#genshinluvr

Leon has seen you around the DSO building a few times when he's not in the field. You're always at your computer, typing rapidly away before having to sprint from one place to another. Your nose is always glued to some kind of screen—whether it's your computer or tablet, you hardly look up from your work unless you have to. Leon knows who you are because you ran into him one time when you were a new hire.

God, you were a stuttering, flustered mess, apologizing and rambling about being in a rush to get to the other side of the building because someone's training you to configure, test, and install telecommunications systems for the division. Of course, Leon reassured you that you're all fine and don't have to apologize for running into him, despite it being an awkward way of meeting a coworker. After that, you quickly bow out of respect before proceeding with what you were doing earlier—run to where you're needed, leaving him standing in the middle of the hallway, watching your figure get smaller and smaller as the distance between you two grows.

Since the introduction, Leon has not seen you around much due to being an on-field agent and you working (and running around) as a telecommunications specialist. Funny how the awkward introduction would replay in his head from time to time, making him wonder if you're adjusting to your new job just fine since then.

While the introduction was endearing to Leon, it's one of your top five horrifyingly embarrassing moments that plays in your head at three in the morning when you're struggling to fall asleep. You, a newly hired telecommunications specialist for the DSO, ran right into Leon S. Kennedy, a DSO agent, a very elusive and highly respected person. It's almost rare to see him around the building because he's always deployed somewhere around the country (or a foreign country) for a mission.

Maybe it's a good thing you don't see Leon around the DSO building much, because you cannot bear seeing him after running into him. It wasn't a cutesy bump where you two can laugh it off and form a work friendship over. No! You were sprinting to where you're needed and then BOOM! You ran right into an incredibly solid figure that sent you stumbling back and landing on your ass in a full office, papers flying everywhere, and your head spinning.

You remember how hot your face felt when you came to your senses. A tall figure towering over you, gazing down at you with those crystal blue eyes—eyes filled with amusement and curiosity. A flurry of apologies tumbling out of your mouth as you scramble to collect the scattered papers around you. While you were busy making yourself a bigger fool, this hulking DSO agent knelt beside you and helped gather the papers with you.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Kennedy! I was in a rush, and I wasn't watching where I was going and—"

Leon cuts you off. "It's alright. You don't need to apologize."

You looked up from the stacks of paper in your hands, making eye contact with the DSO agent. He had a small smile on his face. God, his smile was so soft. You continued staring at Leon, blindly reaching around you for the papers. That very moment is when you felt your heart do this weird flip before beating rapidly. Your smartwatch buzzed, pulling you out of your trance.

"WARNING: HIGH HEART RATE. Your heart rate increased above 120 BPM while you—"

You quickly swiped the notification away before continuing where you left off: apologizing to Leon for running (more like slamming) into him. Leon handed you the papers you dropped. You thanked him before bowing to him, only to abruptly stop and do a double-take, smacking your forehead. Why did you bow to him?

"I should go now." You sighed in defeat, turning around and running off with your tail tucked between your legs.

After the accidental interaction, you try your best to avoid Leon. As if that would be hard, since the man is barely in the building unless he returns from his mission. But when he is on site, you're at your computer doing your work, so engrossed in your task to realize he's in the same building.

Oftentimes, you see Leon with Sherry Birkin, one of your close friends at work. And when you do spot the two together around the DSO building or in the break room, chatting and having lunch together, you make sure to turn around and go to another break room.

How can you face thee Leon S. Kennedy after that day? It's humiliating, and you can't look or think of Leon without becoming an absolute mess. Plus, Leon is incredibly attractive, and running into someone as handsome as Leon might as well send you to an early grave.

"Hey! I saw you walk to the break room, but immediately turned around and left. Are you alright?" Sherry asks, approaching your desk with a cup of water in her hand.

Fuck.

You nod, smiling at Sherry. "Of course I'm fine, Sherry! I completely forgot that I left my lunch bag in the other break room until I arrived at the one where you were."

That's a lie. Sometimes you do bring in a lunch bag with you to work, but most of the time, you go somewhere nearby for lunch. But today is the day you brought in a lunch bag and stored it in the break room where Leon and Sherry were. Needless to say, you had to order something to eat because you didn't have the guts to return to get your home-cooked lunch. Well, at least you know what you'll be having for dinner tonight when you get home from work.

"Well, I hope you can join Leon and me during our break next time! If you want to, of course."

You nod, pressing your lips into a thin line. You don't know how to respond to her offer. You can't reject her invitation! It would be rude, and Sherry might suspect that you're avoiding any interaction with both her and Leon (it's half true). You choose not to accept or reject Sherry's invitation, leaving the offer open.

After that interaction, the day goes smoothly, and you're able to collect communication data from the electronic surveillance monitoring equipment and download it onto various computer systems for analysis. That was on the floor above you, so you had to go back and forth frequently. Which means, you sometimes see Leon when you're going from floor to floor.

"They're really having you run around this building, huh?" Leon murmurs, crossing his arms over his chest as he leans against the wall in the elevator.

Yep. You are in the elevator with Leon, and no one else is in the elevator but you two. You're going one floor above, it's not like you'll be stuck in the elevator with him, right?

You nod. "It's part of the job. But I can't complain, this counts as my exercise for the day because I'm always sitting at my desk."

What kind of response is that? You kick yourself mentally. You hear a soft chuckle coming from Leon, making you look at him from the corner of your eyes. The way the crow's feet become prominent whenever he smiles causes something to stir within you.

You can't help but stare at him while he's looking straight at the elevator door. Usually, whenever you see Leon around the DSO building (while trying not to be seen by him), he would wear a leather jacket that has a shearling collar, but today is different. Today, he's wearing a very fitted top, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and the zipper of his shirt is unzipped halfway.

Those arms of his. God, those arms of his make you feel some type of way. You subconsciously bite the bottom of your lip before looking at the ground. Your heart does the weird thing again. It flutters, making your breath get caught in your throat before letting out a shaky sigh.

Leon takes his eyes off the elevator door, now looking at you. "Are you alright?"

You nod, not looking at Leon. "Yes, I'm fine, Mr. Kennedy." Your response comes out weak, almost too quiet to hear if the elevator music was any louder (it's not, it's actually pretty quiet that you can hear your heart pounding in your ears).

You take a peek at Leon, only to lock eyes with him. You quickly look away, brushing away an invisible hair from your face while trying to act like you weren't looking at him. Why is the elevator so slow? Just as you're about to pull the classic move of checking your watch to see what time it is, your smartwatch buzzes before loudly announcing:

"WARNING: HIGH HEART RATE. Your heart rate increased above 120 BPM while—"

You quickly swipe the notification away, heat rushing to your cheeks while your heart is drumming against your chest. Oh, god, this is so embarrassing. Why did it announce to the world to hear it!?

Before you can die from embarrassment, the elevator chimes, signaling for you that you've arrived on the floor where you're needed. You nearly cry in relief, quickly bidding Leon goodbye before scrambling out of the elevator without giving him the chance to respond.

You're adding that moment to another embarrassing moment that will forever replay in your head before you fall asleep. It's inevitable. At this point, maybe it's best for you to just work for another government agency to escape these embarrassing moments that keep happening to you for some reason.

A few days go by, and you finally have the courage to confide in your friend about your smartwatch embarrassing you whenever Leon's around. You're sitting on the couch, hugging your knees to your chest while you stab your ice cream tub with the metal spoon.

Laila chuckles, shaking her head. "That's what you're embarrassed about? Your smartwatch telling you that your heart beats fast whenever a fine ass man is near you?"

"You think it's funny because you're not the one in my situation." You grumble, glaring at Laila while still jabbing your ice cream. "How can I not be embarrassed? Imagine your smartwatch outing you for feeling nervous around someone like thee Leon S. Kennedy. My coworker!"

Laila makes a face after hearing that. Can you blame her? It's one thing to have a crush on someone, but a coworker? A workplace relationship isn't going to end well, and you're certain that—with your luck—it's not going to work out for you. Nothing ever does!

Laila leans over and flicks your forehead, making you wince and grumble while rubbing the stinging spot. "It's all in your head, [Y/N]. Just because you think about these embarrassing moments doesn't mean that Leon is going to do the same. Besides, do you remember other people's humiliating moments?"

You shake your head.

"Exactly! So, you have nothing to worry about, really. It may be another memory that haunts you in the middle of the night, but I'm sure Leon forgot that ever happened as his day goes by."

A few weeks have gone by, and you find yourself typing away at your computer, trying to complete as many assignments as you can before having to go to the upper floor. You've been so occupied with the tasks that you fail to notice a certain DSO agent walking towards your cubicle, eyeing the little decoration around your cubicle that's obscured by the mountain of files on your desk.

Leon clears his throat, trying to get your attention. But you don't look away from your computer, still typing away on one screen before turning to the second monitor, muttering something under your breath.

"What am I looking at?" You grumble, squinting and leaning towards the monitor.

"Being that close to the monitor isn't good for your eyes, you know." Leon comments, crossing his arms over his chest.

You jerk in your seat, head snapping towards his direction before looking at him like a deer caught in headlights. Your reaction brought a smile to his face. You clear your throat, quickly fixing your composure before smiling at him awkwardly.

"Mr. Kennedy! Is there something I can help you with?" You ask, adjusting the sleeves of your blazer.

"The head of the department is requesting your presence and assistance on the upper floor. Something about electronic surveillance not working the way it should be."

You pinch the bridge of your nose, sighing. How many times has this happened within a week? It's not like you can complain, unfortunately. It's what you're trained to do, and what you applied for.

You clear your throat, getting up from your seat after locking your computer. "Are you leading the way, or are you here to fetch me before going elsewhere?"

"I will be leading the way and watching the professional in action."

You can't tell if he's being serious or mocking you, but either way, the thought of someone like Leon watching you do your task makes your heart skip a beat. You better not fuck up anything while he's in the same room. You can't have another embarrassing moment added to the growing list.

With that, you gesture for Leon to lead the way. As you're walking to the elevator—the same elevator where your smartwatch decides to announce to the entire world that your heart rate has increased—you can't help but ponder whether Leon knows your name, or if he refers to you by your job title.

You nearly cry in relief when you realize that both you and Leon aren't the only ones in the elevator this time. Maybe this will ease your mind a bit. It's not like you don't want to be alone with Leon; it's the fact that you don't want the same incident repeated. You and Leon step into the elevator, greeting other people in the elevator.

You pull up your tablet, switching from lists of progress requests to detailed records of existing configurations of data circuits. You're reading everything on the screen, but at the same time, you're not processing a single thing. You poke the inside of your cheek with your tongue before tucking the tablet under your arm.

The elevator chimes, alerting you and everyone else that you have arrived on the floor you're needed in. You and Leon exit the elevator and walk to the office that's two doors down on the right. For a medium-sized office, it's rather quiet compared to where you're stationed.

You briefly greet the head of the department before starting your task of fixing the issues. There's literally no time to lose, or else that means way more paperwork and workload for you to deal with. About five minutes into searching for the problem, you're able to find it and gradually fix the errors.

"Are the senior technicians not here today? This feels a bit out of the ordinary, at least for someone still new to the agency. I'm usually working under the guidance of the senior techs." You mutter, eyes darting from one screen to another while your fingers are rapidly typing away.

"Zhao is currently needed in another department. You can view this as a test to see how you perform without the guidance of a technician. Zhao said he's confident that you can do the task without needing his guidance." Mrs. Lee replies, watching you like a hawk.

You nod, muttering to yourself while checking to see if there are any security issues while the systems are down. Thankfully, there's none that you know of. After what felt like an eternity, you manage to fix the issue before turning to where your attention is needed.

"Systems are back up and running. You shouldn't have any issues after that. If you do end up running into any issues, please find me immediately, and I'll get it back up and running and double-check the security measures to make sure there aren't any security breaches." You get up from the chair and rub the back of your neck.

"And they don't have you working in strict environments with those skills of yours? If I remember correctly—I could be wrong—working in resource-limited locations is one of the major duties for a telecommunications specialist, is it not?" Leon comments, his eyebrows furrowing.

You shrug. "I believe they're going to start having me do that soon. I don't know when, but it's all up to Zhao. For now, I'm on site at the DSO building performing my tasks and being trained on many other things."

Leon nods, the creases between his eyebrows gradually smoothing over. "That's impressive. You're doing well, and I'm impressed by the skills you have shown us today, and your ability to quickly pinpoint and fix the issues without the guidance of a senior technician."

Hearing and getting a compliment from Leon makes you feel some type of way. It's like a mix of pride and shyness. Pride because someone with years of experience under his belt is complimenting you, someone with less than a year of experience. Shyness because, well, it's Leon. The small smile of his, the crow's feet in the outer corner of his eyes, became visible when he smiles.

Would it be weird to call a grown-ass man, who's almost twice your age, cute? Apparently, it's weird to consider one cute. It's not like anyone else is going to know that you find the DSO agent cute, nor will they know about your little crush on him. Right? God, you're so fucked.

"Thank you, Mr. Kennedy, it means a lot coming from you," You reply. You can feel heat creeping up your cheeks the longer you and Leon look at each other, not saying anything after. "I believe my job here is done. I will return to my desk now."

You bid Mrs. Lee and Leon farewell before making your way towards the door. Just when you thought you were safe from humiliation, the minute you pass Leon, is when your smartwatch decides it's the perfect time to announce to everyone in the room about your heart rate.

"WARNING: HIGH HEART RATE. Your heart rate increased above 120 BPM—"

Of course, you immediately swipe the notification away frantically. You unsuccessfully swipe the notification away and opt to silence your watch. You quickly look back and apologize for the disruption before closing the office door behind you. Great, first it's Leon, and now it's your other coworkers who will remember this embarrassing moment for who knows how long. Does the DSO have a gadget that wipes memories by chance?

You collapse on your office chair, grumbling about what happened prior. After you typed in your password to unlock your computer, you realize something. You left your tablet on the desk in the office you just returned from. This happened all because you were too busy thinking about Leon and being shy after being complimented by him, and needing to return to your cubicle immediately after your smartwatch humiliated you (again) in front of Leon and your other coworkers.

Great! It's almost like every time something good (or something remotely positive) happens to you, your smartwatch needs to humble you in some kind of way. You bury your face in your hands, sighing. There's no way you can go back and retrieve your tablet. But you need it for work! But what if Leon is still there, talking to Mrs. Lee, and they brought up the smartwatch notification? What if your other coworkers bring it up while you're trying to get your tablet?

Your mind is a war zone, and you're just standing there, dissociating while chaos runs rampant. There's probably a grenade being launched at you right now, but you're too busy in that head of yours.

"Hey, you!" Sherry pops in front of your desk, successfully pulling you out of your inner turmoil. "Heard great things about you from Leon and Mrs. Lee."

Your heart skips a beat when Leon is mentioned. "Like what?" You try your best to act nonchalant, but you're not nonchalant; you could never be nonchalant.

"That you're cool when you're focusing on fixing the issues, you type incredibly fast. Not a single mistake, and you got the systems back up and running without the presence or guidance of the senior technician, according to Leon!" Sherry grins. "Oh! And in case I forget, here is your tablet."

You sigh in relief, leaning over to grab your tablet from Sherry's hand over your cubicle. Thanks to Sherry, you won't have to humiliate yourself for the second time today! "Oh, my god, thank you so much, Sherry! I didn't even realize I forgot the most important thing until I made it back to my cubicle. I'm forever in your debt."

Sherry smiles coyly, "Actually," Sherry starts, quickly peeking over her shoulder before turning to you, "the person who wanted to return your tablet to you was Leon. But he couldn't do that because he had a meeting to go to and handed the tablet to me to return to the owner."

"Oh!" Is the only response you can give to Sherry.

Sherry continues to give you that look, but you can't describe it. It's the kind of look that your friend gives you when your crush is in the same room as the two of you. Almost teasing, if that makes sense. Wait, Sherry doesn't know about your little crush on Leon, does she?

You smile awkwardly at Sherry. "Why are you giving me that look?"

She shakes her head, the smile on her face growing wider. At this point, you're convinced that Sherry can read your mind or see through you despite being work friends. "You know, Leon isn't as intimidating as you think." She starts.

"Where are you going with this, Sherry?" You bury your face in your hands.

"Nothing! All I'm saying is that Leon is a good guy and the only thing that are intimidated by Leon are the zombies he buries his hatchet in!" Sherry giggles.

"Shit, he can bury his hatchet in me, too, like damn," is what you wanted to say, but you bite your tongue and continue to let Sherry ramble on about Leon. What is wrong with you? How does a man have this much effect on you? Where is the professionalism, and what happened to the "no falling in love with a coworker" rule you set for yourself?

"Anyway! What I'm trying to say is that you have nothing to worry about when it comes to Leon, alright? You two should get some lunch together someday!" Sherry suggests, crossing her arms over her chest.

Your eyebrows furrow. "How am I going to do that when we barely talk to each other?"

Sherry giggles, fiddling with her hands while rocking back and forth.

"Sherry, what did you do?" You whisper, fearing for the worst.

"Nothing bad!" Sherry reassures you. She leans over your cubicle, hands cupping around her lips. "I may or may not have given Leon your phone number."

Suddenly, the tapping of keyboards, mild chattering in the office among coworkers, and office printers going off go silent. Did you hear Sherry correctly? Sherry Birkin, your work friend, gave Leon S. Kennedy your phone number?

"You what?"

"I hope you don't mind! I think you'll get along with Leon incredibly well, and I can sort of see you sometimes yearn to talk to Leon, but you're just shy…" She trails off after seeing the expression on your face.

You look at your monitor, moving your mouse so your monitor won't fall asleep. You gulp and turn to Sherry. "Did Leon ask for my number, or did you randomly give it to him? Also, what do you mean by you can sort of see me yearn to talk to Leon?"

Do you yearn to talk to Leon? Sort of, but you've humiliated yourself so many times in front of Leon that you question if it's even a good idea to talk to him. You may want to talk to him, but does he want to talk to you? That is the question. What's there to talk about when there are gaps in resumes, job and life experiences, and age?

"Well, not really, but—uh, are you alright?" Sherry asks, waving her hand in front of your face.

You nod. "Yeah, I'm fine! Don't worry about me, Sherry."

After a few exchanges, Sherry leaves your cubicle to return to her desk, leaving you alone with your thoughts. Your watch buzzes. You check your watch to see multiple notifications from the heart rate app, notifying you about the same thing. It's a good thing you put your smartwatch on silent. Maybe you should keep it that way from now on.

"Why didn't I think about that earlier?" You smack your forehead before continuing on your work.

By the time it's time for you to clock out of work, you have completed most of your work that needs to be done by the end of the day. You yawn for the umpteenth time today, trying to shake off sleep that's creeping up on you. You make sure to save your progress and document what you need to get done when you return to your desk tomorrow morning.

You make a small checklist on your tablet, log off your computer, and turn it off. You grab your belongings and make way towards the elevator after bidding Sherry farewell. She's talking to Leon and Jake Muller—her boyfriend, you assume— so you bid the two goodbye, too tired to even realize what you did. You're so excited to finally go home and get some sleep.

By the time the elevator arrived, and it's your turn to get on, the hallway is nearly empty. You hop on the elevator, press the main floor button before turning to your tablet. God, you're so tired that you're not processing the words on your screen. The words are blurring into each other, making it incoherent.

You eventually give up and turn your tablet off, putting it in your tote bag. The elevator chimes, and you find yourself in the parking lot of the DSO building. As you're searching for your car keys, you hear someone calling for you from a distance. You look to see Leon jogging towards you.

"Mr. Kennedy, do you need something?" You ask.

Leon holds up a familiar keychain. "You left your car keys at your desk."

You stare at Leon, your mouth agape. You're a mess today, aren't you? "Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Strange how I didn't even realize it, even with a lot of keychains attached to it."

Leon hands you your car keys before offering to help you take your things to your car. Obviously, you accepted his offer because you didn't want to be rude to reject his offer, and because your shoulders were starting to become sore because of how bulky your tote bag is.

At first, the walk to your car was silent, but Leon broke the silence by complimenting you on your problem-solving skills and your ability to get the servers up and running in no time.

"Have you considered being a field agent?" Leon asks, watching you unlock your car.

You shake your head. "Not really. I don't think I'm suited to be a field agent because it's a little bit intimidating. I've seen and heard the things you do as a DSO agent, and before that, and it's something I don't see myself doing."

"Have you ever shot a gun before?" Leon asks, putting your things on the passenger seat of your car.

You press your lips into a thin line. "Not necessarily…"

He raises his eyebrows at you. "You hesitated."

"No, I didn't."

"You did." The corner of his lips curls up into a smirk.

God, he's even prettier when he smiles. You shake your head, trying not to smile as you open the door on the driver's side and start your engine. You can't have a crush on your coworker, someone who's a father figure to Sherry.

"Why not try it out? Give it a shot," Leon shrugs, now leaning against your car with his beefy arms crossed over his chest.

Goddamn, he's so muscular. Those biceps are huge—wait, was that a one-liner? You raise an eyebrow at Leon. "That was lame."

"What? No, it's not. I think it was brilliant."

"Of course you think it's brilliant. You're the one who came up with it."

The two of you have a good laugh before eventually having to part ways. You and Leon bid each other goodbye after you thanked him for giving you your car keys and helping you put your things in your car. From the comfort of your car, you watch Leon walk to his car, which happens to be parked a few spaces from where you parked your car.

"Of course, he drives a nice car. I shouldn't be surprised at all."

You watch his car come to life and pull out of the parking spot, then leave the lot of the DSO building. You reverse your car, pull out of your parking spot, and slowly pull out of the site after making sure there aren't any oncoming vehicles. Finally, you can go home and relax. Anything work-related can wait for you to clock in tomorrow.

-

On his way to the DSO building, the interaction he had with you in the parking lot plays in his head. Leon couldn't help but think back to the time when your smartwatch would notify you of your heart rate. At first, Leon thought it was funny, as in a funny coincidence, but then he noticed that it would happen often, especially whenever he was around.

Again, Leon assumed it was a coincidence that it happened at least three times whenever he was around. But he brushed it off as you still being anxious about working for the DSO as a semi-new hire. What throws that assumption out of the window is your reaction to getting the notification. He can't help but feel concerned for you.

Does your heart rate do this regularly? Do you get notifications about your heart rate throughout the day? Are you an anxious person by nature? That can't be it, right? Whenever you're in your element at work, all of that anxiousness is gone, and you're focused on your work and get things done as soon as possible without rushing or caving in under the pressure.

A million questions pop up in Leon's head as he sets foot into the office, searching for someone who could have the answer to his burning questions. You. Unfortunately for Leon, he did not find you at your desk. Leon scans the room and sees Sherry typing away at her desk while conversing with the person sitting at another desk beside her.

Leon weaves through rows of cubicles to get to where Sherry's sitting, nodding and briefly greeting people who greet him as he passes by. As Leon gets closer to her desk, he calls out to Sherry. "Sherry, can I speak with you for a moment?"

Sherry looks up from her computer to see Leon nearing her desk, eyes still wandering around the area in search of something, or someone. She pushes herself away from the desk and stands, facing Leon, now that he's standing in front of her.

"Of course, Leon, what can I do for you?" Sherry leans against the desk, head tilting to the side.

Leon clears his throat, lowering his voice. "Do you know whether [Y/N] has a heart condition?" Leon continues to be on the lookout, earning an inquisitive look from the blonde woman.

Sherry's eyebrows furrow, slowly shaking her head in response to his question. "Heart condition? Not that I know of. I don't think she's mentioned it, why?"

Leon hums, nodding. Interesting. If you don't have a heart condition (going off on Sherry's response), then why did your smartwatch inform you that your heart rate was too high? At an odd time, as well. So, Leon then gives Sherry the rundown on why he's asking her these questions instead of you. Technically, he was going to ask you, but you're not at the DSO building currently.

After explaining the situation and his concerns to Sherry, she strokes her chin, nodding. "I see… you're worried that if she has a heart condition, it could get in the way of her work. Or that her job could affect her supposed heart condition. making it worse."

"Yes, that is correct, Sherry."

Before Sherry can respond, she peeks from Leon's shoulder and sees you entering the office with your tote bag, tablet, a stack of manila folders, and a coffee cup in your hands. Leon follows Sherry's gaze and quickly bids Sherry farewell before walking towards you.

Leon pauses when he sees you on the phone, speaking to someone. He looks over at Sherry, who gestures for him to continue what he's doing and questions why he stopped in the first place.

"I'm at work already, so I'll call you later." You mutter. "You'll have to end the call for me because my hands are full right now."

The person on the other end of the call hangs up their phone. You sigh, lifting your head from your shoulder, only to realize you made a mistake. Your phone slides off your shoulders and tumbles to the ground, but it doesn't fall to the ground. Leon manages to catch your phone for you before taking the stacks of manila folders from your hands.

"Busy morning already?" Leon murmurs, giving you a half smile.

You sigh, nodding. "Very. The minute I open my eyes, I already have tasks to do. I am not organized today. I'm all over the place," You ramble, putting your tote bag on your chair and turning your computer on. "Thank you for catching my phone and taking the folders from my hands."

"No need to thank me. I'm more than happy to help when you need it." Leon smiles, watching you get situated for the day.

You nurse your cup of coffee, waiting for your computer to load everything so you can start where you left off the day before. With one hand, you turn your tablet on, enter your pass code, and open a notes app that consists of your checklist for the day and work.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Leon—I mean, Mr. Kennedy?" You clear your throat, heat rushing to your cheeks as your heart starts racing against your chest.

It's a new day, and you've already embarrassed yourself. How lovely. But it's no surprise, since you always, somehow, manage to embarrass yourself without having to try. Maybe if you don't look at Leon, he won't notice your mistake.

Leon clears his throat. "There's something I need to ask you, but I want to ask you this question privately."

You peek at him. "I'm not getting fired, am I?"

"No, you're not getting fired. I'm not your boss; we're in different departments."

"Okay, so, if we were in the same department, would you fire me?"

"What? No, absolutely not. That's ridiculous."

You put your coffee cup on your desk and lock your desktop. You turn to Leon and nod to let him know that you're available to discuss whatever he wants to talk about. You get up from your desk and follow Leon out of the office. You pass Sherry, only to see her shoot a mysterious smile at you while sipping on her coffee.

Once you and Leon are out of earshot and the office, Leon doesn't stop there. He searches for an empty room where no one can walk in on the conversation. After two and a half minutes, Leon finds an unoccupied room and gestures for you to enter after opening the door for you.

You enter the office, subconsciously wiping your sweaty palms against your pants. Why are you so nervous? It's not like Leon is going to interrogate you, right? You'll be fine. Everything is going to be okay! Nothing to worry about at all!

"So, Mr. Kennedy, what do you want to ask me since you pulled me to an unoccupied room to ask me this question?" You tuck your hands in your pockets—it's deep pockets, too!

Leon closes the door behind him and approaches you. God, he's tall and beefy. A man! There's at least a foot distance between you and Leon; he's standing pretty close to you that you can smell his cologne. If your job wasn't on the line, you wouldn't mind blurring the line between professionalism and unprofessionalism. Heck, you would make it HR's problem if your job wasn't on the line and if Leon felt the same way. For now, it'll be in the back of your brain, never allowed to see the light.

Leon waves his hand in front of your face, head tilting to the side while gazing at you worriedly. "Are you alright?"

You smile at Leon. "I'm perfectly fine, Leon! Why'd you ask?" You didn't realize you said his name instead of his last name.

Leon smiles, looking down briefly, then back at you. You then realize that he's looking down at your smartwatch, the very watch that's screaming at you and Leon about your heart rate.

"WARNING: HIGH HEART RATE. Your heart rate increased above 120 BPM while—"

You quickly swipe the notification away before acting like nothing happened. Leon chuckles, shaking his head.

"Right. That reminds me. I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but I was wondering if you have a heart condition of any sort." Leon asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

Your eyes quickly fall onto his bulging biceps before quickly looking at his beautiful blue eyes. Shit, what was the question again? You awkwardly clear your throat, rubbing the back of your neck while looking at the bland decor of the office to calm your nerves and distract you.

After some time, you shake your head. "I don't have any heart conditions. Why'd you ask?"

Leon cocks his head to the side, looking at you curiously. "Can I ask you another question?"

"I don't know, can you? Also, you already asked me a question." You shrug, rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet.

"Alright, fair enough. May I ask you another question?" Leon shakes his head, trying to hold back a smile.

"I mean, you just did, but go ahead." You reply, pressing your lips into a thin line to stop yourself from laughing. God, you hate yourself sometimes.

Leon shakes his head, quietly laughing to himself. You find yourself staring at him, mesmerized by his beauty. He's so handsome. Everything about him makes him attractive, not just his looks and his massive biceps that you want to be put in a chokehold with.

"If you don't have a heart condition, what is the main cause for your heart rate to increase at an alarming rate?" Leon asks.

"I'm a nervous person by nature," You lie.

He does that thing again, tilting his head to the side like a confused puppy. "You're nervous whenever you're around me?"

You blink at Leon owlishly. There's no way you walked right into that, right? "Uh, I don't know why you would think that, Leon—ahem, Mr. Kennedy." Is the room suddenly hot? Why are you so warm?

"You don't have to call me by my last name when we're alone. Leon is fine." He reassures you, smiling at you. "What I meant to say is, whenever I'm around you, or in the same room as you, your smartwatch would notify you of your increasing heart rate. Does your smartwatch notify you of your heart rate regularly, or does it notify you whenever I'm around?"

You definitely walked in on that one, fuck. You pucker your lips and look away from Leon, hands propped on your hips. You can't choose the first option because it doesn't happen regularly, hence why you never put your smartwatch on silent. But you don't want to choose the second option because it's the correct answer. The best thing you can do is die.

You slowly nod, looking at him from the corner of your eyes before staring at your shoes. "I plead the fifth."

Leon raises an eyebrow at you. "Avoiding self-incrimination, I see," Leon mutters, stroking his chin while watching you closely. "That's not fair, you can't do that."

"Well, you didn't say that I can't plead the fifth."

"Okay, well, now I'm saying it. You can't plead the fifth."

You nearly stomp your feet on the ground. "What do you mean I can't plead the fifth?"

"Because I said so," Leon shrugs, watching you with pure amusement while you're having an internal conflict.

You stare at him, mouth agape. "You can't do that, that's not fair!"

Leon's eyebrows shoot to his hairline. "Oh, now you know what unfairness is!" Leon says, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

"Why are you laughing? This is no laughing matter!" You whine, covering your face with both your hands. God, can lightning strike you already?

While you're busy ruminating and shielding your face from Leon's view, you give him a clear view of your smartwatch screen. Leon leans forward to get a better look at your brightly lit smartwatch screen out of pure curiosity (and because he wants to mess with you a little more).

"WARNING: HIGH HEART RATE. Your heart rate increased above 120 BPM while…"

"Ah, there it is…" Leon murmurs, his eyes flickering back to you.

You peek from between your fingers to see how close his face is. You look at your watch and quickly swipe the notification away before turning around and proceeding to cover your face with your hands once more. Oh, so this was his plan the entire time!

"Stop, you're going to make my heart explode." You grumble, now pressing both hands to your chest. Your heart is thundering against your chest.

Leon shrugs, running his hands through his hair. "It's not like I'm doing it on purpose."

"I don't believe you." You snort, shaking your head. You eventually peek over your shoulder to see Leon toying with his Hamilton watch. God, the veins on his forearm. If you're in a cartoon, your eyes would be bulging out of your sockets, jaws to the ground with an AWOOGA blaring after you see those veins on his arms.

Leon looks up from his watch when he hears an audible smack. "What happened?"

"Nothing," is your immediate response while rubbing your throbbing cheek. What happens now after this? How can you go on about your day after this interaction with Leon? If anything, you're going to need to put your smartwatch on silent from now on.

Eventually, you and Leon make your way back to the office, exchanging words here and there. It doesn't feel uncomfortable between you and Leon. Leon is more loose around you, like he can joke with you and tease you, compared to the first time meeting you.

You also tease him back, but more shyly because of the thoughts in your head—how you just want him to… never mind. You're sure that Leon is very aware of that because of your smartwatch and because sometimes Leon catches you in the act of staring at him.

As you're locking your computer to go on your lunch break, Leon stops by your cubicle and watches you tuck your tablet into your tote bag. You look up and smile at him shyly, your heart punching against your ribcage.

"Do you need anything before I go on my lunch break, Leon—I mean, Mr. Kennedy?"

Leon chuckles. "I was wondering if you would like to join me for lunch."

"Yeah, I'd love to join you for lunch, Leon." You smile at him, warmth rushing to your face. "Will we be having lunch here, or outside of the DSO building?" You get up from your seat and push your chair in.

"Outside of the DSO building. Unless you prefer to have lunch on site?" Leon says, gesturing for you to follow him.

You walk beside Leon, tucking your hands in your pockets. "We can have lunch outside of the DSO building. I didn't bring lunch with me today."

As you and Leon walk to the elevator, you pass by Sherry, who quietly cheers and claps her hands. Leon has one hand hovering close to your back as you're both walking to the elevator and the parking lot to where his car is parked. It looks like things are budding between you and Leon, one heartbeat at a time.

You're buzzing with excitement, knowing you're going to see the 49-year-old Leon S. Kennedy in his glory after playing Grace's part at the Wrenwood Hotel. You have been anticipating the release of Resident Evil Requiem ever since you saw the trailer for the game. Now that it's in your Steam library, you have been itching to play the game after work.

You're sitting at your desk, knees pressing against your chest as the cut scene plays before you. Your heart is still pounding against your chest after you manage to escape from the infected police officer, Cole. You watch Grace collapse in the strange man's iron grip, her body slumping to the side, and the screen goes black.

"Is it finally happening?" You whisper, leaning forward towards the monitor, and watch the series of police cars slowly appear on the screen, before cutting to a scene where it shows a dead body with strange blotches on the palm of the deceased's hand. Your eyes light up. "It is! It is it is it is!"

The man—obviously, it's thee Leon S. Kennedy—gets up from where he was kneeling and leaves the area that is blocked off with crime scene tape.

"Talk to me. Is this one like the others?" A woman's voice breaks through the sound of pouring rain as the man walks towards the CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS and POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS tape.

"Same black blotches." He ducks under the tape and continues to walk past the police cars at the crime scene.

"And it's not postmortem lividity?" The mission coordinator asks.

"No." He turns toward the area where his car is parked. "No, this is different. That's six now. Six survivors of Raccoon City, all dead from the same thing." The scene switches to the inside of the car.

"Yeah, that's… not good."

"No… No, it's not." The car door opens, and the investigator gets into the car before closing it.

You lean in your seat, biting your bottom lip. God, his voice is so husky. You continue watching the cut scene, completely immersed and enamored by the sight of the man you will be playing as very soon, once the cut scene is over. The mission coordinator proceeds to give additional information to the mysterious man.

You already know who this mysterious man is behind the wheel. But when the bottom half of his face is shown in the rear-view mirror, you audibly gasp and continue to watch the cut scene, watching the man grab his gun and pop out the cylinder, spinning it around before popping it back in, while the mission coordinator continues to speak in his intercom.

The minute the game finally reveals Leon's face, you gasp. "Oh my—Leon, you're so handsome."

For about thirty seconds, Leon doesn't respond to the woman on the other end of his intercom. His eyebrows slightly furrow, his eyes scanning his surroundings. Did he just hear someone else's voice? It's certainly not the mission coordinator. What the hell?

"You there, Leon?" The mission coordinator asks, bringing him out of his thoughts.

Leon nods. "Yeah. I'm here."

"You okay?" Leon can hear the woman raise her eyebrows as she waits for his response.

Leon doesn't respond to her question. Leon glances in his rear-view mirror, checking to see if a random woman may have sneaked into his car, but he sees no one. Leon pushes the start button of his Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, and the black luxury car purrs to life.

"Send me the address," Leon says, putting his car in reverse and turning halfway. "I'll check it out." Leon puts his gearshift into drive before he drives off into the night.

You stare at the dark screen after watching Leon's car disappear into the night—your mouth agape. You're so glad that you spent $69.99 for this game. You could spend additional money on the deluxe version, but you wanted to finish the game first before deciding whether a deluxe version is worth buying.

You end up playing the game for a little over an hour. You're now on Grace's part of the game, where you need to find a screwdriver for the fuse box in Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. You didn't know what got into you when you chose to play the standard classic mode rather than casual or standard modern mode.

