𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚛 𝙾𝚗𝚎

Luis keeps a little distance to the other. He is curious, of course. He wants to help him. But Leon. Scott. Kennedy. Seems a little… pessimistic. There was no real yes or even any hint of positive towards Luis’ offer of help. So, Luis stays away, even if his hands itch to help.

“I have more than enough supplies...”

He would not allow for Leon to die. That was out of the question. Even in the worst case and Leon fell unconscious… then Luis could drag him to the med bay. Whether he liked it or not.

Leon is occupied with his blackbox – meanwhile Luis has an idea. He doesn’t go too far, but he is clattering about and only returning with two cups and a bag of skittles. Grinning. He sets the cup of instant Ramen and the skittles down in front of Leon, sitting himself cross-legged and balanced on top of one of the stools next to him. Beginning to slurp his own cup of noodles.

“Of course it isn’t meant for people.”, Luis replies then, almost dryly. But there is a chuckle on the tip of his tongue, “If it were, it would have habitable conditions for humans and would have sprouted another human species. This planet has zero potential for that. I did the calculations.”

He couldn’t know what Leon had lived through. But the pictures suddenly flickering on the screen gave a first idea. Luis holds his slurping and watches, tilting his head.

The pictures are grainy. Black and white. Contrasted.

“X-rays?”, Luis guesses, then he freezes.

Something looks at them. Something giant. It hides in a cave. It has appendages, a jaw, a maw. It looks like pulled from a horror movie.

“… is that what attacked you?”, his eyes wander to one of the glass containers at the side of the lab, where Luis has placed the teeth and other samples. He… had not expected it to be like this…

Suddenly there is audio, too. It is jumbled. Messy. Several files playing at once. Screaming. Crying. Harsh orders. Convict. Begging. Pleading. It is Leon’s voice. He sounds broken. A woman’s voice cutting him off. It is more than you deserve. Convict.

Down.

Leon is quick to realise that one third of Luis' so-called team is robotic. Part of him hopes that Mary is a human. Part of him doesn't want to know, because this situation suddenly feels like him taking advantage of a vulnerable researcher desperate for answers... who sent him here? Why would they not warn him of the danger?

Even more reason to keep a divide between them. He was a good man. He was... pure, in a universe Leon almost gives up on saving. What kind of selfless, insane act it was, to fish him up out of the blood ocean in a wreckage that threatened to swallow them both?

He remains standing even when Luis returns... with food. He casts a quick look at the man. He just told him not to waste his resources, and food was high on the list of importance. Yet his eyes are drawn to that cup.

Leon picks it up and takes a long gulp of the steaming hot contents. It almost burns his throat. But damn, does it feel good to wash away the aftertaste of that long, bitter night and all of that blood. He swallows more of the salty broth and takes his first bite of noodles. Luis speaks so jovially, matter-of-fact, and Leon slurps more of the liquid and food. He could reason that it was already prepared. To not eat it would be a waste. But he knows it's a selfish hunger, and if he is to die, he wants to do so with some comfort.

Doesn't he deserve that, after what he lived through?

"Only x-rays can map out the environment through all the blood." He calmly explains around his last bites. The images only draw him in when Luis asks if 'that' attacked him. He sets the empty cup down and wipes his lips. "Yeah. I guess I didn't imagine that part, but you collected the teeth." He shrugs almost nonchalant. Sure, monster, whatever.

Then that audio plays. He freezes, bombarded with so much in such a short window. He doesn't block it out. He latches onto all of it. Tries to sort out what was real, what was missing, what his mind created. The threat of being plunged down into the depths again should make him tremble. Instead he eyes the packet of candy and rips it open.

He clicks on a file that is locked. Types in a password with full confidence: 7X11F26A311.

It unlocks the back-up data from the scientific crew. The monster. He throws back the skittles while the last audio file plays of the research lead and her assistant. It's the same voice. There's no way he can prove it was the voice in his head...

For a moment, Luis has to wonder, whether Leon actually is the only one on board who got a proper astronaut training. Why the hell can’t he remember anything yet? Maybe he just has to watch it again and again… his memories have to come back, right?

Looking up to Leon, while Luis tries to hold onto one of the ship’s rails and keep himself halfway under control that way, that… compliment has the researcher speechless for a moment. And then he practically smiles brightly up to the other, shining like a real star almost.

“And yours look like the oceans on earth!”, is the excited reply, Luis’ voice almost toppling over itself a little. They are. Leon has pretty blue eyes.

“Your eyes look like home.”

Luis feels like he has looked at them before like this. Small glimpses in his mind appear. Blue eyes that light up with a laugh. They are in a cantina, seated across from each other. Blue eyes that glance back to him, as Luis showed him something under a microscope. Blue eyes that look so full of pride, when he shows him how ‘good’ he looks in the pilot seat.

