Secrets – Series: 6thinstallment Stars Ascending

(Solace, Sanctuary, Stay, Skyscraper, Sorry, Secrets)

Prompt: Secrets: for Leorai Week Day 3

Written to: Born to Be Yours; Imagine Dragons & Kygo

*NSFW WARNING* - Stop here if you're not old enough or in the right place to read. You know who you are and you know where the exits are. Now, either shoo or if it's in your flavor… enjoy.J

Secrets

Before a secret is told,

one can often feel the weight of it

in the atmosphere. – Susan Griffin

Leo couldn't breathe. "Wait. What?" He jerked back, his knees wobbling, threatening to give as they had when he'd watched his father fall to his death. "What?" he repeated, his mind a blank, rebooting thing that all at once flooded him with possibilities, impossibilities and new nightmares.

She'd been gone a year. Humans were pregnant for 9 or was it 10 months? Which meant she was pregnant when she left. Had he not been her first? His mouth opened and closed, but the only words that would come were the same. "What? You, what?"

Then her lips were moving, words coming out, but he couldn't hear them. His insides were shattering, crumbling in on themselves. Everything was a lie. It was a lie. She lied to him! And he'd believed in them, in her. He loved her. Worse. He loved her still. "No," he put his hands up as he backed away. "No. No. No. You said I was your first. What we shared was a first. You lied. You lied to me about that!"

"No. Leo, you're not listening." Her mouth formed a disapproving scowl.

The nerve of her.

His jaw clamped together in a hard line, his teeth ground together, audible even over the wind. Her hood fell back as she reached for him, revealing longer hair shocked through with streaks of blue. Her lips formed his name, though he couldn't hear it.

"Get off me!" he roared. "How could you? Hm? What, whatwere we? What was I to you? A game? Huh, a toy? A freak experiment?"

Her hand struck his face so hard and fast even he couldn't shield himself against it. "Shut up you idiot! She's yourdaughter!"

His stomach plummeted, knees surrendering. He saw stars and not the kind that adorned the milky way. These were explosions. His chest was heaving, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. But his brain, lips and tongue would not form words.

Karai's expression of fury broke into one of amusement as she laughed openly. "Wow. Now, you're speechless." She threw a hand up in the air. "Well that's fantastic." As he sank to the floor, still reeling, she strolled over, reached down and cupped his chin. Peering into his stunned eyes she smiled. "I'm sorry I kept this secret from you." She inhaled deep, letting her breath out slow before continuing. "When I found out, I didn't know if she would make it." Her smile fell and her voice with it. "After everything we'd been through, what you'd lost and endured and had on your shoulders. I couldn't put you through the worry of whether or not she'd survive." Her eyes filled, her jaw trembling as she swallowed repeatedly, just managing to speak. "Because I know, for me, the second I found out she existed-" Her eyes spilled over darting away then back to him. "I never thought I'd love anyone at all, then there was you, then there was Emi."

Their eyes were locked in the revelation, a heavy pause consuming the air between them.

Karai's voice came out an uncertain, soft sound. "Emi- that's her name, it means-"

"Blessing." Leo finished for her. He couldn't breathe, had forgotten how. "It's not- it's not possi-" He couldn't finish the word. The thought. Because as he looked at her, no intoher, he saw nothing but truth and it pulled everything into perfect clarity.

He had a daughter.

Him.

Karai.

Her.

A girl.

Emi.

A blessing.

His eyes burned, fresh fear choking him. "Is she- o-kkay?"

Karai's lips formed a delicate line, her eyes warm pools of liquid gold as she nodded. "Yes, Leo. She's perfect."

They peered into one another, exchanging a thousand words without speaking a single one. Then his mind settled, his senses following, a million questions reeling but none more than the most important two. Reaching for her hand he stood, pulling her to him with renewed hope, the very dangerous emotion that left him open and vulnerable to everything they'd survived together. "Are you leaving again? With her?"

"No," she answered quickly, hands reaching for his shoulders.

He inched closer, allowing himself to feel her, opening up to her again, as he knew he always would. His mouth hovered near hers, energy flowing through her lips into his. "Can I see her?'

"Yes," she replied, firm, pressing her mouth hard to his, reaching for him as he did her in kind.

How he loved her before. But this.

This.

Impossibility.

A daughter.

Everything Karai had ever done always threatened to destroy him. She might very well drive him mad. The way she lingered in the background of every thought in every moment, the first to spring to mind in the morning, taunting his dreams at night.

