wanted to finish this before valentine's day but you know how it is :'D

happy late valentine's day everyone |D


Having been stuck to an incredibly strict schedule for so long, Sherry was naturally an early riser. Even after becoming an agent for the U.S. government, it wasn't uncommon for her to be up during the wee hours of the morning, shuffling through her apartment with coffee in hand, wearily working on some report or another. Before, she would groan at the sound of her alarm clock ringing, looking out the window only to see that the sun hadn't even appeared in the horizon just yet.

After Jake had come back into her life, however, Sherry found that didn't mind mornings one bit.

There were still many days that she was only able to get a few hours of sleep, of course; it was just the nature of her job. There were times, however, when there would be no alarm to wake her, no supervisor on the phone demanding Sherry to come to their office only to receive yet another assignment. On those days, the blonde girl would blink open her sleepy blue eyes to the bright sunlight dappling across her face and pillow, with the relaxing warmth of Jake's chest pressed against the curve of her back. This being one of those days, Sherry felt a blissful smile curl her lips, and she snuggled further into the embrace of the still sleeping mercenary. A contented sigh left her.

Some days, she still couldn't believe that he was here with her. After the C-Virus outbreak had been settled, Sherry simply had to convince herself that they were probably never going to see each other again. It was easier that way, to get back to her old life… back to normal. But she knew that, deep inside, it would be impossible to do so.

Jake had given Sherry something that she hadn't realized she had been missing, and she just couldn't let it go. She couldn't let him go.

Even months after the incident, having had no contact with Jake since China, she couldn't stop herself from dialing his number after a particularly stressful day at work. She knew she could have called Claire, or Leon, but something within her longed to hear his voice again… to see his face, even if it was just on a screen. He was a harsh man, stubborn as a mule and more prideful than anyone she had ever met, but she also trusted him in a way different from anything she had felt before.

One thing led to another after that day, until Jake showed up on her doorstep around a month ago. He never stayed for long; being as restless as he was, he would usually leave for a new job within sometimes even a week of arriving… but he always seemed to come back when Sherry needed him most.

Their relationship was far from the traditional formula, but Sherry wouldn't have it any other way.

Letting herself drowse in Jake's arms, Sherry relaxed her body once more, drifting between the waking world and the lingering feeling of dreams that had yet to let her go. Feeling safe and secure was still a struggle for her, ever since what happened to her in Raccoon City (including the years of experimentation that followed her rescue), and no matter what she was doing there was just no way for her to not feel on edge at all times. She tried to blame it on her training, but it was the nightmares that woke her in a cold sweat that proved otherwise. There was no other way to look at it: Sherry was terrified of going back to being a test subject, where she was an object of fascination rather than a person, all because of the virus that lived on in her body. She had been made an agent so abruptly in the middle of their examinations, she just couldn't let the idea go.

No one could ever really sympathize with her fear; not even Claire. No one except Jake. Having completely virus resistant blood was the reason why Neo Umbrella had wanted him in the first place and for that reason only. He had experienced exactly what it was like to be treated like a caged lab rat.

Sherry found they were similar in a lot of ways she'd never thought about.

Feeling the fog in her head start to clear, Sherry turned in Jake's grasp, turning her pale eyes upward to watch Jake. He still slept quite peacefully, despite her movement only a few moments before, looking undisturbed. Smiling softly, the blonde agent ran her fingers over the arm he had wrapped around her waist, happy at seeing him so at ease.

She wasn't the only one with nightmares to face, after all.

The sound of rumbling against the wooden nightstand beside them almost make Sherry fall of the bed, her head jerking toward the sound. After realizing that maybe her morning wouldn't be as relaxing as she thought, the blonde agent sighed and twisted around to reach for it… only to feel the arm around her torso tug her back.

"It's too early for this, super girl…" A deep voice, raspy with sleep, groaned in her ear.

It seems Jake wasn't as asleep as she had thought.

Sighing, although with a smile on her face, Sherry wriggled in his grip. "Come on, Jake, it might be something important – "

" – Not as important as relaxing in bed with me – "

"If it's one of my superiors, I could get in trouble for being late – "

"Even though you get there on the dot every other day of the week – "

"Jake!" Sherry giggled, feeling Jake grin against the back of her neck. "You know that I'd ignore it if I could, but I always have to be ready to head over there for any reason…"

She trailed off when she felt the mercenary now start to press butterfly kisses all up and down her shoulders and neck. She shivered a bit before noticing Jake breaking the silent pause. "Yeah? What if I showed a better reason to stay here?"

"J-Jake…!" Now Sherry tried to sound stern, but when she felt Jake's fingers graze her inner thigh her words faded into a gasp. "You can't…"

His breath was warm against her ear. "You really need to lighten up, super girl…" He let his touch travel further up her leg, Sherry quickly losing the will to struggle free. "Let yourself enjoy life once in a while, yeah?"

"You make it sound like I'm a complete workaholic." She still couldn't help herself from arguing back, even when she bit her lip to hold back the soft moan that tried to escape. "Is it really so hard for you to keep your hands to yourself?"

