Hi there. For some reason, I stumbled upon again and my writing mood struck, again. At this point, I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to end up writing a chapter every 4 years. I sure hope not. I've always been a big fan of the Yuri/Layla pairing and got very frustrated when the series didn't show many moments between those two. I reread my fan fiction and still like it very much; here's another attempt to finish it. I hope my writing style hasn't changed much.

Chapter 3

The sun wasn't even up yet, when Macquarie heard a light noise coming from the training room. She sighed; Miss Layla sure was early this time. And that was saying something, as the apocalypse was more likely to arrive than her sleeping in. As she peeked through the half opened door of the room, her suspicions were confirmed. Layla was training avidly. Watching her train was really something else. Even if it was just practice, Macquarie couldn't help but staying rooted to her spot. The natural grace of her movements had always been entrancing. She always wondered exactly why she had to train, as she rarely made mistakes.

This time, however, there was something different. There seemed to be something on her mind, Macquarie could tell. And it seemed to frustrate her. Her movements were a bit tense and her face was marked with concentration. She suddenly turned to lock eyes with the young maid.

"Is there anything you need, Macquarie?" Her tone was rather chilly.

"I…I was just wondering what you wanted for breakfast, Miss Layla", she stuttered. Boy, she was rather moody. Macquarie silently wondered what could have her in that state, considering how different she seemed the night before.

"The usual or I would've told you otherwise." Layla glared. The last thing she wanted was Macquarie to see her fighting off her straying thoughts about a certain person, who had an unusual knack of hitting her soft spots.

"Y-yes, Miss" Macquarie took this as her cue to exit the room.

Layla sighed. It was frustrating to feel all she had advanced when it came to suppressing her feelings for him had been ruined with the latest events. He was invading her thoughts, again, and apparently her dreams as well. 'No', she thought to herself, 'it was only one dream. And it doesn't mean anything.' It was probably because of the play anyways. She was playing the role of Clara, he was playing the part of the Nutcracker Prince, and thus it was perfectly normal to dream about that. And about, she gulped, kissing him.

The image of this made her miss the trapeze by inches, falling almost face down in the safety net. 'Damn it, am I becoming some hopeless swooning teenage girl?' She groaned. This was becoming absurd. She suddenly remembered May. 'Just be yourself, can't be easier, right?' "Oh, bite me", she muttered annoyed. How was she to be herself? That was also a question haunting her mind.

She stood up and made her way again to the trapeze. Again, her mind focused on different things besides training. On stage, she was supposed to show her feelings for the prince, to give them free reign. But… how to do this without mixing them up with her real life feelings? The preparation for the play seemed to contain questions beyond her knowledge. How did she manage to prepare for earlier roles with him? What seemed so achievable back then now seemed rather impossible.

"Miss Layla?"

She turned around to see a fiddling Macquarie standing in the doorway again.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Yuri has arrived." Was it her or did the young woman grip the trapeze tighter at this mention? Macquarie tried her hardest to hide a smile. If there was anyone who had a great influence on her, she knew, was Mr. Yuri. She silently hoped they would get together one day. She knew it would make both of them so much happier.

"He knows his way in", was Layla's reply. Better than anyone. From her experience, she had a few minutes while he changed into practice clothes to mentally prepare for his presence.

"R-right…please excuse me"

A little while later Yuri found his way to the room, ready to begin practice. She hadn't noticed his presence yet. He smiled softly. Yesterday's events had really left her with many things to think about, he felt, as there was something different about her moves. She wasn't focusing completely, although he gave her points for trying. She was now combining the trapeze with the trampoline, which was at the side of the safety net. It was a rather dangerous stunt one wouldn't pick for a first day of training. This was, he assumed, to make up for her lack of focus today. She was forcing herself to concentrate this way.

He decided not to risk a scolding for standing there for so long, by coughing slightly to make his presence known. If there was anything he knew she hated, was someone watching her train on a day she wasn't performing her best.

Layla turned her head in mid-air to see a lightly amused Yuri standing in the doorway. And then it happened. The memory of last night's dream jumped to mind, while her knees seemed to think it was a good moment to go weak, just as she landed on the trampoline, making her jump change direction. Instead of soaring towards the trapeze and safety net, she flew towards the hard floor to the side.

She instinctively put her arms around her expecting the crash, which didn't come. She felt two different, stronger arms around her as her direction changed. It must've happened in less than a second but, for that second, she felt everything happened in slow motion. As they were in mid air, she looked up to see Yuri's face. He must've used the other trampoline to jump towards her and bring her to the safety net. For an instant, he looked down and smiled softly. Before she could even react to this, they landed on the safety net with a crash.

Yuri sighed. For one gut wrenching second, he thought she was going crash against the rock hard tiles. It was those rare moments where he had felt fear invading him like someone tossing a bucket of ice cold water on him. He felt immensely relieved this was no longer the case. It was then when he realized he had landed on top of her. By reflex, he was carrying his weight on his arms but they were still very close to each other. He could see by her eyes she was still processing the whole thing. Perhaps it was the wrong moment, but something in her eyes rendered him speechless. They were more beautiful up close than he imagined.

Her heart was still racing. She looked up to see that Yuri had indeed saved her.

"That…that was close", she whispered, looking up at him. She gasped slightly. There was a curious expression on his face. He was looking deep into her eyes.

"I-it was", he agreed. It was the first time he stuttered since he was a child. She had more influence on him than he expected.

She was torn in two. A part of her wanted to run away, which was difficult considering he was heavier than she was. Yet, another part, wanted to do something entirely different. Before she could think it trough, before reason could kick in, that part took over quickly and more suddenly than she expected.

"You're sweating", she whispered, a grin escaping her. This was a rare thing, so early on in the morning. Yuri always had the ability to look flawless even under heavy training circumstances. Because of this, people were usually under the impression he rarely trained. Her hand moved towards him, moving a strand of hair out of his face.

Her touch was soft and cool. He suddenly realized his hand had moved on his own accord, gently squeezing hers. They were really close now. Moving closer suddenly seemed so easy…

The noise of his phone ringing throughout the room made both of them jump about a mile. He had forgotten he had temporarily put his phone in his pocket. Ironically, to put it on silent mode while they worked, though he forgot about this when he saw Layla train.

"Crap…I'm sorry", he said, suddenly realizing what he was about to do. He said up straight, muttering a curse under his breath. He answered almost in auto-pilot, as his mind was racing with different thoughts.

Layla blinked, still dazed confused. They were just an inch away of….Her mind still trying to process everything. But before her defenses could kick in, one question lingered in her thoughts. 'Did he apologize for the ringing phone or for what just happened?'