Hello all! Once again, it has been awhile ( I will never get used to saying that ) since anyone here has heard from me.. BUT! I'm once again popping back up into existence to start another fic. This one will be a story about a rarepair I've had for the longest time, I've been plotting this story for a while actually. I've never had the guts to write about them until now.. mostly because I'm afraid of people screaming at me because of it. I've gathered up the courage to do it though, so here it is! I plan on it being as slow burn as I can make it, depends on my level of patience as each chapter goes on. Also, I apologize if Jake seems a bit out of character, it's been a while since I wrote him so I'm a bit rusty, hopefully I'm not too bad with him!

Also, please don't send me hate for this not being about certain other ships. Thank you.

( Also, see what I did with the title and Moira's name? teehee. )

Enjoy!


"Did you really have to drag me to this shit-fest?" The eldest Burton sister whined from the passenger seat of the car, hand reaching down to click the button to unbuckle herself as the car rolled into a parking space. A chuckle could be heard from the driver's seat, causing Moira to cast a cold glare right at Claire. "I'm serious, you know I don't do parties anymore." She added on, then let her head fall back on the seat's head cushion.

"This isn't a party, this is a meet up at a bar. Come on, Chris is waiting in there already, Barry said he'd be a little late." Claire tried her best to enthuse Moira about the gathering, but the young woman wouldn't budge from her position.

"I heard Chris is bringing a few people.. You could meet someone, you do need to get out there." Second attempt and still no movement was made by the young Burton. The older woman hummed in thought for a moment, her lips pursing and features forming a pout. Moira knew that look all too well, it's the same look Claire would give whenever Moira or Polly became rowdy and defiant as kids.

"..Nobody'll judge you if you get a few drinks."

Third attempt, Moira's already getting out of the car, which left Claire to put on a smug grin to show off her victory.

Neither woman spoke another word while they strolled into the already noisy establishment. Despite any attempt at cheering Moira up, she still walked in with quite the sour look. If this was any other day, perhaps she would be happy to be there, but now she's annoyed. She made it clear that she didn't want to get out today, her new job took so much energy out of her. When her family caught wind of her day off, however, they demanded she joined them for a meet up. The bar they planned on going to always had movie showings going on the weekends and for that night, they had scheduled the Jurassic Park movies to play ( including the newest one ). They pulled her straight into that so she could have some fun..

Well, the sister Redfield and a few others did. Barry only wanted to spend time with his daughter, which Moira happily obliged to doing if it could be anywhere else. Hell, she'd even be up to going to a shooting range or something ( don't get her wrong, she LOVES Jurassic Park, but would prefer somewhere else to watch ).

The bar, much to Moira's surprise, was a lot larger on the inside than she judged it to be on the outside. The dark wood bar counter spanned across the right side wall, stopping at the back with a round corner ending it. Meanwhile, the left seemed to be split into three different sections; your typical seating area with multiple tables and two or three little booths at the front, a gaming/pool table area in the back, and in the middle of the two, screened off and darkly lit, seemed to be the space where the movie watching would be taking place.. though, judging from how there were multiple rugs covering the floor and how the lights on top were covered up, this section was meant to be a dance floor.

Even with that, it's.. decent, not as bad of a place as the young Burton expected. She still didn't like it, though.

Despite the building's big size, Chris' build made it easy for him to find. All Claire and Moira had to do was take one good look at the pool table section, and there he stood, watching more so than waiting for his turn to hit the ball next. With the eldest Redfield stood four other men, three of which Moira recognized from the short time she's been in the BSAA, but the other one.. his face appeared familiar, but she couldn't remember him. In fact, after a quick observation, he certainly didn't look like he fit in with the group he hung out with. He stuck out like a sore thumb.

Whatever, she thought, He probably got dragged in here like I did. Poor guy.

"Hey, Chris!" Claire called as they approached. "I see you started the party without us, you couldn't wait a few more minutes?" The youngest Redfield sibling joked before walking up to her brother to give him a quick hug in greeting. Once they finished, he made sure to reach towards Moira to pull her into a side hug. She happily complied, though she put on an act like he was choking her, he in turn put her in a headlock and ruffled her hair as a brother would his sister. To which everyone laughed, save for the bald-headed man she has yet to meet, he just smirked at the two out of amusement.

