Part 4: Happy New Year, Leon
(RE9 Leon Kennedy x Female Reader)
Summary: It's New Year's Eve, you leave on Saturday, and Leon Kennedy just walked out of your mother's party twenty minutes before the ball drops. There's still one thing you've never asked him. And you're running out of time to do it.
Warnings: SMUT, MDNI, unprotected p in v (pls be safer than they are), oral (f receiving), finishing on stomach, age gap (reader in her mid to late twenties, Leon late forties), alcohol, language, brief references to classified work and past trauma, dog recovering from surgery (he's fine, I promise), angst at the end
Notes: Finally got into some much-needed smut in this part! Sorry about the ending - he'll be back, I promise. I also just want to say a huge thank you to everyone reading and supporting this fic so far, it means so much to me and I can't wait to start writing part 5! âĄ
Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Taglist: @mskennedy2 @villain-in-the-dark @leonlover17 @ghostieistiredd @hanscheesecakeuh @lanadelreyylover @frogtape @pinkcatnight @defvia @lysa1201-saucy @aabbssmm @kennedyblues @welcominglychaotic @ang3l-x @naikitties @katluckybear @mandarinaaaas
DM me if you want to be in the taglist!
You had the phone in your hand already.Â
It was a photo of Buddy upside down, in a snowdrift on his back with all four legs in the air, absolutely deranged with joy.Â
You smiled at it longer than youâd ever admit.Â
Leon: he earned nothing. heâs a menace.Â
Dani cornered you that afternoon. She shut your bedroom door with her foot and apologized for her outburst from the night before. You forgave her and you knew she wasnât going to leave your room without giving all of the details from last night. You told her what you could. You didnât tell her about the picture frames or the guns. You just told her that he apologized and that you were both on good terms now.Â
It wasnât even that hard, which surprised you.Â
âSo what are you two now?â Dani asked.Â
âI donât know.â You shrugged.Â
She looked down and grabbed your wrist. âWhere did you get this?âÂ
âHe got it for me.â You said.Â
âWas that last night?âÂ
Dani leaned in, hugging you tight. âI knew it! I knew he still liked you.âÂ
You smiled. âYeah I guess you were right.âÂ
âIâm always right.â She let you go.Â
Your mother sent you across the driveway with a plate of leftovers âfor the neighbor,â like it was nothing, like your heart didnât want to jump out of your chest when his door opened. Buddy lost his mind with his claws scratching at the hardwood. Leon grabbed the plate and leaned on the door frame.Â
âThank you,â he said, smiling.
You walked back home and later that night he messaged you again.Â
Leon: tell your mom the ham was better the second day
You: careful. sheâll adopt you.Â
You texted him good morning and nothing came back.Â
You checked again around noon and still nothing. You hated, absolutely hated that your body still knew the drill: the little check, the Delivered, all the feelings coming back up uninvited. It was like a trained reflex, and almost one good week hadnât untrained it.Â
Finally at six you heard a ding from the kitchen counter.Â
Leon: sorry. emergency vet. buddy ate a sock.Â
He sent a photo of the dog in a cone of shame and the poor thing looked utterly defeated.Â
Leon: no regrets. him or me.Â
You exhaled a laugh at the counter loud enough that your dad looked up from his phone.Â
Leon: heâs fine. thatâs a $3,000 sock nowÂ
You: aww iâm sorry. iâm glad heâs okay though!Â
You: heads up. my mother is planning a new years party and i think sheâs going to invite you
Leon: iâve been briefedÂ
Leon: she brought cookies. there was no saying no
Later, another photo was sent. Buddy was asleep on the couch with his jowls smashed flat against the brown leather. You could see in the corner of the frame the Christmas tree box was leaning where youâd last seen it, still unopened.Â
