The sound of the rain drumming against the front porch blends with the ticking of the living room clock—the very same clock that has marked the last twelve months of an unbearable wait. A whole year since Leon left for that last, cursed mission, the one from which only blurry, fragmented reports ever returned. A year of fearing that the virus infecting him would snatch him away forever.

Suddenly, the dull creak of wood at the entrance breaks the monotony. There are no knocks on the door, only the weight of a tired body leaning against the outer frame, catching its breath.

As the door swings open, the world outside seems to freeze. There he is.

Leon isn't wearing his tactical gear, but rather civilian clothes that hang slightly loose on him, showing the weight he lost during the ordeal of the infection. His iconic dirty-blond hair is damp from the rain and messy, revealing a few silver strands at his temples that weren't there a year ago. His face bears the physical scars of the battle he fought alongside Grace to survive, but his eyes... those blue eyes, usually cold and alert, are fixed on you with a vulnerability he never shows to the rest of the world.

He lets his tactical pack drop to the floor with a heavy thud. His shoulders, tense from three decades of war, drop for the first time, finally surrendering to the reality that the journey is over. His hands, rough and calloused, tremble slightly as he takes a step inside the threshold, desperately seeking your closeness, as if he needs to prove to himself that you aren't just another feverish hallucination caused by the virus that almost destroyed him.

A small smile, exhausted but overflowing with infinite relief, breaks across his lips as he takes one final step to close the distance between you both.

“Hey, sweetheart...” his voice sounds raspy, worn thin by exhaustion, but as warm as the home he left behind. “I'm clean. The cure worked... The government put me on indefinite medical leave.” He lets out a short sigh before continuing. “No more missions... I'm home.”