Wolfsbane [w/ Leif, Arik][FINISHED]

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Yuuki scrolled through her computer screen, gray eyes glancing up and down the page that a member of the underground had sent her. She sat back in her chair with a thoughtful expression. Should she accept this job? It paid a decent price, and although Yuuki didn't understand what they would need wolfsbane for, she was certain that it wouldn't involve her or her team in anyway, so it could be a relatively safe mission. Yuuki printed out the paper, making sure that coordinates had actually been written on there (it wasn't very pretty last time). Grabbing the paper, she headed upstairs at a rather slow pace, pondering over who she could send. Draligon was off on a mission already, Sly and Lexia were due to head out soon, Echo was working on repairs with Hisashi... she guessed her only choice would be Arik, their resident computer technician.

Well, it wasn't like this mission was impossible to complete. Arik was intelligent; Yuuki was somewhat confident that he could find the right tools to get the wolfsbane quickly, but she had to worry about his ability to defend himself as well... She entered the living room, seeing the young man sitting on the couch with his trusty laptop resting in front of him. "Arik," she called, striding over to him. "I have a mission for you."

She handed over the piece of paper. "It's just a simple job of collecting a few pounds of wolfsbane for this client. The coordinates are here," she pointed on the paper, "so make sure you actually input them. It's easy enough; I'm certain you're smart enough to collect this without too much of a hassle."

"Make sure you give me updates throughout the mission. I don't want a repeat of last time." And last time sure had been a mess, when Arik didn't even mention to her that he would be gone for such a long time. Yuuki hadn't been sure whether he'd died or not.

As Arik kneeled to get the wolfsbane, Leif realized that he had no clue if Arik liked men or not.  There were some guys where Leif could not tell if they were into the same gender, so he tended to avoid them unless they approached him.  The blonde considered just asking outright, but decided that it might make the rest of the trip awkward for both of them.  If he's into me, he'll probably just say it, he decided as he pushed the thought out of his mind.

Leif could not begin to imagine why it was taking the brunette so long to pull a flower out of the ground, but the blonde became intrigued as he watched.  He passed off the pruner as Arik just trying to be careful, but the gloves surprised him because he did not think that the flower was poisonous.  Leif pulled out his phone and sighed.  No bars.  He would not be able to search for wolfsbane and get info on it.  He hadn’t noticed Arik typing on his phone earlier and did not think to ask if he had any signal.

After a few minutes of watching Arik work on cutting the plant, Leif began to become inpatient.  He saw Arik having trouble holding the pocket square and cutting the flower at the same time.  Without thinking about how awkward it might be for Arik, Leif got closer to the other man and put his thumb and forefinger against the two opposite corners of the pocket square that were closest to the brunette’s cheeks.  The taller man pressed firmly enough to keep the square up, but not so hard as to hurt the other man.  Leif meant is a gesture of kindness, but he did not know what Arik would think of it.  “How much longer do you think this’ll take?” Leif asked, hoping that they could get back to an area with cell service soon.  He had planned on finding out more about wolfsbane, but would most likely forget within minutes and only look at his social media feeds.

Arik wasn't expecting Leif to come and help him, even though he was grateful that he did. The male wasn't sure exactly what to say, and attempted to mumble out a 'thank you' as he finally got to cutting off the flowers he needed. It was a bit awkward, to say the least, the blonde with his fingers firmly but gently pressed against the soft cloth on his face. The action, although small, made something flutter inside of the were. It had been a while since someone had sincerely helped him without being required to since the male could have just watched him suffer if he had wanted to. Arik quickly got back to work after that, cutting off the flowers and putting them in a bag.

"It shouldn't take much longer," He replied, the work moving along much faster now that he could use both of his hands and wasn't sneezing every second. The bag was finally filled so the dark-haired man put the pruners back and timidly thanked Leif again for his help. He kept the gloves on for now, as there wasn't a place to throw them away right now and they could still be used as a precaution. "We can head back now and catch a ride back to the city," he said. It was sometime past noon, but they should be able to get back before dark.

The two headed back and managed to catch a taxi back to Xastristan. It was a long and quiet ride, similar to the one held coming out here. Arik was never one to randomly start up a conversation, he was perfectly fine sitting on his side and watching the country turn back into city. Yuuki had been notified of his travel home, and was most likely expecting him before the next day.

They got back to the city in one piece, Arik saying goodbye to Leif on the same corner they got picked up at. Who knows if they'd ever see each other again, Arik would like to, but as with any friend he's had they usually hang around a few days before never being seen again. It was partly, if not mostly, his own fault. The were was bad at staying in touch and he normally moved around frequently. Only recently was he anchored down at someplace for more than the span of a few days. It was new and he enjoyed the comfort of always knowing that there was a bed he could go to at night, but at this rate even that felt like it was slowly slipping away from his grasp.

So, he said bye to Leif, leaving the male there with unspoken words on his tongue. The were made his way back to the base, hopeful that for once he did something that proved why he was there. Yet, if Yuuki had found out anything about Leif being there, it would negate all of the better work he did, and she was most likely to find out one way or another. It seemed that another lecture would be due in his future, and more reason for why he didn't quite fit on the team.