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The karaoke bar was in one of the few parts of the city that still resembled a normal world. There were no bloodstains on the walls, no security alarms, no people carrying rifles over their shoulders. Instead, there were old neon lights, the smell of cheap alcohol, and music loud enough that, for a little while, you could pretend you didn’t live in a world full of bioterrorism.
And that was exactly why Jill insisted they come here.
“Just one night out.” she had said earlier with a perfectly straight face. “And I don’t want to hear excuses.”
From the very beginning, Chris looked like a man being led to his execution.
Leon, meanwhile, sat at the table with a drink in hand, looking like someone who had already surrendered psychologically hours ago.
Claire, on the other hand, was thrilled.
“Oh my God, they have karaoke!” she announced as if she’d just discovered the cure for cancer.
“Claire, no.” Leon said automatically.
“Claire, yes.” she corrected immediately.
Jill snorted softly into her glass.
Chris looked at Leon with the sympathy of a soldier watching his comrade walk into a minefield.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.” Leon muttered.
The first hour was relatively normal. Jill sipped whiskey while watching the people onstage with a mixture of amusement and suffering. Chris drank beer and looked like he desperately wanted to be literally anywhere else.
Claire and Leon… well.
The problem started with the shots.
“This was your idea.” Leon pointed out an hour later, gesturing toward the next round lined up in front of them.
Claire’s cheeks were flushed pink, and there was that familiar spark in her eyes that always meant trouble.
“Technically, Jill said you guys should loosen up a little.”
“Jill did not mean alcohol poisoning.”
“Don’t be boring.”
“I’m a federal agent. It’s part of my charm.”
Claire rolled her eyes and emptied the shot glass.
Leon watched her grimace at the taste for a moment.
“You know.” he said after a while. “You’re absolutely terrible at pretending you like alcohol.”
“And you’re absolutely terrible at pretending you’re not staring at me.”
Leon nearly choked on his drink.
Chris sighed heavily from across the table.
“They’re starting already.”
“Give them another twenty minutes.” Jill muttered. “Then one of them’s going to start flirting so openly the entire bar gets uncomfortable.”
“My bet’s on Claire.”
“I’m betting on both.”
Unfortunately, Jill won.
Twenty minutes later, Claire was practically glued to Leon’s side, laughing at something completely idiotic he had said.
And Leon? Leon was drunk in exactly the way that made him strangely soft. Normally controlled, tense, and professional, after a few drinks he started smiling more often, laughing louder, and looking at Claire like she was the only person in the room.
Which, honestly, was extremely irritating to witness.
“They really think they’re subtle.” Chris said.
“Leon’s looking at her like he’s writing poetry about her.” Jill replied.
“Oh God.”
Onstage, someone was brutally massacring a classic rock song so badly that a few people had started booing.
Claire suddenly lifted her head.
And that was the moment everything fell apart.
“Leon.”
“No.”
“But I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“I know, but I recognize that tone of voice.”
Claire grinned widely.
“Sing with me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Coward.”
“Claire.”
“Leon.”
“No.”
“Leon Scott Kennedy, I swear, if you don’t get on that stage with me…”
“Or what?”
Claire narrowed her eyes.
“I’ll tell everyone you cry during dog movies.”
Chris spat beer all over himself.
Leon looked at her with genuine betrayal.
“That happened one time.”
“Three.”
“Claire.”
“Four.”
“There weren’t even four movies.”
“Hachiko counts twice.”
Jill burst out laughing.
Leon covered his face with one hand.
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
And that was the worst part.
Because she said it lightly, with a drunken laugh in her voice. But Leon looked at her like, for one second, he had completely forgotten how to breathe.
Claire seemed to notice it too, because suddenly things got weirdly quiet. Chris looked between them with the expression of a man sensing an incoming natural disaster.
“Oh no.” he muttered.
Claire looked away first.
Then suddenly grabbed Leon’s hand.
“Come on.”
