#but even that moment where he admitted he's been suicidal since RE2 was not as alarming to me as that moment there ^

[sapphire-weapon]

I love RE4 remake, but if there’s one thing I feel that we were absolutely robbed of, it’s the scene when Leon attacks Ada. It had so much potential. They could have really expanded on it. We’ve seen throughout the game that Saddler can command people who are infected with the Plaga without being near them. Imagine if they had included that scene and we could actually see/hear Saddler give Leon the order to attack Ada. We could've seen Leon desperately trying to resist Saddler's control and ultimately losing the fight over his own body. We could’ve seen him trying to warn Ada as she approaches to see what's wrong, knowing that he’s not going to be able to stay in control for much longer. The scene would have also shown us that even if there is some tension between Leon and Ada, they still care about each other. This would be apparent by Leon being desperate not to hurt her, and Ada showing concern for Leon while he’s fighting with the parasite for control. Maybe this could even be when Ada finds out that Leon is infected (I’m not entirely sure if she knows at this point in the game since he never brings it up to her. She only knows that Ashley is infected, I think). The scene would've also worked as a parallel to Ashley attacking Leon earlier in the castle.

I've thought about this quite a bit tbh because I also wanted a violent Leon plaga freakout for various reasons don't kinkshame me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was removed for a reason.

Or, rather, a few reasons.

His plaga freakout in OG never really made much sense, and it definitely wouldn't make sense in the context of remake. In OG, he almost just kind of goes berserk and starts attacking Ada because... ???? The ganados attack people, I guess? But in this version of the lore, Saddler would have had to have given that order directly, and if Leon and Ada are alone in a room together, there's really no way for Saddler to know where she is, because he doesn't have full control over Leon as part of the hivemind yet. So how would he give the order? With Leon and Ashley, it was easier, because her plaga was more advanced than his was, and it's a given that if Ashley's not in the hands of the Los Illuminados, then she's with Leon.

Ada's goals in remake where Leon is concerned seem to have changed. In OG, Ada keeps checking up on Leon because she needs his mission to succeed because her plan the whole time was for him to get the sample by killing Saddler, and then she'd take it from him. So, she was always checking up on him to make sure he'd get to where she needed him to be. In remake, Ada's using him as a distraction. She makes sure that he's always pointed in the right direction so that he can go fuck shit up while she does things in the wake of his chaos -- but she doesn't need him, necessarily. It sounds like she and Wesker have a contingency plan already in place if Leon was to get killed and/or blow it. There's no need for her to be checking in on him in person this time around the way that she does in OG. So, there'd be no reason for her to approach him in order for this scene to happen in the first place. It'd run counter to Ada's character motivation this time around.

Having Leon successfully fight off Saddler's influence undercuts Saddler's power and menace as a villain. Neither Leon or Ashley successfully break away from Saddler's hold on them at any point (it seems like Saddler either lets them go voluntarily or he's reached the limit of what his influence can do with their plagas being as early in development as they are), so for Leon to randomly do that makes the threat less threatening and lowers the stakes significantly.

The scene itself is unnecessary when it comes to conveying that Leon and Ada still have concern for each other. The boat scene does a lot of heavy lifting this time around. Ada is downright warm towards him in the boat scene, and Leon conveys that he very clearly still wants to think the best of her, even if he's wary about doing it.

Their relationship is not meant to be the same in remake as it was in OG. Just. Straight up. Unlike OG, RE4R is very aware that Ada is a significant part of the trauma that Leon's still trying to process from Raccoon City. Leon distrusts Luis up until the moment of Luis's death because of what Ada did to him -- is still doing to him. In OG, that part of Leon does not exist, which is why he trusts Luis instantly in OG. For remake to put in a scene of Leon trying to fight off Saddler's influence in order to not hurt Ada, it really takes away from the efficacy of that part of his character arc, and it's a distraction from all of the ways that Ada's already hurt him. It would show that Leon is still in the same place he's always been in terms of putting everyone before himself, regardless of who they are, when that's not supposed to be who he is anymore in remake.

So. yeah. While I want plaga!Leon, too, (and also maybe wish that Ada still kneed Leon in the balls), that scene was removed for a very good reason, and I'm glad they cut it.

[fawnsflowerbed]

could i request for a one-shot with post-RE6/vendetta leon falling in love with his next-door neighbor, the reader? as much as i love young RE2 and RE4 leon, there’s something about him all grown up in the later installments that’s so 🫣

let’s face it, he’s been through a LOT. leon probably isn’t sure if his life has stayed the same (fighting bioterrorism day in and day out, his situationship with ada never becoming anything substantial even after so many years), or if it keeps changing too quickly and rapidly for him to handle (the enemies he deals with getting more and more formidable, and maybe the abrupt end of his situationship 💔). so when the reader comes into his life when they move in next door, they’re like a breath of fresh air to him.

they bake him cookies, don’t treat him any differently when they find out who he is and what he does for a living, and everything else they do just… makes him feel normal. he’s scared to admit his feelings (because he’s an emotionally constipated old fart boo 👎 /J), but when he and the reader start dating, for the first time, he feels like he has a home. it’s not his or the reader’s actual adjacent residences, but it’s the reader. they’re his home.

