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"So Claire." Leon begins, still up despite it being two in the morning, mostly out of habit but a big portion of the reason also being the shiny new band on his finger. Chris had fallen asleep hours ago, the lucky bastard. Claire fared about as well as Leon, somehow finding work to focus on despite it being her day off, staying over at Chris and Leon's apartment. Despite Claire always teasing Chris for being married to his work she isn't much better. The Redfields simply just don't know when to stop working it seems.
"Mmnh?" She looks up at him from whatever she is reading on the tablet in her lap, currently nursing a mug of coffee in her hands.
"I've been thinking about something you said earlier when you crashed our date night." Leon begins, stretching out on his sofa like a cat in the sun.
"I wouldn't say crashed, Chris invited me." Claire interjects, sitting up a little more and setting her mug on the coffee table. "But shoot. Whatcha thinking about?"
"Yeah, yeah." Leon waves his hand and smiles, then uses that same hand to rest his chin in it as he sits up a bit more as well. "I specifically remember you mentioning that you're seeing someone and that you'd tell us later buuut, that never happened." He raises his eyebrows playfully and Claire narrows her eyes at him.
"Hmmm, maybe I said that, maybe I didn't." She has a little smirk playing at her lips as she looks back down at the paper she's reading.
Leon groans.
"Oh c'mon Claire! You haven't dated anyone seriously for years! I swear the 'I'm going to die alone with my twenty cats' joke has been getting old. I want to know who you're dating if you think it's serious enough to mention it to us!"
Claire taps her chin.
"I never said I'd tell you guys tonight, just later."
"Claire-"
"Leon." She looks at him, slightly more serious this time. "I uh, we aren't really sure how Chris is going to react so I wanna introduce them kinda slow."
"Them? As in them, them or are you dating two people? Claire, is that even-can you even-"
"Hah, wouldn't you like to know. And yes old man, you can date multiple people- not saying I am! But it is a thing, that people do, and it takes a little known thing called communication. Which I hope you and Chris are getting better at." Claire points at Leon chucking softly as he sighs, rolling his eyes.
"Yes, of course we are. But, your attempt at deflection aside, judging by how you're acting it's someone Chris knows well. Am I right?"
Claire squirms a little in her seat and looks away from him. Bingo, Leon hit right on the money.
"Claire, whoever it is, I'm sure Chris will be ecstatic, I don't know why he wouldn't be."
"Well, you never saw Chris when I brought my dates home back in highschool. And this one time it was one of his friends and he was furious, like nuclear warhead angry."
"That was when you were a kid though. You're a grown adult now, I don't think he'd be that overprotective, even with a friend."
"Even a best friendthat he'shadforyears andherboyfriendalongwith her ?" Claire gets out, speeding up to an almost indiscernible pace and frequency, but Leon still catches most of it.
His eyes widen when the pieces slot together.
"Holy shit." He breathes and Claire looks like she just ate something sour.
"Fuck I said too much. Please just do-"
"You're dating Jill and Carlos?!" Leon blurts out, flabbergasted and intrigued.
"You're dating Jill?!?" Comes Chris's loud, rather sleep-gravelly voice from the hallway. Both Leon and Claire nearly jump out of their skin as Chris hauls ass into the living room. He barely catches himself on the doorframe, coming to a screeching halt and looking at the two with such an astounded expression that it's almost comical.
"I uh… yeah. " Claire squeaks awkwardly.
" When?!? For how long?!?! " Chris demands and Claire fidgets a little.
"Uh… for… six months. " Claire winces when both Leon and Chris shout in unison.
" Six months?!"
"Yeah…"
Chris makes an aborted noise in his throat, then sighs and wipes his face, very obviously forcing himself to calm down a little.
"Why didn't either of you tell me?"
"Well uh, you've had a lot on your plate and we wanted to make sure it worked out first and then… well, we wanted to break it to you slowly, just in case…"
"In case what?" Chris asks but he obviously sees something in the look Claire is giving him because he sighs softly. Then he moves into the room, plopping on the couch next to Leon, leaning his weight on him slightly. "Look Claire, I would never get angry at you and Jill like I did when we were kids. The only reason I freaked out back then was because you were fifteen and he was nineteen, I still don't even know why I ever hung out with that kid, I dropped him after that, he was disgusting. All the other times I acted rather shitty were because you were my kid sister and I was terrified of you getting hurt. Which I still am sometimes but I know damn well that you can take care of yourself. I also know Jill is an awesome person, same with Carlos. As long as what you have going on with them is healthy and good, I'm good. Actually, I'm more than good, I'm ecstatic! I'm so happy for you!"
