Chapter 19

Leo

 

I murmured a thanks workers at the ice cream place as I took the triple scoop cone of Play-Doh flavored ice-cream in one hand and held Em’s in the other trying my damnedest to ignore the rapid pounding of my heart as we walked out of parlor and across the lot to a quiet little park to sit at a bench there.

 

The early fall wind was blowing through making the ice-cream a pretty out of season treat but Em seemed happy enough to overlook my clumsiness. 

 

“I guess this is sorta our first proper date since the air-soft game huh?” I asked before immediately wanting to bury myself into the ground.

 

“Why would you mention the terrible first date when you were enjoying such a good mood? It would have been better to literally walk head first into a street sign, then you could at least laugh at yourself!”

 

Em looked at me for a moment before laughing out loud wearing a giant smile bringing a smile to my own face\. “Ah. Fuck Leo please don’t ever change.” They reached out and grabbed ahold of the hand they’d let go of when we sat down. “Also-” They took a bite of the mint chocolate chip bowl they bought before continuing with a pleasant expression. “We never finished that first date. As far I’m concerned this is all one long date.”

 

I caught onto what they were saying and laughed a little, shaking my head. “That’s some pretty convenient thinking, how am I doing so far?” I scooted over a little closer to them as they rested their head on my shoulder playing up the thinking.

 

“Mmmm… You started out a bit rough for my liking but I’m starting to come around.” I gasped surprised when I felt their lips gingerly kiss my cheek, as they whispered. “Everyone knows it’s only the ending that counts anyways.”

 

“Ahh” I opened my mouth over and over again trying to form words before eventually just letting out an exhausted sigh. “You're the only person I have ever meant who can make me like this.” I grumbled aloud but knew the smile on my face was still plenty evident.” 

 

They rested against me as we just sat in silence each eating away at our individual ice-creams in a comfortable silence.

 

“I wonder if when people see us what do they think? Do we look like we’ve been dating for years or just a few weeks? If someone asked me I’m not even sure if I could answer.”

 

“One long date huh…” I whispered aloud, only for Em to reply with an affirmative grunt.

 

I wrapped my arm around them and surprised them with my own kiss. I wanted to steal one from their lips but the bites of ice-cream made that impossible, so I went for a peck against their forehead instead. “I hope you get everything I want to say Em. The apologies and rants. Cries of joy and pain.”

 

“It’s ok.” Em set the bowl down and wrapped their arms around me. I realized belatedly that at some point I had started crying. “I know… It’s ok.”

 

I nodded as I focused on calming my tears, they were not overwhelming but ever present none-the-less.

 

“I don’t-” I tried to explain my emotions before shaking my head and starting again. “We never should have gone after him like that.” I forced up the topic we’d both been trying to dance around for the sake of enjoying the rare atmosphere. 

 

Four days ago, August and I ran off to capture James. We succeeded but when we finally got back to the hospital Natalie and August had yelled at me, explaining Em had cried themselves to sleep after being forcibly interrogated by some asshole cops. 

 

I expected Em to pull away from me at the tense topic but to my surprise they put the ice cream down and pulled their leg back over the bench so they could turn and directly face me. “Leo… Do you remember what you told me back when I asked why you were so eager to help me when I came to the coffee shop after the date?”

 

I nodded somberly before muttering out what I’d told them back then. “I asked you to stop assuming what was best for me and let me choose for myself.”

 

They closed their eyes for a moment before pursing their lips and poking me in the chest. “That’s right you did say that. Rude, by the way.” They had a wry grin to show me they were trying to be playful to lighten my mood. “That’s not what I was referring to though. You told me, or maybe it’d be better to say that you reminded me that everything you had done was your choice. ‘I helped you because I wanted to’, ‘I let you in because I wanted to’, and ‘I asked you out because I wanted to.’” I felt my cheeks blushing at the embarrassing memory. 

 

“Oh right. That was something I said.”

 

Em laughed a little before leaning up a little and resting their head against my own. “It was a very good line.” 

 

I smiled a little at the compliment before feeling their feelings pull my face lightly towards theirs as our lips touched and they pulled back. “Allow me to tell you the same Leo. I said yes because I wanted to. I went to you when I needed help because I wanted to. I have stayed here with you because I wanted to. And I’m not going anywhere now… Because. I. Don’t. Want. To.” 

