A/N

Based on Ashley's knight costume, in case you were wondering.

Knight in Shining Armour

"Ashley, this is ridiculous."

"Just gimme a sec."

"We don't have a sec."

"Then give me two secs."

Leon looked at his watch. "Two secs are up."

"Fine. Then two minutes."

Not for the first time, Leon S. Kennedy considered leaving Ashley Graham here to die. Briefly, granted, but the logic was there. He could just shoot her, make his way out of dodge, write whatever report he felt like, and no-one would be the wiser. Even if they found the president's daughter with a bullet lodged in her skull, he could write it off as a trigger-happy ganado who'd used a pistol for once.

"Ashley, come on!"

Unfortunately, he was stuck with his current lot. He was running out of bullets, he was running out of pills, he was running out of shits to give. But as Ashley emerged from the wardrobe of an 15th century Spanish castle, dressed in a suit of armour, the number of shits went up.

"Like it?" She asked.

Leon stared at her. Questions ran through his head, most of them beginning with "what" and "how." Instead, he asked her "why?"

"Why do you think?"

He had no idea, and told her as such.

"It's simple," Ashley declared pridefully, putting armorued hand on armoured hips, and looking at the STRATCOM agent like some kind of Dame Quixote. "Ganados won't kill me, right?"

"Seems to be the case," Leon murmured, deciding not to comment that zombies had been equal opportunity killers, whereas the ganados tried to kill him and capture Ashley, but never the other way round.

"So I dress like this," she said. "They'll attack me, but they can't injure me. And since they can't kill me, they'll be stuck trying to work out how to drag me away, and failing."

"Ashley, this is even more ridiculous than me running through Spain dressed up as a Chicago mobster."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's oddly specific."

Yeah, it was. Pushing the image out of his head, not to mention a similar image of him wearing his old RPD uniform (burnt six years ago due to risk of contamination), he instead said, "are you sure you can walk in that thing?"

"Oh yeah, easily," she declared. "Just watch-"

She fell on the first step.

"Careful. You could break a nail."

After using language that Leon had never heard before (and in the halls of the White House, that was saying something), Leon nevertheless watched Ashley get up, walk, and fall on the second step.

"Just gimme a sec."

"Ashley, just take that damn suit off."

She raised the armour suit's visor and flicked her eyelashes. "Is that an offer?"

"Yes. I mean, no, I mean, yes, but, you know what I mean."

"Oh, I do," she said seductively.

No you don't.

"And I'm flattered. But the suit's staying on."

Leon looked at his pistol, He looked at Ashley. He looked at his watch, which told him that he'd been here for five minutes, and that was five minutes they could ill afford to waste. Ganados were chasing them, las plagas were growing inside them, Luis was dead, and Ada?

It should have been impossible. There'd been rumours over the last six years that an "Ada Wong" had been working with Wesker, he'd never imagined that this particular rumour was true. But then, Wesker had returned from the dead, why not the woman who, well…

"Hey! Leon!"

He sighed, and looked at Ashley. "You either keep up, or you fall behind. That's the deal."

"Deal? I thought your job was to protect me."

"Correct. My job is to protect you. The deal is that you don't slow me down." He slid the lock back on his gun. "Capiche?"

Ashley, for once, understood completely.

"Leon! Help!"

Always the same words, screamed in the same way in the same circumstances. Even Sherry had screamed less than this. Granted, he hadn't spent much time with Sherry, but she'd managed to stop the train from NEST, and had thus been more competent in ten minutes than Ashley Graham had been in ten hours.

Okay, maybe less than that. But still, ganados were attacking them. Picking out an SMG he'd recently reloaded from the merchant, Leon began blasting.

"Whadya buying, stranger?"

"My name's Leon," he'd said. "And I've bought from you a dozen times already I don't think we're strangers anymore."

The merchant had given him a look, then had again asked him what he was buying, not even acknowledging that Ashley Graham was decked out in a a suit of medieval armour.

Leon let out one burst after another - against kneecaps, against arms, against skulls. The ganados were many, but they moved slowly, and didn't carry anything deadlier than a morning star.

Which was still deadly all the same, he thought, as he ducked the swing of one such star, the ball embedding in the head of another priest. Blankly, the wielder looked at his dead fellow, and just as blankly, turned to Leon, staring through bloodshot eyes.

Even more blankly, Leon whipped out his shotgun and caused the man's head to explode.

But that was nothing compared to the star that was swung at Ashley.

"Leon!"

"Shit."

"Help!"

"Shit!"

The star hit her. She fell down, winded. The ganado looked at the morning star, as if unable to comprehend why it hadn't done any further damage.

Maybe the suit wasn't such a bad idea. Leon returned to the SMG and kept blasting.

