A/N: This oneshot got a little longer than planned, but I just couldn't stop writing. Steve/Claire will always be my favourite REpairing, no matter how many Claire/Carlos fanfics I write, 'cause they're just that awesome. Thanks goes to Ultimolu for beta-reading this for me n____n

She fired one last shot, and the nightmare-like creature – no, monster – fell down on its knees. Claire took the chance to hurry to the small control panel, and activated the catapult, watching as the big steel box quickly went closer to the enemy. The Tyrant – which was seemingly a bit weaker after the fight with the read-headed woman – tried to stop it, but without any luck. The force from the crate and the wind from the open cargo door was too much to handle, even for the horrible giant.

Claire let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as the monster practically flew out of the plane, and down towards the was over. At least for now... This was the second time she'd killed it, and she hoped that it would be the last time. She was exhausted. She'd been fighting zombies and other monsters, created by the big company Umbrella. This wasn't the first time that the company had ruined her life. She'd been trying to find her older brother Chris, after she heard that he'd left America, and gone somewhere in Europe. Claire was caught by some of Umbrella's guards in Paris, and she'd been sent to Rockfort Island – a prison Umbrella put all of their "enemies" in, people who knew too much about what they were doing. And some were used as test-subjects...

Though, her first encounter with Umbrella had been in Raccoon City, her brother's hometown. Chris hadn't returned her calls for a too long time, and she'd left her college, on her bike, to make sure he was alright. But... Chris was no longer in Raccoon City, and the town had recently been infected with one of Umbrella's creations – the T-virus – and every person living there had been turned into a zombie, either by the virus-infection, or because they'd been bitten. After a long struggle, Claire had made it out of the town just in time before it got blown to pieces, along with the rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy, and a young girl named Sherry.

Only six months later, she was back in almost the same position. There'd been a virus outbreak at Rockfort, and now, she was on a plane with the only other survivor – Steve Burnside. There'd been a sudden beeping noise and a warning message displayed on the plane's main control panel, warning them that the cargo room hatch was Steve was the one controlling the plane, it was up to Claire to go back and check it out. Her heart had been beating faster than normal when she slowly opened the door, and she'd been very shocked to the monster alive again.

Claire sighed. It sure had been a tiring time at Rockfort, trying to find the way out. But now, they wouldn't have to think about that place ever again. She went back to the cockpit, and Steve turned around as she entered.

"What was wrong?" the young man asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just a giant cockroach that had to be stepped on." Claire answered jokingly. Since the monster was taken care of – mostly because of luck, it would've been a lot more difficult without te catapult – she didn't think it was necessary to inform Steve about it. His time at Rockfort had been far worse than hers.

Steve's father had been working for Umbrella, but he'd been trying to steal information from the company, and sell it to the highest bidder. Though... they found out about it, and killed Steve's mother. He and his father were sent to Rockfort. Just as Claire, he'd managed to get out from where he was locked up when the outbreak occurred, and that's when the one had met. Later on, they encountered Steve's zombified father, and the poor young man had to shoot him to save Claire.

"What's happening!?" Claire said when a strange beeping sound could be heard from the control panel, and Steve didn't seem to be the one in control of the plane anymore.

"I don't know, the plane just changed direction on it's own!" Steve pushed almost all of the buttons, trying to regain the control, but it didn't work. That's when he realized what was wrong. "It's flying in autopilot mode, and I can't switch back to manual control..." He turned back to look at Claire, who's gaze was fixed on the small monitor over the windshield. Just as he was about to ask her what she was looking at – he'd checked the screen only moments before, and it hadn't been turned on – and as soon as he heard the mental giggle, he knew what it was about, and he turned to look into the face of Alfred Ashford – tha grandson of one of Umbrella's founders.

"My apologies..." Alfred said, imitating his twin-sister Alexia's voice – he still seemed to think that he was her. After all, she had been in a test tube for fifteen years, no wonder he'd taken this much damage from it. "...But I cannot let you escape now." Alfred continued, and the sentence was followed by more of his weird giggling.

"Alfred!" Claire almost screamed, glaring angrily at him. "Cross-dressing freak!" And without another word, the monitor went black.

------

Steve woke up without knowing what it was that had interrupted his sleep. After the monitor had gone black, and Alfred had left them alone, they'd both thought that they could take the chance to get some rest, since they'd probably need a lot more energy when they arrived wherever it was that Alfred was sending them. That guy was too much of a freak, and he didn't want to know his reasons. He had enough to worry about as it was. He sighed, looking out of the window, and Claire turned her head just a little bit. But, since she was resting her head on his shoulder, he could feel even the slightest move she made.

Though, she wasn't leaning on him like that any longer, she'd sat up straight, still very much asleep. And her face was turned away from his. He just couldn't stop looking at her, she looked so peaceful, so beautiful. If only they hadn't met like this, if only things had been more normal... Maybe their relation would've been different. Or... maybe it was just all in his head, perhaps she didn't like him at all... No, he didn't want to think about it. He shook those thoughts away, and leaned just a little bit closer to her face, his heart racing. Just a simple kiss would be okay, wouldn't it? He knew he hadn't know her for a long period of time, but he knew what he was feeling. Just a quick kiss... maybe she won't even notice it...

