@houndwolfsquad said: Chris had already raised his gun, recognizing Leon faster than it seemed to be the case the other way around. Or maybe Leon was just more cautious. '*You've always had a blind spot around him.*' Chris told himself, even as he pushed himself forward and a little closer to the younger man. "Stand down." he said, voice quiet but firm, only for Tundra to confirm with a low "Standing down" a split second later through his ear piece. Chris looked Leon up and down, a long, careful inspection and search for injuries. "I heard some knucklehead got himself in trouble." he replied drily and holstered his gun to rest both hands on the rifle slung in front of his stomach. "No." he continued then with a small shake of his head and a look around. "Tell you want, you let me exfiltrate you, we'll regroup with my squad and I'll tell you what's going on here?"
"Who you callin' knucklehead?" Leon's response was equally as dry, but with a touch of amusement. Chris' appraisal of him had him straightening up a bit more, trying to breathe a bit more evenly. His injuries weren't terrible; he'd had far worse in the past. A few bruises and scrapes, chafing at the wrists barely visible around his fingerless gloves, maybe a cracked rib or two. They probably looked worse than they actually were, and he didn't want Chris guessing what had happened to him in the past couple hours. The situation was volatile enough as it was.
The weight of Chris' eyes sweeping over his body like that, taking in every detail, was doing something else to him as well, but he set those feelings aside, as he had grown accustomed to doing every time he'd encountered Chris. His life was complicated enough as it was, and this wasn't the time or place to be opening up the Pandora's Box of those particular feelings.
There were lives at stake. He couldn't afford distractions.
He heaved a sigh and scrubbed a hand through his hair at Chris' suggestion. He'd uncovered precious little information before being captured, strung up, and used as a punching bag for the better part of an hour, and his captors hadn't been the type to spill information when they thought their enemy was fully under their control. Smart fuckers. Not smart enough to stop him from escaping the second he saw an opening, though.
He shrugged and nodded. "Yeah. Fine. Cover's blown anyway; might as well brute force this shit."
