5 Times They Denied It & the 1 Time They Didn't

The first time was when Lauren showed up half an hour late to Kaylie’s house. Kaylie’s been sitting in her living room waiting for Lauren who was supposed to be here 30 minutes ago, but she hasn’t showed. Now, Lauren may like to be fashionably late to parties but she is never late to a day of eating everything in the kitchen and online shopping so when Lauren’s car pulls in the driveway she let’s out a sigh of relief and is about to jump up and question what’s taken her so long when she hears the door open and a familiar blondes laugh accompanied by, is that her brother? It can’t be, so that’s how she ends up peeking around the corner of the doorway to maybe, ya know, creep on them. Lauren was blushing and laughing with Leo. Leo? Seriously, what?
"It was great seeing you Lauren, may be we can go for coffee again before you start Olympic training" Leo says casting her a smile. Lauren blushes and stutters. Lauren Tanner never stutters in front of a boy, something is up.
“Yeah that sounds great.”She finally says, he smiles in return before throwing a “cool” over his shoulder and exiting the room. That’s Kaylie’s cue.
Kaylie raises an eyebrow up in question at her friend because seriously, half an hour late and flirting with her brother? She deserves some sort of explanation.
"What?" Lauren retorts bitchy edge already coming back acting like Kaylie has just grown three heads.
"Do you have something going on with my brother?" Kay asks looking between Lauren and where Leo exited the room.
Lauren scoffs "What? No! I ran into him at the coffee shop on the way here and it’s just been a long time since we’ve seen each other and we started to catch up and lost track of time.” She shrugs and gives a shake of her head. Kaylie gives her a skeptical look.
Lauren sighs “Seriously Kay, nothing is going on. Now come on and help me pick out a new leo for training." Lauren says as she drags her friend into the living room to look at different leotard options.
“Trying to replace my brother already Lo?” Lauren rolls her eyes at Kaylie’s playful grin. “Ha Ha very funny, now come on, I need your opinion!”

The second time was when Leo was at the gym starting to train again and watching over the girls practice. He was watching Lauren practice her floor routine, it was more artistic than she usually did and he was captivated by her grace and beauty. She usually moved with flare and sexiness and sizzle, but this was different. This was a Lauren he’d never seen before. But he rarely ever saw her on floor so who’s to say he sizzle isn’t reserved for the beam?
He was supposed to be practicing on the parallel bars but he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. Especially when he watched her do a nasty belly flop to the floor after not getting enough height from her triple layout to her double front arabian. Him flinching may not only be caused by his concentration being interrupted by Austin clapping him on the back and wrapped his arm around his shoulders, but he won’t admit to that to anyone but himself. He tears his eyes away from Lauren to look at Austin and maybe find the reason as to why he’s interrupting him right now. Austin’s lips turn their way up to their famous smirk, so it’s a surprise when the questions that comes out is what actually comes out of Mr. Kobalts mouth. (or maybe not, seriously he’s been staring pretty intently.)
"So you got something going on with my girlfriends best friend?"
Leo laughed and gave him a light shove before answering him "Your girlfriend? You mean my sister and my sisters best friend? No man, we grew up together were just close is all. There's nothing going on between me and Lauren."
Austin doesn't answer for a while as they go back to looking at Lauren as she lands her double Arabian this time around. He raises an eyebrow as he sees a proud smile make its way on to Leo’s face as she lands the move and nods slowly then slaps him on the back.
"Yeah alright well I'm gonna get back to practice and you probably should too since you’re you know, going to the Olympics in a few months". Austin states giving him a little snark which apparently doesn’t even register considering his eyes are already transfixed on the blonde again. Austin rolls his eyes and goes to head back to the rings.
Leo mutters out a "yeah" not really hearing what Austin said as he's already refocused on Lauren restarting her routine and watching carefully to see if he can catch anything he can help her with later and praying she doesn’t fall again.