I adored this req so much I just HAD to make it a series!!

Series Masterlist here!!

Home is More Than Four Walls

Leon's life has been nothing short of hell. He thought he deserved nothing more than that after every mistake he'd made. Until someone new moved in.

Warnings/content: Fem reader, 2nd person (you/yours), Vendetta Leon, references to alcoholism, depression, addiction, and potential suicidal undertones so please read with care.

Word count: 2,225

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Leon had gotten far too comfortable with change.

He’d found a melancholy bliss that left him always prepared for shit to go wrong. He’d been stuck like that ever since Tatchi, ever since he felt the immense weight of his actions and their consequences. The weight of a thousand lives lost thanks to his negligence. And it only worsened after he lost his unit a year ago, only to then kill them off once they turned. People he’d bonded with that he then had to murder. He could still feel the blood on his hands no matter how hard he scrubbed. There was a reason Chris had originally found him drinking himself to death. Then there was New York, the whole ordeal having him wonder one thing.

When would this end? It had gotten to the point where it was bordering on insanity. If he kept going like this he’d likely end up getting shipped off to rehab. Sleepless nights filled with lifeless eyes staring dead into him, moments of quiet solemness as he mourned lives and relationships lost. Mourned his younger self, the rookie with no clue of what awaited him in Raccoon City. But not in a respectful way with a mental funeral, laying the young man down in a cleaned coffin and lowering him into a bed of lillies. It was more like tossing a corpse to the side and moving on. The years of constant fighting only for nothing to change had turned him cold. That boy with a sense of hope and pride, that boy who became a police officer to repay the service that had saved him when he was a child - that boy was gone. It had been replaced by the shell of a man with a gun forced into his hand. Before he’d even known it he was born and bred to be the DSO’s soulless weapon. Like a brainless zombie, they lined his gun up with the target and yelled at him to shoot.

So he did. Time after time. Year after year. No time for personal affairs, no time for hobbies or outside activities. No time for what made him human. 

Maybe that was why Ada had left him.

Ada, the woman on the run who’d appeared out of nowhere only to disappear once more. The one he’d been chasing after for too many years to count, who he defended during Tall Oaks and risked his life for. The one who was no longer keeping score on how many times they’d saved each other.

 The one who’d called it quits on him.

He remembered it so clearly. That miniscule glint of pain behind her professional gaze like a spinel hidden among the rocks, that of a mercenary staring down the sight of a crossbow with perfect aim. The way she stuck out her hand to shake as if it had all been some type of business partnership. Nothing more than looking out for someone to gain something. A lead, a life saved, a death quickened. It was all a ploy to her.

Leon wasn’t one to beg, he hadn’t been for quite some time. He was persistent, sure, but not to the point where he felt like he was grovelling.

He was ready to drop to his knees when Ada told him they couldn’t keep going the way they were. That they were only putting each other in danger. After a constant sprint towards her, it all came to a harsh halt. It was like his heart had been stomped on repeatedly, a sharp high heel straight through his ribcage. He would’ve rather she’d shot him. It would’ve hurt less.

But luckily he was good at masking it. So when she broke the news to him, he just gave her a stiff nod and shook her hand. As she made her exit, he had to hold back everything telling him to bolt into the nearest building to sob to himself for the first time in years. To blame himself for the fourth time that day. He wasn’t usually an emotional person, not when it came to crying. Leon Kennedy never cried, and he prided himself on that. But Ada brought out the worst in him. The worst and the best.

The months blended together after that moment. A bland concoction of aimless meetings chased down with long droning lectures on his behaviour. He was erratic, he was impulsive and most importantly he was too distracted to focus on anything other than that grey spot seeped into his brain. No one could blame him though, those who’d heard of their situationship ending seemed to pity him. He didn’t want their pity. Not for that or for his countless failures. 

Routine health check results had forced him to move away from his work at the DSO for a few months. His heartbeat was too quick, his stress levels unhealthy and his jumpy reactions to so much as thunder had him listed as a person of concern. A person who had to be forced to take a break, to leave and get out of town.

So that’s exactly what he did.

But Leon knew nothing of his life without some sort of mission, some kind of drive for a success or cure for some terrorising sickness that plagued his conscience the same way it did the human body. He was built on trauma, on the need to do something with his life for the greater good. But all of that had been stripped away from him, leaving behind a scared 20 year old stuck in a grizzled, battered body.

He’d packed up his stuff and moved out of town to a small area just outside of the city, where no one asked questions and rarely even spoke to one another. He was away from it all, yet still felt so close. He was incredibly on edge as if at any time the bored looking man across the street by the name of Mr. Danvers would burst into a pale skinned, veiny creature that he’d have to kill off. Or maybe Miss Lampkin had secretly followed him from the DSO to assassinate him, forcing him to eliminate her in self defence. Another person shipped off in a body bag courtesy of Leon Scott Kennedy.

