Well I didn't think I'd ever do this, but here it is, my first ever Resident Evil one-shot. I mainly just thought it up and started it on impulse after watching Resident Evil: Damnation. Don't know if it's any good, but I hope you like it. There isn't really anything too revealing about the plot of Damnation, but I apologies anyway in case anyone hasn't watched it yet.

So Long, Leon

It had been one of the coldest nights of the year so far, or at least Ada had thought so before entering the bar. The bar itself was small, and quiet, which perhaps contributed to its shrinking in size, taking up a rectangular space that she could cross in less than ten seconds.

She guessed that it was drawing near to closing time. She and two others were the only custom the place would see before turning its lights out for the rest of the night.

There was nothing of any particular specialty about the establishment, nothing startling or overly classy, not a thing that would have necessarily drawn her into its warmth. If not for one thing: for just a moment, for one small breath of time, she just wanted to stop moving.

This wasn't the first time in her life that she had felt this way, to cease the arduous business that her existence had the consistent habit of steering her in. A moment was all that she wanted. Just to sink into a peaceful void. A place in which she no longer had to hold her breath. Freedom was what it was, if only for a short time.

The bar seemed to her like the kind of place that was normally swimming with the vibe of the moderately relaxed for most of its opening hours. Nestled within a small back street, it stood still and content, hiding from the world, and the commotion within that world. Ada sat to a small table, one of many small tables that lined the windows. Her hands were rested neatly in her lap, her coat draped over the seat beside her; it was still speckled with a faint layer of dampness from the falling snow outside, paving the streets like Christmas morning.

An almost empty cup sat in front of her, with the remnants of cooling coffee sitting at the bottom. Ada hadn't made a move to finish it in the last five minutes. In fact, beverages of any breed or description were so far removed from her thoughts at the present time that anyone who might have cared to look would more than likely wonder what on earth she was doing there in the first place. But sitting still was perfect for reflection. However, at the same time it was also a torment. She felt it, every minute of every day, grinding down on her in oppressive and suffocating waves, and even more so in the past couple of months, since her last assignment.

She had to wonder at times: was there a point to her life? She had thought there was, at least at one point. But was there a point now? Had she truly lost sight of the big picture, she wondered? A reason to live was what she meant; to feel complete in one's life and the purpose's that drove human beings to do their good or terrible deeds, or simply to dwell on the sidelines, within a normal and mundane cycle of breathing and eating and a few various other trivial things to go with it. One way or another, these people had their reason, their raison d'etre. Did she have that kind of anchor of her very own? Did she even care about possessing one anymore?

Ada knew that her questioning wouldn't last the night. More than once since her retrieval of the cultured control plaga had her mind skimmed over the many years that her occupation had swallowed her wholly and entirely. And just like always, she would pick herself up again and get on with what must be. She would forget. Or at the very least, she would try to forget about those other things. The mirages on the unattainable horizon that could never be met.

'Can I get you another?'

She was jolted from her thoughts, at the sound of an old and rather rough textured voice. It pulled her out of that small pocket universe of hers. She looked up from the table, taking in the picture of reality once again, where a weathered but charmingly warm face lay in wait.

'I'm sorry?' she said.

'My, my,' the old man said. She remembered seeing him behind the bar; he now seemed somewhat amused. 'You were certainly deep in thought just now, weren't you miss?'

Ada didn't respond immediately. At first she smiled as pleasantly as she was able, perhaps a little unprepared for the sudden but harmless intrusion. The old man meant no offence. But still, her internal reaction couldn't be helped, considering where her mental wanderings had been taking her: the place inside the deepening well of her longing imagination.

'I supposed I was,' she replied. She blinked a few times, just to fully awaken her attention to this person, who she guessed must have owned the bar. 'I'm sorry, what did you say?'

The man smiled, pulling old creases long across his face. 'I was asking if you'd like another coffee?'

'Oh,' she said, pausing for a moment before shaking her head. 'I think I'll be fine. I'll be leaving shortly. But thank you anyway.'

'I take it you're not from around here?' he said. 'I haven't noticed you in here before.'

'Well sir, that doesn't mean that I'm not local,' she said, keeping her small smile, which was feeling a little more honest as the seconds went on.

'I suppose that's true,' he said.

