Chapter Text
When Leon felt expert fingers running through his hair and massaging his scalp, he yelped awake before Luis could utter a single word.
He looked around, still a little dazed from sleep. He had fallen asleep on the couch, again. He had been falling asleep randomly a lot lately, he was just that tired.
Luis was running late, so he came here to feed the cat and decided to wait for him, since they were going to cook dinner together anyway. He must have dozed off at some point.
“Buenos días, slept well?” Luis’ smug smile was equal parts infuriating and attractive as hell.
He sat up on the couch once Luis stood up and went to the kitchen, to put groceries away.
“I wasn’t planning on waking you up, but I always forget what a light sleeper you are. You have been taking a lot of naps lately, though”
“Yeah. Training had been brutal lately” it wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t the truth either. Training was always brutal, but his physical prowess and endurance was what led him to where he was today, after all.
He just had been so tired this last month.
There was no point in worrying Luis; his mandatory and regular agency blood work showed he was healthy and well fed.
“You can keep napping, I can wake you up when dinner is ready,” Luis offered, taking his pans from the oven. Leon would never understand why he chose to store them there.
He shook his head, in part to clear the last remnants of sleep from his mind.
“I’ll help you” he said, picking up Rocinante’s dish to put on the sink now that it was empty.
“In that case, can you take the chicken out of the fridge?” he asked, filling the kettle with water “I left it to defrost in the lower compartment this morning”
“Sure,” he said, quickly kissing Luis’ cheek before going to the fridge.
He was about to open the door, when something caught his eye; there was a paper sheet pinned to the fridge door. That in itself wasn’t weird, what stood out to Leon was the apparent color coding and the amount of handwritten notes the sheet had on it, he unpinned it and took a look at it.
It was a weekly schedule full of notes with exercise names and descriptions, some were even in spanish. He could recognize words like “neural activation” and "diaphragmatic breathing”.
Luis had been in physiotherapy for his back issues for a month now, but Leon hadn’t grasped the size of his commitment. He'd make passing comments here and there about the sessions going well and sometimes he’d ask Leon to massage the muscle that gave him the most grief.
He didn’t realize he was invested to the point of taking notes on the best knee angle for squats.
He turned around and lifted the paper sheet so Luis could see it.
“I thought you were enrolled in an immunology PhD, not in a “spine mechanics and neural activation” one” Leon said, quoting one of the most underlined concepts on the sheet.
Luis rolled his eyes, but continued cutting onions in perfect little cubes. Leon’s eyes were pricking, he didn’t know how Luis managed to do that without shedding a single tear.
“Very funny”
He moved on to cutting mushrooms.
“It started as a genuine interest in making my life easier, actually, but the science behind it’s so fascinating, that I couldn't help but dig deeper. What really gets me is how you can reconstruct a muscle even if it’s mostly cut from your nervous system and it’s practically isolated from your brain. With the right movements and consistency you can create new paths for your neurons to connect with each other even when the main nerve is burned, like in my case. I’ve been reading a lot about it and John has been explaining to me how muscles can actually send signals to your immune system so it doesn’t go nuts when you are actually actively tearing the muscle apart to make it anew”
Leon sighed fondly and pinned the sheet to the fridge again before taking the chicken out. He should have guessed this would trigger a Luis Rant.
He put the chicken on the counter, far enough from the rest of the food, a habit that was born from several Luis Rants about cross contamination and salmonella.
He leaned on the counter, at a safe distance from any chopping and simply listened to Luis talk. It was soothing, comforting and… educational.
Smart Ass Luis was also hot as fuck.
He proceeded to explain how he and John had been testing theory, in a safe way he emphasised, and how they were tweaking things around to suit Luis particular needs.
He was kind of surprised Luis was talking to John this much.
Leon had known the man for years, mostly from their overlapping training schedules; John worked out before he started his working hours every morning, same as Leon. You could call them gym partners if you took into consideration that they'd eventually fallen into the rhythm of helping each other loading weights and counting reps.
John had never struck him as particularly talkative, though… Maybe it was different with patients?
Leon had never been his patient before, so he wouldn’t know.
Luis continued rambling about controlled microtrauma and capillary density increase as Leon tried to manage the urge to kiss him just to see him flustered enough to lose track of what he was saying.
He loved seeing his boyfriend like this, in his element, talking about something he was passionate about. At some point he lost track of things and only came back to himself when Luis changed the subject.
“Ohh. How’s Claire doing by the way? I heard Becky say something about TerraSave the other day and I thought about her”
Ever since Leon told him about Raccoon City like a month ago, Luis had asked surprisingly very few questions. Mostly about what happened to Claire after everything, so this was not the first time he casually asked about her. Maybe he had a slightly wrong idea about the kind of relationship they had, and was assuming they were constantly in contact, maybe he was just a big gossip.
“Dunno. Haven’t heard from her in a while” he replied, as he always did when Luis asked about Claire.
The kitchen smelled amazing and Leon didn’t even notice dinner was almost ready, so he reached out for the cutlery while Luis drained the pasta.
He was momentarily caught out of guard when he took a spoon from the middle compartment instead of a fork and then remembered he was at Luis’ place.
“Have you managed to make the embassy guy fix the certificate the bank says is not the right one?” He asked, suddenly remembering Luis had been frustrated about the amount of paperwork and inconvenience he was going through in the process of financing his PhD.
Luis groaned as he threw the pasta into the pan with the sauce.
“Every time I call and try to explain it, the guy insists that’s exactly the certificate I need and the bank guy is wrong. I’m thinking about going in person and talking to his supervisor, but I don’t want to be that kind of person” He tossed the pasta in the pan with an expert twist of his wrist, no wonder he was so good at giving hand jobs.
“What are the embassy’s business hours? I can take you, if you want. Make me your moral support” he offered, making a point to himself about the plates being in the lower cabinet, and not the top one.