"God, I'm so stupid. Why am I doing this to myself?" You mutter after Grace grabs the ink ribbon in the room that you unlocked with the Cherub Key. "Limited autosaves, and I need to save my gameplay wisely. Why did I choose this mode again?"

You're roaming around the area as Grace—you're playing in first-person point of view—trying to gather the courage to go to the nursing station. It's so dark that you have to squint to see in the darkness. As much as you want to change the setting to make it a little brighter for you to see in the dark, where's the fun in that?

"It's okay! I can do this! Everything will be okay, and nothing will happen!" You try to give yourself a pep talk, having Grace walk to the nursing station with a tiny lighter in her hand, illuminating her path. Just as Grace approaches the door, a cut scene is triggered, and an infected corpse falls through the door, scaring both you and Grace.

Grace leans down and touches the corpse's neck. "He's dead." Grace states the obvious.

"I would hope so." You mutter, mentally preparing for what's to come.

After Grace moves the man's head, a large hand emerges from the darkness and grabs the infected corpse. Grace lets out a choked gasp, watching in horror as the grotesque monster brings the dead body up to her mouth and bites off the head.

Its eyes lock on Grace, mouth and teeth stained with blood, and it leans towards Grace. You flinch back from your monitor, questioning your choices on playing the game in the dead of night. After the cut scene ends, you immediately turn around and leave the nursing station with the monster at your (Grace's?) tail.

"Come on, come on, come on! Can you please run any faster, Grace?" You panic, shaking your legs as you run to the nearest room that has lights. When you successfully run to Room 203, you turn around to see the grotesque monster at the entrance of the room.

The monster steps into the room, causing Grace to fearfully yell out, "Don't come any closer!"

The monster's gray skin starts sizzling and burning from the lights in the room. It shrieks and steps outside the room. You and Grace watch the monster climb up a hole in the ceiling, leaving Grace alone at last. Just when you thought you were safe, the lights in the room went out, sending chills and shivers down your spine.

You run out of the room, heart pounding against your chest. After you make it back to the nursing station, you grab the med injector and start searching for the screwdriver for the fuse box. You can hear blood pounding in your ears, listening to Grace's shaky breath.

You search around the room and eventually have to move the cart. But before you do that, you move it slightly and open the locker to see a green herb.

"This could be useful," Grace mutters, grabbing it.

You climb onto the cart, grabbing the antique coin from the top of the locker before getting off. You grab the cart and start pushing towards the shelf where you spotted a red toolbox perched on top. Just as you're halfway to the shelf, a metal tray slides off the cart and clatters loudly to the ground, causing you and Grace to freeze momentarily.

You hear chains and shackles dragging on the floor, followed by heavy footsteps that are heading towards the nursing station where Grace is. Out of sheer panic, you grab the cart and move it closer to the shelf, ignoring the other items falling off and crashing to the ground.

You catch a glimpse of the creature through the window, slamming her hand against the glass while walking towards the nursing station. At this point, your heart is in your throat, and you're close to pausing the game and ending it there for the night, but the issue is that you still need to save the game, and if you don't, you have to redo where it last auto-saved.

Once the cart is close enough to the shelf, you climb onto it and grab the red toolbox, unlatching it and taking out the screwdriver. You sigh in relief, hopping off the cart and running to the nearest hiding spot. You extinguish the flames of Grace's lighter, staring at the door while listening to the monster getting closer to where you're having Grace hide.

The monster's hand suddenly appears, grabbing onto the doorframe before walking into the room. It sniffs the air, walking further into the room and looking around. It gets close to where the cart is and lets out a frenzied growl, swiping at the cart, causing it to fly to the desk. Grace whimpers.

You take it as a sign to start running. Before the mutated creature can turn and look in your and Grace's direction, you have Grace leave the hiding spot and start sprinting in the darkness. Since the creature turned the lights off in Room 203, you start running to the room where the typewriter sits. Before you pass the nursing station, the door bursts open, and the monster appears.

You briefly pause the game, staring at the menu in horror. Your heart is thudding painfully against your chest as you try to calm down. You lean back in your seat, heavily debating if you should just stop there.

"But I made so much progress. I have the screwdriver. I just need to find a way to get Grace to go around the monster, run to Room 201, get the fuse from the fuse box in that very room, and run to the other fuse box where I got the Cherub Key."

You take a deep breath and close your eyes. God, this is horrifying. Playing the game in first person point of view makes it even scarier than you anticipated. You give yourself a pep talk before unpausing the game. Grace cries out in fear, freezing in fear when the monster fully reveals itself in front of Grace.

You start mashing the buttons, begging for Grace to start moving or else she's dead. "Come on, come on, come on! We gotta go, or else we're next, Grace!"

As if she heard you, Grace turns around and starts running to the other entrance of the nursing station where the two of you came from. Grace hides near the desk in the nursing station, panting as the two of you wait and listen to the monster walk past the nursing station over and over.

"This is horrifying." You mutter, hands trembling on your mouse and keyboard. "Is the empty bottle even going to work in this situation?" You creep towards the door where the monster burst from, trying to see where it is.

You take the empty bottle out of Grace's inventory and aim for the furthest part of the hallway—close to where the plant was knocked over—and toss the bottle. The bottle shatters, grabbing the creature's attention. It shrieks and charges towards where the bottle landed, giving you and Grace a small window to escape your hiding spot.

You have Grace sprint to Room 201 as fast as she could, but it feels like Grace wasn't running at all from first person perspective. It feels more like a power walk rather than Grace running for her life. Halfway down the hallway, you and Grace hear the monster shrieking and charging towards where you're heading.

"Hurry, hurry!"

Grace pushes the door aside and makes it to the room where the typewriter sits. You sigh in relief, blood pounding in your ears. Grace takes a few steps towards where the fuse box is, only for the entire building to shake and the lights to flicker and turn off.

"We need to get that fuse and get the hell out of here as soon as possible," You say, making Grace go to the fuse box inside the closet. You unscrew the fuse box with the screwdriver, and Grace takes out the fuse, triggering a cut scene.

Grace stares at the fuse, "Alright," she mutters. Grace turns around, and just when she can leave the closet, you and Grace hear a faint thud coming above her. Grace gasps and looks up at the gaping hole in the ceiling of the closet in horror.

Grace takes a step back, eyes still locked on the hole. "Oh my god," Grace whispers.

The monster starts climbing into the room where Grace is, causing Grace to gasp and start panicking. The cut scene suddenly ends, and now you find yourself forcing Grace to turn around and make a run for it to the fuse box where the Cherub Key was located.

The lights shatter, and the building rumbles as Grace runs through the dark hallways of Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. When you press 'F' at the fuse box, a cut scene is triggered, showing Grace shoving the fuse into the fuse box, pressing the button, and quickly looking back as the security gate slowly pulls up.

You watch Grace drop to the ground and quickly crawl underneath the moving gate. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!" Grace pleads as she crawls through the gate, and the monster appears where Grace came from. You collapse in your seat, sighing in relief, happy that you have gotten through the first (among many) difficult parts of the game.

The monitor goes black before switching to another cut scene—but it starts with showing Leon's Porsche driving through the gate of Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center and to the front. Leon exits the car, and you gasp in awe, completely enamored by the mere sight of Leon S. Kennedy.

"God, he looks so good." You whisper breathlessly as you watch him walk to the door of the facility after closing the car door. "Why can't you be real?" You lament, resting your chin on your knees as you continue watching the cut scene unfold.

Leon stands in the central hall, his eyes scanning his surroundings. It's quiet, too quiet. But despite how quiet it is in the facility, Leon still hears the same voice he heard earlier near the crime scene he left before arriving at the sanatorium. Maybe he's going crazy, and the side effects of the T-virus are starting to get to him.

You watch the nurse appear behind Leon, calling out to him and informing him that Dr. Gideon was expecting him.

"Funny. I don't remember getting an invitation," Leon's sarcastic response makes you snort, shaking your head. Leon hears the faint snort, the corners of his lips barely curving up into a smile.

The nurse continues speaking to Leon, telling him that Dr. Gideon is waiting for him. Leon soon follows after the nurse as she guides him to who knows where. The cut scene continues a little longer, only for the nurse to lead Leon to the rehabilitation ward. The door closes behind Leon, making him turn around. Then the cut scene ends there, and now you're in control of Leon.

You don't move Leon, watching him on the screen and admiring his design. God, the developers at Capcom really went all out for Leon. You spin the camera around, continuing to admire him. Leon looks around the facility, wondering why he couldn't move despite trying to. It's like he's locked in place until someone commands him to move. The nurse is waiting at the end of the hallway, waiting for him to follow.

"Okay, I need to get moving and stop getting easily distracted by Leon," You say to yourself, finally controlling Leon's movements and proceeding to follow the nurse as Leon.

The nurse explains about the facility and what they do at the sanatorium as both Leon and the nurse continue walking down the hall. Leon has no idea where the nurse is leading him, and neither do you, but judging by the map, it's probably to your (mainly Leon's) doom.

"The facility keeps a low profile due to the sensitive nature of the research," The nurse says, walking to the rehabilitation center of the facility.

"Oh, I bet it does," Leon replies, as he follows the nurse throughout the facility.

You hum, eyebrows furrowing at the conversation between Leon and the nurse of the strange facility. "That's something someone suspicious would say," You mutter, face scrunching up. You're so glad that you haven't dealt with any horrors as Leon just yet. "You have a mutated monster stomping around your facility right now, too."

Leon raises his eyebrows at your comment, still questioning if he's going crazy. Leon glances around, then at the nurse, but she doesn't seem to notice anything strange—or hear a woman's voice for that matter—and continues making her way to the room at the end of the rehabilitation ward. Once Leon gets closer to the room and the nurse, a new cut scene starts for you.

You yawn, stretching in your seat, watching the nurse leave Leon alone in the room and closing the door behind her as she leaves. The camera zooms in on Leon, making your face scrunch up.

"God, this Dr. Gideon guy is way more obsessed with Leon than I am," You comment, watching Leon peek at every little thing in the room.

Leon raises his eyebrows at your comment. "Almost as you are? What do you mean by that?" Leon wants to ask. Instead, Leon chooses to stay silent, as saying things out loud would earn weird looks from whoever passes by the room he's in, or could land him in this exact facility.

Little did you know, Leon's searching around for where the voice is coming from. The woman's voice is loud and clear to him, and yet he sees no one. He's alone in this room, but he's been hearing voices in his head every now and then. The voice comes and goes, gushing over him and his skills; other times, the same voice would chime in after someone—who's conversing with Leon—says something.

Leon rests against the desk, reaching for the photograph of Victor Gideon and his medical team that runs the facility. Leon subconsciously furrows his eyebrows as he scrutinizes the image in his hand before setting it back down where he found it. Leon checks the time on his watch, his expensive watch appearing on your monitor.

"That looks expensive, but I shouldn't be surprised. You drive a Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT—that's probably the most expensive thing I've seen you own." You comment, watching the time tick away on Leon's watch.

Much to your disappointment, the cut scene soon comes to an end after the nurse is killed by the chainsaw-wielding doctor. You're soon in control of Leon again and have to kill every infected person in the surrounding area with a chainsaw, which you're not a fan of.

"This thing is a bit hard to wield around. It kind of slows me down, and after Leon plunges the chainsaw into a zombie, I would need to retrieve it again from said zombie…" You sigh, shaking your head. "Oh, shit." The chainsaw drops to the ground and starts spinning out of control.

You force Leon out of the way, trying to avoid getting hit by the out-of-control chainsaw. A zombie nurse charges at Leon with her arms outstretched, trying to grab him. You try shooting the nurse with the requiem gun, but miss.

"Fuck. My aim is atrocious. I am so sorry, Leon. You're supposed to be cool, but I'm making you look like an amateur loser." You frown.

Leon frowns. "Amateur loser? Who are you calling an amateur loser?" Leon mouths to himself, continuing to aim his gun at the infected nurse.

You try shooting the nurse as she gets closer to Leon, but before you can shoot, the nurse lunges at Leon. You let out a choked gasp, assuming Leon is done for, but he ducks underneath the nurse's grasp and shoots her at the back of the head, blood spewing all over the place when her head explodes.

"Whoa!" You gasp, eyes wide in awe. "How did you do that?!" You exclaim, pausing briefly to look at what buttons you've pressed, but you're too busy mashing different buttons to know the actual controls of the dodge he just did.

You unpause the game. "Leon, can you do that again?" You ask yourself, shooting every zombie that's charging at Leon at full speed. How the hell did you do that again? You really need to know what the controls are, or else you won't be able to pull that cool move ever again.

As more zombies emerge from the other rooms in the rehabilitation ward, you shoot every zombie in the head successfully despite having bad aim. An infected doctor lunges at Leon, causing you to panic momentarily, miss your shot, and giving the zombie an opportunity to grab onto Leon and bite down on his shoulders.

"Ah, fuck! I'm so sorry, Leon!"

Leon cries out in pain as he thrashes around, trying to get the zombie to release. You press on your mouse frantically, watching Leon's health bar rapidly deplete at a dangerous pace, the longer the zombie bites down on Leon's shoulders. Leon reaches for his hatchet and attacks the zombie, causing it to back away.

"I really need to learn how to properly parry and aim." You grumble, aiming Leon's requiem gun at the zombie and shoot, only to miss again. "Man, I'm making Leon look uncool, what the fuck."

The zombie lunges at Leon again, and before you can panic, Leon dodges under the zombie's arm and shoots it at the back of its head. The adrenaline dies down, and Leon is left alone in the rehabilitation ward, surrounded by headless zombies.

The only sounds you hear are the sounds of the chainsaw and Leon's heavy breathing, his health bar yellow rather than green. Before escaping the ward, you have Leon search around the room for a healing item. You could use the green herb in your inventory, but it's not enough to fully heal Leon.

"It's okay, Leon! You're going to be okay! You're not going to die under my watch, no matter how bad I am with aiming and parrying." You reassure the DSO agent, picking up the mixed herbs from the glass cabinet that Leon broke. After picking up the mixed herbs, you immediately use them, watching Leon's health bar slightly go up.

You continue playing the game until almost four in the morning, only having to end your gameplay after Leon's cut scene with Victor Gideon after your Mom peeks into your room, scaring the shit out of you.

"Why are you still awake?!" Your Mom asks, staring at you in horror.

You point at your monitor, a cut scene of Leon tied up to a chair playing on your screen. Your Mom peeks at your computer and sighs, shaking her head before leaving your room, muttering under her breath about how you need to stop staying up so late.

You turn back to your monitor, taking multiple screenshots of Leon tied to the chair while Victor Gideon is almost sweet-talking to the DSO agent. You stare at Leon in awe, mouth agape. The side view of Leon on? Whew! His biceps are looking extra delicious.

You bite your bottom lip. "God, I would love to sink my teeth into those biceps of his." You lean back in your seat, groaning. "The ladies at Capcom did a fantastic job at designing Leon."

You watch Victor Gideon touch Leon, almost oh-so intimately. The way his gray fingers brush the strands of Leon's brown and silver hair. Ugh. You're so envious of Victor's privilege to even be in the presence of Leon Kennedy. You make sure to take multiple screenshots of Leon—frame by frame.

Leon can hear the camera shutters, raising an eyebrow. It's strange how Victor Gideon is touching him, and yet this voice in his head is swooning over him being tied up and touched by the former T-Virus researcher. Of course, he doesn't hear you mention a single thing about Victor, only about wanting to sink your teeth into his (your words, not his) beefy biceps.

"I don't like how he's touching you, Leon. He's practically fondling you." You grumble. "I should be the one to do that, not him. Just like how I should be the one to lunge at you and sink my teeth into your biceps, not those greedy zombies."

The camera cuts to Leon looking down while Victor Gideon softly says, "Are the answers to your disease here?" after pulling down Leon's shirt collar. Victor leans down, his face not far from Leon's. "Yes…." Victor whispers.

Leon flinches, his face pinching up with disgust. "You know, I do have a question," Leon says, looking at Victor, deadpanned. "When was the last time you brushed your teeth?"

Leon hears immediate laughter coming from you after asking. Leon's tempted to laugh as well, but because of the predicament he's in, he doesn't smile. The smile on Victor's face slips off, and he backs away from Leon and takes a few steps in front of Leon.

Mechanical whirring can be heard from Leon's end as Victor stares at him, zooming in on his face and his eyes. You take a quick screenshot, thanking Victor for being oddly meticulous when it comes to Leon. If it weren't for Victor, you wouldn't have a lot of screenshots of Leon added to your new collection.

The cut scene soon ends with you taking over fifty screenshots (you're pressing down on the screenshot button, taking screenshots of every frame), and you find yourself back in control of Leon. You frown, letting out a wistful sigh. "I'm going to need to find a stopping point and go to bed. Let's trigger an auto save somewhere, and I'll continue when I wake up." You say to yourself.

You make it to where Leon needs to go and stop in front of a metal cabinet storage that's blocking a doorway. You poke the inside of your cheek with your tongue, approaching said cabinet storage with a cheeky smile. Oh, you are going to enjoy this!

You press 'F,' and Leon starts lifting the cabinet to move it out of the way, his biceps and back muscles flexing as he lets out a grunt. Before Leon successfully moves the cabinet out of the way, you suddenly release the 'F' key.

"Oh, fuck, my hands slipped." You say to no one.

It's a good thing Leon's back is facing your monitor because if it were facing his direction, you would've seen an eye roll from him along with a shy smile. Leon knows what you're doing; he's not stupid. You press the 'F' key again, watching Leon lift the cabinet, his biceps flexing underneath that tight shirt of his. Again, before Leon can fully move the obstacle out of the way, you release the keys.

You huff. "Man, my keyboard is messed up. I really need to get a new one because for some reason, it's not lasting long," You say with a shit-eating grin on your face. "I have a bad feeling that this keyboard is going to give me… issues the longer I play this game with a broken keyboard."

"Oh, yeah?" Leon mutters, shaking his head with a small smirk, his shoulders shaking from his quiet laughter. He can get used to hearing your commentary while he's handling the shit show that's happening at Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center.

Finally, after some time, you finally have Leon move the metal cabinet, relishing in the sight of his muscles flexing underneath his shirt, and the sound of his grunts as he does so. Leon S. Kennedy, the man that you are! The autosave button appears in the top left corner of the screen, signaling you to go to bed.

With a heavy heart, you bid Leon goodnight—as if he could hear you—before pausing and exiting the game. You plop onto your bed after the game closes and roll on your bed, eyelids feeling heavy after staring at your monitor for who knows how long. You close your eyes and drift into a dreamless sleep.

A few hours into your sleep, you wake up to the feeling of your bedroom shaking, forcing yourself to crack your eyes open briefly and stare up at the ceiling, still groggy from your slumber. You rub your eyes, mumbling to yourself, and turn over on your right side before going back to sleep. Earthquakes are common, so waking up to one isn't out of the ordinary. Nothing seems out of the norm, but little did you know, this isn't any other earthquake you've dealt with in the past.

That is, until you wake up to someone shaking you nonstop. "Hey, can you hear me? Wake up!" The voice says as the shaking continues.

You groan, trying to turn over and ignore whoever is shaking you. "Not now." You mumble, eyebrows furrowing.

Whoever is shaking you is very persistent, as they continue to do something to try to rouse you from your sleep. The person starts lightly patting your cheek, muttering about how you need to wake up and stop ignoring them. You finally crack your eyes open after a while, vision blurry from your sleep. A blurry face is hovering above yours, but as your vision gradually clears up, your heart nearly falls into your ass.

"Leon?" You whisper in disbelief, mind still foggy from your sleep.

Leon chuckles, sighing in relief. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Good to see those eyes of yours," Leon says, his eyes scanning the littlest details on your face. "I was worried you weren't going to wake up, but it seems like you're not a morning person, huh."

You don't respond to Leon as you slowly reach up and cup his face with both your hands, still trying to comprehend what's happening. Surely this is a dream, right? You did play Resident Evil Requiem for hours before going to bed, and Leon's the last thing you were thinking about before drifting to sleep.

"This is the most vivid dream I have ever had," You mutter, still holding Leon's face in your hands. "Man, it's going to be so disappointing when I wake up."

Leon stares down at you, confused. "What are you talking about?"

You shake your head, head falling to the side before sighing sadly. "This is the best dream I've ever had, and yet I'm going to get a rude awakening very soon once this ends." You lament.

"Aw, man. I think you hit your head pretty hard when you fell," Leon mutters, feeling around your head for a possible concussion.

You blink at Leon. "Of course, I fell for you. Who wouldn't fall for you?"

Leon shakes his head, the corner of his lips curling up. Despite everything, you still manage to be a sweet talker, much to Leon's amusement. Then again, you do think that this is all a dream. Leon's fingers brush a certain area on your head, earning a hiss from you. "I can feel a goose egg forming."

Now that your mind clears up and you're more awake than you were, you come to the realization that Leon is cradling you in his arms—his beefy arms. Wait, that means that his bicep is your pillow. You rub your eyes again, sitting up and looking around to see that you're not in your room. This dream is a bit too realistic for your liking, because why are you in the attic of Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center?

Panic hits you like a train. Your head snaps towards Leon's direction. "This is a dream, right? I'm still asleep in my bed, right?" You start pinching yourself, but nothing is happening. "Oh, my god. This can't be real. This has to be a dream."

Leon doesn't say anything. Instead, he continues to stare at you, taking in every detail of your face, your hair, and your clothes. The longer Leon listens to you ramble, the more he realizes something.

His eyes light up. "You're the voice I've been hearing," Leon says, his arm still holding you up.

His comment makes you go silent. "Pardon?" You press your lips into a thin line. "What do you mean?"

Leon's lips curl up into a smile, shaking his head. "I don't think now is a good time to tell you when you're having an inner turmoil."

Maybe a hug will help you calm down a little, but given the things he heard you say a few hours before your arrival, it probably won't help. But it won't hurt to try, right? Leon pulls you into his arms, hugging you. Your cheek is cushioned against his chest, his beefy arms around your torso, and his chin is resting atop your head.

You wrap your arms around Leon's neck, feeling yourself melting in his arms. God, it feels so nice to hug him. You can't describe what it's like to hug Leon, but you can live in his arms if it's possible. You and Leon sit like that for a while. It doesn't feel weird or uncomfortable to be hugging someone you don't know—a fictional one, to be specific.

It's comforting and gives you a small window to collect your thoughts. You went to bed, but woke up to an earthquake before falling back asleep. Then you're roused from your sleep by Leon, who claimed that you hit your head when you fell. This is all so strange.

"How the hell did I get isekai'd into Resident Evil Requiem? I didn't get hit by a truck." You mutter to yourself, but it's loud enough for Leon to hear.

Leon raises his eyebrows, leaning down to look at your face from the side. "What does 'isekai' mean? And what do you mean by getting hit by a truck?" God, the creases between his eyebrows are so cute. You'd love to smooth the wrinkles over with your fingers.

"I will explain that to you after you tell me what you meant by 'you're the voice I've been hearing,'" You reply, looking up at him.

Leon stares at you for a moment, chuckling to himself. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you what I meant when I said that," Leon caves in.

Leon's not sure if he should look forward to your reaction after he explains everything to you. But hey, you did say that you want him to explain what he meant by what he said, so who is he to deny you? As Leon explains everything, he watches your reaction and body language closely.

The way your face fell was both comical and endearing because now you're covering your face out of sheer embarrassment, but you didn't cover your ears, letting him know that you're still listening despite your reaction. By the time Leon is done explaining, he has a wide smile on his face, the crow's feet at the corner of his eyes becoming noticeable.

You take a deep breath, trying not to have a mental breakdown after hearing Leon's explanation. "You heard everything." You say. Suddenly, you feel faint, but you can't faint in front of Leon. You can't embarrass yourself in front of Leon for the umpteenth time in a row.

Leon nods, still smiling. "That is correct."

"My cursing whenever you get bitten by a zombie."

"You curse like a sailor, but also like a child who was granted permission to curse by her parents." He replies.

You immediately protest. "What! No, I don't!" Do you? Man, this just keeps getting worse and worse for you. "… You also heard my thirst over your…"

"Beefy biceps, me using my hatchet to crack open a warped door, and you claiming that your keyboard is broken when I need to move the fallen metal cabinet in front of a doorway. I can go on, but I'm afraid that you'll have a heart attack if I continue." Leon says.

You hug your knees to your chest. At this point, you're more likely to die from embarrassment than from a zombie bite. You didn't know that Leon can hear everything you say! Does that mean Grace and Victor hear the things you say, too?

You peek at Leon, "Please tell me that no one else hears the things I say." You whisper.

Leon gives your shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "You don't need to worry about that. As far as I know, I was the only person who heard your voice. It doesn't seem like Victor heard your voice, and as for that FBI agent—Grace Ashcroft, I'm not entirely sure."

After Leon's explanation, you choose to stay quiet. There's no need for you to embarrass yourself again in front of Leon, right? Leon checks his watch, and when he looks up, you're staring at him with stars in your eyes. Leon is even more beautiful in person. His hair looks so soft and healthy for someone who bleaches his hair often. God, the stubble… You love the scratchiness of it when you cupped his face in your hands.

Leon doesn't say anything; instead, he lets you do what makes you happy and stay sane. His eyes are blue, but they're not nearly as blue as it was when he was in his early twenties. Maybe they're still the same blue, but you would need to get a closer look at it—if he catches your drift.

"I love how you kept your signature hairstyle after all these years…" You murmur, leaning side to side as your eyes continue taking in every detail of him.

"Now it's your turn to explain to me what 'isekai' means," Leon comments, crossing his arms over his chest.

You quickly glance at Leon's bulging biceps before looking back at him innocently. His biceps looked at you first, so it's only fair for you to look at them in return. "Where do I start…" You trail off, tapping on your chin.

So you start explaining to Leon what isekai means, giving him a rundown on it, its origins, and how there's a handful of animated shows (specifically anime) that have this concept. Leon is intrigued, but also confused. The look of confusion on Leon's handsome face is cute. His eyebrows are furrowing, his head tilting to the side while not taking his eyes off of you for one bit.

You subconsciously reach forward and gently press on the space between his eyebrows, smoothing the creases between his brows. Man, even Leon has soft skin for someone who goes through hell. You meet Leon's eyes, causing you to quickly retract your hand before apologizing sheepishly.

"After explaining to me what 'isekai' meant, it makes sense. Is there a way for you to return to your world?" Leon asks.

You frown dramatically. "Aw, you want to return me to sender already? I'm hurt." You joke, clutching your chest playfully. "I thought you would enjoy my company after going through the horrors of having to deal with Victor Gideon caressing you lovingly."

You turn around and face the wall, pretending to be offended by what he asked. Leon shudders at the memory of Victor's fingers brushing through his hair, fingers ghosting over the dark blotches on his neck after lowering the collar of his shirt. That is not a pleasant memory, and he certainly wishes he could erase it.

"Your presence is a breath of fresh air. I'm merely asking because I don't think you would want to stay and deal with what's waiting for us," Leon replies, reaching forward and grabbing your forearm and turning you around to face him.

You can just melt in his arms right now. You've imagined this very moment, but in a different scenario. Leon Kennedy grabs your arm to stop you from leaving, gazing at you with those dazzling blue eyes of his, his eyebrows knitting together as he pleads for you not to leave. And the way he says it? It'll be soft, making you weak at the knees.

"By the way, you never introduced yourself. You know my name, but I don't know yours." Leon adds, pulling you out of your thoughts.

Your eyes widen. "Oh, crap! You're right! How could I forget?" You smack your forehead before introducing yourself to Leon. After telling Leon your first and last name, Leon stares at you while muttering your full name to himself. Heat rushes to your face the longer he does it.

After what feels like forever, Leon smiles and nods. "Your name suits you. I like it. Your parents must've put a lot of thought and love into naming you."

You stare at Leon, mouth agape. Why did he have to say that? Leon raises an eyebrow at you, smiling in amusement. Without saying anything, you cover your face with both hands as heat continues rushing to your face. This man can effortlessly make you blush like a schoolgirl.

You groan behind your hands. "What are you doing to me?! It's not fair. You know you have this effect on me! Damn you, Leon Scott Kennedy!" You whine.

If only you could evaporate right now. Maybe Leon was up to something when he asked if there was a way for you to return to your world, because how much longer can you handle being in the presence of Leon S. Kennedy? The only thing you hear is laughter coming from Leon—his laugh is soft, very gentle. You peek between your fingers to see him shaking his head, a wide smile on his face as he gazes at the wooden floor.

Realization hits you. You're so fucked. There's not a single man in your life—real and fictional—who has made you feel this way before. Until Leon S. Kennedy happened. You love every version of Leon, but there's something about forty-nine-year-old Leon Kennedy. Aside from his looks, there's something that makes you feel so warm and gooey inside when he shows up on your screen.

You look at an imaginary camera, hands falling on your lap before sighing. "I'm so fucked." You whisper, shaking your head in disbelief. "Okay, let's kill some zombies and get the hell out of here."

You push yourself off the ground, feeling around for the so-called goose egg Leon felt on your head, while Leon gets off the ground and brushes the dust off his ass. Leon grabs your wrist, preventing you from finding this goose egg. You look at Leon, frowning.

He wags his pointer finger at you, shaking his head. "Don't search for it."

"Fine." You mumble, lowering your arm, but Leon doesn't let go of your wrist.

You blink at him, looking back and forth from your hands to Leon's face. Leon doesn't say anything and starts looking for an exit with you in tow, his hand still wrapped around your wrist. You will take that as a win because Leon is holding your hand, kind of! You peek at Leon and wiggle your wrist to hold his hand.

You and Leon soon come across the familiar metal cabinet that's blocking the entrance. Your heart nearly sinks into the pit of your stomach when you realize what you're about to face soon. This is strange; you could've sworn that you moved the cabinet before ending the game right there.

"Step back. I don't want you to get hurt." Leon says, gently nudging you to the side, and starts lifting the cabinet.

You press your lips into a thin line and cover your mouth, watching his back muscles and biceps flex under the fabric of his shirt. Leon grunts and starts lifting the metal cabinet. You bite your lower lip, enticed by what you're seeing and hearing.

After a few minutes, Leon successfully moves the cabinet out of the way. He fixes his shirt before pulling out his gun from the holster. Leon turns to you to see you staring at him in a daze, earning an eyebrow raise and smirk from him. You quickly snap out of it, acting like you weren't ogling him just now.

"So, do I follow you into that room or do I wait out here until you finish your, uh, duty?" You ask, rubbing the back of your neck.

You don't know how much has changed since your sudden arrival in this universe, but you're hoping it's not much change, but who knows?

Leon holds his hand out and gestures for you to follow him. "I'm not leaving you behind, are you crazy?"

"For you? Yes." Is your automatic response. You slap your hand over your mouth and squeeze your eyes shut. "I mean, let's go and get this over with!" You say, grabbing his hand and walking through the entrance with Leon in tow.

You're always amazed by your ability to humiliate yourself. This has got to be a new record for you. Once you and Leon step through that door, everything shifts. The atmosphere, the mood, the air, and the sound. You hear squelching coming from the other side of the room.

Think of someone chewing with their mouth open, but multiply that by a thousand. That's how loud it is in person. The squelching is accompanied by deep rumbles. You and Leon trade looks with each other before slowly making your way through the room, making sure Leon picks up ammo for his guns.

Leon stops in his tracks, holding his arm out in front of you before looking over his shoulder at you. "You're going to have to trust me on this, alright?" Leon murmurs.

You look at him, confused. "What are you planning? Should I be worried?" You whisper.

Leon doesn't respond and continues walking towards where the disturbing sound is coming from. You swallow the lump in your throat when you eye the grotesque creature towering over a dead body, feasting on its rotting flesh. The smell is rancid, making your stomach churn.

You grip the back of Leon's shirt, lightly tugging it. "How can you handle a smell like that when you're dealing with these things?" You mutter to him, tempted to bury your face into his back to block out the smell of decomposition and blood.

"When you're constantly out on the field dealing with these things, you'd get used to it."

You raise an eyebrow at his response. "But you recoiled when you caught a whiff of Victor's breath." You point out.

Leon snorts. "Smelling rotting flesh and bad breath are two different things. Besides, who knows how long it's been since he has brushed his teeth?"

"Can't argue with that."

You continue following Leon around the room while he collects ammo for his guns, occasionally peeking from behind him to get a look at the mutated being. For something that large, you're shocked that it hasn't heard you and Leon walking around the vicinity.

"Do you trust me?" Leon asks suddenly, turning towards you.

You falter. "Uh, yes, I do trust you—even though we met not long ago. I'm surprised you trust me despite the things I put you through." You refer to your failed aiming and parrying before you were isekai'd into Resident Evil Requiem.

Leon chuckles, shaking his head. "Of course, I trust you. You're the only one who kept me sane at the start of this shit show." Leon replies.

Leon turns around and aims his gun at the ravenous, mutated creature and shoots it in the head with his shotgun. You flinch at the sound, gripping his shirt hard as you watch the creature stop munching on the corpse and turn towards your and Leon's direction.

Fueled by rage and anger, the chunky zombie roars. "Food! Food! Food!" He growls, getting ready to charge towards you and Leon.

"Hope I'm not next," Leon mutters.

Before you can say anything, Leon quickly turns around, grabs you by the waist, and tosses you over his shoulders before making a run for it. Upside down, you wrap your arms around his waist, whimpering as the monster gets closer to you and Leon. You certainly didn't sign up for this when you got isekai'd, but hey, you didn't sign up to be isekai'd in general!

"Leon! He's getting closer!" You whimper, patting his lower back.

Leon loads his shotgun, making sharp turns to avoid getting grabbed by the ravenous creature. Leon picks up a med injector from a wall that was broken by the monster, along with the shotgun shells and handgun ammo. Leon quickly grabs onto the ladder and climbs up. You nearly flip over if it weren't for Leon's quick reflexes and your iron grip around his waist.

"Are you sure I'm not getting in the way?" You ask, lifting your head to look at Leon. "I feel like I'm adding more weight on you. Metaphorically and literally."

Leon pats the back of your thighs. "You're fine, you're not getting in the way or adding weight on me," Leon reassures you.

Leon quickly puts you down on the platform, fixes his gear, and gestures for you to get on his shoulders by squatting in front of you. You climb over Leon, stomach resting on his shoulders, while your arms are wrapped around his waist. Leon wraps one arm over the back of your thighs, checking to see where the mutated monster is.

On cue, the chunky mutated monster, which you found out is named Timothy from the note Leon read to you, appears at the bottom of the platform. Timothy growls and tries reaching for you and Leon, but Leon shoots him in the face with his shotgun, but Timothy's not phased by it.

Timothy starts climbing up the platform, causing you to involuntarily flinch. "Leon…" You plead, patting Leon's thighs. "We need to move, or else we will be on Timothy's menu!"

Leon tightens his grip on your legs. "Brace yourself."

Before you can process what Leon's doing, you suddenly feel airborne. Your heart is in your throat as you cling to Leon for dear life. Leon lands on the ground with a grunt and shoots Timothy a few more times before making a run for it, loading his shotgun.

The chase lasted five more minutes because Timothy was very motivated to get both you and Leon. Finally, Timothy stops, and blood starts spewing out of the holes and gashes on his body that he received from the shotgun shells and Leon's hatchet.

While Timothy is gushing all over the place, Leon walks to the other end of the room to collect extra items that are lying around before putting you back on the ground once Timothy explodes. You brush off your clothes and turn to Leon, propping your hands on your hips and watching him reload his shotgun before switching to his other handgun.

"You know, when I said that I wanted to be manhandled by you, this isn't what I imagined." You comment.

Leon shakes his head, chuckling. "Don't worry, there will be plenty of time for that. Come on, let's get out of here." Leon gestures for you to follow him as he walks towards the door where the rotting corpse—Timothy's final meal—is lying.

You stare at Leon, mouth agape. What does he mean by that?! Wait, Leon is probably implying other boss fights that are waiting for both you and Leon. You really need to get your head out of the gutter. You follow behind Leon, shuddering when you step in the pool of blood that was once Timothy.

Leon grabs the hand grenade from the puddle of blood and continues walking to the exit. Finally, you and Leon will get to leave this place and face more horrors waiting for both of you. Leon unlatches the door and pushes it open, occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure you're still following him.

