breathe (leon kennedy x reader)
Summary:Â Hours into the Raccoon City outbreak and trying to survive it, Leon tries to get reader to recover from the chaos.
Warnings: talks about death
With a heavy grunt, your body tilts to the side as your balance momentarily tips over. Thankfully, you manage to shift your gravity back to the center of your feet when you push the last wooden shelf barricading the rest of the motel lobby out of the way, comforted by the fact that your back was covered. Even with that sense of security though, your heartbeat still turns erratic with fear - your eyes wasting no time darting forward to scan if your vicinity was clear from those creatures - creatures that were swarming every corner you went; youâd think they came from the bottom pits of hell. The undead - as impossible as it sounds, were roaming the earth and wreaking havoc upon the living. It was surreal, like a nightmare come to life in all its vivid horror, but you couldnât wake up from it no matter how hard you tried.
Youâve been running around the city with a rookie cop for a couple of hours now, but it felt like eternity since youâve last seen civilization not hanging by a thread. You were dead tired, close to passing out you thought, but seeing all that you had tonight - you didnât think it would be possible to sleep a wink. Never-ending streams of blood darker than rubies, mangled bodies, groans of the living turning into the dead, blood-curdling screams, the deafening sound of gunshots, and those creatures - they were burned at the back of your head, branded by it, your thoughts replaying every scene of this night as if it was the only memory it knew. No one that youâve met in this frenzy had any idea why this was happening - and most of them were never going to. Marvin, Elliot, Sheriff Daniel - officers youâve met so briefly - they were never going to see another light of day.
Your face immediately stings at the thought and you close your eyes, your heart feeling like it could crack. Out of all the moments youâve had tonight, this might be one of the hardest your guilt was hitting you. You couldnât get it out of your head - if only you came sooner, you couldâve saved them.
â(Y/N), hey, everything alright?â Leon Kennedy, the rookie cop, breaks your reverie from behind you. His footsteps were a little loud as they crunched beneath fallen glass and debris but his voice was the total opposite, it was gentle and soft. With your heart feeling tender at the moment, you felt like you could cry. You donât though, so you try to rub at your eyes as inconspicuously as you can to remove the moisture in them. Apocalypse or not, you werenât going to break down in front of a total stranger, or anyone for that matter. You werenât the type, you never have been and with the situation at hand, you never will be.
âYeah, weâre clear.â You answer a little too timidly. Nevertheless, you walk ahead of him again and began your thorough searching, going through the front desk and the reception area to make sure you donât miss anything you could loot that could be of use for you both. You really did need to stock on some items but you knew inside that you wanted to distract yourself. Your mind felt like a dangerous place right now and you needed to be away from it.
âMaybe we should check the rooms?â You quietly suggest to Leon, craning your neck so you could look at him for the first time in almost 15 minutes. You find that his ocean-blue eyes were already on you, focused - they were determined, brave, yet held a softness to them that youâve come to see was so evident in his personality and character. Your stomach faintly churns and you immediately try to shoot down the sudden feeling, as well as the small wave of warmth washing over your chest. He looked hesitant with your recommendation but he had every right to be - the last thing you both needed was a corpse or a hoard of them chasing you in this tight and compact place.
âI donât know if thatâs the best idea,â he thinks out loud and you agree, scratching that option and deciding it was stupid.
âYouâre right, itâs too risky. Letâs keep searching out here then,â You reconcile and both of you go through the corridors. You on the left and him on the right. Much to your dismay, you almost reach the end of the messy red hallway to find nothing of real good use. Your crestfallen state falters a bit though when Leon calls your name.
â(A/N), look!â He muses but still keeping his voice low. You avert your attention from a vitamin bottle that was peeking out of a fallen suitcase and were debating whether or not to stash it.
âWhat?â You pipe, hope clinging in your chest that maybe it was another weapon, ammo, or water. Instead, your eyes stretch to the size of dinner plates. Leon had one hand wrapped around a roomâs doorknob, twisting it ever so slightly to show you it was unlocked. You reach out fast to pull his hold away from it.
âWhat are you doing? Are you crazy?â You whisper with haste. He chuckles softly at your banshee state, quick to reassure you. âNothingâs in there, I promise.â He says. You blink at him, unable to follow how he came to that conclusion. âHow do you know that?â You ask him rhetorically, obviously not convinced. He shoots you a boyish yet coy smile, his finger raising up and pointing at an empty slot that used to be a peep hole. He gestures for you to take a look so you do. As he moves out of the way, you lean into the door and shut the eye that wasnât looking through the hole. The room was scattered with papers and items were strewn all over the place but Leon was right; the room was empty. Despite that, you didnât want to get your hopes up just yet. Itâs was too dangerous. You recline from the door, looking back at him still with skeptical eyes.
âWe canât be too sure though,â You try to reason with him. He understands your doubt, he does, but he understood too that you needed a breath from all this, even for a few minutes to just sit and rest. He was no fool - he knew that you thought of him as unsuspecting, naive albeit he could be, but he could see through your tough facade. He was a cop after all, he had to learn how to read demeanor in academy but, importantly, he was human too. He didnât doubt your strength though, not at all, but you were afraid, confused, scared and scarred with everything - he was also, but what mattered to him was your well-being. With all that youâve both been through, your strength wavered and he knew you needed to recompose your bearings. Unfortunately, he didnât know how to convince such a logical mind like yours - hell, he couldnât definitively say himself that the room was clear but his gut told him so and he just knew it was true. He couldnât tell you that though because, having known you for the past few hours, youâd walk right away from the door.
âJust⌠trust me, (Y/N).â He simply says. Every fiber in your being sang with alert and you practically see red with all the flags raised from that completely illogical explanation but, for some reason - out of all the times you gave fate a chance - you confide in it, in him - a complete stranger. This is a death wish being written and all you could do is pray you both werenât going to be the protagonists of its pages. Maybe itâs the fatigue or maybe itâs whatâs left of your naĂŻve hope that was allowing you to nosedive into danger. It was crazy, you were crazy - maybe you are going crazy?
Before you had the chance to gather your wits and back out, it was too late - Leon had already opened the door. Your breath hitches painfully in your throat as your whole body goes rigid, preparing for your life to flash before your eyes as a flesh-eating monster comes to rip you both to shreds⌠but nothing comes. Subconsciously, you notice Leon exhale unsteadily behind you, deflating with solace. You couldnât believe it - even he was unsure.
âWeâre safe,â He smiles softly, following the back of your head as you take some cautious steps inside the room. âYouâre safe.â
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