Well, this is going to be a fun chapter to post. I personally like it, but I know there is a teeny tiny point within the first two sentences that is probably going to annoy some people. -coughs- Hopefully, you can forgive me after reading the cuteness that follows. ovq

Song Suggestions: Here With Me by Marshmello ft. CHVRCHES

Disclaimer:

Winter continued on as February's cold days passed one by one. The calendar on the fridge read February 15th. Next to it was a small handwritten note that read 'Dear Auntie Emmy + Chris, Will you pleese come to my 7th birfhday party on March 9th? -Summer'. On the Island counter next to the tiny worry hut, which had been mostly unused for some time, was a vase holding a small bouquet of daisies and a tag that read Emma, Happy valentine's day -Chris. Frozen winds could be heard rattling against the windows of Emma's apartment.

As for the occupants of the apartment, Chris was laying on the couch opposite of the TV. His head was propped up by a pillow so he could read a book, While Emma rested on top of him, used his chest as a pillow as she watched a movie about some kung fu guy on the TV. Occasionally either one would grab a few pieces of popcorn from a bag on the coffee table too much on as they relaxed in their own way together.

"Did the kid do the Illegal move at the tournament yet?" Chris asks while turning the page.

"not yet," Emma replies before a scream was heard. "There it is." The show continues as the man goes on about using some sort of glass cup and fire.

"That is not how that works," Chris says while still reading.

"you are the worst to watch movies with you know that?" Emma says in an amused tone.

"That why I'm reading a book," Chris replies with a smile.

"Stay in the book then, I can't hear," Emma says through a chuckle.

Chris reached over for another cluster of popcorn only for a piece to fall loose and land on the side of Emma's face. She closed her eye as it was hit by the stray kernel. "Are you trying to pick a fight?" She jokingly asks as she reaches up to grab the pieces from it's resting place and pop it into her mouth.

"Maybe," He replies with a smirk.

Upon hearing that Emma carefully Props herself up enough that she's in the way of Chris's book so she can look him in the eyes. In the background, steps could be heard going up the stairs. probably just Bastion or Travis. Emma's phone went off, and shortly after Chris's sent out an alert before a knocking could be heard down the hall at his door. this caused any snickers and chuckles to stop as they each reach out to get their phone off the table.

RING: [Alert - Motion Detected]

[Security system: Motion Detected]

"Were you expecting anyone?" Emma asks with a note of concern.

"No..." He replies with a frown. Well, time to get up. Emma gets off Chris so he can stand up. once both are up Chris opens his security system's app and stares for a moment but seems to relax. "It's safe." He says as he walks over to the door and opens it.

standing outside is a woman, roughly around Emma's age with brown hair that was neatly pulled back into a ponytail. She tries dusting off a bit of snow that collected on her red leather jacket before noticing that the wrong door opened after her knocking.

"Hey," He replies with a confused expression, what was his sister doing here. Part of him hoped this was good news and that she was ready to talk to him again and not 'hey I need you to beat up this thing for me' news.

"Chris?" She says confused "Oh. um. I could have sworn this was your apartment... it has been a while."

Okay, how to explain this... "No that's... the right door."

"Who is it?" Emma asks as she peeks out from behind him.

"Oh," Claire replies surprised "Is now a bad time?"

"No, It's fine. Emma this is Claire, my younger sister. Claire, Emma." Chris says while internally screaming.

"It's nice to meet you" Emma replies, she didn't realize Chris had a sister. "Do you want to come in?"

Claire nods. "Sure." She replies still a bit surprised but enters the apartment all the same and the three Congregate near the island while

"What have you been up to?" Chris asks trying to start up a conversation.

"You know, just surviving," Claire says while looks around and eventually spots the Flowers and the tag attached to them. "You?" She asks as a gentle smile forms. Good for him.

"Pretty much the same," He replies with a nod which causes Claire to chuckle and shake her head. same old Chris.

"So, Emma. Which unit are you in?" Claire asks with a smile.

"Unit?" Emma asks in return.

"Oh um organization then?" Claire asks figuring maybe she wasn't BSAA but was in an organization like TerraSave.

"I" she shakes her head "Um GridWire Music Productions" Emma replies with an expression of 'what is she trying to ask me.'

"She's a Civilian?" She asks looking at Chris with further surprise, not upset just, surprised. "Does she know?" she asks, though her tone was more so asking 'Can I speak freely.'

"This can't be why you came to visit... what's going on," Chris replies with a frown while trying to change the subject.

Oh joy, UN secrets ran in the family... "I think I'm going to take duke for a walk, text me?" Emma says as she walks over to put on her coat then gave a short whistle.

"Can do," He replies while Emma leashes up the dog.

"Kay, see you in a bit" She replies and heads out. Once the door was closed Chris looks back to Claire.

"I was hoping we could talk? Without shouting at each other this time..." Claire requests and Chris nods.

Claire avoids the stare a bit before giving a quiet sigh. "Look... I am still kinda mad at you, but we already lost mom and dad and maybe it's my fault for staying mad for so long." She says quietly.

"Claire," Chris says quietly as he feels a pang of guilt, it's not exactly like he's reached out since then either.

"It just felt like... When I heard you might be in trouble I went to Racoon City, Rockfort, hell I ended up in Antarctica before you showed up. I dropped everything to find you... but when I needed you, you just let someone else worry about it...Some Random BSAA copper showed up and you were nowhere to be seen." She explained which caused Chris to frown and look away. It hurt but it was true. He didn't have a choice though he was in the Mojave.

"What was I supposed to do," Chris asks trying to bury his frustration.

