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“My mission,” Leon started slowly, meeting Krauser’s eyes straight as he spoke, holding his gaze with his own, “is to eradicate this virus once and for all.” He paused for a moment, as if willing Krauser to understand how important this all was, how much was at stake. “And with your help, I intend to do just that.”
How clever, Krauser thought, allowing the corner of his mouth curl into a hint of a grin. Leon was trying to make it sound like his help was essential here, like he played some kind of an irreplaceable role instead of being just the expendable muscle for the mission. He knew exactly what buttons to press, what strings to tug on, and even though Krauser saw right through it he couldn’t help but be swayed anyway.
“Well, I am a soldier,” he said eventually, shrugging. What else did he have to do, anyway, but to see this through. He knew he was a pawn, but he’d deal with it. “And if your orders are from the president then… I’m on your side.” All this B.O.W. business was admittedly intriguing, such a new world opening up for him. …and then there was Leon, who was just about as interesting as the bioweapons were.
Krauser kind of wanted to take him apart, bit by bit, to figure him out. He stuck out his hand for a shake, pleasantly surprised as Leon grabbed it without hesitation, giving as firm a shake as he got. It would’ve been so easy to use the grip to yank Leon closer, to pull him in and… Krauser knew his impulse control wasn’t the best, but he still surprised even himself as he did just that. He tugged, taking Leon by surprise enough that the man fell right against his chest.
And from there it was only a matter of ducking his head, sealing his lips over Leon’s as they were still slightly parted in a gasp, and kissing him with demand he knew he had no right for. At first Leon froze, his entire body going rigid with it, and for a split second Krauser thought he’d read the tension between them completely wrong.
But then.
Then Leon was kissing back with fervor, returning the iron grip of their hands. With his free hand he was grabbing onto Krauser’s shoulder, for support or for leverage, who knew. All Krauser could focus on was how it felt like Leon came alive against him, the shocked stillness replaced by a momentary flood of what felt like pure need. As far as first kisses went it was downright filthy, no pretense of romance, just insatiable, endless hunger.
Their hands were still clasped, pressed between their chests, and even when the need for air forced them apart neither of them let go. Krauser blamed it on the way Leon’s lips looked when they were practically kiss-bruised, framed by the flush on those cheeks and the fierce sparkle in Leon’s eyes. He was all kinds of gorgeous, no one could deny that. Maybe that’s why Krauser wanted, so badly. He’d always been able to appreciate the finer arts.
Only after a while Leon seemed to realize that they weren’t technically alone, and he glanced over Krauser’s shoulder towards Manuela, who was sitting on the side apparently in her own world entirely. She was humming that song again, possibly against pain, possibly just to calm herself down. Krauser didn’t know, and despite a flash of curiosity he didn’t care enough to ask.
Leon hesitated still, licking his lips, his gaze flitting between Krauser’s mouth and his eyes, searching. Then he seemed to make up his mind, finally releasing Krauser’s hand. “Let’s go.”
So that was how they were going to play this, Krauser thought and this time allowed the grin to break free. ”Time to kick some ass!” …and quite possibly ogle some ass, he thought to himself, falling in step behind Leon. For the view.
*
Krauser wasn’t a people person. He didn’t like people. He was effective and deadly, did what he had to get done, but he’d never been one for pleasantries or polite conversation. Words just got in the way of things, one action was always worth more than a thousand words. So when Leon suddenly started to open up about the happenings in Raccoon City, Krauser didn’t really know what to do with it.
It started out with Leon sharing what was admittedly important information about the viruses they were dealing with, at least enough for Krauser to get some kind of a grip of the situation. But slowly Leon started to drop in little tidbits about himself, too. About the people he met and couldn’t save, about the monsters he’d faced, how he’d been so fucking terrified he still couldn’t believe he’d stayed even remotely functional.