He loved this woman.

Adored her, understood her like no one else.

But-

Gathering her in his arms and hiking her dress up around her thighs, he pinned her to the wall, their mouths crashing together as hands roamed in a frenzy. "You should've told me." He demanded, giving her panties a fabric-shredding tug.

Gasping for breath, she broke away, setting him straight as she unbuckled his utility belt. "I had to protect youfor once. Just, until I-" They're mouths met again. "I knew, for sure."

She tasted so damn good, the truth on her tongue, the honesty of her body, the vulnerability she never showed anyone else. He breathed her in, lifted her up, and lowered her down his length. The molten heat of her was nearly enough to be his undoing. "Don't you ever leave me again."

"No." She agreed, moaning as he took her in slow torturous strokes. "Gods, no, Leo, I've missed you so much."

They're hands met, fingers intertwining, her dress tearing as it dragged up and down the concrete. He couldn't get close enough to her, deep enough inside her, the perfect familiar haven encasing him. His heart lashed his ribs, his blood a raging inferno as scorching as the tears staining his cheeks. He loved her, an all-consuming terrible wonderful chaotic breaking love. Wholly, with his entire being, the good with the bad, held on to all that they were together; a union of light and dark in perfect balance. "Mine," he growled, snatching her lips between his teeth as he began to tremble. Grabbing her hips, he pulled back, slammed into her, summoning his name from her. Again. Then again. Burying himself as deep as he could he pressed his lips to her ear, promising, "Where you go I go from now on. Our family willstay together. No more secrets no matter what. You are mine and I am yours. Understand?"

"Yours. Mine. And, yes," she moaned, "Gods, Leo, yes."

His cheek to hers, thrills coursed through him; that she was with him, to stay, had come home and brought such a gift with her. This impossible, maddening, extraordinary woman. She would be the life and death of him. And he'd go willingly. Because she loved him and he would die for her.

He came within her, pressed so tight they breathed as one, his lips never leaving her throat, her tears cool against his burning cheek. "Now, take me to our daughter, or we'll stay here all night and make another."

She laughed, kissed his cheeks and nodded. "She will surprise you."

He hated leaving her body, had agonized for so long whether he would ever see her again let alone experience the bliss of being inside her. He'd never been so grateful for anyone. He kissed her brow as he lowered her to her feet. "I don't think anything or anyone could surprise me more than you."

Gods, was he ever wrong.

She'd been staying at April's apartment. Baby gear scattered everywhere from the front door, down the hall to the guest room, and from the look of it they'd been there at least a few days. On shaky legs, he followed Karai passed a knowing April, who he'd have words with later; to the tiny bassinet beside the bed.

There, chewing on a little fist, was a tiny human-looking child with eyes bluer than his. In fact- "She has Mikey's eyes!" he heard himself, but his entire being was numb as he touched Karai with trembling hand. Never looking away from the big round eyes staring at him, he managed to ask, "Can I?"

"She's yours, Leonardo. Of course, you can. Here-" Karai reached in, slid a hand behind the infant's head, the other behind her back. But as she lifted her, the baby's color began to fade.

No! What was happening? "Is something wrong? What's wrong with her?"

Karai laughed. "Nothing. She's just- really- special, that's all."

As she placed the baby in his arms he marveled at how her skin passed through the pearlescent coloration of her mother's serpent form, straight through until it began to yellow, then gradually darken up to a deep emerald.

"She imitates the physical color of those she sees, like a chameleon. It's just our genes, I guess." Karai stroked the baby's dark hair. "It doesn't seem to hurt her and Stockman assured me she's healthy."

Leo stared at the tiny child.

His child.

His… daughter.

The room seemed to darken around the edges as he savored the realness of her, light, fragile, and – wait – His head snapped up, eyes locking with Karai. "Did you say Stockman?"

Karai's flinch was ever so slight. "Yes. Someone with experience dealing with people like us, our kind, was essential to ensuring she was born safe and healthy."

"Donnie would've been a safer choice than Stockman, Karai!" He pulled the infant to his chest, rocking her without thought, as he glared at her unflinching, smirking mother.

"Oh, he had a part in it to. Don't worry so much, Leo. She's here. I'm here. We're here." Stepping close, she rested her cheek against his shoulder, peering down at their daughter, in her father's arms. "Home, at last."