Work Text:
January 2007
“Yeah, I should be there in 15 minutes,” Claire said, balancing her phone between her shoulder and her ear as she drove towards Chris’s house.
“You going to be okay tonight? With you know who?” Chris asked her, his voice sincere though he still had an edge of awkwardness when talking to her about her love life.
“I’m going to have to be,” Claire said with a deep sigh. “For Sherry’s sake.”
It had been nearly a year since the fateful day of what she deemed “The Chip Incident.” She had been doing a successful job of avoiding Leon since. Thankfully their paths rarely crossed before this so it was easy enough to avoid him. She had seen him once since then, a few months later in a meeting to finalize the plans for Panamstan. He was thankfully not her primary contact though, and she was pretty sure he was just in the room to try and talk to her. She had been short but professional throughout the meeting, and when he asked her to talk afterward she had very politely told him to fuck off.
It was Sherry’s 21st birthday though, and since the girl had missed out on so many typical growing-up milestones, Claire wasn’t going to let her go without a huge first legal drinking party surrounded by loved ones. Which unfortunately meant she was going to have to put up with Leon in a harder-to-avoid place.
“Just do your best to get along for one night, for Sherry,” Chris said, reiterating the ‘For Sherry’. Claire didn’t need the reminder ‘For Sherry’ had been her motto for a long time now, but especially over the last few weeks.
“Don’t worry,” Claire said. “Mine and Leon’s issues aren’t hers, and I’m going to do my best to keep it that way.” And while she was angry at Leon, she knew he would too.
“Good. I’ll see you soon. I have a few last-minute things I need to take care of,” Chris said.
“See you soon. Love you!”
“Love you too!”
The phone went silent and Clarie threw the phone to the passenger seat. She had so many mixed emotions about the night ahead. All week she had teetered between excitement at seeing Sherry, dread at seeing Leon, and a bittersweet feeling because her girl wasn’t so little anymore.
X
The night started out strong. Claire was the first one to show up so she could help Chris and Jill set everything up since she was the one who had volunteered their house for the party. She brought the cake she had bought from the fancy bakery in the city, along with a variety of alcohol ranging from “barely alcohol” to “would make Leon blackout.” She wanted to be prepared for everything.
The small house had filled up quickly with their pieced-together family. Sherry arrived fairly early, just after Barry and Moira, and immediately threw herself into Claire’s arms. “Happy Birthday kiddo.” Claire hugged her so tight, not wanting to let her go for a moment.
“Thanks, Claire,” Sherry said a huge smile on her face. “Thank you for setting all of this up.”
“Of course,” Claire said, kissing Sherry’s cheek before letting her go. “I wasn’t going to let your first legal drink be without me.”
“Honestly, it’s my first drink period,” Sherry said. Claire studied her for a moment to see if that was true, but she figured there wasn’t really a reason to lie to her.
“I definitely don’t want to miss your first drink ever then, goodie two shoes,” Claire teased. “You definitely didn’t get that from me.”
She heard a large sigh from across the room and turned to look at Chris who looked exhausted just at the mention of a young Claire. “That’s for damn sure.”
Sherry giggled and left Claire’s side to mingle as more guests filed in. Claire lingered near Chris as the room started to fill up, her eyes barely leaving the entryway. Chris would occasionally glance over at her and roll his eyes but didn’t shoo her away. She tried her best to settle in, to talk with these people whom she did care about and miss, but her anxiety about him showing up started to turn into him not showing up as pretty much everybody else had arrived.
The only thing worse than having to deal with him would be having to deal with Sherry if he let her down. It wouldn’t be the first time, but it wasn’t usually for something so important.
“Leon!” Claire’s head whipped around to the sound of Sherry’s voice calling his name, and sure enough, he was walking in with a handful of presents. Sherry threw herself into his arms like she had Claire’s. He quickly dropped the presents so he could catch her, and hugged her so tight he lifted her off the ground. The smile on his face was one of the realest she had seen in a while. Sherry had a way of doing that.
He set her back down on the ground and ruffled her hair, the annoyed look Claire knew Sherry was giving him only making his smile brighter. “Where do you want these?” He asked, picking the presents back up.
“Oh over here,” She said, leading him to the fireplace with the small pile of presents stacked in front.
“Claire?”
