"Why did you leave earlier?" Leon eventually asked as I quickly made a face.
I knew he was going to ask that...!
Having no choice but to answer him, I sighed.
"I was frustrated. And sad." I replied to him as he nodded his head at my answer, seeming to want to ask the question again as I decided to leave it at that.
"Truth or dare, Leon?" I asked him directly after.
He sat up in his seat, scratching his chin as he seemed to think about which option he would choose.
"Truth?" he eventually said as I nodded, already having the question ready in my mind.
"Who was the man in the photo I saw earlier?" I calmly asked as he lost himself in thought for a moment, the expression on his face seeming to darken.
"James. He's the one who raised me." he eventually replied as my face slightly tensed at his answer, slightly understanding the connotation of his answer.
Does that mean that he has grown up without parents...?
As I settled onto the couch, I looked at him for a long time, pensive.
"Truth or dare?" he eventually asked me as I curled up in the corner of the sectional couch. I looked at a fixed point in front of me, determined not to answer the truth.
"Dare," I replied as he calmly nodded his head, a beginning of a smile starting to appear on his lips as I gulped.
"Do a backflip..." he replied as I clicked my tongue, finding his strategy unfair.
"Are you going to keep asking for backflips so that I'll answer you, huh?" I finally asked him, slightly frustrated as he chuckled slightly.
"Not my idea..." he insinuated as I threw a cushion at him, which he caught effortlessly in mid-air.
As I started to get up, having decided to stop playing, I heard Leon say one last thing before I left.
"I thought you were going to ask me a lot of questions. I'm quite disappointed." he announced, a hint of amusement perceptible as I bit my lip, tapping my foot in frustration.
Is he asking me to sacrifice myself to finally get what I want? Is that it??
"No, I don't feel like it anymore... If you don't want to tell me anything, I won't force you to," I replied as I began to leave.
"So, I can't ask you my question?" he asked as I pouted.
"I already know what it's going to be, and I don't want to..." I admitted to him as he smiled slightly.
" That's how it works. And I would have eventually asked you, game or not." he insinuated as I sat back down next to him on the couch, feeling slightly more cooperative as I grabbed a piece of his blanket to wrap myself in.
"When you said you were frustrated and sad, in my previous question..." He began to ask as I sighed, slightly ashamed at the idea of having to answer him honestly.
"Well..." I started as I untied my hair, starting to play with my elastic as I thought about the rest of my answer.
"Actually, I don't really have an explanation. This morning I was so happy to see you that at the moment we saw each other, I felt like we were missing an important detail. And it's like that every time I talk to you..." I started to tell him as he furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
"So, the reason why you went drinking with Will was because you were frustrated that I told you we had to act like we didn't know each other at work?" He asked in return as I nervously nodded my head.
"It's not just that, though... There's so much more! At first, I thought that just by loving you I could deal with whatever that might entail, but the more I follow in your footsteps, the more I get lost in the fog," I continued to explain as I started to shiver from the cold.
Brrrr...
If only I had known, I would have kept my clothes on...
Looking at Leon think about his answer, I was struck by a panic attack.
"For example, Ada! You've never talked to me about Ada, even though..." I started to stutter as his eyes widened as if I had hit the right spot.
"It's complicated, and to explain to you what happened between her and me, I'd have to start from the beginning." he began to explain as my insides started to twist with shame.
To explain what happened between her and him... So something definitely happened...
I went to get a blanket and settled down calmly next to him, looking for his eyes as he seemed hesitant.
"I have all the time in the world, Leon..." I insinuated to him as he chuckled slightly, himself seeming uncomfortable at the idea of potentially having to tell "that much".
"It all started about 8 years ago when I graduated from the police academy. I asked to be assigned to a city called Raccoon City and was accepted. Just as I was about to leave, exhausted, I received a call from the station telling me not to go." he began to explain, which raised several questions on my side.
"Why did you want to be assigned there?" I asked calmly, already knowing roughly how the events in Raccoon City unfolded.
"Well, I had seen in the newspapers that there were quite a few murders committed in the area, and... At that moment, I knew I had to go there," he replied calmly, which raised another question.
"So why were you exhausted then? You were going to be able to work where you wanted..." I asked him again as he clenched his jaw.
"I had everything ready for my future life there. My future apartment, my suitcases. And then, the day before I left, I got dumped." He admitted as my eyes widened, both surprised and horrified.
"D-dumped. By your...?" I started to ask as he nodded, a smirk on his face.
"Yeah, even though I knew this wouldn't last long. But at the time, it got to me since we had planned to move there together. In the end, that's what saved her life." He continued to explain as I blinked several times, trying to process the information he was giving me.
Maybe it's just my extremely biased view, but...
I never would have thought I'd hear Leon say he's been dumped, haha.
"Any other questions?" He asked as I shook my head in negation, as he motioned for me to come and rest in his arms, which I was everything but going to refuse.
"So, I received this call telling me not to go. Except I went a week later, and... It was a nightmare. Hell on earth." He continued to tell me as his words began to become vague, which in a sense proved how much he had been marked.
He continued to tell me what had happened and mentioned his encounter with a girl named Claire, and calmly told me about his journey through the Raccoon City police station.
The fateful moment came.
"While I was so close to getting out of this police station, I almost got killed when an infected dog jumped at me. That's when I met Ada, who, at the time, was presenting herself as an FBI agent." He continued his explanation as I turned my head towards his, not hiding my surprise after this revelation.
Ada, an FBI agent?
Isn't she supposed to be a mercenary?
He continued to explain his journey through the police station, his exit, and his encounter with the armorer who guarded the way to Umbrella's underground and mentioned Ada again.
"Ada was and still is a mercenary. And at the time, I didn't know she was looking for a sample of the virus that destroyed Raccoon City. She used my feelings towards her to achieve her goals." He added, his voice slightly hoarse as I let out a painful sigh.
This whole story is incredible in the wrong way.
The fact that Leon trusted Ada, and that she betrayed him, just like this.
"That's actually how I got that scar. I took a bullet protecting her that night." He added as time seemed to stop for a moment.
So that's why he didn't want to tell me...
He continued to tell me about his journey through the sewers and mentioned very lightly what he had felt towards Ada, almost detailing every step of his journey, of which I didn't miss a crumb.
As he told me how he ultimately neutralized the tyrant that chased him and got on a train, I had a moment of dissatisfaction as he began to tell me about the rest, which was his rigorous training, as well as Ashley's kidnapping, which led us to the day we met.
"Never, at the time, did I think I'd come across a survivor. Luis, strangely, it suited him well, but you...? How did you manage to survive for so long...?" He finally asked as I got lost in my thoughts.