Chapter Text
“Ada!”
She felt herself slipping, unable to grasp onto anything as her feet fell out from beneath her. Her stomach lurched, eyes widening as her body slid off of the platform.
Leon launched himself towards her and latched onto her wrist, jolting her shoulder straight out of the socket.
In her periphery, Ada watched the G-sample slip into the abyss below, where she was sure she was soon to follow.
She could feel her heart pounding out of her chest, legs dangling helplessly as she stared up, eyes wide at the man she’d just pointed a gun at.
“Leon-”
The depth of the chasm below her felt horrifying. The only solid contact being the rapidly slipping grip of Leon’s hand was uniquely existential.
Leon himself was panicked, face stricken as he looked down at her. Ada did whatever she could to mitigate her swinging, but it was no use.
“Hold on,” Leon strained, “I think I can..” his face twisted in effort as he tried to pull her upwards. Ada felt him make the tiniest amount of progress before the walkway collapsed with a deafening bang and vanished into the abyss as well. Leon slammed back down into the hard, cold metal.
“Shit!”
They were running out of time. If Leon didn’t get himself off of this platform their combined weight would kill them both.
He couldn’t pull her up. If he tried again, they were both goners. She could see that he knew that by his expression.
This was it.
Ada tried to steel her young, trembling heart.
She couldn’t do it.
“Forget it,” she shook her head almost sadly at him.
“Shut up, I’ve got you.” Looking into his determined but knowing eyes, Ada couldn’t help but wonder why Leon hadn’t let her fall. She had just betrayed his trust.
It seemed, perhaps for the first time, that Ada had met a good man.
A good man who did not deserve to get dragged down with her. What was she? The kind of woman who betrayed naive, kind-hearted cops? The kind of woman who was incapable of getting the job done when it mattered? The kind of woman who would be killed and hunted for her failures anyway? The kind of woman who faltered the moment someone showed her the slightest bit of integrity and care?
“It’s not worth it,” she tried to keep the fear from her voice. Leon only shook his head, young face filled with grief and desperation. He slipped forward a little more, hanging from the platform as he tried desperately to keep his grip on Ada’s wrist.
But she could feel it slipping.
She was out of time.
Ada had hoped that in the face of death she would feel some peace. Some pride in herself or something akin to satisfaction.
She didn’t. All she felt was fear.
Ada risked a glance down into her fate. The gaping maw of death was deep and dark. She couldn’t bear to look.
She turned her head, looking back at Leon. At least the last face she’d see would be a kind one. The face of someone who had treated her with care and loyalty, tenderness and patience. The face of someone who had trusted her and was still now risking his life to try and save her. The face of someone who knew this was the end of them.
“Take care of yourself, Leon.” She said, eyes shining with tears. Ada could feel the heat in her throat and the trembling of her hands.
Leon didn’t reply, eyes so sad yet still so determined.
She searched his face in the second she had left, grip on her wrist sliding fast. She saw the tiny moles he had. His light eyes and trembling lips.
And then his grip slipped and Ada felt nothing but air.
“No!” Leon reached out a hand.
Ada felt her stomach lurch.
She awoke with a gasp, shooting upright as her stomach churned uncomfortably.
Ada swallowed down her breathlessness, hanging her head between her arms as she braced her clammy hands on her knees.
“Holy shit,” She whispered under her breath, pushing her hair back behind her ear. It had been a long time since she’d had that dream.
Ada pushed herself to the side of her small cot, swinging her legs over the edge and bracing her elbows on her knees. She brushed a shaking hand through her hair and let out a long sigh.
She glanced sidelong at the burner phone sitting on her tiny bedside table. There was a large part of her that wanted to pick it up and punch in the familiar number, just to hear his voice.
But that was not an option. She hadn’t spent four months out here to blow her cover because she had a nightmare. Instead she glanced downward, twisting her wedding band around her finger as her heart began to slow.
She sighed. It never got easier to miss him.
Ada knew better than to try and go back to sleep, so she stood up and padded her way out of the room, down the short corridor and onto the veranda.
She’d been struck, coming here, with just how dark the Bolivian night was. She supposed, had she been in a city it would’ve been a different story, but she was practically in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. If she’d gone out the front, she would’ve seen the dim lights of the rest of the village. But out the back, staring into the darkness of the jungle, the only light visible was from the end of Lucia’s cigarette.
