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Knowing that he has a date with Ada is the only thing getting Leon through this week. The paperwork isn’t as excruciating, just extremely painful now that he has something to look forward to.
These days, there’s a heavy fog that blankets every crevasse of his brain and it’s hard for him to put thoughts together let alone have the energy to do anything. He’s beyond caring as he zips up a jacket that he’s worn for a week straight. Leon doesn’t even bother to look into the mirror anymore before he goes outside. Frankly, he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to see the man he’s become.
They arranged to meet at the restaurant. It’s modern Korean cuisine and thankfully not too expensive. Ada’s waiting, much to his surprise. She’s wearing a strapless cherry red mini dress, with everything from her lips to her bag to her heels matching. As always, she’s stunning. Leon would’ve thought he was dreaming if his dreams could still be so sweet.
When Leon reaches her, Ada looks him up and down.
“No.”
“My suit was at the dry cleaners,” he says with a wince.
“No.”
“We’re already here.” Leon is on the brink of whining.
Ada levels him with a stare.
“If you go and change, we’ll eat somewhere local, how’s that?”
“Fine,” he says with a heaving sigh.
Maybe it was for the best, he looked tremendously underdressed next to her. Ada has been at his apartment before but never has she seen it as this state. Mess would be putting it lightly. Biohazard would probably be a closer description. There’s mould growing on some of the takeout containers and mugs and there’s nothing clean in his apartment anymore.
“Just … everything has been hard to do.”
Leon expects a lecture but Ada has always been understanding as she steps through the piles of clothes accumulating on his floor and rifles through his bare closet. At last, she finds a clean navy shirt and linen pants and ushers for him to change.
When he steps out of the bathroom, Ada had found a laundry basket and was scooping all his clothes into it until he could finally see the floor for the first time in a while.
“We’ll drop these off at the laundromat along the way,” Ada informs him.
“Sure,” he mumbles.
It’s their tradition to hit up junk food joints after eating out at a fancy restaurant. Ada surprisingly knows a lot of them. Little hole in the wall pizza parlours, a nondescript place that made the fluffiest pancakes and a single window selling the crispiest, juiciest fried chicken. All places that she undoubtedly frequents and heartwarmingly shares with him.
One of their favourites is the nearby burger place. There’s nothing as healing as greasy comfort food especially with good company.
Leon is right at home here but Ada in her simple but well-tailored dress and glossy lips stands out but once they’re tucked away in the corner, no one glances twice at them.
Their order slides in front of them, piping hot, steaming and the aroma making Leon’s mouth water. It’s been a long time since he wanted to eat and now he’s ravenous. He digs into his cheeseburger with extra cheese with gusto and takes slurps of a vanilla milkshake in between. Ada is much more dignified with her smash burger and dips her fries into his milkshake.
“Get your own,” he says half heartedly, not even bothering to move his cup.
“It tastes better when it’s yours.” Ada has the audacity to pout.
As they near the end of their meal, Ada stretches her legs over Leon’s thighs and he lays his hand over her slender ankle to keep her warm.
God, it’s perfect. A perfect night. When was the last time he had one? The days that Ada visits are the best times of his life.
As the night draws to a close, Leon dreads what’s coming up next. Even after all these years, he can’t stop the disappointment from welling up inside him. There’s nothing about Ada that hints that she’s slowing down as she hogs his shower after they had picked up his clothes from the dryer and comes out in one of his large shirts.
Of all the things she’s worn, elegant floor length ball gowns, silk dresses that bared tantalising flashes of her skin and the corsets that accentuated her waist, it’s seeing Ada in his clothes that affects him the most. Something she’s all too smugly aware of.
“Staying the night?” he asks, trying not to sound too hopeful.
“Maybe,” she says even as she’s climbing into bed with him.
That should’ve been enough for him but he’s always been a glutton for punishment.
“Do you have a mission tomorrow?”
“We’re going shopping tomorrow.”
Leon’s pathetic heart skips a beat. “What?”
“Your wardrobe is atrocious and five years out of date,” Ada says curtly.
