Disclaimer: I own nothing.
At the turn of the century the world birthed the true survivors of the modern world. Some of the bravest men and women of the world were introduced the the harshest disaster the world had to offer, the zombie apocalypse. In 1998, a specially trained part of the Raccoon City police department, known as S.T.A.R.S. had been trapped within a mansion filled with zombies and other monsters of a similar nature. While some of the people trapped within the mansion perished, those that survived went on to save the world.
Not long after the mansion incident that befell the S.T.A.R.S. members, a city wide zombie virus infested the town of Raccoon City, where the motorcycle loving Claire Redfield had met the rookie cop Leon Kennedy. The two had to fight through legions of the undead, and groups of genetically engineered monsters known as B.O.W.'s. The pair had escaped Raccoon City accompanied by a little girl by the name of Sherry Birkin who had seen her father, mutated by his own creation, becoming more monster than human. Though their experience together was short, the adventure alone had built a bond of trust so strong that a weapon made by God himself could not break it.
Chris Redfield, one of the original S.T.A.R.S. members had brought to life a global anti-terrorism group known as the BSAA, destined to save the world from biological terror attacks. His sister, Claire had taken the less dangerous approach and joined the group known as TerraSave. Claire eventually introduced Chris to Leon after Leon had told Chris that Claire was in trouble on Rockfort Island. Chris thanked Leon for all he had done for his sister back in Raccoon City and for helping him find her on the island. Claire and Leon had regularly kept in touch while the two of them weren't busy in one way or another, often trying to get together at times and be with Sherry.
The heroes of this century, though always busy, and never without fresh wounds always tried and come in contact with the others, and when possible try to get everyone together. To everyone's delight, they were all somehow free for several days, though one terrorist attack could end those free days. Everyone had decided to try and get together at Leon's luxury apartment.
Leon was waiting in the empty living room for one of the guests to arrive, eagerly getting up when he heard a knock on the door. As he looked through the peephole he saw Sherry alongside a familiar mercenary. He opened the door and was greeted by a hug from his adopted daughter. "Hey there, shorty." He said merrily.
Sherry let go of him, rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, Leon. I'm not that short."
"What do you mean? You still seem like the little girl that Claire and I found in Raccoon." The two shared a laugh and he invited her in, before his attention to Jake. "Hey, kid. Heard you turned down 50 million bucks. Now, I'm not mercenary, but that doesn't seem good for your financial income."
Jake let out a quick laugh and rubbed his chin and said, "Yeah, but I think I got something a lot better, or at least I will." as he looked over Leon's shoulder to see Sherry observing the hotel room.
Leon looked at him and smirked. He put his hand on the younger man's shoulder and said, "Just make sure that you never hurt her and we'll be fine."
Jake looked at Leon with a smug face. "Oh, you think I should be scared of you?" he said with a joking tone.
The blonde shook his head. "No, it's not me that you're going to have to worry about. It'll be her mother who you have to look out for."
Jake smiled at Leon's comment and walked into the Penthouse and observed his surroundings alongside Sherry. Not too long after the newest survivor, Chris Redfield and his wife Jill had arrived, holding two bottles of wine for the Secret Service agent. When Leon had opened the door, Chris greeted him, "Leon! How've you been, you shrimp dick son of a bitch?!" followed by the two gripping each other by the forearm.
"Not bad, you muscle brained testicle tickler." Leon replied with a hearty laugh.
As the two men laughed at their reunion, Jill shook her head at her husband's stupidity and walked up to their host, wrapping one of her arms around his neck. "Hi, Leon. Thanks so much for inviting us."
Leon returned the hug. "I'm happy you could make it, just make sure Chris doesn't take any of his roids while he's here." he said loud and clear so Chris could hear him.
Chris placed his hand around Jill and flexed his other arm. "It's ok to admit that you're jealous of my muscles, Leon."
The two men laughed while Jill said, "You know, Chris it's fine that you workout so much to compensate for bedroom prowess." As Leon began to laugh at Chris, Jill looked at him. "And Leon, it's fine that you're so ugly that you couldn't pay a hooker enough to sleep with you. The two of you are both special little snowflakes."
The two men laughed even harder and as they walked in, and uncorked one of the wine bottles, passing glasses out to the people currently present. Leon quickly turned on a sports game to cancel out any type of awkward silence between the group since all of their social skills were rather dull given their line of work. Jill and Sherry were talking at the kitchen counter while Jake, Leon, and Chris were talking, surrounding the T.V. Jake pointed to Chris' cheek and said, "Sorry about that by the way."
Chris touched his cheek and thought back to when Jake had decided to spare his life. "It's fine. You had a right to do worse, I suppose."
"Do you mind telling me what your personal reason was for killing Wesker?" He asked.
Leon sipped his wine and looked at Jake. "You've really never heard about Wesker, have you?"
Jake shrugged. "Man, I was raised with a sick mother. We made so little money that we considered half a loaf of bread a blessing from God. She never spoke about my father since we had to put everything on survival."