 

I let out a light breath as I felt the taste of their lips on my own. 

 

This wasn’t technically our first kiss, I knew that mentally.

 

Ignoring the night with James, things had happened in the heat of the moment before at the hospital. Moments when we’d gotten close and been interrupted or when we’d confessed to each other.

 

When I was trying to distract and annoy James I’d taken the initiative to kiss Em but that was just our avatars.

 

Right now. I knew I would consider this our first kiss. 

 

A moment just for us.

 

“What’s up guys?” I closed my eyes and let out an honest and exasperated sigh at the voice I’d quickly come to associate with whatever an annoying little sister or niece might sound like.

 

Em for their part was trying really hard not to laugh at my expression, and took the initiative to reply first. “I’m just stealing his first before he can steal mine”

 

I sighed and laughed at their remark, firing back, “I’m not sure you can steal what I’m giving away.”

 

I expected a shy blush but instead Em ignored Natalie entirely and leaned in closer to me before whispering in my ear, “I didn’t say just what I was planning on stealing.”

 

I found myself, once again, frozen by her will. This time I didn’t let it sit for too long. Remembering that Natalie was there watching us I pulled myself back in control with a cough but given her satisfied smile I was positive she knew what had just happened. Em had thoroughly beaten me with only their words. 

 

“Please don’t stop on my account, I’m happy to sit here and watch, this is a thousand times better than anything I’d normally see. You can only watch so many nurses and doctors flirting between emergency room trauma sessions after all.” Natalie laughed at us and sat down causally next to Em. 

 

I wasn’t even sure when they had gotten so close but one day they seemed to move from casual acquaintances to practically family. 

 

The tension wasn’t romantic though.

 

I wasn’t even slightly worried about that, even before we confessed to one another, I got the impression that Em wouldn’t ever really match well with Natalie. They're both way too headstrong for that. 

 

“I’m glad you guys are getting along so well.” I finally muttered out my thoughts randomly as they were chatting about moving plans for the day. 

 

Natalie looked at me for a moment before clicking her tongue and sliding a twenty dollar bill over to Em. “Dammit. He really is just far too trusting.”

 

Em laughed and pocketed the twenty before leaning back against me, making me subconsciously wrap my arms around them. “I told you it wasn’t going to work.”

 

Natalie scowled at us but there was still a smile evident there beneath the mask of unhappiness. “You better always treat them this good. I’ll come beat you up if you don’t.”

 

I laughed a little at her threat, imagining this girl beating me up seemed ridiculous but as her glare intensified I quickly cut off the laugh and nodded sincerely. “Of course.”

 

She looked at me a moment longer before rolling her eyes and sighing and going back to talking to Em about something to do with a new idea for a research paper, this one being relative to long term VR use. Em apparently knew the company behind Tactical-Respawn and that they’d done a bunch of private research into the topic. 

 

I couldn’t really follow the technical jargon and my thoughts naturally drifted to August.

 

If I were honest I wanted to be with August right now but she threatened to beat me if I wasn’t here to support Em after everything we put them through and August was someone who I fully believed would be able to do that.

 

Besides, she wanted to be alone right now.

 

I could understand it, I didn’t like it but I could understand it.

 

We sat there together eating ice-cream and talking nonsense as the fall wind blew until about an hour in. Em asked about the thing Natalie and I had been avoiding bringing up. 

 

“I love this but can we stop procrastinating about me going home?”

Natalie nearly spit out the coffee she’d brought and I ended up inhaling some Playdough. Both of us were apparently trying a little too hard to not talk about it. “I appreciate your effort guys but I know where we are… Besides, it was supposed to happen a couple of days ago and people kept finding reasons to put it off on my behalf. I’m not a fragile piece of glassware. I’m not gonna break just going back home. Anyways… It’s cold.” 

 

We laughed a little at Em’s mundane reason but we both could feel the strength they needed to gather to make the choice to go back home and finally ostracized the last of Jame’s demons from their life. 

 

“Ok… Let’s go home then, Em.” I reached out and held their hand to try and comfort them offering my gentlest smile. 