You and Leon come across a wooden closet with a warped door. Leon walks to it, grabs his hatchet, lodges it between the doors, and starts prying them open. You bite your bottom lip, watching his biceps flex as he tries to open it. Once the door bursts open and Leon grabs whatever is inside, you look away, trying to act like you weren't drooling over him.

"Ready to go?" Leon asks, turning to you as he puts the mod on his handgun.

You nod, tucking your hair behind your ear. "Yeah! Are you ready to go?" You ask, looking at him from the corner of your eyes.

"Of course, I am. I'm always ready." Leon says softly, walking past you while gently nudging you to follow him by patting your lower back.

You bite the inside of your cheek, screaming internally. You really need to get yourself together because you're acting like a cat in heat. Leon pushes the red button, and the attic opens; the metal ladder slides down, and Leon starts climbing down.

Once Leon gets off the ladder, you start climbing down, shuddering when you see the amount of blood in the office. The whole time while you're climbing down the ladder, Leon's keeping an eye out while holding out his hands to catch you just in case you slip. You step into the puddle of infected blood, groaning with disgust.

"You'd get used to it," Leon says. "Come on, we need to find Victor Gideon's office."

You follow Leon out of the Chairman's office, on edge about whether zombies are roaming around or not. You don't think there's any zombies roaming around cause you killed most of them when you were playing as Grace. You come across another warped closet outside of the Chairman's office, and you sit back and watch Leon do his thing.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Leon asks, turning to you after taking the handgun ammo and shotgun shells.

You look at Leon, flabbergasted. "Wha—is a lady not allowed to admire a total eye candy in front of her?" You huff, crossing your arms over your chest. "I have had enough of your teasing! Let's find Victor's office." You stick your nose in the air and walk towards the bar and lounge room.

Leon pinches the bridge of his nose, chuckling. "You truly do make this more entertaining than it should be."

The minute you walk into the bar and lounge room, a zombie in a white button-up starts contorting violently while screaming in agony. You walk backwards frantically, bumping into Leon as the zombie gets off the ground and his head morphs into something more horrifying.

"This place is infested," Leon mutters, shaking his head, and aims his gun at the blister head that's running towards both of you. Leon shoots, and the bullet penetrates the zombie's head, causing it to burst, and blood spews everywhere like a water fountain.

You sigh, turning to Leon. "Can you teach me how to shoot one day? You know, in case I have to fight for both of us."

Leon chuckles, shaking his head. "Of course. I can show you when we come across another zombie."

You and Leon continue searching for Victor's office. Instead of having you walk behind or in front of him, Leon makes sure you're by his side at all times because you'd never know when a zombie will sneak up from behind or jump out of nowhere.

As you're both walking up the stairs to the third floor of the sanatorium, you and Leon hear a faint beeping and gurgling from a zombie. Leon hands you his handgun and gestures for you to follow him quietly. Once the zombie is in your and Leon's line of sight, Leon quickly adjusts the gun in your hand, angling your arms a certain way.

"Make sure to have a firm grasp on the gun so it doesn't recoil and hit you in the face," Leon murmurs, his chest pressing up against your back. "Okay, now, you can either shoot the zombie or the red propane tank. I would go for the explosive canister because it's quicker, and who knows how many shots it'll take to kill the zombie."

Taking Leon's advice, you point the handgun towards the red gas tank and shoot. The red canister in the zombie's hand explodes, taking the zombie out with it. You tilt your head up and see Leon's smile as you lower the gun.

Leon pats your shoulders, "Not bad."

"But not good either." You pout dramatically. "Okay, let's go kick Victor Gideon's ass, Leon!" You grab his wrist and drag him up the stairs to another warped door—much to your delight.

Leon shakes his head as he pulls out his hatchet and starts prying the doors open. Once Leon successfully opens the door, you and Leon enter the room and look around to see many bodies with no heads. You immediately latch yourself against Leon, trembling as Leon picks up the paper on the ground.

"Burst their heads if you want to survive."

On cue, you and Leon hear the familiar screams of agony close to the entrance where you and Leon came. This is not what you expected when you got isekai'd into Resident Evil Requiem. Leon shields you from the blister head and starts shooting the head over and over until the zombie finally dies. He leads to the corner of the room where the other zombie lies and takes the shotgun shells and handgun ammo from the vase.

"Do you trust me?" Leon asks, loading his shotgun and handgun.

You nod. "Of course, I do." You answer.

"Good, cause you're going to need to trust me on this." Leon leans down and tosses you over his shoulders just when another blister head bursts through the door to the meeting room.

You squeeze your eyes shut and cling to Leon's torso as he shoots the blister heads and storms the meeting room, where another blister head is getting ready to charge at Leon. This is going to be a long night, and the worst thing is that you're not even sure if you'll return to your world after all this.

You stick close to Leon's side, guns drawn and ready to be used in case something—mainly zombies—charges at you and Leon. It's incredibly dark outside in Raccoon City, meaning you and Leon are vulnerable to any attack imposed on you two. The only source of light is your and Leon's flashlights, and the moon that's high in the sky.

Your and Leon's mission is to investigate the strange anomaly detected in the middle of Raccoon City. The strange anomaly was detected near where a nuke was dropped on the city, which you're a bit apprehensive about because who in their right mind would go near a site where a nuke was dropped? Not you, that's for sure.

But here you are, walking around Raccoon City with Leon by your side. You and Leon arrived at Raccoon City via helicopter early in the morning, and now that the sun has set, it's officially nighttime, and there are no signs of anomalies.

Sensing your exhaustion, Leon gently nudges you. "There's an abandoned building nearby. We can rest there for a bit before continuing the search," Leon murmurs.

You rub your eyes. "It's frustrating how we've been here since morning, and yet we can't find this strange anomaly. I feel like we're being led astray," You grumble, letting Leon guide you to the nearest abandoned building. At least you and Leon won't have to deal with the heat now that the sun is down.

Leon cracks the door open, shines the flashlight into the building, before opening the door wider. "All clear." He mutters, hands on your lower back, and gently guides you inside the building while looking over his shoulder to make sure there aren't zombies creeping up on you two.

You take cautious steps when entering the building, fearing there could be zombies inhabiting the (hopefully) vacant facility. Leon shuts the door behind him and walks over to where you are, shining his flashlight around the dark interior. You find multiple chairs stacked on top of each other, and each has a thick layer of dust sitting on top of it.

You take two chairs from the pile, dust them off, and sit down. You shine your light at Leon, gesturing for him to sit beside you. "Sit down, you need rest as much as I do." You pat the empty seat beside you,

"How are you feeling? You nearly got hurt back there." Leon says, sitting beside you after scooting his seat closer to yours, his thighs touching yours.

You sigh, resting your head on his shoulders and closing your eyes. "I'm alright. I'm a little bit out of my element today. If it weren't for me, we wouldn't have been in this situation."

Leon shakes his head. "None of this is your fault. Don't blame yourself over something you have no control over."

You sigh, opening your eyes. "If it weren't for my knight in shining armor, I would've been zombie meal," You look up at him with a cheeky smile. "I've never seen you so scared before."

Leon huffs out a laugh, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you to his lap. "How can I not be? You nearly fell to your death, and a horde of zombies were sprinting at you like you're their last meal before a death sentence."

You wrap your arms around Leon's neck, thinking about what happened earlier. You and Leon were in a building, and it wasn't in the best shape compared to other abandoned buildings nearby. You ended up falling through a hole in the middle of the room, sending you three floors down. Luckily, you didn't break any bones, but you did bruise your ego because Leon witnessed the entire thing happen.

You shake your head, trying to get the image out of your head. "Sucks for them cause I'm not on the menu." You reply, running your fingers through Leon's hair. Your response earns a chuckle from Leon. God, you love hearing Leon's laugh.

You and Leon stare at each other in the dark. Despite the darkness, you can make out a faint outline of Leon's features. Wanting to see more of Leon's face, you adjust your flashlight in your lap, having it point up at the ceiling to illuminate the surrounding area. The brightness allows you to see Leon's face a bit more compared to a few minutes ago.

Leon stares at you, his eyes taking in every detail of your face. You feel heat rush to your cheeks the more he stares at you, but you're also doing the same to him. Leon reaches up, caressing your face with one hand while the other is wrapped securely around your waist.

"Did the DSO clarify what this strange anomaly was?" You mutter, changing the subject to distract yourself.

Leon shakes his head. "The only information they gave us in that file was that it's a strange anomaly that appeared on their radar for the past three days, and they needed to send out someone to check and see what it was."

If the DSO doesn't know what this strange anomaly is, then how are you and Leon supposed to find it? Granted, it's been only a day, but still—a hint would've been nice because, at this point, it feels like you're being sent on a goose chase. This strange anomaly isn't a zombie, nor is it anything that is mutated or an experiment-gone-wrong from Umbrella.

"What if we can't find the anomaly? What do we do then?" You ask, the pad of your thumbs rubbing the back of Leon's neck. "Would they even allow us to return with nothing in our hands?"

"We'll figure something out, darling. There's plenty of time for us to find it." Leon murmurs, eyeing your lips.

You sigh. "I know, but—"

Leon cuts you off by pressing his lips against yours, swallowing your words. You close your eyes, pull him closer to you, melting in his grasp as you kiss him back. Leon grasps the back of your neck and pulls you closer to the point where there's no space between your bodies, deepening the kiss.

You tangle your fingers in Leon's luscious hair, adjusting yourself on Leon's lap to wrap your legs around him and the chair. Leon slides his hands down to your ass, grabs and squeezes them before getting up from his seat. He wraps your legs around his waist and pins you against the wall.

You briefly break the kiss to catch your breath, but Leon doesn't give you the chance to catch your breath. Leon chases after your lips when you pull away and presses his lips against yours. You and Leon are so occupied with kissing each other that you two failed to notice the entire building shaking from an earthquake.

Leon slides his hands underneath your shirt and the band of your bra. You shudder, tightening your legs around his waist. You reach for Leon's shirt, but the gun holsters are in the way, making it hard for you to rip his shirt off. Leon begins kissing your jaw and down your neck, occasionally sucking on your neck while he unbuckles the gun holsters around his torso.

Leon puts the gun holsters on the chair without taking his attention away from you. Just as things are heating up between you and Leon, you and Leon hear a thud on the second floor of the building. At first, you and Leon ignored the sound because making out with each other is far more interesting than what's happening on the second floor of the building.

That is, until someone clears their voice, startling both you and Leon. Leon pulls away from your lips, shielding you from whoever is in the building with you two. You and Leon reach for your flashlights and shine towards the direction of where the sound came from, only to see a man in his early twenties—maybe twenty-one—and the other in his mid to late twenties.

"Fuck me…" Leon mutters.

You squint your eyes, trying to get a clearer look at the two people standing in front of you and Leon. You untangle your legs around Leon's waist and shine your light in each person's face, causing them to flinch and squint at the brightness. The two men standing before you and Leon are younger versions of your Leon.

You turn to Leon, eyes wide. "Could they be the anomalies that appeared on the DSO's radar?"

"I guess so…" Your Leon mutters.

The two younger versions of your Leon turn around while you and Leon fix your appearance. Fuck. How are you going to address them without confusing everyone in the room? The air is thick with tension—it's more awkward than it is hostile because imagine walking in on the older version of yourself making out with your partner in an abandoned building of the ruins of Raccoon City.

Now that you're decent and not disheveled from your and Leon's heated session, you cautiously approach the younger versions of your boyfriend and scan them from head to toe. Baby-faced Leon has that spark in his eyes, gazing at you with wonder and curiosity. God, he's such a cutie patootie.

You turn to your boyfriend, smiling at him. "Your younger self is so cute! Look at that baby face of yours! His? Yours?" You turn to baby-faced Leon while your boyfriend rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, the apples of his cheeks feeling warm.

You want to pinch baby-faced Leon so bad, but you two just met, so that's not appropriate (even though he and the stoic-twenty-something-year-old Leon technically walked in on you and Leon making out a few minutes ago). Next is the other Leon, who is a bit more stoic, but he still has that sweetness to him—if that makes sense.

"This is you when you were around my age? What a shame that I wasn't old enough back then to have all versions of you." You say to Leon, puckering your lips as you feign disappointment.

The stoic twenty-something-year-old Leon glances over at the older version of himself, crossing his arms over his chest with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't know you liked them young." Leon comments, shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"She's older than you." Your Leon retorts, pinching the bridge of his nose.

You watch the bickering between your Leon and the past version of himself. Baby-faced Leon is doing the same; the spark in his eyes is still there despite being thrown into the future. You can't help but stare at him, taking in the smallest details of the baby-faced Leon. He's such a cutie patootie that you just want to squish his cheeks.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" Leon—your Leon—asks, wrapping his arms around your waist.

Did you space out so long that you failed to notice Leon approach you? You turn to him with an innocent smile on your face, earning a look from him. You bury your face into his chest, ignoring the heat that's rushing to your cheeks. Leon leans down and presses his lips on the crown of your head.

You peek up at him, smiling shyly. "Nothing! I'm just thinking about our, uh, mission and…" You trail off as you stand on the tip of your toes to whisper into his ear. "The fact that we got cockblocked by the younger versions of yourself."

Baby-faced Leon approaches you and your Leon, his eyes bright with curiosity. "Hi, we haven't formally met. I'm Leon Kennedy—the, uh, younger version of the one standing behind you. And you are?" Baby-faced Leon tilts his head to the side.

You smile, introducing yourself to both baby-faced Leon and the stoic twenty-seven-year-old Leon. "You're so cute! Is it okay if I pinch your cheeks?" You blurt after introducing yourself to the pair in front of you.

You assumed twenty-one-year-old Leon wouldn't agree to letting you pinch his cheeks, but he does. His eyes practically light up, and he nods enthusiastically, much to your surprise. You reach out and gently pinch his cheek before cupping his face in your hands. You look between him and your Leon, admiring how well Leon aged within twenty-eight years.

"This is so strange, but also fascinating at the same time." You whisper, slowly pulling away from baby-faced Leon.

Your Leon, and twenty-seven-year-old Leon, notices the way baby-faced Leon almost reaches out to you when you pull away, but his hand freezes halfway before ultimately falling at his side. The way baby-faced Leon looks at you reminds them of a kicked puppy.

Leon—your Leon—chuckles and shakes his head, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue. Yeah, you have that effect on him the minute you two met for the first time almost two years ago. Leon feels safe around you, and to him, whenever he thinks about home, the first thing that pops up in his mind is you, as cliché as that sounds. You are the light at the end of the tunnel whenever things get hard for him, and he's eternally grateful to have you in his life.

"I think we've done enough resting. We should check out the site for the anomalies—if there's nothing, then I guess we have our answer." You say, grabbing Leon's hand and gesturing for them to follow you out of the building.

Due to the lack of light pollution in Raccoon City, the stars are visible in the night sky, keeping the moon and clouds company. You and Leon are holding hands while walking to the crater where the nuke was dropped, searching for the anomaly—aside from the two younger versions of your boyfriend.

While you and Leon are leading the way, the baby-faced Leon and the twenty-seven-year-old Leon walk side by side behind you two, looking at the silhouette of the ruins that was once their home. Baby-faced Leon presses his lips into a thin line, his heart aching over the fact that a place he once considered home is nothing but ruins of the past. And to drop a nuke over the city? Who is despicable enough to do such a thing?

Twenty-seven-year-old Leon, however, is watching you and the older version of himself closely. The older version of himself is listening to you attentively while you're rambling and shining your flashlight around to illuminate the path ahead. He bites his bottom lip, watching your Leon pull you closer to his side when something is obstructing your path.

The way he—older Leon—has his arms around your waist, you leaning against him, and looking up at him every time you see something interesting, stirs something within twenty-seven-year-old Leon. You stand on the tip of your toes and kiss Leon's cheeks, wrapping your arm around his waist as he moves his right arm around your shoulders to keep you close to him.

"We should visit that coffee shop you mentioned a while back. It's a shame that we don't have enough free time to check it out." You say, squeezing his waist.

Leon leans down and kisses your temples. "Once this mission ends, we can do many things together."

"That is, if the DSO doesn't call us in again. It feels like we've been pushed out to do more field missions ever since you completed your assignment at Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center," You huff. "It's like they're doing this on purpose so we wouldn't have some alone time together."

Leon contemplates for a minute, shining his flashlight around in search of the rim as the four of you approach the crater—at least, that's what you're assuming. Occasionally, Leon leans down and kisses the top of your head without removing his hands from you.

While dating coworkers isn't recommended, the DSO isn't against it as long as the relationship doesn't interfere with your duties or cloud your judgment in situations where decisions can be divided. Not only that, but couples working under the DSO (or any federal agencies) must be professional when clocked into work and during field missions. Hence, why you and Leon are put on a decent amount of field missions together, though not every field mission.

But today's different because the line between coworker and partner is blurred once the helicopter drops you and Leon off in the center of Raccoon City. This need and desire that you and Leon feel has been gradually building up, and once you're finally alone, the line no longer exists to you and Leon.

"Alright, everyone. We will be splitting into two groups and searching around for the anomaly. Granted, you two," Leon gestures to both baby-faced Leon and twenty-seven-year-old Leon, "are the anomalies, but we need to find the source that brought the two of you into our timeline."

Twenty-seven-year-old Leon raises an eyebrow. "Why do we need to split into a group?"

"We'll be able to cover the ground much faster if we were to split into groups." You reply.

"And how would it work if we're not from this timeline?" Baby-faced Leon interjects, crossing his arms over his chest. "If anything, wouldn't it make more sense if either of us were paired up with one of you?"

Your Leon raises an eyebrow at baby-faced Leon's suggestion. While that's logical, Leon wants some alone time with you. After all, the heated moment between you two was rudely interrupted by the two younger versions of himself. Can a guy get some privacy with his girlfriend for once?

Instead of objecting to baby-faced Leon's suggestion, Leon nods. "You're right. Alright, you—" Leon points to twenty-seven-year-old Leon, "will be paired up with her." Leon points to you with his thumb.

Leon sees his rookie twenty-one-year-old self visibly deflate when realizing he's paired up with him. Leon chuckles under his breath, shaking his head. You turn to Leon and quickly kiss his cheek before walking over to where the twenty-seven-year-old is standing, while Leon walks to his rookie self, patting his shoulders.

Leon gives a brief rundown on what you all need to do and what to look for: anything that looks out of the ordinary. While everyone is listening, baby-faced Leon can't help but glance in your direction before looking at the older version of himself, only to lock eyes with him.

"Any questions before we split?" Leon asks, looking away from baby-faced Leon.

You gesture to the spot where you're standing. "One question, so once we're done investigating with our partner, we regroup at this very spot?"

Leon nods before gesturing for everyone to depart. You and the twenty-seven-year-old version of your boyfriend walk to the right while Leon and the baby-faced version of himself go in the opposite direction. You half expected twenty-seven-year-old Leon to lead the way, but instead, he gestures for you to do so. You shyly walk ahead of him, shining your flashlight around to look for something out of the ordinary.

While it's Raccoon City and you're not familiar with the place, nothing seems off. Minus a few zombies in the distance, but other than that, there's nothing strange (not counting the younger versions of your boyfriend, of course). The air between you two feels awkward. What is there to talk about, really?

"You're not much of a talker, huh? Am I that bad?" The twenty-seven-year-old asks, now walking beside you.

Your eyes widen, and you quickly shake your head. "No, no! I'm usually not much of a talker when I'm around, uh, new people. Please don't take any offense if I'm not talkative around you." You tuck a stray hair behind your ears.

The two of you continue your search around the crater. After ten minutes of walking around the rim of the crater, you and twenty-seven-year-old Leon stop near a big boulder. You rest on it and rub your aching calves. You have been walking nonstop today, and it's starting to catch up with you.

Leon gazes at you worriedly. "Are you okay? We can take a few-minute break before meeting up with the others."

You shake your head stubbornly. "No, no, it's okay! We can end our search here and return to where we regroup with the others." You suggest.

As you're about to walk back to where you and the other Leon—the one older than the baby-faced Leon, but younger than your boyfriend—walked from, he stops you in your tracks and shakes his head. You stare at him, eyebrows furrowing.

"You really should rest, or else the older version of me gets on my ass for not taking care of you," Twenty-seven-year-old Leon says, crossing his arms over his chest. "In the meantime, we can get to know each other while you rest up a bit."

You blink owlishly at him. Who are you to deny him? You proceed to sit on the boulder, rubbing your calves as twenty-seven-year-old Leon leans against the boulder beside you. What is there to talk about with someone who's a younger version of your boyfriend? You probably know more about him than he does with you, given the fact that you are dating the forty-nine-year-old version of him.

You look up from your calves, only to make eye contact with Leon. You two stare at each other for a moment. You rub the back of your neck, gesturing for him to go first in talking about himself. The twenty-seven-year-old starts giving you a small rundown of what he does for work and how he got into this situation.

"It happened suddenly. I was with Ashley, and the next thing I know, I'm here." Leon says, crossing his arms over his chest. "I hope she's okay. I really need to find a way back to make sure she's safe and reunite her with her father."

You rub your chin, letting the information sink into your brain. Strange. Leon—uh, the twenty-seven-year-old Leon—was in the middle of a rescue mission in Spain, and he was suddenly snatched from his timeline and thrown into yours. You remember the time when your Leon told you about his mission in Spain to save the President's daughter.

"Don't worry, Leon! We'll find a way to get you back to your timeline! Is there anything else you remember that happened before you realized you were thrown into the future?"

Leon presses his lips into a thin line. "I don't know. The last thing I remembered was that everything started shaking before my vision blurred, and here I am."

Strange. You remember feeling an earthquake while you and your Leon were… getting busy in an abandoned building. There has to be something that caused a strange rift within the timeline, and so far, it seems that there's an earthquake—at least, that's what you're assuming—before things shift.

"Enough about me, tell me about yourself."

You shrug. "I'm not sure where to start. I'm not an interesting person, nor is my life eventful outside of work."

Twenty-seven-year-old Leon chuckles, shaking his head. "You say that about yourself, but there has to be something about you for my future self to fall in love with you."

You puff your cheeks and exhale, rummaging through your brain to talk about. Outside of work life, your life is fairly quiet. You're not much of a social butterfly, but you're not against going to social gatherings. Most of your time is spent with Leon, and if it's not with Leon, you're entertaining yourself with a hobby you recently got into.

Realization quickly hits you after a few minutes. "Wait, but you didn't tell me a lot about yourself. You talked about your job and how you were thrown into this timeline."

Twenty-seven-year-old Leon shrugs his shoulders. "I figured you already know a lot about me, given the fact that you're my future self's girlfriend."

Well, twenty-seven-year-old Leon is not wrong about that at all. You pat on the boulder, before moving over to make some space for him to sit. You hug your knees to your chest and start telling him about yourself, the small details. While you're telling twenty-seven-year-old Leon about yourself, you stare up at the night sky, basking in the cool breeze that sweeps through the area.

"Okay! Enough with resting! We should continue with our duty." You say, hopping off the boulder and gesturing for the twenty-seven-year-old to follow you.

You and twenty-seven-year-old Leon proceed where you left off. Despite knowing the little things about each other, things are still a bit awkward. Well, for you, it doesn't feel awkward. But for the younger version of your boyfriend? It feels awkward.

The further you walk into the crater, the stranger things become. The breeze you and twenty-seven-year-old Leon felt earlier suddenly stops. The crickets chirping are dead silent. The only thing you hear is the rocks and gravel crunching beneath your and Leon's feet.

Suddenly, something sprints out of the darkness and towards your and twenty-seven-year-old Leon's direction. You barely have enough time to react and pull out your gun when your partner wraps his arms around your waist, shields you from the charging zombie, and shoots it in the head multiple times before it crumples to the ground, motionless.

The sound of the gunshots draws attention to the other nearby zombies, causing them to migrate their way towards both of you. You pull your gun out of your holster and start shooting at charging zombies. Just when you thought this investigation was going to be peaceful, the universe always has a way to prove you wrong and make you look like a fool.

Five minutes pass, and every zombie that emerged from the darkness is sprawling on the ground. Some are headless, and others are missing limbs. You turn to check on your twenty-seven-year-old investigation partner to see him gazing at you with a nod of approval.

"Not bad. You're quite skilled—a little clumsy at first, but you can handle yourself well," Twenty-seven-year-old Leon smiles at you.

"Thank you! Not to brag or anything, I have an amazing mentor who taught me what I've learned." You reply, walking backwards, only to trip over a rock.

Before you can land on the ground, twenty-seven-year-old Leon lunges forward to catch you. You stare up at him, eyes wide and humiliated, while he looks down at you, amused.

"Careful now. Wouldn't want you to fall too hard for me," Twenty-seven-year-old Leon jokes, a smirk gracing his features.

You scoff, shaking your head. "Sorry, but I prefer my men older and with back pain."

The twenty-seven-year-old raises an eyebrow at you. "I am older than you, technically speaking."

"Yes, but you're in my timeline, therefore I'm the older one here. Thank you for catching me, though. I appreciate it." You take a step back from him, but he doesn't let you go at first.

You look down at his hands, and then back at his face. Twenty-seven-year-old Leon stares at you with an unreadable expression. It's almost like he wants to say something, but he can't get himself to do it, no matter how much he tries. None of you dares to speak or break the silence, but continue to just stare at each other. The moon barely gives enough light for you to see his face.

"Hey! I-I see them over there!" You hear baby-faced Leon call out from a distance.

You and twenty-seven-year-old Leon quickly pull away, heat rushing to your face. You and your twenty-seven-year-old investigation partner shine your flashlights towards where you hear baby-faced Leon's voice. From a distance, you see two silhouettes running in your direction.

"What took you guys so long?! You guys weren't at the spot we were supposed to meet!" Baby-faced Leon says, shining his flashlight in your direction from head to toe to make sure you're not injured—and the other Leon, who's six years older than him.

Your Leon shines his flashlight around, eyebrows furrowing when he sees a decent amount of zombies scattering in the surrounding area. Leon looks at you, approaching you without hesitating.

"Darling, are you alright? You weren't hurt, were you?" Leon murmurs, checking everywhere for any injuries you might've sustained while investigating around the crater for any anomalies.

You reach for Leon's hands and gently squeeze them. "I'm alright, Leon. If it weren't for my investigating partner, I would've been zombie meal." You joke.

"Sweetheart, you can't joke about these things," Leon whispers, shaking his head in disbelief.

You brush his fringe before caressing his face with one hand, smiling at him. "You have nothing to worry about, my love."

Leon lets out a breathless chuckle, shaking his head. You and Leon continue staring at each other, the tension from earlier gradually returning as the younger versions of Leon awkwardly watch you two from the sidelines.

Baby-faced Leon nudges the twenty-seven-year-old Leon. "How did the investigation go? Did anything happen?"

The twenty-seven-year-old shrugs. "There were a few zombies nearby, and when one decided to charge at her and me, we shot and killed it, but that attracted the others nearby, and now you're looking at the outcome." He gestures to the headless bodies scattered around.

Baby-faced Leon shines his flashlight around at the headless bodies of the infected, his face pinching with disgust. Barely into his first day of working as a rookie officer, he gets thrown into a zombie apocalypse where he has to kill the people he was supposed to protect and serve, along with his coworkers.

The twenty-one-year-old finally takes his eyes off the headless bodies. He looks over at you and Leon, only to see that you're still wrapped up in your own little world. Seeing the older version of himself being gently caressed by the woman he loves makes him feel some type of way. The twenty-one-year-old RPD rookie can't help but feel a lump form in his throat at the sight.

Your Leon presses his forehead against yours, the tip of his nose gently brushing against yours. "I love you."

You smile, nuzzling your nose against yours. "I love you, too, Leon." You hold back a laugh when Leon buries his face into your neck, his stubble tickling you.

"Alright, lovebirds. Enough with the public display of affection; it's making the rest of us feel lonely." The twenty-seven-year-old says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Leon looks at the younger version of himself, narrowing his eyes at them before pretending to consider stopping what he was doing. Leon has a staring match with his twenty-one-year-old and twenty-seven-year-old selves. They do not look happy, especially the one during his rookie years.

Leon ignores them and rests his head on your shoulders, kissing your neck and burying his face into the crook of your neck, inhaling your addictive scent. You snort, digging your fingers into Leon's soft hair and massaging his scalp.

You kiss the top of his head and whisper, "Are you riling them up on purpose?"

Leon leans towards your ear and murmurs, "Oh, I am. They cockblocked me so many times already, so this is my payback." Leon nips your earlobe, earning a soft gasp from you.

Baby-faced Leon props his hands on his hips. "Ahem. It's best not to get distracted on your mission. If you want to find the anomalies as soon as possible, then we should continue where we left off, but this time, we will be with a different partner."

Your Leon looks at his rookie self with shock that's masked with amusement. There's no way he's getting cockblocked again. Leon looks down at you and kisses the top of your head before reluctantly pulling away from you. You can't help but giggle at the idea of Leon getting cockblocked by the different variations of himself.

Baby-faced Leon approaches you and reaches for your hand. "Come on, let's investigate around and find the source of the anomalies."

You smile at baby-faced Leon and let him drag out away from your Leon and the twenty-seven-year-old Leon. Leon and his twenty-seven-year-old self watch you, and the baby-faced rookie walk farther and farther away. Leon turns to his twenty-seven-year-old self with his arms over his chest, tilting his head to the side.

"What did you two do while you were together?" Leon asks.

The twenty-seven-year-old smirks and walks off. "Wouldn't you like to know, old man."

"Old man, aye?" Leon chuckles in disbelief, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue.

Oh, he will know eventually cause what the younger version of himself isn't aware of is that whatever they're thinking about, it will eventually make its way to his head as if they're his own thoughts. Leon discovered this before everyone split with their partners, but didn't tell them because who knows how they'll react?

Leon follows after his twenty-seven-year-old self, placing a firm hand on his shoulders. "So, you tried making a move on my girlfriend."

The twenty-seven-year-old goes stiff under Leon's grasp. Leon raises an eyebrow at his younger self, waiting for a response. The twenty-seven-year-old doesn't say anything as his face becomes warm the longer Leon scrutinizes him. It's a good thing it's dark out, or else the older version of himself will see how red he has become.

In the meantime, you and baby-faced Leon walk around the crater, flashlight lighting your pathway. You can't help but notice that baby-faced Leon is still holding onto your hand. You don't want to bring it up and cause him to become flustered, even though he probably looks cute when he's shy and embarrassed.

"Leon and I couldn't find an anomaly while we were investigating the area together. Did you and the other Leon find anything?" Baby-faced Leon asks, turning to you.

You shake your head. "We didn't find anything either."

Baby-faced Leon sighs, running his hand through his hair after releasing your hand after a while. Before you can take the lead, baby-faced Leon grabs your hand again and starts walking. He is laser-focused on finding the strange anomaly you and your Leon were supposed to look for before temporarily taking a break in an abandoned building.

You examine him, admiring his side profile and the way he would furrow his eyebrows whenever he's trying to see in the dark. The flashlight gradually becomes dim as time passes, making it hard for both of you to search around the crater.

"What do you see in him?" Baby-faced Leon asks suddenly, catching you off guard.

You blink at him as both of you slowly come to a stop. "What do I see in the older version of yourself? My Leon?"

Baby-faced Leon nods, looking down at you curiously. The twenty-one-year-old can't help but feel his heart sink into the pit of his stomach whenever he hears "my Leon" coming from your mouth. Baby-faced Leon wondered if you loved him—the older version of himself—as much as his ex-girlfriend once loved him before ultimately breaking up with him.

Baby-faced Leon clears his throat. "I'm curious about what you like about the older version of me. Does the age not put you off? What's… what drew you to me—uh, him?"

You stare up at him as a million thoughts race through your head. "I love a lot of things about him. He's caring, sweet, gentle, protective; whenever I'm with him, all is right in the world. His age doesn't put me off because I'm also an adult." Your face becomes warmer the longer you talk to the younger version of your boyfriend.

"How much do you love him? Would you sacrifice everything for him?"

You nod without a second thought. "I would put my life on the line for him. I've never been considered by the people in my life, but with Leon, he always considers me. He always puts me first, even if I'm not with him. I can mention the smallest detail about myself—whether it'd be an interest, something I want to eat, anything, really—he makes note of it."

Baby-faced Leon nods, letting the information sink in. He can see the way your eyes light up whenever you talk about your Leon. The way you smile, the way you act, the way you talk about the older version of him. He knows you're dating the future version of himself, but is it selfish for him to want you to be with him?

"Hypothetically, if Leon were to get a job in another state or city, would you drop everything and move there with him?"

You pause for a moment. Would you drop everything just for Leon if he got another job in another state or city? It's not like your relationship with Leon is fresh and new. You've been together for at least a year, now, maybe a little over a year. You and Leon do almost everything together and build a routine together.

You love Leon, and Leon loves you. Both of you have sacrificed many things for each other already. You can't imagine your life without Leon, especially your future. Even if this is a hypothetical question, wherever Leon goes, he can always count on you to be by his side no matter what.

"Of course, I would. I love him too much to let him leave me behind." You finally answer baby-faced Leon's hypothetical question. "But the real question is: would he leave me behind to pursue his career in another city or state?"

"He wouldn't. He would be an absolute idiot if he did." Baby-faced Leon replies immediately, shaking his head.

You chuckle, holding the urge to pinch his cheek. "And how would you know that?"

"Because he is me and I am him, and I would never leave someone I love behind." After saying that, baby-faced Leon looks away as blood rushes to his cheeks. "Come on, we need to find the source of the anomaly because there are people in my timeline who still need my help."

He turns around and starts walking, but not before grabbing your hand and pulling you along. It feels strange to interact with the younger versions of your boyfriend, especially one who barely started his job as a police officer for Raccoon City.

He stands tall, chest puffed out, eyes sharp and alert for any danger nearby. You have to say, his posture is certainly better than your Leon, but that's probably because he's still young and hasn't been thrown against concrete walls and pillars.

"What did you and Leon do whenever you guys were paired up?" You ask, breaking the moment of silence between the two of you.

Baby-faced Leon continues walking, not taking his eyes off his surroundings. "Uh…" He trails off, thinking back to moments earlier, after you and the twenty-seven-year-old Leon depart the area.

Baby-faced Leon turns to his older self, crossing his arms over his chest. "I guess we're partners for the investigation."

Older Leon chuckles, nodding. "Yes, for now. Then, we will switch partners and proceed with the investigation if neither group finds anything strange."

Baby-faced Leon nods and follows the older version of himself after Leon gestures for him to follow along. The walk was awkward, and there wasn't much chatting happening between the two of them. As much as younger Leon would hate to admit, he truly hopes that neither group can find this "anomaly" because he wants the chance to be paired up with you after.

This is his one and only chance to ask the older version of himself about his future, to see if he's satisfied with where he ended up. Surely he's happy, right? Right before he (baby-faced Leon) was snatched from his timeline, many people were relying on him to save the world.

How much time has passed in his universe? Is Claire okay? If he hadn't chosen to show up to work late today, would it be any different? Baby-faced Leon was so engrossed in his thoughts that he failed to notice 2026 Leon stopping in his tracks, causing him to run into older Leon's back.

"Oh, shit, sorry, Leon." Baby-faced Leon immediately apologizes, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish smile.

Leon raises an eyebrow at him. "What's on your mind? You've been distracted ever since you showed up."

"I…" He trails off, unsure of what to say. Leon gives him a look—almost the look of pity. "It's my first day on the job, and so many things went wrong. One minute, I was with Claire, and the next, I find myself here. Leon, I need to find a way back to my timeline, or else something will happen."

Baby-faced Leon shrugs. "We did what we were supposed to do, and we also chatted here and there. It's a bit strange to talk to someone who's the future version of yourself."

"Yeah, I bet," is what you wanted to say to twenty-one-year-old RPD rookie Leon, but you didn't respond. You can't imagine being only twenty-one years old and living through such horrors on the first day of your job, where everyone is either infected, killed, or both.

You've heard stories from both Leon and Sherry—both went through something incredibly traumatic that shaped their lives. You feel a pang in your chest. The people you love so much, the ones you hold near and dear to your heart, have been through hell and back.

"Are you okay?" Baby-faced Leon asks.

You now realize you two have come to a stop, and baby-faced Leon stands in front of you, looking down at you with those puppy dog eyes of his. God, his eyes are so blue and beautiful. You find yourself staring into his eyes, admiring how bright and sparkly they are. Those are the same eyes you see every morning you wake up, the same eyes you stare into when his arms are wrapped around your waist, the eyes you love to stare into before leaning in for a kiss.