Chris set down his wine on a table and explained everything that had happened with Wesker and the S.T.A.R.S. team. Jake just listened with a stoic look on his face. As Chris finished his story, Jake finally spoke, saying, "God. That's...a rough story. If I had known about everything that he had done, I wouldn't have even considered shooting you."
"I'll make you a deal. From what Sherry told me, you can play the piano really well, so the next time I want to surprise Jill, I'll have you play a nice song for us to dance to." Chris extended his hand, waiting for Jake to complete the unwritten contract.
Jake grabbed Chris' hand firmly and said, "Deal." with a smirk on his face.
A knock was heard on the door, and Leon made his way over to open. He was greeted by a woman with familiar auburn hair. Claire Redfield, the deadly and beautiful woman that Leon was lucky enough to call his best friend. Claire wrapped one of her arms around Leon and released him to show him the 20 pack of Corona that she had bought the night before. "Hey, Leon. It's nice to see you after so long."
"Oh, please. You only miss my beautiful chest." he said while pretending to bounce the imaginary breasts that dawned his chest.
"Oh, baby, you know all I care about is your personality and your smarts." she said, matching his sarcasm.
Leon smiled and grabbed the beers from her hand while saying, "Typical matriarchal sexism." As Leon allowed Claire inside he announced to the guests, "Everyone, put down your wine, and drink a beer like a normal person."
Jill looked to her husband and said, "I told, you that beer would be a better choice as a gift."
As Sherry made eye contact with Claire, the two women ran up to each other, embracing the other in a large hug. "Oh, my baby girl, all grown up!" Claire yelled as she took joy in seeing her daughter. When Leon opened the beer, he went over to Claire and Sherry and wrapped his arms around the two of them.
Sherry, though ecstatic to see the two in the same place, was starting to struggle in order to get out of Leon and Claire's death hug. When they finally released Sherry, the two women went off to catch up, while Leon walked over to Jake and said, "That is the woman that you have to look out for if you hurt Sherry."
Jake smiled and looked to Leon. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, right?"
"No, hell hath no fury like Claire Redfield protecting Sherry Birkin." Leon said, feigning fear. After a shared chuckle between the two men, Leon announced that he'd start making dinner now.
"Wait, you can cook, Leon?" asked Sherry.
"Yes, I can cook. Contrary to popular belief but I'm not drowning in a sea of women every night, hence the need to actually know how to cook." Leon said as he pulled several fresh steaks from his fridge.
Leon made his way out onto the balcony, overlooking the city where he had his barbeque. Leon fired up the grill and started cooking the steaks. Claire walked onto the large balcony and took in the scenery. As the scent of the steaks reached her nose she walked over to Leon and placed her chin on his shoulder and said, " Hey, Leon. Where are the steaks for everyone else? I only see the ones that are for me." Her voice, filled with jest.
Leon chuckled and turned around and said, "Sorry, Claire, but I regret to inform you that you only get one steak today. If you want more then you'll either have to turn into a zombie or find a man who's pockets are deep enough to feed your steak addiction."
Claire placed one hand on her chest and put on expression of shocked insult. "First of all, I'm a steak enthusiast."
Leon smiled and just said, "Mhm, and I can't charm the pants off of a woman within ten minutes."
"Last time I checked, you never managed to pull that off on me." Claire, said trying to one up Leon.
"True, but I just flirt with you like a friend, I don't try and charm you. So what is your second point to make about your steak addiction." Leon said, turning his attention back to the steaks.
Claire sighed and said, "My second point is that your pockets are deep enough to feed my steak enthusiasm." Claire put extra emphasis on the word enthusiasm.
"I don't think there are enough cows in the U.S. to satisfy your love of steak."
"We won't know if we don't try."
Leon finished the steaks and brought them inside on a large platter. Everyone took their seats and grabbed some new wine glasses. Before they began eating Leon stood at the end of the table and made a small speech. "As you all know, we have all been through some type of hell. Each of us united in the fact that we are the survivors of terrorism and even though we have all suffered losses, it's our job to survive so that we can make a better tomorrow possible."
The survivors all raised their glasses and drank in honor of the fallen. The group began eating and making small talk with the others. Chris mentioned that Leon's partner wasn't here to which Leon informed him that Helena was on assignment at the moment. Eventually Jake looked over to Claire and asked, "So you're Super Girl's mother?"
Claire smiled and asked, "Super Girl?"
Sherry groaned and said, "He's been calling me that ever since he saw my ability to heal rapidly." Sherry drew her attention to Jake now and said, "And no, Claire isn't my mother. She and Leon were just my role models growing up."
"I feel the need to disagree with you, Sherry. Leon and I helped raise you when we weren't busy trying to save the world." Claire said, futilely trying to convince Sherry.
"Yeah, but in my opinion since the two of you don't do anything that real parents do, I think I should only call you my role models." She said with a smug grin on her face. The girl did see them as her parents, but always loved to see if they could get her to admit that they were.
Leon looked to Claire at the other end of the table and said, "Claire, maybe we should tell her." His voice full of suggestion.
