Work Text:
Silence filled the dusty room, only the mumblings of an older drunk man being heard throughout. The room was dark, only the dim light from the bar illuminated the rest of the room. Dust particles ascended in the air as if the place hadn’t been clean or occupied in years despite how frequent people attended this dive bar. At the bar, an older and ruggedly handsome man sat on a stool, waving his hands in the air as he blabbered on and on about God knows what.
“You really think there’s hope in humanity if bad things are always happening? Sure, you throw that bastard in prison for doing something bad… but it’s a cycle that’ll never end, don’t you think? Why do I keep fighting if it’ll never end?” Leon rambled, his eyes half-lidded.
“Sure, man,” the bartender nodded, wiping down the wooden counter.
There was a brief pause.
“Hey, I asked you for some more whiskey like twenty minutes ago. Where is it?” Leon asked, his eyebrows pinching together.
“Man, I’ve been telling you that we’ve been closed for over an hour now. You overstayed your welcome. You can get the hell out of here or I’ll call the cops,” the bartender spoke, throwing the towel over his small shoulders.
The fawn-haired man scoffed, rubbing his tear-duct with his finger and yawning. “Call the cops, my boss, whoever you’d like, kid.”
“Your boss…?” the bartender questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“The president of the United States of fucking America,” Leon mumbled, crossing his arms over the counter and resting his head in them.
“Right…” the bartender replied, unconvinced.
Soon enough, darkness engulfed Leon’s vision — the lack of consciousness taking over.
The raven-haired woman walked over to the entrance of the dive bar, each step filled with determination. She tried pulling the door open, but it was locked. She peeked inside through the glass, seeing a young bartender rearranging stuff behind the bar while Leon was passed out, his head resting in his arms on the counter. The woman rolled her eyes, knocking on the glass to grab the bartender’s attention.
Eventually, the bartender made his way over. He was a very skinny, frail college kid, around the same height as her — if not shorter. The poor kid couldn’t physically remove Leon from the bar even if he wanted to.
“You’re Ada?” the bartender asked as he opened the door.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Ada replied, stepping into the dusty place.
He led her over to the bar. “Sorry to have bothered you. I didn’t wanna actually call the cops on him. Poor guy seems to be going through something and I didn’t want to add to his list of troubles.”
Ada didn’t want to question why the bartender called her out of everyone in Leon’s contact list. Maybe the bartender called everyone in his contacts but no one responded.
“It’s fine, I was in the area anyway. I’m sorry about any issues he caused.” Ada stepped closer to Leon.
“Lady, you need to put your boyfriend on a leash. He’s very expressive with his hands.”
Ada glanced over at the bartender, her eyebrows pinching together. “Did he hurt anyone?”
The bartender waved her off. “No, but he almost whacked me a few times by accident, that’s for damn sure.”
That’s what Ada thought. Leon wouldn’t hurt any innocent humans no matter how drunk he was. She gently placed her hand on Leon’s back before looking at the bartender again.
“Did he pay yet?” she asked.
“Only partial.”
Ada reached into her pocket for her wallet. She pulled it out and opened it, grabbing a random amount of cash. Ada quickly counted it before handing it over to the bartender, who stared in awe at the wad of cash.
“This should cover it all. Keep the change too,” Ada spoke with no emotion.
“Thank you,” the bartender replied, trying to contain his smile. It seemed like this poor college kid had never seen this amount of money in his life before.
With that, Ada moved her hand to Leon’s shoulder and started shaking him. After a few seconds, she put more aggression in her shakes, which finally woke Leon up. He swiftly lifted his head up, startled, his eyes half-lidded.
“Whaaat?” he groaned.
Leon rubbed his eyes, as if he had just woken up from a deep slumber. He looked at the bartender, who stood there staring at him with a blank expression on his face. The fawn-haired man rolled his eyes before turning around, seeing a familiar woman standing there. Leon’s body stiffened up at the sight of her. The woman’s hand was on her hip, her head tilted, looking like a mother who was about to give her badly behaved child a mouthful.
“Ada!” Leon exclaimed.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” she spoke, pointing her chin toward the door.
Leon placed his hands on the edge of the counter to study himself as he stood up, only to stumble back onto the stool. Ada loudly sighed, walking closer to him. She grabbed his phone, which was on the counter, muttered something about how he shouldn’t forget his phone, and shoved it into his back pocket. Ada grabbed his arm, wrapping it around her shoulder to keep him steady as they walked.
