AN: Hi everyone.
This is my first Jurassic World fic. Also it was the only sane way I had to express my insane love for Chris Pratt and Owen Grady, and dinosaurs in general.
The characters are not mine of course.
Oh how I wish..
Enjoy!
5 times Owen Grady kissed Claire Dearing unexpectedly.
The first time Owen Grady unexpectedly kissed Claire Dearing they were in the middle of something. Nothing much really, only a couple of ferocious, untamable dinosaurs and not even a single plan to escape in sight.
One of them specifically, had just tried to bite his head off like he was some kind of tasty snack.
Now, Owen was not new to danger; he was a navy seal after all and there had been times, during the darkest missions, when he hadn't actually been sure about making it home. But having a bird, heavier than himself, trying to sink its teeth into his throat, well let's just say that it kind of gave him a new perspective.
Maybe it was the momentum, maybe it was the being saved by a woman who, not even a couple of hours before, had swayed all over the place in her fancy dress and her fancy shoes, like she couldn't even hurt a fly. But when he had taken her hand, and had stood up in front of her, his mind had gone completely blank.
There was nothing on his brain but her lips, and the way her hands held tightly onto that gun, nothing but her chest heaving under her shirt. Her smell, even in the middle of the disaster, was clear and pure. Appealing.
He took the gun from her hands and without a thought he sneaked his harms around her waist and brought her close to himself sealing their lips together.
One, two seconds into it, and it became clear that it had been a monumental mistake.
There would be no way after that, to forget the taste of her lips, and the feel of her skin. And should they survive, there would have been absolutely no way to let her go.
But the world was ending in that very moment, and dinosaurs were actually trying to kill them. So everything had had to wait; until at least, the Indominus Rex was out of the picture.
The second time Owen kissed Claire, it was even more unexpected.
They were exiting the hangar, the morning after, trying to keep it together after the night of terror they had lived.
The lifeboats were escorting more than thirty thousand people away from Isla Nublar. Reports were saying that the operation could last more the twenty-four hours and Owen for once in his life was feeling completely lost.
He didn't have much in the world. No family to worry about him. The few friends he had were there with him, working with the animals, and the idea of having to leave, maybe permanently, was so scary, he wasn't sure how to deal with it.
So when in the middle of all the mess, Claire asked him what they were supposed to do the only answer that came to mind, was from the deepest, darkest corner of himself.
"Probably stick together, for survival."
He wasn't even sure what he had wanted to say until the words had tumbled out of his mouth.
It wasn't like Owen to be so candid about his feelings, but he had just lost his house, his jobs, and his animals. All in the same day, so maybe, just maybe, he could justify himself a little bit about that.
Still, a manly man like he was was not the kind to give himself to emotional talk. So to ground his feet again, he took Claire's hand and dragged her in the nearest alley. He pressed her against a wall and kissed her soundly.
There. That was more like him.
Of course the expression of utter surprise on Claire's face, (that and the flush of her cheeks and the astonishment sparkling in her eyes) told him that she had somehow missed his train of thought and that the kiss to her was completely unjustified.
It was ok with him.
The third time Owen kissed Claire unexpectedly they had been dating for a month and she was just starting to overcome the physical awkwardness she seemed to feel around him.
It was cute really, how the unstoppable Claire Dearing seemed to become a shy, almost insecure woman at times and he was the bastard, fortunate enough to be able to witness both sides to her.
In the month that had passed since the park shut down, many things had changed.
Claire had witnessed head on hoards of people trying to take her down for mistakes that weren't only hers, and though it was hard watching her, knowing that he could do nothing to help, it was much more satisfying to see the way she reacted, refusing to give up.
And yet, yet the hard woman sitting every day in the impromptu office created in a quiet part of the park, was nothing like the woman he was dating.
Dating Claire was soft and sweet, and fun to be around. She blushed for a compliment and became completely red with a touch.
She seemed to talk non-stop sometimes, about stupid little things that he was not ashamed to admit he often missed. He was a man after all, and they did tend to lose themselves in their own thoughts when a woman prattled on.
Just like that night. They were sitting on the couch in his new bungalow, a fair replica of the old one, he was not that much into changes, and she was going on and on about something.
