stopped tickling me and released me, laughing as he ran a hand through his hair. "Alright alright, I'm off." He said, putting his hand up in defeat and heading to the door. I followed him so that I could lock the door behind him, but he stopped suddenly and turned around just as he got to the doorway, causing me to nearly bump into him.

"So I can't even stay for a morning coffee?" He asked teasingly, making me snort in laughter.

"Oh my god Leo just go," I pushed him out of the door and he laughed at himself humorously, then blew me a kiss as he left.

"See you at the airport honey-bun!" He shouted, already walking a couple of feet away from my door.

//

We landed in Tokyo at about 8pm LA time, but already midday (12pm) Tokyo time, and I was feeling so jet lagged that I didn't know my right from my left. It reminded me of when I first moved out to LA and how much I slept, and I would wake up at 3am ready to start the day. Times had changed a lot since then.

Currently me, Leo and Jim were standing in the lobby of Hotel Ryumeikan, its glossy interiors giving it a slick 'always-awake' feel that made me awestruck, waiting to get checked in to our rooms. The young woman at the reception desk was ogling Leo with her eyes, and seemed giddy with excitement as she worked through her computer, cross-referencing and checking over our details.

"I- I'm so sorry Leo," she stuttered in her cute little Japanese accent (pronouncing 'Leo' as 'Lay-O') "I would like picture with you...is that okay? I'm big big fan." She smile one of the cutest smiles as she covered her face in embarrassment. Leo smiled back sincerely "Of course sweetheart," he gestured for her to come over from behind the desk, and she obliged, hopping over as she got her camera out. They posed for a couple of pictures, which I took, then gave it back to her as she looked through happily.

"Excuse me, Penelope?" I heard her voice again "Can we take some? Together?" I looked back at her in shock, before nodding and putting my arm around her as we stood for pictures. "I saw you in the trailer, the Titanic trailer. I cannot wait to see it. You stunning." She gushed, and I couldn't believe it. My fame was finally starting to become a reality, so I gave her a big hug and she returned to her place behind the desk.

I took a glance at Leo and our eyes met straight away. He didn't have to say anything – his eyes, that look, was reassuring enough.

"Okay your key," she said, holding out a key in her outstretched delicate hand "Room 377. Enjoy your stay." We stared at her, then looked at each other, then back at her, neither me nor Leo touching the key she was still holding.

"Umm," Leo said, unsure how to start, so I butted in. "Who is that for? We always have separate rooms."

"Oh, you've been booked into one room for the duration of your stay. It's only one night." She explained.

"Yeah I forgot to tell you," Jim interrupted "You got one room to share since we're only here for one night before we go to London, you know, since it's being paid for by production we thought it wouldn't hurt to save here and there with the scale of our budget already."

Leo nodded and took the key, nodding over to me with a mischievous smile "C'mon roomie." With that, he walked off to find our room. I looked back at Jim "I'll see you later Jim," I waved to him. "See you soon Penelope,"

"Nice to meet you." I said to the woman at reception, to which she smiled timidly and waved too.

I walked off, following the signs to find the block of rooms labelled 300-400. There was no sign of Leo – clearly he had no trouble finding the room. After going down the corridor, I found the room, and pushed the door open as it was already unlocked.

Leo was spread out on the bed, playing with the tv remote and trying to regulate the giant tv that hung on the wall.

"Hey," I nodded, closing the door behind me.

"Damn, they have no American television. Like, not even one," he said, not taking his eyes off the tv. I sat down next to him on the bed.

"Not like we have time for it anyway. The premiere's at 8pm and we have to start getting ready at 6.  And I have to meet with hair and make-up way before that." I explained, to which he looked over at me. Only then did I realise the situation of our room – and the lone giant bed that stood in the middle of our room.

"Wait- is that the only bed?" I asked, bemused, pointing down to the bed with my eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, yeah." Leo replied, seemingly unaffected, still not taking his eyes off the tv. "We're sharing a bed?" I asked again, still not clear on if this was actually the case. This was never how we were booked into hotels.

He finally looked to me "Relax Nel, not like we haven't shared a bed before," he said with an amused tone. I scrunched my face up even more, thinking about it. "Have we?" I questioned.

"Oh my god just shut up about the bed," Leo laughed, putting his hand over my mouth. "Here, take this, see if you can figure it out," he got up off the bed and threw me the tv remote. "I'll be right back." He left the room without much of an explanation of when he was coming back or where he was going, so I reached over to grab the remote and started pressing random buttons to see if they would help me find a solution.