Disclaimer: Do not own song 'Like the Stars'. Antichrisis does. Do not own RE4. Capcom does. Do own hyperactive brain.
Inspired by: The song by Antichrisis, Like the stars.
Warnings: Oh man, I'm turning into a sap. From Queen of Randomness to tiny sap. Bleh.

I´m sorry for taking so long...

Please, enjoy.

An eerie feeling washed over her as Ashley left the chair after having her plaga removed. She felt something in the air, something ominous. She also felt like it wouldn't be much longer until their adventure would come to an end. Somehow that made her feel relieved, but another part of her, a very confused part that is, felt sad about having to go home.

Home... Home is where the heart is. Ashley silently shook her head and realised that that expression didn't apply to her anymore. Sure, she wanted to go back to her father, but that would mean she would leave someone else behind. And she wasn't ready for that yet. She wasn't even sure whether she would ever be ready for that in the first place.

But she knew they couldn't stay there. It was dangerous, it was getting colder every hour and it was too far away from most of the things that made her life that much better. Sure she would be able to live without one of the important things in live right? She was still so young and maybe, no probably, the fact that she was in danger had a lot to do with her feelings for him. The fact that she had met him under the extreme circumstances she was in could've made him more fascinating than he really was.

Heh, had she met him during a day in the park he might not even have made her turn her head.

Dream on Ashley... A voice in the back of head spoke. You would've turned your head. He's sexy, appears caring and seems a little bad-ass. You know you like it...

"I know..." Ashley replied to herself out loud, making Leon, who was walking in front of her, turn around.

"Know what?" He raised an eyebrow when he saw the sad expression on her face. "What's wrong Ash?"

"Nothing." Ashley sounded small and she hated it. She didn't want his pity, she didn't want to feel sorry for herself. She just wanted the spunk back she'd always had. But it seemed to have vanished for that moment.

"You know, we should be home soon..." Leon paused, he knew very well what was on her mind. Or rather -who-. "If I have to fight Saddler you might want to hide away... You know. Maybe near a blue flame?" A small smile played on his lips.

"Mmm yeah." Ashley nodded and stood still for a moment. "What if..."

"Let's not think ahead okay? Not right now. When we know we're save again we will think about the future." Leon stated firmly. There was no use in having serious conversations about what ifs at that moment. First Saddler had to die, and after that... Well, they'd just have to wait and see.

"Okay."

A few seconds later they reached a door that lead them outside. Leon saw a typewriter and, as always, Merchant Marcus standing around. The blue flame gave some objects an eerie glow in the light of the dawn. He went up to the man and made some final purchases before going off to kick some ass.

In the meanwhile Ashley was just standing there, eyeing them from a certain distance, wondering what to say or do. How to behave, how to act. Everything seemed so complicated at that moment. Even more complicated than when Salazar had done some inappropriate things to her.

Salazar... Ashley's face turned from sad to angry as she recalled his filthy hands groping her. Oh how she would've loved to kill him herself. With her hands tightly gripping around his neck she would've squeezed the life out of him, slowly but surely. But Leon had killed him already, so there wasn't much left to do. She was just happy he was dead in the first place.

"Ashley, I'm going up..." Leon pointed at an elevator. "Stay here okay? Don't get into any trouble when I'm up there."

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "When did I ever get into trouble?"

Leon smirked. "True..." He turned around and stared at the merchant, or Marcus, for a few seconds. "Go say bye to him."

Ashley snickered. "Asshole." She simply stated before walking up to the merchant. To Ashley this was now or never, and she'd rather make it a 'now'.

Leon stood there in silence for a few seconds before realising how stupid his last comment had been. But he didn't have the time to think it over and apologise, so he left for the elevator. "Time to kick some ass."

Ashley had already made her way over to Marcus when Leon went up. She was just standing there, in front of him, looking and feeling very uncomfortable. The flickering of the blue flame used to calm her down, but at that moment it was irritating her. He was irritating her too, with his damn cloak and covered face. She wanted to rip it off him and take him home with her. It seemed like the most logical thing to do. But she knew she couldn't... She couldn't have everything, that had been made clear to her many times in the past few days.

