Sexual Content in this chapter.

Rose laid Shen May down in the grass several hundred feet away from the house that was currently burning to the ground. The roar of it was deafening, and the three of them were covered in sweat and soot. Leon groaned as he stared at the out of control blaze, his face set in a hard expression, angry and vengeful.

"Jason," he accused, his hands balling into fists, never taking his eyes from the flames. The light flickered on his features, making him look beautiful and dangerous. If Jason hadn't already been dead, Rose would have felt bad for the guy. Rose wiped the sweat from her brow, the heat from the inferno a stark contrast to the cold simmering in her chest. She turned her eyes from the flames to Shen May, who was now resting on the ground a few feet away, looking dazed but alive. The dark stains of blood on her clothes, the bruises across her arms and face, told a different story, but at least she wasn't dead. Not yet, anyway.

Shen May slowly stood and approached Leon, who reached into his pocket and pulled out the chip he'd been given. But Leon didn't say anything to her, just turned away from the burning house that was lighting up the sky as if it were day. His eyes fell on Rose, a living embodiment of his fear.

"Remember what I told you about terror?" Jason's voice echoed in his head. "It starts with fear. You cultivate it, and you watch it spread, and then...then you've got terror."

He understood what Jason had been saying. He didn't disagree, either, and he knew that Rose would also agree with him. But they were just words that gave the two of them the urge to protect, to fight, to live. Jason, he took that and twisted it for petty revenge. He didn't care about the people, he wanted them scared. He wanted people to feel what he felt.

And that was the difference between him and Jason. Between Rose and Jason and even her father. Something she had yet to grasp. She and Leon fought to keep as many people as possible alive through the terror and to hopefully, someday, stop anyone from feeling that level of fear ever again.

"Give me the chip," Shen May said, breaking him out of his thoughts. "If we go public with it, everything that Wilson has been doing will be out in the open."

Leon turned around, firm on his stance. He would not fall into Jason's trap. He wouldn't be the cause of the terror. "If I do that, you'll have every agent in the US hunting you."

Shen May didn't see it that way, though. "I have to do it! So that everything that happened to Jun See will never happen again."

"It won't stop anything," Rose said at almost a whisper. She walked over to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Leon. Shen May's face hardened with dislike, but Rose didn't much care. Leon was right. Even if they aired it on the news, in the papers, it'd be written off as a hoax and Shen May would find herself either dead, or in prison. It was a familiar conundrum.

"And what do you know?" Shen May demanded.

"More than you'd think." Rose ripped her glasses off her face and Shen May took a step back, gasping in shock. Besides Leon, Ada, Leon, and Wesker, Shen May was the only other person to have seen her infection colored eyes. It was unmistakable. Shen May's eyes widened, and for a moment, there was nothing but silence. The wind rustled through the trees behind them, the crackling of the fire now a distant hum. Rose stood there, her eyes now exposed, glowing faintly with a strange, unnatural light—a reflection of something far darker buried deep within her.

Rose's lips twisted into a hard smile, but there was nothing mocking about it. It was a smile of shared understanding, a silent acknowledgment of the horrors that had shaped them both. She didn't answer Shen May's question directly. Instead, she just watched the woman, letting the tension build.

"Then you both should understand," she said, her voice quiet as she processed what she was seeing. She dragged her eyes away from Rose to land on Leon instead. "Raccoon City was the beginning. We can't let what happened in Panamstan stay buried," she paused, looking between the two, looking for some sort of sign that they were on her side. "Jason wants justice."

Leon snapped, his brows furrowing as he shifted his weight. "No. Jason doesn't give a damn about justice. He wants the world to know what real terror's like. The kind him and his men knew. He wants that to be the new reality for everyone, and then...he wants to burn it all down."

"He wouldn't do that."

"Look around you," Rose interrupted, her voice loudly disapproving. She stuck her arms out, bringing their attention to the house that was slowly dying down. Shen May's breath stuttered as she turned on the spot, her eyes taking in the ruins of what used to be her home.

"Shen May," Leon said, a little softer than Rose had addressed her, and took a step toward her. "Where is he?"

Rose furrowed her eyebrows at him, wondering what he was talking about. He'd killed Jason...unless...unless Leon didn't believe he was actually dead. Shit...Peter was going to be pissed at her.

Claire stood in her hotel room, arms crossed over her chest as she looked at the wall. It had pictures, news articles, and a large map tacked to it. Lines drawn on and strings attached, linking everything together. Every member of the Mad Dogs Unit had committed suicide, excluding Jason. She'd found the last one in his house just yesterday, a shotgun between his legs like he were Kurt Cobain. The information she'd dug up...it was insane.

