Angel || Leonetta

VIII

He was getting closer by the minute, and I was starting to sweat from anxiety.

As I was about to run, I felt his hand grab me by the wrist, which urged me to face him; the man who had been following me.

I breathed out a sigh of relief as I saw his face- a face I recognised immediately. The man standing before me was León.

At last, I had found him- but the real question was: 'How did he find me?'

I was about to ask him that very question when he spoke up.

"There's no time for talking, Violetta. We have to hurry and get back to the apartment."

I nodded in agreement and smiled a little as he placed his hand in mine, yet again.

We walked to the nearest bus station, constantly looking behind us to check if we were being followed. We were relieved to see that no one was on our trail.

******

Leon led me into an enormous, modern-looking building and stopped in front of a machine once we had entered.

"What's that?" I curiously asked, referring to the machine. Unfortunately, I had forgotten all about trying to be a normal human.

"Oh, come on Violetta. You know perfectly well what it is! Haven't you been on a bus before? You should know that you need a ticket or card. I'm getting tickets for the both of us," he said, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

I decided to not let his hurtful attitude bring me down, and proceeded to simply conjure up an apology.

It sounded something like: "Yeah... right. I guess I just momentarily forgot. Sorry."

Leon nodded distractedly in response, as he was too busy operating the machine to properly answer me.

After he had procured some small slips of thin paper which he liked to call 'tickets', he guided me through the centre of the building and then back outside where I saw dozens of imposing, long vehicles- also known as 'buses' in this world.

Leon handed me a ticket, just as a bus approached us. I followed his footsteps and copied his actions, climbing into a bus and giving my ticket to an attendant.

My ticket was approved and I took a seat next to Leon, not feeling awkward at all. After our short but eventful errand last night, we were now comfortable around each other, which was a good sign.

Leon decided to start the conversation.

"So, what do you want to do once we get back?"

I didn't need to think twice before answering his question.

"Well, we could let the others know where we went, and ask them if they've heard from Francesca... Although I highly doubt that they have, since I have her phone. We can still try, though. Afterwards, we need to have a private chat so that you can tell me the details of your mysterious phone call from last night- which included a few threats, if I recall..."

Leon seemed annoyed that I had brought up the subject. Again, this led me to believe that he wasn't concerned about Fran, although they were supposed to be close friends...

"Maybe. I just don't really think that we should pay attention to the threats. We should just focus on getting Fran, and nothing else. That's what I think."

I didn't want to irritate him further, so I did not elaborate on the subject. I did, however, make sure to let him know that the conversation was not over yet. We just needed more time. Slowly but surely, I would find out his secrets; all I needed was for him to have more faith in me.

****

The bus came to a halt and we hopped off because we'd reached our destination.
Just as we walked away from the bus stop, Leon paused to look at me and said:
"Would you like to get you some coffee? You look positively exhausted; I think you could use a bit of energy. Especially if you want to continue searching for Fran this afternoon. "

I smiled at him, touched that he was willing to give up some of his time for me.

"Of course, thank you, Leon."

"It's nothing, " he muttered.

"Alright, then. Let's go."

We walked in the direction of a small coffee shop.

When we arrived, Leon bought two coffees to take away and we both sipped the warm beverage whilst making our way to the apartment.
Leon was right, it did help. I soon felt very energetic and ready to continue our little 'mission'.

Before we could do this, however, we needed to report back to the others.

We reached the apartment and dumped our empty coffee cups in the garbage after Leon had opened the door.

Cami greeted me with a warm and friendly hug, which I eagerly returned.

"We were so worried about you two! What happened?"

"Um...," Leon started, scratching the back of head.

"That doesn't really matter right now. We just need you to tell us something, Cami," Leon said in a slightly dark tone, eyebrows furrowed.

"What is it, Leon? You look stressed."

Leon ignored her question, getting straight to the point.

"Has Francesca tried to contact you since we left?"

*************