Archive of Our Own

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note: the first 2 chapters are slightly dry but it gets bussin after, im rewriting chapter one soon. ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ You and Leon were placed on a mission together by your boss that you were emailed about that same morning. Your experience with Leon had been limited as you had only occasionally seen him around the office and had few training sessions with him a week, but he was always so reserved and quiet, that he never seemed approachable. You both had never really paid much attention to each other, the only time you had ever interacted is once you had smiled at him during gun training and even then, you don't think he even saw you.You knocked on his office door and opened it slowly, he was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork on the last mission he had done. You felt a tinge of guilt sway over you for disturbing him at a time like this, but it was too late to leave. He looked like he was going to pass out from the way his eyes were sunken and he could barely keep his eyes fully open."Hey, we were placed on a mission together, I'm here to make a plan." You said."I know." He said without looking at you, he kept typing. "Sit down."In all honesty, Leon had just come back from a very long mission, he was exhausted and didn't want to speak to anyone, all he wanted was to be alone and sleep, and if he couldn't be asleep, then he needed to be alone. He would have normally been much more respectful, if not given certain circumstances. He didn't want to be disturbed so soon after his last mission had finished to discuss yet another mission."So I made a few plans, just some ideas to maybe dismiss or elaborate on depending on your style." You slipped some papers toward him, sketches of your different routes and a bit of annotation for each plan. Leon picked it up and shuffled through them in a minute, then pushing them back toward you."These are ineffective. They're awful.""Well I thought staying as low profile as possible was best for this type of mission. It's fine, they were just some rough ideas." You were already slightly annoyed with this man, but that wouldn't stop you being professional. "Did you read the annotation on them?""No, but I already know they are awful, they won't work." You gave him an annoyed stare but he still refused to look at you as his eyes were glued to his screen as he wrote a report. There was a minute of silence as you were dumbfounded by his behaviour. Absolutely no decorum. No respect."You're not going to make any useful contribution? Do you just sit there and complain?" You make a small jab as your patience was already running thin, not many of the agents could get a rise out of you like this. It was worsened by the fact that he would not give the effort to even read the plans or have the respect to look at you."Watch your mouth." He said in a warning tone. All professionalism was out the window in an instant, along with your patience."Really? You're going to act like that at your big age? You've said nothing useful this entire conversation. Being tired is not an excuse to act like a dick. How did you even get this job when you're so immature?" And then Leon snapped too."Me get this job when I'm so immature? How did you get this job when you're this brain dead?" He scoffed as she pushed the plans back toward you. "Get out my office." You were glad your conversation had not lasted more than 5 minutes or you probably would've shot him and lost your job."Was already planning on it." You said, not giving him another look, you flipped him off as you left the office, he returned it while typing with one hand. You immediately went on your phone to message your boss to find a replacement for the mission, after an essay that took half an hour to write, he finally agreed to take you off the mission with Leon. Your boss had thought your skills would've been very complementary for a mission like this, and thus was hesitant to let you off.And just like that, you didn't have to deal with that insufferable asshole ever again.This was the first time you had ever had a negative relationship with one of your co-workers which was something you had always hoped would never happen. It would make your experience at work that much more uncomfortable.For the next week in the office, whenever you saw each other around through lunch breaks and when he was about the office you would give each other dirty looks, sometimes you would rub your eye with your middle finger at him, generally met with a scoff.Leon did feel a bit bad after your altercation in his office, he never acted like that and it was a mistake on his end, he wanted to apologise but his ego was too fragile. He ended up learning to hate you just as much after your interactions around the office. He thought you were immature moron, and you thought he was a stuck-up prick.About a month passed of this childish, playground rivalry, at some point you just enjoyed getting a rise out of him. Every scoff, every glare, every time he would avoid eye contact would give you a smug amusement.Your hatred toward each other quickly became the talk of the office in a matter of days since you stormed out his office. People would always watch eagerly every time you were in the same room or walked by each other. This hastily spiralled into your co-workers making bets about which one of you would cave first, waiting for the day you'd both have a brawl in the office, everyone knew it was inevitable. Everyone would compare you to a newlywed couple already on the brink of getting a divorce, this only got more exciting when you and Leon would talk shit about each other to your other co-workers and everyone would make sure it spreads around like it was the most exciting new update on your development toward your final battle to the death. The entire building knew about it, even those who weren't even in your department.It was all fun and games until your boss stopped by your office in the morning when you had gotten in."Come to my office in 2 hours, you have an urgent mission for tomorrow and we need to have a serious conversation." He said bluntly and left. You felt your stomach flip inside you and immediately had an idea this was going to involve Leon in some way.You arrived 10 minutes before expected and sat in his waiting room with your thoughts wandering around all the possibilities in the next half hour. All suspicions were immediately confirmed when Leon finally came in and sat on the chair opposite you, you let out a disappointed sigh and you both gave each other an irritated look.Glaring each-other down you finally saw his eye twitch with anger. You smiled at him and then finally looked away. Short-tempered asshole.The entire office had already interrupted into a booming volcano spurting with gossip and suspicions of what was going on the second one of the your co-workers saw you on into the waiting room of your superior at the same time.After a painful 5 minutes of silence you were called into his office."I am going to make this brief. The president's daughter has been kidnapped around a village in Spain, this happened 3 hours ago and I have found both of you the most suitable to complete this mission and retrieve her. Everything you need to know is on an itinerary." He placed a thick folder in front of us and gave a deep sigh before he moved on to the more personal part of his lecture."I am aware... that you both do not have the strongest relationship based on your behaviour and how your last mission went. But you will not let get petty emotions interfere with this mission." His strong, stern tone was impossible to argue with, his presence filled the room with his command. "This is of the highest stakes and if I hear that either one of you let your relationship compromise this mission, the consequences will be severe."Missions such as these going wrong usually ended up in some sort of torcher or execution in this line of work, if you were behaving immaturely, especially when it came to the president's daughter."There will be no backing out of this mission and no arguing. Your skill sets are complementary to each other and this mission. You will put all your issues aside or you will solve them. Do I make myself clear?" He stared at the two of us intensely."Yes, boss." Leon said and you nodded quietly, keeping your eyes trained on the floor as you took all of the information in.'I can't believe I'm stuck with this idiot for god knows how long...' You think, still shocked at the fact that the president's daughter had also been kidnapped and you had to deal with it with this fucking monkey."You will go make a plan immediately and I want no problems. You are dismissed." The walk back to your offices was silent and awkward. Only worsened by the fact that everyone was watching you as you walked, people's heads were sticking out their offices and people were crowded around the communal kitchen to pretend they were making coffee when instead they wanted to watch this historical event with their own eyes. It was clear that Leon was more mad about this new development than you were, but he was the first one mature enough to break the silence."We'll make the plan in your office." He said as its a strained voice and not looking at you."If you actually let me make a plan this time." You mumbled as we turned the corner."You know we should listen to the boss before we lose our jobs. We don't have a lot of time to waste on acting like children.""Mhm, you could take some advice from yourself." You opened the door and moved a chair next to your desk. "But fine. Professional from here."The tension in the room was unbearable, the awkwardness, the hatred, and the pressure all confined in your small office room. ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

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˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ You sat back in your seat, trying not to make a snarky comment toward Leon as you read up the first half of the itinerary with Leon in an awkward science. You could tell he was trying his hardest not to make a remark either.You finished scanning the itinerary and whipped out a notebook to draw a route to scan around the area Ashley was expected to be. You pushed the paper toward him and looked at him intensely expecting him to insult you."This is fine." He drew on the map to cover a few more spots. You were astonished at how quiet he was being, he passed the paper back. You checked at it and nodded with an overwhelming urge to speak.You couldn't help it, you had to say something stupid."Look at you, being a team player now. Loving the character development, Kennedy." There was a smug grin, plastered all over your face as you said it. He let out a light groan."You really have to make this hard for me, huh?" His voice burned with hostility as he looked at you, more fuel was fed to his fire when he saw you trying not to laugh."It was just a compliment, I'm making an effort to fix this awkward environment, you must be great in social situations.""Start planning or you're going to go missing mysteriously during this mission.""Is that a threat?" You leaned back to make a few more notes about equipment you needed, Leon was reading the itinerary again to make sure he didn't miss anything. "You know... This would all be so much easier if you gave me an apology for your babyish behaviour before." You said as you moved your chair a bit closer. He looked you straight in the face."Me? Are you self reflecting? You've been giving me your childish antics for the past month and you call me babyish?""Hell yes I am. You know you damn well you deserved it.""I didn't deserve jack shit from you after you came into my office with those stupid plans." He was aware that he was wrong in the past but there was no way he would agree with you.You two really couldn't be in a room for more than a minute together without arguing. "With that attitude you would've thought I came with a plan where we were used exclusively water guns. They weren't bad at all, you were just an asshole. And you still are, clearly. I want an apology."He groaned in annoyance and after a second he finally obliged unwillingly. "I'm fucking sorry. Are you happy now? Are you going to get on with your fucking job now?"You laughed quietly as you saw him lose his temper with no effort. You nodded and put your head back down to your paper."Did I get on your nerves?" You smiled. "You're very cute when you're mad.""You got what you wanted, so you could return the favour and shut up."An hour went by when you finished off your plans without annoying him anymore. You didn't really ask for his opinion you just gave him the plan and he nodded as he didn't want to hear your voice anymore than he had to. You both got up in silence and went down to the changing rooms to get into gear, you got into a tight black shirt and cargoes with many pockets, and holsters around your torso and legs.You met up with Leon in the armoury and looked at him, he had a questionable choice of clothes."A thick jacket? You know we're going to Spain, right? Did you know that Spain is hot?" You asked mockingly as you started packing up your holsters with your favourite guns and knives."You always have something to say, huh?" He glared at you as he was started filling his own holsters, taking the safety off one of the pistols while looking you straight in the face."Just a reminder, in case you've never heard of Spain."He rolled his eyes and left out a soft murmur in response. "Women."There was a second of silence, contemplating whether what you were going to say next was an intelligent choice, you decided it didn't matter, all the consequences were worth it. You had to say it."You know, Leon. Something tells me you haven't had the touch of a woman in a long time. I'm guessing... Not in 5 years?" You looked at him with a pompous smirk plastered all over your face. Leon knew you were right, in fact, it had been longer than 5 years, it had been 6, he hadn't had the touch of a woman since 1998. He didn't say a word and turned a bit pink, quickly covered up with exasperation as he tried to ignore you."Leon!" You laughed, you got an answer to your question that you weren't even looking for. "That's half a decade! God, you poor virgin. That explains a lot." Despite the constant jabs, you were a bit surprised at the information. He definitely wasn't ugly, in fact he was probably the most attractive man in the service, and the fact he hadn't gotten laid in years was baffling. You saw him stay quiet, and despite how much you hated him, you felt a tinge of guilt. "Maybe I'll give you a few pointers, we could start with that attitude." The comment didn't help in the slightest."You're making it hard for me to not shoot you. You should learn to watch your mouth if we're spending another 24 hours straight together." He said, quickly dismissing the entire conversation and moving on, slightly embarrassed about it. The two of you had finished packing all your equipment and started walking to the helipad."You'll get your peace and quiet soon." You lied as you both got onto the helicopter, you put your headsets on and he looked out the window as you lifted off. After a minute, you realised this was a great opportunity to annoy him, you were inescapable. You started singing, slowly developing into something where it was as bad, and passionate as you could be, bluetooth connecting everyone's headphones to Michael Jackson."Y/n. Shut the fuck up." He looked at you and you could tell he was not playing around."There's nothing else to do." You said as you continued to mumble to the music."Focus on the hours ahead of us.""You mean the 5 more hours we have in this boring helicopter, with you? No thanks." You smiled and started humming again to the lyrics, getting into the flow."Y/n, you will shut up or I will make you shut up." You laughed at his comment, replying in a playful manner."You don't like Michael Jackson? Are you more of The Smiths kind of guy? You can try stop me but-" He gripped your chin tightly, you were completely caught off guard, his face was inches of yours as he forced you to face him."Stop. Talking. I'm not playing these stupid games anymore." You grabbed his wrist and ripped his hand away from your chin."Don't you dare touch me again." You were finally both on the same page, both in a bad mood and seconds away from throwing each other out the helicopter. The glare you gave each other was like a declaration of war.Leon finally scoffed and looked away, slightly pleased that he had finally got on your nerves, and you had shut up, as a bonus, although Michael Jackson was still playing in your headphones. You looked out the opposite window as well, holding your chin that was slightly sore from how tight he grabbed you. Although you were irritated, you weren't that upset that he had done it, it made you feel a heat in your chest.God what the fuck is wrong with me? This guy is an asshole. You think to yourself as the moment replays in your brain. You look at him again but he doesn't notice.You take out your phone when the song finishes and start playing something from The Smiths, watching his reaction closely.At least she has decent taste, even if she is a bitch. Leon thinks to himself, a softening his expression as he listens to the music, although still refusing to look at you. You manage to catch the corner of his smile as he stares out the window.Maybe he's not unforgivable. That's his first green flag. You sigh and lean back in your seat, the anger slowly dissolving as the hours of your helicopter ride go on.˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗a/n: i just wanted to get the building out the way so the first two chapters are a bit dead in my opinion but it gets better from here 🙏🏻

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˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗You both manage to land in Spain without any further complications, despite the relaxing ride you both refuse to interact with each other out of your shared stubbornness. You were dropped off by a police station where you waited to get picked up, you were starting to get used to the awkward silences that always came around whenever you were with Leon.As you waited for the police officers to pick you up and take you to your destination, you take the chance to look around the area a bit. It was very early in the morning, 4 or 5 am, it was still dark. As you looked around you couldn't help but feel an awful sense of foreboding, you instincts were already warning you that this was going to be nothing like you had experienced before.Eventually, the police car pulled in and unlocked, you both got in the back seats, keeping as much distance as you could while you were inside."Hola, amigos!" The policeman shouted, overwhelmingly giddy, to be honest you didn't speak a word of Spanish so you could only hope that they spoke English."No hablo espanol...?" You said, unsure of yourself if you were even saying the right thing. You could hear Leon snort in the seat beside you."Oh don't worry, we know." They laughed as they started to drive down the road, after a minute of silence and when you had reached the narrow, dirt roads completely walled off by overgrown forest and the officer in the passenger seat turned around. "So tell me, Yanqui. Why did you come to this horrible place? As close to nowhere as I've ever seen.""Let's just say... Looking for someone." Leon replied quietly as he looked out the window."That person must be very important then, eh? The chief gave the orders himself 'Help them' he said.""Well, I'm sure you boys didn't come all the way out here to roast marshmallows..." The police guards laughed quietly, you let out a sudden laugh out of surprise. He's funny, no way. He actually does more than spew exclusively bullshit. "Or maybe you did." He adds with a shrug and looks out the window, again."You have a strange sense of humour, friend... I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Just between us. A lot of people have gone missing around here, and it's been that way for a while now.""Well then... Must just be another day in the office, right?" Leon said, unfazed as he continued to watch the moving forest outside."I mean last week there was a search for some missing hikers.""I don't know what else I expected from a cursed haunted forest like this..." You mumbled."I'm sure you guys will be a great help." Leon says over you, and that marked the end of the conversation for the rest of the ride."I think we're here." The driver said as he pulled into the location, you looked out the window, it was a more open area and there was a gate far down the road that was barely visible."Nature calls." The passenger said, and got out. "I'll be back in a minute." The driver took out a pack of cigarettes when he left."You smoke?" We both shook our heads, and he threw the cigarettes on the dash board after he lit the one in his mouth."I can't wait..." You sigh as you already feel the dread building up in your chest, which was only fuelled by the fact that you were with your favourite co-worker, Leon Scott Kennedy.You wait in the car for another 10 minutes and the police officer still hasn't returned, you feel yourself getting impatient as your anxiety builds up and you feel like you need to do something instead of thinking about what comes ahead of you."Where is he?" You ask as your leg bounces up an down, matching the overwhelming pace your anxiety was increasing."I don't know, he's taking a while. Maybe he fell in, you should check on him." The driver says and you both get out and start walking. "I'll stay at the car, wouldn't want to get a parking ticket...""So much for helping us." Leon says quietly as we walk down the path, brushing overgrown branches out of our way. As we walk down, there are abandoned wooden shacks on our path until we come to a stone gate, you walk past and there is a deer on a stone slab.Your sinuses are overwhelmed by the smell of the rotting carcass and it hits you like a bus. No matter how much you smell it, it's something that always catches you by surprise, the rancid smell invading your senses."That... Is fucking nasty." You say as you approach the decaying deer, maggots and flies oozing from the pieces of skin ripped from it's body, there are candles in front of it too. Your unease kindles upon the sight of it."Nothing you haven't seen before in this line of work.""I don't care, that shit is still nasty." You walk past it and find a house a few metres ahead, when you get to the door, Leon grins at you, you both know there is nothing good in this house, he takes a step back."Ladies first."You didn't want to but you had honestly just gotten used to doing things you didn't want to in this job. You step open the decrepit, wooden door and walk down the hallway, going into the first room which had a few questionable items."You're an asshole, you know that?" You said, trying to lighten the mood as you pick up a stick totem which said 'Judgement is Whir' in the back."You make that very clear to me, Y/n. I know." He says as you both leave the room after a minute and continue down the hall. "In fact you're probably the worst imaginable person I could have done this mission with, I'd have been so much happier to do it alone." As he tried to open a locked door, you walk ahead and open the next one, there's a man sitting by a fire."I don't speak a word of Spanish. You go." You say as you stand outside the room as the door closes, Leon nods, going inside and asking him if he's seen an officer in this direction. You hear a sudden thump of metal clashing together as well as a loud grunt from Leon.You quickly run in and when you see Leon holding off an axe with his combat knife you rapidly take out your pistol and shoot the man in the head."What was that?" You ask, it may have been a shock, but you didn't have much concern for Leon himself. Your eyes drop down to the badge of the officer that you were just looking for, the one that went to go take a piss earlier, it was bloodied. "Jesus...""He was here." He mumbles as he puts it back on the floor."Yeah, no shit." You say as you pick up the key the man had dropped, it probably unlocks the door you saw earlier. "You owe me one, by the way." You say, uncomfortably as you stare at the man's exploded head that was bleeding out all over the floor. "Shit... We've only been here for 5 minutes and that's two corpses.""I'm surprised you didn't let him put that axe in my head." He says as he watches you turn to go back to the door he tried to open earlier, it lead to a basement."You know, I thought about it for a second." You say, if your instincts weren't so quick you would have probably let him deal with it himself. "Wouldn't have a human shield though..." You say as you turn on your flashlight to go into the basement, you wait for him to walk in front of you so you don't have to put up with the threats."Right..." He says in a bitter tone as he goes ahead. "So I'll just be your flesh shield until my time comes then." Deep into the basement you see another decaying body in a police officer's uniform, Leon rushes beside it and picks up his radio to a man who's screaming in Spanish."Hello? What's your situation!? I read you!" He shouts his voice thick with concern and the radio goes silent. He throws the radio down on the floor. "What the hell is going on?!" The frustration is getting to him and you can see it in the way his face contorts. You try and stay calm, the man your looking for has probably faced the same fate. But you were just as confused, you were not prepared for anything like this.You quickly walk back to the stairs of the basement, and are completely caught off guard when another Ganado lashes at you, grabbing a hold of you by the neck, you fumble for your knife in your holster but before you manage to defend yourself Leon has already stabbed it in the head."Now we're even." He grunts and brushes past me, walking ahead quickly, you're still in a state of shock but you snap yourself out of it and follow him."Thanks.""Don't mention it." You both walk to the upstairs part of the house where you find a desk, you both see a picture of see a map, with a photo of Ashley tied up on top of it. You give each other a knowing look, you sigh and call Hunnigan on your radio."Roost, this is Raven and her sidekick Condor One." You say using your code names, Leon grunts behind you."Hunnigan here, what's your rep.""The president's daughter, baby eagle. She's probably in this village. We need a location on a nearby lake, we think she's been taken there.""I'll get back to you in a few minutes.""Make it quick, our escorts have been-" You hear the loud slamming of footsteps on the door, and Ganado start to smash the door with an axe. "Gotta go."Leon jumps out the window and without thinking you follow him, managing to land on two feet. You look back at the window above you and see one of three men holding an axe, looking at you then walking back inside.You're breath has been stolen away and your adrenaline was kicked into high gear."Jumping out of windows? You have interesting split second thinking." You pant out, he doesn't even look surprised."It worked, did it not? I didn't see you doing anything.""Sure it worked, that doesn't make it any less surprising." You were a bit intrigued at how he just jumped through a window like he's done it before, but you'll never admit that it was somewhat cool so your mind confirms that it was goofy."Let's just go. No time to waste." You're happy that you haven't had the time to argue in the past 30 traumatising minutes of your life, but you know it will only get worse from here. A part of you feels thankful that you're not alone in this, even if you got off on the wrong foot with your partner.

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˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗You walk down the long, windy path leading away from the house you were just in, on your highest alert.You managed to muster up enough confidence to speak and to calm your nerves."You know what they say... We're in Spain, without the S." You seem him look at you like he's about to say something rude about your awful joke, but he stops himself and lets out a light chuckle."You always have something to say. Like I said before." You were glad that you both managed to get on slightly better, it made the entire situation a lot more bearable. You still didn't like him, but him saving you earlier definitely gave him some points. "What do you think those people were? They didn't seem like normal people."He was right, their faces were discoloured, eyes completely bloodshot and bloodthirsty like animals."I was thinking a cult, maybe? Maybe they're just sickly, but I feel like they're related to all the missing people.""Well yeah, we found an officer's body in that basement, I wouldn't be surprised if we missed something else." You didn't really know what to say for a second so he hesitantly speaks again. "Thank you for saving me earlier." You suddenly feel bad as you know you were probably going to have let him save himself back in that house."Well you saved me too so don't mention it...?" You say mimicking his earlier words with uncertainty, it feels wrong being nice to him, and him being nice to you. You know he feels it too, Leon even feels like apologising for how he acted the first time you met but he doesn't.You both go further down the path for a few minutes, seeing multiple dead animals along the way. On your path the sun finally begins to break from the horizon and the anxiety calms down a bit."Have you been on a mission like this before? You're a lot calmer than I am." You ask, you see his face darken slightly."I guess you could say that. I'm not talking about that with you though." The coldness returns in his tone, and it's a waking call, a reminder that you're not actually friends. He grimaces like you've brought back a memory in him, you doubt yourself before talking, he definitely won't speak to you now. He seems a bit lost in his own thoughts and you want to drag him out of his own head.You can't help but care a little, although you know he hates you.