Her host glanced at her as Ada shut the door behind her. Lucia smiled, sitting back in her white, plastic chair.
Lucia was a younger woman than her, with dark hair she always had up, out of her face and deep eyes. Despite her relative youth, she had deep bags under her eyes and prominent lines between her brows, as if she frowned all the time. Ada knew she did, and it made sense considering the circumstances. Despite the situation Lucia had found herself in, she was a kind, considerate host. She always fed Ada well and always offered her a cigarette.
“Can’t sleep either?” She asked in Spanish. Ada wasn’t sure when last she spoke English, come to think of it. She nodded, sinking into the seat opposite.
“No.”
“What are you thinking about?” Lucia asked, offering Ada a drag of the cigarette. She shook her head.
Ada considered lying for a moment. She hadn’t exactly told Lucia the truth of her being there, but she hadn’t exactly lied either. As far as the other woman was aware, she was only a journalist, looking into the Connection’s dealings and the lab that had appeared out of nowhere one day years beforehand, in the middle of the rainforest and only a few miles from the small village of Urubichá, where Ada now found herself.
After hearing of Ada’s interest, Lucia had been the first person in the village to offer up her home. She had not been shy about her vehement hatred of the Connections, and it was understandable. Along with the lab popping up and not caring much for whatever pollution they were pumping into the local river, they had also taken a large majority of the village's workforce. According to Lucia, at the time it had seemed like a great opportunity, but when they only ever came home for special holidays and always seemed beaten down when they did, she had gotten angry. Her husband, Marcelo was one of the many lab workers, leaving her alone with their young daughter Adela.
Adela was a sweet girl that Ada got on well with. She was curious and fierce, getting into trouble with some frequency at school. She had a passion for science and medicine, often hanging out around the local doctors office and reading books on gnarly injuries. Lucia was sometimes concerned by it, but tried to just let her daughter enjoy what she wanted.
There was always an undercurrent of melancholy with the young girl. Ada had often heard her asking her mother, night after night when next her father would be home. Lucia never had an answer.
Lucia had confided in Ada about all of this over the course of her being there. Ada had not responded much in return, as she always did. But tonight, the relative truth seemed like safe territory.
“I’m thinking about my husband.” Ada answered after a long pause. Lucia hummed in acknowledgement, taking another drag.
“You don’t talk about him,” She nodded towards Ada’s wedding ring. Ada looked into the darkness of the rainforest. She could hear the distant sounds of animals and foliage. It was, in a way, rather relaxing, despite the fact that for all she knew some huge big cat or crazy boar were only a few yards away. They still seemed less frightening than talking about her feelings.
“It’s easier, I find,” she justified. Lucia tilted her head in thought.
“I find the opposite.” Lucia turned in her chair, setting her head on her hand against the armrest. “What’s he like?” She asked. “He has to be totally hot to handle you,” Lucia flicked her cigarette hand up and down Ada’s body, who scoffed.
She couldn’t help but smile, leaning down to scratch at her bare shin as she considered shutting the conversation down. Then she glanced sidelong at her thick and fast friend.
“He is very hot.” She admitted. Lucia laughed, clapping.
“I knew it! Oh, you must have a photo?”
Ada pursed her lips at Lucia, trying not to smile and weighing up her options. Lucia raised her eyebrows expectantly, grinning.
“Come on,” She goaded. Ada sighed.
“Fine.”
As she left Lucia, delighted on the veranda, to fetch the photo from the duffel bag under her bed, Ada couldn’t help but smile. She had never really had many friends. She’d tried not to get too attached to the idea of having women in her life, let alone being friends with them. But the way her heart had slowed and hands stilled upon Lucia’s light conversation was undeniable.
She dug out the small photo she had of Leon from a hidden pocket in her bag. She looked at it for a long moment, melancholy returning so what.
It was a rare photo of him that she had taken after Sherry had brought round a digital camera to his flat (they were back in apparently). He wasn’t posing, simply cutting up some vegetables across the counter. Ada liked it because his face was relaxed and happy, eyeing the camera amusedly. It was sweet, a rare instance of calm for him. That and his arms were out, which she always appreciated.