The same eyes that would shed tears when days are hard, and your Leon needed a break from the immense stress and pressure that's weighing him down. The same blue eyes that would sparkle with happiness and joy when he sees you after a long day at work.

You nod. "Yeah, I'm okay. I was just… deep in my thoughts," You reply.

He continues to stare at you, trying to read the smallest details of your expression as if he's trying to decode you. After what feels like ten minutes (it was actually two minutes), baby-faced Leon continues to lead the way despite both your flashlights becoming dim.

"Before you were thrown into the future, did you notice anything strange before it happened?"

Baby-faced Leon hums, digging into his brain as he tries to remember the things that happened before being tossed into your world. Baby-faced Leon purses his lips, his eyebrows furrowing. "Nothing really stood out to me, if I have to be honest. I guess the only thing that felt off was that there was an earthquake before I appeared in your timeline."

You raise your eyebrows at his response. Strange. First, twenty-seven-year-old Leon said that he felt an earthquake before stumbling into your timeline, and now baby-faced RPD rookie Leon says the same thing. As you two venture deeper into the crater, you slowly piece the information together. What if this "earthquake" is not actually an earthquake, but a warning or a sign that the timeline is being ripped open?

But what could be the cause of the rift? You shake your head, trying to remain focused as you and the twenty-one-year-old step over chunks of rocks and gravel. As you're nearing the center, your ears start to ring, forcing you to come to a complete stop.

Baby-faced Leon stops, turning to look at you worriedly. "Are you alright? You don't look too good."

You nod, beads of sweat start forming at your temples. "Do you hear that ringing, or is it just me?"

He tilts his head to the side, reminding you of a confused puppy. God, he's adorable. You're going to tease your Leon when you see him again. Baby-faced Leon listens closely, trying to hear the ringing you mentioned. But alas, he does not hear anything at all. He places his hand on your lower back, steadying you as you start to wobble.

Maybe this is what happens when you haven't eaten all day today and are on your feet for hours nonstop. An idea suddenly pops up in his mind, and before you can register what's happening, baby-faced Leon turns his back to you and squats.

You blink at him owlishly. "What are you doing?"

He gestures to his back. "Hop on."

You shake your head. "No, no, you don't need to give me a piggyback ride, Leon. I'm okay, really."

You hear a huff, and he turns to you, a pout evident on his face. You nearly do a double-take at the sight of his pout and puppy-dog eyes. You sigh, rubbing your temples before you concede. Baby-faced Leon perks up, and you can almost see an invisible tail wagging as you prepare to climb on his back.

You wrap your arms around his neck after mounting him, thighs wrapping around his waist. Baby-faced Leon holds onto the back of your knees and adjusts you on his back. You rest your chin on his shoulders, your soft breath causing him to momentarily freeze before clearing his throat.

Baby-faced Leon peeks over his shoulder to look at you. "Ready?"

You nod, tightening your arms around his neck. He starts walking, shining his flashlight around while trying to listen for the ringing you mentioned earlier, but the only thing he hears is your soft breathing and the crickets chirping from a distance.

"Aside from the earthquake that you felt in your timeline, were there any visual cues?" You murmur, eyes scanning the night sky as you and baby-faced Leon—mainly Leon—wander around.

Baby-faced Leon hums, tightening his grip around your knees. "I'm not sure. I was so engrossed in my duties that I didn't realize what was happening aside from the earthquake." He replies.

You sigh. You dig into your pockets and pull out your phone, turning the flashlight on since your flashlight's starting to flicker. Your legs are starting to feel better compared to earlier today, but your feet? It's incredibly sore and hurts when you move them around in your shoes.

You wonder how your Leon and the twenty-seven-year-old Leon are doing. Have they found the source of the anomaly that appeared on the DSO's radar? Maybe they'll have better luck compared to when you guys were paired with different people. This supposed anomaly is, allegedly, in this area, and yet, nothing is out of the ordinary—again, aside from the two younger versions of your boyfriend.

The flashlight that baby-faced Leon is holding suddenly dies, leaving only your phone as the source of light. He kisses his teeth, tucks the dead flashlight back into his pocket, before wandering around the darkness with your phone in his grasp. From a distance, you and baby-faced Leon see something. It's faint, but bright enough for you to see it in the dark.

"What is that?" You mutter.

Baby-faced Leon shrugs. "One way to find out."

Baby-faced Leon walks towards the strange glow in the distance. It's between the center and rim of the crater, an area where you have not yet explored with either Leons. The closer you get, the more things start to become distorted. Voices you've never heard before can be heard from it.

Just as you and baby-faced Leon close in on this strange light, a voice calls out to you two, "Hey! Where are you guys going?"

Baby-faced Leon stops in his tracks and turns to see your Leon and the twenty-seven-year-old US Agent running towards you guys. Your Leon, your precious Leon, eyes are zeroed in on you.

"Did something happen to her?" Your Leon asks, immediately wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you off of baby-faced Leon's back.

You point at the faint light in the distance. "I'm fine, Leon. But look over there! There's this weird light—I think it's the anomaly that appeared on the DSO's radar a few days ago."

Leon briefly looks over his shoulder before focusing on you. Instead of letting you stand on your own, Leon decides to princess carry you. Leon (with you in his arms), baby-faced Leon, and twenty-seven-year-old Leon approach the strange light cautiously.

"That's not a weird light…" Twenty-seven-year-old Leon mutters, eyes narrowing as he inspects the supposed light.

Baby-faced Leon takes a closer look. "It's a rift."

Everyone stands around the glowing rift, inspecting it cautiously. You tap on the twenty-seven-year-old Leon's shoulder, gesturing for him to grab the nearest rock for you (because you're still being carried by your Leon). Without questioning it, he squats down, picks up a sizable rock, and hands it to you. You toss the rock into the rift, watching it disappear into the light.

The rock doesn't clatter on the ground, like you assumed it would. You open your mouth to say something, but are cut off by distorted voices coming from the rift.

"Leon!? Leon! Where are you!?" A girl's voice comes from the rift, making everyone freeze.

Baby-faced Leon tenses up, turning to the three of you. "It's Claire!"

Then, another distorted voice emerges from the rift. This time, it's different from the one everyone heard earlier. "Leooooon? Where did you disappear off to? It's rude to leave a girl alone, you know?"

The twenty-seven-year-old runs his hands through his hair, sighing. "Great, Ashley's going to give me an earful when I find my way back."

The question is: how will they return to their universe? You tossed the rock into the rift, and it disappeared, but you're not entirely sure where it disappeared off to. You don't want them to risk it by jumping in, only to end up in a universe they're not from. Since the rift is rather small, the four of you take ten steps back and wait.

The three Leons start coming up with a plan to get the baby-faced RPD rookie and twenty-seven-year-old US agent back to their timeline. You stare at the rift, wondering what's waiting beyond it aside from Claire and Ashley. Time is ticking, and no one is certain if there's a time limit for when this rift will reopen. After this lengthy conversation, your Leon excuses himself and carries you away from the duo.

You look at him, confused. "What's wrong?"

Leon shakes his head. "It's nothing. I just want to have some alone time with you."

Leon ducks underneath a demolished building and pins you against the wall, wrapping your legs around his waist. Leon cages you against the wall with his arms as you wrap one arm around his neck and grab his shirt with your other.

"Hi," Leon murmurs, kissing your forehead. "I missed you."

You smile, kissing his cheeks. "Hello to you, too, Mister Kennedy. I missed seeing your handsome face."

Leon chuckles, pressing his forehead against yours. "But you've been with the younger versions of me the entire time. It's impossible to escape from me."

"True, but I missed seeing your face. Baby-faced Leon and twenty-seven-year-old US agent Leon aren't the Leon I'm used to seeing and being around."

Leon chuckles. You bite your bottom lip, feeling uncontrollable lust bubbling up inside you the longer you're pinned against the wall with your legs around his waist. You pull him in for a kiss, tightening your legs around his waist. Leon angles his head down, deepening the kiss before letting his hands roam around your body.

"They're eating each other's faces again." You and Leon hear the disgruntled twenty-seven-year-old mutter from the entrance where you and Leon are hiding.

Baby-faced Leon sighs from a distance. "I shouldn't be surprised, and yet, here I am. Can't really blame the two of them since we were purposely cockblocking them by splitting them up…"

Leon pulls away from the kiss, looking over his shoulder. You cup his face in your hands and pull him back into the kiss. Leon wraps both of his arms around your waist, pinning you against the wall with his body.

"You were about to give them an earful." You mutter against his lips.

"I was, but your lips are more important." Leon pulls away from the kiss and starts peppering your face with kisses, slowly trailing down your neck, leaving open-mouth kisses.

You shudder in his arms, running your fingers through Leon's hair as he starts sucking on your neck. His stubble scratching against your neck makes you giggle, almost writhing in his arms from the sensation. If Leon wasn't holding onto you, you would've slipped out of his grasp.

"Please don't have sex while we're still here. At least do that once we're gone!" Twenty-seven-year-old Leon shouts from a distance, groaning when he hears suspicious sounds coming from where Leon has "excused himself."

Leon buries his face into your neck, sighing. You snicker, kissing the top of his head and staring out into the darkness. You can still see a faint light from the rift, but nothing has happened so far, much to your and Leon's dismay. You can feel it poking you while Leon continues to nuzzle his face against yours, gently squeezing your waist.

"They're committed to being cockblocks, huh."

Leon shakes his head. "Oh, you know it."

Leon latches his lips onto your throat, gently nibbling on them. You clench your jaw, trying to refrain from jumping his bones. The sexual tension between you and Leon is interrupted by faint rumbling. Leon pauses what he's doing and runs out of your little hiding place to where the other Leons are standing. Once you're out in the open, a powerful earthquake strikes, causing everyone to stumble around, searching for something to hold onto.

The glowing rift splits into two—wide enough to suck in buildings and cars. You shield your eyes as the rift becomes brighter, dragging twenty-one-year-old RPD rookie Leon and twenty-seven-year-old US agent Leon towards it. As the rift gets bigger, you can see into it. The first rift shows an image of a brown-haired girl, searching high and low for Leon. The second rift shows a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, hiding who knows where.

This is it—this is their only chance to be able to return to their world. Twenty-one and twenty-seven-year-old Leon both bid you and Leon goodbye before jumping into their respective rifts. The rift seals up, and the earthquake stops. You collapse to the ground, sighing in relief. Leon stares at the space where the rifts once were, shaking his head.

"Do you think they'll remember all of this after returning to their timeline?" You ask.

Leon nods almost immediately. "Oh, yeah. They will remember this for the rest of their lives. I doubt their memories will be erased once they're back in their universe."

Leon calls the mission coordinator, informing them about the mission being completed and to send a helicopter to pick you guys up. Leon gives them your coordinates before ending the call with the coordinator. Before you can say anything, Leon leans down and picks you up from the ground, tossing you over his shoulders, and walks to the closest building.

"Wha—Leon! They're sending the helicopters to pick us up right now!" You yelp, looking over at him in disbelief.

Leon clears his throat. "It'll take some time for them to arrive. We have plenty of time to mess around a bit. After all, I've been cockblocked too many times today already." He pins you against the nearest wall and slides his hands up your shirt. "If you don't want to do it, we don't have to."

You stare at him, then down at his hands that are cupping your breasts underneath your bra. "No, no, continue. I was just worried that they'll show up while we're in the middle of our rendezvous."

Leon pecks your lips. "You have nothing to worry about, darling."

It's been a month since you moved into your house. You're a homeowner now, and the thought of it still shocks you to this day. You decorated your house as you desired and envisioned, and you're satisfied with the results. However, since you moved from an apartment to a fairly big house, you can't help but feel lonely.

You don't have to worry about being too loud when walking around your house, or when you're vacuuming and talking on the phone. But it's a bit too quiet for your liking. Sure, you can blast music as loud as you'd like, but you crave companionship. You could always ask Tara to move in with you and be your roommate, but the idea of a roommate isn't something you're used to.

So, you ended up adopting five cats of different breeds. You adopted a Ragdoll cat named Xavier, a Maine Coon named Zayne, a Devon Rex named Rafayel, a Caracal cat named Sylus, and a brown Tabby cat named Caleb. All five male cats who love you more than the treats you give them, surprisingly. Every day, you wake up to all five of your cats sleeping around you. They certainly keep you on your toes, and it's never a dull day when they're around. You couldn't be happier with your decision to adopt five adorable cats.

But sometimes you regret it because imagine waking up at the ass crack of dawn to one of your cats screaming in your face for food. You love sleeping, especially when you don't have to show up to work. Sometimes, you would wake up in the middle of the night to one of your cats stepping on your face. But that's not the most painful part. Have you ever had a single paw on your boob? Somehow, Caleb would put his entire weight on a single paw when he's stepping on your boob. He wouldn't move; he would stay there for as long as he liked.

"Meow."

You ignore the meow, trying to fall back asleep.

"Meow." But this time, the meow is accompanied by a small tap on your nose from a paw.

You know who it is. Rafayel loves meowing in your face to wake you up from your slumber. Just as you're about to drift off to sleep, Rafayel bats your face with his tiny paws, making you flinch and groan. That seems to satisfy Rafayel as he continues to paw at your face, softly meowing.

"Mmm… not now, Rafayel. I'm still sleeping," You mumble, pulling your blanket over your head.

That seems to annoy Rafayel, seeing you pull your blanket over your head so he wouldn't be able to paw and meow in your face while trying to sleep. But how dare you let him starve?! He hasn't eaten anything in hours, and you're over here sleeping?! It's like you want him and the other cats to starve and die!

Rafayel looks over at the other cats in the room. They're all scattered around your bedroom—Zayne's grooming himself on top of a cat tree, Xavier's napping in his bed, Sylus's licking his paws at the edge of your bed, and Caleb's pawing at the little trinkets on your desk.

Why are they not doing anything about this? If it weren't for Rafayel, the others would've starved as well! Sensing Rafayel's irritation, Sylus crawls under the blanket and makes his way towards your face. Sylus stares at you, blinking. You're sleeping, buried under your blanket to avoid Rafayel's rude wake-up call. Sylus purrs, gently nudging your face with his, startling you awake.

You crack your eyes open to see Sylus blinking at you. You rub your eyes, eyebrows furrowing. You finally come out from underneath the blanket, much to Sylus and Rafayel's satisfaction. Rafayel nudges his face against yours, purring loudly while Sylus starts climbing on top of you.

"God, Sylus, not now. You're heavy," You mumble, still rubbing the sleep from your eyes.

As always, Sylus ignores your comment and proceeds to lie on top of you, kneading your chest while purring. Seeing that you're still not getting up to give him his breakfast, Rafayel paws at your face again.

"Meeeeow," Rafayel protests, almost glaring at you for still being in bed and not pouring his precious food into his food bowl.

You look at Rafayel. "Why are you yelling at me? It's only," You peek at the clock on your nightstand. "It's four in the morning, Rafayel! Goodness, you're an early bird, aren't you?"

"Meeeeeeeow," Rafayel replies, rolling over on his back, purring and looking up at you.

You sigh in defeat, looking up at the ceiling and questioning yourself why you thought it was a great idea to adopt more than one cat if you cherished sleep so much. But you love them, and you sure hope that they love you too. After what felt like an eternity for Rafayel, you finally decide to get up from bed.

"Alright, alright, let's feed you guys before Rafayel screams in my face for not doing so," You mumble.

Just as you're about to leave your room, you trip over Caleb. Caleb jumps and scrambles to the other side of your room. You prop your hands on your hips, closing your eyes. It's too early for this.

"I'm so sorry, Caleb," You softly coo at Caleb, kneeling on the ground as Caleb approaches you.

Caleb stands on his hind legs and rubs his head against the palm of your hand, purring. It's almost like he's telling you that he accepts your apology. You cup his tiny face in your hands and press kisses on his cute little face, earning a loud purr from Caleb.

"Meow!" Rafayel cries out, nipping at your ankles.

You flinch. "Ow! Dammit, Rafayel!"

Rafayel's ears pin back on his head, his pupils becoming huge. Oh, hell no. You know that look way too well. Rafayel's tail starts swaying as he crouches, shaking his butt as he stares at you with anticipation.

You immediately stand up, pointing at Rafayel. "Rafayel, if you bite me again, I will not give you any breakfast until nine in the morning!"

"Meow!" Rafayel protests.

Zayne and Xavier walk up to where you, Sylus, Rafayel, and Caleb are standing. Zayne raises his paw and lightly hits Rafayel's back. Rafayel's head snaps in Zayne's direction, hissing. Zayne doesn't react, but continues to stare at Rafayel, unamused with his behavior.

"Mew?" Xavier asks, tilting his head to the side while staring at you with curiosity and worry. His big blue eyes mesmerize you. Goodness, he's such a pretty cat.

"I'm okay, Xavie. I hope you slept well, little guy," You coo, petting the back of Xavier's ears, earning a loud purr from the Ragdoll cat. "Alright, let's get you guys something to eat before Rafayel screams at me again."

You walk to the kitchen with your little army of cats following behind. You put five cat bowls on the kitchen counter, pulling out the dry cat food from the kitchen cabinet while the five cats stand behind you, watching you prepare their food.

Rafayel jumps on the counter, leaning forward to try to get a taste of his breakfast, but you immediately grab him. "Meow!" Rafayel protests, wiggling in your grasp.

"Not now, Rafayel! Be patient like the others!" You scold Rafayel before putting him back down on the ground.

"MEEEOOOW!" Rafayel screams, rubbing his body up against your calves while you're measuring and pouring dry food into their bowls.

Zayne sits on the counter, watching you pour food into their bowls while licking his paws. You reach out and pet his ears. Zayne paws at your hand and proceeds to jump on your shoulders, his tail wrapping around your neck like a scarf.

"Alright, breakfast is ready!" You mutter, grabbing their food bowls and placing them in designated areas where they wouldn't eat from each other's food bowls.

Zayne gets his food first because he's been well-behaved. Next is Rafayel because, despite his impatience, he's the one who makes sure you feed him and the others, or else you'll sleep in and forget to give them breakfast like that one time.

You grab Sylus, Xavier, and Caleb's food bowls, placing them on their feeding mats. You watch them happily chomp away. While they're eating their breakfast, you quickly refill their water bowl before making breakfast for yourself.

That's your new routine ever since adopting five cats. You love them all so much, and they love you just as much as you love them. Probably not as much, but who knows? It's not like you speak cat. Just when you thought you were adjusting to having five cats living at your house, life decides to throw another obstacle in your direction.

You stumble through the door, accidentally slamming the front door behind you, and startling your poor cats. You're exhausted, and you just want to go to bed. But your babies need to be fed. You opted to buy them an automatic feeder, but the one you've been eyeing is currently sold out, and you're not entirely sure when it'll be restocked.

You take your shoes off and put them on the shoe rack, petting Caleb and Sylus as you walk towards the kitchen to prepare their dinner. The five cats follow behind you, their tails high in the air.

You collect their food bowls, grab the dry food from the cabinet, and begin scooping a certain amount of food into the bowl. Rafayel does his usual routine of meowing, attempting to take a bite of food from Xavier's bowl, only for you to grab him and put him on the ground.

"Meow! Meow! Meow!" Rafayel babbles, standing on his hind legs to get a glimpse of the food being scooped into the bowls.

You shake your head. "I know, Rafayel. I'm sorry for being home later than usual. I was caught up at work. But no need to worry," You murmur.

After feeding the cats, you leave to take a much-needed shower. Today's been rough on you, and you want to crawl into bed as soon as possible. But not without showering because there's no way in hell you're climbing into bed while smelling like the outside.

You shower for fifteen minutes, change into comfortable clothes, and start and complete your nightly skincare routine. While you're preparing for bed, the cats gather outside the bathroom door, waiting for you. Xavier paws at the door, meowing softly while eyeing the door in hopes that you emerge from the bathroom soon.

"Meow…" Sylus claws at the door, as if he's knocking to let you be aware of his presence outside the bathroom.

"Mrow?" Caleb lies on the ground, sticking his little paws underneath the door, reaching around.

You snort, watching Caleb's tiny paws swiping on the ground, his paws spread wide. You kneel and grab at his paw, startling the poor cat. You snort, unlocking the door to face the five cats waiting for you.

"I guess we're all ready for bed?" You murmur, turning the bathroom lights off and stepping over them to make your way to your bed.

You crawl into your bed, getting underneath the covers. Sylus, Rafayel, Zayne, Xavier, and Caleb hop on your bed, finding the perfect spot to lie on. While you're situating yourself, each cat plops around you, making sure a part of them is touching you somehow.

"Goodnight, Zayne, Rafayel, Sylus, Xavier, Caleb," You whisper, looking at each cat. They stare at you, blinking slowly before closing their eyes. You're itching to reach for your phone to take pictures of how cute they are, but you're so comfortable. Instead, you close your eyes and drift off to sleep.

The next day, you wake up to the sun shining in your face. You squeeze your eyes shut, burying your face in your blanket to block out the sunlight. Strange. Usually, you wake up to Rafayel meowing in your face and pawing at you to wake up, but this time, it's the sun that's waking you up.

Shit. What time is it!? You jolt up in your bed, frantically reaching for your phone to check the time. It's nine-thirty in the morning. Fuck. Rafayel and the others are not going to be happy that their breakfast is five hours late! You try to toss your blanket off your body, but something's blocking you from doing so.

You look to see five men occupying the space where your cats were sleeping. Five tall, handsome men. You let out a choked gasp, waking up the five men lying on your bed.

You stumble back, pointing at them in horror. "Who are you people and how did you break into my house?!" You demand, trying to sound intimidating, only for it to come out as a pathetic stutter. "Did I forget to lock the front door last night? There's no way…"

"Relax, [Y/N]. We're the same cats you adopted. There's no need to freak out. What you should freak out over is the fact that it's almost five hours past our breakfast," The purple-haired man says, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout.

"Rafayel…?" You whisper.

His ears perk up. "Well, duh! It's rude to forget to feed us, you know?"

The white-haired man chuckles. "Rafayel, you're usually the one to wake her up to feed the rest of us. If anything, the person you should be upset with is yourself, not [Y/N]."

Rafayel glares at the man, his bottom lip jutting out. You look at each man on your bed, gradually recognizing who's who by looking at the ears on their heads.

"What's on your mind? You look conflicted," Caleb says, tilting his head to the side.

You poke the inside of your cheek with your tongue. "That means I'll have to make you guys human breakfast, not give you guys the usual dry food for breakfast," You murmur.

"I can help you cook, if you'd like?" Xavier offers, gazing at you with those sweet eyes of his.

Oh, heavens, he's so cute. Having Xavier help you cook food? He just turned into a human. Would it be a good idea to let him cook? Before you can decline his offer, Xavier's already giving you those hurt puppy dog looks, as if he knows you're going to reject his offer.

You sigh in defeat. "Alright, you can help me cook. But only put in the ingredients when I tell you to, alright?"

Xavier smiles, nodding. "You're the boss."

You get up from your bed, walking to the bathroom to start your day before cooking breakfast for everyone. It's so odd not waking up to Rafayel's meows and paw swiping at your face to wake you up at four in the morning for breakfast.

Waking up to five men with cat ears and tails is certainly strange, and sounds like something from a fantasy movie. Or some manhua you've been indulging in at an unhealthy level. Perhaps you're in a manhua yourself?

Or, better yet, an otome game where you're the female lead who just so happens to unknowingly adopt shape-shifters into your home, and they turn into handsome men. That makes more sense than the fantasy movie assumption. Where did you get that idea, anyway?

A knock at the bathroom door pulls you out of your thoughts. You blink, now looking at yourself in the mirror with your toothbrush sticking out of your mouth, the toothpaste foaming in the corner of your lips.

"Sweetie, are you alright in there? You've been in the bathroom for fifteen minutes," Sylus says from behind the door.

You quickly rinse your mouth and toothbrush, wiping your mouth with your towel, and turning off the faucet. "Yeah! Sorry, I-I was distracted," You say, opening the bathroom door and coming face to chest with Sylus.

Goodness, this man is tall. You have to tilt your head all the way back to make eye contact with the Caracal cat. Man. Sylus crosses his arms over his chest, his eyebrows furrowing, his ears twitching.

"What could be taking your attention away from us, Sweetie? There's nothing interesting in that bathroom, last time I checked," Sylus comments, raising an eyebrow at you.

You're surrounded by handsome men who have cat ears. You might as well take advantage of that, right?

You raise an eyebrow back at Sylus, leaning against the doorframe. "Why do you sound pouty, Sylus?"

Sylus scoffs. "Pouty? I'm not pouty."

You nod. "You sounded pouty, Sylus. No need to deny it. Maybe it's the hunger that's making you pouty," You reach out and poke his chest.

Sylus looks down, staring at your finger that's poking his chest, before slowly looking at you.

You reach up and gently pet his ears, "Come on, let's go to the kitchen. I need to make breakfast for all of you before you become even more pouty than you already are." You brush past Sylus, leaving him standing there in a trance.

"And a pinch of salt," You murmur, watching Xavier sprinkling salt into the cooking pan.

Xavier's focused on following your instructions, fearing that he's going to mess up and accidentally give you food poisoning. While you're teaching Xavier how to make breakfast, the other men are standing around in the kitchen, watching and sometimes assisting you as well.

Rafayel rubs his tummy, "That smells really good. I'm getting hungrier than I already am," Rafayel comments, now standing behind you to peek at the food sizzling in the pan.

"Don't worry, food's about to be ready," You reply, beginning to reach out to grab a plate, but Caleb beats you to it and hands the plate to you.

"Not to brag or anything, but I'm the best cook out of everyone here," Caleb says, leaning against the kitchen counter.

You pause momentarily. What does he mean by the best cook out of everyone? You're too hungry to ask questions, so you let it slide for now and begin handing out breakfast to everyone. Rafayel nuzzles his face against your neck, purring.

You squeak, tensing up. You're sensitive in your neck, and feeling him rub his face against your neck makes you feel ticklish. Rafayel pauses and stares at you curiously, amusement glimmering in his eyes.

"Thank you for breakfast, Cutie~!" Rafayel says, pinching your cheeks before walking to the dining table with his plate of breakfast.

"I helped, too, you know," Xavier interjects, his ears flattening on his head as he glares at the back of Rafayel's head. "I did well, right?" Xavier turns to you.

You giggle, gently petting his ears and nodding. "Yes, Xavier. You did really well, and I am proud of you."

Xavier's ears perk up before happily walking to the dining table with his plate of breakfast. You shake your head, turning the stove off and putting the used utensils into the sink, letting them drown in water before walking to where the others are sitting.

It's strange, you know? After living alone for some time, and having guests over here and there, it's strange to sit and dine with more than one person in your own home. You're used to the chomping and meowing from your cats, but now your cats are human men.

You watch them while they eat the breakfast you and Xavier cooked together. The way they use cutlery wasn't clumsy, nor did it seem foreign to them. It's almost like they were always human, and never a cat before today. They're chattering among themselves, sometimes looking over in your direction to see if you're eating.

"Are you alright? You're not eating your breakfast," Zayne says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Are you not hungry around this time?"

You rub the back of your neck. "I'm alright. I'm still processing the fact that the five cats I adopted are all human-cat hybrids in front of me right now, having breakfast with me," You reply before taking a bite of your toast.

"You'll get used to it the more time passes. I know it's a shock, and I apologize that it happened so suddenly. We didn't expect to turn back into humans so soon." Caleb says, wiping his lips with the napkin.

'It happened so suddenly,' Caleb says. So this isn't the first time they turned into humans? Or a cat? A million questions pop up in your head as you continue to eat your breakfast.

"What's going on in that noggin of yours, [Y/N]? If you have any questions for us, we're willing to answer them," Caleb says, crossing his arms over his chest. "We have nothing to hide."

Immediately, your breakfast is forgotten because you have a lot of questions that need to be answered. You asked, and they answered quite willingly, and they're very transparent with you.

They're originally human, but something happened—they don't know what exactly—and poof! They turn into cats for who knows how long before randomly turning back into humans. Well, a human cat hybrid.

"Wait, so, whenever I'm not home, do you guys turn into humans while I'm away?" You ask, collecting the empty plates. "How does this all work?"

"It happens randomly. Before today, there was only one incident where we all turned into humans while you were away at work. But we didn't stay as humans for long. It lasted five hours," Sylus replies.

"And you guys were already clothed every time you switched from cat to human?" You ask, turning the sink on to start washing the dishes.

"Yes, we're clothed whenever we're human," Caleb answers, raising an eyebrow at you and giving you a knowing look.

You ignore the look Caleb throws in your direction, mentally sighing in relief. Thank goodness you don't have to worry about coming home to see naked cat-men in your house. Imagine if they were naked the entire time and waking up to that. You certainly do not want to wake up to seeing abs and penises—although, you're not against seeing abs.

They're handsome, tall, and they most likely have a really nice physique. You don't need to see them butt-naked to know they're fit. You can see their physique underneath the tuxedos they're wearing.

Rafayel points an accusing finger at you. "What's with that look on your face?"

"Nothing!" You immediately say, immediately doing the dishes as fast as you possibly can, making yourself busy, or else Rafayel and the others will notice your strange behavior. Well, Rafayel is already speculating.

Zayne stands beside you, taking his gloves off. You continue washing the dishes, but you slowly look at Zayne from the corner of your eyes, watching him take his gloves off. Oh. Oh, my.. he has nice hands too.

"What are you doing?" You ask, trying to act normal.

Zayne reaches for the extra sponge and begins lathering it up with dish soap. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm helping you wash the dishes," Zayne replies, grabbing a random plate in the sink and starts scrubbing the dirty plate.

"Why don't I join in to help as well? We can't have you doing the dishes yourself. After all, you did cook breakfast for all of us, with the help of Xavier," Caleb says, now standing on your left side, sandwiching you between him and Zayne.

Zayne's ears flatten on his head, his tail poofs up and begins swaying side to side. Caleb takes his gloves off, grabs a freshly washed plate, and begins drying them with a clean rag. A low rumble emits from Zayne's chest; it's low enough for you not to hear it, but loud enough for Caleb and the others to hear.

Thanks to Zayne and Caleb, the dishes were washed and dried faster than you expected. Usually, it would take you around, maybe, almost five minutes to wash the dishes, but Zayne and Caleb made it significantly faster.

You walk to your couch, but Rafayel intercepts you. It's like he came out of nowhere. Rafayel throws his arms around you, rubbing his cheeks against yours while walking backwards towards the couch. Once the back of his knees touches the couch, Rafayel falls back, pulling you down with him.

"You're no different from your cat-self, Rafayel," You comment, looking up at Rafayel.

"Well, duh, no matter what species I am, I'm still me," Rafayel says as if that's the most obvious thing in the world.

Shadows fall over you and Rafayel, making you two look up to see Zayne, Sylus, Xavier, and Caleb glaring down at you two—mainly at Rafayel. Sylus sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose while his tail is wagging behind him, signifying that he's quite annoyed with what's in front of him.

Sylus clears his throat. "For once, can you not hog her for yourself?" Sylus hisses, now fully glaring at Rafayel.

Rafayel huffs. "What? I'm an affectionate cat, uh, person. Am I not allowed to show love for the woman who allowed me into her home?" Rafayel retorts, his tail bristling behind him.

Xavier glares at Rafayel. "You're not the only one she allowed you into her home, Rafayel. It's not fair if you try to keep her for yourself while the rest of us are third-wheeling."

You laugh nervously, sitting up and patting Rafayel's head before getting off of Rafayel, much to his dismay. Sometimes you forget that cats are territorial creatures, but they're human now! That's different, right? Again, Rafayel proved you otherwise by clinging to you like how he would when he's still a cat.

A strange noise emits from Rafayel, Sylus, and Xavier, the same noise that the others heard whenever Caleb decided to help you and Zayne do the dishes. Instead of it being loud enough for only the ones with feline ears to hear, you hear it as well.

"Guys?" You say, looking at the five of them cautiously.

You've never seen them behave this way, and when you do, it's not nearly as bad as whatever this is. Yes, you've seen Zayne swatting at Rafayel with his paws. Yes, you've seen Sylus hissing at Caleb after you gasp when Caleb pushes your trinkets off your desk. Yes, you've seen Xavier pouncing off of Sylus whenever he has zoomies.

"Let's not fight, you guys. Let's play some games instead!" You try to change the subject.

You get up from the couch and walk over to the cat toys lying around the living room. You grab a feather wand and turn to the five men, who are now staring at you, unamused.

Sylus pinches the bridge of his nose, his tongue poking out of his lips. "Sweetie, do you really think we'll play with cat toys as humans?" Sylus asks, now crossing his arms over his chest.

You shrug. "I don't know. It wouldn't hurt to test it out, now, would it?"

You slowly wave the wand in front of you, watching everyone's reaction closely. At first, you didn't get a reaction out of any of them. But the longer you wave it around, almost swinging it at this point, their feline instincts start to gradually kick in.

Their eyes are trained on the feather wand, heads moving in sync, tails wagging, ears twitching with anticipation. A smile creeps up your face, and you wave the wand up in the air, causing their heads to jerk back without taking their eyes off their targets.

It's pretty cute, you can't lie. Grown men with cat ears on their heads, denying the fact that they won't be entertained by cat toys, only to be entertained by something they refused to acknowledge. The longer you wave and twirl the wand around, the more they start to become restless.

Xavier lunges towards you, trying to swat at the feather wand. You snort, waving it away from Xavier. Xavier's ears flattened on his head when he failed to touch the cat toy you're teasing them with.

"You're going to have to be faster than that, Xavie," You sing, now twirling around with the wand before prancing around the living room with the others now on your tail.

Caleb chuckles, shaking his head. "You're having fun with this, aren't you?" Caleb asks, not taking his eyes off his target.

"I can say the same for you guys," You snort.

One by one, they all start lunging in your direction, trying to get a hold of the feather on the wand. It's hilarious and fun to see their feline instincts take over, but it's also a little terrifying because these men are 6'0-6'2 and they're throwing themselves at you—well, the wand.

Zayne stops in the middle of it all, sighing. "Let's all stop before someone gets hurt," Zayne says.

"Oh, lighten up, Zayne! No one's going to get hurt!" Rafayel says, successfully grabbing onto the feather wand. "I got it! I'm the winner, and you're all losers!" Rafayel smirks before sticking his tongue out at everyone.

The others around you grumble and roll their eyes. You release the feather wand, watching Rafayel wave it around and become entranced by the toy.

You snort, clapping your hands. "Congratulations on catching the toy, Rafayel. You did well," You coo, reaching up to scratch his ears, but he flinches away from your touch.

"H-Hey! Don't touch the ears!" Rafayel sputters, the apples of his cheeks turning crimson.

Your hands fall to your side. "Aw, but you're too cute to resist!" You tease, playfully pouting at the flustered Rafayel.

Rafayel huffs, dropping the cat toy and approaching you. He towers over you, his bottom lip jutting out into a pout—is he imitating you? Rafayel drops to his knees and gazes up at you. Something in you stirs, heat gradually rushing to your cheeks.

Rafayel reaches for your hand and plops it on his head. "There, you may pet my ears."

You cheer and begin petting both of his ears, catching Rafayel off guard. At first, he wants to protest and pull away because his precious ears cannot handle the amount of attention they're getting. But he loves that he's the only one receiving attention, unlike the other four, so he basks in your attention and affection.

Suddenly, Xavier's kneeling beside Rafayel, staring up at you like a kicked puppy. "Why are you giving him attention? There are four of us, too, you know? Though out of five cats, I'm the one that's neglected the most," Xavier says, frowning at you.

"Xavier, I would never neglect you," You say, reaching out to Xavier with your left hand to pet his soft ears. "You guys know that I love you all equally, right?"

"It doesn't seem like it," Xavier mutters.

Before you can respond, Xavier lurches forward and wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you down with him. You yelp, falling onto his lap. Xavier tightens his grip around your waist, burying his face into your neck and nuzzling his face and hair against your neck and face.

"That can't be comfortable," Caleb comments, staring at you and Xavier, his tail thumping against his legs.

Xavier huffs, gets off the ground with you still in his arms, and carries you over to the couch. Xavier collapses onto the couch and situates you on his lap. "There, now we're both comfortable. Thank you for the suggestion, Caleb," Xavier says curtly.

