fic: cease fire (ficuary)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: cease fire
Chapters: 1/1
Author:csi_sanders1129
Genre: AU. Drabble.
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 338
Pairings/Characters: Vincent Moretti, Leo Caruso
Synopsis: In which things end differently.
Comments: Written for Ficuary 2021, Prompt: Lie (the last of my prompt fills, yay!). Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

The fight is over.

They're both worn down from the chase, both battle damaged and high on adrenaline. Vincent's got the gun, got the upper hand. Leo's on his knees, staring down the barrel. All that's left is to pull the trigger.

But Vincent drops his aim.

"I never wanted this, Leo," Vincent says, the weary words nearly stolen away by the sound of the rain on the rooftop. "It didn't have to go this way. I had a plan – to get you out, to get you off." He's sure Leo thinks these are lies, that everything he's said to him this whole time has been nothing but lies, but they aren't. He'd had a plan, but it had gone so terribly wrong. He tosses the gun off the edge of the roof, where it clatters to the ground below, well out of reach. "Go," he says, "I'll do everything I can to help you."

Leo doesn't move. His body might be done fighting, but his mind is still reeling with the fury of Vincent's betrayal. They don't have time for Leo to yell at him anymore, though. They don't have time for Vincent to try to explain. Maybe someday he'll get the chance, but not now and not here.

"You have to go," he tries again, the sounds of sirens drawing ever closer. "Please. If even for one fraction of a second during all of this you trusted me, go."

He's still for another few seconds, weighing the risks of another betrayal – the cruelest trick Vincent could have played on him after Harvey's treachery – against the approaching swarm of FBI agents and police officers, against a life spent back in prison, spent away from his family. Slowly, he gets to his feet, walks away without so much as a word or a look back. He vanishes into the warehouse below, into the darkness of a stormy night.

"I don't know where he went," Vincent lies, when Emily and the others find him there alone. "He got away."