and all that could have been [CATO]

The barking sounded all too familiar. Way too familiar for her to be comfortable. She shifted weight from leg to leg, hearing it intensify as the dog got closer..

And then the doggie was jumping at her feet, barking and wagging its tail so fast it was a blur. Leah blinked and looked down at it, the way it bounced around happily. It couldn't be. She'd left her dog with him-

Unless he was here.

She looked up, hearing his voice, and finally, him. Himself. Infront of her. It had been a little over a decade. A lot changed in a decade. Leah felt her diamond-like qualities were starting to wear down, her grace and charm and perfection wearing away due to stress and age. Although there wasn't too much different about her, there were soft bags under her eyes. She'd put on a little weight, but it was all throughout the hip and thigh, and only seemed to make her look better.

Him, on the other hand.. He looked so much stronger. More rugged, and perhaps not aggressive, but enough to stand his own. He seemed to have let his appearance slide, but what did she care? His strength attracted her to him. Not only his strength, but his eyes.. They were the same as she'd remembered. And his lips, that not only cherished hers, but had once told her how much he loved her over and over again. Her eyes were wide, a little scared, a lot surprised. Too many thoughts rushed through her head to make sense of. They mostly echoed how surprised she was that he was even alive.

When she'd left him, he was still in the Legion. She'd left him because he'd stolen her, destroyed people she'd once loved. And now? He was with the followers, of all people? She knew of them only for their sassy gay doctor and their passion for assisting people. Helping people didn't seem like Cato's forte, but who was she to judge? Leah gently pet Cookie, calming him down as she looked him up and down. "Yeah.. It's Leah."

The way he said her name made her feel like she was coming home.

Before sense could kick in and stop her, she approached him, looking up at him shyly. She wrapped her arms around his neck, letting the blanket fall, the silk of her nightgown making her shiver- but she didn't care. She didn't care he was part of the reason she had a scar wrapped around her neck, part of the reason she felt damaged. His face, his arms, his voice.. It felt like she'd come full circle. He still smelled the same.

She pressed her cheek against him, shivering. "I-I have a headache.." she mumbled against him, pulling his body closer to hers, and vice versa. Her voice was very quiet, on the verge of tears with each word. "You kept Cookie..."

Somehow, it still felt right. After everything. After the years, the torment, the hurt and the insults, his hand in her hair and the other around her waist still felt perfect. She pressed against him, but this was soon not needed, as he held her desperately. She missed how much he needed her. Somewhere, deep down, she needed him too. At first she was scared he would hit her, push her off, send her in the opposite direction. But his response was quite the opposite.

She made a soft squeak as he lifted her, the noise similar to something a bit more intimate. God, he'd gotten strong. She pressed her face against his neck, shivering. Cookie was dancing around Cato's feet, like he was carrying his favorite toy in his arms. She nuzzled him, shyly peppering his cheek with the lightest of kisses. She hoped he wouldn't change his mind, wouldn't be switched into a fit of rage. It had been so long ago.. why did it have to matter to either of them?

She let him lay her down, nodding at his mention of medication. "I normally don't get sick, but tonight's a bit different." She smiled dazedly at him, pressing her hand to her forehead after he'd moved her hair for her. She watched him go, admiring his body. She prefered his sturdiness, the rectangular shape of his body, the way he seemed to radiate some sort of power that he had gained in his years away from the fort. Personal freedom? Perhaps it was something like it. She pressed her ruby lips together into a line, closing her eyes and stifling a groan of pain as a wave of it hit her. It hurt like a bitch, to say the least.

Cracking her eyes open when he came back, she gave him a weak smile. Leah sat up a little to take the pills, but lay back down immediately, grimacing. She hoped they worked fast. She opened her eyes to listen to him, her own widening. "Oh, my sweet Corvinus.." The words were barely a murmur. "I can't tell you- how apologetic I am.. How many times I looked through crowds of men, hoping I'd find you, see you with someone.. catch your attention.. at least the sight of you, so I could know you were still alive.."

Cookie sat down beside Leah's bed, and she pet him lazily. Leah kept her eyes on him, even though it pained her to do so. Her other hand pulled on her nightgown, making sure it was covering her. "During the war, all I could think of is you. If you were safe, I-I wanted you so badly to be okay.." She got a little choked up, taking a deep breath. "I don't know why I care about you after all this time. I just do. And yes.. I work at the Tops now. I sing."

Charles, however, was far from her thoughts.

Leah reached up to undo her bandana, letting her hair fall. It would take a while for the medicine to kick in, but she didn't want to look stupid around him. She wished she could look like she normally did; perfect. But that beauty had changed shape. She was make-up less, however more beautiful without it; her hair was a mess, but it looked good on her. Similar to the way she'd looked when she'd first woken up, ages ago, beside him.