Leon: when do you fly backÂ
You stared at the message. He hadnât asked you a question like that since July.Â
Three little dots appeared and disappeared. You watched the little gray bubble do its dance.Â
New Yearâs Eve at your parentsâ house was similar to Christmas but with the formality drained out of it. You wore a soft cream colored sweater with a black skirt. Your mother put the nice tablecloth away but still had an unnecessarily large spread on the table. She laid out expensive cheeses and meats with crackers. Candles were placed around with a shiny silvery decoration in the center that said Happy New Year. Confetti was sporadically placed with little disco balls and a few bottles of champagne were placed in a bucket of ice. You begged your mom that only one bottle was needed but she insisted on more.Â
âI canât believe you leave Saturday,â your mother said as she set down the tray of deviled eggs.Â
âMe neither,â you said as you took a bite of cracker with cheese on it. âAt least the next time you see me, Iâll be living here.âÂ
âI know and Iâm so thankful youâre coming back sweetheart,â she smiled and pulled you in for a quick hug.Â
You heard three knocks on the door and Ellie rushed to open it. Leon stood in the doorway with another bottle of wine.Â
He looked at you when you raised your eyebrow at it, "different kind this time, maybe youâll like this one.âÂ
Ellie screamed, âWHEREâS BUDDY?âÂ
He smiled and looked down at her, âhome. Heâs on house arrest. Sock related.âÂ
âWhatâs house arrest?â Ellie questioned sweetly.Â
âItâs when bad dogs need to stay home.âÂ
âOh,â she said with a puzzled look.Â
Your dad pulled him into the living room and handed him a beer. Your mom put a plate together for him without asking and handed it to him. Leon took it anyway. Mason pulled him into another game of Kessel, the rules changed again since last time and, as far as you could tell, changed hourly. Leon lost three hands in a row and the last one on a rule Mason invented mid-hand.Â
Later you went looking for Leonâs wine that he brought. You popped it open and poured a small amount. This time, it didnât taste like shit. So you poured a little more.Â
You pulled Leon to the kitchen to tell him you liked it.Â
âGood,â he said and briefly he looked genuinely relieved.Â
You smiled and looked at the wine bottle on the counter, âdo you want me to pour you a glass?âÂ
Leon shook his head. âNo.âÂ
âDonât you like wine?â You asked, taking a sip.Â
âNot really,â he said.Â
He smiled. âWhiskey.âÂ
âOh,â you smiled too, taking another swig. âYou got a favorite brand?âÂ
âI used to like Wild Turkey.â He paused. âNow I usually go for Buffalo Trace.âÂ
You nodded, holding the glass to your lips.Â
Leon looked at the fridge and back to you, âyou like whiskey?âÂ
You shook your head, âno, not really.âÂ
Leon nodded and smiled at you.Â
âWhat do you like?â He asked.Â
âI like white wine if itâs casual. When Iâm at a bar I usually get a vodka soda. But if the night's going terribly Iâll drink anything.âÂ
âJust not whiskey, though,â he said, playfully nudging your shoulder.Â
âMaybe if Iâm drunk enough.â You laughed.Â
You were happy tonight and the way Leon was looking at you made your heart melt. Though, you wouldnât ever say that out loud.Â
Leonâs phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and you saw the finally happy expression in his face soften.Â
âGotta take this,â he said, and stepped out of the kitchen toward the dining room.
You drifted to the doorway with your wine glass and grabbed a cracker. You placed a piece of cheese and prosciutto on top of it. You took a bite and Leon was standing near the window. He had the phone to his ear and you caught pieces of the conversation over the party noise.Â
â...yeah. I know what day it is.â He laughed. â...Tell him I said thatâs a terrible idea.âÂ
Mid-sentence, his eyes came up and found you and you retreated back to the kitchen.