Xavier turns on the TV, switching to a random channel. Of course, he's hardly paying attention to what's playing on the TV. He's too busy cuddling you and making sure that the others aren't touching you. Eventually, Xavier lets you go and allows you to leave your spot on his lap, even though he's hesitant and doesn't have the heart or courage to let you go.

Just as you think you're finally free and can move around all you like, Sylus traps you in his arms like a Venus flytrap. As much as you want to protest, you're not surprised about it. As Xavier said, there are five of them, and you might as well let them have their turn in holding you.

"You adapted to us becoming human quite fast, Kitten. I'm quite shocked," Sylus murmurs, resting his chin on your head and closing his eyes.

You turn to look at Sylus over your shoulder. "Who are you calling 'kitten'? Last time I checked, you're the one with cat ears on your head." You narrow your eyes at Sylus.

Sylus stares at you, amusement glimmering in his red eyes. Instead of answering you, his response to you is a simple smirk. You huff and turn back around, resting your head on his shoulders. Damn him and that handsome face of his.

The longer you stay in Sylus's arms, the more you want to drift off to sleep. Who knew that lying on top of someone is way more comfortable than lying on your own bed? You force yourself out of Sylus's arms and crawl into the next person's arms—Caleb. Technically, you're between Caleb and Zayne. They've been waiting patiently (not really), so you might as well let both of them cuddle you, right?

It's easier to cuddle all five of them when they were cats. They're much smaller, and they can lie anywhere around or on you. You remember a few weeks into adopting them, you wake up to all five cats lying on top of you, from your chest to your toes.

Now that they're human for who knows how long, cuddling with all five of them is a bigger challenge. They can toss you whenever they please, and they can scold the other person for hogging you and not giving them the opportunity to cuddle with you.

"I'm not making you feel uncomfortable, am I?" Zayne murmurs into your ears, curling up against you.

You shake your head. "You're fine, Zayne. No need to worry."

Caleb peeks at Zayne, "Having you this close to me makes me feel uncomfortable. But since [Y/N] is in between us, I'll give you a pass for now. Even though I would much rather have her for myself," Caleb sighs.

Zayne ignores Caleb's comments and proceeds to cuddle you, wrapping his arms around your waist, but slightly retracting after feeling Caleb's arms around your waist. The tip of Zayne's tail thumps against the couch, feeling mildly irritated.

"Yeah, I'm not happy about it either," Zayne grumbles, his cheek resting on top of your head.

Caleb ignores Zayne's comment and continues to press himself against you, almost like he's trying to become one with you. His tail wraps around your wrist as he nuzzles his nose against yours before rubbing your face with his hair and ears.

"You're very soft, warm, and comfortable," Caleb purrs, closing his eyes in contentment, putting all of his weight on you.

You grunt, patting his head. "So are you, but you're crushing me, Caleb."

The entire day consists of you and everyone else lying on the couch, doing absolutely nothing aside from watching TV, occasionally chatting, and taking lots and lots of naps. You know that cats sleep a lot, but you didn't think most of their feline instincts and behaviors would transfer to their human forms.

An hour or two passes by, and you wake up from your nap to get a drink of water because your throat is dry and you need to go pee. Once that's over with, you open the door to see all five of them standing outside the bathroom door, waiting for you.

"You guys aren't napping?" You mumble, rubbing the sleep from your eyes as you brush past them to walk back to the living room.

"How can we nap when you're not with us?" Zayne murmurs, walking beside you. He wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you towards the couch, pulling the blanket over both of you.

You gesture to his and the other's tuxedo. "Are you guys comfortable wearing that all day? Does it not get suffocating at one point?"

Xavier shrugs. "Yeah, it does feel a little restricting. Why'd you ask?"

You tap your chin, nodding. "Maybe I'll buy some clothes for you guys later. I do need to take some measurements."

Totally not an excuse for you to see how big they are in certain areas of their bodies. You want to buy them clothes that accurately fit their bodies! Though loose clothing is good too, because they can freely move around without feeling their clothes clinging to their bodies.

"Sweetie, there's no need for measurements. Is this an excuse to touch us?" Sylus asks, raising an eyebrow while smirking at you.

Heat rushes to your cheeks. "Of course not! Do you guys want clothes that accurately fit your bodies, or would you like to guess and accidentally buy something that's way too big or small for your bodies?" You huff, crossing your arms over your chest.

"Totally not an excuse," Rafayel snorts, rolling his eyes before plopping down beside you and resting his head on your lap. "Whatever you say, Cutie. If you want to touch me, nothing's stopping you." He nuzzles his head against you, grabbing your hand and placing it on his head to stroke his ears.

"Calling me cutie when you're the one with cat ears on your head," You mutter, lightly tugging on his ear.

The day eventually winds down, and you're all in a huge cuddle puddle with you in the dead center of it all, so everyone can be able to somehow cuddle you despite the long limbs getting in the way. The show playing on your TV becomes white noise as you drift to sleep. The last thing you feel before stepping into your dreams is light kisses on your face coming from every direction.

About four in the morning, you wake up to something lightly tapping your face. You squeeze your eyes shut, trying to ignore it, but the tapping persists before a loud—

"MEOW!"

—wakes you up from your slumber. You jolt and look to see Rafayel, in his cat form, sitting in front of your face, his head tilting to the side, staring at you intently. You look around, assuming you'll see the human versions of your cats, but no, they're back to their cat forms.

"Aw, and to think I was going to be able to measure you guys," You mumble.

Zayne rubs his head against your arm, pressing himself against you. Xavier crawls into your lap and lies there, closing his eyes. Sylus sits close to your feet, licking his paws before pouncing on you, making you yelp. Caleb's lying beside your head, licking your face to comfort you.

"Meow," Sylus says, sprawling out on your chest.

Maybe next time—no idea when—you'll be able to take measurements of each man to buy them clothes if and when they turn back into humans. But for now, you'll have to get used to the constant changes in their species.

"MEOW!" Rafayel protests, swatting at your face with his paws.

"Ow! Rafayel! It's too early for breakfast!"

"MEOW! MEOW!" Rafayel screams in your face, rubbing his head against your face while purring.

You glare at Rafayel, reaching over to pet his cute little head. "Rafayel, I can't get up now. You know it's the rule not to get up if cats are lying on you," You whisper, trying not to startle the others awake.

Rafayel huffs, getting up from his spot to climb on your face. You groan as he lies on your face, kneading at your face while purring. Just when you thought you were getting used to having cats, Rafayel and the others make you doubt it.

Note: I had a great time writing this, so much so that I typed out over two thousand words a day. I usually type out a little over a thousand words a day, just so I wouldn't overwhelm myself. It's a cute and fun fic, something to make up after not posting anything for LADS in a while. I need to start brainstorming for future LADS fics cause my brain's been preoccupied with another fictional man in another franchise. Anyway, to all my new and returning readers, please keep in mind that I ONLY post on my Tumblr (Genshinluvr), Ko-Fi (Genshinluvr/Aaliah_exo), and my AO3 (Aaliah_exo)! Nowhere else except Tumblr and AO3!

There have been a few subtle changes around the DSO building: a few new hires, faster, stronger internet, and new equipment for every department in the DSO. It's the smallest things that make everyone's job a bit easier and less of a hassle to deal with.

Oh, and this budding romance between you and Leon! It's fascinating to witness the relationship between you and Leon start as a horrifyingly embarrassing introduction to one another—more embarrassing on your end, then slowly sprout into something more endearing and almost fragile.

God, you're such a mess—an adorable one to Leon. You try your hardest to be professional around Leon, but sometimes it's hard for you to make eye contact with the DSO agent because he's been through so many things and has so much experience on and off the field compared to you, a rookie in this field of work. It's definitely not because you're enamored with thee Leon S. Kennedy.

You thought that as time goes by, the more you see Leon and work alongside him, all of this (the heart racing, blushing, intentionally embarrassing yourself) would come to a stop eventually. Boy, you were wrong. Leon is fantastic at being professional on the clock, but you? You're also great at that, but there have been some instances where you do slip up. Luckily, that goes unnoticed with your other coworkers, but not with Sherry or Leon.

While Leon is great at keeping it strictly professional on the clock, he still finds ways to show that he thinks/or cares about you. Leon usually arrives at the DSO building early in the morning before you do. He makes sure to get you something to eat—like a donut or breakfast sandwich, along with coffee— and leaves it at your desk before you arrive.

You enter the office, checking your watch to see if you're late. There was heavy traffic, and you were stuck on your way to work, but thankfully, you made it just in time. You nearly rip your hair out of your head when you realize that there's a possibility that you're going to be late to work, and you're never late to work because you leave the house earlier than you need to. That means you usually skip breakfast.

"8:58 AM, not bad." You mutter, "But not good either. Maybe I should leave a bit earlier next time." You fix the strap of your tote bag on your shoulders and make your way to your desk.

On a good day, when there's light traffic, you would stop by somewhere to get something to eat. Sometimes you make breakfast at home and eat and finish your breakfast in the parking lot of the DSO building. But today is a bit out of the ordinary because when you arrive at your desk, there are two donuts on a small paper plate with a coffee cup beside it, sitting on top of a napkin.

You look around, wondering if everyone else has donuts and coffee on their desk. You turn back to your desk, your head tilting to the side, before you pull your chair out from underneath your desk and hang your tote bag on the armrest.

"Good morning, [Y/N]! Glad to see you arrive on time," Sherry says, leaning against your desk as she watches you turn on your computer.

You sigh in relief. "Morning, Sherry. I'm glad I made it on time, too. Almost didn't make it because of the heavy traffic on my way here." You enter your password on your computer.

"Well, it's a good thing you made it here on time because I heard from someone that you're going to be training the new recruit," Sherry replies, sipping on her coffee.

You pause what you're doing and slowly turn to her. "I am? This is news to me. Have I been working here long enough to be qualified to train the recruit? I'm still new, aren't I?"

"That, I don't know. But according to Zhao, you've been outperforming people in your department, and you're a fast learner. I can see why they would want you to train the new recruit now that things around here are picking up."

You nod, reaching for the coffee cup and taking a sip from it. "By the way, do you know who put the coffee and donuts on my desk? I want to thank them later when I see them."

Sherry's eyes light up. "It was Leon! He arrived early today and decided to get you coffee and donuts for breakfast before heading off to his meeting."

Your heart flutters in your chest. "I will have to thank him later," You smile as the apples of your cheeks become warm. "Do you know how long his meeting will be?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "I'm not entirely sure, but I heard it has to do with an outbreak that's connected to Raccoon City."

"An outbreak connected to Raccoon City? Is Leon going to be sent out on a field mission soon?" Your heart falls into the pit of your stomach, making it almost impossible for you to swallow the warm coffee. You press your lips into a thin line, nodding, trying to act nonchalant. It's part of Leon's job; it's not something he's never done before.

"You alright?" Sherry asks, gazing at you worriedly.

You nod. "I'm fine. I'm still trying to wake up and mentally prepare myself to train the new recruit, which was new information."

Sherry gives your shoulder a light squeeze before walking to her desk. You move your seat closer to your desk and sigh. There's a very high chance of Leon being sent out to where this outbreak takes place for a mission. You reach for the donut and take a bite out of it; it's still warm and soft.

Thirty minutes go by, and Leon emerges from the meeting room, and his eyes immediately lock in on where you're sitting. He sees you squinting at your monitor with a donut in one hand. A smile appears on Leon's face when he sees a donut glaze on the corner of your lips.

Leon approaches where you're sitting, nodding to Sherry as he passes by her desk. Standing by your desk, he watches you do your work while snacking on the donuts he bought for you. You look up from your monitor and smile at Leon, reminding him of a smiling fox. Can you be any cuter?

"Morning, Leon—Mr. Kennedy! I hope your meeting went well," You say shyly, putting the donut on the paper plate and wiping your fingers with the napkin.

"Morning to you, too, Miss. [L/N]. Enjoying the donuts and coffee?" Leon asks, gesturing to the pastry and beverage.

You nod. "I am! Thank you for the donuts and coffee. It's very much needed after what I dealt with today so far." Despite your cheerful response, the smile doesn't reach your eyes.

Leon frowns and speaks in a low voice, "Are you alright? What's worrying you?"

You purse your lips, debating whether you should let him know about what Sherry has told you, or act like nothing is wrong and that you were just having a rough morning with being almost late to work due to traffic.

Leon reaches forward and smooths the creases between your eyebrows. Your heart skips a beat, making your breath get caught in your throat. You clear your throat and nod, rubbing the back of your neck awkwardly.

"I'm fine, Leon—Mr. Kennedy."

Leon raises his eyebrows at you. "But…?"

"There's a possibility you're leaving to go on a field mission soon, and that means I won't get to see you around until you return, and we don't know how long that will be. I'm also worried about your safety, but this isn't your first day on the job, so why am I worried?" Is what you want to say to him, but the words are stuck in your throat. Instead, you sigh, shaking your head. "It's nothing."

Leon frowns. "We'll talk during lunch, alright?"

You nod, earning a light, reassuring squeeze on your shoulder from Leon as a response before he walks away. You hate to see Leon go, but you sure do love to watch him leave. You sink into your seat and proceed where you left off on your work, finishing your donut and coffee.

"Everything will be okay," You whisper, ignoring the buzzing of your smartwatch.

Whenever you're stressed or worried about something, Leon does his best to comfort you. Sometimes he doesn't know what to say in these situations, but he's always there with open arms to give you a hug when you need it.

That very same day, during your lunch break, you and Leon are dining at a restaurant a few miles from the DSO building. Both you and Leon are tucked away in the corner of the restaurant, away from prying eyes and ears. It feels a little awkward, but not enough that you could hardly speak to each other and avoid eye contact. While waiting for your orders to arrive, you finally tell Leon what's on your mind.

"Sherry told me that you had a meeting about an outbreak that's connected to Raccoon City, and that made me worried about the possibility of you leaving to go wherever you're needed," You began, wringing your hands. "I know this is a cake walk for you, and it's nothing new because you've been doing this for years, but I can't help but worry."

Leon reaches across the table and grabs your hand, gently squeezing them. "Yes, I did have a meeting about an outbreak that is connected to Raccoon City. I'm happy to hear that you worry about me, but there's nothing to worry about. Everything is going to be okay, and if I do have to leave for the assignment, I'll be gone for at least a week max."

You nod, rubbing your thumb over his hand. Out of pure curiosity, Leon takes a peek at your watch when the screen lights up. Lo and behold, you have received a notification about your increasing heart rate. Leon looks up to see you already staring at him, almost like you got caught red-handed. Before you can pull your hand back, Leon tightens his grip on your hand.

He shakes his head. "No, no, you're not allowed to pull away after what we've established." A big smile appears on his face, making the crows' feet in the outer corners of his eyes prominent.

"And what is that?" You mutter, face feeling a bit too warm for your liking. Damn him and his effects on you! You try really hard not to smile, but seeing Leon smiling so wide makes it impossible not to.

"We've established that I'm the only person allowed to make your heart race, skip a beat, and flutter. Therefore, you shouldn't feel embarrassed about your smartwatch notifying you of your increasing heart rate."

You sigh, allowing Leon to continue holding your hand across the table. Leon is right; he's the only one who has this effect on you. No one else, but him—and he takes pride in it. If making your heart skip a beat were an achievement, Leon would wear it like a badge of honor.

"Who is this 'we' you speak of?" You ask, head tilting to the side.

Leon smiles. "Me and your smartwatch, of course." Leon lifts your hand and plants a kiss on your knuckles. "Though your smartwatch established it way before I did."

You nearly groan, covering your face with one hand. Leon laughs, shaking his head while relishing your adorable reaction. God, you're so cute! He would do anything to see that smile on your face, completely free of worries and stress. Leon reaches forward and lightly pinches your cheek, causing your face to feel even hotter.

Before you can protest, the waiter arrives with your and Leon's order. Leon is lucky that you're both in a restaurant, or else you would've—never mind. About thirty minutes later, you and Leon exit the restaurant together, hand in hand, walking towards his Porsche.

Leon opens the passenger side door for you, but instead of getting in, you stare at Leon with a faint pout on your face. Well, you're not actually pouting, but to him, it looks like you are.

Leon cups your face, tilting your head up. "You have nothing to worry about, alright? I'll let you know if anything happens," Leon murmurs, gently caressing your face and stroking your cheek with his thumb.

"Okay," You whisper. "I don't know how long I can go without seeing you."

"I feel the same way as you," Leon murmurs, leaning down and pressing his lips on your forehead. "You have no idea how much you mean to me."

Leon pulls you into his arms, wrapping his arms around your waist while your arms are draped around his shoulders. It feels so nice to be in his arms, feeling his incredibly beefy arms around your waist, his muscular pecs under your cheek as you press your face against his chest.

"Can we stay like this forever?" Your voice is muffled against his chest.

Leon's chest rumbles with laughter as he tightens his arms around you, kissing the top of your head. "I don't see why not."

Eventually, you and Leon did return to the DSO building and clock back into work, much to your dismay. The new recruit whom you're supposed to train was a no-show. According to your supervisor, the new recruit is sick and will show up tomorrow rather than today.

Which means you can continue with what you're doing as a telecommunications specialist, and that is to make sure the telecommunications systems and servers are running smoothly, and to upload data into the systems for them to be analyzed. Sounds complicated and intimidating, but you got the hang of it after seeing how it's done.

One thing about Leon is that whenever he enters a room, his eyes immediately search for you. It's intentional, yes, but it's gotten to the point where it becomes a habit. Even if you're not in the same room, Leon would scan his surroundings, looking for that familiar face of yours.

The same thing goes for you: whenever you walk into a room, you look for Leon. And if you two happen to be in the same room, but on different sides of the room, you and Leon would subconsciously look for the other. While your back is facing Leon's direction, occupied with a task or talking to another coworker about issues that appeared, Leon would be across the room, staring at the back of your head.

If Leon is occupied with talking to someone from the higher-ups, you would pretend to look around the room just to get a glimpse of his handsome face. Of course, whenever either one of you is doing that (searching for each other or staring at the other person while they're occupied), the other party would be too occupied to notice it.

Were there times when you and Leon made eye contact? Surprisingly, not as much as you think it would happen. However, after a colleague leaves the conversation, Leon would approach you. Leon is usually the first one to approach you, hardly the other way around.

In your coworker's eyes, it looks like you and Leon are discussing work-related topics—which is true. But most of the time, you're checking up on each other after the discussion.

"How're you doing today?" Leon murmurs, subtly linking his pinky around yours from underneath the table. "Has today been treating you well?"

You smile, curling your pinky around his. "Today's been busy. The servers kept crashing, and no matter what I did, they continuously crashed or bugged out."

"And you managed to get them back up and running?" Leon murmurs, studying you closely—he's actually admiring your face, but people buzzing around you and Leon don't know that.

You nod. "After almost an hour, yes. I also had to show the new recruit how to get the servers back up, among many other things."

Ah, right, the new recruit. The new recruit is a man who's almost as tall as Leon, with curly brown hair and large circular glasses that perched on his nose bridge. Leon's seen the guy around the DSO building, following you around like a lost puppy. A little too close for Leon's liking, if Leon has to be really honest. It should be Leon, not the new recruit.

"You're doing great in training the new recruit. I've been hearing great things around the building, specifically from Zhao, Mrs. Lee, and Sherry, which is no surprise to me. What's his name again?"

You blank out. Fuck, what was the guy's name again? The only thing you remember is that he likes standing way too close to you whenever you're training him. "I think his name is Brandon, but I could be misremembering."

"Too busy with work to pay attention to other people, huh?" Leon mutters, refraining from smiling.

"Oh, yes, super busy! I don't have the time to think about men," You playfully scoff, "Unless that man's name is Leon Kennedy." You add under your breath.

Leon blinks. "What was that?" He leans in closer, an amused smile appearing on his face.

"Nothing! I was just saying that I'm too busy with work to be thinking about men." You clear your throat, rubbing the back of your neck.

The banter between you and Leon is cut short by the sound of someone clearing their throat. You and Leon look in the direction of where the sound came from to see the new recruit standing there. The new recruit looks awkward, but also confident at the same time.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but Mr. Zhao wanted you to teach me how to, uh, collect communications data from surveillance monitoring equipment and have it downloaded onto various systems for the analysis team—whatever that means. "

"Oh! Alright. You can head to the office on the floor below us, and I'll meet you there." You say, slowly gathering your tablet and folder.

Leon watches the curly-haired man turn to leave, but not without glancing back at where you and Leon are sitting. The two briefly make eye contact before he walks out of the meeting room and towards the elevator, slowly. Leon tightens his pinky around yours, as if reassuring you.

"I'll walk you to your destination," Leon states, his blue eyes flickering over to you.

You don't protest—why would you? You'll do anything to be able to spend a little more time with Leon. So, you and Leon walk out of the meeting room and towards the elevator, only to see the new recruit standing at the elevator, waiting for you. What is his name again? You're horrible with names.

The new recruit—sorry, can't remember his name—points to Leon, "He's coming with us? I didn't know he was in our department."

You smile. "Leon will be taking me—us to our destination. He offered it, so who am I to deny his offer?"

You, Leon, and the curly-haired man get onto the elevator. You press the button that leads to the floor you're needed on, and watch the doors close. You stand between Leon and your new colleague, a little closer to Leon. The air is thick between the three of you, and it's awkward.

"I don't think we've formally met. My name's Leon Kennedy, DSO agent—I'm usually on the field, but for now, my presence is needed here until further notice." Leon says, turning to the new recruit.

The man awkwardly adjusts his tie. "Yeah, I've heard of you, Mr. Kennedy. I'm Patrick Fitzpatrick. I'm a recently hired telecommunications specialist like Miss. [Y/N]."

For once, the universe is on your side because after the awkward introduction, the elevator doors open to the floor where you're needed. You, Leon, and Patrick leave the elevator and head towards the office. Occasionally, Patrick would look in the corner of his eye to look at Leon, and Leon would catch him in the act, causing Patrick to quickly look away with a bright red face.

You walk into the office with Patrick and Leon following behind, briefly greeting your other colleagues who greeted you first. You unlock your tablet and begin typing on the computer before gesturing for Patrick to sit down so you can get started on training him.

"Is he going to be here with us the entire time?" Patrick asks, pointing in Leon's direction.

Leon crosses his arms over his chest, huffing. "Why do I get this feeling where my presence isn't welcomed?" Leon asks, staring at Patrick, mildly annoyed.

"Leon is welcome to watch, if he would like to join us. Even though he's not in our department, it's nice to learn something new in case of an emergency. Now, sit down so we can get started."

Patrick mutters something under his breath before sitting at the computer. You and Leon give each other a look. Instead of sitting right next to Patrick to train him, you remain standing beside him, pointing out which programs do what and how to download collected data onto various systems.

Leon stares at the monitor, following where you're pointing and glancing over at Patrick, only to see him staring at you and probably not listening to a single thing you're saying.

You tap on your tablet, eyebrows furrowing. "And that's how you do it! But don't worry, I'm sure Zhao or another senior technician will be there to guide you if and when systems are down."

"Can't you guide me instead? After all, you are the one who's training me in this," Patrick says, staring deep into your eyes.

You shake your head. "While I'm honored that you would trust me enough to want me to be there to assist you if and when systems are down, I'm not a senior technician, Mr. Fitzpatrick. Therefore, I cannot do that. I will have my own duties to take care of as a fellow telecommunications specialist."

"Oh, that's a bummer," Patrick mutters, nodding his head with a disappointed sigh. "It was worth the shot."

Leon never thought that he would have to deal with an insufferable colleague until Patrick Fitzpatrick—what a dumb name—entered the picture. It's not that Leon is jealous of a man named Patrick Fitzpatrick. Leon's not the jealous type; he wouldn't consider himself possessive. However, when your safety and security become the topic of conversation, Leon takes that very seriously.

Leon's painfully aware that Patrick isn't fond of him. For what reason? He doesn't know, but it's most likely because Patrick is intimidated by him in some kind of way, given by his body language and how he acts whenever Leon's around.

For now, Leon is watching from the sidelines, making sure that this Patrick guy isn't going to make things harder for you than it already it. But does that mean Leon's not going to step in with every chance he gets? No, he's still going to find a solution to prevent you from ever being alone with Patrick.

Everything was going according to Leon's plan, and seeing Patrick visibly seethe brings unbridled joy to Leon. Of course, Leon's not always by your side at work, but he makes sure that Patrick sees you with Leon every single day. And due to their work relationship, they need to be cordial with one another despite the tension between them.

About two weeks go by, Patrick approaches Sherry early in the morning, catching the blonde woman off guard. "Hey, Miss. Birkin, do you know where Miss. [Y/N] is? I wanted to ask her if she could help me with something."

Sherry politely smiles at Patrick, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Fitzpatrick, but I don't know where she is. It's still rather early, and I'm assuming she's probably stuck in traffic right now," Sherry replies, glancing down at her watch.

Before Patrick can say anything, the elevator chimes and the doors slide open, revealing you and Leon in the middle of your conversation. You two step out of the elevator, laughing while holding onto matching coffee cups and breakfast sandwiches in your hands.

"Good morning, you two! You're quite lively on a Monday morning," Sherry says, sipping from her steaming coffee cup. "Did you two happen to arrive here at the same time?"

You shake your head, heat rushing to your cheeks as your smartwatch lights up. "Oh, Leon drove me here, actually! My car is currently at the dealership getting some things changed and realigned."

Patrick's eyes zero in on the tote bag hanging from Leon's broad shoulders. A familiar tote bag that would rest behind your monitor as you type away at your computer while muttering under your breath. Patrick's jaw ticks as he proceeds to watch you and Sherry speak.

"And you two got breakfast and coffee together?" Sherry asks as the same teasing smile appears on her face, causing you to become shy.

You turn to Leon, only to see him looking at your watch before his eyes flicker to your face with that familiar smile on his face. You peek at your watch, trying to act nonchalant after seeing the familiar notification about your increasing heart rate. It's fine! Everything is fine!

"Yes, of course, we got breakfast together." You mutter shyly. "Wouldn't want to start the day off without breakfast and coffee."

Sherry giggles as you gesture for Leon to follow you to your desk inside the office, brushing past Patrick without even acknowledging him. As you and Leon walk by, Patrick watches Leon, who's walking beside you, hover his right hand over your lower back. Leon opens the office door for you, you shyly thank Leon, and enter the office while sipping your coffee.

"Leon, thank you again for driving me here. You're a lifesaver," You say, putting your coffee down on your desk and biting into your breakfast sandwich while turning on your computer.

Leon puts your tote bag behind your monitor and pulls your tablet out, putting it next to your keyboard and mouse. "No need to thank me. I'm happy to help, and will be here if you need me."

"I'll always need you," You blurt out. Dammit, you're not supposed to say that out loud—at least not at the office. "Because you're always happy to provide assistance when someone needs it." You look around to make sure no one's listening to your and Leon's conversation. Thankfully, not many people are around and are too engrossed in their work to eavesdrop.

Leon snorts. "Nice save."

As you're settling into your desk and Leon's checking his watch, one of the higher-ups approaches your desk. You and Leon look at the woman and greet her. That sinking feeling in your chest emerges, making your heart race against your chest.

"Apologies to interrupt your conversation, but Mr. Kennedy, may you please follow me to the nearest meeting room?" The woman asks, adjusting her glasses on her nose bridge as she slowly turns to leave.

"Of course. What is this meeting about, may I ask?" Leon follows after her.

"This is a follow-up meeting regarding the outbreak that's connected to the Raccoon City incident," The woman says. "We have an update on this case and need you to…" Her voice fades as she and Leon walk to the nearest meeting room.

You type into your computer, swallowing the lump in your throat. You peek from your cubicle to see Sherry greeting Leon and the woman, the meeting room door closing behind the three of them. Your smartwatch buzzes, pulling you out of your thoughts briefly to swipe away the notification.

For the rest of the day, you don't see Leon as much as you would like. Despite wanting to know what's going on, you have work that needs your attention. Besides the amount of work that requires your attention, you also have to continue training Patrick despite Zhao informing you that you don't need to train Patrick because he knows enough to work alone. For some reason, Patrick does not want to be left alone with his tasks.

Every hour or so, he approaches your cubicle about something as small as not being able to figure out the password to his computer. So, you're constantly getting up from your computer and going to his cubicle to assist him with something so minuscule, with Leon in the back of your mind. Actually, that's a lie; he's at the forefront of your brain while you're performing tasks.

As for Leon, he's in and out of meetings, stacks of files in his hands, nose stuck in said files. The crease between his eyebrows deepens the more he reads through countless files throughout the day. When he needs to take his eyes from the manila folders to rest his eyes, he looks around the office, searching for you. Every time he manages to find you in the sea of workers, you're either typing away at your cubicle or you're being dragged away from your desk by Patrick.

"Bastard's relentless." He mutters under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"He seems to take quite a liking to her, Leon. Patrick approached me this morning to ask about her whereabouts before you two arrived." Sherry mutters.

Leon scoffs, shaking his head in disbelief. "You don't say." Leon's not surprised in the slightest. Should he be?

Once lunch break rolls around, you begin to make your way towards the elevator, but Patrick blocks your way. You adjust the tote bag strap on your shoulders, shooting him a confused look.

"Do you need something, Mr. Fitzpatrick?" You ask.

Patrick adjusts his crooked glasses on his face, clearing his throat. "I was wondering if you would like to join me for lunch. I still have some questions about the telecommunications systems and how to transfer the data."

"She can help you after we return from our lunch break." Leon interrupts, standing between you and Patrick. Leon looks at you, his hand on your bicep. "Are you ready to go?"

You smile, nodding as relief washes over you. "Yes, I'm ready to go." You peek from behind Leon's massive biceps. "I'll help you and answer your burning questions after lunch, Mr. Fitzpatrick."

Leon takes your tote bag from your hands before guiding you towards the elevator; his hands are, once again, hovering behind your lower back. Patrick watches the elevator door slide closed, leaving him standing in the hallway alone.

Inside the elevator, you finally relax, all of the tension in your body leaving. You lean against the wall, sighing. "You really are a lifesaver." You chuckle, looking at Leon.

Leon loops his pinky around yours, his eyes never leaving your face. "I'll always be here for you, to protect you," Leon murmurs. "If he's making you uncomfortable, I can put a word in and have him transfer departments, if you'd like."

"As much as I like the sound of that, I can't help but doubt that HR is going to see it as an issue. They'll see it as a new employee asking a colleague for assistance when trouble arises. Plus, I'm worried that if we involve HR or any higher-ups, Patrick is going to try to flip the script, if that makes sense."

Leon nods, resting his head on the cabin's wall. When the elevator arrives at ground level, you and Leon walk towards his Porsche. Leon's debating whether he should tell you the news now, over lunch, or when you two return to the DSO building after break.

You poke Leon's arm. "What's on your mind? You seem distracted."

Leon unlocks his car and puts your tote bag on the passenger seat after opening the door for you. You continue to watch him, worry etched on your face. Leon grabs your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours. There's really no point in hiding or stalling it when it's inevitable.

"After I drop you off at your house, later today, I have to go to a site near Wrenwood Hotel for an investigation. I do not know how long I'll be gone, but just know that it shouldn't take longer than a week."

Your heart drops in your chest. Leon's going to a site near the Wrenwood Hotel? Later today? It's so soon—too soon for your (and Leon's) liking. It's another field mission for Leon; he's completed plenty of them without a hitch, and yet you're worrying.

"Hey, say something," Leon whispers, his right hand coming up to caress the side of your face.

You lean into his touch, not breaking eye contact. "Please be safe when you leave for your field mission to investigate. I can't bear the thought of you getting injured."

"I'll make sure to return to you unscathed, I promise. You have nothing to worry about." Leon lifts your hand to his lips and kisses your knuckles. "Let's get something to eat, yeah?"

You nod, earning a kiss on the forehead from Leon before getting into his car. Leon closes the passenger door once he makes sure you're fully seated and buckled before walking to the driver's side.

That was a few days ago, and you haven't heard a single peep from the DSO agent. As the mission coordinator, Sherry is cooped up elsewhere in the DSO building, helping Leon with his assignment, getting updates from him, and assisting with hacking systems as needed.

It's hard for you to stay focused on your work when Leon's at the forefront of your brain. Every now and then, you'll glance at your phone near your keyboard, hoping to get an update from Leon. Heck, the buzzing from your smartwatch makes you assume that you received a text from Leon—only for it to be a notification about you needing to get up and walk around.

Zhao approaches your cubicle and knocks on your desk to grab your attention. You pause what you're doing and get up from your seat after he gestures for you to follow him. As you tuck your phone into your pocket (after locking your computer), you see Zhao doing the same with Patrick from the corner of your eyes.

You and Patrick follow Zhao outside the office and to a meeting room next door. Zhao closes the door and gestures for both you and Patrick to sit down across from him.

"You may be wondering why I pulled you two to the side," Zhao begins, sitting across from you and Patrick. "As telecommunications specialists, you're tasked to go to remote areas around the world no matter the conditions."

You and Patrick nod. Your heart starts drumming against your ribcage, making it hard for you to breathe. Why are you nervous? This is part of the job—but you've never been on field missions before.

Zhao looks at you, "I know you're still rather new here, but you've exceeded my expectations. With your skill set, knowledge, and willingness to help colleagues, I am sending you and Patrick—along with myself and other senior technicians—to Raccoon City."

Huh.

"I'm sorry—what business do we have in Raccoon City?" Patrick asks, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm still new here, Mr. Zhao. I-I still have a lot of things to learn, still!"

"Indeed, you are. However, with the guidance of Miss. [L/N] and the senior technicians, I'm sure you will be able to quickly learn the information everyone provides."

"When do we leave?" You interrupt, wringing your hands in your lap. "To Raccoon City, I mean." You watch your smartwatch buzz and light up. Increasing heart rate.

Zhao glances at his watch. "We leave in fifteen minutes. Gather your things and meet the other senior technicians and me in the lobby." He gestures for you and Patrick to leave the meeting room.

Patrick's the first person to leave the room, muttering under his breath while running his hands through his unruly curls. You, on the other hand, slowly trail behind him, hands itching to pull your phone out to let Leon know that you're going to be heading to Raccoon City for your assignment. But at the same time, you don't want to distract him if he's in the middle of something dire.

So, you refrain from doing so before logging out of your computer and shutting it down. You grab your tote bag and tablet, walking towards the elevator to see Patrick nervously waiting for the elevator cabin to arrive.

"Can't believe they're sending us rookies to the ruins of Raccoon City," Patrick says suddenly. "It's almost like a test to see how compatible we are… as teammates for these missions."

You shrug, trying to ignore the thudding of your heartbeat. "I just hope this won't take long." You mutter, getting into the cabin when it arrives on your floor.

"Why? Don't want to be near me?" Patrick jokes, standing beside you after pressing the ground-level button.

You scoff. "Oh, please, I see you every day at the DSO building, Mr. Fitzpatrick. We work in the same department, and I have been helping you almost every hour since you arrived here."

Patrick holds his hands up in defense. "I'm just messing with you, relax a bit."

Once the elevator chimes and the door slides open, you and Patrick exit the elevator cabin and head towards the group of senior technicians. The five of you (You, Patrick, Zhao, and two other senior technicians) get into the company van that's parked in front of the building.

"Do you know how long we'll be in Raccoon City?" Patrick asks.

Javier Gomez, one of the senior technicians, starts the van and looks at Patrick from the rear view mirror. "Could take a few days, maybe even weeks—heck, maybe a few months. It all depends on how things go."

You stare out the window, watching buildings pass by as the company van drives out of the city and to the ruins of Raccoon City. You pull your phone out, tempted to message Leon, but don't want to be a distraction. You're not entirely sure how confidential this mission is, so you refrain from texting anyone about it.

- Upon arriving at the ruins of Raccoon City, Javier parks the van in front of an abandoned building. Everyone files out of the car and cautiously enters the rundown building where computers and communications systems are set up.

"There are about three communication systems set up around Raccoon City. We will split up into groups, and each group will go to their assigned locations." Zhao says, pulling out a map of the locations that are set up around the ruins.

"A group? There's an uneven number of us—three senior technicians, and two telecommunications specialists who are still relatively new to the field. Are you sure that's a smart decision, Mr. Zhao?" Patrick asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

"When setting up this team, we had a discussion beforehand. We're fairly confident in the decision we've made with this group." Javier interjects, crossing his arms over his chest. "There is nothing you need to worry about. Yes, there are zombies roaming around the ruins, but I doubt they will get to the areas that have our communication systems."

