#fablesuntold

She should've stayed inside. Lock the room, barricade the door with whatever she could get her hands on, and wait it out -- but her father was still out there. Ashley couldn't abandon him, even if it meant putting herself in danger. He'd disapprove, but he could hardly fault his daughter for it when he would do the same for her in a heartbeat.

The ringing in her ears grew louder as Ashley ventured further into the city. A gasp fell from her lips as she reached into her pocket, convinced she had taken her phone with her, only to find nothing. Oh, no. Had she left it at the hotel? Or maybe it had fallen during the commotion. Admittedly, her father didn't answer in the eight times she called, but Ashley was determined to keep trying, in hopes he'd eventually pick up, that she'd hear the sound of his voice and everything would be okay again.

Distracted by her hopeless attempts at locating her phone, Ashley only noticed the zombie slowly approaching when it was too late. It yanked at whatever he could reach - her jacket, in this case - forcing a yelp out of her. It took all her strength to break free, the side of her jacket torn in half in the struggle.

She ran without looking back, breathless by the time she made a sharp turn into a busy street -- only to bump right into someone. Ashley let out a high-pitched scream, her arms blindly moving in a frantic attempt at pushing away whatever had grabbed her. "No! Stay away! Let me go!!"

fablesuntold asked: drop this sunflower 🌻 into the inboxes of the blogs that make you happy !!! let's spread a little sunshine ☀️ !!!!

*OOC. ------ I've not been hoarding this in my many asks for a while... nope. nuh-uh! Your blog and you make me happy too! I love the threads we have together, even if I take a small lifetime to respond, but everything we plot and come up with always makes me so excited to keep attacking you with memes and respond to our things ( eventually )

@fablesuntold

The nightmares persisted even months after returning from Spain. By all means, Ashley knew the virus was out of her system. And yet... it didn't stop her mind from playing tricks on her, showing her visions of what she could turn into and sending her brain into a panic. Leon was the only person she could talk to. And she would be lying if she said she didn't selfishly enjoy these moments together, away from everyone else.

Sometimes she dared to believe Leon felt the same way. He had agreed to her suggestion to take a long walk around the estate all too quickly, and didn't shy away when their hands brushed as they walked closely together.

Ultimately, Ashley was not brave enough to act on those feelings - not if it would cost her their friendship. Leon had become too important for her to risk.

"Thanks for staying with me." It felt like she said those words so often these days, always thanking him for one thing or another. Ashley's hands remained glued to her side as she lingered by the front door, not trusting them not to reach for Leon's again. It was getting harder and harder every time they met. "It means a lot." Even if he tried dismissing it in an effort not to put that burden on her, Ashley felt the need to say it. He should know just how much she valued all he did for her.

Smile faltered for a moment, chest rising with an expectant breath. She really should say good night. It was late, and she had kept Leon long enough. "I promise to just call next time," Ashley blurted out against her better judgment, in an attempt to keep the conversation going. "I won't make you come all the way here so late."

She had been labeled many things in her lifetime, mostly things that were negative or filled with a misconception about who she was. She was a woman who walked through the ashes of lives and left nothing more than a shadow in her wake, while she remained untouched. At least for the most part she remained untouched. She had accepted long ago that people needed names for the things they couldn’t understand, especially with the likes of her.

Beautifully macabre was new, it brought a faint smile to her gentle features especially seeing the lips the words fell from it carried the warmth that most found a myth coming from a woman made of ice such as she. Only two people in this world knew how to place a crack in her, bring out the lonely woman beneath.

“Uncharacteristically?” She parroted with an exhale making it seem like a soft laugh welcoming it, be it a compliment from her eccentric friend or otherwise. Luis had never been unkind to her, not even when he should have been. For that he had gained her favor, the ability to see the woman that existed past Ada Wong.

She crossed her arms leaning against a nearby wall, amber gems focused on the male before her. “Beauty is earned by walking through the fire to gain your glow.” Her voice softer an admittance to the exhaustion behind a face of makeup and silk clothing. “Though if I was truly psychotic, you wouldn’t still be approaching me so fearlessly would you Luis?”

“Because that would make you ether incredibly brave or having a questionable sense of self preservation.” She hummed with a gentle amusement. “On second thought.”

Mornings had become quieter than she was accustomed too, some would say they have become more dangerous than some of her past missions. The quiet calm that engulfed her, the life of domesticity that had followed a lifetime of gunfire and explosions. She didn’t need to watch her own back for once, not since she had chosen to stay. Chose to disappear from the world that tortured her.

The form that slept behind her, in a now shared bed was the symbol of a promise she had made. On the dresser in a fancy dish set the item that the promise had followed. A small metal compact returned with a request she found herself unable to resist. This was her life now, the world that had been promised to Leon. The one person who time and time again spared her loyalty.

It was an experience, learning how to wake up to someone without wondering if you will see them after. Learning to fall into a rhythm without blood or the rot of death. Ada watched Leon sleep from where she stood by the window. The silken sheet that barely covered his lower half, the look of peace that graced his features. What had become of her world in the last few years.

For a moment she believed they could keep it.

She had truly started to believe that the two of them could actually have a domestic life of happiness. She promised him, she promised she would stay. Promised they could even consider a family at some point. It worked, their world was perfect they were happy. Leon had even found her a purpose, a lab alongside Rebecca Chambers. Ada didn’t need to be on the field anymore, her intelligence and skills were useful in a good way.

