Title? What Title

“Leon-one sec buddy, just wanna see what’s over here,” you spoke, turning back to see faint white paint written on the wall. His hand tugged you back into his chest, slightly knocking the wind out of you as you made contact. Your eyes widened at the impact, not expecting his chest to be so firm. Sure he looked built in his uniform, but you weren’t expecting him to be a brick wall.

He mumbled, sounding annoyed at another one of your attempts to escape him. The two of you had been exploring a new part of the sewers for hours now, clothes almost entirely dry after your little… swim earlier. Your throat still ached, but the pain from talking had significantly diminished. Every now and then, Leon would stop walking, turn you towards him, and gently run his hand over your bruising, as if he’d suddenly remember what happened to you and wanted to make it go away. Each time, you let him, reassuring him that he saved you, that you were okay. You wondered if somehow, his cognitive function was improving on its own. He understood you more, was moving faster, making more decisions without you.

“Oh come on, don’t be upset, it’s just a second,” you murmured, wriggling your hand out of his clutch. You didn’t miss the small whine that left his lips at the loss of contact. You playfully rolled your eyes to yourself as you made your way over to the wall. Such a whiny baby, you thought.

Once you were close enough, your eyes scanned over the faded words, squinting as you tried to make out some of the ineligible letters. Doing your best to focus, you unintentionally ignored Leon as he dragged himself over to you, hands finding purchase on your arm, grip tight. You gasped. “Leon! This is- this is good news! It’s hard to make out but- but look!” You squealed, face turning to look up at him as you pointed at the wall. A huge smile was painted on your face, excitement getting the best of you as you felt hope flood over you for the first time in what felt like forever. You forgot what it felt like.

Leon faced the wall and stared. He tilted his head. You winced as the realization hit you. He couldn’t quite read anymore- something you hoped he’d recover as his cognitive function improved. “Oops! Sorry- forgot,” you awkwardly chucked, your hand raising to rub the back of your neck, pink dusting your cheeks. He turned his head back to face you. “Someone wrote directions on how to get to a door down here! Doesn’t say to what, but it’s better than wandering down here until we-we…” you quickly cut yourself off, a sudden wave of sadness washing over you. You stared up at Leon, taking him in, his eyes, his face. Leon that had stuck by your side and protected you.

Sympathy engulfed you, tearing at your heart, and clawing its way up your throat. You swallowed the lump that formed, blinking back the tears as you fought to maintain your composure. “Until uh-.. until I die,” you quietly finished, eyes looking anywhere but his.

You knew it, of course you knew it. But Leon had always just felt so… human to you, that sometimes the fact that he was technically dead never really occurred to you. The thought of him, your little rookie officer, a baby basically, so full of life just- just dying. You squeezed your eyes, tears threatening to fall, as you faced away from him.

You didn’t know if Leon remembered his death, if he was even aware that he was dead, but the thought of him dying alone, calling out for help, fighting for his life- you shook your head, refusing to think anymore about it. You were about to start sobbing, and you didn’t want Leon to see that. You could tell he already felt so guilty and apologetic about what had happened to you earlier, you couldn’t imagine the level of clingy he’d get if he saw you break down out of nowhere. You pressed the heels of your palms to your eyes, ignoring Leon’s noises of confusion. You didn’t trust your voice.

Another grumble, soft and curious, as you felt a shaky hand rest on your shoulder, trying to spin you back around to face him. You lightly shrugged your shoulder shoving him off. “Not- not yet-” you barely broke out, voice choppy and strained. You could almost hear him think, hear him try to figure out what was happening, and while it hurt you to brush him off, you needed a minute to gather yourself.

The tightness in your chest slowly began to fade as you concentrated on your breathing, inhaling deeply, exhaling slowly. You dropped your hands, sniffling as you cleared your throat. With one last breath, you pivoted to face Leon, heart dropping when you saw him several feet away, head down. He looked so fragile, standing alone as he stared at his water covered feet.

“Leon, I’m sorry baby, I just,” you swallowed, tone shakier than intended, “needed a minute,” you sighed, quickly closing the gap between you two. He let out a low guttural rumble. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. Sometimes you knew exactly what he was trying to say, other times you had no idea- just a general gist of what he might be feeling. When you were unsure, you’d resort to comforting him in any way you could, whispering words of endearment in hopes his usual mood would return.