The third time was when Lauren came home and hour and a half later than she told her dad she was going to be. Payson and her father were waiting for her in the living room when she got back. She barely got a foot in the door before they started questioning her about where she had been.
"You said you would be home an hour and a half ago!" Steve yelled at her.
Followed suit by Payson exclaiming that she had her "worried sick that you were dead in a ditch somewhere Lauren, couldn't you have at least called?"
Lauren stares at them for a second before hanging her coat up, closing the door, and taking her shoes off. "Great to see you guys too. Sorry I'm late I was having dinner with Leo and lost track of time." She says as she moves further into the house.
"Leo? Like Leo Cruz, as in Kaylie’s brother, Ronnie and Alex Cruz’s son?" He father asks her a look of disbelief on his face.
"No daddy his secret identical twin that goes by the same name. Yes, that Leo. We were just catching up over dinner." Lauren says as she settles down onto the couch.
"What did you have?" Her dad asks as he sits down on the chair next to her, confusion still evident on his face.
“We went to the pizza shack and then for frozen yogurt and then a walk.” Both Payson and he father raised their eyebrows at her.
“Oh my god what?” Her face goes from neutral to bitch face in .02 seconds.
“Is there something going on between you two? Be honest with me here Lo. I mean, I’d rather it be him than Carter but still…” Her dad gives her a hard look before he trails off them goes back to looking at her.
"You two have been pretty close at the Rock lately. He spends a lot of time helping you with your routines and outside of the gym. How could you not tell me there was something going on?" Payson asks hurt becoming evident on her face as she sits down next to her.
Lauren growls in her throat in annoyance before she stands up shouting "Guys! Seriously, nothing is going on between me and Leo" even if I want there to be her brain adds in "we’re just friends. We used to be super close when we were younger you know that, we grew apart when he left and we've just been catching up now that he’s back. You guys seriously need to chill out."
They both look at her not exactly believing her but letting it go for now. She shakes her head.
“You guys are impossible” she states walking towards the stairs, “I’m going to bed, good night, and try to stop obsessing over me talking to Leo from now on.” She states as she climbs the stairs to her room. (And if she calls Leo once she get’s there that can be their little secret.)

The fourth time is when Leo asks Sasha if he can help Lauren train. Sasha turns from one of the girls he's watching to look at him like he’s crazy.
"You want to help Lauren, with training?" He asks eyebrows raised almost to his hairline.
"Yes sir I would." Leo says in return not quite sure why Sasha is so confused and surprised.
"Have you ever trained with her before? She barely ever even listens to me and I'm coaching
her for the Olympics!" Leo chuckles at his response.
"Sir with all due respect I'm still asking if I can help her with her training?"
Sasha raises an eyebrow at him again. "Do you have something going on with her is that why you're asking; so you can be alone with her? Are you two dating? Do I need to enforce the no dating rule again so you can't be near her during practice?" Sasha gives him a hard look waiting for an answer.
Leo stares at him for a second before shaking his head "No, sir no I just wanna help Lauren train because she deserves this. She’s fought so hard and come so far. See, when we were younger I used to help her with her routines whether it was spotting for her, fixing something where she was off, or just telling her that she did great, it meant a lot to her and to me that she trusted me like that. And I always told her I would help her train when she was training for the Olympics. It would just mean a lot to me, and hopefully to her, for me to help her with this." Leo can feel the tips of his ears burning with embarrassment at the story he just told Sasha. He hadn’t really meant to it just kinda came out like word vomit, once he started thinking about that his filter just turned off and out came the story of some of his favorite memories.
Sasha eyes him for a moment before nodding. “And you’re sure there’s nothing going on between you two?” Yeah gushing all the information out did not help make Sasha believe there was nothing going on between him and Lauren.
Leo smiles wide and laughs, “no sir” even if I want there to be his brain adds in.
Sasha shakes his head and tells him it’s fine if he’s up to the challenge of helping her train and while he himself was training for the Olympics. “Oh and, please don’t make me enforce the dating rule again.” Leo smiles before walking over to where Lauren is chalking up her hands.