But the question still stood clear as day in his mind amongst the hustle and bustle of dread. Was he willing to fight it back anymore?

He didn’t feel good about himself if it weren’t all that obvious. If he wasn’t drowning every issue in a bottle of bourbon, he was sinking into his own self loathing. Avoiding any issue he could, dodging any problem that couldn’t be easily solved. He closed his heart off with walls stacked tall made from reinforced steel. 

That’s why he fit in so perfectly where he was. Another husk in a greyed community, just like everyone else.

Until you came along.

“Thanks guys!”

The sound of someone so cheerful, so welcoming in his community drenched in monotone shades that it genuinely stunned him. It stopped him in his tracks on his way to the front door, just as he went to check the mail. Leon cursed his own curiosity as he felt his eyes drifting instinctively to the window facing the commotion. The outcome of this was completely unknown, for all he knew he was about to face just another grump masking their snarl with a soft smile. A form of customer service, if anything. Scolding his timing, he knew he’d otherwise forget to collect his mail for the next few days in case another blur hit him. So he slipped on a pair of older shoes, buried his pride for looking like an absolute mess and made his way out into the sun.

As soon as the chirpy voice broke through the silence of the street, Leon was turning to see where it came from. It seemed impossible for someone so cheerful to live in such close proximity.

“Oh let me help you with that. I’ll take it.”

Surely it was his imagination. He must have been slipping into some type of manic state of auditory hallucinations, because no one had ever sounded that happy to be there.

Yet there you stood, a bright welcoming smile that put the sun to shame as you helped the movers bring your stuff into the house with a grateful nod. With softened eyes and a sparkling personality he could see from a mile away. Freshly cleaned sneakers - as if trying to make a good impression with your new neighbours -sensible yet comfortable jeans, a shirt a size too big for you as you took whatever you could to try and make their lives easier despite that being their job.

Leon let out a quick exhale of amusement, closing up his mailbox to walk back down the cement of his walkway. He genuinely found it funny for someone like you to move in.

You were a drastic difference to the rest of the neighbourhood, most of which were grumps or quiet assholes who refused to interact within the community. Those who chose to drink with themselves as comfort in complete silence. Which would explain why Leon was there after everything he’d been through.

You were far too bright to be in a place like this. A yellow daisy growing through a crack in the concrete.

He was just waiting for the reality of the situation to settle into you. For you to realise you’d just signed your life away for a world of misery. Unfortunately he knew it was likely. This part of the city was going to break your spirit at some point, he could feel it in his bones.

In some sad way he could already see that younger version of himself like you. Someone grown and watered with pride and meaning, a fate sealed for something better than a normal life. 

He was waiting for your own Raccoon City incident to happen, and he could practically feel it impending. He could already hear the thundering footsteps of a Tyrant.

But he chose not to dwell on it, instead closing the door behind him to slip his shoes off and go back to his usual routine. Check over files, throw a meal into the microwave, send through overdue reports, and try to avoid the calls he could hear coming from that specific part of his fridge. Calls from chilled alcohol. Calls from the crate he had sitting at the bottom of the pantry.

Leon had been trying his best to kick the harmful habit of drinking whenever things got too tough to handle. When the buzzing in his head grew to an excruciating screech. When he could hear the echoing cries of the people he left behind. Heard the crack of bones under his hands. He wasn’t a good person, some miniscule part of him knew that, and one day he’d have to wake up and realise that voice is right. 

Or at least that’s what he thought. 

Before he knew it, it was nighttime. Deep into nighttime, to the point where he should’ve had dinner hours ago but still had yet to touch the microwaved lunch he’d tossed in. Despite his wealth, Leon found it humbling to live in a small suburbia like this one, it kept him sane. No long empty hallways. No ghosts sitting in the dining room. 

He never wanted to flaunt that part of his life, there was no need to. It would only earn him unwanted attention and that was the last thing he needed at a time like this one. He was already sabotaging himself, he didn’t need to drag others down with him as well.

That blur was hitting him again, and no amount of garbage bags and boxes being moved out onto the curb could snap him out of it. Shit, how did he end up out here? Sky full of faded stars, light from the old streetlamp’s light casting the street in a softened orange tone. How long had he been on autopilot, a walking corpse of programmed answers and tasks? Was he nothing more than a machine?

Was this what his life was destined to be? Pacing back and forth across his overgrown front lawn and the deck he hadn’t bothered to varnish until he was accepted back into the DSO, the place that helped to rob him of a regular adulthood? What if they didn’t take him back? What if he was here forever, trapped in a suburban purgatory?

He needed to come back, to take control of his feet with each pad across the walkway back to his house as if he were taking control of his life once more. He couldn’t feel his fingers despite moving them. Everything seemed fuzzy. It was like he was stuck in a state of paralysis, all of his nerves firing off as if he’d been scorched with hot coals every time a muscle moved. He became far too aware of his breathing, every hoarse huff from months of ashed abuse with a heart pumping far too loud. He could hear it beating through his ears, feel it in the back of his eyes. He was drowning.

Until he heard a frustrated huff followed by something hitting the ground.