She gasped when the power suddenly clicked off. Head turning to the rest of the room as her eyes adjusted quickly due to the low light coming through the window, shielded by blue and white plaid curtains. Police sirens were the only sound as she went over to the lamp, trying to turn it on. It clicked hollowly, the bulb didn't even flicker. Narrowing her eyes, she unplugged the lamp and picked it up, silently walking towards the exit as the door handle turned and the door creaked open slowly. She hid behind the door, watching as a tall man in a black and white suit stepped into her room, sunglasses on his face.

Claire pushed the door and swung at his head with the lamp, but he avoided the bludgeoning and slapped the lamp away, spinning in his spot. She sent a nice right hook, grunting as she missed, but the guy fell on his back to avoid her anyway. Claire stooped down after him, only to have another man run up behind her and connect a taser to her neck. It buzzed and she screamed as the current ran through her, her body spasming out of control as she fell forward and blacked out.

Rose sat across from Leon on the flight back to the United States. Shen May was in the row behind Leon, her eyes far away and unseeing as she stared out the window, lost in her own thoughts. So that left the two ex-partners alone to stare at each other, and that meant that it was quiet enough that old feelings were coming back. And they demanded to be acknowledged.

The hum of the plane's engines was a dull backdrop to the silence that stretched between them. Rose had never been good at sitting with silence—especially when it was filled with unspoken words. Words she'd once been so accustomed to saying to Leon, words she hadn't allowed herself to say in a long time. It wasn't that she didn't want to say them. She just… couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to open that door again.

Leon, for his part, was still the same as he had been before. Quiet, calculating, and steadfast in his loyalty, even when he had every reason not to be. She could feel his eyes on her, but she kept her own gaze trained on the small table in front of them, avoiding his direct look.

It had been like this since they got on the plane—distance, physical and emotional. And yet, despite the coldness between them, there was also a recognition. A familiarity that clung to the space between them. Leon shifted in his seat, his eyes flicking over to her again. Rose could feel his gaze now, like a presence pressing into her. "You know, for someone who hates silence," he said, his voice low, breaking the stillness, "you're doing a good job of pretending it's not bothering you."

She let out a small, humorless chuckle but didn't look up. "I don't hate it," she replied, her tone just the right amount of defensive. "I just prefer when there's something worth saying."

Leon's lips twitched at that, like he was holding back a retort. She could tell he was just as aware of the tension as she was. It wasn't just the mission. It wasn't just about Wilson or Jun See. It was the shared past they'd never really addressed. And in the quiet of this cramped space, with nothing to do but sit and wait, it seemed to loom larger than ever.

"You've got a good way of hiding what you're really thinking," Leon said after a moment.

Rose stiffened slightly, the words catching her off guard. She glanced at him then, finally meeting his eyes. There was no anger there, not really—just a flicker of that old connection, that bond they'd shared. She looked out the window then, her heart pounding in her chest. There was a pang of regret there, an ache in her chest that she couldn't ignore anymore. For a moment, she let the memories flood back. The mission in Spain. The feeling of him there, close, always watching her back. She hadn't been able to stay away, even after everything that had happened. Even after the chaos, the loss, and the guilt.

She could feel Leon's gaze on her again, but this time it was different. There was no judgment in it. Only understanding.

"I get it," Leon said quietly. "I do. But you don't have to do it alone. Not anymore. Not if you don't want to."

Her throat tightened at his words. It was too much to hear, and yet, it was exactly what she needed to hear. But she couldn't bring herself to say it. Couldn't bring herself to ask for what she wanted. What they both needed.

"You were always so stubborn," she said finally, her voice rough with emotion. "You still are."

Leon's mouth lifted in a small smile at that, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "And you're not?"

She let out a breath of laughter—short, but genuine—and shook her head. "Guess I'm not the only one who keeps making the same mistakes."

They were quiet for a long moment, the noise of the plane the only thing filling the space between them now. But there was something else there, something unspoken but undeniable. A possibility. "I still don't know how we're going to fix all this," Rose said softly, her eyes still focused on the horizon outside the window. "But... maybe we can start by not running away from it."

Leon nodded. "Yeah. I think we can."

Their eyes met once again and they shared a smile, their shoulders relaxing. The easiness that floated down on them was strange, but welcome. He kept reminding her over and over again that she was safe with him. That she wasn't alone. She was starting to believe him. Her eyes found Shen May, who still wasn't paying attention to them, and she'd already cultivated a plan to make sure that she and Leon could maybe have a future together. She needed to get her hands on that inhibitor, and get it to Luis. She needed a cure.

She could still feel Leon watching her, committing her image to his memory as if he were afraid she'd leave again. She supposed that made sense, because it kept happening to him. First Ada, and then her. She wouldn't be surprised if he had a hard time catching a break with relationships. Women probably threw themselves at him.

Suddenly, the air in the plane felt much too hot, and it was harder to breathe as she realized just how attached to Leon she was. They weren't just ex-partners. She had no idea what they were, but whatever they were, she wanted it to stick. Her fingers deftly found the seat buckle and unclipped it as she stood up. "Be right back," she muttered to Leon as she passed by him in search of the bathroom.

