more jake/sherry wooooooo
got the idea from the fact that every outfit sherry has ever been shown wearing has blue on it somewhere
also somehow the word doc ended up being exactly 1,700 words (or at least that's what ao3 tells me i'm to lazy and sleepy too look rn)
EDIT: WOW i missed a lot of editing stuff here ;; note to self, don't upload fanfics when lacking sleep anymore
They spent their first date learning, figuring out what made the other tick, and Sherry couldn't help but want to laugh at how you could trust someone with your life without even knowing their favorite food or what their middle name was. Jake being a stranger to the area, and Sherry not desiring to go anywhere particularly fancy, the two ended up sitting across from each other at a small café on the corner, a place that Claire had taken her to when she had first been released from the government's custody. It wasn't very well known, but she enjoyed the sense of privacy from being the only two people seated outside, even with the cold, sharp December air leaving a reddish hint to her cheeks.
She felt Jake's eyes on her when she took another packet of sugar from the container on the table, hearing him let out a scoff as she poured it into her cup. "Is there even any coffee left in that mug anymore?" He chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "If you were going to put so much of that sweet crap in it, you should have just asked for hot chocolate or something."
"Not all of us like to pour liquid tar down our throat like you do, Jake." She quipped before taking a sip, earning a smirk from the mercenary that made her smile back in reply. "You still haven't answered my question, by the way."
"My favorite food? Huh, I thought I would have told you by now." Jake shrugged. "Guess those kinda things slip my mind when I have J'avo breathing down my neck every five seconds. Apples, by the way."
Wrapping her hands around her cup, trying to retain the semblance of warmth still left in her drink, she blinked back at him. "Oh, yeah. You were eating one while we were talking on the phone the other day." He had just finished a mission; she could still remember the splatter of blood that had stained the front of his shirt (and how she had nearly panicked until he reassured her that it really, really was only the J'avo's and not his).
She had a feeling that he hadn't been telling the complete truth, but she kept it to herself.
A flake of snow drifted delicately into Sherry's mug, a speck of white against the creamy-brown liquid before melting away. Lifting her gaze to the clouds above, the agent tilted her head slightly. It seemed that the weather report earlier had been correct about the coming snow.
A hand waved in her line of sight, making her attention jerk back to the mercenary on the other side of the table. He looked amused. "Earth to super girl. I'm still here, you know." Sherry swatted his hand away playfully, feeling a little embarrassed that he had noticed her distraction. "I believe it's now my turn to ask a question?"
"Ask away then." Sherry took another quick drink of her coffee, expecting to meet Jake gaze when she set her cup now only for his to turn away as he rubbed under his chin in thought. She wondered if he also noticed he did that whenever he was considering something.
A faint smile played across his features. Even though smiling was something that he seemed to do considerably more now, especially when he was in her company, Sherry still couldn't stop herself from watching the way his facial muscles relaxed, how his grin seemed to grow slightly wider when he noticed her wandering eyes. The fingers of his other hand tapped rhythmically against the table. "Got a favorite color?"
A simple question, and Sherry didn't have to think long to come up with the answer. "Light blue." She reached up to touch the fabric of the scarf wrapped around her neck, so much like the one she had worn when she had first met him in Edonia.
His brow raised, like he had seen some change in her expression she didn't notice, and she was able to tell what he was going to say before he spoke out loud. "Any particular reason why?"
"Well, I've always like the color, even when I was really young." She mused the explanation as she thought of it, memories coming to the surface. "Not light blue specifically though – at least, not at first."
She sat back for a moment, lost in her thoughts. "My parents would work for days on end in that laboratory in Raccoon City. That's how it felt when I was a kid, anyway. We never really went out together all that much. On those days that we did go somewhere as a family, it was usually the park just a few blocks away." She felt herself smile softly at the thought. "I'd lay on my back against the grass and watch the clouds roll across the bright blue sky. I missed being able to see the sky. It was all I could think about when…"
She froze when she realized where her train of thought was going, but it still didn't stop her when she mumbled her next words. "When I was – um… Under the custody of the U.S. government."
The silence lasted for what felt like years. Something flickered in Jake's eyes, but Sherry had already looked away, down at the snow forming a thin layer on the sidewalk beside them.
They never talked about it; at least, not since their detainment in China. She preferred it to be something unspoken, even with the people who knew full well the experimentation she had undergone. But that didn't disregard how those years had shaped her life. She suddenly felt sick, overwhelmed with a cold feeling of – what?
Dread at the thought that she'd never be able to escape the memories, even though it had been years since what had happened?
No, it's deeper than that. A tiny voice spoke in the back of her mind. It's always been deeper than that.
It was situations like this, when she was living like everyone else, that painfully reminded her of… just how abnormal she felt. The nightmares she still had, the fact she looked ten years younger than she actually was, bringing up memories of the time she was a human lab rat when everyone else she knew at that time was attending school, going out with friends… things she never really got to experience.
All because of her virus.
"It's really important to you, huh?"
Jake's voice suddenly jarred her from her thoughts, startling her slightly. When she found his eyes again, they were no longer questioning. The softness of his expression, normally so sharp and closed off from others, caught her off guard. "What?" Trying to collect herself, Sherry blurted the first word that came to her mind.
He must have seen how uncomfortable she was, on her face, in her body language, because after a moment's pause he only waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." He assured her, and Sherry realized that he was backing away from the subject. Silently, she thanked him.
"Anything you wanna ask me, super girl?"
The conversation went on forgotten, even after Sherry went back to work and Jake once again left to return to his life as a mercenary. The cold winter weather melted away to the warmth of spring, and she was happy to final see the world go back to normalcy after the panic of the C-Virus outbreak only about a year before. She did have to admit that paperwork definitely didn't have the same appeal that field missions had, though.
Staring at the brightly lit screen of her laptop, the agent gave the clock on her desktop another glance with tired, half-closed eyes. 3:03 A.M. Outside her window, through her thin curtains, the moon still hung high in the sky, surrounded by stars.
Long nights weren't new to her, but after the constant adrenaline rushes of her mission to locate the son of Wesker, the boredom was definitely a lot harder to deal with.
Right as she started to drift off sitting up, the jingle of her phone sounded by the side of her computer. Mind hazy with sleep, Sherry rubbed her eyes, leaning forward to pick it up. Who would be contacting her at all at this hour?
Seeing the alert was for a picture message, she tapped it open, brow furrowing when she noticed Jake's name. She knew that he was halfway around the world from where she was; something he had shared with her during a recent phone call. Even though they were in completely different time zones, surely he knew how late it was for her right now? She let out a laugh. Maybe he could sense I'd still be awake at this hour.
Then she saw what he had sent her. Staring at her screen, a beautiful photo of the daytime sky shone back at her, a few puffy white clouds floating on the horizon, with no trees or telephone poles obstructing the view. At first, she was confused. Why…?
A few short sentences were tagged on underneath the picture. The sky here looks amazing. Made me think of you.
And then Sherry remembered everything. She knew exactly why Jake had sent her that photo. She heard his words as if he had only said them to her a few days ago.
"It's really important to you, huh?"
Emotions welled up in her chest, leaving her smiling without even noticing it. It took her a moment to write back her response.
Thank you, Jake.
She couldn't think of any other way to express it; how much it meant to her. But she knew Jake would understand.
Setting her phone down, Sherry went back to her work with new energy. For the rest of the night, that smile never left her face.
Across the world, Jake waited, the light of the sun reflecting in his eyes until they were the same shade of blue at the sky above. When he read her reply, those three words, his grin grew wider.
Glad that they were alive under the same sky.