He had become distracted somewhere around minute 45 of Claire speech and was trying to get a grip of their conversation.
"Of course that is, if you want to. You're absolutely free to do what you want. But you did say you would and I was counting on it...So...What do you say?"
And that's when he panicked. How was he supposed to answer without giving away his distraction?
They'd already had a fight about his inability to listen for more than 5 minutes and Claire was looking at him like she knew and she was waiting for him to make a false step.
Oh he was so busted.
"So? What do you say?" she pressed on.
She was smiling now, the little minx. She was there just waiting to have the upper hand again.
So there was just one thing to do. A sacrifice he was willing to suffer for his own well being.
He reached with both hands, grabbing her by the arms and pulled. She let out a sound very similar to a squeak and landed on him. Their arms tangled as he pulled again to have her nearer. He could see a blush starting to creep from her cheek, down to her neck.
"What are you doing Owen?" she asked breathless.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked in return. Surprised to hear his own voice so rough.
"It looks to me like you're trying to distract me from giving me an answer to something you haven't heard."
He smiled. God he loved her. He loved her sass and her cleverness, and the fact that after only one month she could read him so easily.
"Looks just right to me" he whispered before pressing his lips to her.
The fourth time, they were in the middle of a crowd. Again.
Owen was very fond of the memory of their first kiss. It was for him one of those "turn your life upside down" moment. It came out of the blue, it left him breathless, and it gave him a new reason to fight. A new reason to hope.
And it was no small accomplishment to put hope inside a man who had been alone most of his life, and was trying to save the remaining of it from a storm of lethal Jurassic birds.
Dinosaurs that were parading in front of him, on a TV screen, in a big auditorium used as a courtroom for yet another lawsuit.
Claire was sitting right in front of him, her back straight, her hands carefully folded on the desk in front of her.
The battle had gone on and on for weeks.
InGen was trying once again to get a hold of the dinosaurs still roaming the land of the park.
Masrani's family had refused to take part in the scandal that had followed the Indominus Rex catastrophe and now Jurassic World was left in the hands of a bunch of bureaucrats, trying to decide which side to choose.
Owen was pretty sure InGen was not going to win, but the Military, he knew, might.
He and Claire had come up with a project to save the park and the animals, transforming the land into a national park and the dinosaurs into a protected species.
It was a long shot, but he knew they could make it. The world was full of animal rights supporters that were trying to help the dinosaurs even before the accident and the court was feeling the pressure from the media. The whole world was waiting to know what the fate of the park would be.
"I understand the doubts your honor," Claire's voice resonated into the room bringing Owen back to the hearing. "The military and InGen have made very valuable points, points that I would have approved of myself not even three months ago. But is it not the human nature to learn from our own mistakes? We treated these animals like some kind of toy we wanted to play with and they rebelled against us. They killed many people that day, and could have killed a lot more. Do you really want to give them to the people that made the experiments in the first place, to create some kind of monster they one day won't be able to control anymore. Or have them used as unpredictable weapons into a war? The animals are wild, they can't be domesticated. They will kill our own before they kill the enemy. Is that the nation we are becoming?"
The silence that followed her speech was deafening. Not a single sound could be heard in the whole auditorium. Owen held his breath, waiting for the disappointment to arrive. He hadn't been able to save his raptors then, and they wouldn't be able to save the rest of the animals now. He watched the committee talk for a few seconds. Claire turned around searching for him. She smiled, trying no doubt to give him some kind of comfort.
He knew she was doing this for him, at least in part. She had learned to love those animals almost as much as he did and she was ready to give up the leadership of Jurassic World if it meant saving them.
"We have reached a decision."
Owen left Claire's eyes to focus on the committee.
"Ms. Dearing. You have four months to present a valuable plan to turn Jurassic World into a national park. After that we will decide whether to leave the park in your hands or find another suitable leader to pull this project through."
The silence of the room broke into a cacophony of sounds. Some people were yelling, others were congratulating themselves. Owen just stood there, watching Claire, who was now smiling so bright she could outshine the sun.
And she was all his.
All the consequences be damned he jumped the fence separating them, and had just the time to see the look of pure panic on her face before he crashed his lips to hers.
