#mdnf

Carlos trailed you like Nemesis after Jill. You got the feeling he’d knock down walls if he could. It wasn’t stalking. Because you needed to be with him. For your own safety. That was something you both wordlessly agreed on. So you were always going to be together. Neither of you knew that yet, but Carlos was starting to warm up to the idea. 

“Hey! Fuckface!”

Later that night, after your tryst, after Carlos retroactively decided it’d been love at first sight, you decided against joking that’d been directed at you. “Fuckface” could be an apt nickname. But you didn’t want him to start thinking your face was his personal fleshlight. Or pillow. Being used that way sent a jolt of pleasure down past your waist. 

Only later would you come to regret being seen by Carlos. After hitting Nemesis with the rocket launcher, the mercenary’s eyes met yours. You were clearly not the target. You were just trying to help your… What was Jill to you? A roommate? Friend? God, he hoped she was just a friend. You pointed your chin at her, forced yourself to smile gratefully, and got to your feet. 

How were you not even singed? Well, he could check your skin for burns later. Right now you wanted him to help her. 

“Name’s Carlos and I’m saving you!” 

He had an easygoing way about him, even in an emergency. Even when it became clear there was some siphoning darkness in his heart, Carlos was charm personified. 

The two of you supported Jill until all three of you were underground. In the subway. It was hard to carry on a convo when everyone was trying not to stumble on the endless steps, Carlos carrying a rifle while you both helped Jill descend.  

“We’ve been bringing survivors here.” 

Jill finally caught her breath and stood unsupported. “‘Here’ where?” 

“My guys have converted some subway cars into a shelter,” he answered, checking to make sure nothing came down the stairs. He nodded at you and Jill, but made to put his arm around her shoulder again.  

“I’m fine.”

“Personal space. OK. I get it. Let’s go.” It came out jovial enough. Carlos didn’t want Jill to think he was hitting on her. Somehow he hadn’t been able to “accidentally” brush his hand against yours when assisting her, though. If she was a rival, maybe it would’ve been better to let that behemoth take her. Sure, Carlos’s cute new crush would be traumatized. But with Raccoon City burning and infested with the hungry dead, well, he’d love to be the shoulder you cried on.

“I don’t have an issue with personal space,” you joked. It just slipped out. The mood drastically needed lightening. A rocket launcher might not be enough to take down that thing hunting Jill. You wanted to make a joke about Nemesis’s feet being too big to take the steps; he’d have to roll down. 

That phrase was all Carlos needed to hear. He tapped your forearm and you smiled for the second to last time that night.

“Let’s go.”

Before obeying, you spotted the vending machine. Carlos shouted at you to be careful while you gingerly moved your hand past the broken glass. 

Out of reflex, you took his hand. Your vice-like grip. It didn’t bother him. 

“Sorry, Carlos. I’m just… It’s just really scary out there. And I thought you might need to replenish your energy.”

You loosen your grip and he squeezes your hand reassuringly, thanking you. 

Jill questioned Carlos on that monster. That’s what she called it. “That monster.” Personally, it made you think of a troll or some other humanoid from folklore. It probably didn’t calcify in the sunlight, though. Then you remembered the tentacles. How could you forget? They were scary as fuck. Why were they even there?

“...it’s no zombie, it knows what it wants and won’t stop till it gets it. Don’t you like that in a man?”

“Normally,” you responded to Carlos. You shared a smile behind his back. “That’s not Jill’s type, though.”

“He’s all yours,” she added, also directed at Carlos. 

______ liked the persistent type. Great. And if he’d looked over his shoulder, he would have caught you shamelessly checking out his backside. 

“Look, I promise you’re in good hands. I’m with the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service. U.B.C.S. for short.”

Uh oh, you thought, a split second before fantasizing that Umbrella Corps gave butt plugs with their logo to their top employees. Any chance of Jill being taken in by this smooth talker was nil.  

“Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?! You guys are the ones who caused all this!”

Carlos woah’d four times. “What are you talking about? You don’t have to trust me, but we’re going to the shelter.” He opened the door to the subway’s station. “You comin’?”

Replaying that exchange in your mind later, you realized that if Jill had been outwardly angrier, she would have been a dead woman. Despite her tone, Jill’s body language hadn’t changed as she descended that penultimate flight of stairs. S.T.A.R.S. agent or not, Carlos only saw her as useful in the sense you liked her. Platonically. How would he have excused his actions to his fellow U.B.C.S. soldiers?

Following him to the train car, you let Jill hang back a moment. Something felt off. Maybe it was the creepy posters. Normally you’d be all over a Skull Stalker double feature. Trying to keep your friend safe from a real stalker quelled that desire. 

“Hey, Captain. ______ and this fine young lady could use our help.”

The peculiar introduction didn’t escape your notice. Mikhail, as he was about to introduce himself, nodded at you before admonishing his underling for not asking Jill her name. Turns out he knew of Officer Valentine. Carlos’s proximity also didn’t escape your notice. Despite the fact you were a civilian, neither he nor Mikhail expected you to join the others. You listened to the rest of the conversation on your feet. The other three were sitting down, or in Carlos’s case kneeling. 

Probably practicing proposing, you mused, unaware how not far off the mark you were.  

“...hey, it’s cool, we all want the same thing,” he said, dragging you out of your thoughts with a glance. 

“Alright, supercop,” he addressed Jill. “Here you go. We can use this to stay in contact.”

“I know what a radio is.”