It was a quiet night, the evening birds and animals were singing their night songs, and the mist of Wazt Rhut was forming it's usual barrier to conceal it from those down below. Leon was leaning on the railing of his back porch looking up at the lonely mountain in the distance with his hair hanging loosely in his face. He was only in his pajama bottoms, and was standing on the wood of the porch in his bare feet and exposed torso to the night air. But it wasn't like it was cold out, it never really got cold here, at it's lowest it got around 50 degrees far warmer than what he was used to for a coldest temperature.
He let out a sigh as he looked up at the night sky with a wondrous look on his face. He'd done it. He finally had everything that he'd ever wanted in life. He and Natalia were living together, due to be married next month, he had a healthy baby boy whom was the light of his life. He had friends that he cared about, he was even an uncle in a way. Carny and Arya had announced two weeks after Nix was born that they were going to be parents as well. If he was being honest though, Leon had a hard time imagining Arya being a mother and even harder time picturing Carny being a father.
And as it turned out the prospect had terrified Carny. He'd visited Nick several times asking him to fix him, but when Nick told him there was nothing scientifically wrong with him Carny then went to Quinn. Unfortunately for the insane demon, Quinn couldn't help him either and Carny had vanished for sometime. Leon had gone out in search of him and found Carny miles away out in the wilderness of Ryna perched a top a cliff and looking out at the world before him. When Leon came to sit by him Carny had spoken to him about his fears over becoming a father.
He was afraid that he might lose it again and hurt his child, because he admitted that sometimes he'd lash out at Arya for no reason but she could handle it because she could defend herself. But the baby... Carny was afraid he'd do something to his child in one of his fits of rage. They were getting fewer in number and lessening in their explosiveness, but none of them had any illusions that Carny was normal which was another huge fear that Carny had. He was afraid that his child might come out wrong like him.
When Carny was a child he'd hurt his younger brother... badly too, and as a result he'd been taken to a doctor's office to be evaluated. Only when he and the doctor came out his parents had vanished, they didn't even return home, they simply left Carny alone at the hospital taking their other son with them. Carny was then moved to an orphanage where he was then sent to a psychiatric hospital on account of his violent behavior. Twice Carny had been rejected because of something he didn't understand, because of something that he couldn't control and so his personality Cole was born.
Cole was born out of Carny's need to be accepted by the rest of the world. He was timid, kind, gentle, and just the opposite of Carny in every way imaginable. When he escaped the hospital and joined the circus because to Carny that's where freaks go to be accepted he was welcomed with open arms. There they even worked to restrain him whenever he had one of his fits, to keep him under control he was accepted there because he was a freak. But when he met Leon... Well that was different.
According to Carny, when they met the first time Carny wanted nothing more than to kill him. But as they grew to learn about each other Carny saw that Leon wasn't afraid of Carny, and actually found his personality of Cole boring going as far as to say he preferred Carny. It was confusing and vexing to Carny all at the same time because he'd spent his entire life trying to fix himself to fit what everyone thought of as normal, then Leon came along and said there was nothing wrong with him. He'd accepted Carny, not because he was a freak, he accepted him because he was him. That's why Carny was so blindly loyal to Leon, because he saw him as the one and only person in the entire world who thought he was fine as he was.
Then Arya showed up again, and she liked Carny the way he was and was even having his child. Two people now liked Carny because of the way he was and that made no sense to him. But still it terrified him to know that there was a possibility that his child may end up just like he was and be forced into a world that will reject them because they were broken.
The two of them talked at length about Carny's fears but essentially it all boiled down to a few key facts. One being that Carny wasn't alone anymore, and that Arya and himself weren't the only ones that could be counted among his friends. Second the kid wouldn't be alone, because even though Carny might not trust himself completely, Leon was sure that he'd love the kid no matter what which Carny agreed that he would. Thirdly, Leon made Carny a promise that if he ever got out of control to the point that he might hurt his child, that he would be there to stop him.
Carny didn't sound to happy about it all, but he agreed that if anyone could stop him from hurting his child that it'd be Leon. And so the two of them had come back to their homes, Carny had gone home to his... well Leon wasn't sure what to call Arya because once when he'd called her Carny's girlfriend she'd punched him and said to never call her that again. But he'd gone back to his home across the street from them and Leon had gone back to his own home, to his beautiful fiance and his even more beautiful son.