"Hey, I think I see a gate down the road." You point ahead of the path, hoping to pull him out of his trance. He walks ahead in silence, picking up his pace and keeping his head up. He was quiet but that wasn't really that different than how he was acting before, but the was a noticeable thickening of tension around you.Stay focused. We don't have time to get off track, this guy can suck my dick anyway. You think as you approach the gate, in an attempt not to worry.He opened the gate ahead of you and the first thing to hit, like a crashing wave, was the screams of a man, you could feel the shivers deep in your bones. Then the two of you saw it at the same time, the feeling of terror hit you like a truck, what you wouldn't give to turn back right now. The sight of the officer you were just looking for being lit on fire, wrapped up to a pole, by the residents of this evil place.Leon didn't even look phased, he took out binoculars too get a closer look at the man howling, begging for his life, as his legs were ignited. Your heart stopped as you watched in horror, you couldn't rip your eyes away. Everything from Penamstam came rushing back to you.You lost your senses of everything around you as you watched the flames that licked up his legs, devouring the flesh and turning it to black, then to ash, leaving the bones behind as the rest of his body. A firm hand gripped around your arm and dragged you behind a fence with force."Snap out of it, Y/n!" Leon whispered urgently, his fingers still wrapped around your arm tightly. You were still locked in a horrified daze and didn't absorb a word he said. His arms came to your shoulders and he shook you roughly, until he slapped you in the face. "Y/n?!" He was insanely frustrated. The slap brought you back in a second. This bitch, has she never been on a mission before?! Fuck. He thinks to himself.You bury your head in your hands in distress, trying to bring yourself back to the reality of your position. Shit. I'm going to need to leave her, she's holding me back and she's going to get me killed. He thinks again, he thinks about it again for a minute then becomes more sure of himself. Leon stands up, walking around the village and hiding behind the houses, leaving you by the entrance, all vulnerable. He abandoned all the feelings of guilt as he reminded himself of how unbearable you were, and you were dead weight to him so you were even more unforgivable. He shook his head as he continued forward, the last thing you see of him is him taking out a woman from behind with his knife, then disappearing around a corner, behind a house.Fuck, fuck, fuck. You collect your thoughts and shove them to the back of your brain with a deep breath when you hear a villager near by, his strained, struggling breaths, you quickly hide run into one of the homes to hide. And then you hear it, the yelling of the residents and Leon's abrupt gunshots. He can deal with that himself, right? You go to the second floor of the home, and watch the village centre from a window. This fucking guy. You stare incredulously as you watch Leon go on a rampage on the residents, running around the place, so calm and collected.This goes on for a minute, and then you hear the sound of a chainsaw in the distance, Leon seems to notice it too, and you notice the sweat starting to form on his face. You continue to watch as he fights off the villagers come on in boundless waves, and as the sound of the chainsaw coming closer, and closer, and closer...You finally see it, he emerges into the village centre, his head covered by a bag with holes for his bulging, red eyes. You watch as Leon's face drops as he approaches, backing up a bit, but he can't run, he's surrounded. Do I help him? This man had just left you for dead not even 3 minutes ago, but this was your speciality, this is why you were here, your aim was immaculate, even from this distance. You didn't want to, not at all. You fought off your brain as it begged you to not get involved for your own safety and because this guy was shmuck, and this was absolutely a fight you would never win.But your body forced all your muscles, acting for you, ignoring all your thoughts. Why am I saving this brainless prick? You think as you climb up to the roof, you've already accepted what you were about to do. You prop yourself up on the roof, pulling out your rifle and then looking back up. You were too late.You fumbled to get into position, but you weren't fast enough. Leon was finally caught by the man. His chainsaw slammed down onto Leon. But he blocks it with his fucking knife. It snaps in half after he pushes the chainsaw away with all his vigour. You watch as he's about to have an axe buried into his back by a villager. You quickly look down the iron sight of your rifle and shoot it in the head in a second. The bang echoes throughout the whole village. Everything looks up at you. Fuck.Why...? Why do I do these things to myself? And for what? Leon stared at you for a moment in shock, but was quickly absorbed back into his fighting, as the chainsaw revs again and approaches Leon, he's about to give a horrendous final blow to decapitate Leon and he has nothing to defend himself, you panic and shoot it's head while villagers start approaching your house. It hits his head but doesn't kill him, it's enough to stun him so that Leon can kick him metres away and run out of sight. He's not going to help me... You think, you had just saved his life twice, defeated as the army starts to surround the house, you hear the windows smashing beneath you as some enter the home.You clear your head, something they had taught you to do in training, not allowing yourself to be consumed by the terror. You put your rifle away, taking out your pistol as you hop to the next rooftop, then sliding off, catching yourself on your feet and a hand to stable yourself. You don't even look as you bolt down the village. Fuck knows where Leon is as you've borrowed the legion of murderers as the come to chase you, at least he's stolen the psychopath with a chainsaw.You're left no choice but to fight after a minute, you can't run forever, you'll get surrounded eventually. Your head whips around and you start shooting them with your pistol, do they not die to headshots? That's impossible. Only your rifle could one-shot them as shown earlier, with your pistol it took 3, even 4 shots to the head. The distance between you and the battalion, you can't keep up with them, and you were running out of bullets fast. After something had managed to gut you in the stomach, you blurt out your hot blood and you bring out your knife and start fighting them off in chunks, and then you can't keep up anymore...A tough arm wraps around your neck, crushing it and you feel like it's going to snap. You're helpless as all the energy was already sucked out of you, a dizzy trance hits you when all the breath is stolen away. Multiple Ganado beat you bloody, your lip busted, nose bleeding, multiple other cuts to your face and body. You know what's coming and you wait for something sharp to land the finishing blow to your head.Then another gunshot. When you're suddenly released you crumble onto the floor, trying to regain your breath and vision. A bell echoes throughout the town, you feel like your brain is about to explode as your throbbing headache and the bell mixes into a feverish haze, you feel like you're about to vomit as you cough your guts out onto the floor.You hear their feet shuffle past you as your eyes are trained on the floor, slowly coming back into focus. After a second, Leon rushes to your side, crouching beside you."Y/n?" His hand is on your back, you don't look at him as your mouth continues to spurt out your red fluids, all while fighting the urge to vomit. His attention is taken away for a second as he sees all the ganado go into the church of the village then slam the door shut, quickly turning back to you. "Y/n... Are you okay?""Do I fucking look okay, Leon?" You struggle to blurt out as you cough more, as your thoughts become more coherent, so does your loathing for Leon that has only blown up to a point of no redemption. What you had just gone through for him in the past 5 minutes was unimaginable, especially after he left you to rot. ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

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˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗"I-Why did you do that?" He managed to say, the regret thick in his voice but it still comes out as distant. You can't even think of an answer, you don't care about him, if it was him or you, you would pick you, so why did you do it?"I don't know. But I know I regret it." You snap, your jaw clenched. "I save you, twice, three times even if you include the start of this mission..." You stop yourself, you know an argument with him, especially at this time, was futile. You feel like shouting at him but you sigh and bring yourself to your feet, weakly. "Never mind."There is a sharp, agonizing pain in your gut every time you move, and your neck left incredibly sore."Y/n." He calls as you start to drag your feet ahead, leaving him behind. "Y/n." He calls again then a pause.To Leon you've become a puzzle. You make no sense to him, you're both constantly at each other's throats and yet you almost died trying to save him."You're forgiven." Your words are empty and meaningless, just an excuse as you don't want to speak to him anymore as you limp your way through the village."Sit down." He says."We don't have time.""Sit down." He demands. "I'm not asking you again."You ignore him and continue onward, then you suddenly feel his strong arm wrap around you from behind and log you over his shoulder."Leon!" You hit his hard back, but it's like hitting a boulder. In your condition you're absolutely powerless against him. "Leon, you put me down right now or it won't be pretty for you." You say callously, meaning every word, but he knows you couldn't even try when you're like this."I warned you." He says as he holds you securely, countering your squirming. He places you down, leaning against the outside of a shack. You immediately try to get up but his hands slam your shoulders back down so you're fixed onto the ground. "Do you want me to tie you up? Are you going to be that difficult?""You have no right to tell me what to do." You state, threateningly."Your condition is going to compromise our mission." He says as an excuse to take care of you without seeming like he cared out of his pure ego. "You will sit down and you will stay still.""Or what?""You don't want to know." And he means it, but you don't care. Stubbornly, you get up, his hands wrap around your wrists, holding them firmly in place and he quickly ties your wrists together with a strong knot, and pushing you back down on the floor. There is no fucking way. You shut your eyes tightly and take a deep breath in before the temper inside which has reached it's peak can take control of you. Accept it, Y/n. Don't make this harder than it needs to be, you won't need to speak to him again. You knew this wasn't true, as it proved that every time you thought you were done with him in the past he would find a way back to ruin your life, but you forced yourself to believe the lie to make this any such bit more bearable. "Y/n... Calm down, please." He asks, with a newfound tenderness, his usual icy blue eyes have shifted to a soft, pleading gaze when he meets your eyes."Don't you hate me?" You ask flatly, your mind goes blank for a second as you try to fight off the white-hot fury burning inside of you. Even then, his eyes are too enticing to not take a notice of and being drawn in by. I should rip them out."I do." But the past few minutes has changed his view on you completely, he can't hate you. "But you've done something for me, I'm not completely heartless." He says as he takes out an aid kit."That's shocking." An irritated sigh leaves his lips when he hears your snarky comment."You know what's more shocking? What you just did. I want an answer for that, I want to know why." Leon was so baffled by what had just happened that he dismisses what you just said, so much had happened and he could barely process it. Firstly, your gun skills, which should've been expected given your job, but he had been fully convinced that you were brain-dead, loud-mouthed toddler. Secondly, you had saved his life, then got beat to the point of vomiting blood because of it, for him.After a second of thinking, you reply."It's my job." You lie, you know that's not the reason. Leon starts speaking but you drain it out with your thoughts, mainly not wanting anything to do with him anymore but thinking, why? You had always been a kind person, that could explain it, but you were usually petty around those you didn't like. Some part of you didn't want Leon to die, maybe it's because it would be a waste of someone so fine, which was the only nice thing you would ever admit to yourself because it was such an undeniable fact. But his personality already makes his hotness a waste. You think, the thoughts turn to maybe you wanted something that wasn't hatred with him before. That definitely wasn't the case now.Leon sighs as he realises you're not listening to him as your stare at your feet, without asking, he takes a hold of your arm that has blood running down it. You flinch, trying to pull away, but his demanding grip is incredibly firm."Don't fight me off. The sooner you want to be done, the less you move." He states bluntly, then quickly cleaning it and wrapping it with a bandage, his fingers become more gentle as he slowly trusts you to not move away. "I'm going to look at your stomach, yeah?" He warns as he slowly lifts up your shirt, you tense up and jolt back."No way, Leon!" You snap."Way." He scoffs and lifts it up anyways, only slightly so he can see the soon-to-come bruising. He sighs and softly brushes his finger over red colour that's soon going to become a nasty, purple bruise which makes you flinch again. Seeing you like this makes him feel worse, he can't really do anything about it either. He pulls it back down. "You really did this because it's your job?" He questioned uncertainly, turning his attention back to your face, analysing your irked glare and all the cuts on it. Looking at you with a new pair of eyes, the elegance of your features was something he could acknowledge even if you were battered and looked like you were going to kill him. His eyes drop down to your busted lip for a second, wanting to wipe away the blood with his thumb but knowing your limits, before you would actually end up killing him. "That seems unreasonable..." He mumbles."Are you done?" You ask irritably, wanting nothing more but to finally move on from this."Yeah... Do you want some painkillers?" Leon takes the hands behind your back and untied you from the rope."Yes." When he gave you the pills from his kit, the silence makes you finally ask him a question, the only time you're ever willingly going to talk to him. "Why didn't you help me?" He avoids your eyes, a tiny frown forming on his face as he passes the pills and you down them."My knife was broken and I panicked. I didn't even have time to register what was happening when I saw you on that roof so I ran before I could get attacked again." He lets out a heavy breath, you can tell he's guilty. "I know it wasn't the best idea but before I could come back to you the fucking maniac with a chainsaw came for me again, and he wouldn't die. When I managed to lose him, I found you again and helped. I am sorry, even if it doesn't mean much to you."Another remorseful sigh escapes his lips when you don't reply. I may as well give her the whole damn thing now."Look, I never meant to get off with you on the wrong foot like that when we met. I never act like that, I should have apologised instead of keeping up with the stupid rivalry but my ego was too big, and I thought you weren't even worth an apology but I was very clearly wrong, and my pride clouded my perception of you." He's feeling incredibly frustrated with himself but he finishes it off. "We don't need to be friends but you should know that I'm thankful, and I know I was wrong, about all of it."You stare blankly, dumbfounded, probably the most shocked you've ever been in your life. His overwhelming sweetness had spontaneously spawned from nothing. Is he bullshitting me? Making up some excuse? This man had been nothing but callous the past month, and now he was as saintly as a puppy. You're not willing to accept it when you feel the piercing pain in your ribs apparate again. You stand up, without a response and start walking to the back gate coldly. A disappointed but unsurprised sigh as he watches you then follows."If it isn't the consequences of my own actions." He thinks. "Good fucking job, Leon. Now you're going to need to fix your mess." ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

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˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗You have been walking ahead in a dreadful silence but that's the way you like it. The painkillers have finally started to have an effect but it doesn't completely numb out the ache in your belly. After that whole fiasco it was quite surprising you managed to get off without internal bleeding or dying.Leon walks next to you and tries talking once or twice, to no avail. When you get out the village to a path you get a call from Hunnigan and you let Leon pick it up."I've got some information about that lake, look for a large windmill and head towards it.""Right. That's a great help.""Report back to me in an hour." She says and cuts off, he looks back at you who's still determined to act like he doesn't exist.She can barely even walk... His concern only blossoms as he watches you limp, he wants to carry you or do anything to help, to make things better."You hear what she said?" He asks aloud, to no response. "She says we're heading to the windmill." There's another silence after that and it's very, very awkward. He sighs and thinks of how he should word his next sentence. "Look I understand you have every reason to hate me but you can't go the entire mission without speaking.""Is that a challenge, Kennedy?" You say, the question laced with exasperation. "I don't have a reason to talk to you, so I'm not going to talk to you. The more you speak the more you get on my nerves. Maybe you should learn how to shut your mouth, like you should've done before.""I told you, I'm sorry about what I said before. I was wrong about you. Very wrong. I want to make things right, give me another chance." He knew his effort was going to be another worthless shot; but he had to try."You might be sorry but now it's too late, I know what kind of guy you are. And now I'm only going to say this once. Stop. Trying."He let out a sigh of defeat and decided to just let you be, despite his annoyance at this situation, annoyance at you and annoyance at especially himself. He knew he had no right to be mad at you but it was just such a familiar feeling to wallow in the hatred he had been wrongly feeling for you, it was much more comfortable than the sheer confusion and guilt he felt as he watched you walk ahead heavy with your suffering and resentment.Luckily, he doesn't have to think about it any longer when you quickly come to a small farm. He quickly walks ahead of you, it's the least he could do to prevent you from fighting anymore and he quickly shoots down the two Ganado you saw, then taking it upon yourself to split off from him to look around.You saw a blue note when Leon was off doing god knows what.'Is there anyone who can destroy these blue medallions? The area is polluted by their presence and I can't bear it! There should be about 6, Reward: 5 spinels.' It read.You had already seen 3 and decide it won't take much effort even if you don't know how you're gonna cash out, you quickly loop back to the barn, and the sheds, finding another along your way and finally having 4 down. You even found a little cage connected to a windmill at the well, which when you shot down, found that it contained a pearl necklace and a sapphire. You admire the pretty jewels for a second...And then you hear a door breaking with deep roars.I'm not saving this dickhead again. You think as you approach the house it's coming from, peering inside and watching Leon fight for his life against a man in a bull mask, with a huge hammer that Leon was just about dodging before kicking him down and then getting almost pounded by the hammer again when it gets up. You watch from the window in amusement as more Ganado join in the fight, running around the place and throwing grenades around like Tom and Jerry.While you're giggling to yourself while watching Leon fight, you spot a shiny little medallion in the corner of the house. You take your pistol out and shoot it down, Leon's head snaps to look at you incredulously, then quickly turns back around before he could get smacked out of existence. After another minute, there was a pile of bodies in front of him and he turned back to you in the window, dumbfounded."Did you want me to die?!" He scoffed in disbelief."Just seeing if you could handle yourself, Kennedy." Yes. You wanted him to die. Somewhat. "You seemed fine without my help.""Couldn't have shot a bullet at the bull coming toward me, or the army of maniacs? Anything that wasn't some useless blue glass in the corner of the room?""If you're mad at me now, does that mean you'll stop trying to talk to me?" You were trying to get any type of reaction out him, he deserved it.He let out a brief chuckle and shook his head. "Funny." You roll your eyes at the lacklustre reaction. Leon hops through the window and you both walk deeper into the farm. "I found a cog in there, it could be for the gate down there."You quickly return to going back to the silent treatment as he goes inside a structure to go and fix the gate, you go back to find the last medallion, finding a chest with a ruby in it on the way. When the gate finally comes up, you hear more Ganado run into the farm. You're caught off-guard when a few come and surround you. As long as you don't come into close contact your injuries shouldn't get in the way.Without hesitation you draw your gun, shooting 2 down before the other few approached, you ran off, occasionally turning around and shooting more when you made enough distance. You eventually left a trail of Ganado behind you and walk back to the open gate, when you found Leon fighting his own little battle.In your mind, this wasn't your problem, so with light and quick feet you moved past the group of Ganado he fought off, waiting for him on the other side of the bridge that the gate opened up to and looking around the outside of the house that was there, finding a kitchen knife dug into the floor which you picked up. Leon eventually emerged, panting and a gash on his arm."Really, Y/n?! Again?!" He shouts, in a fit. You don't take much notice to him and toss him the kitchen knife since his normal one was broken, you definitely didn't need it."I'm injured, so I couldn't help." You say flatly as he catches the knife by the handle. He looks at it, unimpressed at how flimsy it is, it won't last longer than 30 minutes in this place. But he quickly changes his attention back to you."Y/n! Are you serious?! Ugh!" Despite how right you were to be mad at him, this behaviour was astonishing. "Do you understand the severity of this situation?!" The more he speaks the more your own rage starts to flare up. He's not speaking to me like that.Leon was starting to have second thoughts, maybe your moment of kindness, was really just a rare moment of kindness and not what you were actually like. "You hate me! I get it! But fuck! You can't go off letting me get killed just because you have a stupid grudge!""Are you listening to yourself, Leon?! 'You can't go off letting me get killed?!' What did you do 20 minutes ago?!" You yell. He grabs your shoulders abruptly, making you look him in the eyes."You listen to me, we work together. That sentence better get through your thick skull. We're on this mission together for a damn reason.""If you're so incapable of fucking defending yourself maybe this mission would be better without you. How did you even get this job if you're so needy?! You've needed me to protect you at my own cost, twice. And now you want me to protect you again over some simple Ganado when I'm injured?!""You could have easily set off a few shots with no consequence to you, but your petty attitude made you sit back to fucking laugh and watch me fight for my fucking life. And then do it again when you were a perfectly safe distance to shoot, now we're both injured."You scoff scornfully. "You're upset over a little cut? Get over yourself, Leon. You've seen the state of my stomach and my arm and I'm not crying over it like a little bitch.""You-" He groans loudly. "You're fucking unbelievable, you know that? Can't you listen instead of turning everything I say into an argument?!" You shove yourself off his grip and walk away from him, fuming. He follows after you, continuing to shout. "Gonna walk away?! So stubborn you can't admit that I'm right?! Because I'm sick of these stupid games with you all the fucking time."As he speaks, you ignore him and walk toward the carriage that's in the way of the path you need to be on, as he continues to shout."Listen to me!" He barks as you're halfway through pushing the heavy cart."You started the argument, and now you're chatting about me being the problem, it's you. It's always been you." You say firmly, as you finally push it out the way, using the anger he's been building up in you as your strength. "Even now you don't help me get this carriage out our way!""I'm always the problem, huh? I wouldn't say that after you always test me, try and get a rise out me, everyday in the office, in the changing rooms, on the helicopter.""You realise everything I did to you was pretty fucking tame compared to you. Your unsolicited disrespect the second I come into your office, how you literally left me to die twice, when I saved you twice.""You-""Let me give you some simple advice." You interrupt before he can yell again with another stupid excuse, you grab his face, fingers digging your fingers deep into his cheeks and holding it closely to your face. "Keep your mouth, closed. You should take it, before you have more regrets." You let go, leaving him absolutely stunned.His feelings toward you have been an absolute rollercoaster, from hatred, to regret, to conflict. The repeating pattern being, none of it was positive. Nothing was good, or could ever be good when it came to you, you might let him die, you might save his life, but it would never end well with you. No matter what happens, you end up arguing or someone getting brutally hurt, and it was important he understood this early on.He follows behind you, clouded by his deep thoughts about this unfortunate arrangement and how's its going to play out.I don't want to hate her, but she makes it fucking hard. He knew what you said was right, and you know what he said was right too. Both of you too persistent to admit it. At this rate he may as well have admitted it himself, since he already apologised earlier, but his dislike for you was kicked off again by an argument he started, despite it being a valid one.You yourself was developing more intolerance for him by the second no matter what he did, but you knew it was completely unprofessional for you to be acting like this. You didn't have plans to stop with your hostility, but it was definitely a thought that crossed your mind. Your main focus being keeping an even head, but Leon didn't make it easy for you either. When you were driving each other up a wall constantly, you didn't understand how your boss thought it was any type of good idea to put you both on a mission together, even if you had correspondent abilities, the teamwork was atrocious and that was important for a mission like this. You couldn't even imagine getting on with him in any circumstance, even if he found the cure to fucking cancer or adopted every orphan on the planet.You walk in silence again, cooling yourselves down until you find a settlement on the path. You shoot each other a dirty look when you see it. ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗chapter dedicated to my bf who are equally as dysfunctional as y/n and leon

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˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗"You better take what I said into account." He says sternly when you look at each other, ready for another battle in this part of the settlement."Whatever." You step in and are immediately noticed by one of the women who runs at you foolishly, just to get shot, but alerting everyone else. You run ahead and hear a sudden snap behind you. You look back and see Leon stuck in a bear trap."Goddamnit!" He grunts in agony, looking at you pleadingly. You quickly rush to his side and open it, as he shoots the Ganado coming from the corner. He limps out, but you don't have a lot of time to pay attention to him as there's a crowd closing in on you. "Freaks just keeping bear traps around casually." He mutters."Just keep your eyes open." Now that you're paying attention, you've already noticed 3 bear traps in your sight. You clear out the space in front of you and rush forward, seeing there's a higher part of the settlement where people are throwing bombs and Molotovs at the two of you. You run to the ladder as Leon mows down anything that tries to stop you and take on the group at the top with your knife. You were already running low on handgun bullets, and you weren't keen on having a short supply on your rifle, knowing the time would come when you'd thank yourself you didn't use that up too. There's a brief fight as you take out the group with your knife and hop back down to take out a different spot, splitting up to clear more area on the lakeside settlement.After a long, gruelling fight, you both shoot the last one in the head at the same time, then look back at each other."Thanks." He mumbles as he watches you walk off."This settlement is by the lake we're looking for, so we're in the right direction, I guess." You state, ignoring what he just said. "We should start looking around the houses."He decides not to let himself get riled up about it, he's just starting to get used to the bitter tension. After checking a few houses and looting them for spare ammo and valuables, you go back outside and check the final, biggest bungalow in the settlement.The two enter quietly, and he disarms the tripwire for you in the hallway. You pick up a small key on a bookshelf as you walk by, and when he walks ahead of you, you notice the blood seeping through his jeans at the calf. But again, it's not your problem, so you don't say anything.An instinct lets you want to make him stop so you can patch it. But a larger part of you feels happy that he feels even a fraction of the pain you felt because you're still full of spite from the argument.You end up finding yourself unable to look away, the small tear in his jeans from where the bear trap penetrated his skin, showing you how deep the wound is, and how much it's bleeding. Shit, that's so disgusting... Your thoughts pause as you stare at it.No... No. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it, Y/n-"You gonna treat that?" You say unwillingly. Leon turns around to look at you, puzzled. "Just sit down, I don't wanna look at it, it's nasty and it's going to get infected and leak puss and get more nasty." You shove him to the couch, and he allows it hesitantly and sits. You get in front of him and pull up the jeans to show above his ankle. "You look just like that deer we saw when we got here." You cough in disgust when a bit of the blood gets on your hand, so you carelessly pour antiseptic on it trying not to touch it more, tilting your head away to not look at how bad it is and he hisses in pain. You hadn't been on a mission with blood as bad as this in 2 months. "I'm about to vomit." You mutter."What's the change of heart?" He asks through clenched teeth, trying to not think about the anguish of his calf. "This your way of apologizing?""Looking at you makes me want to puke." You mutter quietly, forcing yourself to go a bit deeper to get all the dirt out when you slowly get get used to it. "Hopefully, this will stop you from leaving a trail of blood that I have to step in. Doing myself a favour.""Am I supposed to be thankful, or...?""Take it how you want.""So can I take it that you care?" He teased with a small grin."If you want to delude yourself then yeah, be my guest." You say, carelessly digging the cotton into the wound."Agh- You mad 'cause I caught on?" He grunts from your unneeded roughness. "Slow down. Please.""Fine..." You get more gentle with it, trying to not to hurt him as much, but you honestly just wanted to get on with it. It started to get a bit awkward in the silence when the room was filled with his moaning, he asks you a question to take his mind off it without annoying you further."Have you been on a mission like this before? When we first saw the Ganado you froze up, I assume you haven't?"You grimace when he asks, you hadn't really spoken much to anyone about what happened in Penamstan other than to your best friend, so you try dodge the question. "Have you?" He looks equally as uncomfortable, but he speaks."I was in Raccoon City." You look at up at him, shocked."Are you serious?""Yeah, I was a cop. Only for a day though." A small frown plays on his face. "The day I joined was the day the outbreak happened, I was late as hell which was the only reason I lived.""Oh, that's unexpected... I'm sorry." You felt bad for him, genuinely, you understood what it must have been like. You felt bad enough to regret everything"Well, I answered, your turn." You couldn't even tell him what happened in Penamstan because you didn't trust him, and it was classified information that could get you killed. As much as you wanted to when he had just opened up to you, you had to lie."I was in Tokyo during the 2002 outbreak. I won't really say more than that.""We're not that different. Maybe now... There's a chance for us to understand each other?"You nod in response as you bring out bandages, your defensive walls start crumbling down, feeling the weight of your shared experience. The hardened edges of your heart giving way to empathy."What was it like...?" You ask softly."I still have nightmares about it. I remember every detail like it was yesterday, it haunts me." He leans back and looks up at the ceiling with a deep sigh. "All the people I could've saved, people who died in front of me. I could've stopped it but I was just some stupid rookie." You take a moment to absorb his words, a realization that your pain wasn't mutually exclusive, a possibility opening for forgiveness. "What was it like in the Tokyo outbreak?""My whole squad ended up dying in front of me from the infected, and I couldn't do anything to help, just watch." That wasn't a lie, you finish wrapping up his leg. And you honestly couldn't handle going into anymore detail. "Let's go, we've wasted enough time."Leon follows you through the house, the weight of his actions and how harshly he's treated you from the start hangs heavy on his conscience. His mind replays the image of what you possible could've seen, and how similar it must've been to Raccoon City. Regret runs deep in his veins as he remembers how his thoughtless actions have led you two to be like this, when it could've been different....At the end of the hall, you find a basement. You go down without any hesitation this time, you didn't really know what else you were expecting when you saw a man hammering the floor which you shot before he even noticed you. Leon went ahead, finding a boarded-up trapdoor leading into the basement.You rip off the planks for him, opening the door. "Ladies first." You say, rediscovering the previous playfulness as a change from the morbid atmosphere,. "Or do you want me to catch you at the bottom, treat you like a real lady?""What a gentleman." He says, he knows just as well as you do that he's absolutely going to break his leg or sprain his ankle if you don't, but covering up the slight embarrassment with sarcasm and amusement at your joke. He watches you hop down and dramatically hold your arms out for him."You better not be as heavy as you look." Probably should've considered that before I gave him the offer, he's going to crush me. He jumps down, landing in your arms and you swear you both could've heard your back crack when he makes contact, nothing could've prepared you for the fact he weighs 200 pounds, he slips out of your arms but for the second that you managed to hold him softened the fall. "Fucking hell you hippopotamus!" You yelp, holding your back. Leon rolls on the floor for a second as he feels his own back takes a toll from the crash on the floor. You both sit there for a moment lolling in the shared pain."When I thought my injuries couldn't get any worse..." He groans as he gets up. "I thought you did weight training.""There's no weight training for when a fucking bus flies out the sky and body slams you! Leon, I bet that single-handedly gave me a reformed spine and hernia at the same time." You moan, limping ahead, still heavily feeling the soreness. Before Leon replies you hear begging from the corner of the basement, you look at each other questioningly before approaching the writhing body bag.You lean over it as Leon unzips it to reveal a man, Leon rips off the duct tape on his mouth roughly."That hurts you know." He grunts."Seems like you really wanted to talk," Leon says sarcastically."How observant, señor. Now uh... You got a smoke?""You know, those things will kill you.""Oh, well, maybe just untie me then, eh?" He asks, then struggles to roll over to his side where the knot is, suddenly stopping completely when he spots something behind you both. "¡Joder! The big cheese!" You both look at him, contemplating if he's smoked something, but it doesn't last more than a second before you get grabbed by the back of the neck, Leon tries to shoot whatever has just grabbed you, but he gets thrown into a wall, you shortly following after.As you slide out of consciousness, you feel a sharp needle slip into your neck...˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗Your eyes suddenly snap back open. But your awakening was abruptly marred by the sharp, throbbing pain in your head. The pain manifests as a pulsating sensation, radiating from a central point and spreading its tendrils across your temples, forehead, and sometimes even down the back of your neck. It feels as though tiny hammers are relentlessly pounding against your brain, each strike sending ripples of discomfort throughout your entire being. What the shit did this guy do to me?You try to move your hands but you the sudden clinking of chains makes you look up, your hands tightly choked by the handcuffs, strung to a wheel on the ceiling, your eyes slowly following the chains but struggling to see fully from the headache and the fact that, whatever it was connected to was right behind you. You manage muster enough strength to turn your head around to make out Leon who's connected to the other side of your chain, his arms being held up above his head and still unconscious, sitting on the floor back to back with you. You forgot how fucking heavy this whale was, despite the last time he crushed you was only the last time you were conscious.In fact, this passed out man's arms alone were so fucking heavy, that you didn't even realise your ass wasn't even touching the floor because of his weight."You okay, señorita?" Your head rapidly turns toward the low voice right next to you, chained to the ceiling as well. It's the guy you 'saved' earlier."Couldn't be any worse, especially being stuck with this malignant lump and his obese arms." You say, nudging your head behind you to gesture to Leon. You suddenly hear vibrations on your back when Leon speaks."Oh, what the fuck?" He grumbles, then you go flying as he forces his hands down against the chains."Leon!" You shout, when turns his head to look at you, his annoyance only intensifies realising the forced proximity of your situation. He quickly gets up and you swiftly follow, he gets away from you and starts walking around, inspecting the room as you're still floundering in the pain of your headache."You guys got a name?" The guy asks, Leon answers flatly continuing to look around, and you're busy trying to not have your head explode so you answer almost silently."Quiet types, eh? I'm Luis Serra. I guess we picked the wrong spot to vacation." You suddenly feel a rough tug from Leon that makes you lurch forward, almost stumbling over."Hey!" You bark. "Stop that!" He does it again when he tries to look in another corner of the room seconds later. The jolts only worsen your headache, and you're not letting him continue without consequence. You kick a chipped off piece of concrete that was on the floor, and it smacks him directly in the back of the head. Luis seems impressed, but then Leon quickly pulls down the chain, making you both come face to face."Now is not the time..." He hisses, staring at you intensely."I've got a fucking headache and you're throwing me around like a teddy bear. What happened to working together? Because it seems you can't stop going against your own words." You seethe warningly, moving closer to his face to get him intimidated although it definitely wouldn't work."Woah, woah... It seems we have a dysfunctional married couple on our hands." Luis chuckles, observing your instantaneous rivalry. But you ignore him and continue to stare each other down until one gives in. "Are you guys about to kiss?" He adds, which makes you both finally snap your head toward him, after a second Leon gives up and lets go of his tight hold on the chain."Kiss my ass, maybe..." You mutter, deserving another harsh glare from Leon. You walk around the room too, when you headache gets the slightest bit more bearable. You end up both tugging on the chain by accident when you and Leon go to opposite sides to search, you look back and up at the pivot holding the chain up, and back down at each other, nodding. You both slam the the chain down, weakening it until it thunders down onto the floor with a loud crash."I guess you've been in spots like this before, hm?" You both ignore him as you're both vexed, and using the new slack to inspect the cold, concrete room as far away as possible from each other. "My guess... You're looking for someone. Maybe... A missing señorita?"You both instantly look at him and walk up to him, forcing him into a corner. "Talk. Now." You say in unison."Alright. Heard chatter about moving a señorita.""Where?" Leon demands."Who knows? But later, I saw some men dragging some one to the old church." Luis's eyes suddenly widen as he spots something behind you, you both whip your head around, learning from the last time you didn't turn around to 'The Big Cheese'.You see a Ganado coming from the entrance and Leon instantly whips it with the chain when it approaches, stunning it. You quickly run up to circle it while it's stunned, making the chain jump up to wrap around it's next twice.You and Leon hold the chain firmly, making it hold the Ganado's neck tightly so it's unable to move. And suddenly, he turns around, digging his knee into the chain vigorously, the Ganado's neck snapping, but at your expense since it sends you falling on your face from the force.The key from the Ganado is heaved in Luis's direction, who quickly grabs it and undoes his handcuffs, running to the exit. Leon runs at him but is held back by the weight of the Ganado's lifeless body."We're not done here!" He shouts."Later, amigo!" He tosses the key into the opposite corner of the room and runs out. You pick up the key and get off the floor while undoing your handcuffs, then walking up to Leon and taking his wrists."I don't have a good feeling about that guy..." He murmurs, as you undo his handcuffs."When I get my hands on him from the shit he said alone, no matter if he's a good guy you not." Leon comes undone from his chains and you realise..."Shit. They took our gear." He groans and storms out the room, you walk after him and Hunnigan calls you on the ear piece which they somehow didn't see or didn't care to take."We located Baby Eagle, she's being held in a church. But there's this guy we met called Luis Serra, he's a bit dodgy so I need you to run a background check.""I'll see what I can do, in the meantime, make your way to that church.""We're probably due for confession anyway." Leon says from ahead of you, making you snort."I'm out." You say and cut off the earpiece, you remember what Leon had done just a minute ago, and throw another rock at his head. For closure, of course..."Hey!""Had to be done in order to restore peace. We're now even." You beam back at him, he just rolls his eyes and walks ahead, his hand briefly rubbing his hair as you had hit it with such force. "Headaches don't feel nice, do they, Leon?""I get it, shut up already." He opens another door and you both hear a Ganado around the corner, you picked up a boot knife that was dug into the doorframe. You went forward and stabbed it's neck from behind, covering it's mouth, and taking the knife it had on him to toss to Leon. He nodded at you and you both continued in silence, clearing out the rest of the way until you saw your stuff deeper into the establishment, locked in a room."This place has a great security system." You say sarcastically, as you grab all of your gear and a few extras that were left around including a gem inside a locked drawer which you just smashed open with a kick, which Leon was shocked by. "What?""Never thought of doing that before.""For someone who practices their kicks for hours a day in training I would've thought you'd make more use of them.""I guess that's one reason they put us together, should've thought of that myself." He says as he turns back to leave, catching a glimpse of a man in a purple cloak. "Who the fuck is that?" He whispers, quickly taking out his pistol.The man on the other side, unbolts the door that leads to the outside of this mini prison."Over here stranger!" He shouts and walks off, you and Leon look at each other, you give him a shrug."We can just shoot him if he's up to no good."˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗After stepping outside into the refreshing light, you see the man on the right hand of the entrance."Let's do some business!""Some nitty." You mutter to Leon, but he's more drawn to the selection of weapons at this man's stand. "Maybe a drug lord with all those weapons.""Let's give him a chance."After walking up, the merchant looks at you with a smile, or you thinks it's a smile as he's got a mask on and you can barely see his face that's so musty its almost black with who knows what, he seems pleased to be here nonetheless."One of ye shot down all my medallions, thanks for that.""So that's what those blue things were, almost cost me my life." Leon crosses his arms and looks at you."He's so dramatic, sorry about him. Yes, I shot down all your medallions."The merchant lets out a low chuckle at your attitude toward each other, observing the both of you with interest."Married couple got a bit lost on holiday?""Why do people keep saying that?" Leon snaps, not missing a beat in the way his expression becomes more annoyed than it was before."Divorced couple?" He snickers again, you both stare blankly at him with an unimpressed glare which was similar to the treatment you gave Luis."That's the second time in the past 30 minutes." You say."I'm not surprised because I must say, I can definitely see the chemistry. Can't wait to see how this plays out overtime doing business with ye. So, for doing my task, I'll give ya 5 spinels." He places 5 gems on his stand, they're pretty and something you'd love to have on a necklace in any other given situation."I'm sorry but what good are 5 pink stupid gems going to do for me?""I'll trade them. And I'll buy almost anything... Look around my stand, you might see something you like." You look up at the stand, see a few guns, he offers knife repairing services, upgrade for guns, a bunch of useful stuff."Don't really have much money." Leon says, you instantly take out the jewellery you collected and all the gems, placing them on the stand and giving him a smug look."I'll be your sugar mommy for today." Earning another quiet snicker from the merchant, he takes it all and briskly and tosses a heavy bag of gold coins."That's enough pesetas to get you a gun... Or afford a nice date for a sweet couple like you both."You look back up at his selection, ignoring his comment which has caused Leon to go a bit pink with frustration. "Can we repair his knife?""Done. 3000 pesetas." You place the money and the knife and it's all done up beautifully, just like new in a matter of minutes. "That all?""You're a wizard.""Thank you, stranger. Glad to help a gorgeous lady like yourself." You catch his wink and smile through his mask, giving him an appreciative nod."Any pretty lady discount?" You hear a grunt of disapproval behind you from Leon."Drop the blondie first, clearly not much of a gentleman to you. You won't regret it.""Unfortunately, I'm attached to this thing for the rest of my stay in Spain.""You're missing out, sweetheart.""Perfect then, we're done here." Leon grabs your arm and starts walking you away from the stand. You can see the flicker of annoyance when you finally catch a glance of his face."Thanks, see you later!" You shout as you walk off, feeling his grip tighten even more, calloused fingers digging into your skin."Pleasure doing business, stranger!"You walk out of sight down the path with Leon, you can tell he's fuming and he doesn't cover it up well. His silence as he manhandles you is a dead giveaway, but you don't have the energy to escalate the situation or drag yourself off."What's up?""Can't you just focus on the mission instead of flirting with some random hobo?" He snarls, his anger simmering beneath the surface threatening to overflow."I just wanted him to fix your knife.""Yeah and try your luck with that pretty lady discount while you're at it? You seemed to enjoy his attention, wasting our time." His voice is heavy with distaste and it makes you frown even more."What is your problem, Leon? It's nice talking to an actual person after all I've seen are Ganado.""You have me." His voice dissolves into something else you can't put your finger on, although his anger overshadows it easily. "You don't need him, you don't need to talk to anyone else on this mission. And you shouldn't.""Yeah but you're insufferable. Almost all the time. All you do is argue or tick me off."He sighs, stopping in his tracks and turning to hold you by the shoulders. Your brows knit together in his change in demeanour and you don't know if he's going to get madder than he already seems or give a cute little lecture. Maybe something in between."I don't want us to argue, you should know that. It's like you want us to argue all the time, you can't blame me for it.""I want to argue? You've been doing nothing but shit that... I wouldn't even say gets on my nerves, you take a swan dive into my skin and flesh and live in my bones." You take a deep breath. "Leon, is this really the time to argue about this? We don't have the time.""I'm not turning this into an argument." He says with a strained voice, his teeth pressed together as he desperately tries to let out his emotions for once, struggling severely. "I'm not used to talking like this. But, I am just trying to say that I think." He paused and thinks about his next few words. "That it's inefficient for you to be wasting time flirting around with idiots like that guy.""Are you jealous-""Let me finish!" He shouts, and closes his eyes as he his head hangs down to the floor to calm himself down. He finally looks up at you through his eyelashes. "I said this isn't easy. I don't want us continuing to like this, arguing all the time. Can't we agree to try and be normal partners because I don't like this situation we have going on here, okay? I have more to say just... wait." He takes a deep breath. "I don't think you're that annoying, I have regrets about the way I treated you after I found out about you being in the Tokyo outbreak. You are aren't that bad. Please, just make an effort to make us see eye to eye, because I am trying."You're left a bit speechless at his sincerity, the way he looks at you genuinely with his pretty blue eyes makes you soften at the sight of him, a nice change."That's a bit rich coming from you after that chain situation, don't you think? Just a bit ago you were dragging me around.""We got over that quickly. I think we're already making progress, we could make more."You lean back on the tree that's behind you, questioning how this could have even happened, this unshakeable man suddenly spilling all his thoughts out in front of you vulnerably."Did this all really come out because you were jealous?""I wasn't jealous." He says quickly. "That man is weird, you spent more time talking to him than you need to.""Really?" You have a mischievous smirk, you're about 80% sure you're right about this. "I only wasted about a minute with that guy, are you sure you're not jealous?""I swear, you have an arguing addiction." He rolls his eyes as he starts to walk back down the path, having you follow by his side."Not arguing, teasing, you'll have to get used to it if you want me to like you. Which I'm still considering right now, your cute little speech was very convincing though." You get a bit closer so your arms are touching as you walk."You're making me reconsider my choices in ever being genuine again." He feels his heart's pace pick up a little, but thinks nothing of it. Watching you by the corner of his eye as you look up at him smugly, it's the first time he's seen you so pleased on the mission, and your smile is more refreshing than he'd like to admit."We probably can't avoid an argument forever. You're aware of that much, right?""I can live with that.""Easier said than done with your anger issues.""You're the only person who can get a rise out of me. I don't know what it is because I know you get on with everyone else in the office like two pieces in a puzzle.""I mean, have you ever considered that you're the issue?""No one hates me.""Yeah, you don't speak to anyone. Except Chris, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were a couple. So maybe you just don't know how to speak to people. Now that I think about it, if you get on with Chris I can't imagine why we don't get on. Me and Chris are basically the same person."You heard a sudden laugh from Leon, which was like a jump scare it seemed so out of line for him."That's funny. You're not like Chris, maybe your humour, but that's as far as it goes. You're a lot different from everyone in the office.""Is that a good thing?""Sometimes... If you asked me that an hour ago I would've said it was an awful thing, some aspects are better than others.""Pretty vague. I'd say you enjoy my company more than you'd like to admit.""Oh I definitely wouldn't say I like you but we agreed we would get there. You're tolerable so far but I don't think we can continue this conversation much longer." You look up ahead to see an entrance to a Ganado settlement, there's a woman on the wall of the entrance, holding Molotovs."Great. Do we need to go through here?""We need a hexagonal key for the gate near the merchant, I assume it's in here." You cringe slightly at yourself, realising you weren't paying attention. Followed by a satisfied grin from Leon. "Yeah, the gate with the hexagonal key." What type of door even uses a hexagonal key?"This is why we don't let ourselves get distracted by men.""Oh shut up." You point your gun at the woman and shoot her thrice, dropping dead instantly."That's it... Take it out on the Ganado."˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ The second the two of you the settlement, the wood gate slammed back down on the ground in an instant, alerting every single inhabitant of the area. You eyes scanned above the gate behind you and see a wheel that a Ganado has closed the second you had got in, leaving you with no choice but a fight.Not only this, but the entire village was built on a cliff and all of it was built on wooden platforms on the side of it, a huge bridges in the middle connecting each side, and there were higher levels.Leon gave a pat on your back, looking down at you with look you'd expect him to give to anyone else he'd work with, an improvement. Neutral is better than hatred at least."I'll kill as many as I can, you get the hexagonal key. Stay safe, agent." He gave you one last reassuring nod before he jogged off down one of the bridges with his grenades and guns blazing. You didn't really have a clue about what the hexagonal key looks like and he left it up to you, at least it's safer for yourself but that didn't seem as appealing as it was before as he's gotten more tolerable.You jog off down the opposite direction, only shooting what got in your way. Most of the inhabitants were focused on Leon, and he was focused on gathering them all up on a path and then throwing grenades at the groups.Ahead of you, you broke up all the boxes and searched every house, but there was nothing that even resembled a key, except for a few small, dainty ones which you shoved in your pocket for cabinets like you saw earlier in the prison to save your hands a few splinters from smashing another bundle of wood, or save your energy, either way there was no losing in taking the keys. Stealing all their valuables as you went on as well, it would be no use to them since they're dead.You walk around the roof of one of the houses, it had a lot of things to take, bullets, herbs, but still no stupid hexagonal key. You wondered if you were even looking for the right thing, a hexagonal key, like one that is a completely normal, small key, but with a hexagon at the tip which goes into the lock? Because that is such a stupid design, people could easily.... You went of rambling in your head as you went back downstairs to be greeted by a friendly bunch of Ganado.Taking out everything by removing them all strenuously with you knife, and leaving the building to go and look through more houses. That small group seemed to be the only thing that would bother you for a long while on your search as you could hear all the commotion down on Leon's side of the settlement, compared to the silence of the small area you were in now. A good time to think about all that's happened to make at least the slightest bit of use of the long amount of time you waste looking for some stupid key.In terms of his positive aspects you were finally willing to consider. He was attractive, which was given since the second you met him but at least if you were to speak more often, there would be a pretty sight for you to look at which you wouldn't need to burdensomely hate. He had a sense of humour, no matter how stupid or how dad-jokey it was, it was still funny. He was enjoyable to speak to, when one of you didn't strike an argument, which was rare but that could change with a shift in attitude, which was already agreed on. What could even go wrong this time?To you, things were looking up for him, but referring to everything that had happened in your stay in Spain so far, every time he had taken a step forward, he took two steps back without flaw. If maybe, you could give him one final chance. You swear, it's the last one, if he fucks up again then it's done. All chance of salvation is gone. You can go back to hating him if that's what it takes to stop him from doing whatever bullshit it takes for him to redeem himself again.Feeling slightly frustrated at your lack of luck, you take a look back at Leon who is still fighting on the level of the settlement beneath you. You quickly realise something isn't right. He's on the bridge about to get blocked off from both sides, and that rotting bridge definitely can't support all that weight. Your eyes widen at what he's neglected to recognise through all his stress, your rifle immediately comes between your hands and you start trying to shoot off all the Ganado on one of the sides of the bridge so he has an escape, while approaching."Leon! Get off the bridge it's going to collapse!" You shout desperately, there are still a few more that you need to shoot before he can get off the bridge. A woman from a higher level, has a molotov that she's aiming for the bridge with, there is no denying the rackety, piece of shit bridge is about to fall into the abyss beneath it.You run down to the edge of the bridge shooting as many off as you can in front of you, the bottle explodes behind him and the dry wood quickly gets licked up by the flames, along with the ropes holding it, his face is frantic when he looks behind him."Jump! Now!" You hold out your hand, and as the bridge rips in half he runs and jumps, latching onto your wrist. You're almost dragged down with him from his abysmal weight but you dig the ball of your feet into the ground, your eyes hopelessly shut as you hold your breath trying to heave him over the edge. You don't know how much power you have, and it's starting to look like you're about to send both of you flying off the edge.His face turns to look to your side, his hand loses grip of your wrist but you still hold on tightly."What are you doing you fucking idiot?!" Your strained voice shouts."There's more coming. Let go before you kill us both." He sighs, his face destitute and beckons his head for you to look to your left.Stiffly, your eyes follow his and there's a woman walking toward with a bat, but she's not coming fast. You have a minute before she gets here."Leon, I'm begging you. Thinking I can do this without you is stupid. Just. Get. Up." There's a ringing in your head which is blocking out all of his words as your body is so strained, your head is pulsating and its about to explode if you don't let go. But you ignore it. His muffled, and increasingly helpless voice gets louder and louder, until he's shouting but you can barely hear it through all the pressure in your head.Please... Please... Five, four, three, two... One...With the very last of what you have, you haul him over. Just enough so that he can grab onto the ledge and pull himself up. Your blood pressure and the lack of blood in your brain immediately causing you to black out, as your vision starts to get blurry you almost topple over the side but you feel Leon's chivalrous arm grab your shirt, pulling you back and holding you in his arm. You hear his gun fire a few times on top of his voice shouting your name.And then everything completely fades to blackness, for the second time, perfect. It only feels like a second has gone by when you wake up next. You see Leon sitting in front of you inside one of the houses, leaning against the wall with his knee up and his arm leaning over it with a gun, looking down at his roughed, large hands, his hair messily hanging over his face. Part of his shirt is ripped and his jacket is gone, giving you a view of the skin beneath, and the shape of his chest. Nothing you haven't seen before, only it jumped out at you more when he was right in front of you, like this, the sunlight filtering through the wooden planks onto him. Gorgeous for a man who's playing around with his gun."How long was I out?" His bright eyes stay on his pistol and he replies in a low voice."Not long. 20 minutes maybe? Killed everyone, got the key while you were out cold. When we get back to HQ I'm definitely making you do more weight training for the amount of times you've had to catch me this mission."You let out a shallow chuckle and cough a bit, feeling a bit tired from all the previous events added up together."You okay?" His eyes meet yours through his hair, his head still leaning down, he looks almost as tired as you do."Just a headache, the nap helped though I guess. You?""Fine, just another mission." If he was being honest, this wasn't like every other mission for him. He had never had so many close calls and his relationship with a partner had never been so complicated since Ada, in his opinion, you were way worse than Ada. It was starting to stress him out when mixed up with his tiredness. At least with that mercenary he stupidly got himself involved with, it didn't get complicated until the last second when it didn't have to influence his actions. "I have a question...""Those are never good with you." You give out a slight humourless laugh which was kindly reciprocated with more serious glare."I just don't understand again, you're so confusing. I hate it. This time, it's not just why did you do it for me. Last time, it was likely you'd be fine. This time it's a miracle we both didn't die. We're okay-ish now but I get that you don't like me still, you're too stubborn to change that fast. So, why? Are you mentally challenged or something? Genuinely. Why the fuck did you do that?"His statement caught you off guard slightly, but this time your answer was clearer than last time."You're my partner, too valuable for me to let you die." That wasn't the whole reason, and he knew it too."Don't bullshit me, you've been doing most the heavy lifting so far, if anything I'm shocked you don't see me as dead weight. What you did was so unbelievably stupid that can't be the only reason.""It's just in my nature, I'm sure it's obvious by now. After everything that's happened, feelings won't make me let someone die, even if I lie to myself I would want it to happen. Regardless, I opened my eyes a bit, given myself a more mature viewpoint, you're not that bad." To be honest, a very small part of it could've been that he was hot, but maybe that thought was just there to humour yourself in this dull conversation. The thought of your horniness making you save his life makes you smiles at least a bit at how stupid it was."You're smiling? You almost died." He says incredulously."No, I was just thinking.""What could be so funny at this time? Please enlighten me, because we need to have a serious conversation about your judgement.""Would you have done the same for me?" You retort without delay."That's different, I can carry you easily. Tell me what was so funny.""It's just you're nice? I feel that your anger issues are exclusive to me, and they can be dealt with eventually. And the people back at HQ would be sad, like Chris. That's another factor." You were making up bullshit at this point, it might have been slightly true, who knows?"That is literally the worst joke I've ever heard, in fact that's a straight up lie. What was funny?""You're really pent up on some stupid thought I was smiling about?""I would like to be as pleased as you seem in this awful situation.""Aren't we wasting time?""I'd call it a well-deserved rest." You were just quickly snapping back and forth at each other and it seemed so pointless."Fine! It was just some dumb joke in my head about you being hot so the horniness decided to save you, but that is completely a joke and there is no truth in it, so don't get the wrong idea." You say incredibly sternly, at this rate it feels like you lack all skills in thinking just like Leon said. Why would you do that to yourself? You just gave him the worst ammunition to clap back at you with in all disputes, and to harass you in general."You think I'm hot?" He says, his seriousness instantly evaporating right off his beautiful, stupid face. Instantly replaced by a cocky grin, you groan at him."I regret telling you already.""Yeah, I bet you do.""Am I off the hook now? Will you stop questioning me you merciless cop?""Oh not in the slightest, sweetheart. We can talk about that later. Right now, we can talk about what you said.""Sweetheart? Now you're really crossing a line.""Don't you like it when an attractive man calls you sweetheart? I know you do, if you weren't so mad at me right now you'd be blushing." He quickly manoeuvred himself to sit right next you you, catching you off guard. He was seriously starting to get on your nerves again, but in complete honesty, it was all your fault and you knew that."Are you going to make me take back that agreement about getting making an effort with each other? I'm not in the mood.""You're never in the mood. Why can't I tease you as relentlessly as you do to me? Can't handle a taste of your own medicine?" He leans in closer by your ear, you immediately push his face away with your palm. Your eyes instantly widening and refusing to face his direction. "Come on... Got nothing to say?"You feel your heart rate pick up, not comfortable with how bold he's gotten, and how you don't mind it. Determined to stop your breathing for getting out of control on top of it."Leon. You're getting the wrong idea. Stop before you do something stupid." His hand gently cups your jaw turning you to look at him, lips centimetres apart. You can feel his warm breath on your lips."I'm getting the wrong idea?" And suddenly you can't stop the heavy breathing, the shakiness of your breath, the pink that tinges your cheeks. "You've done plenty of stupid things today, isn't it my turn?" He whispers, moving closer until his lips are on yours, his eyes closed. He makes you melt your weak defence effortlessly, your own eyes closing and returning is. You feel his cracked lips quickly soften under your mix of saliva as he captures your lips.His hand meets your waist, pulling you onto his lap, feeling his own heart rate follow the increased pace of yours as your chests press together. Your own hands come up to his hair, burying them in its softness and pulling him deeper into the intimate exchange. You slightly shiver when your his fingers slide up the back of your shirt, feeling the sudden cold of his fingers, and the hardness of his fingerless gloves touch your bare back. Then your radio blasts in both your ears, making you both jolt.He coughs and as he fumbles to get back on his ear piece while fixing his hair, you straighten out your own clothes. You look away from him as he responds to Hunnigan, your face completely red, his own flushed and hot."I have information on that Luis Serra you asked me about.""Oh yeah? Go on." Leon said, his breathing still a bit shaky."Did I catch you at a bad time?""No, no. Just came out of a physical altercation, I'm good, go on." Leon tries to look at you but you quickly look away, pretending to cough and looking around the room. You've never found rotting wood so interesting before."He's an ex-Umbrella scientist." That's enough to get you both to pay a bit of attention."Should've left him in that bag to rot." He says."Keep an eye on him, report back later." Hunnigan cuts off, Leon clears his throat awkwardly, a moment of silence is left between you."So... Are we gonna-""Let's just go." You say, quickly cutting him off and grabbing your pistol to walk out, feeling the regret already hitting you like a bad hangover. Sick with anticipation and immediate regret. He takes a moment to catch his breath, then following behind a short distance behind you.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ The next few moments of the walk to the wheel to open the gate, and walking out of it were the most laborious and he struggled to find something to say, and you tried to avoid any talking as best you could. Not only that, but when you were walking back to the gate, you saw what was left of the Ganado that Leon must've killed after you were knocked out. Some of their heads were smashed in, bones broken, heads snapped off. He went completely ballistic on these villagers.You gave a quick glance to his combat boots and noticed how completely bloodied up they are, what could have brought him to kick their heads until it was completely mushed up? Stepping over the bodies, you're annoyed that the gruesome sight wasn't enough to get your mind out of what had just happened.That regretful interaction and the silence it induced allows Leon to finally admit to himself what he's been denying for a while. Since you saved him at the start, he had been interested in you, even if it was just a small feeling in his chest that was suddenly brewing at a faster rate. And now watching how you gave in, he thought you felt similarly. He didn't know why you were denying it now, or going silent. His amplified anger was probably just a defence mechanism to stop him from getting into another Ada situation, or deal with the unrequited nature of his real desires. He knew better than to repeat the most regretful part of his history.His hopes weren't high, he knew that the fact you were both DSO agents, a department that faced so many deaths. He might even lose you, like he lost Ada, he promised himself this time it would be different. Getting too close and going through that again with someone he would learn to care for so deeply if this went further would ruin him. Despite this, part of him already felt it was too late, he already cared, and he already wanted something more and knew he couldn't stop himself.He kept looking at you, when you walked side by side up the road you came from, just for you to refuse to look at him at all. Your chest felt extremely tense on the walk back, knowing his eyes were on you only made it worse. All you could do was focus up the path ahead, muttering to yourself internally how stupid you were to give in, feeling frustrated at him as well for putting you in this position.Something that had always gone unsaid is that you would never date or get romantically involved with any of your co-workers, mainly because it was against protocol, and secondly because it made your job complicated. It was a clash of interests for your missions, since reaching objectives may clash with personal relationships, and your mission becomes a second priority. Ignoring that fact, Leon was someone unimaginable for you to be involved with, completely incompatible. The nonsensical craving echoing around your head made you thank yourself for the self control you had in your clearer state of mind, convincing yourself to upkeep it throughout the long next hours with him. It wasn't even a choice, you had to stay away from him.Another frustrating part that you didn't have anyone to tell, to help you keep your composure, and focus on saving Ashley and you still had no idea where she was, or where the windmill you were meant to be looking for was.Being mad at him helped, it was only a short term excuse to stay away from him. On the path back you quickly came across the merchant again and his stand as he was directly opposite of the gate. You went back up to him Leon going the opposite way to figure out how to open the gate since it turns out the hexagonal key was part of a puzzle needed to open the door, knowing that he needed to give you space, even if it was for a bit.The merchant noticed how you had both split off and didn't talk when you were approaching him, as you sprawled out all of the valuables you collected, he asked you a question."You lads alright? Finally out the honeymoon phase?" He asked curiously, looking back at Leon who was trying to incorrectly figure out how to get the key in the hole."The honeymoon phase didn't last for more than a minute." You say sarcastically, you got on for a minute again then it all flushed down a drain."So what happened, darlin'? The man's had affair?" His voice was giddy and joking, but you could hear the seriousness under it."None of your business.""You know you can tell to me, I ain't a snitch and you'll never hear from me again after ya leave this forsaken place." He had a valid point, you couldn't talk to your best friend back home on this mission. You didn't trust him but why would he tell Leon anyways? The two would never interact without you there regardless, as long as you didn't mention your mission you wouldn't be breaking any protocol."The stupid bastard had to go out and make everything so much more complicated. We're not dating and we can't be dating for a nice, long list of reasons. He kissed me at the settlement down the road. I guess you could I say I was just as stupid for returning it in the heat of the moment." He nods as you talk, while examining all the gems and jewellery you bought to him in the mean time."Can ya blame the poor man? You're quite a woman from what I've seen so far.""There's plenty of women like me that he knows of, and he's hated me since we met.""Then you've gotten the wrong idea, darlin'.""No, he definitely hates- or hated me. Every second we saw each-other there was a screaming match. Everyone knows about it in the office.""Co-workers? Gets more interesting the more I find out." He lets out a raspy chuckle, when he thinks more about your situation. "Y'know arrogant men are rude to the women they're into.""Leon isn't the arrogant type. He's only like that with me for some reason. With everyone else he's quiet.""Ye bring out something different in 'im, he's more interested than he lets on, luv'." He says, after putting all the gems down for his eyes to become preoccupied by Leon behind you, who is punching the key and trying to kick it in. You refuse to turn around and look at him as well."Clearly. After that disaster.""Well are ye interested in 'im? That'd be a good start, darlin'.""No." You say instantly, still feeling mad. "I'd rather date my cousin than that prick.""What's wrong with 'im?""He's a prick.""Easy fix in 'is case. The man seems like a good lad, easily tameable if yer know what I mean.""We can't be dating anyways, against company policy. And I hate him.""Hate is a strong word, luv'. Here's an easier question, darlin'. Did you enjoy the kiss?"You instantly cringe at yourself and without speaking it gives the merchant the answer he needs who gives an expected smile."You don't hate him." He says, amusedly. "I'll take your mind off this, sugar. I'll give ya a pretty penny for these valuables." He says, tossing down a heavier bag of coins on the tables, you sigh and take the bag."What do I do?" You groan, leaning your elbows on his table with your face in your hands."You're not gonna like my advice but I'm rooting for ya both, darlin'. I'm always available if you change your mind about 'im." He laughs to himself and you sigh. "Your boyfriend is coming back so we better wrap up this conversation, hm stranger?""Alright, thanks. Stay safe in the mean time." You nod him off and walk back to go to the gate which Leon has failed to open, walking right past him silently."Come back anytime, stranger.""What did the guy say?" He asked as he followed up next to you."Just sold a few valuables." You say bluntly, the first thing you've said to him since the incident. You hold out your hand for him to give you the hexagonal key, looking at it for a second and seeing the bird engraved on it that needs to fit into the door lock."Couldn't figure it out." He says, but he knows he's been so frustrated, that he's been trying to punch the hexagon into the lock in the wrong position, turning all his confusion from you into anger on it. Shockingly, it hasn't smashed yet.You look down at the thing, you need to get the bird in the same position as it the engraving of it in the hole. You get it into the same position, facing the opposite direction so that when you flip it, it fits perfectly. Pushing it in, the huge iron gate suddenly rumbles and it slides open."Look at that. Got myself my own Alan Turing." He says, smiling at you but the atmosphere can't help but be a bit awkward as you don't reply, instead walking ahead.In front there's a small group of Ganado which are defending the metal stairs behind them, there are high sandbags and storage boxes the two of you can use for cover and you're out of sight as you approach. The two of you just end up quickly shooting down the 4 Ganado that guard it and go straight up the stairs where yet again, there's a small path that forces you both to walk an inch apart, or him behind you. He choses to walk next to you. Perfect."Could you not walk behind me?" You say."Why? There's enough space for both of us.""Personal space.""You didn't seem to care about personal space just a minute ago." He smiles, trying to lighten you up, but you're quick to shut him down."What you did was unprofessional, I can't believe you.""You're one to talk about unprofessional, doll. You kissed me back, didn't you? You liked it." He walks a bit closer, his shoulder nudging you a little, his head leaning down and facing you as you keep yours straight toward the path."I don't know what fantasy you have going on in that twisted little head of yours but I can guarantee you that will never happen again.""Oh yeah? Wanna bet?""Leon, I hate you. I can bet you my first born child for you to stop thinking about me like that.""I get to make that first born baby with you, is that what you mean?" He smirked, you could feel his breath on your neck again, your hand twitched, greatly considering slapping him."If you don't back the fuck up, right now, you're going to get seriously hurt.""I thought you were a fan of teasing?""From you teasing is the equivalent of harassment. Do you want me to report you?""Report me?" He chuckled, clearly unbelieving. "That's bold of you.""Seriously.""Was I at least a good kiss?""Leon!""What?! Let's communicate, no?" The smile on his face is so mischievous, he's so proud he's gotten under your skin, because at least now it meant you'd speak to him."No, you were an awful kiss... Ugh. Can we talk about something else?" You find yourself starting to get desperate to talk about anything else, knowing he wasn't going to shut up anytime soon."You're all flustered already? Just from thinking about it? Are you sure it was a bad kiss?"You let out a long groan and ignore him for as long as he can keep his mouth shut. After a glance, he figured getting on your nerves wouldn't help, even if it was amusing."Fine... Something else..." He mumbled, trying to think of a new topic for you, anything else was better than silence for him. "I said I'd ask you this later, why'd you almost kill yourself for me earlier?""I liked you, very temporarily. That's my honest answer. I didn't want you to die because I liked you and enjoyed your company. Emphasis on liked." You say, hoping that was enough to get him off your ass. "I thought I could do it anyways.""Right." His words are brief, trying to get you to say more."Yeah, you fumbled, hard. I could have liked you, isn't that crazy?""Fumbled what? A cute friendship with you? Isn't it obvious that isn't what I want?""Just give up.""DSO agents don't give up, love. You'll give in eventually." At that moment, you made it your mission to make this man hate you again, to return things to how they were before."You're 27. Why are you so persistent for someone that doesn't even like you? I'm not giving into some crusty, annoying ass guy that gets on my nerves all the time." You finally came up to a clearing, with a shed to explore and stairs leading up to a higher part of path's forests. You wonder what was up there for Ganado to be guarding. You step inside and quickly search the boxes. "Leon, you understand why we would never work out, right?""I don't care about company policy, we wouldn't even need to tell anyone.""It's DSO, the government. They would find out, they would investigate the second they have suspicions.""Are you saying you want to, but our jobs are stopping you?" A sliver of hope flickered in his face."You love jumping to conclusions, don't you?" You leave the shed, after collecting the bullets and herbs that were littered around the little shack.You start reloading your pistol as you walk up the stairs, since it was half empty after the settlement, and you finally had more bullets. But the timing couldn't have been worse. The second you walk up a few steps, you hear the revving of a chainsaw right in front of you. You quickly stumble back on the steps, the landing could have been awful for your back if Leon wasn't behind you to quickly run up and catch you.He shoots it twice in the face, making it recoil slightly, giving you both the timing to run back into the clearing for a fight.