Luis kept his attention on their dinner for a moment, as he skillfully added something green on top.
“Are you sure?” He said, taking one of the plates Leon left besides the stove for him and putting half the pasta on it. “I know you hate paperwork”
Leon shrugged.
“That’s why I’m sympathizing with your suffering. I get it” Leon was very pleased Luis had noticed that detail about him, since he had never shared with anyone his passionate distaste for triplicate forms and certified signatures.
Luis looked at him, narrowing his eyes from the stove, plate of pasta in hand.
“I don’t know if I like that smile or not”
Leon laughed, he couldn’t help the satisfied smile. Maybe it was stupid, and maybe it was just a silly thing, but he was so stupidly happy Luis had noticed something seemingly so small and irrelevant about him.
He didn’t know he could feel like this; light and elated and in love.
He was also glad he had opened up to Luis about what happened in Raccoon City. Leon tried very hard not to think about it if it wasn’t necessary, and it was so rarely necessary that the memories lived mainly distorted in his nightmares. He was kind of surprised he was able to remember the amount of details he told Luis, he hadn’t consciously thought about that night in at least seven years.
Now, even if he wasn’t willing to think about it ever again, he felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders and what should have been one of the most harrowing nights of his life, was also linked to one of his favourite memories; hearing Luis saying he loved him.
Love was making him so stupid, but he didn’t care. He did feel a little embarrassed about his reaction the next day though, when he got up to Luis making breakfast in the kitchen and instead of saying good morning as a reply to Luis greeting, he had blurted out “you love me”.
Luis hadn’t laughed, instead he had held Leon by the waist, smiling softly as he said:
“You already knew that”
“yeah” Leon had replied “but hearing you say it…”
“I know” Luis whispered, looking into Leon’s eyes with so much adoration that his knees felt weak, so he put his hands on Luis’ shoulders to steady himself, and also searching for touch.
“Te amo” he said, still looking into Leon’s eyes. He didn’t know why hearing it in Spanish elicited such a strong reaction in him, but it did, his whole body shuddering with a kind of pleasure he had never felt before.
“Say that again?” He whispered before he could think about what he was saying.
“Te amo”.
Leon couldn’t hold that gaze anymore, so he hid his face in Luis’ neck, like a child, inhaling his scent and feeling at home.
That memory was constantly replaying in his mind, and even though he was a little embarrassed about sounding and being so needy, he felt like it didn’t matter because he was with Luis.
Leon took one of the plates of pasta, trying to keep himself together, and asked.
“Counter or couch?”
“Counter” Luis said, putting the now empty pan in the sink, “Rocinante loves chicken and he’ll try to steal it to not avail”
“Got it” Leon also took the other plate to put them on the counter, with the cutlery and paper napkins.
“Do you want a glass of wine?” Luis asked, taking a white wine bottle from the fridge.
“Drinking on a school night, babe?” he teased, taking a piece of chicken with his fork and popping it into his mouth, he closed his eyes for a second, appreciating the herbal flavours and light, creamy sauce.
“I want to finish the bottle before it goes bad” Luis shrugged, opening the cabinet where he stored his glasses and mugs.
“In that case, pour me a glass too”
Luis poured the remaining wine in the bottle into two wine glasses and sat down beside Leon.
“so, do you want me to go to the embassy with you or not?” Leon insisted, he didn’t really know why he was offering, he did hate paperwork. But he also knew a thing or two about international certificates and he suspected where the issue here could be, as he wasn’t sure, he didn’t say anything though.
“The embassy has the same hours as your office, isn't it inconvenient for you? don’t answer that, let me guess, it’s classified” Luis teased, smiling over the rim of his glass.
Leon snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Just pick a day and let me know, I’ll handle it”
“Yes mi amor!” he said, saluting and then continued eating.
Leon was tempted to suggest they should go tomorrow, so he could skip rookie training, even if it meant he was going to miss pizza day, but he decided to go with whatever Luis decided.
He received a text the next day, Wednesday at lunch time.
[Babe 13:11]
“Can we go to the embassy friday morning? There’s a terminal cleaning scheduled for the lab”
Leon replied immediately.
[Me 13:11]
“sure. ur wish is my command x”
He ate his greasy pizza and didn’t feel guilty about abandoning the fruit in the cantina, he hadn’t been this well fed in his entire life after all. So, even if he skipped the apple, Luis would make sure he hits his weekly fiber intake, while pretending he wasn’t counting Leon’s macros at all.
Leon, as always, would pretend he didn’t notice, though he suspected there was a spreadsheet somewhere.
He went straight to personnel to put in the paperwork for friday morning, he was sure half a day would be enough.
As soon as he entered the Personnel desk area, all the chatter died down.
He knew they were all terrible gossips, he didn’t think they would be this obvious about it when he wasn’t being expected there.
“Look at that! Agent Kennedy in the flesh!” Myriam, the middle aged woman who processed medical leaves, mandatory blood work and psychological assessments appointments greeted him with her usual cheer, she also gave him a very obvious once-over, as always “your dispatch info hadn’t come down here yet, so I can’t book you in for assessment yet”
“Myriam, good to see you” he said, as the background chatter started up again “actually, I’m here to see Janet today”
All the chatter died down… again. He never really did pay attention to the IT department's promises, but now he wished he could fill his requests for time off online, as they’ve been promising for months.
Janet perked up immediately, Leon was always polite with all of them, and knew them by first name, even though most of the time he was there to see Myriam regarding his mandatory medical stuff and his post mission therapy sessions.
He walked towards Janet's part of the long desk and put his ID on top of it.
“Can you give me a time off request form, please?” he asked, trying to ignore everyone else’s stares. It was like he was asking for Janet’s first born or something instead of a form to fill in.
