Leon was really good at being respectful and making sure I was a hundred percent comfortable with everything.

He mentioned that what he wanted to talk in a place where he was sure none of their household employees might run into. He asked if he was okay with me being in his bedroom or if I would prefer that we go into the study or even one of their guest rooms.

I went with his room because I trusted him.

So I sat there on his fancy computer chair while he rummaged in his huge walk-in closet. And while he was out of sight, there wasn't much for me to do aside from doing a whole scan of his room.

Once again, his house called me poor in at least fifty languages.

He had a dual monitor computer set up, a king sized bed, a huge flat screen TV where all of his gaming consoles were nearby, and from where I was sitting, I could see the marble peeking through the door of his ensuite bathroom.

Okay, he was completely out of my league. At this point, I was convinced that I didn't even have the right to have a crush on him.

"Here we go," I heard him say out loud, exiting his closet with a box in his hands. I straightened my posture quickly and waited for him to pull up another chair and sit right in front of me.

He slowly took off the whistle from his neck and placed it on his palm, showing it to me the same way he did yesterday when he tried to give it to me. I stared at it intently, trying to decipher if anything was different, but it looked exactly like the one I had.

As if he was reading my mind, he mentioned the similarities, "They look identical, don't they?"

I nodded my head, finally taking off my whistle so I could side by side to his. He gingerly took it and flipped it, putting it right next to his, "Look closer."

And so I did.

I was practically pressing my face against his hand just to see before I finally noticed. It was right there above the holes, the small letter engravings that I saw before.

Mine had A.B.C. while his had L.C.

"What do they mean?" I asked because when I first saw it, I didn't think much about it because it looked like the damn alphabet. Apparently, there was much more to it.

To my surprise, he shrugged, "I don't know too."

My head shot up to look at his face because from the way this was going, I thought he was going to reveal a life changing fact.

"But," he said, passing the whistles into my hands and opening the box that he had pulled out from his closet. From that, he took out a piece of paper and held it up for me to read, "The letters on mine are the same from this."

Blow three times on the whistle and please save her.

- L.C.

I had no idea what was the context of that note, but it made my blood run cold. Even if I didn't know what it was about, anxiety started to crawl through my veins and it took everything in me not to fall into a full-blown panic attack. I had to stay focused on this conversation, no matter what.

"This box randomly came into the mail, it contained the two whistles and this letter," he further explained, "I did what it told me and the next thing I knew, I woke up on the first day of junior year."

Just like what happened to me.

"So it was literally a random day?" I asked, clutching the whistles like a vice, "There wasn't any special occasion or anything when you got them?"

Because for me, it was the day that Pat broke up with me, the day I contemplated jumping off of a building, the day that Leon and I started to become closer. What were the circumstances he was living through when he got those?

There was a long pause after I said that. In fact, he couldn't even look me in the eye when his mouth slowly closed, a signal that he didn't want to answer me.

And that just heightened my worries.

The letter told him save her and as the words settled inside my head, I came to this horrible dread. I didn't want it to be true – that Leon Colten went through the trouble of time travel because of some girl that could be possibly named Avery Barber.

From the way things were sketching out, he did it twice. First was when he got the whistle and second when we finally made it to the timeline we were sitting in.

"Leon," I called out softly, my voice almost shaking because I was so afraid of his reply, "Was the letter referring to me?"

Once again, I was met with silence.

If this was an entire different person I was talking to, I would have probably started freaking out and demanded answers. But because it was Leon, I kept myself perfectly still and prayed to the heavens that he would answer at least one of my inquiries.

At this point, did I even need verbal confirmation? Just from his body language, I knew it was a yes.

So I slowly sank back onto the chair, feeling my heart getting heavier at the thought. What happened to me that needed saving? Who gave Leon the whistles?

And of all people in my life, why him? Why not my best friends? Why not my mother?