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚You quickly finish reloading your pistol while making distance with the armed freak, recognising him as the man you saw in the first village you came into."You didn't kill him?!" You shout at Leon, starting to shoot it's face. "You had one fucking job!""He walked off with everyone else when the bell went off!" You pulled out a grenade you collected from the last settlement, it was the only one you both had left but you prayed it would finish off this nightmare of a man. "I don't know how many times I shot him before, he won't die."His chainsaw started to rev and he ran at you both, pulling the pin, you threw the grenade at his feet and ran behind a tree. Upon hearing the explosion, you come back out. He had fallen to his knees, trying to regain his senses from the shock. You and Leon met him with waves and waves of bullets, they all hit him digging into his toughened skin, but nothing going completely through. He was already back on his feet."You see what I mean? The guy just eats grenades casually.""You get more useless by the second, can't do a single thing." You mutter, it came at you again, causing you both to split up to opposite sides of the clearing, leaving you jogging away from it. You were about to run out of bullets in your pistol, making you start to panic. You take out your rifle, knowing the shots were more penetrating and you had bullets to spare on it. "Could you at least get him on you?! I need a steady shot!" You shout over at Leon."Done." He runs over and drop kicks the thing in the back, making him fly off. To be honest, the sight was ridiculous, but you needed to focus on getting to a good position. You heard it shriek as it got up, simultaneously revving it's chainsaw but you had already made good distance and had gotten yourself into position.It ran at Leon, faster than it had before, it was hard to get a clear shot on his head."Shoot it!" You pre-fire, the first shot stunning it, giving you a clear shot for to the second making him stumble back. You must have weakened him enough to get your bullets to have an influence. Leon took the chance while it was down to kick his head in as he was already worn down from all the head shots."You really like kicking their heads in." You say, squatting down next to the body and checking if he had anything valuable, he had a sapphire on him, for whatever reason."Works every time. They don't get back up, learnt that in Raccoon City.""I know your feet are nasty as fuck, using them that much.""Do you have to be so insulting all the time, princess?" You roll your eyes and start walking up the steps. Immediately, you hear the sounds of whimpering through the metal gates in front of you.You push them open, following the sound of the pitiful noises at the back of the manor you had just found."What's that?" Leon asks."Like I know? Shut up." You creep forward, peering your head over the corner to locate where the faint cries were coming from. When Leon finally sees what you do, in a split second he's by it's side. A wolf had gotten trapped in a bear trap, it's leg bleeding all over, tainting it's pure coat of white.He wastes no time in opening up the bear trap, and taking it into his arms to stroke it tenderly as he kneels on the floor."You and me both, buddy." He smiles as it nuzzles up against his legs. The sight is so adorable, you feel yourself soften up.You walk up next to him, squatting and petting your new friend, then getting out your med kit."You poor thing..." You quickly spray it's leg with antiseptic while Leon continues to hug it and stroke his head, you bandage up the leg and pet it's soft fur some more. "These people are evil.""I wonder how long he's been out here." Leon mutters as the wolf starts licking his jeans. "We'll avenge you, don't worry." Your own lips come up in a smile as you watch how sweet Leon is to him, the gentleness and warmth he shows to the injured creature. How his broad arm cradled it's frame, and how the stray showed him so much love back, it was adorable. The mad display of yours immediately warms as you smile and show it as much love when it starts licking you too."You're a dog person?" You ask, feeling fuzzy from having this fluffy beast in front of you, such a refreshing sight from all the monsters you've encountered so far."I had a bloodhound, he was great.""I love dogs. Oh god, I think I'm getting attached. Can we keep him?""Do you want to stay with us, buddy?" He asks the dog with a huge smile on his face, met with another lick from the dog. "Good boy. Yeah, I think we can keep him." His hands rub that back of his ears again and comes nose to nose with him. It's adorable. "Let's name him.""Milo. A cute Spanish name for a cute Spanish dog.""Perfect. Vamos, Milo." He says, getting up and walking down to the door of the manor with the wolf sticking by your side, constantly nudging your legs with a slight limp. "Someone's showing up their neighbours.""I think it's the village chief's house."You walk through the house, finding a bathroom beside the stairs. Leon goes in first and finds a man taking a shit on the toilet, reading a newspaper. He quickly shoots him in the face 3 times and quickly shuts the door to keep out the smell of the humid, rancid room, and the sight of the blood splattered all over the wall behind his lifeless body on the toilet."Sorry you had to see that." He coughs, talking to the dog. "Probably nothing you haven't seen before in this village.""I'm gonna go upstairs, look around down here.""You sure?""Yeah, I can handle myself.""Alright." You step upstairs, and the dog runs up with you, to your side, making you giggle. "I feel betrayed. You better at least keep her safe, or you're in big trouble." Leon says jokingly, making you stifle a laugh.You and the dog go upstairs and find a book turned to a page with a short extract about some farmer's pigs getting murdered, followed by all his crops dying because of a curse."I guess everything in this house is creepy, Milo. I'm glad you came with me." He barks and licks your leg, you walk up to the opposite end of the hallway with a door that had a huge circular hole. "What is with these people and weird shaped puzzles for every single door?" You sigh. "Come on, let's go find your dad." You walk back down the stairs and find Leon in the kitchen with meat in his hands, making Milo jump toward him."Now you want me, hm? I'll be your favourite, forget this woman.""You find anything?""Yeah, the closet is locked." He points at the end of the kitchen, with a padlock. You go up to it and match up all the photos to the book you read earlier, farmer, pig, crop, and it suddenly unlocks, leaving you a crystal ball with lots of little balls inside which you assume is for the door upstairs."You're really good at those puzzles.""I guess that's why they put us on a mission together. Anyways, we're about to do another one upstairs with this thing.""Alright, we'll leave Milo down here for a bit so he can enjoy his meal." You both give his head a final rub before going upstairs to go figure out how to open the door. You place the crystal ball in the door, and quickly figure out the balls instead are meant to shape an insignia from your angle."I think I'm enjoying the peace too much." You say as you start moving around the ball."It feels, so much has been happening.""I know what you mean." After a second of silence and focussing, Leon asks you a question."About the kiss." You feel the breath hitch in your throat."What about it?" Your voice was strained as your eye twitches slightly. There was nothing more you wanted to do than to forget it, but that would never happen."Why did you... kiss me back?""How about why did you kiss me in the first place?" You ask defensively."Why are you so mad about it? Do you want me to apologise? I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, it was all in the heat of the moment. But I don't regret it.""I do.""So why did you kiss me back if you act like you hated it so much? Please, you're so confusing. I'm just... Trying to understand." Like a miracle, you finally get the ball into the correct placement, in the shape of the insignia you've been seeing all over the place. You walk in, ignoring him. You look around at a desk, looking for anything that might be of use.After you open a drawer and finding an insignia shaped key, he traps you with his arms either side of you, leaning on the desk. The whole situation would have made you cave if Leon was anyone else other than your off limits co-worker. So instead it made your blood pressure fly through the roof."You're not getting off so easily.""Leon, what do you want me to say?! That I liked it? Is that what you want to hear? That I think you're hot and I'll give into you just because of that? Do you want me to lie to you? Why don't you ever shut up? Leave it alone!""Just answer my damn question. Stop being so confusing all the time, I don't know what this game is to you. One second you're kissing me back, teasing me, saving my life, the next you won't speak to me. It's driving me insane.""I liked it for about 10 seconds, and now I regret it. I just want to forget about it. You think I don't feel confused by you either? I think you hate me, then you're fine all of a sudden, then you hate me again, and then you kiss me. This would all be so much easier if we just went to how it was before-" A broad man kicks down the door, the same mad that had injected you when you had found Luis in a bag. Leon quickly steps back, both of you drawing your pistols and shooting to no avail. He grabs you both by the neck, holding you up and looking deeply into both your eyes. Your guns had already run out of bullets and it was impossible to reload."Your blood has accepted the gift." He says. You hear the sudden sound of a zipline at the window, and bullets are shot at the man's head making him drop you both, leaving you coughing on the floor. You catch a glimpse of a black-haired woman in a long red sweater at the window before she disappears, and the man walks out without any further actions."Gift in our blood?" Leon was already on his feet, reaching his hand out to help you get off the floor. You quickly slap his hand away and get up on your own."I'm more concerned about who that woman was, she's following us.""What woman?""It was a Chinese lady in a red sweater, with a zipline." His brows furrowed, looking confused. I can think of one lady that likes ziplines and red."What?""What did she look like?""Short black hair. That's all I could really see. What is it, do you know her?"How is that possible? I must be going crazy."I don't know, I didn't seen her. I'm sure it's nothing." He shakes his head as he walks out the door, seeming absent minded and leaving you skeptical. What is he not telling you?You follow on, and Milo jumps on him the second he gets downstairs, licking his face. But Leon doesn't seem as happy as he would have normally been at the sight of this little ball of innocence."You been a good boy? You enjoy your treat?" He asks, rubbing the back of his ears with little enthusiasm as he was licked up in return. You end up just walking out, too confused to say anything, not even sure if you were being delusional for thinking something was going on. Milo runs after you, Leon following shortly after, supporting the silence.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚The walkthrough to the gate on the other side of the manor went straight back into the village that you started at, the town hall that everyone had abandoned themselves into after the church bell started ringing. You glanced at Leon repeatedly who was more out of it than he was before whatever had just happened.You push the key in and unlock it, pushing it open and bracing yourself for a hoard of Ganado. To your pleasure, it was empty. You walk in and sigh, looking around. It's as nice as the Village Chief's manor, with high ceilings and scattered around with gold figures and paintings. You walk around, and Milo comes up to your leg, nudging it to get your attention. He has something in his mouth.When he looks up at you, you see he has a sapphire, between his teeth."Aw, thank you." You say, patting his head briefly and walking until you find the back exit. "Leon, what is up with you?""Do you hear that?" He asks, dodging the question."Hear what?""Hissing." He looks around a bit and breaks one of the boxes around where the sound is coming from, a viper jumping out at him. Without a second thought, you bolt out the back door with Milo, hearing a gunshot from behind you. Leon walks out a second later, holding it in his hands. "We have a souvenir.""Get that thing, away from me.""Are you afraid of snakes?""I'm afraid of wild vipers that jump at people. Why are you still holding it?!""They're edible.""Have you lost your mind?! They're venomous!""Are you seriously that picky?""Oh my god. You're eating wild, dirty, probably equally as infected as everything else in this place vipers for dinner. I can't imagine what other disgusting shit you've put in your mouth.""Yeah, but you still kissed it." He replied, his voice less snarky than it should be. "Thanks for leaving me though, again.""You were free to follow me right out that door." Milo bolts off down the path. You both go and run after him, finding him biting a Ganado's legs. Leon pulls his gun out and kills him, walking off up the path. You roll your eyes at him and you whistle for Milo to come back to you."Don't run off, okay?" You tell him, he barks. "Good, I don't want you to get hurt. Behind me." Milo was slowly becoming more and more like your child, you wondered how this was going to work out for him the more you progressed in finding Ashley.You follow behind Leon, talking to Milo who was just happy to be there. You wondered how long he had been out here with this cult."Y/n." Leon called."What do you want now?" You retorted."Look." You look up. It's the church. Right in front of you. With a graveyard in front of it."Fucking finally." You say as you walk up ahead, pushing the gates open and finding the entrance of the church to be locked. "Perfect. I'm stuck with you for even longer.""Lets go find if there's any other way in." He walks around, finds a door on the side of the church, and goes inside. It's a study with maps on the walls, and books scattered all over the place. As well as a trap door on the floor. The lack of things trying to kill you, being trapped in a room for a moment with Leon, was a perfect moment to trap him into answering your question."So... Who was that woman?""No idea.""Tell me who that woman was.""I don't know.""Don't lie to me.""I don't need to tell you anything.""If it's affecting our mission, you're going to tell me, Leon.""How is this affecting our mission?""She was watching us through the window, how is that not alarming to you? Leon fucking tell me who that was, it's putting me off. The last thing we need right now is more arguments and leaving your partner in the dark.""For all I know she could be some random woman, I didn't even see her.""Then who do you think she is? You seemed incredibly out of it after I mentioned her description, it's someone you know.""Y/n stop.""Tell me.""Just leave it!" He shouts."Is she a threat to our mission?""No!""You know her.""Y/n!" He slams his hand down on the desk, a few wooden splinters coming up from the force. Milo starts barking at him. "No more questions.""What is stopping you from telling me?"He opens the trap door and jumps down it, you look at Milo in disbelief."Can you believe him?" You scoff and jump down after him, it's an underground tunnel leading to another pathway and Leon has already reached the light at the end of the tunnel. You jog after him. "Why won't you tell me?""What don't you understand?! I didn't even see her. She reminds me of someone I used to know, completely unrelated to this entire thing.""Reminds you of who?""An ex." He lies."An ex-girlfriend? That's what you're getting worked up about?""It's a hard memory for me, she has nothing to do with this and I'm not talking about this anymore. I don't know the woman you saw in that window."Up ahead of you, there was a cave, going inside of it there was still no Ganado."Why didn't you just tell me that the first time?""Isn't it obvious?"You exhale, for you, his lies were a believable explanation, the distressed look on his face was real."Sorry.""I wish you weren't so stubborn." He groans and walks alone in front of you, leaving a few meters of space. The cave lead to a huge quarry where there was a pack of black wolves with red eyes getting onto their feet and barking at Leon when he walked into it. You look at Milo sternly."Stay." You pull your gun out and run into the clearing to help shoot the wolves that were circling Leon.They were so fast, they were hard to shoot. How they move so sporadically made it more frustrating to predict if they were going to dodge another shot or leap at you.When you had managed to shoot one of them twice in its head, it exploded and two huge tentacles replaced it with sharp bone on the end, moving all over the place and threatening to slash the two of you. You both focus your shots on it until it finally falls dead.The rest were no different, every time you shot their heads a few times they would explode. Leon had run to the other side of the quarry, taking half of the pack with him.When you had shot your final wolf to death, one of Leon's ran stray from his pack. It was bolting specifically for you, seeing that your back was turned."Y/n!" Leon shouted when he realized, but it was too late. It jumped on your back, making you slam flat on your face, the hard impact shocking you, that was it. It opened its mouth, revealing huge, sharpened teeth, ready to bite into your neck. Milo ran up and jumped into the wolf, slamming it off your back and biting its neck as he sat on top of him. Its head blew up and a tentacle came out, instantly slashing Milo's abdomen.You quickly grabbed your pistol and shot it multiple times and ran by Milo's side, Leon still being preoccupied by his group on the other side.Milo had become a crying mess on the floor as he bled all over the place at an alarming rate."No, no, no, no, no!" You rush to your bag to get to your med kit but it's difficult through the tears of panic that are starting to build up in your eyes. "I told you to stay away!" He replies with a weak attempt of a bark that fades into a quiet whine. "This is going to hurt Milo."You take out your needle and start to stitch the deep wound, never had you ever done any type of aid to an animal before and you were worried that your cluelessness would cost him his life. Your needle penetrates his skin and he lets out a loud screech he's too weak to move away from you, but he's squirming and that on top of your boiling panic makes your hands shake.Halfway through, Leon slides next to you, grabs the needle out of your hand, and does it himself with more composure. You stroke Milo's head, trying to keep yourself as composed as Leon was."You'll be okay, I won't leave you." Before Leon can even finish Milo passes out from the pain. Leon checks the pulse in his rear leg worriedly."He's not dead. Are you okay?" He says placing a hand on your back."Why wasn't I paying attention? Oh god...""You couldn't have done anything. Come on. We'll leave him somewhere safe and come back for him, we can't waste time." He sighs as he takes Milo into his arms, looking down at him pitifully. He then looks at you, with tears still brimming your eyes from the stress. "Please, calm down. He'll be okay.""How are you so okay with this?""I'm not. Of course I'm anxious about Milo, my heart is racing. I don't wanna leave him." He starts walking to the other exit of the Quarry, jogging slightly to go find a bit of shelter for him. The paths you run down are narrow and surrounded by only more high cliffs forcing you in one direction, which leads to a set of doors. You open them, but it's only a cove for the merchant."I guess one pet wasn't enough." The merchant joked as he saw you come in, you run up to him."He's injured. Please, let him stay here for a bit. Just keep an eye on him, please." He's taken aback by your desperation, he had never done unpaid favours for one of his customers. Nor were his usual customers as friendly as you were."What happened?""One of those freak wolves cut his abdomen when he saved me. I'm begging you just take care of him for a bit, I'll pay you back for any work you have to do.""Let me see." Leon places him on his table, and the merchant takes a look. His fur is still coated in warm blood and his body is still completely limp."That's bad. I'll look after him... for a bit." You hold his hand tightly, holding it close to your chest, making Leon grunt but he accepts it's your flirty personality."Thank you, thank you so much." That instantly seems to put off any doubts about taking care of Milo for you."Anything else you need, darlin'?" He asks you."Bullets. We're running low." Leon answers for you."Only got gunpowder, put them with some scrap you find around you can make some handgun ammo.""We'll take it." He says, and you put money on the table and take your goods. "Come on, Y/n." He grabs your hand to take you out another exit with a lake in front, your eyes don't part from Milo until he finally takes him out the door. He takes another look at you and frowns when he sees that you're trying to stop yourself from panicking about Milo, completely out of it. A dragon could fly over you and you probably wouldn't even notice."What is it?""I'm worried about him, if we didn't take him, if I didn't get caught off guard, he would be okay. What if he doesn't wake up?"He looks down at the floor, then he sighs. He opens his arms and pulls you into a gentle embrace. I know I should be mad at her, but how can I when she's like this?"He'll be okay. I promise." You're too worn to be surprised, you put your face in his chest, putting your arms around him and letting a few tears come down his shirt. Hesitantly, he places his hand on your hair and strokes it lightly, feeling uncomfortable with himself. "For now we need to focus. Can you do that for me?"You nod and take yourself out of his arms.I hate it when she cries. Knowing I lied to her just makes this worse."I don't usually cry on missions, sorry. Just Milo... I'd never forgive myself.""You don't have to make excuses. At least you're not hard to look at when you're crying.""Are you calling me ugly?""I'm calling you cute, even when you're being a pain in my ass... I'm not used to comforting people. Clearly.""This is just a one-time thing." You wipe your eyes on your sleeves, walking over to the balcony of the exit of the cave to look over the lake so you could compose yourself with controlled breaths, taking in the freshness of the air. "This place is actually really pretty if you got rid of all those... things.""I think it was a normal village once, then something happened."You nod, observing the lake before you once more before going back off to look for the key. The lake's surface shimmered like liquid silver under the rays that pierced through the thickening clouds. Looking up, you noticed an army of charcoal clouds in the distance that you would hope was not coming in your direction. Around it were some settlements, cave entrances that were flooded and you would need a boat to get into, and a small shipwreck in the middle of the huge lake."Alright, I'm ready. Let's go." Feeling soothed by your heartfelt conversation with Leon, you hop down the ladder of the balcony which led into wooden docks. There were 3 floors of wood, the top one with the balcony that connected back to the merchant's cove, the second leading to a cave, and the bottom being the docs where you saw a shitty boat. You shudder, thinking of the hours it would take to check this entire area for the church key as well as all the ominous caves you're going to need to go into. Certainly not like any mission you've ever done before.You hop down the ladders and get into the boat, letting Leon sit in front of you as you tried to start up the engine. You take the pull start and give it a few tries, all of your attempts fail. Leon sighs and takes your place."Gotta do everything myself." He takes the rope and pulls it with all his force, almost ripping it out of the engine, after 4 tries, you push him back off the boat."Don't delude yourself." You look in the engine and take out the spark plug, as the engine is completely silent when you try to start it. "There's no gas and the spark plug isn't... you know... sparking.""So now what? We've got no gas, and no spark plug.""We can go check that settlement, they probably have gas, I don't know about a plug though. I've got an idea that sounds kind of stupid but it's a last resort.""What?""Do you know anything about engines?""Yeah, I've got a motorbike.""My first motorbike was a two-stroke, the boat also has a two-stroke engine. Then it broke and my dad set the spark plug on fire to get it hot enough to spark, and it worked. Interestingly enough...""However he came up with that..." He thinks about it for a second, then smiles. "You into motorbikes?"You nod, stepping out of the boat and cleaning the spark plug on your shirt before leaving it in the boat so it wouldn't break while you go to yet another settlement."My dad loves them so... I don't know the second I hit 16 he went and bought me a motorbike for jokes, kept using them as they're just so convenient.""I guess with that mechanic skill you're pretty good with your hands, huh?""That was your final straw." You push him into the lake, but his reaction time allows him to grab your hand last minute, the both of you falling off the dock and into the lake. He snorts when he sees the shocked look on your face, knowing he's completely taken your mind far away from your stress. Adorable, I can't be mad at her. You laugh as well as Leon gets out quickly before you can swim over and drown him."You're drenched for me, you sure you didn't like my joke?" He smiles as looks down at you, swimming back the short distance to the dock.He holds his hand out, but he suddenly sees a shadow under you, without warning he abruptly grabs your wrist and pulls you up in a second. You almost stumble forward but he holds you in place, looking over the edge. The shadow started to disappear deeper and deeper into the lake. It was huge. "What the fuck.""You reckon I push you in again for being a dick?" You say jokingly, catching a glimpse of the shadow before it completely disappeared."I think we're wet enough as it is. Let's go find that gas before we find out whatever that is." You loop your arm around his, thinking of it as an exclusively friendly gesture. He pretends not to care too much, looking off in the direction to the settlement, to hide the grin on his face, even though he knows this isn't going to last long before you get to the settlement."You feeling a bit better now?" He asks.You nod, the cool water felt like it had washed off some of your sweat, and you weren't drowning in the humid climate even if you were wet which was a phenomenon you were used to on missions. Not only that, but the comfort of Leon no longer being upset at you for earlier, you both somewhat forgetting the events of earlier, allowed you to enjoy his sweet company. Maybe your extended stay wasn't a curse.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚You walk through the cove and it leads to yet another wooden platform that counts as an entrance for the new settlement. There's a ladder at the end of the wooden platform that you're on, and you walk toward it, holding Leon's arm tightly.The entire place was set up so that the cove you came in was on a higher level, needing to hop down into the wet, and walk up a ramp to a lower wooden platform where homes were, so houses and shacks wouldn't get flooded. And there were even higher levels that acted as an outpost, using the cliff around it to support it, but luckily no one was on the outposts at this time."Oh, this looks like the perfect habitat for more vipers." Leon smirks, looking over the marshy land. Your grimacing at the thought that he's considerately placed in your head, blood pressure sky rocketing through the roof but proceeding anyways.Apparently, the weight of the two of you is too heavy for the rotting wood (but you can blame it all on Leon's tremendous weight). You fall through the wood. Luckily, Leon's body cushioned your fall, leaving him to be soaked in the muddy water that was beneath. You get off and pull him up."Being wet isn't so fun anymore, huh?" You joke pitifully."Nothing I'm not used to, at least you're fine." He hears loud footsteps from the wooden platform above you, way heavier than any normal person should be. Leon grabs your waist and pulls you under the bridge, looking from the corner. A knock off minotaur had come down the ramps and into the marshy pit you were in, but he couldn't see you from around the corner. He had a beefy body with a ripped off cow's head wrapped onto his own with rope, and a sledge-hammer that was taller than him. The metal part of it could've probably fit 5 of your own head.He leans back to you, mouth up against your ear."Can you get up to the top platforms? I'll keep him busy from down here. There will be less vipers there for you too." He whispered, hand still gripping tightly on your arm."What about you?""You've got the aim, I've got the hand to hand combat, that's why we're put together. Go.""Don't do anything stupid.""You can save my ass again, I'm not too worried." He taps your back, and you start running under the platforms, making sure to be undetected until you reach the ladder, quickly climbing up. Leon watches you as you go, he nods at you when you get into position and runs off into the open for the minotaur the second you fire your first shot at it's head.It looks up at you, and Leon kicks it in the back, knocking it down for a second. He tries to kick his head but backs off when he realises his bone is too thick. Shooting multiple times, you've drawn the attention of all the Ganado in the settlement who start approaching your ladder, but it will take a while for them to reach you.You think you've weakened his head down enough the third time he gets stunned as he takes an extra few seconds to recover."Stab him!" You shout, Leon quickly takes out his knife and digs it into his head. Successful.He looks over at your ladder, shooting off the two Ganado that were already on it and running into the clearing of the middle of the village. Watching him kick, and parry all their attacks was satisfying, it felt more like a dance than a fight. One by one you would slowly pick each one off, finishing it on a collateral, going through someone's head then piercing the one behind it's leg, letting Leon push his combat knife into it's head.You slide down the ladder, him running up to wait at the bottom."Alone, again." You say, starting to walk and check the homes."Mhm, that never ends well, does it?" He adds, his flirting had become so frequent and you were growing more accustomed to him that it didn't bother you anymore."Yeah, last time Milo got sliced to death.""Not what I was thinking of exactly... I guess we can add getting pushed into a lake.""And that too... There's matches here." You pick them up and shove them into a leg pouch, looking around a bit more to find scrap pieces of metal like the merchant mentioned. Leon looks down at your chest, finally paying attention to the pistol in your holster. "Eyes are on my face, not my chest.""I wasn't looking at that, cute charms." He said, although he definitely was checking you out absent mindedly before he saw the glimmer of pink on your gun. Your outfit had a bunch of charms littered around on them, you had a little bunny charm on it, and a sticker on the side. You were surprised he had only noticed them now."Yeah, I've got them everywhere.""Well it suits since you're pretty charm-ing." He's got a smug grin on his face from his own pun. "Maybe you could get me on some of those charms." You shrug and snag one off your belt, a cat head and toss it to him. He was joking... But he's not complaining. "How do I put it on my gun?"You take it out his holster, as you're walking next to each other you tie it on the side and give it to him. He takes it back and turns it from side to side, curiously."Like it?""It's weird but... I'll get used to it."You smile, finally entering a shack on the other side of the settlement and spotting the gas. You hear hissing in the room but Leon shoots it before you even get the chance to look."Chris is gonna make fun of you." You say as you pick the gas up, trying to ignore the snakes so you don't have an existential crisis."He's always making fun of me anyway. He's probably just jealous he doesn't have a sick cat. Gets no pussy." You cringe again at his stupid joke."And you do? Last time you got pussy was like 1998 or something stupid like that.""Oh, I can get laid. I just chose not to.""Like I'm meant to believe that?" You snicker. "Nice try.""I mean I'm a pretty good flirt, right? Managed to pull the most prettiest girl in the office, who also happens to be the most stubborn."You roll your eyes as you start climbing up the ladder to the exit. "You didn't pull anything. If anything you're pretty good at harassment and being more stubborn than I am."Once you get to the top, he wraps his hand around your waist as you walk. Feeling his fingers touch you through the thin fabric of your shirt makes you feel yourself getting warmer. "Why do you always have to be so cruel all the time, sweetheart? Would it kill you to let something nice out of the pretty lips?""Remember last time I said something nice about you?""You mean when you called me hot? I don't remember, tell me what happened." His mischievous look is plastered all over his face, you swat his hand off your waist in response."Oh you're so lucky to have forgotten the most miserable moment of my life.""I remember you liking it more than you care to admit."You get back to the boat, Leon filling up the gas tank as you take back the spark plug, lighting the matches. You wished you could call your dad to that moment to make sure you weren't fucking up. When you had last seen him do this was 7 years ago, and you didn't want to break it which was a very real possibility with your miraculous luck.You hold the flame up to the spark plug, waiting a few long seconds until it was hot enough that it would be dangerous to touch, but not red hot. Evaporating all it's dampness, if you could at least get the spark going, it would warm up the rest of the engine if that was damp too. You quickly put it back in the engine, filling with anticipation, Leon doing the grace of pulling the rope start."You really just do anything." Leon let out a breath of joy when the engine started to rumble, his eyes full of admiration. You let out a soft laugh as you step in."Thank my dad.""That was fast, already inviting me to meet your parents.""After giving you that charm? That's nothing to take lightly, Leon. That's as serious as it gets, right up there with marriage papers." Letting your guard down after seeing how comforting he could be, made it natural to go along with it. Imagining how much more awful this mission would've been without him made you let yourself bask in his presence, appreciating it now that he wasn't being an unrelenting asshat. But this is just friendly, right?Leon was a bit speechless after what you said, not expecting you to go along with it. Regardless, your words made him start to deceive him with thoughts that maybe the joke held a bit of truth. Why else would you give him the charm?"I'm driving?" He asks."If you want, I'll take over later." He starts driving out the boat to the middle of the lake so we could reach the small harbour on the other side. It's difficult to get a conversation going over the loud rumbling of the engine, so you just sit at the front of the boat, staring at him.You figured he was too focused on driving the boat, you find your eyes drifting off to his arms. God. They're like the size of your thigh. The way they flexed when his hand was on the steer by the engine, how his veins popped out. You could literally see his muscle fibres through his compression top. Oh to all the lucky victims that have been held in a headlock by those things. And his tits are bigger than mine, how is that even possible?"You're gonna make me crash if you keep looking at me like that.""Looking at you like what?" You know he's enjoy the attention."Don't play dumb. Agents have fantastic peripheral vision, you know that. I though stealth was your thing, sweetheart.""I was just admiring the scenery from my peripheral vision, since it's that good." The engine stops making noise, the motor stops turning and the boat slows to a stop right in the middle of the lake. You quickly sit up, looking around as you could've sworn you hear more water movement that wouldn't have been unnoticeable with the engine running.You're both silent, looking around attentively. Until a pile of floating scrap on the distance starts to bob up and down, something is in the water. In the next few seconds, a huge creatures ruptures from the water right in front of the boats. The wave it makes almost knocks you off the boat but Leon grabs the back of your shirt with a firm grip on the edge. It flips right over the two of you, scraping the end of the boat, and catching itself on the anchor at the front as it did so.With the split second you had to catch yourself, you lurch forward, falling straight into Leon. The boat is being dragged around by the monster you barely got to catch a look at. He helps you back on your feet, gripping for dear life on the edge of your boat. There are harpoons strapped to the bottom of your boat, almost spear like."Now would be a good time to put that aim to use." Yeah, aim on guns. Not spears. Not like I have much of a choice. He takes hold of one of them himself, you grab one too. It's body finally came up from the water as it dragged the two of you around the lake, Leon had one hand on the steer to make sure you didn't dump into any of the debris floating atop.Leon was launching spears at it'a huge eel-like body, while you boldly shot for it's head. The thing must've been about 30 metres long."They have whale size snakes here too." Leon says, you don't laugh. Wondering how he can keep so calm when this rackety boat could crumble at one hit from the thing. You bit your lip anxiously as it went under the water again, completely silent. Your eyes darting around the place, praying in your head. You were starting to get nauseous, but you've never had boat sickness before in your life. Any feeling you're snapped out of when it comes from the water again, leaping in the air. It's huge mouth with layers of jagged teeth launching straight for your boat.Simultaneously, you shoot your harpoon right at the back of its throat, Leon hitting his gums. It's head changes trajectory, turning to the side and letting out a animalistic screech, making the whole area rumble before dipping back into the lake.Your heart pounds with each breath, beating like the flutter of a hummingbird's wings. As fast as your reactions were, it felt as if that was too close.The boat stops for a second, trying to deceive you into false hope. But it doesn't stop you and Leon from looking around cautiously. You boat jolts forward again, his body peaks out from the lake as he's dragging you yet again.It's the same process of tossing harpoons, but you're starting to notice that you're getting very nauseous. This fight would have to end soon before you pass out and get flung off the boat, without any means to support yourself.Every shot now you try put as much force to end this as soon as possible. You can see it's body getting more aggressive, it's writhing around haphazardly is enough to give you the he dread you need to expect things might end in this lake."Are you okay?!" Leon shouts. "I don't think he has long left."Another hit, right in it's eye. It feels like a nightmare as it dips it's head underneath the water again. You take two harpoons into your hand, ready for it's next appearance. The mouth rips from the water again, coming for you. You throw both into it's mouth, Leon following suit with only one. But that's enough, it falls deeper into the lake like it's body has just gone limp. A huge wave almost flipping the boat over came over you.The waters flood with rich, red blood. Immediately, Leon leans over the boat, adding his own blood to the mixture as he coughs. You lean over weakly, placing a hand on his back."Are you okay?""Yeah, yeah. I'm fine.""Coughing up blood is a normal occurrence for you then?"He pushes himself back upright, you grab his arm and help him, he immediately falls over and slamming onto the base of the boat. You stumble over by his side, holding his shoulders and shaking him with the little strength you could muster up yourself. He's passed out."Leon? Leon...?" Your eyes are starting to go hazy and your hearing muffled. "Leon, wake up." You feel something rise up in your throat, catching the cough in your gloved hands. You can make out the blurred view of your blood, quickly wiping it on your jeans. It's not long before you blank out, body toppling on Leon's.