You can't help but doubt it. These zombies can and will carry weapons and charge at any living being. Plus, it's not like the telecommunications systems are out in the open, right? At least, the one in the rundown building isn't outside.

"We'll be assigning groups right now. Once the group has been established, Zhao will be driving you to your destinations. If your group happens to be here, then your group remains in this area—please, do not leave the area in which you have been assigned to until further notice—while Zhao takes the others to their designated location."

"Gomez and Smith, you're in group one. So, you will stay here while I take the next group to their destinations." Zhao says, tapping away at his tablet.

You, Patrick, and Zhao watch Javier and Elise walk to the nearby communication systems, starting their assignment. Your heart thuds against your chest as a sense of dread washes over you. You already know what's going to happen; it's painfully predictable.

"Fitzpatrick and [L/N], you will be at the third location. Remember, you are not allowed to leave the area until further notice. You're not allowed to abandon your partner, no matter the circumstances."

"You're going to be at the second location alone? With no assistance or backup in case of an emergency?" You ask, tightening your grip on the straps of your bag. "I know you're fully capable of handling these things yourself, but it doesn't seem like a good idea."

"I appreciate the concern, but there's nothing to worry about. I paired you with Fitzpatrick because he informed me that he wanted to work closely with you because he has learned a lot from the training you've provided." Zhao smiles, nodding to Patrick.

You purse your lips, nodding. "I'm honored to hear such feedback from a colleague." You lie through your teeth. Alone? With Patrick? For hours? Days? Weeks?

"Alright! Now, please make your way to the company van, and I'll drive you two to your locations." Zhao gestures for you and Patrick to exit the rundown building.

You sit in the backseat of the van while Patrick sits in the passenger side of the car. The drive to the location is filled with mostly silence on your end, but lively chatter from both Patrick and Zhao. By the time you reach your destination, it's mid-afternoon. Zhao gives you and Patrick a short tour of the site, where certain technologies are located, before handing you the walkie-talkies.

"Remember not to abandon your partner and stray from the site. If anything happens, please use your walkie-talkies to reach out to me, or Gomez and Smith." Zhao begins making his way to the van before stopping abruptly. "Oh, and before I forget, you will need this in case of an emergency."

Zhao walks to the trunk of the van, pops the trunk open, revealing an array of guns and ammo. He pulls out two large revolvers and pistols and hands them to you and Patrick, earning an eyebrow raise from Patrick.

"Doesn't she need a license to possess a gun?" Patrick asks.

Zhao raises an eyebrow at Patrick. "I would worry about the communication system over whether she has a gun license or not. And for your information, Miss. [L/N] does have a gun license. We made sure of it before sending her out for this assignment."

You make sure to pick the largest gun out of the two, putting it in your holster after loading the revolver. Zhao bids you and Patrick good luck and farewell before going to his destination, who knows where exactly.

You and Patrick retreat into the rundown building. After what Patrick said, you have nothing to say to him. You pull your tablet out and begin entering your password and pulling up the data that you've received from Gomez and Smith. Patrick stands next to you, his arms over his chest as he eyes the information that appears on the screen.

"Sorry if I offended you back there. No offense, but you don't look like the type to know how to handle a gun."

"He says as he follows up with another insult." You mutter under your breath. "We need to get this started. We have no time to waste."

You connect your tablet to the computer, checking the communication systems and making sure to download them and transfer them to the nearest tower. Most of your (and Patrick's) duty is to have whatever is in the system downloaded and sent to the next group, then that group will relay that information to (presumably) Zhao.

"How do you know how to do all of this stuff? Zhao said you're relatively new as well." Patrick comments, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"With a job like this, you're required to grasp information quickly. I'm trained on many things by many people—there's no room for mistakes, especially when things are at stake."

Patrick leans against the desk, causing it to shift backward against the wall, startling you. Patrick quickly apologizes, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. You exhale through your nose, trying to remain calm while the data is being transferred to the nearest communication tower.

The silence between you and Patrick is overwhelming and awkward. If anything, you would much rather be paired up with someone else, but of course, Patrick had to find a way to get paired up with you. But it's fine because once everything is transferred and completed, you should be able to return to the DSO building, right?

Just as the loading bar reaches 95% completed, the system completely shuts down, and the screen goes black. You bury your face in your hands, holding in the urge to scream at the top of your lungs in frustration. Of course, you can't do that because you need to be professional and know how to work under pressure and in unfortunate circumstances, and because you're in Raccoon City, the angry and frustrated scream can and will attract possible nearby zombies.

"What do we do now?" Patrick asks.

You walk to the entrance of the rundown building with your tablet in hand, grabbing the doorknob.

Patrick raises his eyebrows. "Uh, where are you going? You know, Zhao said not to leave our assigned sites until further notice."

"Well, if you want to be stuck here longer and cause delays for the others, you can do that. I don't want to waste any more time. The sooner this gets fixed, the better."

You open the door and take three steps back, hands shielding your eyes from the sun beaming down on you. On the side of the building is a semi-stable yellow ladder that leads to the rooftop where the communication tower sits. You start climbing to the top, making sure not to drop your tablet. You look down to see Patrick staring up at you while talking to someone on the walkie-talkie.

You successfully get to the top of the building and walk towards the communication tower. While you're looking around to find the source of the problem, Patrick reaches the top, adjusting the walkie-talkie hanging from his pocket.

"I talked to Zhao, Gomez, and Smith to let them know about the issue. They need the system back up and running within an hour."

Your eyes zero in on the loose cables, and you kneel to tidy them up and plug them back into the outlet. "Well, I found and fixed the issue. We should head back down and proceed where we left off." You brush past Patrick and start climbing down the ladder, tightly gripping the ladder.

When you reach the ground, you wipe your sweaty palms against your pants. You watch Patrick clumsily climb down the ladder. Once he reaches the bottom, the ladder becomes loose and falls to the ground with a loud thud.

"You have got to be kidding me." Is what you wanted to say, but before you can utter a single word, loud growls and gurgling interrupt you. You slowly turn around to see a horde of zombies stumbling their way towards you and Patrick.

"Holy shit!" Patrick screams, running back into the building without hesitation.

You follow close behind Patrick, but he slams the door in your face before you can enter the building. You reach for the doorknob to open the door, but the door's locked, and all you can do is jiggle the handles and slam your body against the door to get it to budge.

"Patrick! Let me in!"

You don't hear anything from behind the door. For all you know, he's probably barricading the door to prevent anyone from entering. That means you have no way to hide from the horde of zombies—you can't get to the rooftop because the ladder broke.

You reach for your revolver and start shooting every zombie one by one. You don't have much ammo on you, so you're basically fucked if your aim is horrendous—it sort of is, you haven't been to a shooting range in ages. You're able to shoot them in the head, some of their heads exploding, and a geyser of blood gushes from their neck.

The revolver soon becomes useless after running out of ammo—there's more ammo inside the building, but Patrick locked you out of it! You search around the building, only to find a baseball bat that's conveniently lying around near the building. You quickly run towards the baseball bat, pick it up, and start swinging the minute the zombies charge towards you.

You hear a sickening crack when the bat makes contact with one of the zombie's head, knocking it back. You continue swinging like a madwoman, making sure to dodge as much as you possibly can without getting injured or cornering yourself.

One zombie in particular lunges at you and manages to grab hold of your shoulders. He growls in your face, gnashing his teeth at you, trying to get a bite of you while digging his rotted fingers into your shoulders. You try to shove him off, but he won't budge.

You squeeze your eyes shut, screaming while repeatedly kicking and swinging the bat at the zombie's head, hitting yourself in the process. The sound of gunfire rings, and one by one, the zombies around you drop to the ground. The head of the zombie—that's latching onto you—explodes, spraying blood in your face. You scream in shock, watching the body collapse to the side.

You wipe your face with shaky hands and look up to see Leon standing there. You drop the baseball bat, not taking your eyes off of Leon. Leon surveys his surroundings before making his way to you, putting his gun in the holster.

"Leon…" You whisper.

Now standing in front of you, Leon cups your face, searching you from head to toe for any injuries while wiping away blood from your face. "Are you alright? You're not injured, are you?"

You shake your head. "No, no, I'm okay, thanks to you." You whisper.

Leon doesn't take his eyes away from your face; the longer he stares at you, the more you feel heat rushing to your face. You purse your lips and look down, shielding your face with your hand. Leon smiles, holding back a laugh as one hand slides down to your waist.

"I'm just making sure you're not injured." Leon murmurs, grabbing your chin and tilting your head up. "Can't help but be captivated by you."

You try to hold back a smile, taking a step forward to wrap your arms around his waist. "I haven't heard from you in days, and now that I see you, the first thing you do—after saving me—is to make my heart flutter?" You mutter, reaching up to pinch his cheek lightly.

"Of course! I was dying to see you after being gone for days." Leon smiles.

You stare at him, eyebrows furrowing. "I'll let it pass this time." You bury your face into his chest, sighing with happiness and contentment. "I wanted to text you, but I've been refraining."

"Ah, so that's your reason. I've been checking my phone throughout the day to see if I received any messages from you." Leon confesses, tightening his grip around your waist. "Had me worried."

You pucker your lips before replying, "I didn't want to be a distraction and be the reason why you get hurt."

Leon kisses the top of your head. "You could never be a distraction."

You close your eyes and feel the tension finally leaving your body. You tighten your grip on Leon's tight-fitted shirt, not wanting this moment to end. But the more time ticks by, the more you realize you're wasting time, and everyone is waiting for data to be transferred to other communication towers.

"Fuck." You grumble.

Leon peeks down at you. "What's wrong?"

You point at the locked door behind you, slowly approaching the door after reluctantly pulling away from Leon's arms. "I completely forgot about my job as a telecommunications specialist. But of course, I can't do that because I'm locked out."

"What do you mean you're locked out?" Leon raises his eyebrows at you.

You press your lips into a thin line. "Patrick slammed the door in my face and locked it after the zombies emerged from the shadows. I could temporarily hide on the rooftop, but he broke the ladder—which caused commotion and attracted the zombies to our assigned base."

Leon runs his hands through his hair, shaking his head. Of fucking course they paired you up with someone incompetent like Patrick Fitzpatrick. Dumb ass name, too. Leon approaches the door and jiggles the handle, but it doesn't budge. Leon presses his ears against the door to listen, but hears nothing—not even a pathetic whimper. Leon reaches for his hatchet and gestures for you to step back.

You watch Leon jam his hatchet into the slit of the door and see his biceps flex as he attempts to force the door open. You bite your bottom lip; his grunts and biceps are certainly doing something to you. Leon nudges the door with his shoulders, popping it right open.

Leon enters the rundown building, eyes scanning the inside to see Patrick huddling in the corner, his back facing Leon's direction. Leon rolls his eyes before turning to you. You take that as a sign to walk in, but before you do, you stand on the tip of your toes and kiss his cheek as a thank you.

"Thanks for locking me out and making me fend for myself, Fitzpatrick. If it weren't for Leon, I would've been zombie meal the moment I ran out of ammo for my revolver." You cross your arms over your chest.

The sound of your voice startles Patrick, making him dart up from his spot and turn to face you and Leon. His expression drops when he and Leon lock eyes. Leon's full-on glaring at Patrick, not even hiding it anymore.

Patrick points at Leon. "What's he doing here?"

Leon ignores Patrick. "You deliberately locked her out of this building, forcing her to fend for herself against a horde of zombies. If I didn't make it on time, she would've been dead."

"What?! No! I-I didn't do it on purpose! My fight or flight was triggered, a-and I ran for my life!"

"You ran for your life and put her life in danger. That's what you did."

You walk to the computer and plug in your tablet. You rub your temples, sighing when you realize you need to redo everything before the system unexpectedly shuts down. While you're occupied with having to redo the work yourself, Leon picks up the walkie-talkie from the ground and starts speaking into it.

"Mr. Kennedy? What a surprise! If you don't mind my asking, why are you at Fitzpatrick and [L/N]'s assigned location?"

Leon clears his throat. "Zhao, is it possible for you to take Fitzpatrick to your base? He's not providing the assistance he should be, and he endangered his partner's life by shutting and locking her out of the building while a horde of zombies were charging at them."

The line on Zhao's end goes silent for a moment. "Yes, we can do that, but we cannot let her be alone; she needs a partner."

"It's alright, I'll keep her company until everything is completed. I've learned a few things from her, so I can provide some assistance if needed. I can certainly provide protection."

Your head shoots up. "Wait, but aren't you still on a mission, Leon?"

"Alright! I will be there in about ten minutes to get Fitzpatrick."

Leon places the walkie-talkie on the desk near you, standing close while keeping an eye on Patrick. The entire time, no one says a thing. The silence is filled with the sounds of keyboards clacking as you're rapidly typing away and transferring information to the system.

"I really am sorry for inflicting harm upon you. I didn't mean it, please believe me." Patrick pleads.

Leon steps between you and Patrick, nostrils flaring. "You've done enough damage, Fitzpatrick."

The entire time, while everyone is waiting for Zhao to arrive, Leon makes sure to stand behind you to shield you from Patrick's view. No matter how much Patrick tries to talk to you or even get a glimpse of you, Leon's broad frame will obstruct the view. Leon's facing to the side just to be able to get a good view of both you and Patrick from the corner of his eyes, making sure Patrick's not distracting you.

Soon enough, everyone hears the company van pull up and park outside the rundown building. The door opens, and Zhao enters your assigned base, now staring at the three of you, and can sense the tension in the room.

"We'll debrief once we return to the DSO building. Mr. Fitzpatrick, please come with me." Zhao instructs.

Patrick reluctantly walks to Zhao, unsure of what to expect once both of them enter the company van. Leon briefly thanks Zhao before closing the door behind Zhao and Patrick. Leon sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose before walking to where you're at.

He kneels beside you, rubbing your back. "How're you feeling? Still shaken up about earlier?"

"I'm okay, Leon. I'm just happy to see you, that's all," You smile at Leon, lacing your fingers with his. "And I'm incredibly thankful that you showed up on time before a zombie mauled my face."

"I'm never letting anything harm you." Leon kisses the side of your head, resting his chin on your shoulder as he stares at the screen in front of you two.

You purse your lips, debating if you should do it or not. Your smartwatch lights up as you gather the courage to kiss Leon's forehead and rest your cheek on top of his head after. You didn't see it, but you certainly feel Leon try to peek at you despite your cheek resting on top of his. If only this moment could last forever; a world with just you and Leon is something you can only dream of.

About a week goes by, and you're back at the DSO building at your cubicle, typing up your report regarding your first field mission in the ruins of Raccoon City. Before your departure from the ruins, you and Leon had to part ways. He still had things to deal with and needed to save an FBI agent named Grace Ashcroft. He didn't give you the entire detail, but a summary of what he was up to.

As much as you didn't want to part ways with Leon, you reluctantly got into the DSO van and returned to the building while Leon watched the van get further and further until the van disappeared from his sight. After returning to the DSO building, you made sure to let Leon know that you made it back safely and bid him good luck on his mission.

His response? A thumbs up with a cute smiley face. Granted, he was busy saving the future of humanity and killing zombies, so you shouldn't be surprised by his response. In fact, it brought a smile to your face.

The sound of distant arguing pulls you from your daydream. You turn around to see Patrick and Zhao arguing—well, Patrick's the one who's arguing while Zhao's checking the time on his watch. You turn back to your monitor and make sure to save your file.

"Hey! I heard what happened in Raccoon City," Sherry says, leaning against your desk. "What Patrick did back there was a jerk move. I'm so glad that you're safe and you're able to fend for yourself long enough before Leon arrived."

"I'm glad as well. That was the scariest moment of my life, and I thought I was done for." You tap your fingers on your lap. "How's Leon? Is he okay?"

Sherry smiles. "He's fine, the mission was a success, and he should be back today."

You sigh in relief. "That's a relief."

Sherry smiles, squeezes your shoulder, and bids you farewell as she makes her way back to her desk. By the time lunch break rolls around, you lock your computer, tuck your tablet in your tote bag, and make your way to the elevator. Again, you haven't heard anything from Leon, and it's making you a bit nervous. Yes, he's fine and should be back, but when exactly?

The elevator chimes, and you find yourself in the lobby of the DSO building. You leave the elevator and head towards the parking lot where your car is waiting. You wave to your colleagues as you're exiting, hands digging in your pocket as you try to take out your phone after you feel the vibration. You stop at the entrance of the building, struggling to pull your phone out.

"Need a hand?"

You look up to see Leon standing there, his hands propping on his hips. You quickly look around to make sure there's no one around before dropping your things to the ground. You run towards Leon, lunging towards him. You wrap your arms around his shoulders and your legs around his waist.

"You're back! You have no idea how much I missed you." You say, burying your face into his chest.

Leon tightens his grip around your waist, a wide smile spreading across his face. "I miss you, too, darling. Mission's a success, and I won't be returning to field missions until further notice." Leon walks to where you drop your tote bag and picks it up with one hand while holding you with the other.

"You didn't text me after your mission wrapped up!" Your voice is muffled against his chest. "I was checking my phone constantly."

"To be fair, I did text you today while you were heading out," Leon says, walking to his Porsche with you clinging to him. He opens the passenger door and puts your tote bag in front of the seat.

Leon pins you against his car, leans down to help you unlatch yourself from him. You fix your clothes and look up at Leon, cupping his face in your hands while his hands rest on your waist. Leon's stubble underneath your palms feels both ticklish and soothing.

You're so mesmerized by Leon. He's so handsome and breathtaking. Leon leans down, pressing his forehead against yours. Your heart skips a beat. He wraps his entire arms around your waist, pulling you to his chest until there's no space between you two. Leon nuzzles the tip of his nose against yours, earning a small giggle from you.

Leon caresses your face in his hands before leaning down, pressing his lips against yours. Your hands slide to his shoulders, pulling him in closer as he deepens the kiss. You pull away from the kiss to get some air, but Leon pulls you back in.

"I can't get enough of you," Leon mumbles into the kiss. Leon briefly breaks the kiss, his lips trailing down to your jaw and neck, sending shivers down your spine. Leon kisses your lips once more before peppering your face with kisses. "Let's get something to eat, yeah?"

You nod, breathless from the kiss. Leon kisses the crown of your head before letting you get into the passenger seat. Leon closes the door and walks around the Porsche to get to the driver's side. You buckle your seatbelt as he gets into the car and closes the door.

The Porsche purrs to life as he buckles his seatbelt. Leon reaches over and grabs your hand, interlocking his fingers with yours before pulling out of the parking lot of the DSO building. You snuggle against Leon's arms, thinking about the kiss from earlier.

Your smartwatch buzzes, grabbing Leon's attention, but he doesn't look away from the road. Leon doesn't need to look to see that you received a notification about your increasing heart rate. Instead, he squeezes your hand, smiling widely with pride. You have the same effect on him; the only difference is that he's not wearing a smartwatch that announces his business to the world.

Recently, the Hunters Association has hired twenty new employees, and one of them happens to be one of your biggest fans. You didn't know that you had a fan, but a woman around your age named Rika approached you one day at the Association with stars in her eyes while you were with Tara and Xavier. She stopped the three of you in the middle of the hallway, her hands clasped in front of her chest as she rambled on about how much she admired you after introducing herself.

"You're one of the best hunters in the Hunters Association! I-I look up to you!" She says, tucking her hair behind her ears shyly.

Tara smiles. "Aw! That's so sweet! [Y/N], looks like you have a fan." Tara teases, nudging you lightly.

"I look forward to working alongside you on the field as your partner one day!" Rika says, bowing to you.

You smile at Rika, heat rushing to your cheeks as many Hunters passing by look at your group curiously, whispering among themselves. Before you can say anything, Andrew calls out to Rika, gesturing for her to follow him. Rika quickly apologizes before running off to where Andrew is waiting for her.

Xavier smiles. "Rika seems nice and very eager to work alongside you."

Even though it's sweet that Rika looks forward to working alongside you in the future, you find out that she's in another department for the Hunters Association. Instead of being part of the Alpha Team like you, Xavier, and Captain Jenna, Rika is working in the Data Analysis department of the Hunters Association. You're not entirely sure how long Rika has been hired under the Association, but you're assuming not long because she assumed you two would be working together on field missions.

"Hey, [Y/N]! Andrew wanted me to give you these documents to skim over." Rika approaches your table, putting a large stack of manila folders on your desk.

Your eyes widen. "What do these documents contain?" You ask, grabbing the top file from the stack and open them, only to see that there's nothing in the folders.

Rika shrugs, pulling up a chair beside you. "I'm not entirely sure. He said you should know what the documents are about."

You shake your head, grab a folder from the middle, and pull it out from the stack. For once, you sigh in relief when you see three documents that need to be reviewed and signed for the Data Analysis department. You try to read the document in your hands, but the feeling of Rika staring holes into the side of your head is making it hard for you to focus.

You look at Rika, smiling at her. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Rika blinks owlishly. "Oh, I thought I was going to sit here and wait for you to fill out the documents before returning them to Andrew," Rika replies.

You shake your head. "You don't need to wait for me, Rika. I'll have the documents signed and returned to Andrew by the end of the day. Besides, I don't want you to get in trouble if you're here with me for too long."

"Oh, you're right! I-I'll be back by the end of the day to collect the documents!" Rika says, getting up from the seat and pushing it back to where she took the chair from.

You open your mouth to protest, but Rika is already gone. You chuckle, shaking your head in disbelief, and continue where you left off. At first, you didn't mind having someone like Rika around you. She's sweet and friendly, and you love giving her advice when she needs it. You don't see her outside of the Hunters Association as you do with Xavier and Tara—actually, you don't even remember if you've ever run into her outside of work.

You're walking around Azure Square, sipping on your milk tea with your arm linked around Valko's arm while Sylus's arm is thrown over your shoulders. You mindlessly scroll through your phone, trying to look for the address of this new boba shop Tara texted you about.

"Are you sure it's in Azure Square, pipsqueak?" Caleb asks, eyes scanning the area.

You nod. "Yeah! Tara said it's a new shop that's opening in Azure Square, and today should be the grand opening. She even sent me the address, but we've been sending memes to each other all day that the address is buried somewhere."

You continue scrolling through the messages between you and Tara, unaware of someone approaching you at full speed. The rapid footsteps come to an abrupt stop when Rafayel steps in front of you, forcing the person to come to a complete stop. Rafayel looks down at the flustered brunette, his arms over his chest as he scrutinizes her.

Rafayel clears his throat. "Is there something you need, Miss?" Rafayel asks, raising an eyebrow at the woman in front of him.

"Rika, it's nice to see you," Xavier says, now standing beside Rafayel with a warm smile. "What brings you to Azure Square?"

Rika peeks between Rafayel and Xavier, trying to make eye contact with you, but you're so engrossed by your phone that you fail to notice Rika's failed attempt of trying to talk to you.

Rafayel turns to Xavier, looking at him, confused. "You know this lady?"

Xavier nods. "Rika is a fellow hunter at the Association. She's also a huge fan of [Y/N]." Xavier murmurs the last part to Rafayel.

Rika walks around Xavier and Rafayel with a fake smile. You finally look up from your phone and make eye contact with Rika. You smile at her and wave at her as she approaches you, Valko, and Sylus.

"It's good to see you, Rika! What are you doing here?" You ask, fixing the purse strap on your shoulders.

Rika shrugs. "Oh, I was just walking around looking for this boba shop that Tara mentioned to me a few days ago."

"Do you know the name of the shop? I don't remember it, and I can't find it anywhere in my and Tara's conversation." You sigh, tucking your phone into your pocket before finishing up your milk tea. "I could've sworn that she texted me the address."

"I can text you the address! Here, give me your number, and I'll text it to you when you're done." Rika says, handing her phone over to you with a wide smile.

Zayne and Caleb look at each other; one raises their eyebrows, while the other crosses their arms over their chest. Sylus chuckles, shaking his head as you take Rika's phone from her hands and start typing your number into her contacts list. Valko, on the other hand, purses his lips together.

"Aren't you going to the boba shop yourself? Why not show us the way instead of texting the address?" Zayne asks, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Rika hums, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. "I was going to go to the shop, but I also need to meet up with my stepsister at Meow's Cafe."

You return Rika's phone to her, and she starts typing away on her phone. Your phone chimes, and you fish your phone from your purse while Valko takes the empty cup from your hands and tosses it into the trash can. You look up to thank Rika, only to see her retreating figure.

"She's a bit strange," Sylus mutters, adjusting his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. "Are you two close by chance?"

You shake your head. "Not really. We're coworkers, but I don't see her around as much since we work in different departments at the Hunters Association."

You click on the address Rika sent to you, and it opens up the map. Thankfully, you're not too far from where the new boba shop is located. It's only on the second floor. You redirect everyone and walk to the escalator, eyes glued to your phone to make sure you're not going in the wrong direction.

"This Rika girl seems nice. A bit awkward, but nice nonetheless." Valko comments, gently squeezing your hand. "The way she acts around you reminds me of how people try to get a glimpse of their favorite celebrity."

You rub the back of your neck, tucking your phone into your purse after closing out the app. "I wouldn't say that…"

Later that evening, you're lying on your bed getting ready to go to sleep when your phone chimes. At first, you're assuming it's a good night text message from Sylus, Xavier, Rafayel, Valko, Zayne, and Caleb, but you were wrong. It's from an unknown number, the same number that texted you the address to the newest boba shop.

"It was good seeing you today, [Y/N]! I hope we get to hang out together soon! Oh, by the way, this is Rika!"

You send a quick text to Rika, thanking her for the address, agreeing to hang out with her sometime in the future before bidding her goodnight. You put your phone on mute and turn off the bedside lamp. When Rika said that she's a fan of yours, you didn't think much of it. In fact, you find it sweet that she wanted to do well in being a Hunter and maybe switch from Data Analysis to being on the Alpha team with you, Xavier, and Captain Jenna.

Whenever you arrive at the Hunters Association, Rika is the first person to greet you with a warm cup of coffee before whisking you away from Xavier and Tara. Rika has her arm linked with yours as both of you walk to clock in for the day. Tara shakes her head with a chuckle while Xavier's visibly pouts that someone just snatched you away from him.

"Oh, relax, Xavier! Rika's been looking forward to hanging out and talking to [Y/N] since meeting her! Cut the girl some slack." Tara chuckles, patting Xavier's back.

Xavier looks away, eyebrows furrowing. "Who says I'm upset? I just didn't expect my partner to be snatched away from me the moment we stepped into the Hunters Association."

Just when Xavier thought that Rika snatching you away from him before clocking in was bad enough, Rika intercepted him during lunch break and whisked you away from him. But of course, Xavier doesn't let Rika get away that easily because he decides to follow you and Rika. Rika leads you to a small corner of the cafeteria, plopping her lunch bag on the table and gesturing for you to sit down.

"I have so much to ask you about your field missions!" Rika starts, bouncing in her seat as she takes her lunch out of her bag.

"Well, ask away! I'm more than happy to answer your burning questions, Rika." You reply, unzipping your lunch bag.

Rika opens her mouth to begin, but quickly closes her mouth when Xavier sits down beside you. You and Xavier smile at each other. You turn to Rika, only to see her frowning.

You tilt your head, "Rika? Are you alright?"

Rika smiles. "Yeah! Everything is fine, I wasn't expecting anyone else to join the two of us."

Xavier chuckles, gently nudging you. "Well, [Y/N] and I usually have lunch together with Tara, Nero, Andrew, and Simone. In fact, they're heading over here right now." Xavier gestures to the group of four approaching the table.

Rika turns around and sees the quartet walking to the table with food trays in their hands. You smile and wave them over, making room on the table for Tara, Simone, Nero, and Andrew. Rika sighs, shoving a spoonful of rice into her mouth as you and Xavier greet the quartet. The impromptu interview Rika planned to give you is thrown out the window the minute uninvited guests join the two of you for lunch. In fact, Rika is glued to her phone the entire time while you're conversing with those around the table.

After lunch ended, everyone returned to their designated area of the Hunters Association. Before you clock in, you quickly pull Rika to the side to apologize to her about what happened in the cafeteria. Rika brushes off your apology with a smile, telling you there's nothing to apologize for and that she hopes she can hang out with you outside of the Hunters Association more. You agree to her suggestion and tell her that you're free this weekend. Her eyes practically light up, nodding eagerly before skipping away happily.

Since that day, you have been hanging around Rika more often. You've been training her on the side as well, mainly because she asked you if it was okay and she wanted to try to switch departments. Of course, you reminded her that she can still be a field agent while simultaneously working as a Data Analyst, like Tara! But your answer didn't make her happy.

"There's nothing wrong with being a data analyst, but I want to be part of Alpha Team with you!" Rika says, sipping on her boba. "And Xavier and Captain Jenna, of course."

You hum, tilting your head. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to be a part of Alpha Team so bad? You have to be highly skilled to be part of the Alpha Team because we take on difficult missions."

Rika sighs, not saying anything for a moment. You two sit in silence, watching people walk by. Eventually, Rika tells you why she wants to be part of Alpha Team. You know that Rika looks up to you and that she wants to go on missions with you in the future, but her answer is something you didn't expect.

Rika places her cup on her lap. "I want to be like you. I want to be on Alpha Team and be the best hunter in the Association! Everyone knows who you and Xavier are, and they admire you two! I want people to do the same with me one day."

"That's really sweet of you, Rika, really. I'm sure you will become a part of the Alpha Team in the future. I'm rooting for you, and I know you will be able to achieve your goals one day." You smile at her.

You didn't think too much into it every time Rika (or other people) brings up how she looks up to you. Why should you ruminate on the thought of a new hunter wanting to rank up and be a part of the Alpha Team? Many hunters from all departments want to be part of the Alpha Team, so it's not unusual for fellow hunters to approach you and Xavier for advice on how to be recruited to the Alpha Team.

"She has a secret admirer at the Hunters Association," Xavier says, putting down two bowls of stewed meat in the middle of the dining table.

Rafayel snorts, grabbing his chopsticks to grab two stewed meats from the bowl. "Is it really called a secret admirer if we all know who it is?" Rafayel asks, breaking the meat in half and taking a bite of it with steaming rice. "Ah! Hot, hot, hot."

"She's been hanging around with that Rika girl often, hasn't she? She was supposed to join us for dinner, but she's late." Sylus comments, looking over at the clock on the wall.

Valko looks at Xavier, sipping on his Awoo Milk. "I'm sure she'll be home soon. Plus, Caleb isn't done cooking dinner just yet, so she has time to get home before everything is done." Valko comments, crushing the empty milk carton and tossing it into the trash can from his seat.

Valko's ears twitch when he hears jingling from the doorway. He gets up from his seat, walking to the front door of your apartment. Before the door can be unlocked from the other side, Valko unlocks the door himself and opens it. Your eyes widen when you see him, pressing your hand against your chest.

"Valko, hi!" You smile at him.

Valko flashes you a huge grin, pulling you into his arms and hugging you tightly after closing the door. "I missed you! Oh, it's so good to see you." Valko murmurs, nuzzling his chin on your head.

You wrap your arms around his waist, toeing your shoes off and kicking them to the side where your shoe rack is. "It's good to see you too, Valko. You're much clingier today." You joke, reaching up to scratch his ears, earning a deep rumble from his chest as he nuzzles his head into your hand.

As if on cue, everyone drops what they're doing and crowds around you and Valko, each of them demanding a hug and your attention. You let them pass you around to greet them with a hug, feeling yourself relax in their presence after an extremely long day.

"You made it home on time, pipsqueak. Why don't you go freshen up, and by the time you're done, dinner should be officially ready." Caleb says, patting your head.

"I also ordered you some milk tea. It's waiting for you in the fridge." Zayne comments, kissing the top of your head.

You sigh in relief, smiling at them. "You guys are the best. Have I told you guys how much I love you all?" You smile, putting your purse on the kitchen counter.

"You tell us that every day, but that doesn't mean you should stop now." Rafayel lightly pokes you.

You lightly swat his hands away from you, smiling at Rafayel before excusing yourself to go to the bathroom to take a shower. After you disappear to your bedroom, everyone waits for the sound of water running to continue where they all left off before you arrived. Zayne walks to the shoe rack and puts your boots at the top.

"She looks worn out today, doesn't she?" Rafayel mutters. "Not that it's a bad thing! [Y/N] always looks good, but she looks visibly exhausted." Rafayel frowns.

Xavier pinches the bridge of his nose. "She's probably exhausted from training Rika."

"Training Rika? I thought it was a little hangout at the mall with a friend, not some training session between mentor and mentee." Valko goes to your fridge to grab another carton of Awoo Milk. "Wait a minute, this isn't how they typically hang out, is it? If so, that would be a bit strange."

"I doubt it. I believe the whole training session started not long ago. I know because I track her locations at all times." Caleb comments.

Zayne raises an eyebrow at Caleb's comment. "You track her locations?"

"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Caleb crosses his arms over his chest. "I can't be the only one who's protective over her."

No one says a thing—they don't want to admit that they all do keep track of your location. It's not like they don't trust you or have trust issues. You're a hunter, and you have an aether core in your heart—which puts a target on your back. People from unknown and dangerous organizations are constantly after you, so can you really blame them for tracking your location?

Fifteen minutes go by, and you finally emerge from your bedroom, fresh out of the shower and in pajamas with your towel wrapped around your head. You would dry your hair right now, but you're so hungry. Your hair can wait; it's not like you're going anywhere tomorrow. You sit between Caleb and Zayne, grabbing a bowl to fill with rice and stewed meat. You start digging in by shoveling a ton of meat and rice into your mouth. How long has it been since you've had lunch?

"Don't eat too fast, you're going to choke." Zayne gently scolds you.

You apologize, covering your mouth as you chew on your food and slowly swallow each bite. Sylus chuckles, reaching across the table to wipe the corner of your lips. Valko hands you your milk tea from the fridge, putting it in front of you. Your eyes light up, and you thank him, reaching for the milk tea to mix it. You sip on your milk tea, swinging your feet underneath the table with delight when the sweet drink hits your tongue.

"So, what did you and Rika do today?" Caleb asks, taking a bite of his egg fried rice. "You're out much longer and later than we anticipated."

You gulp your milk tea, putting the cup on the table and splitting the hard-boiled egg on your rice. "I stayed back at the Hunters Association with Rika today. We trained—well, I trained her. It went on way longer than I would like for it to, but Rika's happy, so I guess that's all that matters."

"Huh, so Xavier was telling the truth," Rafayel mutters, ignoring the look Xavier shoots in his direction. "That explains why you look like you're about to pass out at any moment when you finally got home." Rafayel comments.

You nod, chowing down your food. In between dinner, you tell them what you and Rika did. This hang out between you two was supposed to be like any hang out—go to Azure Square, shop around, and people watch! But that plan was changed last minute when Rika received her weekly report on her progress as a Hunter, and she was not happy at all. She ranked quite low for someone in the Hunters Association and begged you to train her until you gave in.

"How low did she rank?" Zayne mutters.

You sigh, debating if you should tell them. It's not like they'll mention it to Rika if they run into her, right? You poke the inside of your cheek, grabbing your napkin to wipe your lips.

Xavier leans on the table, eyebrows furrowing. "It can't be that bad, right? How else would she make it into the Association if she ranked that low?"

You lean your head back on your seat, the towel around your head toppling over. Caleb removes the towel from your head, draping it over your seat with a chuckle. Silence hangs in the air as they all wait for you to answer. The sound of chopsticks and spoons clinking against porcelain plates and bowls fills the silent air.

You let out a sharp sigh. "If she doesn't improve within three months, I don't think she will be able to switch to the Alpha Team or work at the Association longer than six months. We're already dealing with difficult missions, and if we have, no offense, someone like Rika on our team, it'll add to the workload and make things even more complicated."

"Wait, she wants to be on the Alpha Team within a year? Is that even possible?" Valko raises his eyebrows.

You shrug. "With some dedication, I would say yes. But Rika…" You trail off, sighing. What are you going to do with Rika? It's not like you can trade spots with Rika and rank up for her. "I don't even know anymore. It's sweet that she looks up to me and wants to be a part of the Alpha Team with Xavier and me, but I don't think she can rank up by the end of the year."

Sylus hums, sipping his wine. "You're doing all of this because someone told you they look up to you? Sweetie, it's not your duty to help someone just because you're their idol."

