Among men

It hadn't taken him very long to make her follow him into his apartment. Those eager, easy girls weren't really his type, but everything was good enough when all you wanted was to celebrate the return of your freedom. They hadn't done much talking, just a short chat to check if they were after the same conclusion of the night while they shared a drink before leaving together. Once in his apartment, they hadn't gotten very far either. He'd just lifted her up, nudged her panties aside and fucked her against the wall. It had been too long, too torturing since the last time he'd been with a girl — his girl in that case.

'Fuck Amy,' he thought while he fucked Kate, or Kelly, or…he couldn't recall her name, but since she was calling him Peter, it didn't really matter anyway.

He carried her into the bedroom and threw her onto the bed.

"Get on all fours," he said and she obeyed.

Once the skirt was hiked up and the panties pulled down, he knelt behind her and kept going. In and out, over and over. She screamed and moaned and dug her fingernails into the pillow as he grabbed her ass a little tighter.

"Oh, yes, Peter! Fuck me."

And he did.

He pushed her upper body down and lifted her hips. The angle was sharp, but she seemed to like it. Her moans got louder and she soon began to quiver as her hands reached for the headboard and her fingers curled around the frame. Two more thrusts and he was almost ready, too. He slowed down. She felt so good around him that he wanted it to last a little longer. He slid his hand over her butt and spanked her indelicately, the slap and pain of it ripping a cry from her lips and his own orgasm from his groin. His head fell back as he came, gasping her name — or similar.

She collapsed onto the mattress and laughed. Giving him a long, lashy look over her shoulder, she mewled.

"Kyra," she whispered. "It's Kyra."

He gasped and smirked as he pulled out of her and removed the condom.

"Piers, it's Piers."

They laughed together at how much they might have drunk as Kyra pulled her panties back up and lay down on his bed. Her long, dark mane fell in beautiful curls over her shoulders and framed that gorgeous face of hers.

"Mind if I stay?" she asked, rubbing her hand over the pillow. "This is so soft."

Piers quirked an eyebrow.

"Well," he said as he removed his shirt and jeans at the same time he put his boxers briefs back into place. "I just have to get up really early in the morning. You choose when you want to leave."

She smiled widely as her eyes fell shut.

"I think I'll take the early in the morning. Your bed is comfy."

Piers snorted a little. "Are you sure? I have to leave at 5 am, which barely gives you time to sleep four hours."

The girl rolled her eyes and smirked before she sat up.

"You're kicking me out?"

Piers pouted. Was he? He wouldn't want to be rude to a girl, but he actually needed some time for himself before getting up in the morning. Before he could answer, Kyra understood. She got up and gave him a chiding glance.

"Don't worry, I'm already gone!" she walked past him into the living room and grabbed her shoes and purse. Pulling out a pen and a small paper, she noted down a number.

"Here. Give me a call if you ever want to repeat or so."

With a wink, she handed him the paper and turned on her heels. Piers, a little surprised, stood in the corridor and waved her goodbye before he brushed his teeth and went to bed.

The next day, Alpha Team would travel to Colombia, and he needed to be in best condition.

The sun was burning hot and Claire was starting to worry about not having brought enough sunscreen. A beginner's mistake and, to her and her creamy white skin, unforgivable. The coworker who was travelling with her —a long-haired, full-bearded Afro-American— probably wasn't making much use of such cosmetics. Lucky, she was paying Chris' station a visit that day. Maybe he had a tube left.

"What a nice place," Louis Jackson said ironically. The camp looked like it had been burst into pieces by a bomb. Even from outside the perimeter, the place smelled like gunmetal and testosterone.

Claire frowned.

"Well, let's see if I can find my brother."

She took several steps forward and greeted a young soldier, pulling out her ID Card in quite an aggressive manner. Due to her position in Terra Save, she often needed to show a harder side of herself, but typically felt bad afterwards. Deep inside, she wanted to be friends and share beer and pizza with everyone as if they were brothers and sisters without caring about the status difference, but those men were her brother's subordinates. Even here she was supposed to behave like the leader she was. The young man sucked in a breath and started stuttering at her as she halfheartedly muttered Redfield, Terra Save. Have an appointment with Captain Redfield.

