Work Text:
Ashley's hands shook as she tried to hold the pistol straight. She waited until the burst of gunfire next to her faded before even trying to line the sight up with her right eye. Which was pointless when the pistol bucked in her hands, and she flinched with eyes closed. She heard the bullet rip through the target, before she opened them again.
“You have to stop closing your eyes.” Leon scolded. “That's why you can't aim well.”
“But this time our princesa did get the paper.” Luis gave an encouraging smile that hadn’t wavered over the past half-hour of practice.
Which was true. She did get the right corner of the paper target. But the round bullseye’s target was still unmarked.
“You also aren't accounting for the recoil. You'll need to aim lower than your intended target, the recoil will force your shot higher.” Leon continued with his now familiar lecture.
“At least you aren't using one of those cannons Leon loves so much. I think they would break any sane person's arms.” Luis made an exaggerated inspection of Leon’s arms. “Are you sure these are normal muscles?”
“Regardless of what you use, you need to stop closing your eyes.”
“I know, I know.” Ashley repeated the words as she had done countless times already today.
“Once you get past the noise, there is nothing to be scared of.”
“I know, I know”
“Maybe you should take a break.” The suggestion just made her embarrassment grow, and that was making her tense up and Ashley knew it was going to be a fight just to get her now heavier arms in a Leon approved position.
“Hey!” Sherry leaned over from her stall to join the conversation. “I was wondering who was a better marksman, you or Luis.”
“Me, of course,” Leon and Luis said at the same time.
“You can't be serious,” Leon said, voice drenched in incredulity.
“I am!”
“Luis, I'm a highly trained and experienced agent. You're a scientist with an unhealthy amount of bravado and cafffine.”
“Sure you look better on paper, but I know who did better at the Merchant's game. You learned to shoot as an adult - my grandfather taught me before I could walk.”
“I guess there is only one way to put this to bed. 30 shots, alternating turns, same target, highest score wins?”
“Claro que sí, Yanqui!”
“I think I saw some targets with points on them already back in the closet,” Sherry casually, as if she wasn’t the one to throw a golden apple in the first place. There was a shuffle of footsteps and Ashley let her arms relax, before giving a thankful nod to Sherry.
Deep breath, count to ten, and then try again.
This time when her arms raised at the correct angle she had practiced so many times with her range visits to Leon, Ashley tried to keep her eyes open after aiming, not moving her gaze from the target. The urge to close her eyes became stronger as fear roiled her stomach and tears pricked at the edge of her eyes.
The shot went wild and missed the paper entirely.
“Scared of what could be waiting on the other side instead of a target? I had that trouble at first.” Sherry calmly stated to the air, not glancing over at Ashley. Ashley was grateful for the chance to wipe her face in privacy before trying again. “ After. . . everything I saw in Raccoon City it seemed to be impossible to think that just me standing there with a gun would do anything. I hate to quote Leon when he’s busy-”
“If you’re that great, then why did I have to keep rescuing you?” Leon’s voice cut through their conversation as he returned with a few targets.
“Because I don’t have muscles just to burst out of manacles. That’s why I’m a better shot - it’s the only way I would’ve survived.”
“Luis, that’s a load of crap and you know. Just like your first shot is going to be.”
“Watch and learn squire.”
“. . .Being like that.” Sherry sighed. “You will always be scared, because that’s the rational response to a cuddly bastard. You just have to keep training until your muscles bypass your brain.”
“That’s the problem. Back when I was starting out, everything felt awkward and took so much thought. I didn’t have any issues with closing my eyes then. I even got pretty good at hitting the target while using my sight wrong.”
“Now that’s weird. Why are you afraid of it being easy?”
It wasn’t the armored knights rattling down corridors like a real life haunted house. It wasn’t the screaming villagers, even when she was hiding in a clauustrophobic nightmare of a hole while they battered down the cabin. It wasn’t Saddler, appendages seething under his robe.
It was Leon. Leon haggard and pained but still struggling in the grasp of priestess as well as his own black veins of Las Plagas. Every urge, every muscle, and instinct telling her to shoot. Only just one thought against that wave, repeating, desperate.
“Don’t shoot Leon. Don’t shoot Leon. Don’t shoot Leon.”
How could she ever trust her body again?
Her face must have told everything as Sherry’s tone further softened. “Plagas bullshit?”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you pushing yourself so hard? You’re not training to be an agent. If things go down the sewer you have Leon to do the fighting and Luis. . .well he can be a human shield.” Sherry looked over at the two, who had stopped trash talking long enough for Leon to start their game..
“I am not using Luis as a human shield - that would be terrible!”
“You’re right. He’s too skinny to be a good cover. But you still have Leon, and now Clarie as well. And I guess Chris and his whole wolfpack thing he has going on.I’m not sure why all guys just wish to be wolves. ”
“Because when I end up in danger”
“If.”
“When. I know I'm making myself a bigger target choosing to launch Man of La Mancha. Each day that we exist, every completed mission, every single cure from our labs. . . Well that just makes certain people unhappy.”
Like Dirk Simmons, who had the nerve to complain about how he deserved access to her lab since she took Sherry, like a kid whining about his toy being taken away. Even while trying to threaten her “not to force his hand,” in the same breath. TRICELL representatives with wide white smiles that showed no friendliness, that wanted to talk about regulations and how the BSAA was “unduly hindering their operations on baseless accusations.”
“Well I guess more unhappy,” Ashley corrected herself.
A loud bang and a second louder bang interrupted her. It was the boys again.
This time it was from Luis hitting the stall wall above where Leon had been leaning over. Leon was now standing straight to glare at a retreating Luis. “What the hell was that?”