When Ada returned to the veranda, she found Adela sat on Lucia’s lap. The young girl looked the spit of her mother, with warm eyes and a slightly wonky fringe. She was just about to turn eleven.
“No one can sleep?” Ada guessed, sitting back down. Adela shook her head.
“I heard you talking and I felt left out.” She explained. Lucia laughed, putting out her cigarette.
“Ada was just about to show us her handsome husband, Angelito.”
Adela gasped, leaning towards Ada in her seat.
“Ooo!”
Ada scoffed, passing the picture over. Lucia leant close to see it in the darkness.
“Ay!” She looked at her, pulling a face. “Ada, my god.” She looked back down at the photo, nodding approvingly. “Very nice,”
“His hair is long,” Adela commented. Lucia pointed at his arms and nodded at Ada again.
“If I were you I would hang off of those arms like monkey bars.”
Ada laughed despite herself, taking back the photo when Lucia passed it to her.
“Mama! That’s gross!” Adela complained. Lucia clicked her tongue.
“Why are you still awake??”
-
Ada’s hookshot lodged into the deep bark of the tree, sending her up off of the ground.
She landed neatly on the branch, foliage thick as she crouched. Glancing about, she checked for any animals or insects that could cause her any harm and upon finding nothing of concern, settled against the trunk.
She found her spyglass in the pocket strapped to her thigh and pulled it out, peering through it.
Through the leaves and deep green of the rainforest, she regarded the lab.
It was much like the lab that the group had discovered in Russia, but on steroids. The compound stretched far further than Ada could see. If she hadn’t spent the last few months picking vantage points across the entire perimeter and mapping things out, she might never have known how large it truly was. In the centre of the gated compound there was a huge building, which Ada had quickly realised was the main lab. How deep underground it went (because who was she kidding, they always went underground), was unknown. Dotted around the lab there were plenty of other buildings.
Ada had mapped them diligently, working out what was storehouses, bunks, switchrooms and offices. There was also a cafeteria, what many late nights had told her was a recreation hall and a chapel. No wonder they never left. The Connections had made it so they’d never need to.
Most depressing was that in the back corner, tucked far from most other buildings, was a morgue and crematorium. Smoke billowed from the chimneys far more often than they should’ve.
Ada spent the day mapping the comings and goings as she always did. Breaks in the security patrol, blind spots and maintenance.
She was close now, she could feel it. There had been a clear path into the grounds emerging for her and, with a few more days of assurance, she’d be able to confidently exploit it.
Reconnaissance missions had always been the most taxing for Ada. Patience was something she had plenty of, but there was something uniquely draining about having to be so focused on tiny details for months on end. One slip up- thinking a camera was damaged when it wasn’t, trusting someone not to be on shift when they were- could cost her her cover.
If it had been a smaller lab or a less prolific group, Ada would’ve gone in with the two weeks assurance she already had. But this was the Connections and the largest lab of theirs that she knew existed. For all she knew, if she could get in there and take them out from the top, she could end this monopoly once and for all.
Somewhere deep inside, Ada knew the assurance was not the only reason she hesitated. She had one shot at this and if anything went remotely wrong she knew there would be collateral. As she had discovered, there were plenty of innocent workers trapped inside with families to return to.
Ada wasn’t sure if she could protect them. But perhaps killing their tyrannical bosses would be enough.
Still, the thought of something going wrong and Marcelo not coming home to Lucia and Adela, unnerved her more than she would’ve liked to admit.
What was she meant to do? Hesitate forever and allow the Connections to continue their tyrannical reign of essentially the entire world?
Sometimes Ada really missed when all she had to worry about was delivering things to people for money, irrespective of morality or ethics.
Ugh. Fuck Leon Kennedy. He’d done this to her.
When the sun hit the peak of the sky, Ada moved trees, staying with the shadows. She ate a little and marked her map, wrote down times and security details and mapped routes.
When the day turned to dim twilight and the workers began to slug out of the lab back towards the bunks, she sighed through her nose.
The way in was clear to her. Her assurance was had.
She just needed to go through with it.
Ada made it back to Lucia’s house as she was serving up dinner. Lucia seemed particularly quiet as they ate, asking Adela rather perfunctory questions about her day.