The personnel desk spanned across the office, with a tiny little door in the middle of it. Four people worked there managing different types of paperwork, all of it regarding some aspect of being an agent or a DSO employee.
Janet put the form and a pen in front of him.
“Now now, sweetcheeks, I’m glad you are here to see me because I’m tired of sending you memos and emails about your accumulated vacation days”
He should have guessed she’d bring this up, as Leon mostly ignored her highly inappropriate memos. He focused on filling the form in front of him instead, so as to not blush at being called sweetcheeks by an almost sixty year old woman.
He was grateful they stopped calling him beefcake though, that one killed the last remnant of his heterosexual desire… disturbing
He wrote "bank appointment” as the reason for the request. They weren’t supposed to read it, as the form was folded into itself and sealed once it was ready and only his supervisor was allowed to see it, but he knew they were going to flash a light at the paper sheet to read why he was requesting half a day off. He’d seen them do that before.
So writing down "accompanying my boyfriend to the Spanish embassy” wasn’t really an option, sadly.
Once he was ready, he folded the form and sealed it tight before giving it back to Janet.
“I’ve been taking my mandatory vacation days though, and remember I’d been having the longest Psychological leaves in the office for several years now. I’m well rested, Janet.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Well, there have been rumors going around about you leaving the office on time and seeming more relaxed and approachable, now that you mention that. One of the cleaning girls came in here one day absolutely freaking out because she saw you laughing while talking on the phone… So sweetcheeks, got yourself a girlfriend?”
Damn nosy witches.
He tried again hard not to blush and harder not to think of Luis, he simply raised an eyebrow back at her.
“If I were to say yes, would you stop sending me memos to ask me out? I’m not sure your husband at inventory would appreciate knowing you do that”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Dear child, that man is more obsessed with you than any of us here, he won’t shut up about you or your biceps for days every time you go there, so tell him whatever”
Leon smiled smugly at her.
“We'll see” he said, slowly walking away from the desk “and the request is for half a day only, so you don’t have to find a flash light strong enough to see through the new, thicker paper. Wright knows about you guys doing that to access private info”
With that, he turned around and left the office. Maybe it was petty of him, but he knew he was not the only agent to report that to the supervisor.
Right before he closed the door of the office, he heard Janet loudly whispering to her colleagues.
“Has this one always been this cheeky? there's no respect for the elders anymore”
The last thing he heard was what he thought to be Myriam’s laughter.
Leon was glad the confirmation to his request would come in the form of an email, probably at some point in the afternoon if his supervisor didn’t have any meetings to attend to.
As he took the whole morning off, but Luis still needed to go to the lab before the cleaning started to “get out of the war zone delicate equipment” , Leon took the opportunity to do an extra long jog session friday morning.
He also took his time doing his strength training, John was there too, so he nodded hello to him as he always did and they fell right into their usual rhythm. Leon really couldn’t imagine John as this chatty, nerdy dude Luis had been describing since he broke the science dam by asking about the physiotherapy the other day.
It was arm and chest day for both of them, so they helped each other loading and unloading the bar during the bench press exercises.
Leon really liked John; he was quiet, but never rude. He took his job very seriously and he was kind to the veterans, even to the ones that were entitled and crass. John understood trauma and PTSD beyond his clinical training and seemed to be dealing with a bit of his own. Leon liked spending his morning training with John.
So, he waved him goodbye when he was finished cleaning and putting away what he used that day, as he always did, and went to take a shower to go pick up Luis at the lab.
He decided to stop at a Dunkin'Donuts to grab a breakfast sandwich for himself, and ended up buying a box of donuts for the lab people and a raspberry iced tea for Luis. Leon remembered him mentioning he was curious about what yanquis considered fruity tea.
He arrived just shy of 10 am and went straight to Rebecca’s office, since it was the only room you could access without an ID and knocked on the door.
When he heard the soft “come in”, he suddenly felt self conscious about the donuts.
He popped his head inside the office, so Rebecca couldn’t see his hands.
“Hello, I’m here to pick up Luis, did he tell you I was taking him to the embassy today?”
She seemed to have been reading some papers that were still in her hands.
“Ahh hi, K. Yes, he did, let me call the break room” She dialed a number and waited for a couple of seconds, she left the landline on speaker.
“Boss?” a male voice Leon didn’t recognize picked up.
“Joel, can you tell Luis his… ride is here to pick him up?” She was smiling and smugly looking at Leon. He was sure the pause and the choice of words weren’t a coincidence.
“Sure,” the voice replied and hung up.
“Chambers…” he sighed, tiredly. He knew she probably wouldn’t out Luis to his colleagues like this, but it was a dangerous line she was toying with.
“I know, none of my business” She said, rolling her eyes dismissively. “why don’t you come in, by the way? I'm not gonna bite you or anything.”
Leon decided she didn’t deserve a treat, but he already bought them, so.
He entered the office lifting the box, so she could see it clearly.
“I brought a treat for your people. I’m having second thoughts though”
He could see the greed in her eyes.
“Oh come on, don’t be like that. I’d never do something that could hurt him”
Leon raised an eyebrow at her, incredulous, but put the donut box on her desk anyway.
“Thank you” she said, immediately taking it, like she was afraid Leon was going to change his mind “I’ll tell the guys you are a good friend of Luis and I and that you are also a good friend of Chris, so don’t worry, okay?”
Leon wasn’t really worried about himself, hell he knew he wanted Luis to introduce him as his boyfriend everywhere they could, but he also knew it was complicated. Due to his job as a federal agent, he’ll probably never be able to disclose that he was in a committed relationship with another man, and he also knew bigotry was a dangerous thing in workplaces. Even if Rebecca was more than fine with it, as it seemed, it didn’t mean the rest of the employees of the lab would be too.
Luis loved his job and the people he was working with, Leon didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardise that.
He was going to tell her she should worry about Luis, when the man himself entered the office.
