Ada shivered with an unamused look on her face, wrapped tightly in a blanket. She was huddled on the couch right up to Leon, who had both arms around the blanket bundle, and a rather smug look on his face that he was having a hard time hiding.
"I'm sorry, It's just… the irony of it…"
"I'm going to dump ice cubes in your bed tonight."
"Does this mean I won?"
"An entire gallon of ice cubes."
"Oh come on, don't be like that…" He grinned and laid his head on top of hers. There was warmth radiating from her, but he was pretty sure it wasn't from the blankets.
She eventually stopped shivering, but she also didn't make any moves to leave her current position. The fire that Leon had (eventually) managed to get going crackled away in the fireplace.
"You asked me why I came here," he said quietly. "But why did you send that letter? What did you want to know?"
Ada was quiet for several moments before she answered.
"I just wanted to know… if you were okay." She looked up at him, head against his chest.
He huffed.
"That's a good question isn't it… let me know if you find the answer."
She started to shift and then crossed her legs over his, keeping herself on his side like a leech. A heat-leech.
"The answer is that you need a year of vacation and a therapist—"
"Never mind, you can keep the answer."
"Leon."
He smirked down at her.
"This is worth a year of vacation, and you're doing a great job of being a therapist."
Ada rolled her eyes.
"But really, what are you going to do? You can't keep this up forever."
He gave a short hm as he thought.
"I know. I won't. I'll get out before it gets to be too much. I did grow a little bit of self-preservation, you know."
She seemed satisfied with that answer and snuggled down further.
"Good."
He tucked a thin lock of her damp hair behind her ear and then laid his head back on the couch, closing his eyes.
He knew he'd have to leave tomorrow, with plenty of questions still unanswered no matter how long they talked into the night. Not knowing everything about her was something he was learning to accept, but he realized he didn't mind it too much. Maybe it would drive him crazy eventually, but maybe she was right, and chasing the mystery was part of the fun.
For now, the crackle of the fire kept him anchored in the present. He decided that right here, this was the time and place he would go back to when things inevitably got ugly again. For just a few days, he was right where he wanted to be.
Leon twirled his keycard around on the lanyard, strolling past the desks in the BSAA office with a cup of coffee in hand.
"ZERO contact for three days, Leon? You asked to have a three-day break, not drop off the map completely!"
Hunnigan's voice was immediately recognizable as he strode past her desk in particular.
"Sorry, no cell service." There was not an ounce of 'sorry' in his voice before he started sipping his coffee loudly.
"This is a government job, Leon. What was so important that you had to go dark with no warning?"
He shrugged with a smirk.
"Camping trip."
He left Hunnigan to her incredibly unamused self and headed off to investigate the next paranoid lead in the file.