Chapter Text
There's hands mapping out an entire continent on his chest and lips pressing soft kisses on his jaw, he's shirtless and Ethan's gotten rid of his pants but not his shirt.
His own hands are on Ethan's thighs, the cold, soft skin sends a wave of electricity flowing through his fingertips and he can feel himself growing harder, his baggy pants growing tighter.
Not much is being said, the blonde murmurs quiet promises that are left up in the air, Chris doesn't respond. There's nothing to say anymore.
Ethan's nails are sharp, his mouth tastes metallic and his fangs are there at all times nowadays, they don't disappear like they used to. None of this should be happening, it's wrong, Chris might get injured or even die.
But then there's hands on his crotch area, circles are being traced around his hardened cock over the tight fabric and he's gasping, silently begging for more while his subconscious yells at him to get the fuck out.
He's ashamed, deep inside he feels shame burning up and bottling around his stomach, waiting for him to just grow harder, more desperate for Ethan's touch only to make him feel even worse.
"You're all tense now," Ethan's voice almost sounds like they're both underwater, faint and deep. "We should do something about that."
A set of teeth is dangerously close to his throat and suddenly he's panicking, unable to breathe normally. All he can think about is the picture of Ethan's corpse, visiting Mia at the morgue, the dreadful feelings of losing a part of yourself when a loved one dies.
He knows that if this goes on, that'll happen again and this time there won't be any luck. There'll only be blood.
"No," Chris snaps, his own hands grabbing Ethan's wrist as he pulls the blonde away from his body, holding him down on the mattress. "I don't feel like doing this."
Ethan smiles at him, the glimpse of the fangs that Chris catches makes him shiver. "You do, actually."
Chris feels sick because he knows Ethan's right, there is a faint voice in the back of his head telling him to just give in, you won't be alive to see him die it repeats over and over again as he glooms over Ethan.
"You're scared, that's all." Chris frees Ethan from the grasp and the blonde brings a hand up to the brunette's cheek to caress it softly.
"I am." The alcohol in his system is making him feel strange, maybe it's the whole local brewery thing, they use different ingredients therefore he isn't used to them.
But then when he looks back at Ethan the younger man has worry in his eyes and is touching his forehead instead of his face. "You're very sweaty."
"I don't feel alright." Chris confesses as he sits straight up on the bed, everything is suddenly too cold and too warm at the same time, his mind is in pieces as he tries to stay in reality.
The brunette shuts his eyes for a second, trying to keep his posture and regain control of himself but when he opens them again he's met with the terrifying image of a very dead Piers lying on Ethan's place in the bed.
"Captain." He greeted, a cold, decaying hand was brought up to caress Chris's cheek just like Ethan had done a minute ago but this time it was different. A feeling of despair and hatred could be felt in between them, the room smelled like rotting corpses.
"Piers," Chris's voice comes out weak, he tries to reach out but he can't, his hand is stuck to the bed as if it was superglued to the sheet and mattress.
Piers fades away, there's nobody standing on his place now but instead there's the sound of Chris's dying squad coming from the side of the bed. He doesn't want to look, he doesn't need to look, he sees them every night in his dreams.
The screams still make him feel like they did that day, he can't forget, he won't allow himself to be forgiven or to heal from it. There's no coming back from that.
Then there's the faint sound of a little girl crying who Chris immediately recognizes as Claire, when he looks to the right they're both standing over the graves of their deceased parents. She's holding onto his hand tightly, her sobs are violent and shake her small body like brutal waves.
The grand finale comes along when he looks down in the bed once again and Albert Wesker is lying there, looking smug and insufferably handsome like he always looked. Chris hates him, he doesn't want him here.
The older blonde man tries to get his hands on Chris but there's no way he's doing that ever again, not while Chris is breathing and able to fight his ass off.
Chris is tired, he doesn't feel well and his head is spinning, anger gets the best of him as he wraps both of his hands around Wesker's throat and squeezes hard.
All he gets is a smile and a wave from a cold hand, the room goes dead silent and then he's once again being hit by the shining light that the moon irradiates and his hands aren't on Wesker a anymore. They're on Ethan.
Instant panic settles in his chest as he sees the younger man turning blue, his hands grasping onto Chris's forearm trying to get the bigger man to let go but meeting no success until Chris fully comes back down to earth.
"Ethan." He breathes out, scared to death and feeling like he's ran a couple dozen marathons. His entire body is aching.
Ethan pushes him away with one hand, the other is gripping his own throat as he coughs trying to let the air back inside his lungs. The blonde looks in so much pain and Chris can feel the tears rolling down his face, burning up against his skin.
"I told you to stop," Ethan says in between coughs, there's already bruises forming on the side of his neck, his pale skin stained by violence. "I said stop, why didn't you listen?"
"That wasn't me!" Chris tries to reach out but Ethan stops him, a hand placed in between them as a personal space settler.
"Then who was it? Dr Seuss?" There's venom on Ethan's tone and he's spitting it straight to Chris's face, trying to get him to swallow it down.
"You have to let me explain, Ethan."