“Hi Leon” he said, somewhat shyly. Gooood Leon was so in love with this man.
Rebecca made a gag noise.
“you know, as you are suddenly very interested in Luis’ paperwork, you should consider getting a marriage license, they are only 35 bucks and I can be your witness if you ask nicely” Leon wanted the earth to swallow him whole and to wipe off the smug smile from her face at the same time because he already knew that… he looked it up.
He regretted buying the blighted donuts so much right now.
Luis made a noise between a hiss and a growl.
“Really? all you need in this country to get married are 35 dollars and a witness? no wonder your divorce rates are in the clouds”
Rebecca rolled her eyes at him.
“There are high divorce rates everywhere Luis”
He shrugged.
“Yes, but here it is higher than in Spain, at least. There you need to do counseling meetings with a priest before, because most people marry catholic and that’s legally binding. Also I was under the impression it wouldn’t be legal here… you know”
“It wouldn’t” Leon said, maybe too fast. He was uncomfortable with the subject and he knew he was blushing. He had fantasised about this a couple of times before, he even went as far as to consider which option would sound better “Luis Kennedy” or “Leon Serra” and he was deeply embarrassed about it.
“Luis, it was a joke” She said, “you don’t need to analyze our marital habits as a society”
“Marriage is no joke, Becky. The rates of domestic violence and underage marriages are also an issue”
“And it’s not as if we could” Leon added, trying to finally kill the subject for good.
Luis nodded energically.
“Fine, I get it you don’t want to get married, now piss off” she took the box of donuts and disappeared.
“I’m sorry” Luis said, “sometimes she is a bit tactless"
Leon shrugged it off, finally feeling the heat of his cheeks receding “It’s fine, Chris had also complained about her being a bit tone deaf before. Shall we go?”
Luis made a “go on” gesture with his hand and they left for the car.
Leon was deeply uncomfortable with the subject, yes, but he also needed to know, so he couldn’t help but mention it again, once he gave Luis his tea and they were on their way to the Spanish embassy.
“soooo, not a courthouse wedding for you but a deep, traditional religious commitment?"
Luis snorted.
“It’s not that, it’s just I don’t really understand yanqui's obsession with weddings. The only people I know that aren’t married are you and Becky, and maybe Chris, I don’t know him well, but he doesn’t wear a ring, so.”
Leon furrowed his brow, briefly looking at Luis when they stopped at a red light.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what I said. You yanquis make marriage sound like simple paperwork, like something you just go and do as soon as you are eighteen, like getting your first car and driver’s licence. Teenagers in Spain don’t drive, mostly, that’s something you do when you are an adult and have a family car or the means to buy your own. The same with marriage, it’s something you do when you want to merge two families, call me traditional or whatever. I’m not a practising catholic anymore, but I was raised as one and I was always taught that marriage was something sacred, something you do once in a lifetime and that is a blessing and a responsibility. Obviously marriages failed where I was raised too, I'm not romanticizing it, it’s just odd to me that you Yanquis are so blase about it”.
Leon thought for a moment about that.
“I don’t know. I guess marriage is something you take for granted. Everyone always assumes you are going to marry and have kids when you are an adult. And if you have a high school sweetheart, everyone sort of assumes you are going to get married when you are eighteen or sometime during college, if you go.” Leon said, trying to remember if he was taking the right turn or should have done that two streets ago. “It’s like a rite of passage. It also makes the whole taxes season easier, so a lot of people get married because of that, too”
“See? That's what I mean. I’m not saying it's a bad thing, it’s just strange to me. I'm used to people considering getting married very seriously, like regular family meetings about it kind of serious” Luis said, the slurping sounds coming from the passenger seat indicating he was almost finished with his tea."Meanwhile, you think about it so casually, even when one of you has to change their last name forever, tell me how it is not weird?”
The pang of existential pain was brutal, but he chose not to think about that in that moment.
Leon could kind of understand his point, and though he still felt uncomfortable with the subject, he also thought he now knew why.
Leon had wanted to get married, years ago, when he was young. He had wanted to meet someone and get married and form his own family, after Raccoon City he just assumed that wasn’t happening anymore; even if he was capable of loving someone and committing to someone, no one would want to marry someone with a job as dangerous as his. Now, things were a little different and that desire of his about having his own little family was resurfacing, because he could see himself having that with Luis, but at the same time, he knew they could never be public about their relationship because of his job.
Leon didn’t have to tell them and they weren’t allowed to ask about it, but he wasn’t naive enough to not know that even if marriage between same sex couples was legal, it was still something he couldn’t have, it couldn’t be on his record. He didn’t want to have to tell that to Luis, in case he was on board with the idea.
The aversion Luis seemed to have about the idea gave Leon a little peace and a lot of quiet, resigned disappointment, because he wanted that for them, he really did.
He knew they didn’t have to be married to commit to each other, but the idea of introducing Luis as his husband in any context gave him butterflies.
It was too soon, way, way too soon to be thinking about this anyway, so he focused on driving.
Leon would never understand why embassies always seemed to prefer to rent houses instead of offices, like any other governmental office, but he had to admit this particular house was beautiful.
White and colonial in style, it looked more like a museum than an embassy from the parking lot nearby.
The lobby didn’t help dismiss that assumption, since the walls were decorated with family crests and royal memorabilia.
There were also glass cases displaying what Leon assumed were historical…things. Like a very beautiful, heavily ornamented and highly impractical sword Leon hoped was a replica and several documents that looked too old to be exposed to artificial lights like this.
It made Leon feel like he had just stumbled upon the secret attic of a veteran, very patriotic grandpa.
To be fair, it didn’t seem dusty, just… old.
Luis seemed to know his way around well enough so he just followed him quietly, greeting employees and guards as they passed through the lobby and into another room with two desks and a double wooden door behind them.
Only one of the desks was occupied, so there they went.
