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With Krauser poised behind Luis, knife raised to make a perfect, fatal blow, Leon had only split seconds to act, and he only made it with the training that Krauser himself had supplied him with. In that brief moment, Leon could do nothing but switch their positions, taking the blow for Luis.
Instead of straight into Luis’s lungs, and twisting out through the spine, Leon escaped with a slash through his side as Krauser redirected along with Leon’s maneuver.
Leon had no time to catch his breath, grazing Krauser along the knee before the hilt of the man's knife came down hard into the bone of Leon’s wrist, forcing him to drop the gun. Before Leon knew it, the blade was against his throat.
“Didn’t you learn anything from my teachings, Rookie? Knives are far faster.”
Again Leon threw himself back to avoid the knife as he yanked out his own, and just like that the two were locked in a fierce battle.
Normally Leon would say that they were evenly matched, they had been by the time Krauser, understandably, defected anyway, but that when Leon wasn’t playing defense.
He blocked Krauser’s path again and again as the man tried to get around him to Luis. Krauser’s movements were taken over by a dogged desperation, coming back at Leon with a rabid persistence to get to the man behind him.
The cost of defense over offense was the quickly amounting injuries sustained as they remained locked in battle. Every time Leon was knocked out from in front of Luis, he barely slid back in front to take another hit.
The fight was not a dance, it never was with Krauser.
It was the smell of sweat and blood, and the sliding clink of solid steel. He’d never been one to hold back, even in training.
It was the first, of many, lessons that Krauser had attempted to impart upon him.
All of a sudden, the man’s focus shifted fully onto Leon, ignoring Luis completely. Just as Leon had wanted.
“Well Well, Detective Pretty Boy has kept up on his training. How impressive. But can you hold up against my… enhancements?”
If the fight had been brutal before, it was hell now.
Before, Leon’s focus was on holding the line, maintaining his position in front of Luis, but now it was entirely in staying on his feet. He could no longer keep track of Luis, having to keep his full attention on Krauser.
They moved further and further into the cave, and Leon quickly found himself backed to the edge of the platform. The easiest thing for him would be to jump down, but there was no telling that Krauser wouldn’t go back to Luis with the added distance.
This was his fight, and Krauser was his problem.
Getting Krauser down was the smartest thing he could do, but how? Leon had to throw the man off his rhythm.
He came in for a double faint, first a slash of his knife, then a hook around Krauser’s ankle, both aborted before making contact, when finally, in the same motion, Leon brought the blade to one shoulder, and bit the other. It was the bite that connected.
The advantage and downside of knife fighting were the same: close contact.
Krauser’s shock was evident, and it was all Leon needed to twist them both, crashing them down into the metal floor beneath.
By now Luis was on his feet, Leon could hear him doing something, but couldn’t afford to take his eyes off of Krauser for even a second. He had to trust that Luis had his back.
Surprisingly enough, Leon did.
Again Leon and Krauser engaged in battle, kicking and snarling. Leon gathered up the blood in his mouth, putrid with rot, to spit back into his opponent's face.
Leon liked to think that he held his own fairly well against the man, but he’d been fighting for almost 24 hours straight by this point, and that paired with the blood loss meant that Leon was rapidly running out of energy.
He couldn’t win this fight, he knew. Leon would fight anyway.
“How is it?” Leon asked, in the space between one blow and another. “To escape being the government’s dog, just to come here to be someone else’s?”
This failed to enrage Krauser, like Leon had hoped, but it did delight him. Even better.
The man’s movements slowed as he laughed. “Isn’t it better, Rookie, than to have never escaped at all? Tell me how that’s going for you?”
Even with the more sedated face, Leon was barely on his feet. Whatever Luis was doing, he needed to do it fast as a chill started to settle into his bones.
“Just fine!” Leon returned pleasantly, desperately stalling for time. “And how’s being the lapdog of a fucked up cult? You know, Krauser, you’ve always been a dick, but I did actually think you were better than this.”
So maybe he was getting a little heavy handed with the dog metaphor, but given that Leon was currently bleeding out, he thinks that could be forgiven.
His luck had finally run out, as much as the museum of injuries covering his body could be called luck, and Krauser had him cornered. It was the end of the line.
Leon hoped Luis would help Ashley in his stead.
“Duck!”
Leon did, before his duck turned to a total collapse, both as his injuries caught up with him, and he was hit with the most awful, piercing sound imaginable. The knife left his hand as both came up around his ears.
His vision whited out as he curled up, vaguely aware he was shaking, but mostly aware of the noise Leon was sure would kill him.
The next time Leon could hear anything other than horrible, horrible sound, was Luis’s voice minutes or maybe hours later.
“Senor? It is over, my friend.” It was low, and soothing.
“The second sound Leon heard was a high, keening whine that took him an achingly long time to realize was coming from him.
A hand carded into Leon’s hair, and he was very carefully tugged into the Spaniard’s lap. “I apologize, Sancho.” Leon was still shaking, unable to stop as he writhed around. “I had hoped with you having just taken a suppressor that it would not hit you as hard.”
Leon let out a confused mumble, shoving further into the grounding fingers rubbing along his scalp.
“At a certain frequency, it disrupts the parasite, cutting off the hive mind capabilities, and attacking the host body in its confusion. Like I said, I’d hoped it wouldn’t have affected you as much, but I haven’t exactly had much to pull this trick out of my sleeve, eh?” Luis rambled on, keeping his voice nice and even, slowly bringing Leon back to himself.