"Pl-please, c-come with me, m-ma'am."

She heard Chris' laughter echo from the inside of the tent they were led to. She'd recognize that voice from a hundred miles away. A smirk popped onto her lips when Chris stepped out, amusedly chatting with a younger man.

"I can relate. That guy is as useless as wet paper and if we keep on depending on his decisions, the B.S.A.A. will soon disappear." He smirked.

"Can't you do something about that, Captain?" The young man next to him gave him a serious gaze, one too serious for Claire's taste. "You are one of the founding members."

"But that doesn't mean he owns the company," Claire interrupted, smiling widely at her brother in one of those poses one figures themselves looking important. She probably wasn't. She was probably looking ridiculous. "Is it about Johnson again?"

Chris gave her a nod along with a wide smile and pulled her into a tight hug. Goodbye to the "high position" thing.

"Why do we see each other more often on the field than at home?" He asked her after letting her go.

"Because you are never home." She giggled. "Workaholic."

"Look who's talking!" Chris smiled at her and turned around to the young man next to him. "Claire, Lieutenant Piers Nivans, the best sniper I've ever met." He patted the man's shoulder. "Piers, this is Claire, my sister."

Claire rolled her eyes.

"I also have a master's degree in International Relations, I survived several outbreaks and abductions, and I manage my own department at Terra Save," she said, smiling as she offered her hand. "But, to him, my biggest success in life is being his little sister."

Piers smirked at her comment. Nice. He knew how to smile.

"That happens in the best families." He shook her hand. "My mother is completely oblivious to my military career and still tells everyone how I once built a sandcastle as big as myself when I was four."

They laughed as they kept shaking hands. Claire inspected the young soldier. He had a remarkably handsome face with dark eyes, full lips, and soft features. He wore the uniform as if he'd been poured into it and brandished the rifle on his back like some sort of trophy. 'Not bad', she thought as she wondered how old the young man was.

"Oh, please!" Chris laid his arm around her as he snickered. "I just show my sister around proudly."

Claire hit him in the ribs.

"Stop treating me like arm candy," she complained. "I'm here to save your ass, if you haven't forgotten!"

Because, really, that's what they had come for. The mission she had been sent to accomplish included extremely confidential negotiations with the B.S.A.A. about a warehouse in a nearby survivor camp the NGO was building, one that the B.S.A.A. could use as a strategic weapon storage for their upcoming expeditions through South America.

Chris nodded, smirking.

"Oh, right. Piers," he turned to the soldier on his right. "I'll be with Rodriguez and Terra Save. Please, go see if the team is ready for the next move."

Claire watched as Piers gave her one last smile before he turned away and she and Louis followed Chris into a different tent where they were introduced to the director of the South American branch of the B.S.A.A., Captain Mario Rodriguez.

"Miss Redfield, Mister Jackson," he greeted them with a strong Colombian accent. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is ours," Claire replied as she approached the captain. Mario was a huge man with a penetrating voice and contagious laughter. The upper buttons on his uniform had been left undone and showed a thick layer of chest hair that laid beneath. His handshake was strong and his eyes pierced into Claire's when she shook his hand.

"I have heard you have good news for us." Mario shoved a box of cigars over the table as he sat down. "Take one."

Louis gave her a shrug before he took one of the cigars and smelled it. Claire denied the offer with a grateful smile before she sat down at the table. Chris followed her.

"Well…" She spoke, clearing her throat.

Louis took a map out of his backpack and rolled it open, placing it onto the table in front. The map showed different marked points, spread over an extensive area.

"We have been thinking about your request to use our camp as a tactical base for your next move, Mister Rodriguez. The board of directors isn't against it, of course, as the B.S.A.A.'s interests match our own, but they are reluctant towards the possibility of the weapon storage, as you may imagine."

