Let The Grass Grow (Leon x OC)

Chapter 4 - Reunion

━━━━━━━━━

for my friends - king princess

pool - still woozy, remi wolf

how to get what you want - elise trouw

hey, ma - bon iver

friend - daisy the great, sipper

━━━━━━━━━

Sonia ran to Quinn and flung her arms around her. The other woman smelled just as Quinn remembered: lemons and earl grey tea. The scent brought with it a wave of nostalgia.

Sonia was scones and clotted cream for breakfast, staying up late exchanging secrets between the waning glow of a torch. A mixtape burned on a CD, hiding under a quilt and sharing headphones to listen to it in the wee hours of the night. She was a world where everything made sense, and the future was still bright. Girlhood wonder.

Quinn returned the tight embrace, breathing her in. As the nostalgia faded, a sharp ache replaced it. Suddenly she felt like crying. She did her best to hold it in, knowing instinctually that if she started, she might never stop.

The orange-haired woman pulled back enough to gaze upon Quinn's face. She reached up and cupped her cheeks as though she were checking whether or not she was an illusion.

"Wow. You're really here," Sonia said. "Wait. Why are you here?"

She padded back to look between Quinn and Leon, who had knelt down to pet the wiggly Yamper behind the ears.

"Do you mean in the lab?" Leon asked.

"Or in Galar?" Quinn continued.

"Both," said Sonia.

Even though their impending adventure had been Leon's big idea, she supposed it wouldn't be happening without her or her quarter-life crises. She told Sonia as much, skimping out on most of the details and sticking to the bare bones of the story: she dropped out of school and was now back in Galar to figure out what she wanted to do next. No big deal.

"Does this figuring out what's next have anything to do with why you're here now? In the lab? In the middle of the night?" Sonia wanted to know.

Leon stood up and stretched out his back with arms above his head. "Well, I was kind of hoping you'd let us stay the night." He flashed Sonia a winning smile. "Please."

"Why not stay at one of your homes," Sonia asked, "just down the road?"

"We wanted to see you," Leon said.

Sonia considered this for a moment, lips pursed and screwed to one side. Her green eyes drifted from Leon to Quinn, lingering on the curly-haired woman long enough for her look of uncertainty to melt into one of acceptance.

"I'll put the kettle on," she said.

✥

Sonia added another splash of whisky into Quinn's waiting mug. What started off as a pretty reasonable tea-to-whisky ratio was now primarily whisky. Quinn wasn't complaining.

They were drinking from mugs Sonia had found scattered about the laboratory, all stained on the inside with a permanent tea residue. Quinn could imagine the orange-haired woman slugging through dense academic articles on dynamaxing and evolution, downing mug after mug of black tea to stay awake. The thought warmed her. Or maybe it was the alcohol.