After a minute or two, they finally made it to Ada’s car. Leon leaned against the car as Ada opened the door for him, and as he was getting in, he bumped his head on the roof of the car. He winced and Ada rolled her eyes before making sure he was buckled in. Then, she made her way toward the driver’s side. She opened the door, got in, and loudly slammed the door shut, startling Leon. This was not how her Friday night was supposed to go.
Ada was in the city for work. She actually had a rough few days due to the lengths she had to go for her mission, but overall, she’d say the mission was successful. Her flight back home wasn’t for another few days, so she planned to explore the city as much as she could before then. Tonight, Ada wanted to spoil herself with a DIY spa treatment since her hotel suite had a fancy bathtub and free luxury products — it was going to be perfect and relaxing. But then, she received a call from Leon’s number that startled her. They barely called, let alone text. Whatever it was, she knew it was important… so she answered. And here they were.
“Hold onto that bucket,” Ada said before starting up the car.
Leon looked down at the floor. “Bucket? Bucket.”
He grabbed the bucket and placed it on his lap. Ada started to drive.
“If you need to throw up, do it in there. This is a rental, I don’t need you making a mess. And please eat the crackers and drink the water I brought,” Ada continued, a tinge of annoyance sparking in her voice.
Leon glanced over to the center console, which had a water bottle and a pack of crackers deliberately placed in the cup holders. He stayed silent and looked out the window. Ada’s eyes were going to get stuck at the back of her head from how many times she had rolled her eyes that night — and she had just picked up Leon too.
“That’s not a question, Leon. I’m telling you to drink as much water as you can and eat those damn crackers,” she sternly spoke.
Leon grumbled, reaching over to the pack of crackers, grabbing them and aggressively tearing the pack open, causing some crumbs to fall into the bucket that was resting on his lap. Ada sighed. She was glad that she made the right call to bring a bucket, or else cleaning the car would’ve been an absolute hassle.
Leon loudly chewed on the crackers, causing Ada to grit her teeth and squint her eyes. She hated the sounds of chewing — she didn’t even have to look at Leon to know that he was chewing with his mouth open. Drunk Leon was a mess, and quite frankly, Ada was surprised. She knew that Leon could handle his alcohol, but how much did he really have to drink in order to reach this point? She thought it was strange. What even happened?
Ada’s mind started to wander against her own will. What would’ve happened if she never got that call? Would Leon be fine, or dead in a ditch somewhere? The thought of Leon being hurt and her not being there to protect him made her stomach churn into knots. Ada didn’t want to imagine an alternate universe where he wasn’t sitting next to her in this car right now. She gulped, quickly glancing over at Leon, who was mindlessly eating the crackers and occasionally taking a sip of water.
“Wait, what are you doing here?” Leon suddenly questioned, his mouth full.
“Okay, first of all, finish your bite before you talk.” Ada scrunched her nose. “Anyway, I’m here for work.”
“No, I mean like… here with me,” he clarified.
Ada cocked her head toward Leon, surprised at how coherent he sounded in that very moment. Of course, Leon was still drunk out of his mind, but it was a little unexpected. Ada cleared her throat.
“I’ll tell you in the morning when you sober up. You won’t remember any of this anyway,” she replied, trying to mask any emotion in her voice.
They finally arrived at the hotel Ada was staying at. After parking, Ada immediately got out of the car and walked over to the passenger’s side. She opened the car door, threw the pack of crackers and water bottle into the bucket before grabbing it and setting it on the ground below her. Ada unbuckled Leon, who still wasn’t coherent enough to unbuckle on his own. She grabbed his hand, warning him that she was taking him out of the car and to watch his head.
Leon miraculously got out of the car without bumping his head. Although, it took Ada some semi-aggressive arm yanking to get him out. Leon leaned up against the car once again as Ada shut the door before locking it. She grabbed the bucket with one hand, wrapped Leon’s arm around her shoulder, then wrapped her free arm around his waist. And then, they started making their way toward the hotel.
They eventually made it to Ada’s suite — much slower than preferred, but they made it there in one piece and that was all that mattered. Ada turned the light switch on with her elbow, illuminating the entire suite. Then, she placed the bucket down onto the granite counter and brought Leon to the bathroom.
