A/N
Just imagine waking up next to Steven. My heart would literally die. 😩🥹😭

<>

When Leah first woke up, she was convinced she was still dreaming.

Her eyes remained closed, and her snuggled body felt weightless in a layer of warmth that kept her sound in a conscious doze.

It was only when light breathing out of time with her own breached her ears, that her fingers and toes twitched in a new matter of alertness. In doing so, it registered the touch of bare skin under the palm of one hand, and on the backs of her knuckles on the other.

The lazy squint through an invading piece of her hair confirmed Leah was not lying on the same side she had drifted off from. And the more she opened her eyes, with the presence of daylight around the curtains providing her clarity, neither was Steven.

At what point during the night they had both rolled over, Leah didn't know, but she had woken up very comfortable, and very calm, which was a first for quite some time. She blinked at him, every few seconds, maybe less, and she was realising just how close she was to a sleeping Steven, and how their limbs had crisscrossed with one another in practically every way possible.

Her foot rested against the side of his calf, and the knuckles of one of her hands moved gently in time with the rise and fall of his chest. Her other hand rested over his arm that had made a home on her pillow above her head, and she was fairly sure his fingers were loosely tangled in the back of her hair.

Steven's pillows were squashed against the headboard by the bent arm that disappeared underneath, but it meant his face was at the perfect eye line without her having to move an inch and she really didn't want to, in case he woke up.

The angle of his cheek pressed into the corner of his pillow may have obscured half of his face, but it was so easy to note how stressed he looked as he slept, contradicting his slow, measured breathing.

His dark hair had been pushed messily to one side of his forehead so Leah could see the neat hairs of his eyebrows that almost met in the middle, knit together, and drop down over his eyelids in a ghosted frown. Smooth skin covered the expanse of his cheekbone and wove into tiny lines around the edge of his visible eye, and darkened in faint rings underneath the feather of his eyelashes. The slope of his nose was gentle to the point at the end and was stuffed against his pillow that caved with every puff of air he drew out in his sleep.

The returning hint of stubble dotted his under his chin and over the resting pout of his mouth, and his lips were so outrageous, they gave her a double take every time. It was also where her burning trail lingered, in a cocoon of irresistible warmth, and Leah was left to wonder how he had inherited such luscious genes.

<>

"Mornin' sleepy!"

Leah frowned, pulling the tassels on her hoodie tightly so her face disappeared from view. The cheeky snickering in the background did not help her enjoy the nickname any more.

Making her way to one of the higher cupboards, and ignoring whatever Joey was doing, Leah grabbed a clean glass and flipped the cold tap running. Once full, she brought the glass to her parched lips and looked out the window where the peaceful greenery of the gardens weren't masked by bucketing rain fall.

"How was the new room?"

Leah tried not to choke on her innocent sip of water, but the swallow was a lot more uncomfortable than she would have liked.

She turned, the blue tinted glass held tensely in her hand, and saw a look of expectation from Joey, who had paused in the door of the fridge.

"Mhm great," she managed, mortified by how unrecognisable her voice was.

Joey was grinning as he grabbed something wrapped in tin foil. Still grinning as he closed the fridge, and still grinning as he tossed it in the air and caught it in his hand again.

"Yeaahh, it's not morning." He faked sympathy with a press of his mouth, lifting the shiny, wrapped item to wave in the air between them. "I'm just grabbing some lunch."

A glance at the clock confirmed the daunting hour of one in the afternoon, and it just made everything so much worse.

"Must have been veeerrryy sleepy," Joey teased, and then with one hand only, pulled the tassels on her hoodie tight again.

Having her face hidden was actually good, because Leah was asking herself the questions like if Joey somehow knew about her staying with Steven, or if he was genuinely just teasing her about being tired and trying to call her one of the seven dwarves.

"Nah, I'm glad," Joey mused, stepping back as he unwrapped the foil to reveal one of his sandwich concoctions.

Wary of where he was heading, Leah used the space to place her glass down behind her because it felt like a tonne of bricks in her hand.

"Oh, and thank you for saving me the effort of switching rooms," he said, taking a polite bite. "I kinda like mine."

"Yeah, yeah of course. It's all...good." Leah sent him a tight smile, which quickly fell into relief when he disappeared without another word.

