A/N: So I know I should be working on NMRV, but Wesker is being an ass and thinking too much for the chapter to get anywhere right now. So instead you get a pleasant little one-shot. Hope you enjoy it!
Claire loved Halloween. She loved the smell of autumn in the air, the kids in costumes, the candy, and the fact that once a year you got to be something you weren't. A smile lit her lips as she adjusted the tinsel covered ring that made up her halo and winked at herself in the mirror. She wondered as she opened the door to the small apartment her brother kept in Raccoon City whether she should've gotten a longer hem on the white toga like garment-it only came to mid-thigh when she was standing. It was bad enough that she was forced to use double sided tape in order to keep the top from moving out of place. But she looked good and that was what mattered. Chris could just shove it when he saw her. He was the one that invited her to the Police Department's annual Halloween party in the first place. She couldn't help it if she was seventeen and the idea of leaving a group of grown men staring at her was fun. She sat on the couch in his small living room and laced the golden heeled sandals up, wishing that she could put her hair up in the normal ponytail but recognizing that she looked better with the strands loose even if they got in her face. The last item she shrugged into was a pair of feathered wings, though not the normal fluffy white ones. These were hawk wings- gold with red tints and making her hair look redder than it really was. Her hands went to the keys Chris had left her for his jeep. She did not enjoy the idea of riding her motorcycle in the short skirt. Heat burns were most unpleasant.
Fifteen minutes into the party and Claire was bored. She hadn't seen her brother yet due to the sheer amount of people crammed into what she figured was likely the booking area of the station during normal office hours. She had turned down at least three offers to dance from men old enough to be her father and nearly broke the wrist of one who had tried to grope her. But she couldn't leave because she was her brother's designated driver this evening. So, as much as she wanted to hit the clubs in downtown instead, she was stuck here. She needed something to drink if she was going to make it through the night. Her glare was scorching as she made her way to the punch bowl and it kept the rather rotund man dressed as a vampire from heading her way. He gave her chills. So, intent was she in making sure that he got the message that she found herself smacking right into someone. She gave a little girly 'eep' of surprise as she lifted her head up from the black dress shirt to a pair of eyes hidden by mirror tinted sunglasses. His features were handsome in the same way classic Greek statues were-all hard lines and pale smoothness. The smell of his cologne was thick, spicy, and undoubtedly expensive. Unconsciously, she licked suddenly dry lips.
"Dear heart," his voice was like dark chocolate with just a hint of accent, "It's impolite to stare and you wouldn't want to give Irons any more ideas than he has." She felt her cheeks heat as she took a step back from his personal space to look at where he had gestured to see that man who had been giving her the creeps earlier. His name was familiar though and she found her mouth moving without thinking, something that happened more often than she wanted to admit.
"That's Chief Irons?" Claire asked and to her surprise her tone of shock got an amused chuckled from the man next to her.
"Indeed," the blonde said, "He seems quite taken with you, dear heart." Claire made a face of disgust as she watched the lech's eyes run up her body. It was going to take several pounds of soap to get the slime she felt coating her from the gaze off. She moved her hand to flip him the bird only to have her mysterious companion grab it. She turned back to look at him and raised her eyebrows in question. "I do believe he would see that as encouragement."
"And people seriously put the pervert in charge?" she asked upper lip lifted in disgust and he let her hand go as she didn't appear likely to continue with her actions.
"He has his uses," Claire barely held in a shiver at his voice and the cold tone that was so different from the almost amused one from earlier. "Are you here with someone?"
"Sort of," she said with a shrug of one shoulder. "I'm looking for my brother." Her blue-green eyes scanned the crowd and once more she came away Chris-less. "Why?"
"I don't think it would be prudent to leave you by yourself at the moment," he told her flatly and she looked around to realize that maybe she should've opted for those few extra inches in her hemline. But she was big girl and could handle herself. Other than the creepy glances she had been doing just fine by herself. She opened her mouth to tell him so, only to have him beat her to the punch. "Would you like to dance?" Claire looked at the offered hand for a second then back up at her mysterious benefactor. Unfortunately, the sunglasses did an amazing job of covering up any hint as to his age or anything else. She bit her lip as she wondered whether this was the smartest thing to do before throwing her mental hands up in the air and saying 'fuck it, at least he's nice.'