But his plans were ruined when Claire woke up, lifting a hand to rub at the back of her head. Steve stood up. He'd missed the chance, but he wouldn't stop hoping that he'd get another opportunity, another chance to tell her what he was feeling. He was sure they wouldn't be at the new location for too long, but with Alfred Ashford, one could never be completely sure of anything.

He stretched his arms out high above his head. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep, but he felt a lot less exhausted now, so he guessed it'd at least been enough. He stood by the window, leaning one hand on the glass, looking outside to try to see where they currently were. He sighed, and he looked down at the floor instead for a moment, trying to sort out some of his thoughts. Though that was easier said than done. Even if it'd only be for a short moment, he really wanted Claire to feel the same way as him, to know that he wasn't the only one. At another place, and another time, it would have been a lot easier. They'd been through a lot together, during the few hours they'd known each other. As soon as Steve had gotten a chance to get to know her better, he'd realized he'd wanted to be more than friends. But since he had no idea what Claire was feeling, and since he didn't dare asking her – they had a few more important things to think about right now – he would do his best to not think about it. He had no idea if that was even possible...

He turned his attention back to the window, and leant closer to get a better look. "Hey... where are we?" Steve hurried over to the control panel, and Claire was still sitting down, though she seemed to be a bit more awake now. "Latitude; 82,17 degrees..." As he tried to remember where that was, Claire walked up to the window. The only thing that could be seen outside was a white thick fog. Or was that snow? "That's... the Antarctic. We're over the Antarctic!"

"What?!" Claire turned around. The plane began to dive, the snow-covered ground getting closer and closer with every second. They both quickly sat down in the seats, taking in the surrounding with looks of surprise. "Those are the seaplanes that left the island right before us..."

"Then that must be... This place belongs to Umbrella!" Steve couldn't stop wondering how they could afford to have so many different facilities. All of the places must've cost them a fortune.

There was one big problem they had to deal with right now – there wasn't any place to land nearby, but the plane was still getting further down, and no landing wheels were brought out. The plane hit the ground with a powerful crash, and went right through the wall of the Umbrella facility. And everything around him went black...

------

Claire sat up, rubbing her head. She hurt all over, the plane's crashed hadn't come unnoticed. Both she and Steve were on the floor, bu he was still lying down. She crawled over to him, shaking him to wake him up. "Hey... wake up, Steve."

At that very moment, Steve opened his eyes, and he too seemed to have hit his head. "He sat up too, looking at Claire. "We're... still alive!" True, they were both hurt, though not badly, and they were still very much alive. Claire only nodded, smiling.

Steve stood up, and Claire soon followed. Now that they were back down on the ground, they had to try and escape from this facility as well. He walked up to the small door, and kicked it open. The door hit the railing on the strange footbridge, and continued down to the end of the deep depth that the railing was set up around. Steve jumped out of the plane, down on the footbridge. He reached up his arms towards Claire, to try to prevent the fall from being too painful for her. Claire smiled at that. It wasn't that far down to the footbridge, but she guessed she couldn't say no to the help he offered. It was a nice gesture after all. She jumped, and she must've surprised Steve who wasn't really as prepared to catch her as he thought he was. He lost his foothold, and fell to the ground, Claire falling on top of him. The plan hadn't turned out to be as good as it has seemed to be in the first place. What surprised her even more was that Steve carefully wrapped his arms around her. She could feel herself blushing, though with her face being a little reddish to begin with due to the cold temperature in this environment, it wouldn't be noticed. She lifted herself up a bit with her hands on the ground, looking straight into Steve's eyes.

She realized what he must've been thinking. Not here, not now... We need to focuse on getting out of here first... Claire thought as she moved away from Steve to stand up. The young man looked disappointed, and she reached out her hand to help him up from the ground. "Thanks."

But Steve didn't want her help, it seemed. He ignored, and stood up, looking at the plane. "It's completely trashed...." he said, Claire nodded in reply. "Let's split up and find a way out of this over-sized freezer..."

"Right." Claire said. She knew that it was never good to split up without knowing what to expect, but she was sure that since Steve had suggested it, he might've wanted some time alone to think.

"Okay, let's do it!" and with that, Steve ran, leaving her alone on the footbridge.

She sighed. She was sure they'd get plenty of time to talk it all out once they escaped, but she'd never expect that what lies ahead of them is a dark and unknown future. And when that time comes, it'll be too late to fix her own mistakes. At another place, and another time, something actually might've happened between the pair. But it would soon be over for them, and some things couldn't be undone at that point. Their tragic destiny had already been written in stone.

Poor Steve ;___; his story is just too tragic *huggles imaginary Steve-plushie* Anyways, that's all I had for now~