Ethan found them as they were coming back from morning training and they made arrangements to meet in an hour so they could make the tour while it was still cool out.
Leon kept a sharp eye on Darian as they made their way out of the Pack House to meet Ethan who was already waiting for them.
He looked calm enough and he was sure that Darian wouldn't repeat something that genuinely offended him, hopefully he remained on his best behavior.
"How did training today go?" Ethan asked by way of conversation when they had started the journey.
"Easier than the last one, that's for sure." Leon muttered, leaning back in his seat.
The Alpha had shown up for today's training which would have gone smoothly either way but because of their Alpha's presence, the Warriors had all been on their best behavior.
Leon was riding shotgun while Darian settled in the backseat, barely being a part of the conversation which was just fine with Ethan, the werewolf made him wary.
"Cone isn't as fancy as Pine Creek but we try…"
"I'm not even going to dispute that." Leon grinned.
Ethan just threw him a look, returning his gaze back to the road. "It's mostly living spaces with the occasional family owned store." He started his tour in earnest.
"There's a park over there and on the other side of it is the school-"
The drive by tour went peacefully enough, Ethan making his way to the Cone Market that sold exclusive items which attracted shoppers from far and wide.
It was a particular favourite of Renee and whenever she was in town, she made a habit of paying a visit to the stores in Cone.
Ethan stopped at the parking lot that led to the cluster of stores, it was literally a mall, the town's mall, only that it served multiple purposes.
It was also tucked away inside Cone, unlike how Paper District was literally the first thing you saw when you got to Pine Creek.
Granted, Paper District was created to distract the flock of humans that kept coming to use the Pine forests as camping locations and it worked far too well, most too distracted to even pay a visit to the woods.
"I doubt either of you would be up for an exhausting mall crawl…" Ethan started to say. "...so our tour pretty much ends here but I need to run an errand for Alpha Noah." He explained, switching off the engine and making a move to get down.
"Oh, that's cool." Leon shrugged, fine with either outcome.
He got no reaction from Darian.
"Great, you don't have to come along if you don't want to but… wanna tag along?" He offered Leon, a small smile on his face.
"Sure." He agreed without hesitation, glancing in Darian's direction.
There was no need to ask him if he would be interested in tagging along because he visibly wasn't too intrigued by the whole situation.
Darian watched them leave with a blank expression, worrying about Leon was overkill honestly, considering he had wiped the ground with Darian too many times to count.
He liked people watching anyway and there was ample time to do that from the quiet backseat of the parked car.
He used to watch people all the time, at his mom's bakery, nothing but hours of watching people come and go, at different points in their lives...
Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad tour after all.
Leon forgot about Darian as soon as they left the parking lot, the excitement of catching up with an old and quite close friend easily replacing him.
They hit it off easily, talking about everything from the past to the present and not in any particular other.
Ethan led the way to some fancy clothing store, the place was sparsely populated but that wasn't a surprise with how expensive their wares obviously were.
"Wait here for me a sec." Ethan said, ushering him into a private dressing room. "This shouldn't take more than five minutes…"
Leon shrugged, he had spent more time in these kinds of places when Hayden and his half brother went shopping and dragged him along when their husbands were too busy to accompany them.
He settled on a plush sofa while he waited, absently tugging on the silver embedded leather strap around his wrist.
Ethan had hinted that he was considering moving back to Pine Creek and honestly Leon was down with whatever his friend wanted to do.
It was clear that although he had such a prestigious position in this Pack, he was still an outsider and would never really fit in.
It would be strange having him back though, he was like those memories of the past that you missed but never really expect to have again.
He was distracted so he hadn't been keeping track of the time but Ethan should be returning anytime soon.
A rustling sound caught his attention and he looked up sharply in the direction that it had come from, a frown on his face, he was the only one here right?
Or had Ethan shown up?
The sound came again and this time Leon went on full alert, carefully making his way over.
There were curtains hung up and whatever sound that was, was coming from behind the dark curtains.
He shielded himself on the wall beside it and proceeded to spy on whatever it was.
"Looking for me?" A voice came from behind him, startling him.
He whipped around quickly, ready to take whoever it was down only to relax when he realized that it was just Ethan.
"I was about to break your neck." He sighed. "Asshole, why did you sneak up on me?"
Ethan just stared calmly at him, an odd light in his eyes that Leon missed.
Leon frowned when a few seconds passed and Ethan made no move to step back, invading his personal space.
"Ethan? What..."
His questions were cut off when Ethan held his face in a hand, his grip too tight to be comfortable.
"Forgot about me entirely, didn't you?" He said in a low, hard tone, a hint of amusement dancing through his words.
Leon was just confused. "What the fuck are you going on about?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Want me to jog your memory?"