The door clicked shut behind her, and she turned the dial to lock it. The first class bathroom was a lot larger than the economy class one, though it still wasn't a giant ensuite. She slapped the cold water on and pressed both hands against the sink, her chin tucked against her collarbone as she steadied her breathing. She took a couple deep breaths and released them slowly, then cupped the water in her hands and splashed it on her face, trying to force herself to cool down.

As she leaned against the sink, the sharp chill of the water faded into a gentle warmth, but it was nothing compared to the heat that radiated from her thoughts of Leon. The waves of uncertainty she'd grown accustomed to started to recede, replaced by an urgency that thrummed through her veins. Just as she caught her breath and looked in the mirror, a soft knock came at the door, and before she could call out, it swung open—Leon standing there, his presence both commanding and comforting.

"Hey," he said, his voice low and steady, though it trembled with unspoken need.

Usually, when Rose's body acted on its own, it was through anger. It was to hurt someone. But this time, her body acted on its own and it was neither of those things. She suddenly closed the distance between them, pressing her mouth to his and shocking them both. Her arms came up around his shoulders, her fingers shifting through his hair, and it took a second before he comprehended what was happening and started to kiss her back. She pulled back as soon as he did, shocked at herself and what she'd just done. Their eyes met once again, intense and electric, as if the world beyond the heavy door melted away. In one swift motion, he leaned in and captured her lips with his, sending a thrill coursing through her. The kiss was hungry, full of all the emotions they had both been holding back, and she melted into him as he deepened it, nudging her back until her back pressed against the cool tiles of the bathroom wall, his foot catching the door and smacking it closed, trapping them in the bathroom.

When he finally pulled away, their foreheads rested against one another's, breaths mingling in the confined space, and everything felt right for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

"You're safe here," he whispered, a vow that wrapped around her heart like a promise. "I'll always keep you safe."

With that declaration hanging in the air, she found a resolve. There was so much at stake—a cure to secure, a future to fight for—but none of that felt insurmountable anymore when faced with the undeniable connection they shared. A flicker of hope ignited within her; maybe they could forge a path together, even amidst the chaos swirling around them. She caught his mouth for a third time, hands desperately clawing at his leather jacket to push it off his shoulders. He let it go and it fell to the floor as his hands found her hips, squeezing them with his hands as hers explored his chest, finding the buttons to his shirt and swiftly undoing them.

His chest was peppered with scars, and she pulled away again to look at them all. There were knife wounds, bullet wounds, even jagged marks from where he'd been bitten and torn into, but her cold fingers found the long, straight line in the middle of his chest. It was the scar he'd gotten when she and Ashley had removed the Plaga from him. Her lips found it next, and he inhaled sharply as her tongue trailed the rough flesh. His hand cupped her chin, pulling her back up to her full height to capture her mouth again and press their bodies together. His hands trailed down her front slowly, gathering the fabric of her half cotton, half leather shirt into his hands. She lifted her arms and leaned back.

Their kiss was only broken long enough for him to remove her shirt from her completely, leaving her in her tight pants and a purple and black bra. Shivers caused her to shudder against him, and she ground her pelvis into the growing bulge in Leon's jeans. He groaned deep in his chest at the friction and lowered himself to wrap his arms around her thighs, lifting her up to sit her on the sink ledge. He was between her legs in an instant, her hands finding the buckle to his belt and undoing it with expert hands.

She couldn't describe what made her want to do this in an airplane bathroom. Maybe it was the knowledge that every day they risked their lives, and that they might never get the chance again. Maybe it was all the tension that had built up was over flowing and their bodies could no longer ignore it. Maybe, they just didn't care that anyone else would have preferred their first time together to be in a bed. This was the real world, and it didn't always happen in romantic locations. They had to take their romance, take their intimacy, where they could find it.

Nothing and nobody was perfect, but they needed this release.

Rose's hands began pushing down Leon's jeans, but he pulled away from her. He didn't go far, but it was enough so that she couldn't reach his pants.

"Rose, I..."

She knew exactly what he was thinking. The last time they'd been in a situation like this, it had been against their will. He was thinking about that, and it made her heart swell with both admiration and sadness that the memory was attempting to spoil this. She caught his face in her hands, looking him directly in the eyes so that there was no way to confuse her words, or her intent. "Leon. Listen to me. I am giving my consent. I want this." She kissed him chastely. "I want you. Now."

Leon groaned as she kissed him again, his cock straining against his jeans. He stepped back to his spot between her legs and she lifted her hips as he attacked her pants with his hands, sliding them down her legs with extreme prejudice. She hopped down, realizing that position wasn't going to work, and Leon turned her around to bend over the sink as he lowered his pants down his thighs.

