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(Claire)
Claire and Sherry are in Leon’s room, getting their things in order when Leon comes in.
“Are you staying with us?” Sherry asks excitedly.
“No, pull-out couch,” Leon answers, “I’m just getting some stuff.”
Claire nods.
“Goodnight, ladies,” Leon says after grabbing a pillow and a blanket.
“Goodnight,” they both echo.
After a moment of putting the bed together, Claire turns back toward Sherry. She’s pulling a Hello Kitty blanket out of a box on the floor of Leon’s closet.
“Hey, where did you find that?” Claire asks.
“It was coming out of the box and I wanted to get a closer look,” Sherry says, “It’s really fluffy.”
“Do you wanna go ask Leon if you can use it?”
Sherry nods, then runs out of the room. Claire looks at the contents left in the box. All of it looks like it belongs to a small child. Small clothes, kid toys, books with an early reading level. The theme of everything is Hello Kitty, Disney Princesses, or Barbie.
Why would Leon have this stuff?
Sherry runs back in, “Leon said I can use it!”
“Great, let’s get you settled,” Claire says, deciding to push the box out of her mind.
They get settled and Sherry snuggles up to Claire. Claire puts an arm around her and closes her eyes. Sleep comes quickly due to the lack of it recently. She wakes up to Sherry aggressively shaking her. When she looks at Sherry, Sherry gets up.
“Where are you going?” Claire asks, sitting up.
She follows Sherry downstairs, where Sherry starts shaking Leon.
“Sherry, he’s asleep!” Claire whisper-shouts.
Leon groans, then turns toward Sherry.
“I thought they got you,” Sherry whispers.
Leon repositions a little, then offers for her to sleep there. Sherry snuggles up to his side.
“If you don’t want to go back upstairs, you can join too,” Leon says, moving the blanket for emphasis.
Claire hesitantly joins them. She ends up staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out how the hell she ended up here. An arm wraps around her and Leon gently pulls Claire against him. She puts her head against him and she could have sworn that she heard him sigh in content. She smiles, but forces herself not to laugh in fear of him hearing it or it waking Sherry. The steady rising and falling of Leon’s chest and the faint sound of his heartbeat lull Claire to sleep.
(Leon) (The Night Before)
Leon walks down with the building, then starts pulling the pull-out bed. Fred grabs it and pulls it fully out.
“Take this with the entire cup of water,” he instructs, offering both to Leon.
“That obvious?” Leon asks as he takes the pills and water.
“Only for someone who knows you well. Which arm?”
“Left shoulder, but I’m handling it.”
“Mhmm. Get some rest, your mother’s coming tomorrow.”
Leon nods, then gets settled. Sleep comes quickly, but is riddled with nightmares that leave him restless. Shaking wakes him up and Sherry’s there.
Her voice is tight and breathless, “I thought they got you.”
Leon moves and Sherry settles down, resting against his side. He looks at Claire, moving the blanket.
“If you don’t want to go back upstairs, you can join.”
Claire hesitantly climbs in beside him, seeming tense. After a minute and against Leon’s better judgement, he pulls Claire against him. She relaxes and he sighs in relief. He ends up falling asleep due to the warmth and calm breathing.
(Next morning)
Leon wakes up with a warm heat pressed against him. He blinks his eyes open and sees a little bit of light coming in from a crack in the curtains. He turns his head and almost jumps. Claire’s there snuggled up to him and he’s got an arm around her, his hand above her waist. He contemplates getting up, then realizes there’s no way to do that without messing with his shoulder.
She stirs, so he closes his eyes. It takes a moment, but he feels her shift and gets up. He waits another moment before squinting his eyes open. Claire’s standing by the couch, putting up her hair.
“ ‘Morning,” Leon mumbles, so he doesn’t scare her.
She turns and gives him one of her sweet smiles. “Good morning. Thanks, for last night.”
“Anytime,” Leon promises, the words coming out before he has a chance to think about the implications of them.
Claire laughs, “I’ll hold you to that, Kennedy.”
Leon’s turn to laugh. He smiles at her and she returns it. She teasingly blows a kiss at Leon before going to the kitchen. Leon sits up and takes stock of his shoulder injury.
Better than before at least.
He gets up and hears voices in the kitchen. He goes in and Claire’s talking with Velma, his mom. Leon nods to the two before going to make coffee. Once it’s done, he heads to the back porch. Fred and Sherry are on the swing, talking about her parents. Leon feels a tinge of guilt at the mention, his mind flashing back to killing William and Anette being left in the facility to die.
(Claire)
Claire watches Leon, then looks back towards Velma. She quickly turns to do the dishes, but not before Claire sees the tears in her eyes.
“What?” Claire asks, “Did something happen?”
Velma shakes her head. Claire keeps trying to pry out of her what’s wrong, but she refuses to engage. Claire finally gives up and heads outside to talk to Leon instead. She stands beside Leon, who’s watching Fred and Sherry.
“There’s clothes upstairs you can have,” Leon says. “We can go through them whenever.”
“Something going on with you and your mom?”