Leon plopped down to the floor immediately, leaning against the sink cabinet and grunting on impact. Ada sighed. Babysitting a grown man was definitely not on her bingo card at all. She walked over to the shower, reaching for the knob and twisting it on, making sure it was on a colder setting.
“Okay, get in the shower. It might help,” Ada said, finally breaking the silence, pushing the curtain open.
With that, Leon stood up, wobbly and holding onto the sink counter for support. He started making his way toward the shower, fully clothed. Ada went to stand in front of him, blocking his entrance into the shower and pressed her hand up against his chest.
“You should take off your clothes,” she suggested.
“Damn, lady, take me out to dinner first…” Leon mumbled, staring at Ada half-lidded.
Ada rolled her eyes. “No, dumbass. You don’t want your clothes getting wet. I don’t have a change of clothes for you.”
“Oh… okay.”
Obliging, Leon took off his shirt — revealing his defined, sculpted abs and his large biceps that flexed with his movements. With no time to react, Ada looked away, the temperature in her cheeks rising. She stepped out of his way, walked over to the toilet and pulled the cover down, sitting on top of it and crossing her arms and legs. Ada swiftly took another glance and he was already butt naked, somehow getting in the shower without stumbling. She looked away again, taking a deep breath.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time she’s seen him naked… but it has been a while. Ada stared down at the tiled floor, tapping her fingers on her arm. She should probably leave the bathroom and give Leon some privacy, huh? But what if he somehow hurts himself and needs help?
Ada’s gaze slowly made its way toward Leon’s sprawled out clothes on the floor. She instantly spotted his phone in the back pocket of his jeans, her breath slightly hitching. Then, a thought occurred to her. Why her? Why was she the one to receive the phone call to pick Leon up? Out of everyone on Leon’s contact list, surely there should’ve been other people to contact too.
She wasn’t sure if she was going to regret it, but she reached over to his phone and quickly glanced at Leon’s shadow through the curtain to see if he was distracted enough. Then, Ada quickly grabbed the phone and turned it on. No password. Dumbass.
A small pit formed in Ada’s stomach and that pit only increased as she worried about the thought of potentially seeing something she wasn’t supposed to see. Regardless, Ada continued to check Leon’s phone, going straight to his contacts first. She simply scrolled through his contact list, unsurprisingly seeing some familiar names. She then saw herself, which was obviously to be expected.
Then, Ada noticed something. A red asterisk next to her contact name. She pinched her eyebrows together, tapping on her contact. And, there it was: “Emergency Contact” was listed right above her name. What? Ada exited out of her contact and continued scrolling through Leon’s contact list, looking for that same red asterisk next to anyone else’s name. She was expecting to see the same symbol on Sherry, Helena, or even Chris’ contact — but no. Ada was his only emergency contact. No one else. That was why the bartender contacted her instead of the others; she was the emergency contact.
It was the concept of Leon deliberately choosing Ada to be his only emergency contact over everyone else that made her head spin. Ada scrolled through the list multiple times, just in case her eyes decided to play tricks on her. But no matter how much she scrolled, that red asterisk never appeared on anyone else’s contact. Did this truly mean he trusted her the most? Thought she was the most reliable? Out of everyone? In all honesty, Ada was surprised. With the cat and mouse game they had played over the years, she would’ve thought that Leon felt like she was unreliable. But, she did know for a fact that he trusted her a lot. If he didn’t, she wouldn’t be in his life right now. Leon allowed Ada to get away with so many things because he trusted her.
Ada’s hands started to tremble and tears blurred her vision. Their feelings toward one another was no secret — they both wanted the same thing and that was each other. They really just hadn’t gotten around to making things serious and official, since communication was a huge issue for them. They both didn’t know how to express their feelings, and that’s why this cat and mouse game has lasted for so long.
It also dawned on Ada that if something happened to him, the first person that would be contacted was her — even if it was Leon in a body bag, they would call her first. In a way, this felt like a wake-up call to Ada. It was time for them to get serious instead of beating around the bush.
Suddenly, Ada heard a bottle drop in the shower, snapping her out of her thoughts. She cocked her head toward the shower.
“My foot!” Leon grunted.
Ada covered her mouth, holding in her laughter. “Are you okay?”