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Restless nightmares, except this time it wasn't about Penamstam. A sullen man, white filled his pupils, sticking out in a pool of his otherwise blackened eyes. His body is corpse-like, with sunken cheeks, pale, and aged. Hooded in black drapes and golden treasures.Yourself standing beneath him, your vision warped as you stared at him moving closer to you. His insignia staff was shaped with writhing snakes, matching the ones you had seen all over the place since you had come to this village."Sacrificial lamb. You will receive our most sacred body. It begins now." Your body was frozen with terror as he stepped toward you, holding his hand out to your face. It was nothing but him, everything around was too dark and warped."When day breaks you too will join our covenant. To share in my holy blessing..." His hand reaches, it's right in front of your face and flesh-like tentacles erupt from his hanging sleeves. They penetrate your skin, slipping underneath and thrashing around in the flesh of your arms. The pain is agonizing, you're about to rip apart from the inside.Tormenting screams leave you as you hopelessly flounder, trying to force your arms against the forceful animals living in your skin.Your eyes open and immediately you try to sit up, but arms are around you. You quickly check your wrists before anything else, there's nothing moving around in there. As your mind was consumed by what had just happened, you sigh and lean back again, feeling something squishy and warm behind you. Leon. And he's just waking up from your moving around."You're finally up." He mumbles, with a grainier voice as he's just woken up."I don't remember passing out like this." You start to shift, slipping out of his arms, which annoys him slightly. He stays sat and leans back on the boat as you start the start up the engine."When I woke up you were laying between my legs. Didn't want to wake you up." And I just didn't want to take my arms off you. "Bad dream?" He asked as he had one just like yours."Some guy talking about a holy blessing. He looked like my primary school headmaster if he was a meth head."He laughs softly, the nightmare now a bit more light-hearted in his memory. "Interesting way to put it." This place would be much more of a shit hole if you weren't here to make stupid jokes.You pull into a smaller harbor that's covered by a wooden shack, and when you step out your earpiece starts buzzing. You quickly pick up."Where have you been?! You've been radio silent for more than 3 hours! I was getting worried!""Don't you mean lonely?" Leon snickers at his own joke, you can't help but smile at it as well, but you don't let her hear you giggle."We're fine, something came up." You chime in before Hunnigan can make an embarrassed response. "We're looking for a key into the church.""Right, glad you're okay. Please hurry." You turn it off and quickly check your pistol before leaving the harbor, you've got 10 bullets left."Pass me your bag." You say to Leon, he takes it off his back for you to go through it for some resources. You quickly pull your hand out when you touch something leathery, upon looking there are multiple vipers in there. He peers over your shoulder, maybe you found his concerning supply of gum he's forgotten about."Oh yeah, forgot about those.""When did you even get these?!""Been taking them out behind you're back so you don't shit yourself. Besides, I found this little blue task paper from your dickhead shopkeeper boyfriend saying he'll pay for 3 of these things." You stare back down into his bag incredulously, he's amused at the look on your face. "You don't need to touch anything you don't want to, princess." He picks up the bag and takes out the scrap metal, placing it in your hand, letting the contact linger for a moment longer than it should have, enjoying the slight buzz he felt at the contact.You sit on the ground, starting to make the bullets in the same way the merchant told you, Leon closely watching you so he could copy. He was probably more admiring than he was paying attention, his mind still blissfully occupied by what had happened earlier, but he managed to get the hang of it anyways. You were concentrated enough at first to make sure you didn't make any fuck ups, but the 5th bullet in you had quickly gotten a proficiency for it, letting your mind wander off.You kept finding yourself making quick glances up at him when you got to a simple part of the process, looking at his soft hair flayed over his face, his veiny hands making quick work of the bullets, but fiddling a little more as they were so large. It would only be a few seconds at a time. After a few minutes of this ongoing, you found yourself looking back up at his face. Suddenly he was looking through his blonde locks, blue eyes trained on you. You know better than to look down, you wouldn't want him to think you're embarrassed. Even though you could feel your chest warm up the slightest bit.He doesn't say anything, only looking back down smiling. You finished with your bullets within the next minute as you're so focused, just so that you don't look back up. You get up, reloading your gun and magazines. You both walk out of the harbor, setting off on your adventure yet again. The minute after you leave, it starts raining, on top of that it's already dark out, and you're trekking through another thick forest path.You're starting to get sick of it already. Milo should have been your last straw if Leon wasn't there to draw you out a little longer, you would be fully done after the lake monster but how kind the earth was to have forced you into a traumatic nap in your partner's arms, although the second part shouldn't have been as sweet as it was.Leon walking beside you notices the slight change in how you're walking, he wonders if you're thinking about Milo again. The two of you have been wafting around in silence for long enough that he wouldn't blame you."You alright? Cold?" You shake your head."Tired of this, but nothing new in this job. Not really used to fighting this much, they usually put me on stealthier missions. And ones with less mortifying biological weapons.""I think we'll be looking around for a while, there won't be too much stress for you now. We've almost got Ashley." You hear the shouts of villagers up the road, it makes Leon give you a pitiful smile. It's not too hard for you to quickly suck it up and continue to walk ahead. It's clear that Leon is trying to position himself slightly ahead of you for what's coming. You don't even see the first villager round a corner as Leon instantly is pulling his pistol out and shooting it in the head multiple times.The second you think he's dead. His head explodes.Leon is too close to jump out of the way of the tentacles that spring out of its head just like the dogs you saw earlier. Instead, he knocks every bladed edge of their tentacles with his knife as he slowly retreats back to you. You took out your rifle for this, shooting its head until the movement of the limbs whipping around it would slow until it eventually dropped to its knees. You sigh and kick it as you walk by, flipping it off for being a slightly larger inconvenience than usual.You ask if he's okay and he mumbles something out about how that was too close and his place in front of you becomes slightly firmer as he's more uncertain of what other worse things you could find in this area, and in this darkness.At the end of the path, next to a dead body on a sacrificial plate which you end up ignoring as it's no longer shocking, there's an entrance to a cave. You shake your head and step back, feeling dread build up. It's literally the most possessed thing you've seen in your life, clearly from the body outside, and the skulls decorating the outside."I'm not going in there." After another man's head explodes with tentacles, we'll probably find the Kraken in here."Well, that's debatable." Basically, you are definitely going in there, but you needed another moment to make bring yourself to your senses. He sighs and holds his hand out, when you don't take it, he grabs your hand anyway. "I'm in front of you, I'll die first. I won't even let it happen. How about that?" He's unbelievably gentle, his hand easily inflicts his own composure on you.With less of a frown on your face, you enter. You'll have Milo back soon and have Ashley too. All you needed was the key. His grip tightens as it gets darker and you need to hold a flashlight in your free hand whereas he has his gun out. It's dark and what you'd expect of a normal cave. The passages are narrow, there are short dripstones above you which occasionally catch you off guard when they tap you on the head.The cave gets less intimidating the less you go in, Leon's hand-holding becoming more relenting when he realizes you're not letting go. A bit sick of the silence, you talk."Raccoon City." You can see the shadow of his face immediately grimacing. "How did you survive?""Luck. Just a lot of luck. Probably used up all the luck I'll ever have in my life. Can I ask the same about you and Tokyo?""I had military training ." You wondered how you should word the next bit. "I was there for rescues." Close to the truth of what actually happened, you could retell it in a way that only the country it happened in was different. "I was only 19, fuck knows who made that decision to send me since I was still mostly gullible and this would be the worst thing I'd experience in my life." You were on that mission since you had been so extraordinary in your training and other, lesser missions, that some dumbass superior put you on this as your first big mission."After seeing the first member of my team get ripped to shreds when we got deployed, I freaked out and strayed from the group as any reasonable 19-year-old would have done since the situation wasn't looking great anyway and my entire team had gone against orders in the first place, which I didn't want to do." You've already said too much, feeling self-conscious and vulnerable, and you quickly wrap it up. "So basically, I lived because I was a pussy."That was enough to have Leon completely shocked, already pent up with many questions. His hand suddenly became tighter, trying to give a bit of comfort to you."What happened after you escaped? When your superiors found out you deserted your mission? How'd you even find your way back?""My whole team died so no one could really snitch on me, everyone had turned off their radios too so they didn't report it when I ran off. Escaping was a lot of waiting things out and stealth, it took me a week to get out of there." By waiting things out you meant you had to watch your team and members of the Mad Dogs team that deserted with you get burnt to a stake as you hid behind debris. Then somehow, they get set free and cannibalize the cult members that tried to set them on fire. You wince, which doesn't go unnoticed by Leon.His thumb rubs circles on the back of your hand, and it helps. Regardless, you bite your lip as you pull your hand away, shuddering at the memory. It instantly dawns on you that you have gotten way too comfortable with Leon; you were confiding in him in a way that was much, much more than a co-worker. You had only talked about this with one person, until now. He sighs, although understanding when you pull your hand away. He wishes he could do more."Now we're DSO agents, the government's never gonna let us catch a break." You let out a quiet laugh."It's not that bad." It definitely was that bad. The two years were the hardest, but the brutality slowly helped you get over it, as well as finally talking with your friend about what happened. "The money is great, at least we can be sad in our luxury apartments or a villa in Palawan when we finally get a holiday.""Not that bad you say. Get me on the missions that you're doing, because I consider killing myself every time I see Chris or the boss in my office."You finally get to something interesting in the cave. You see light through a tight passage that you're gonna have to squeeze to get into. You wonder if Leon's fat ass is going to fit but you go first, going through just fine. You were watching through your peripheral vision so he wouldn't feel bad, but as expected, his ass was squeezing up against both walls and he was struggling. You were pretending to be inspecting the shrine but you were just watching and registering it as something you're going to harass him about.He could see the smirk on your face as you were looking at the shrine, he knew you probably watched that entire thing. He sighed as he walked up beside you."That happens more than you'd expect.""What happens more than I'd expect?" You ask, unable to contain the fat grin on your face."I'm not stupid.""Mhm."He rolls his eyes as he sees you inspect the shrine after your sarcastic quip. He gives a quick glance at it and ends up leaving you to figure out what's going on. You need to fit in two stone somethings in the tall hand statues, to unlock the golden church key in the middle and you really can't be asked. The weather is already bad enough and it's freezing out there now, you will if you have to, but for now..."What are you doing?" He stares at you as you climb up one of the hands and start snapping off multiple pieces of dripstone then hop back down."Just getting a quick snack, what does it look like I'm doing?""You could hold me at gunpoint and I still couldn't guess." You jam the dripstone into the holes until you find ones that fit adequately. It doesn't work. You let out a loud groan before Leon can suggest finding the actual statues. You kick down the statue that the church key is locked in, it falls to the floor, still encased by stone hands. You go and grab a boulder from the cave and hurl it and the hands. It chips, but it's still faster than searching this entire area for two statues.You never fail at managing to fascinate Leon with your barbaric thinking. You quickly manage to chip off one of the 5 hand stone figures that hold the key. Before he can even think to help, you're stoning this poor statue to death, it's like he's watching you slowly become more and more deranged as your slamming becomes more faster and more forceful but still looking completely composed. He's completely enthralled after the few minutes and you finally pick up the golden key from the floor, holding it up in your bruised hands with a guiltless smile."Can't wait to meet Ashley.""I think she's going to be terrified of you."˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Back at the Merchant's Cove, you were pleased when you saw Milo cuddled up on his lap at the stand. He sat there comfortably, leaning back and napping too, with one hand on top of the wolf. When the door had opened and Milo barked and shot out of his lap, startling him awake."Did he give you a hard time?" You asked as Leon was getting brutally attacked with saliva by Milo at the entrance."He woke up 30 minutes after ya left, he's a good boy that one. He's still got a bit of 'er limp though, badly scratched up."You sigh and look back at him, his limp is bad as he runs around Leon, but he's trying his best and he's happy to be here. You doubt he'd be able to make it back down the path to the church without needing to stop. He's not a soldier who can just tank a gruelling cut like you and Leon, and there are only worse things coming."How much do I owe you for looking after him?""I think I'm gonna steal the little thing from ya, the boy's an absolute madman." His gravelly laughter was disrupted into a coughing fit. Your gaze goes back to him, your answer is right in front of you. You can only imagine the extra company must be nice for him."What if I told you that you didn't need to steal him?""Ya mean I can keep 'im?""Temporarily." You suggest."Permanently." He bargains."For the rest of my stay.""Permanently.""We'll discuss it later.""I run a business, luv. I'm not one for discussions on price, darlin'.""You'll make an exception. I must be your favourite customer, right?""You're like me auntie that used to me house every Thanksgiving an' chat about divorcing her husband the sixth time that month." Your snort. Fair enough. You think. I'm asking for a lot, in return just to give him updates like a Wattpad fan-fiction author on how your dysfunctional relationship is going."But I'm still your favourite customer.""Answering questions like that is bad for business, luv.""It's fine, I already know. It can be our little secret." You smile as you sit on his counter and continue to watch Milo, the man would probably never allow that from any other customer. Milo finally comes up to you and tries to hop up on the counter, failing miserably with his injuries. You wince as you pick him up, cringing at the pained way his muscles tense, and lay him on your lap. Leon comes up in front of you to pet his head again."We can't keep him with us." You whisper to Leon."Why not?""Are you serious? Look at the state of him. Don't argue with me on this." He pauses and looks down at the way Milo's chest heaved and the slight wheeze of his inhales."I wasn't going to... What are we going to do?" You gesture your eyes behind you to the Merchant. "No.""Fine. We'll let him die with us then, and he's a liability to our mission. Ashley.""When did you get so cold?""I'm focusing on what's important for us, and his safety. When did you forget how to do your job?"He groans, looking at you with an unimpressed look."Please?" You ask softly. "I don't understand why you don't like him, he's a nice man.""I don't trust him, there's a difference.""He's not going to ruin our mission by leaving Milo with him, which we've already done.""Fine."You stroke his head for a bit as you turn around to talk to the Merchant again, buying a few grenades and selling what you found on the fish farm. You hop up, leaving Milo on the counter."We're going to leave him here with you for a bit." You finally say after that conversation, Leon was occupied by Milo the entire time, looking annoyed."You remember the deal!" He shouts as you walk out, holding back Milo from running after the two of you."No, I don't!" You shout back, and now you're too far out for him to shout anymore. You look back at Leon, who's trying to hide how unsatisfied he is with the agreement with a cold look. "The kids aren't around anymore, cheer up." You joke, in a pathetic attempt to change his mood."We could've kept him.""He's in more responsible hands now."He scoffs. "The man had rocket launchers on his wall and you call him responsible." He actually hadn't minded that fact Milo was being taken care of, he was more frustrated that during that entire transaction, you barely spoke to him at all. It looked like you were flirting with the musty shopkeeper too. Was flirting that casual for you?"You're jealous.""Jealous? That's a good one.""You get moody every time I talk to my 'dickhead shopkeeper boyfriend'. I'm not going to try and fuck him, you know. And I'm not going to try fuck you either, so there's no reason to get jealous." You kept your tone light and playful, but it was true. No more fucking coworkers. You never had before and you were never planning to start."I'm not jealous, Y/n. I don't trust him.""Then why are you acting moody? Focus on the mission."I can't. Not when I'm on a mission with you. Fuck. Why is this so difficult?"I'm not." But he very clearly is, well it's very clear to you anyway. You smile and slip your arm around his endearingly, you hope to make him feel better. It works, because now even though he still won't look at you, his cold look has melted away."I'll break protocol for you, so cheer up a little Kennedy." Breaking protocol (especially unprofessional contact like acting too friendly physically) was common for you to comfort your partners anyway, especially your close ones. As long it didn't impact your objectives.Why are you breaking protocol for this and not for what we want?He doesn't end up replying. Instead, regretfully lets you cling onto his arm in his own stupid, clouded judgement. Letting himself fall more and more under your forbidden affections, just enjoying your physical touch. It's especially bad when you lean your head on his arm when you're not getting enough of a reaction and the path becomes too quiet.As you get into the quarry you were in earlier, he takes his arm away from yours. Stepping away from you, he shakes his head. He looks at the confused look on your face, wondering how you're so naive to what you do to him. He knows a lot of how he feels is his own fault, he kissed you, he warmed you while you slept, he took your hand, he accepted your touch for so much longer than what it should have ever been. He doesn't want to stop trying, but he does need to do damage control, no matter how weak he is to you.How do you just stand there, say I'm off limits, then touch me like that? Reciprocating. Is what he wants to say, carefully planning out his words before he lets them leave his mouth."What is it?"There's no answer from him because as it usually goes, he's interrupted. All gates of the Quarry slam so that there is no escape, you look up and see a priest-looking figure in a goat skull and otherwise draped in ragged red cloth on top of the 30-metre-high walls. A staff with a red lamp hanging off the top. More rumbling."Split." You quickly say, and you both run to opposite sides of the area, preparing for the huge door that was slowly opening. He runs to the opposite side of the Quarry, you try to catch his gaze to give him a reassuring look before this starts. He's already committed himself to the fight, taking his mind off you.The gate is drawn completely up, and a muscular, 15-metre-high, hunchbacked creation stands before you. This sight of him is completely diminishing, you feel the hope being instantly sucked from your chest. That is literally the worst thing you have ever seen in your entire life, how do you even come about killing it?Your look instead turns to Leon who is surprised, you see his lips move as he says something to himself, but he is nowhere near as mortified as you. Are these the missions he was usually put on? You were begging that this would be your last mission that wasn't of your usual, stealthy nature if you made it out alive. You follow what he does, pulling out your handgun and shooting its tough, cracked, pink skin.He picks his target. You. You're closer. As he marches toward you, instantly you're doing laps around the Quarry. This is a nightmare. As you start running, his footsteps make the ground beneath vibrate. One step from him is like 20 of yours and you thank the lord you focused on speed training. Now you're next to Leon again, shooting him as you've made the slightest bit of distance. The bullets are thankfully not deflecting off him, you see dark blood shoot off the spots you hit."Run, let him chase me." You're not one to complain, but you know for a fact that you're way faster, way more agile than Leon."I'm keeping him on me.""Listen to what I fucking say for once." El Gigante begins to get too close and you both have to run again, in different directions. You get dangerously near to make sure he gets on you and not on Leon. "Y/n!" He shouts lividly as you barely dodge a stomp and almost fall over from the vigour of the vibrations it brings to the floor next to you. With no regard for himself, he runs for you, grabbing your hand as you're slightly staggered and running to the other end."Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" El Gigante charges toward you, both having to jump out of his way. You intentionally run away from Leon so he can't shout anymore. He's trying to aggravate the fat thing by shooting him and taking out his anger by shouting insults. But, you're not going to let him put himself in danger when you're much more equipped for this. You shoot him as well - before he can pick which one of you he wants to attack, a parasite pops out his back.The thing is fleshy, disgusting, covered in membrane. You both shoot it relentlessly and quickly until he falls forward, the second it tries to take two steps. You run forward and jump on its back, slashing the membrane with your knife and Leon comes up as well quickly after he saw what you were doing. You shout at each other during this exhausting process."What are you doing?! Why don't you listen to a single thing I say?!"You ignore him, focusing on slashing the plaga. You feel the giant start to rise slightly and you both quickly hop off. You shoot him in the face as he starts to come up, and it chases you again. Every second of it makes your stomach tighten, and throat dry, like your heart is ready to explode and shatter your ribs. Leon has stopped shouting, now instead his anger is quiet as he chases him, shooting the plaga on his back, trying to catch his attention instead but failing miserably. His body is tense as he watches you, feeling sick knowing something could happen with one slip up.The next time he drops down and you hop on the fattie's back, he doesn't shout this time, knowing you won't listen, and not understanding why. For now, he's going to make sure it's on him and not you. It rises again and you slip off him, a roar which shakes the wooden walls around, echoing around the area for miles. He stands in front of his face as he rises, shooting him. The giant makes an attempt at grabbing him which he jumps out the way of. And now it's chasing him.You make use of yourself, although feeling incredibly frustrated, you know this is better as you've expended so much energy sprinting. You take out your stronger rifle and start shooting him in the face as the plaga has shrunk back into his back. You hope that he's finally getting weak, as you've been running him for 10 minutes until Leon replaced you. Your legs feel shaky from the amount of nonstop movement, and the anxiety.He looks as if he has barely been impacted, and you're on the verge of losing control of your legs. This was impossible. The only way out was to hide until recovery or somehow sneak out which seemed impossible, but leaving Leon isn't an option. You hold your rifle tightly, focussing down your scope, taking the extra seconds to make this shot. The bullet blasts through the tip of your gun, soaring toward the beast.Its eye pops with blood spurting down his face. His head snaps back to face you. You instantly feel yourself freeze up as he slowly places his hand over the blood oozing out, turning his body to face you. Leon stops in his tracks when he realises it's stopped following him, looking at him, you're at the other side of the huge Quarry. Panicked, he takes his pistol and shoots him as quickly as he can, anywhere he can ensure a hit. Every single bullet is completely ignored as it stares at you. You don't even know where to run, frozen in place, eyes darting around for any possible hope of escape.Its back foot digs into the ground beneath him, slowly pressing a terrifying deep hole. Leon makes a head start at running for you. Your hand shakes as you hold your gun up, trying to shoot it to no avail. He races at you at an ungodly speed, the shake of his slamming steps causes dust to roll off the wooden walls and rubble on the ground to bounce.You barely jump out of the way, falling onto your side. How he abruptly stops and slams his foot back down on the ground again makes you stumble as you try to get up, you're simply not fast enough. You feel hot blood drip on your shoulder, before you can look up you are grabbed with a force that makes you feel like your bones are turning to dust inside you. Its jagged nails dig into the flesh of your thighs and hip, making you scream out. Leon is behind, shooting the plaga in his back frantically. Your head feels like it's about to pop and all you can hear is high-pitched ringing.He brings you to his mouth, opening it and you feel the hot, moist breath all over you. You smell what you can only imagine as the previous carcasses that he's eaten. You shut your eyes tightly, both hands bind to your sides. And you hear a loud bullet, hearing it shoot by your head and into the mouth about to engulf you. You're suddenly falling from the treacherous height, your body too numb to curl yourself into a protective position. Your leg, back, or neck, is definitely going to break in half from this height. Your eyes remain shut, bracing for pain that is even more unbearable.Your fall is broken and instead, you're encased in softness. Leon is there, panting heavily, eyes slightly wet from what you can only imagine as a repulsive amount of distress, and you can feel his heart moshing in his chest. He looks at you, feeling a swell of relief and anguish at the state of you. Your cheeks are wet with the uncontrollable tears of being crushed, your entire body shaking."Are you okay?" He asks breathlessly."I can't feel my legs." You whisper, your head is throbbing. His expression is pained as he looks down at you. He puts you over his shoulder, running down the Quarry as El Gigante is still holding his mouth, it's clear the gum shot went deep. He places you by one of the walls, leaving you slightly hidden by a stack of boxes, holding your face in his hands."You scared the fucking shit out of me." He breathes worrisomely, you manage a nod, leaning your face into his palm."I'm sorry.""I hate you."I hate how much I care about you. I hate how much I can't do this without you. I hate how much you put yourself in danger. I hate how you did this to yourself me. I hate this. I hate you. His brain rushes with thoughts, blaming himself. He rests his forehead against yours for a second, closing his eyes and breathing heavily."You don't mean that." You manage weakly, feeling another stinging pain from where its nails had dug in and penetrated your flesh. He hears the thumping of footsteps in the Quarry again, remembering the situation. He places his lips softly against your head, you're too hurt to care. The comfort is what you need to help you even slightly. You want to ask him not to leave, tell him to stay, it's so unbearable."I'm going to fucking kill him." His voice is quiet and shaky, and he finally gives a soft kiss to your head before looking into your eyes one more time. And running back out into the Quarry.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚As Leon leaves, you look down at your ripped trousers, blood spilling out onto the floor. The nails dug an inch into your skin, and each of the 4 cuts from the top of your ankle to your hip were almost the length of your entire forearm. Weakly, you take your knife and start ripping your trousers, turning them into shorts as they are so badly damaged as it is. You use the fabric to wrap your cuts as well as you can, anything to stop the exuberant bleeding. It makes you feel light-headed, the pain, the blood loss. Your legs have large patches of deep red that are going to turn to bruises.You peer over the side of the boxes that cover you to watch Leon. It's clear that your shot to it's eye has weakened it considerably, it may have been just what Leon needs to finish this alone. The plaga on it's back twisting chaotically, reflecting now how the giant has been weakened as now even it's own movements are more sloppy. Desperate to not be anymore of a hinderance, you use the last bit of your energy to pull your rifle into your hands.Leon is clearly struggling, he can barely shoot the plaga on it's back as he runs away from it at the same time, dodging messy charges from the thing. Your vision is hazy as you look into the scope, the fact that you're sat helps slightly. You train your rifle onto it's face, taking your time. If you miss, he might start looking for you, and you are in no position to run. Just before he's about to charge at Leon again, you finally get a steady shot. The bullet tears through the air, plunging itself into the white pool of his other eye. More blood bursting out.Leon looks at you disbelievingly, until he's drawn back, needing to dodge it's body about to topple on top of him. You drop the rifle by your side, too exhausted to hold it up anymore, your head leans back against the wooden wall behind you, trying to come down from the exhilaration. Leon climbs it's back, driving his blade deep into the plaga and pulling it upward, splitting the flesh in half. He slides off as it tries to rise again, but it fails, falling over instantly with a loud groan, laying motionless on the ground.Leon runs back to you, picking you up. You could have honestly fallen asleep at any second, but keeping your eyes open for his sake. You can feel how tense his entire body is, his arms are like daggers as they hold you."I am so fucking mad at you right now." He says, walking with you in his arms toward the exit of the Quarry, propping you up against another wall as he turns the wheel to pull the gates back up. "Putting yourself in danger like that.""I know." You say hoarsely. It's better me than you. "I'll heal.""Do you know how easily you could have died there? You should've fucking listened to me and-""And get you killed instead? I'm not that type of person.""Look where that got you. Even after you almost die, when you can't even walk anymore, you put yourself in danger again. What if you had missed? Then what? You'd die on me?" He says, trying to stop himself from shouting, but his voice raised."I didn't want to be a dead hand.""You aren't, you're a dead brain. Completely brain dead. I have no idea what is going on in that head of yours, always placing yourself in risky situations, and for what?""For you, Leon. I know I'm the better runner, so what do I do? I do the running for you. I know I'm the better shot. So when you're struggling because I left you, what do I do? I'll take the shot." He groans at your comment, looking more agitated."We're a team, you can't keep putting yourself in danger at every opportunity.""You do it, you think I don't notice when you try walk ahead of me so you're the first one to get hit? Even now, you tried to do all the dangerous work.""Because I'm used to these type of missions, this is new to you. What are you not understanding?! If you're suicidal you need to tell me now, because I'm fucking sick of this.""Things like this happen on missions all the time! Why do you care so much?!""Why do I care so much?!" He scoffs, you can see he's about to go on a long shout, and you're too tired and in too much pain to just let it happen."Please. Leon, I can't do this right now." He still looks like he's about to shout, but his eyes drop down to your leg, the blood seeping through your poorly made bandage. And just the state of you. His eyebrows furrow."Sorry." He sighs, picking you back up, trying to avoid touching the cuts in the process. He takes you into the cave that leads back to the church, putting you down on a boulder where you can lean back on the stone walls behind. He peels away the cloth that you've attached to yourself, now sticky with your blood, you let out a gasp of pain when he does so. He winces when he sees how bad they are again, they're so deep, so dirty. The lively colour of skin on your legs is engulfed by blood running over like a river. "Can I clean these?"You nod nervously, you know he's going to have to stitch them too or you'll be bleeding for hours. He can barely even stand the sight of it, let alone touching the warm blood as he grabs your ankle so that he can start rinsing away the blood with some water, then going going over the cut with antiseptic, cleaning it thoroughly but trying to be gentle. The giant's fingernails were so dirty that he had to give them all extra attention to avoid you getting a nasty infection, much to your demise as you bite your lip to avoid letting out noises in anguish."Fucking hell, Y/n." He mutters, finally cleaning it decently enough, but blood trickling down still."It's bad.""You're gonna need stitches.""Just do it it quickly." Normally, stitches would've been okay as you were used to pain from the amount of missions you went on. But with deep wounds all over your lower half, you knew it would be unbearable. And with how long they were, it would take ages for him to finish them. He didn't even want to do them, thinking about it made him nauseated knowing he'd put you in more pain and have his hands pricked by your fresh blood. He takes out his suture needle, cleaning his hands with the antiseptic. Looking up at you before doing anything with the needle."Hold my shoulder. It will help." You place your hand on his bicep, holding it gently at first. "Hold me as hard as you need, okay?""Okay." Both of you breath deeply as he pushes the needle into the skin, you let out a quiet whine, hand suddenly choking his arm. He finishes the first knot, face fixed and biting his tongue as he focuses getting the rest one as good as the first. Your eyes are tightly shut, all you can feel is the awful sting of your wound. It's complete silence as he tries to get it done quickly but well, it's exhausting for the both of you."One down." He lets out the breath he's been holding, then looks up at you. "Are you okay?" He asks uneasily, hand resting on your okay thigh, rubbing soothing circles to give you a break before starting the next."Yeah." You croak, opening your wet eyes, but managing to stop anything from spilling. "Just give me a second."He leans his head on your good knee, waiting and trying to not look at your face or your bloodied body. After everything, your lip was still busted from when you had first saved him the village, a thin line of dried blood perched on your plump lips, another reminder this was his fault. A reminder it was only a matter of time of him failing you like he failed Ada. Seeing him like this was diminishing, making yourself feel guilty for what you've done, but not regretting it."I'm ready.""Alright." He picks up the needle again, giving a gentle squeeze to your thigh before bringing his other hand down to the cut and starting quickly. He's more confident on this one, the process is faster. "I'm would ask you why, but I know the reason this time." He says, as he starts the stitch. "Even if I don't understand it.""What? I care about you?" You say sarcastically, then squeezing his shoulder tighter as the stinging fluctuates."You cared even when we hated each other. You put your life on the line for me. I hate that.""Don't worry. I do that for everyone, you're not special." Even if he was special, you were constantly almost dying for others on missions. With the amount of times you've had such a close call you were convinced your luck had run out, and that's why you were in your delapidated state."That's worse," He sighs. "Do you not value your own life?""I do. Of course I do.""So why do you do this to yourself?""Hope? I don't know, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I let my partners get killed again." Ever since Penamstam, you had felt a lot of shame for what you have done, even if it had saved your life, the guilt was ruthless. Constantly believing that you weren't the one who deserved to live, and making up for it ever since. And Leon was someone you would definitely not forgive yourself for if you had let him get hurt, and hadn't gave all you had to prevent it. This is what you told him, although replacing 'Penamstam' with 'Tokyo'.He finishes the stitch and looks into your eyes. "Promise me." He says, pulling your hand into is. You finally look at the shoulder you've been gripping, realising you had been holding so hard blood was starting to blossom on his shirt from your nails, immediately feeling more guilty, even if it seems like he hasn't noticed. He would allow anything if it meant you would feel better. "Promise me you won't do it again.""I can't promise you, Leon." You say ruefully."I can't let myself care about someone who's so willing to go out and get themselves killed.""Then stop caring, I'm not going to stop.""I wish I could stop caring. Can't you just give me this one thing, if nothing else? Give me the peace of mind you'll keep yourself safe no matter what.""I don't think you understand what you're asking of me. We're DSO, what you're asking for is impossible."I always have to get involved with the most difficult women. Agents. Mercenaries. He thinks to himself, letting go of your hand."You're right. But stop putting yourself in danger for other people." He takes out cotton and wipes the two wounds he hasn't tended to yet, and are trickling with blood. You don't reply, watching him as he starts on the next stitch. You don't squeeze his arm anymore, knowing you've accidentally caused him to bleed, he notices this instantly."Was the holding not helping?""It was, I just... Your shoulder. I didn't realise what I was doing. I'm sorry." He looks down at his shoulder, laughing softly. The sound of his voice, no longer being upset or worried was sweet."I'm fine, I didn't even realise. This is nothing, I promise you. You can continue it it helps. But knowing you you won't listen to me anyways.""Yeah, I won't." Your eyes are directed to his hair as he puts his head down again to focus on your stitches. The softness was something you were constantly looking at throughout the mission. Your hands find solace in his hair, cushioning themselves in its feathery, light feel. It takes him off guard, but he enjoys it. It calms his own nerves with the stressful task before him. "Your hair is more comforting than your shoulder anyway.""You really make it hard to me to be mad at you.""Good."You curl your fingers around the strands, pushing it out of his face occasionally, it's easy to lose yourself in it, forgetting enough about the sharp metal sewing you back up. He finishes and moves on the the final one, which is done just as fast."You need to rest." He says, moving to sit beside you, you lean your head on his shoulder tiredly, he places his hand on the back of your head, stroking your hair instead."What about Ashley?""The weather is too bad for evacuation, and you're barely in any condition to run.""Give me some painkillers.""Ran out."After that, there's a moment of silence where you feel yourself drifting off slightly as he massages your head."I'm sorry I couldn't stop you from getting hurt.""It's not your fault.""But it is. Ever since we got here, we've been getting into tight spots and you're the one who has to pay the price.""Do you usually blame yourself like this?" When he doesn't respond, you pull your head off of his shoulder. "Leon, look at me." He meets your eyes, his own are now hardened and unwilling. "Do you?""I blame myself because I am to blame. I think that's reasonable." He says, completely sure of himself. It makes you feel awful, as he looks like he's stuck in a memory, one he's tormented by."I promise you it isn't. I mean it, it's not. What happened out there was completely my fault, I was acting recklessly. And whatever's happened in your past, I bet you it wasn't your fault either." You wish you would stop causing him pain too, after everything he's done for you, how hard he's tried. You puts a hand on your thigh, rubbing it as he feels disgusted with himself by his memories, his only comfort being in your touch. He's gorgeous, seeing him so vulnerable, and how his face glows in the dim lights."I've made so many mistakes in my past." He starts, you can't stand listening to him. You cut him off, pulling him away from the feeling of overthinking you know all too well.You press your lips on his, cave left with only the sound of torrential rain from outside and the soft breeze entering the cave. All thoughts of the agency, his past, what's right or wrong seems to fade away. He melts into you, quickly returning it as if he's scared you'll change your mind.You move your leg, so that you're sat on top of him. The pain makes you gasp slightly, making him pick up your hips to support you and get you more comfortable. The kiss feels evangelical, eternal, finally getting what you've both been craving and not wanting to pull away. Your arms are wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer and closer as his own encase your waist. He bites your bottom lip when you finally pull away to catch a breath."Thank you." He mumbles with a blithe smile, he plants another soft kiss on your softened lips. "Our coworkers were right, you'd snap eventually. Can't keep our hands off each other in the end, even if thought it would happen in a different way.""God, am I going to regret this later." You let out an airy laugh, kissing the shell of his ear, slowly leading down his neck. Maybe it's the fact you're so tired that your self control has grown tired too, but you don't think about anything other than Leon in that moment. He throws his head back, groaning slightly and tightening his hold."Fuck. I'm never letting you go again." He whispers as your tongue reaches his collarbone, his hands finding their way to the hem of your shirt, pushing themselves underneath the fabric.