"They will change their mind if you agree with our conditions," Louis continued and Mario frowned.

"And what are those conditions?" Chris asked and turned to Mario, who was beginning to shift in his seat. "It's alright Rodriguez, Terra Save is on our side."

Claire cleared her throat as Mario gave Chris a disapproving look.

"You'll see. If we keep such a huge number of weapons in our camp, we request free access to them to guarantee the surveillance. We cannot allow you the requested closed space where only B.S.A.A. members will be able to access."

"Well, that makes sense to me," Chris added as he watched the plans. "As long as you guarantee that the weapons are still there when we come to get them."

Mario's look jumped from Claire to Chris to Jackson and back to Claire.

"Sure! It was clear that Mister Redfield would agree with his little sister, wasn't it?" He lifted himself from his seat and leaned onto the table, hitting is palms heavily onto the surface. "Your men are no soldiers, Miss Redfield," he said in a grating voice. "I cannot give my weapons to children."

Claire held his gaze. Although his worries were justified, Mario was being impertinent. Now was the right moment to show how much of a leader she was.

"Mister Rodriguez," Claire breathed. "Terra Save has extensively trained soldiers and experienced fighters who will be responsible for the supervision of your storage. You can trust that no one will misuse them in your absence, but we can't let you have part of our warehouse without knowing what exactly we have in it. I don't see where the problem is." Her look drove to Chris. "And Captain Redfield's reason to agree with us is not any personal relationship. He knows perfectly well that Terra Save needs the B.S.A.A. to succeed in this mission. Our camp in this area has just been enlarged to cover more needs and take in more survivors, but we're running out of resources."

As Claire stopped a moment to breathe, Louis continued the speech.

"If your suspicions are correct and there is someone preparing a new outbreak, we need you to stop this," he said. "And we will do everything to assure help."

Rodriguez's look went back to Claire, who was now smiling encouragingly.

"We can't face any more requests for a place in this camp. We're full." She pulled out some papers to sign. "You can count on Terra Save's cooperation here. Your team will have any resources and support they need, but we need to do this the right way...with transparency and trust."

Mario pulled the sheets closer and read them attentively as Chris and Claire exchanged short gazes. She chuckled a little as he winked at her. Things seemed to go well.

"So she's here?"

"Is she nice?"

"Did you speak to her?"

The B.S.A.A. soldiers Ben Airhart, Carl Alfonso, Andy Walker and Simon Tinman stood around their Lieutenant, fidgeting nervously as they bombed him with questions about the subject that had kept them awake for the previous nights.

"How much does she resemble Redfield?"

Piers rolled his eyes as he shoved his teammates away violently. It had been two days since their Captain had announced that his sister would be one of the Terra Save members that would be visiting them to discuss the conditions of their next cooperation and it had caused a general chaos among the soldiers, as they hadn't had the chance to meet the younger sister of the man that was guiding and training them so well. The surprise and excitement had been huge and their vivid imagination was playing around freely.

"I heard amazing stories about her."

"I heard she ran into Raccoon City like a Valkyrie to save Redfield's ass."

"I heard she once killed thirty zombies with her bare hands."

"I heard she looks like the captain in a skirt."

Piers grunted as that crazy idea was spoken out — again. He himself had had a look at the younger Redfield about a year before, when Terra Save had been target of a terrorist attack, and Claire's report along with pictures of all the victims, including herself, had ended up on his desk. It had been a mere ID picture, but one thing was clear — Claire didn't look like her brother at all. The only feature the siblings shared was the eye color.

"Men, do you believe this is a proper way to speak about a relative of your captain?" He hissed into the round with a husky voice and caused the men to look up. After a short moment of silence, Simon and Carl burst into laughter.

"Man, Nivans! Always so serious!" Simon rammed his elbow into Piers' side. "This has nothing to do with our respect for the Captain! We just have been here for a week and there's nothing to do. We need some entertainment."

"You have been here for five days and, if you want to keep yourself busy, you can…" Piers' threat was interrupted by the voice of Andy Walker.