If I didn't retain any of my memories in this time travel, I bet you that Leon and I wouldn't even been near the term friends. It was so weird that out of everybody that the whistle could go to, it was the guy who did nothing but glare at me for the majority of the years we've known each other.

"At least tell me what happened to mom or Zoey from the time you came from?" I continued my hopeless quest to elicit a reply from him, "Or maybe Sasha or Mia."

And for once, he responded but not in the way I wanted him to.

"They were a mess," he murmured under his breath, it was so soft that it was like he was whispering it to the wind and not to the person sitting in front of him, "I never knew eyes could be able to portray so much sadness."

Sadness?

"Leon, when did you see them like that?" I attempted again, this time my voice firm as I tried to shake off my nervousness, "What happened to me?"

I could see him desperately clutching onto the paper, hearing it crumple because of how tight his grip was. So I reached out my free hand carefully touched the back of his, tracing smooth circles on his skin in hope that it would at least calm him down enough to loosen his hold.

And it did, he released the paper and allowed it to fall back into the box. But immediately after, he took my hand and while his grip was so gentle, I could see the pain on his face of just how much he was restraining himself.

I have to remind myself that Leon knew everything, probably saw the same thing that brought sadness to the people I loved. I was in the dark, but I was perhaps bringing up memories he wanted to forget. While I wanted to know the answers, I knew being patient and caring for him was the top priority.

I wrapped my fingers and held his hand tightly, assuring him that he could seek the same comfort that he had always given me.

In this particular moment, he needed me in a way that I've been needing him this whole time.

He clung onto my hand and I could still see him shaking. However, he swallowed loudly and dared to look up to me and I internally gasped when I saw the tears pooling in his eyes.

While I wanted to convey empathy as much as I could, I couldn't help but sit there in awe. He looked so mesmerizing that even if I wanted to look away, I physically could not.

"Avery," he muttered my name quietly, almost like an apology, "I saw them at your funeral."

Some part of me felt like it was coming, but it still slapped me across the face when he finally said it out loud.

In another life, there wasn't a Leon to stop me from doing something irreversible. Maybe, just maybe, the reason why Leon managed to save me from jumping off of a building was because he already knew that I died in some other universe.

And he had to stand there at my funeral, receive these whistles, repeat every single day of his life starting from the first day of junior year, watch me even after seeing me already dead, and still had the courage to not give up on me.

Now it was my turn to cry.

I was gone if it wasn't for him.

"How many times?" I whispered, still holding onto him, "How many times did you go back in time?"

He shook his head, now ducking his head so I wouldn't be able to see his beautiful face anymore, "I lost count after the thirtieth time."

My heart was racing fast that I was terrified that I might get a heart attack. I died, or at least tried to die, at least thirty times. And every single time, Leon willingly went back to the past with the slim chance that he might save me.

With no motive, no reward. Just to save someone like me.

I tried to express my gratitude, to somehow tell him just how thankful I was, but when I opened my mouth, the only thing I could muster was a sob because I was now full on bawling.

I owed him my life.

No matter how many times I repeated it inside my head, I couldn't calm down.

Leon Colten went back to the past repeatedly because of me, bringing along the trauma from all the times that he had failed to save me. And yet, he was still able to act normally in front of me so that he wouldn't raise suspicions.

He was my angel.

And he never told me. Not once did he go to my face and acted like I owed him.

I dropped the whistles, allowing them to fall onto his carpet before rolling his computer chair closer to him. I can say with all honesty that I had no idea was to do, I was at a complete loss. But if there was one thing I was sure of, it was that I had to be there for him.

I was still here, I was still alive and breathing. He did not fail.

And he will never fail again.

"Leon," I whispered his name, my other hand that wasn't holding him stretched out to gently cup his cheek, "I'm here."

Today, tomorrow, and every single day of our waking lives, I will be here next to him if he wants.

"I know," he murmured, bringing my hand close this lips and pressing a small tender kiss to it. I blushed madly at the gesture, but I knew that he was probably so caught up with his emotions that I had to push my own feelings away, "Please stay."