"Stranger, stranger, now that's a weapon!"

The merchant's voice echoed in his ears as surely as the gunfire and the cries of the damned.

"Leon! Help!"

Yet Ashley's cries were heard over all of that, as a ganado grabbed her and tried to lift her up. Tried, and despite his strength, failed.

A scythe came his way. He ducked, before shooting out the user's kneecaps, before dashing forwarded, jumping, and breaking the cultist's neck with his legs.

"Leon! Help!"

He glanced at Ashley. Two of the ganados were now carrying her, before the suit of armour (and its wearer) collapsed on top of them.

Guess the all-star diet didn't pay off. He tossed a flash grenade and shielded his eyes as the ganados were stunned, and what plagas had erupted from their bodies were killed.

"Leon! Help!"

"Oh my God, what?!" He looked at Ashley, who was now cowering in front of a group of cultists, who seemed unable to decide how to carry her.

"Leon! Help!"

There were no shortage of women Leon knew, or had known, in his life. There was even a running joke in STRATCOM that he was the American James Bond, not that poser in XXX. Claire, Ada, Sherry, Lucia, Manuela… Right now, any of them would have been a better partner than this brat.

Nevertheless, having killed the ganados that had been attacking him, now he could take out the drooling idiots attacking Ashley. And by "attacking," that meant sticking a knife into the back of each of their necks. One by one, they fell, never once looking away from their target in not-so-shining armour.

"Ashley."

She made no sound.

"Ashley, get up."

She flipped open the visor and looked up, trembling. "Are they gone?" She asked.

"Look around, princess."

Ashley did so, slowly. And even more slowly, got to her feet.

This isn't going to work. "Ashley, take that damn suit off."

"I'm sorry?"

"Take. It. Off."

"But it protected me."

"This time. Next time, they might find a way to move you. And that's not counting on you falling down and not getting up again."

"Leon, I-"

"Oh for goodness sake…" He walked forward and began unfastening the armour plating. Not that he was an expert in medieval armour (or any type of armour bar kevlar, really), but it didn't take him long to get the hang of it.

"I'm sorry," Ashley whispered.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry."

"…for what?" He grunted, not that keen on a heart-to-heart right now, but he figured it came with the territory.

"That I'm not brave like you."

Oh. A wisecrack died on Leon's lips as he finished with the chestplate and greaves, before moving to the leg pieces.

"Leon? You listening?"

"What?"

"I know it must be nice for you to be between my legs, but ow!"

"I slipped," Leon murmured, as he yanked off the right leg greave.

"Like hell! You did that on purpose you ow!"

"And there we are," said Leon, as he tossed the other one aside, looking at Ashley in all her…well, not exactly glory, but something at least. "You smell funny."

"You'd smell funny too if you were trapped in a suit for… how long has it been?"

"Thirteen minutes."

"Oh."

She at least had the decency to look ashamed. Plus, the decency to remain silent as Leon salvaged the dead. Usually, the ganados had something on them, even if it just be pesos. The more pesos, the more bullets from the merchant, the more bullets, the more dead ganados, rinse and repeat.

"I mean, maybe it's for the best," Ashley said.

"Hmm?"

"The knight suit. Slowed me down, like you said."

"I…guess?"

"Yeah. And besides, there's another reason I don't need it."

"And what's that?" Leon grunted, as he reloaded his magazines.

Ashley didn't say anything. Instead, quick as a cat (not a zombie cat, a living cat, thank you very much), she stood up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

Shit.

"You're my knight in shining armour," she whispered.

Shit! Training rolled through Leon's head. When it came to ops like this one, there was always the risk that the subject would develop an attachment to the rescuer. It was why he'd done his best to keep clear of Claire in the aftermath of Raccoon – he was her elder by only two years, but she was a civilian, he was a cop, he was fresh from one failed relationship and another deceptive one, and being flung together in the chaos of the outbreak was hardly a stable basis for, well, anything.

Problem was, Ashley was right here. She'd stayed with him every step of the way since the church. Both of them were ticking time bombs, and she was looking at him with a mixture of guilt (for what she'd just done) and hope (for the same reason).

Because of that, and more, he had no idea what to say. Luckily, Ashley helped him out.

"Too soon, eh?"

Leon nodded, and beckoned Ashley to follow him through the castle.

"I mean," she added, "you are kind of a knight. Save the damsel from the castle, I mean, church, and lead her through the castle, fight off parasite dragons, and-"

"Ashley."

"Alright, alright, I'll be quiet," she said. "But still…thank you."

"…you're welcome."

Silence lingered between the two of them as they made their way down the hallway.

"Stranger, stranger!"

At least until they reached the next room.