Then Ada manoeuvres them until his head rests on her chest. Leon has always liked being held but with his height and build, people expected him to hold them. Not that he minded but the feeling of giving himself up to someone utterly is a comfort like no other. It’s been a long time since he felt like he was safe and loved so he sinks into her.
Shopping together… That's new. It embarrasses him to admit that he’s almost too giddy to sleep but Ada’s hand, running up and down his bare back in a slow rhythm gently lulls him into a dreamless slumber.
“No.”
“What’s wrong with this?” Leon asks defensively.
“You have the same twelve black shirts in your wardrobe,” Ada says bluntly.
“It’s easy, I don’t have to think about it,” Leon insists.
Who knew shopping with Ada Wong was a Herculean task.
It felt like a dream when Ada woke him up by throwing a miraculously clean shirt at his face. Then she herded him out to a nearby shopping centre. Of course, she made a beeline for an expensive designer store that he would never set foot in.
At first, Ada had graciously let him decide his own clothes but when it became clear that none of them fit her standards, she had promptly taken control.
As always, Ada is dressed in a way that looks far too luxurious for a mere shopping trip. Her silk halterneck top that bares off a hint of her toned abs and impressive back muscles over flared denim jeans had sales assistants flocking to her immediately.
“Oh no.” Ada lays a hand on Leon’s chest and rubs tiny circles that sets his nerves alight. “I'm here for him.”
Great, now they think she’s his sugar mommy.
“I think you’ll like this.” Ada holds up a deep blue silk shirt. “This could be nice, bring out your eyes more. Okay, go try it on.” She practically shoves him into the changing room much to his amusement.
This day will probably go by quicker if he just does what she wants. Still, this is an unusual development for them, he tries not to think too deeply on what it could mean. They’ve never gone shopping together before even if Ada is always wearing a new outfit each time he sees her. She does have him buy designer pieces each time he asks her to go undercover with him. Sometimes he thinks it would be cheaper to simply hire a lowly mercenary but he would never deprive himself of the pleasure of Ada’s company.
Leon’s a little self conscious when he steps out, especially with the way that Ada falls abruptly silent, her face not giving anything away in a way that makes him sweat slightly.
“How do I look?”
“Handsome, of course,” Ada says sincerely.
“Really?” he asks in a small voice.
Ada smiles, wrapping her arm around Leon’s waist and turning them so that they’re both facing the mirror. Ever since she had appeared in his life on that miserable night back in 1998, she had captivated him. In the city of decay, she radiated so much life.
Individually, they look good but seeing them side by side, there’s something complementary about them. After all the years that they’ve been fighting against this, to see them fit so harmoniously together soothes his soul. Together, they look powerful. Unstoppable.
Then there’s the shirt Ada picked out which looks phenomenal on him, contouring to the lines of his body to emphasise his broad shoulders and waist. The deep blue shirt makes his eyes more pronounced, one of his best features as Ada likes to tell him. It’s been so long since he actually felt good in his own skin that he’s at a loss for words.
“I think I'll get it.”
In reward, Leon receives another one of Ada’s smiles. He can tell that Ada is having a lot of fun in dressing him up from how relaxed she is. It seems to make her happy that he likes her choices. He loves seeing her like this, their lives are so perilous that he cherishes these small impossible moments of calm.
As Leon goes back to try something else, he runs into a slight problem.
“Uhm … Ada?” Leon calls out panickedly.
“Do you need me to come in to help?”
“... yes.”
“Okay, I’m coming in.” To her credit, she doesn’t laugh. “Hmm, maybe this is too small for you.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he says sarcastically, voice muffled.
“I could just leave you like this,” Ada threatens.
“I’m sorry, please forgive me and please rescue me,” Leon says with faux sweetness.
“You’re lucky you’re pretty.”
“Enough foreplay.”
“I kind of like you like this,” Ada teases.
“Ada, please,” Leon begs.
“Fine. Straighten your arms.”
Leon jerks slightly when he feels Ada’s fingers slip between the fabric and his skin. In one smooth movement, she’s able to tug the garment down to how it’s meant to look.
“Thanks,” he says, his face a comical shade of red.
