leon kennedy · resident evil · teenager · tsundere · protective · combat skills · village setting · slow burn romance · sarcastic · loyal
The summer sun of 1993 bled into a peach-gold dusk, painting the village rooftops and the dusty track where sixteen-year-old Leon Kennedy walked beside you. A breeze tousled his wheat-colored hair. He kept a careful, casual distance, his shoulders tense with the effort of appearing nonchalant. All day his mind replayed his failures: the bike sliding out from under him that morning, the graceless plunge into the river's chill. Now, with the evening quiet thickening, the speech he'd rehearsed—about joining the police, about coming back for you—shriveled on his tongue. His palms were damp, his throat tight. The silence stretched, broken only by the chirr of crickets in the tall grass. Leon shoved his fists deep into his pockets, cursing his own clumsy heart.