“Hmmm?” Claire asked, turning back to Chris and Rebecca who she had been talking to before Leon had walked in the door. She realized she wasn’t sure if the conversation had continued on without her or not. Chris rolled his eyes at her, going for a new record of how many times he could do that in a night, while Rebecca just had a knowing smile on her face. “I asked how work was going?”
“Oh, work’s been great,” Claire said. “I’ve been mostly assigned to things here in the States, so getting to spend time at home has been nice.”
“I bet! Chris complains about you being around all the time, but I know he’s happy you’re home more,” Rebecca said, grinning at Chris who glared at her.
“You complain about me to your coworkers, Chris?” Claire said with fake indignation.
“I complain about you to your face, don’t act surprised,” he said, shoving her shoulder.
“That’s true, that’s true,” Claire said, shoving him back.
Chris and Rebecca went back to talking about BSAA stuff, some of which Claire understood, but a lot that went over her head. She scanned the room again and saw Leon on the opposite side talking to Jill, Sherry already off talking to Moira and Barry. He glanced over at her and she felt her whole body tense up. He deflated at the sight and simply nodded at her. She nodded back and turned back to Chris and Rebecca. They could make this work.
X
Leon hated parties. He always had. When he was younger he was the weird, quiet orphan who didn’t get invited to parties, and when he was in college and the few friends he had forced him to go to a couple he was the weird, awkward boy sitting quietly in the corner. After Raccoon City his chances of going to parties dropped considerably. Being blackmailed into working for the government wasn’t the best way to make friends, and after Spain, his coworkers didn’t like how close he was to the president. He had been to a few fancy government parties, but they were all stuffy and boring, though the food was usually excellent.
He had been to a handful of parties with this group over the years. They invited him to most of them, but work made it so he rarely actually made it, but he always did his best because while he felt like the outsider it always meant he would get to see Claire.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had been here that the night wasn’t spent with Claire at his side, talking him up to everybody while they in turn told embarrassing stories about her youth. He never quite fit in, but it was the closest he ever got to feeling like he belonged somewhere, and the ability to escape with Claire at the end of the night was always the best part.
Now though, she strategically stayed on the other side of the room from him, freezing or tensing up anytime they happened to make eye contact. He hated it. He wanted to pull her aside, to figure out how to make this better. He wanted to tell her that a year without her talking to him was miserable, even if it wasn’t abnormal for them to go that long in between talking. He instead focused as much of his attention on Sherry as he could, though she flitted from person to person as easily as Claire did. This entire group had taken her in as a little sister/niece even though she wasn’t around as much as he and Claire would have liked. Chris especially doted on her, having said multiple times over the years that he was born to be an uncle and Sherry was probably the closest he was going to get.
If she was having a good time then this would all be worth it.
“Shots time!” Chris called from the kitchen. Claire was laughing as she put an arm around Sherry’s shoulder, dragging her into the kitchen as the group followed behind them, Leon included. Sherry had said Claire gave her a fruity seltzer to start out with, but it made sense Fun Uncle Chris was ready to turn the party up.
Chris had all of the fixings for tequila shots lined up on the island, a bowl of lime wedges next to the salt shaker. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Claire was saying to Sherry as Leon entered the room.
“I know, Mom,” Sherry said with an eye roll. She only said ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ when she was being a shit, but it still made him smile. “Leon come join us!”
He looked at Claire over Sherry’s shoulder. She didn’t look thrilled about the idea but motioned for him to join them still. They were a family no matter what had happened, now they just felt like divorced parents instead of a single unit.
“Come on, you should be good at this.” Leon bit back the flash of anger that shot through him. She always knew exactly how to push his buttons which he used to find annoying but endearing, now it was just annoying. Thankfully it either went over Sherry’s head or she ignored it.
“Oh! While I have you both we need to take a picture,” Sherry said. “Chris, will you take a picture of us?”
“Of course,” Chris said, pulling out his phone. “Baby’s first shot was definitely going to be a picture-worthy moment anyway.” Sherry stuck her tongue out at him at the baby comment and Leon heard the click of Chris’s camera. “Got that one too! Now scooch in.”
They all took a quick picture, Leon doing his best to focus on Sherry and how she was rather than his own misery, and Claire’s iciness.