Leon doesn’t look away from Fred and Sherry, just nods, “Yeah, but I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Okay, can we go look through those clothes? I need a shower.”
“Yeah.”
The two head inside and Leon leaves his mug on the counter, then takes Claire up to his room. He notices the box slightly pulled out of his closet. He kicks it back into the closet, then pulls a box down from the top. He puts it on his bed, so Claire starts looking through it. He puts a second box down next to the first one.
“Why do you have these?” Claire asks as she slips on the cut shirt over her tank top.
Leon smiles, but Claire can see the sadness in his eyes as soon as she looks at him. “They belonged to my sister… She passed away last year and I kept them to help cope.”
Claire pulls the cut shirt off and tosses it on the bed. “Why are you letting me have these then? I don’t think I can take them.”
“I was planning on getting rid of some of it. Better if I can give them to you then donate them. Can you tell Sherry that she can have the stuff in the box she pulled out? It was stuff Cassie kept so she could give them to her future kids.”
Claire holds her arms out, not wanting to hug him if he doesn’t want to. He goes over and wraps his arms around her. She rubs his back and he puts his head on her shoulder.
“Gosh, where were you when I really needed this?” Leon mutters.
“Probably at school,” Claire answers with a small laugh.
Leon chuckles before letting go of Claire. “I’m gonna leave you to try those on and see if my dad needs any help making breakfast.”
“Okay.” He gets to the door before she finishes. “Thank you, for trusting me with these.”
Leon gives her a smile and a small nod before heading out. She starts going through the second box and finds a lot of hand sewn clothes with lots of personality.
I would have liked Cassie.
(Leon)
Leon goes downstairs to find Fred and Sherry in the kitchen.
When Sherry hears him coming, she turns, “I’m the sou-chef.”
“I’ve been replaced by the cutest girl in the world,” Leon replies, giving Sherry the biggest smile he can muster.
Her smile gets bigger and brighter before she turns back toward the bowl on the counter.
Fred turns towards Leon and signs, “Do you actually feel replaced?”
Leon shakes his head, then notices that his coffee mug is gone. “Where’s my mug?”
“Your mom put it in the microwave so you could heat it up when you came back down.”
Leon checks to make sure the mug is in there, then starts it. Guilt gnaws at the corner of his mind since he knows that she did that because he didn’t properly address her earlier.
“Look, I made a Mickey Mouse pancake!” Sherry exclaims.
Leon thinks back to when Cassie did the same thing a couple weeks before she died and the guilt almost completely vanishes. He continues watching Fred and Sherry make silly looking pancakes. He hears the shower start, then heads into the living room to look at the paper. He’s looking over the real estate portion when a hand grabs his shoulder. He looks up and Claire’s there, her wet hair braided and wearing Cassie’s Green Day shirt.
“Whatcha looking at?”
“Looking for an apartment. Don’t want to overstay our welcome,” Leon answers, showing her the paper.
“Apartment hunting?” Claire echoes. “We just got here and we have no plans.”
“I figured that you could stay with Sherry until you’re up to looking for your brother again, then I’ll stay with her until you find him. After that, we can work something out.”
Claire seems a little surprised by the offer as she takes a seat next to him. “I go to school out of state.”
“Okay. Sign a shorter lease and I can move out there. Most of the time, places are always in need of cops,” Leon replies.
“You would do that?”
Leon nods, “I care about you two, so whatever’s best works for me.”
Claire shakes her head with a small laugh, “You’re insane.”
Leon shrugs. “Maybe.”
(Claire)
“Breakfast!” Fred calls out.
Leon gets up, “We can talk more later.”
Claire nods, then follows Leon into the kitchen. Fred and Velma are setting the table while Sherry’s pulling cups out.
“What can I help with?” Leon asks.
“You can help Sherry make drinks,” Fred answers. “Claire, can you bring some food to the table?”
Claire nods, then starts taking food to the table. The table finishes getting set and drinks are finished, so everyone sits down. They make plates, then start eating.
“Well Claire, what do you do for work?” Velma asks.
“Oh I work a little at the campus store sometimes, but I spend most of my time going to school. Thankfully, I got a scholarship so I don’t have to work too much.”
“How did you meet?” Fred asks.
Leon and Claire exchange a look.
“We met on the road to Raccoon City,” Claire answers. “We met Sherry in the city. Her parents…”
“No need to go into it further, I understand,” Fred says.
Claire nods, grateful.
“Do you guys have any plans?” Velma asks, trying to change the mood.
Claire shakes her head, “No. We need to talk things out since I still have to find my brother.”
Conversation flows naturally after that, Fred and Velma telling stories from when Leon was younger. While he looks embarrassed to have the spotlight pointed at him, he doesn’t try to stop them until they try to tell her about his first girlfriend in first grade. Claire laughs as Leon tries to explain why he doesn’t want them telling that story. Sherry seems fascinated by the whole scene playing out before her, smiling widely the whole time.
Once breakfast is over, Leon and Claire clean up while Velma and Sherry put away the leftovers. Leon washes the dishes and Claire dries them. They do this in comfortable silence until the task is done. After that, they go about the day.