Chapter Text
If Piers thought that the day he had spent with Leon in his and Chris’s shared apartment was going to change anything between him and Leon, (and therefore by extension Chris), he seemed to be wrong. Chris hadn’t really mentioned anything past that night, after Piers had woken up curled in Leon’s arms, eaten the reheated leftovers, and all but fled the older man’s apartment to go back to his own.
It wasn’t even awkward at all, Piers had just felt out of place after he and Leon had strolled lazily and sleepily out of the bedroom to be greeted by Chris sitting at the kitchen island. Leon had greeted his lover with a chaste kiss, and Piers had looked away, not wishing to intrude.
He was even further touched to find out that Chris had gone out of his way to pick up takeout from Piers’s favorite Chinese restaurant which was just down the street from his apartment. Chris could have stopped at any other place, but instead he chose to take the time to get his favorite, and that meant something to Piers.
After Piers had scarfed his food down, he thanked the two men before he gathered himself up, put his shoes on, and left. Piers was embarrassed in a sense. It was just so humiliating to him that he basically had to have Leon babysit him so that he could sleep. He didn’t think it was the best look for his ever so inappropriately growing crush on his Captain. It also didn’t help that Leon was just as kind, caring, and sweet as Chris was. And insanely nice to cuddle with.
He hadn’t even realized that he was still wearing the oversized sweatshirt with “REDFIELD” sprawled across the back of it. It had been a week or so since that night, and the sweatshirt took up a new residence in Piers’s bed. Piers found when he was having trouble sleeping, which was most nights, and so he would cuddle it in his arms to help him sleep. After the first few nights, it stopped smelling so much like Chris, but just the comfort of having it in his arms worked for the most part. Now, is this something he’d ever admit to Chris, let alone Leon? Hell no, he was probably taking this one to his grave. Piers was just hoping that the older man forgot about the existence of the sweatshirt.
Chris had been acting surprisingly normal towards Piers, not like he had just shared the most domestic and nice afternoon with his Captain’s lover. Piers thought it was a little odd, how Chris was just not mentioning it at all. It was finally brought up when the two were on a mission, just by themselves. It was supposed to just be a short and simple mission, just gathering intel and getting back out. Why the BSAA chose to send Chris and Piers by themselves, he didn’t really know.
“Y’know,” Chris started, “Leon really enjoyed your company last week.” The two were scouting an abandoned Umbrella Corporation Lab, trying to detect if any BOWs were left lurking around.
Piers froze where he was, carefully assessing what he wanted to say next. Not really knowing how to respond, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Chris confirmed, “He liked having you around. Said it was nice to properly meet you after just crossing paths for a long time.” The two continued carefully around the perimeter of the building, trampling down branches and cutting through bushes entirely not so subtle. If there happened to be a licker roaming around near them, they might find themselves in some trouble.
Piers didn’t really have anything else to say to that, so he just hummed and hoped Chris was going to drop it. He didn’t really want to discuss it with the other man, preferring to just pretend like it had never happened and go back to how they were before. He wanted to ignore his crush. Well, crushes, at this point.
“You’re welcome to come over any time, y’know. If you’re having trouble sleeping, or if you just wanna come over.” Chris extended the offer to Piers, and his heart swelled. It was a really kind offer, one that Piers would probably never take Chris up on though, just due to the complicated feelings he had about the two older men.
“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.” Piers managed, lump in his throat from the thought of the sweet and extremely tempting offer knowing that he’d probably never work the nerve up to accept. But Chris and Leon wanted him back. They enjoyed his company apparently. Even if all he did with Leon was sleep.
The two were about to enter the abandoned lab, having seemingly cleared the perimeter. Most of the windows had been long broken, so instead of trying to loudly pry the wood down that was boarding up the main entrance they opted to climb through a window. Chris took the end of his flashlight and knocked the remaining glass at the bottom of a window so that the two could enter without injuring themselves.
“Go. I’ll cover you.” Chris commanded, and Piers gulped, flushing ever so slightly at the tone of Chris’s voice. God, he needed to get a handle on this whole crush thing or it was going to cross over into unprofessional territory extremely quickly.
Piers clambered through the window, concealing a hiss as he briefly nicks his hand on a stray piece of glass. It’s just a small cut, so he tries to discreetly apply some pressure to it while Chris climbs in the window himself. Once Chris is inside, he begins leading them through the building to where the server room should be according to their map.
The two navigate the lab carefully, watching out for errant BOWs and unwelcome surprises. It’s almost too quiet in the building, and Piers begins growing suspicious. It’s extremely rare for the two to be sent on a mission and not use a single bullet.