X
After shots, the party amped up considerably. Chris kept turning up the volume on the music trying to get everybody to dance, and when they didn’t he brought out another round of shots. Chris, Claire, Sherry, and Barry’s girls were the only ones really dancing. Chris got Jill going a couple of times, but she was quick to slip back into the not-dancing part of the room. Sherry even got Leon to dance with her for a little bit with a practiced puppy dog look that shouldn’t work as well as it did when she was 12, but ultimately did.
Claire tried to force down the memories of her forcing Leon to dance with her at similar parties. There was a part of her that wanted to be there with them, but she had said she needed another drink and escaped to the kitchen.
Overall though the night was going smoothly. Sherry was having a blast, and watching the alcohol hit her so much faster than everybody else was particularly endearing, reminding Claire how young she still was, and that there were parts of life that weren’t fully taken away from her. It helped too that Claire knew she was safe here. She didn’t like the idea of her little girl out drunk with people she didn’t trust, but here it was sweet.
“Claire, Claire come here,” Sherry said, appearing out of seemingly nowhere while Claire was talking to Chris and Jill.
“What’s up, Sher?” Claire asked.
“Come here, come here,” Sherry said, taking her hand and leading her toward the couch. Her words were just a little slurred, and Claire thought maybe it was time to slow down. In her concern for Sherry, she noticed too late that the couch was already occupied, but Sherry was plopping down in the middle pulling Claire with her to sit to the right of her. Leon already there to the left.
“Hey there,” Leon said. “What’s going on?”
“I just wanted to tell you both how thankful I am for you,” Sherry said, looping her arm with Claire’s and leaning into Leon. “I don’t know what my life would be like without you if I even would have had a life without you. I don’t know that I ever really thanked you guys.”
“You don’t need to thank us for anything,” Leon said, turning to kiss the top of her head
“Yeah, if anything you saved us,” Claire said. She had a dozen thoughts of how they let her down, of how they should have done more, but she kept her mouth shut. They were focusing on the positive.
“Still, sthank you for everything,” Sherry said, a small slur to her words and she trailed off towards to the end. Claire sat up a little bit to get a better look at her and saw what she suspected: Sherry was falling asleep on Leon’s shoulder.
“I think it’s bedtime,” Leon joked.
“Not tired,” Sherry whispered, her eyes falling shut as she spoke.
“Come on, kid. Let’s go,” Claire said standing up and taking Sherry’s hands to get her up as well. Sherry protested some but ultimately got up with Claire. “Let’s get you to bed.” The three of them made their way to the spare bedroom Sherry was staying in, Sherry leaning heavily against Claire even as she kept saying she wasn’t tired.
“Okay, can you kick your shoes off for me,” Claire asked once they passed the threshold into the room. Sherry nodded, taking several tries to kick her flats off. Claire did her best not to laugh and saw Leon stifling a similar grin. She did eventually get the shoes off, and crawled into bed, even with her protest of not being tired. Leon pulled the covers up around her, and Claire pushed her bangs out of her face before kissing her forehead. “Love you kiddo.”
“Yeah, love you, Sher,” Leon said, squeezing her shoulder.
“Love you both,” Sherry murmured, her eyes already falling closed. Claire stayed there for a moment, taking in the moment, a soft smile on her face. It wasn’t the first time they’d gotten to tuck her in, but with her being taken away they hadn’t gotten as many opportunities as they would have liked, and given she was a full-grown adult now, they both knew this was probably the last time they would get the chance so she savored the moment, savored getting to feel like her parent still, if even for a brief moment. She glanced up at Leon and his soft smile showed he was having similar thoughts.
It didn’t take long before Sherry’s soft snores filled up the room. They both took one more glance at her before heading back out into the hall.
X
Without Sherry to keep Claire occupied, Claire started to find her annoyance at Leon being there growing by the minute. She did her best to avoid him, but the party was starting to thin out. Barry had taken Moira home now that the real adults were starting to get truly drunk, and she was still only a teenager, and a lot of the other BSAA agents that weren’t part of the core group started to make their own exits leaving mostly Chris, Claire Jill, Rebecca, Leon and a couple of others still mingling around.
“We should play beer pong!” Jill announced during a lull in the party.
“Sure,” Chris said. “You want to be on my team?”
“Oh no,” Jill said. “ I don’t want to play beer pong.”
“Then why did you suggest it?” Rebecca asked.