"Holy shit."

Piers could see the blood drain from all his teammates' faces when he heard Chris' voice behind him and turned. Their captain was walking into the tent they used as a dining room and kitchen, closely followed by the two Terra Save members.

"This is the last move we need to make," Chris said. "When do you think we will be able to access your camp?"

"Once the papers are signed and returned to Terra Save, you'll find the doors open within twenty-four hours. It will be quick and your director Johnson doesn't even have to learn about it." Claire winked at him before she turned to the young soldiers in front and smiled. Her look waved through the round as she waited for Chris to introduce her. How quiet everyone was all of a sudden. Piers chuckled. The redhead had all attention drawn to her.

"Men," Chris stood between the Terra Save members and his subordinates. "I am proud to introduce you to Louis Jackson and Claire Redfield from Terra Save. As you well know, we will count on their help for our next operation."

He quirked an eyebrow as he looked at Claire, who chuckled softly. He hadn't introduced her as his little sister this time. He was learning. Louis was the first one to shake the soldiers' hands, but all their eyes were stuck on Claire, who just smiled at the sudden wave of attention.

"Miss Redfield," Carl Alfonso said as they shook hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yes," Ben Airhart added. "We have heard so much about our captain's brave sister."

"Only good things, of course!" Simon said in a hurry.

Claire laughed.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," she replied, chuckling.

"Why don't you and Mister Jackson stay with us for lunch?" Simon offered. "Our canned food is surely not as good as you're used to, but it's still food and I'm sure you have a long ride back to your camp or hotel."

Claire gave her coworker a short glance and Louis shrugged his shoulders.

"You know me, Claire. I never say no to a meal."

And so, the two Terra Save members followed the B.S.A.A. soldiers into their makeshift canteen, where they shared some of the MREs they had taken with them. All the guys were looking shyly at Claire, following her moves thoroughly, and Piers couldn't hold back a tiny smirk as he saw their interactions. Just some minutes before his teammates had been making all kinds of bets about which sibling would have more chest hair and now they were barely able to speak a word. No wonder, though — Claire was actually a stunningly beautiful woman. The red hair gave her a fierily exotic semblance and the tiny freckles on her white nose and cheeks made her look young and innocent. However, her stinging looks through bright eyes and sharp tongue conveyed a rough smartness that made her the most interesting female he had ever come across.

Also, he was enjoying how tiny and shy his teammates had become in her presence, almost choking on the mean words they had been spitting out before. He could swear he'd seen Andy Walker blush in front of the redhead. Claire had noticed, too, but being professional as she was, she didn't let that change anything about her attitude towards the men. She asked them about their work and praised them for the good job they were doing and the men seemed to relax. Apparently, Claire had just proven that being Chris Redfield's hot sister wasn't incompatible with being a lovely human being.

Piers watched the scene from a safe distance and analyzed how the two Redfields interacted with each other. Even though the siblings were very different on the outside, they had the same open, kind character. Claire didn't fear sharing stories about her past experiences in bioterrorism and had the soldiers' complete attention.

"So, you know Leon Kennedy?" Ben asked with interest and Claire threw an amused glance at her brother, who was grinding his teeth. "I heard he once killed a hundred Hunters just by running them over."

"Yeah," the redhead laughed, narrowing her eyes. "He's always been a horrible driver." She probably thought she had talked enough and put a hand onto Louis Jackson's shoulder. "Did you know that Louis once saved the president? They were stuck together in the same terminal when an outbreak happened."

Louis lifted his hands and shook them.

"He wasn't yet president back then," he added before the B.S.A.A. soldiers regrouped around him to listen to his stories. Claire used the break to get up. "Actually, it was long before we joined the active fight against bioterrorism in our fields. We were on the same plane and landed when the airport in Istanbul was already overrun with zombies."