“Er… yeah…”
After a few more moments, Ada placed Leon’s phone back in his jean pocket like nothing ever happened. She sat there, tapping on her bottom lip with her fingers as her gaze fixated on the tile floor, thinking about her relationship with Leon and this whole emergency contact thing. She really meant that much to him and for lack of a better word, it made her feel all fuzzy inside.
“Ow, hot!” Leon exclaimed a few minutes later.
Ada pinched her eyebrows together, standing up and walking toward the shower. She reached through the curtain and felt the water — sure enough, it was very hot. Leon could’ve been cooked into Thanksgiving dinner.
“Were you trying to shut off the water?” she asked.
“Yeah…”
With that, Ada turned the shower off. She turned around, reaching for a towel before throwing it into the shower. Ada then glanced at Leon’s shadow. The towel had comically landed on top of his head and she bit her lip to prevent herself from laughing at the sight.
“Here. Dry off in there, I’ll be waiting outside,” Ada said, then left the bathroom.
Ada walked over to the bucket, grabbing the water bottle and pack of crackers, and brought them over to the kitchenette table. She sat down, crossing her legs and closely listened to Leon in the bathroom to make sure he didn’t hurt himself. She found herself anxiously munching on the crackers as her head spun. Ada couldn’t quite put her finger on why the revelation of being Leon’s emergency contact made her so anxious. This meant that Leon was very serious about her too, huh? He was serious enough to deliberately set her as his sole emergency contact, that was for damn sure.
As her mind wandered, Leon stumbled out of the bathroom, drying off his hair with the towel. Ada immediately stood up, making her way toward Leon and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, which caused him to drop the towel to the floor. Then, Ada wrapped her arm around his waist. She didn’t want to force him to eat more crackers — he’d probably throw up everywhere. So, the next course of action was to try to get him to sleep.
Ada brought Leon to the bedroom, telling him to lay in bed and go to sleep. He obliged and plopped down onto the bed, sprawling out. She chuckled to herself before tucking him under the comforter. She sat on the side of the bed, watching Leon’s face and waited for him to fall asleep. Ada admired every detail on Leon’s handsome face, her gaze tracing every inch of him. Every inch of his wrinkles, his subtle stubble. She didn’t want to take him for granted. Maybe this would be her view everyday if she finally decided to be open about her feelings. Usually, Ada would wonder if Leon thought the same about her when she slept. Now, Ada felt like she knew the answer for sure.
Soon enough, Ada started to hear soft and faint snores, which indicated that Leon had finally drifted to sleep. That was easier than Ada thought, she assumed that Leon would’ve been more stubborn about falling asleep. It gave her peace of mind that Leon was safely asleep in her presence, that he wasn’t knocked out cold in a ditch somewhere. Ada quietly left the bedroom, opting to leave Leon alone and to sleep on the couch for the night.
Leon fluttered his eyes open, grumbling as the bright sun reflected into his piercing blue eyes. He rubbed his eyes before stretching, then his gaze scanned the bedroom. He didn’t recognize it one bit. He wasn’t at home, so where was he? It looked like a hotel bedroom. Leon sat up, pinching his eyebrows together in confusion. Then it all hit him at once — the pounding in his head, the aching in his body, the nauseating feeling at the back of his throat. What did he do last night?
Leon grunted as he got out of bed, carefully leaving the bedroom to be extra cautious. Leon noticed that there was a living room and a kitchenette, which meant that he was staying in a hotel suite. He didn’t have a one night stand, did he? No, he wasn’t the type to have one. Maybe way back in his youth, but not now. Leon already had someone in his heart and he couldn’t do that to her, no matter how drunk he was.
“Sleep well?” a voice startled Leon.
Leon turned to the direction of the voice, his eyes meeting with a familiar raven-haired woman who was sitting on the couch cross-legged with a book in hand. He almost felt his heart thump out of his chest. How? What? When? Where? Why?
“Ada?!” Leon exclaimed.
“Go brush your teeth. I went down to the front desk to get you an extra toothbrush,” Ada simply spoke, completely unbothered by the situation.
“What happened last night? Did we… have sex?” he asked, flustered.
Ada chuckled, placing her book down. “No, we didn’t have sex. I’ll explain later. Now, go brush your teeth.”
With that, Leon obliged and headed straight for the bathroom. As he brushed his teeth, a million thoughts ran through his mind. He wasn’t sure how he ended up in Ada’s hotel suite, but part of his memory started coming back to him. All Leon remembered was walking into a dingy old dive bar — and then he lost his memory. Shit, did he get blackout drunk? But that doesn’t explain how he ended up with Ada?