"I know, Sylus, but—"

"You're not obligated to train and help someone rank up, especially if they're a lost cause like Rika. It's sweet that you want to help her, and you're doing everything to help her succeed as a hunter, but if she's scoring incredibly low as a Hunter already, then it's very likely that she's on the wrong career path."

You hug your knees to your chest, resting your chin on your knees as you mull over Sylus's explanation. When Rika first approached you, she was full of excitement and joy. But when she approached you earlier today about her weekly progress, she was in tears and couldn't get a single word out. Even though it's not your fault, you can't help but feel like you're partially responsible for it.

"Yeah, what Sylus said! It's a miracle that she even made it into the Hunters Association in the first place!" Rafayel interjects, shoving a spoonful of rice into his mouth. "It's a skill issue on her part, let's be honest," Rafayel says with his mouth full of rice.

"I still can't help but feel partly responsible for all of this." You mumble.

"[Y/N]…" Caleb says, disappointment evident on his face.

You cover your face. "I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I can't help it!" You whine, wanting to evaporate on the spot.

Xavier leaves his spot and walks to where you're sitting. He pulls out your chair and wraps his arms around your shoulder, pulling you towards his stomach. You huff, hugging Xavier while he gently pats your head. Dinner ends up being quiet, with mostly the boys talking and you spacing out. Valko and Rafayel try to distract you from your inner turmoil.

"Maybe petting my tail will make you feel better. Unless you prefer to pet my ears?" Valko says, scooping you up into his arms after dinner, walking to your couch, and collapsing on it.

You contemplate for a minute, staring at Valko's wagging tail and wiggling ears. You reach up to his ears, gently petting the back of them. Valko's tail starts thumping against the couch as he leans into your touch, almost lying on top of you at this point. You giggle, falling over now that Valko has put his entire weight on you. He has his arms wrapped around your waist, chin resting on your chest as you're petting and massaging his ears.

"How come he gets to snuggle her now, and we have to wait for our turn?" Rafayel mutters, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout.

Valko's watching the creases between your eyebrows smooth over as you continue to pet his ears. His tail is full on wagging, eagerly snuggling against you to receive your full attention. You can't help but laugh at how adorable Valko is. Valko practically cages you against the couch, now lying on top of you, crushing you with his weight.

Xavier's about to protest, but Sylus holds him back, shaking his head. "This is the first time we've seen her laugh and smile since she returned home from her training session with Rika. As much as I hate to say it, let them have their moment." Sylus mutters to the mildly miffed Prince.

While you're occupied with petting Valko's ears and being smothered by the muscular werewolf, your phone buzzes on the countertop, alerting the other five men. They all gather around your phone, peeking at who's calling you at around this hour. Despite running into her once, everyone sighs and pinches the bridge of their nose at the sight of the caller ID. It's no surprise that the caller is Rika.

Rika's call ends up going to voicemail. Everyone blinks, and your phone lights up again with the same caller ID. How many times has she called you before Zayne, Rafayel, Sylus, Caleb, and Xavier heard the buzzing? Again, the call goes to voicemail after twenty-five seconds, and the screen goes black. Your phone buzzes, but not from a phone call, but from a text message.

"Hey, [Y/N]! Want to help me train tomorrow?"

"[Y/N]? Are you there? You usually never ignore my texts unless you're extremely busy, but it's late now, so idk why you're ignoring my text messages?"

"Hey, partner! I called you, like, fifteen times already. Can you at least call me back when you can?"

Xavier pokes the text messages, and a ton of messages pop up beneath the most recent message. Xavier collapses the notifications and sees a notification of 9+ calls from Rika. Rafayel snatches your phone from the countertop and turns on do not disturb mode, silencing any incoming calls or texts from Rika. That should do it, right?

Rafayel plops your phone back on the counter, letting out an exasperated sigh. "At this point, I don't blame [Y/N] if she muted the calls and texts from Rika specifically," Rafayel mutters.

A few days go by, and you're able to enjoy your time with the men you hold near and dear to your heart without any interruptions or distractions. When Rafayel put your phone on do not disturb mode, he later advised you to put Rika's text messages and phone calls on mute for your peace of mind. You were on the fence about it at first, but after taking some time to think about it, you eventually agreed and put all of Rika's texts and calls on mute after replying to a few of her messages.

"It's not your job to protect people's feelings, you know. Rika's been putting a lot of stress on you, and it's best for you to minimize contact with her." Caleb reassured you one day.

"Don't feel bad for putting yourself first. You've been prioritizing Rika's feelings over yours, and it's taking a huge toll on you." Zayne murmurs.

Now you're at Twinkle Toys playing claw machines with the six men, your phone tucked away in Zayne's pocket to prevent you from checking your phone and feeling guilty over not texting and calling Rika back. While you're cheering for Caleb and Sylus on the claw machines, something in the distance catches your attention. You pause and peek from behind the claw machine, only to see someone with a hairstyle similar to yours. Heck, not only that, but they're wearing the exact style of clothing you would wear.

"What the?" You blurt out, catching the others' attention.

Sylus and Caleb stop what they're doing, trying to get a glimpse of what you're staring at. Sylus laughs in disbelief, crossing his arms over his chest while Caleb frowns, glaring at the person who looks eerily similar to you from afar.

"Oh, would you look at that. It looks like we have a copycat in our hands," Sylus mutters, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue.

Xavier strokes his chin. "Is this what Rika meant when she said she wanted to be like you when we first met her? She wanted to be you the entire time."

Without a second thought, you gather everyone far away from where Rika is standing, panic coursing through your veins. This has to be a funny coincidence, right? There's no way Rika is trying to be you! What Xavier said has to be an exaggeration. As much as you're trying to reassure yourself that it's a weird coincidence, you feel your sanity start slipping away rapidly.

"Is she okay?" Rafayel panics, trying to get your attention, but you keep glancing over where Rika was standing before walking off.

"Snap out of it," Sylus says, snapping his fingers in front of your face.

You squeeze your eyes shut, taking deep breaths. Just when you thought someone genuinely looked up to you as a role model, only to find out that they're trying to be you, not like you. Your heart thuds painfully against your chest, forcing you to take deep breaths. Zayne guides you to a chair in Twinkle Toys, kneeling before you with his hands covering yours.

"You're alright, just take a deep breath," Zayne reassures you, gently squeezing your hands.

Caleb hands you a bottle of water, gently rubbing your back as you chug the water. How can you not freak out about someone wanting to become you? Everything leading up to this moment makes you wonder if this was Rika's plan the entire time. Getting hired at the Hunters Association, running into you at the Association, befriending you, having you train her to help her rank up and transfer to the Alpha Team, etc.?

Children and teens run past your little group, screaming and laughing as they carry their plushies around Twinkle Toys. You lean forward, resting your head on Zayne's shoulders. The more you think about it, the more exhausted you become.

"Wanna go home, pipsqueak?" Caleb asks, rubbing your back.

You peek from Zayne's shoulders, sighing. "I do, but I also hate going home without getting any plushies…" You trail off, looking around at the claw machines that are filled with brand new plushies and trinkets.

"We can stay a little longer, and when we win a plushie or two, we can leave after! How does that sound?" Valko asks, gently caressing your head.

You immediately agree to Valko's suggestion. Xavier, Rafayel, and Valko are stationed at different claw machines to win you different types of plushies, while Sylus, Caleb, and Zayne are by your side, keeping you company. The once empty spot in your arms gradually becomes occupied by plushies. Rafayel is very stubborn, so every time he loses a plushie, that fuels the competitive side of him.

"You're going to spend the rest of your coins on this specific claw machine?" Valko mutters, peeking over at the dwindling coins.

Rafayel huffs, keeping his eyes on the claw machine in front of him. "Of course not! I'm just making sure I get this plushie in every color for [Y/N], then after that, I'll switch to another claw machine and repeat the process!" Rafayel replies.

You clear your throat, walking up to Rafayel with loads of plushies in your arms. "You don't need to get me one in every color, Rafayel. One is enough." You say.

But of course, Rafayel doesn't listen to you, not when it comes to claw machines because he needs to get you every single plushie. What kind of not-boyfriend would he be if he didn't get you everything!? To add fuel to the fire, Valko and Xavier are doing the same thing as he is, and it's not helping Rafayel in the slightest. The sight of your sparkling eyes every time a new plushie is added to the pile in your arms, it makes it harder for Rafayel, Valko, and Xavier to stop what they're doing.

By the time the trio chooses to end their silent competition, you're swimming in plushies. It got to the point where Caleb had to find a bag for you to keep all of the plushies in because you keep dropping them, and it's a lot for you to hold! You could have Zayne, Caleb, and Sylus hold the plushies, but you wanted to hold the plushies until you didn't have any more space for the new additions.

"How are you feeling? I hope these plushies cheered you up." Xavier says, wrapping his arms over your shoulder, guiding you out of Twinkle Toys.

You smile, leaning against him. "I feel a teeny bit better, all thanks to you guys." You reach up and pat Xavier's head.

After leaving Twinkle Toys, everyone is determined to keep you distracted and not let your mind wander back to the fact that Rika is trying to become you. The rest of the day consists of your bedroom being redecorated and freeing up some space for the new additions to your plushie army. Sylus insists that you get a bookshelf so you can display them like trophies, but you can't do that right now, at least.

"The bookshelves will arrive at your place tomorrow morning after you wake up," Sylus says, tucking his phone into his pocket.

"Are you going to help me assemble it and organize the plushies on the shelves?" You tease Sylus, poking him in the chest.

Sylus chuckles, shaking his head. "Of course, I am. What kind of person would I be if I didn't help you?" Sylus murmurs, pulling you towards his chest and resting his chin on your head. "Besides, I'll make sure all of the Grumpy Crows are at the very top of the shelf. The others will be on the lower shelves."

As you're snuggling up against Sylus, Caleb takes a peek at your phone and opens the messaging app to see that you have 99+ notifications from Rika. Out of pure curiosity, Caleb makes sure to turn off the read receipts so Rika won't know that you (and the others) read her messages.

"Why are you going through her phone?" Zayne asks, crossing his arms over his chest, scrutinizing Caleb.

Caleb scoffs. "I haven't gone through her phone yet, Zayne. Aren't you curious about what Rika's been sending to [Y/N] ever since she distanced herself from Rika?" Caleb asks, waving your phone in front of Zayne's face.

The men start crowding around your phone, reading through the messages Rika sent to you. Despite having the texts and calls on mute, you still reply to Rika, but not as much as you usually do. The responses on your end feel a bit dry compared to the previous ones you've sent. Then pictures start appearing in the chat.

Selfies of Rika with a new hairstyle that's a bit too similar to your current hairstyle. She even did her makeup the way you do yours, and sent you an "outfit of the day" picture—again, very similar to how you would dress when you're not on the clock as a Hunter. Xavier takes your phone from Caleb's hand and starts texting Rika.

"Xavier, what are you doing?" Rafayel asks cautiously.

Xavier shakes his head. "Nothing! I'm just going to ask Rika why she changed her style, that's all."

You look over where the others are huddling, shooting a look at Sylus, who shrugs in response to your questioning look. You approach the others, arms over your chest.

"What are you guys doing over there?" You ask, startling the five of them.

Valko clears his throat. "It turns out that Rika wanted you to know that her style has changed. Quite drastically, may I add." Valko takes your phone from Xavier's hand and waves your phone in front of your face.

You take your phone from Valko's hands, reading the texts that she sent to you over the past few days. Rika did tell you about the changes, and even sent before and after pictures of her new hairstyle. Shit, she even changed her hair color to look like yours, and the colors are similar, but not exact. You notice that in a few of her pictures, she's also doing similar poses that you would do when you're taking solo pictures (like an outfit picture or selfies).

"Maybe if I become you, I will be able to switch to the Alpha Team, right? :)" Is what she sent in one of her messages with an image of her selfie and outfit picture attached.

You scroll all the way down to the most recent message to see that you, allegedly, sent Rika a message. It's very direct, unlike your previous messages to Rika leading up to you muting her calls and texts.

"Why did you change your style all of a sudden? I almost didn't recognize you anymore, Rika."

A gray chat bubble appears, letting you know that Rika is typing something. The message was sent less than two minutes ago, and Rika is already responding to the message one of the men sent to her. As you're watching the chat bubble appear and disappear, everyone starts gathering around you, waiting to see what Rika says.

"Good things seem to always come to you, [Y/N], and I can't help but feel envious of you. So many amazing things happened to you, and you somehow made it to the Alpha Team even though you were a rookie at the Hunters Association. The cosmos are always in your favor, lining things up for you. I look up to you, yes, but that's not enough. You trained me and tried to help me, but it wasn't helping me become the Hunter I deserve to be, you know? So I thought that maybe if I switch my style up a bit, and mirror the person I admire, maybe I will achieve my goals of becoming a part of the Alpha Team."

You turn to the others, eyebrows furrowing. "I understand that she wants to achieve her dreams of becoming part of the Alpha Team, but…" You trail off, turning your phone off and tossing it onto your bed. "The way Rika claimed that good things always come to me leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

You sit on the edge of your bed, rubbing your throbbing temples as the others start migrating over to where you're sitting. They stand before you, watching you worriedly, unsure of what to do or how to help. Rika is (probably) in too deep at this point, and it's not going to be easy to snap her out of it. Right?

Rafayel chimes, "We can get her fired for trying to impersonate you!"

You snort at Rafayel's suggestion. "That's a bit too far, Rafayel."

"But impersonating you isn't going too far?" Zayne raises his eyebrows at you.

"I'm sure there are other ways to confront Rika about this without having her terminated from the Hunters Association. Besides, I doubt changing your hair and clothing style is worthy of a termination." You murmur, hugging your knees to your chest.

You're tempted to text Rika to meet up with you at Azure Square a few days from now to talk to her, but now you're not sure if you should. Everything about her message feels strange to you, and you can't shake the feeling off no matter how much you try to. As far as you know, it's you, Sylus, Caleb, Rafayel, Xavier, Valko, and Zayne who are aware of Rika's sudden change of appearance.

You're not entirely sure how close Rika is with Tara, Nero, and Andrew because you hardly see her hanging around the three of them despite working in Data Analysis with them. As for Simone, you know they're not remotely close with each other because they barely crossed paths at the Association.

"What's the plan, pipsqueak?" Caleb asks, throwing his arm around your shoulders.

You take a deep breath, sighing dramatically. "The only option I have in mind is to meet up with Rika—somewhere public—and confront her about it."

"What's there to confront when Rika already told you about her intentions?" Sylus mutters, almost rolling his eyes. "Besides, with people like her, you have to play dirty."

"What do you suggest then?" You cross your arms over your chest, raising your eyebrows at him.

"You already let her into a portion of your life, and she knows almost everything. You need to start lying to Rika about what you do when you train, what your hobbies are, and maybe change your style up a bit." Sylus lists, crossing his arms over his chest.

The others start throwing ideas into the mix, agreeing with what the other person says. Rafayel pulls out a whiteboard from thin air, writing down ideas and schemes for the next time you and Rika meet up. Valko hands you your phone and instructs you to text Rika about your next hangout with her. You hesitate for a minute, unsure if you want to see her in person. How can you not feel strange about meeting up with someone who completely changed their style and looks simply because they wanted to be you?

"By the way, you won't be alone in this. When you go and hang out with Rika, we'll be watching from a distance and giving you intel." Valko comments, tossing intercoms at each person.

You blink. "Intel? We're dealing with a copycat, not someone from EVER." You snort, fidgeting with the intercom.

"You're right, but remember, this is someone who's trying to become you. You don't know how many screws are loose in that head of hers."

You sigh, plopping on your bed and listening to them come up with an elaborate plan. You start texting Rika about meeting up with her to hang out at Azure Square. A bubble immediately appears at the bottom of the screen: Rika agrees to meet up with you, but wants to know when the hangout will take place.

"When will we meet up with her?" You look up from your phone, waiting for someone to give you the time and date.

Xavier crosses his arms over his chest. "Tomorrow at 9 AM. It will be at Azure Square, specifically in front of the new boba shop Tara told you about. There are seats outside the shop, so we can hang around while you and Rika are inside chatting."

You give Xavier a thumbs up before typing in the time and location of the hangout. Immediately, Rika agrees to the hangout with glee (you know because of the emojis she attached to her response). You shut off your phone, putting it face down on your bed. You're not looking forward to tomorrow, but at the same time, you can't let Rika continue with whatever this is. Who knows, maybe the whole thing is harmless, and it was all in your head?

The day Welt announced to the entire Astral Express Crew that Sunday was going to be a new member, you were baffled. It’s not like you’re against having new members aboard, but it’s mainly because, well, Sunday scares you. Sunday was part of the Oak Family—he had so much power and influence over what happens in Penacony that you can’t help but feel like a frightened kitten whenever he’s in the same vicinity as you. Not only that, but you and Sunday didn’t have a good first impression of each other, but that was so long ago, so maybe he has changed! Right?

“So, we have a new member in the Astral Express Crew! Remember when [Y/N] was first welcomed to the crew?” Caelus asks, throwing an arm around your shoulders.

You rub the back of your neck awkwardly. “To be honest, I don’t remember that day. My memory’s fuzzy. Do you want to refresh my memory?” You poke Caelus’s ribs, causing him to jolt. 

Dan Heng sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. The day you arrived at the Astral Express was definitely an event. You woke up on the Xianzhou Luofu, clueless about what happened and how you ended up in this universe. You slept a lot, which isn’t abnormal for you, but that day specifically, it was very weird. You were not “asleep,” your consciousness was stripped from you just so the Aeon of Destruction could communicate with you. 

You nudge Dan Heng and Caelus. “Psst! Why’s Sunday looking at us like that?” You whisper, glancing at the Halovian from the corner of your eye, trying not to make it obvious.

“Maybe he’s curious and wants to befriend us all. After all, he’ll be with us everywhere we go from now on.” Dan Heng murmurs, stroking his chin.

Welt and Sunday converse for a bit before walking over to where you, March 7th, Dan Heng, and Caelus are standing. You try your best to act normal. Whatever happened back in Penacony was so long ago, and Sunday is a changed man! Welt stops in front of your small group with Sunday beside him.

Welt clears his throat. “March, Dan Heng, Caleus, [Y/N]. Please give a warm welcome to Sunday.” A small smile appears on Welt’s face.

“I am happy to be here with you all. I look forward to exploring many planets with you all and creating new memories,” Sunday says, smiling at everyone. 

“Why is he so formal?” March 7th mutters, earning a nudge from Dan Heng.

You and Sunday lock eyes, and for a moment, you see something flash in his eyes. His expression is unreadable, but he continues to smile at you and tilts his head forward as if he’s showing some kind of acknowledgement.

You clear your throat, smiling at the Halovian. “Welcome to the Astral Express, Sunday! I hope you enjoy your stay here. I would show you around, but I have things to do.”

As if on cue, Sampo and Gepard enter the Astral Express. Sampo has his eyes locked on you the minute the doors open. Sampo charges at you, tackles you in a hug, and spins you around. You wrap your arms around Sampo’s neck, yelping about how Sampo needs to stop doing that to you or else you two will end up on the ground one day.

Sampo lets out a loud laugh. “Oh, Gumdrop. You’re so cute for assuming I would let that happen! Can you blame a man for being happy to see someone as cute as you?” Sampo coos, caressing your face in his hands before peppering your face with kisses. 

Gepard shakes his head with disapproval. “Sampo, for once, can you please behave?” Gepard mutters before shooting an apologetic smile in your direction.

Sampo makes a face at Gepard before reluctantly putting you back on the ground. You pat Sampo’s head before walking over to where Gepard stands, allowing the Captain of the Silvermane Guard pull you into his arms. Sunday raises an eyebrow at your interaction with the many men around you, finding it interesting and, dare he say, scandalous. 

“It’s nice to see you again after so long, Geppie,” you coo, reaching up to pinch his cheeks.

Gepard chuckles, resting his cheek on your head. “It truly has been. I’ve been so occupied that I didn’t have the chance to stop by to visit you.” Gepard leans down, muttering, “Every day, I miss seeing you and hearing your voice.”

You run your fingers through his soft blond hair. Someone clears their throat, grabbing your and Gepard’s attention. Sunday crosses his arms over his chest, his eyebrows raised as he watches you not only show affection for Sampo, but to Gepard as well. How could anyone be okay with this? Sharing one person with who knows how many other people? Himself included. Well, not yet anyway. 

You and Gepard slowly separate from each other. Man, it feels like Sunday is your dad, scolding you for showing affection to the men you care about. Okay, maybe not a dad, but someone who does not like seeing affection. A nun at a Catholic school, or an overly religious person who looks down upon PDA, because any form of affection outside of marriage is considered premarital sex. Yes, seems pretty fitting for someone like Sunday.

Sunday points an accusing finger at you, Sampo, and Gepard. “Is this what you meant when  you said that you can’t show me around the Astral Express because you have things to do?” Sunday asks, raising an eyebrow at you.

Caelus snickers. “When you put it that way, it sounds very… uh, not appropriate.” Caelus comments.

“Caelus!” March 7th hisses.

Your face feels incredibly warm. Dear Aeons, you cannot handle this right now. There’s no way you’re being scolded for showing affection towards the men you’re in a relationship with. Before you can open your mouth to retort, the doors to the Astral Express open, and more people—ahem, men walk through the entrance. Much to Sunday’s displeasure. 

“Wow! More guests! [Y/N], did you happen to send out invites to everyone?” March 7th teases, turning to you with a cheeky grin.

You look at March 7th with your mouth agape, unsure of how to respond. You certainly didn’t send out any invitations! If you did, you would’ve remembered. As you scan the crowd of men, you notice one person in particular is missing. A certain Aeon, who is responsible for your presence in this universe, is nowhere in sight. Nanook. 

“Is there something on your mind, [Y/N]?” Jing Yuan asks, approaching you.

You blink and slowly shake your head. “My head is empty, actually.” You reply, earning a laugh from March 7th and a concerned look from the others. “I think I need a nap.”

Just as you’re about to walk away, Luocha gently grabs you by your wrist, shaking his head. “I know you’re joking, but I can’t help but be worried about you,” Luocha says, pulling you to the side.

You pat Luocha’s head. “I’m fine, really. A lot of things have been happening that it’s hard for me to keep up. Now that things are kind of settling down, everything that’s been occupying my head is gone.” You shrug your shoulders and plop onto the nearest chair.

Despite your reassurance, Luocha continues to give you a brief checkup to make sure you’re okay and nothing is affecting your health. Thankfully, it was nothing, and the others were just worrywarts. Off to the side, Sunday watches how the others treat you. They treat you as if you’re the most precious thing to have graced the universe. It’s almost like they baby you, in a way. While it’s amusing, Sunday can’t help but feel this strange sensation building up in his chest. It’s hot, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s almost suffocating.

Jiaoqiu kneels before you, grabbing your hand. “If you’d like, I can make you something to eat.”

You tilt your head to the side, looking at him, confused. “Your food is meant to heal, no? To treat the sick, I mean. Unless I’m mistaken.”

Jiaoqiu smiles. “Indeed, they are. However, I’m making sure you’re eating a meal and not relying on snacks to keep your tummy full,” Jiaoqiu replies, lightly poking your stomach.

Now standing beside Jiaoqiu, Moze sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Just accept his offer, [Y/N]. Jiaoqiu has been going on and on about making your favorite dishes while we were on our way to the Astral Express,” Moze mutters.

Jiaoqiu continues to smile at you as he ignores what Moze just said. However, if you look closely, you can see a faint blush on the apples of his cheeks that slowly creeps its way to the tips of his ears. 

You laugh. “Alright, I can’t deny a generous offer like yours, Jiaoqiu.” You’re tempted to reach out and pet his ears, but you refrain from doing so. 

Jiaoqiu perks up at your response and bows before walking away, his tail wagging with happiness. The more Sunday watches you interact with these men, the more Sunday realizes that not only do these men treat you like you’re a rare gem, but it’s also almost like they… worship you, and it makes Sunday nauseous. Are you, perhaps, a divine being that Sunday is unaware of? 

Argenti rolls up to you, a stage light shines upon the Knight of Beauty with rose petals scattering around him. Sunday blinks, confused about where these things are coming from. He looks around, trying to see if he was on some theatrical stage at the moment. Argenti kneels before you, grabs your hand, and kisses your knuckle.

“My dearest muse, your beauty continues to shine as the day goes by. Every time I see you, I am in awe of your beauty and grace. I have a gift for you,” Argenti announces, never releasing your hand from his grip.

Luka and Boothill approach you and Argenti while holding a large object hidden beneath a blanket. Argenti stands up, briefly releasing your hand before approaching Luka and Boothill, thanking them. He grabs the blanket and yanks it off, revealing a magnificent painting of you. Naked. Surrounded by red roses and beautiful scenery, it reminds you of a Renaissance painting. 

Your eyes widen, face feeling warm. “Oh, wow! This is beautiful!” You exclaim, approaching the painting. Your gaze falls upon one thing, causing your face to turn even warmer. “Wow, you really made it bigger than it really is.”

Argenti shoots you a cheeky yet charming grin. “Oh, really? Perhaps you should let me see the real thing, and I can correct it if you’d like?” He wiggles his eyebrows at you.

“Yer quite the pervert, aren’t cha?” Boothill asks, smirking at Argenti. “But now that you mentioned it… I am curious to see if the painting is spot on or a little different from the real thing.” Boothill strokes his chin, glancing at you, then at the painting.

Luka clears his throat, looking at the painting from the corner of his eye, then at you. However, he doesn’t say a thing. But instead, he scratches his cheek with his index finger, trying to act like he’s also as curious as Boothill. 

“The painting is beautiful. But I wonder where it’ll be hung up since it’s such a huge painting and it’s also heavy,” Luka mutters.

You shrug. It’s not like you’re going to be hanging it in your room. You have a lot of pictures on your wall, and the pictures are mostly of you and the Astral Express Crew on adventures. You have many more pictures you want to hang up, but haven’t had the time to put them together. Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to rearrange your bedroom! 

Gallagher approaches the painting, arms over his chest. “Impressive. How much did it cost you?” Gallagher looks at Argenti.

Argenti shakes his head. “A work of art is priceless, especially when the art subject is the beauty before us,” Argenti gestures to you with a wink.

Gallagher nods in approval while Aventurine inspects every part of the painting with scrutiny. “Interesting choice of color,” Aventurine murmurs. He gently touches the frame, nodding with approval. “Very high quality for a high-quality person,” Aventurine looks in your direction.

While almost everyone is gathering around to admire the painting, you stand to the side and quietly talk to March 7th. Sunday can make out the words “beautiful,” “redecoration,” and “it doesn’t make me look like a narcissist if I have this hung up in my room, does it?”

The painting is beautiful, but Sunday can’t help but feel scandalized when it comes to the painting. Again, why are these men depicting you as a divine being when you’re merely human? As one of Robin’s haters once said, “I don’t get the hype.” After seeing that comment about his sister, Sunday created an anonymous account online to send hate to that person. What? Sunday is simply being a supportive brother! How dare that anonymous hater have a negative perception of his dear sister, Robin? 

But when it comes to you? Surely, Sunday can’t be the only Halovian who doesn’t harbor such strong feelings towards you, right? Sunday is actually in denial about these emotions bubbling up within him every time he sees another man swoon over you. 

You’re minding your business, chatting with March 7th, and here comes a man tall enough to touch the ceiling of the Astral Express. The same man who will grovel towards you, kiss and worship the ground you walk on. Looking pathetic in the eyes of Sunday. 

Blade clears his throat. “If [Y/N] doesn’t want the painting, then I will gladly take it off their hands.”

Dr. Ratio laughs, shaking his head. “I believe the painting will look magnificent in my office. A scholar like myself should have a tasteful painting in their office.” Dr. Ratio says, propping his hands on his hips.

You rub the back of your neck, looking at March 7th, who shrugs in response. You don’t mind if other people (that you know) see the painting. However, you do not want random people of high status to see you in your naked glory. At least not when you’re still alive and roaming the universe.

“A painting is impressive, but not as impressive as a marble statue.” Mydei comments.

You slowly turn to see Mydei standing at the entrance with Anaxa and Phainon at his sides. It’s almost like they’re striking a pose. You bite the inside of your cheek, hoping what Mydei said isn’t actually true and just meaningless words. But alas, the universe loves to prove you wrong once again. Phainon clears his throat and gestures for someone to wheel in a large statue of your likeness into the Astral Express.

“You guys are going to make me look like a narcissist!” You exclaim, clutching your head in shock. “Gentlemen, it warms my heart to see that you all love me to the point of having to create an art piece and marble statue in my likeness. However, I don’t think I can accept these offerings.” You say, approaching the tall marble statue of yourself.

Phainon pouts, approaching you. “But it took months to create this marble statue! You wouldn’t let it go to waste, now, would you?” Phainon asks, giving you the puppy dog eyes.

Sunday stares at the statue with astonishment and almost horror. The lengths people would go through to show their love and dedication to someone like you is quite impressive, but also horrific. Is this what Robin had to go through as a renowned singer in the cosmos? 

Robin having such admirers makes sense because of her level of fame, but you? No offense to you, but you’re part of the Astral Express Crew who go on adventures and get into sticky situations! You’re not famous of any sort, but you are quite famous when it comes to these men who lay their eyes upon you. Perhaps you’re a witch who can bewitch many men just by existing. 

Yes, maybe that is the most logical reasoning why do many men are in love with you. Men who are in high power and status, groveling to you, kissing the ground you walk on. It’s pathetic. But seeing these men give you heart eyes makes Sunday feel uneasy. If he’s on the Astral Express for the time being, then that means he will be witnessing it for as long as he’s alive and with the Astral Express Crew. 

“Sculpting a marble statue of someone from head to toe takes up to three months to two years. It would be a waste if you didn’t accept the gift that we made for you.” Anaxa comments, crossing his arms over his chest.

You shrug. “I will accept it, but where will I put it? I can’t put a giant statue of myself in my room. It will look like I have a shrine of myself. Would it not be narcissistic of me to do so?”

Sunday nearly cracks a smile at your comment, but refuses to show an ounce of reaction. You not liking the idea of having a statue and painting of yourself in your bedroom is the bare minimum. No. He mustn’t fall for your character and be a part of this scandalous harem of yours!

A few days go by, and Sunday finds himself actively seeking you out whenever he enters a new room. He subconsciously looks around the room, searching for the familiar head of hair of yours, or listens closely to hear your voice before entering a room. Compared to the past few days, today feels off, and Sunday does not like the shift in the air. 

Sunday walks into the Parlor Car, and he freezes in his spot when he sees you with a new person. Someone he has yet to meet out of the twenty people who practically worship you. This person (?) is taller than any of the men Sunday despises, perhaps as tall as General Jing Yuan of the Xianzhou Luofu. White hair, tan skin, very muscular, sitting on the nearest couch with you snuggling up to his side. Is this the infamous person—Aeon—who somehow managed to yank you into this universe?

“Nanook, Aeon of Destruction,” Sunday finds himself blurting out loud before processing it.

You and Nanook look up to see Sunday standing at the entrance, looking stiff and almost like he’s close to meeting his creator. You and Nanook stand up. Nanook nods at Sunday, approaching the Halovian with you by his side. Sunday’s gaze falls upon you, that unfamiliar feeling forming in his chest. Seeing you walk so close to Nanook, by his side, makes Sunday feel sick. It doesn’t matter if you have these men wrapped around your fingers, seeing someone achieve something Sunday wanted makes him feel nauseous. 

Sunday gives Nanook a thin smile. “It’s nice to finally meet the Aeon of Destruction. I’ve been hearing many interesting things about you through the grapevine.”

Nanook raises his eyebrows at Sunday. “Is that so? Interesting things, but still good, I hope?” The corner of Nanook’s lips curves up into a smirk.

Sunday presses his lips into a thin line. Good things? About the Aeon of Destruction? That’s debatable. That’s something Sunday wants to say to Nanook, but since you’re in the same room as both him and Nanook, Sunday will refrain from doing so. No one has anything good to say about the Aeon of Destruction. It’s in his name. Destruction. Nanook brings nothing but harm and danger to every living thing in this universe, but now Nanook hopes that he has a pristine reputation?

You wave your hand in front of Sunday’s face. “Sunday, you’re staring,” You comment, snapping the Halovian out of his thoughts. “Are you okay? You’ve been acting strange since you first arrived on the Astral Express.”

Sunday chuckles, crossing his arms over his chest. “Oh, [Y/N], ever the caring person. I am alright. I am doing my best to adjust to being on the Astral Express. It is my first time being so far away from Penacony.”

“Well, it’s nice to finally meet you. Perhaps you’ll join like the rest of us. Just letting you know that I was here first before anyone else joined,” Nanook jokes, earning a nudge from a very flustered you.

Sunday’s eyebrows furrow with confusion at Nanook’s comment. What does he mean by that exactly? “I’m afraid I don’t follow. Care to elaborate on what you mean? Have I not already joined the Astral Express?” Sunday asks.

Nanook chuckles, shaking his head. Before he can say anything to Sunday, you quickly cover Nanook’s mouth, glaring at the Aeon of Destruction. You can’t help but feel conflicted over the interaction between Nanook and Sunday. Nanook is very possessive, but is also very welcoming when it comes to Sunday? Strange. Does Nanook know something that you’re not aware of? 

“You will find out eventually,” Nanook states.

Sunday watches Nanook wrap his arm around your waist and pull you back towards the couch, pulling you down with him. Instead of you sitting beside him, Nanook pulls you onto his lap and kisses the side of your head without breaking eye contact with Sunday. 

“I doubt I’ll ‘join’ whatever it is Nanook was implying,” Sunday thinks sarcastically. 

There’s no way in hell Sunday is going to prove Nanook right. What kind of sick joke was that? Despite the stubbornness that is Sunday, he finds himself in your bedroom on the Astral Express in the middle of the night while everyone else is sleeping. Sunday’s relieved to find out that no one in your harem of sins lives on the train or sleeps in your bedroom. At least, that’s what he’s assuming. 

Sunday’s lips trail down your neck, kissing, nibbling, biting your neck. You whimper, tightening your arms around his torso when Sunday adjusts your legs around his waist, sinking further into your warm heat.

You bury your face into the crook of his neck. “I thought you didn’t like me,” You panted. “Yet here you are, in my bedroom in the middle of the night, balls deep inside me.”

Your vulgar comment causes Sunday to become flustered, making him buck his hips against yours harder than he intends to. You clench your jaw, digging your nails into his back, and squeeze your eyes shut. 

“You lack filter—just spewing the raunchiest thing you can think of,” Sunday mutters.

Sunday caresses the back of your head before pressing his lips against yours, swallowing your moans and whimpers. Sunday proceeds to increase his speed, drilling into your heat. The sound of squelching fills your once-silent bedroom. 

You break the kiss, cupping his face in your hands and lightly pinching his cheek. “But you still didn’t deny it—ah!” You yelp when the tip of his cock hits your cervix.

“I do not hate or dislike you. I hate the idea of other men liking and claiming you,” Sunday mutters, thrusting with every word that comes from his mouth. “I do not want to share you. I want you for myself. Is it a sin to want you for myself?”

Your head lolls back, almost going limp beneath him. Sunday grabs your hand and laces his fingers with yours, gently squeezing your hand—a big difference compared to how he’s pistoning his cock in and out of your squelching gummy walls. 

Sunday suddenly stops thrusting into you, and he leans down close to your ears. “Do you know what is also a sin?” 

You look at Sunday, eyes bleary with lust and confusion. “What?” You reluctantly whisper.

“Greed and lust. You lust for the many men you encounter, the same ones that is part of your lustful harem. A harem is a sin because you are greedy for more than one man,” Sunday murmurs.

You and Sunday stare at each other in the dark; the small night light in the corner of your room barely illuminates both your faces. “If that’s what you think of me, then why do you want to be with a sinner like me? It’s almost like you love the idea of being with someone with me because you can, I don’t know, try to change me.” You whisper.

Sunday chuckles, leans down, and kisses your temple. “How can I not love a sinner like you? I am not perfect myself. Once I get a taste of you, I want more of it, and I do not want to share you with anyone else.”

Sunday tilts your head up before smashing his lips against yours, proceeding where he left off. The night gradually blurs into tangled limbs, bodily fluids, breathless moans, and whimpers. 

After what feels like an eternity—Aeons, Sunday would love it if it lasted an eternity—you and Sunday collapse in each other's arms. You’re snuggling up against Sunday, arms wrapping around his waist and head resting on his left bicep. You’re out like the light, snoring away. Then there’s Sunday, staring at you as you sleep. Sunday brushes a strand of hair away from your face, a small smile gracing his face when you snuggle closer to him in response. 