Chris turned to Piers and laughed, receiving just a friendly nod from his second-in-command. The captain was having a great time after the successful negotiations with Mario. It was time they got some good news as everything they touched lately seemed to run out of control. Just two months had passed since Chris and he had come back from their mission in South East Asia. The outbreak in Marwaha school had caused important losses among their own rows. Merah, for instance. Piers lifted his glass as the young woman came to his mind. He had known Merah Biji before they had reunited in Marwaha, and there had always been some weird attraction between them. Hadn't he been with Amy, he and Merah would have surely become something more than just soldiers on the same side. Now, Merah was dead and Amy was gone and he had lost his chance to be happy with either of them.

"So, Lieutenant Nivans," Claire's golden voice pulled him out of his thoughts as she dropped onto the bench next to him. "Why don't you sit with the others?"

He cleared his throat, still a little shocked by the sudden presence next to him.

"Well," he said. "I am a sniper. I like attacking from a safe distance."

She laughed, and Piers found out that Claire Redfield was truly gorgeous when she laughed. Her blue eyes sparkled in the dim light of the tent as she slowly caught her breath again and reached for the drink she had just left on the table in front of her.

"The best sniper in the world," she repeated her brother's words. "That's a huge compliment, especially when it comes from Chris Redfield."

"I know that, ma'am." He smirked widely. "I am very proud of working under his command. I mean, just as all of us." He pointed at the next table where Louis Jackson was currently explaining how he and Adam Benford had dashed together through an infested airport terminal in Turkey around the year 2005. Claire's eyes lit up as she smiled.

"Trust me, Nivans," she suddenly said and put her hand onto his. It was soft and felt warm on his skin. "He is proud of working with you, too. He was a little reluctant to the idea of leading his own team. I don't think he has worked on a large unit since he was in S.T.A.R.S. and he didn't feel ready for it, especially after the losses they had in Kijuju some years ago. But I can sense that you're all functioning very well together," Claire proceeded. "And I think he owes a lot of this stability to your presence here. Thank you, Nivans."

Piers' head dropped, hiding that he almost blushed. He always tried to do his best in his job and it had been a big honor to be named Captain Redfield's second-in-command. He would have done it for any other captain too, as it lay in his nature, but working under Chris was more than just work. He treated them like family and they had all learned a lot from him and his experience.

"No need to thank me, Miss Redfield. Your brother helped me get over a severe identity crisis," he said laughing. "I used to be with the US Army's Special Forces, but I had gotten to the point where I found I needed new challenges and…well, there was your brother. When he asked me to join the B.S.A.A., I didn't hesitate one second." He looked back at Claire, who was smiling brightly at him. "What about you? How is it to be Chris Redfield's little sister?"

She stopped smiling and blew out a breath as her look dropped to her watch.

"Okay, we don't have time for the long version, so I'll give you the short one." She cleared her throat and took a sip of her water. "I'm alive and I probably owe it to him."

Piers frowned at the redhead and she laughed again. "Chris raised me when our parents died. He was there to show me that, no matter how bad things get, life goes on, until someday it doesn't. He taught me that there was a right time for everything — for grieving, for being happy, and for fighting for your life. He also taught me everything I know about guns when I was a teenager. That all made me survive Raccoon City and all later outbreaks." Piers lifted his eyebrows as Claire shrugged her shoulders. "He's awful with birthdates, but he is the best brother I could wish for."

Piers was about to reply when Ben came running towards their table like a little child and leaned onto the surface right in front of Claire.

"Claire!" he yelled before he thought what he was doing. "I mean, Miss Redfield. Louis says you killed Alex Wesker. Mind sharing that story with us?"

Before Claire could reply, Piers threw an angry glance at Ben.

"Airhart, you're losing your manners!"

Ben looked at him in shock and his face turned pale when he turned back to Claire, stuttering an apology. However, the redhead just laughed and stroked Piers' hand again, sending a shiver through his body.

"It's okay," she said and got up before turning to Ben. "No need to call me Miss Redfield. I'm Claire. You probably know the story about Chris killing Albert Wesker, don't you?" They walked to the other table together. "Well, my story isn't as spectacular as his, but that's probably because he always exaggerates his stories."

