Author's Note: This is the first story I ever decided to publish. After reading that mail that Piers send to Claire I kind of started to ship them and wanted to write a story about them ever since. My friend Joanna and I are currently busy with an RPG that kind of features PiersxClaire as well, we are not really sure where we are going with it but it's so. much. fun. :) I am usually an absolute Cleon fangirl, but since Ada always shows up it is really painful to ship them.

It might be important to know that I changed some things in this story. I changed the timeline a little and I made them all a little younger. Claire is supposed to be 26 and Chris 32. It's not that I would mind Piers being younger than Claire but I didn't want to focus on their age difference. It is just supposed to be a cute little story. Neil is still alive so Claire's abduction to the island together with Moira didn't happen (yet). Maybe I will include it later. I'm not sure.

I hope you enjoy the story, I appreciate any review or comment. Don't hesitate to message me either, I love nothing more than discussing Resident Evil. :)

Caddy

One month before Edonia

Shitshitshit

Piers hurried down the hallway in the BSAA headquarter, heading straight to the conference room where his team mates were started the daily briefing about 15 minutes ago, but today the briefing was supposed to be different. Piers was never late. Usually. He didn't oversleep, but he was reading the files his Captain handed him before the weekend. Piers had heard of the BSAA before he met Chris Redfield, but he didn't think he'd actually work for them one day.

Chris complimented Piers on his skills when they met at a shooting range, two days after he asked Piers to join his team. Probably after he did some research on the young soldier. Despite being only 26 years old, his résumé was really impressive. He graduated at top of his class from one of the best military academies of the country and joined the US Army Special Forces right away. Piers had loved his occupation there but he wanted a greater calling to make use of his skills and the BSAA seemed just right to achieve this goal. He didn't think twice.

He took a deep breath when he finally arrived at the door, he was just about to knock when the door swung open and a woman Piers had never seen before stepped out of the room. She greeted him with a warm soft smile and held the door open for him.
"I will be right back.", she said to the people inside and then walked down the direction Piers just came from. He shrugged and entered the conference room where his team mates Carl, Ben, Finn and Andy were sitting at a table. He was relieved to see that his Captain didn't arrive yet either.

"Sorry guys, got bound up with my homework and didn't keep track of the time.", he sat down next to Andy Walker, the oldest of the group.
"That's fine, kid. Didn't miss anything.", he said in his deep southern accent.
"Except for her.", Finn added with a sly smile and looked to the door. "That's a sight I could get used to.", he laughed and took a sip from his coffee.

"Be careful. She's the Captains sister after all. He's gonna kick your ass if you try something stupid.", Andy reminded him in a dry tone.
"Wait, what?", Piers tried to put the pieces together. "That's her?", he pointed to the door and tried not to sound too surprised. When Chris announced that his sister will visit their team to give a presentation, he didn't exactly expect that she was in similar shape like her brother, but still he didn't expect her to be this...attractive.

"Yepp, we were as surprised as you are when we first saw her. Apparently not everyone is a body builder in the Redfield family.", all of them laughed but got quiet the moment the door opened again. Chris entered with a folder under his arm and a coffee in his hands and didn't seem to notice the silence he had created. Or maybe he just didn't care.

"Good morning guys. Glad you're all here, traffic was a bitch today.", he rolled his eyes and put his stuff on the table. "I met Claire down the hallway, heard she already said hi. She's waiting for her boss to show up.", he used the remote to start the projector and then lowered the blinds. "He's a slime ball, but be nice to him. I try to be.", he sat down at the table with the others and drank from his cup.

"Hey Cap, is your sister single?", Finn asked without hesitation and put on his smile once again. Chris raised his eyebrows put down his coffee. "Why don't you ask her yourself, Rookie?", he replied and Piers noticed some amusement in his voice. "Yeah, sure.", Finn leaned back in his chair and started playing with the pen that was laying on the table in front of him and actually seemed a little disappointed. Since Chris was in the room with them now, they didn't continue the discussion about the looks of his sister.