And Krauser was… intrigued. He was fucking enamored with this kid, who was so young but had seen so much. He’d gained more expertise on bioweapons during one night than Krauser had during his over fifteen years of combat. Granted, he had just never been sent to a site like this before, but there was still a streak of envy laced into the reluctant admiration. He couldn’t help but be impressed, but at the same time he wondered how well he would’ve done if he’d been given the chance.
Hadn’t this kid just been in the right place at the right time, lucky bastard.
Yet there was something so sincere about Leon. Something so genuine. Something that made Krauser want to peel off layer after layer after layer until he could figure the man out, see what made him tick, understand why he still was like this after everything he’d seen.
Maybe that was why he found himself outside the small shack they’d found for protection for the night – even if it protected no one from anything else than a few raindrops – pushing Leon against the wall while he had a hand down his pants. Either Leon’s pants were too tight or Krauser’s hands were too big, but he had serious troubles fumbling with the clothing to get it out of his way.
Leon’s fingers were more nimble and he had Krauser’s pants open and his underwear pushed down in no time. It was kind of impressive, Krauser thought, until he didn’t think anything at all as those clever fingers were suddenly around his erection, coaxing him from interested to rock hard way too easily. The sound that escaped him was almost a whine, and he tried to cover it up by pushing Leon against the hard wall even more roughly, keeping him immobilized.
The next time a treacherous sound tried to escape him Krauser took care of it by smashing their lips together in a bruising kiss, knowing they’d need to be silent, that they didn’t want the girl inside of the crappy building to wake up. Besides, it was hardly a chore, with the way Leon was eager and willing, responding to the smallest of cues.
A low laugh rumbled its way from Krauser’s chest as they broke for air, and he didn’t deny himself the chance to scrape his teeth along Leon’s jawline, even bit down on his jaw. “You realize I’m almost old enough to be your father?” he grunted, not even trying to fight the clear amusement in his tone. He had grabbed Leon’s hips somewhere in the midst of the kissing, his fingers flexing as he held himself back from flipping the man over, face first into the wall.
“Stop trying to talk me out of this,” Leon replied easily, tilting his head to the side to give Krauser more room to work with. He clearly didn’t care if his neck would be marked to hell and back, and Krauser took that as an invitation. “I know what a monumentally bad idea this is. But I want it.”
And hell if Krauser needed any more encouragement than that. He only groaned out a clearly breathless “As you wish.” before using one arm to pin Leon’s shoulders into the wall, and with his free hand grabbed his hips to yank him closer. Leon was stroking them both, while Krauser set out a nearly brutal pace of rutting their hips together, drinking in every single gasp, every shudder and every moan he could draw from the younger man.
It was fast and messy, lacked finesse and feeling, but they both wanted it, they both needed it exactly like that. Quick and dangerous, forbidden and exhilarating. It was all sweaty skin on skin, Krauser’s teeth marking up Leon’s neck, Leon’s hands between them jerking them off, Krauser’s hips snapping against Leon with such force the building seemed to rattle.
They must’ve been the luckiest people alive that nothing tried to attack them while they were drunk on lust, gone beyond any rationality. Only afterwards Krauser licked into Leon’s mouth as he was tucking them back into their respective pants, and took a second to appreciate just how stupid and reckless they had just been.
Still. He couldn’t bring himself to regret any of it.
*
This mission had already contained enough of mutated monsters to last for a lifetime, and there seemed to be no end to it. Krauser was starting to get pissed. He was used to getting his way easier, of his opponents actually dying when they were pumped full of lead. These things, however, kept getting up and charging again and again, when all logic dictated that they should be lying lifeless in a pool of blood and guts.
Maybe it was the frustration that made Krauser careless. Maybe it was arrogance. Whatever it was, he made a mistake. He missed.
The searing pain snapped through Krauser as the spike impaled his arm. In many ways it was worse than being shot – something he unfortunately had more experience with than he’d care to – and he didn’t know whether the spike was somehow poisoned or if it just hit his flesh and his nerves in the exact right way to make it as agonizing as humanly possible. He barely registered it when Leon shouted his name.