'And it's not exactly an easy place to find,' she added, looking about the very near vacant area. 'I like it in here though. It's very quiet.'

'Usually is,' the old man said. 'It never really gets too busy; we have our regulars but they're never any trouble. It's not much, but it pays the bills, as they say.'

For an instant, Ada wished that she were so fortunate; to have something of her very own that she cherished, which this man certainly seemed to do with his business. She would like something so simple, without the experiences that followed her around like a ball and chain wherever she went. She occupied the same space as this talkative man, but the world in which she walked was of a far more separate species altogether.

But, perhaps a small peek into that safe little world could be possible, she thought. Just for a little longer.

'I think I will have that coffee,' she said. 'It's cold outside.'

'That it is,' he agreed. He then swept the cup into a practiced hand, but then stopped as he regarded Ada curiously. 'Are you waiting for a friend?'

'Why do you ask?'

'No particular reason; you just looked as if you were,' he replied.

Ada's smile faltered for just a second, but this reaction wasn't one of irritation or annoyance. Although she could clearly tell that the old man thought it to be just that.

'I apologise,' he said, if a touch awkwardly. 'I shouldn't have asked.'

'No, its fine,' she assured him. 'Its just… I suppose it's the other way around.'

'Is that right?' he said. 'So, if someone is waiting for you, then why aren't you with them, may I ask?'

'I don't know,' she paused, staring down at her hands. 'I suppose it's just not possible right now. Probably never.'

The old man looked questioningly at her for a moment or two, but within a few seconds of not being able to read her expression (hiding her true feelings was something that Ada had always excelled at) he got back to what he'd intended to begin with.

'I'm sorry to hear that. I'll be right back with your coffee,' he said.

'Thank you,' Ada murmured, and watched as he walked away from her table.

She wondered if he could ever comprehend just how impossible some things really were. Chances were he couldn't, not without knowing the full account of the facts. But that wasn't his fault, and Ada envied him for it.

She sank further into her seat, almost merging with it. She considered simply getting up and leaving there and then, but in all honesty she just didn't have the energy. It wasn't a physical fatigue that had overtaken her, but an emotional one, which in her experience was much worse in the long run.

'Leon,' she whispered.

Ada wondered if Leon S. Kennedy, the handsome and intensely persistent government agent, had ever been able to see through her playful and self-centred performance? Somehow she believed that on some instinctive level that he had seen the real her, the real Ada Wong, buried beneath the mountainous layers of lies and bullshit. For the most part she knew that's what they really were.

The mask she had to wear in order to walk the path she travelled, to deal with the unsavoury vermin she had to deal with; it certainly wasn't a lifestyle that she would have willingly chosen for herself, not with the things she had seen, and the hearts she had broken in her dark ascension through life. But like any other cross, hers was one she would have to bare to the very end. And in a strange and equally tragic sense, Leon was that cross. He was the taunt, the dream, the promise of something beyond the madness. Freedom. But sadly, that freedom was forever out of her reach.

Within the next few minutes her refill had been brought to her, fresh and steaming into the air, awaiting her. Ada was just about to take a small sip, but her attention was then drawn elsewhere.

The two people that she had noticed before, sitting at the bar – a man and woman, obviously a couple, Ada thought – moved to the empty space between the bar and the tables. Ada watched for a moment, intently viewing the two as they danced to the low volume of some old love song that she didn't know. They swayed slowly, cradled in each other's arms as they moved, as if realising their love for the very first time. But they looked to be possibly in their mid-forties, and had the air of two people who had been together for a great many years. Lifers, she thought. The sight made her smile again.

She tried, as she looked, to burn the image of this display of devotion into her brain for as long as she could. She wanted it to serve as a reminder, as proof, that some things were possible for some, even if they weren't for someone else.

'Enjoying the show?'

Ada pulled her eyes away from the scene, turning to her right. That was when she saw him, and even then she didn't believe it. It couldn't have been true.

'Well, I must say I'm impressed, Leon,' she said. 'I don't know how you found me.'

'It wasn't all that hard,' he said with a shrug.

Ada let out a very low and brief laugh. 'I'm beginning to think we're connected by some kind of invisible rope.'