Leon followed you shortly after. He put his phone back in his pocket, picking up his beer like nothing had happened.Â
âGood call?â you asked.Â
âClaire.â He paused. âA friend.âÂ
âIs she the dark haired girl from the photo you showed me?âÂ
âWho was the guy standing next to you in that picture?âÂ
Leon huffed a laugh, âoh⊠Chris? Thatâs Claireâs brother. Known him for a long time too. Trust me, you donât wanna meet him.âÂ
You furrowed your eyebrows. âWhy not?âÂ
âBecause Claireâs the nice one.âÂ
You smiled and both of you looked down at your drinks.Â
âSo whatâs the job?â Leon asked.Â
You were a little surprised at his question but you answered, âIâm a nurse.âÂ
âThe fifteenth. But Iâll be driving back here a week before.âÂ
âYou nervous? About the move?â Â
You nodded. âA little.âÂ
âYouâll be close to your family.âÂ
âYeah,â you said. âAmong other things.â
Your conversation was interrupted when Josh shouted at the TV. Dick Clarkâs New Yearâs Rockinâ Eve came up loud in the living room. It was some mainstream pop artist mid-song on a stage in Times Square, surrounded by a horde of people who had agreed to stand in the cold for hours on end.Â
âTurn it down,â your mother shouted from the dining room and then you heard a pop from a bottle of champagne that she just opened.Â
Dani groaned. Mason, who was falling asleep on the couch, sat straight up like heâd been plugged in. And Josh knew every word of the song. You watched him sing the entire second verse into a beer bottle, and you were genuinely surprised that a man who dressed like Adam Sandler knew the lyrics by heart.Â
By eleven-thirty, everyone was in the living room surrounding the TV. Your mother handed everyone glasses full of champagne, including you and Leon. Both of you were standing in the back near the staircase and you watched Leon hold his glass without taking a single sip.Â
His arm was down at his side and yours was too, and somewhere in the last few minutes the distance between you had gotten very small. You looked up at him and found that he was already looking down at you â not at the TV, not at the room, at you â and this time you were the one who could have looked away but you didnât and neither did he.Â
Around eleven-forty Leon set the untouched champagne down on the side table. He walked over to your dad and said something quietly to him. Your dad nodded without looking away from the screen. Then he was in the entryway, taking his coat off the hook, and your mother protested:Â
âYouâre not leaving. Itâs twenty minutes till the ball drops!âÂ
âYeah.â He said sliding one arm into his coat. âBuddyâs got about that long before he takes the trash apart.âÂ
âBut youâll miss midnight!âÂ
âIâll hear it from next door.âÂ
He said it jokingly. Your mother laughed and swatted at his arm. She kept insisting on him taking a plate of food home, he declined at first but then accepted. She quickly made him a plate and he opened the door. The cold rolled in across the entryway and he glanced back at you.Â
âHappy New Year,â he said.Â
On the TV a man in a puffer coat was talking about the crowd size. Your mother was distributing her second round of champagne. Josh had found the confetti poppers and was arming the kids with them, which was going to be a problem in fifteen minutes. Dani was standing next to Josh with her head on his shoulder, and your dad was in his chair with Ellie asleep on him again. The whole room ticked forward toward the only moment of the night that mattered.Â
You set your glass down on the dining room table, grabbed your coat off the hook and zipped it up. You slipped your boots on and walked out onto the porch. The cold stung your face and it took the breath out of you on the first step down. Every house on the street was lit up, rooftops lined with warm white and multicolored lights. Somewhere a few blocks away, someone who couldnât wait was already sending up fireworks. Soft thuds and a bloom of gold scattered above the treeline.
The salt crunched under your boots the whole way down the driveway. You stopped at the end of it and looked toward his house. Your chest dropped to the floor. It was so stupid. You knew it was stupid to show up right now. He probably left because he wants to be left alone but yet here you were, going to look for him anyway.Â
You walked down following what looked like to be his footprints on the snow covered sidewalk. Your breath clouded out in front of you white and fast. Behind you, muffled through your parentsâ walls, was the television being turned up louder.Â
You got to his porch, the wooden steps were swept clean. The wreath was still hung on his door. You raised your hand and hesitated once before knocking.Â
Inside you could hear Buddy barking and the scrabble of his claws on the hardwood. Leonâs voice low and unbothered, âhey â heyâ and the deadbolt clicked.Â
The door opened and warmth from inside his house rolled out over you.Â
He had Buddy by the collar, with the cone still around his neck and he was holding him back with little-to-no effort. Leon was mid sentence with the dog when he looked up and saw you.Â
He stared at you with his hand on Buddyâs collar. The porch light was softly shining on his face.Â
In the distance, you could hear muffled yelling and laughing from your parentsâ house. Leon glanced to the side nodding at your parentsâ house and then back at you.Â
âYouâre gonna miss it,â he said.Â
âYou said you could hear from next door.â You paused. âI came to test it.âÂ
He let go of Buddyâs collar and stepped back from the door. He didnât say come in. He just moved out of the way and left the space where heâd been standing.
Buddy sniffed your legs with the plastic cone bumping into your thigh. You crouched down and he shoved what he could of his head into your hands and then he tipped over and rolled onto his back. The cone scraped the floor and his tail wagged with it making a thumping sound every time it hit the ground. There was a shaved patch on his belly, a neat pale rectangle of skin with a tidy row of sutures down the middle.Â
You scratched his chest. âGood boy.â His tail thumped harder.Â
You looked up and Leon was watching you with a look of almost contentedness. Â
Leon crouched and picked him up, cone and all. âCâmon,â he said. âBed.âÂ
He carried him down the hall to his bedroom. You heard the door click, you heard one little scratch and a whine from Buddy, and then Leonâs footsteps coming back down.
