A/N: The main-pairing in this fic will be Claire and Carlos. I love that pairing, though I've never seen anyhing written about them before (no wonder, since it's not really a canon-pairing, and they've actually never met before... which makes it an AU-pairing), so I thought I'd give them a real fanfic, which - hopefully - won't be as sad as the chapter they got in "Sorrow". But anyway, feel free to leave comments, but if you don't like this strange new pairing, please don't give me any angry comments for that ^^''' Oh, and big thanks to Ultimolu for beta-reading this n____n And one last thing: I guess you can say that this is inspired by a roleplay I had with yamiishot X3 that roleplay made me love this pairing X3
Chaper One: A saviour in the rain
"This can't be happening." Claire Redfield mumbled, irritated and angry that she'd missed the last bus home that evening. She was visiting a friend who lived outside of town, and the hours had just flown away. The two friends relived old memories, and caught up on everything they'd missed about each other lives since last time they'd met.
It was raining, and Claire hadn't brought an umbrella...she hated that seemingly innocent word, ever since the "incident" in Raccoon City a few years earlier. Even though umbrellas were supposed to protect the owner from the rain, the Umbrella Corporation hadn't been protecting the city at all. Instead – the company had created a virus that would let them create the ultimate Bio Organic Weapon, without anyone in the city or outside knowing (though, those who did know was somehow involved with it in some kind of way), and when that virus got out, it turned the poor people in Raccoon City to living dead – mindless flesh-eating zombies. What was even worse than that was the fact that they'd been using human beings and animals as test subjects for their sick experiments, turning them into all kinds of monsters. Though... some of the monsters were created due to the virus outbreak, and they weren't really the friendly kind.
The rain continued to pour, in a seemingly endless and very rapid pace, the raindrops smattering hard against the ground. The wind blew the rain into different directions, worsening by the second. Claire's friend lived too far away from where she was currently standing for her to want to walk all the way back in this weather. Still, it would probably be too late to come knocking at her door anyway. And since it had gotten very dark – it was late, so that wasn't really all that surprising – she didn't want to go back into the forest she'd just made it out from. Her brother Chris had told her all about the creatures in Raccoon Forest... She was far away from the little that remained of what used to be Raccoon City, but one could never be too sure. Who knows when Umbrella might let another virus loose somewhere, to get rid of those who knew all about their activities, so why not here, in this forest? She shook that thought away quickly, concentrating once more on the current situation.
Knowing that she didn't have any better option, she sat down by the bus-stop sign, letting the rain fall down on her freely. At least she couldn't get anymore wet than she already was. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't come up with a plan that was good enough. After all, she was sitting on a sand road, in the outskirts of a big and dark forest, far away from town, in a pouring rain. What could you possibly do in that kind of situation? She was cold, soaking wet and tired. The only thing she actually could do – at least the only thing her tired mind could come up with – was to at least try to walk all the way back to the city, to Chris's apartment. Walking had been her plan from the start, though the boots she was wearing weren't made for walking a long way in pouring rain, with the ground becoming muddy, her boots getting stuck way too many times. That all made her mood go down quickly. She should've taken her bike instead, if it hadn't been for the fact that it needed to be fixed, it needed several small reparations. Her brother was working somewhere out of town, and besides, Claire hadn't expected the rain to come so suddenly.
After a long walk, she finally came to one of the big roads leading to her new home-town, and she decided that there wasn't anything else she could do. She would have to walk the whole way in this horrible weather. Well, at least this road was paved, so it'd be a bit easier than the muddy ground on the road in the forest. Her feet hurt, but she'd have to deal with it. At least she came closer to her destination with each step she took. Wasn't much of an encouragement, but it was still better than nothing, and it worked to make her situation feel a little less hellish. She sighed deeply. If her cell phone-battery hadn't died, she could've at least tried to get someone, anyone, to pick her up, if only it meant she wouldn't have to walk the whole way. Her clothes weren't really the best you could wear in this kind of weather, but since the sun had been shining when she left, she hadn't even thought that it would start to rain this suddenly, especially not when she'd gotten halfway from her friend's house, and there was no point in turning back.
Suddenly, as if someone had heard her desperate thoughts, a small blue car slowed down beside her. The road she was on was rarely used, since people seemed to rather take other ways to get to the city – the road wasn't one of the best ones, really – so she was a bit surprised when this car suddenly showed up. She'd never seen that car before, at least she didn't recognize it, but she stopped anyway, waiting for the driver to reveal his or her identity – she couldn't see through the glass, there were too many raindrops. The window was rolled down, and when she realized who it was, her face lit up with a big, bright smile, and all of her worries seemed to disappear. And of course, her smile was met by a smile, from someone she didn't know all that well, but if destiny could have it's way, that was soon going to change.
"Hola chica, need a ride?"
Aaaand that was the first chapter. It won't take too long before I get the second up too, though it still needs to be fixed a bit more ^^ Hope you enjoyed this fanfic, and hopefully, the pairing too... though... this fic hasn't stated "for real"... Well, that's all I had to say for now, so... until next time n______n