This top was definitely more experimental than the ones that he usually wears, with the deep cutouts that bares off more of his body than he’s used to. Deep gouges that show off his shoulders, ribs and hip. Leon can see why Ada would pick it out; she’s always been more comfortable in her own skin and she isn’t afraid to try out different trends. But for him, the most that he’s ever shown was his chest from a v neck sweater that he only wears on their dates.
To have his scars peeking out even the surgical ones that had long healed, feels so unsettling for him. As if sensing his discomfort, Ada lays her hands on his waist.
“It’s okay if you don’t like it. I just wanted to see how it looks,” she says reassuringly. “You look good if it's any consolation.”
Her eyes are soft when they land on the scar on his shoulder. That mark meant so much between them that the idea of having it freely seen by others bothers him. A mark he bore in his protection of her, both in the moment when he took that bullet and after when he refused to breathe life into her existence. It’s private, sacred. Ada reverently skims her fingers over it and makes him shiver.
“If you like it … I can get it as well,” Leon says quietly.
“Are you sure?”
Leon catches her wrist, pressing it to his lips. “Only for you but …” He trails off dramatically. “It’s a lot of money to pay for scraps of fabric.”
Ada’s smile returns, filling Leon with so much warmth. “It’s couture.”
Leon simply rolls his eyes at her as they also add this top to the slowly accumulating pile. After that, the clothes that Ada picks out are thankfully more wearable and less embarrassing. She had snuck in more colour, lilacs, greens and even some of her signature red. It makes him smile to think of them matching.
By the end of it, Leon is merely raising his arms for Ada to pull the shirts over his head, scrutinising him before they mysteriously disappeared.
“Did you play with dolls growing up?” Leon asks.
That makes Ada still for the first time that day and Leon blessedly wriggles his fingers, trying to regain circulation from the tight, pastel pink frilly top she had laced him in.
“No? Why do you ask?” Ada asks quizzically.
“No… no reason.”
Just when Leon thinks he has to stage a dramatic escape or at the very least, set the store on fire, Ada blessedly announces that they are done. He reaches for the wallet at the counter but Ada only gives him an indulgent look as she swipes her card. That does more to him than he’d care to admit.
That’s when he realises that it was all over and his time with Ada has come to an end.
Leon picks at his face.
“Stop,” Ada says, swatting away his hand.
“It’s itchy,” he grumbles.
“You’re going to ruin it,” Ada despairs, slathering on another layer of her homemade facemask until he couldn’t move a single muscle in his face.
It’s not the first time that Ada was reluctant to leave him but this time he has irrefutable proof of it. As soon as they had arrived back at his apartment and stowed the clothes away, Ada had beckoned him towards her with a simple curl of her fingers and like a puppy, he had trailed after her without a second’s thought. Sometime, somehow, Ada had procured a box of dye and as she urges him to sit, she works it into the roots of his hair.
It had been fine, even touched him at the extent of her care for him until she had also started applying a face mask with her highly top secret blend of organic ingredients to his face as she left the dye in to develop. She even placed sliced cucumbers over his eyes with a delighted giggle.
Now Leon sat, scalp slightly burning and the face mask caking on his skin. Who knew self care could be so painful? It’s also, as he tips his head back with a sigh, been so long since he felt this relaxed. Like everything toxic is leeching away from his body and leaving him feeling reborn again. His hand twitches forward in search of Ada’s and he only calms when she interlaces their fingers together.
This was nice. This was really nice.
Leon can feel himself shake as Ada squeezes his hand tighter. All this time, he feels like he’s barely holding it together, crumbling under the weight of everyone’s expectations and the monsters that have finally caught up to him in his head. Living felt like the most exhausting thing in the world.
Ada hadn’t said a word but perhaps she had been worried too, it’s not the first time she’s been concerned about his wellbeing.
He wants her to feel as good as she makes him feel so he plucks off the cucumber slices from his eyes so that he can carefully apply the face mask to Ada's cheeks. There’s a tiny smile on her face though Leon's gentle ministrations and he cuts her own cucumber pieces for her eyes as well.
As they sit, side by side, hands still interlaced together and their faces buried under an inch thick layer of clay, this has been the highlight of his existence.
Leon hopes for more nights like these in the future.