Claire looked at Leon and saw what he was up to and decided to play along. "Well, she is older now…"
Sherry went wide eyed and Chris almost choked on his steak. Sherry placed her face in her palms and said, "Oh, dear God please don't let this happen." Her voice filled with angst.
"Sherry, you have to understand that it was after Raccoon City. We had just survived hell. We wanted to make sure that everything that we went through was real." Claire said in a calming voice.
Sherry began shaking her head and just saying, "No no no no no no no no." over and over again.
Leon looked at Sherry and slyly said, "Well if you don't see us as your parents then this shouldn't really bother you."
Sherry caught on to what they were doing and yelled out, "Ok, ok fine! I see you as my parents! Just please shut up!"
The table erupted in laughter, all except Sherry taking part in the fun of Leon and Claire's little prank. Chris was still coughing after nearly choking when he thought that Leon and Claire were serious.
Dinner went smoothly from then on. Each of the survivors trading stories about everything that happened to them over the years. When Sherry and Jake were leaving Claire and Leon suggested that they all go to dinner one day so that they could catch up more about their personal lives rather than their professional lives. They all agreed and as sherry was about to walk out, Leon said, "Thankfully we can be honest with you now."
Sherry let out a long groan and Leon got a hard punch in the shoulder from Claire. "We've teased her enough for today." Sherry hugged Claire and thanked her for shutting Leon up. "Of course, sweetheart. We'll tell you everything that we left out when we get dinner."
Sherry pushed Claire off of her and said, "Why do you two love torturing me so much?"
Leon hugged Sherry one more time and said, "Because we're assholes, who love torturing our daughter." Leon drew attention to the word daughter.
Sherry left and said "Love you guys." as the door closed.
As Leon and Claire made their way back to the living room Leon asked, "Are we gonna keep teasing her with this?"
"Oh, most definitely." Claire said as she picked up her beer.
"Hey, Leon. You we're joking when you said that you and Claire had a moment, right?" Chris said, wanting to make sure that the two had never been together.
"Do you really think that I'd say that Claire and I had sex in front of a roid freak like you?"
"Just wanted to make sure I didn't have to puke later."
Jill set her wine glass down and said, "Well, we have to get going. We've got to fly down to Washington tomorrow."
Claire hugged Leon and said, "Great! Now Leon and I can continue where we left off during Raccoon."
Chris pretended to vomit behind Leon's couch, causing a laugh to surface from the group. Chris and Jill left Leon's hotel room, leaving Leon and Claire together. Claire grabbed another beer and sat down on Leon's couch, turning the T.V. on. Leon joined her and asked, "So how was the steak?"
"Oh, it was horrible! That's why I ate it in under a minute." The two friends laughed and continued watching T.V.
"So you want to continue where we left off, eh?" Leon said with a smirk creeping up on his face.
"You can't continue something that never started, Kennedy." Claire said with a smug tone.
"Like you didn't want me." Leon said as he took another sip from his beer.
"Me? Want you? Please. You were the one who was fantasizing about getting into my shorts."
"Claire, I am a gentleman. I would never do such a thing." Leon said, donning a posh voice.
"Sure, and I'm not a bombshell of a woman."
"Apparently not." Leon retorted, stifling a laugh.
Claire laughed and just said, "Screw you." not being able to come up with a better counter.
"Right here? On the couch? The bed is much more comfortable."
Claire quickly jumped up and sat on Leon's lap. "Woah! Claire, what are you doing?" Leon asked, bewildered. Claire cupped Leon's face and brought her face closer to his, their lips inches from each other's. "Claire?" he whispered, softly.
Claire brought her lips to Leon's ear and whispered, "I'm just being a tease." Claire started laughing and jumped off of Leon.
Leon's face was as red as a rose, and his breathing was left ragged. "Oh, you bitch."
Claire burst out laughing. "Sorry, but Leon jr. ain't coming out to play tonight." Claire said, pointing to Leon's lower half.
"I feel like my heart is beating out of my chest."
"Sorry, but I had to one up you somehow." Claire said as she took another sip of her beer.
"That's not one upping me. That's just plain wrong."
Claire set down her beer and moved closer to Leon again. "Do you want me to make it right?" She asked seductively.
"No thanks. I'd prefer to live."
The two friends laughed and continued watching T.V. until Claire had to leave. On her way out Leon couldn't help but think about what would have happened if Claire wasn't joking around earlier. As soon as he closed the door he sighed and said, "Maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to have someone like her." Leon was telling the truth earlier when he said that he wasn't drowning in a sea of women. He didn't care for promiscuity and was often caught with his thoughts drifting towards what might have been had he not become an agent, and more than once, his thoughts had turned to Claire. She was beautiful, smart, and deadly. Only thing was that she was too perfect. If he had wanted, Leon probably could have gotten her into a bed with him after Raccoon, but if something were to happen between the two of them, he wanted it to be real, not because they happened to survive the zombie apocalypse and wanted to celebrate.