She was still the same woman who left her shoes by the door, and cooked dinner. Who went to bed next to the man she had fallen in love with years ago. She was still that woman when the message came through three weeks ago, a contract that Ada couldn’t delete. A reminder that her life with Leon was borrowed not promised. She had gone and done the job, she lied. She preformed the mission and returned the night before, Leon never questioned her.

When his voice cut through the silence, come back to bed. Pulling her from the guilt the lie had on her mind, He always had that kind of habit, silencing the demons. She turned, the blanket that rested over her shoulders wrapping over her small frame shifting with her. A faint smile tugged at her lips. “You slept like the dead.” She muttered but didn’t disobey his request.

Instead the blanket hit the floor and she slowly crawled onto the bed and under the tangled covers, her gentle fingers touching against the bullet scar on his shoulder. She had promised him she would stop running, and she had. She was right here with her with soft lips finding his in a desperate plea, her own apology wrapped in hungered affection. Even with the weight of the contracts heavy, she didn’t need to choose.

He didn’t need to know about the remaining lie, if it meant her world would let her have him.

Her heels slowed to a stop this should have been the sign that Ada didn’t fear his idle threats. Normally this would be unsettling to most, how she remained calm under various forms of pressure. Chris wasn’t the only threat that existed in the moment, beyond the walls where they were playing this filthy game of cat and mouse. Was filled with the sounds of morbidity, inhuman gurgles and growls that was riddled of death.

Her body turned her hands raised in a taunting display of surrender. She knew he knew better, Ada Wong never surrendered not to anyone. Amber gems lifted without any emotion or fear behind them, despite the subtle hints of exhaustion that graced over her delicate features. A quiet ache of someone who spend years, maybe even decades being chased by monsters. Human and mutated alike, Ada would argue humans were worse than the infected. Especially when some wore familiar faces.

“Is that supposed to frighten me Chris?” Ada’s voice was soft, silk woven over a sharp blade. Her heel tapped the metal grates as she took a step forward, her most dangerous habit. She would rather meet the blade head on, than to fear it. Perhaps she hadn’t tasted the bitterness of death close enough to come to be afraid. Or maybe she had just wasn’t sure she had much to live for.

“You really should be more careful Chris, sometimes the thing you are chasing is what’s keeping you alive.” She hissed she knew that within the man’s eyes she didn’t have a great track record. He lived among the world who didn’t see behind her act, yet she wondered why was he chasing her? Was this still about Langsing? What Carla had done wearing her face? “If you are going to come after me, make sure it’s me you are hunting.”

She took another step forward her eyes meeting his, she wasn’t dealing with Leon there wasn’t any gentle feelings between her and Chris. She well enough if Chris Redfield intended on harming her, he would with a vengeance. “I do hope, when you do catch me you recognize the woman you caught.” She took a step back signaling she was going to flee.

She hadn't noticed the shaking that had penetrated her bones until his jacket settled over her shoulders. Her ability to concentrate on a task in front of her is too well ingrained even after all this time away from the lab. It felt like something steady, enveloping her, reminding her not everything was lost tonight.

The threat was gone. But so was Hopper.

She didn't look up at him. Just wiped her face clean and said, in a small voice, "Can we go home now?"

From the Marriage prompt list [X]

‘Don’t disappear on me this time.” Still echoed inside her ears,and yet she did exactly that. He had to have known the request would fall on deaf ears, even now when everything had changed there were things that remained the same. She always did work best on her own, faster and more efficient. Besides she knew Leon didn’t need her to survive, all the years she had known him she trusted his skills. She left him with a smile hoping he wouldn’t worry too deeply.

The maintenance hatch was only big enough for her frame to squeeze through, the moment his attention was on something else. She always did this it wasn’t new. The concrete walls swallowed the sounds easily, she preferred it this way.

She was following her instincts, they never lead her wrong before right? She dropped into a room, a forgotten wing filled with dust and old equipment. Long abandoned unlike the floor above her. It had been omitted from the blueprints the both of them had seen. She could already picture the look on Leon’s face when they crossed once again and he realized she was right this time.

Her boots had barely made enough sound to register as an indicator that she was there. She passed the empty desks, and tables that looked like an old science classroom. Paperwork browned with age perhaps it had been wet at some point. Amber gems traced upwards looking at the water damage on the ceiling. Someone abandoned this section of the facility for a reason, why didn’t strike Ada enough to really care not with the mission ahead.

She knelt next to a terminal, her gloved fingers tracing the clean surface. This was new, newer than what this room would allow. Her instincts alerted, this room wasn’t left from the blueprints because it was abandoned. It was because it wasn’t, it fooled her once they were clever almost too clever.

A steel cable snapped around her ankle sending the small framed woman plummeting into the air. Her shoulder slammed into a nearby pillar forcing a sharp gasp from her. Her pistol went flying in the struggle. For the first time in quite a long time Ada Wong had been caught off guard. She could already hear the ‘I told you so’. That was coming if Leon found out.

No, wait. She did hear it, her vision cleared to see a figure standing with their back towards her. Of course he would show up at just the right time. Pulling herself up she cut the wire, her left arm not cooperating blood dripping down it. It was broken she knew that much.

Ada picked up her pistol in her good arm raising it and stepping next to Leon. “If I had listened we wouldn’t have found this room. Give me some credit.” She quipped trying to ease the tension in the moment, despite the translucent giant that stood opposite of them.