Sunday leans over and kisses your forehead before staring up at the ceiling as the clock on your desk ticks away. Sunday was supposed to show up at your room to talk to you about what happened the past few days since his arrival at the Astral Express and becoming part of the Astral Express Crew. Before he knows it, one thing leads to another, and he finds himself on your bed with you caged by his arms, making out with you like a starving man, while clothes fly off your bodies and to the ground.

For a moment, he’s able to extinguish the burning need for you. Being able to kiss you, touch you, and be inside of you felt intoxicating, and he can’t get enough of you. Sunday subconsciously leans in and presses his nose on top of your head, inhaling the scent that is you. Your hair smells like honey. He slowly trails down, breathing in your lotion mixed with the smell of your sweat from your and his activity from moments ago. How can someone have this much power over him? Just being around you, with you, inside of you, isn’t enough for Sunday. He wants more of you, all of you, for himself. 

Sunday wants to hear your cries, whines, breathless gasps, whimpers, and laughter. He wants to be the only reason why you’re making these noises; he wants to be the only one to hear them all. In a perfect world, it’s just you and Sunday with no one else to interfere. No one. Just you and Sunday. Perhaps there is a distant planet in the universe where he can take you to, just you and him, no one else to get in the way. 

Aeons, what have you done to him? This unholy thought, unholy actions, unholy words… It’s too late for him to repent. Too late for Sunday to ask for forgiveness when he doesn’t want to be forgiven for loving and craving you. 

You have horrible luck when it comes to relationships. It's not the fact that you're unappealing, look and personality-wise—it's the fact that you have shit taste in men. You assumed that your taste in men is decent, but looking back on it, you have wasted the majority of your twenties on men who have the mental and emotional capacity of a fucking piece of bread.

Most of these men are from dating apps because you don't go out much, you mean, how could you when you're a workaholic? It's been, what, almost two years since you've seen someone, and you certainly do not want to go back on dating apps.

"Come on! It's been a little over two years since you last talked to some guy named Carlos. The man just disappeared off the face of the earth after taking you out for dinner." Your friend pleads over the phone.

You pull at the loose thread of your blanket. "But Esther, you told me that I was putting myself on the clearance section by being on a dating app."

"I… I don't know how to respond to that. Wow, I don't remember saying that at all, but I was not wrong in the slightest." She sputters over the phone. "Listen, since you don't go to bars or outside in general, dating apps are the closest thing you can get to meeting your soulmate."

You roll your eyes. How many men claim that you're their soulmate over the message on dating apps again? After a few minutes of talking over the phone with Esther, you hang up the phone and lie in your bed, scrolling on some website, before an ad pops up on your screen just as you're about to click on another page, opening another window to some random website.

"Fucking hell, what did I click on?" You rub your tired eyes, waiting for the screen to load.

Lo and behold, the website loads and shows a black background with hot pink words that say, "FIND HOT DILFS NEAR YOU!!!!" with multiple red exclamation marks right after it. The color of the text itself makes your eyes hurt, forcing you to look away and blink.

Hot DILFs, huh? You brace yourself and look at the screen, reading the small paragraph underneath the title of the website. You're a single woman with no children. Would you want to get into a relationship with a man who already has children from his past relationships? Definitely not your cup of tea, but god, you're so curious to see what this app has in store for you.

You purse your lips, fingers hovering over the "install app" button. You've been mainly dating men around your age range, like 25 and over, and it's not working out well for you. Maybe you do need an older man over the age of thirty-five in your life. But a man who's a father? You press the button, and it takes you to the app store. Surprisingly, it's a regular dating app like Tinder and Bumble.

Your eyebrows furrow. "Why did you advertise it as a DILF finder only to be a regular dating app this entire time?"

You install the app on your phone and wait. Once the app is installed on your phone, you start setting up your profile after signing up. You enter your name, your age, where you're located, your height, and other things. You select ten of your most flattering pictures from your camera roll and begin picking out prompts and answering them for your profile.

Once you're done setting up your profile, you start scrolling through the options the app has to offer. Much to your dismay, the majority of the men appearing on your screen aren't your type. Not because they're way older and have kids—well, yes, it's mainly because of the second reason—but because these men did not choose flattering pictures of themselves. Heck, maybe these are the only decent pictures they have of themselves!

You swipe left on every man that appears on your screen, disappointed with what you're seeing. While you're disappointed with the options, your notifications are blowing up with the number of men who want to match with you on the godforsaken dating app. You continue swiping, and swiping, and swiping through various profiles, disappointed each time you swipe.

You put your phone face down on your bed, dragging your hand down your face with a frustrated sigh. Maybe it's time for you to go to bed. No man is worth losing sleep over when you have work tomorrow. You roll over on your side and blindly reach for your charging cord, plugging in your phone. As you're getting comfortable in bed, your phone chimes and the screen lights up from the notification.

Kindred Spirits: ❤️ Leon has sent you a flame! 🔥

You pull your blanket up to your chin and grab your phone. You click on the notification, type in your passcode, and unlock your phone. The app loads and takes you to the "liked you" section of the app.

The first person to pop up is not Leon, so you swipe left on every person who has liked you until Leon's profile pops up. Once his profile pops up, you gasp in awe. God, Leon is a handsome man. His brown stubble with a hint of gray, the creases between his eyebrows, and he has gorgeous blue eyes. While that would be an immediate right swipe, you force yourself to stop and scroll down his profile to read everything.

Leon is a 49-year-old man who is 5'11. He's not that far from you—about ten miles away from where you're located. You continue scrolling down to see more pictures of him on his profile. One photo is of him at a shooting range with a huge gun, and you're not talking about his biceps. Speaking of his biceps, that is the first thing that grabs your attention every time you scroll down his profile.

One of his hobbies is going to the gym, which you're not surprised in the slightest given the fact that his arms are huge. You scroll back up to look at his occupation—you want a man who has a stable job and income, not one that's temporary or men who like to claim they're self-employed—to see that he listed his occupation as "government employee."

"Oh, he's stable and makes a decent amount of money. What about children?" You look everywhere on his profile to see if there are children mentioned, only to see that he has four children. Can't be mad at that, considering you're on an app that advertises itself as a DILF finder, plus Leon is very attractive, so you're not surprised that he has more than one child.

You're still shocked to see that a handsome man like Leon sent you a flame. What do flames signify again? You swipe right on Leon, watching your and Leon's profile pictures appear on the screen with a fiery heart in between your icons. You have officially matched with Leon! Your first ever match on this app! You go to the Q&A section of the app, scroll until you find the question you've been wondering about.

Q: What do flames do?

A: Flames are the highest form of compliment you can give someone on Kindred Spirits. When you send someone a flame, it lets the person know that you are very interested in this person and want to connect with them. There is a limited amount of flames you can give out to people on Kindred Spirits. Make sure to use them wisely.

After reading that, you bite your bottom lip. Leon sent you a flame, meaning he's very interested in you after seeing your profile. But are you the only woman he sent a flame to, or did he send a flame to other women, too? As you ruminate in your thoughts, a message pops up in the app.

Leon: 👋

You press your lips into a thin line, holding back a snicker. Somehow, you forget that DILFs don't typically message like the men your age. You check the time on your phone, your eyes nearly bugging out of your head at the sight. It's almost midnight!? What is Leon doing up around this time?

You click on the message and see the small green dot in the corner of Leon's profile picture. He's online and most likely waiting for you to reply to his waving emoji message. You can't help but laugh at how cute it is.

You: Hi, Leon!:) Why are you up around this time?

You can't help but cringe at the message you sent to Leon. You're not much of a conversationalist, but you try your best to be one. You watch the small dots appear on the screen, waiting for Leon to respond to your message.

Leon: I can ask you the same thing lol. Your profile caught my attention, and I cannot pass up the opportunity to match with you 😉

Heat rushes to your cheek after reading his message. God, you want to ask him if you're the only person he sent a flame to, but it's too early to question these things. Plus, who knows if you'll make it past this… talking stage with Leon. You and Leon proceed to text each other for the next few hours, completely forgetting about your sleep.

You and Leon stop texting each other after one of you falls asleep, and it wasn't you who fell asleep. You show up to work with little to no sleep, but you're surprisingly energetic. When you're at your desk, you receive a notification from Kindred Spirit.

Leon: Sorry, I fell asleep. Lol. I really enjoyed talking to you last night, but…

The message cuts off there, but since you're on the clock, you can't click the notification to read the full message from Leon. Why did the message cut off there? Now you can't focus on your job because you're wondering what the full message was. After the conversation last night dragged into this morning, did Leon realize that you're not what he was expecting when he came across your profile?

The first two hours of your shift feel longer than they really are because of how distracted you are after catching a glimpse of Leon's message on Kindred Spirits. Every few minutes, you look at your phone from the corner of your eye, hoping to see another message from Leon appear. Unfortunately, whenever your phone lights up, it's a notification from Kindred Spirits, but from people who either swiped right on you or sent you a flame.

By the time your break rolls around, you make your way to the break room, eyes glued to your phone as you rush to unlock it. You pause, mentally kicking yourself for feeling this way about a man you barely know on a dating app. But he's so handsome and is sweet, and it would be a shame if things didn't go how you hoped they would. You sit against the wall, clicking on the message that Leon sent to you two hours ago.

Leon: Sorry, I fell asleep. Lol. I really enjoyed talking to you last night, but I would prefer if we talked in person or over the phone, your choice. I'm not much of a texter, as you can see from my slow replies. If you're not busy, would you like to meet up for lunch or dinner today?

You: You don't need to apologize for falling asleep, Leon! We've been talking for hours last night until the next day, which means I really enjoyed talking to you as much as you enjoyed talking to me:) We can meet up for lunch! What time sounds good for you? My lunch break starts at 12:00, and it's an hour-long break.

You click send and wait for Leon's response. Your heart pounds against your chest, the sense of relief falling over you after fully reading Leon's message on the app. Your phone buzzes in your hand, notifying you that Leon has responded to your message.

Leon: 12:00 sounds good to me, we can meet up at this local Italian restaurant 😄 I hope you got some sleep last night after I, unintentionally, fell asleep in the middle of our conversation 😅

You and Leon continue texting each other until your break is over, before you have to return to your desk until your next lunch. Leon sends you the location where you two will be meeting up for lunch. Maybe it's a good thing you forgot to pack yourself lunch because you have an impromptu date with Leon in two hours! You quickly click on the address of the restaurant to check the parking situation because you're not a fan of having to park your car on the side of the road if you go anywhere. You sigh in relief to see a decent-sized parking lot rather than some parallel parking nightmare.

Aside from the parking situation, you're glad that the drive to the restaurant isn't going to be bad because traffic is mostly light around that time, at least to that restaurant. You return to your desk, chest feeling lighter than it was at the start of your shift. But that doesn't mean you're less antsy compared to the start of your shift; in fact, you're even antsier because you want to get to the restaurant early and not be late to your lunch with Leon.

You watch the time tick away, pleading with Father Time to hurry up so you can finally be on your merry way to the Italian restaurant Leon suggested you two meet up at. While Father Time isn't merciful with you, Lady Luck certainly is because your lead dismissed you and other people on your floor to lunch early.

You gather your things and practically sprint to your car after clocking out for lunch. Before pulling out of the parking lot of your job, you shoot a quick text to Leon that you're on your way. Leon's response? A smiley face paired with a thumbs-up emoji.

The entire drive to the restaurant consists of you giving yourself a pep talk. It's not like it's an actual date, right? You sort of consider it a date, an impromptu one. But you're not sure if Leon considers it a date. You take a deep breath as you pull up to the parking lot of the restaurant, sighing in relief when you find a parking spot right in front of the building.

"Great! I didn't die on my way here, and I arrived right on time!" You unbuckle your seatbelt and turn off your engine, reaching for your purse and grabbing your car keys from the cup holder.

Your heart pounds against your chest as you walk to the restaurant, reaching for the door handle, only for someone to intercept you and open the door for you. You look to see Leon standing there, holding the door open for you. When did he arrive?

"Oh, thank you, Leon!" You smile, heat rushing to your cheeks.

Leon smiles. "No problem."

You enter the restaurant with Leon following behind, your heart racing in your chest by the time a server shows you and Leon where you'll be sitting. You sit across from Leon, bouncing your leg underneath the table while looking through the menu.

"I'm surprised that you agreed to meet up with me at the last minute," Leon comments.

You look up to see Leon already staring at you with those gorgeous blue eyes of his. You smile at him, ignoring the heat making its way up to the entirety of your face rather than staying on the apples of your cheeks.

"How can I decline an offer when you're the one who asked to meet up? Besides, why were you worried, other than because we've been talking for less than twenty-four hours?"

Leon clears his throat. "I would assume you think it's too sudden to meet up for lunch, and that I was moving too fast."

You shake your head. "You don't have to worry about that, Leon. I don't mind meeting up with you because that means I get to see your face more often."

The server arrives with a cup of iced water for you and Leon before pulling out a notepad to take your orders. Leon looks at you, gesturing for you to order first. You look at the menu and pick the food that looks the most appetizing to you. After listing your order, Leon tells the server his order while you're watching him.

He's wearing a leather shearling bomber jacket over a black shirt that hugs his figure nicely. Leon's hair is swept to the side, framing his face perfectly. You're just glad that Leon looks exactly like how he does in his photos. Except, he looks way better in person than on your screen.

"Thank you." Leon nods to the server with a polite smile as they walk off with the notepad that contains your and Leon's order. Leon looks at you, leaning forward with his arms resting on the table. "So, tell me about yourself."

You blink at Leon—your brain suddenly short-circuits. Where should you start? You rack your brain, trying to remember what you put on your dating profile so you wouldn't have to tell him something he (probably) already knows. You first start with how you end up on the app, which is purely an accident because you were on some website, and a pop-up ad appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh? So you didn't want to find hot DILFs near you?" Leon snorts, taking a sip of his water.

You rub the back of your neck sheepishly. "I wasn't planning on doing so, but I'm glad I let my curiosity get the best of me."

Leon smiles. "Am I… the only one you're talking to?"

You look at him, surprised. You've never had a man ask you that question before, mainly because you're the one asking a man that! Leon continues to stare at you curiously, now resting his chin in the palm of his hand. You pull your phone out, opening the app while Leon tries to take a peek at your phone from where he's sitting.

You nod. "You're the only person I'm talking to, yes. No one on this app appealed to me. I've swiped left more than I swiped right, which is only once, and it's when you sent me a flame."

You hand your phone over to Leon, who slightly leans back to get a good look at your screen. You can't help but smile at the sight in front of you. How Leon looks at the content on your phone reminds you of your parents because they do the same thing. Your Dad would hold your phone at arm's length from his face, squinting at the screen to get a clear look because his vision is getting worse as he ages. Same with your Mom. This makes you wonder if the font on Leon's screen is as big as the fonts on your parents' phone.

"What's wrong with the men on here? Were they not to your liking?" Leon asks, handing your phone back to you.

You shrug. "I mean, they're not you." You can see a faint blush appearing on the apples of his cheeks as he smiles shyly. "What about you? Am I the only woman you're talking to?"

Leon chuckles, pulling his phone out from his pocket, and starts entering the passcode to his phone. Leon pulls up the app and goes to the likes and messages section of the app before handing it over to you. Much to your surprise, Leon's screen is completely normal—he didn't have his phone zoomed in to make the fonts and images big enough to take up most of the screen. You see that he's only matched with one person, obviously you, while his "liked you" tab has 50+ notifications.

"Wow, aren't you popular?" You chuckle, looking up at Leon with an amused look.

Leon rubs the back of his neck. "I mean, I'm flattered, but I am a one-lady type of guy."

You hand Leon back his phone, watching him turn off his phone and tuck them into his pocket. You love the sound of his voice so much. It's incredibly soothing, and you bet he will talk you through it. You blink, looking away from Leon when you make eye contact with him as he's adjusting his jacket. There's no way in hell you're already having these thoughts when you two have known each other for less than a day. You're hoping that you made at least a good first impression.

You clear your throat, changing the topic of conversation to get that thought out of your mind. "On your profile, it says that you have four children. Are your kids still young, or are they around my age?"

"They are not my biological children. I technically "adopted" them. Their names are Sherry, Ashley, Grace, and Emily. Though many people consider Emily more as my granddaughter, because Grace took Emily under her wings and lives with her. Which makes sense." Leon starts digging into his pockets again. "I'll show you a photo of my daughters and me together."

You can't help but melt at the thought of Leon being a father to four girls. He must love them a lot, given by the smile on his face and how he speaks about each person. You listen to Leon ramble about each of his daughters as he shows you images of them.

Funnily enough, even though they're not biologically his daughters, they look like they can be related to Leon somehow. Leon tells a story of how he unintentionally adopted each girl, chuckling at the memories despite the horrors he's been through.

"And you're never married?" You ask, looking at him curiously.

Leon shakes his head. "I've had a few relationships in the past, but marriage? I've never been married to anyone. What about you?"

You press your lips into a thin line. Where do you begin? You go on a tangent about how every relationship you've been in never works out for you. Every man has wasted your youth by not wanting something serious, and they get bored with you easily. So, you choose to step out of your comfort zone and start looking for a man much older than you.

After all, it has been two years since you went on a date with some guy, only to be ghosted. Is it a smart idea to tell another man about how men have been mistreating you? Definitely not the best thing to do, but you're already in too deep.

"Were you guys serious?" Leon asks.

You shake your head. "Not really. I assumed the date was going to move us towards a much more serious direction, but I was wrong."

"How heartbroken were you when that happened?"

You poke the inside of your cheek, unsure of how to respond. "I don't know. I was more confused than hurt because it made me question what I did wrong for this to happen, or if I wasn't good enough, or if I'm not the person they imagined me to be."

Leon murmurs your name as he reaches across the table, grabs your hand, and gently squeezes them. "Never let someone make you question your worth because you are more than enough."

Your and Leon's orders eventually arrive at your table. The table is filled with many delicious foods and side dishes, making your stomach audibly growl despite the sound of cutlery clinking against the bowls and plates. The food is immaculate. It's so good that you nearly close your eyes to relish in the taste.

"My god, this tastes amazing. You have to try this." Leon murmurs, holding out his fork towards you.

You lean over the table and take a bite. Your eyes widen, nodding in agreement. Leon watches you with a small smile on his face while you chew and swallow a piece of the food he offered you to try. Leon reaches forward and wipes the corner of your lips with his thumb.

You freeze and watch Leon lick the sauce off his thumb before continuing to eat his food. Your face becomes hot as you clumsily eat your food, trying to bury certain thoughts that are forming in your head. But god, you can't help but imagine Leon wiping his—

Nope! Nope! You cannot be having these thoughts now while you're eating in front of a man you just met. Focus on the food in front of you, and maybe it'll distract you from the sinful and questionable thoughts that are lurking in the corners of your mind. You casually scan the table, wondering if you and Leon will be able to finish the food before you have to depart and return to work.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Leon asks.

You sigh, wiping your mouth with a napkin. "I don't want this to end and clock back into work." You frown.

"Well, it doesn't have to end. We can always set up another date."

Your heart skips a beat. So he does consider this impromptu lunch as a date! Internally, you're cheering loudly and jumping all over the place. Externally, you smile at Leon and agree to his suggestion. You and Leon eventually finish your lunch as the server approaches your table with the bills. In the blink of an eye, Leon takes his card out of his wallet (that somehow magically appeared in his hands) and hands it to the server.

Once everything's paid off, you and Leon make your way to the exit. You check your watch to see that you have about fifteen minutes left till you need to clock back in. You really do not want this date to end and return to work. Leon walks you to your car, which is in front of the restaurant.

"Where did you park?" You ask Leon, looking around the parking lot for his car.

Leon points at a sleek black Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT that's parked a few cars down from where you parked yours. You unlock your car, start the engine, and put your purse on the passenger seat before turning towards Leon. He's leaning against your car, watching your every move with interest.

"I hope you had a great time as much as I did." Leon smiles.

Your heart does a flip at the sight of seeing Leon's smile. You smile shyly, nodding. "I enjoyed every minute with you, Leon. I really don't want this to end," You sigh wistfully.

Leon hands you his phone. "I may not be the best texter, but I'll text you the details on our next date if you wouldn't mind giving me your phone number."

"You can always call me, too, you know? We can text, yes, but I would also love to hear your voice." You grab Leon's phone before handing your phone to him so he can add his number to your contact list.

You type in your name and phone number and give Leon back his phone. Leon grabs his phone, tucking it into his pocket while continuing to type away on your phone. While he's focused on creating a new contact on your phone, you can't help but stare at him. The way his eyebrows unintentionally furrow as he's looking at the screen. There are fine lines you can make out on his face if you look close enough. God, his hair looks so soft that you want to run your fingers through it.

"Alright, I added myself to your contact list. I'll text you the details of our next date," Leon says, looking up from your phone to hand it to you, but instead, he locks eyes with you. Leon raises an eyebrow at you, the corner of his lips curving up into a smirk. "Am I interrupting something?"

You blink rapidly. "No, no. You're not interrupting anything, Leon. I was admiring the view in front of me."

"Admiring?"

You nod. "Anyway, thank you for giving me your phone number. As much as I don't want to leave, I have to go clock back into work." You frown, attaching your phone to the magnetic stand in your car.

Leon grabs your hand and gently squeezes it, smiling at you. "Well, this won't be the last time we see each other, I can guarantee that."

You and Leon eventually (very hesitantly) bid each other goodbye. You get into your car and close the door. You slowly pull out of your parking spot, watching Leon's car come to life after he closed the door behind him. You eventually leave the parking lot and drive back to work, thinking about the lunch date you had with Leon.

When you clock back in, you notice that you have two notifications from Leon on the iMessage app. But wait, they're not a text message; it was a voice message. You bite your bottom lip, searching around your purse for your wireless earbuds. You put in your earbuds as it automatically connects to your phone. You click on the notification and open up iMessage. You click on the first voice message and start listening.

"Hey, you. It was great meeting you today. I had a great time getting to know you and spending time with you, even when it was an impromptu date. I would send you a text, but you know me. Plus, you did say that you would love to hear my voice aside from texting me, so I'm sending you this voice message. I hope you get to work safely, and I'll see you again soon."

Your heart skips a beat before clicking on the second voice message Leon sent not long after the first one.

"I had to re-record the previous message because I kept messing up, and I was rambling. I'm glad the second recording turned out better than the rest."

You snort, shaking your head before reacting to the first and second messages with a heart. You take your earbuds off and tuck them into your purse, then quickly reply to Leon's messages and send them before getting back to work.

For the next few days, you and Leon have been consistently seeing each other. During the weekdays, both of you would have lunch together. Sometimes it would be at that Italian restaurant Leon suggested for your impromptu first date, other times it would be elsewhere. Leon sends a lot of voice messages to you if he's not able to send a text message. You usually send a text in response, but you also send a voice message in return from time to time.

Every night before bed, you and Leon would talk on the phone and have a video call. It's a new routine for you and Leon—calling each other before bed, or having hours-long video calls that lead to the two of you falling asleep while still on call with each other. Sometimes, whenever you wake up before Leon, you feel bad ending the video call while he's still sleeping, so you continue the call while you get ready for work.

Most of the time, Leon wakes up way before you do. He would do his morning routine first (take a shower, get dressed, brush his teeth, dry his hair, trim his beard, etc.) before exiting the bathroom to get his phone, where you're still asleep on the other end of the call. If he's making breakfast, he would prop his phone up on the counter while he cooks his breakfast for the day. By the time Leon is done eating his breakfast, you would wake up confused why he didn't end the call when he woke up.

"Well, if I ended the call while you're still sleeping, that would be rude of me to do so. I would much rather wait for you to wake up," Leon replies, pulling his sleeves to his elbows before washing the dishes. "I also wanted to say good morning to you and see those pretty eyes of yours open when you wake up."

"Damn you and your sweet talk, Leon." You laugh, rubbing the sleep from your eyes.

That is how your and Leon's morning starts now. From video calls before bed to waking up to each other getting ready for work after falling asleep over the call. However, the only time when you and Leon don't call or have lunch together is when Leon is away on his field missions as a DSO Agent. Granted, Leon does call and text you while he's on his way to the site the DSO has assigned him. After that, Leon has to focus on his mission if he wants to get it done and see you sooner rather than later.

It's now a month since you and Leon matched on Kindred Spirits, met up for a lunch date a few hours into matching on the dating app, and traded phone numbers with each other after said date. Today is going to be the first time that Leon comes over to your house for a date, and for a date not to be out in public places like the Italian restaurant that you and Leon frequent together. At first, you weren't sure what you two would do at your house for this date. You and Leon tossed ideas around before settling on a movie and game night.

While you're waiting for Leon to arrive at your house, you make sure to clean around your house and organize the littlest things. After you're done with that, you take a quick shower and change into your cutest and most comfortable clothes. You figured that Leon is going to show up in something comfortable, as well as it's a movie and game night at your place.

Once everything is settled, you turn on the lamp that's tucked away in your living room and turn the TV on. You start preparing snacks and light meals for you and Leon to eat during the movie. Halfway into preparing the movie snacks and meals, you hear a light knock at the front door.

"Oh, wow, that was quick."

For some reason, it completely slips your mind that Leon lives ten miles from where you live. You jog to the door, unlock and open it to see Leon. In Leon's arm is a bouquet of your favorite flowers, and in his right hand is a small bag that contains various snacks for the night.

"Leon! I'm glad you can make it. Please, come in." You move out of the way for Leon to step into your house.

Leon scans your living room. "Nice place you got here. Looks very cozy." Leon takes his shoes off and hangs his coat on the coat rack. "These are for you. I remember you telling me that they're your favorite, and I wanted to get them for you."

"They're beautiful, Leon. Thank you so much." You take the flowers from Leon's grasp as he hands them to you before wrapping an arm around your waist.

Leon kisses the crown of your head while you lean up to kiss his jaw, feeling his scratchy stubble on your lips. You two stand there for a few minutes, basking in each other's presence, before parting ways. You tell him to get comfortable while you go and put the flowers in a vase. As you're doing that, Leon lays the snacks out on the coffee table and walks to the kitchen, where you're arranging the flowers.

"Do you want me to put the rest of the snacks and food on the coffee table?" Leon asks, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his chin on your shoulders.

You look at Leon over your shoulder as he plants a kiss on the side of your head while lightly squeezing your waist. Maybe it's because you haven't been sexually active in so long, but feeling Leon's chest pressing against your back, his hands on your waist as he kisses the side of your head, is sparking something in you.

You gulp and nod, trying your best not to let your desires get to you. "Yes, please. I'll get us a drink while you're at it! Do you have a drink in mind?"

He shakes his head. "You pick for me, I'm fine with anything."

"Okay."

You and Leon don't move an inch after ending the conversation. The tension in the air seems to get thicker as time ticks by. Hell, you're fine if the movie is completely forgotten and you and Leon start exploring each other's bodies. But it's only been a month, and it's probably too soon to initiate something so intimate.

He presses one last kiss on your cheek before reluctantly pulling away from you to bring the other snacks and food to the living room. You take a deep breath and walk to your fridge, ignoring the intense heat growing in your lower abdomen. You're going to be fine! The movie and game night is going to go smoothly, and Leon is going to want to come back to your house after today! Heck, maybe you'll be going to his house for a date in the future!

You grab the drinks and make your way to the living room, where Leon is searching for a movie to watch on a streaming service you did not remember having a subscription for. You put the drinks on the coffee table along with some napkins, sitting beside him on the couch.

You grab the freshly popped popcorn and open the bag, pouring it into a large bowl. Leon chooses a movie that was released a few months ago and is currently trending on the streaming service. Once the movie starts, you two start cuddling on the couch while eating from the same popcorn bowl. If you remember correctly, the movie received positive reviews from critics and the audience, so it should be captivating, right? Wrong.

Halfway into the movie, you and Leon are completely distracted by each other. The smallest shift draws your attention to each other. Of course, fearing that the other person is focused on the movie, you and Leon didn't do anything. He looks at you from the corner of his eye while you're focused on the screen, and when Leon's attention is on what's happening on the TV, you would peek at him from the corner of your eye.

You and Leon have known each other for a month, you two have gone on many dates together, and would (video) call each other on the phone every night and morning, but you have not kissed on the lips. Yet. There have been multiple occasions where you almost did, but both of you are holding back. The sound of the movie is completely drowned out by how loud your thoughts are.

"I want to kiss him so bad, but is it too early?"

"When is it a good time to kiss someone when you've been seeing them for a month?"

"I am reeking with the desperate need to kiss those lips of his."

"Is Leon a good kisser?"

You shove a handful of popcorn in your mouth while keeping your eyes on the movie. The actors are moving across the screen, saying something, scenery changes, and so does the lighting. But you're not mentally there, you're not processing what's happening in the movie. You eventually switch from a popcorn to the light meal you prepared for the movie.

The movie eventually comes to an end, and Leon ends up putting on some Korean drama, telling you that his daughter, Sherry, suggested he watch it with you when you two get the chance. Apparently, it's very good, but not good enough to keep your attention span. The Korean drama plays in the background while you and Leon bring out the board games, moving the snacks and drinks to the side to make space for the games.

"Do you think Park Juyeon and Kim Minji would end up together?" You mumble, putting down a red number eight card on the stack in the middle.

Leon shakes his head. "Nah, Juyeon is an absolute piece of shit. I hope Minji ends up with Jin instead." Leon slaps down a blue number eight card.

You puff your cheeks, exhaling. "I don't have a blue card."

"Do you have any colored number eight cards?" Leon raises an eyebrow at you before taking a bite out of the bite-sized sandwich.

You mumble, shuffling through the cards in your hands before pulling out cards from the stack. Unfortunately for you, the board game gods hate you because now you have almost fifteen cards in your hands. Leon's fighting back a smile by finishing up the bite-sized sandwich, shaking his head in amusement.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" You mumble, slapping down a random blue card over Leon's card.

Leon nods. "I am, but I'm not enjoying it as much as I enjoy being around you."

You take your eyes off the cards in your hands and peek up at Leon. You and Leon meet each other's eyes, never breaking eye contact. The Korean drama is nothing but background noise (as was the movie you watched previously), and the little game between you and Leon comes to an abrupt end. You quickly look at Leon's lips before looking back up, only to see him still staring at you.

"What's on your mind?" Leon murmurs, leaning towards you.

You slowly blink. "You, you're on my mind," You whisper. "What's on your mind?"

"Funny, I can say the same thing about you," Leon whispers, brushing a stray hair from your face and tucking it behind your ear before looking into your eyes. "You're beautiful, did you know that?"

Heat rushes to your cheeks. "I can say the same about you."

Leon chuckles. "I'm beautiful?"

You nod. "The most beautiful man I've ever laid my eyes on."

By the time you say that, the gap between you and Leon is nearly nonexistent. Leon caresses your face in the palm of his hand before leaning in, the tip of his nose brushing against yours. "May I kiss you?"

You nuzzle your nose against his. "Yes, yes, you may—even though you didn't need to ask for permission to kiss me." You chuckle.

Leon smiles, finally pressing his lips against yours. You wrap your arms around his shoulders, kissing him back. He snakes one arm around your waist and pulls you onto his lap. You're straddling Leon while tangling your fingers in his soft hair.

The Korean drama, card game, snacks, and drinks are forgotten by the time you and Leon finally kissed. After a month of this slow build-up between you and Leon, the tension and desire finally snap, and now you can't get your hands off of him. You two somehow made your way to the couch with Leon hovering over you while you're under him with your legs wrapped around his waist.

Leon breaks the kiss and presses his forehead against yours, breathing heavily. You brush his fringe to the side, completely enamored by Leon and the heated kiss you two shared. You close your eyes, rubbing your nose against his. Would it be a smart idea to tell him to stay the night? It's not like you two are going to do more than kiss—though, if it leads up to that point, then who are you to deny fate?

You take a deep breath. "Can you stay the night?" You whisper, opening your eyes to look at him.

Leon looks almost surprised, but a smile slowly appears on his face. "You want me to spend the night with you?"

"If you want to, of course. It is the weekend, and you and I won't have to get up early for work, and we'll be spending more time together…" You ramble, heat rushing to your cheeks and up to the tip of your ears.

Leon presses a gentle kiss on your lips. "I accept your invitation. It's a good thing I packed a bag just in case." He slowly gets off of you and stretches with a grunt.

You purse your lips, watching the hem of his shirt rise to give you a glimpse of what's underneath his shirt. You force yourself to look away, fixing your disheveled hair. Leon excuses himself and gets off the couch, grabbing his car keys to unlock his car in your driveway as he's leaving your house. You peek from the window and watch him grab his small black duffel bag from the backseat of his car.

Leon returns, shutting the door behind him and taking his shoes off. You can't help but feel giddy over having Leon spend the night (or the entire weekend) at your place. Leon gestures to his bag, wordlessly asking where he should put his belongings. You scramble off the couch and grab his wrist, pulling him to where the bedrooms are.

"You can sleep wherever you're comfortable! I have a guest bedroom," You point to the door on the right, "and my bedroom." You point at the room at the end of the hall.

Leon looks between the two rooms, pretending to debate whether he should stay in the guest room or your bedroom. "Well, after kissing you in the living room, I would like to stay in your bedroom with you." Leon squeezes your hand.

"Oh? Can't get enough of me?" You tease.

Leon pulls you into his arms, kissing your forehead. "Never."

When Leon drops his things off in your bedroom, you and Leon return to the living room to continue your movie and game night. You eventually turn off the Korean drama and turn on your Nintendo Switch, connecting it to your TV. You two spend the next two hours playing Split Fiction together, trying to get through a couple of stages together without dying.

"Wait, go over here." Leon makes his character spin and jump around.

You squint at your screen, trying to get to where Leon is, but you somehow died. "Give me a moment, I'll be there." You comment, having your character try to sprint to where Leon's character is waiting for you.

Eventually, you and Leon stop playing the game and retreat to your bedroom after cleaning up the living room and putting the snacks and drinks away. You went to your bathroom to brush your teeth and get ready for bed, while Leon waited for you to be done so he could use your bathroom. Of course, you tell him that there's another bathroom in the hallway between your bedroom and the guest room, but he said he didn't mind waiting for you to be done.

You complete your nightly routine and exit the bathroom to see Leon looking at the pictures you hung up on the wall. The pictures are of you and your friends traveling around the United States before traveling outside of the USA. Other photos consist of you and your family on a large family trip on the West Coast.

"My turn?" He asks.

You nod, gesturing for him to go use the bathroom and do whatever he needs to do. Leon closes the door behind him, and you climb into bed, getting comfortable. You hear the faucet turn on as you reach for your phone to check your notifications and social media. You start to feel sleepy, your eyes growing heavier as time passes. You rub your eyes, trying not to fall asleep while Leon's in the bathroom.

You eventually plug your phone in and set it on the nightstand as Leon exits the bathroom. Leon climbs into your bed beside you, the bed dipping underneath him. Once he lies down beside you, you cover him with your blanket and snuggle up against him, wrapping an arm around his waist.

"Sleepy?" Leon murmurs, kissing your temples.

You hum, closing your eyes. "I almost fell asleep while waiting for you, but I didn't want to fall asleep early." You mumble.

"Why is that?"

God, his voice is so soothing that it's lulling you to sleep.

You bury the side of your face against his chest. "Because I wanted to see your face before I fall asleep."

As you're drifting to sleep, Leon reaches over to your nightstand and turns off the light. Darkness consumes your bedroom, and the only thing you hear is your and Leon's soft breaths.

Leon kisses the top of your head. "Goodnight, sweet dreams."

You smile. "I hope my dream is about you when I fall asleep."

"Let's meet in the dream world."

The two of you eventually fall asleep beside each other, wrapped up in your fluffy blanket. You and Leon fell asleep with you in his arms, but when you wake up, you find yourself sleeping on your stomach while Leon is draped over you like a heated weighted blanket. The sun peeks through your curtains, making you squint your eyes. You look over at the clock on the wall to see that it's only seven in the morning, a bit too early for your liking, especially on the weekends.

You hear Leon snore softly, his head also lying on the pillow you're lying on. You snicker, peeking up at Leon to see him completely knocked out. You close your eyes, snuggling against him when you feel him tighten his arms around your waist. You close your eyes, letting sleep consume you once more.