AN: You knew I had to get Tiffany's in here somehow, right, guys 😉?

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Cameron stared at Penny.

"You're joking."

Penny shook her head.

"No. I never have sex the night before an opening." As if to drive her point home, she crossed her arms and legs and leaned back on the couch, looking back at the TV.

"But we haven't been together in--" he stopped to do the math "--five days!" He sat down next to her with a thump, leaning close to her. "Five days, penguin," he repeated. "They've kept us down at the theatre until all hours with their notes and rewrites and all that, and this is the first night we've been home before midnight all week, you realize that? And that's only because we open tomorrow and they wanted us to get some rest."

The corner of Penny's mouth twitched as she looked over at Cam, whose face was really close to hers.

"I know, Cameron, but it's one of my few superstitions, could you please indulge me on this?"

Cam's eyes narrowed. "Is this his doing? The wanker?" he asked suspiciously. "Is he the reason I can't be with my true love?"

"Well, he subscribed to this particular superstition also, yes," Penny conceded. "But so did I, so don't take it from me, okay?"

"Fine," Cameron said, giving in finally. "No shagging before opening night, even if I'm randy as fuck. If I could know these kinds of things in advance in future, though, I'd really appreciate it, yeah?"

Penny gave in to her laughter and leaned over to kiss him, unable to hold it in any longer. "Okay, sorry, please don't pout. And tomorrow night we can come home and fuck our brains out, okay? I promise."

"Okay. And I'm holding you to that," Cam informed her, settling back to watch the movie. He put his arm around Penny, and she tried to get comfortable.

"You're too hard," she complained, patting his lean torso. "You should lie down on me."

"No, makes me want to shag," Cam explained. "You feel too good, all soft and warm."

Penny just laughed. "Okay, suit yourself," she said with a shrug.

Eventually, Carol Channing came and joined them, settling on Cameron's lap, so he could scratch her head from time to time as she leaned into his hand and purred.

"Life is good, isn't it?" Cam murmured, pecking a kiss on top of Penny's head.

She nodded, snaking an arm around his waist.

She still couldn't shake the feeling that they were heading into dangerous water, but she resolutely pushed that feeling away, snuggling into Cam even more. The play was fine, it opened tomorrow, and she was with Cam, a bona fide prince who loved her as much as she loved him.

Life couldn't be any better.

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"House is open, house is open," the stage manager announced over the PA. "One hour to curtain."

"It's okay, honest," Cam was saying into his phone. He rolled his eyes at Penny.

She smiled at him and went back to putting her makeup on. She'd had a similar conversation with her family a few minutes ago.

"Vivi, it's ridiculous that you'd get time off from medical school to come see me in a play," Cam was saying now. "Of course not, no. I wasn't expecting you to be here, honestly." Cam switched to French for the next part of the conversation, and Penny had no idea what he was saying, though she found it incredibly sexy. She could tell it was something about getting tickets to the show, and she heard some dates in December mentioned. He switched back to English. "Are you joking? You're studying to be a doctor, Genevieve, what could be more important than that? No. No. You can come during your winter holidays. Of course. Yes. Definitely. Thank you. I love you as well. Ciao."

Penny's family, too, were going to come for Christmas and see the show in December, since Hazel was still in college and her parents couldn't take that much time off from work.

"I love her so much, and I can't wait for you to meet her, but she gets so emotional sometimes," Cam said, shaking his head. "She should be sleeping now, you know? Instead of which she stays up late just to talk to me an hour before curtain."

"We all have family," Penny said, gesturing to the absolutely enormous arrangement of flowers sent to her by her parents. "No need to explain, really."

"They love you, and they want you to know that," Cam said, taking her in his arms. He took in her face, which she'd made up to be pallid, with circles under her eyes and brackets around her mouth. "Wow, you don't look very good," he noted.

"That's the point," she said. "Now don't kiss me, or I'll have to redo it. And you'd better get your own makeup on, we have forty-five minutes to curtain, and you don't even have your first act costume on."