Her expression changed to one of gentle amusement at his words. "Of course I thought of you... How could I not? It's strange that someone would stick in your head for so long. Even in the worst of circumstances, I could never forget about you. Despite it all... there was, and continues to be, a part of me that always adored you." She noticed he was taking the time to actually listen to her; something new, something that made her quite pleased, to say the least.

Nuzzling his forehead back, listening to him speak. His voice wrapped her in its sweet embrace, one she definitely did not want to leave. His story was.. sad. It brought their hardships to mind, the failure of their relationship, their crashed promises and their dreams of all that could have been. She'd failed to see then how much she'd meant to him. That she kept him on the right side of the battle, that she had kept him sane, and for the most part, she'd kept him happy. It was difficult for her to come to terms with hurting someone this much, but she'd confronted her memories several years ago.

Since then, she craved to start again, to let their mistakes drop and their tarnished hearts heal. This was easier said than done most times, but Leah felt that if they had found love within eachother once, it was possible to find it again. "Ah, dear... You've been through a lot, huh?" She mumbled gently, reaching up to let her hands cradle his face. "And yet we find eachother again, in the most unlikely of places, at the strangest of times." Leah gave him a warm smile, kissing is nose gently.

Thumbs feeling along the rough texture of his cheeks, she began to murmur her own story to him. "I've been at the Tops this whole time.. Infront of you, but so far way. During the war I stayed well locked down with Mr. Starkweather. He fancies me quite a bit." She chuckled, moving her arms to wrap them around him. "Nothing all too interesting has been happening.. not until recently., tonight."

It was interesting to her, how so much time had passed, and yet some things simply didn't change. Most notably being the softness of her hands, and the way his eyes looked. He might have had the world's longest story to tell, but the look in his eyes was nothing but affection, nothing but the love and adoration he'd given her before. Bitterness had all but left her mind; she giggled at the mess their legs turned into, squeezing him in her arms. "Really? I've improved a lot since then.. I was singing to no one other than my dog."

Leah squeaked happily when he pulled her close, nuzzling up right against him, letting their two bodies become a mess of limbs and affection and God knows what else. She was shivering a little; the nightgown did not do much for warmth. She rolled away from him momentarily, only to get into the bedroll. She gave him a playful smile, gently pulling it up around their shoulders, happy to bask in the warmth that was her Corvinus. "I know you too well, dear. You'll fight with anyone that looks at me the wrong way." Leah mumbled, resting her head against his chest.

Now, whenever he spoke, she felt the low ruble of his voice. It made her heart thud, and took her a moment to actually process what he was saying. She looked up at him as she spoke, her hands moving to gently feel over his chest. Leah bit her lip, looking at him in slight nervousness. "I'm already with him- sort of. He's not the type of man you can really say no to.. He gave me my job and what inkling of a home I have right now. I wish I could just run away with you, but I'm caught in a web now, that's a lot bigger than just me.."

Technically, right now, she was cheating on him. But really, Corvinus was her first- and her only- love. None before him, none after him. Charles was charming, but he was all bark and little bite. He had his head in the clouds most of the time, and he'd never love her the way Cato did, never make her heart race like he had. Sure, they had more than a few reasons to hate eachother, but being with him right now... It made her forget everything, made her mind take a little vacation, and common sense loose itself in the sound of his voice.

And then.. He just had to do that, didn't he? She bit her lip, leaning up to wrap her arms around him and cling to him desperately. "Oh, dearest..." She murmured, the pitch of her voice off due to the huge lump in her throat. "You're going to make me cry, you know that?" She squeezed him tightly, before pulling back a little, pressing her nose to his. "You.. You really are the only person I've ever fully loved. Despite everything, with or without everything... I adore you." She murmured, gently pressing her lips to his.

funny story; i will always love good charlotte.

And with that they had lots of hot sexytimes. Oh dear.

She awoke the next morning tangled up in him (as bedrolls really weren't meant for two people) in a rather unattractive way. She was a messy sleeper; limbs spread out all over the place, hair in his face, torso nowhere near his. Although they might have been cuddling while they were both conscious, she was now somehow diagonally ontop of him, stomach to stomach. She lifted her head a little to watch him sleep, feeling the need to touch his face, but an overpowering want to not wake him up.

To say she was happy was an understatement. Strangely, she didn't feel upset with herself for what she had done; she held no regrets in her mind. Charles would be beyond upset if he ever found out, but he didn't need to, did he? Not at all. He was probably happily tucked in bed right now, on the top floor of the Tops, contently sleeping away. It wasn't like she spent every night with him; there were some nights where they didn't see eachother at all. This would feel like one of those nights, nothing more, nothing less.

Leah played with Corvinus's hair, gently smoothing it over. She kissed his forehead, brushing her own hair out of his face. One of the disadvantages of her mane was the fact it had a tendency to go everywhere, all the time. She sat up on him, taking her discarded blanket to wrap herself in it. Her hair was then pulled into a ponytail, being very still, as to not wake him.

However, this silence was promptly broken. She screamed in surprise as another man entered the tent, announcing himself with a loud shout of "Cato!"