He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of whiskey out of the pantry.Â
You sauntered over to the marble-topped island.
He unscrewed the bottle open, poured some into an old-fashioned whiskey glass and he took a sip. He looked at you over the rim of the glass and then held it out.Â
âI told you I donât like whiskey.âÂ
âYou told me you donât like whiskey sober.âÂ
It was almost a joke. You looked at him for a second â his hair a little messy, the glass was held out over the marble like a dare â and then you took it.Â
It smelled like a campfire and tasted worse. You took a tiny sip and it burned down, the same way it did the first time you snuck it out of your dadâs cabinet when you were a teenager.Â
âAnd you drink this for fun?âÂ
You handed the glass back to him and your fingers brushed his as he grabbed it. He tipped it back and drank from the same side of the rim, where your mouth had just been.Â
You traced one of the marble veins on the counter with your pointer finger, âLeon.âÂ
âYeah.â He said, setting the glass down gently.
âThank you.â You glanced up at him.Â
He furrowed his eyebrows. âFor what?âÂ
âEverything. Painting my parents' living room, salting the driveway, Buddyâs collar.â You looked down at your wrist. âThe bracelet. All of it.âÂ
He looked at his glass, turning it slightly on the marble, âDidnât do it for a thank you.âÂ
âI know.â You waited until he looked up. âIâm saying it anyway.âÂ
He nodded once and this might have been the most uncomfortable youâd ever seen him. His jaw worked like he was hunting for something to say and coming up completely empty.Â
â...Your dadâs drivewayâs still holding,â he said finally.Â
âIâm just saying. He should do it again before the next freeze.âÂ
You almost laughed. Heâd rather talk about salting the driveway for the rest of his life than sit with the feeling for more than a few seconds. But you let him have it, because you understood it now. You had spent days watching him say things sideways. You could speak his language fluently at this point.Â
You traced the vein in the marble again.Â
âCan I ask you something?âÂ
âAre you still holding back?âÂ
His hand went still on the glass. âWhat do you mean?âÂ
He knew what you meant because youâd learned every version of his face by now, and this was him buying a few more seconds.Â
âI mean everything you said last time I was here.â Your heart was beating so hard against your chest that you were sure he could hear it across the counter. âNow that distance isnât an issue anymore. The age thing. Does that still bother you?âÂ
He looked straight at you when he answered, âYeah,â he said. âSome days.âÂ
You nodded slowly; it wasnât like you wouldâve believed the other answer.
âI donât get it.â He shook his head slowly. âYou could have anyone your own age. Hell, in twenty years Iâll be almost seventy.â He paused. âDonât you want to be with someone you could spend your whole life with?âÂ
âYou think I havenât thought about that already?âÂ
He didnât have an answer for that but you watched it land on his face. Everything since July came apart, because every version he made up in his head depended on you being a woman who hadnât thought any of it through. But you did. You weighed the pros and cons of everything at two in the morning in your apartment back east more times than you would ever admit to him.Â
âI thought about it in September,â you said. âWhen I applied for the job. I thought about it every single day you didnât answer me.âÂ
âSo donât tell me what Iâm going to want in twenty years.â Your voice came out steadier than you felt. âIâve been doing the math a lot longer than you have.âÂ
He opened his mouth but was interrupted by the sound of people shouting outside. Somewhere in it you could hear Josh, and the kids, and half the street with them.Â
Neither of you looked away from each other.Â
He was looking at you the way he did in your parentsâ kitchen a week ago with the clasp of the bracelet between his fingers.Â
You werenât going to do it.Â
Youâd done all of it tonight. You walked to his house. Youâd knocked. Youâd asked him the question. You were done being the one who moved first.Â
His hand left the glass on the counter.Â
And he walked around the counter.Â
The whole street went crazy â party poppers, neighbors shouting, and fireworks booming up over all of it, muffled and a whole world away.Â
Leonâs hand came up under your jaw. He touched you like you were something delicate, thumb along your cheekbone and tipping your face up. He kissed you slowly. Like he was checking. Like some part of him was still standing on the other side of that counter running the numbers one last time.Â
You decided he had enough time thinking about it all and you grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him in.Â
He came forward off-balance, one hand catching the edge of the counter behind you, and whatever heâd been holding onto since July left him all at once. You felt it go. His careful hand at your jaw slid back into your hair, and the second one landed on your waist and stayed, and he kissed you like a man whoâd stopped negotiating.Â
You couldnât get close enough. You were up on your toes and it wasnât enough. His mouth was warm and tasted like whiskey. You moaned softly into the kiss that youâd been thinking about for months.Â
He heard it and his hand tightened at your waist.Â
Then he broke off, pulling away barely an inch, his forehead coming down against yours, both of you breathing heavy.Â
âDonât,â you said. âDonât do the thing where you talk yourself out of it.âÂ
He huffed something that was almost a laugh, you could feel his breath against your mouth, and then his hands went to the backs of your thighs. He lifted you onto the counter like you weighed nothing at all.Â
The marble was freezing on the back of your thighs but you didnât care. He stepped in between your knees and you got both hands into his hair and pulled him back down. His hands were braced on either side of you, nowhere to go and nothing left to hide behind.