Adela was talking about a science lesson she had taken that day, all about the bones in the body. Lucia’s eyes barely lifted from her plate.
Ada regarded her friend, pushing her food around, before Adela’s fork clattered onto her plate, startling her mother.
“Mama, you’re not listening to me!” Adela accused. Lucia sat back with a sigh.
“I am, Angelito. It’s just been a long day at work.”
Adela pursed her lips unhappily, before pushing her plate away from her.
“I’m done. Can I go?” Lucia’s brow quirked in what Ada guessed was frustration.
“Finish your food, Adela.”
“I want to go to my room.” Adela pressed. Lucia set her fork down and shot her daughter a look, raising her eyebrows. Adela stared down her mother for a long moment, before huffing and picking up her fork again.
She shoved the remaining food into her mouth as quickly as she could, chewing and swallowing before looking back at her mother.
“Now?”
“Get rid of this attitude.” Lucia glared. Adela took a deep breath in.
“Please, mama.” She said, frustration thin under her words. Lucia waved a hand and Adela got up. Neither woman missed the way she muttered under her breath, ‘I wish papa was here,’.
Ada glanced at her friend, watching Lucia weigh up going after and punishing Adela as her daughter shut her door behind her.
There was a long moment of silence, before Lucia dug a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it up at the dinner table. Ada sat back from her food, quiet.
Lucia ran a hand over her face, rubbing at a knot between her eyebrows.
“Want one?” Lucia offered. Ada shook her head, silence settling between them again.
“Long day?” Ada asked. Lucia closed her eyes, massaging at her temple with her thumb. Lucia worked at one of the river docks in town, helping to bring in fish from trips and maintain boats.
Or at least that was what she was meant to be doing. But since the lab had appeared, things looked a little different.
“Every catch today,” Lucia pretended to wipe her hands clean, cigarette still perched between two fingers, “useless. All dead from oil.” Ada pressed her lips into a thin line.
The Connections truly were evil. They had stolen people from this village and now they were poisoning whoever was left. Starving them out without fish to eat and clean water to drink. Ada had seen plenty of infected wounds and horrible sicknesses from contact with the polluted river water. Lucia had to check herself over every time she returned from work to make sure she had no open wounds.
It sounded exhausting and completely demoralising.
“We had a boat turn over today,” Lucia continued after a long while. “Usually when we capsize, crocodiles are the biggest issue. Now, they are too sick to eat us. The water will make those boys sick the next few days. It’ll be a miracle if it doesn’t burn their insides out.”
As someone who was clearly impassioned about caring for her community, Ada could see just how much this all frustrated Lucia. It must’ve also been scary, knowing such an illness could come for her or Adela if anything went wrong during a shift or a commute.
“I can’t take this anymore, Ada,” she shook her head, puffing unhappily on her cigarette. “Watching my people suffer because of these bastards. They poison my friends and they kidnap my husband. How can they get away with this?” She raved.
If only Ada could tell her the truth. It wasn’t a matter of the Connections ‘getting away’ with anything. They were the global order.
“Soon, Lucia.” She said softly. Her friend regarded her for a long moment, before sitting back with a deep sigh.
“What do I do about that girl?” She asked.
“You’re doing what you can,” Ada had never been great at comforting people, but she felt it was the least she could do for Lucia. When she’d started feeling indebted to people was a mystery to her.
Lucia pursed her lips in thought.
“Would you talk to her, Ada? Tomorrow morning, before she goes to school?” Ada frowned a little.
“What would you want me to say?”
Lucia shrugged helplessly.
“I don’t know. I just wish she could see I’m not the villain. I want Marcelo home just as much as she does.”
Ada was quiet for a long moment, watching Lucia unhappily suck on her cigarette. The smoke tickled the back of Ada’s throat.
She glanced sidelong, considering her bag that she used each day. All the information she had in there seemed glaring now. The more she procrastinated, the more Lucia and Adela suffered.
She just had to be good enough to come up with a way to finish Connections once and for all, and get those workers home.