Rose gripped the edges of the sink, her heart racing as she felt Leon's body press against her back. His hands roamed her sides, sliding up to cup her breasts through her bra. She arched into his touch, a soft moan escaping her lips.

Leon's breath was hot against her neck as he kissed and nipped at her skin. "Are you sure about this?" he whispered, his voice husky with desire.

"Yes," Rose breathed. "Please, Leon."

With a low growl, Leon pushed inside her in one smooth thrust. Rose gasped, her fingers tightening on the sink as she adjusted to the feeling of him filling her completely. He stilled for a moment, giving her time, before slowly beginning to move.

Their eyes met in the mirror, desire and intensity burning between them. Leon's hands gripped her hips as he picked up the pace, driving into her with increasing urgency. Rose bit her lip to stifle her moans, aware of how thin the airplane walls were.

The sink creaked slightly under their movements, but neither of them cared. Rose pushed back against Leon, meeting his thrusts as pleasure built within her. One of Leon's hands slid around to rub circles on her clit, and she had to bury her face in her arm to muffle her cry of ecstasy.

"God, Rose," Leon groaned, his voice strained. "You feel amazing."

Rose could only whimper in response, lost in the sensations overwhelming her. The coil of tension in her core wound tighter and tighter with each thrust, each brush of Leon's fingers. The sounds Leon was making, though they didn't come often, were a deep baritone that originated from his chest and sent her reeling, clenching around him as his movements became more sloppy. Rose had never had a quicky like this before, had never felt the electricity she was feeling now. She had usually left wanting more, but Leon, even if he wasn't paying special attention to her needs, was enough to make her cum from penetration alone.

Rose felt herself approaching the edge, her body trembling with the effort of holding back. Leon's movements became more erratic, his breathing ragged against her ear. She turned her head, seeking his lips, and he met her in a fierce, passionate kiss.

That was all it took to push her over. Rose came with a muffled cry, her body clenching around Leon as waves of pleasure crashed over her. The sensation of her tightening around him sent Leon tumbling after her, and he buried his face in her neck to stifle his own groan of release.

For a moment, they stood there, panting and trembling in the aftermath. Leon's arms wrapped around Rose's waist, holding her close as they both caught their breath. She leaned back against him, savoring the warmth of his body and the intimacy of the moment.

Finally, Leon slowly withdrew, and Rose turned to face him, her legs still a bit shaky. She leaned back against the sink, gazing up at him with a mixture of satisfaction and tenderness in her eyes. Leon's hair was tousled, his cheeks flushed, and she thought he had never looked more handsome.

"That was..." Leon started, then shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Yeah," Rose agreed, understanding the sentiment he couldn't quite express. She reached up, gently brushing a strand of hair from his forehead. "We should probably get cleaned up and head back to our seats before someone gets suspicious."

Leon nodded, but instead of moving away, he leaned in and kissed her softly. It was different from their earlier kisses - less urgent, more tender. When he pulled back, his eyes searched hers. "Rose, I... This wasn't just..."

Rose nodded. "I know. Me too."

They had always been able to communicate in ways that went beyond words, their connection deep and unshakeable.

Leon gave a small, almost imperceptible nod, as if reassuring himself, before stepping back. He reached out to adjust his shirt, his hands momentarily trembling. Rose watched him, a soft smile tugging at her lips. There was a vulnerability in him now that hadn't been there before, a rawness that she cherished.

She took a steadying breath as she used paper towels to clean between her legs, flushing it down the toilet and redressing herself. She washed her hands, and Leon did the same, his presence still keeping her head feeling light and airy. When they were done making sure their hygiene was acceptable, Rose cracked open the door to peak outside. She felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment when she saw a flight attendant staring right at her, knowingly. Rose cleared her throat, casting Leon a glance over her shoulder before smoothing down her hair and stepping out with him right behind her.

She thought she was going to explode during the walk of shame back to her seat, and funnily enough, it made her feel like the old her. She felt Leon's hand on the small of her back as he walked with her, and Shen May did a double take at them as they passed by. Was there a big sign on her forehead?

I JUST HAD SEX IN AN AIRPLANE BATHROOM!

It felt like everyone knew, including the pilot, but she was sure that logically, it was only her mind making up stories. There could be any number of reasons why they had come out of the bathroom together. Any number of reasons Leon's hair wasn't sitting quite the way it had been before he chased after her. She double checked her shirt, making sure it was lowered all the way, she glanced at Leon as he sat down in the seat next to her instead of reclaiming his own seat. All his buttons were done up properly, and his leather jacket didn't even have a wrinkle.

She sighed as she settled down into the seat, and Leon grabbed onto her hand. She tensed for a moment, but then relaxed into his touch as exhaustion won her over. Next thing she knew, she was leaning her head against his shoulder, fighting to keep her eyes from closing.