Buenos Aires: The Big Day

They just talked and talked until the janitor finally heard their voices, and opened the door.

The old man chided them for staying inside there, thinking they were intruders. They explained that they were theater actors for tomorrow, and got stuck here after fooling around.

The wholesome kind of fooling around, of course.

When they got back to the hotel with separate beds, Little John greeted them.

They had a dogsitter, this nice old Filipina lady that actually works for the owner of this hotel.

She had nothing much to do and was willing to take extra money, so she took care fo the dog during their work. She also found it adorable and treated it like her own son.

"Little John, your daddies are here! Say hi to your Papas!"

"Arf! Arf!"

Wolfe no longer recoils when Little John barks. He seemed to VERY slowly get accustomed to having a dog around.

That doesn't mean he'll go so far as to scratch his belly or touch Little John, but he's improving.

"Hi, little pest." Wolfe told him, as he went inside to collapse on his bed.

"Thank you, Mrs. Gonzales." Leon handed her the money. "Sorry that we're late. Something came up. How was Little John?"

"Oh, it's okay! It's okay! Little John ate two bowls of dog food already. He also knows where to go poo now."

"That's really great. Maraming salamat po." Leon thanked her in her language, and waved goodbye with the happy doggy following after his daddy.

"Mm... Right, the actual performance is tomorrow. Do you think I'll get shot while belting a High A or something?" Wolfe grinned.

"Unlikely. If it's Cherith, she wouldn't sabotage the show. She just aims to sabotage you."

Wolfe rolled over. "I still pity poor Taji. He doesn't know a thing."

"Yeah...." Leon took off his shoes. "I'm not the best guy in the dating world. But at least I never cheat."

He gave Wolfe a sideway glance. "How about you?"

"Hm?"

Leon knows he's pretending to be deaf. "Come on now. The past is past. I won't judge you or anything."

Wolfe did not answer for a while, just staring at the ceiling.

"Once. There was this girl.... her name was Shirley."

"I see." Leon sat down. "What did she do wrong?"

"That's the hard part. She did nothing wrong, I'm just a scum." Wolfe chuckled bitterly. "She was very sweet, she takes care of me every single time we're together...."

"To the point that... It felt suffocating. She was going too heavy on me, always telling me how much she loves me. I guess the reason why I did it.... was that I....."

"You were scared." Leon said. "You don't like being tied down to someone."

"No. I wasn't scared about being tied down."

Wolfe sat up. "I was scared for her. If I take things further... If I actually married this girl..... What kind of future would that be? To be with Wolfe Fang?"

"You loved her?" Leon raised an eyebrow.

"I loved most of my girlfriends. Shocking, right?" Wolfe rolled his eyes.

"You?"

"Of course I did. Almost proposed to one in a hot dog stand." Leon chuckled at the memory.

"Really?" Wolfe propped himself up with his elbows in interest. "What happened?"

"Very long story. Maybe some other time." Leon said. "I loved some more than others... But yeah, I never make it official unless I feel something."

"Same with me. Shirley.... She's just so nice." Wolfe sighed.

"Too nice. I wanted her to see the monster I really was."

Leon shrugged. "You really take things to the extreme, huh? If it was me, I would have just talked it out."

"Yeah..... But if I got together with her..... The engagement would not have happened, Leon."

"So I regret it, but if I could turn back the time to change it...."

"I wouldn't." He smiled. "I would probably apologize to Shirley more, though. But I won't miss the chance of being engaged with you."

Leon's heart went thump-thump-thump, and he just laid down in his bed to ignore it.

"That's enough heart-to-heart now. We have a big day tomorrow, better sleep early." Leon said, turning around.

Wolfe hesitated and just stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, then said:

"I'm really happy that you're still single, Leon Mo. That we met and became friends again."

There was no response, just breathing.

Wolfe closed his eyes and slept.

Leon opened his, and whispered softly, almost to himself.

"Me too."

---------------------------------------------

Their first performance went off so smoothly, it almost felt more like a blur.

Leon just sank into his character very well. He didn't experience stage fright from having thousands of eyes watching him.

In fact, he felt the opposite.

He felt more at ease being someone else for a while, forgetting all about his troubles from being Leon Mo.

His focus was completely on bringing this character to life, and convincing others that he and this person was the same.

His performance captivated many die-hard fans and casual goers alike.

They wondered who this newbie was, as they had heard about the news of Heath Aguer getting injured 'in an accident'.

After the performance was over, the crew insisted on having a party and toasting for Leon's performance.

But the policeman declined, knowing that he's bound to encounter a whole parade of paparazzi and the media blitz outside.

Wolfe chuckled when he raised his concerns about this.

"Are you camera-shy, hon? Fine, we can stay here for a while and watch the next show until the scary media monkeys have gone away."

Leon snorted. "Thanks, 'hon'."

They went to get changed, and Leon didn't have his own changing room, and so he shared one with Wolfe.

"Do you think they'll make another tableau here?" Wolfe suddenly asked. "It felt like they always make these tableaus either within the theater or just nearby."

"Possibly. There's only been two so far so there's no pattern we can notice yet." Leon said. "Fuck...."

"What?" Wolfe asked.

"Can you get me out of this harness? They really do get you stuck, it's digging through my backbone and balls."

Wolfe chuckled, and went over to him. He wrapped his hands around Leon, trying to unbuckle the harness around him.

"Mmm..... You look really good in uniform, Officer Mo." Wolfe said as he took in his figure, batting his long eyelashes.

"You don't look so bad as a handcuffed criminal yourself." Leon flirted back.

"Oh yeah? Catch me if you can, Officer."He chuckled, tracing his hand over Leon's chest. "Then you could handcuff me to your bed so I won't go away and misbehave~"

Leon grabbed him by the waist and planted a kiss on his lips. "Not a bad idea.... Then I can give you some proper punishment...."

Wolfe grinned wide and they made out inside the changing room, when they suddenly heard a loud bang outside.

Leon immediately blocked him protectively. "What was that?"

They slowly went for the door. There was nobody else backstage, the other performers were not even there yet. So who...

A dead body was right in front of them.

But it was not a person.

It was a dead cat wearing boots, fancy clothes, and a hat.