He was practically begging me with the way he said it.

"I promise I'll stay," I told him, my thumb drawing small circles on his cheek, "Thank you, Leon."

He nodded and refused to say anything more. We stayed in that position until my own sobs died down and his tears stopped flowing. But even after we have both calmed down, we still didn't move.

What now?

I still had so many questions to ask him, but I think this was a step by step situation. First, I figured out Leon was the instigator of this whole thing. Second, I learned that the reason he did it was because I died.

Just peachy.

"Leon?" we heard a faint knock on his door, causing both of us to flinch apart and finally release each other, "Are you in here?"

It was his mom. His parents were home.

I blinked at him, trying to gauge how he would go about with this situation, "Yeah."

"Dinner's ready so come on downstairs," she then said.

We then had a full-on conversation with our eyes right there and then. Somehow, I had to sneak out of this ginormous house because I didn't even want imagine what his parents will think if they knew that we were alone together in their son's room.

We were on the second floor in a house with incredibly high ceilings so going down from the window was out of the question. Even if I was half decent in PE, I would not subject myself to that kind of activity.

"I'll be right down, go ahead without me," he called out.

We both crossed our fingers and fortunately, she agreed, "Alright, hurry up."

"Let's get you out of here," he said in a hushed tone, bending down to grab the whistles on the floor and slipping mine over my head, "Wait, I have to drive you!"

"I can just call an uber," I told him because I didn't want to cause him any more trouble.

I think I've reached that quota without even knowing.

He shook his head, leading me to the door, "No, I'll drive you."

Carefully clicking his door open, trying to produce as little sound as possible, he swung it. Both of us released a small yelp when we saw his mother standing there outside his room, her arms crossed right in front of her chest.

Now the climbing out of the window plan didn't sound so bad.

"Avery, so glad you can join us dinner again," she smiled warmly towards me, before sending a very pointed look towards her son's way.

"You knew?" he gaped, earning him an eyeroll from her.

"It's my house, lion cub. I know everything that happens here," she said, reaching out a hand towards my way, "Come on now, let's eat."

"But..." I trailed off, staring at her hand while also subtly glancing towards Leon's way.

She sighed, reaching down and taking my hand anyways when I didn't move, pulling me with her, "I already told you that you are more than welcome here anytime."

I looked helplessly over my shoulder to Leon, who had no other choice but to follow, as his own mother dragged me along. And yet, I didn't feel nervousness. If anything, I was a little more amused and his mother gave me a sort of relief.

She wasn't angry, she wasn't upset, in fact, there was a giddiness in her step.

And this place was so huge that it was an effort just to reach the staircase. So while we took that long walk, I extended my hand towards him, the same way his mom did to me.

Unlike me who was hesitating, he got the signal immediately and grabbed it.

A small smile lifted the corner of my lips and my hold of him tightened, tugging him forward and he found himself next to me. The three of us looked ridiculous, but peace slowly creeped itself within my system.

At some point, she let me go and I didn't have to see her face to know that she was grinning ear to ear when neither Leon and I refused to stop holding hands on our way to the dining room. Couldn't blame her though, because I myself was happy with our position.

Very happy.

-----------------------------

Are you ready for mushy gushy wushy Aveon(?)/Lavery(?) scenes because they're coming up!

You know what, let's head to the question.

Question: What's Avery and Leon's ship name?

I, being the very stressed out girl that I was, threw a pillow just to let off some steam after a very frustrating class and in the midst of it all, my hand decided that it wanted to hit the corner of my table when I threw the pillow. Yes, it hurts like a bitch. Yes, it's all wrapped up now. Yes, I cried when it happened.

Thankfully, it's only the thumb part so I'm still fully functioning right now but I still have to immobilize it but I'll get better soon.

Sorry if this was a little bit later but I hope you liked it. Please comment, vote, and follow. I'll see you next chapter!