Piers smirked, rolling his eyes as he watched them walk away until his look crossed Chris'. His captain gave him a short shrug and laughed. He was probably used to his sister's natural skill to captivate everyone around her, especially when the ones around her were men in their twenties. No wonder she kept being the main topic of their talks long after her departure.

"Please, guys, be quiet for a while," Carl growled as they went to bed that night. "I'll be thinking about Claire, if you know what I mean."

"Alfonso, you cock muppet! Can't you wait to jerk off until we're all asleep?" Andy yelped. "Also, would you please stop contaminating my vision of Miss Redfield sucking my cock with your ugly face in it?"

Laughter.

"You mean the vision of Miss Redfield searching for your tiny dick with a lens?" Simon was the last one to speak before Piers decided who to throw his pillow at.

Just to clarify, Piers Nivans didn't sleep on a normal pillow. No matter how soft and smooth his bed back home was, while on the field, his head and neck rested on a little bag of seeds; a luxury article that helped him sleep as much as it helped him wake up. And so, it came that two pounds of dry, hot and already sweaty seeds and cherry pits hit Andy Walker right in the face.

"Ouch! Fuck, Nivans!"

Piers jumped out of his bunk to recover his pillow.

"Can't you just shut the fuck up?" He hissed as he walked through the tent. "You should rest now if you don't want to look like zombies tomorrow and risk getting shot by your teammates. Tomorrow we need to move the weaponry to the Terra Save camp, don't forget that." He grabbed the pillow from Andy's hands and turned back to his bed. "Also, you better hope the captain hasn't heard your disrespectful comments. Or would you like to hear someone talk shit about your little sister?"

Ben sighed.

"Of course not, Lieutenant."

Carl and Andy looked away, ashamed. Only Simon kept talking.

"Come on, Piers," he whispered in the dark. "We all respect the captain as much as you do and you know that we would never treat his sister with disrespect. But, in our defense, she is the hottest thing we have seen in days; weeks, for some of us. There's nothing bad about fantasizing."

Now Andy spoke again.

"Yes, also, Claire looks like one of those women who'd even find it amusing to know that they're the object of our fantasies," he said, laughing, and Piers nearly threw his pillow again. "And not all of us have a cute girlfriend like you. Come on, just let us dream a bit."

Piers layed down. That cute girlfriend Andy referred to was Amy, but, of course, the young soldier had no idea that Amy wasn't his girlfriend anymore. Amy Junker and he had been together for four years and they had even talked about marriage before she'd discovered that she didn't want to continue living her life next to a B.S.A.A. soldier. He hadn't seen her since Christmas, when she'd decided she would stay at her parents' home ad infinitum, and they hadn't spoken until May, when she'd called to notify him that she wasn't coming back. 'Not back' didn't mean not back to New York, but not back to him. He wasn't really upset about losing Amy after all, but the fact that his hypothetical relationship with her hadn't let him be a little more open to Merah bothered him.

He'd told Amy to come while he was in Colombia to get her stuff from his apartment and leave her key with Mrs. Wilson, his neighbor. The old lady had given him a hug and a cookie when he'd told her that the skinny brunette, who she'd called Amy, wouldn't be around much longer.

"Nivans," Ben called out for him. "Do you think Claire will be there when we get to the camp?"

Piers just replied with an impatient huff. Just because he was single again didn't mean he had to follow the childish behavior of his teammates...

No matter how hot Claire must look in her underwear.

Hello there! Looks like I'm back. Posting this is certainly a mistake, as I am only doing it because I'm having a hard week and I make dumb choices when I'm stressed. Anyway, thanks a lot to all the people who made this possible. Sofistinha, who always inspires me to write my stuff, Corpasite, RNAi-L and The Lady Frost, who read parts of this stupid story even before it was readable and, of course, irithyll, who took the time to edit this.

This is not a Cleon (yet), but Leon will make some appearances every now and then. But don't get too excited. I am terribly lazy lately.