"Sure."
Wesker hated parties. He hated social gatherings in general and the fact that this one required him to come in 'costume' hadn't done it any favors. If it wasn't for the fact that Irons had practically demanded his presence, most likely just because he could and he knew Wesker wouldn't like it, he would have spent the night writing one of the millions of reports Umbrella wanted on how his new unit was going. As it was, he had planned on staying the minimal amount of time and then leaving to work on his reports. He had gotten there precisely on time, not really bothering with a costume seeing as his phone call to the only person likely to have any idea of what costume he should wear had told him just to go without his sunglasses and he would be frightening beyond belief, and picked out a piece of wall he could lean against. There were very few people in the station who would try to socialize with him and those were mostly his team members. The same ones he knew would be late because they had been forced to work the full shift before going home to change. Which was why he had a perfect view when she walked in. Wesker was male and therefore could easily admire her costume choice even if it was impractical and likely to result in too much attention. He had never seen her around the station though, so he watched her as she effortlessly rebuffed others' advances even nearly breaking a man's hand at one point. That was most unusual. He was not the only one to notice her, though. He saw the way she had attracted Iron's attention and felt a warning flag go up in his mind and a bit of maliciousness spike in him. Irons had dragged him here; the least that he could do was deny him his prey.
It seemed that she had decent survival instincts as she glared at the Chief of Police and headed away from him. It was too easy to put himself in her distracted path. From there it was a bit of idle chit-chat and he had her on the dance floor where he could watch Irons turn a lovely shade of purple from the mere idea that Wesker had something he didn't. The girl, because the more she spoke the more he had a feeling she was jailbait, wasn't a half bad dancer, though he knew she likely hadn't expected a modified waltz when he said dancing. The song was just slow enough for the steps and he kept them careful so she would be able to follow better. He ignored the looks he was attracting as it was most unusual for him to actually be on a dance floor and the fact he even knew how to dance was likely quite shocking. It was also going to result in more hero-worship from the secretarial pool. At least all his paperwork would be taken care of faster than normal.
"So," Claire began noting the way he snapped down to look at her when she spoke and she had the odd sense that maybe he hadn't been paying attention to what they were doing at all which was slightly insulting, "What made you decide to go for the Matrix look?" He raised one elegant eyebrow at her question. He had no clue what she was talking about. "You know with Neo and the computers that take over the world? The movie?" She sighed and decided that while the guy was nice it was clear he had no understanding of pop culture. She choose to keep her mouth shut and dance as he spun her out through the other couples.
"Oh, man, Chris look at that shit? Is that Captain Wesker dancing?" Frost asked as they finally made it to the party. Everyone had stored their stuff at Jill's place when they found out that Wesker was still going to make them do an entire dayshift as her place was closer. Chris was in his old flight suit and Jill was dressed in all black with cat ears claiming she was a cat burglar. Frost was dressed as Rambo minus all the weaponry. Barry had opted to go home to help his wife hand out candy and take his own kids around the neighborhood. They practically turned as one to find that it was, indeed, Wesker dancing. It was a sight that none of them ever thought that they were going to see. Wesker was willingly socializing! The other people on the floor flowed around him like water and the woman he was dancing with was beautiful. The angel costume was a flawless fit and it took Chris two tries before it hit him who Wesker was dancing with.
"That's my sister!" Chris said in shock before brother instincts took over and he began weaving his way through people to try to get to them. The idea of any male being anywhere within three feet of his sister was enough to set him off; the fact that this was his boss didn't even register.
Unfortunately, he was not the only one who had decided that he had enough. Irons was making his way through people intent on 'cutting in'. Wesker took notice of it maneuvering the two gracefully off the dance floor and unknowingly away from Chris. Claire looked up from catching her breath and saw the man headed for the two of them. She began swearing under her breath. Wesker's eyes scanned the room looking for a way to get away from the insufferable man, before locking on to the fact that they were inches from the door that led to the day offices which would be deserted with the party going on and the day shift being over.
