Work Text:
You’re standing in the kitchen with your bag half-zipped and your keys already in your hand, turning the place upside down with your eyes like that alone might make it appear.
“I swear I left it right here,” you mutter, opening the same drawer for the third time. “I never take it off.”
Behind you, Leon leans against the counter, coffee cooling in his hand. He doesn’t interrupt right away, watching you move through the room, searching barefoot, hair slightly messy, already late.
“That the necklace you always wear?” he asks.
“Yes,” you say too quickly. Then softer, more annoyed at yourself than anything else. “My favorite one.”
You pause, hands braced on the counter now. “It’s gone. I don’t know where it went. I’ve checked everywhere.”
Leon sets his mug down with a quiet clink. “When did you last have it?”
You try to think, but it only makes the knot in your chest tighten. “I don’t know. Yesterday? Maybe in the shower? I don’t—God, I don’t want to think about this right now.”
He nods like he understands more than he says he does. “I’ll look around.”
You’re already shaking your head as you grab your bag. “No, I’ll deal with it later. I’m late. I’ll just… I’ll just figure it out tonight.”
You brush past him, and his hand grazes your elbow so lightly you don’t notice, too preoccupied with your misplaced necklace. His eyes follow you all the way to the door.
“Text me if you find it,” he adds.
You don’t hear him say anything else.
-
After you leave, the apartment feels quieter in a way Leon doesn’t really like.
He stands up, staring at the empty counter where your things were scattered like evidence of panic, then he exhales, grabs his jacket, and heads out. A few blocks away, a small corner shop sits wedged between a laundromat and a closed café. The bell over the door chimes softly when he walks in.
It’s not the kind of place you’d normally expect to find something meaningful, but he isn’t looking for perfect, just close enough.
Leon walks the aisles slowly, scanning glass cases and cheap display stands. The chains look too thin or the pendants look mass-produced. Stones that feel wrong the moment he sees them.
Nothing sits right.
The shopkeeper gives him a curious look as he lingers too long in one aisle, picking up a necklace, turning it once between his fingers, then setting it back down.
“This is for someone else,” Leon says eventually, not really a question.
The shopkeeper just nods. “Most of them are.”
He tries a few more before he finds it. The necklace is tucked in the back corner of a velvet-lined tray, simple, not flashy. A thin gold chain with a small pendant shaped like a crescent moon, a blue gem in its curve. It’s not exactly like yours, the curve is different, softer, but it has that same quiet weight to it. The kind of thing someone wears every day because they don’t think about it anymore; because it just is.
Leon picks it up slowly.
No price tag on display, and he glances toward the counter where an older woman sits reading a book behind smudged glasses. She looks up when she feels his stare and smiles faintly, probably used to people wandering in here looking for something more than jewelry. He buys it without thinking too hard about why it feels right.
Outside, he slips it into his pocket.
-
You come home late.
The kind of late where the sky is already dimming into navy blue and your shoulders feel like they’re carrying the entire weight of the day. Your bag slips off your arm the second you step inside, landing somewhere near the door with a soft thud you don’t even care enough to correct.
“Hey,” you call automatically, voice tired and thin.
Leon’s already sitting on the couch like he’s been waiting without making it obvious he was waiting. TV is on low volume, something half-watched and forgotten in the background. He looks up immediately when he hears you, that alone makes something in your chest loosen.
“Hey,” he says back, quieter.
You walk over on autopilot, lean down, and press a slow, exhausted kiss to his mouth. It’s the opposite of playful, but simply familiar. Your hand rests against his jaw for a second like you need the contact to stabilize you.
“I am so done with today,” you murmur against him.
A faint hint of a smile pulls at his mouth. “Bad day?”
You exhale through your nose. “People are just… a lot.”
He hums like he understands that better than most things.
You straighten, already halfway to the hallway. “I’m gonna shower. I need like- ten minutes of silence and hot water or I’m going to combust.”
“Take your time,” he says.
And you do.
-
The shower runs for exactly twenty-three minutes, longer than you said, but neither of you care. The water helps more than it should.
When you come back out, the apartment has shifted into something softer. Lights are lower. The TV is still on, but Leon’s barely watching it now. Just sitting relaxed on the couch, one arm draped along the back like he’s made himself fully at home in your space.
Then you cross the room, hair damp, sweatshirt oversized, and drop down beside him without asking.
He shifts immediately to make space.
You curl into his side as if it’s instinct. Your body recognizes him as the place it’s supposed to settle. A long, quiet sigh leaves you before you even realize you’ve let it out.
“God,” you mumble. “I missed my couch.”
His chest rumbles faintly with a soft laugh. “Rough day, huh?”
“Mhm.”
His hand slips into his pocket. You don’t notice at first, your eyes are half-closed, already sinking into that post-shower haze where everything feels distant and safe.
“Hey,” he says quietly.
You hum in response, barely lifting your head, and then something small and cool is pressed into your palm. Your fingers close around it automatically before your brain fully understands what it’s touching. Metal. Chain. Weight. Your eyes drop, and there’s a necklace in your hand.
You sit up slightly, confusion flickering across your face as your fingers carefully unfold it. The silver catches the low light, the crescent moon pendant resting against your skin like it was meant to be there.
“…Leon,” you say finally, voice softer now. “Where did you get this?”
His shoulders lift in a small, almost shrug-like motion. “Corner shop.”
You look at him like you’re trying to solve something you didn’t expect to be a puzzle. “Why?”
“You were upset about yours.”
“It’s not the same,” you whisper. “It’s…better, definitely expensive.”
“Yeah, I know,” he says. “But it felt like you needed something to hold onto.”
You stare down at it again. The crescent moon resting in your palm like it’s been waiting there for you. Your thumb brushes over it once.
“…you went looking for this after I left?” you ask.
“Mhm,” Leon hums. “Sorry it’s not the exact same.”
“No no,” you shake your head and sit up, turning. “put it on me?”
Leon takes the necklace, slipping it around your neck and securing the clasp. You hold the charm, thumbing it before you turn to face him, a smile spreading on your face the first time that day. “Thank you.”
Something in your expression softens before you can stop it.
“You’re kind of… annoyingly good at this,” you say, half-tired, half-amused.
A small exhale of a laugh leaves him. “At what?”
You gesture vaguely between the two of you, the couch, the night, the way you’ve folded into each other without thinking.
“Caring.” you say.
Leon’s gaze dips for a second, like he’s not used to the word sitting on him so directly before he shifts slightly, his arm tightening around you just enough to pull you closer again.
“Don’t get used to it,” he says, but there’s no edge to it at all.
You hum softly, already drifting again. “Too late.”
The TV plays on in the background, forgotten plotlines and muted dialogue filling the room with something that doesn’t matter. Leon, without looking away from the screen, adjusts the blanket over both of you like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Like this is just how nights end now.