The fifth time is when Leo is helping her with a beam routine that he thinks is too strenuous for her heart. Lauren and Sasha had been working on this routine for weeks. It was insane. Triples and doubles and he didn’t even want to think about how dangerous her mount and dismount were. She currently had the highest DOD in the world and she was only upping it and she perfected these moves and added her “sizzle” to them. It made him nervous He couldn't stand her getting hurt, he cared too much about her he wouldn't be able to bear it especially if it was while he was watching over her.
He stood watching her from the floor as she threw move after move on the beam. Moves that shouldn't even be possible to be done on a 4 inch thick piece of wood, but she was doing them. And she did it with such ease. She made it look like she did these moves in her sleep. It still made him worry though, ever since her surgery; even though the doctors told her she was completely fine to compete, he was nervous.
When she does a balance check he breaks and says so. "Lauren, maybe you should take a break" he looks up at her as she steadies herself and turns to face him.
"Why?" She asks clearly confused "I've been practicing this for weeks with Sasha and it's almost perfect." She crosses her arms over her chest and looks down at him expecting an answer.
He sighs and looks up at her "I think the routine is too strenuous for you to be doing." He states and watches her as she gets down from the beam and moves toward him clearly not happy.
"Really Leo? Seriously? This is my chance to win an Olympic medal and you want me to hold back on my beam routine?" She says between clenched teeth trying to to yell and make a scene.
He steps closer to her. "I'm just worried about you Lo, I don't want you to get injured again." He goes to take her hand but she steps back.
"No, no you don't get to decide on my routine or if it's too strenuous. You're not my doctor, and while Sasha may be letting you help me train you are not my couch and as you keep telling people you aren't my boyfriend so why don’t you go practice your routines for the Olympics that we are both going to in 3 weeks, while I nail this routine and show you and the rest of the world that it isn’t too god damn strenuous for me ." She spits out and turns away from him to set the springboard back up for her mount. he sighs at her and goes to train but also watch her from the mens side of the gym watching as she throws another half twist into her dismount that Sasha praises her for and says that they should add it into the routine. Leave it to Lauren Tanner to make the most difficult beam routine even harder.

The one time they confirmed it was at the 2012 Olympic games. Lauren had just received her gold medal for the womens gymnastics team, in addition to that she also won the gold for the All-Around. She won a gold on beam (obviously she mounted a two and a half front and dismounted with a triple), bars, and floor, and a silver on vault. No one expected her to come back like she did, especially from heart surgery, but after seeing the passion she put into everything she quickly became the face for the 2012 Womens Olympic gymnastics team.
Leo had just received his gold for the mens gymnastics team. He received a gold for bars, vault, and silver for floor and All-Around. As soon as they were finished taking their team team photos they were running towards each other Lauren jumping into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and hugging him close. Their medals clinking together against their chests and the smiled at each other. He let her down to stare into her eyes, completely oblivious to the people around them because they didn’t matter then, this was their moment.
He pulled her close before saying, “Lauren Tanner I am so proud of you. I knew ever since you were little, that you would make it here some day. And I knew that when you asked me to help you train for this when you were just 5 years old that if I actually got to I would be one of the luckiest and proudest men alive. And here we are.” He smiled down at her pride and love showing in his eyes.
She met his with teary eyes, “Thank you so much, I am so proud of you and I wouldn’t be here with all these medals if it weren’t for you going to Sasha and helping me all these years. I’m so proud of us Leo.” She smiles up at him and he wipes a tear from her eye with his thumb before pulling her in for a passionate kiss. Which of course was caught by photographers and the press. Obviously.
When they finally pull away they’re being bombarded with questions?
“Is the Queen of the Beam and King of the Bars a couple?” “Will you two be the new power couple of gymnastics?” “Will you be giving Austin Tucker and Kaylie Cruz some competition?” “Does this mean you two are officially a couple now?” They simply laughed and said yes, a couple that both just had two dreams come true before they held up their medals and kissed again.
END