Leon 19:47

I was awoken by the smell of hamburgers and French fries. I opened my eyes to have Chris standing over me with the bag of greasy French fries above me. He had a smile on his face and I bit my lower lip.

"Are you going to keep torturing me or let me eat?" I asked him.

He put two paper bags on tray tables I'd left out before going on my mission. He opened the bag and handed me a tinfoil wrapped hamburger. I opened it to make sure it was mine. Chris took out one cup of French fries from the other bag and set it on my tinfoil.

I realized that I hadn't given him cash for the delivery guy. "Did you pay for this?" I asked him.

He had sat on the chair next to the couch. "Yeah, why? It wasn't even fifteen bucks." He told me, standing in the kitchen. "Do you want some soda?"

I didn't say anything for a moment, and I just kind of stared at him. I swallowed hard and answered him. "Sure, root beer, I guess," and then began to pick at the French fries in front of me.

We ate watching an animated movie. It was one of those nights were ABC didn't have any the scheduled programs on, so they filled the time slot with Shrek.

At the credits, I felt my heart sink. Hadn't Luis been a bit like Donkey? Trying to be helpful to Shrek (presumably me, I guess) and he just pushed and pushed him away. But instead of the movie's happy ending, when Luis tried to be heroic, all he got was a scorpion tail in his back.

I got up, my skin itching because I was trying too hard to hold on to something that was very gone.

"Thanks for dinner." I told Chris, throwing away my garbage.

Chris smiled at me, his blue eyes shining. "Anything for a friend."

"Do you want to stay the night?" I blurted out. I guess I was feeling rather outspoken today. Or maybe I was still so freaking tired that I had no control over what I was saying.

He continued his dam smile. Every sane bit of me was screaming to get him out of my house—he was, after all, Claire's older brother. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't very sane at this point.

"Yeah, just let me get my bag from the truck." He told me.

I stood there, in my living room, wondering what the hell I was doing. First I let myself open up to Luis. Then I let Ada back in just to have her leave again. Not to mention I had to kill Krauser. So what was I doing with Chris?

He came back in, an overnight bag slung over his shoulder.

"Let me show you the guest room," I said, my voice basically shaking. Something was very wrong with me.

"Alright," Chris was right behind me as we walked up the stairs. I showed it to him, almost embarrassed.

"The bathroom is right there," I told him, gesturing to the door over.

"Which room is yours?" He asked me.

I pointed to the door across from the bathroom. "I'm actually gonna hit the sack. 'Night, Chris." I told him.

Chris 19:58

I dropped my bag on the floor and closed the bedroom door. I was kind of shocked that Leon had invited me to stay the night, but I was glad. I'd actually been hoping for it. He was holding something in about what happened in Spain. I hoped I could get it out of him.

I took off my flannel shirt and jeans. I considered putting on a pair of sweatpants, but I figured it wouldn't matter.

I climbed on top of the bed, not bothering to get under the sheets. I felt too damned tired and just clocked out.

A few hours later…

"No! Stop! Ashley, run!"

I woke up to Leon yelling. I'd left my door open and I rushed from the guest room to his. I opened the door and saw that in his sleep, he was shaking and whimpering. The sheets were damp with sweat.

"Get away from her!" He was reliving a memory, and I don't think I wanted to know how it ended.

I moved over to the bed, placing one knee on it. "Leon, wake up, Leon!" I shook him awake. He gasped as his eyes opened, staring at me. "Leon, it's alright. You're home, it's ok, and I'm here." I told him.

He was breathing heavily, still staring at me. "Chris?"

"Yeah, it's me." I told him, my hands still on his shoulders.

I couldn't believe what happened next. It was totally different from the Leon I'd know prior to what happened. He pulled me closer to me and hugged me, pulling me on top of him.

"Stay with me?" He asked softly.

I rolled onto my back so I wouldn't crush him. I pulled him into my arms. "Yeah, I'll stay with you." I whispered into his blond hair.

He was quickly asleep in my arms. I told myself that I was not cheating on Jill, but it didn't really matter anyway because she actually had told me that she wasn't interested in dating me, just the whole friends-with-benefits deal.

As I held Leon though, I began telling myself that he needed me more than Jill did in California and maybe Claire in Seattle. He couldn't get over what happened in Spain.

I eventually drifted off again and I wasn't woken up by him. Though, my internal alarm clock woke me up at 4:15. I found myself with my arm wrapped around Leon's waist, holding him close to me.

Awkward? I asked myself. No…he asked you to stay. I reminded myself. Is he bi? I asked. Would you be surprised? I didn't think for a moment, staring at Leon's back. No…

Getting back around to that point where'd he asked me stay with him, I only got up to use the bathroom, and then I returned to the bed, letting a peacefully sleeping Leon hold onto me.

I woke up again, later, to find Leon out of the bed. I heard the shower running and saw the clock said 10: 13. I got up and went back to the guest room. I took out a set of clothes and my toothbrush. I did my morning stuff in the bathroom and then went downstairs to the kitchen.

I opened the refrigerator, staring at the emptiness. He had really cleaned this out before he'd left—there was only soda and water. I was about to start searching through the cabinets, determined to make him breakfast, when the doorbell rang.