“Claire, don’t drag me…”
Too late.
She practically hauled him onto the stage to the cheers of several drunk people sitting at the bar.
Chris collapsed heavily into his chair.
“I want to die.”
“Five more minutes.” Jill said calmly. “Then it’s going to get really bad.”
Claire rushed to the song selection screen.
“Oooo.” she dragged out. “They have this one!”
Leon stood beside her with the expression of a man who had already accepted his fate.
“Claire, I’m begging you, pick something short.”
“Too late!”
The music started a second later.
Chris closed his eyes.
“No.”
“Oh yes.” Jill said, barely holding back laughter now.
Because of course Claire had picked an absurdly dramatic eighties love duet.
Leon stared at the screen.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I never joke about art.”
“Claire.”
“Leon. Microphone.”
She shoved it into his hand.
The first verses were a disaster.
Claire sang loudly, completely missing the key. Leon tried to preserve the last scraps of his dignity for about thirty seconds.
Then the alcohol won. Suddenly he started singing with her. Badly. Very badly. But with complete commitment.
“Oh my God.” Chris said, staring in horror as Leon Kennedy danced on a karaoke stage.
“You know what the worst part is?” Jill asked.
“What?”
“He looks like he’s actually having fun.”
And he did.
Claire was laughing so hard she could barely sing at times. Leon wrapped an arm around her during the chorus, completely drunk and flushed red from alcohol.
People in the bar started clapping along to the rhythm. Which was a mistake.
Because Claire immediately took it as encouragement.
“ONE MORE CHORUS!” she shouted.
“Claire, this isn’t a concert…”
But it was too late. The music started over again.
Leon was laughing so hard now he could barely stand upright.
Claire grabbed his hands and started spinning with him across the stage in the most ridiculous dance imaginable.
“You seriously can’t dance.” she wheezed between laughs.
“You’re seriously drunk.”
“So are you.”
“Slander.”
“Leon, you literally tried to moonwalk thirty seconds ago.”
“And I almost nailed it.”
“You almost broke your ankle.”
Chris buried his face in his hands.
“Never again. No more group outings.”
Jill had already started taking pictures with her phone.
“Oh no, I’m keeping these forever.”
Onstage, the situation kept getting worse.
Claire was practically pressed against Leon now, singing directly into his face.
Leon looked at her with that drunk, blurry smile that would look stupid on a normal person.
On him, it looked dangerously attractive.
And Claire was definitely noticing it.
“You have really pretty eyes.” she said.
Leon blinked.
“Claire…”
“No, seriously. Really pretty. Like… sad golden retriever vibes.”
Chris choked on his beer. Jill nearly fell off her chair laughing. Leon stared at Claire in absolute disbelief.
“Did you just compare me to a dog?”
“A pretty dog.”
“That does not help.”
Claire started laughing so hard she had to lean her head against his shoulder. And that was exactly the moment Leon made a mistake. Because instead of pulling away or preserving whatever common sense he had left…
He held her closer. Gently. Naturally. Like he’d been doing it for years.
Claire’s laughter faded a little too quickly. The music still played somewhere in the background, but neither of them was really hearing it anymore.
Chris looked at Jill.
“Oh no.”
“Mhm.”
Claire lifted her head. She was very close.
Definitely too close. Leon should have moved away. He really should have.
Instead, he looked at her lips.
Claire noticed immediately.
“Leon.”
“Hmm?”
“I think we’re drunk.”
“Very.”
“Is that bad?”
Leon stayed silent for one second too long.
“Probably.”
Claire looked at him for another moment. Then she kissed him first. The bar exploded into screaming. Chris slammed his forehead against the table.
“NO.”
Jill was laughing so hard she was nearly crying. Onstage, the situation completely spiraled out of control.
For the first second, Leon looked completely shocked. Then he kissed her back. And dear God.
Claire grabbed his jacket while Leon pulled her closer automatically, like he’d been doing it his entire life.