There's no time for explaining though because a freaked out Jill is bursting through the door, Chris doesn't remember locking it and curses himself for it but there's something more important than being caught red handed.
Jill's eyes are puffy and her cheeks are red with anger, Chris knows something's up as a shaken up Carlos comes from behind her, looking as scared as Chris is.
"Did it happen to you too?" She asks, her voice is muffled by her sobbing and she's shaking, Chris never seen her this way.
"He tried to choke me to death, is that correlated to your crying?" Ethan asks, avoiding any type of eye contact with Chris.
Jill nods quickly, Carlos is keeping a hand on her shoulder but not holding her back or even holding her at all. "I tried to shoot Carlos."
The realization of the coincidences falls upon the room, Ethan's rubbing his throat and Carlos's lip is quivering with fear as he stands behind the brunette woman. Both Chris and Jill are weighed down by guilt and sadness as they stare into the mess they've created.
They all give each other a minute to breathe so they can all gather up in the living room after they're done catching their breaths. Chris can hear Jill crying through the thin walls, her desperation is similar to his in many ways.
When he goes downstairs he meets Ethan, who hasn't bothered to put his pants back on at all for this meeting. They make eye contact and Chris can feel the tension between them, something they had been so good at avoiding so far bursting out of the trouble box once again.
Jill and Carlos join in soon after, she looked calmer but still very scared, like a stray cat receiving help.
"What is happening to us?" Jill asks, she's breathless and her voice sounds weak, she takes a seat next to Ethan on the couch.
"It's too specific to be just a coincidental nightmare." Chris says.
"Maybe there were shrooms in the beer." Carlos is standing on the edge of the couch next to Jill, he's got his arms crossed over his chest.
"Why didn't you have any episodes?"
"Because when I was about to go to sleep Jill attacked me."
Silence falls upon the room, Chris tries to think very harshly but all he can think about is what he had experienced five minutes ago while his hands were around Ethan's throat.
Ethan clears his throat loudly, trying to get everybody's attention on him. "This beer isn't beer," he says as he holds the bottle in front of the agents. "I don't know what this is but I knew it tasted weird."
Jill grabs the bottle and reads the information printed on the sticker on the back, her eyes open wide like cherries as she realizes Ethan is absolutely right. "Chris, you said nobody would tell them."
Incredibly confused by what the woman meant, Chris grabs the bottle from her hands and reads the transcript of ingredients on the back which turns out to be nothing but the description of a very powerful drug that's developed at the BSAA headquarters back in New York.
"That's why the town is so hostile," Chris says, he's got everybody hooked on his speech, three pairs of eyes and ears very deeply invested in what he says. "They told everyone about what you are, Ethan. They know I've been hiding you from them."
"Them?" Ethan confusedly asked.
"The BSAA," Jill said. "They know we brought you here because you're going full bioweapon and they don't like it. You're basically their property and we took you out like thieves."
"I thought they knew I was here."
Ethan was only looking at Chris, whose head was hanging down in shame as he saw the consequences of his uncaring actions. "I might have asked my own squad to lie about it to keep you safe, Ethan."
"I don't– I can't understand."
Jill sighed as she massaged her thighs with her hands, trying to keep her cool. "They tried to get rid of you via giving us drugs, Ethan. The drug makes you hallucinate about your trauma, makes you believe it is right in front of you.
So you try to fight it and it always ends with a mess. They used it years ago in a small town in Minnesota and people were killing each other like animals."
"But you tried to kill him," Ethan pointed to Carlos and then laughed bitterly. "And I drank that too, why didn't I experience anything?"
"That's called getting rid of the evidence, they probably got their hands on the transcripts my therapist does of our sessions and were aware that all my nightmares surround the idea of me having to execute him," Jill explained quickly, the stray cat image left behind by a more angered, bitter one. "And you are different, Ethan, you probably don't process liquids or food the same way we do."
"And nobody read the back of the bottle?" There was still confusion on Ethan's tone but was now accompanied by annoyance and disbelief.
"It wouldn't have mattered," Chris said. "A sip it's all it takes, I've seen it being tested on humans."
"Of course you did." Ethan murmured under his breath but Chris still caught it, a strange feeling sat on his chest and he didn't have the energy to deduct it right now.
"Chris, I think it's time to gather the pack," Jill stood up, she extended her hands towards Ethan who took it in his with doubt but also curiosity. "I'm gonna get you some pants and fix your neck."
Chris shared a weird second of eye contact with the blonde as he was dragged towards the upstairs area, both were still not quite ready to fully talk about what they were feeling and they had to respect that no matter what.
"What did you see?" Carlos's voice startled him, the younger man stood there in the living room, trying to make peace with his panic.
"Hell on Earth." Chris responded and gave the raven haired man a soft, reassuring smile before leaving the room as well and heading through the back door.
The night was darker than usual, he could smell the threat of rain from between the tree leaves and flowing with the wind. Chris pulled out his phone and pressed call on the number that belonged to the man named Charlie.
"Boss," The famous British accent at the other end of the line spoke first. "There's trouble."
"I'm aware," Chris replied as he shivered due to the fall breeze. "How fast can you all get here?"
"See you in the morning."