You reached out to loosely hold both of his hands. A pang hit your heart as he made no inclination to move or squeeze your hands back. He just let them hang limp in your grasp. “Leon? Come on, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” You begged, speech edged with desperation and concern. You absolutely hated seeing him like this. It felt like there was a physical knot in your stomach.

A silent cry left his lips as he opened his mouth. He brought his hands up to his face, fingers pressing into the skin below his own eyes. Confusion filled you, trying to make sense of his actions with a slight shake of your head. “I don’t- don’t..” you trailed off, head angled, thoughts dropping when he cautiously moved his fingers to now lightly tap the skin below your eyes. Oh. Eyebrows rising in shock, jaw dropping, it suddenly clicked.

Crying. He was mimicking you, because he knew you were crying- at least about to- and… was he upset because he couldn’t figure out why? There had been no zombies for some time, he was protecting you, keeping you close, so why would you be crying? Did you brush him off because you were angry at him for not being there sooner to help you earlier? He was confused.

A shocked gasp escaped your lips at the idea. “Fuck, Leon, no no no baby- I’m so sorry,” you quickly raised your hand, placing it on the back of his head as you brought him in for a hug, face tucked into your neck- or more so limply resting there. He was tall enough that he had to cower down to properly fit in your arms, but he didn’t seem to mind. His arms laid limp by your torso, not bothering to place them around you. You huffed at his stubbornness, not even paying attention to your fingers that thoughtlessly started to play with his hair.

“Are you.. are you mad at me?” You wondered, feeling heat creep up your neck to your cheeks. Maybe you guessed wrong. You felt slightly embarrassed at his refusal to hug you and for a moment, envied Leon’s lack of perception for certain emotions. If he wanted to hug you, he’d hug you, if he wanted to touch you, he’d latch on to your hands or arms or shoulders. But something as simple as him not fully hugging you made you want to shy away.

He murmured, and you relaxed, exhaling in relief as you felt his arms lift to tighten around you, squeezing you harder than expected. Air left your lungs at the pressure, hand leaving his hair and tapping his shoulder. “Yep- that’s.. that’s go..od- Leon-” you stuttered.

He released, pulling away to stare at you, fingers going up to your neck. You breathed. “It’s still there, buddy.” He grunted. Your hands wrapped around his wrists pulling them away. “It’s okay, Leon. Now let’s go find that door.” You spoke, walking in, what was hopefully, the right direction. Leon mumbled, speeding up to catch up to you to lace his hand through yours.

“Ah fuck- I’m out,” you panicked, hearing the empty clicks as you kept pulling the trigger, praying there was one more bullet in the magazine. Leon had done his best to shield you away, stubbornly keeping you glued to his back, but once a hoard of zombies showed up, there was only so much he could do. He mauled and tore at as many as he could, as quickly as he could, giving you the ability to preserve as much limited ammo as possible. You had to get really fucking good at headshots, really quick.

There were a few more that trudged your way. “Okay, okay I got this,” you hyped yourself up, shaking out your arms as you prepared to dodge their attacks. You hoped you had a good kick. Leon was about fifteen feet behind you, preoccupied with a handful of zombies himself. Narrowing your eyes, you slightly bounced on your feet, hopping around as if you were some boxer getting ready to beat someone up in the ring. “Yeah, fuck with me-” you went to threaten, right before Leon, faster than you had ever seen him move before, launched himself at two of them, jaw wide open to rip at their necks. One hand constricted one of their throats, pinning it down to wait out its turn, while he tore open the throat of the other. He quickly switched.

The third one barely made any distance towards you by the time Leon finished his work, diverting his full attention to the last one. When he got like this, you couldn’t help but notice the murderous look that formed in his eyes, a complete 180 of how he looked at you. You also couldn’t help but notice how flustered you got, butterflies forming in your stomach as you watched him do everything he could to protect you. Was he being unnecessarily brutal? Probably. But you couldn’t deny how it felt to see him want to tear at anything that threatened you. No one had ever really protected you before, always doing it yourself.

