Chapter Text
Suddenly, they saw eye to eye. All that was between them were their guns, pointed at each other. Chris stared at him. "Are you genuinely still protecting her?! She killed my men without a hint of remorse!" he yelled, clearly furious.
Chris looked rabid when he was angry. Leon had never witnessed this before. Those angry, hazel eyes hide the deep sorrow beneath the surface. Leon could see it for he knew it so very well. He woke every morning with this sorrow, sometimes in the middle of the night, to Jack Krauser's "You can't save anyone" still ringing in his ears.
For a long time, silence spread between them like the plague in Europe in the 14th century. "You don't understand, Chris. It's not like it seems! Simmons is behind this! Not Ada!" Chris Redfield's glare did not soften. It just turned more betrayed. "I can't believe you are siding with her... For what!?" he yelled with the same vigour, his gun still trained at Leon's head. "She's a key witness. Please believe me, Chris! We need her, to bring down Derek Simmons, the National Security Advisor! He unleashed the C-Virus!"
Chris balled a hand into a fist. "All my men are DEAD because of HER!" he replied furiously. Meanwhile, Ada was just observing them from the background. She looked frighteningly relaxed. Almost a little too much like Ada. "And I lost over 70000 people, including the president, because of that virus! We need to stop this and can't allow this to stand between us now! We want the same thing here, Chris!" The taller man sighed, finally lowering his weapon.
Something bitter and unkind lay on his tongue, but he swallowed it. "Fine. I'll make sure the BSAA handles her. You take care of Simmons," he hissed begrudgingly, then, turning away to leave. He had to instruct his team and Piers to do the right thing. "Chris! Thank you. I know you'll do the right thing." The room around them swallowed Leon's voice as Chris left.
When Leon turned, Ada had also vanished. "Damn it!" Helena just eyed Leon sympathetically. "Can we trust him?" she asked carefully, as Leon walked past her, hands balled to firm fists. His nails were digging into his skin. "Yes. He's been in this as long as I have... I'd trust Chris Redfield with my life." She nodded, tagging along as he left tensely. He needed to find Ada quickly. They needed her. She could not slip away again. Not this time...
Simmons was presumably dead, burnt beneath them in the flames of an exploding building. The same fire parted Ada and Leon now. Mission complete. At least officially. They were eyeing each other, while she was teasing him, already about to turn her back. Again. Leon reread the message on his communication device over and over. "ADA!" he yelled, hoping futilely she would stop for him, turn around and finally sit down for this conversation, they needed to have but did not know how.
Without another word, she slipped away, disappearing between the burnt ruins of the building around them. The tension in Leon's shoulders fell in this sickly, broken way. She had walked out on him again. It happened every time, a vicious cycle. In Raccoon City, she had faked her death, in Spain, she had left with the Las Plagas sample, and now, she had left him again. Disappearing as they had never known each other.
He sighed, looking up at Helena, standing opposite in a broken window frame. "We stick together." Leon hissed through his intercom, looking at her. She nodded, climbing inside and finding her way to him. He could not lose her as well. She had to get out safely. In the flames below them, the wailing had picked up again. Maybe it was not completely over after all. Hopefully, Ada's "parting gift" was useful.
The helicopter ride away from the building and the city in itself was silent. They were to reunite with Chris, Sherry and Mueller at a military base. Leon sat in the back of the helicopter, taking care of his injuries, which he had finally sustained when killing Simmons for good with the rocket launcher that Ada had provided them with. He was careless when wrapping a bandage around the burns on his arms.
A painful sting shot through his system, overriding everything else for the moment. Silence. There it was again. This blissful silence when real pain overcame everything else. He sighed, purposefully touching the burn again. Just for one moment, there were no thoughts. Just radio silence. Oh, what Leon would give to always feel this way.
Leon could see that something had happened. Something bad. Chris' whole face was showing it, the sorrow and guilt. The absence of Piers Nivans spoke for itself. For the sake of grieving, Leon did not address it, just patted Chris' shoulder in passing, as he moved on to the present government official. He half expected to be taken into custody asap. Nothing of the sort happened.