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚His fingers lift your chin as your run out of exposed skin on his neck, bringing your face back to his own to kiss you. He isn't gentle. All his built-up desires set themselves free as you finally give him the chance he's been waiting for.The way he takes control of your lips is dizzying, his other hand pushes your head closer to his, soft groans against your lips as your hands slip up his shirt, feeling the hardened edges of his abdomen, sneakily trying to pull up his shirt but he grips your wrist tightly."Don't you want to take this slow?" He says, caressing your cheek."I don't think we have the time to take it slow, as much as I'd like to." You smile at the pink hue adorning his stirred-up expression, as he lets go of your wrist, letting you slip his shirt off entirely whilst he holds your waist. Despite having seen him shirtless before, the sight still comes as a wave of surprise. You've never paid any attention to avoid flattering him, never seeing the multiple scars scattered along his chest, or just how big and intricate the muscle he had earned from years of hard training and missions.Your fingers run your hands through the ridges of his skin from his v-line to his neck, hearing his heavy, shaking breath quicken as you continue. He bucks his hips up, making you feel his hardness rub against the heat that builds up between your legs, finally giving you both some kind of release."Shit." He breathes out, fingers digging into your waist. When he composes himself enough, his hands slowly move down, caressing your sides as he does so until reaching the bottom of your shirt and holding it. "Can I?"You nod, biting your lip nervously as you are slowly starting to realise what you're getting yourself into, but you know you're too reckless to stop. He lifts the shirt over your head, feeling his breath hitch in his throat at the first glimpse of your chest. You suddenly feel hyper-aware of your own scars, all your own defects. It's been a long time since you've been like this with someone, your government job not allowing much time for a relationship."Unreal." He says after a moment of admiring, still unable to draw his eyes away, he's so quiet it's almost like he's saying it to himself. You still manage to hear it, feeling your chest warm a bit. His hands slither up your back, unclasping your bra with one hand."I thought the last time you did this was 1998." You say lightly, trying to stop the frantic fluster washing over you."Doesn't mean I don't remember a few things." He smirks, watching as your breasts fall from their constricts. He pulls you by the back of the neck, mouth making contact with your neck in a trail of sloppy, soft kisses. "You're fucking gorgeous, you know that?" He murmurs into the curve of your neck, his other hand wraps itself around the swell of your breast, taking its tip into his index and thumb, rolling it softly."Leon~" His name rolls off your tongue in the shock of pleasure he brings. You can feel him smirking against your skin at the sound, his lips moving to latch onto your mound, sucking it gently. Your mouth is no longer your own, letting out hums and moans which you try and bite your lip to suppress. You lean your wrists against his chest, supporting your weak body.The wet muscle laps against your nipple, and you can feel how hard he's gotten beneath you. Your hips roll against his shyly, there's a vibration on your chest as he grunts, it feels so good it makes you question your sensitivity right now. He pulls away and the unwanted cold air washes over that spot again, his hand taking his mouth's place, still giving both attention."Am I doing a good job, baby?" He coos, watching the enchanted look on your face, accompanied by an adorable dust of pink. You quickly nod, unable to make a response without letting a few embarrassing noises spill out.You hear your headpiece ring again, but Leon doesn't stop. "Pick up." He tells you, pushing his lips back onto your body and nipping at the flesh. And so you do."H-Hunnigan?""Have you gotten Ashley?""We're almost..." You have to cough to cover up a moan as he pinches your sensitive buds. "Almost there, slight d-detour.""Are you okay?" You clearly weren't doing a good enough job with your voice. "Did you get infected?" She asked worriedly."Injured.""Is Leon okay?""Yeah, he's just s-stitching me and trying to... trying to focus." He looks up at you with a satisfied grin, which almost makes you stumble over your words again."How long do you think you'll need?""Just a few more minutes.""Alright, stay safe. The weather over there is getting too strong for me to order an evacuation, you had better..." You don't catch on to a word she says as Leon's hands become bolder, gliding his hand across your thighs. Your 'handmade' shorts are cut up to the top of your thigh, and the cargoes they were made from were slightly baggy, giving him easy access to snake into them from your thighs."A-alright. I'll update later." You quickly close off your headset."You're lucky that she thinks we hate each other, you weren't exactly hiding anything.""Fuck you for that, Leon." You place your head on his chest breathlessly, feeling the thump of his chest against your cheek. His hands go just where you expected them to, to the panties that are already soaked with anticipation."Oh yeah?" He says, clearly pleased with himself. "I wasn't going to let her interrupt us, again." His thumb presses itself against your clothed clit, rubbing tender circles over it. "You got anything else to say?" He whispers against your ear, and you can't bring yourself to make a reply. You're holding onto him so tight, nails digging into his back."S-stop." You can feel his hands moving a bit quicker; a knot in your lower stomach starting to stir up."Is that what you really want?" No, it's not. The voice in your head answers immediately. "Just let me take care of you, baby..."The shorts tighten around your hip slightly from the addition of his hand in there, you feel it press against the stitch. You feel the pain erupt back through you. You suddenly grunt, nails suddenly spiking into his back. He pulls his hand away quickly and instantly wraps around you tightly, trying to get a look at your face."Y/n?" You nod in response quickly, teeth clenched together. The expression of pain is clear when you manage to look back up at him. "What is it?""Stitches." You breathe out."Fuck. Shit, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?""It's fine, Leon. Really, it's okay." You say, the pain fades but you're much more aware of the state of the ache of your legs since the stimulation of his hands was abruptly taken away."God, what the fuck is wrong with me? Fucking you while you're injured."You manage a smile through the discomfort. "I wanted it. Just questionable timing for something so... physical."He groans, annoyed with himself and leans back against the wall, still holding on. "I'm sorry." He says again, unable to stop himself from repeating it."Say sorry one more time, and watch what happens." He's about to say it again, but you cover his mouth. "You're like a broken record, and it wasn't even your fault." You say, trying to bring back the light-hearted tone. "How about I'm sorry for cockblocking you? Again." You grin, and you finally lean back to pick up your bra and clip it back on, pulling your shirt over your head too. "Ashley's probably dead already, it was for the better."You get up from his lap, he feels the momentary urge to grab your hips and push you back down. But your fucking hips are cut up. "You should really take a minute before we go.""We had a few minutes. Too many minutes, and we're still on the job. Come on." You toss up his shirt that's on the floor and it lands in his lap. "Don't argue with me."He rolls his eyes and puts his shirt back on. "Whatever you want, boss." He's still annoyed at himself, but that doesn't mean he's disappointed that whatever had just happened had led to nowhere.You smile and pick up the thigh holsters Leon took off when he had started the stitches and put them into your bag in case you healed enough later to endure the tightness around your leg, instead tucking your pistol into your belt. You pull your bag back on and see Leon, who's staring at you as he puts his gear back on too, probably still riled up. "You okay?""I think you're asking the wrong person." He says, gesturing his eyes back to your legs."I'll manage, I always do." As long as there isn't another gargantuan sociopath on the path back to the church.He stands up, walking by you as you slowly readjust to walking with the tension and stinging of your legs. Finally building up enough to stride normally, or almost normally. He offers his hand to try and help the process but you bat it away, determined to charge it yourself. You'll get used to it soon enough."Have you actually not fucked in 6 years?" You ask amusedly as you come out the other end of the cove."What is your obsession with that fact?""Nothing. It just seems a bit unbelievable, you understand why right?""Because I'm good with my fingers? Everything I do involves my hands.""That's not what I mean. You knew where it was, and exactly what to do. You must've been crazy in college, I can't think of another explanation." He snorts at your comment."Flattering. No, I didn't mess around in college. I didn't go to college, I went to Police Academy the second I got out of high school.""It can't be helped you can't help yourself when you're surrounded by fit, dominant women all day. Or at least I would've been acting like a damn dog." Even though we're still surrounded by fit, dominant women in our workplace."I had a girlfriend when I was 21, then she dumped me because I wanted to move to Raccoon City. Then I drank so much I had a hangover the next day and was late to work." He thinks about something for a second. "I probably should've called her and said thanks for saving my life.""She was your only body?""Yeah, we dated for two years so I don't know how it wouldn't have happened." It makes sense he wouldn't have been with another woman since he joined DSO, with all his emotional baggage and extensive work hours. Your dating history wasn't extensive either, a few boyfriends in secondary school, one that you somehow managed to maintain for a year while you were in army training, and like two situationships which didn't last more than a month.There was silence for a while. Rain is still slamming down, and it drenches your legs, managing to wash away some of the pain from its coldness. When you finally get to the gate that leads into the church, Leon stops you and turns you toward him. His face is difficult to see from the rain clouds that have paraded over you both, spreading shadow over the entire area, and the rain drops hitting your eyelashes and making your eyes reflexively twitch."If there's anything in there, stay behind me. Let me do all the heavy lifting for a minute." Before you muster up a response, he pushes his lips into yours, hands casing your face. His warm lips lay on yours for a second before pulling back and staring deeply into your eyes. "I care about you, you know that. Let me do this one thing." You were planning to argue, but when he takes you off guard with his gentle affections, you'd agree to anything. "Please?""Okay, only 'for a minute' though." He smiles and takes the church key from your bag, pushing it into the gates as it automatically twists in and unlocks, the gates turning themselves open slowly. You look at each other before you nod, and he pushes the doors open.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Leon pushes the door open with his pistol readily in his hand. The room looks clear, the higher level where the pulpit would usually lay was what looked like yet another puzzle. Mismatched stained glass was plastered on the wall, illuminating the room with harsh reds, greens and blues.You both step up and twist the red wheel, which twists the red panes of glass on the wall ahead. The other two wheels are missing for the green and blue. You grit your teeth, the puzzles are already ticking you off, and you know that this stupid thing won't be the last. You step back down and start looking around the benches, and drawers in the room. There are a few valuables around which you pick up as you shuffle through storage, Leon drifts off to the other side of the room and you both come back with the two wheels you need.You look down at the puzzle, Leon wrapping his arms around your waist behind you and leaning his chin on your shoulder to look over what you were doing. His warm chest pressed against your back, maybe it would help you dry quicker. He plants a kiss on your cheek as you make a start."How are we going to go back to normal after that?" You think as you start to shuffle around the wheels to match them and make a shape of an insignia. "I've gone too far emotionally and physically to just stop." The thought made you uncomfortable, giving up years of promises to yourself to give it up, in a moment where your logic was drawn probably from the amount that was going on. Not only that, but now Leon felt more for you, and that was entirely your fault. You were still contemplating if you regretted it or not.Being so far from the office made the consequences seem so far away. And being so close to Leon would make your heart flutter and cloud judgement. Whatever. Focus on what's important.All panes of glass slotted together perfectly into an insignia, hearing an unlock a door to your left. You walk to it and open it, leading to a ladder going up it quickly to the higher level of the church. It was incredibly uneasy like anything would've popped out, the feeling that you could talk in only whispers up here easily came over along with a dreadful sense of foreboding.You looked around the hallway, seeing a pink, shattered flip phone on the floor and looking at Leon nervously. You gently placed your hands on the door handle, twisting it as quietly as possible and opening it. Leon tried to go on first but you pulled him back."I think it's more comforting if she hears a woman's voice." You whisper."What if there's something else waiting for you in there?""I'm not completely handicapped. Just let me." Reluctantly, he nods and lets you step in first."Ashley Graham? Are you in here?" You say softly. "Your father sent us to get you-" You hear the shuffling of feet from behind the door, and your eyes snap to it where a metal candle holder races toward your face. Reflexively, your hand comes out to grab it, your heart jumping out of your chest. You see her mortified face, surrounded by her short blonde hair. She tries to run out the second you see her but Leon stands in the doorway, she backs into the corner of the room.You look at each other and sigh, you drop the holder and hold up your hands. You're still slightly astonished but you force yourself to speak anyways."We were sent by your dad to get you, we just want to get you out of here safely. I promise we won't hurt you." Leon steps a bit into the room, and she bolts out the room the second she sees him move. He gives you an embarrassed smile."That went well?"You groan and jog back out after her, brushing past him.When you turn the corner you see her looking out the window, nervously."Ashley-" You start, about to go on a short monologue of anything to get her to trust you, but she cuts you off."What is that?" She asks, you and Leon walk up to the window and your heart stops."Oh fuck." You whisper."Ashley, you're going to need to trust us, this is the only way we're getting out alive." Leon says, and Ganado burst through the Church doors beneath you. You grab her hand and look her in the face, startling her."I promise we'll keep you safe, even at the expense of our own lives. We're good at our job." She nods apprehensively, and immediately you pull to a window that drops to the back of the church. Leon goes down first since you can't jump down yourself let alone catch her due to the state of your legs. "Go, Ashley. He'll catch you." You help her sit on the windowsill and push her gently before she can have second thoughts.Leon quickly puts her down and holds his arms out for you, you jump out and wince as he catches you by the bottom of your thighs and back, now it's throbbing."Did you open a stitch?" He asks."Now is not the time to think about that, come on." You walk behind Ashley, with Leon ahead, leading his way to come back the way you came. You ring into Hunnigan."We have Baby Eagle, can you get us a helicopter?""I'll get on that right now." You hear a few clicks on her keyboard. "The weather is too bad, can you take her somewhere safe?""We'll try." You cut out and hope that at least one of the settlements you came by would be clear. When you walk to the front of the church you're immediately bombarded by a horde, there is no way you are fighting through the dozens that are parading toward you."Leon we can't fight them.""I'll pick off everything that follows, go ahead."You nod and quickly pull Ashley's hand again, pistol in the free hand, to make sure she stays close, and run ahead, shooting anything that stands in front of you but not enough to kill, only stun. You caught a glance of her once to see that she was on the verge of tears, hurting your own heart with pity."We'll be out of this soon, Ashley. Don't worry." The next few minutes flew by, you were so focused on pulling her through as much land as possible that you didn't even realise that she was already out of breath, and you had walked into the farm you had seen earlier, with 4 mutated dogs starting to pack around the two of you. Leon was still down the path, clearing the Ganado that were trying to follow the two of you. "Shit. Go into that shack, now." You say, pointing.She runs toward it immediately, closing the door behind her."Fuck, fuck, fuck." You can see the animals starting you down, you quickly pull out your pistol and shoot them, Leon eventually came running down the path shouting when you had killed two."We need to go! Now! Where is Ashley!""Ashley get out!" You shout over the sounds of your bullets, Leon had helped you shoot the other two dogs. She runs out, running straight to you and holding onto your arm. You start running down the farm, running down a random path. You heard shouting from the house at the end of the path, Luis."Get in! Get in here!" Left with absolutely no choice, you run in. He slams the door shut behind you. You and Ashley were panting by the door with your hand resting on her back, but you mustered up enough strength to look around, noticing the planks scattered around and picking them up.Leon had wasted no time in getting onto Luis."You." His voice was menacing, making even your own bones tingle. You start boarding up the windows that the few planks allowed you, there was only enough to border up the door and 2 windows out of the 6 windows in the lower ground of this house."Hey, listen. About earlier." Luis said quickly, putting his hands up defensively as Leon stormed toward him."Yeah, about that." He slammed him into the wall, grabbing the collar of his jacket tightly. Luis's eyes met Ashley's."Hey... I see you've found your missing senorita." He smirked, Ashley took a step forward."Seniorita has a name and it's Ashley. And you are?""My name's Luis. Encantano..." He said, voice sultry and low, making you roll your eyes and continue to look around for literally anything to border up more windows, snapping off chair legs."Great! We all have names!" Leon pushes his fist deeper into his chest, knuckles digging into his rib cage making him flinch and face contort with pain. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?""Very good questions-""Shut up! Get your shit together and fucking look outside!" You shout. There are Ganado starting to run closer to the house with pitchforks and fire torches. "Ashley, you need to hide.""In that case." Luis turns and squats ready to pick up a wardrobe. "Help me." Leon helps him lift it up and there's a hole behind it. Incredibly unsettling and crawling with spiders, but there's not enough time to find somewhere else. She looks at you, like she's begging for you to tell her no."I'm sorry, come on. We won't leave you in there it's just for a bit." You usher her in gently, giving her a nod before they slam the wardrobe back down."Okay, it's game time." Luis smiles, you immediately want to slap both him and Leon for being immature. "Ammo's on me." He tosses both of you pistol bullets which was much needed. "Hoarders of them and three of us." You push a bookshelf in front of the window that you bordered up with chair legs as it wasn't strong enough as it is. "You warmed up and stretched?""Luis. Shut the fuck up." You snap as Ganado starts to rain in from the open windows, smashing the glass and climbing in from all around. "Everyone pick a window and deal with everything that comes through it." Leon looks at you, slightly stunned by your sudden bossiness, he runs past you to go to the last unoccupied window, brushing his hand against your waist which you slap away in an instant, returning his look irritably. He frowns slightly as he goes and starts shooting down his own Ganado.About 30 seconds go by and it's inevitable that this is absolutely not going to work, there are 3 stumbling through at a time, and when you needed to reload a few slip in, overwhelming you. You weren't the only one who couldn't keep up, Luis and Leon both had to back away from their window. For fucks sake.Now the place was bustling with multiple, all of you running around frantically and shooting. You suddenly heard a bursting behind you and a burning sensation came across a slit in your back, screaming in agony you lose your head and fall onto your knees. Blood drips onto the floor going from around your waist, you look back and see a mutated Ganado that must've recently turned and slashed you.Luis picks you up by the arm, shooting everything around your path and pulling you upstairs. He wraps your arm over his neck to support your stumbling self. Your body was consumed by so much anguish that you were struggling to think straight."Hold on, senorita." He grunts as he lets you stand up by yourself. "Do you have bandages?""My bag." You grunt, he tried to open the bag behind you but you stop his arm. "We don't have time, we can do it later.""How can you fight?""I have-" You grunt and flinch at the pain again. "I have my ways.""Are you sure?" You hear the windows upstairs smash as ladders come through them, Ganado climbing into the upper floor."Yeah, Luis. Please, I'll patch it up later. This happens more than you might think." You say, looking down at your legs."Shout if you need extra assistance, senorita." He turns his Red 9 to the windows, shooting whatever came in and finishing them with kicks to the chest to send them falling back into the floor. You had to play your cards extremely carefully, even with the piercing pains that kept fluctuating throughout you.A second later Leon had come upstairs, running toward you and secondly giving a look of contempt toward Luis who was busy."I don't need anyone to baby me, I need you to shoot your gun." You say to him, and he opens his mouth to say something but you put a finger on them. "Leave it." And then you push him toward Luis so he can make himself useful. It's too painful to have your back straight, so you're left hunched and fingers shaking on your gun.Am I incompetent or do I just have awful luck? You think as you stand your ground on the stairs to stop anything from coming up.A second later, Leon and Luis are bolting back down the stairs. When you look up you see that a minotaur has climbed up the ladders, and is walking toward the group of you. You run down which took a ridiculous amount of effort. It stomps down the stairs, swinging everywhere, breaking every table, every chair, smashing every Ganado around it. You get behind Leon and Luis, as Leon takes his shotgun and shoots its head. Luis kicks the feet from under its legs and you shoot its face 4 times in a row until it's finally motionless, and yet more Ganado filter through from the stairs and windows."Y/n! Hurry!" Ashley's voice shouts, you see her standing by a door at the back of the house and bolt for it, all 3 of you. You run over a bridge and past a gate where everyone stops as you stumble on your hands and knees. Both Leon and Luis try to help you up but you push them off and shoot the chain of the gate just before a Ganado comes running through, slamming the metal gate down and crushing it in half.Everyone is panting and a moan of suffering leaks out of you as you sit up, you only let Ashley help you up."Thank you." You mumble, taking off your bag. The cut is on your lower back, meaning it narrowly missed your backpack, but the shirt is ripped. You contemplate ripping off the lower part of your shirt entirely and walking around in only ridiculous, ripped and bloody clothing."Let me look at it," Leon says, you can't look at yourself so you do let him. "It's shallow.""For once." You take out bandages and wrap them around your waist. "Long day for me."Fuck that hurts."You alright, senorita?""I can't really feel anything, it's fine." You lie, tying it off. "Ashley, you alright?" Ashley had leaned over a tree, suddenly breathing heavier than she was when she was panting. You walk beside her, leaning a hand on her back. And then she coughed. Blood spurting all over her hand."Oh shit. Are you injured?"Luis comes up beside her and takes her wrist, looking distraught. "Ashley. Is this the first time you've coughed up blood like this...?" He asks ominously, she nods."You wanna start explaining?" Leon asks, by your side."The cough, the blood - it's caused by something called a... plaga." You look at him, dumbfounded as he starts to pace back and forth, using his hands as he talks. "Ok, you saw those people right? Well, you have the same thing inside you. The same thing that made them like that." He points toward the closed-off gate. "This, what you're experiencing, these symptoms. They're only the beginning.""I don't want to become like them." She says quickly."Well, you're lucky. You see, at this early stage, the parasite - the plaga. It is possible to remove it with a surgical procedure. And all you need is some know-how. And oh yeah." He turns around, pulling his buttoned shirt open to show a scar on his chest."You too?" You ask."Don't worry, I have a plan. But you're going to have to trust me." He says, walking backwards slowly down the path. You and Leon look at each other pensively. You shrug and look back, Luis claps his hands together and turns back around to walk down the path. "Great! We're partners then.""Hey, why are you-" Leon begins."No time for any questions. The clock is ticking!""Why are you helping us?" You finish for him."Because it makes me feel better. Let's leave it at that... I will contact you later." He says, holding up a radio in his hand and fucking off down the corner of the path, in the thick rain.Leon grabs your hand and takes you out of earshot from Ashley. "I don't trust him." He says instantly."You said that last time. But now, we really don't have a choice. All three of us are going to die with this plaga and there's no way we'd make it back alive on the helicopter trip, let alone America having the knowledge to deal with it.""What if he betrays us? I mean he was working for Umbrella for fucks sake.""Then we die either way. It's better to die trusting a possible solution than certainly dying without him. He seems genuine enough don't you think?""And that's enough for you? Because he chivalrously helped you up some fucking stairs?""Maybe he's doing this to get laid, I don't know. Leon. I don't think you're understanding the situation. We have no choice." You've left him with little space to argue."Is your back okay?" He asks."Doesn't hurt at all. I already wrapped it up.""You didn't clean it.""I'm already fucking infected, let's just get Ashley out of here as soon as possible okay?" You walk away before he can say anything else about your injuries, your legs ache badly and you've started to walk with a limp after that sprint and collapse past the gate."Are you arguing?" Ashley asks when you come by her."He's just overly concerned, it's no big deal.""Is he your boyfriend?"You snort. "No, he's not my boyfriend.""He cares about you a lot..." She says, looking at him, who hadn't followed you back to Ashley, his face distraught as he took a frustrated breath and closed his eyes."He always feels guilty toward everything, I'm not exclusive. Come on, let's go." She nods her head and takes your arm again, walking down the path. She makes a short conversation, asking your name and thanking you about earlier, her hands are slightly shaky as she holds onto your bicep. From anxiety, or the cold and wet, probably both. When is this ever going to clear up so you can finally get her evacuated before you can run into more problems? And where do you go now?You see a purple fire through at the end of the path, it stands out in the dark and is blurred by the rain."Merchant?" You ask yourself quietly."Who's that?""You're about to find out."˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚updates fr be like 'yay consecutive updates' then 'sorry my dogs fat grandfather's cousin shat in my mouth and i got rabies then my car blew up with me in it and also go tetanus and then my rectum exploded so soz u had to wait a week. anyways thank u for reading,

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˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚"Oi! You lot!" The merchant must've spotted you down the path too, you grab Ashley's hand to run into the cover of the little stand he had set up. You lean forward, palms on his table."I really do wonder how you show up everywhere." You say, smiling."What on earth happened to you?""Quite a bit." You say, pulling the bag off your back. "This is Ashley, by the way." You say, quickly pointing your head to a nervous and confused-looking Ashley."Nice to meet ya." You tip the contents of your bag out on the desk, putting things you weren't planning to sell back inside. "You've been muggin' up the locals haven't ya?" Leon catches up, looking over your shoulder at all you've poured out."So - how much we talking?""73,050 pesetas. Almost enough for a rocket launcher."Normally, Leon would've laughed, but his face remained stoic. "You sell rocket launchers?""Ye think I just carry 4 around for myself." He chuckles. "I'm a lot smarter than to get myself in that much trouble, stranger." He tosses the bag in front of you. "You buyin' anything?""Grenades.""Be specific, darlin'.""6 grenades and a heavy one."He put down the grenades without question and deducted the price from the bag of coins that he left."I've got something for them legs of yours." He said, adding a spray onto the table."How much?""Consider it a favour." Leon wasn't too happy about it, assuming that the Merchant was trying to ensnare you with his selflessness.You smile, picking it up. It wasn't that large, and it had a green plus on it. It looked like the first aid sprays they gave out in the infirmary. You sprayed them on your legs and immediately felt relieved from almost all of the pain, some of the redness disappearing also. Way better than the ones back in America. You could literally feel the stress lift off you along with the pain."What is that?" Leon asks, probably too late since you've already sprayed the can from the dodgy man."First aid spray.""Well, it's not like any other first aid spray I've had before. Thank you." You say. "I'll repay you at some point.""Milo's enough, darlin'."Oh yeah, Milo."Where is he?" You ask."Sleepin', under the table." All three of you duck your head under, seeing him quietly snoring."Aww." Ashley coos, her hand itching to pet it, Leon pulled out a bass that he got from the lake, leaving it next to his head and stroking him twice very gently. "He's yours?""He used to be but he got injured badly protecting me, Merchant offered to take care of him and then ended up stealing him from us.""Negotiated." The merchant butts in. "You better get going to wherever you're off to 'cus I this weather's only gonna get worse."You come back up from the table, shaking his hand."Pleasure doing business with you.""That's my line, luv'."You give your goodbyes and start on your journey again. Ashely stays close by your side, she's quiet and shivering. You wished you had clothes to give her, but even the ones on your body were diminished entirely. The second you left the store, the weather did in fact get worse. The rain was slamming down and it almost felt like hail crashing into your shoulders.Up ahead on your path, there's another big gate. You push it open, Leon walking behind the two of you as you walk into it. A few steps past, you hear grunting right by your ear which is muffled by the sounds of rain, you turn around instantly, seeing Leon's arm being grabbed by the thing the man that injected you earlier. Your knife digs his arm, making him let go. He bolts ahead, grabbing Ashley's hand as he runs down the path while you get slammed by his fist, landing on your back metres away.You get up, looking behind you as he shuts the gate, bending the metal of the bolted gate so there is no way back out."Come, child." He says, looking ahead at Ashley on the path. Leon is fighting his way through the battalions of Ganado that are clogging the way forward. You sprint up ahead snatching Ashley's wrist and weaving your way through the crowd."There's not enough time to fight." You say to Leon when you run past him. "Run.""Ashley cover your eyes." He says, taking out a flash grenade and throwing it into the group ahead, making all of them stagger and cover their faces at the bang. You quickly get past them."The bridge!" Ashley shouts pointing to a path on the left, you nod and let go of her, letting her go so she can run ahead of you as you shoot the hoard behind, making sure that Leon is okay. Once it becomes too much, you both turn and start to run, seeing Ashley on the bridge with her foot stuck in the wood, trying to get out.You run next to her, while Leon stands behind you and grabs at the planks of the floor, ripping them off to free her leg. A Ganado comes onto the bridge, and the sound of the bridge's shitty support cracking beneath you starts to kindle. You finally grab her leg and pry it out, with a few white scratches and run to the other end of the bridge. Leon jumps to reach the end as the wood collapses beneath him, grabbing what's left of the cliff you stand on, and you both help him up.You look up to see the man on the other side, staring at you, until he finally walks off in another direction."Ashley's the one he wants." You say, looking at her leg as you didn't get to see if you had badly injured her in that dire moment. She was fine, only a slight scratch on the skin which emitted no blood, only white streaks of flaked skin."Next time you see him, run," Leon says."What about you guys?""We'll do our job. Come on, let's go." Leon goes in front this time, you see him looking at his hand for a second and come by next to him, looking back at Ashley to make sure she's safe, behind you."Is your hand okay?""Splinters. Should probably get a tetanus shot.""They hurt?""They sting. It's nothing." You hold out your hand for him to place his in, turning his palm to face upward and using your nails to delicately pinch them out. "Thanks." He smiles, flexing out his fingers and then pulling your head closer to press a kiss to your forehead.You go back to Ashley with a pink tint, walking by her as the path has closed off so that there is only one house that you can go into. There are stairs on the side of it that lead to the front door which is on the second floor."So he's not your boyfriend?" She asks smugly."Co-worker that likes to try and get me to break company policy.""Exciting! You guys definitely give me bipolar married couple vibes.""Yeah, everyone says that." You let out a shallow laugh. "You know, you're pretty happy for someone who almost died.""I love gossip, being the President's daughter and hearing all the boring political stuff he's got going on Russia and being put in a bubble. Like, they could be great enemies-to-lovers but that plot's been going on for way too many decades. Wasted potential honestly."You snort at her joke as you all start walking up the stairs. "Yeah, I see where you're coming from.""So are you going to fill me in?""I don't even know where to start." The room has a loft that goes around half the circumference of the room, leaving the middle completely open and visible from the loft, all a wooden structure which isn't that shocking. "I guess-"Leon gets body slammed through the wooden wall by the grey man, his body breaks the fence of the balcony as he flies into the ground level, landing on his feet by some crazy miracle. It turns to us, looking directly at Ashley when there are two shots in his arm by Leon's pistol. He jumps down."Cease your pointless struggling. Abandon your body to the will of God." He booms, you silently usher Ashley out the door and start climbing down the support pillar of the loft, as quietly and slowly as possible, going around Mendez to Leon.Still in the shadows in the corner of the room, you hear Leon's reply."You're a shitty missionary, you know that?" Followed by two shots."Oh, Almighty. Grant me your strength to crush your enemies." He puts his hat back on, taking steps toward Leon. He looks around panicked, you roll a barrel of gas to his legs. He kicks it straight into the brute."Hasta luego." He says, making you physically cringe. He shoots the barrel and it explodes in his face, simultaneously setting half the house on fire. You both cover your eyes from the blast.There's a brief silence, you look at each other hopefully, that was all it took?"God. I thank you for your gift." He steps out from the flames, seeing the black silhouette. His body was ripped in half, the middle replaced by a long spine with expanded, writhing ribs and huge scorpion-like claws spurting from his back although his legs were completely intact. He steps closer, his red eyes coming into view."You want to get ugly? Let's get ugly." Leon shouts, taking a few steps of distance and pulling out his shotgun. Immediately you take out a grenade, throwing it behind the man. It explodes, making him stagger, followed by shots of Leon's shotgun.You step back behind Leon, taking your rifle out."You know some of the things you say are really embarrassing.""You love it.""It's only fine when you say it."You shoot the spine in the middle, hoping its thinness compared to the rest of his body would be more fragile. It isn't that shocking that he didn't budge in the slightest. You just need to wear him down like everything else you've come across.Leon hits him repeatedly with a shotgun, dodging and backflipping over attacks which makes you question how he's still alive and still has energy. You jump over the long bones that stretch from its back and try to swat the feet from under you.It screams in a frenzied frustration, and its bottom half rips off from under him, slowly falling over with a loud thud and the top half of its body disappearing into flames. Both of your eyes train onto the flames that have engulfed more of the house, searching for any sign of movement.Your eyes spot it first, a black shadow moving at the back of the flames, you aim your gun and make the first shot, Leon now pulling out his pistol. Long, sharpened planks of flaming wood shoot out from 2 different directions, one coming for you, one coming for Leon. He manages to move instantly, you narrowly miss it, landing on your ass and rolling out of the way of the second that comes to you. His half-ripped body hangs from the ceiling, now with 4 arms, 2 used to climb around the structure of the roof, the others hauling shit over at the two of you."Guess your tap-dancing days are over." Oh shut the fuck up, Leon."Lord, grant me your strength." He booms in reply."Oh my days." You mumble, getting up and hiding behind a wooden pillar to catch your breath and reload. No more grenades, they would send the house tumbling down and wouldn't even hit. You peak, shooting him in the eye, it goes straight through and he falls from the roof. Leon jumps on his back and dives his knife into his skull through the shot you made, dragging it down his back. His struggling body slowly grows limp, until completely collapsing onto his front."Lord... Saddler..." He says before his head bangs against the floor, his fake eye rolling out of his face."Give my regards to your God."You can hear the cracking of the wood around out, the heat blaring against your body with the sounds of flames. As you look around for an exit, hyper-aware of the sweat clinging onto you, most of the windows and doors are blocked off.There's a loud smash of a window from behind you."Get out! The place is coming down!" Ashley's voice screams you waste no time in running to it as you hear the wood starting to crack and pieces starting to crumble around you. Just as you jump out, the entire roof collapses, Leon's leg getting hit by a plank as he jumps out just after you. You quickly get up and pat down the small flames flaring up on his back, holding out a hand to him to help him up. Ashley pats a patch of flames on the back of your shoulder that you didn't notice."Thanks." You say, giving her a hug. You open your arms up to Leon as well, he wraps his arm around you, and he rubs your back. You feel your pounding heart start to slow, the cold of the air around chilling your body. It finally stopped raining, but it was still dark. "No one got hurt this time." You mumble in the crook of his neck."Hopefully, it stays that way.""Let's be realistic." He kisses you on the forehead and lets go, you turn to Ashley, smirking. "You know this guy was doing dishing out backflips mid-fight."She laughs. "Yeah, I got to see it first-hand through the window.""Who do you think you are?" You ask him."The main character." She says, and you both start giggling and laughing.He rolls his eyes at the two of you, making a start on the path. "Come on." You follow behind him, snorting and cracking jokes about it.˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚sorry for the long update, i'm leaving for college in a bit, got my results, had a rough patch in my relationship, went to camp lmfao, my friend is getting deported and the mental health of the people around me is deteriorating and i'm just trying to be there for them. thanks for waiting, this chapter was mainly just trying to develop the plot a bit.

