Chapter Text
“UGHH”
Ashley screamed and thrashed her head into her history textbook. Her brain was going to explode if she had to remember one more date or event of WWII. The last history class requirement she needed before graduation, the dictators of Europe, was going to be the death of her.
It's a friday night, she should be out partying, making questionable decisions with her other classmates, doing things 22 year olds do, not holed up in her apartment, alone.
Reaching over to her phone to check the time, the photo of her lockscreen illuminated her face. It was her favorite photo; a photo of her, and her favorite people at her 22nd birthday: Leon, Claire, Jill and Chris. She let the memories of the evening envelope her and bring a smile to her face. It was now almost half way to her 23rd birthday and she was set to graduate with her bachelors in just a month. “I hope you're proud of me,” she whispered to her empty apartment. She wasn't entirely sure who she was confessing to. Herself? Her parents? Leon?
She let out a tired sigh and closed her history textbook. Rolling back from her desk, she grabbed her phone and sprawled out on her queen sized bed. Her mind filled with the man she chastised herself from thinking about; Leon. He's only a friend, she thought to herself. He doesn't feel that way about you, and he never will.
The past almost two years since Leon rescued Ashley from the hell of Spain and from the plaga, Ashley had been in a war with her brain, her heart. Leon was just doing his job. He didn't know who Ashley was before he rescued her. Her father told him that he had to go and save her and he was just following his chain of command. He couldn't turn down the assignment even if he wanted to. He worked so hard to build up trust with her father, and if the president trusts you enough to go and save his daughter, you obey.
He was just doing his job, Ashley knew this, but she also couldn't stop herself from feeling the way she does about him. The way his blue eyes sparkled whenever he told her that he believed in her, his smile when he tried not to laugh at a dad joke he cracked himself up with, the way his strong arms cradled her body whenever she had to take a leap of faith and he caught her. And underneath it all, the way he saw Ashley as her own person. Not just the president's daughter. No matter what she did, the media, the tabloids was stuck on portraying her as a helpless little girl who would never amount to anything more than being the daughter of a president.
But Leon didn't see her this way. He saw the way she was brave when they fought the monsters they encountered in Spain. The way she lifted his lifeless frame into that operation chair that eradicated the plaga from his body. He saw the way she adapted and overcame their obstacles in Spain. She might've been terrified when he first met her, but by the time they were driving away on that jetski together, he saw that Ashley had proved herself, she didn't need anyone protecting her anymore. She could use a lesson in knife safety though. That memory brought a smile across her face. There was Leon, always cracking a joke.
They kept in touch after the incident, but Ashley was in school and Leon was busy with his job. After the success of the mission her father made Leon become one his top right hand men, there was no one he trusted more than him, no one he could depend on more. Even if she couldn't see him, she felt a strong sense of pride knowing how much her father absolutely adored him. At Easter dinner a few weeks ago he had even told her that he began to think of Leon as the son he never had.
Ashley was an only child, her mother battled infertility for years until she had to get a complete hysterectomy a few years after Ashley was born. Her parents toyed with the idea of adopting a son, so Ashley had someone to play with, but as Ashley's fathers political career furthered, that idea never came to fruition.
Knowing that her father had developed such a bond with Leon made her heart full. She worried her parents would get ‘empty nest syndrome’ when she went away to college, but she needed to leave D.C., leave the suffocating pressure of being the president's daughter. After Spain she transferred schools to a local D.C. college so she could be closer to her parents. And if she wasn't lying to herself, she might admit that it was to be closer to Leon as well.
She knew it was silly; her and Leon could never be together. But the heart wants what the heart wants. She tried to convince herself that her feelings were just because he was the one to rescue her, he was her hero, her knight in shining armor. But even after almost two years, her feelings for him were just as strong, if not stronger. Growing deeper every time she heard her father talk about him.
A few months after the kidnapping Leon had introduced Ashley to Claire and the two of them bonded instantly. Claire had a few years on Ashley, but they soon became inseparable. Ashley hadn't seen Leon since her 22nd birthday 5 months ago, but she made sure to see Claire at least every other week. Claire became the person she confided in. Long nights were spent hanging out in Claire's apartment, bonding over some chinese takeout boxes and a bottle of sangria.