“Good morning. I’m Luis Serra, I've been speaking on the phone with someone about a birth certificate?” The man behind the desk seemed to be very focused on his screen, but looked at Luis when he spoke. He looked young, maybe mid twenties, and he looked American to Leon.
“That would be me, yes” the embassy man replied, signaling the chairs in front of the desk with a hand. He didn’t seem to have an accent, so probably an American employee. “What can I do for you, Luis?”
Leon furrowed his brow when he saw Luis trying to conceal his distaste. Probably because that sounded more like “Lewis”.
He sat down anyway and went straight to his issue.
“I requested two birth certificates, one was meant for the university where I am enrolling in a PhD program, and the other one for a Spanish bank where my savings are. The university had no issue, but the bank said that certificate wasn’t enough; they say they need proof of identity and that means a certified literal copy of birth certificate, issued by the civil registry office where I was born. Or so the bank claims.”
The employee furrowed his brow deeply and looked at Luis with a hint of annoyance.
“As I’ve told you, several times on the phone, we always issue the same exact birth certificate. Those being the ones that I already gave you. Either the bank is being difficult on purpose, or the guy handling your request doesn’t know what he is doing”
Leon doubted that was the case, banks tended to be very careful and thorough with documents and he didn't think they would put someone without the proper training handling account retrievals.
Luis left out a long sigh.
“No matter how many times I talk to the bank, and to several employees, all of them insist that the international birth certificate is not enough. I’m also certain that I told you that we are dealing with a Spanish bank here, not an American one”.
Leon could see Luis hands getting restless on top of the desk, he suppressed his impulse of taking one of them into his own, so he wouldn’t lose his temper on a probably ill informed employee.
“Look, I insist; all these processes are standardized and always work the same. Talk to the bank again and explain to them that the certificate you sent is enough”
He was starting to understand why Luis was so frustrated, this guy didn’t seem to be listening.
Also, he didn’t think this guy had had to deal with a bank himself, ever. You don’t explain things to them.
“Are you sure this doesn't need to be issued from a Spanish register office?” Leon intervened, before this turned into a screaming match.
“I have access to the registry database here, so no. I can issue them from here no problem”
“But the bank is asking for proof of identity, not for proof of nationality, he already has his passport for that. Shouldn’t you be escalating this to a consular officer? the bank is probably trying to avoid a case of identity theft” Leon insisted, escalating this to someone at least willing to listen seemed to be the only solution here.
The employee left out a dramatic sigh, all that was missing was the eye roll. Leon could feel Luis eyes intensely on him.
“I guess I could see if there are any appointments available. Probably there be won’t any soon, though. The consular officer is very busy”
He started to type on his keyboard and turned back his focus to the screen between them.
“Wait a minute” Luis said as soon as Leon looked back at him “how do you know this stuff?”
Leon shrugged.
“Done a lot of diplomatic escort gigs before. Sometimes diplomats or activists have issues at interpol in airports because they often are political prisoners or refugees and need to prove they are who they are claiming to be. A passport doesn’t always cut it, especially if it’s from certain countries”
“Wow that’s… something I should have guessed” Luis said, smirking playfully.
Leon turned his attention back to the embassy employee as to not do something stupid, like peck Luis’ lips in front of a stranger.
He noticed his posture had straightened up a bit and he seemed a little tense.
“FBI?” the guy asked.
Ahhhh Leon got it, he was feeling uncomfortable because he thought he was in front of someone with power.
He shook his head.
“DSO”
He knew an embassy employee would most likely know what Leon’s agency was and under whose jurisdiction it worked, so he left it simple.
As expected, the employee straightened up again and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“I see, I see,” he said, focusing again on his screen.
Luis was just now openly and smugly smiling, arms crossed, leaning back on his chair.
“Ahhh! I found an appointment for next monday, you are lucky”
Sure, Leon wanted to say, but he decided not to abuse his position. Wouldn’t want to receive a complaint from the Spanish embassy for intimidating employees to expedite paperwork that wasn’t even his.
“Are we, now?” Luis said, still smiling.
“Yeah, it’s pretty hard to find one so soon, must be a cancellation,” the employee assured.
They looked at each other knowingly, but said nothing else as the embassy employee booked Luis’ appointment.
Leon could feel Luis looking at him intensely all the way back to the car, when they were about to open the doors to get inside, Luis paused for a moment before speaking.
“You know, if it wasn’t because we are in public, I would be probably dropping to my knees to thank you properly”
The expression on his face was downright lustful and Leon felt his entire body flushing, not from embarrassment, but from enthusiasm and anticipation.
While Luis climbed into the passenger seat without waiting for a reaction from Leon, he needed a minute or two to calm down and redirect his blood flow back to his brain, the upper one.
Thank god it was friday.
Once he was seated, belted and ready to pull out from the parking lot, he took another couple of seconds to breathe.
“Everything's all right there, cariño?” Luis asked, Leon decided not to look at him because he could already hear the smug smile on his voice.
He cleared his throat.
“Do you want me to take the rest of the day off?” He offered, still not looking at Luis, because he was trying very hard to keep the image of him on his knees in front of Leon’s crotch out of his head.
Luis, the bastard, bursted out laughing.
“As much as I would want to make good on my promise right now, sadly I do need to go back and supervise the cleaning people putting delicate things back into the lab, and doing inventory before they can be cleared out for leaving” He sounded kind of disappointed.
Leon felt that way too.
“But… It is Friday today. So, why don’t we stay at home instead of doing whatever you had planned for date night?” He was sure Luis was aiming for playful with that tone, but it sounded a bit too desperate to be playful.
Honestly? He was feeling desperate too.
He cleared his throat again.
Leon had been thinking of going to the beach and breathing the sea breeze, to do something different. It could wait though, summer was approaching and the days were getting longer. In a couple of weeks, maybe they could even catch the sunset at Sandy Point State Park.