Leon exited the bathroom, seeing Ada at the front door talking to someone. He walked closer, hearing her thank them and she closed the door with her foot, a tray of food in her hands.
“I got us breakfast,” Ada said before walking over to the kitchenette table and placing the tray down.
He followed her, not saying a word, yet still highly confused. They both sat down across from each other.
“Are you feeling okay?” she asked.
“My head’s pounding,” Leon answered, looking at the food. Ada ordered the same thing for both of them.
“Yeah, I figured,” Ada spoke before taking a bite of her food. “I have some medicine, but you should probably get some food in your stomach first.”
Leon nodded, then started digging into his food. As he ate, he tried to remember the events of last night — retracing his steps from the moment he left his hotel room to the moment he got to that bar. Still, that was all he remembered. Leon was in awe that he somehow ended up in Ada’s hotel suite; it was like fate always intertwined them together.
“Ada, what happened last night?” Leon finally asked.
Ada swallowed her bite. “You got very drunk. Took way more than you could handle.”
Huh. So that confirmed it. Leon was a bit surprised, his tolerance was pretty high after drinking a lot for so many years. At that point, he didn’t know if his limit even existed. Looks like he was wrong. Then, it all started coming back to him on why he drank so much last night. The team he was sent with for a mission got killed and he was the sole survivor once again — it was like déjà vu. Leon also somehow lost track of the perpetrator and he still hasn’t been found. After all these years, this was the first time he let the perpetrator get away and he felt like a failure — but failure felt like an understatement to him. Leon remembered eavesdropping on conversations in the office shortly after the incident and people were disappointed in him, talking about how this was his worst performance, how Leon was supposed to be one of the best DSO agents ever and he somehow still failed. So, Leon drank his feelings away. This was the one part Leon wished he didn’t remember — the sole reason why he drank, to forget about his failures and sorrows.
“Leon?”
Leon looked up. “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?” Ada asked.
There was a pause.
“How’d I end up here?” Leon dodged the question.
The look on Ada’s face shifted. Leon couldn’t read the expression on her face, but he knew that she knew something was wrong.
“I received a call from the bartender to come pick you up,” she answered with no expression in her tone.
“What?” Leon pinched his eyebrows together.
“I was confused too,” Ada responded. “Why me, out of everyone?”
Leon looked back down at his food, using his fork to poke and prod at it. There must’ve been a reason the bartender called Ada, right? Then, it clicked. Ada was Leon’s emergency contact and the bartender must’ve seen that. It was starting to make sense now, the missing pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together.
And Ada actually did show up. Of course she did. Leon knew he could rely on her, she was always there for him — like fate had them intertwined no matter what the situation was. Ada had a special place in his heart… she was a part of him he couldn’t let go, even if he wanted to. Which he didn’t. Honestly, Leon couldn’t properly explain why he had chosen Ada to be his emergency contact. He just did it one day because it felt right, like it was instinctual for him. Even though Leon was aware that he could choose multiple people, no one else crossed his mind but her. Despite their complicated relationship and their lack of contact, it just made sense. And if God forbid something happened to him, he felt that Ada should’ve been the first to know. That was how important she was to him.
“I might know why,” Leon sheepishly spoke, looking up at Ada.
Ada raised an eyebrow. “Do you, now?”
Leon cleared his throat.
“You’re my emergency contact,” Leon admitted, his heart thumping out of his chest.
There was a pause.
“Oh,” Ada hummed. “Okay.”
Then, there was another pause. Something in the air felt strange — Ada didn’t seem surprised at all. To be fair, Ada usually masked her emotions pretty well… but still. Was Leon really that predictable? Or did she somehow already know? Ada was an unpredictable person and Leon had trouble reading her sometimes. But, something was telling Leon that she knew.
“But you already knew that, didn’t you?” Leon smirked. “You looked through my phone. You just wanted me to admit it.”
“Maybe.” The corners of Ada’s lips curled upward.
“Of course you did,” Leon replied, shaking his head and smiling.
Silence fell upon them again for a few moments. But then, Leon’s smile slowly started to fade away from his face, causing Ada’s eyebrows to pinch together in confusion.