“Because I want to watch the Redfields get overly competitive,” Jill said, with a shit-eating grin.
“We aren’t overly competitive,” Claire said at the same time Chris said: “I’ll show you competitive.”
Which pretty much left Rebecca and Leon to have to go up against the siblings. If only the group knew this was Claire and Chris grown up and evened out some. They didn’t need to know how many games of Mouse Trap ended with one of the Redfields in a headlock.
“Who goes first?” Rebecca asked
“We’ll let you guys go first,” Chris said with a cocky wink. Chris was typically a nice sweet guy, but give him a few drinks and a competition in front of him and he turned into the frat bro he looked like real quick.
“How nice of you,” Rebecca said with a fond eye roll as she threw the first ball, sinking it in the middle one right off the bat.
“Not bad Chambers, not bad,” Claire said, taking the cup and drinking the beer while Chris lined up his shot.
They played back and forth for a while, staying mostly tame to Jill’s disappointment. There were a few misses but the game was going quickly as they were all excellent shots, the beer disappearing quickly. It wasn’t until they got to where Chris and Claire had two cups left and Rebecca and Leon had one the game started to really heat up. The alcohol was starting to really get to Claire and hitting the one last cup was proving more difficult than she would like. It was the third turn in a row they had failed to hit the last cup.
“Come on Claire, we can do this,” Chris complained, shooting a glare at Claire even though he had also missed his shot.
“Oh shove it,” Claire said, punching his arm.
“My turn yet?” Leon asked, holding the ball already. Claire just nodded, and he took his shot, sinking into one of their last two cups.
“There we go! The last one takes the prize!” Rebecca cheered, even pumping her fist in the air.
“Of course the alcoholics good at beer pong,” Claire muttered under her breath, earning a snort from Chris beside her.
“What was that?” Leon asked, his tone proving he knew exactly what she said.
“I said,” Claire started speaking up this time, over-enunciating each word. “That of course the alcoholic is good at beer pong.”
“Really? We’re going there right now?” Leon asked, his tone annoyed and just a little raised.
“Well, if the shoe fits,” Claire snapped back.
“Okay, okay, let’s get back to the game,” Chris stepped in. “Let’s focus on me about to win this game.” Claire and Leon didn’t say anything else but still ignored what was going on to glare daggers at one another. They missed Chris bouncing the ball into the last cup, but his woops drew them out of it some. “That’s how the Redfields do it! Drink up suckers!”
“It’s your turn,” Rebecca said, handing over the cup to Leon. She looked extremely uncomfortable with the tension in the room. Leon took the cup and glared at Claire before downing the whole thing in one go.
Claire rolled her eyes in return. “You’re just proving my point.”
Leon crunched the red solo cup in frustration before slamming it down on the table. “You have never given a shit about my drinking until now. If you won’t talk to me normally, you don’t get to talk to me about this.”
A part of Claire knew he was right. She had mostly let it be when they were talking, deciding it wasn’t her job to fix him or tell him what to do, and bringing it up now out of anger wasn’t fair, but most of Claire was buzzed and angry and ignored the reasonable part. “You’re the one who won’t talk to me! I asked for your help and you just said no and then just stood there like a brick fucking wall!”
“I can’t just go giving away government secrets, Claire ,” Leon snarled back.
“But the government is corrupt!”
“You don’t think I fucking know that?”
“Okay, okay, okay, let’s break it up,” Chris said, stepping in between them. Claire had completely forgotten about the other people in the room and hadn’t even realized she and Leon had stepped away from the table so they could yell at each other better.
“Yeah, outside both of you,” Jill said as she, Chris, and Rebecca started pushing them toward the sliding glass door that led to the backyard.
“Is this really necessary? We can behave,” Claire argued, but even she could hear the lie in her voice. She wanted to think they could behave, but she figured the odds weren’t in their favor.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Leon said, though the snarl was also still noticeable in his voice.
“Nope you guys aren’t allowed back in until you are holding hands and singing Kumbaya,” Chris said, doing the final push to put them both outside, slamming the door behind them.
Claire glared at Chris through the sliding glass door, but he simply made a heart with his hands and gave her his best shit-eating grin. He was next on her shit list. The three of them left them, and she could tell they were all laughing about something, most likely them. She knew they could just open the door. They hadn’t locked it, but she also knew if they came back in and got into another fight, Chris wasn’t above locking them out here for real.