Were those… real?

Do I know you?

“BLIP E DETECTED.”

Luis blinks from his amazed stupor, his curly hair flying when he whips his head to the control room.

“You were right…”

The answer came extremely fast and whomever their new friends are – they are pros at aiming. Because Leon doesn’t even get to prove his abilities in spacewalking this time. The container comes flying right into the blond’s arms. Luis still claps and cheers excitedly behind the small porthole.

This time their message is massive. And yet still so intricate. Luis opens it between Leon and himself, letting the model float and spin.

And it depicts exactly that.

“Oh.”, Luis whispers as his eyes widen, “It’s us. And them.”

A miniature of the giant spacecraft next to them. And of their own. Connected by a thin rail. A rail that ends exactly where the decompression chamber is. Luis suddenly flings his arms up, making him float uncontrolled up and to the side, when he realizes.

“… they want contact?!”

Leon smiles at the way Luis almost stumbles over his words. He remembers him doing the same in a laboratory, and Leon thinks he wasn't supposed to be there at all... yeah, that's right. Luis snuck him in. They were at a top secret facility relating to Project Hail Mary and people couldn't simply wander where they pleased.

He smiles a little more. It feels kind of warm and fuzzy to be like home. He doesn't get a chance to think of anything equally sweet to say. Before he knows it, he's shoving his helmet right back on again.

Though this time he has less of a role to play. That container is aimed directly into the airlock. He laughs. Okay, they're definitely showing off for them now. He passes the precious parcel off to Luis and begins to strip out of his suit.

Leon only pauses when Luis exclaims about contact. "... but how?" He questions. He can see the rail but it makes no sense to him. There isn't a good view from the airlock. Hints of movement that make no sense. Again, he brings Luis with him into the cockpit for a better view.

The way he spoke suddenly was sharp and pushing Luis away. Dampening the burst of fascination and motivation that had just bubbled from the researcher.

Maybe it was the pain, or trauma. He had just lost someone, he was hurting. Luis decides not to judge for now. But to be careful.

“Okay. Come. The blackbox already is decontaminated and in the lab.”

He guides the other through the attached corridor towards the main room with all the equipment. There is a lot of scribbling on papers, boards and notepads. Formulas, ideas, sometimes just sentences. Little smiley faces in between. Doodles.

“This is where we do all the work.”, Luis explains, trying to smile again, turning to the other, before he gestures to the table, where the blackbox sits.

“Do you need anything else? We can get you whatever you need… I- could also try to treat some of your wounds with Armando?”, he nods to the AI robot, that seems to wiggle carefully. The robot has eyes and a smiley mouth drawn on it, too.

Leon clenches his jaw. Just like that, the stranger agrees to bring him to the blackbox, no conditions, no push back. He isn't used to a life that isn't constantly fucking him over. He follows Luis with his own measured wariness. He realises he hasn't asked about others. Who else is on his spacecraft. They were in orbit, around a far flung alien moon, the interior was pristine not unlike the SM-8. It must be a researcher craft. No expense spared, and all.

He just hopes Luis' colleagues don't intervene. Though... they don't cross another soul through the passageway or a room that looks active in the sense of work being done. That brief look around is all he needs. He sees the same handwriting all over. Just one person.

He slides his gaze back to Luis. "We?" It's a genuine question. If there are other souls, they certainly don't work within this room. Maybe he's overthinking it. Maybe they're split into separate workspaces, he doesn't know and doesn't really care when his eyes fall onto the blackbox.

"It needs something to connect to. A computer, or laptop, one that can receive a wireless transmission of data." Then Luis offers to treat him with Armando. He frowns a little, brows creasing in confusion until the other man nods. It's... a robotic arm, one that has received the same doodling treatment as so much of the scientific notes laid around here. Definitely Luis' doing.

"Leon Scott Kennedy." He looks to the other man. "Don't waste your supplies on me. I could be a dead man, if the mystery blood doesn't kill me then the potential radiation from my busted submarine very well could."

         AW,  MAN…    Obedience  drilled  into  her  skull,  Puck  lifts  her  arms  as  soon  as  she's  told  without  a  second  thought.  The  only  problem  is,  there  aren't  any  firearms  to  be  seen  on  or  around  her.  There  are,  however,  suspiciously  red  stains  oozing  from  her  palms.

He  swallows  roughly,  yellow  eyes  wide.  “  I-  So,  um.  I  can  explain --  ” 

She  steps  reluctantly outside,  &  her  boots  leave  equally  suspicious  red  stains  on  the  ground. In fact, there are suspiciously red stains everywhere on her person. He looks endlessly guilty.

