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He wantedto go after her.
Leo had been a moment away from asking her to bunk down with him even if it was just to hold her for a little while.
Cygny had confessed to feeling out of sorts in the field.
And he’d seen her concern and done his best to make sure he was there to back her up when they went in to get Leslie back.
Of their pair, she’d taken point and once they were on the move, she didn’t show any signs that she wasn’t anything but born to the work.
She had already convinced herself that Hank wasn’t going to hire her, but Leo knew better. He had eyes.
Cygny was convinced that her lack of field experience was going to disqualify her, but Leo had listened carefully to the briefings of the types of work that they might be called to do. She’d been right beside him and heard the same talk, but if there was one thing he was absolutely sure of, it was that Cygny was her worst critic and her own worst supporter.
If anything was going to hold her back in this kind of job, it was her own self-doubt.
Before he knew what he was doing, he was walking after her.
He didn’t have to tail her to know where she was going, he’d already known where she was bedding down.
They say it’s a fine line between love and hate and at first it seemed like hate had won out. He’d tracked her around the camp just so he could avoid her, but Hank had made that impossible, assigning them together for training.
He was pretty sure that Hank was going to hire Cygny on and Leo knew he wanted in too. He just wasn’t sure where things were going between the two of them.
Leo caught up to her before she stepped inside, calling out to her under his breath.
She heard the sound and stopped.
“Leo?”
He cleared his throat and spoke, not wanting to lose the moment.
“Let me stay?”
Her eyes said it all. Cygny’s eyes widened, and she blinked a little owlishly.
“Just to sleep.”
He said the words and surprisingly meant them.
His desire for her hadn’t dimmed in their time apart. They’d already proven that it could flare up in a heartbeat.
“I don’t know if you felt it out there,” he explained, “but even with all of the stuff between us that’s unresolved, I know that beyond our mission to bring Leslie back home, safe, you were my biggest concern out there.”
She nodded and stepped closer to him so that the toes of their boots almost touched. “I know that you’re still not sure if you can trust me because of our history, but I had your six, Leo. I had your back.”
“I know.” He felt the words as he said them. He might not trust her with his heart just yet, but he knew he could trust her as his partner. “I think, I just want to be near you.”
The brightness in her eyes wavered a little.
“I think it’s the adrenaline,” she offered up in the way of an explanation. “We’re all still wired from the success of the operation. You might feel different when things go back to normal.”
It was his turn to stare back with widened eyes.
“Define normal in jobs like we’ve had, Cygny. It’s not about normal and it’s not about adrenaline. What it was, for me,” he made the statement a personal testament to his experience, “is having you in danger. Knowing what and who we were facing out there, brought home the reality that if things went to shit, there was a real danger of you ending up in harm’s way.
“That realization hit me harder than anything else.”
He watched as she digested his words, internalizing it.
“I don’t think I’m ready to let you walk away just yet. I want to hold you for a little while because somewhere inside of me, I’m worrying that you’ll be gone when I wake up and I’ve already had that happen once.”
Leo didn’t know if he should expect a push back from her, but he didn’t have long to wait to find out.
“Okay.”
He followed her inside wondering if it really was just that simple.
She bent over and untied her boots, yanking at the laces to free herself from them, only to end up dropping them beside the bed with a heavy thump thump.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, a little slower at the task than she had been. If pressed, he could jokingly argue that he was older, battle weary. But they both knew that they were nearly the same age and while he doubted she’d tried to entice him with the tantalizing view of her ass, the result had been the same.
He’d been fixated on the view and his hands had slowed to a crawl at his own task.
Cygny crawled up on the bed and almost melted into her pillow. Her eyes went quickly to half-mast as she mumbled something about changing later.
He wasn’t going to argue. Neither of them seemed to have the energy necessary to even remove their clothing.
Alone, the bed was spacious enough, but together, it barely sufficed.
As Leo tried to get comfortable on the narrow surface, Cygny was out like a light.
At first, he’d tried to spoon up behind her, like they’d done a number of times before in his apartment, but she kept twisting out of his arms.
It only took a few awkward attempts before he decided not to decide.
“Alright,” he sighed, more asleep than awake, “you pick, baby. How are we going to make this work?”
Cygny stretched and yawned like a pampered tabby and before he got the idea of what she had planned, his partner climbed up and fell back asleep with her head tucked under his chin and the rest of her draped over his body.
Gone was the idea of any meaningful sleep, but he couldn’t blame anyone but himself.
He’d been the one to ask to rest with her.