"More like they couldn't wait a few minutes." He continued after letting Moira go.

"Bullshit! You jumped at the idea, Redfield." One of them objected.

"Who suggested it?" He countered, staring pointedly.

"Sure as hell wasn't me."

"Alright alright, let's forget that." Claire interjected, a few light hearted chuckles managing to escape. "Chris, aren't you going to introduce us? Who did you bring along?"

"Oh, right." Chris cleared his throat, then started pointing out everyone in the group he gathered. "Claire, Moira, meet Kevin, James, Hal, and.." He paused for a moment at the bald headed fellow, who cocked an eyebrow at the brief, awkward silence. It almost looked as if the eldest Redfield was starting to regret something just then, but after a moment, Chris shook his head and went on. "Jake. He's from out of the country, just moved here a week ago actually."

"Oh, I believe I've heard about you, nice to put a face to the name. Welcome to the US." Claire seemed a little off as she stared at her brother for that first bit she uttered, but still proceeded to welcome Jake. "How do you like it here so far?"

"It's something to get used to, Americans are fucking weird." He shrugged, leaning on the pool stick he had. "I got here the day before the 4th of July, you can imagine my damn surprise at all the fireworks."

"Oh god, you picked a bad time to move in."

"Tell me about it."

As the others talked amongst each other, Moira stayed quiet, her piqued curiosity causing her to go into observation mode. So instead of joining in on the conversation, she studied Jake for a short time. Something about him just.. made her feel weird. His stature made him appear to be laid back, calm and collected, his facial features held a smirk and an overall smartass look to them, and.. Okay, she's not gonna deny the fact that he was actually pretty good looking, but that wasn't it.

Suddenly, a bellowing voice broke through the loud talking that echoed throught the establishment, jolting her out of her thoughts and back into the real world.

"Hey, kiddos. Sorry if I kept everyone waiting." Barry's deep voice greeted before he pulled Moira into the typical Burton bear hug. She jumped out of pure surprise at the hug, but soon acted accordingly in an attempt to hide her shock. It seemed as if it worked as he ruffled the hair at the top of her head and let go of her so he could go hug his two other 'kids'. Shit, she wouldn't be surprised if he didn't notice, he looked like he had a lot on his mind already. He WAS supposed to have a talk with Natalia's homeroom teacher, maybe something happened.

"It hasn't been that long, Moira and I got here a few minutes ago."

"Really? I was thinking you'd all be drunk before I could walk through the door." Barry joked.

"Some of us were actually trying to get there." The man that Chris pointed out as Kevin lifted his bottle of beer with a cheeky grin.

"You won't be getting anywhere near there with weak shit like that." James laughed, starting a bit of light bickering between them as Kevin took his turn at the table.

"You look like you need a drink yourself, Pops." Moira ignored the squabblers as they argued, turning to her father as she was more interested in seeing how the meeting went. She always kept herself up to date with how her youngest sister was doing, so this subject was bound to come up sooner or later. Plus, Barry didn't look all that impressed, he usually had a proud gleam in his eyes after a PTA meeting for Natalia.. but right now it appeared as if he'd been holding back for fear of spilling his guts. "I take it teach wasn't happy?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Well? What about?"

"She said Nat's been acting weird around the other kids lately." While talking to Moira, Barry lowered his voice a tad. A sigh passed through his nostrils when he paused, his eyes rolling as the memory of what the teacher said played in his head. "She hasn't been paying attention in class either, apparently she's spacing out a lot."

"Did she say anything about her grades?"

"Nope, her grades are all A's and B's."

"I also take it the teacher avoided talking about how the other students are treating her?"

"That's the part that pisses me off," Barry huffed. "She said that any bullying she's witnessed was instigated by the kid."

"That's a load of fucking horse-shit." Moira's face formed a scowl, her eyebrows furrowing. God, that entire school should be thanking it's lucky stars that Moira wasn't there for this talk, she would have raised all sorts of hell just hearing that. She's very protective over her sisters, almost more-so than Barry is with all three of them. "Nat would never do such a thing, she gasps if she so much as steps on a flower!"

"I know! If you ask me, it sounds like the bitch is playing favorites with the class.. She was all coo-ey when she talked about one of the other kids."

"Ugh, I hated that kind of shit back in high school.."