“A distraction. Something I thought you were used to, field agent muy extradionarie.”
“That's cheating.”
“Ah, but we never made any rules regarding distractions.” Leon took a step forward, and Luis’ smirk grew shaky with an all too familiar nervous swallow.
“No rules about distractions? Fine then.” Leon grabbed Luis by the waist, burying his face in Luis’ chest. Luis released his nervous energy into a laugh and kissed Leon on the top of his head.
“You can try squire, but I have more experience at this game than you.”
“No sex allowed at the range, keep your clothes on!” Sherry shouted. This brought out a burst of laughter from Leon.
They looked so different from just months ago. Leon's worry lines disappeared as he turned his head, giving Sherry a bemused smile. Luis relaxed with no bruises creeping up his neck or down his arms.
“And it's worth it. But it means I have to be ready and I want to be able to help not just be protected. I just need to get through this stupid whatever.” The steel that had entered Ashley’s voice hadn’t quite reached the rest of her, but fake until you makeit, right?
Sherry brightened with inspiration. “So while Leon went to the school of being a human battering ram, Claire had a few tricks up her sleeve when it came to things like this. Let me get some more targets and a sharpie.” Ashley's curiosity only increased when Sherry returned, already taking the sharpie to the top of the pile.
“You are going to be aiming at this!”
It was the world's worst zombie. Not worst as in haunting your dreams forever horrifying. Worst as it was a huge headed stick figure, with a crooked smile with teeth sticking out. Teeth is what Ashley assumed those looping lopsided circles were supposed to be. Darker patches maybe indicated a lack of skin. Maybe. The eyes weren't even looking in the same direction.
The only reason Ashley was sure it was a zombie was the speech bubble with brains scrawled next to it.
“Now this is the enemy that you will be facing.”
“I think I’ll be safe without even firing a shot.”
“Take this seriously! It's just the front of the horde surrounding you!” Sherry's seriousness made it even harder for Ashley to keep from laughing. It took all of her willpower to keep her aim straight.
The shot went off with just a stray thought, hitting the zombie head below the eyes.
Sherry was already loading the next target before Ashley realized what she had done. “You tricked me!”
“I did nothing like that,” any pretense at seriousness was dropped from Sherry's voice. “I just merely bypassed your ability to think. Figured we keep this up until your head stops getting in your way.”
“You think one zombie drawing is enough?”
“Of course not - that's why the next is the ghosts of all Leon's raw fish snacks!” That was the beginning of a barrage of bizarre and botched monsters with shouted explanations by Sherry.
Even the interruption of Luis and Leon's banter was worked into Sherry’s army.
“It looks like we are still neck and neck,” Leon observed as the target came back.
“Hm?”
“Only one point difference - clearly we need more motivation.”
“A bet then”
“How about the winner chooses the next date?”
“Perfecto.”
“Sounds like the zoo is doomed. Ever seen a zombie giraffe?”
Ashley only noticed in the back of her mind that the targets were getting more challenging: Drawings were getting smaller, the targets were no longer stationary, rushing from side to side or straight at Ashley. Even when Sherry started adding in “friendly fire” targets. “Look, those goons kidnapped Good Boy! He managed to escape again because Chris forgot to lock his door. Again.” and “look, the dropbears are riding on Claire’s motorcycle. Better shoot them without scoffing the chrome or then you’ll be dead twice.”
It wasn’t until Ashley felt the gun click, with no ammo left on the table that everything stopped. That she took a deep breath. That her brain finally registered what she had done, and thoughts began to creep in. Counting up how many shots went astray, how many those were in friendly targets. Were those just accidents-
“Hey,” Sherry’s hand rested on her shoulder. “You’ll do better next time and even if you don’t. . .” She gestured over to Leon. “You aren’t disappointing me unlike Leon!”
“What.” Ashley flatly stated, having forgotten about them in the Sherry created chaos.
“Leon is still up by one, but Luis has the last turn.” Sherry gave Leon a disappointed look at the same time that Luis gave him a cheeky grin. The end result was one embarrassed Leon.
“How did you manage to keep track of all of that?” Ashley asked.
“Special agent training from Leon. Lesson 10. Always be aware of your surroundings.”
“Then you remember Lesson 12,” Leon said, “Which is why I won't lose.” Luis was bending over, entirely focused on his target. Leon stepped forward, stopping right behind Luis. Leon also bent down, hand trailing from Luis’ hip to his chest. Not even a twinge from Luis. Still nothing when Leon bent over Luis, only their clothes separating them. Ashley could feel Sherry tense, ready to shout about no sex in the gun range again.
Then Leon breathed something into Luis’ ear.
The shot went wild, not even nicking the paper.
Luis threw off Leon, his face blushing with embarrassment. Leon this time was the one giving the cheeky grin. “How, how did you?” the rest was lost in rambling Spanish before Luis broke for a sigh. “I guess it’s the zoo again?”
“I thought you liked the zoo.”
“You always pick the zoo. Last time, they nearly locked us in with the manatees.”
“Better than some musty old museum filled with paintings, ancient pottery, and other stuff.”
“They have more than paintings and pottery. There is a new Megalonyx exhibit I want to see.”
“What is a Megalonyx?”
“Giant ground sloths that used to roam around North America.”
“Wait, what?”
“See that got your interest. You’re going to have to take me there if you want to find out more.”
“Why did you even compete if you two were just going to compromise?”Sherry complained. “ Ugh, Ashley let’s ditch these losers and go dumpster diving. Ingrid showed me a place where you can get hilariously misreprinted life-size standees. If you think my monsters are bad. . .”
“You aren't going to let that bit go.”
“Special Agent lesson 31- always go the extra mile for a pretty smile.”