Work Text:
June 12, 2023
Charleston, South Carolina
2:46 am
Leon woke in darkness to a cold bed.
She left.
The pain of it still pierced his heart. If anything it was getting harder. Especially since, these last few years, when he did get to fall asleep beside Ada he would more often than not wake with her still beside him. The thrill of finding her warm, softly breathing body next to his in bed could carry him through the long weeks and months of their next separation.
But now, she had left.
Or had she?
He was in a hotel room, and the door to the attached verandah was ajar. The curtains wafted gently in the breeze.
Leon got up.
And there she was, leaning against the railing, wrapped in a black silk bathrobe. A glass of amber liquid in one hand.
For a moment he just looked at her. The span of her shoulders, the curve of her beautiful muscled ass. Her hair, short and tousled. He knew—but she didn't know that he knew—that she dyed it. Ten years ago, long before he'd known what it was like to wake up with her warmth still on his skin, he'd watched her sleep in a hotel bed not unlike this one and found a single silver hair amidst the midnight black, gleaming in the moonlight. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
It was old habit, by now, to scan the city skyline for snipers before stepping outside. It barely elevated his pulse. She turned her head slightly as he slid into place beside her.
"Hi, handsome."
"Can't sleep?"
She gave a little rueful smile, shook her head.
He nodded. He knew the feeling. For a moment they just looked out at the sleeping city beneath them. It was a cool summer night and Leon was shirtless. He could fish out his tee shirt from where it lay on the floor by the bed, but decided he liked the feeling of the breeze on his sleep-warm skin.
Ada offered him her glass. Leon considered, then gestured no with one hand. He didn't drink as much when Ada was around. He didn't need it.
"Which one?" he asked her. He didn't mean the alcohol. Raccoon City, Spain, the E.S.R., Lanshiang. Something from her past she hadn't told him yet, whose scars she kept between herself and her nightmares.
But she shook her head. "I was doing some thinking."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah." Ada glanced at him, then turned her eyes back out to the skyline. "You said to me once, you didn't think your life would turn out like this."
"Well, I didn't have 'zombie outbreak' on my rookie cop bingo card."
"That wasn't what you meant."
A chill seeped into Leon's chest. Maybe the night was colder than he thought. "It wasn't?"
"You wanted a normal life. White picket fence. Big slobbering dog. Kids. A wife." Ada's gaze was calm but penetrating. "Didn't you?"
"I… I mean, sure, when I was twenty. When I thought normal was…"
"Possible?"
"I guess." He frowned. "Is this what you lost sleep over?"
"You still could have had those things," she persisted. "After you left STRATCOM." Her calm, ruthlessly neutral tone was starting to get under his skin.
"Well, I had other things on my mind."
Ada crossed her arms. "Do you have regrets, Leon?"
"You know I do." Then it hit him. "But not about you."
The look she shot him called bullshit.
Leon scoffed, annoyed. "OK, a few about you."
A long, tense beat. Then they both chuckled softly.
"...I don't regret taking that bullet for you," Leon said.
She arched her eyebrow, disbelieving. "Not anymore?"
He grinned at her and shrugged. "Not anymore."
She smiled back, but her smile was a little sad. A little distant. The cold in Leon's belly spread.
"I care about you, Leon." She tossed it off as if it was casual, but he could see deep gleaming wells in her dark eyes. "I want you to have the things you want."
"Ada," he murmured. "Don't do this."
"No, listen to me." She was facing him fully now, one hand on the railing. Her jaw set. "You need to know… I don't sign contracts. I can't legally buy property in the United States. I don't like dogs. And I don't want another parasite growing inside of me, ever again."
He just watched her. Jaw clenched. Braced for the blow.
"...But if you wanted to give me a ring," she said. "I'd wear it. And I'd give you one, too. If you'd wear it."
Leon froze. Was she—he'd thought she was—but was was this really—
"Are you proposing to me?"
The look she gave him was scathing. "Don't push it, rookie."
Leon leaned out over the railing and laughed, incredulous, disbelieving. He shook his head. "What's your ring size?"
Ada's lips quirked. "Six. What's yours?"
"I got no idea."
"And you'll wear it?"
He put his hand over hers. Squeezed. "Course I'll wear it." Their shoulders met. Leon dipped his head and she met him for a kiss. Soft, tender. Sweet. When it broke, he put his arm around her shoulder and they rested their foreheads together. "...Might have to take it off in the field," he added. "Regulation."
"I see," Ada said drily.
"What, you want me to get my finger ripped off?"
"I don't want anything, I'm doing this for you."
"Yeah, yeah." He leaned down for a kiss but Ada, play-mad, turned aside so it landed on her cheek. He nibbled her ear. "I'll carry it on my belt until I can wear it again."
Ada fisted his hair and wrapped her other arm around him, her hip still resting against the railing. "I like that."
"You like that?"
"I do."
"Good to know." For a moment Leon kept his other hand on the railing, playing it casual, knowing it would make her smirk and roll her eyes. But when she tugged on his hair, slid her other hand up against his bare chest and kissed him, deep and heated, he couldn't help but hold her as tight as he could.
"Let's go ring shopping," he murmured into the crook of her neck. "First thing in the morning."
She chuckled. "OK. But first…"
"First…" Leon picked Ada up, one hand on the beautiful curve of her ass, and carried her back inside.