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⋆｡°✩Ashley had felt you were one of her girlfriends already, when she was at home under her helicopter parents who were so concerned for her safety that she could not go out with her friends without extremely close monitoring which seemed to dim all possibilities of close friendships. Here you were, her first female bodyguard, close in age.Her arm was interlocked with yours. It was adorable watching her be so overly excited about having someone to talk to, and the presidential gossip she had was outrageous. Leon had started walking suspiciously close to get his ear in, even if he insisted on being disinterested."So then I heard banging from my dad's secretary's office, like literally they were going crazy because I could hear them moaning and the desk scraping against the floor with each thrust... So I went in to go and check because I thought my dad was cheating and I knew his secretary had a boyfriend waiting for her at home. You will never guess what I saw.""Who?" You asked quickly."The Vice President and the secretary's brother, he works in finance way lower down. But that's crazy! He has 2 kids and a wife! And the Vice President has a wife and 4 kids!"You and Leon just stared with your mouths wide open, both of you had met the vice president at the end of your training graduation, who knew he was secretly a homosexual when he was helping to introduce anti-LGBT laws?Ashley saw you were both speechless and continued. "So I ran out, thank god I'm good at sneaking around because that would've been complicated if they had seen me. This was all last week and I haven't had a chance to do anything about it because you know, I got kidnapped, I don't even know what to do. I want to tell their wives but they both have kids.""Tell their wives, and make a public scandal out of it but make sure you report it anonymously. And Leon could help you build up a case against them because no way that homophobic husband cheated with a man. Right, Leon?""I think you're getting distracted from the mission..." He said, looking ahead. Then he quickly added his enthusiastic idea behind the facade of a disinterested voice. "But, we could get some cameras and mics set up, maybe get some press photos from the windows.""So you were listening?" You giggled, nudging his arm. He rolled his eyes and nudged back."Good hearing. Couldn't help it."The three of you continued to talk about your approach and even more hot White House scandals. You had ended up walking up a hill and seeing a castle, the conversation quickly dying out when you came to a moat that immediately slammed down for you the second it came into your line of sight. Your smiling instantly stopped as you looked at each other seriously. He led the way with his pistol in his hands, you positioned yourself closer to Ashley. As you entered the grounds, your and Leon's radio started to call."Hola, Luis here. You guys still around?""Well we wanted to go home, but Ashley just had to see this castle first," Leon said."Perfect, because I had a present I wanted to give you. Medicine to help suppress the progress of your... problem.""Where do we find you?" You ask."Let's see... Come to the courtyard inside of the castle. We can meet up in there. Ciao!" The sound of the call disconnecting came from the radio as he cut off.It was all made of stone lit by blazing torches, the entrance of the castle beyond the gate was mostly an outside area with some rooms on the sides, stables and stairs leading to the rest of the vast castle. Its size was astonishing, it took up an entire island.The three of you ran up the first flight of stairs, stopping when Leon spotted large doors in the distance and took his binoculars out. You squinted trying to get a vague idea of what he was looking at, it was another animal-hooded figure just like the one at the Quarry. The same robes, the staff. There was no question that the complementary canons around the doors would heavily guard it."Come on, Ashley." You say, taking her hand and pulling her along. Her eyes were hollow as she looked at the horror coming on ahead."We're going through that?""I'll keep you safe. Don't start doubting us now.""Uh... I..." You look at Leon who's completely focused on trekking ahead, you bring both you and Ashley to a stop as Leon goes on. Holding her hand, you look her deeply in the eyes."Don't doubt us. We won't let anything happen to you." You pull a kitchen knife you had found earlier out from your back pocket and place it in her hands. "Use this when you need to, it's fragile.""But-""Don't think too hard, I know it's difficult for you but we've gotten through a lot already." Your eyes drop to her hand as her fingers wrap against the blade, noticing the darkening veins and cringing slightly. They start to creep down your wrists too, your heart skips a beat and quickly turn away to jog for Leon who's far gone up the stairs, taking the chance to clear out the area without you having to do work. The gunshots and grunts of ganado ring from the upper part as you catch up and help him clear off the area."We need to be a lot more careful in here, a lot more of them mutate." He says. "Ashley, you alright?""No." She says with some nervous laughter. "But I trust you. My dad really couldn't have picked better agents.""The flattery is going to make us try a lot harder." You smile, Leon steps forward placing his hand on your lower back and pointing at a dark pathway that wouldn't have noticed."Shortcut.""You smart bastard.""I thought that's something you'd notice. You're losing it.""My intellect is rubbing off on you, actually.""That explains it, does it?" He smirks, looking at your face and his expression slightly shifting. "You look worried.""It's nothing," You say, avoiding his gaze and looking down to his own hands to notice the purple that has grown on them much like yours. "Just can't say I've ever been in a satanic castle before." It's for the best that you don't get him as nervous as you are about the parasite taking control of your bodies. Before he enquires more and drag it out of you, you walk on leaving Leon and Ashley together. There's not a lot of time left and the less time it takes to get to Luis, the better."We're gonna get the antidote." You mutter to yourself, worrying about the two. Poor Ashley never deserved any of this, and killing Leon would be like giving up hundreds of future lives. The dark passageway is an underground tunnel which you assume leads straight into the castle. You jog down the stairs to make sure the coast is clear before Leon and Ashley can catch up."Hey!" Leon shouts after you."I'm just going to get ahead!"The stairs go down the equivalent of 5 stories, it's a deep set of stairs. You squint as the darkness stops your eyes from registering much, they adjust to suit the few measly candles flickering upon the stone walls. A metal door is at the bottom of the stairs, slightly ajar and dark stains of blood upon it, the bolt on it has fallen off and it looks like something has barged it open at some point. You step in, flashlight in hand as the candles only seem to grace the stairs and begin to trek down the dark, damp hallways.The ground beneath squelched and shifted with the amounts of mud crowding the ground, the echos of water dripping. The corners were sharp and at each turn, there were decomposed skeletons lined against the walls. You hurry quickly as you hear the footsteps of Ashley and Leon coming more and more distant.At the end of the long hall, it curves into a large circular room with 3 metal doors at each point. The metal door to your left has a dead man chained against it, the one on the right leads to cells and the one right in front of you has stairs leading up with light. You go to the middle and try to push it, it's stuck in place. You need a key to open it. Looking around the room, to find nothing but a few bullets, Leon and Ashley catch up.Her face contorted upon looking at the bloodied man chained against the door, the chains hanging from the ceiling and the pungent smell of slaughter."We need a key to get up. The cells are down there." You say, pointing and leading the way again. He jogs up next to you, taking glances down the cells."You want that pay rise?" He asks jokingly as you quickly step through the pathway, making a turn to find the largest cell with a cloaked man resting against the door. Dead, of course."The seperation anxiety from my bed is setting in.""You picked the wrong profession." You walk up to the man and pick the key off of his necklace."This profession pays for the bed, so..." As you step back to walk to Ashley who was waiting at the entrance of the cell, a dangerous creak sounds from under your feet and Leon instantly grabs your hand. It's too late before the wood cracks and the two of you fall through, you bang your head against the stone on the lower floor. Leon had adapted from the mere amount of falls the two of you had already experienced together and managed to catch himself with his two arms pressed beside your head to avoid crushing you."How many times is that going to happen?" You groan and he laughs in response, kissing you on the nose. "Ashley! Stay there!" You shout as she peers her head through the hole. Leon gets up and grabs you by the hand to drag you to your feet. Growling and hot breath sounds from behind you and instantly you both snap your necks turning around, you both flinch away, Leon placing a protective hand in front of you.It's huge, skinned and 7 feet tall, his eyes sewn together and his neck chained to the wall. His teeth went to his ears, and a nuzzle was attached. The right arm was replaced by a huge blade, you glad Leon's hand and slowly inch your way toward the exit of the cage with soft feet. There was another long hall, with chains hanging down threatening to make noise, leading to a large room with similar chains hanging down. You see the gate you need to open to get back up, it needs winding to pull the gate up.Leon goes for it, the second he moves the lever even slightly, the deafening screeching sound of the rusted metal scaping against the wall as it opens leads to the sound of chains snapping from down the hallway and the beast bolting through the hallway. As he rams his way through the room, straight for Leon, you leap onto its back, dragging your knife through the plaga and jumping back as his knife slashes in your direction. Quickly stepping to the corner of the room, cautiously trying to make as little sound as you put your finger to your lips as Leon stands completely in place.⋆｡°✩lmfao I actually updated. icl i lowkey came back bc i got a notif of someone telling me to update on my little wattpad feed thing and honestly slay, ty sir you inspired me. i swear I have an excuse, but its actually peak. I've been so depressed i got played, my parent got diagnosed w terminal cancer and has a few months left to live, i got kicked out of college for suicide ideation when i got back i got completely ostracised because of a little bit of your classic countryside racism and just not being a skinny rich white girl and a bunch of other shit but I'm trying to get into writing again just before i sleep every night but obviously ive got a lot to catch up on with college and shit.i have some fun ideas for the rest of this fic but i hoenstly need to get back into the story and im excited to start writing some other things too. id love to write something for cloud before the new ff7 game comes out or some more from leon which is some modern au shit, anyways slay and expect slow updates. im really starving you all but hopefully its enough to keep my children alive :3.

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⭒ ༺♰༻ ⭒You slowly take out a peseta from your pocket, flicking it into the corner and watching as he instantly rams into the wall again, you and Leon pull out your guns and shoot the plaga in its back, making it turn around and try to ram into you. You manage to jump out of the way, and Leon takes the advantage to dig his knife into his back.You grab Leon’s hand and silently sneak your way back into the hallway as it swings rampantly around him. Slowly pulling the pin of a heavy grenade, you toss it into the corner of the main room, watching him slam himself back into the wall running toward the sound of the grenade and stepping directly on it as you and Leon inch backwards into the hallway to avoid the blast. As it comes out of your line of sight, you hear the deafening bang, and the crumble of the stone wall hitting the wet floors, followed by the loud slam of the creature’s vast body hitting the floor. Both of you peer your heads back out, seeing its lifeless body on the ground, separated from his legs, covered by some of the debris.“Thank god...” You mutter, going back to up to the wheel to start opening up the gate, while his arms wrap around your waist.“Thank God I got stuck with you.” He says. “You’re quick.” You look up as he tucks his face into your neck, letting your heart rate slow down.“You’re enjoying this 30 seconds of alone time we’re getting aren’t you?”“It’s not interfering with anything is it?”“Well, what if there was another monster behind us and we were both distracted?”“I’d save your life by getting eaten first. Not a bad way to go.”“You’re an idiot.” You smile, slipping out of his hold and walking up the stairs. You get upstairs to see Ashley anxiously waiting and tapping her feet, her head instantly snapping around when she heard you open the door.“What was down there?” She asks.“Keys.” You say, holding them up and going to the door to unlock it.“I could feel the ground shaking from up here. Are you sure?”You swing the door open. “Might’ve just been Leon crashing into the ground. He’s quite the school bus from what I’ve seen.” You jog up the steps, finding rooms upon rooms with red carpets, golden statues, and intricate paintings of the 18th century. The atmosphere is unsettling, there’s no sign of any threat as you walk through. At some point in one of the hallways, Ashley had latched onto your arm, as she looked around each room you came into nervously.“I take that entrance we came through wasn’t the most welcoming. Not a great first impression.”“Nothing like the White House I’m used to.”“Honestly, this place looks cooler than the White House. Other than the entrance.”“That’s personal.” She says playfully.“My bad.”“Just wait until I tell the President you said a Satanist castle is better than his home.”“Violation of the 57th amendment,” Leon said stupidly. “Treason.”“There’s actually only 27 amendments,” Ashley added.“Of course you’d know that.”“Shh! Or I’ll tell my dad about what you said. That is actually high treason.” All three of you started snickering. You came to a room about three stories high, with stairs leading down to the lower part of the room which had 2 large doors leading to separate rooms. You could hear footsteps coming from the door on the left. Logically, your hands went to the handle of the right door, realising that it was locked, you groaned and banged your head against the doors quietly. When you were done with your dramatic short episode of banging your head against the doors, you leaned your head against it.“Another day of doing your job.” Leon sighed sarcastically.“I hate my life.” You muttered. “You’re doing all the work this time after what happened in the dungeon.”“What’s got you so worked up?” You look down at the veins that had ventured about two inches more up his arm, but he didn’t notice. You didn’t want to stress Ashley out more than she already was.“My work. Get it? Because I’m worked up?”“Come on.” He said, rolling his eyes as he grabbed you by the back of your shirt and pulled you backwards away from the door as you snorted at your own stupid joke.“Of course, we have to go through the difficult room.” You say, taking out your pistol.“Ashley, stay behind me.” Leon said as you pushed the wooden double doors open, leading to a huge water hall. On either side, balconies looked over the main hall and there were 2 moats throughout the room. Interesting architectural choice, a great way to inconvenience everyone. There was also a lower floor, where you saw the wheel that would spin and hopefully bring down the bridge of the moat to get to the other side of the room.It was a gruelling thought to know that you would have to kill everything in here and there was no way of getting out of it, otherwise, it would just inconvenience you more when the bridge was down and you would have to deal with the enemies from either side of the bridge.Immediately, you both were bombarded with a group of ganados, their weapons varying from axes, swords, knives. You shot them multiple times and occasionally managed to dig your knife into their skull until the first bunch had left a crimson pile of bodies. On the 4th ganado you had encountered, upon landing the finishing bullet in its head, the mutation had splintered out of its skull when it exploded, whipping those fleshy, daggered arms at you instantly.You had managed to narrowly dodge the swing and garner some distance, you heard a similar explosion next to you and looked to see the smaller group Leon was fighting had also mutated, Ashley getting cut in the process, being unable to move away in time. Instead of focusing on yourself, you pull out your rifle to finish off Leon’s mutant with two shots and put it back on your back to save ammo.Still clearing out your floor of the water hall as Ganado just continued to spawn endlessly, you just had your first encounter with the arrows. An arrow flies right by your face, you look in the direction it came from to see the crossbowed guards up on the balconies and feel a rip in your arm. You yell at the searing pain and look down at the arrow lodged into your arm. You shake your head trying to get yourself straight as the shock from pain starts to dizzy you and you pull out your rifle again, shooting each guard on the balcony down one by one. You grab Ashley’s arm once they were all shot down and dragged her back out of the doors, closing them behind you and sitting on the floor to inspect your damage.“Ugh… It hurts, fuck.” You look up at Ashley, seeing the rip in her blouse, red blood seeping through it on her abdomen, you quickly get up and approach her. “Oh fuck, are you okay? Sit.” You lift up her shirt when she sits and feel relief wash over you as you realise the cut is only shallow. Just a bit deeper than a paper cut, you take out your first aid kit and dab some anti-septic on it.“Um… Y/n?”“Does it hurt?”“Yeah, and I really appreciate the concern but… Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself? There’s an… Arrow… in your arm.”“That’s not my main priority. It won’t bleed until I take the arrow out.” Leon busted through the doors a minute later while you were wrapping the bandages around her waist.“Your arm,” He said concerned, dropping down to his knees by you. You realise how ridiculous you probably look with an arrow sticking out of your arm, the pain and helping Ashley had distracted you. He quickly takes the bandages out of your hands and ties it off quickly. Then taking your arm and inspecting the damage which sent some burning pains throughout your bicep which you tried to ignore.“How high are your pain tolerances, for you to be, you know… Worrying about papercuts when you have arrows sticking out your arm.”“You’d be surprised if you knew what we’d have to go through-”“But she’s still an idiot for not addressing it immediately,” Leon adds quickly, starting to slowly pull out the arrow.“Shit! Leon!”“What?!”“It fucking hurts that‘s what! Just rip it out!”“Excuse me?!” You grab it, close your eyes with a deep breath and quickly pull it out, blood spurting all over the floor. You bang your head backwards onto the wall with the agony of it. “Are you crazy?!”“It was the best way.” You groan. “Come on, Leon, please. Hurry up.” You look up at Ashley’s face who is staring in horror. “You should probably look away.” She quickly turns around and stares at her fidgeting hands as Leon starts dapping antiseptic and wrapping it up. When the pain stirring and spinning in your head starts to die out a bit you look down at the blood seeping through the bandage and on the floor, the colour of it purplish than what’s normal.“The veins are growing, getting worse.” You say quietly.“Luis will come up with the cure soon.”“What did you do about the water hall? Is it cleared?”“Yeah, just the lower floor left. I can deal with it if you sit here with Ashley.”“No. No, it’s fine. It’s just another day of doing my job, right? It’s nothing, when we find the merchant he can probably pull something out of his ass.” He doesn’t reply for a second, then quietly laughs.“You’re insane. That arrow sticking out your arm while you’re fussing over Ashley, and ripping it out.” He ties it off. “Are you sure you don’t want to take a rest?”“It’s fine.”“You should.”“It’s really okay. I went through worse 2 hours ago.”“If you insist. Ashley, are you okay?”“Yeah.” She said, turning back around and looking at the dried blood going down your arm and the pile of it on the floor and then looking away again.“Do you think she’ll get used to it?” You whisper, smiling. He snorts.“The president’s daughter? Probably not.”The both of you go back into the water hall, going into the lower floor. The first ganado you and Leon had killed had both mutated, after killing them you both gave each other a questioning look at the coincidence. The next, its head blew up with writhing tentacles, again. It was becoming clear that every ganado on this floor was mutating, and you were silently praying that you wouldn’t get hurt again while facing the numerous remaining creatures on the floor.You ended up using more of your rifle shots to keep a large distance between you and all the mutants until the entire floor was cleared out. Leon jogged into the middle of the room, spinning the wheel to lower the moat.Crossing over, it seemed to be empty, and there was another wheel on an elevated level for the second moat’s bridge.“I have Ashley, you get up.” He said, getting on one knee, and interlocking his fingers to give you a boost up against the wall. You nod and step up as he launches you over. Almost immediately, enemies start pouring in from the entrances on both floors. Leon turns, putting Ashley behind him. You found that the easiest way to deal with the ganado on your floor was to push them off of your level and into the water as they couldn’t climb back up for you or Leon to deal with.You ended up getting to the wheel a lot sooner than when Leon could deal with everything on his floor. You helped him shoot them off from a higher level. The second crossing of water had a bridge emerge from it as you spun the wheel, when you jumped down Leon quickly ran over to catch you in his arms.“You almost fell. You’re welcome.”“I’m going to slap you.”“Oh yeah?”“Actually, no. I’m not going to slap you. You’re going to carry me over the bridge, you got yourself into this situation.”“And if I don’t?”“Then I’m going to slap you.” He sighed.“If you say so, miss.” He shifts you and then roughly hauls your body over his shoulder.“Leon!” You shout.“Can you hear something, Ashley?” He says as she giggles next to him.“Leon this isn’t what I meant!” You bang against his back and promptly give up after a writhing 20 seconds. You had intended for him to carry you in his arms rather than whatever this is.“So, what’s it like in the White House?” He asks, ignoring you. He goes past the bridge and up steps, pushing metal double doors open with his foot. Your vision is limited but you’ve finally come outside, the atmosphere a soft dark blue from the shade of the moon through the clouds. You hear the pouring of a fountain on top of Ashley and Leon’s chattering as Leon goes around the small courtyard picking up boxes of ammo scattered around. You rest your face against your hand as your elbow uses his back as leverage until he abruptly puts you down on your feet.“Oh my God, there you are!” Ashley says. “We were so worried about you.”“Just because you’re the president’s daughter doesn’t mean you’re immune to getting slapped.”“Calm down, ladies.” You look around and see the gated door and the stone wall. “I need you to get up there and unlock it from the other side.” You climb onto his back and stand on his shoulders as he elevates you up, allowing you to latch onto the top of the wall and drop yourself over. You grin at them from the other side of the metal gate, crossing your arms.“Apologise.” You whisper.“You are the pettiest woman I know.”“I know.”“I’m sorry.”“Not good enough. You’re buying me a coffee when we get back to the office. Multiple coffees.”“Can you believe this?” He asks Ashley.“And you’re not off the hook either, I want the Declaration of Independence, for not helping me. I want it framed in my house.”The both of them burst into laughter.“You see what I have to go through at work?” He says through his laughter.“You think this is a joke? I’m not joking. The amount of humiliation and disrespect I’ve just experienced in the past 3 minutes was unbelievable.” They start laughing even harder, you give up the act, snorting at yourself and opening the gate.a/n : i updated. what the fuck. its a miracle.

