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Title: N/A
Fandom: Tales of Destiny
Pairing: N/A (Johnny and Leon)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 820 words
"I wouldn't say that you're the person I least expected to show up in my doorway in the middle of the night," Johnny said, lighting the last of the lamps, "but you're certainly in the top ten." He blew out the match and eyed his guest across the now softly-lit room.
Leon Magnus stood rather awkwardly by the door, dripping on the carpet. His hair was plastered to his head and the finely-made traveling cloak around his shoulders must have weighed an extra five pounds due to the water it had absorbed from the storm. Soaked to the bone as he was, he looked even skinnier than usual-- and despite the hard look directed at Johnny through wet bangs, not at all dangerous. "So who has that honor?" he asked, his voice soft.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I was being facetious," Johnny said with a shrug. He adjusted the tie around the loose robe he'd tossed on when a puzzled servant had woken him up to ask if he could please come downstairs as there was young man asking for him. Which itself wasn't that strange, but tonight was different. "Take off your boots and your cloak, would you? You're getting water everywhere, and the last thing I want is to give the household staff yet more reasons to complain about me."
"...ah." Leon blinked, a bit of a flush spreading across his pale skin as though he were embarrassed at forgetting his manners. He awkwardly unclasped the cloak, his fingers moving slowly--still cold from being caught outside in the rain, Johnny assumed--and spread it out over the back of a nearby chair. His boots were placed neatly next to it. For a moment he stood there, a rare unguarded expression of uncertainty flickering over his face.
Johnny ignored him, instead going to the cabinet near his piano and opening it. "Well?" he called over his shoulder after a pause. "Are you going to tell me what you're doing at my humble abode, or am I going to have to guess?" Two glasses and a bottle of wine were brought down from the cabinet and placed on top of the piano. He fingered the long stem of one of the glasses as he spoke. "Let's see... you missed my sparkling personality so much you just had to drop everything and rush over to see me one more time?"
The dismissive snort that earned him was the closest he'd gotten all night to the Leon he'd previously known. "Hardly," the boy said, flicking his hair out of his eyes. "Your personality is just a necessary evil."
"I'm hurt!" Johnny said mournfully, beginning to pour the wine. "And here I am going to all this trouble to make a master swordsman from Seinegald comfortable in a place that was up until, oh, a few months ago, an enemy country!"
"Precisely," Leon murmured.
Johnny raised an eyebrow at that. "Come again?" he asked, crossing the distance between them to offer the boy a glass of wine.
Leon eyed the proffered glass warily, but ultimately took it. "Seinegald has little to no influence here. Which means the Oberon Corporation has even less." He stared at Johnny as though he were daring him to comment. When there was no response, he took a deep breath and continued. "I... need a favor from you," he ground out, his voice rough yet strangely vulnerable.
"Oh?" Johnny took a sip of the wine, beginning to wish that he'd brought out something stronger. "And what could I do for someone like you?"
"There's..." Leon hesitated, unable to meet Johnny's gaze. "There's a woman at the inn right now. Her name is Marian. I need... I'm requesting that you provide for her for a while, at least until she adjusts to this place. To make sure that she's safe, at the very least."
Trying not to let his surprise show on his face, Johnny blinked. "A woman? Don't tell me you and her have gotten into a bit of trouble--"
"No!" Leon snapped. He quickly set the wine glass down on the nearest surface available as his hands began to shake. "I just... she'd be in trouble if she stayed at home. So I thought that maybe here--"
Johnny cut him off with a wave of a hand. "It was just a joke. Look, you don't need to worry. I'll do it. I did say I'd help you guys out if you ever needed it, right?"
Tension drained from Leon's frame, leaving him strangely frail and unsteady on his feet. "Good," he said, his voice thick in his throat.
For the first time, Johnny noticed the dark circles under the Leon's eyes--he must be running off sheer willpower, the man thought with a sigh. Carefully he touched Leon's shoulder, expecting the automatic twitch that ran through the boy. "Sit down," Johnny said, pleasantly enough but with some force behind his words. "And how about you tell me the whole story, okay?"
Leon closed his eyes and nodded.
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