Chapter 2

"I love you, Claire…"

"No!! Steve!!!"

She jerked up as she screamed frantically. Her sweat went down on her chick swiftly and she ran out of breath. Afterwards, she sat on her bed and tried to control her breath and relax. She woke up now and her nightmare totally made her drowsiness gone. Great, because it was still midnight and she couldn't sleep at all. After successfully regained her breath and her eyes got used to see in the dark, she stepped her feet on the floor and walked over to her dressing table.

She turned on the lamp beside the mirror, so she could see her reflection on it. It was still the same Claire Redfield, the young woman with a pretty face. But the mirror showed her beautiful clear-blue eyes were drowning in tears, and gradually soaked her cheek. She didn't realize it until she touched her eyes and felt it was wet. Then she quickly erased it and placed her both hands in front of her face.

"That nightmare… again." She spoke to herself and contemplated awhile before she went to the bathroom and wash her face with warm water.

After she felt fresh again, she decided to descend the stairs to the first floor. She turned the lamp on in the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She found a bottle filled with mineral water and then brought it to the table. Without using a glass, she sipped her drink slowly and walked towards the couch in living room and sat quietly. She curled her body and hugged a small pillow. It made her comfortable enough to chill herself out from the bad dream she had.

It was around a year ago and she damned herself why she couldn't forget about that incident? Why, after all this year she still couldn't get rid of that memory? Claire shook her head off. She didn't mean to forget about it easily and abandon it just like that. No one could, anyway. It was too hard to be forgotten. And this person, this guy, this annoying-cocky-but-sweet little brat was really something to her. His shadow always bugged her in every minute she had. And now it was haunting her in her dream.

"Claire? Hey, wake up, lazy!"

Someone called her name, but her eyes were too heavy to be opened. She whined and turned her body with a blanket covering her face.

The one who was calling her sat right next to her and poked her. "Rise and shine, Claire!" She whined again. Chris pulled her blanket over and called her once more.

"Okay, okay! I will wake up. But in an hour…"

The man sighed and looked at his wristwatch. "It's already afternoon and you're still laying down here?" he opened the curtain to let the sunlight emerging into the room. "Besides, why are you sleeping here?"

"Uh, I forget." The sunlight successfully made Claire's eyes twitching, and it makes her had to cover her eyes with hand. She thought why she was sleeping on the couch. Last night, she was awakened by the worst nightmare and made her recalling about her past before she dozed off. "Oh, I must be overslept in here yesterday."

Chris approached her and tapped her head. "Hurry up, sis! We gotta go now if we don't want to miss the party. So go get some dress and clean yourself."

"Party, what?" Claire stretched her body and sat with eyes still open and close. "And what's with your appearance today? Where are you going?" she saw her brother in a nice black suite of tuxedo and looks kind of cool. Although sometimes Claire didn't admit how good looking her brother was.

Her brother glanced at her with head tilting. "Don't say you forget about the party too."

She silenced, trying to remember the thing she forgot. "Ah, you're right!" She immediately stood up from the couch and rushed to the bathroom.

Well, Claire and Chris actually got an invitation for a wedding party. It was Chris's friends, so he asked Claire to come along. If Jill wasn't busy right now, he surely had asked her as well. But unfortunately, Jill answered him with 'sorry', means she couldn't. As a replacement, Chris forced his sister to accompany him. It's better than got no lady in arm anyway.

The party was held in the California and will start before the evening, so it was a bit late to come because it will spend for hours to reach the destination. And Chris already booked two rooms in a near hotel, since they will get tired to drive home.

Claire hurriedly undressed and washed herself, and after she's done with all of the activities in the morning, she picked a dress for the party's clothes. The one she chose is a silver gown with V neck and with the back exposing her smooth skin. She polished her cheeks with soft natural face powder then added with more stuff for her face one by one. Claire decided to keep her hair in her ponytail trademark style but still looks gorgeous as she is. Feels ready to go and everything's got packed already, she stepped out of her room and descended the stairs leading to Chris, who was already waiting for her patiently.

"I'm ready to serve you, my lady." Chris teased her, but he offered his hand for Claire to grab it.

"Cut it out!" she grabbed his arm and walked together to the front door. "Oh, I forget my bag. Could you help me, Chris?"

He rolled his eyes and bent his body down. "Chris Redfield at your service."

"Wow, it's so pretty!" Claire amazingly looked at the wedding party from inside the car as they finally arrived in the evening. It was a garden party with all whitey stuff and many bouquets of white roses decorating each table. Simple but beautiful.

"Mine will be more pretty than this." Chris chuckled as he opened the door for Claire and offered her his arm again.

Claire answered it with a laugh. "Yeah, let's make a wish."

"Just wait until I get ready to propose her."

They both stepped into the party and be welcomed by the crowded anon. Some friends of Chris greeted him and made a short conversation, while Claire was just smiling because no one she knew there. She looked clumsy and awkward. Feeling guilty, Chris cut his little chit-chat then grabbed her hand and dragged her to the new marriage couple to say some congrats.

"Hi, dude!" Chris called the groom, whom Claire did clueless about that guy. "Congrats, man! I'm happy for you both."

He shook Chris' hand and smiled ear to ear. "Thanks, Chris. I'll wait for yours. Oh, and this is my babe, Chantal. And babe, this is my badass, Chris." He introduced his wife as they shook each other. "This must be your baby sister, Claire, right? You know, your brother keep telling me about how proud he is for having you as his sister. And you're as adorable as he said." Claire laughed awkwardly as she nudged her brother in 'what-the-hell' expression. "She doesn't know me yet?"

