𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 ★ 𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐒 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

Chapter Nine: Nitty And DSO Agents

"Thanks, see you later!" You shout as you walk off, feeling his grip tighten even more, calloused fingers digging into your skin.

"Pleasure doing business, stranger!"

You walk out of sight down the path with Leon, you can tell he's fuming and he doesn't cover it up well. His silence as he manhandles you is a dead giveaway, but you don't have the energy to escalate the situation or drag yourself off.

"What's up?"

"Can't you just focus on the mission instead of flirting with some random hobo?" He snarls, his anger simmering beneath the surface threatening to overflow.

"I just wanted him to fix your knife."

"Yeah and try your luck with that pretty lady discount while you're at it? You seemed to enjoy his attention, wasting our time." His voice is heavy with distaste and it makes you frown even more.

"What is your problem, Leon? It's nice talking to an actual person after all I've seen are Ganado."

"You have me." His voice dissolves into something else you can't put your finger on, although his anger overshadows it easily. "You don't need him, you don't need to talk to anyone else on this mission. And you shouldn't."

"Yeah but you're insufferable. Almost all the time. All you do is argue or tick me off."

He sighs, stopping in his tracks and turning to hold you by the shoulders. Your brows knit together in his change in demeanour and you don't know if he's going to get madder than he already seems or give a cute little lecture. Maybe something in between.

"I don't want us to argue, you should know that. It's like you want us to argue all the time, you can't blame me for it."

"I want to argue? You've been doing nothing but shit that... I wouldn't even say gets on my nerves, you take a swan dive into my skin and flesh and live in my bones." You take a deep breath. "Leon, is this really the time to argue about this? We don't have the time."

"I'm not turning this into an argument." He says with a strained voice, his teeth pressed together as he desperately tries to let out his emotions for once, struggling severely. "I'm not used to talking like this. But, I am just trying to say that I think." He paused and thinks about his next few words. "That it's inefficient for you to be wasting time flirting around with idiots like that guy."

"Are you jealous-"

"Let me finish!" He shouts, and closes his eyes as he his head hangs down to the floor to calm himself down. He finally looks up at you through his eyelashes. "I said this isn't easy. I don't want us continuing to like this, arguing all the time. Can't we agree to try and be normal partners because I don't like this situation we have going on here, okay? I have more to say just... wait." He takes a deep breath. "I don't think you're that annoying, I have regrets about the way I treated you after I found out about you being in the Tokyo outbreak. You are aren't that bad. Please, just make an effort to make us see eye to eye, because I am trying."

You're left a bit speechless at his sincerity, the way he looks at you genuinely with his pretty blue eyes makes you soften at the sight of him, a nice change.

"That's a bit rich coming from you after that chain situation, don't you think? Just a bit ago you were dragging me around."

"We got over that quickly. I think we're already making progress, we could make more."

You lean back on the tree that's behind you, questioning how this could have even happened, this unshakeable man suddenly spilling all his thoughts out in front of you vulnerably.

"Did this all really come out because you were jealous?"

"I wasn't jealous." He says quickly. "That man is weird, you spent more time talking to him than you need to."

"Really?" You have a mischievous smirk, you're about 80% sure you're right about this. "I only wasted about a minute with that guy, are you sure you're not jealous?"

"I swear, you have an arguing addiction." He rolls his eyes as he starts to walk back down the path, having you follow by his side.

"Not arguing, teasing, you'll have to get used to it if you want me to like you. Which I'm still considering right now, your cute little speech was very convincing though." You get a bit closer so your arms are touching as you walk.

"You're making me reconsider my choices in ever being genuine again." He feels his heart's pace pick up a little, but thinks nothing of it. Watching you by the corner of his eye as you look up at him smugly, it's the first time he's seen you so pleased on the mission, and your smile is more refreshing than he'd like to admit.

"We probably can't avoid an argument forever. You're aware of that much, right?"

"I can live with that."

"Easier said than done with your anger issues."

"You're the only person who can get a rise out of me. I don't know what it is because I know you get on with everyone else in the office like two pieces in a puzzle."

"I mean, have you ever considered that you're the issue?"

"No one hates me."

"Yeah, you don't speak to anyone. Except Chris, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were a couple. So maybe you just don't know how to speak to people. Now that I think about it, if you get on with Chris I can't imagine why we don't get on. Me and Chris are basically the same person."

You heard a sudden laugh from Leon, which was like a jump scare it seemed so out of line for him.

"That's funny. You're not like Chris, maybe your humour, but that's as far as it goes. You're a lot different from everyone in the office."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Sometimes... If you asked me that an hour ago I would've said it was an awful thing, some aspects are better than others."

"Pretty vague. I'd say you enjoy my company more than you'd like to admit."

"Oh I definitely wouldn't say I like you but we agreed we would get there. You're tolerable so far but I don't think we can continue this conversation much longer." You look up ahead to see an entrance to a Ganado settlement, there's a woman on the wall of the entrance, holding Molotovs.

"Great. Do we need to go through here?"

"We need a hexagonal key for the gate near the merchant, I assume it's in here." You cringe slightly at yourself, realising you weren't paying attention. Followed by a satisfied grin from Leon. "Yeah, the gate with the hexagonal key." What type of door even uses a hexagonal key?

"This is why we don't let ourselves get distracted by men."

"Oh shut up." You point your gun at the woman and shoot her thrice, dropping dead instantly.

"That's it... Take it out on the Ganado."

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

published 3rd July