"Lil' lady?" Marcus' voice snapped Ashley back to reality. "How are ya, been a while."

Ashey sighed, "I'm okay. Just tired." She looked at him and wondered what was going through his mind right now.

"C'mere." Marcus grabbed Ashley's hand and pulled her closer to him, fully aware of her confused feelings. Heh, as matter of fact, he was feeling a little confused himself aswell.

Ashley silently leaned against Marcus' chest while staring at the blue flame. The flame bothered her, it never went 'out'. Neither did she understand the blue colour or why Marcus' would carry that thing around. She wondered if, despite the fact it bothered her, she could have one too.

"Leon..." Ashley sighed. "He said we're going home soon."

Marcus chuckled his trademark chuckle, a sound Ashley wanted to treasure for the rest of her life. "I know lil' lady."

"So... What now?" Ashley wanted to know what he was thinking. That man never gave away anything, and whenever he did the information was so scarce it could almost be considered useless.

"What do you mean, what now?"

"You know!" Ashley stepped away from him and stared in his spooky eyes. "I want to know... I want to know what the hell everything meant!" She spat, "I don't deserve to be... I just. I don't get it."

Merchant Marcus quietly shook his head and wondered what she was getting so fired up about. He didn't see what he was doing wrong. Not at all. "Lil' lady, if you want clear answers you need to ask me clear questions."

"You..." Ashley felt her eyes burn with exhaustion and unshed tears. "You..."

"Yes."

"You're so cold..." Ashley finally mumbled. "You're so... cold."

Marcus sighed and cursed himself. He wasn't cold, he just wasn't that... Social? He wasn't used to dealing with feelings. Not with his own and most defenitely not with someone else's. He didn't know what to say or what to do. He didn't know what she wanted to hear.

"I thought..." Marcus' thoughts were interrupted by Ashley's voice. "I thought you. Well... God, I hate this!" Ashley rolled her eyes hoping that would prevent her from crying. "I just want more."

"More of what?"

A bang was heard from somewhere close and both looked up to see what was going on. Ashley knew it was Leon. Merchant Marcus knew it had been a rocket launcher.
Only a few seconds later the earth started to shake and rocks nearby started crashing down. They heard a chopper close in and a minute later they heard the chopper leave again. Ashley knew what this meant. Saddler was dead.

"Listen lil' lady..." Marcus suddenly sounded in a hurry. "You know where my shop is, you've visited it before, remember?" He glanced around to see if Leon was coming back yet. "Visit me." He grabbed some of the stuff he had dropped on the floor and quietly placed a kiss on Ashley's forehead. "Visit me before returning home. This island is going to blow any second now, and I need to get away from here. I know the strangah will bring you to safety, so don't worry. My shop'll still be there, come over."

He looked up just in time to see Leon approach. "I will see you soon lil' lady, unless you don't want to." And with that he left quickly, carrying that insane backpack around like it was nothing at all.

Before running to that damn cave Ashley looked behind her one more time and saw that flame standing there, hardly giving off any light because the sun was rising. She smiled to herself and decided Leon would have to take her to that stupid shop before they left for home otherwise she would strangle him with a snake from a crate.

Feeling slightly nostalgic for no reason at all she hoped she would get to see that flame again, and the person that belonged near it. During nighttime too Ashley hoped, it looked much better after midnight. Like a tiny glimmer of hope. And that flame... Represented hope for her. Hope to see him again. Hope to get more answers. Hope to find love. Real love.

"Hang on sweetheart!" Leon yelled before taking off with the jet-ski.

"Until these dreams of ours come true..." Ashley sighed. "Midnight burning blue."

Okay. Yeah. So there´s one more to come, the epilogue. Please Review and if you would be kind enough to take the poll on my homepage? Thanks in advance...
(And don't vote LeonxHis own hand... XD That was a joke. Perverts.

See ya.