“I’ll speak to her.” She offered. Lucia raised her eyebrows surprisedly. Whilst Adela and Ada certainly had a friendly relationship, the young girl seeming rather in awe of her at times, she wouldn’t have said they were close. Ada wasn’t great at talking to children. It wasn’t like she’d had much experience.
Still, for Lucia she would try.
Her friend leant across the table and squeezed her hand tightly, making Ada tense ever so slightly.
“You’re a good person, Ada.”
Ada thought she might be able to count on one hand the times she’d heard that in her life. In fact, perhaps on one finger.
-
Ada landed on the fire escape unceremoniously, knee giving out and hand reaching blindly to steady herself.
She let out a grunt of pain, squeezing her side. As she straightened onto wobbly knees, she glanced down at her hand. In the darkness of the night, it came back slick and shining.
She was such an idiot.
Everything leading up to being in this position had gone pretty damn poorly. She’d been trying to get out of the country and some old friends had caught up with her. They’d been dealt with now, but not before Ada had been sliced along her ribs.
It was rare. She wasn’t sure the last time anyone had gotten an actual hit on her. She was yet to ponder whether it was bad luck or if she was getting sloppy. She didn’t have time right now.
Most unhelpfully, it was the middle of the night and nowhere was open for her to pick up a first aid kit. She’d just dumped her bag, seeing as she’d been heading to the airport and bleeding out on a passenger plane was not an option either.
Perhaps it really was bad luck.
It certainly felt like it as she slipped inside of the building and got down on her knees to quietly pick the lock of the first door on the left.
This was a horrible idea. She felt like such a fool.
But the unique circumstances had left her without many other options.
Her head swam as the door clicked open and Ada stood, gingerly pressing herself into the dark flat.
It was hard to make out shapes and perhaps if she hadn’t been there before Ada wouldn’t have been able to understand the layout she was standing in. But she had been here before, which meant that she noticed the unfamiliar shape directly opposite, hidden in the shrouded doorway of the bedroom.
“You can put the gun down if you want,” her voice tried desperately to maintain its smooth facade, but Ada felt so weak. “I’m not here for you.”
“Ada?”
The light flicked on and she winced as Leon’s apartment all but blinded her.
It was much the same as the last time she’d seen it, but a lot messier. There were bottles both empty and half full scattered around, files strewn about on every surface and clothes puddling the floor.
Ada supposed she wasn’t helping, because there was a rather neat circle of blood beginning to pool around her feet.
Glancing up from it she could see Leon lowering his gun. He looked like he had when she’d last seen him in this very flat perhaps a month ago, but he hadn’t shaved and the bags around his eyes were dark. He clearly hadn’t been sleeping.
He frowned in confusion or suspicion, she wasn’t sure, before noticing the pouring wound and widening his eyes.
“You got a needle and thread around here?” Ada moved to take a bloodied step into the apartment but her knee buckled and she wobbled. Leon strode over to her quickly.
“What the fuck happened, Ada?” He asked. She tried to straighten but her head swam and she stumbled forward. Leon caught her by the shoulders and steadied her against him.
She could smell the alcohol on his breath as she glanced up at him.
“Bad luck or bad form. I haven’t decided yet.” Her hands were shaking. Her legs felt so weak and her skin felt clammy. The pain was making her nauseous. Ada winced and tried again to put pressure on the wound. It only seemed to push out more blood. She let out a groan.
“Sit down, come on.” Leon guided her towards the couch and Ada kept a vice grip on his arm. He gently set her down and turned, making his way into his kitchenette quickly and digging around for a while. She gingerly slid out of her outer layer, wincing hard as she did, leaving her in nothing but a pair of dark trousers and a sodden, ripped top.
Ada glanced down at the wound in the light. It was maybe one of the worst she’d had.
Leon returned as Ada’s head slumped back against the arm. He silently pushed the coffee table back, giving him enough space on the floor to crack the kit open and peer at the wound, pushing up her top a little.
Ada couldn’t help but think about how different the circumstances had been the last time she’d been on this couch. There was an air of awkwardness that made her think Leon might’ve been thinking about it too.
“I can do it myself,” Ada said, looking at him. Leon glanced at her face, expression extremely unimpressed.
“Right. Because you’re going to come into my flat, bleeding everywhere in the middle of the night and I’m just going to tell you, ‘Clean up after you’re done, I’m going back to sleep’.”
