Archive of Our Own ^beta

Cold, sterile fluorescent lights bounced off of cold, sterile hospital walls and cold, sterile washed-out tiles as his dress shoes clicked down the hallway at increasing speeds.

Never in his life was Luis Serra so grateful for Sherry’s slip of the lip.

-

“It’s…bad, Serra. Don’t know how to soften the news, sorry, I’m trying to think but-“

Chris never called him on his cell phone, first of all. It was always the home phone.

This time he couldn’t risk Luis not being at home for the news.

Secondly, Chris Redfield never rambled. Luis would until the cows came home, Leon could if he was distracted, but Chris viewed talking on the phone as a mission. Get in, give the best information necessary, get out. Not in a bad way! It was just…odd for any phone conversations to last longer than five minutes unless they’d specifically called to catch up.

However, Leon S. Kennedy didn’t do hospitals. Didn’t usually need them. The same mixture of G-Virus and grit that kept Sherry from ever having to invest in bandaids usually helped the agent dust himself off and get right back up.

Even when he’d had to get invasive, full facial reconstructive surgery after a mission.

He’d gotten out of surgery, woken up, and refused to go back to sleep until he’d seen Luis and his people. Claimed it didn’t bother him.

Luis only half-believed him.

Not this time, apparently.

”Chris? What is it, what happened?”

”It…I don’t know, I don’t have all the details. His handler got ahold of me and told me to send up the signal flare.”

"Okay, well, I got it. Where…where is he?”

After scribbling down the name and address to the hospital his partner had been airlifted to (close to the town the two lived in, thank God), Luis got the shortlist of people Chris had left to call and offered to help halve the job.

”Nah, I know you two when one of you is in danger. You’re gonna be completely useless until you know that he’s okay. Thanks though.”

Luis smirked and huffed a humorless laugh from his nose before agreeing and telling the other man he’d be in touch. Chris never meant it badly… and he was right. Luis was about to be completely useless until he knew that Leon was okay.

With the address in one hand (and the thin necklace he kept his ring finger bare for in the other), Luis knocked one of Leon’s jackets free with his elbow and ran into the night.

One of the many, many unorthodox aspects of their relationship came down to the certificate both men kept a copy of in their respective vehicles. Luis slid his from the glovebox with shaking hands and set it gently atop Leon’s jacket in the passenger’s seat.

If Leon was sitting up talking to the nurse when he got there, he was going to kill him for making him worry.

…Probably.

The whispered prayers began as soon as the car was in drive.

“He thinks you’re gonna leave him, you know.”

Leon looked up at his adoptive daughter with automotive grease on the bridge of his nose.

“Huh?”

Sherry crossed her legs and turned the page of the magazine she was reading.

“He told me- Luis. He said he doesn’t know how long you’re gonna keep him around for. I wanted to tell him that was absurd, but I didn’t get the chance to.”

Young, blue eyes met those of her dad over the seat of his motorcycle.

“So what are you gonna do about that? If you break his heart I’m going to make you cry, you know.”

Aaaaaaand back to her magazine as if she hadn’t just pulled the whole rug out from under him and sucker-punched him in the gut at the same time.

Did Luis really think that?

Distantly wiping his hands on a rag, the blond leaned against his bike and furrowed his brow in thought.

The girl on the porch hid her smirk.

-

On his next trip to DC, Leon took Ashley up on her offer to hang out. He’d be in town for a little longer than usual, after all. Might as well make the most of it.

The college student looked up from her watermelon lemonade and smirked, her chin resting on the back of her hands.

“So Leon, I know that look. What are you thinking about?”

“Hm?” The agent looked over with borderline chipmunk cheeks and deer-in-the-headlights eyes. He continued chewing his grilled cheese and blinked at her before furrowing his brow. “What?”

She stirred her straw, making the pillar of ice cubes tinkle against the sides of her glass.

“You never have time to hang out, and you’ve spent all afternoon looking into the middle distance like some tragic escaped prisoner. Which might be a little close to the truth but-“

“Oh my god, Ashley.” He playfully ‘shoved’ her shoulder and popped one of her chips into his mouth. She swatted his wrist with a shrill ‘hey!’ but continued her grilling.