Slipping down her hood, she took a moment to compose herself, slow down her nervously beating heart, and set her sights on finding herself something to eat.

After all, she had missed breakfast.

^^(A)^^

With her brunch successful, Leah was so close to making it to the living room without bumping into Steven. Clearing the last of her mess away just ten seconds earlier would have saved her from the one-on-one situation that she was hoping to avoid for as long as possible.

The only positive was knowing that when she slipped out of his bed earlier, she hadn't woken him up like she had feared, because Steven had quite visibly just rolled out of bed. He'd managed to put a top on, a sight that saved her from warming with embarrassment, but that was about it.

Unfortunately, that positive was considerably outweighed by the awkwardness of standing there with absolutely no forthcoming words, and not being able to take her eyes off his face.

"Hey..." Steven scratched at his messy hair.

If there was an award for the most tense performance, or the best awkward scene, they would have swept the floor from every other nominee and their prize should have been a pristine plaque with their names etched from gold ingots, and displayed in the most priceless museum in the world.

That was what a single word greeting from the man she had shared a bed with, made her feel like.

"Hi," Leah returned quietly, thumbing her sleeves.

"You okay?"

"Mhm. You?"

"Yeah, I'm...good."

The pace was better, but she looked down, bringing a restless finger to scratch the side of her nose. She desperately needed a distraction.

"Uh, could you...?" Leah trailed off, hoping he had caught on.

Steven blinked at her sleepily, lips pink and soft from sleep, but he did eventually realise he was blocking her exit.

"Oh right, yeah."

He moved to the side, giving Leah the room to slip past him. She mumbled a hint of thanks, but could not look when she knew Steven was watching her. It made her toes curl, not in a good way, and the relief she felt when she saw the others was something else.

However, before she sat down, she grabbed a few things from the drawers that stored their collective work, and broke the week's curse from depleted optimism.

Leah plonked down next to Joey, who had almost finished his sandwich, and placed the files that had been a secret to all for so long, in her hands, on the coffee table.

She hoped she might have a bit of luck re-reading them.

The crumpled article lay on top, the turning point for Steven, and it was just as distressing for her to read when she took the chance.

There were no names apart from her grandpa, who had been admitted to hospital from the scene, and an assaulted police officer during the attack. Three were pronounced dead, but whether they were family members or the unknown clan, was too unclear with the smudged words and anonymity.

It was strange to say the least, almost too perfect to just...stumble upon.

Underneath held the files put together from a lot of digging. Snippets of her grandpa's time in the navy and his service history, and most interestingly, barely anything new about his financial situation.

Apparently Douglas Harrison had had no money to his name for twenty two years, starting from the exact same year he retired from service. So, either he was completely broke and had kept it a secret for half a lifetime, or he had an account in a different name to keep everything he owned.

A name like his own brother who may have become aware of the situation and got himself mixed up in the wrong business, or, maybe even multiple accounts that were all overseas.

How the guys had accessed this sort of information, Leah didn't want to know, but they didn't do such a good job on herself or Jake. Their names were there, but after that, it was fairly blank which made no sense because she had a career.

To put that into perspective, not only was she earning the money to spend, but she had gone to school to get a degree for her to do her job. So why none of it could be found, and stuff on her parents could, was beyond her, and all in all, very suspicious.

"I still don't get why there's nothing about me," Leah said, voicing her thoughts aloud.

Joey sighed next to her. He sounded pitiful.

"We've been over this."

"I know but it's like I don't exist. I feel like I've been erased or...hidden." She flipped through the pages in her hand. "Is there no way you can contact Rabano?"

"Tabano," Tom corrected, without looking at her.

It didn't matter how often she was reminded of his name, Leah still merged Ray and Tabano together like she couldn't decide whether to call him just Ray or just Tabano and every time, one of them corrected her.

"Yeah yeah, same thing..." Leah waved him off and went back to reading.

"But to answer your question." Joey sat forward to place down the ball of tin foil, stealing her attention whilst doing so. "No we can't. It's a one way kinda line, and that line is dead."

"Messages don't send," Tom clarified, with a shrug.

"We're alone, and have been for some time," Joey added, sliding something of interest towards him. "Though, we haven't tried his personal line. Steven might have his number memorised."