“Is ‘sleep’ the name of a new liquor I haven’t tried?” She probed. Leon’s hands stilled on the pad he was unpackaging. Ada noticed, they didn’t still quite as much as he would’ve liked. His fingers were trembling.
Leon wet his lips and kept his eyes on the wound.
“Well I wasn’t expecting company.”
He leant over to said alcohol behind him and used it to wet the pad. Ada knew there was perfectly good anti-bacterial in that kit. She supposed he was making a point. Or punishing her, she couldn’t be sure.
Leon pressed the pad firmly to the wound and Ada winced hard, letting out a tight breath.
“You handle whoever did this?” He asked, eyes stubbornly on the wound. It was fine by Ada. She wasn’t really loving having to come to him for help.
“Yes.”
“Good. Hold that there.” He ordered. Ada huffed, putting a hand over her side as he got out a needle and thread. She watched Leon try to thread the needle silently, but his quivering hands seemed to be making it an impossible task.
He didn’t say anything, setting his jaw as he kept trying. After an arduous moment where Leon was clearly becoming frustrated, Ada spoke.
“Let me do it.”
Leon sighed, but passed her both. Ada’s hands weren’t much better, pale and wet with blood, but on her third attempt she managed to thread it. When Leon tried to take it back, she grabbed his wrist.
He finally looked up at her, meeting her exacting eyes.
“I like you more when you’ve shaved.” She told him. It was a rather pointed comment. But it was true. As much as she might not have wanted to admit it, Ada wanted Leon to look after himself. For his own sake. And a little bit for hers.
“Maybe if you’d turned up in business hours, you would’ve liked what you saw a bit more.” He grumbled, leaning down to the wound. Ada was quiet for a moment, sharp breath drawing inward as Leon began sewing her up. She could feel the trembling of his hands and the warmth of his breath against the skin of her abdomen.
Then she risked it.
“I’m yet to see a version I don’t like.” She conceded. “I just have a top three.”
Leon’s jaw set and unset, before he shook his head.
“Stop talking, Ada.” She did what she was told for once, not looking to probe the guy who was currently sewing her back together.
The rest of the stitching passed in silence, leaving Ada with not much else to do but think.
She should’ve been thinking about how she got hurt in the first place, but instead all she could think about was if coming here had been a good idea. Their last meeting hadn’t ended on bad terms- quite the opposite in fact- but Ada had made a promise to herself to keep her distance from Leon. At least for a little while.
Some of the things they’d said to each other had been a little too intimate for her liking. A little too close to the truth.
She wracked her brains unhelpfully, trying to come up with an alternative solution to the situation she had found herself in. Perhaps there had been somewhere open she could’ve gotten supplies from. But perhaps there hadn’t been. Perhaps she hadn’t had time for that.
“What are you doing here, Ada?” Leon broke the tense silence.
“I needed a first aid kit,” She said, voice taught with discomfort. Leon risked a glance at her face.
“Is that it?” He asked. Ada raised her eyebrows.
“Do you want it to be?”
He didn’t reply and arduous silence fell between them again.
Glancing sidelong at Leon’s face, she could see a storm of thoughts behind his cloudy eyes. Part of her wanted to ask him what it was he was thinking about. The other part thought that was a horrible idea.
“You look like you’ve got something to say.” She said softly as he leant down and bit the thread off. He only sighed, turning back into the box to grab a swathe of bandage.
“Sit up.” He told her. Ada gently pulled herself upright, trying hard not to wince as she did. It wasn’t massively successful. Only when she was sitting in front of him and she was eyeing Leon, kneeling on the ground in front of her, did he finally meet her eye. He seemed to steel himself for whatever he was going to say next.
‘You need to know that what happened the last time you were here, is never going to happen again.” He said plainly. Ada’s brows quirked, mainly in interest. She hadn’t been expecting him to say that.
It seemed since her parting a few weeks ago, she had left Leon in some serious turmoil. Ada wouldn’t admit to herself that it was largely mutual, because she had tried very hard to compartmentalise her feelings towards the entire situation.
And if Leon insisted on speaking plainly, so would she.
“Why?” She asked shortly.
“You know why.”
