Ashley Graham wakes to the sound of soft voices. Swinging her legs to the floor, she sits up on the sofa where she'd curled for a brief nap—surely only fifteen minutes—while Leon organized his gear. Weapons and ammunition are laid out neatly on the Oriental rug, though her protector is now out of sight, talking to someone around the corner of this L-shaped sitting room. Has Luis found them? It must be; he is the only friendly person they've encountered in this whole mad place.
With a soft gasp, Ashley rolls out the kinks in her neck, then pushes to her feet and strides to the corner of the room. The voices beyond have stopped, but she knows Leon will still be there—he won't abandon her, she is sure of that.
She turns the corner, freezes.
With Leon is not the charming Spaniard, but the mysterious woman in red. More than once, they have spotted her flitting through the shadows of the castle. Leon has assured Ashley that Ada isn't a threat to them, and it must be true: if she were, surely he would not now be hanging from her lips like he is a drowning man, and she his only source of air.
Ashley flares white-hot, struck by jealousy and an anger just as strong. She's been such a fool for imagining she has any chance with Leon. His kindness and concern for her are real, but she should have known better than to take them as anything more. How could she have been so delusional? Of course he has his own life, with all the places in it already filled. Ashley is just his assignment, when he already has a girlfriend, a lover. How could someone like him not? She shouldn't feel betrayed, should she, just because he already cares about someone?
And yet, Leon is Ashley's bodyguard. He is here for her. He has sworn he is going to bring her home. While that doesn't mean he owes Ashley anything emotionally, that does mean that he can't forget about her. But the way he's kissing Ada, Ashley is pretty sure he's forgotten the existence of every other person on the planet. Suddenly, she feels very alone again.
Stifling a sob, she turns and runs back around the corner to the other end of the room.
She's still staring at the wall and fighting back tears when Leon comes up behind her.
Ashley spins round to face him, and Leon's expression is carefully blank.
"What was that?" she asks, trying for an even tone that she only partially manages.
"Closure," he says darkly. "Burying a ghost from my past."
"By sucking her face off? That's not how you get rid of someone, Leon."
Leon's hands clench. "Look, I didn't start that," he says, giving her a stormy look, though there's red flaring like a bruise over his cheekbones.
"Seemed like you were more than happy to finish it," Ashley snaps. The image of him wrapped around Ada makes her deeply unreasonable.
"It had better be finished," he says roughly, his gaze directed away from her for a moment, and Ashley knows he is not angry with her. He heaves a breath, then looks back at her. Always before, he has moved, gazed, with a purpose, but now he's motionless, awkward, somehow managing to look exposed and vulnerable despite his armored vest. "I'm sorry." He gestures back to where he'd stood with Ada. "That was . . . not how I meant it to go."
Ashley swallows. "Me, too. I mean, sorry for yelling at you." She is trying not to cry, but everything is so overwhelming right now. "I'm tired, and I just wanna go home," she says, glad she manages not to sound petulant, at least.
With those storm-blue eyes half hidden beneath the shadow of his hair, Leon's face always has an intensity which can make his expression hard to read, but Ashley is certain that right now, what she sees is unhappiness.
She's still jealous and hurt and tired to the point of irrational bitchiness, but most of all she just wants things to be okay between them again, so she steps forward and hugs him.
As her arms close around him, the thought bounces through Ashley's mind that maybe she shouldn't envy that kiss, because being this close to Leon right now is an assault to the senses. His Kevlar vest is stiff and scratchy against her face, and if it weren't for the scent of gunpowder and med spray, he would smell overwhelmingly of sweat.
Leon puts his arms around her, and she notes that his hands, so desperate and greedy with that other woman, are now carefully placed so they don't land anywhere inappropriate. The contrast feels like an insult and yet— There is something inescapably sweet about the way he tucks his head against hers so that his lips brush her forehead, and Ashley can't help a soft rush of elation in spite of herself.
"I'll get you home, Baby Eagle, like I promised," Leon says, and then his lips really do press her brow in what is certainly a kiss before he lets go, draws back.
She beams at him, though she knows it's telling and of course he'll know exactly how she feels. "Was that just to make me feel better?" she says, teasing so that he can tell her, yes, of course, without compromising either of them.
But he gives her a little smile in return, softer than anything he'd showed with Ada. "Nah." He shakes his head, vulnerable, shy, like the first boy Ashley had ever kissed when she was sixteen. "That was 'cause I've been wanting to do that."
"Oh." He had wanted to kiss her. Still wants to, even after—
She reaches out to him again, her palms finding the strip of shirt below his vest, where she can feel the yielding warmth of his skin. He looks down at her, questioning, as if afraid to do the wrong thing, but when she closes her eyes and lifts her chin, he answers with lips pressed to her own.
She's not thinking that this is what she saw him do with Ada, because this isn't like that at all. It's gentle and sweet and just a little bit hesitant, but Ashley has no doubt that it's sincere.
Leon's hand meets the small of her back, so she moves closer till she's leaning against his chest. He's a solid wall of muscle and Kevlar, and she wonders how he feels when he's unshielded. Then he dips his head, and his hair is so soft as his bangs feather her cheek . . .
When he draws back, she makes a little sound that's half sigh, half whimper.
"You okay?" he asks.
"Yeah." She looks up at him. "Are you? I mean, was that okay? Um." Her cheeks must be red; they feel like they're on fire.
He laughs at her under his breath, his eyes flicking down as they always do when he's self-conscious.
"You're more than okay, Ashley."
She giggles, emboldened. "Leon, is that a compliment?"
He laughs out loud this time, a sound Ashley feels through her hands still snug on his waist.
"Damn right, it is," he says.
Author's Note:
I was having Aeon feels after playing RE6, but they warped back into Eagle One feels. Sorry! One day I'll write proper Aeon.
I outline all my stories in present tense, but I only leave them that way in the final draft when something about the story feels experimental.
This isn't related to my other RE4 stories.