"When I'm with my super girl?" She could feel Jake's smirk. "What can I say? I just can't help myself around you."

Work's been slow, anyway.

Closing her eyes, Sherry relinquished herself to his taunting actions, letting out a soft sigh as he kept going further, and further…

Until his other hand abruptly jabbed into her stomach, tickling her relentlessly and without warning.

Twisting around, Sherry scrabbled at his hand, trying to break free but becoming helpless as she broke into waves of giggling laughter. She simultaneously hated him for teasing her when she wanted him so badly, but loved him for doing something that would come so naturally to other's in the same sort of relationship. It made her forget the barriers that kept them from doing things like this all of the time.

In the chaos of sensations, Sherry could only try to push the mercenary away in vain, her stomach starting to hurt from his assault. Breathless and flushed, the blonde girl found herself lying with her back to the messy sheets and pillows, watching Jake's face as he loomed over her, both hands holding him up on either side of her. He looked so warmly at her, so relaxed and happy and Sherry held one hand to his cheek, feeling the mark of his scar against her fingertips.

She remembers when he told her about the cause of his long-healed injury, during a time when he was much too young to be holding a gun but had already killed more people that he could count. His hands had been stained with blood long ago, but so had hers. And their hands now reached for each other, touching and caressing and loving each other in ways words couldn't describe.

Pressing his lips to the column of her throat, Sherry let out a hiss of breath as Jake's fingers finally made contact with the area that had been aching for his touch from the beginning. They had only done this a handful of times, but she was sure that he knew her body so intimately by now that no one would ever be able to compare. He quickly fell into what he knew worked best, what she loved, his thumb slowly circling her clit while his index finger thrust into her with almost painfully slow care. She felt as though every nerve ending was on fire, her nails flexing into his back, whimpering against his shoulder every time he brushed against a particularly sensitive area. "Jake…" His name left her lips in a whisper, her hips jerking even closer to him, electricity tingling down her spine.

"I'm here. Talk to me, super girl." He murmured in reply, his voice almost a growl, low and husky.

Sherry squirmed when he leaned in closer, kissing the corner of her mouth at the same moment she moaned quietly. She opened her eyes, trying to find Jake's, fire thrumming beneath her skin with every beat of her heart. Losing herself in his bright blue gaze, she wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing his forehead against hers as she smiled at him through her shallow breaths.

"I should sk… skip work more o-often!" She shuddered as she broke off, Jake chuckling at her attempt to joke and kissing his laughter against her lips, and Sherry once again found herself in amazement that only a few months before, they had been complete strangers to one another. Now, more and more with every visit, she wished that Jake wouldn't leave so soon after arriving.

Maybe even that he would never leave at all.

Quickening his pace, Sherry cried out much more loudly than before, the tension in her body building until it was almost unbearable. She turned from side to side, clawing at the bed sheets, Jake catching her hand in his unoccupied one and wreathing their fingers together against the mattress. She was close, so close, she could feel it in the curling of her toes and the pounding of her heart, so loud she was sure that Jake could hear every beat. "J-Jake, I-I can't - !"

Leaving a trail of kisses up to her ear, Jake nuzzled against her skin, stroking her hand with his thumb even as she arched up against him. "I know, Sherry, I gotcha." Now, even he groaned a little. "Jesus, super girl, you're driving me crazy over here..."

Unable to hold back any longer, Sherry gave in to her climax, breathing against Jake's neck as she shivered and contracted around him. His name fell from her lips over and over, like a mantra, riding on the high of her orgasm until she fell back against the bed, panting, the aftershocks tingling through her body. She sighed, vaguely away of Jake's arms folding around her and pulling her close to his chest.

Taking the moment to recollect herself, Sherry simply listened to Jake's heartbeat thump against her cheek, steady and strong. Jake shifted beside her, letting her settle further on his front while he laid back against the bed. "So?"

Confused by his questioning tone, Sherry glanced up at him. "So… what?"

"Did I give you a better reason to stay and ignore those nagging superiors of yours?"

Still too out of breath to laugh, Sherry did the next best thing and swatted at his arm, giving him a teasing look. "...It's a start."

"A start?" Jake raised one brow in reply. "Did you even hear the sounds you were making just now? Damn, you have way too much stamina for your own good – "

"Alright, enough pillow talk, Muller." Sherry grinned, reaching down to grasp Jake in her hand and making his breath hitch in his throat. "I think it's time for you make some noise."

Sherry wasn't half as experience in bed as Jake was; from the start, she had always figured that he hadn't been a virgin when she first met him. Likewise, she could tell that Jake had realized the exact opposite of her long ago. Sherry, however, was a quick learner, and knew just where to touch to make Jake go insane.

Now, she tauntingly stroked him up and down, giving Jake's collarbone tiny kisses when she started to fall more into her rhythm. Her soft touch seemed to have an immediate effect on the mercenary, his breath already starting to waver between heavy and shallow. He took one hand and ran it shakily through her hair, hissing 'fuck' under his breath and arching into her when she gave him one quick, sudden jerk before resuming her previous pace.

