AN: This is from a verse in my roleplay journal where Leonard gets that little bit too close to Winona Kirk, and they end up falling into a relationship together. Hiding it from Jim is taking a strain on them both, but they're powerless to fight how they feel. FYI, I am awful at titles, lol.

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Leonard gazed over at Winona, his eyes lidded and heavy from the copious amount of Bourbon they had shared. Just hours before she had rested a shoulder on the doorway to his cabin, raising a full bottle in her right hand in a silent demand that he join her in a drink. A mutual heartache and desire for the other had them curled together on the vast sofa of his cabin; a perk of his position on the ship. A tired hand in her hair, her head resting on his steadily rising and falling chest, they looked like any simple couple there together, sharing in that moment where both realized they had consumed one too many drinks. To any outsider to who they were, and their situation, they would look quite the couple. Despite the slight inebriation, they were moulded together like they fit.

Behind closed doors, they truly were so much more. Drawn together as if by fate, tied together despite the dangerous nature of their relationship. Both of them were struggling to say how they truly felt, what they wanted from the other. They both wanted this, both knew they other did, but both cared too much for Jim to do more than simply creep around together, feeling little better than petty criminals. Their crime? Falling in love with the wrong person.

"It ain't always go'na be this way, darlin'," he drawled quietly, lips dropping a tender kiss to her hair.

Eyes red through the combination of Bourbon and unshead tears, Winona turned her gaze upwards, her nose brushing over the stubble of his chin in the process. The heartbreaking thing was that something had to give. Either her feelings for Leonard, of their mutual love for Jim. Someone had to end up hurt, and it simply wasn't fair.

Despite that, she exhaled softly, a hand toying idly with the front of his shirt, picking at the material out of need to do something for further contact between the two.

"Do you promise?" she whispered. She knew full well that he realistically couldn't promise that, but that his hidden sweet nature would drive him to try. She saw a side to him that others rarely did. A polite, sweet natured gentleman with a loving heart of gold.

How could she not fall in love with him?

He gazed down at her, a pain tugging at his chest at her obvious discomfort and hurt. He wished he could take it away, make this something safe and right for them to embark upon.

"I'll do my damndest t' make sure," he replied gently. Despite the drunken haze surrounding them both, they knew how serious this was. How a little tenderness to calm their fears and reservations was needed.

He dropped the sweetest of kisses to the tip of her nose, his forehead finding solace against her own. "I promise you that."