A New Obsession

Distractions

Leon stirred his coffee while staring blankly at the papers sprawled before him. He would like to say that his mind was elsewhere but in reality it was nowhere at all. He was surrounded by a muted fuzz of exhaustion and pain that filled his mind in place of thought. The stir stick scraped the bottom of his cup. The clock ticked. The air conditioner buzzed around the corner. And someone was trying to talk to him again.

Blinking slowly, Leon forced himself to focus his eyes on the person standing next to him, and managed to catch enough of their words to know whatever they thought they needed from him was in fact, not his job, so he simply directed them to the correct person with a blank face that was his best attempt at not being rude this morning.

He dropped his head to his hands and sighed, rubbing his sunken eyes with his wrists. He had gotten entirely too carried away with Danny the past couple of days, and it had not only completely ruined his sleep schedule, but also drained every ounce of energy from his body worse than his years training for the DSO. And he didn't even have a new job to show for it; just bruises and scratches galore, which he had to hide under long sleeves despite the heat.

The rain had gotten baked dry in a hot flash over the past couple days, but the locals all insisted the warmth was just a sign of more moisture to come. He didn't know what to think, he just wished he could dress accordingly rather than itching to death in a jacket like an idiot. But he had lost his mind this weekend. Danny had stolen it, more like.

Leon drained his cup quickly to direct his mind back away from Danny. He couldn't afford to spend any more thought on that cocky, alluring, infuriating man. He didn't have time for a relationship right now and he definitely didn't want to risk his career when it was just starting to take off, for someone like Danny Johnson in a small town miles away from home like this. He needed to focus on something else, something important. Something that wasn't actively lying to him on a daily basis.

Leon frowned to himself and pushed off from the table to get himself more coffee. What he really needed was a drink, but he wasn't quite ready to start sneaking Khalua in his breast pocket to slip into his coffee yet. Maybe after a few more years, and after watching a few more of his friends die... and risking his life to fight against terrorists that always lead to something bigger and crazier in the end. But for now he could manage with regular coffee in the morning.

Danny had noticed that one of the scars on his shoulder was years older than the current one, but he had put in a specific effort not to pry much. He had caught Leon's sharp warning look every time he tried to hungrily claw up information about Leon's past, and he was smart enough to know when to shut up at least. If only Leon was smart enough to know when to keep it in his pants. He should never have invited Danny over in the first place. But he was just so... so... different. Maybe he just reeked of pheromones or something, but Leon couldn't be near him without feeling the urge to touch him. And when he did, it was worse than glue. He couldn't let go. He couldn't even look away.

Leon shook his head again and poured more coffee, apologizing to the man behind him who had to wait for Leon to finish spacing out before getting his own. He had evidently failed to keep Danny from his mind. He needed to do better. He needed to get to work.

The cops here were still secretly entertaining the idea that there were multiple killers, murdering for their own purposes, but blaming it on the same masked shadow while they could. Despite the fact that all the evidence proved the contrary, and none of it supported that theory.

That didn't matter though, this wasn't their case anyway. Leon finished his coffee again and cleared his throat, crossing his arms and reviewing his options once again. In order to move forward he would have to all but accuse someone. He still needed more information on that Carrie woman, but there weren't many options left for him to pursue legally in order to obtain it. Why did everything have to be so damned complicated all the time? Why couldn't people just tell the truth? Leon sighed again and shook his head. He was certainly one to talk, he couldn't even tell himself the truth about how he really felt these days.