𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣 :
different time, same old rivalry
﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎
RAE WASN'T ENTIRELY sure how she had ended up in the backseat of the speedboat while Leon stayed in the passenger seat with Ada driving, but now all she knew was she was staring at the back of Ada's head with a glare. The two were having a conversation, without Rae, and she was feeling grumpy because of it. The spike of jealousy she felt wasn't helping her depleting mood.
"...but I don't think I'll get a straight answer." Leon said, "You know, after the incident. The world changed. You try to save one person; a hundred others die. I guess I changed too."
"You? Leon S. Kennedy?" Ada smiled as though it was a joke. "You haven't changed. You just think you have."
Rae huffed, throwing her head onto the back of the seat. She had her legs wide, shamelessly manspreading as her arms were laid against the top of the seat. It didn't matter, no one else was back there.
Leon turned to give Rae a glance to see her reaction to Ada's statement only for his eyes to get caught on her figure. His eyes followed the way her chest raised as she took in an irritated breath, and his eyes lingered until her head suddenly snapped up.
She glared at him, as if feeling his gaze. His eyebrows raised and he adjusted his seating position, clearing his throat before he turned back to Ada, but got distracted by the way that Rae stared at him out of his peripheral.
"Your question?" Ada prompted, trying to get his attention back onto her.
"Right." Leon glanced at her before turning back to the ocean, "Have you changed, Ada? Or are you just trying to use us again?"
Ada turned to him slowly, "What do you think?" The girl turned back forward as they approached the island, "We're here." She announced.
The woman stood up after slowly down till they were no longer moving. She pulled out a fancy tool and pointed it upwards. She shot it and it hit the rock, then she said, "Don't think too hard, handsome. See you two later."
Then her figure was flying off the boat, Leon quickly jumping to the driver's seat to grab the wheel and stabilize the boat.
Leon let out a deep breath as he watched the red dress disappear amongst the rocky mountains. He couldn't help it and turned around, curious of her expression. He found the woman glaring intensely at the area that Ada had disappeared.
"What?" Leon prompted the girl, having no clue as to why she appeared so angry.
Rae couldn't help herself as she blurted, "I was jealous."
Leon blinked at her in bewilderment, "What?"
"When my mood dropped for no reason in Raccoon City. On the cable car." Rae brought up the old memory, Leon nodded to show he remembered the moment, "I was jealous of Ada. I was jealous of her then, and I'm jealous of her now. All because she was confident enough to try and put a move you."
Rae shook her head and let out a small laugh of disbelief. She couldn't believe she was admitting this to him, after all that had happened. "I don't know why you're jealous." Leon said, gazing at her. "It's not her that I love."
Rae's eyes flew to his, finding nothing but sincere emotion behind his eyes. He had used a present form of the word, not past.
She found butterflies in her stomach, but as prepared as she was, she wasn't ready to fall into the trap called Leon Kennedy quite yet.
"She was trying to kiss you dingus. On the cable car." Rae spoke sassily as she climbed to the edge of the boat, jumping from it to the slick mounatins. She didn't see the way Leon's arm extended behind her, aiming to catch her if she fell. But she didn't.
"Oh...I didn't notice." Leon's eyes carefully followed her body as he stood up and neared her.
"I'm aware." Rae rolled her eyes as he also climbed onto the mountain behind her.
As he stood up to his full height, he got closer to her. He stared down at her with a teasing smirk, "Too bad it wasn't someone else trying to kiss me. I would have said yes."
Rae tilted her head, "You're not getting a kiss from me that easily pretty boy, I've changed."
Leon's eyes wandered as she climbed up the first rock, he muttered to himself, "Not too much."
"What'd you say?" Rae asked quickly, turning around rapidly as she had fully climbed onto the rock.
"Nothing." He gave her a small boyish smile. She rolled her eyes playfully before continuing to climb up the rocks.
Eventually Leon got in front of her and offered her a hand, but she had already climbed up. The girl gave him a small smirk before she made her way past him and to a ledge, finding a large factory like area. Leon followed her like a puppy as she observed the area. There were spotlights, laser machines and villagers patrolling with assault rifles.
"I see Ashley." Leon informed, leaning his head closer to Rae to adjust her viewing position. There she easily spotted the girl, still being carried.
Rae nodded, lowering her binoculars, "Let's go get sleeping beauty."
﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎
"Last one down." Leon muttered as he lowered his pistol. He looked around for his partner but wasn't able to find the girl anywhere. "Rae?" Leon called out into the open air, not being able to find the girl anywhere.
"Up here, sweetheart." Her voice called back to him from above. He looked up in confusion, but still wasn't able to see her.
"And where's here?" Leon inquired, his voice matching her playful one.
"What are you, blind? I'm over here." Rae said.
Leon turned to find her sitting on the stairs, ones that had been previously blocked by lasers—they had figured out that if you walked into them, they would shoot you down, an unlucky villager was the test dummy—casually sitting with her arm on her knee and her face resting on her hand. His breath was caught at the sight of her smirk.
Behind her were the doors they needed to pass through to move along. Now he just had to get over to her. Leon took a step to the left, assuming that was where he had to go but her voice stopped him, "Wrong way." With a small breath he started walking straight but she shook her head, "Wrong again."
"Then where do I go?" Leon huffed, dropping his arms dramatically as he leaned to one leg.
"Hmm...Be nicer and I'll tell you." Rae settled with an innocent smile.
Leon sighed and shook his head at her words. But he was quicker to relent than he would have preferred, saying with a pleading tone, "Oh Rae, the light of my life...Please for the love of god tell me where to go so that we can get off this fucking horrid island."
"I'll ignore that last part." Rae hummed before motioning to his right, "It's that way."
"Are you serious?" He questioned incredulously. He'd been so close.
"I know, I'm just surprised you gave up so quickly. That's not like you Leon, you've shown to be very persistent."
"Come on," Leon scolded as he made his way to her, pushing the doors open, "we can't stop here."
Rae watched as he began to walk away from her, still in her seated position. Without shame she found herself checking him out, but she stood up quickly after a moment so that he wouldn't catch her and say a cocky comment. "Sure, we can't."
"How do you get any job done?" Leon asked with a half sarcastic half genuine voice, "You're always trying to rest."
Rae gave him a side eye, answering with a playfully offended voice, "I'm very good at what I do."
Just as she said that a villager charged at them. Without any effort at all she lifted Matilda and shot the villager in the head.
Leon nodded in agreement to her statement. She was good at what she does. And boy did he love watching her do it.
﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎
Rae was somewhat offended but somewhat proud. Along the way they'd ran into a villager that had a rocket launcher. Rae made a comment about them stealing her style, one Leon gave a small chuckle to. Rae was quick to point it out, but Leon ignored her words as they continued through the slick mountains.
Eventually they made it past the mountains and found themselves in a building, one with concrete walls and distracting red lighting—although luckily it was only in one room.
After unlocking a door, they found a hallway with stairs at the end, but beside them there were bars. Ones that led into a lower room. Rae was the first one to peer into it and she spotted a figure laying down with their hands tied.
Rae reached out, keeping her eyes on the figure as she tried to grab Leons shoulder. She tapped him a few times before he turned and saw what she was looking at. He grabbed the bars and began calling out, "Ashley! Ashley!"
But the girl didn't budge.
"Come on, Ashley! Wake up!"
Leon groaned, smacking his hand against one of the bars harshly before backing away, "Shit!"
"Don't do that, you'll hurt your hand." Rae scolded, still looking down at the unconscious girl with disappointment. Rae turned to him, finding him looking down at his hand with an uncaring expression. She rolled her eyes, grabbing his hand gently and rubbing the area he had hit. She scolded, "Even if you don't care about your wellbeing, I do. So, try not to do that, okay?"
Leon blinked at her, trying not to react too much due to their skin contact. But Rae still noticed his jitters. She lifted his hand and gave his hand a small kiss. Cheekily she looked up, finding him staring at her with a stunned expression. She gave him a cheeky smile and repeated, "Okay?"
"What?" Leon asked, appearing as though he his mind had gone blank due to the smallest kiss. And it basically had, his mind was just replaying the sight of her kissing his hand and going wild about the fact that she was still holding it.
"Don't hurt yourself," Rae blinked at him, "you won't, will you?"
"No." Leon sounded breathless.
"Good." Rae suddenly grinned and dropped his hand. She turned to the stairs and began to make her way down.
Except he could only watch her as she got further from him, feeling like a fool. Or as others would say, a fool in love.
﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎﹏︎
AUTHORS NOTE !
Don't like this chapter tbh.
Little fun moment, originally,
I was going to have Rae working
with Ada. Who'd have thought?
Posted: April 11, 2023
Words: 1837
Edited: ✘︎