Silently, he gave the older male the tape with the proof of Simmons' involvement and his own innocence. "Good work, Agent Kennedy. Consider yourself rehabilitated. You can officially return to the States together with Agent Harper. Both of you are freed of all charges," the man stated calmly. It infuriated Leon beyond measure. Of course, they would let him off the hook. They still needed him. Specifically, to get his hands on evidence like this, they could use it for their cover-ups.
Leon swallowed what he wanted to say and just nodded. "Thank you, sir." For Helena's sake. She did not deserve to be caught up in his mess any longer. Especially not after what happened to her sister.
Silently, Leon walked away.
Chris had observed the interaction. So Leon was free to go again. Lucky bastard. Piers had not been as lucky. The loss still ached in Chris' chest. He still held on to Piers' B.S.A.A. badge. He would not return it. They would just take note of it and throw it out, organise a figurative funeral and call it a day. No. Chris wanted to grieve properly. HQ already knew that Piers Nivans had died a hero. No need to deliver further proof. Chris ground his teeth, looking around.
More by accident than design, he spotted Leon, leaning against a truck and talking to a B.S.A.A. soldier. His stance was open and engaging. Chris frowned. "Really got no feelin' for timing," he grumbled, trying to turn away but not really managing. Instead, he stared while Leon was very clearly flirting, running a bandaged hand down the poor soldier's chest, before the taller, broader man caught Leon's wrist, twisting it but leaving with him for one of the temporary tents nonetheless.
Chris checked the details of the mission aftermath again. According to HQ, evac had been sent out but would require hours to arrive. So they definitely had some time left to kill. He sighed, walking around a bit and spotting Sherry, who was on her phone.
"Yes, Claire. Don't worry. I'm fine. Yeess. Really. No, Claire. He's alright. No, not a bad guy. I told you."
Chris huffed out a laugh. Yep. That most certainly sounded like his little sister. Concerned as always. He came closer and waved at blonde. Sherry smiled and waved back.
"Oh yeah. Leon's okay, I guess. No idea where he went, but he was fine last time I saw him. We'll be back soon. Yeah, no worries. Chris is also fine. He's actually with me right now. You wanna speak to him?"
Silently, Chris sat next to her, taking her phone as it was offered to him.
"Hi, Claire. Yeah. I'm okay. Needn't worry about me, right?" he reassured her. It warmed his heart that his sister cared so much, almost lifting the sorrows he felt about losing Piers. "Oh yeah. We should definitely do that again. I'll find Leon and invite him too," he replied to her offer of all of them meeting up once they had returned to the U.S.
Sherry perked up at that, taking her phone back eventually and hanging up once she had said her goodbyes.
"What did she say?" "Oh, she wants to meet up once we're back. Maybe go to some nice place for food. Have you had a lot of contact with her lately?" Chris asked in return, scratching the back of his head. "Not really. We call every now and then, but I haven't seen her in a while. I've been busy with the government, and she's been gone with TerraSave... It was all a bit unfortunate, but I'm happy that she wants to meet up again. It will be great. You and Leon will also be there, I hope?" "Sure. I'll go and find Leon to tell him, and yeah. Reuniting with her definitely sounds good..." Chris replied sadly. He would have loved to introduce Piers to Claire.
He sighed, pushing off the boxes that he had leaned against and made his way over to the tents. "Be back soon," he told Sherry, before disappearing between boxes, trucks and temporary tents.
Chris made his way through, finally stopping in front of the tent he vaguely remembered Leon and the soldier walking towards. "Leon!? Are you in there? Gotta talk to you," he called out, not wanting to intrude on whatever was going on in there.
When nobody answered, but a choked gasp left the tent, Chris acted. He did not even know why he acted so fast and unconsidered, simply walking in, hand on his gun and stopping dead in his tracks immediately.
Leon was on his chest, butt presented to the bulky man leaning over him, steadily rutting into him. One hand covered Leon's mouth, containing his moans and whimpers. The other hand held a cigarette. It was no longer burning. Instead, ash had collected around a fresh, round burn on Leon's spine. At a closer look, several half-finished cigarettes littered the ground, and there were also more burns. "Fucking slut... Y'are so noisy, gotta give us away!" the soldier grunted lowly, while the government agent only moaned in response. Leon had not even noticed Chris, it appeared.
