Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Christmas belongs to Coca-Cola. But only one of the former statements is true xD Hope you have fun!

Just protective friends

"I can't believe you're spending your first Christmas of freedom in California." Leon stared angrily at the screen.

"I'd prefer staying in DC, but they're making me go," Sherry's sweet voice sounded through the speaker as she gave a look of guilt through the camera at him. "It's not really freedom, you know?"

After Wesker's death Sherry had agreed to become an agent and work for the government in exchange of a little freedom. She had hoped to spend the holidays with her friends, but had been sent to a special training in Los Angeles. Leon suddenly spotted a young man on the screen, walking shirtless behind the blonde.

"Who the hell is that?" he jumped up. "What is that guy doing in your room?"

"Leon, you're overreacting." Sherry rolled her eyes.

"I promise you Sherry, I will..."

Claire pushed him aside. She had been sipping her tea until Leon's reaction had made her decide to interrupt the loving conversation between her friends.

"Okay sweetie, have fun. Merry Christmas and use protection!" She waved cheerfully into the camera.

"But…" Sherry's voice got cut by Claire shutting the notebook. The redhead turned around and gave Leon a threatening gaze.

"How dare you?"

"Claire, have you seen that?" His fearful look met hers. "What the hell is she doing there?"

"Leon, she is twenty-three years old. Who cares what she's doing, as long as she's ok?" She saw her friend frown in front of her and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. She couldn't help but giggle. His behavior somehow reminded her of Chris. "Oh, come on. I know you'd like to protect her from falling for an immature young man. But I'm pretty sure she wants to find out on her own and make mistakes like everybody else."

"I can't help, Claire. Something about that guy bothers me."

"And I know what it is," she poked him and approached her lips to his ears. "He kinda looks like you in your twenties," she said whispering. He frowned.

"What the fuck does that mean? I still look like in my twenties." He forced a smile and shook his head. Claire was probably right, and he didn't want her to compare him to her overprotective brother. He decided to forget about the situation. Sherry was indeed old enough. He got up, staring at his friend's amused look. "Whatever," he pulled on his jacket and gave her a wink. "I'm off."

"Where are you going?"

"To the office. I got work to do?"

"What?" She jumped up, almost spilling her tea. "I thought you had some days off."

"I do." He nodded.

"And you're still planning to work? On Christmas Eve?"

He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a puzzled look.

"Yeah, the office is empty and so I can do some undone paperwork." He smirked.

"Why aren't you spending Christmas with your family?" She asked confused.

"You want to see me in a madhouse?" He laughed.

She looked at him worried.

"Leon, it's Christmas. You can't work on Christmas."

"It's not like I had any better plans," he said. She shook her head in disbelief. Her friend had always been a workaholic.

"Yes, you do." She grabbed his shoulders. "You can come with me to New York."

He frowned.

"Claire, I appreciate it, but…"

"Please." She gave him a begging look. "If you don't do it for yourself, do it for me. I would love to spend Christmas with you. Jill and Chris are coming for dinner, too."

"Yeah, look, I don't think your brother will particularly enjoy my company."

She smirked at him.

"You only know grumpy Chris. But today he's Christmas-Chris." She giggled. "Christmas-Chris is nice."

He smiled and rolled his eyes. He had never really been a fan of Christmas, but if there was anything in the world he hated more than holidays, it was arguing with Claire. He looked doubtfully at his friend and shrugged.

"I'll have to bring wine, then."

Claire gave him a wide smile and shook her head.

"Don't bother, none of us can drink. We're all expecting someone to plan an attack on Christmas day." She laughed out loud. "So we have to be ready for anything."

Merry Pre-Easter-Christmas everybody LOL And shame on me! Yes, it was short again. And even if it's not very entertaining, and even a little OoC, it's meaningful (unless I make any other changes to following chapters). Trust me!

I hope you're all fine. Thanks for reading this week after week. You see, I'm slowly introducing other characters, giving them lines and presence and reasons to fight xD Next week someone "new" is gonna show up. Who will it be?

First, thanks to Lastdragonborn274 and my sister Sofistinha (whom I miss a fucking lot. I send you a lot of positive energy, baby! You're gonna make it!) for their efforts. When I copied this into the DocManager I saw it was way too short and I added some stuff. So, only a part of this has been properly checked and corrected. Sorry. If you find any mistakes, typos or confusing grammar constructions, please forgive xD

Thebigticket21: Thanks for always sharing your opinion with me, my friend. Yes, I'd say Leon's behavior in the previous chapter was due to his huge ego. There are a lot of things coming up. From now on, the fun part will start (even if not the dirty part yet xD) What will Claire do? How will Leon react? Why does Chris change his haircut? So many questions T_T

HeirateMarich: Leon is a workaholic AND a perfectionist. So I guess he sent her that short message while he was still working and just wanted to do it fast. But then he felt embarrassed and had to correct. Do you see why I can't stand him? xD I mean, besides that whole Ada-thing xD I guess something similar happens to you with Jill hahaha Thanks a lot for your always sharing your opinion and for your support! You're awesome!

Onkwehonwe Hedgehog: thanks a lot for reading and reviewing. I'm checking the nice dirty chapters again to make sure I won't disappoint you xD

And the replies are, as usual, longer than the chapter itself. That's soon gonna change, I promise.

Thanks a lot! Have a nice week!