Outside, over the neighborhood, the fireworks kept going. Down the hall, Buddy was barking his head off at the noise but neither of you cared.Â
Leonâs mouth left yours to trail his lips along your jaw and the soft scrape of his stubble made you shiver. He kissed down the side of your neck, lingering where your pulse was, then opened his mouth and sucked gently. The heat of him blooming under your skin. He nibbled softly at your earlobe and his breath warm against the shell of your ear.Â
He answered you by pulling your cream sweater off. You lifted your arms so he could pull it over your head, the soft fabric brushed against your face before it dropped somewhere behind him. His hands settled at your waist with his thumbs brushing your bare skin above your skirt before you reached for him in return. You unbuttoned his shirt one by one and pushed it off his shoulders. He stepped back only long enough to unbuckle his belt and shove his pants down, kicking them aside.Â
He moved between your legs again, leaning in until the hard length of him pressed against the thin barrier of your panties. He rolled his hips once, grinding the thick ridge of his cock against your clothed pussy. The friction drew a soft moan from your throat. He panted close against your ear.Â
He kissed between your still-covered breasts, then peppered lighter ones upwardâacross your chest, along the column of your throat, over your chinâuntil his mouth found yours again. While he kissed you he reached down and tugged your skirt over your hips, letting it slide to the floor. Your palm found the shape of him through his boxers, squeezing gently, and he moaned softly into your mouth.Â
You slipped your fingers beneath his waistband, easing the fabric down just far enough to free him. His cock sprang warm and heavy into your hand. You stroked him slowly from base to tip, feeling him twitch against your palm. He kissed you deeper in response, his tongue slid against yours, while his free hand slipped between your legs and rubbed slow circles over your still-clothed clit.Â
âTake them off,â you whispered against his mouth.Â
He pulled back just enough to look at you, a small, crooked smile tugging at the corner of his lips. âCanât wait for me, huh?âÂ
You shook your head, breath unsteady. âIâve waited long enough.âÂ
His smile softened and he hooked his fingers into the sides of your dark red panties and pulled them down your legs. Then he knelt down and his warm hands parted your legs. He pressed open-mouthed kisses up the inside of your thigh, he kept going higher until his tongue finally dragged over your exposed slit. It was soft and wet, with his stubble scratching the inside of your thighs. He licked again, then closed his lips around your sensitive bud and sucked gently while his hand wrapped around his own cock, stroking in time with the slow pull of his mouth.Â
When he looked up, his lips were glistening with his spit and your slick. He stood up, kissed you deeply so you could taste yourself on his tongue, and guided the tip of his cock into your entrance. He pushed in slowlyâinch by inchâuntil he was fully inside you. The stretch drew a long, trembling moan from your throat.Â
Leon fucked you the way he kissed you: slow, careful, every stoke deliberate. One of his hands slid underneath your bra and his palm covered your breast. He brushed his thumb over your nipple as he rolled his hips. He kissed across your chest and back to your mouth again. After a while his hand left your breast and found its way between your bodies. He had two fingers perfectly circling your clit in a steady and perfect rhythm with the thrusts of his cock.Â
The dual sensation made your head spin and it kept building until it finally broke. Your orgasm rolled through you in warm, shaking waves; you clenched around him, gasping his name. He kept moving through it, slower and deeper. The intensity of every thrust after you came made your thighs tremble.Â
