Nearly a full hour had passed as his dry, lightless eyes lingered on the windowsill. It was a few knocks at the door that had pulled him from the silence. He huffed as he looked back down at the papers, realizing he had only skimmed through one of many.
Placing the picture back, he pushed himself up and walked to the door, unlocking it and opening. He was met with the strawberry blonde from earlier that morning.
"Can I help you, Ms. Heizer?" He asked, gazing to the hallway behind her momentarily.
Standing in silence for some moments, she lifted her hands from her back and presented a tin lunch box. A small flare of red on her cheeks.
"Is this for me?" He questioned, taking it in his hands to examine it further.
She nodded before responding, "You ain't been eatin' too well. So, I made this last night. Just for you."
Leo nearly flinched at these words as he looked up to her and back down at the tin container. It was a nice gesture, but unfortunately he was aware of the intention behind it.
The same intention behind a lot of her actions towards him that he was too scared to confront. He wasn't sure how to let her down without making her think she wasn't good enough, because she definitely was. Every man would kill for a woman like her—gorgeous and thoughtful.
In truth, it wasn't Leo she was chasing.
It was Professor Morwyn.
How could anyone want Leo if they've never seen him?
While trying to think of an excuse, Leo reluctantly decided that it would be disrespectful not to be honest with her. To give her the idea that her pursuit had any hope, reaping the benefits of her effort. Placing the tin back into her hands, her eyes saddened as she looked up to him.
"Ms. Heizer… I'm sorry, but I can't accept this from you. I'm not looking for any sort of romantic relationship. I don't think I ever will," He declared. He hoped the words weren't too much for her but to his surprise a caring smile grew on her face.
"I already knew that, dear. It doesn't matter to me. You need to eat."
Pushing the lunch box back into his hands, she waved him off as she scurried down the hall. He had underestimated her character. Leo stood there and looked back down at his hands with a blink, swallowing the lump of guilt in his throat.
Perhaps this was a consequence of isolation—spending so long within his own head. His grasp on people and empathy as a whole had begun to slip. To subconsciously view everyone as these predictable, emotional fools. And now he realized…
That only described himself.
Shaking off that sense of self-loathing, he sat himself back down and opened the tin box. The sight of the homemade meal held a certain tangible aura of effort and care. A slice of lightly spiced meatloaf, various steamed vegetables, and a small raisin cookie.
After finishing the meal and wiping off his desk, he almost fixed the lid back on before he noticed a small note tucked within the lid itself.
The note, in loose handwriting, read:
"Don't forget to take a break."
There was a small illustration of what he assumed was a smile sat right under the message. He looked back to the door, thinking about what kind of guy would be lucky enough to sweep her off her feet. He tucked the note under an old mug he used as storage for pens and markers alike.
He thought about the note once more and stood up. His next period would begin in only a few moments, so he thought to catch a breath.
Exiting the room and heading outside, he found his ideal spot. A sort of outing that lied in the backmost parts of the academy.
Leo hadn't been in Augustine to see the creation of the academy, but the fact that the walls surrounding the city were hundreds of feet taller than the academy itself made him assume that this part was intentionally cut out for the sake of the balcony.
Many did not dare to look out from here, paranoid that a Cryptid might see them. Leo didn't blame them as some tales tell of beasts that could kill with just a glare.
Unlike many though, he knew these tales to be true. He just didn't care enough.
Having spent some time outside the walls, the view was almost comforting in a way. Sometimes it felt like he was a fish staring out from behind the glass of an aquarium. The unseen yet omnipresent pressure that the water held.
He could swim to one side of the glass, but it wouldn't make a difference. The pressure would always make itself known.
She always found a way to do that.
It gave him this instinctual urge to break free and leave the walls, but he knew he couldn't.
It was just nice to think about sometimes. What if there was more out there? More than what King Henrick said there was? The only parts of the outside he had seen were battlefields. So only God knew.
He rummaged through his coat for some moments and pulled out a crisp, white box. With a flick, he opened the box and plucked out a cigarette. He held it between his middle and index.
Focusing on the tip for a second, a small flame engulfed its tip, lighting it. He had no use for Somnia anymore, but everyday uses like this and cooking were at the very least convenient.
Turning the cigarette to ash with several puffs over a few minutes, he glared at a nearby clock fixed to a wall, reluctantly deciding to head back inside. Time seemed to slow down as he dragged himself through the remaining classes.
The clock hit five, the final release bell ringing and lifting the pressure of his shoulders a bit. Staring at an even larger stack of papers now, he thought about if he would even be able to visit Maria today.
This goal gave him a notable burst of determination as he sat himself back down and began to go through the mountain of documents.
Several hours had passed as he carefully graded each and every paper, filled out faculty forms, etcetera.
Having finally finished, he stretched his neck while simultaneously checking the time. About half past twelve. He was pleasantly surprised that he would get off this early.
He had no way of bringing home Rachel's lunch box without awkwardly holding it, which he didn't feel like doing. Instead, he opted to hand-clean it in the teacher's lounge.
Having done the best he could to make it spotless, he snuck into her class and placed it on her desk before promptly leaving the campus.
Slipping through alleyways and streets, Leo made his way towards the Augustine Central Hospital.
