"You've never seen fireworks before?" The tone in her voice was incredulous, pitch having lifted just slightly as she gave the younger girl a wide-eyed look. Sherry rolled her shoulders in a shrug, her expression unimpressed. She honestly didn't see what the big deal was and Claire openly balked-she almost couldn't comprehend the fact that a twelve-year-old American girl had never seen fireworks before.

The dark-haired woman shook her head slowly, eyes briefly held closed in an exasperated expression. "Well, that just won't do. We're gonna have to fix that." With her hands placed on her hips, she leaned forward, lowering her face to Sherry's eye level. "You have no idea what you're missing." She tapped a finger on Sherry's nose, eliciting a laugh from the girl.

"Whatever you say, Claire." Her sentence was punctuated by a giggle, and Claire pursed her lips, pointing a finger at Sherry in a light-hearted, mocking attempt at offense. "'Whatever?' Who taught you that word, young lady?"

"It definitely wasn't me." Leon spoke from across the room, stretched out on the worn couch with his palms raised into the air in an attempt to claim innocence. Sherry smiled wide and returned Claire's pointing with a finger of her own. "Yeah, actually...I think it was you who taught me it, Claire!"

Claire gasped theatrically, placing a hand to her chest. "Me? I would never corrupt the youth with such foul language!" Her expression twisted to one of feigned surprise, mouth held open in horror as if she were somehow appalled by the suggestion.

Leon couldn't help but to laugh quietly to himself. Though he had met plenty of people in his lifetime, he had to admit that he had never encountered anyone quite like Claire in the past. Her carefree nature was a welcome relief in a time as trying as the apparent zombie apocalypse, though he had quickly learned that her demeanor was a front. At her core, Claire was a passionate woman with an altruistic nature, as evidenced by her allegiance to Sherry's survival, and he respected that about her. She stayed true to her values even when faced with potential death. Not many people could say the same about themselves.

Not Ada. He thought, a bitter taste having surfaced in his mouth at the recollection of her pistol pointed square at his chest. The betrayal still stung, each syllable of her name burning like pouring alcohol into an open wound. He didn't hate her, no...it just hurt.

It had been just under two weeks since their escape from Racoon City. Their ragtag group had been motel hopping as they made their way across the state without any real destination in mind. The lack of planning made Leon anxious, but Claire had reassured him time and again that things would turn out alright in the end. "Relax, Leon. Life has a way of working itself out." She had insisted with a wink. "Trust me. We'll figure it out along the way."

Her confidence in the statement managed to placate him for the time being. He had felt the knots in his stomach loosen when she gave him a wide smile, further reiterating her assuredness. Prior to the outbreak, Leon had led a fairly typical suburban life, and the sudden chaos had taken him off guard, whereas Claire seemed to adjust to it almost seamlessly. He wondered what sort of life the woman had led up until this point to be resilient.

Leon watched her as she excitedly described New Year's Eve tradition to Sherry. Claire gestured with her hands, clasping them together and then pulling them apart in an attempt to illustrate the burst of fireworks. "Right at midnight!" She explained, pausing her gesticulation to tease the girl again. "But, then again...you apparently can't even stay up past ten, so you'd probably miss it anyway."

Sherry huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "We'll see about that on January 1st! I'll be thirteen by then." The girl took to Claire's good-natured teasing well. It had begun to pull her out of her shell, and Leon felt a strange sense of pride watching her personality surface. Though it was unwarranted, he bore a lot of guilt for what Sherry's parents had done to her, and he couldn't even begin to fathom the toll it would take on the child version of himself.

"Tell her how great fireworks are, Leon." Claire insisted, catching him on the spot. "They're pretty nice to look at…" He put his hands up once again, both apologizing and surrendering to Claire's potential wrath before his next statement, "But they can be dangerous and kids shouldn't play with them without a responsible adult nearby to supervise."

Claire rolled her eyes. It was such a Leon thing to say. He was twenty on the outside and paranoid, first time father of a frail toddler on the inside. "Yes, that's true, but I'm a very responsible adult who just safely took down more monsters than probably anyone ever, so she doesn't have to worry."

Leon sighed and the two girls laughed, the sound of their giggling warming something deep in his chest.

That night, Claire had somehow returned with a bizarre combination of sandwiches and sparklers. Leon wasn't even surprised by it. In fact, he suspected she probably rigged them herself with some backwoods Boy Scout tactics Chris had taught her, knowing Claire and her spontaneity. He wasn't sure why he didn't see it coming to begin with.