"Language, dear heart," he said as he pulled her behind him and into the office hallway. He really couldn't afford a confrontation with Irons with the girl in listening range and he was not about to just hand the man what he wanted when he had gone out of his way to taunt him with it. So where would the man not look? A smirk lit his lips as he came up with a place to hide until the bastard had gone far enough away.
"Ummm," Claire began as she noticed how he had not let go of her wrist from when he had herded her into the deserted hallway. Maybe she had misjudged everything and this man was just as bad ad the other one. She moved to free her wrist and instead ended up pulled into a dark broom closet. She opened her mouth to asked just what he was doing, there was no room in here and she was flush up against him the flimsy costume material letting her feel his body heat, when a gloved hand covered her mouth.
"Shhh," Wesker felt his smirk grow as she shivered against him. How long had it been since he had a female warm body up against him that was not due for experimentation in a lab somewhere? So, even as he strained his ears for the sound of Irons walking by, he allowed himself some measure of pleasure at the position. Claire stopped struggling as she heard the sound of leather shoes squeaking against the linoleum flooring. Right, Mr. Creepy Police Chief was stalking her. She felt his palm leave her mouth as he realized she wasn't going to give away their position and buried her face in his chest when the man stopped right outside the door. She bit her lip and stopped breathing. It felt like an eternity before she heard him start walking again. Claire waited a few seconds to look up at the man who's quick thinking had saved her from having to hurt her brother's boss.
"Thanks," she said going up on tip-toe to kiss him on the cheek. Unfortunately, it was dark and he had looked down when she had started speaking so she missed his cheek entirely. She got his lips instead. She tried to pull back when she realized what she had done, but his hand was there at the back of her neck making it impossible for her to move. He wasn't sure why he did it as he slanted his mouth over hers, the taste of her cherry lip gloss invading his mouth as he swiped his tongue along the seam of her lips. It was impulsive, irrational, and he was convinced that she was jailbait, and he decided to chalk it up to one more thing he could lord over Irons in the morning. She let out a little noise as she parted her lips and he decided he could do with hearing that again. As a matter of fact, he was going to make her do that again. Or he would've if it hadn't been for the fact that someone opened the closet door right as he was about to take what was being offered to him. Claire practically threw herself off him and he glared in annoyance at someone who was not Irons at all. It was the marksman from his alpha team who looked like he had just swallowed a live frog.
"Claire?" Chris asked his eyes the size of saucers and she blushed deeply at being caught with some man in a broom closet like some sort of slut. "Captain Wesker?"
"He's your captain?" Claire asked in a very thin voice as the shock slowly began to bleed out of Chris' system. She had been hiding from one of her brother's bosses by making out with his immediate superior? She hoped to God this wouldn't mean anything bad for Chris. He had followed the two of the them into the hallway intent on finding out just what was going on and found the two of them snogging in the janitor's closet. His brotherly need to protect was flooding his brain and the fact that this man was his boss didn't even seem to register in his brain. This man was kissing his sister! Not only that he hadn't had the decency to offer to date her but instead was doing it in a closet like he was ashamed of her!
"You're Chris' sister?" Wesker said looking back and forth between the two of them noting that they had the same nose and chin structure. Siblings would indeed be a good hypothesis. He never had a chance to dodge the punch that knocked him into the cleaning supplies as Chris grabbed Claire's hand.
"We're leaving right now," he said and Claire was too shocked to do much more than mouth the fact she was sorry at Wesker as she trailed behind him. Wesker massaged his jaw as he watched their retreating forms. So, were the punch and the ensuing awkwardness around Chris for the next few weeks worth it? The cherry lip gloss taste on his lips and the glare Irons was going to be giving him in the morning said yes.
So did everyone enjoy my take on how Claire and Wesker met? Anyone actually want more?