The smell of smoke and rot drifts into his nose, and Leon startles, half raising his head before it falls back down as Leon is hit with a wave of dizziness.
“Hey, hey, it's okay, my friend. I’ve got you. We have to get those wounds checked out, though.”
“Krauser?” He forced out, and Leon was tired, so tired.
“He’s dealt with, mi vida.”
“Hmm?” Leon’s eyes were drifting shut, the tremors subsiding, but the cold getting heavier. The pain was there, but distant. Not a good sign.
There’s the sound of a zipper, and then the rustle of leather, before Leon was blanketed by Luis’s jacket. “Just sleep, carino. I’ll fix you up while you’re out.”
“Not that kind of doctor.” He mumbles, grumpy, but feeling safe in the knowledge that Luis would protect him.
-
Luis was trying to be kind, and patient as Leon drifted off knowing that this would be much easier with Leon being unconscious, but he couldn’t help twirling his lighter around, and around, twitching with the need to close up Leon’s wounds.
To begin with, Luis’s resolve to help had been to alleviate his own guilt, but he couldn’t deny the immediate attraction and allure he found in the man laying in his arms. Who was now covered in scrapes and bruises in defense of himself.
And that was after Leon had known who Luis was, and what he’d done. He’d still found Luis worthy of protection.
Leon found him worthy, and Luis would live up to that.
The man was someone he couldn’t help wanting to follow. Who’s example Luis couldn’t help wanting to live up to.
If Leon was the sun, Luis was the moon, absorbing, and capturing what light he could, and no Luis wasn’t willing to examine that at this time.
As soon as Leon was decently settled, Luis got to work. First order of business was seeing what supplies Luis had to work with. Before tackling invading Leon’s things, he ran inventory with what he could find on the platform, gingerly avoiding the burnt crisp that was formerly known as Krauser.
Not much around, a few medicinal herbs that'll do nicely on the smaller cuts along Leon’s body, but wouldn’t do much for the big ones, especially on his side.
Cauterization was always an option, but presented its share of risks, especially given the lack of ability to be precise with the amount of heat, leading to uneven levels of burns at different intervals.
Luis would have to go through Leon’s things before committing to such an avenue.
The briefcase was… cute, to say the least. The jangling charms had been a strong temptation to poke fun at and needle the agent, and had he been bogged down just the slightest bit less by guilt, he would have.
As things stood, Luis thinks he’s earned a few playful jabs after putting their friendly neighborhood Sancho back together again.
Even Leon hadn’t been particularly friendly with his strong and stoic routine that Luis had been rather smug at breaking through everytime he succeeded.
But that was neither here nor there as Luis had a job to do.
He opened the briefcase, but the second the clasps were undone, it burst open, odds and ends spilling out into the rock around him.
Luis was both impressed and astounded at the size of the pharmacy Leon had managed to cram inside such a small container was beyond him.
Antiseptics, sedatives, suture kits, umbrella grade healing enhancers and treatments, along with more natural remedies Leon must have picked up around the village.
There were even a couple eggs, and an entire fish wrapped up and nestled with Leon’s impressive ammo stash.
Patching the man up would be no problem at all.
They didn’t have much time to spare, but Luis couldn’t risk Leon’s trained instincts kicking in at the pain he knew would come, so a sedative was the way to go.
There were several to choose from, but Luis went with a mild sedative into the upper arm. Both for time constraints and what he was sure would be Leon’s preference.
Next order of business was getting Leon out of his clothes to gauge a full catalog of his wounds. Luis had done his best to keep track, but there was no telling how many he might have missed and their severity.
Leon was right in that Luis wasn’t a traditional doctor, but he still liked to think he knew his stuff.
There was more wound than person as the clothing was removed.
Other than the gash on his side, the most pressing concern was a cut skimming the man’s shoulder blade.
Thankfully the bleeding was sluggish, no nicked arteries to worry about. He started with cleaning the injuries, and applying a numbing agent, and leaving that to set in as he worked on the minor wounds.
For most the can of Umbrella spray would work just fine, but Luis decided to layer it with a poultice. With Leon sleeping a while longer, it would give it the time it needed.
Ideally Luis would set the agent up with both an IV and blood. He’d have to get both him and Ashley to his lab anyway, and he was more set up there.
Once they got there, Luis would be able to take care of both of them as he wanted.
He could even cook up that fish for them if that’s what Leon wished of him.
Luis was quickly realizing that there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do if Leon wished it of him.
After that was settled, he went back to the cut on Leon’s back. The problem lied in where it was. On the muscle as it was, it would be in constant movement when Leon was. Tugging and pulling on sutures, they’d quickly tear.
Even if Leon let him take point going forward, the second things got dicey, Leon would throw himself into the thick of it. It was just who he was, something Luis had gathered in just their second meeting.
The agent hadn’t liked or trusted him as they fought back to back against waves of the Ganados, and yet anytime a hit landed a little too close, or Luis got backed into a corner, Leon was there.
For now, he’d spray it down good and well with the Umbrella spray, and monitor its progression while Leon slumbered.
He’d make a decision then.
Now that that was over with, Luis settled in to keep watch over the other, ensuring a peaceful rest.
Came back over to Leon, and settled at the man’s side, carding his fingers into Leon’s hair and twirling his lighter around in his other hand. Trusty revolver locked and loaded on his thigh.
Luis would keep him safe, no matter what it took.