Sherry said nothing, instead choosing to watch him slowly unravel underneath her, her own face growing warm as he moaned and gasped just from the attention she was giving him. Jake was a lot louder in bed than she would have initially thought… but she loved to listen to him. She couldn't deny that watching the proud, stubborn mercenary lose himself to her touch was very pleasing to see, and that was just putting it lightly.

She trailed her fingers across his length one last time before, in one quick motion, Jake started to sit up, grasping her hand with enough force to stop her. His eyes were still a little unfocused, but the light in them was enough to make Sherry's heart quicken back to its previous pace.

"…Just a warning. Wouldn't recommend doing any more of that if you wanted to go further right now." Something about the way Jake said those words broke away from the intimacy of the moment, and Sherry couldn't keep herself from laughing before Jake took the lead once more.

With a smile on her face, Sherry kept her eyes on Jake as they switched positions, falling back against the bed's messy sheets. "And here I thought the great Jake Muller had no weaknesses." She teased, her hands interlocking behind the nape of his neck as he settled back over her.

Jake didn't reply immediately as she expected him to, but instead fell silent, his sharp eyes soft and searching her face. It's enough to make Sherry's cheeks flush with warmth, a little tremor running through her when one of his hands brushed the stray strains of her hair from her face so he could meet her gaze. The corner of his lips curl into a half smirk.

He doesn't even have to say anything for her to understand. She's been around him long enough to know. Her fingertips brush lightly against his scalp.

"…Jake." She fixed him with her gentle eyes. "I love you."

They didn't say those words very often (Jake even less so than she does and she knows that his childhood played a big part in that), but there was never a doubt between them. Sherry would never feel the same way for anyone the way she did him, and the feeling was mutual. An unspoken bond. Sherry treasured it more than anything else.

She always loved the way his expression shifted at those words, how he looked at her like she was all he could see, the last of his tough exterior falling away. His lips found hers, they were skin to skin now and Sherry closed her eyes. She could feel his heartbeat against her chest. Before she could even think, he was inside of her in one quick motion, she could feel him shudder around her and the bolt of pleasure that travelled up her spine caused her to break away with a sharp breath.

Sherry took a moment to let her body adjust, shifting her weight, feeling the fire rekindling in her veins with a long, shaky sigh. It had been a while since they last did this, and there's a calmness to the moment, Jake cupping the side of her face and kissing her lips, her cheeks, the skin of her jawline. She knew he was waiting for her signal to continue and she loved him all the more for it.

Her thighs rested themselves on either side of his hips, and her arms wrapped around his back to pull him a little bit closer to her, burying her face into the crook of his neck and shoulder. When he began to move, a slow, steady pace to start, it wasn't long before her nails were leaving trails across his skin, but if anything they only seemed to encourage him further. Still sensitive from his earlier attentions, every movement he made was enough to leave her gripping him like a lifeline, a soft moan escaping her when he gradually quickened his thrusts. "Jake…"

Upon hearing her, his pace went from rhythmic to erratic in half a second, and when she moved her hips up in time to meet his, she was pleased at the groan that rose from the back of his throat. She never would have imagined that she could have such an effect on him; already, she could feel the sheen of sweat on his shoulders, his breath feathering against her hair in a sigh.

Usually, it didn't happen this way. Jake always seemed to move with a sense of urgency and quickness, until Sherry was incoherent from the sensations, sending them both to their peak without even a moment to breathe. Now, the pace was drawn out, every sound he made shook her down to the core, the world faded into the background in a blur of color and light.

"Sherry…" Her name left his lips in strangled moan, quiet enough to be a whisper, his eyes tightly shut until Sherry's hands rested themselves on both side of his face.

Blue eyes against blue, Sherry smiled breathlessly back at him, her cheeks flushed and her short blonde hair framing her face in gold against the pillow. She could feel every tremble travel through his skin under her fingers. The muscles in her stomach tense as her own climax came closer, every nerve still sensitive and tingling with electricity.

She held his gaze until she could take no more, eyes squeezed shut and body arching, nails clinging so desperately to Jake's back she was sure they would leave a mark later. He didn't last much longer, his resolve quickly fading as she unraveled beneath him, following her over the edge. Through the waves of pleasure, Sherry felt Jake pull her closer, pressing his lips to hers and sighing into her mouth.

They remain like that for a moment longer, limbs entangled, until Jake regained his breath enough to pull away. The separation didn't last for more than a second, one arm securing itself around her waist while the other reached for the blanket, bundling it around them until Sherry was warm and cozy against his chest. Although it was well into the morning now, she felt her eyelids grow heavy with sleep, giving in even more when she felt Jake's fingers running gently through her short hair.

In the back of her mind, she recalled the phone call that had woken her up in the first place, but the warmth welling in her chest pushed the thought away as she faded into slumber.

They could do without her for one morning.