Summary: Introspective character piece for Claire about how being aromantic has affected her life and now her friendship with Owen.

Notes: I wasn't entirely sure where I was going with this one, just that I really wanted to write an aromantic take on Claire's character from the first Jurassic World movie. I still haven't seen the second one... maybe once my home reno is over, I'll finally rent it and give it a watch. I do know the gist of what happens though, since I didn't bother avoiding spoilers. But for the purposes of this story, the second Jurassic World movie are never gonna happen; just ignore that movie altogether please.

Attraction (Or A Lack Thereof)

"So," Owen says, tapping Claire's wine glass lightly with his beer bottle, "to surviving the Park's implosion."

"To surviving to rebuild another day," Claire counters, smirking a little when Owen's eyebrows rise.

"And who, exactly, do you think will be willing to even go back there to rebuild?"

"I'm looking at one already," Claire responded, laughing when Owen made an exaggerated 'who, me' motion. Because they both knew he'd be going back for Blue.

"Alright, you got me. I'm not about to let a friend go back to that island to be eaten alone." Owen tilted his head to the side and then added, "that is what we are, right? Friends? Because I've been getting the impression, despite the kissing and the sex, that you're not really interested in romance."

Claire felt relieved and worried all at once. Some people just... didn't take what she was well. Hopefully... hopefully Owen really was different.

"You're right," she admits. "I'm not interested in romance. I never have been."

You're so weird.

Karen's told Claire that hundreds of times over by the time their childhood is finished.

Every time Claire broke up with a boy and only felt relief that yet another performative relationship was over...

Every time Karen talked about how wonderful romantic gestures were and Claire thought they sounded stifling...

Every time a friend got into a relationship that made them unhappy and the only advice Claire would give was 'break up with him'...

Every time someone would flirt with Claire and she couldn't tell the difference between flirting and friendliness...

She was weird. Claire knew it. She just... wasn't sure if that made her queer too. And she really, really hoped it did. Because the way she felt about romance didn't feel 'straight'. But she didn't really feel like she was a lesbian either. Bi was close, but not right. Not really.

She wasn't really equally interested in men and women as much as she was equally disinterested. At least, romance wise.

Claire likes sex. She figures that out with her boyfriend senior year of high school. She learns she's not picky about gender with her girlfriend in college. But romantic gestures make her uncomfortable and no relationship ever lasted more than a few months before ending.

You're so cold. So untouchable. You don't let me in.

Claire doesn't know whats wrong with her. Her friends have less and less time for her, too busy with their own lives and significant others. She feels like she keeps being left behind and everyone acts like its her fault.

You're just afraid of commitment.

She's really not. But no one believes that when she says she's never been able to fall in love.

She's just... weird.

Owen nodded thoughtfully. "There's a term for that, isn't there?"

"Aromantic," Claire responds automatically. "You've heard of it?"

"I know more about asexuality; I've got a cousin I keep in touch with who's ace, but... yeah, I think's she's talked about a friend of her's who is aromantic. Aro?"

"Yes. Aro."

"So I guess that explains your sabotaging the date we went on while the raptors were babies," Owen teased lightly.

"Board shorts, Owen," Claire shot back instantly, then sighed ruefully. "My sister gets on my case about being a lonely old cat-lady hermit and most of the time I can ignore her, but sometimes the things Karen says gets to me and..." Claire trailed off, because it sounded kind of pathetic put that way.

"You agreed to a date you weren't really interested in because your sister is a jerk who doesn't respect your boundaries. I've met Karen, remember? She dumped her kids on you with not even a week's warning so she could divorce her husband and then had the audacity to lecture you for not being able to take off work at the last minute to spend their entire trip with them. I can't say I'm particularly impressed with how she treats you."

"She is kind of awful about some things," Claire allowed. Karen was her older sister; even now it was hard to speak ill of her, even if it was the truth. "I like how things are between you and me right now."

"So do I. Sex with benefits where the benefit is a most excellent friendship." Owen winked and grinned impishly and Claire laughed despite herself.

"You're not wrong."

Romance is too much effort after college. It drains too much of her energy and Claire needs every bit of it to climb the ranks at her new job.

She loves the work. It's thrilling and wonderful and business is her thing. And she doesn't just rise; she skyrockets.

Always in the background, though... her parents ask if she's happy alone. Her sister talks glowingly about married life and babies. You're missing out, Claire, they say. It's important, Claire, and you're missing it.

I'm so sad for you... I worry for you, all by yourself.