Again, without thinking, the shock fresh but secondary now, Chris strutted over, grabbing the soldier's arm. "Let him go!" he nearly growled, pulling the man off, who slipped out, protesting until he realised that he was talking to Captain Chris Refield. Panic filled his expressions, and he quickly scurried to correct his clothes and make himself scarce.
"You gonna take his place? Damn. It was so good. I almost came... You owe me." Leon complained, not fully grasping who had found him, until he was roughly pulled up. "Cover yourself." Chris was pointedly looking away, feeling dirty to even find his friend in a situation like this.
Leon rolled his eyes when he recognised Chris. "Ugh... Of course, it's the B.S.A.A.'s golden boy. I wasn't some damsel in distress, you know. I had fun," he hissed, pulling up his trousers nonetheless and reaching for his shirt. "This bastard burnt you! Is that what you call fun!?" Chris sounded furious, shocked.
"What makes you think I didn't ask for it, Redfield?"
The words stood between them, Chris' eyes widening in shock. "What the fuck, Leon?" was all he managed, securing his gun again to give his hands something to do.
Leon just shrugged. "Stop meddling with things that aren't your business, Chris." Without another word, Leon pushed past, fully dressed again. "Wait!" Chris exclaimed, grabbing Leon's arm, who tensed at the painful grasp.
Then he relaxed weirdly into the burning pain. Chris only then realised that he had closed his hand around one of Leon's burns, which he had sustained during the fight with Simmons apparently. He quickly let go. "What. Do you want?"
"Claire invited all of us, Sherry, me and you to meet her when we returned to the U.S.", the taller man explained then. Leon sighed, rolling his eyes. "Whatever. I'll see if I can make it." Then he freed his arm and made his way out of the tent.
Chris just remained standing there. Half inside and half outside the tent. What makes you think, I didn't ask for it. What the hell... Something seemed to be genuinely wrong, and Chris cared. Maybe more than he should.
After all, Leon was an experienced agent himself.
It was a sunny afternoon in early autumn as Claire, Chris and Sherry sat together in a nice café. Leon was not there yet. Probably, he was late. Claire kept checking her phone for any form of response to her sending him the location. He even had reacted to it with a thumbs-up.
"He could have said he wouldn't be coming at least..." Claire mumbled with a sigh. "Maybe something important came up. You know how the government can be." Sherry's attempt at soothing her felt in vain. They all knew that Leon was either running late or had never intended to show up.
Maybe he was getting fucked and burnt by some asshole right now, Chris thought. The memory of finding Leon in exactly this position after China had burnt itself into his memory. "I can try to call him if you want," he offered then, reaching for his phone and standing.
His sister smiled at him. "Thanks. Sometimes I wished he weren't quite as... well.. I don't know. Stubborn, I guess." Chris nodded with a wry smile and stepped outside, dialing Leon's number.
The line rang for a while. Then the mailbox answered. Chris sighed and tried again. On the fourth attempt, Leon finally answered the phone.
> What the fuck, Redfield? I'm busy.
"Nice for you, Leon, considering you are likely getting fucked stupid by someone again, I'm not even surprised you forgot. You agreed to meet Claire and the rest of us today, remember?" Chris replied, anger filling his veins.
A huff went through the line, then a curse.
> Ah. That was today, right? I don't know, Chris. I'm kinda not around the corner right now. Can you do without me? Promise I'll catch up with her soon. Maybe I'll call her tonight. I'm sure she'll understand.
Chris groaned, deeply disappointed in the man he called a friend. "What the fuck, Leon... You know what. She's probably better off without your bullshit. Fuck you, Kennedy," he replied angrily, hanging up.
Leon stared at his phone. Chris had hung up on him. Probably deserved. 'She's better off without your bullshit.' Probably Chris was correct. Still, the words stung in a way Leon could not quite explain.
He sighed, shooting Claire a quick, apologetic text. It seemed like it was the only thing he could really do. Then he locked his phone and put it away, leaving the narrow bathroom he had excused himself to and returned to the motel bedroom.
Maybe he was exactly what Chris Redfield thought of him.