âYouâre so tight,â he whispered against your mouth.Â
His rhythm grew less controlled with his hips snapping against you a little harder. When he was close he pulled out and wrapped a fist around himself. He stroked a few times more before he came across your stomach in warm white stripes. He braced himself over you afterward, you both were breathing hard, and he rested his head against yours.Â
âFuck,â he whispered.Â
You tipped your face up to kiss him and then cupped his jaw. He nuzzled into your palm, eyes half-closed.Â
You smiled. âThat was amazing.âÂ
He kissed you again with the corner of his mouth curving up. âYeah.â He laughed quietly. âIt was.âÂ
Leon peeled himself away and stood in front of you. You let your eyes travel over his broad shoulders, the dusting of hair on his chest, the curve of his abs, and the still-half-hard length of him. You could feel a fresh wave of heat in your stomach reappearing. You almost forgot how incredibly sexy he was.Â
He held out a hand. âCome on.âÂ
You grabbed his hand and slid off the counter. Your legs wobbled the second your feet touched the floor and nearly fell over. His arm wrapped around you instantly.Â
âI got you,â he said, lifting you, one arm under your knees, the other around your back. âLetâs get cleaned up.âÂ
He carried you down the short hall into his bedroom. When he opened the door Buddy scrambled across the hardwood with his tail wagging furiously.Â
âLay down,â Leon said firmly. The dog obeyed, sulking over to the dog bed in the corner and collapsing onto it.Â
Leon set you gently on the bathroom floor and reached into the large glass shower to turn the water on. His bathroom looked nice just like the rest of the house. Soft white tile, black fixtures, a vanity in the same wood as his kitchen. There was not much on his counter other than a razor and a bottle of hand soap. The shower had two shower heads and the steam began to rise almost immediately.Â
You took your bra off. He stepped under one shower head and you followed him under the other. Leon tipped his head back under the water. It cascaded down the lines of his body, tracing every muscle, and you felt your cheeks get warm all over again. You turned your face away, suddenly shy, as if the two of you hadnât been fucking only a few minutes earlier.Â
Leon laughed quietly. âDonât get all shy on me now.âÂ
He crossed the short distance between you and reached his arms around you from behind. He pressed a slow kiss to your shoulder.Â
âIâm not,â you said and you leaned back into the solid warmth of him.Â
âYouâre blushing.âÂ
âItâs just the water.âÂ
He moved a wet strand of your hair out of the way and kissed your neck. âMhm.âÂ
You closed your eyes and relaxed into him. He lightly traced his finger against the bruise on your side. âLooks like itâs healing well.âÂ
âThanks, doctor.â You smiled.Â
You wrapped one of his towels around yourself and padded out down the hall, leaving wet footprints on his floors, and found the kitchen the way you two had left it.Â
The whiskey glass on the counter, your clothes and his sprawled out on the floor. Your boots by the door. The plate your mother had sent home with him, foil still on, sitting untouched by the sink.Â
Your phone was on the island where youâd set it down last and you checked the time. It was 1:14 in the morning and you had four messages from Dani.Â
Dani: are you with Leon???
Dani: mom asked where you went. told her you felt sick from the champagne and went to bed.Â
Dani: iâm going to bed. love you. be safe. đÂ
You laughed softly out loud.Â
You: i love you. Iâll be back later
You were still typing when Leonâs phone went off on the counter.
It was in the corner of your eye, face up and the screen lit up.Â
+1 (202) â 1 new messageÂ
Confirm receipt. Wheels down Dulles 1300. Briefing package to folâ
The rest of the message was cut off by the screen.Â
You stood there in your towel with your own phone in your hand. You did the math and heâd have to leave before the sun came up.