"Okay, okay," he agreed, switching on his bright lamp and opening his drawer full of powders and unguents to get started.

Penny sat back to watch him for a minute, and realized that she wasn't nervous, and that was weird. She'd been through four other Broadway opening nights in her life, two of them with Frederick, and they'd been nerve-racking and awful, because Frederick himself had been awful, to her and to everyone around them. He'd had a "process," and he'd thundered bloody murder at anyone who interrupted him while he "experienced" his character and went through whatever he had to go through. His temper was legendary.

Cameron, however.

Cam was listening to the news while he applied his makeup, joking around with the other cast members, smiling at her in the mirror, just being his usual relaxed self, and therefore making everyone around him relaxed as well.

He saw her looking at him, and asked, "What, love?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, just glad you're not a melodramatic, overemotional drama queen, that's all. You know, opening night?" She raised her hands and shook them while widening her eyes.

He bit his lip and raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, but I am." He looked at the two or three people who were in the dressing room with them. "Could you give some privacy for a mo, you guys?"

And even though the dressing room was shared equally by all of them, he was the star, as was she, and the others left without a murmur. It didn't hurt that he was definitely not a prima donna and had never asked such a thing before. He was also very well liked by everyone in the cast.

Cameron opened a drawer and pulled out a little blue box which he held out to Penny.

"Oh, Cam, no," Penny protested. "Just when I was praising you for being sensible, unemotional and everything?" She sniffed, not wanting to cry and ruin her makeup. "You didn't have to get me anything, and you certainly didn't have to get me anything from Tiffany's!"

"Are you saying you don't want it?" Cam asked in surprise, beginning to pull the box back.

"Are you out of your mind? Gimme the box," Penny demanded with a grin, grabbing it out of his hand.

"That's what I thought," he answered. He gestured to it. "So, open it, tell me if you like it."

She opened the box, took the bag out, and dumped its contents into her palm.

It contained a finely worked silver chain, from which hung a charm of a penguin, all in silver, smooth and heavy.

"It's vintage, so I had to buy it used, but the bracelet is new," Cam explained. "See, I had them sink a bolt into his head so they could attach him to one of the links."

"Oh, isn't he lovely?" Penny breathed. "I'm going to put it on right now, help me, Cameron."

"But it's not part of your costume, love," he protested, even as he was helping her with the clasp.

"Who's going to know? And if the costumer complains, I can take it off for tomorrow night," she said with a shrug, holding it up to the light so she could admire it.

Cam smiled, pleased with her reaction. "Happy opening night, love," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her hair.

"Thank you, so much," she responded. "I'll kiss you later, when we won't smear each other's make up."

I'm going to hold you to that, and don't think I won't," Cam laughed.

Penny let the others back in, but kept her bracelet to herself, not wanting to dilute her joy by sharing it with anyone. She felt like she was floating on a cloud.

Later, as they were waiting to take their places, Cam saw her smiling.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked.

"I just realized that this is the first time I've ever gotten a present from anyone who wasn't family, or a friend or whatever," Penny told him, beaming. "You know, a romantic gift?"

"What?"

Penny nodded.

"What about wanker?"

She shook her head. "He wasn't very sentimental."

Cam shook his head. "In all your years with him he never gave you anything? Not even flowers?" He took a deep breath.

"No, Cam, don't get angry, I'm happy, don't you see? This little bracelet means so much to me because it's the first, the very first thing I've ever gotten!"

Cam saw her face and made an effort to put his anger away, for her sake, as they took their places.

"Break a leg, penguin."

"Break a leg."

Penny pushed all of herself away from her, delving into character. She became Jackie, the sad, lonely girl who was through with men, through with people, through with life. As the lights went down, she could feel herself changing as she felt the energy from the people seated in the audience.

There was no rush quite like it.

She heard the sound cues come in, one at a time as the lights came up and the curtain rose; first the ocean, then the birds, then the far off sounds of the people and children in the village.

This was theatre.

This was her life.

