There were a lot of reasons to admire Ada in spite or her betrayal as far as Leon was concerned. He wasn't sure what it was about her that had initially drawn him in, but it didn't necessarily matter, either. It was far too late. He was a moth drawn to the flame, completely and utterly captivated in the most dangerous of ways.
"You have heard the story of Icarus, haven't you?" Claire asked, kicking a rock down the dirt road they followed. Leon wasn't sure. The name seemed familiar, but he couldn't recall the context. Feeling a little embarrassed, he grunted and shifted Sherry's weight along his back, carrying her in a piggyback as she slept.
Claire rolled her eyes. The last fifteen minutes of their trek had consisted of having to endure the torture of listening to him gloat over a woman who had attempted to kill him. She didn't know which pissed her off more: Leon's naivete or the fact that Ada had taken advantage of it?
"They say Icarus was imprisoned in a tower by the sea with his father, who fashioned two sets of wings out of wax and feathers in order to escape. His father warned him to be wary of flying too high because he feared that the heat of the sun would melt the wax." She gave Leon a pointed look.
"Guess what happened?" Claire didn't wait to hear his conjecture. "Fly too close to the sun and you'll drown in the ocean, Leon."
Leon fell silent. The only sound between them was the crunching of the earth beneath their boots for the next mile as he pondered Claire's words. Umbrella had proven to be deceptive in many ways, and the occurrence of the outbreak was much more convoluted than it seemed on the surface, as evidenced by Chief Irons' involvement in the scheme. He didn't know if Ada was put in a precarious position, if she had bluffed him in order to save face.
Would he have done the same while standing in her shoes if under pressure? He might have. He couldn't say for sure.
Ada wouldn't have killed him. At least, that's what he told himself again and again. It echoed through the empty space of his mind like a mantra-she wasn't going to do it, she wouldn't have done it, she didn't do it when she could have…
Yeah, she had pointed a gun at him, but she saved him, too. With his eyes closed, he could still feel the hot drip of saliva that came from the beast as it pinned him to the ground in the parking garage, fangs bared and eager to shred flesh from bone. He could still hear the low growl, the sound punctuated by a yelp as a bullet pierced through its skull.
He had admired her then with her cool demeanor and matter-of-fact nature. Most would have panicked. She didn't have to save him, but she did. Didn't that count for something?
Ada could have killed him while he was unconscious in the sewer...if she had really wanted to. Hell, she could have ditched him while he was wading around in those rotten waters with that massive reptile...but she didn't.
And she had kissed him, slowly, softly, and sweetly in that cable car on the way to Nest. She had taken his face into her palm and pressed her mouth to his in the most breathtaking gesture he had ever experienced. Why would she do that if she planned to kill him?
Because she wasn't going to kill him.
"She kissed me, you know." Leon finally admitted. The confession made Claire pause for a moment, but she quickly resumed her pace.
"Yeah, Leon. She kissed you to manipulate you and, from the looks of it, I'd say she succeeded!" There was venom in her voice, her tone reminiscent of a scolding mother. It made him wince, but it did little to douse the flames of the fire in his heart.
"I don't think so." He spoke quietly, voice only audible to himself. "I think she meant it."
That night, he dreamt of her.
"Can you believe we made it?" Leon asked, standing on the outskirts of the city as they watched it burst into flame. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the glow as it smoldered in bright shades of orange. Beside him, Ada laughed.
The sound of her laughter warmed him from the inside out with a heat that rivaled that of the fire before them. He looked over at her and grinned, all white teeth with a boyish smile, and Ada winked with those pretty, long eyelashes.
"I didn't doubt us."
She drew in close, her painted lips hovering just above his, and she whispered, "Icarus fell, but he also flew."
He felt her breath lick at his skin, moist and hot, and his eyes flitted shut with anticipation. He heard her laugh, a gentle sound without any hint of derision, and then she went quiet as her mouth found his once again.
He woke abruptly, feeling her absence as though it were a presence. The severity of the longing he felt was unwarranted, he knew, given the short amount of time they had known one another. Despite knowing such, he couldn't seem to shake the desire to see her again.
When he finally drifted off to sleep once more, he dreamt in hues of red.
Love - it was now a color because of her.