Chapter Text
The first time you encountered Leon S. Kennedy, he was pointing a gun at you.
“Identify yourself, civilian- “he said and you could see the firearm quivering in his hands. He steadied his grip, fumbling his fingers tight around the handhold as he surveilled the current threat (you).
You smirked and lifted your arms in obedience, staring back into his cautious eyes- constantly assessing the situation at hand. You knew better than to be afraid of this display of bravado because you knew for a fact that the gun wasn’t loaded; no better than a prop piece, a piece of junk, a toy- but you wouldn’t clue the stranger in yet. Not while things were still interesting.
You could feel the glow of the campfire casting the alternating shadows and highlights across your face in the dark, and the uniformed operative continued to inspect your torn and blood-soaked outfit as he walked the perimeter with the gun still pointed at your head.
“Huh, I guess if you’re going to shoot- make it count- “
“When I shoot, my enemies stay down- wait- what did you say?”
“I said- “
“Wait, you can talk? I was never briefed- Ah, just give me a moment- “
You stared in awe as Leon turned his back to you- a logo reading ‘Raccoon City Police Department’ emblazoned along his back and in various locations across his uniform- as he pulled a small battered notebook out of his pocket (also decorated with the same bombastic insignia) and began to… flip through his notes?
Continuing to watch with an eyebrow cocked, you noticed Leon stare at the pages and then at you a few times before scrawling in some information onto the pages himself. Who was this guy? He didn’t look like a regular cop, the special flashy uniform indicating quite the opposite.
“Here, let me help: brown eyes, brown hair; 5’7” when I stand up straight, and I’m a Gemini.”
He balked at you before dutifully scribbling a few more lines and then pocketing the booklet and returning one hand to his holster.
“You’re not a monster?”
“Nope,” you replied easily, “I just could probably do with a shower at the moment; not my fault, though.”
“Where am I? What is this place?”
You sighed, lowering your hands and resting them on your hips.
“Why don’t we grab a seat? It’s going to take a while.”
--
It turned out not to take a while, Leon appearing to be far more adept to handle the situation after brief introductions and a quick and dirty run down of the Entity’s realm. You tried to intimidate him with threats of the all-seeing Entity and her menagerie of killers but he remained stony-faced as he listened attentively. When you asked for his own story, he easily complied- offering you time stamps for each landmark event.
“Damn,” you sighed after Leon summarized his own final moments before being captured by the Fog, “you really can’t catch a break, can you?”
He shook his head with a small chuckle; when he wasn’t threatening to decapitate you, he could have been described as easy on the eyes. As he looked out at the fire, still absent of any other survivors besides the two of you, you observed his features carefully: he was a little small but sturdy-looking, obviously still fit from his time in the academy. He had tan skin with olive undertones, and his mussed hair stood stranded somewhere between light brown and dirty blonde. He had a strong and handsome face, a hooked nose disobeying his all-American visage for something a little more ambiguous. And his eyes-
“-and what happened to the virus?”
“Huh?” you snapped back, hypnotized by Leon’s striking blue eyes as he repeated his question.
“The virus? All those people who died, all those monsters in the sewers- the virus, it caused all of it- everything that’s bad in Raccoon City, it all leads back to Umbrella; we have to take them down, we have to destroy the virus- “Leon looked agitated, standing from where he sat previously at the fire and pacing around the edges of the clearing into the dark woods.
“We’re not going anywhere.”
He stared at you, scanning your expression and its dejectedness before sitting back down on the log beside you; sensing a lull in the mood, he waited in rigid silence until Dwight and a few others finally returned from a trial and introduced themselves to the new guy. A few times, he stood and peered into the darkness as if keeping watch.
--
You didn’t talk again until Leon’s first trial: it was hard, and bloody- Leon woefully vocal as the Trickster teased along his spine with his blades. He was new, and therefore empty-handed- no med kits, no toolboxes, nothing. He hadn’t been there long enough to spill blood for the Entity and everything in Her world came at a cost.
Leon had his priorities all wrong, misunderstanding the goal of the game entirely: he clattered loudly along the long hallways of the asylum, clutching his bleeding side as he yelled out your name. You rolled your eyes at his unwavering sincerity, yanking him into the darkness of a corner when he jogged by.
“Shut up, or you’ll never get out.”
He stared at you stupidly, almost eye-to-eye as he leaned into the shadows with you. You could feel the heat in your cheeks rising as his chest brushed against yours with every inhale. He blinked once and then again before saying,
“There you are; listen, I did a little recon and I think we’re supposed to tackle these generators in order to power the door- “
You suppressed the urge to kill him yourself, tending to his cuts instead.
When the killer finally caught wind of the two of you, Leon started pulling out the greasy entrails of the generator and stowing parts in his padded pockets before confidently stepping out and pointing his pistol at the killer. Cursing yourself for not being straight with him earlier, you tried to hide as Leon pulled the trigger in vain.