"-Hey, Barry." Their conversation was cut short by Claire, who chose to speak up after watching the two talk for a bit. "Do you know what time the movies start up? I'd ask the bartender but I haven't seen him since we got here."

"Oh, uh.." Barry had to think for a second to try and remember what the flyer said. "..Somewhere around six o'clock? Seven, maybe?"

"It's almost that time now, they should be announcing the start any minute." As if on cue, said announcement blared out through the speakers overhead. The lights dimmed a little with it, signalling the fact that the beginning of the movies was imminent. When Moira went to call the guys away from their game, she found that all but one had already put up their pool sticks, leaving the table deserted in favor of the seats in front of the screen. The only one standing there was Jake, he had his back leaning against the surface while his thumbs fiddled with his phone. The face he made at it's screen gave the impression that he wasn't too thrilled with whoever was texting him, so Moira decided it best to leave him be.

"We'll talk more about this later, okay?" Barry whispered when he turned back to Moira. "It's family time, now let's get some seats."

"You go ahead and catch up with Chris and Claire, I'm gonna watch from the bar for a bit."

"You sure?" He quirked a brow at her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, go spend time with them." With a wave of Moira's hand, the two went in different directions. Barry went to take a seat next to Claire, and Moira went to take her own seat at the bar.

About an hour later, Moira still held her spot at the bar counter. Her back pressed against the edge of the bar, her elbows propped on either side of her for support, and in her hand was a glass of whiskey she'd been sipping on for a few minutes now. She already had about three small glasses as the movie progressed, so she took her time with this one.

She wanted to be buzzed, not completely shitfaced, not with family around.

"..I don't know if you know this, but I think you're supposed to be watching the movie over there."

A voice popped up out of nowhere, but with Moira in a buzz because of the alcohol, she didn't jump at all. She only tilted her head to the source of the voice, prying her eyes away from the screen just to see Jake standing a few feet away. This made her lift her head a little more out of surprise, she didn't expect him to join her instead of the people he supposedly came here with.. but that's not to say she was gonna complain. He seemed okay enough, like he'd make good company to drink with, so she wasn't going to tell him off.. yet.

If he tries anything funny.. may God have mercy on him.

"I can see it just fine from here." She shrugged, taking another sip before placing the glass next to her. "Why aren't you over there? If you're here for a hook up, I don't do shit like that."

"No hook-ups, I swear, I just wanted to order a drink and get my ass back over there, but.." He gestured to the general surroundings, plopping down in the stool next to her's. "..On second thought, I think I'll follow your lead, this might be the best seat in the house. It's got booze, I can see the screen, and it's quiet.."

"Was the big bearded guy talking all the way through?" Moira asked, holding back a smirk as she figured her father would be the culprit.

"How'd you guess?"

"That's my dad. I love him, but he can be fucking annoying.."

"He wouldn't shut up for one second."

"Yep, he's got what we call foot in mouth syndrome.." She chuckled at her own comment, while Jake let an amused look appear on his face. "Now do you get why I've been here since the movie started?"

"Kinda, yeah."

They fell into silence for a few minutes, both sets of eyes glued to the screen. That is, until the bartender showed up to offer Jake a drink, then fill Moira's glass up by request. Icy blues widened at the label of Moira's choice of drink; fireball whiskey. Not the typical drink a young woman such as herself would get.. He liked it, though. She certainly wasn't a girly girl by any definition of the word. No, judging based on the mere minutes he's known her, he's suspecting she's a tough cookie, a cute little badass pixie more like. He actually kind of admired that in a girl.

"Holy fuck, Fireball? Unexpected for a cute pixie like you, but nice."

Wait, he thought, did I just admit to that-

"Call me cute again, and we're not gonna get along so fucking well." She glared daggers at the utterance of the word.

"Alright, sorry." Knowing better than to cross boundaries with a lady, he raised his hands up in defense, though his features held yet another tinge of humor to them. Yep, definitely a badass pixie. He'd have to remember that nickname if they ever met again after this.. that hairstyle she has will make for a massive reminder. "Would you prefer badass pixie?"

"That's a lot fucking better." The sour expression on her features changed as soon as that little smirk etched itself into her lips. Now he's starting to get it.

"I thought so." Nickname confirmed.