Krauser kept moving, though. He grit his teeth and pushed through the pain, raised his good arm again and again to shoot at that beast. White hot rage filled him and he wanted that son of a bitch dead yesterday. He had never felt as much immense satisfaction watching something die, as he did when the monster finally sank down onto the ground, shivering with what seemed to be its last breaths. Finally he yanked the spike off his arm, letting it clatter to the ground.
“You okay?” Leon sounded genuinely worried, as he kept glancing from Krauser to the beast and back again, not entirely trusting yet that it wouldn’t get up and attack them again. He took a sidestep closer, and Krauser hated himself for the way it immediately made him feel better, how it made a flash of something like… contentment spark within him.
Determinedly he stomped it down, quenched the fire before it managed to even properly start. “It’s nothing,” he pushed out from between clenched teeth, forcing the calm façade to stay up. Despite that, inside he was screaming at himself, berating himself for being so careless, for being so slow, for his aim being off. I guess this is it for me, he thought bitterly, my career is over. What a last mission.
Distantly he heard Manuela talk to the dying beast, but he couldn’t focus on it. His world was narrowed down to the pain, to the throbbing of it in his arm. So when Leon placed a palm on his shoulder he startled, unable to cover it up. “I said it’s fine,” he growled, allowing the anger to take over, as it conveniently burned away all the other feelings. The ones he didn’t want. “I’m fine. Let it go.”
Leon obviously didn’t believe a single word he said, but he took his hand back anyway, respecting Krauser’s boundaries in a way Krauser wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to do if their roles were reversed. A part of him, a treacherous, stubborn part he hated, wanted to just accept the comfort and relish it. Instead of listening to that he grumbled. “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”
*
Another fucking ugly B.O.W. creature, fucking hell, what was his life. Krauser couldn’t decide whether to be impressed by the display of power these things showed, or if he should be just plain annoyed that he wasn’t allowed such raw strength for himself. It wasn’t like he wanted to mutate into such a hideous monster and lose his own consciousness… but wasn’t Manuela a living proof that it was possible to hold on to your own senses even with enhancements?
If Krauser was given power like that he would be unstoppable. A super soldier. Someone that could level entire armies on his own.
There was no time focusing on that when one of those gargantuan monsters was trying to squash him like a bug. There was no time for anything else but pumping that thing so full of lead it wouldn’t stand up anymore. No way was Krauser going to die here, not today, and he wasn’t going to let either one of his companions die either. Manuela was a sample, she was a curiosity, she would help him understand how to control power like this.
Leon though…
There was no logical explanation why it was so imperative that Leon survived. If anything, him dying would give Krauser the chance to take all the credit for himself, to get the glory and the reward and… yet it wasn’t an option. More than once there were possibilities, there were small windows wherein Krauser could’ve held his fire and let Leon take the fall for it.
Yet he never did it. Instead he practically situated himself between Leon and the B.O.W. in an attempt to take the brunt of the attack. And it seemed to work, they managed to chip away at the monster’s life force bit by bit until it was more dead than alive.
The creature seemed to be almost done, swaying on its feet and taking in a loudly rattling breath after another. Krauser knew better than to relax this time, but his arm was throbbing with pain, each movement making it feel like muscle was tearing apart under his skin. He closed his eyes against a fresh wave of agony just for a second, only for as long as it took for him to gulp in a deep breath–
“Krauser!”
Leon’s voice barely reached his ears before there was a body slamming into him, toppling him over and into the ground so that the gigantic claw of the monster missed him by a couple of inches. All air was knocked out of his lungs and he hit the back of his head against the ground, but had he been standing on his original place he would’ve gotten his throat slashed. He figured it was a fair trade-off, considering.