It took another five minutes until Claire entered the room again, together with a well dressed man who was, by the looks of it, in his thirties. "Good morning, sorry for the delay. Traffic.", he rolled his eyes and put his laptop on the table. "Let me introduce myself before we start. My name is Neil Fisher, I am head of the public relations department at TerraSave.", he connected his laptop to the projector.
"I see a new face in the crowd, so I'm gonna introduce myself aagain.", Claire started and looked at Piers, once again she gave him this soft and warm smile. He looked away when his eyes met hers and he didn't even know why he did so.

"I'm Claire. Neil and I are here today to talk about a new kind of BOW that surfaced in Edonia, eastern Europe. Chris probably told you enough about it already. As you know a pretty sinister civil war is going on over there and now they decided to add bio organic weapons to the party. TerraSave's got an informant and we want to share our information with the BSAA, so you guys are prepared for your mission.", everyone nodded and shifted their attention to the projection on the wall. All except for Piers.

He eyed Claire for a few more moments. She was wearing a white blouse that flattered her figure, her reddish hair was up in a ponytail, but a few loose strands were framing her face. On her dark blue jeans he spotted a visitor's pass and he found himself wondering if she was visiting the BSAA on a regular basis. Probably so...Piers was pulled out of his thoughts when he noticed in the corner of his eye that his Captain was looking at him, so he lifted his eyes up to the presentation on the wall above Claire and Neil. They started off with a couple gruesome pictures of Edonia. After a quick recap of the current events a blurry picture of a big ugly creature appeared on the wall.
What the hell?

Something Piers had never seen before caught everyone's attention. The creature was humanoid, though he wasn't able to tell if this thing used to be a man or a woman. It's mouth was a big black hole, enormous teeth stuck out of it. He looked over to Chris, but he didn't seem as shocked as Piers had expected.
He's probably seen worse.

"What do we know about this thing?", the Captain asked calmly. "Not much, but apparently they are working on a new modification of the virus. That's how they created this monster.", Claire showed some more pictures of Edonia. When he looked over to Finn he noticed that all the color had vanished from his face, he was petrified with horror. After and he has never been on a real mission before. Chris got up from his chair and went to stand next to his sister.

"The BSAA's gonna joining the fight next month. We will fly over there and try to put an end to this goddamn war before the BOWs are activated...if they aren't already.", everyone nodded, except for Finn. "We will intensify our training from today on. We can't be prepared for what they gonna throw at us, still I want everyone to be on their toes.", they discussed for two hours what is going to happen once they set foot to Edonia. Once again Piers notices how impressed he was by the man he called his Captain. He had this position for a reason, Chris was able to keep a clear head in any heated situation.

The briefing ended with Neil handing out his business cards, when he went back to Claire, Piers noticed how he gently laid his hand on her shoulder and said something to her out of earshot. Whatever it was, it made her smile in the sweetest way. And now Piers started to understand why Chris doesn't like Neil and he didn't blame him. "We gonna talk to the other teams of your unit for the rest of the day. If you have any question just come and see us again or call us anytime.", Neil finished and walked towards the door. Before she followed him, Claire wrote her e-mail address on the flip chart in the corner of the room. "Or just shoot me a mail. I'll be happy to help wherever I can.", everyone used the backside of Neil's business card to write down her address. "It would help me a lot if you'd have a coffee with me after work.", Finn said while writing without even looking at Claire. Piers considered this comment inappropriate but was glad to see that he was back on track after the shock.

"Sorry Bro, she's out of your league.", Carl threw in a comment before Claire could answer, she pretended like she didn't hear him when she replied. "I will take you up on that offer when you are back from Edonia.", she winked at Finn and walked out of the room.
"She didn't tell you, but you just got turned now.", Chris said and he wasn't even trying to hide the amusement in his voice. "It was worth a try.", Finn grinned and got up from his seat.

"I'm not shitting you, this freaking BOW is terrifying, how are we supposed to kill it?", he asked and moving the subject away from Claire Redfield. "So far we managed to kill everything. This thing won't be any different. We just need to be prepared. Let's get down to business. Take ten and then we start our training for today."

"You are Piers, right?", he was caught off guard when a soft voice behind him pulled him out of his thoughts. It was Claire, she was standing behind him in line for lunch. "That's right.", he replied with a smile. "Can I help you?", he noticed that Claire was looking around like she was searching someone or something. "No no, I'm fine. I just wanna use the chance to talk to everyone in Chris' team. He talks so much about you guys, so I am glad I finally get to meet you in person.", Piers was flattered, he didn't expect that Chris was talking about work that much, since he doesn't speak about his private life either.