 

Em returned my smile with one of their own as the three of us started walking. The park we were at was just a short walk from Em’s apartment so it was fine to leave my car and Natalie’s bike there to wait for us. 

 

As we walked up to the apartment we were able to see a squad car waiting there for us as men and woman in blue moved in using power tools to pop off the plywood boards that had been placed over the first floor property. We stopped at the corner down the street from the apartment just watching the workers running around.

 

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, how come you were so sure the apartment wasn’t marked as vacated while you were in a coma? I’d imagine it isn’t easy for the owner to keep it off market for more than half a year.” Natalie asked Em her question ignoring my irritation, and if I’m being honest probably overprotective glare.

 

Em just huffed a little, seeming to be amused by the question. “I would be surprised if they even noticed. The building belongs to this lady, Mrs. Novakova. She’s some heiress to a major fortune or something. A long time ago Esme and I helped her grand-son…” Em frowned, sadly remembering bad memories. “He was sick. Incurable. The disease kept him bedridden for weeks at a time, he was only twelve, it was awful. At the time virtual gaming was barely a thing compared to now but Esme and I were beta-testing the hardware for Code, the developers for Tactical-Respawn. We asked them for an extra copy and took turns playing in the virtual world with him.” Em shook their head and gripped my hand tightly as they wiped away tears forming. “He was a good kid. Anyways Mrs. Novakova was really grateful to us, she basically single handedly financed our e-sports team for the first year. When Esme died, she was the only person I could turn to for help… She helped me get set up here.”

 

Em fell silent for a while, I took the turn this time prompting them to keep going. “Why didn’t you reach out to her when everything happened then?” 

 

At my question Em gave me a wry grin and an honest laugh, “She’s really old.”

We walked together across the street and down the block to the house watching as the officers grabbed the excess plywood and moved away. I waved at the man in blue standing at the door with a bored expression that lightened up a little bit as he saw us. 

 

Em explained a bit more about Mrs. Novakova as we walked over, “I think she should be in her 90’s now. Her kid would normally be the person to take responsibility for the properties she owns but last I heard he was screwing around back in their home country. I don’t know their family too well of course, I pay rent and when stuff goes wrong I just get someone to fix it or do so myself. When she gave us the house it was an unofficial kind of exchange anyways. No one has ever questioned it and I never had a need to so things just kind of worked out. I just assumed that the reason I don’t hear about her now was her age.” Em frowned a little as they muttered out, “I hope she’s doing ok…” Natalie didn’t seem to hear them but I did and pulled them a little closer as we walked, wrapping my arm around their waist.

 

We walked up the path to the house, as Em let go of my hand and separated themself a little from me. “If it’s alright with you guys I’d just like a moment alone first.”

 

I frowned and wanted to insist that we could help here but held myself back, “If you want to then I understand, we’ll be out here waiting for you alright?” I gave them my best smile as they took a step forward before turning around and surprising me with a light kiss. “Thank you for understanding.”

 

Em quickly turned around again before I could reply and slipped into the apartment. 

 

“You did good not to push to be let in.” Natalie smiled at me and gently hit my shoulder. 

 

I laughed and did the same to her. “I appreciate your willingness to third wheel for a little while. I’m sure the atmosphere can be a bit stifling around us sometimes.” 

 

She shrugged. “I don’t mind, I get to check out my future apartment and it makes me happy to see you guys are happy. That’s what friends are for right?”

 

I smiled  and shook my head a little bit. “Yea, but I really don’t think many friends can so easily adopt that attitude. I guess the three of us aren't normal friends though.”

 

Natalie gave a bit of her own laugh this time. “Yea, ‘met at a hospital under extraordinary circumstances’ kinda takes away the possibility for a normal kind of friendship.”

 

“Makes it even better.”

 

“Damn right it does.”

 

We laughed a forced kind of laugh, knowing in our hearts that despite being honest with our words we were also both just trying to keep ourselves from running inside and making sure Em was OK. Trying to ignore the soft sound of crying from the other side of the door to the best of our ability. 

 

I finally lost my patience and stood up to go in when I felt my phone vibrate, I opened it in a rush thinking it might be Em only to see a message from August.

 

“Hey… I need your help.”