( for comfort )
( what I've become )
( don't be afraid )
( being on the other side *hurts* )
( in the aftermath )
(buffy and gibbs both posted someone as one of Leon’s neighbors)
“I mean, I get it, wanting to protect you, but you’re a grown man who can handle himself and—stop waggling your eyebrows at me, I’m trying to be mad on your behalf that apparently everyone I know can’t treat you like a mature adult.”
“They might have a reason to think I’m immature,” Leon points out reasonably, before adding, “And as annoying as it is, it’s probably going to come in useful now.”
“Argh.”
( in the words of admiral ackbar, it's a trap )
Most of Ashley’s existence is pain, right now. It’s hard to tell how long it’s been, but it feels like one or both grabbed her, like she’s on Leon’s couch right now.
“Babe. What’s that.” She can’t even be mad at the cutesy nickname. It feels like she’ll never be warm again.
The other—Redgrave, that’s it—sounds confused. “Oh, uh. Huh. That’s a thing that happened. You can bandage it in a bit. If I’m right, this is big, Leon. I don’t think it can wait.”
Ashley’s head is killing her. She whimpers.
“But she broke your hand.” She did what? It’s not like he has to shout.
“It’ll heal.” It’s too flippant, and she half wants to scold him, but she’s out again.
( Ashley's in the mood to be annoyed by everything )
( forgotten outing )
Leon can tell when Boren finally comes around, because there’s a sticker with the words ‘Proud Monsterfucker’ sitting on his desk. When the guy comes to the break room for some coffee, he just raises an unimpressed eyebrow.
“Hey, it’s accurate,” his squadmate protests, but claps him on the shoulder. “You don’t have to be ashamed of it.”
He sighs. “Do you seriously have no sense of appropriate time and place?” He wouldn’t even mind, too much, except given what they work with that’s way too easy to misread and Boren knows it.
“Nope,” the guy says cheerfully, even though they both know that’s a lie or at least three people would have been hounding Leon on the way up. “Special ordered that and everything.”
That’s touching, in a very warped way. The agent decides to tuck it into the corner of the frame of the picture of himself and Xander on his desk—that way, it’s easy to put in his desk if there’s an inspection or something. He is absolutely going to go with the fact that Boren assumed that all relationships are sexual pretty quickly, or it’s really going to start bothering him how he even knows.
“You could carry me.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
Xander glances at him, wry and serious and flirty but most of all exhausted. “No, I was being serious. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll stay upright and being in your arms is, well. I like it.”
tag: title is not a joke, this is your warning the feels train is approaching
( (they can) )
Vaguely referencing speculations I had from the DMC5 trailer which may not be canon because no I haven’t gotten there yet :(
Morrison is by far the most helpful, not that Dante finds that a surprise. He’d managed to narrow down Xander’s last known location, which is, oddly enough, in Washington DC, but had also passed along that he hadn’t been seen in two weeks. He’d occasionally leave, presumably to go on missions assigned to him by his “benevolent” captors, but they didn’t usually last that long. He’d also been seen in company with governmental types, and while Dante isn’t particularly the type to go messing with any bureaucratic nonsense, he’s also not particularly in the mood to be stopped by anything at this particular point in time, so he’s going to be smart about it and let Lady and Trish plan most of it and isn’t going to go hacking everything apart or setting it on fire no matter how much he wants to do that.
Nero had sensed something wrong because he’s never seen Dante wound this tight, but he just ends up sniping at his nephew not to get involved. He knows that’s not the end of it; the kid’s just as stubborn and maybe he’d have more of a card to play if he’d ever actually gotten around to admitting that he knows the kid’s family. (It’s hard to tell if Nero suspects, because the kid’s bright, too, and had clearly inherited some of Verg’s brains, but even if he does that probably hasn’t earned him much more in the way of authority because if he has Nero’s waiting for Dante to actually speak up, which, well, now is not the time.) He does stop asking, but it’s only a temporary reprieve. Given that they’re moving sometime in the next couple days when Trish has everything in place, though, hopefully they’ve got time, and maybe after this crisis the Son of Sparda can actually work up the courage.
( the Watchers and Willy continuing to make everyone's lives difficult )
“Welcome back, Le—” Xander just stops talking halfway through his sentence, because he’s actually taking in Leon’s appearance at this point.
Leon manages a wry smile. “That bad, huh?”
Xander doesn’t respond, just rushes at him and pulls him into a tight embrace, and Leon laughs a little, guilty. He knows how worrying sucks from his end, and he’s been trying not to make Xander do that.
“I swear, I’ve been trying. You know I’ve been trying.” He’s not going into detail on the how or where, and Hunnigan would actually fight for him, so he figures he’s allowed. “One of those big bastards got the drop on me. I swear I’ve got no idea how they manage to be so quiet. The sling should only stick around for a day or two, according to the doc, with my Weapon X-style healing.” At least he’d gotten to shower in between.
That does manage to provoke a snort, but Xander doesn’t move from where he’s clinging on for dear life, and Leon feels his own carefully cheerful mood beginning to crack.
“Much as I enjoy and agree with the idea, babe, at least let me get into some nice cozy pajamas and then I’m all yours.” Cuddling doesn’t fix everything, but at least it might keep the nightmares at bay, just for a little while.
At this Redgrave smiles a little shyly. It’s not much, but it’s something. “Already got them out on your bed.” Nice, having a guy who knows just how he likes it.
He doesn’t realize he accidentally said that out loud until Xander splutters, grinning but beet red, and practically shoves him out of the room.
( airing out the awkward )
The silence is awkward. Very awkward. On Ashley’s part, it’s because she wasn’t expecting this guy to be here. What’s his excuse?
Finally, he dares break the silence, sitting on the other end of the couch and gesturing halfheartedly at the TV. “Do you play video games?” he asks hopefully.
She does, Mario Party and Mario Kart and other common college games, and maybe she should say yes, but she doesn’t really feel like it right now and it seems highly irresponsible for a guy playing her bodyguard to be distracted like that. “No.”
“...Oh.” The response and pause are so put out she almost backtracks because she feels guilty before she remembers that this guy is weirding her out and therefore she doesn’t actually care about that. “I think, as is required by US Common Law, Leon’s got a Monopoly set we could torture each other with and truly become frenemies, following the ancient tradition.”
Maybe he is actually Leon’s friend and not someone who’s going to kidnap her the minute her father and the Secret Service are far away enough not to stop it, because that brand of weird things people say out of the blue is very Leon. She softens her stance a little—she’s still grumpy, but maybe she shouldn’t be taking it out on this guy. “I have to work on my thesis.” She’d been interrupted while doing that to begin with.
Redgrave winces. “That’s almost just as bad, but sure, lay it on me.” He’d...agreed to that awfully quickly.
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