Leon smiled. 'Maybe we are,' he then gestured toward the chair opposite from her. 'This seat taken?'

An audible sigh broke free from between her lips; she found this entire scenario ridiculous. But nevertheless, she decided to play along anyway. 'It's all yours, Leon. Just make sure to keep your gun below the table, or it might scare the happy couple.'

'I didn't bring a gun with me,' he said as he sat across from her.

'Oh dear,' she said, faking surprise as best she could. 'Perhaps I've overestimated you all these years? In your line of work that's quite the foolish move, walking around unarmed, even off duty.'

'I could say the same about you, Ada. And besides, you can protect me.'

'I'm always armed, Leon. And you can protect yourself. It's not my problem that you don't dress accordingly.'

A single corner of Leon's mouth curled faintly upward. Ada wondered as he spoke how he might react if she were to lean across the table and plant a kiss on him there and then. 'Oh, but you always do, don't you?' he said.

'It helps to be prepared, handsome,' she replied, despite that the word "handsome" in description of this man was severely understating things.

'Yeah, I guess that's true,' he said with a low sigh. 'I'm just wondering how prepared you are right now?'

At hearing this, Ada was a touch confused as well as she was intrigued. The playful act was certainly a strange one when wielded by Leon. She wondered what he might have coming her way next.

'I'm prepared for more or less anything. Try me.'

'Ok,' he cleared his throat. 'Would you like to dance?'

Ada felt herself flinch, believing that she hadn't heard him correctly. 'Would I like to dance?' she repeated. 'Leon, you didn't strike me very much as the dancing type.'

Leon smiled again, perhaps a little nervously. 'Sometimes people can surprise you.'

'Yes, they can. Although I'm not sure if it's such a good idea.'

'What, they didn't teach you all the steps at spy-school?'

'They taught me a great many things,' she couldn't help herself. So desperately she wanted to just give in and say yes.

'Well then,' he went on. 'We can just copy the lovebirds over there. That's if you're not scared of being seen with me?'

'What about you?' she said. 'Aren't you afraid of being seen with me?'

Leon's smile began to shift into a taunting shape. 'Not so much, not at the moment; you're safe with me for now.'

'I'm many things, but scared has never been one of them. You should know that well enough by now,' she said, returning his provoking grin.

'So what are you waiting for?' Leon stood up, moving out from the table and extending his hand to her. 'What do you say?'

Ada was almost stunned. She knew that none of this could really be happening. Leon being there, where she was right at that very point in time, and asking her to dance with him. The sight of Leon, the man whom her mind had lingered on and longed after for such a long time, now offering his hand to her. It was too good to be anything resembling the truth, and was numbing to her darkness, putting it momentarily to sleep. It couldn't be real, and yet still, in that blissful and ecstatic instant where he was there, wanting her the way she wanted him, the need to embrace her craving impulse took hold of her completely. What harm could this do, she asked herself? Just give me this much?

'Alright then,' she took his hand, letting him lead her into the open. No one paid them any attention.

Another old song was now playing, and this time it was one she knew, one before her time that she hadn't heard in years. As Leon's arms encircled her waist, the sounds of "Lovers Never Say Goodbye" by the Flamingos swirled out into the air. How fitting a title, she thought to herself, with some melancholy within the realisation. But she didn't stop, couldn't stop. She allowed her hands to come to rest upon Leon's relaxed shoulders. She breathed in, taking in the intoxicating smell of soap, and the slight hint of aftershave. She absorbed the moment as it played out. The rest of existence just fell away. Nothing else was real but this.

'I,' she stopped, taking a moment to find her voice again. 'I'm glad you're here, Leon.'

'I'm glad to be here.'

'I imagine you'll have to leave soon?' she said, as they slowly circled one another to the flow of the song.

'I always do,' he whispered. 'But then, you've always been better at leaving than me.'

'Well maybe I want you to come after me?' she smiled at the thought of him pursuing her, almost hoping that he would. 'Perhaps I want to be caught?'

'Maybe I've already tried?' he said.

His grip tightened around her ever so slightly. She didn't mind. 'Then maybe you haven't been running fast enough,' her breath ceased momentarily as his chest pressed against hers. 'You must be out of shape.'

'No,' he murmured. 'You're just too quick for me. I cant catch you.'