Claire avoided looking at Leon, a rush of embarrassment at their display taking over some of the anger. The chill of the winter night helped her calm down as well. She was preparing a sorry, a way to not necessarily make amends, but at least get through the night when Leon finally spoke up. “This is all your fault.”
He wasn’t wrong. She had started it, but nevertheless, all of the anger came flooding back into her. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“If you hadn’t brought up the drinking we could have gotten through a nice game of beer pong without any issue,” Leon said, his voice more irritated than angry.
“Well, if you hadn’t been an asshole last year we wouldn’t even be in this position,” Claire threw back.
“Claire I can’t change that,” Leon said. “So are we just never going to be able to be in the same room again?”
“Yes,” Claire snapped.
Leon let out a large groan. “Claire, I can’t just give you a chip full of government fucking secrets! The amount of chaos that would have caused could have destroyed everything. I don’t disagree that the public needs to know but just dropping it on everybody like that isn’t going to help anything.”
“You don’t know that,” Claire argued back. “And you could have told me all of this a year ago. Why didn’t you fucking say anything? You just said no and that was it. No explanation, no anything.”
“I do know that. I’ve seen enough shit to know knowledge doesn’t always make everything better,” Leon said. “And I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
“People deserve to know what is going on! Keeping it a secret doesn’t benefit anybody. How many people fucking died in Raccoon City so they could keep it a secret,” Claire said, her voice getting louder and louder again.
“It’s not that simple!” Leon yelled back.
“It really fucking is,” Claire yelled again. Leon went quiet. Claire studied his face, wondering why he wasn’t screaming back at her. She hadn’t actually realized how close they were during all of this, merely inches apart. She swore she saw a tremble of his bottom lip before the stoney expression snapped back into place, an expression that at one point had been reserved for others, not Claire. Claire took a deep breath, steadying herself before speaking again, trying to be softer. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Anger splashed across his features again, before softening some. “People died for this information Claire.”
“And not using this information is a disservice to their deaths,” Claire said.
“I’m using it to try and figure out another solution,” Leon said.
“And?”
“Honestly, I’ve not gotten much useful out of it, but...” Leon started but didn’t finish. He left the sentence hanging.
“If you aren’t going to do anything useful then they died for nothing,” Claire said, ignoring the hurt look that passed over Leon’s face. “Look I don’t know what else there is to say about this. I’m not ready to forgive you for this yet. I can keep my peace the rest of the night, but my mind is made up.”
She started for the door, but Leon reached out and grabbed her wrist. She opened her mouth to snap at him to let her go, but the sad look on his face stopped her in her tracks. “Giving you the chip would have made you a target.”
“I can handle being a target,” Claire snapped back. “I’m regularly a target.”
“This is different,” Leon said. “They would’ve hunted you down with extreme prejudice and these guys are good. Good enough I think they could even take you, and I can’t have you dying on me Redfield. I don’t think I could survive that.”
Claire softened some, but it was quickly taken over with more anger. Who was he to decide what risk she put herself under? If she didn’t have a say in his self-destructive tendencies, then he didn’t get a say in hers. “That’s not your decision, Leon!”
“I’m not going to let you make yourself a martyr Claire. Not for this. It’s not fucking worth it,” Leon shouted back.
“You don’t get to tell me what’s fucking worth it!” Claire shouted. The grip around her wrist tightened some. Not enough to hurt, but enough to remind her of its presence. They were close now, toe to toe.
“God you’re so fucking stubborn!”
“Well, you’re so goddamn annoying!”
“I can’t stand you!”
“You can’t stand m-” Claire was cut off by Leon’s lips crashing into hers. She gave in immediately, her body reacting much faster than her brain. By the time her anger was screaming at her how much this wasn’t what she wanted she was already on her toes, her fingers buried in his hair and bringing him closer so she could kiss him more forcefully.
“I’m...still...angry,” Claire got out between kisses, not willing to leave him be long enough to get the whole sentence out.
“I know,” He said, before crashing back into her, his tongue dominating her mouth. He let go of her wrist and was grabbing at her hips to pull her closer to him. She let out an undignified groan as he did so, grinding her hips into his.