He felt her tense, just like the first time, but this time, he didn't let go. He held on to that kiss for dear life. Because she had given him a new purpose in life, and she was going to be by his side for the run. Because she had changed, for him, and had changed him for the better.
And also, he kind of liked kissing her without warning, just because he could.
The fifth time, it was a kiss stolen from the movies.
Owen was not a fanciful man. He was practical, logical and absolutely dedicated to his purposes in life. He never understood the use for romance when two people could actually be honest about attraction with one another.
And yet, from time to time in the last months, he had found himself needing to show Claire some sign that he did care about her. Nothing much, really. A fancy dinner, a night out on the beach walking with their bare feet on the sand, going dancing. But they actually had a lot of fun together, and she appreciated the gesture, if the night of making love that followed the dates was anything to go by.
He wasn't complaining anyway.
She did, sometimes, surprise him as well. Though he was grateful for the fact that she seemed to have lost the itinerary habit, Owen had to admit that he kind of missed organized Claire. Or more than that, he actually missed teasing her to death about her little quirks. He'd always loved her biting wit, even when they couldn't stand each other.
Wit that was that afternoon making him wait, outside the entrance of Paddock nine, waiting for some sign.
Claire had sent him a message earlier, requesting his presence outside the paddock at 3 pm later that day. Working clothes were compulsory.
So not much of a date then.
It was a shame, really. They'd had all kinds of fun into the darkest alleys of the park.
He looked at his watch. 3:45.
"Claire?" he called. He was actually getting restless, waiting outside an empty cage, with no one around. "Claire, you there?"
Still no answer. He took a few steps, trying to decide what to do. If she was planning a surprise, he didn't want to ruin it, but what if there was something wrong?
He was just about to get inside when the door to the paddock opened.
He jumped.
"God, you're twitchy."
Claire's laughter almost irritated him. Almost. She was too stunning when she laughed to be mad at her.
"What the hell are you playing at?" he asked. "I've been waiting for you for an hour."
She took his hand pulling him along inside.
"I know, I'm sorry. But we've had some problems, and I didn't want to ruin this by having you inside mid-work. Also, if you weren't half as annoyingly punctual as you are, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
She held his hand tighter when she said it, showing him there was no seriousness in her words.
They stepped inside the paddock.
Owen realized with a start that they had modified it. It looked exactly like the paddock where he used to work with his raptors.
They climbed the stairs leading to the bridge that overlooked the space.
"Claire... what..." he stopped, looking around himself. "What the hell is this?"
She smiled. Sweet and perfect and so lovingly that Owen for a moment forgot everything else but her.
"They will be transferred to the open park up north in a while. You will be able to work with them anyway. But they will be free just like you wanted. Go on" she encouraged him. "Call them. Whistle. Whatever it is you do to get your raptors to work."
It took him a moment, before he realized what was happening. What Claire had done for him. What it had took her months to accomplish.
Some of the animals were still not accounted for. There was a strip of land, in sector 5 still completely wild, where the animals were trying to make a home. It would take forever to get them all back but they weren't in a hurry. It was there, he knew, that Blue and Charlie were living. At least he had hoped. Every attempt to find them had failed, at least until now.
He knew what he had to do. A simple sound. A whistle and they would appear. He looked at her one last time.
She was waiting.
Waiting to see her surprise unfold, waiting to make him happy. He felt his heart accelerate and his eyes sting with emotion. He stepped over, clouding her against the railing. He placed his hand on her hips and without a word crashed his lips to her.
He heard her whimper and felt her hands clutch his shirt.
Her mouth was sweet and tasted like coffee.
He lifted her from the ground pleased when he felt her legs hooking around his waist.
"Tell me there's no one around" he whispered once he was able to break away from here.
"We are alone" she panted caressing her cheek against his stubble. "No men around, no cameras yet."
He didn't need to hear anything else
Soon they were lying there, in the middle of the paddock, with nothing in mind but need and desire.
His hands trembled when he undid his pants. When he entered her, it was like losing himself all over again.
They moved together, mindless of the world outside of them and afterwards, when they were spent and sweaty, when the passion and the need had subsided, he smiled and looked at the sky.
He whistled.
