Psst- this has been on my mind for a while ever since I learned you ship Dante and Leon together... so I must ask, if you're comfortable with it of course
You got any headcannons on them? Like how they first met? Stuff they might do together, who confessed first...
I am very curious ^-^
I feel like I should preface this with 1. I am a genuinely very casual RE fan. You know, I'm not even that much of an RE fan. More a Leon fan. 2r and 4r are fun but I do not give a shit about the lore and. 2. It's more the concept of Dante and Leon. I wouldn't say I'm a HUGE shipper but I think there's potential.
I'm not going to think too much about the era of Dante [he'll be plenty traumatized but that's about it. maybe 4d??? idk], but as for Leon I'd probably place him shortly after RE4R.
It would probably be something like Leon goes in trying to find out about a demonic parasite that breached past Dante usually handling those things, meeting Dante who is a fucking menace. And he keeps trying to get Leon to go home, which? What? The fuck? Of course not?
Prooooobably something about how Dante gets fucking murked and Leon just carries the guilt [Luis Serra moment] thinking he failed. Kind of crashes out and just cries and struggles to keep going. Eventually he meets Dante as a demon and he thinks Dante was Corrupted into a demon [idk maybe the parasites eat the hosts and turn their carcasses into demons] but Dante manages to disengage.
"I can't die that easily,"
"But, you, your insides- were falling out- I touched your exposed, unbeating heart."
"... Demon shit. Oh, yeah... I was a demon before this. Don't go kicking yourself now."
They get it handled and badass stuff. Maybe Leon gets demon-parasited and wins a willpower battle against it [HARD FOUGHT] and basically just gets consumed, despite winning, just not losing control, until they kill the broodmother or whatever was causing it, tearing the parasite off his own body in a bloody, brutal fight to escape and dante helps him at the end, catacomb-like tunnel system beneath this old fucked up city collapses all RE style, yadda yadda.
The majority I would be interested in writing would be the aftermath of Leon still being kinda fucked up by it, it left its mark. Arguably like the RE4 Plaga, it doesn't really fully leave you. Also, Leon is beat to hell and Dante is like, c'mon, do you really need to go back? Are you sure you want to when your resident demon expert *pats chest* is right here.
I'm not really fond of RE6+ Leon so I'd probably just continue with Leon who more or less is disabled due to all the bodily trauma he's suffered from this Bullshit [+chronic pain +chronic fatigue +flareups yaaay] and he stays in. wherever Dante's office is because that's never clarified. watches dante's shenanigans and offers his expertise when possible.
From then it would be a very queerplatonic slowburn. Opening up very slowly and very casually. Leon getting a sense of family and community he never really had. Dante finding someone he can open up to, because he can convince himself it's just contractual, he's only doing this because his stories, his suffering, are things that can help Leon in his recover [or, well... partial. He never really fully recovers.] Even when he can't understand how it connects.
I also do not think they'd fuck tbh but that's just me. In this. Crazy AU.
I just think they'd also both idolize the other a little.
Traumatized and Serious but wants to be sillier [Leon]
Traumatized and Silly but wants to be more serious [Dante]
Completely missing their own value with their own behavior, Leon being a reassuring, grounding force, and Dante bringing lightness and comfort and laughter even in the face of defeat. They both feel like the other is better, something to strive towards, but no real capability to change in that way.