“  L-  Listen,  I  don't  even  know  what  firearm's  are...  ”

She  knows  what  guns  are,  not  firearms.  That  one's  a  new  one  in  his  vocabulary. Though it seems that firearms may not be the primary issue anymore, anyway.

@leonkennedy9642

Do you feel it? Something is coming.

Cute.

And incredibly beautiful. Does Leon even know? Sometime sit seems like the blond denies any attractiveness about him, he is selling himself short, walling up, hiding behind. But Luis had never stepped back – he had always pulled the other into a teasing dance about it.

Oh, and he would do the same right now. After all, that whine was too much of an invitation.

Luis leans closer, his hands staying where they are, wrapped around Leon’s wrists, holding them against the wall. A soft flexing and tightening around them, playing with him.

But Luis only wants to whisper into Leon’s ear. He is rolling his tongue, purring out the consonants and lulling the vocals, as he switches to Leon’s native tongue.

Leon's breath hitches as Luis adjusts his hold on him. He's only touching his wrists but it's the audacious power move of pinning him at all, it's exciting, it tickles at a conflicting desire to take back control and to surrender himself. He would do so willingly. But that hold would suggest it isn't a question, it's a demand.

And he likes it.

His body shivers in reaction to Luis purring to him. He's complimented and he's challenged. He wants to look into Luis' eyes to silently plead with him, but Luis speaks into his ear, hot breath ghosting over him. His lips part as he arches to seek out Luis' warm body. He's shamelessly trying to press into him. Siren, indeed.

“I… am not sure? Oye, I just came to inspect this moon. It does something with the Petrova band of this sun. I was hoping to find answers… instead I found your distress signal. Of course I had to help.”

And fuck his own resources in the same vein, but Luis doesn’t mention that. It would be okay. He could start a second mission… with new preparations, making new equipment. Hopefully it would still be enough. The rescue mission had drained a lot of the fuel… more than Luis had calculated.

Surely it had to do with the secrets of this strange moon.

Luis smiles at the other man, who slowly but surely starts looking more human again. He washes himself off, toeing the torn clothes towards the waste system. And then holding out a towel and some of his own clothes to the other.

Leon narrows his eyes on Luis. He... wasn't even sent to pull them out? Wasn't aware of their mission? Somehow, in the vastness of the universe, he observed the same anomaly that the scientists on Earth deemed important enough to plunge several convicted agents into an ocean of blood with the promise of freedom, and thought he would simply check it out.

".......... you're insane." He whispers between them. He looks away and has to fight an urge to hiss between his teeth when a fine spray of antiseptic mists over them from the walls. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Everything hurts and he has to ball his hands to fists and flex out his fingers to focus on something else through the lingering bolts of pain.

Exhaling a long and controlled breath he grabs the towel brusquely and begins to dry himself off. The material is lightly stained with blood. This time it's all his own, the aftermath of all his beaten body has been through. He swallows back a nauseating feelings and while it looks like he ignores Luis, he does try to listen along.

The mention of teeth makes Leon whip his head around. That wasn't in his head...? That... monster... his lips purse into a thin line and he begins to clothe himself in Luis' offered clothing. It's a little tight across his chest and his arms but he doesn't comment on it.

“Okay…”, Luis utters and makes a small motion as if to calm a wild animal. Then he gets up, fills another bucket of warm water to set it down next to the stranger.

The hosing down happens – but gentler than it is demanded. Luis isn’t hosing down some cattle or whatever… he dissipates the water with his thumb to a fine spray. And he is mindful of all the parts that look hurt.

Which… seems to be the entire man.

“Dios mio… what happened to you? You look as if you have been thrown around for hours. And the blisters… is that really from the… the stuff?”

Luis looks at his own hands. The bits that had bene on him when he had washed the other were long gone again. Did his skin itch a little? Maybe. He was decontaminating himself anyway, too. It was standard protocol.

Leon lowers his head. He does not care how harshly the stranger will have to treat him, just as long as the blood is washed away. Though colour him surprised when the spray of water doesn't have any teeth. He looks — the pressure is diluted by the man's thumb.

Luis had to be real. Not even his own mind would conjure up someone so... frustratingly nice. In the depths when his mind began to warp, even the kind voice through his radio had been harsh and emotionally charged.

"........... .......... .......... I was thrown around for hours." Leon dryly offers. His gaze shifts over his arms. The blistering seems worse there. He thought he had scales. Thought he was becoming a monster. Being starved of oxygen took him to an alternate world. "Yes."

The blood.

It was almost an exact replica of human blood. He doesn't dare speak that part out loud, not when he questions his own sanity. What really happened down there...?

🔥 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 -