“I think it’s dead,” You lightly chucked, finally snapping out of your trance. This had to be fucked up on so many levels. Sure, he was- extremely good looking- butttt he was also technically a zombie. But clearly he had feelings? And thoughts? He made noises too so you guessed he had to probably be breathing right? You wondered if his heart was beating. Would he still be a zombie then? Does that mean he came back to life-?

Your spiral of thoughts was interrupted by a muffled noise, Leon now right in front of you, gaze fixed on you. You blushed again, quickly shaking off the feeling- you had to focus. You didn’t pay him much mind as you smiled up at him, quickly resuming your trek. “C-come on! Think the door is close!” You chirped, bolting past his side. You could’ve sworn you saw him furrow his eyebrows.

You gasped as your eyes landed on it. A door at the end of the sewer tunnel. A massive smile grew on your lips, excitement coursing through your veins. “Leon!! We found it!!” You cheered, spinning back on your feet to run towards him. Before you could process what you were doing, you jumped in his arms, latching your arms around his neck, burying your face into it as you squealed. He let out a small grunt, stumbling backwards at the unexpected gesture, but brought his muscly arms up to embrace you, hands crawling under your shirt to feel the warmth of your back. He loved feeling your body heat.

The two of you stayed like that for a minute, smile still painted on your face as your feet dangled in the air, inches off the ground. Your arms were still tightly clutching onto him, as were his. With a happy sigh, you let go standing on your own two feet. You weren’t embarrassed, just so happy to have finally found something. Maybe you imagined it, but it looked like Leon was blushing.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” you cursed as you tried the knob. The door was locked. You brought a palm up to smack yourself in the forehead. “Leon, it’s-” he threw himself against the door, jamming his shoulder into it as it opened with a loud thud. He stumbled inside. “Not…locked,” you finished eyes wide in amazement. He surprised you more and more everyday.

You stepped in, beyond relieved to not be standing in water anymore. You scanned the room, praying for not only another way to go, but possibly any food. God you were starving and it had been at least 24 hours since you ate anything. There were lockers, a handful of computers, and another door.

You threw open every single locker door while Leon stood and gazed at you. “Yes!” You gasped when you found a granola bar in what you guessed was a workers bag. Wolfing almost all of it down, you offered some to Leon, who took one sniff at it and visibly cringed away. You laughed, jokingly rolling your eyes. “Oh my bad, Mr. Brains eater,” you teased.

Just for a bit it felt like time was frozen. You blushed realizing just how close the two of you were, stepping back against the lockers to create a little distance. Your heart was pounding. Leon took a step closer. His eyes were locked onto yours, unwavering. Gulping, you whispered. “Hi.”

He leant down and internally you freaked out. Was he about to kiss you?? Not that you didn’t want him to, but you really did not want to feel as if you were taking advantage of him, not when he couldn’t say what he wanted. What if you were misinterpreting everything and he viewed you as nothing? You went to speak, but your voice died down as he rested his forehead against yours, noses almost touching, your heart melting in the process. While he might have not been able to speak his emotions, he clearly could physically convey them, even if it was just partially. How was he so attentive and focused on you, when he wasn’t even fully cognizant? Once again, you felt that fluttery tingly feeling return to your stomach.

He muttered something you couldn’t quite understand, but it was clear that he was trying to say something. “Say- say that again?” You lightly pushed. He took a moment, then grumbled out a word, broken up, choppy and anything but clear, but unmistakably a word. Unmistakably your name.

Jaw dropping, your heart skipped a beat. You felt like you couldn’t breathe. There was no way he just said your name. Or well tried to, intended to. He didn’t react, just scanned your features while you stood there, gaping at him like a fish out of water. “You just- Leon, you just..” you couldn’t even finish. He had never said a word, and now here he was, trying to utter your name. He had learned your name. God you wanted to cry.

“Leon..” you started, hands lifting to cup his cheeks. “You just said my name, buddy,” you grinned, sniffling as your eyes prickled with tears of happiness, a nice change for once. It had been days since the outbreak started, since the world changed for the worse. Emotions were running high, and you craved an inkling of normalcy. Despite being anything but, Leon gave that to you. You would’ve gone insane by now if you had to do this all alone. No- scratch that, you would’ve been dead by now, if it weren’t for him.