Suddenly, the words and numbers Leah was reading were meaningless. The track of her eyes stopped, and irritation rushed through her. Whether it was the frustration of not knowing what was going on starting to have an effect on her, or the mention of Steven's name when she could not make up her mind about him, she didn't know. She just knew when Tom started talking, it was not settling down.

"Maybe, but first we'd have to get a phone and if something has happened to Ray, our call could be tracked, and then that's really not-"

"Alright, I get it!" Leah snapped, gripping the thin folder tighter in her hands. "You don't know what happened to him. You don't know why, and you can't contact him without risking some more bullshit. There. End of story."

Tom blinked at her, thrown from his line of thought. He looked down, shamefully.

"Sorry."

Leah felt awful. She sensed Joey's shock next to her and she emptied her hands regretfully. She sat back into the cushions, dragging her fingers through her hair.

"No, I'm sorry for snapping," she offered in remorse, apologetic frown directed to the slumped figure of the blonde on the other sofa. "I just thought maybe if I had another look I could find something..."

Tom looked up sheepishly, which made her feel even worse for being so short with him. It was so unlike her, and everything about the day so far had been off.

She just felt really, really odd.

"Well shit, that's not good."

Brad, who was sitting next to Tom, held the remote in his outstretched hand. The hint of panic in his voice made everyone, including Leah, turn their attention to the television screen.

"Is...Steven up?" Tom asked hesitantly, to no one in particular. "I think I heard him."

"Yeah, I think-"

"STEVEN! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!" Brad yelled, cutting Joey off in an instant.

"A little warning would have been nice," Tom grumbled, a palm slapped over his ear.

Leah stared at the screen. The guys' voices faded away, and she was entranced trying to lip-read the news reporter next to the blurred image of a vehicle.

They hadn't really caught the news channel at all, probably to avoid it, but now that Brad had, the headlines were bold enough to inform a lot more than just a few locals.

"My ass has been summoned."

Leah dragged her eyes away for a moment, to Steven perching on the arm of the sofa next to Tom. He looked at her when he settled, brown eyes all too warm and inviting, a mouthful of food working his jaw, and it hitched a breath in her throat.

They both turned away.

"Well shit, that's not good," Steven said, almost in exactly the same tone as Brad, thirty seconds earlier.

"You know they can track the plate."

"It's fine, we changed the plate."

"But they have the model and colour?"

Leah imagined the two and fro motion without needing to look at them. The panic in Tom's eyes, and Steven hiding his own fear with a steady pitch of his voice.

"Steven, this is getting out of hand," Brad stated matter of factly. "Next week our faces might be on there. They might even have us now, and they're just simplifying matters for whatever reason."

"I can't give up," Steven asserted. It wasn't intimidating or unpleasant, but it was firm and captured his strength. "I can't do that."

"But Tabano isn't going to give us a free ticket out of here, and you know that."

A break in the flow gave Leah the opportunity to listen carefully to the quiet audio.

"So we cut down how often we go out," Steven picked up again. "Shop for anything we need once a week, starting today, pay in cash like normal, switch up our routes, and stay here as much as possible to limit the time we're in public."

The weary silence that followed could have easily been the last hurdle of a civil conversation.

"Brad, turn up the volume," Leah said suddenly, without giving the hassling to her left a glance.

The volume bar increased, and she could finally listen without straining her ears.

"-an update on the mysterious events at a home in Kent a few weeks ago involves an arrest of an eighty year old male, the homeowner, and will be questioned under caution once he is in a stable condition in hospital-"

"They've arrested him?" she murmured, hunched over her knees.

Then the colours shifted into a new scene, with a shaky camera angled at two people being crowded into a hospital entrance, and police holding back the wails of the press.

They were also two people Leah recognised in an instant because they were her parents. Wrapped up in big coats, holding hands tightly, ashen faces dipped to the ground to avoid the blinding flashes, and looking far from healthy.

"Mum?...Dad?"

"Leah..." Joey said softly, touching her back. She forgot she had company. "We can take you home if you want. You just have to say."

"And go back to that?" she contested, feeling a hot sting behind her nose that was beginning to clog up her throat. "Go back to a thousand questions and have the police keep the press away? I don't want to face that. Why should I have to face that?"

There was sympathy in Joey's eyes as they flicked side to side, trying their best to console. His hand stayed on her back, and he silently understood that she wasn't angry at him. And if Leah looked like she was about to cry, the tears were not because of him.

