𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝 || Leon Kennedy (re4)

i.xx - CARE?

(Unedited)
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A feral animal.

Panting with blood staining your skin and clothes, crusting into the fabric and drying into your hair. Your dislocated arm hanging limply at your side with a burning pain searing through your body, one you tried desperately to ignore. You didn't look yourself. You didn't feel yourself either. You felt like a useless spectator, so detached from your own body...

"This way, hurry!" Ashley. Her voice snapped you back, your eyes adjusting and landing onto where she stood, looking distressed.

Leon seemed to completely ignore Ashley's plea. He was completely consumed with his own thoughts. Every single one of those thoughts consisted of you. What Luis had said still lingered in his mind, and deep down, he knew it was the right thing to do. He wished he didn't care so much. He cursed himself for not being able to put down the one thing that could completely jeopardize his mission. He let out a short exhale before following Ashley, finally managing to peel his gaze off of you. Why was he so stupid? If he would have taken you to authorities when he had the chance...it wouldn't have had to come to this. This was his fault.

"Vamos, cariño (Let's go, darling.)" Luis grabbed your uninjured arm, tugging you along. More villagers flooded into room, so you wasted no time in listening to his command, hauling ass out of the infested building and onto a rickety bridge. You really weren't sure how much longer you could keep this up. The only break you had gotten is when you fell unconscious. The endless exhaustion that weighed you down was always temporarily delayed by waves of adrenaline. Where had all of it gone?

Once you were back on solid ground, the infected weren't far behind. You had dropped your gun sometime while running, not even noticing the loss of the item amidst the chaos. Without completely thinking your plan through, you reached for where Leon kept it tucked in the holster, your hand brushing his hip. He tried, he really did, to not react. You would have to part ways soon enough, so in his mind keeping you at a distance was his best option. But whatever breath he let loose at the small contact clearly didn't go unnoticed. You didn't look at him.

Aiming with one arm, breathing hard against the pain eating at your broken one, you took the shot. Aiming at a chain that held a wall up and your group exposed. Once that metal snapped...the wall fell and hit the muddied ground with a thud.

You felt like you could breathe again.

"H-hey," Ashley's frail voice made you turn your head, looking over at her. For the first time in a while she didn't look scared. She was concerned.

"It's fine, doesn't even hurt much anymore." You lied straight through your teeth, shaking your head to try and alleviate her worry, your hand going to squeeze the out of place limb. She didn't believe a word, that much was obvious.

Luis was still tracing to catch his breath, leaning up against the wall before looking over at you. "We're not going to get very far unless you pop it back," he cleared his throat, letting out a huff. "We don't have time." You said sharply, desperately wanted to argue, mostly because you were paranoid about hurting your arm further.

Leon walked over towards you and took your limp arm in his hands. His touch was surprisingly gentle, nothing like the attitude he had moments ago. You didn't get used to it. You didn't think it would last very long anyway.

He sat you down on the dirt, kneeling down beside you and bracing his hands in the right spots to properly relocate it. You involuntarily tried to jerk your arm away, wincing at the sharp pains it sent shooting up your arm. "Don't." You knew you were being stupid, the way you bit out the word. He had to.

He hesitated a few moments, making sure you were at least sort of calming yourself down. His calloused fingers still held onto you, not faltering but still providing a semblance of comfort in the gentle grasp. For a second, you just looked up at him, breathing heavy with uncertain eyes. His icy blue ones revealed nothing of what he was feeling.

You flickered your gaze to the ground. Whatever had gotten into him, you wished he'd drop it. You let yourself observe the holster that now loosely sat around his waist, noticing a flash of color among the dark tones. You reached for it without thinking much.

The flower you'd picked back at the lake was crumbled, its petals wrinkled and stem torn apart. It had gotten crushed by his gun, pushed to practically the bottom. You frowned for a moment, letting the dying plant fall to the ground.

Thats when Leon took the opportunity to pop your arm back.

He clasped a hand over your mouth before you could manage a cry of pain, or even a profanity directed at him. You stared at him with narrowed eyes, head tilted back slightly as you tried to catch your breath. You pried his hand away, mouthing a 'fuck you' in reply before pushing yourself off the ground.

"We're not done yet." His voice was so empty sounding. That's why you didn't get used to whatever warmth he provided, because it froze over in almost an instant. He grabbed whatever bandages he had left and unraveled them, wrapping them tight around your injured arm so it would heal better. You didn't thank him, simply brushing past him and going to check on Ashley.

Leon huffed, looking down at the discarded flower you let fall to the ground. He hadn't forgotten about it, not once.

He carefully picked it back up and tucked it into his pocket.