They work perfectly in tandem, Chris leading and Piers watching his back. They’re able to communicate without words in situations like this, motioning with their guns which ways to go or using their signals and gestures perfected over their years of being field partners. After China, the two seemed to have a trauma bond that could propel them through any mission.
Eventually they find their target, a large server room still hosting a boatload of information about Umbrella and how they operate. Chris removes a thumb drive from one of his endless pockets, and moves in to begin copying data. Piers follows behind, keeping his eyes on the rows of servers that could be hiding hostiles.
The data was slowly downloading onto the drive when they heard it. The characteristic sound of a licker, echoing throughout the room. Fuck, of course it had to be lickers and not literally any other BOW. Stealth was not Chris’s strong suit, and both of them knew that loud and clear. Like, literally, loud.
The two had immediately frozen, on high alert. They soundlessly raised their guns, searching for the BOW. They had trouble locating the licker, tracking down each row of tall servers, but they were unable to find it. They met back at the still downloading thumb drive, because of course this was the one time that it had to be stuck at 99% completed.
It was at the exact same time that Piers happened to look up at the ceiling and notice not only one, but two lickers hovering above them that the data download completed. To his absolute horror, the computer let out a shrill series of three beeps to indicate it was done. God fucking damnit. Of course the computer has to be on max volume.
All three of the lickers turned their heads toward the two, and before he even realized he was doing it, he shoved Chris out of the way and to the side while the lickers jumped on top of Piers.
“Piers! Shit!” Chris bellowed, and the other licker had probably turned on Chris. Piers was too preoccupied with the one he was wrestling with, trying to avoid its lashing tongue and sharp claws. He wasn’t entirely successful, as he felt claws tear through his side, hopefully missing anything vital. Piers grunted from the pain, gritting his teeth as he was finally able to aim his gun up and unload his magazine into the fleshy and exposed brain of the BOW. He didn’t even count how many shots he got off, squeezing the trigger until the gun clicked.
The licker fell limp against Piers, essentially pinning him to the ground. He tried pushing it off of him, but struggled due to the searing pain in his side. He could feel it bleeding sluggishly, no doubt causing a small pool of blood to start gathering on the cracked tile floor.
He was just about to give up and just lay there when Chris came to his aid, pushing the licker off to lay to the side.
“Hey, any injur- fuck” Chris cut himself off, noticing the wound that took up a decent portion of Piers’s side. It was bleeding more now, with the movement of Piers attempting to move the licker off his body.
“I’m fine,” Piers tried, coming out more as a slurred “‘M f’ne,” which did not work to reassure Chris at all like he had maybe hoped.
“Hey just hang in there okay? We’re gonna get out of here.” Chris frantically assured, pulling gauze out of his first aid kit built into his gear. He put a bone crushing amount of pressure onto the wound, calling for a medical evacuation as he did.
Piers groaned, the pressure on his wound causing it to burn even more. He tried to curl into a ball to protect his stomach, wholly unsuccessful due to being weak from blood loss and Chris holding him in place. He threw his head back squeezing his eyes shut in pain, and his feet involuntarily kicked weakly if only to distract from the pain.
He thought maybe his shoulder was dislocated too, from the way there was a stabbing pain that radiated through his collarbone when he sluggishly tried pushing Chris’s hands away from the searing pain that was still emanating from his side. Or maybe his collarbone was just broken. Not much was making sense at the moment for Piers.
“Ch’rs,” Piers tried, unsure how clear it came out due to how his voice was strangled from the pain. His face was pinched and his eyes were still squeezed shut, so tightly that he was starting to see patterns on the backs of his eyelids. That or he was hallucinating.
“Hey, keep your eyes open for me. The med evac is a few minutes out. Just hang in there until they get here.” Chris’s voice was stern and commanding, but if he focused Piers might have been able to detect an undercurrent of panic.
Piers forced his eyes open, even opening them wider than normal if only to overcompensate because he wasn’t sure if they’d close again against his will if they were open a normal amount. The world was vaguely spinning, and in that moment he became all too aware of just how shallow his breathing had become.
“Can’t.. Ch’rs I-” Piers choked on a cough, even more pain than he thought was possible to feel coursing through his side while he hacked.
“It’s okay, don’t speak.” Chris was definitely panicked now. In the back of his mind, Piers made a note that he should probably apologize to Chris later, the situation Piers had gotten himself into being quite embarrassing, at least to himself.
Piers’s head fell back again, and he felt the world start to swim even more, his vision tunneling. The last thing he remembered was Chris shouting his name as the server room faded into the background more and more, his body shivering before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.