Jeitinho

by Red Nix

Jeitinho (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒejˈtʃĩɲu], "knack") is an expression for the way of doing things by circumventing rules and social conventions. It is a typically Brazilian method of social navigation where an individual can use emotional resources (appeal to emotion), blackmail, family ties, promises, rewards or money to obtain favors or to get an advantage. (Ada x Leon)

I do not own Resident Evil or any its characters.

Jeitinho

The sudden absence of the warmth behind his back tells Leon that their early morning rituals have begun.

He feels the chenille blanket covering the lower half of his body slip down ever so slightly, and the shifting of weight on the other side of the bed tells him that the woman beside him is executing the first steps of her escape ploy.

(Her nightly visits were always a thing of wonder to him; surely a person like Ada Wong would not have much time in her hands to even pay casual visits to an old friend. He truly believed that anything he knew about his employers, she could find out in a heartbeat, even without using him as leverage.)

Or does he even know her at all?

He hears something akin to a moan, and it didn't take long for him to realize that it was her own seductive version of a sigh, and he wondered, was it a sound of relief, frustration, satisfaction, or a mixture of everything?

(He couldn't tell which, since this very woman is born to make everything sound so sensual, and it was very easy to envision how amorous she could sound upon devouring her poor little prey.)

Does she sees him as a prey, he wondered again.

He hears the almost inaudible sound of a rustling fabric, and he knows that she is now slipping on the little sable dress she was wearing last night, right before he went and reached out for that thin strap on her shoulder.

(He would always prefer her perfect crimson ensemble over provocative but boring black dresses, but beggars can't be choosers.)

She wears this on purpose, he was sure of it.

The soft sound of something scribbling slowly engulfed him into slumber; he didn't need to be awake to know what happens next anyway.

(She will open his balcony window and slip into the night and away from his life, and he will not see her for months, maybe even years. He wondered, again, whether an apocalypse or a world war would make her show up in his room (this time wearing something red, he hoped), for he was certain she needed him for something, anything…)

He felt something soft brush against his rough cheek, and he wondered no more.