“I think I can work with that”
“Good,” Luis said softly, putting his hand on Leon’s thigh.
God, he thought he would combust into flames at any minute.
It was never like this for him before. Desire used to be an occasional itch he had to scratch from time to time, not this ever present simmering tingle that could boil and overflow with just a look.
The way Luis turned him on…It was strange, but also exhilarating; to feel like this, to want like this. To know he could enjoy and worship the body of a lover and feel such deep and reverent satisfaction, as though the one being enjoyed and worshiped was him. And he was, in Luis’ arms, he was enjoyed and worshiped and loved in the same way Luis was.
He breathed deeply one last time, turned the car on and drove off.
He went back to the office after dropping Luis off at the lab, the kiss goodbye was dirty and too long for a semi public setting, but also not long enough and certainly not dirty enough.
He still needed to concentrate on prioritizing the requisition forms he needed to approve, because there was no way he would have time to do them all, he also wanted to have at least one hour in the shooting range before going home.
That last part went horribly.
He texted Luis an hour or so after he came to the DSO to ask which time he would be ready so they could plan… the night.
At first, the texts were normal enough, but slowly became a little more flirty right until they turned out real dirty real fast.
Leon never took his phone to the shooting range, he didn't see the point in going there if he wasn’t going to focus on shooting. This time though, this time he was hooked, he couldn’t stop.
He knew it was extremely inappropriate to dirty text his boyfriend during working hours and he didn’t care.
By the time he made it to the shooting range, his phone a heavy and hot weight on his jeans pocket, he was very horny and totally losing his mind.
He missed several targets; he couldn’t focus on the most challenging ones and kind of went with the ones he could shoot by muscle memory alone. It was frustrating because he just wanted Luis.
And the more he wanted, and the more texts he received and sent, the tighter his jeans became.
So he left as soon as he could leave without raising any eyebrows and went straight to Luis’ place; he fed the cat (two hours earlier than usual), took the trash out, cleaned the litter box and refilled the little guy’s water. He even gave him a treat, so Luis wouldn’t have anything else to do when he got home.
When he finally did, Leon jumped him almost immediately after he took his shoes off, Luis laughed delightedly and kissed back with the same heat and enthusiasm.
Leon took him by the hand and started to walk to the bedroom while trying to keep kissing him. Luis' laughter didn’t make this feat easy, but Leon tried nonetheless.
“Leon, wait, I nee…” He tried to say, still laughing a bit.
“The cat’s fed, litter’s clean, trash’s out, water’s refilled and I gave him a salmon treat” He said breathless, between kissing.
Luis didn’t say anything else, but pulled away without letting go of his hand just enough to pull him towards the bedroom.
He could smell the desperation.
One moment they were against the bedroom door kind of groping each other and the next they were sitting on the bed in front of each other, Luis trying to make a quick job of Leon’s belt buckle when he noticed it.
He had his hand on Luis’ ribs, under his shirt, so he could feel the shift in his muscles as they kept kissing.
If not for this detail, the muscle tensing and not expanding as it should, he could have assumed the breathlessness was because they were both obviously aching for something very specific.
It was not the first time something like this happened and Leon had had to put a stop to their lovemaking a couple of times before, because Luis would start to struggle breathing any minute now that his muscle was cramping.
As much as Leon didn’t really want to stop, at all, he also really hated seeing Luis in pain. He pulled away a bit to kiss and taste his neck.
Leon was so hard, it was painful. He wanted nothing more than to take his pants off and feel some relief.
“Babe” he whispered right below Luis’ ear. There were other things they could be doing equally pleasurable and more gentle with Luis’ back.
Leon took him by the wrists and gently pulled them away from his crotch.
Luis was trying to chase his lips, he dodged because he knew it would be harder to stop if they kept kissing… gooood he was so obsessed with that mouth.
“Babe, we’ve been kissing for like, two seconds and you are already short of breath. Please, let's not make your back issues worse" he said, his own voice sounding alien to him; heavy, rough, deep.
He wasn’t going to fuck Luis if it would make him physically uncomfortable later, or if he’d be wheezing because he could’t breathe properly while they were doing it.
“But I’m so fucking horny right now” He whined, needy and frustrated “You’ve been teasing me the whole afernoon and I can’t take any longer, I need you”
Leon raised an eyebrow at that.
“If I remember correctly, you were the one that sent the first dirty text, telling me how you couldn’t wait to have my dick in your mouth”
Luis grabbed his belt buckle again and Leon almost gave up, his dick painfully twitching with arousal, still inside his too small, too tight jeans.
“And you didn’t precisely stop me. You are supposed to be the responsible adult here”
Leon took a long deep breath.
Luis managed to undid Leon’s jeans button without taking the belt off.
“Absolutely no. But I can blow you, if you want” He could feel himself salivating just at the thought of taking Luis into his mouth. Another idea equally appealing was slowly coming to his head.
“That's not the only body part of mine that's craving love, you know?” Luis said, his tone something between a whine and a moan, his spanish accent suddenly very thick.
Leon wanted nothing more than to take this man apart and have him moaning his name while begging to let him come.
He cleared his throat.
“I can also rim you, if you’d prefer that” He tried to sound like he was not going to snap at any second. The images and ideas going through his brain weren’t helping either.
As soon as those words left his mouth, Luis blushed violently and covered his face with both hands.
“Oh my god I can’t believe you just said that” it sounds muffled, but mainly embarrassed.
Luis, who would follow Leon to the shower just to drop to his knees and blow him, Luis who would often give Leon very specific directions and instructions about how he wanted to be penetrated, was now blushing like a village virgin at the prospect of being rimmed.
Leon bursted out laughing.
"Why? have you never been rimmed before?"
Somehow, that question only made his embarrassment worse.
"no, no, I was, once before"
"You didn't like it?"