“No, I don’t.” Ada answered. Leon rubbed his bloodied hands on his sweatpants, sighing tightly. She was frazzling him. She wasn’t trying to. “I can think of a few reasons. Which is your reason?”
Leon began to tie the bandage around her midriff, ducking close to her whenever he passed the spool around her back.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m telling you it’s not going to happen again.”
“Leon,” Ada caught his gaze and she tilted her head at him a little. “I don’t believe you.”
His face was surprised for a moment, eyes searching hers with something indescribable there. There was a flash that looked like he wanted to kill her, or kiss her, she wasn’t sure.
Then he pulled back, letting the swathe of bandage drop into Ada’s lap.
“You can finish this up on your own.” He said. It was meant to sound like an observation, but Ada caught the slight wobble under his tone. She didn’t move, looking up at him and searching his tormented face.
He was struggling badly. She could see it.
Ada knew the feeling.
In a way that she refused to address, her heart was aching for Leon. Perhaps in another life he wouldn’t have to deal with such turmoil. Perhaps they’d have met under different circumstances. Perhaps this wouldn’t all be so complicated.
But it was. And maybe Leon was right- her head spinning was how she’d ended up in this predicament in the first place. Him insisting that whatever brief moment they’d shared together was over, was the smartest thing to do. At the same time, Ada found it to be incredibly naive of him. If she was right about how he felt about her- if it was anything similar to how she felt- things wouldn’t be as simple as Leon was trying to make them.
“I told you, Leon. I never meant to torture you.” She said after a long moment. His face twisted infinitesimally.
“I’m going back to sleep.” He told her, words almost cold. It was as cruel as Leon seemed to know how to be. It only stung a little. “Do what you do best, Ada, and disappear.” He hesitated. “Please.”
A foolish part of her wanted to argue. To ask him where this hostility had come from. But she needed to check herself, really. Leon being the cold one out of the two of them had to have been a new low for Ada. She needed to get a grip.
Ada stood, pocketing the bandages and shrugging on her outer layer again. She still felt queasy with weakness, but now was not the time for weakness.
Leon walked away from her, head hanging as he shuffled back towards his bedroom.
“Shame. We don’t tend to part on bad terms.” She commented, stepping her way back towards the window she had used as her escape last time. Her hand stilled on the sill. “I’m sorry, to have woken you up.” That wasn’t what she was sorry for at all. Ada hoped that he appreciated it. She wasn’t planning on apologising to him ever again.
Leon turned back to look at her silhouette across the room. In the moonlight, Ada could’ve sworn she saw a sheen of tears in his eyes.
His hand gripped his bedroom door handle tight, before he suddenly let go and quickly made up the space between them. His gait seemed agitated. Ada couldn’t quite tell what he was about to do.
It seemed Leon wasn’t sure either because when he reached her, he hesitated, hands clenching at his sides as he searched her face, brow frowning deeply.
Then, his hands relaxed completely and came up to hold her cheeks. He pulled her in gently and pressed a soft, melancholy kiss to her lips.
Ada didn’t close her eyes, searching over his torn expression.
She could see just how much his heart was breaking. Over everything, she imagined. That seemed to be what happened when someone cared too much. They burnt themselves up from the inside. That was why she could never be sentimental.
Despite that, she leant into the kiss, one hand coming up to press against chest, feeling the uneven breaths trembling him to the core. He leant back, not letting go of her face.
Ada could taste the alcohol on her lips.
“Oh, Leon.” She said quietly. “So much pain in here.” She brushed her thumb over his chest. “I don’t know where you put it all.”
His face cracked into something Ada had never seen from him before and he quickly stepped away.
“That's why.” He said, voice wracked. “That’s my reason.”
Ada offered him a sad, small smile.
“I know.” She opened the window and looked over her shoulder at him once more.
There was so much she wanted to say. She wanted to reassure him. Stay with him. Comfort him.
But she’d only end up bleeding out.
“Take care of yourself, Leon.” She said gently.
Leon’s eyes raked over her once more silently. He clearly didn’t trust himself to speak.
And when he turned away from her, Ada knew it was only because he couldn’t bear to watch her go.
So she slipped away silently, before she had the chance to change her mind. Or his.
Ada felt more hurt than she had before she’d come.