Ada felt her smile fall away. 'I'm afraid that you never will. I'm sorry for that.'

'It's ok,' Leon shook his head. 'It's the way it has to be, I guess.'

Ada felt the faint sting of water in her eyes when Leon said those words. She knew them to be all too true. 'But, it's not fair.'

'Seems to me, Ada, like there isn't much in life that is fair,' he said.

She could see the equal and powerful beating of sadness in his eyes as well. She felt one of his hands leave her waist, felt his fingers caressing the side of her cheek, and she shivered from the feeling. She wanted so much more than this.

'But what else can we do?'

'Nothing,' he said. 'We just have to go with the flow.'

'Unfortunately,' she agreed. 'But there are times when I wish I didn't have to.'

'Me too.'

This experience, while dreamful and wonderful at the time, also hurt so much. The pain drilled its way through to the core of the emotions she kept shackled down and shrouded from everyone and everything. She didn't like to linger on these thoughts of Leon. She knew that once she did, like now, it would consume her for days. She wanted him so much in this beautiful yet tragic moment, but she couldn't even have more than a moment. She felt herself shake within his grasp. He held her tighter, apparently refusing to let her go. Her hands clamped around the back of his neck, her fingers interlacing as she felt tears in her eyes. She couldn't have felt more helpless at the eventual outcome of this encounter.

'I don't want this to stop, Leon,' she sniffed, trying to blink her tears away. 'Tell me it doesn't have to end like this? Lie to me.'

Leon didn't say anything, instead he looked away from her, shielding himself from her watery gaze. In that moment she knew he had no answer, because there was no answer. There was no lie he could fabricate for her; no story he could weave that would make her believe that the fantasy was anything more than what she knew it to be. A fantasy.

'Don't worry about it,' she said.

Leon looked back at her. 'I'm sorry.'

'Its ok,' she took her hand away from his neck, wiping her cheeks before returning it. 'But can you do one thing for me.'

Leon's features suddenly set hard. 'Anything.'

'Please wait for me? I don't care how long, but wait for me. Ok?'

Leon's sorrowful eyes infected her all the more as he spoke. 'I could be waiting all the way into my next lifetime.'

'I don't care,' Ada smiled as she shook her head. 'Just wait for me, ok? I'll be there.'

Leon gravely nodded. 'I love you. You know that, don't you?'

'I do,' she said, sniffing again. 'I love you too, handsome,' and then she kissed him, and it was a throbbing bittersweet thing that she had yearned for since the first one they had shared, in what now seemed like an eternity ago.

And then it was over. Ada was still sitting to the table, by herself. Her new coffee remained untouched; the couple were just finishing off their dance, and the old man was behind the bar, busying himself with cleaning glasses. Ada was invisible for those few seconds, in the aftermath of her daydreaming. Truthfully, she was grateful for the wide birth their eyes were giving her.

The wetness on her cheeks was still there, poring out of her through that ghost of a dream, that magic moment where she had lost herself, and allowed room for hope, allowed for the possibility that some things did in fact change. But then that was why they were called dreams; the things that only occurred in the subconscious netherworld, but could never take form in reality.

Despite the sadness of this Ada let a smile creep into her face. And then she stood from her seat. She grabbed her coat, wiping her eyes before paying for her drink; the old man never asked her what was wrong, and that too she was grateful for. What good would it do her to share those things with other people?

She then left, exiting the bar, entering out into the snow once again. Only when she was outside did she put on her large warm parka, zipping it up tightly. And only after wiping the remaining moisture from her cheeks did she bury her hands deep within her pockets, rescuing them from the chill.

It was difficult for her. In fact it was worse than difficult on better days. But it was the way things had to be. There was no other path available to her. The little imaginings would just have to do. The dreams were her only escape, and they always would be. And at the very least, she had those to cherish.

'So long, Leon,' she whispered. She then took off, walking hastily away, vanishing into the snowy night.

Well that's my silly little one-shot done. I was originally planning to write it from Leon's perspective instead; being a guy myself I suppose that would have been easier, but for some reason it just felt right to do it this way. I guess it's a bit on the sappy side really, with the song and all that, but it was just something I felt like doing at the time. Anyway, I hope whoever reads it enjoys it. Bye for now.