It was probably not the best time to be having this conversation considering how very horny they both were. Leon could clearly see the bulge between Luis’ legs, but Leon really wanted to have sex right now and their usual dynamic was not a good option.
"I did, really did, but..."
Luis seemed to be struggling to find the right words to explain himself. He didn’t understand why rimming was such a big deal if he had experienced it before and enjoyed it.
Leon chuckled again.
"You know, you are such a prude sometimes, for a sexy european I mean"
It was not the first time Luis would feel embarrassed and enthusiastic about a sex practice at the same time, it was kind of cute, seeing a man with usually so much European swagger feeling this shy about getting his ass eaten out.
Being called a prude apparently made him take his hands from his face.
"I was raised catholic; the absolute MVP's of shaming one's sexuality"
That… actually made so much sense. Leon really didn’t know much about religious details about sex, being moved from foster home to foster home during his teenage years, but since Spain he had been looking a little into catholicism and they seemed really against any kind of same sex coupling.
Leon smiled sweetly at him.
"Fair. The offer still stands though. I can blow you, or rim you, or both. Obviously not at the same time"
"Oh por dios" Luis was blushing all over, again and Leon started to laugh, again.
Even if Leon really enjoyed giving rimjobs, like really enjoyed it, he wasn’t sure that would be enough for them today and he was considering something else.
He had thought about this before, a couple of times, but haven’t had the chance to propose it, mainly because they always kind of got caught in the moment and he always ended up fucking Luis.
Being fucked by Luis was something that Leon very much wanted, this seemed like a good time to try it since he believed it would be kinder with Luis’ back, especially if Leon was the one doing most of the job.
"Wait, I can also ride you, if you are up to that" He proposed, it was the perfect solution, really.
Luis blinked a couple of times before his brain could catch up with what Leon just said.
"Wait... what? are you offering to bottom?" he asked. Apparently, forgetting his previous embarrassment for a moment.
"Yes" leon said, slowly, trying to not let out how much the idea appealed him in case Luis was not interested in topping "unless you are uncomfortable with that"
"no no" luis hurried to say "i'm an occasional top, i just thought you were a hard top"
Leon raised his eyebrows with incredulity.
He could see why Luis would think that, after all, they sexual relations to this point always involved mainly Leon doing very wicked things to Luis’ asshole with his dick, but that was because he was so incredibly turned on by Luis… everything, that he couldn’t help it.
"I do enjoy a good..." he made a very graphic gesture that could not be confused with anything but sexual intercourse "you know?"
Luis laughed so hard at that, Leon smiled pleased with himself.
"oh my gooood. I'm totally up to fucking you, if you are really okay with that"
Leon's smile became mischievous.
His mouth (and ass) watering all over again.
"Believe me, I'm more than okay with that".
Something else came to Leon’s mind, something he had fantasized about before too.
"Just so you know, some days I also feel up to some spanking. You spanking me, I mean"
"Oh por dios" Luis had to cover his face again, but he was looking at Leon between his fingers.
“So, how do we do this riding thing?” he asked playfully, his eyes full of lust.
Leon quickly explained the logistics to protect Luis’ back as much as possible and proceeded to ride him dry.
Most memorable Friday night, ever
Still thinking about it a week later, he had decided to make an extra effort to keep it out of his office hours.
He was finishing a review about a new mode for a shotgun he had been trying when his personal phone pinged with a message.
[Babe 11:02]
“Becky just mentioned TerraSave touring around this month, are you planning on meeting Claire?”
Leon furrowed his brow, Luis kept casually asking about her. Not really that frequently, but frequent enough to expect some kind of update or something, Leon was kind of embarrassed about telling Luis he really didn’t know every single time.
[Me 11:06]
“not rlly”
[Babe 11:07]
“right, probably she is very busy. Also just so I don’t forget about it, someone in the lab just mentioned a botanic garden, do you think we could go together?”
[Me 11:09]
“Sure, i know the one, very pretty in spring”
Leon made a mental note to look into the garden’s visiting hours, and kept writing about the impracticality of adding an intermittent red dot sight to a sniper rifle.
Luis's comment about Claire kept nagging at him though, he felt like a bit of a jerk about not knowing how she was doing whenever Luis asked about her.
The truth was, if it wasn’t for her reaching out from time to time or having to see her brother occasionally at the office, she would probably be a fond memory for him, a memory of a Leon that he thought was dead.
But that Leon was not really dead, was he? He had been seeing glimpses of him throughout his relationship with Luis, and even though that Leon would never come back in full, he knew it was at least part of this Leon.
He didn’t remember when was the last time she called, but he remembered her texting to check on him after the Harvardville incident, he simply texted back “doing fine” and didn’t ask about her, at all.
When it was time for his lunch break and his mind was made up, he didn’t have to look for her contact information, he dialed the number from memory. He was weirdly nervous about calling her, maybe because he knew she would tease him endlessly for calling her.
So, when the call eventually went to voicemail he hung up and didn’t try again.
“At least I tried” he muttered to himself as he pocketed his phone and put his lunch in the microwave to reheat.
That's why he let out such indignified yelp when a couple of minutes later, his ringtone startled him.
It was Claire.
He didn't even manage to say hello when she practícally yelled.
"Leon! What 's wrong? Are you okay?"
Leon had a very unpleasant deja vu feeling about having this exact same interaction with her brother at some point in the past.
He sighed.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm calling to check on you. It's been a while since you called, or texted"
She went silent for a couple of seconds and Leon had to check if the call was still ongoing.
"So you did notice I have you on an information diet" She said, matter of factly. He could hear muffled and distant chatter in the background from her end of the call.
"You what?" he asked, confused, because that statement didn’t make any sense.
She sighed dramatically, Leon could hear the eye roll.
"May has been bioterrorism awareness month since 2004, remember? from the Umbrella sentencing in 2003?"