Claire's shoulders slump in what looks like relief and she smiles softly.
"Sorry for not telling you." She says sheepishly.
"It's all good." Chris smiles at her. "I understand."
Leon leans forward a bit, clasping his hands together in his lap.
"Sooo, are you going to tell us about the last six months orrr?"
Claire snorts softly, tension in her shoulders ebbing even further.
"I'll save it for the double date next month."
"Double date?" Chris asks before Leon can get it out. Claire smiles at him and shrugs.
"Was going to invite you guys out tomorrow, we were going to slowly reveal it to you before it and then see how it went then. Too bad Detective Kennedy over here is just too good of an- uh investigative interrogator?" She looks at Leon and he feels his cheeks warm up slightly.
"Oops. Sorry… can we pretend it didn't happen and act surprised and excited at the second reveal?"
"No. It won't be the same and Jill will know. Chris can get literally almost nothing past her. She reads him like a book."
"That is true." Chris sighs and leans into Leon even more, weight heavy on his shoulder. "Sorry Claire."
"It's fine." She shrugs again. "It was going to come out sooner or later but now that I know you aren't going to go big brother bear mode or something I'm definitely waay less stressed. We could probably move the reservation up to a bit earlier if you both can get the time off." She smiles and sighs.
"I'll speak with Hannigan about it, just send me a date! But, talking about bear mode." Leon begins. "Get off me before you crush me Redfield!" He pushes at Chris and watches in horror as Chris only smirks at him.
"Oh? Crush you? Like this?" He suddenly slumps over onto Leon, all dead weight, plopping on top of him. Leon squawks and struggles but is unable to keep the smile from his face as he's pushed down lateral onto the couch.
"Chris! Quit! You're suffocating me!" He cries, pushing on the man more, trying to suppress a giggle as Chris laughs wholeheartedly overtop of him. Then Chris is pulling away slightly only to bring him in for a kiss. Leon happily kisses back, chest warming at the feeling of his lips against his.
"Ew." Claire says with an audible gag.
Leon pulls away and sticks his tongue out at her.
"Can it, we just got engaged." He wiggles the ring at her.
"Yeah, I know, I was there. But you're literally this gross all the time!" She mock pouts. Chris snorts.
"Mm I remember you were the one who tried hard to get us together in the first place. So you have no one to blame but yourself. You helped make this a thing. Plus it's our apartment, we can kiss however much we want."
"..." She narrows her eyes. "Touché."
Then Chris is flopping back down onto Leon and the man in question goes back to attempting to push him off.
"Seriously Chris, what are you? Like two hundred fifty pounds of muscle?! I can't breathe! "
"Mmmmh well you are talking just fine and I find this very comfy." He just nuzzles his face into Leon's neck, showing no intentions of moving.
"Ughh! At least you're a space heater, I was a little chilly anyway." Leon grumbles, resigning to his fate and wrapping his arms around the man above him.
Claire laughs softly, turning her tablet off and setting it aside on the table next to her.
"Well, with that, I think I'm actually going to try and get some sleep. I've got a boyfriend and girlfriend to talk to in the morning now anyway." She tries to play it off nonchalantly but Leon picks up on the excited little bounce she makes when she stands.
"Quitter." He says with no malice, a smile tipping at the edges of his mouth.
" Haha. Don't sleep on the couch boys. I don't want to hear you both whining about it tomorrow." She leaves abruptly after, trotting down the hallway to the guest room.
"Yeah yeah." Leon calls after her then he blinks softly. He is very sure Chris has already fallen asleep again with the way his breathing has evened out. He sighs and slumps down, snuggling up a little more to his fiancé. He likes this, it's comfortable, even if it's already getting a little bit hot. Chris is finally all here again mentally, Claire is happier than she has been for a while, and he's getting married to the man he loves more than anything. All, for once, seems to be going right in his very messed up, normally wrong world. He feels his muscles relax into the couch, finally content. He smiles, listening to Chris's breathing, feeling his faint heartbeat against his chest. Then he snorts softly thinking about Claire's words. Feh, he thinks sleepily, who cares about a little back pain with someone like Chris here with him? It doesn't take long after for him to drift off into a nice, thankfully dreamless, sleep.
Apparently, future him cares about a little back pain.
Apparently, he cares a lot.
Claire laughs at the both of them during a rather late breakfast that he demands they still eat. Fuck lunch, he needs breakfast. Especially with how sore he is. He still smiles all the same as Chris gives him some of his bacon and Claire tries to steal it without him noticing.