He pulled away from her mouth, and she groaned at the absence until he moved his lips to her neck, biting softly at first and then harder. He kissed up to her ear, biting down on her earlobe before whispering into her ear: “You still in the same room?”
“God yes,” She moaned. “I know a shortcut that will bypass everybody in the living room.”
“Lead the way,” He said, kissing her one more time before pulling away to follow her to her room.
X
Claire and Leon laid side by side on the bed, the awkwardness seeping back in now that they didn’t have something to keep them occupied. Typically in these situations, they would be cuddling or kissing or doing anything to stay connected, but Claire wasn't sure where to go from here. She was still angry with him, the sex didn’t change that. She risked a glance over at him and catching the movement he looked at her as well.
“Is this the part where you kick me out to the couch?” Leon asked, his voice incredibly sad.
Part of Claire, a large part of Claire, wanted exactly that. For him to leave her alone and for this to be a blip in their ongoing fight, but she also knew that while she was still angry, and she didn't see it going away anytime soon, in the grand scheme of things they didn’t get as many opportunities to be them as they would like, and burning a moment even for a good reason felt wrong.
“I guess you can stay,” She said. She hated the small smile that played on his lips at her answer. Hated that she had a hard time staying angry after seeing it. “...but I’m going back to being mad at you in the morning.”
“I know,” he said. The smile vanished and she immediately wanted it back, but she knew she needed to set realistic expectations before he stayed. Leon looked like he was thinking hard about something. He hesitated some before he rolled over onto his stomach and moved to cuddle her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and resting his head on her chest. In the past, he would have made a joke about how her boob was an excellent pillow, but he didn’t this time. He just looked up at her longingly instead.
She relaxed into his touch, running her fingers through his now messy hair, gently pulling through the tangles. She would never get over how they let him still have his swoopy haircut at his big fancy government job.
He tucked himself in further, gently caressing her waist with his thumb. Normally, they would be joking, laughing, or catching up on what they had missed since they had seen each other last, but now they were quiet. They had said everything they needed to say earlier, and most things now would just ruin the peaceful moment they had carved out.
“I love you, Claire,” Leon finally spoke, placing a kiss to her clavicle as it was the only thing in reach.
“I love you, too,” Claire said. His body relaxed at her words. She hadn’t even noticed the tension until it was gone. Claire felt a pang of guilt. Of course, she still loved him. He could do things to make her not like him, but she wasn’t sure he could do anything to make her not love him.
“And I am sorry,” he added softly, risking a small glance up at her. She nodded, acknowledging his apology without speaking, mostly because her initial thought was telling him where he could shove his apology, but again she didn’t want to ruin the moment.
He accepted the nod though and settled back in.
X
Claire woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside her window, a comforting arm around her waist, and the smell of bacon cooking. She didn’t open her eyes for a long while, trying to sink into the warm bed, worried that if she opened her eyes this would all disappear.
Eventually, the need to pee took over and she had to open her eyes to get out of bed. The birds were still chirping, the bacon still smelled wonderful, and while they weren’t as cuddled as they had been when they fell asleep, Leon’s arm was still slung over her, his sleeping face not far from her shoulder.
She had expected the anger from the night before to flood back in in the morning, but instead, it was a dull ache like it had been for most of the last year. She wasn’t okay yet, but for the first time in a while, she thought maybe one day she would be. Honestly, it was just hard to be mad at his peaceful sleeping face. She rolled over towards him some, his arm staying firmly in place, and pushed some of the hair that had fallen in his face back. It was easier in the mornings when she woke up before him, which was almost all of them, to see the young rookie who just happened to fall into the same chaos as she did instead of the grumpy government agent that he had grown into. He was still Leon, and she still loved that grumpy government agent, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t sometimes miss that rookie.
She leaned forward to place a kiss on his forehead, before getting up to relieve herself and find the source of the bacon smell.
The smell of bacon turned out to be Chris already wide awake cooking a pile of bacon on the griddle that seemed excessive for the amount of people who had actually stayed the night. “Got coffee going too.”
“God bless coffee,” Claire said, beelining for the pot of coffee that was calling her name. She had always appreciated how straight to the point Chris was. She had appreciated it when she was six and had scraped her knee falling off her bike, and instead of asking her if she was okay he just got the first aid kit and doctored her knee, Barbie bandaid and all. She had appreciated it when her first boyfriend broke up with her and he took her shooting instead of babying her. As she inhaled the warm coffee, her slightly hungover brain already clearing some she thought she couldn’t appreciate it more.
