Another first day

Ch.20.Fancy.Pants.

"Sir, Miss, please hurry in, we have a long drive ahead of us." Leon sets me inside, careful not to bump my head, not even allowing me to belt myself, reaching across to do it for me, assuring the driver he can take care of his own door.

Once we're both seated we're off. The driver instructs us to insert an earpiece and hide both a gun and knife holster somewhere on our persons, gesturing to a box between us, so we do, a holster on either of my thighs, high enough no one will see, Leon's gun tucked to the inside of his vest, his knife tucked into his pants pocket, a little more conspicuous, but it's the only way he could make it accessible. He hands a ring over his shoulder, and Leon takes it, holding it between his pointer and thumb, staring at it questioningly.

"The explosive." That's the only explanation we get, and I turn my gaze back to Leon, who looks absent, eyes staring at the ring between his fingers.

"Leon?" He looks at me with amorous eyes, his expression almost flat, besides the light parting of his lips.

"Marry me?" His voice is gentle, so soft I can barely hear it, a low rumble. It's too much, truly, too damn sweet for me to handle. The look on his face, a little shy, so loving, the way he's looking at me making me nervous.

"What?" He smiles, only a little, his free hand coming up to scrape at the side of his neck.

"Marry me. Be my wife, for tonight." I can't hold back my smile, lips pulling up, tears threatening to come to my eyes, the look in his almost ruining me. He's too good, too perfect.

"Okay." He pulls my hand up out of my lap, drawing it closer to him, his eyes hazy, a dopey smile on his face. "Mrs. Kennedy, huh?" He looks up from my hand, his smile stretching wider, eyes flitting back down to watch the ring slide onto my finger, a happy sigh breathed between us.

"Mrs. Kennedy. God, the dress isn't half as good as this." He's pleased, holding my hand, placed gently on the seat between us, eyes either on me or our clasped hands the duration of the drive, which lasts almost two hours.

"This is it. Good luck, Hunnigan will be in touch." I don't really appreciate the driver's casualness, and general lack of explanation, not doing much more than ordering us around, and now out of the car. Hunnigan is our coms manager, apparently, the one who's meant to be talking us through this whole ordeal.

"Okay." Leon gets out, rounding to my side to open my door, and I'm not sure if he's playing his role or just being himself when he offers his hand to help me out, his grip light, trailing up my forearm to rest on my lower back as we approach the doors, large and open, following the black carpet from the entrance of the estate toward the building. "Goddamn this is a big place." I can't help my smile, my eyes flitting up toward him as we ascend the stairs.

"Yeah, We could get lost in here." The entryway is overly extravagant, big and mostly empty, a large staircase against the center of the back wall, some decorations set up, a bar set up in the left corner. It's all white in this place, floors, walls, everything. Even most of the guests are dressed in white, leaving Leon and I looking out of place among them. "This is creepy." I frown, allowing Leon to lead me further inside, both of us unsure what exactly to do until our man shows up.

"Yeah, these people are... Odd." They do look odd, the ones I get close enough to get a good look at have hazy eyes, don't look all there, really. They're all monotone, their conversations ranging in topic, their tone always flat. We wander around, looking, listening for a few minutes, making a stop at the bar, taking a look. The only drinks offered a white wine, not that we drink it, suspicion settling the more people we see nursing glasses of the whitish liquid.

"Wanna dance?" My lips pull up, gaze flitting from a hazy eyed woman to my partner, looking sheepish, and so good, his suit taught over muscle, slicked back hair giving an even better view of his pretty face.