Only then he realized that Leon’s face was twisted into a grimace, and he was holding on to his own bicep tight. There was blood oozing from between Leon’s fingers, and that made Krauser’s patience snap. Harshly he pushed Leon off himself. “What the fuck were you thinking!?” he barked, voice odd in his own ears. “Didn’t think you were that fucking stupid!”
Without bothering to even wait for a reply, he all but shoved Leon behind himself, raising his gun to fire another round of bullets into the massive B.O.W. in front of them. Distantly he was aware of Leon moving a few steps to be able to aim at it, too, but he forced himself to single-mindedly focus on the task at hand. Something he had been so good at. There had never been distractions that could’ve pulled his mind off battle, not before–
Finally the creature fell on the ground, writhing with the last moments of its life, and as soon as it was obviously dead Krauser spun around to give Leon the harshest glare he could manage. “Isn’t one bum arm enough for a mission, for fuck’s sake! Let that be the last time you pull stupid shit like that.” His throat burned from the way he’d been yelling, but he ignored it, ignored the pain in his arm, ignored the aches and the hurt and most of all, he ignored the way Leon was looking at him.
He wasn’t equipped to deal with this crap.
*
“C’mon, let me take a look,” Leon insisted as soon as they were finally in their evac helicopter, on their way to safety.
Krauser wanted to push him away, to tell him he knew as much first aid as Leon did and could deal with it himself. Yet he allowed himself to have this moment. Allowed himself to revel in the gentle way Leon touched him, how he cleaned and bandaged the wound the best he could, all the while trying not to hurt Krauser any more than he absolutely had to.
And Krauser wanted so much. He wanted to take Leon into his arms and shelter him from the world, he wanted to bend him over and fuck him until he was screaming for more, wanted to hold him, wanted to love him, wanted to have him, wanted everything. And on top of that all, Krauser wanted to stab Leon dead in the heart for making him feel all this.
Feelings made you weak. Krauser wasn’t weak. Even with a fucked up arm, he wasn’t weak, he would make sure of that. He would track down whoever he needed to. He’d heard things about Wesker, who seemed like the best bet, he would find that man and force him to make him strong again. He would stop at nothing. Nothing. Not even for Leon. Especially not for Leon.
Of all the things he wanted from Leon, pity was not one.
“You’ll have to get it checked out properly when we land,” Leon murmured, blissfully unaware of the thoughts swirling inside of Krauser’s mind. He was frowning at the bandaged arm, looking like he would’ve wanted to do more to it. “It’s not–”
And Krauser couldn’t hear it. He didn’t want any empty promises, any reassurances or white lies, he didn’t want any of it. He couldn’t hear any of it. So Krauser grabbed the hair in the back of Leon’s head, yanking him close for a searing kiss. He heard Leon make a surprised sound in his throat, one that melted into a pleased hum, and then it was nothing but lips and tongues and teeth. Krauser had to use all of his self control not to rip Leon’s clothes off him.
Had they been anywhere else he wouldn’t have had any problem doing just that. But they weren’t alone, and there wasn’t going to be any future for this. So he took all he could, took and took and took, kept kissing Leon over and over until a faint sound grabbed their attention. Manuela was waking up. Leon clearly hesitated, and started to pull back, but Krauser still held on to him for one last kiss. One that was unbearably soft, gentle in a way nothing between them had ever been.
It was goodbye.
A moment later Krauser still could feel the ghost of that kiss on his lips as he watched Leon talk to Manuela, watched him calm her down and encourage her in what he thought was the best way. Krauser shook his head minutely, so no one noticed. How Leon could be so cruel without even meaning to. Manuela didn’t need placid reassurances and empty words on duty and responsibility. She needed to feel powerful. Reborn. But she would never have that.
When Leon looked back at him, Krauser tried his best to smile, but he knew even himself it turned out forced. There was nothing left here. Nothing left to say. Their paths had crossed once. This had been the intersection. And now they’d just continue on their respective ways.
It was better that way.