“So what brings you to my neck of the woods? Besides my dad.” She cut him off with a look. He smirked and reached for her plate again. She hit his wrist again.

After a solid moment of her mock-glaring and crossing her arms, and him smirking and chewing, he broke. Like she knew he would. Big ol’ softie.

Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

“Okay, but you have to not…scream when I tell you.”

She immediately dropped her straw, put her chin in her hands, and wiggled like an excited puppy.

Leon was blushing.

“I…Luis and me, we can’t…” He sighed. Forcefully. “D.C. has the best laws for domestic partnerships right now, and since I can’t exactly ask him to marry me and make it legal-“ His eyes met hers and he buried his face in his hands. “You can scream.”

She did.

“You’re getting married Leon?! Leon S. Kennedy! Omg I have to help out, does Sherry know?” Somehow her hot pink Razr was in her hand before he had a chance to blink. She paused her flurry of activity to level her friend with a Look.

“Wait, how are you asking him? Does he know?”

Oh she did not like the way he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Oh she did not like that at all.

“Leon Scott!”

-

Leon had put a lot of thought into it, actually. He’d taken more time than normal to take in his partner when Luis was just puttering around the house, or bitching about obscure spelling with his hands in his hair, or the way he still pulled out Sherry’s chair for her when she ate at their house. He noted how the room came alive as soon as Luis entered it, and the other man didn’t even have to try.

He was…he was in love with this man. Not ‘dating’ or ‘mutual trauma-bonded survivors’, although they were both.

No, he had somehow fallen for the fiery man who danced when he did dishes and had beef with some Catholic monk from the 14th century.

And he didn’t want Luis to leave.

Ever, if he could help it.

Granted, Leon knew that what they had was technically illegal but what good was it being the President’s lapdog (and friend, upon occasion) if he couldn’t bend the rules a little?

As the off-duty agent flopped into a seat at one of the handful of public libraries walking distance from the White House, his bag made a thudding noise and his cheeks flushed at breaking the silence of such a holy space.

Luis would like it here, he thought, taking in the big windows and eclectic statuary.

Okay. Game time.

Sheafs of scratch paper filled his table as he took notes on thick legal books with a golf pencil he lifted from the computer section. Microfiche of faces of the men who came before him rushed past his eyes as he tried not to look too hard at any articles after 1998.

Dates, newspaper articles, and legal jargon filled his eyes every time he closed them.

“You okay, honey?”

Leon looked over at the little old lady who had her white hair piled up in a bun on top of her head and thick, cut-glass beads on her glasses chain.

“Oh, um,” His eyes skated across the damning evidence of his search and he felt his cheeks heat and his fists curl.

A gentle hand on his shoulder pulled his panic up short and he looked at her with clear eyes.

The librarian smiled kindly at him, her smile lines blooming around her mouth and eyes, painting a life well-loved. With the swishing of her hippie dress, his companion pulled out a folded-over brochure that looked home-printed and hand-folded.

“Maybe this will help your search. Just let us know if you need anything, dear. Our whole staff is more than happy to lend a hand when it comes to learning and research.” She winked one gray eye that sparkled with mirth and left him to his pamphlet.

His chest loosened at the title some college kid put at the top of their Word Document:

“WASHINGTON DC LGBT RESOURCES – KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!”

So maybe he hadn’t been subtle, but as he took in the librarian as she crouched down to help a toddler find a book, a smile began to soften his features.

He wasn’t alone in this, and she had said that all of her coworkers would be willing to help.

A tear rolled down one cheek unnoticed in the middle of a wide-open room filled with strangers and a whole network of coworkers who accepted him and the people like him and his partner.

Setting the brochure to one side so as to not get it wet, Leon S. Kennedy rested his forehead on the back of his hands and wept silently into the tabletop.

-

Luis Serra looked up when a car door slammed.

It didn’t sound like Sherry’s coupe, and Leon had taken his bike last he knew…

The door handle turned and in poured his lover with a pile of Xerox copies in one arm and a newspaper rolled between his teeth. The blond brightened and said something that must have translated to “Oh! Hi Luis!”. The researcher felt his questioning eyebrow lower and his face split into a grin.

“Welcome back, Sancho. Good trip?”

