Like a tattoo | leon kennedy x fem reader

chapter nineteen - home

...

"Be realistic, Leon. People like you and I are better off alone. I see the way you look at her."

....

"What do you think, Leon...people can change, right?"

...

"You too, huh?" you croon and rest by the railing beside him.

"I guess so." with a deep chuckle of surprise, Leon turns his head to greet you with a smile on his handsome face. "Sleep is a foreign thing nowadays."

You caught a glimpse of his hand, in which he caught the knife you tried to kill him with was adequately treated. Along with the many others on his body. He looked better. Healtheir than hours prior.

There was a pause as his presence alone and the crashing waters filled the silence around you, which required no words. Leaning your body against the railing, you stared into the dark, distant waves.

"Will it ever get easier?" you inquire.

"It does..." Leon tells you gently. "But...in truth...it never leaves you. That feeling."

"Feeling?" you question. His cold eyes finally reach yours. He took a moment to answer you and sufficed the quiet between with a saddened sigh.

One thing you've learned about Leon is that he hardly shows his true feelings to anyone.

He's buried down everything there was left a long time ago.

"Regret...hopelessness," Leon says. His jaw clenches shut as he stares back at the sea. "I've never recovered after Racoon City." by rubbing his hands together, Leon soothes himself. Merely, the words make his body rigid.

But now you understand. It has been haunting Leon's very being ever since.

Like a tattoo...embedded into his skin.

How can someone live with so much pain and suffering? Full of regret and remorse for something you had no control over. No wonder Leon is the way he is. He's protecting himself. Protecting the only thing he has left.

I need to know...

"What happened...when you were in Racoon City."

You knew this would be a tricky question—even more to answer. But you wanted the truth. The truth about what truly happened to him that faithful day. The truth that was eventually buried beneath all the lies the whole world has been told.

"I guess...I have to tell someone." he briefly smiles and tilts his head at you with those pretty eyes. His hair brushes against his blushed face as the wind hits against it. "September 30th...1998. The day I'll never forget. The cop inside me died that day."

He was a cop...

"It was my first day on the job. Back then, I was just your average Rookie with a purpose to help those in need. When they pushed my orientation date by two weeks, I should've known something was off. The people...most of them...were infected by the time I got into the city." his hands gripped the ship's railing as the words left his mouth. You clasped your hands together to control your rage.

On his first day!?

"Me...and a few others...made it out. Barely with the little life that we had left." the tension within his hands crawled up his arms, and he couldn't look at you. "I didn't find out until years later that people are still infected." You stepped closer and placed a hand on his. He was so careful about how he acted around you.