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☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★Ashley coughs as she walks through the gate but you assume it's because of how hard they were laughing. You stomp off ahead in an attempt to hide your laughter and keep up with the joke, the two of them behind you. They try to hold in their snickering as they watch you go off and eventually calm themselves down.The courtyard was covered with stone arches, pillars, and azalea bushes. You hear Ashley gasp and turn around. Her hands are on her head, as she shakes it vigorously."You okay?" Leon asks."I think so... I-" She tries to step forward and her right leg fails her making her collapse. Leon catches her in his arms as you get ready to call Luis and ask him what to do."Instead of worrying about her... Worry about your own skin." You look back over and see Ashley's hand wrap around Leon's knife, you quickly leap forward trying to stop her but she steps back, knife in her hand."Ashley?" You say."Foolish little lamb." She tries to stab Leon and catches the blade of the knife in his palm before it could hit his chest, his blood dripping over the knife. You move to shove her off but she steps back and places the knife to her neck."Temperance, child." She says as she continues to move backwards. You and Leon slowly step closer to her."Ashley put the knife down." You say, your heart stopping at the sight of her.A gate slams down between you two and she gasps, dropping the knife and looking at the two of you, suddenly sobbing. She looks at her hands and quickly runs off. Leon quickly slams against the gate, holding the metal bars."Wait!" He bangs his fist against the metal. "Shit!"You stick your leg through the bars in the gate and kick Leon's knife back toward you for you to pick up as Leon continues his existential crisis leaning on the bars."Why aren't you concerned?" Leon asks annoyedly."I'm considering killing myself now before our boss does." You say, sliding his knife back into his holster and calling Hunnigan."Hey Roost. Things are going great, we got separated from Baby Eagle while taking refuge in a castle." In return, there was static interference and the static broke Hunnigan's voice. "Can you hear me?" The call disconnected. "Even better." You mumble. "We are so fucked.""Clearly.""Come on, Leon." You say, putting your hand out for him to put his cut hand in. "One problem at a time." You say, pulling off his fingerless gloves."I can't believe it. What are we going to do?""Kill ourselves.""Is that your answer to everything?""All we can do is look for her. The only place we can go from here is back into the castle from those stairs." You pour the antiseptic over it and start wrapping bandages around his hand. "Jesus, she cut you deep.""I've fallen from 7 storeys before. I'll live""I've fallen from 8.""I've been hit by a car.""I've been hit by a school bus.""Are you referring to me?""Perhaps." You tie off the bandage, he rolls his eyes. "Are you ready to go?"He shakes his head and you start walking for the stone stairs. "I have no idea how you do it.""What?" "Make me forget how badly we are failing this mission.""I don't know either. Maybe we should just kill ourselves, that will make us forget, that's the answer to all our questions.""Oh, shut up." You smile and get up the steps leading to an entrance back into another part of the castle. The mood instantly dies off as the rooms are only lit by the deep-orange flames of candles, so intense they almost seem red. You walk through, finding a hole in the wall for you to drop down to a lower level of the castle. Leon goes first, naturally, holding out his arms for you. You drop down, being caught."Are you ever going to stop doing that?""Do you want me to stop?""I'm not your damsel in distress.""That's a shame." He put you down, at some point taking your hand without you even realising. As you continued to move through the tenebrous halls, you felt your heart warm from his sweet antics. In the silence of the hallways, you both had to listen closely for signs of movement in this dodgy corner of the castle, but it forced you to consider the position you were in, for once.Leon is your co-worker. He works in your office. But what are the two of you? You're acting like lovers and you can feel your affection for him swelling with his stupid, constant acts. Even worse, you're distractions to each other, a clash of interest, it's against the rules. How did the two of you even end up getting this far without you even realising it? Oh, fuck it. Figure it out now while it's quiet."Leon, can I just confirm something really quick?""Sure-" You grab the hem of his shirt, pulling him into you as your back slams against the wall, your lips connecting. He doesn't waste the opportunity to wrap his hand around the back of your neck, the other hand around your waist as he presses his body into yours. His lips start to venture off to your jawline and down your neck making shivers erupt through your body. You place your hands on his shoulders and push him away to an arm's length."We can go now." You say, taking his hand again and walking down the halls. You look up at his pink face, his smile curious."What was that?" He asks."Didn't want to ask any difficult questions, so I confirmed it in my own way." You say with an innocent smile."Can I take a wild guess?" He asked amusedly. You nod. "You're not sure I like you?""Something like that. But now I know you like me a little too much."He smiles, squeezing your hand. "You're an idiot for thinking I didn't.""When it comes to you I am."He can't help but wonder where your soft change in attitude came from, but it's bringing up sparks throughout his chest. "I wonder what you 5 hours ago would've said if she could hear you right now.""She'd probably kill herself." He's right, what would you say? You'd tell yourself to fix up because how on earth will you deal with this when you get back to HQ? How badly could this end up if you put him over the mission? You've already almost killed yourself to protect him and you've both already wasted time doing stupid shit together. You shouldn't even be thinking about this right now, you should be focusing on your mission.Leon suddenly pulls your hand, silently stepping behind a curtain, putting a finger to his mouth and signalling for you to listen. You stand silently, hearing the heavy footsteps coming around the corner and hearing as they walk past you. How did you not hear that? A perfect example, if you had been paying attention you would have. You peek through the curtain when you hear them walk past, seeing a ganado and a pack of dogs guarding him, which would have been a nightmare to deal with. They cross the corner and you both slip out quickly jogging to the next corner."You alright?"You nod, filtering out your other thoughts to focus a bit more, the few minutes passed in almost silence as Leon finally got the hint with your now dry responses. Women are bipolar, she's worse than Ada. God women are so complicated.You finally reach the end of the hall, being met with two double doors and you can already hear the shuffling of feet behind it accompanied by the whispering of a chain of foreign curses. Leon slowly opens the double doors, the two of you slipping behind a barrel and watching the ganado circling the place. There are plenty of areas that block the line of sight as the central part of the room is surrounded by extra walls.Leon signals for you two to split off and silently take out the enemies on the outskirts to avoid a huge brawl. On a higher level of the room, there's another staffed, goat-headed figure preaching to those beneath. A warm, deep fire made him the brightest focus of the otherwise dimmed room.You take off onto the left side of the room, quickly covering the mouths of the ganado and stabbing them through the neck. You see Leon's head peer out from the wall of the other side and he gestures to pull a pin on a grenade and throw it in. That's exactly what you do, waiting last second to throw it into the centre of the room. The explosion instantly kills everything in the centre and you rush in to finish the others badly injured and trying to get up on the outskirts as the figure stomps his staff and his voice booms throughout the room with a dark mist washing over like a shockwave.More ganado burst into the room and your cover is blown. The figure repeats the same action, their heads exploding when hit with the wave to become mutated. Before it can become an ongoing bloodshed you shout for Leon to go deal with everything else as you get your sniper out to finish the goated figure off. One shot. Two shots. Three. Finally. Leon starts trailing the horde around to pick them off with his pistol and you snap your fingers for his attention. He looks over and sees the grenade in your hands, he nods as you throw it and he dashes to the farthest corner of the room where they can't keep up.The entire room erupted with smoke and the carpet in the centre had set fire. Everything was destroyed."...Christ." You shake your head, the two grenades had your ears ringing, clouding you with a headache. You knew you were too close to the second. Almost breaking your neck you turn around as you feel a hand on your back. A shiver erupts through you as you meet the degloved face of a familiar infected. The captain of your mission in Penamstam. Disorientated and deaf, you stumble backwards falling onto your back as you shakily pull out your pistol to shoot, within the same second he grabs it, throwing it halfway across the room, roughly grabbing your arms and pinning them by your head as you try to thrash your way out, screaming for Leon. You see as his mouth widens to engulf your face, closing your eyes and turning away, instead being shaken violently. You open your eyes again as the ringing and the headache ripping apart your head abruptly die out to see Leon's wide-eyed face and shouting your name."Leon?""Fuck! Are you okay?!" There's another sharp pain, and you place your hands on his chest gently to take his hands off your shoulders."This infection is messing with my head.""What happened?""I had a hallucination.""About what?""I... Did I hurt you?" You ask, looking at the fresh cut on his forearm, trying to change the subject."That's not important. Are you okay? What the fuck. Of course you're not fucking okay." He looks in his back and groans frustratedly knowing that he has nothing. "We need to get you to Luis. And you need to rest." You wanted to argue, but you were drained of your energy and mental capacity by the infection. You nod, shakily pulling yourself to your feet with Leon's help.Why am I always the one with the shit luck?He helps you out of the room, sitting you down in the quiet hallway returning your pistol he picked up along the way."Just go off ahead without me, clear the way. We can't waste any time." You were sure that you could get yourself back to operating condition in a few minutes."You sure you're going to be okay on your own?" He asks, squatting down beside you, a worried expression plastered all over his face."Don't doubt me, I'll be fine. I think I need a few minutes alone anyway. I'll catch up, promise."He opens his mouth to voice his list of concerns: What if something comes? What if the infection takes over again making you run away just like Ashley? What if you get captured? What if you can't find him? What if you pass out? But instead, you press your finger to his lips."Just go." He frowns."Don't get hurt.""Worry about yourself." He pecks your cheek."I won't be happy if you get yourself killed." You snort at him. "Alright, Leon. Have fun."He sighs and gets up, walking down the hall and turning the corner, looking at you one last time. You search around in your bag, finding a bit of dried food that you packed and some water, nibbling and sipping on it over the next few minutes with your eyes closed and resting. While looking in your bag you see green and red herbs that you had picked up earlier, grounding them up and putting them into the tough, dried beef. The shitty MRE meals that were provided for you on missions convinced you that your teeth were made of steel.You stared at the wall in front of you as you felt your body alleviate itself of all tension, your head of all its pain. What the fuck did I just eat? You check the packet again, looking at the ingredients in confusion. What? Is this the last stage of delusion before you spontaneously drop dead? You get on your feet and feel almost as good as you felt at the start of the mission. Still, in a state of grateful confusion, you push the thought to the back of your mind as you need to catch up with Leon.The hallways were clear with an occasional body that Leon left behind. You clench your hands and check your cuts which magically healed up. Just in case, you didn't completely finish the meal in case you needed to heal later, maybe the labs could analyse the remnants of the packet when you got back to base.You eventually came to the end of the hall with an open door and chattering from that familiar voice. You slip in, sticking close to the walls as you head closer toward the voices. A woman's voice and the sudden sound of clattering, you quickly peek through the bookshelves splitting the room in half and see Leon and a woman in red dress holding a gun at him with his hands up."Well after 6 years that is one hell of a greeting, Ada.""You don't seem surprised. Interesting."She takes a step forward, a mistake as Leon turns around, grabbing her wrist. A series of elegant moves and counterattacks as she tries to kick him only to be blocked off by his hands until he manages to spin her around. His chest is firmly pressed against her back as he holds his knife to her neck. She only smiles."Try using knives next time better for close encounters.""Not a bad move, very smooth." He lets go of her gently and she turns back to face him with a sultry grin."So who are you working for this time?""Oh Leon, you know I don't kiss and tell." They were kissing too?! With that entire interaction, it wasn't shocking but your mouth hangs open as you listen to her continue to speak."Leave the girl. Both of them. Leave now and who knows? You might just live to meet me again, and maybe you'll get that greeting you were looking for." It takes everything inside you to hold back your incredulous scoff as the resentment simmers inside of you. What does she know about you or Ashley?"You think I'm going to give up that easy?" He doesn't argue with her about that statement, which leads you to believe he's into her. Not shocking, if she wasn't such a raging bitch you'd also hit, and it's clear they have a history."Right... How about we continue this conversation another time." You see as she puts her finger under his chin and lifts it for him to look at her, before strutting to the window in her stiletto boots and little red dress. And then she pulls out a grappling gun and flies out the window while staring at him. Completely baffled, you sneak your way back out of the room so Leon won't catch you, starting an argument now would only waste more time.You stand outside, trying to coherently understand what on earth you just saw. This has to be a fever dream because no way this supermodel is out here rocking her black fucking stilettos, full face of glam makeup and a skin-tight dress in the fucking forests of Spain, and no way she has just rizzed up your man and told him to leave you and Ashley before flying out of the fucking window. And there is no way he didn't even argue with that bitch, the man was all over her pressed up against her and let her put her hands on him, and the kiss which he is so fucking grateful you didn't see because you would've shot them both on sight without a second thought.You quickly storm back down the hallway laughing with strained bursts because you can feel the tears angry tears swelling. This entire mission has become such a fucking downward spiral of a disaster it's almost a comedy. When you eventually come to a quiet room you start smashing the pottery and hitting the walls while shouting out until your energy is gone, instead leaving you silently with your thoughts as you sink by the wall with the tears left in your eyes. You breathe your deep breaths until the tears dry away, using every single technique you were taught in training to their absolute limits before you go find Leon and snipe him from a hundred metres away and dance on his dead body.☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★anyone who has been played, the title is for you too lmfao.
omg wtf leon is cheating on his girl :o. thank you so much to everyone for the messages, and posts on my feed i am absolutely feral for things like that and its honestly the main reason I'm motivated to update. i can't believe we are on chapter 23 and i only planned 20 chapters, we aren't even halfway done (╯°□°）╯. big man ting you guys are great.

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𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⋆｡𖦹°｡°✮.After a few seconds, you stand up, face and fists feeling numb, knuckles bloody and walk back out to catch up with Leon, taking the bandages out of your bag on the way. He sees you as he is already walking back to come get you from where he had originally left you.You nod at him and walk straight past, avoiding his eyes and he frowns. "What happened to your hands?" He asks, jogging up by you."Plaga." You say, wrapping the bandage around your fist. You are itching to sock him in his stupid jaw right now, then we'll see how much kissing he can do."It did that to your hands?""I guess so.""Y/n, come on now. What's with the attitude?"You roll your eyes at him, picking up the pace so he makes an effort to keep up. "Y/n." He repeats more seriously."Can't you just keep your mouth shut?"He grabs your wrist, pulling you to face him. You try to swat his hand off, but the grip tightens. With a clear view of your face, he notices your eyes."Have you been crying?""It's just the plaga, get off me, Leon.""This is not going to work out if you don't tell me what's going on.""This isn't going to work out if you don't get the fuck off right now. The plaga is getting to me and you're not helping, you're wasting my time. Our time. Ashley's time." You shoved past him, storming off as he was left stunned finally giving up and trailing behind you. The walk down the hallway was awful, as you were fighting back tears that were threatening to spill out, trying to use the breathing techniques they taught you and push it all to the back of your mind.You see one of the cloaked workers at the end of the dimmed halls, pulling your gun out and shooting him twice, drawing his attention toward you after his stun period was over. Taking the chance to push out all the aggression building up you ran up toward it, dodging its quick attempt to hit you with its axe, and latching onto his back to plunge your knife into its head at least 10 times before it gave in and fell to the floor, hearing the footsteps of another behind you, you knock it's feet from underneath it and kick it's head in with the back of your foot before it can even recover from the stun.There is more coming down the hallway, you can hear it, when you turn around you see a scorpion almost the size of you but horizontally. Leon shoots it, as it's mid-air leaping toward you, and you give it a similar treatment until it's hissing on the floor, shrivelling up onto its back.You kick its carcass, looking at the green liquid oozing from it and hoping there's no more. Leon has become as scared as he is shocked by your livid performance. The more I interact with women the scarier they get. He decides that he's going to leave you alone, at least for a little bit. Although you've most cooled off, your mind is corrupted by the sticky blood that has spurted across your shirt and what comes next at the end of the hall, and Leon opening his mouth could change the momentary peace very quickly.Continuing down the halls, you find scorpions latching onto the backs of the guards of the castle, sinking their heads into the back of their necks and using their arms as another weapon alongside the two that they were born with. Seeing this, Leon forcibly pulls you behind a wall blocking the sight before you can lash out again and run at it. Having to shut up to avoid drawing attention, when you look at him all you can envision is that woman's face, churning your stomach with that familiar feeling of disgust."Play this carefully." He warns as if he hadn't been playing you the entire time."Of course." You mutter through your teeth. You turn the corner, pulling out your sniper to hit one of them, it falling onto its front and dying. Then the small hoard ran at you, managing to take out the first line of 3 with pistol shots before leaving the last 3 to be dealt with close up. Dodging the extra 6 legs was stressful, sometimes only narrowly dodging their attacks with their unfamiliar attack styles, although you both managed to stun them to a point where they could be taken advantage of, leaving you both breathing heavily in the end, stepping over all the internal liquids that had been sputtered across the floor.More noises of the distant ticking of multiple legs could be heard from the echoing hallways that were ahead of you, this time forcing you to reevaluate your priorities to keep strong emotions to one side as things seemed to escalate, and it's time to stop fantasising about if your boss had just made the smart decision of listening to you just this once.Leon let you walk first, hoping the small sign of respect would prevent you from getting more annoyed with him. Privately, he was having a crisis. A big one, not only was this treacherously similar to how his ex-girlfriend acted before breaking up with him as he moved to Raccoon City. You had been crying, you lied to him about that too, and he knew whatever it was, it was his fault. But what? You never seemed to have a problem with exposing your most intimate secret of Tokyo to him.Shockingly, when you walk past a room the last person you expect to see is there. That familiar, beautiful masked man lit by his purple flames. The change ignites a little joy in you and you jump forward, running to Milo next to him who had already dashed for you the second he smelt your scent in the doorway."Milo!" You squeal, holding the big wolf in your arms as he licks your face and moves around fanatically in your arms. When your squealing session comes to a conclusion and you put him down to greet the merchant, he jumps onto Leon instead, although you choose to ignore how offended it makes you that Leon looks happy at this point, even if you didn't know the storm festering in the back of his mind."Where have ya been, stranger?""Where have you been? You just stopped showing up for the past few hours.""Ye miss me that much over a few hours, stranger?" He laughs."You have no idea. These little chat sessions mean more than you think. Especially with that jackass over there." You add the last part with a whisper, making him chuckle a bit more."What'd he do now?""I'll tell you later because you won't believe me. All I can say right now is that I've considered manslaughter." No matter how quiet you're talking, Leon's adept ears pick it up, feeling more determined to get this out of you."Well, I've got a few new things to help with that." He jokes, laying out his table with a few new weapons and some new equipment. You push out all the useless jewels and whatever else you found lying around for him to count up and pay you for while looking over everything."Bullets please, shotgun, sniper and handgun." He counts out the bag of coins in his hand, pushing the rest back to you with the boxes of ammo. You throw the shotgun bullets at Leon along with half of the handgun ammo, with a slightly dramatic amount of force, of course."I've got a mission for you, I'll give yer a free upgrade on that gun of yours if yer get it done.""I'm listening.""When yer gets past the mortar outside and re-enter the castle, down that hallway I'm gonna need yer to get a certain piece of jewellery hidden behind a puzzle in the wall. Keep your eye sharp, stranger, I'll make it worthwhile.""Alright." You turn back around and beckon for Milo to come over for you to say bye, rubbing his neck. "Thanks again." The merchant waves you off as you leave his little cranny."What were you whispering about?" Leon tries to ask."The economic state of the village.""Y/n, I'm not dealing with your shit right now.""Then don't.""Why are you acting like a five-year-old?""I don't think me not wanting to talk to you is me acting like a five-year-old.""So you finally admit you're ignoring me?""I'm not talking about this right now." You snap. "If you want to talk, you're going to have to earn the privilege.""Earn the privilege." He said sarcastically. "How do you want me to do that, mistress?""Mistress!" You burst with a scoff. "That's fitting, you fucking bitch.""What is wrong with you? Is it the plaga? Is that why you're acting like this?""I don't know, Leon. Why am I acting like this? That's a good question." Your attitude was leading him to a headache out of his sheer frustration, he forgot how insufferable you could be. He pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes and looking down."Why are you upset?" You walked away instead of answering. He was sick of it already, he grabbed your wrist, pulling you into the closest room and slamming your chest against the wall, he pressed behind you. "This is the last time I'm asking."It was hard to breathe with the pressure on your body, you both were wasting more time by keeping this argument going. Why didn't you just pretend nothing was wrong and then cut him off after the mission?"Mistress? Is that any clue to you?"The look on his face matched his feelings of concern for your sanity. "You're hallucinating, surely.""Don't give me that shit, Leon.""You've seen every time I've interacted with a woman since I got here.""You're right, I have seen every single one of your interactions.""So what are you talking about..?" You let him think for a second. "Oh.""Oh." You mock, kicking his shin so that he's forced to take a step back, grimacing. "Stupid fuck. I saw all of it. It's disappointing that you're a secret agent and you can't even be slick with it when it comes to playing me." You say while opening the door, but he slams it shut with his hand."I know how it looks, but you must let me explain.""What was it then? When were you planning to tell me about her, huh? You just let her talk shit about me too?""I was more worried about her putting a bullet through my head. Nothing I said would have changed her mind anyway, she's a cold woman.""She's certainly your kind of woman. Do you know what I think?""You're not letting me explain.""I don't need an explanation.""Y/n-""You kissed her! And all the other shit you did together?""I kissed her 7 years ago! How do you even know that?!""I meant you kissed her back in that room. 'I don't kiss and tell'? What is that all about?""I didn't-" "She was all over you, and you let it happen.""I didn't reciprocate any of it.""But you let it happen.""What are we?""I don't know!""So why do you even care about this? Nothing about us is established. All you've been doing is flirting with the merchant and you're getting mad over this." He did not have the audacity to say that like there was nothing wrong with it after everything you'd been through."I was not flirting. And you're admitting that you know what you did, and are acting like you don't know what's wrong with it?""Tell me then, what are we, and what's wrong with it?""Do you actively choose to be stupid? You don't see how this would make me upset?""I do..." He sighed. "I'm sorry for not stopping her. I didn't see it as my main priority, I didn't want to give her a reaction. You don't know Ada like I do. The kiss and tell stuff, I kissed her in Racoon City, that's it.""Alright." You say not fully calm yet."What do you think we are then?""I thought you were playing me, after all we've gone through so far.""I'm not that kind of person, you should know that.""I had a reason to doubt you." You sigh deeply, leaning against the wall. You don't know if you were speaking in the heat of the moment, but you knew the feeling in your gut was right. "Leon, I don't think I can do this."His heart stops. "What?""I knew I wasn't fit for a relationship doing this job and all the extra baggage that comes with it. And you were the worst possible person I could've ended up liking.""Are you serious?""I told you how I felt about it when this all started, I'm sorry that you had higher expectations. But look at us, how much time have we wasted? How much have we distracted each other? The entire mission I don't think I've been in the right state of mind." You want to bang your head against the wall, but you know this is the smartest thing you could've done. Cut it off while it's early. "We need to stop before this gets any further. Because if this mission does end up being successful, we'll be put on more together. And us having this relationship might mean we fail.""What do you mean? You're not in the right state of mind for a relationship?""I'm erratic, indecisive, bipolar when it comes to relationships if you haven't noticed. I have so many problems and being with someone else who has problems isn't going to make things easier for myself. Or you.""I disagree.""Look at us right now. We're 'breaking up' on a mission where we are saving the President's daughter. I almost cried a minute ago. Do you know how ridiculous that is?""It might be a bit messy, but it was bound to be no matter how we ended up. We hated each other before all of this, what we have now is way better than what we had before.""But it isn't. We could've worked this out professionally while hating each other, and stood on some neutral ground on this mission, like this we can't. And you're fucking with my head, Leon. I can't do it.""Don't you like me?""I would say it's so much more than liking you, but that doesn't mean I can let this continue.""This isn't all about Ada?""Ada just made me realise something that I should've realised when we kissed in the middle of a mission." And problems this early on? This could never work. The stress you've gone through knowing this man for only a day. You groan. "What are we doing right now? Wasting time. Again.""But this is important.""Saving Ashley who could be fucking dead right now is more important. And you lied to me, Leon. I can't keep doing this. Please, if you're going to argue. Do it when we've got Ashley.""I-" He stopped himself, he hated getting emotional and he could feel every shit thing he's ever felt swell in his chest. "Okay." He said, quickly walking out before he went insane.𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⋆｡𖦹°｡°✮.a/n: hi guys i know it's been like 3 months but life has lowkey been crazy, i got pregnant for some reason, luckily i drank enough alcohol for me to not need an abortion so i wont be a mum yet. and some other worse stuff. i wasn't feeling writing for a while and i needed a break because i was starting to hate everything i wrote and after coming back to it after a while its fun again so slightly more frequent updates but i expect more mad shit to show up. and reading people's messages and comments really motivate me to post again so thank you so much <33I'm trying to keep this story spicy and constantly have people just being jarred by all the dramatic shit that happens with the few cute moments of fluff as breaks between, hopefully im succeeding bc i lovee drama

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

You felt like shit, of course you did. At least what was happening right now was better than the anger you felt earlier. Although, it wasn’t the same for Leon. Leon’s mind had gone blank, he didn’t know if he was mad at himself, at you, or just overwhelmed by the surprise, but numbness was his common coping mechanism. Awkward was an understatement, but it was a relief as you were at least right. Cutting it off meant you both breezed through the path of the castle, Leon brutally getting rid of anything in front of him with all his effort and focus.“You said I lied to you.” He said slowly, coming up on a quieter path. “When?” You questioned whether you should even answer the personal question. But it was the least you could do for him, maybe giving him a reason would stop him from overthinking.“We saw Ada in the village. You said you didn’t know her, she just reminded you of an ex.”“I didn’t think the explanation would’ve been good at that time, I would’ve told you later.”“Couldn’t have been as long to explain as everything else you’ve told me. But it doesn’t matter anymore.”“Doesn’t it?”“It doesn’t. I wouldn’t mind knowing who she is, though.” He didn’t expect the explanation to solve anything, and as much as he didn’t want to relive it, he felt he owed it. “Does she mean anything to you?”He laughed awkwardly at the question. “So that’s a yes.” You smile fakely, trying to hide your annoyance.“It’s complicated.”“That’s what they always say.”“She’s not an ex. In Raccoon City she saved my life so I helped her. Things ended up getting intimate until I found out she wasn’t who she said she was, she was just using me.”“She seems nice.”“There’s more. She died right in front of me and I almost died trying to save her. She fell as the building we were in collapsed, and I thought she was dead. Until today. She’s like a part of me I can’t let go. She was there at the most traumatic part of my life, but she betrayed me and lied.” You didn’t know how to feel about that.“What do you think of her now?”“I don’t know, still can’t believe she’s even alive. She’s changed, she’s not who I thought she was.” Maybe that’s all the red flags you needed to hear.“It’s funny the first time you see her again she saves your life again, maybe she’s your soulmate.”He laughs. “No.”“You passed the test.” You joke, not entirely convinced by him, but it was a minor relief.“Oh yeah? Is there a reward?”“You’re not ready for the reward.”You get to the battlements, finally outside and on the walls defending the castle looking into the courtyard. It’s almost pitch black outside, the castle’s fires letting you see the ganados ahead, and there are packs between each section of wall separated by towers, more floors of battlements beneath you. You look up to see the gate leading to the main, largest part of the castle. Where would Ashley be?The two of you manage to get through the crowd, getting up two towers ahead, Leon getting a few bruises to his abdomen from the mutated ganado whipping his stomach from a distance.“You okay?” You ask.“Emotionally or physically?” Before you can answer, the foundation of the entire castle shakes, you both peak over the edge into the courtyard seeing the fattest boy you’ve ever seen in your life, towering over the 50-metre walls. “What the fuck.”You panic slightly, looking for anywhere you could get cover but he’s already spotted you. Leon grabs your arm, running into the tower to dodge the rock he sent hurling at the two of you, the rock puts a huge dent in the wall of the castle, bricks tumbling down.“We can’t stay here for long.” He says. You look back out the door, spotting cannons two more towers ahead, on a thicker tower that might be able to handle the flying boulders.“There, come on.” You can see the giant picking up two boulders, you wait until he hurls it at the tower, the top of it collapsing, both of you making a sprint to the tower, he hurls the other boulder, going straight for the both of you. You jump forward, the boulder barely scraping your foot, stumbling forward as your life flashed before your eyes. You get back up, running into the next tower and hearing the top of it crumbling on the impact of another hit, getting out of the tower immediately.The stretch to the last tower is long, you don’t know if you’ll make it. You have a bit of time before Gigante reloads, sprinting with your last bit of energy across that final stretch, barely missing the next boulder by jumping into the doorway of the tower. Leon grabs your wrist to quickly get you up so you can run to the top floor before another boulder shakes the tower. Neither of you has ever used a cannon, but Leon quickly seems to get the hang of it, pushing the balls in, you following suit.Gigante’s just about to throw another boulder before Leon shoots it right in his face, the shot shakes the floor alone, the sheer explosion, is similar to the sound of a grenade, maybe even louder. Your eardrums ring, almost losing balance as the ringing headache makes you lose some time. Not making the same mistake twice, you set the light and plug your ears before it sets off.The circulation of shots from you and Leon, before Gigante can get a boulder in was quickly disturbed as Ganado began running up.“I’ll take them!” You shout, running to the top of the stairs, systematically filtering the group of them as they come running up the stairs, Leon had boxes of ammunition by his cannon which he kicked toward you. You were sure the dozens had been finished off, as you walked down to the floor beneath, that’s when you were shaken by what you assumed was a boulder slamming into the tower, Leon bolted downstairs, forcefully grabbing your wrist again to steer you in the right direction, you felt the tower begin to tilt, sounds of the cracks in foundations and bricks crumbling surrounding the circumference of the tower. Just reaching the doors, and dodging bricks falling from the ceiling, you both run out, just as the tower falls over completely, your foot catches as the last bit of brick vanishes beneath you, Leon on safe ground, he hurls you up, both of you landing on your backs on the secure flooring, breathing heavily.You sit up, seeing it was Gigante’s body that had fallen into the tower, and laugh between your quick breaths.“Reminds me of you falling on top of me that one time. Literally almost took me out.”“Reminds me of you crushing my heart.” He countered.“No, I think it’s the other way round.”“Mm.”“Thanks for not letting me fall.”“Doesn’t it remind you of anything?”“No…? Oh. The bridge.”“We equal now?”“On just that one factor.” You get up, offering your hand to help him get up, and he takes it.“So… We’re good?”“You jump to a lot of conclusions you know.”“That is rich coming from you.”“You can’t blame me for thinking you were fucking her because you were. There’s a big difference.”“I wasn’t fucking her though, was I?”“You did.”“You’re right, had her in 105 positions over the span of 30 seconds.”“And used a knife too, kinky bastard.”“You have no idea.”“Eugh, allow it.” He rolls his eyes.“Don’t act like you don’t want the merchant to have you all up in 105 positions too.” You both gave each other a sudden dirty look, it only took you snorting for you both to end up laughing.“You disgust me.”“You’re the one trying to fuck a homeless man.”“And what if he’s homeless? He has a sexy voice. And his blue eyes, ugh. You can see the muscles on his hands, I know that man is packing muscle under there.”“So you like blue-eyed, muscular men? I’ll keep that in mind.”“The ones that are loyal and honest are my favourite.” There was a slight tension in the air after you said that. The reminder of the previous conversation softly comes back into your mind. Some guilt and annoyance slowly creep back up on Leon.“Guess we can’t all be perfect like the homeless guy. Some of us come pretty close though.” He said, looking at you.“Never thought you would admit it to my face.”He laughed. “You thought I was talking about you?”“Well, you definitely weren’t talking about yourself.” You said, looking him up and down.“That’s not what you would’ve said an hour ago.” He smiled, pushing the doors open to the bridge linking to the main castle. You both cross the bridge, getting about halfway.A hand claws at the middle of the bridge, it immediately crumbling down. Your reflexes were fast enough to have you bolting down to the end of the bridge, whereas Leon’s balance was caught off, mostly because the bit he was on fell quicker than your part.“Oh fuck.” You say, watching Leon fall onto the back of El Gigante, as he loses his strength and collapses again. “Are you okay?!” You shout over at him, watching Leon shakily stand up on the unconscious body.“I’m fine! I’ll find you somewhere in the castle!” He said, holding up the radio. “If you ever get a signal try and ring me!” You give him a thumbs-up. “Be safe!”He smiled up at you while sliding down the arm of the thing, and you almost forgot that you were annoyed at him.In the castle, there were long, endless hallways with those spiders and ganado. You had dealt with so many at this point, only this time it was without Leon, making it more annoying to get through. You were lucky you never had to deal with a group larger than 3.You groan when at the end of one of the hallways, you find a puzzle that needs to be done to go through, there were no other options, all the other doors were locked, and the other hallways all had useless rooms and dead ends. You thread back through the rooms, checking the drawers and picking up whatever trinkets you could give to the merchant later, and taking the carved tablets you’d need to fit into the door.In the last room, you checked the drawers, getting an off feeling midway. Something was off. Your hand quickly reaches for your gun, turning around and facing her. She’s like a ghost.“You are cocky standing there thinking I won’t shoot you. What do you want?”“It’s not often you see another skilled female agent.” She said, stepping toward you. “Wanted to see what Leon’s so interested in, and wanted to say hi.” You drop your gun, watching her perch up on the window sill, unthreatening.“Why do you care?”“Because I’m interested in him, and I’m interested in you. You don’t want to get hurt, girls look out for each other.” You give her a disgusted look. “Do you really know who Leon is?”“You don’t need to ask stupid questions.”“Okay, you think I’m a bitch. You overheard our conversation, I knew you were there, I was trying to put you off for your own good, and I’m glad it worked.” You cross your arms, listening to her run her mouth, without a single idea on why she’s really doing this. “You’re going to get hurt.”“Because you know everything.”“I knew him when he was 21, before everything that happened in Raccoon City ruined him. I know him better than anyone else in this world. You don’t have to trust me, but it’s your choice.”“If you want him, Ada. He’s all yours. I already ended things, who he chooses to date has nothing to do with me.”She smiles softly. “That’s not true. You care but I don’t blame you. He’s a charming boy, don’t make the same mistake so many girls have.” You don’t reply. “I told you, Raccoon City and the past 6 years have ruined him. All he does is drink and sleep around, he can’t love anyone.”“He’s a 27-year-old virgin.”“I can assure you he is not a 27-year-old virgin. I promise you.” She said in a suggestive tone. “He’s smart, he knows how to change his personality to make himself seem unthreatening. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t have much to live for anymore.” She took your hand, pulling you toward her, standing between her legs. “I promise you, the only person he truly wants is me after Raccoon City, but he’d never say that to you. He thinks you’re a pretty bit of soft skin he’s dealing with for the next few days. He may as well make the most of it, right?”“You don’t know that.” You curse yourself for doubting him, doubting yourself.“He’s already lied to you multiple times, and that switch from hate to his little obsession was quick. I know you can think for yourself but all girls get caught up in a pretty man like him sometimes, I just want to help you.” She tucks a hair behind your ear, feeling painfully intimate, the condescending atmosphere washing away. You both know she’s right to some extent. “You’re a pretty girl, don’t waste your tears on a man like him.”She sighed, taking both your hands into hers this time. “You’re not convinced? What about you? You’ve probably been through some awful things, I know you doubt your ability to love. I know you know it would never work out with someone else, let alone someone in the same line of work as you. Leon knows it too. I know you made a mistake falling for him, but Leon’s done this so many times before, he’s so fucked up mentally, he can’t let himself love again, even if he wanted to. Hasn’t he caused you enough stress?” That was the heavy hitter.“So why are you here?”“Some rich man lost his wife on holiday here, pays like you wouldn’t believe… You look nervous. What’s on your mind?” You know better than to speak openly to someone you just met, no matter how convincing she is, that’s her job.“You sure you don’t want me instead of Leon?” You say it as a joke.“I’m open to drinks after this.” She said, pulling you closer to her face by the collar of your shirt. “Your girl is through that puzzle door, left at the end of the hallway.” She whispered, before getting pulled away by her grapple gun, flying out of the window.What the fuck?