The shower was still running down the hall and you had no idea what briefing package meant. You thought about the room upstairs, the cases along the wall and the way he said he mostly still worked for the government. The water shut off and you put your phone face-down on the island, next to his. You turned around and leaned back against the counter with your arms crossed over the towel.Â
Leon walked down the hall with a towel wrapped around his hips and his hair pushed back wet.Â
He stopped a few feet into the kitchen. He was staring at you against the counter with your arms crossed. Your phone face-down on the island and his lying next to it.Â
He walked across the kitchen and picked his phone up. He looked at it and swiped the screen once. Then he set it back down on the marble, face-down.Â
âI have to leave in a few hours,â he said.Â
âYou can stay. If you want.â He paused. âIâd like you to stay.âÂ
He came over and put his arms around you. You stood there in his kitchen with your face against his chest and his chin on the top of your head. You both stood there for a while. The refrigerator hummed. His hand moved slowly up and down your back.Â
âCâmon,â he said into your hair. âLetâs go to bed.âÂ
He gave you a t-shirt and a pair of boxers out of his dresser. His shirt came halfway down your thighs and it smelled like his laundry detergent and, faintly, like him. He changed too â a plain t-shirt, boxers â you got a brief look at him, at the scars you didnât let yourself study in the shower, before he pulled the shirt down over them.
You got into his bed and so did he. He reached over and pulled you against him. You kissed him for what felt like a long time. His hand stayed at the small of your back under the shirt. At some point you ended up half on top of him, hair falling in both of your faces and him huffing a laugh into your mouth about it.Â
You kept checking the clock on the nightstand. It went from 2:04, and then 2:40.
âWhat day do you leave?â he asked.Â
You were lying with your head on his chest, listening to him say it through his ribs.Â
He was quiet for a second before asking, âcan you watch Buddy while Iâm gone?âÂ
âHeâs easy,â Leon said. âTwo walks, food in the morning and night, and his medicine twice a day.â He paused. âYouâd be doing me a favor.âÂ
You looked at him in the dark. You knew what he was actually asking. And you knew he wasnât going to say it out loud, because he never did.Â
âYeah,â you said. âOf course.âÂ
His hand flattened against your back. âThanks.âÂ
You put your head back down. âWait. Who watches him after I leave?âÂ
âNeighbor girl does it.âÂ
You lifted your head again. âNeighbor girl?â
Leon huffed a laugh, âsheâs sixteen, donât worry.âÂ
âIâm not worried.âÂ
He kissed you on the forehead and pulled you back down against him. You could feel him laughing about it, silently, next to your ear.
You spent the little time you had left together like that. Talking, mostly. His fingers moving absently through your hair. The heat kicked on and off. Buddy was snoring in the corner.Â
Sometime after three you were almost asleep, your face was against his shoulder, his hand still moving slowly through your hair.Â
âI missed you,â he said into the dark and quiet room, like he wasnât sure whether he wanted you awake for it.Â
You thought about the other day. Those three little dots appearing and disappearing while you sat on your own bed waiting for a sentence that never came. You wondered if it had been this one.Â
âI missed you too,â you said.Â
His arm tightened around you, and he pressed his mouth to the top of your head and left it there for a while.Â
At four he got up out of bed.Â
You lay on your side, watching him pack, and it was the worst part of the night.Â
He was quick. His bag was already half packed. He moved around the bedroom in the dark without turning on any lights, pulling things from drawers and he never once hesitated grabbing a single item. He set everything in his bag like a man who had done this five hundred times.Â
You watched him become somebody else in his own bedroom, and he wasnât even trying to.Â
He came back from the bathroom dressed. He had on a black compression shirt, dark coat, and cargo pants. He looked the way he did on your parentsâ driveway a week ago, when you almost didnât recognize him.Â
âHey,â he whispered.Â
You were sitting on the edge of his bed in his t-shirt with your knees pulled up.Â
He came over and crouched in front of you and pressed something into your hand.Â
It was a key. His house key.Â
âFor Buddy,â he said.Â
âHis foodâs in the pantry, Iâll leave the medicine out on the counter, and the vetâs numberâs on the fridge.â He said it like a checklist. âDonât let him go upstairs.âÂ
You closed your hand around it.Â
He didnât tell you when he'd be back and you didnât ask. That was how this was going to work now and it started tonight.Â
He stood, and leaned down to kiss you. His lips pressed against yours softly and his hand cupped the side of your face.Â
âGo back to sleep,â he said.Â
But you knew you couldnât go back to sleep. Not now. You put his hoodie on over his t-shirt and you went out to the living room. You stood at the window and watched him back the Porsche out of his driveway at four-thirty in the morning.Â
The taillights went to the end of the street and turned right. Then it was just nothing but the empty snow-covered street. And you were standing in his house, in the dark, with his dog asleep in Leonâs room. His key was still in your fist and his side of the bed was still warm, on the first morning of the new year.Â