He watched the sway of her ponytail as she led them into the woods behind the motel, the wind having picked up loose tendrils of her hair and whipped them about her face. It was a stark contrast to the milk white of her skin, and he took note of the flush that had crept along her cheeks from the nip of the early October air. She's cute, he thought, with those blue-grey eyes that he suspected have never once shown a glimpse of fear because, really, did Claire Redfield even know what fear was?

She looked over at him with a soft, sideways smile and he wondered if "cute" was an understatement.

This is pretty wrong, he told himself, but it felt so damn right, too. He found a sense of peace while aimlessly wandering through the woods with Claire and Sherry, despite having no plan in mind, a situation he would ordinarily hate to find himself in. Though he had only known her for a few days, Leon felt strangely comfortable in Claire's presence, as if they were old childhood friends who had been reunited. It was different than the way Ada made him feel. Ada had made him feel like a child playing dress up in his father's uniform.

Claire shot him a bright grin and a wink as they moved into a clearing in the woods, and he decided that, yeah, cute probably was an understatement. Claire was something special, he decided, as he watched her kneel down in front of Sherry, ruffling her hair before handing her the sparkler. He decided she definitely wasn't like any woman he had ever met while her brows furrowed together in concentration as she struck a match, lighting the sparkler. He figured maybe she was even pretty as the glow of the bright light lit up her features, highlighting all the soft curves of her face and the warm look in her eyes as she observed the expression of wonder that made its way onto Sherry's face as the sparkler burst into light.

He didn't know if Claire was the kind of woman who wanted to be called pretty, but that was probably what she was.

As he sat, watching Sherry cavort about with sprinkler in hand under Claire's guidance, he found that the heat and glow of the sparks rivaled the hearth in his heart.

Later, with Sherry safely tucked into bed, Leon found Claire in the small motel bathroom, working her hair into a loose braid for sleep. She was watching herself intently in the mirror, long fingers deftly working the dark pieces of her hair over her shoulder. Leon didn't know why he found it so fascinating, but he found it difficult to look away.

She caught his stare and met it with her own kind expression, lips curled into a small smile. "I told you I wouldn't burn the woods down." She teased and Leon laughed, shifting his feet nervously. He didn't know when Claire started to make him anxious, but being in such close proximity with her made his heart race.

"That was nice of you to do." He finally said, eyes searching for anything to study but her face. A sense of embarrassment had overcome him, his throat dry and skin stinging, a feeling he hadn't experienced since his first crush in high school. Leon silently prayed Claire didn't know.

"She's missed out on a lot of the little things in life." Her despondent tone instilled misery in him, too. It didn't suit her to seem so sad. Claire had always been so lively since the moment he met her. "But," She continued, prodding him softly on the shoulder, "We can help her make up for it."

Leon didn't know what changed in that moment, but he felt his blood buzzing beneath his skin. He liked the little wisps of hair that framed her face and the way her smile lit up everything in that dingy little bathroom. He appreciated that they were relatively close in height, that he didn't have to look too far down to find her bright eyes. He enjoyed her corny jokes and the way that she made him laugh with such seemingly little effort in such a tough time.

Leon coughed.

Do I have a crush on Claire Redfield?

And then she stepped forward, closing the distance between the two of them almost entirely. He wondered if she could hear his heart slamming against his chest as she leaned forward, her chin nearly brushing against his shoulder. He wondered if she felt him shudder when her lips came close, soft skin lightly grazing against the outer shell of his ear as she whispered low and soft in his ear, "You know, I can show you fireworks, too."

He wondered if she heard him gasp when her mouth found his and if she watched his eyes close while his world exploded into bursts of light, sparkles of red and white filling the dark void behind his eyelids. Leon made a quiet sound in his throat and he inched forward, filling the final millimeters of distance between the two of them with his body as he reached up to cup her face in his hands. Her skin was softer than he had ever imagined, and he allowed his hand to trail behind her head, fingertips tangling themselves in the hair at the nape of her neck.

Leon kissed her like his life depended on it, every bit of frustration that had accumulated in the past couple of weeks melting away with the press of her tongue and the careful nips at his lower lip. He found the dip of her waist and pulled her firmly against his chest, and he grinned at the squeak of surprise that escaped her.

When he pulled away, Leon decided he liked the way she looked, lips flushed, hair disheveled, and her eyes glazed over with something he hadn't seen on her before.

"You're right." He said, voice hoarse and deep. "I've never seen fireworks like those before."

Notes: I don't really know what I'm doing with this...just a bunch of cheesy first time experiences with Sherry and Leon fueled by popular demand for Leon/Claire because you can never have too much sap, right?