Work Text:
It was another overcast night in Spain, and Ashley Graham was watching a special agent pack a briefcase with some freshly bought (and hopefully life-saving) items. This in itself was not unusual, but recently Ashley had become somewhat... Confused? Concerned? With this phenomenon. Specifically, the speed at which the agent was packing the case.
When Ashley first met Leon, she was admittedly not in the best frame of mind, trapped in a church by a weird cult and freaking out. Leon's arrival had been like a ray of sunlight, a sudden shaft of hope breaking through the grumbling clouds of despair. Their subsequent meeting with that cult leader and the revelation about what had been done to them both had been absolutely horrifying, but even then it wasn't enough to crush that incredulous hope that she might somehow make it out alive from this stinking mess. The flight through the window (and village) that followed was both terrifying and exhilarating, a bizarre rush of adrenaline gripping her as Leon fended off the infected villagers that stumbled at them from every direction. And then had come the first instance of this phenomenon, although she hadn't actually realised it at the time.
After they had made it through a gate from one part of the main village, Leon began to speed up almost imperceptibly, until they turned a corner and found themselves bathed in the light of a flaming blue lantern held aloft by a mysterious figure. Ashley was understandably more than a little surprised by this turn of events, but Leon's complete lack of reaction at the strange man did serve to calm her panic somewhat. Leon proceeded to swiftly buy a number of items, including bullets and some first aid supplies, before setting them on a log and cracking open the briefcase she'd noticed strapped to his hip earlier. Said case, as it turned out, was already filled with items, including multiple guns, ammunition for those guns, more first aid items, a selection of grenades, several tiny gems and, bizarrely enough, a single brown chicken egg. It went without saying that the case was extremely full. Although Ashley was mostly preoccupied with examining the strange contents of the case, she did not miss the speed and accuracy of Leon's movements as he skillfully shifted the contents around to make way for his new items - he never moved an item any more times than he needed to, and managed to perfectly fit in everything he'd bought within only a few moments - before he closed the case with an audible snap (much to Ashley's disappointment).
A minute later they were on the move again and Leon received a call from his handler, informing them that their way out had been shot down (Leon didn't seem surprised by this). Then they were past the bridge, and all hell broke loose in the form of what had to be hundreds of infected villagers. Again, Leon didn't seem to be overly surprised, and instead just grabbed her hand, dragged her to the shelter of a nearby shack, nonchalantly greeted the man inside (Luis, apparently) and told her to hide upstairs for the fight. And what a fight it was! Eventually, though, the last villager fell and the last parasite let out its death squeal before finally going silent, and Ashley ventured downstairs to the sight of an out of breath Luis and an extremely relieved looking Leon. A few words were exchanged between the men about the situation before Luis took his leave of the room, resulting in quiet falling once more. After a little while of silence, Ashley glanced over at the agent for a moment, who was leaning against a wrecked bookshelf with a face that could only be described as pure unbridled relief. The moment was just that, however, and soon Leon had recovered and the strange look was wiped clean from his face.
"Let's move."
And so she did, not realising the importance of what she had just witnessed.
That had been the first occasion, but others had soon followed. In fact, Ashley was a little ashamed of how long it had taken her to notice what was going on, although in her defence it was such a bizarre situation anyway, and an even stranger conclusion that she eventually came to. In the end there were many small tells that she catalogued across their journey which led her to her eventual conclusion. But mainly, she figured it out because of Leon’s case habits.
After the fight at the house, and many other attacks from the villagers, the pair of them had eventually stumbled upon the merchant again, and Leon had immediately begun to barter, eager to fill up his diminished reserves of resources. Once he had finished haggling, he proceeded to crack open the case again to add his loot, and Ashley had leaned in excitedly to get another look at what was inside before the agent snapped it shut again. This time, however, Leon simply rocked back on his heels and examined it carefully along with his new purchases before beginning to slowly move the items around in an attempt to fit the new ones in, a sharp contrast to his earlier surety. Ashley hadn’t really paid attention at the time though, more interested in what was inside the case, and then only after several minutes of failed rearranging had passed did she notice the agent’s hesitance. Rather than calling Leon out on it, though, (or even thinking as to why he was so hesitant now as opposed to earlier) she simply leaned over the case more and began pointing out how he could move the items, much to the agent’s chagrin. Eventually the case was packed and closed (although only after several mock arguments where Leon accused Ashley of backseat arranging and Ashley fired back that she wouldn’t have needed to if he hadn’t had so many grenades) and the pair were off once more towards their promised destination. (Ashley hadn’t noticed then, either. It would be a while before she joined the dots)
It was sometime later, after the pair had escaped numerous sticky situations and travelled for what felt like miles, that Ashley began to notice the strangeness of what was going on. Every time they made it to the merchant, Leon would haggle for necessary items and then open up his case to store them. Then, the two of them would spend a remarkably enjoyable and relaxing few minutes rearranging the case to fit in the new purchases before pressing onwards. Well. Most of the time. Occasionally, though, Leon would snap open his case and proceed to expertly fill it, leaving not a space empty and the things interlocking beautifully before announcing that they should move on now - all within the space of around 30 seconds. And as time passed Ashley began to realise that whenever this happened, a large fight or dangerous scenario was soon to follow, usually resulting in a somewhat bloodied but extremely relieved Leon. It was almost like he knew what was about to happen… Or that he’d lived it before.
Of course, such an idea was ridiculous - time travel wasn’t real! But over time, Ashley became more and more convinced that she was correct, spurred on by little moments where the agent guarding her seemed aware of what was about to happen or actively anticipated attacks or traps. And on each of these smaller occasions, he packed his case that tiny bit faster than usual. Admittedly, Ashley did feel a little mean for treating Leon as what was essentially a canary down a coal mine, but it wasn’t like she was sure of what was going on anyway. So Ashley kept quiet and carefully watched her companion every time they ran into the merchant.
As their journey progressed, however, Ashley began to get a lot more worried - the fights and monsters had been getting more brutal, and she herself wasn’t feeling well from the parasite inside her. That wasn’t what worried her most, though - what did was the fact that for the last half a dozen stops or so Leon hadn’t asked for help with arranging his case, simply doing it himself in only a handful of seconds each time. To be perfectly honest, she didn’t really want to think about the implications of it all, and considering the situation she was in, ignoring it was probably the best idea. Still, though, she wondered. And worried.
Beside her, Leon closed the case with that characteristic snap, jolting Ashley out of her daydreams, before standing up and announcing that they should get moving again. Ashley nodded and made to stand, whilst surreptitiously stopping the timer feature on her watch and glancing down it. 30 seconds. Ashley breathed in deeply, once, released it and then stood fully, steeling herself for whatever was to come. Hopefully, with this warning she’d be ready for the next horror to fall upon them.
It was later again - much later, this time - and Ashley Graham was sitting on the harbour wall, beside one Leon S. Kennedy (and near a beached jetski), watching as a convoy of helicopters approached from across the ocean. The moment was peaceful, and only broken by a movement from her side as Leon pulled out his much depleted and extremely battered briefcase, setting it on the wall between them. He clicked it open, revealing what remained of his resources, and simply stared at it for a moment contemplatively. Before he could do anything else, however, Ashley shattered the suddenly stifling silence.
“You won’t be needing that anymore, will you?”
Leon remained looking at the case for a moment before nodding once and closing it with a final click. One hand drummed absentmindedly on the top for a second, then the agent turned and pushed it off the wall, into the murky depths of the ocean below.
“No. I won’t.”