Leon's mouth curled up into a smile as he went inside and down the hall to check on his boy. He found him sleeping soundly on his back making soft baby sounds as he tossed and turned. Nix must've sensed him watching because as Leon leaned on the door frame looking at him, he saw two red eyes open up followed by some soft cooing sounds. Leon let out a soft laugh and walked over to his son's crib and looked down at him as he lay there squirming in his crib.
But then... Something came over Leon... Something that he'd never felt before and suddenly his hand went down until it wrapped around his son's throat. What the hell am I doing, he thought as his grip tightened around his son's neck. Stop it, he screamed at himself mentally as his son began to make choking sounds. Leon was seeing red and quietly screaming for himself to stop it but no matter how hard he willed it, he couldn't make his body stop doing what it was doing.
There was a sound behind him and suddenly someone was beside him, hitting him, telling him to stop. But he couldn't something was making him do this, and it was far beyond his control to stop himself. Natalia who had been the one beside him was trying with all of her might to pull him off of Nix who had gone a disturbing shade of blue now, was thrown aside as if she weighed nothing. Now Leon bore down on his son with both hands as his tiny hands clawed at his hands. Something told Leon to look up and when he did, he saw Kayos' face looking back at him. He released his son's throat and shot backwards with a loud scream as he fell to the ground.
That's when Leon shot straight up from his bed with an equally loud cry. He was breathing as if he'd just run a marathon, he and his bed were absolutely drenched in sweat, and Natalia was beside him and looked like she'd been trying to wake him up for some time now. Leon's heart was thundering in his chest now, and the slight transparent portion of his chest was glowing with red light that was slowly beginning to die down. In the other room they could both hear Nix crying and Natalia left their room to go and check on him.
Leon meanwhile turned to the side of the bed and put his face into his hands as he tried to reassure himself that what he saw was just a dream. He waited a minute before he stood up and walked barefoot across the carpeted floor to the bathroom to splash water in his face. When he stood back up he let out a start when he saw Kayos' face looking back at him and fell into their bathtub with a loud crash, tearing the shower curtain from it's rings and hitting his head hard off of the tiled wall.
Natalia came rushing into the bathroom with Nix in her arms. She was only wearing the t-shirt that Leon had worn the day before and her underwear, while Nix was dressed in his red onsie that Lauren had bought for him. She took one look at Leon and hurried to his side. "Leon what's wrong?"
"I- I don't know." He answered shaking his head as he ran his hand over his face and through his hair. "I had a nightmare but... I can't remember what it was about."
"You were yelling in your sleep." She said rubbing his knee and climbing into the tub beside him and got close to him. "You weren't saying anything, just yelling."
"Was I?" Leon asked as Nix held his arms out to him and Leon gladly took his son into his arms. Nix laid his head on Leon's shoulder while he cradled the child against him before Natalia rested her head on his shoulder. "You think- You think I need to go see someone?"
"I can't tell you that babe." She said turning her head up to look at him. "But this is the tenth time you've done this since you got back. Nick ran every test, Quinn went through your head and they both say your the same Leon." She pulled away and turned Leon's head to look at her before saying the next part. "I say you're the same Leon. You're the father of our child, and the man that I love. That's enough of a confirmation for me Leon. But if you really feel like something is so wrong that you need help... Then do it."
Leon looked down at his son for a moment before turning back to Natalia. "Where would I even go for the help I need?"
She was quiet for a moment but finally Natalia spoke after what felt like forever. "Go talk to Quinn. Maybe you can't remember what these nightmares of yours are, but maybe he can figure them out if you let him poke around in your head. I know you don't like to but it's worth a shot." Natalia stopped and laid her head on his shoulder again before bringing her hand up to stroke their son's head. "I just want you to be careful babe. You've done more than your fair share to save the world, and I don't want you to have to worry about anything else but me and our son."
Leon let out a soft chuckle at that as he looked down. "I promise, I'm not going to be getting involved in anymore fights unless it's to protect you two."
A/N: Well it's short, but dang Leon seems to be having some trouble even though he's happy huh? Any guesses as to what's bothering him so much? Even though I kind of laid out out pretty clearly what's bothering him I'd still like to hear from you all :p
Pic is Leon minus the red eyes