“Oh fuck- “he scrambled as Ji-Woon caught up with him at last, slamming him in the face with his bat.
After a brief wait and fastidious rescue, you healed Leon again and tried to herd him back toward the closest generator. Thankfully, your other two teammates had been a little more organized and completed a few generators without requiring you or Leon’s assistance- still, you wanted to have contributed something.
You looked behind you after creeping down the halls in silence for a few minutes, finding Leon had ditched you. Wearily, you retraced your steps in efforts to rejoin Leon and put him to work- the sound of a steady chugging of a generator whirring to life growing louder until you were met with your new teammate quietly working alone. He twitched out of whatever focus he was in, startled when he finally noticed you stepping onto the machine with him.
“I didn’t even notice you- I see you’re trained in stealth, good to know,” Leon said seriously, nodding at you before returning his gaze to the sparking wires of the generator. You couldn’t help but snicker to yourself privately as the two of you finally restored power to the exit gates, absolutely thrilled at his assessment of you; surely to Leon, you were stealthy indeed.
The killer was waiting for you at the closest gate, giggling wildly as he tossed blades in your direction. All the survivors had split up in efforts to increase the odds of escape and you had unfortunately pulled the smallest straw. You felt so close to freedom, having performed pretty okay in the match considering the last-minute babysitting gig you had taken on- and now, it was all going to shit-
“Here, use this- “
Leon’s hand emerged from a nearby locker that you had taken refuge next to in an attempt to get the killer off your scent- in his callused and dirty hand lay something you had never seen in the trials before.
“Is that a bomb?” you gasped incredulously and Leon shrugged,
“Technically, it’s a flash bang- it won’t hurt the guy, but it’ll get him off your ass. Want it?”
“Where did you even get that?”
He shrugged again.
“Made it.”
You nodded wide-eyed and he nodded back, stepping out of the locker completely.
“I’ll meet you at the east exit- I’ll hold the door for you.”
He jogged off in that direction without another word and you stared at the handmade explosive sitting in your bloody palm.
“Huh.”
--
After the trial- the flash bang coincidentally becoming the reason for your escape- you decided to chat up your new friend and thank him for the spontaneous gift. When you found him in one of the smaller of the survivor’s clearings he was in rapt conversation with a few other people with similar outfits and serious expressions- wanting to allow him privacy to reconnect with his people you started back in another direction but he caught your eye and broke away from the group. You smiled as he jogged up to you and he returned it with a stiff closed-lip smile of his own.
“Hey, I wanted to thank you for the thingy,” you started and he tilted his head before realizing what you were referring to.
“No problem, happy to help,” he smiled as he extended his right hand. You slowly met him in a handshake and he appeared pleased by the response. You took the moment in stride, interpreting it as positive feedback from the stranger.
“You know, I was thinking- what happened to you, you totally got ‘Clerks’’ed,” you laughed and he looked at you again with that confused and slightly uncomfortable expression.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Oh- it’s a movie,” you fumbled, “it’s about a guy who works at a convenience shop and all this crazy shit happens to him on the day he covers someone else’s shift- but it’s like- situationally funny because he wasn’t even supposed to be working that day.”
Leon nodded solemnly as he digested your words,
“Did he also have to kill his boss after he turned into a zombie?”
“Uhm, no- but every time something dumb happens he says ‘I’m not even supposed to be here today,’” you finished lamely, perhaps leaving things worse than you found them.
Leon cracked a small smile after a beat, eyes crinkling as he looked at you a little more earnestly.
“You’re strange,” he said finally, and you barked out a laugh in surprise before responding.
“The feeling is mutual.”
--
“This is new,” Nea commented flatly as the two of you took in the splendor of the Raccoon City Police Department building. According to some of the paperwork left out on abandoned office desks, the building used to be an art museum- abundantly apparent by the painted frescoes, monolithic marble statues and wealth of gold plating. Although not sure why anyone would take over an art museum for police operation (perhaps a longer story for another day) the change in scenery served as a sufficient appetite cleanser from the dense woods and dirty hospitals you were used to.
“There’s even a library,” you added, a little impressed that the books on the shelves were indeed real and contained legitimate words inside them, “our captor has really out done herself again”.
Nea nodded before cocking an eyebrow,
“You think the Entity’s a girl?”
You paused, considering it-
“Huh, I guess- do you think the Entity’s a guy?”
“I dunno,” she shrugged, “when I’m down in the basement the voices certainly sound… low, manly I guess?”