There was however one secret that Ashley never told Claire; her feelings for Leon. How could she? Claire was Leon's closest friend, and they had a history together. A lot of information was kept confidential- Leons favorite word. ‘ sorry i can't tell you thats-’ ‘confidential, yea I know’ ashley would always finish that sentence for him. But she knew the history was there. The two of them lived through a life or death experience just like Leon and she did. Ashley knew that nothing was happening between Claire and Leon now, but she was never able to pry out the information from Claire if there ever was a spark between them all those years ago. How could there not be a spark between them? she thought. If Leon treated Claire even remotely the way he treated Ashley in Spain, his boyish charm and looks were absolutely irresistible, its was impossible to not fall for him.
Maybe one day, years from now when they were able to joke about it, Ashley would share this secret with Claire, but Ashley wasn't ready for that just yet. A part of her wished she would just blurt it out and rip off the bandaid so she didn't have to bottle up her feelings anymore. She could tell Claire everything and she would just tell Ashley to move and find someone new. It would be a weight off of Ashley's shoulders to share the burden of her heart with Claire.
Ashley let out a long exhale, maybe it was time she moved on. How long is she supposed to spend pining over some guy who just saw her as the girl he rescued, his employer's daughter? Hell there was probably a clause in his contract forbidding him from having any relations with her. Leon was too devoted to his job to do anything to jeopardize his future. That was his Achilles heel. Leon was loyal to a fault. He would risk his life to save someone, his own life didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was if he could save someone. It never filled the void in his heart though, of all the lives he couldn't save, and Leon lived with that everyday. Casting a shadow on his life. Never letting himself truly be happy knowing that there were people he failed. It was this reason that he kept throwing 100% of himself into each mission he was sent on, if he was able to save one more person, maybe it would fill the loss of each life he couldn't save.
Ashley tried to help him with this, she could feel how much it hurt him after Luis didn't survive. It wasn't his fault, none of it was his fault, but he didn’t see it that way. A part of Ashley wondered if that's why he kept her at arms length, because every time he looked at her it would remind him that he couldn't save Luis.
Ashley had attempted to catch up with Leon multiple times after the past few years, and sometimes they would catch up over a cup of coffee, or hang out with Claire and Chris, but more times than not, her texts would go unanswered only to be met with a ‘hey, sorry i was out of the country’ text a week or two later. After Ashley's 22nd birthday she promised herself she wouldn't message him or reach out anymore, she would wait for him to reach out to her. And the joke was on her, because after 5 months she hadn't heard from him. The only way she knew he was still alive was through Claire or her father. She made sure to never be the first one to bring him up in conversation around them though. If his name came up she could innocently ask them how he was doing without making it seem obvious that she was still thinking about him.
So on that Friday night in April, fed up with studying for her history test, Ashley found herself calling up Claire. She needed to escape from her apartment, escape from her thoughts, from Leon.
Claire picked up after a few rings, excited as she always was whenever Ashley called.
“Hey! What a coincidence I was actually just going to text you!” she exclaimed through the phone.
Ashley let out a small chuckle and a grin danced across her face.
“Really? what's up?”
“Well, Chris just got back from a mission and he wanted to hangout, it's been so long since we caught up, and I said I would see if you're free! So? Watchya say? Can I entice her royal highness to leave her school books for a night with some chinese takeout and cheap sangria?”
This was exactly what she needed, she thought. She knew Claire was always the right answer to any problem.
“Okay, you sold me” she giggled “when should I come over?”
“Chris is getting here around 730, so get your ass here at like 6ish? I want to have some girl talk before Chris ruins it with his man-ness, "Claire teased.
“Okay okay, that sounds like a plan, I can't wait, see you soon Claire, bye!”