She could hear Cam whistling. This was her cue, and she stepped out onto the stage, hugging her drab clothes around her.

Cam, as Harry, smiled at her, and Penny, as Jackie, very carefully didn't smile back. She could feel herself buoyed on the strength of Cam's acting, and knew that this night was going to be amazing.

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"Oh my god, I don't understand how we're still conscious!"

"Speak for yourself, Mr. Aldobrandeschi. I'm a lady, I'm far from inebriated," Penny said with dignity.

They were in a cab, finally headed for home in the early hours of the morning. They had of course ended the play to a standing ovation and numerous curtain calls, and then had decamped to a club for a rousing after party while they waited for the reviews.

And the reviews, when they'd come in, had been very, very good. Penny, of course, was used to good reviews, but Cam had never experienced them, and he'd gotten some raves. Suddenly, everyone wanted to be seen with him and photographed with him, and Penny had literally been unable to get near him for nearly two hours while press and Broadway glitterati showered him with praise and accolades at the club.

She'd just smiled and watched from afar, catching his eye every so often and hoisting a glass in his direction. He'd smiled back at her, and a few times even tried to make his way to her, but had never gotten more than a few feet before he'd been accosted by someone knew who just "had" to meet him or say something to him or introduce him to someone else.

They'd finally managed to get away from the party in the wee hours, and waved goodbye to the people who were still left, standing on the sidewalk, waiting for cars or cabs themselves, laughing, still high on the success of opening night.

"Penelope, you must be just as pissed as I am," Cam retorted with a laugh. "We've done nothing for the past five hours but drink and laugh."

"Again, please speak for yourself," Penny said loftily. "I know how to work a party, sir, and I've shmoozhed with the besht of them."

"Did you say 'shmoozhed' and 'besht'?" Cam asked with a snort. "Now I know you're pissed, your diction is the first thing to go."

"And your manners are the first thing to go," Penny retorted with a snort of her own.

They arrived at their apartment still laughing and bickering about who was more drunk, and they made their way to the shower, where they washed themselves and each other before falling into bed, just as the sun was coming up.

"I'm thinking you're too drunk to have sex," Penny murmured, kissing Cameron on the mouth and bopping his nose with her finger.

"Well, think again, young lady," Cameron responded, kissing her with a great deal of energy. "That's not a banana you feel against your tummy. I'm so randy it was all I could do not to just bang you in the shower, I'll have you know. Mmm," he moaned, kissing her again, biting her lip before licking into her mouth and rolling on top of her.

He surprised her by spreading her legs with his knees and thrusting into her, pushing a cry out of her as she arched her back into his chest.

"Oh god, Cameron, feels so good," she gasped.

In response, he nipped at her neck and put a hand between them to make sure that their lack of foreplay didn't deprive her of a climax.

He pressed on her with his thumb, while grasping her breast with his other hand and raising it to suck on the nipple.

"I want you to come hard, okay?" he murmured as he thrust into her and worked on her. "I want to feel you come on me."

She could only nod as she moved underneath him, head tipping back into the pillow, feet planted on either side of him.

Her breath began to come in harsh gasps as her climax spiraled closer, making her clench her belly under him, a tautness he could feel.

"Here you come, here comes my good girl," he said, lifting his head from her breast to smile at her, to look at her with smoky eyes. He continued to move within her. "I'm going to come soon, too, yeah?"

She nodded again, her breathing getting faster.

He felt her whole body tense and relax, tense and relax as she cried out, chest heaving, and he could feel her contracting against his erection, which felt so good he barely hung on.

His thrusts were getting fast and sloppy, and he knew he was almost there himself.

"Here I come, here I come," he moaned, moving up to kiss her mouth, clasping both her hands with his and raising them above her head.

"God, I love you, I love you," he gasped out against her mouth as he pressed himself deep within her.

"And I love you right back, my Prince Cameron," Penny breathed.

They fell asleep in each other's arms as the sun finally peeked over the horizon and showed its first rays on the East River.