Claire allowed herself a few precious moments just enjoying the moment, the smell of bacon and the taste of the coffee calming all her senses. Once she felt satisfied in the moment she refilled her half drank cup of coffee grabbed the eggs from the fridge and started working on scrambled eggs.
Claire and Chris worked around each other mostly in silence. They hadn’t done this exact routine in years, but they had spent enough time together in the kitchen, in this kitchen to not need to discuss what they were doing.
Chris being an ass did eventually have to break their peaceful silence. “So I noticed you know who wasn’t on the couch this morning.” Claire shrugged, not turning around from her place at the stove. She could feel his eyes on her so she knew he saw her. “Does that mean things are going to be better between you now?”
“Nope,” Claire said, popping the ‘p’ dramatically. She turned around to look at him, challenging him to argue with her, but he just rolled his eyes and went back to his bacon.
X
Leon wasn’t surprised to find the bed empty when he woke up but was disappointed nonetheless. If he had learned anything from his time with the Redfields it was that they were insanely early risers. He had seen Claire stay up till 3 in the morning just to be up and ready to go by 7, and the one time he worked with Chris he had been banging on his door asking him why he wasn’t ready to go at 5 in the morning.
He had expected Claire’s too-cool attitude to mean she was a sleep-until-noon kind of girl, but in fact, the Redfields were type-A nerds camouflaged with leather jackets.
He wanted to sink back into the bed. To take in the lingering smell of Claire and stay there until somebody forced him out, but he heard the voices coming from down the hall and knew he wouldn’t be safe for much longer so he sucked it up and made his way to the kitchen.
Chris and Rebecca were already setting up the table, while Sherry, Jill, and Claire were still all at the island. Sherry was leaning heavily into Claire’s side, and Jill was perched on top of the island trying to get Sherry to drink the nasty egg yolky drink she had in her hand.
“Did Chris get a picture of baby’s first hangover?” Leon asked, all of the heads turning to face him. He had already had his own ibuprofen to cure the headache he could still feel it at the back of his head.
“Fuck off,” Sherry murmured, flipping him off.
“Leon! You’re an alcoholic. Tell her she needs to drink this. It will make her feel better,” Jill said, holding the glass in front of her.
“We just throwing that word around this early in the morning,” Leon asked, flinching slightly at the words. She hadn’t said it accusingly like Claire had the night before. Just a matter of fact. He wasn’t sure which was worse. “I’m also more of a food and pain meds kind of guy. I wouldn’t touch that with a six-foot pole.”
“Exactly. So everybody come eat this food I’ve been slaving over,” Chris said. “And of course, I got the picture.”
“Great, thanks man,” Leon said clapping Chris on the shoulder on his way to the table.
Breakfast went mostly smoothly. Sherry looked a little less green as she ate, and drank down her cup of coffee like it would cure all of her problems. Leon stayed mostly quiet as the group conversed. Jill told Claire embarrassing things Chris had done during missions since she had seen her last. Rebecca and Claire talked about vaccine efforts and other sciencey stuff that went straight over his head. Sherry chimed in here and there but was otherwise quiet as well.
The conversation drifted to BSAA things eventually and Leon, Claire, and Sherry were pretty much boxed out of the conversation. Claire hadn’t quite met his eye yet that morning, and the closest thing she got to talking to him was things she said to the group. She wasn’t mean mugging him across the table though so he took it as a win.
Claire picked up her piece of toast from her plate and Leon watched her eye the butter that sat between him and Jill. She sighed dramatically, like what she was about to do was the worst thing in the world before she opened her mouth. “Leon. Butter?” Her words were clipped, and the annoyed look on her face expressed that she shouldn’t have had to ask for the butter.
But.
She had asked him not Jill. Granted Jill was actively in the middle of a conversation, but still. He did his best to bite back his grin as he handed the butter over. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” It was still clipped, but he swore he saw the faintest upward tick to the corner of her mouth as she started buttering her toast.
He knew it was silly. Something as small as Claire asking him for butter shouldn’t mean anything, but he knew it did. For the first time since that horrible day on the White House steps he felt like maybe they would be okay again. Not now, but at some point. Hopefully some point soon.