And with that Ashley hung up the phone and then hopped off her bed to get ready, her phone call with Claire adding some fire to her step that her history book was set on snuffing out. She sent a quick text to her security detail, that she planned on leaving in half an hour. It was only a girls night in, and Chris, who honestly acted like one of the girls sometimes, so she didn't put much effort in her outfit. She changed into a low cut, burnt orange quarter button tank top, that hugged her curves and made her breasts look really good-the buttons allowed her to display or conceal her cleavage if she wanted to- a pair of emerald flared leggings from Victoria Secret that made her ass look really good, and a brown Georgetown University sweatshirt. Her ashen blonde hair stayed pretty much the same for the past few years, it was maybe an inch or two longer than it was in Spain. Perfect length to do a half ponytail to get some of her hair out of face when she needed to focus on something.
She twirled in her bedroom floor length mirror. She looked comfortable, but still had her curves on display in case they ran into anyone. Her heart would always be set on Leon, but at the end of the day, she was still a woman with needs that couldn't be satisfied from staying alone in her bedroom.
Well, okay, that wasn't the complete truth. Her needs could and were satisfied many many times, alone in the confines of her bedroom; Thanks to the help of her toys and a vivid imagination. Daydreaming of all the ways she wanted Leon to touch her body with his strong hands and those beautiful lips. Those crystal blue eyes staring into her soul and giving in to every single one of her bodily desires. Ashley thought she really should be disappointed, disgusted rather, at how often she touched herself, made herself orgasm, made her twist in her satin sheets, made herself moan in carnal delight, thinking about the man who saved her; thinking about Leon Kennedy.
No, No, stop it. She tried to push away the images of her and Leon rolling in her bed, moaning each other's names at the top of their lungs, but she couldn't. Lost in her thoughts, the slow build up of her arousal was already building in her core. Her body was twitching to be touched. She needed to satisfy the urges or take a cold shower before she left for Claires or she would suffer all evening thinking about the way he would taste salty on her tongue after a long workout session. How his engorged muscles and soft skin would burn under her fingertips. How his hot breath would feel on her ear as he would whisper how much he wanted her.
She could feel herself getting wetter the further her fantasy wet. Jesus christ she thought, i really need to get laid one of these days. She glanced at her phone, it was 520. it would take 20 minutes to get to Claire's, so she had 20 minutes to herself. If she was honest with herself, she only needed 5 minutes to reach an orgasm when she thought about Leon, she was so touch starved, which would give her plenty of time to fix herself up after the act.
fuck it she thought, tearing her pants off, hoping in to bed and pulling her pink vibrator from her bedside table. She cupped her breast with her left hand and squeezed hard, put the vibrator to the highest setting and slapped it on her clit as fast as she could. Her body trembled. She let out a grotesque moan from her lips, that came from deep within her. She thought of him and imagined his mouth licking her folds and sucking on her clit. In her imagination Leon loved eating pussy. It was his favorite dessert. In her dreams, he would eat her out for hours and never tire of it. Her sensitive clit pulsed under the vibrator and it wasn't long until a rolling orgasm was thrust from body, filling her up with an intense heat that made her entire body tremble. Her eyes shut tight, and saw stars. Her breath was stuck in her throat as she let the vibrator ride out her orgasm. When her orgasm started to pass she turned the vibrator off, reached her phone and checked the time. It was 5:23. Jesus Christ, only three minutes, that must be a new personal record for just how low she has fallen for this man. How absolutely down bad she was. Yea, she laughed at herself, I really, really, need to get laid one of these days.
With her body and hair all sweaty from that little masturbation session, she had, she decided to take a quick cold shower to cool her off. She could just fix her hair and makeup in the car on the way to Claires. She climbed off the bed and stripped out of the rest of her clothes to take a shower.
She felt a sense of shame. She was only a woman with needs, and eyeballs, it was hard to ignore that Leon was an absolutely gorgeous adonis of a man who had rescued her, but at the end of the day he was also a friend. They didn't talk as much anymore, but she still viewed him as a very important person in her life, a very important person who definitely didn't feel for her the way she felt for him. She felt ashamed because she knew how inappropriate it was to feel this way about him, and touching herself the way she does for him should've been out of the question.
She turned on the faucet and left it run cold. She deserved a cold shower over that stunt she just pulled. She promised herself it was the last time and then plunged her body into the freezing cold water. Letting the rivulets hit her body like icicles. She deserved the pain it gave her. She finished her shower in 2 minutes, got dressed again and then ran outside to her security detail. Trying to forget the act of sin she just committed.