People started whistling and clapping.
Chris looked like he was losing the final remnants of patience he had left for the universe.
“I swear to God, I’m going to kill them.”
“You can’t kill them in public.” Jill said.
“Watch me.”
Onstage, Claire pulled away from Leon only to start laughing directly against his lips.
“Oh my God.”
Leon was laughing too.
“I think we just permanently damaged Chris psychologically.”
Chris stood up from the table.
“Yes. Definitely.”
Claire looked at him innocently.
“Chris! We’re singing.”
“No.”
“Chris, come on!”
“I’d rather die.”
Leon, completely drunk, pointed the microphone at him.
“Has he always been like this?”
“Since birth.” Claire answered.
Chris climbed onto the stage with the expression of a man marching into war.
“Alright. Enough. You’re getting off.”
“Tyranny.” Claire muttered.
“Claire.”
“Chris.”
“Don’t use my tone against me.”
Leon tried to look serious.
It failed.
“Agent Redfield.” he said in a deadly serious voice. “We are artists.”
Jill was literally folding in half laughing at the table.
Chris looked at Leon like he was considering violence.
“Kennedy.”
“Redfield.”
“Get off the stage.”
“You cannot silence true art.”
“I can throw you off this stage.”
Claire suddenly grabbed Chris by the shoulders.
“Chris.”
“What.”
“I love you.”
Chris instantly short-circuited.
“…what?”
Claire smiled drunkenly.
“You’re the best brother in the world.”
Chris sighed heavily.
And right then Leon made another mistake.
“I love you too, Chris.”
Jill fell out of her chair.
Chris closed his eyes.
“God, give me strength.”
Leon was completely relaxed now, laughing like an idiot. Claire snuggled against his side again.
“Chris is jealous.”
“Of what?”
“That you’re prettier.”
“Claire.” Chris groaned.
“What? It’s true.”
Leon looked at Chris with deeply drunken offense.
“I knew it.”
“Get. Off. The. Stage.”
Claire suddenly snatched the microphone from Chris.
“WE DEDICATE THIS SONG TO CHRIS REDFIELD, WHO HAS NEVER KISSED ANYONE IN HIS LIFE…”
“CLAIRE.”
The entire bar roared with laughter.
Jill nearly suffocated.
Chris looked like he was considering detonating the building.
Leon literally collapsed against Claire from laughing so hard.
“Oh my God.” he wheezed.
Claire’s face was completely red from alcohol and laughter.
Chris ripped the microphone out of her hands.
“That’s it. We’re leaving.”
“But I want one more song…”
“No.”
“One tiny one.”
“Claire.”
Leon raised his hand.
“I want one more too.”
Chris pointed a finger at him.
“You don’t get to speak.”
“Brutal.”
Jill finally walked up to the stage, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
“Alright, Romeo and Juliet. Time to go home.”
Claire looked at Leon.
“We’re Romeo and Juliet?”
“Technically, they died.”
“Romantic.”
“Very.”
Chris grabbed Leon by the jacket.
“Move.”
Leon looked at Claire again. And he did that thing again. That soft look. That complete disarming warmth.
Claire instantly went quiet. Jill noticed first. Chris a second later.
“You look pretty when you laugh.”
Claire froze.
“Oh no.”
“Oooooo.”
Claire stared at him for several seconds, visibly trying to remember how breathing worked.
“Do you seriously say things like that when you’re drunk?”
Leon shrugged with drunken honesty.
“I think things like that sober too. I just have a better filter then.”
Claire literally covered her face with her hand.
“Oh my God.”
Chris looked like he wanted to walk through a wall.
“Get me out of here.”
Leon smiled at Claire even wider.
“You’re blushing.”
“Shut up.”
“It’s cute.”
Claire kissed him a second time.
Chris immediately turned around.
“I DO NOT WANT TO SEE THIS.”
Jill smacked his shoulder.
“Too late.”