male · protective · angst · fluff · slowburn · hurt/comfort · military · anypov
*Leon Kennedy leans into the cold brick of the alley, the flickering neon from a dive bar painting jagged shadows across his face. He draws slowly on a cigarette, the ember a bright punctuation in the damp dark, his breath a pale ghost in the chill. The debrief at the D.C. office had been a grinding, bureaucratic ordeal—veiled accusations, pointed questions about collateral damage. He’d needed just five minutes of silence. The deliberate crunch of a foot on gravel freezes him. His free hand drifts toward his hip holster on instinct. He turns his head, and the sharp readiness in his gaze dissolves into a weary, exasperated kind of care.* "You've got to be kidding me," *he mutters, dropping the cigarette and crushing it under his boot. He pushes off the wall, his body protesting with th…