"Ohhhh right"
Now the call going into voicemail and the background noise made sense, also why he had been hearing so much about TerraSave lately.
"So I've been very busy doing conferences and talking in schools and such, I'm sorry I worried you"
Leon snorted.
"I wasn't worried, it's just that my boy..." Leon shut up immediately when he realized he was about to say "it's just that my boyfriend has a weird parasocial relationship with and won’t stop asking me how you are doing".
He suddenly remembered why he hadn't contacted her this whole time, he couldn't handle the embarrassment of telling her he was dating someone and the subsequent teasing and nagging for details.
He also remembered telling her about meeting Luis in Spain before they started dating and she would connect the dots and tell Chirs and then he wouldn’t hear the end of it, never.
"You boy what?" She asked, suspiciously.
Did he want to tell her now? He wasn't ashamed of his relationship, at all, but he felt awkward talking about this with people, especially when he knew said people would ask for details. What was he supposed to tell them then?
"Leon? Are You still there?"
"Sorry, duty calls, take care Claire" he hurriedly said, like the coward he was, before hanging up.
He obviously ignored the rest of her calls and texts since he was pretending to be busy and tried to recover his composure so no one in the office would see him blushing while holding his tupperware of carne a la olla like a lost puppy.
The embarrassment was short lived though, and he quickly forgot about his predicament with disclosing or not his relationship with Luis to the Redfield siblings (because telling one was implicitly telling the other).
That afternoon, when he was wrapping up his krav maga training and heading to the showers, one of his colleagues mentioned that the final report from the mission in Frederick had been issued that day.
As soon as he was showered and his gear was packed, he went back to his desk to check his email and read the report.
He skipped the formalities at the beginning and the notes of the briefing before the mission to go straight to the results of the investigation.
Arrests were being made, several actually, all of them stake holders at WillPharma…
So Leon had been right all along, about the changes in the supply routes being suspicious, he just couldn't see the pattern at that time because it seemed like there was none.
That was the pattern. The fact that several and seemingly unrelated virus incidents had been far away from any WillPharma route or warehouse was the pattern. Because it had been on purpose, those incidents had been orchestrated with the intention of keeping attention away from WillPharma’s movements.
Leon’s gut told him that was suspicious, his brain didn’t have time to catch on that though.
Maybe if he had been quicker in catching on Bill would be alive today…
He turned off his desk computer and remained seated there, looking at the blank screen with nothing but white noise on his mind.
The next day, he barely remembered getting home at some point in the night and going straight to sleep before he woke up confused and alone.
He jogged for an hour that morning before going to the gym for his hour long strength training.
He skipped breakfast and went to the office to train rookies.
There was nothing he could do about it now.
Too late.
Bill…
Two days later he was staying after hours to finish making changes and improvements to his rookie training program so it could be approved as soon as possible when Chris Redfield in the flesh planted himself in front of him, putting a venti starbucks cup on his desk more forcefully than necessary.
“Might be a lil’ cold, bought it at the airport” he said as a way of greeting.
Leon raised his eyes from his screen to look at him, without taking the bait.
He leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for Chris to make his point.
He should have guessed something like this would happen, but he had completely forgotten about calling Claire a couple of days before, as a result, he didn’t have an alibi, nor an excuse.
He put his brain to work immediately.
“Care to explain why my little sister has been pestering me for the last two days about whether or not you have a boyfriend?" Chirs asked, slamming his beefy and huge hands on Leon’s desk.
Leon took a long sip of the offered coffee. It was, indeed, lukewarm.
"I don't know what you are talking about"
Chirs raised a very accusatory eyebrow at him, so he proceeded to lie.
“I was about to say "My boy colleagues heard a Redfield was doing conferences and didn't know which one. It made me think of her and I called. I hung up because I was being called to a meeting"
That eyebrow could certainly reach Chris' hairline if he raised it any higher.
"You know, when she told me, during last Christmas, that you didn't go out with that special force woman in Harvardville and that you mentioned spending time with someone called Luis, I told her it was a matter of time before you got into his pants, or he into yours. But she said "no way, he is too married to his job"”. The falsetto Chris was using to say that last part did sound like Claire’s and it made Leon shiver.
“So, now she owes me fifty bucks”
Leon groaned loudly. putting his arms on his desk and hiding his face there.
"Of course you would bet on something like this," Leon said, muffled, but loud enough. "I don't just fuck anyone I meet you know?"
"I know" Chris said, his voice softening "I just paid attention to how you were glued to your personal phone and your reactions every time you got a text from him, when we met last year"
Leon was grateful he was hiding his face like an ostrich, because he was blushing violently right now.
He was right, he wouldn't hear the end of this ever again, so he decided to face the music.
He raised his head from the nest he made with his arms.
"It's very new," he finally conceded.
"Could you please tell her that? a text will suffice. I’m looking forward to what she'll write in the check when she sends it this time.It's always better when she has the time to munch it over and I'm not the one rubbing it in her face. Also I need to be in Georgetown to finalize some things for your boyfriend's scholarship..." He looked at his watch " in 20 minutes, so no time to call her either".
Leon hated the smug tone he used to say the word boyfriend, but it also felt weirdly good.
"Go fuck yourself" Leon said, once again burying his blushing face into the mess paperwork and his own arms on top of his desk.
When he heard Chris’s laughter fade away into the corridor, he knew he was finally left alone with his embarrassment.
The only thing that gave him comfort was the knowledge that when they finally got to meet Luis properly, Leon would get to be the smug one because Luis was absolutely brilliant. He was sure of that.
*Buenos días= good morning
*Te amo= I love you
*mi amor= my love
*Oh por dios= oh my god
*carne a la olla= stewed beef, kind of? you can google it, it’s similar enough to a beef stew, but also a little different? it doesn’t have potatoes, usually, but it can have other veggies.