“I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” Leon spoke, his lips molding into a frown. “And I’m sorry if I was a burden to you.”
Ada sighed before reaching across the table to hold Leon’s hand. “You’re not a burden to me, Leon. I’m perfectly fine taking care of you if that just means you’ll be safe.”
Leon started smiling again, butterflies fluttered in his stomach. He rubbed circles on Ada’s hand with his thumb, watching her beautiful face soften.
“Thank you, Ada,” Leon softly spoke, the temperature in his cheeks rising.
Ada didn’t say anything, just smiled and nodded. Then, there was a moment of silence as their gazes fixated on each other. The sounds of the city life swiftly faded away into the background and it felt like the world had stopped spinning — the only thing that existed was them. Leon and Ada.
“However, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit annoyed with you,” Ada admitted.
“Why’s that? Am I an annoying drunk?” Leon chuckled.
“You could not walk by yourself and you were incoherent. Felt like I was taking care of a baby,” Ada replied, rolling her eyes and causing Leon to chuckle.
“I’m sorr—“
“Mr. Kennedy, don’t you apologize.” She let go of his hand to point at him. “You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”
Mr. Kennedy. A smirk started forming on Leon’s lips. Leon had heard himself be called that a million times, but it felt different with Ada — she made the temperature in his cheeks rise with anything. The strong grip Ada had on him was quite frankly insane. Also, the sheer concept of Ada wanting to protect him and keep him safe just made Leon want to kiss her even more. It wasn’t a secret between them that they’re always out to care for one another, but something about Ada finally being direct about it was very sweet and cute. It lifted a lot of weight off his shoulders.
Ada pinched her eyebrows together, confused. “What?”
“Nothing,” Leon started, half-lying. “I like it when you call me that.”
“What?” she smirked. “Mr. Kennedy?”
Leon nodded, his smirk growing wider.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Scott,” Ada teased.
Leon’s mouth fell agape. “Absolutely not.”
Ada giggled and Leon blushed. It was like music to his ears, he absolutely loved it when she laughed. It was rare for Ada to show her emotions like that, so he definitely didn’t take her pretty, melodic laughs for granted.
“That’s what you deserve for your behavior last night, actually,” she continued teasing. “I should’ve let you burn up in that shower.”
“You made me go in the shower?” Leon asked, still smiling.
“Yeah, to get you more alert… but that didn’t seem to work,” Ada replied, shrugging.
“Because it doesn’t. You know how dangerous it is to put a drunk person in the shower?” he continued before taking another bite.
“Well, if I knew, I wouldn’t have done that.”
“See? You aren’t the smartypants you thought you were,” Leon teased.
“Shut up,” she blushed.
“Can’t handle the truth?”
“Shut. Up.”
There was another pause.
“You also stunk,” Ada claimed. Leon rolled his eyes.
They both fondly giggled at one another. Then, like clockwork, they both sat in silence again. This time, they both smiled to themselves — their shy gazes either fixated on the food or an object nearby. Leon swiftly glanced at Ada, whose smile had suddenly been wiped off her face.
“Leon, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” Ada said, her tone suddenly becoming serious.
A pit started to form in Leon’s stomach. She was a woman of a few words, so what did she have to say? And the sudden energy shift in the air was almost unbearable, enough for him to hear his own heartbeat thump in his ear.
“Are you pregnant?” Leon blurted.
“What?” she furrowed her eyebrows. “No, we haven’t had sex in over a year.”
“Oh. Right.” Leon was flustered. He was too nervous to even exist, he might as well been drunk out of his mind again.
Another thought had crossed Leon’s mind — did that mean Ada was celibate and only had sex with him? Leon was the same way, so it felt refreshing to hear that they were on the same page. They only saved themselves for each other, which lifted some unknown weight off Leon’s shoulders… they were already loyal to each other — so why weren’t they together?
“Anyway…” Ada started. “I think last night was a wake up call.”
“Okay…” he was still confused.
“What I mean is that we need to get our shit together,” she said, a tinge of red flushed in her cheeks. “We can’t keep playing this cat and mouse game with each other, Leon.”
Leon rubbed his lips together, trying to read the look on Ada’s face. She wasn’t ending things between them, was she? That surely wouldn’t be the case after what she’s done for him.
“What are you saying?” Leon asked, his breath slightly shaky.