The bartender arrived with his drink just then, which he grabbed and took a giant swig out of. Moira raised an eyebrow at the action, though she didn't question it. She was doing the same with her first drink, sometimes you need that little rush from going bottom's up with a bottle of booze in order to stay sane.. especially with the group they're here with.

He then took on the same kind of position she did. He turned in his stool, put both elbows on the counter, then stretched his legs out before lazily letting his ankles land on the floor. Her legs may be too short to reach the bottom in this chair, but his were long enough to hit the floor.

"Say, you're probably the sanest person in here.." He began with a sigh. "..do you think you could explain all of.." He pointed to the screen. "That? I only got to see the first one, and don't get me wrong it was fucking great, but.."

"You seriously haven't seen the rest of them?" This took Moira by surprise, she even sat up a little in her seat out of curiosity.

"Nope, I didn't exactly get to see that many movies when I was a kid.."

"Well, shit. Now's your chance to see them, what are you confused about?"

They then settled into a flow of questions and answers. Jake would throw some weird question about certain scenes in the first movie after the scene played in front of them, and Moira would calmly ( yet, somehow excitedly ) whisper her explanation to him as best as she could. She had no idea why he hasn't seen the movies until now, but because she knew she had no business asking him about it, she let it slide. She didn't mind it either, she secretly loved these movies, and will gladly introduce them to anyone who hadn't witnessed them.

"-Oh, oh! The raptor scene, I forgot about this!"

"Raptor scen-?"

"Shh!" She shushed him, pointing to the screen with a strange childish glee at it. She was more happy about the childhood memories this scene had brought up, memories about her and her family gathered around the couch watching old shows.. memories from before her life went to shit for a time. She cherished them with all her heart.

"Y'know, my sister used to scream and hide because of that one." She spoke up after those few moments had passed. "I think she thought raptors were still alive back then."

"No shit? How old were you?"

"We were just tiny kids, she didn't know better, but I thought it was fucking funny."

"You were a bad sister, weren't you?"

"I was good where it counted."

"Sure you were, sure you were.."

"Oh come on, I did a lot of shit for her. The other kids on the playground were too scared to mess with her because of me."

That made Jake chuckle this time, after that little exchange, they went back into the routine they were in previously. As the whispering conversation went on, even Jake started to be giddy with the subject. He was actually loving the movies.. and he was, perhaps, starting to like the guide he had around to explain them.. up until Claire called Moira to come sit next to her. Both of them groaned for a second, Moira kicking her legs like a child before she finally stood up from her bar stool.

"Sorry, family's calling. Think you can watch this on your own?" She teased.

"I think I can manage."

"Good, I'll see you later then.."

"-Oh, before you go." He brought his phone out from his back pocket. A quick frown showed itself when he saw the text notifications he received, but he paid no mind to them once he went to his contacts. "Can I have your number?" He asked straight up, then realized how weird it was to ask without reason, so he swiftly followed it up with; "-I might ask you to tag along if I go to anymore of these things."

"Oh, uh.. Sure." She was a little taken back by the sudden request, but still obliged. Normally, when asked that, she just scoffed and walked off.. but for Jake, she was actually starting to warm up to Jake as a friend. She pulled her own phone out of her pocket so they could exchange digits, then cracked a grin as she put her cellphone back in it's place. "Okay, well.. If I don't see you again before I leave. See you later."

"You too, have fun." He waved his hand at her, doing his best to go back to his usual stoic demeanor.. and hide the blood that tried to rush to his cheeks at his own forwardness. He usually acted so cool around any girl he met, hell, even with Sherry he rarely so much as blushed.. but this girl. This girl made him feel different from the get-go. He couldn't figure out why, either! Gah, maybe it's just the fucking booze getting to me. He cursed to himself.

She gave him a half-assed salute in return, then turned to go join with a very suspicious Claire. The Redfield sister tried to get a few words out of her about the two's conversation, but Moira did not budge, only stating that he was a friend, and that she should watch the movie instead of worrying. Defeated, Claire gave a sigh and brought her attention back to the screen. She'll just have to ask later..


And there you have it! The first chapter in a possibly lengthy fic. I hope to have the next chapter of this and my other fic ( Two Against The World ) out by next week or the week after. My schedule might be getting busier by then so, no promises. Hope you all enjoy and please leave a comment if you want to.