FOOL → leon kennedy ✔

chapter fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
stop squirming, you psycho.

...

"Lucky!"

Leon picked up Matilda as he hurried to Lucky's side. Her eyes were shut peacefully and she didn't stir when he spoke. She didn't even flinch when he touched her pale skin, and he felt panic in his limbs.

"O-okay... this is okay, Lucky. Just hold on." He fished through his pockets until he found the packaged syringe that he had grabbed before leaving the labs. Leon willed his hands not to shake as he tried to open the plastic covering, but it was to no avail. His body was shaking right down to his fingertips and opening the little plastic was harder than it should've been. With one more frustrated huff, he tore it open and slid the syringe out.

Lucky's hand shot out and grabbed his hand, and that action scared him more than anything they'd seen that night. His eyes trailed up her arm and rested on her face. Her usual dark eyes had begun to pale and blood stained her lips. "Leon?" She coughed.

"I'm right here, Lucky. Just hold on. I have the cure." Leon gripped her hand, then fumbled for the vial of the cure sample. There was a far away glaze to her eyes. Lucky smiled.

"I talked... to HQ. They're excited for... for us to come home." She winced, then shook her head. A stray tear slipped down the side of her face. "I'm not going to make it."

"H-hey, hey! Don't talk like that. I've got the cure right here. You're going to be fine." Leon forced his hands to be still as he pushed the syringe into the vial, then drew the small amount of liquid out. Something exploded far off, but he didn't care. "Hold still... this'll be quick." He whispered. Lucky's body was still.

It felt as if ice water had suddenly been thrown over Leon. He grabbed her shoulders with panic flaring inside. "Lucky? Lucky, this isn't funny." He shook her, but she didn't respond. Her features were relaxed, but her paled eyes stared at nothing. They were dull, like all the life had slipped away.

It had.

Lucky wasn't breathing anymore.

"N-n-no, Lucky. Come back... not like this." Leon touched the sides of her face, but saw nothing in her dead eyes. He found no comfort in her cold skin. "Shit, Lucky... please. Please come back." He tried, but it was no use.

He really had been too late.

"you can't bring back the dead"-- those were Annette Birkin's warning words, regarding everything he had told her about Lucky. If he wanted to save her, he had to do it while she was still alive. Before the virus won the fight.

It was near impossible to cure those that are dead, and Lucky was dead. Not breathing, no pulse-- dead.

Except...

Leon looked up from his hands, to Lucky's unmoving features. He was suddenly scrambling for the syringe of that swirling blue liquid and holding his breath. Leon's mind held no thoughts as the syringe slipped into Lucky's shoulder and the blue quickly disappeared.

He had to remember to breathe. Leon grasped her hand like it was the only thing anchoring him to the Earth, then watched for any signs of life.

"Self-destruct sequence in ten minutes..." Leon closed his eyes for a brief moment, trying to imagine leaving Lucky here to turn or, worse, having to put her down before that happened. The girl he had saved from a burning helicopter just a few hours before, lifeless in his arms... the one he loved. And now she was dead.

He wrapped one arm around her waist and the other cupped her head, then he cradled her body closer to his chest. Tears burned their way down the cuts on his cheeks and all of his emotions slammed around in his head as each sob escaped his lungs, little traitorous blasts of air.

Someone touched his back and, for a second, Leon expected it to be Ada. He was confused as to why she was offering such a comforting gesture, but she probably had feelings, too. Buried deep down. Wait, no... she was dead, too. She had sacrificed herself for a useless cause.

Leon's eyebrows drew together.

Then who...?

He jerked away from Lucky and began to struggle out of her grip. It tightened on him and those fears settled in his gut once again. He would have to kill her.

"Holy shit, Leon! Stop squirming, you psycho." Lucky grunted. Leon paused, holding her at arm's length. Her skin was still sickly pale and and the bite was still a red glare in his vision, but she smiled. Her eyes darkened with their happy glimmer.

"Lucky? You're...?" He blinked, then shook his head. She was still there, now looking quite confused.

"I... think so? I mean, I can breathe. And move, and ya know, talk." She smiled. Leon was at a loss for words. It had... worked? Lucky was alive. She was alive!

Instead of stumbling over his words, Leon pulled Lucky into his arms. It took both of them a second to register his quick action. Lucky moved to hug him back, but Leon pulled away awkwardly. His eyes were down.

"Sorry, I just... I thought you were dead. I mean, you were, but... I just thought you were forever dead. Because, ya know, that's usually what dead means. Forever." He tried to avoid her gaze, but those eyes were like magnets. He couldn't pull away.

"Well... let's not do that again, shall we? Being dead isn't a fun experience, I don't recommend it. Honestly it was a lot of black... a lot of darkness." Lucky chuckled, but Leon was lost. His eyes trailed along her face slowly, as if taking in in every small feature of it. "Something wrong, Kennedy?"

He blinked quickly, shaking his head. A light dusting of pink rested on his cheeks. "Uh, n-no. I'm just... well, you're not dead. And I, uh, yeah... I'm so happy. I'm happy beyond words--"

Lucky laughed. "Just kiss me, pretty boy."

That was the spark to fuel the fire. They moved together, going through the motions like they were meant to from the very beginning. He caught her lips with his and kissed her with all of the emotions he'd discovered that night. All the colours she had shown him from that first moment she had smiled at him.

Lucky was back in that helicopter, back on that roller coaster. She was a thousand feet in the air in that moment, then she was falling back to the ground. All of the air in her lungs had been stolen, but she didn't mind at all.

When they pulled away from the kiss, a thousand words passed in between the new space between them. Lucky smiled, hoping that she wasn't blushing too hard.

"That was... unexpected..." Leon chuckled nervously. Lucky rolled her eyes dramatically, though she was smiling.

"NEST is currently self-destructing, and all you can think is 'wow, that happened'. You're such an airhead." She laughed, ruffling his hair. It was his turn to blush, now. "Let's get out of here before we get blown to smithereens. Wha'ddya say?"

He tipped his head to the side in mock-thought. Lucky snickered. "Survival? Yeah, I think I pick life." He smiled.

"Good. You'll have to carry me."