Work Text:
You sought an interest in criminology for as long as you can remember. Your parents supported you through your dream career and even sent you to a good college locally. Within a few years after completing college and finally receiving your Bachelor degree, within a month, you were offered a job at the Racoon City Police Department.
For the next couple of months, your job consisted of analyzing criminal case activities in a lab and studying the behaviors. It was a lot of work going through case after case and spending hours on each. Although it tired you out, you still enjoyed it, nonetheless. Every day it felt like something interestingly new happened. And in fact, it did.
You noticed a young individual who seemed to arrive near the same time as you did every morning. He looked to be around your age. Brownish hair, blue eyes, and an enthusiastic demeanor whenever you could catch a glimpse of him.
You see him from time to time while on the job. Majority of your colleagues are a bit older than you, and the mysterious guy you see every morning looks to be the same age as you. You thought perhaps if you catch him during your lunch break, maybe you have the chance to introduce yourself.
Around the late afternoon, you left your small office area to escape the overwhelming amount of case files that was dropped off on your desk that morning and went to the break room. Upon arriving was when you saw him sitting alone amongst another table filled with several of your colleagues chatting away. You grabbed your lunch out of the fridge, heat it, and walked over to him. With a couple of gentle taps on the gentleman's shoulder, he looks away from his food and looks up at you.
"Hi. I saw that you were sitting by yourself. I thought maybe you could use a little bit of company. That is if you don't mind me joining you." You grinned in hopes he would relax from being startled.
"Oh, not at all!" He accidentally talks with a mouthful of food. He extends his hand out to the empty chair across from him.
You sat down across from him, opening your leftovers from last night. You watch him wipe his mouth before returning to his food to take another bite. "I see you nearly every morning and it dawned on me as to why I haven't introduced myself then. I'm Y/N. I started working here a couple of months ago." You began to dig into your leftovers.
"Leon." He swallows the last bit of his food. "I started working here a couple of months ago myself. I joined the police academy because I wanted to be out in the community helping people." You could tell by the expression on his face that he was happy to find someone else his age around the police department.
You took another bite from your food. "That's sweet. Me, I went to college to become a criminologist. Its something I've been interested in for a long time. My job is to find out more about the crime and a lot of studying. Nothing interesting, really."
"By the sound of it, it must be quite a bit because of all of the cases you have to dig through. Has there been one that's interested you the most?" Leon rests his arms on the table, leaning towards you as if you're about to tell the most gruesome yet intriguing homicide case.
You shook your head. "Not yet. A lot of them have the same situations: Murders, shootings, and suicides. Its been about the same thing ever since I started working."
"Have you ever been to a crime scene? What's it like?" Leon spoke a bit fast as the tone of his voice sounded eager to know more about you.
You take the last bite from your food and put away the empty container. "No. I haven't been to one either." You slightly frown. "That's why I became a criminologist. I'd rather be out and about than skimming through case after case for eight hours a day." A long sigh comes out from you as you lean back into the uncomfortable chair.
"That's what's going on for me too at the moment." Leon's shoulders slump. "Just dozens of cases." His eyebrows furrow with an expression of annoyance. He pauses for a moment and looks up at you, returning to you with a smile of hope on his face. "However, my colleague is impressed with how I've been handling all the work. Hopefully, they'll put a word in for Irons about me."
You returned a smile. "I'm sure you'll get promoted sooner or later and maybe for me too." You glanced down at your watch. Your break was over. "As much as I'd like to chat with you a longer, my break is over." You stood up and grabbed your empty container. "It was nice meeting you, Leon. Maybe we'll see each other around?"
"Oh yeah. Absolutely. It was nice seeing you too!" He cleans up his food. "Good luck with your job, Y/N."
(One Month Later)
The long exhausting hours and the amount of work you've put into each case made you forget about Leon. As a month passed by and sure enough, you were invited to a crime scene investigation outside of work. Upon hearing it, a huge grin appears on your face. You were happy for once. Then you thought about Leon. Did he ever get his offer?
You went through the last few case files before your shift was over. Some of your colleagues have already left for the day. A tired yawn escapes from you as you toss the last folder on your desk. You rest your elbows on your desk to close your eyes for a minute to finally relax after a long week of office work.
"Excuse me?" You could feel a familiar presence stand over your little box office. "Don't you know that its after hours?"
Your eyes snap open. Slightly irritated by the person who interrupted you for a moment of peace and quiet. You look up at the person who bothered you. Your expression quickly switches when you realize it was Leon who disturbed you.
"Oh gosh! I thought you were someone else, Leon. I'm sorry." You cover your face from the embarrassment.
Leon rests his arm on top of your office wall and leans against it. "No worries. I can tell how tired you are."
"Oh yes." You rub both of your tired eyes. "Lots and lots of work." You reach over to your desk to turn off your lamp and stand up. You saw Leon was not in his usual police uniform but a casual dark button-up shirt with a jacket and jeans and tennis shoes. "I see that you came in on your day off."
Leon adjusts his stance to look down at his clothes and back to you. "Actually, I got off twenty minutes ago. Just thought it would be nice to go ahead and change into something more comfortable after being in uniform all day."
"Wish I brought an extra set of clothes with me. You have no idea how badly I want to slip into my pajama pants." You laugh to yourself. "Anyways...What brings you here to my office after hours when you got off work a while ago?"
Leon hesitates. "Well, I've been meaning to mention it sooner, but I haven't seen you around for a while. But yesterday I ran into one of your colleagues and asked where your office was. They gave me directions which lead me here...And..." He dithers on trying to get to the point.
You cross your arms with a smirk on your face as you patiently wait for Leon to finish his sentence when you had the feeling of what he was about to say next. "Go on. There's nothing to be nervous about."
He laughs nervously. "Y/N, I came here to ask you if you would like to go out with me for lunch tomorrow. I'm off all day and I'd like to get to know you more than just someone I run into at work."
"Lucky for you I'm off tomorrow as well."
"So, it's a date then? Tomorrow at one?" He beams.
You nod. "It's a date, Leon."