Claire doesn't feel lonely when she's alone. She gets so much social interaction from her job that its a relief to come home to an empty apartment where she can kick off her shoes, cook something small for dinner, and then read the rest of the evening. The idea of having to constantly deal with someone else in her safe space demanding her time...

No. Claire isn't missing out on anything.

But sometimes... they're so insistent, she worries about herself too.

Claire did not get ahead in life by pretending her worries weren't real, though. So she researched.

She found words like aromantic and allosexual and romance-repulsed. She also found that few people in her life were willing to respect what those words described when applied to her.

"Speaking of sex, do you want to come back to my place tonight?" Owen asked. "Or are we done for the night after dinner. I won't say no if you want to, but I've got an early flight in the morning. Going to visit Barry at his new job. Probably appall him that I've just agreed to head back to the Park."

"I've got an early morning too, so no. This is it for tonight." Claire paused a beat, then asked, "do you want new raptors at the park?"

"I don't know that Blue would accept them, after what happened," Owen sighed, grimacing slightly. "I'd need to observe her behavior for a while first. If she seems lonely, then she might accept baby raptors... but she might not."

Claire nodded. "Just make sure to keep it in mind."

"Would they even green light more raptors, after what happened?"

"The problem wasn't the raptors, but Hoskins treatment of them was. So far, it's been agreed that he was at fault for the escalation caused by the raptors. And since the raptors did eventually help take down the Indominus, well... it won't be easy but we had to jump through several hoops to get your pack in the first place. Eventually we'll get the okay to go again."

"But not with Wu in charge of their genome."

"They finally found him," she said. "They haven't recovered all the stolen embryos from Jurassic World yet, but Dr. Wu and a number of Ingen's top executives are being slammed with murder charges. Only Wu is in the process of being extradited so far, unfortunately."

"Just a matter of time before a few more do too. Public outcry's been pretty awful."

Owen was hot. He made Claire's libido jump to attention the way few could.

After Karen's most recent bout of 'oh, Claire, you must be so lonely and isn't your internal clock ticking yet' BS, being struck by sudden lust made Claire wonder if maybe this time it'd be different. He wasn't suave when he asked her out, but he was oddly charming, and Claire said yes.

She regretted it immediately. They'd go to dinner and he'd want to hold her hand. Holding hands was always some combination of gross, sweaty, and clammy feeling to Claire (usually all three) and the idea twisted her up in knots. He'd want to make romantic gestures and kiss her on the cheek and... probably call her some idiotic pet names.

Claire loathed pet names with a passion.

By the time the actual date arrived, Claire was a mess of regret and anxiety. So when he showed up wearing board shorts of all things, Claire was already trying to throw in the towel and call the date off. Him being less than perfect made it easy.

She did regret how upset he was afterwards, but it was easy enough for them to avoid each other afterwards.

"So, going to tell your nephews we're not really dating after all?" Owen asked. "Because they call me sometimes and refer to me as your boyfriend. They... don't really listen when I say we're not dating. Pretty sure your sister is fueling that, though."

"If they don't listen to you, they won't listen to me. Honestly, this is the first time I haven't minded them making assumptions about my love life in years. Karen's actually laid off the mother-henning. It's been wonderful."

"Does that make me your beard?"

"Yes."

"I'm... actually completely fine with that." He paused a beat, then added, "so I've been meaning to apologize. On the day of the attack, I was kind of judgey about how little you knew your nephews. I shouldn't have assumed you should be close to your family, especially considering how hard I work to avoid my own."

"You've long since been forgiven. And you sort of had a point. I like Zach and Gray. They're good kids. But Karen tends to... weaponize them. Because she thinks at my age I should be a mother already." Claire drained the last of her wine. "I'd been avoiding seeing her in person for years and thus missed out on the kids for years. And then Karen sprung her separation from her husband on me at the last minute. It wasn't a matter of me agreeing to take the boys for a week, it was Karen saying that she was shipping them to me so they can start divorce proceedings. If I'd been forewarned? I'd have taken the week off, rescheduled meetings, not dumped everything on Zara..."

Poor Zara. She'd been a good friend, not just an assistant, and her loss still ached. Claire hadn't been able to process that loss until several days later when the shock wore off and everything hit her all at once.

(She was still a little embarrassed that Owen had found her crying.)

"Time to head out?" Owen asked, draining the last of his beer too.

"Call me when you get back from meeting with Barry. Make sure he knows there's always a place for him at Jurassic World."

"I promise. Doubt he'll take the offer, but I'll make it anyway."

Notes: I enjoy fics with shipping in them, but I mostly don't ship Claire/Owen. But I like their snarky relationship and a friends with benefits situation would work well for them, in my opinion anyway.