I walked over and saw through the glass that it was a pretty woman with short black hair. Her aviator sunglasses were resting on top of her head, and she was wearing a brown lace dress and a denim jacket. She was holding two grocery bags and a dog was standing patiently next to her.

I opened the door. "Good morning, how can I help you?" I asked her.

The dog walked in as if it owned the place. I stared at it as it wandered into the living room.

"Um, you must be one of Leon's co-workers, right? How is he?" She asked me.

"He's alright. Nothing he won't get over…who are you?" I asked.

"Oh, god, completely forget about that! I'm Stacey, Leon's neighbor. He asked me to take care of his stuff when he was gone and bring him grocery if—when—he got back." She explained.

"Come in then," I said in a light voice, trying my hardest to be nice to this woman Leon apparently trusted.

She walked in and into the kitchen. She set the brown bags on the counter and opened her cross body Vera Bradley. It looked like something Claire would own.

"Here's his wallet, his house keys and…" Stacey handed me the first two things while she kept searching for something. "Here it is!" She took out a check. "Could you tell Leon I didn't need this?" She asked.

I took it and looked at it. I felt my mouth open as I thought where the fuck did Leon get five hundred thousand dollars? I looked back at Stacey. "Yeah, I'll tell him."

"Thank you, uh, what's your name?" She asked.

I held out my hand. "I'm Chris Redfield." She shook it, smiling.

"It was really nice meeting you! Tell Leon I said hi," she said to me, and then walked out, closing the door behind her.

I looked into the grocery bags. Eggs, milk, fruit, vegetables, yogurt, ground beef, bread, so basically the works. I took out the eggs, milk, and bacon to start making scrambled eggs. I searched around the cabinets for the right bowls, pans and utensils.

By the time Leon had come down, I was half way done and rather proud of myself for not burning anything yet.

I'd been multi-tasking between making breakfast and putting away the groceries. I started toasting English muffins and then begun my search for honey.

He came into the kitchen, smiling. "Stacey came by, I guess?" He asked, the dog following him, pressing its nose against his hand. I still couldn't get over the fact he had a dog. He seemed a lot more like a cat person.

"Yeah, she's nice. She also wanted me to give this back to you…" I told him, handing him the check.

He looked down at it, then back at me. "I gave it to her because I didn't know if I'd be coming back. I thought that if I died, at least somebody would have money." He told me.

"I'm not judging." I told him, moving the eggs around. The English muffins popped up from the toaster and Leon got two plates out.

I dished out the eggs and the bacon, splitting it as evenly as I could. I quickly looked through the cabinets again. "Do you not have any honey?" I asked him, kind of annoyed.

He stood behind me and reached up. I felt my whole body still as he did. He opened up the cabinet in front of me and moved aside a bottle of baking soda and some cooking herbs. He pulled out the sacred bear shaped amber colored bottle. He stepped back and handed it to me.

"Are you happy now?" Leon asked me. I stared into his green/hazel eyes and then down to his lips…

I swallowed and nodded. "Thanks," I told him.

We ate in the living room. Leon turned on the TV and by now it was the end of The View. We ate in silence which is just as well because I'm sure I'd only be able to get out incoherent rambling.

I was done too quickly. It's a Redfield thing, eating our food faster than what should be considered right. It's not like I could regurgitate it and do it over, slower. Now, why that'd be possible, it'd be really gross.

I got up before Leon did and started doing the dishes. I've made a mess of the kitchen, I realized as I was scrubbing egg off the bottom of the pan. I hope he doesn't mind…

"Chris, are you alright?" Leon asked me.

I looked at him, my hands covered in soapy water half way up my elbows. "Yeah, I'm fine." I told him. "This is just completely normal for me to help my sister's friend and to stay over his house and hold him while he sleeps and think maybe, just maybe, I'd have a better chance with him than anyone else!" I took a deep breath, looking at one of Claire's best friends. He was silent as he stared at me, green eyes wider than usual.

"God damn it Leon! Say something!" I told him.

He didn't though, and just silently brought in his dishes. I didn't really know what I'd said. It was stupid of Claire to have told me that Leon might like me. God damn her, god damn Leon, God damn freaking D.C., God damn that stupid dog who was sitting next to me and begging for food, God damn Jill Valentine for being such a bitch…

"When Luis died right in front of me, I felt like my gut had been wrenched out." I looked up to see Leon standing on the other side of the counter. "I feel like I have Midas's touch, but instead of turning people to gold I just kill them. You came here even though you didn't have to…Why?" He asked me.

I felt like keeping him in suspense. I finished the dishes and dried off my hands and he was still waiting for his answer.

"I came because I had heard from Hunnigan—don't ask how, it's not worth it—that your connection had been intercepted. They were considering sending me in to find you and Ashley. Then the connection freed up and you were in contact with them and I was just as relieved to hear that you were ok as much as the president was to hear you'd saved his daughter." I explained. "And it wasn't just because you helped save Claire. It's because ever since then you've been there for her when I couldn't and Leon, I-"

I don't know when exactly he had walked around the counter, but he had, and he pressed his lips against mine. I threaded my fingers through his hair and then one hand dropped to the small of his back to hold him closer.

Leon, I love you through all of your faults.