“But maybe this is just another sort of male versus female god thing again- “you rambled, Nea rolling her eyes, “like is it misogyny that makes me assume the eternal demon that tortures us is a man? Why couldn’t a female demon torture us? Also, who’s to say that the Entity even has a gender? Gender is a human-made concept, the binary based in colonization-“
“Zombies?” Nea fretted, and you made a face at her,
“What, colonizers? No, I don’t know if-“
“No, look dumb ass,” she argued, spinning you in the direction of the walkway above you where a zombie looped endlessly, sniffing and clacking its teeth at the air in attempts to locate you.
“Zombies are new,” you commented dumbly, “You don’t think that’s the killer, do you?”
Nea snorted, before shoving open the library doors back into the main hall carelessly,
“Let’s hope so; I wouldn’t mind an easy killer every now and then. Maybe I’ll actually check out one of these books,”
“Now, that,” you countered with a laugh, “I’d like to see.”
The two of you hopped on a generator, chatting loudly and working slowly, luring the zombies away and into traps every time they infiltrated the perimeter. By the time three were completed and the exit halfway powered, there still had been no sign of the other two survivors or any other type of imposing threat.
Nea had just rattled a metal chest open, pulling out a small syringe with a confused look when Leon burst through the doors breathing heavily and covered in a poisonous looking blue ooze. Behind him, you could feel a floor shaking foot step growing closer and closer-
“What the fuck is that?” you asked, as he scrambled for the syringe in Nea’s hand and stabbed himself with it.
“The killer,” Leon said darkly, before the door behind him crashed open and sent him to the floor. He scrambled to his feet, shooting off in the opposite direction and pulling you and Nea along with him- shortly after staggered the source of the miniature earthquakes: whatever it was- it was fucking huge, practically warping the wooden floorboards with every step in your direction. Swathed only in garbage and caution tape, the creature loomed over you as it took an exploratory strike in your direction. Pain exploded in your side as the beast made contact with his fist, and you broke off from the path searching desperately for cover.
Armed with a flashlight and a bad fucking attitude, Nea warmly took over the killer’s attention for you while you tried to stitch yourself up. As soon as the killer was baited, Leon caught you and brought you into the photo lab to see to your wounds. There was nothing particularly sexy about the sterile white lighting or the acidic scent of chemicals and yet goose flesh prickled your skin every where Leon’s sturdy and practiced hands touched.
“Are you cold?” he asked breathily in between strips of adhesive cloth, covering the places where the creature had broken skin. You shivered and nodded with a thin smile, too embarrassed to admit the truth. After a brief search of the space, Leon found an old lab coat to drape over your shoulders; when he returned with the garment, he was ready with a plan of action.
“There’s two generators on opposite sides of the second floor that are both close to being done. The enemy is unfortunately located in the same area, but i’m sure with a stealth approach and Jill and Nea subduing it below we can get the job done. What do you say?”
You trailed behind him as he walked confidently down the hall and into the belly of the beast. Only now could you perceive that he had been injured the entire time, ignoring his own maladies in order to attend to yours.
--
“I like you.”
Leon startled you from your place against one of the rudimentary huts of the survivor’s clearing, the recently pilfered copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea falling from your hands and into the dirt. You kneeled forward to grab the aging hardback, immediately making contact with Leon’s hand that had reached at the same time. Blurting apologies, he stumbled back as you collected the book and righted yourself. He looked around nervously before crossing his arms and uncrossing them indecisively.
“What?”
“I like you,” he repeated to the forest floor and your dirty sneakers, “I just thought you should know- I was telling Claire about our talks and well…” he trailed off, before taking a deep breath and speaking carefully, “Sometimes I can be a little oblivious, romance usually is just the last thing on my mind. I can’t help but feel a little used by the women who’ve been in my life- typically, the most action I get with a girl is when she’s stabbing me in the back,” he sat beside you and you turned to look at him, wondering how Claire’s intuition proved better than yours and Leon’s combined.
“I’ve been on my own for a long time, and I know I’m not one for making the first move at the right time- but I was just hoping we could- “
You kissed him before he could work himself into a tizzy of self-reflection, learning that yes indeed his hair was as soft to the touch as you had expected. He easily returned the motion, looping his arms around your waist as he deepened the embrace. Stubble scratched against your skin as he trailed his lips along your neck, more touch starved and passionate than his reserved nature indicated.
Moving into the dim candlelight of the cabin and out of the open clearing, you and Leon worked together to strip him of his uniform and the buckles and Velcro straps that denied you what you wanted. Forever a servant for something beyond himself, Leon was quick to undress you and get you comfortable on the cot- if there was anything he knew instinctually, it was how to care for others.
He was gentle and eager to please, continually checking in (maybe even too many times) when he came up for air from where he rested between your legs. Leon finished shortly with profuse apology after you saddled on top of him, more aroused by the thought of pleasing you than experiencing pleasure himself.
Some time later when you thanked Claire for nudging Leon in your direction, she looked at you like you were stupid and said she had no idea what you were talking about.