Dios the blond looked like an excited puppy as he unloaded his mystery paperwork onto the counter and dropped the newspaper on top. His civilian partner was plenty used to seeing printouts and not reading them, if it was important to him Leon would bring it forward. The agent shouldn’t have to be worried about a partner snooping on potentially sensitive information just because he had to put something down to take off his shoes.

Which he was doing, and hanging up his jacket on the hooks by the door.

Big, blue eyes shone with joy when he turned back around, motioning for Luis to move over so he could show him something. The seated man smiled, closed his books, and stacked them neatly by his elbow. Then he laced his fingers on the tabletop and waited with a smile for his excited man to let him in on the surprise.

Leon sat down beside him. Then he stood up and looked over at the printouts. Then he beamed at Luis again and put his hands on the table on either side of Luis’ elbows. The academic smirked up at him.

“Yes?”

Leon smirked back.

“Hold that thought until after I tell you what I’ve been working on.”

That earned him a raised eyebrow and a mischievous glimmer from gray eyes.

“You have the floor Sancho, go ahead, wow me with your work.”

Leon looked from one gray eye to the other a few times before biting his lip and leaning down to kiss his partner softly. When Luis leaned into the hand Leon had put on his cheek Leon’s heart soared.

With the taste of his lover’s smile still on his lips, the standing man pulled back to look at his man with blue eyes made soft with love-light.

“Now, you don’t have to say yes, it won’t change anything, I just…” His thumb traced over a high cheekbone and a tiny scar that matched his own, earned at some point during the Spaniard’s childhood.

“I want you to have the option.” The blond nodded to himself and fetched the papers, toying with the upper corners for just a moment before putting them gently down in front of the beautiful man he was willing, and eager, to spend his life beside.

Luis blinked down at the tiny type and, bless him, pulled out his reading glasses from their sleeve somewhere behind the book pile he had just made.

Then, he began to read.

Leon started a pot of coffee just for something to do to keep his hands from shaking.

The papers hit the table and Leon whirled around, coffee filter still in hand.

“Leon…you…” Wide eyes searched the blond, hoping for some answer Leon wasn’t sure he had.

“I mean it’s not like we can get married but-“

“But you would? Want to? With…with me?”

Leon’s smirk came back as he leaned against the counter.

“Yeah, of course I would, amore. There’s nobody else I think I could ever find that I would want to spend my life with more than I do with you.”

Luis’ incredulous laugh was a little wet and he had one hand buried in his hair.

“And you’re not just saying that because of the tax breaks?” He motioned at the page he’d set aside before getting to the ‘Rights of Domestic Partnerships’ printout.

Leon snorted and remembered to put the filter full of coffee dust to one side before he crossed his arms.

“I don’t give a shit about taxes, Lu. I care about you.”

This time Luis’ laugh was thick and tears glittered in his eyes.

“Then… yes.”

Leon shouted and pumped his fist. He didn’t even jam his funny bone into the damn counter!

Luis chuckled and, as he took in the small forest his lover had killed for him, he had to remove his dark-rimmed glasses and press the heels of his palms into his leaking eyes.

Leon…wanted him to stay. He wanted to keep what they had.

Luis was enough for him.

He was enough.

It was one of those printouts that the frantic Teacher’s Assistant offered to the hospital staff behind the imposing beige desk.

“I’m here for Leon Kennedy. You have to let me in.”

”You’ll be able to visit me in the hospital even without being my emergency contact.” Leon had said as they poured over the agent’s research with matching glasses of wine. Then he’d smiled at the ex-scientist with mischief in his eyes and stated, “And hey, we can’t testify against one another in court.”

Luis had rolled his eyes and wondered where that trivia had been two years ago.

The receptionist compared the certificate and the human rights it allowed before smiling up at him and waving him through.

“Room 307, he should be getting out of surgery soon.”

Luis shot her a warm smile and began to take the hallway in his long strides when her voice stopped him.

“And Mr. Serra? Congratulations. He’s lucky to have you.”

While her words didn’t stop the breakneck beating of his heart, the warmth of her acceptance and kindness carried him up to his beloved’s bedside feeling just a little bit warmer than he had been before.

He couldn’t wait to tell Leon.