Chris rubbed his arm and cleared his throat, feeling clumsy and ashamed of what he had said to his friend, and now in front of his baby sister Blake confessing Chris' feeling towards her bluntly. "So, Claire, this is my college bud, Blake. We've been friends for long, but because he moved to California we haven't contacted each other for a long time."

Claire beamed softly at Blake. "Nice to meet you, Blake. And thanks for keeping my brother safe while in the college. He must be really a pain in the ass." Chris rolled his eyes.

Blake chuckled and shook his head. "A lot. Chris, do you remember when…"

And so on it went for minutes until Claire felt her stomach needed to be filled with food. So she said her excuse and let herself enjoying her time alone to grab any foods she liked. Not to be greedy, but she hadn't eat yet since she passed her lunch time. After took a detour at several buffets, she decided to put sushi on her dinner list with a glass of champagne.

The young Redfield placed her plate and glass at the table in the corner. She wanted to isolate herself from the crowded and since she didn't know anyone in the party, it's better to fill her growling stomach before she died from starving. She slowly chopsticked the sushi into her mouth as everyone was dancing on the floor. The music already gotten the people to gather in the center and do the waltz. It was amusing for her to see them cheerfully dancing, as if they didn't have any burdens.

From the waltz until the slow-romance-dance held the people to keep gathering there and allowing the couples to growing their love, and whatsoever sweet things that made her shuddering. Her thought was distracted by some men around her age that came to drop hi and ask her whether she wants to dance or not. But she just said 'I'm sorry' or shook her head and smiled. She didn't like to dance, or at least she didn't have a man she loved to dance with. She sighed. She tried to find her brother with her sight but then he was still enjoying himself with his old friends. Now she was regretting herself why she didn't reject Chris' invitation, or at least she brought her teddy bear and some of her dolls to be played with.

Another man came from her back tapping her shoulder softly. "I see you're not doing anything necessary right now."

Claire exhaled heavily, tired of this dance-request. She just wanted to be alone. "Sorry?" she turned to face the man. "If you're asking me to dance with you, I'm not…"

The man grinned wryly. "Well then excuse me because I'm not requesting you for a dance."

Claire widened her eyes in disbelieve of what she was seeing. "Leon?"

He smiled ticklish. "Wow, I haven't asked you for anything but you're already rejecting me."

"Wh-why are you here?" she asked with disbelieve tone still.

"I could ask you the same thing." He said simply. "May I sit here?"

She implied him to sit next to her. "The groom is Chris' friend, so he dragged me all the way to this party though I don't recognize the people. And you?"

"The bride is a friend of mine. She used to be my senior in high school and had once being kicked out of her house because I confessed a silly thing. So now I got ended up here as well as her sorry." He explained it as he shook his head, feeling ridiculous at himself.

Claire burst out but her hand covering her mouth. "Oh, well. No wonder."

"What? You said I'm ugly?" Leon asked her straight and answered by another laugh from Claire. "Okay, that's it, girl."

"Sorry." She adjusted her hair. "I'm not saying that!" she paused. "You're cool."

Leon replied it with smirk. "Then you must be interested with this cool man to be your partner dance."

She threw her gaze and chuckled. "No, I won't."

"Sorry, ma'am, but there's no option 'will not' for you." He offered her his hand and waited for a responding. She took his hand and walked together to the center where people dancing.

Claire stepped back before she's going to dance with Leon. "Why are you asking me in the first place, of all the ladies here?"

"Because none of them I know. Otherwise I have to dance with my boys, but I'd rather not." She giggled once again and then took Leon's hand for starting to dance. "Besides, is it wrong asking my old partner to dance? It's an occasional moment. No undead, no dogs, no freaking monsters."

"Make sense." She looked around, more like convincing herself there were no such creatures around them. "Well then don't blame yourself if you've picked a wrong lady that keeps stepping on your foot while dancing." Claire warned him as they went into the music and moved their body with the slow rhythm.

"I'll blame this whole party." He replied. She crept a smile in her face. Leon put his hand on her waist, with other hand grabbed hers. His chest against her face, making her heartbeat rushed quickly. But she could hear his normal pace heartbeat. Calm and relax as the person's face. Only if he saw her reddish face, she would've buried herself in the ground and never comes back.

At this moment, Claire felt somewhat comfortable. She realized she hadn't met him for years, and then suddenly he showed up like a surprisingly present. After the Raccoon city incident, Claire was too busy to find the whereabouts of her brother. That's why they didn't keep in touch in a mean time. And with the death of Steve, she felt like her heart being ripped. She kept thinking about him until she forgot about Leon.

Talking about Leon, she also realized that Leon had been changed. He's different from last time they met. He's more adult, more cool, more professional, more well-built body, more… attractive. He used to be a rookie cops and it wasn't cool at all. From the information she got from Chris, Leon joined the government special agent.

Only a couple years and he had changed a lot. She really wanted to hear the story from his mouth, and she wanted to tell her story too. This reunited sure brought many kinds of feeling she had, aside of the nightmare they both have. Excited, anxious, happy, sad, and yearn she couldn't bear for a long time. Leon's special friend she had, because she felt what he's feeling and so did he. And they worked out together to get out of the mess that anyone wouldn't believe they would survive.

Leon was too precious to be forgotten. And so was him, Steve Burnside, who kept saving her life in countless times. They both are precious for her. But there's this weird feeling towards Leon that she couldn't explain it.