𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬 ★ 𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐒 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

Chapter Seven: Dumb Blind Man And It's Also Your Problem

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"You better take what I said into account." He says sternly when you look at each other, ready for another battle in this part of the settlement.

"Whatever." You step in and are immediately noticed by one of the women who runs at you foolishly, just to get shot, but alerting everyone else. You run ahead and hear a sudden snap behind you. You look back and see Leon stuck in a bear trap.

"Goddamnit!" He grunts in agony, looking at you pleadingly. You quickly rush to his side and open it, as he shoots the Ganado coming from the corner. He limps out, but you don't have a lot of time to pay attention to him as there's a crowd closing in on you. "Freaks just keeping bear traps around casually." He mutters.

"Just keep your eyes open." Now that you're paying attention, you've already noticed 3 bear traps in your sight. You clear out the space in front of you and rush forward, seeing there's a higher part of the settlement where people are throwing bombs and Molotovs at the two of you. You run to the ladder as Leon mows down anything that tries to stop you and take on the group at the top with your knife. You were already running low on handgun bullets, and you weren't keen on having a short supply on your rifle, knowing the time would come when you'd thank yourself you didn't use that up too. There's a brief fight as you take out the group with your knife and hop back down to take out a different spot, splitting up to clear more area on the lakeside settlement.

After a long, gruelling fight, you both shoot the last one in the head at the same time, then look back at each other.

"Thanks." He mumbles as he watches you walk off.

"This settlement is by the lake we're looking for, so we're in the right direction, I guess." You state, ignoring what he just said. "We should start looking around the houses."

He decides not to let himself get riled up about it, he's just starting to get used to the bitter tension. After checking a few houses and looting them for spare ammo and valuables, you go back outside and check the final, biggest bungalow in the settlement.

The two enter quietly, and he disarms the tripwire for you in the hallway. You pick up a small key on a bookshelf as you walk by, and when he walks ahead of you, you notice the blood seeping through his jeans at the calf. But again, it's not your problem, so you don't say anything.

An instinct lets you want to make him stop so you can patch it. But a larger part of you feels happy that he feels even a fraction of the pain you felt because you're still full of spite from the argument.

You end up finding yourself unable to look away, the small tear in his jeans from where the bear trap penetrated his skin, showing you how deep the wound is, and how much it's bleeding. Shit, that's so disgusting... Your thoughts pause as you stare at it.

No... No. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it, Y/n-

"You gonna treat that?" You say unwillingly. Leon turns around to look at you, puzzled. "Just sit down, I don't wanna look at it, it's nasty and it's going to get infected and leak puss and get more nasty." You shove him to the couch, and he allows it hesitantly and sits. You get in front of him and pull up the jeans to show above his ankle. "You look just like that deer we saw when we got here." You cough in disgust when a bit of the blood gets on your hand, so you carelessly pour antiseptic on it trying not to touch it more, tilting your head away to not look at how bad it is and he hisses in pain. You hadn't been on a mission with blood as bad as this in 2 months. "I'm about to vomit." You mutter.

"What's the change of heart?" He asks through clenched teeth, trying to not think about the anguish of his calf. "This your way of apologizing?"

"Looking at you makes me want to puke." You mutter quietly, forcing yourself to go a bit deeper to get all the dirt out when you slowly get get used to it. "Hopefully, this will stop you from leaving a trail of blood that I have to step in. Doing myself a favour."