"That's really nice, I wish the occasion for your visit today would have been a happy one. Not about the shit that's going on in Edonia.", Claire was still looking around but now she apparently found what she was looking for - her brother. He was already sitting with the other members of the team. "Yeah, I agree with you there. But well, that's part of the job.", since Claire introduced herself that morning, he was wondering what made her choose this kind of occupation. "How did you decide to work for Terra Save? It's a pretty grim job, I assume.", Claire hesitated for a moment and Piers notices how she was looking for words. Wrong question.

"Let's say Chris and I have some kind of history with BOWs. I will tell you some other time. It's a longer story.", on the first day of his job, Piers learned the truth about the Raccoon City incident. There has never been a nuclear catastrophe. A missile destroyed the entire city to cover up the fact it was flooded by monsters and walking dead. He wondered what happened to Claire and how she got in contact with BOWs, but he understood it was a private matter and none of his business.

"Chris speaks highly of you, I'm glad he has people in his team he can count has been hard for him the past couple years but he's getting better every day.", and again...she smiled at him in a way that turned his knees into jelly. Piers was an experienced soldier who could analyze a dangerous situation and make important decisions within seconds. But women were a whole different story. It's not like he was completely inexperienced, but so far his main priority in life was his education and now his job.

Apart from a couple high school girlfriends he dated like ten years ago, he never introduced a woman to his parents. "I'm glad to hear that, he's a great Captain. Best I ever had.", after they got their food, they sat down with the other guys from the team and Claire used the whole hour to have a little chat with all of them. Piers could tell they were all smitten and he couldn't blame them.

The first days of mission preparations were always the worst, because Chris tended to intensify their training to a maximum. But Piers liked it. He liked to be challenged. After his first BSAA mission Chris made him second in command. His parents couldn't have been more proud, though his mother was always worried when he had to leave the country.

Even if he enjoyed the training and the company of his comrades, he was looking forward to the weekend. It was time to get some rest. When Piers got home, it was already dark outside and since he didn't feel like going out again, he just ordered Chinese food online and drank two beers while watching some sports. He didn't like to admit it, but since Claire visited their unit three days ago he has been thinking about sending her an e-mail, though he wasn't really sure what to tell her.

After he opened his third beer, he sat down on the couch with his laptop and started typing...it took him one hour to write something he didn't completely hate, but when he was done, he didn't send it, he just closed the laptop and went to bed.

It took him two more days until he got the courage to finish the mail and after reading it for the 100th time, he finally send it.
What is wrong with you Nivans?
The worst that could happen is that she won't reply...

Dear Claire,

On behalf of our unit, I just wanted to say it was real nice to get to see you the other day. Thank you for taking the time to talk with everyone. The guys really appreciated it.

I know you were surprised by the men's reaction upon first seeing you. Let me explain. When we heard that Terra Save would be arriving on location, well, the men knew that you'd be coming and so they got a bit excited over the idea. They'd only heard stories about you, and since you're the Captain's sister, well...let's just say they were expecting someone more along the lines of his build. I tried to tell them otherwise, but their imaginations got the best of them.

So then when you arrived...well, aside from not being what they expected, we don't get to interact with a lot of pretty women in our line of work, so that's why they had the reaction that they did. Then they had to remember that you're the Captain's sister, and it made them all awkward... I'm sorry about that, ma'am.

You probably saw it for yourself, but we all have a lot of admiration and respect for the captain. In addition to being a very capable leader, he treats us like family. He's an inspiration to us all.

Speaking for the men, we're all looking forward to the chance to work with you again. Our paths may not cross often, and I know you're busy, but it'd be nice to talk every now and then, even through email. Just between you and me, if you have any pictures of the Captain when he was younger, I'd sure love to see them! I hear he was very different back then, but he won't show us anything...

There's a lot more I'd like to say, but it's time to get ready for our next posting. These missions aren't easy, but it's nice to know we've got allies such as your organization backing us up. Keep fighting the good fight.

1LT Piers Nivans
BSAA North American Branch