“I think we need to take our relationship more seriously… make things official, I guess.” Ada started blushing, her cheeks turning a deeper red color.
A smile started to form on Leon’s face. “You guess?”
“Shut up!” Ada quickly covered her face, causing Leon to let out a fond chuckle. “I’m clearly not good at this type of thing, Leon.”
“I know, hun,” Leon softly spoke, reaching to grab her hand again.
“It’s just that…” Ada continued. “We’re slowly getting older and I want to spend as much time with you as possible. I’m sick and tired of us chasing the other around — flirting, hooking up, and leaving without ever establishing anything. Last night was fucking scary, Leon.”
Leon’s eyebrows pinched together and his lips formed into a frown. He was about to open his mouth to apologize again before Ada gave him a look, a look that told him to shut up.
“I was so scared… what if I didn’t get a call, what if no one else came to help you? You could’ve been hurt, lying dead somewhere, Leon. I don’t want that to ever happen. And I don’t want to regret not spending the rest of our days together either,” Ada confessed, more emotionally than she had initially intended.
Tears welted in Ada’s eyes. This was the first time Leon had ever seen her like this — so vulnerable and opening up about her feelings. Ada was a woman of very little words, had a habit of being vague and masking her true emotions. So, seeing Ada like this meant that she was serious and last night was her breaking point. Leon felt a tinge of guilt knowing that his actions were the reason why she was so stressed and worried. But, Leon knew that wasn’t Ada’s intention to make him feel that way.
“Come here,” Leon softly spoke, patting on his lap.
If this was any other situation, Ada probably would’ve declined his offer and teased him about it. But, this wasn’t any other situation. Ada immediately stood up, walked around the table and sat on Leon’s lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his while Leon tightly wrapped his arms around her too. They’ve never done this before — held each other in such an intimate, soft way. Sure, sometimes they cuddled after sex, but it was never like this. This was different and Leon couldn’t explain why.
“You know…” Leon started, his tone soft yet playful. “All you had to do was ask if I wanted to be your boyfriend.”
Ada blushed. “Well, you needed to know what I was thinking. Communication is what we need, right?”
“I know,” Leon reassured, smiling. “Then let’s make this work, okay? No more cat and mouse game, no more beating around the bush.”
“Okay.” Ada nodded.
There was a pause. Leon felt something wet rub against his cheek.
“Are you crying?” Leon asked.
“Shut up.”
“You are.”
“Do you know what ‘shut up’ means?” Ada sniffled. Leon laughed, throwing his head back.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, taking each other’s presence in. Once again, it was like they were the only ones that existed in the world — the world had stopped spinning, the cars running outside came to a halt. The only thing they heard was each other’s soft breathing, which felt comforting for the both of them — to know that they were safe in each other’s arms.
“There’s one condition though, if we want to make this work,” Ada started, breaking the silence.
“And what’s that?” Leon asked.
Ada pulled her cheek away from Leon’s and looked him directly in his piercing blue eyes. “You need to tone down your drinking. I don’t want you hurting yourself. I don’t want you slowly killing yourself. If you’re struggling, you come to me instead of going out to the bar. You got it?”
There was that stern and intimidating Ada that Leon knew so well.
“Yes, ma’am,” Leon replied.
Even though alcohol was something Leon found solace in while he was mentally and emotionally struggling, he was willing to drop all of that in order to be with Ada. It was a complete no brainer for him. He was aware it would be hard at first, but Ada? Ada was more important. She was worth it. She was all he ever needed.
“I’m serious,” Ada continued.
“I am too,” Leon replied.
“Good,” Ada nodded.
Leon smirked, looking at her lips. “Good.”
Ada placed her hand on Leon’s jawline, smiling and looking down at his lips as well. They both leaned in, softly connecting their lips together and melting into one another. It was like pure euphoria being able to kiss each other again. And now, they would be able to do this all the time. God, they’ve missed this so much; being together was all that mattered to them. Ada was thankful for how things turned out the way they did, and Leon was too. If Ada could redo last night’s events over and over again as long as it led to this outcome, she would… a million times over.
Ada thought about what would’ve happened if she wasn’t Leon’s emergency contact — would he be alive? Hurt? Would they be together, like this, right now? Either way, Ada was convinced that they were going to end up together, embracing while kissing like this, one way or another. Their fates were completely intertwined, and there was no escaping it even if they wanted to.