leif relationship hc?? leif finally relaxing and not being paranoid hc??
Leif who doesn't believe in falling for someone.
Leif who thinks attachment is a liability, something that gets you killed faster than a blade to the throat, trialed and tested on his own skin on various occassions.
Leif who flirts like it’s second nature... Easy smiles, half-lidded eyes, words that sound sincere but never are.
Leif who knows exactly what people want to hear and gives it to them just enough to keep them close… but never close enough to matter.
Leif who built that persona on purpose. Because being liked is useful. Being wanted is leverage. Neither serves more purpose beyond the surface.
Leif who gets attention without trying, not just because he’s attractive, but because there’s something dangerous about him. Something sharp and unpredictable. Daemos respects strength, and Leif radiates it effortlessly.
Leif who Daemos want to tame, yet never can.
Leif who laughs things off. You ask him something real? Personal? He dodges. Makes a joke. Turns it back on you.
"You’re getting serious on me now?"
Leif who hates being read. So when you look at him a little too closely— like you see past the act— He goes quiet. Not defensive. Just… watchful.
Leif who realizes you don’t react like the Daemos back home.
You don’t melt when he flirts. You don’t chase when he pulls away. A welcome change, he can't stand being monitored and suffocated, he likes his freedom. He likes that you don't expect his time to be molded around you. You don’t get jealous when he entertains someone else, you realize it means nothing in the grand scheme of things that Leif is.
Leif who starts trying harder with you. Not because he cares but because he doesn’t like losing something that proves useful to him.
“Careful. People might think you’re interested.”
You just shrug, like it's proof you are.
Leif who doesn’t know what to do with that and feels a scorching pit form in his gut and his heart constricting, to which he can't put a reason as to why.
Leif who still flirts with others, but it starts sounding hollow, repetitive. Like he’s reading lines he’s grown tired of.
Leif who notices when you stop engaging.
Leif who avoids serious conversations with you the most. Because with everyone else, it’s easy to fool them. With you? It feels like lying. And it is. And for someone who built himself on deception... That’s… unsettling.
Leif who accidentally lets things slip. Small things. Real enough to make you feel like there is a chance at something greater between you two.
Leif who pulls back immediately after, like it never happened. Who panics the first time he realizes he cares. He tells himself he'll get over it, that it'll pass as he ignores you more than usual, less snarky and more detached... But it's all futile.
Leif when you pull back because you’re tired of guessing... And Leif who doesn’t notice it at first. Not really.
Because you don’t leave dramatically. You stop bantering, stop following him around, stop paying attention he's grown addicted to.
Leif who tries to fix it the only way he knows how. Teasing. Light sarcasm.
A casual “You avoiding me now?” Expecting you to roll your eyes and snap back like usual.
You just glance at him, calm, tired.
“I’m just not sure what I am to you anymore.”
suddenly everything he built to keep people at arm’s length is the exact thing pushing you out of reach.
Leif who finally breaks pattern and approaches you when you’re already halfway gone. And he says your name like it physically costs him something.
Leif who steps closer too fast, then stops himself halfway like he hit an invisible wall.
That hesitation alone is new.
Leif who laughs once, sharply, like it’s absurd, because he’s trying to find control in it again. And yet there isn’t any.
Leif who finally drops the mask completely wrong, in the most Leif way possible:
“I thought you were going to stick around.”
Leif who realizes, very slowly, that this is what abandonment feels like from the other side. Just… absence forming in real time. So he decides. When you're dragging the trash to the back alley later in the evening, he corners you against the fence. Without an escape route you were bound to speak, at the very least to demand he moves.
"Hey." Your name almost comes after it, but doesn’t. Like he forgot how to say it properly, or perhaps isn't worthy of uttering it now. You don’t turn right away, and that alone tightens something in him... Irritation, panic? When you finally face him, he doesn’t speak immediately, because whatever he prepared doesn’t survive the moment.
His posture is gone. Shoulders lowered. Hands unsteady.
Then he drops. Knees hitting the ground like they gave out. Just… done.
For a second he can’t look you in the eye. Then he forces himself to, and it’s worse than anything you’ve seen.
Eyes glassy, shame burning across his face like he can’t believe he’s here, like he hates that you made him feel this much.
"I love you." No buildup. No cushioning. Just straight out, like ripping it out before he can stop himself. A pause. His breath catches. "I was wrong." He swallows, quieter now, broken in a way he never lets anyone see. His hands flex against the ground like he might still stand and pretend this never happened, but he doesn’t. He stays.
"I can't—" a shaky breath, “I can’t lose you too." When he looks back at you, it’s not Leif the flirt, not Leif the assassin— just a man who ran out of ways to pretend he didn’t need anyone for the longest time.
"…Please." Smaller than everything before it. "Be mine." He exhales like he’s already bracing. "…Just don’t leave. You're the best thing that has happened to me all my life."
His breathing stutters, broken by the slow stream of delicate, shimmery tears running down his impeccable face, staring up at you pleadingly.
Your hand hovers over his cheek before making contact, delicately stroking the unblemished skin kept tidy with his magic.
Then you crouch to meet him at his level.
“You’re terrible at this.”
And Leif who always has something to say, always has an option, always has an out... Doesn’t get one this time. Instead, he melts, like all that weight of responsibility washed off of him reveal again the smug, lovable idiot you've come to know.
Because you kiss him first.
Yessir, I finally got something out bro. Hope ya'll like it.