It was already getting late and he would've hated to keep Maria up longer than she should've, but spending another couple rooks on a train would have been risky. Leo scanned around the streets for a moment.
Determining that there were no reveurs within a reasonable distance, he slipped into an alleyway and began to channel his Somnia into his body.
The familiar, almost nostalgic feeling of amplified reflexes and physical strength coursing through his being. He pushed off on foot and leaped up about forty feet, grabbing the ledge of the building and pulling himself.
Looking around one more time to ensure no one saw him, he let out a sigh of relief as he began to run forward. Running and jumping off the roof, he cleared several buildings before rolling onto another, using his right foot to jump off again.
As he soared through the air, he momentarily looked back. The imposing sight of the thousand foot wall that separated their section of Augustine from the next was grand and imposing, a brutal reminder of separation.
A little over a minute later, he had reached the top of a building within reasonable walking distance to the hospital. Slowing down, he stepped off the roof, slid down the wall, and quietly landed on the damp pavement. Straightening his coat, Leo began to step out into the street.
This was before a high pitched humming filled the alleyway behind him, causing him to promptly freeze.
The voice of the young man calling out from behind held a certain familiarity, "Somnia usage is strictly prohibited without a proper Reveur license, and I see no uniform."
Leo sighed and turned, which caused the man to somewhat flinch.
"Leo?" he muttered with surprised recognition in his tone.
"Caspian," Leo acknowledged.
Caspian stood there for some moments, his reveur uniform cladding him in an intimidating black. A golden badge over his heart, engraved with the same leaf symbol on the flags of the city.
The floating, metal drills lost their rotational speed as they began to disperse into nothing. He almost looked like a younger, paler Leo. Their black hair similar in length. He hesitated for a few moments.
"You know you aren't supposed to do that. Leaving the military is forfeiting your core. At least outside of educational purposes..." he trailed.
He scratched his neck, rolling his eyes back.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm just trying to visit Maria. I didn't want to keep her up."
"Be that as it may…"
Caspian had an expression of conflicted emotions. Which would he let take over his judgement? His bias towards his mentor, or the law?
The two stared at each other for a moment before Caspian gave in with a sigh.
"Alright. I didn't see anything," he said before following Leo out of the alleyway and onto the walkway, many eyes turning towards the two.
Many city-states like Augustine across the world had their own Royal Reveur, sometimes multiple. This title went to those who commanded the city's Reveur units on and off the battlefield.
Caspian himself was the current Royal Reveur of Augustine, Leo being the previous, so it made for quite the spectacle.
"Try not to do that again, alright? City's on high alert as is."
Leo cocked an eyebrow, "Why is that?"
"You seriously haven't heard what happened in section one the other day?"
The mention of the ghettos of section one had Leo intrigued. Augustine was a city divided into three sections, in the shape of a long rectangle. Two walls split the rectangle into three equal areas: the first, second, and third section.
Section one was an underfunded, starving hellhole of a ghost town. People didn't live in section one. They survived.
Relative to section one, section two was bearable. This did not mean it was good by any means, but if you were fortunate you could perhaps get one day out of the week to let yourself breathe. Thick, sulfuric smog filled the streets while the bustle of overpopulation floods your ears every waking moment. The heavy taxes placed on this section help to relieve the taxes placed on the third.
The third section is a paradise compared to the previous two. Where wages are comfortable for the most part, and overpopulation only runs rampant in certain areas, the well-protected section is like a land of myth in the eyes of the less fortunate civilians from lower sections.
Leo, shaking his head lightly, "No, I haven't heard anything. What happened?"
Caspian continued with hesitance, anxiety present within his voice, "Rhan-rank Cryptid. Druid, to be specific."
Leo's eyes turned to Caspian, "...You're serious?"
"Dead serious. At least sixty deceased and still counting," he clarified.
Silence fell upon the two for some time as they continued walking. Leo gave the implication some thoughts. Just how many people were affected and how it made him feel. However, he was met with the usual outcome. None of those people were Maria.
A sort of guilt lingered within him. Not for the people, but for the lack of feeling for them. He brushed this off as, ultimately, he couldn't control this.
The two continued down the street in silence before a familiar friend hobbled towards Leo.
Bertram, a young Dachshund pup without a collar, indicating he didn't belong to anyone in particular. With his hind legs missing, he was strapped to a bronze contraption with wheels in the back.
Leo would commonly see Bertram on his way to and from work. How the small pup moved so well within the city—seeming to simply appear where he wished—was a mystery within itself.
He bent down on a knee and scratched behind the pup's ears, a small smile growing on his tired face. Leo stood and continued with Caspian for moments more before being met with the bright glow of the hospital.
"Here's my stop. So long, Casper," Leo waved as he continued forward.
Caspian's voice froze him in his tracks, "Leo."
Turning back to Caspian and waiting for him to continue.
After a moment of hesitation, he continued, "We need someone like you. Come back."
Leo stared at him for some moments before promptly shaking his head.
"No. Never again, Casper. That's not me anymore."
Caspian stood for some moments with reluctance in his face before he gave in and turned to walk away.
"May the Empress bless you, Leo."
Leo watched him as he faded into the crowd. With a turn, he made his way through the glass doors and into the lobby of the clinic.