"I don't mean to interrupt but..." Brad was pointing hesitantly at the screen.

"-case of the missing twenty six year old woman, who was last seen on that same night continues. The police have issued no further information regarding her disappearance, but the search for her remains strong. Join us later for more."

Leah felt numb.

Every single part of her, foreign. She had stuffed the tears away, but the weight of sadness crashed down on her shoulders. She felt small and helpless, not quite sure how to process anything, and the spacious living room was becoming unbearable to share with four other people.

"Do you think I'll be arrested?" Leah asked, staring past the tv screen

"No, of course not," Joey replied adamantly, sitting forward with her so he could move a hand to squeeze her knee.

"But we will."

The monotonous, sorrowed drone of Steven's voice confirmed his tragic input. The same one that reminded Leah of the times he mentioned his daughter. The pain of losing her, and not being able to do anything about it, and it was back because he knew that time might no longer be on his side.

Leah shook her head firmly, not wanting to believe him.

"But you don't deserve it."

Steven looked up at her. The warmth and invitation in his eyes had been replaced with the same sadness she knew so well. The same broken fragments of the past, with their relentless stab and hurt.

"I know you've done some illegal stuff along the way, but I don't want you to be dragged down for taking me out of a mess I didn't even know I was in."

It was an attempt to enlighten some sort of confidence, but when it was using up all of Leah's energy, it was hard to stay afloat of her own rat race of emotions to be the strength for everyone else.

"I don't think the cops will see it that way," Tom said. "You'll have to go home at some point, and you shouldn't have to lie for our sake."

Leah glanced down at the daunting files that littered the coffee table.

Lies and questions. More lies and questions. Never an easy answer to discount the need for a meticulous plan of action.

She propped her elbows on her knees, pressed her palms together in prayer, and slotted her thumbs under her chin in desperation.

Joey had slumped back at some point, his hand no longer acting as comfort. Brad had gone quiet. Tom was lost in thought, and Steven had a shadow again, the one that followed his every move. It just didn't stop him from standing up and taking control of the low buzz of individual dispositions.

"The cops are coming after us and I can't ignore that anymore," Steven stated, even if no one bothered to look at him. "But I know where I stand and I will keep going until someone puts those handcuffs on me and throws me behind bars. Whether that's alone or with you, that's your choice, and I will respect it either way. I understand that it isn't the same anymore, and it's only fair for me to give you all the chance to opt out."

Considering silence dragged out for a long time after he had finished speaking, but the incredible ability Steven had with words was replaying over and over again in Leah's head.

How he could manipulate them into powerful syllables of punching notes, or dip them in a coat of raw emotions that hit right to the core. He could make everyone listen to his voice without even trying, and in return, they felt everything he felt and more.

"I'm in," Leah said, catching his stern stance easily. Hands braced over his hips. Hair that had been fluffed up with his hands. Eyes that found hers predictably.

"So am I," Tom added.

Brad was next. "Yeah, and me."

Which left Joey to battle with his thoughts, and to prolong the anxious wait.

"I'll stay too," he confirmed, if not a little distracted.

They had given Steven four approvals. Created a new pact between them, despite the uncertainty of what was to come, and had found an adherence with the fears to keep them out of harm's way.

For how long, they didn't know. For how long until it was all over, they also didn't know. They could only focus on the present and prepare to be unprepared in the case of a looming catastrophe that was tapping on their backs too boldly to be ignored.

Leah relaxed into safety again when the mutterings and movement around her started. She paid attention to Tom saying he was going to make a list of things they needed, but that was about it. Because even though the news had been and gone, it would need time to settle fully and not just lie haphazardly on top of everything else that swam around her mind.

She needed a victory between the stalemate of her family and her home, and her adventures in hiding. She needed something else to happen to give her definitive coherence of the extent of the mess she had found herself caught up in.

But when the loud snap of fingers, followed by a voice she couldn't deny she was beginning to like, brought her out of her cluttered daydream, it simply added another dimension into the depths of her agitated conscience.

"-and turn that damn thing off."

Because even with the empty gloom she had been left with, the rocking rollercoaster of emotions that swung her mood every other second, Leah had to fight back a smidge of a smile seeing Steven in his determined element. 

<>