Stood Up

[Hollace Lutrov]

Hollace rested on the wooden bench and studied the light filtering behind the leaves. She had woken up early that morning and hurried through kitchen prep then jetted outside for her first day off in days. Boris had patted her shoulder in his silent way, nearly sending her through the bar counter. It had brought the first laugh out of her since that crazy and short motorcycle ride with Vlad. She wondered how he and Kasura had gotten along after she'd left. Hollace went to draw the last shaded line when someone stepped directly into her light. The pencil jerked in her hand, drawing a horrible line through her work. Turning her head she went to yell at the idiot who'd ruined an hour's work when her dark brown eyes met those of Leon Snow's.

 

[Leon Snow]

Leon was in dire need of a walk that morning, he had to listen to his brother gripe all morning about something that he really had no business worrying about right now. Recently his brother was healed and had married, so he was even grouchier and bossier than usual, it was really all a pain in the neck. Walking in a small open area of the harbor, Leon felt himself relaxing slightly, he really hadn't been here yet, and he had to admit it was kind of nice, just as he headed past a tree he noticed a familiar form sitting on the bench. 'Can it be?' He headed over to the form and halted when he was standing over her, he wondered what she was drawing, but let it slip when he noticed her mess up and look at him. "Hello Hollace." He cast her a charming smile and slipped his hands out form his pockets. "May I sit?" he asked and gestured to the bench, hoping she wasn't angry that he sort of ruined her drawing.

 

[Hollace Lutrov]

Hollace hadn't expected to run into Leon of all people today. She felt her cheeks warm as his smile did indeed charm her and she thought of how she had unintentionally stood him up. "Um, sure." She scooted over a little bit to make room for him, her long legs crossed and drawn up on the bench. "How have you been Leon?" Hollace couldn't help but return his easy smile. He was such a nice guy, at least she thought so just from the first time she had met him. He had to be nice to approach her and not be angry about being stood up.

 

[Leon Snow]

Leon smiled and sat down next to her, at least she still treated him with kindness that he still had yet to witness from many people. If only people knew of the stress he had been going through with his family and with work lately, the would know better than to bother him as much. "Things have been stressful everywhere I suppose, so not so well." He would ask how she was doing, but he already heard some part of it, to his unfortunate luck, he ended up bumping into none other than an old family friend of his on the night he was supposed to meet up with Hollace. Thankfully, or not so thankfully, she seemed to get caught up in something too, so both of them were really in a fix of some sorts.

"Before you feel bad about standing me up, I know what happened to you. So I'm not at all upset." If anything, he was worried about her and her safety. The way Niccy made it seem, Hollace could have been harmed badly if someone hadn't come to help her. Turning to stare at Hollace with icy eyes, he checked over her, she didn't seem to be injured at all and that relieved him.

 

[Hollace Lutrov]

"Does everyone know?" Hollace stared at him in agitation then calmed down. She turned her attention away from his concerned eyes and tore the page out to begin again. With heavy strokes on the page that bespoke to her distress she glanced at him from beneath dark lashes. "How did you find out Leon?"

 

[Leon Snow]

Leon gave her a soft yet curious stare when heard her ask everyone if they knew, as far he was aware of, only a small amount of people actually knew. The less people that knew about something like this, the better. Apparently it was a situation that went much further than it should have gone, or at least Nicolette put it that way. "A family friend told me that night, she came to talk to me about something and explained the situation to me." He said softly, nearly shuddering at the memory of that night. Nicolette had already scared the breath out of him, and now that she was one of them she had a much easier time doing so, even with that bubbly attitude of hers. Shifting a bit he figured he owed her a bit more of an explanation to help her make sense of the situation.

"Nicolette is pregnant with his little brother, and was the one who informed those two men of where you were. Hades was supposed to be watching her but wasn't..I guess." She had left a lot out for Leon, so he had to fill in the blanks with what he knew for a fact. Nicolette wouldn't have be so out and about if he had been watching her, but what he was so surprised is that it almost sounded like Hollace provoked Hades or something, she may even met him before this, no one really knew what was going on with that really. "Your not hurt are you?" He knew she didn't look injured, but it was always easy to cover up wounds, it sounded rough and he hoped she was okay from the whole kidnapping ordeal.

 

[Hollace Lutrov]

Hollace shifted in her seat and cocked her head at him. Her long dark hair ruffled in the breeze and she took a moment to stall from answering Leon's question by brushing strands from her face. "No. I wasn't-harmed." It wasn't the truth, not completely. Yet she wouldn't tell him or anyone what had happened during or after her duel with Hades. "I'm here, I'm okay," she reassured, then glanced at Leon, giving up on the drawing. "I really am sorry though. I don't make it a habit of breaking my promises."

 

[Leon Snow]

Leon didn't fully believe that Hollace wasn't harmed, just by her meek nature and attitude, something had happened and it struck Leon that there was a chance that it wasn't. He gave her a soft smile before he pat her shoulder comfortingly and gave her a reassuring smile that said he would be around if she ever needed someone to spill things to, after years if listening to his siblings, Alphonse was pretty sure he had advanced in his listening skills. "I'm glad your okay then, you look like you could use a soda or something though." He offered, she looked like she needed to get out and clear her head over a drink or something. It wasn't exactly supposed to be a date like his last suggestion, but more like a reason for them to hang out more. If anything, he'd at least like a shot at friendship with Hollace, seeing as he really had no friends as of late.

"Your forgiven, it's highly unlikely that Nicolette let would have let me make it either. So both of us really had a problem that night." Leon was a tad curious bout what exactly happened since a lot was left out for reasons unknown to him. At the moment he was a bit unsure that it was something that Hollace should really share though, just by the look of her face when he was told, it definitely looked like something that was a private matter. Glancing at his wrist momentarily, he remembered that it was that night that Leon was asked to become a Death Eater, or rather...talked into it. He wondered what Hollace would think if he told her about it.

 

[Hollace Lutrov]

Hollace thought about it for a moment then came to a decision. "Leon," she set the drawing aside and turned to him. "I don't have anything to give you...romantically," she got out, her fingers coming up to run them through a thick strand of her hair, as she did when she was nervous. "But I'd like to be your friend. Why don't we go out dancing until we're too tired to move?" She liked Leon and thought he was such a nice guy. She'd like to get to know him better although she knew it would only be friendship on her part. She hoped it would be that way on his too. She hadn't thought she'd want to go back to that club, not after what had happened. But if she didn't do it now she never would. She had to purge that from her embarrassing memory and just get through things again. It wasn't as though she hadn't seen Hades again, she had and thankfully she did not blush thinking of professing her love for her dark lover.

 

[Leon Snow]

Leon busted out laughing lightly when Hollace said she didn't have anything to give to him romantically. Obviously Hollace didn't know about his pickiness when it came to woman, he could barely find ones that he could stand enough to be his friend let alone try to date. "I'd like very much to be friends, I've got no time for a girl anyways." He rolled his eyes playfully, he was too busy with his family or with his new Death Eater status to really worry about dating or possibly attempting to actually care about someone other than himself or his damned family. However dancing did sound fun, even if the too tired to move part sounded a bit...crazy?

"Haha dancing sounds great, except I have to admit I'm a bit bad at it." He hadn't done much dancing in his life, he had learned to slow dance quite well, but any other type he was utterly clueless about. But if thats what it took to have fun for once and actually make a friend or two, he was willing to fall on his butt a few times. "Let's go then." He stood stood up and gently held out his arm to her, hopefully she would have an idea or two about a place to go, because he knew of none.

 

[Hollace Lutrov]

Continued Here