Red West II.

Chapter twelve - Leo's decision

The dim morning light was coming through the curtain, revealing the lines of a wardrobe, a table with the empty tin washbasin and a wide double bed, on which two naked bodies were resting.

Leo stared at the sloped wooden ceiling, listening to the lonely singing of some courageous bird from the outside, while Jane was sleeping right next to him, lying on her stomach with one hand resting on his chest, her long hair ruffled and spread all over the pillow.

Silent minutes were passing one after another, but the bedroom was not getting any brighter. It was caused by the cloudy sky, which refused to let through even a single beam of sunshine from behind them, and watered the woods around the mountain chalet with rain instead. Leo could hear the drops tapping on the roof. It seemed that the winter gave up its fight against the next season really soon this year.

Leo liked calm and lazy mornings like this one. Unfortunately, he had a feeling he would not be able to enjoy many of them from now on. He glanced at the peaceful face next to his. He didn't tell Jane yet, but he was already decided. He discussed it just with Oswald so far, as it concerned the old man the most, and now he intended to wait for Koki's return from the city to talk with the gang.

Even through the closed door, some steps and the clinging of dishes could be heard downstairs, which indicated that the owner of the house was already awake; Oswald was always the first one to get up.

The Riders' leader slipped from under the warm hug carefully, not to wake his lover up, because Jane really did get up at four o'clock and with a scary glee she went to wake Koki up, so Leo wanted to let her catch up on sleep. He covered her naked body with a blanket and opened a window a little. Jane liked to sleep in a cool room.

Standing at the window, Leo noticed that somebody else was also up already – Kamenashi was walking toward the fence with horses, with scrubbing brushes in his hands, a hat covering him from the rain.

Leo watched him, as the young man stepped inside the fence. Before Kame could secure the entrance again, there was already a white mare sniffling around his coat pockets. He laughed and then took out two shriveled apples, offering them to the animal. The mare crunched on the morning snack satisfied, while her master soothed her across the long neck gently.

Cullen was not the only one wondering about the real motives of Jin's acquaintance, but the truth to be told, Leo was willing to do anything for his own friends as well, so it wasn't like he didn't understand. He was more than sure that Kazuya Kamenashi was a good guy. Maybe exactly that was the reason for the gang's distrust, as they had met so many selfish evil bastards so far, that it was hard to believe somebody like him even existed. Nevertheless, if everything Kame and Jin had said was true, then his brother was damn lucky to have somebody like the brown-haired handsome man on his side.

Thoughtfully, Leo turned away from the window, grabbed his shirt and left the bedroom to take some of the coffee, which Oswald definitely prepared, for himself, before the others would come and there would be nothing left.

*

When Jin woke up, he found Ryo, Jack, Carl and Patrick snoring happily in their sleeping bags, but Kame's place was empty and his blanket properly folded up. Koki was not there either, but the blonde one was probably really close to Leadville at that moment, as Jane kept her word and she really dragged him out of his sleep just when Jin finished his part of the night's watch, which he took over in place of pleading Ryo, who felt kind of sick. Todd was the last one to make the rounds around the property, so he was out as well. And as for the last Rider, always suspicious Esler, Jin could not care less where the man spent this night.

Jin sat up, trying to shake his sleepiness off. It took him hell a lot of time before he finally managed to fall asleep the previous evening. He was happy about the fact that Kazuya was there with him, and adding their hot session to the feelings, he was so excited, that he did not feel sleepy at all. That did not pay off in the morning, obviously.