"You were supposed to care enough to help me," Claire says with a frustrated frown, "Have the team you sent to help me take over what you were working on and make sure I was okay."

"That's not how that works," Chris replies with a frown.

"Why does it have to be for you to put in the effort to see me," Claire points out in return. "I mean look at us, It's been 5 years and you didn't even try to come and see me to patch this up! I had to go find you. Again," She points out.

"I just... wanted to respect your space," Chris replies before giving a quiet sigh while looking at the floor. Talking, not shouting this time. he can do this. "You're not wrong to be mad at me." He admits "When I got your call about the Sonido de Tortuga incident, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't get there just to fail for the hundredth time and watch you die. I couldn't," he pauses as he looks to her, "I'm sorry Claire. Even then I still failed you."

Claire presses her lips together to force a frown before stepping forward to hold her brother and starts to cry. "I don't want to lose you too because of a grudge."

"Don't start that or you'll get me going too," Chris says with a short chuckle as he held his sister. "you're not going to lose me... I'm right here." He says quietly. It took a good 20 minutes or so but the siblings eventually cleared their waterworks and felt lighter from letting go of the anger and frustration that built up over the years.

Chris walked over to a cupboard to get two glasses and fill each with water before giving one to Claire.

"Do you have a place to stay while you're here?" Chris asks and waits patiently for claire to finish drinking to answer.

"Not, exactly," Claire admits.

"Maybe we can talk to Emma about having you stay here then once she gets back," he replies as he sends a quick text.

[Chris] All Clear

[Emma] Rodger that

Claire seemed a bit confused "Oh, um sure. What happened to the pull-out bed. Did you replace the couch?" Claire asks curiously, sure it had been 5 years since she last visited but he was hardly ever home.

"No, I still have it... it's just the mattress has seen better days and" Chris says trying to explain only to get cut off.

"I don't want to know," Claire says as she holds her forehead. waaaaaay too much information and produced mental images she didn't need.

"It's not" he pauses and sighs "That's beside's the point."

Claire chuckles a bit, it was nice to get to talk to him. "So... Emma?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

"yep." he nods giving no further details before taking a sip of water from his cup. "Leon?" he asks in return.

"On again off again," she says with a shrug.

"You can do better anyways," Chris replies shaking his head. "Last I saw of him he was a bottle deep in jack daniels feeling sorry for himself until he finally got off his ass and helped me."

"The New York mission right?" Claire asks in response which notably surprised Chris "what you didn't think I stopped keeping tabs on you did you?"

Chris chuckles at that "Well I can't say I'm completely surprised." he says before mimicking her voice "my big brother's in S.T.A.R.S... Wait until I tell my big brother," he says only to get a partial shove in response.

"I do not sound like that," Claire says shaking her head.

"you did as a teenager," He says with a smile. it really had been so long since they just talked... Claire chuckles as her expression falls a bit.

"There was something else I wanted to talk about..." she admits "TerraSave has been picking up a lot of activity in this area. What is going on? does the BSAA not know about this?"

"I'm not completely sure..." Chris admits "They know, they've set it to 'reactive protocol'." he explains with a sneer... "I know we haven't talked in a while, but if you hear anything else... can you let me know? It feels like I'm getting cut off."

"That's not good," Claire says with a hint of concern in her tone. "Chris we need to report this."

"I don't have enough evidence yet," he replies with a tired sigh. "Once I do I'll confront them. I want to get to the bottom of this first. The real source and cut it off at its root, not just trim the top."

Claire nods. "Alright, I'll do what I can," She agrees.

A few moments later Emma walks back into the apartment with Duke and lets him off his leash. Once freed he immediately goes to check out Claire and sniff at her leg.

"Duke heel," Emma says, the dog gives a huff in response but does as it's told and returns to Emma's side. "Sorry about that."

"Not a problem," Claire replies with a partial smile.

"I know it's a bit short notice but, Could Claire stay with you for the night?" Chris asks with a hesitant expression, it was kind of asking for a lot.

you want me to host your sister who I didn't know existed until now. "Sure, that's fine," She replies with a nod. "Suppose it's a good thing I repurposed the study into a guest room," Emma adds with a short chuckle. She had honestly been meaning to do that for a while since she ended up watching Chelsea's kids roughly once a month but bed frames and mattresses were expensive. She had started on that project in October but thanks to the raise from her promotion she was able to finish the gradual renovation by December. It meant having to sit in the living room while working from home but it was worth it to be able to sleep in her own bed when she had visitors.

"Thanks, I'd have her say with me but the spare mattress is kinda," he bobs his head.

"Oh god no she's not staying on that. It's flat as anything by now," Emma agreed adamantly, after over a year of using that thing during training, she kinda owed him a new one at this point. Emma looks to Claire after that "Hopefully you didn't have to travel too far, Can I get you anything?" She asks as she starts to realize that Claire's eyes were slightly swollen.

"I'm fine, it was an 4-hour flight, I've had worse," Claire says with a shrug. "I'm just going to catch the first flight back in the morning."

"I'll head out then so you can get some rest," Chris replies with a short nod "See you around." He says and makes his way to the door. He really wasn't good with emotions and the last 30 minutes were chuck full of them. Even with their reconnecting he still felt awkward around her.

Well, that was a brisk exit. Emma thought with a confused and concerned expression. "Sorry, he can be a little,"

"I know." Claire says with her lips pressed together once more.

oh dear... "I'll show you the guest room then." Emma offers and gestures for Claire to follow her.

"So, how do you know my brother?" Claire asks as they walk back to the spare room. it was a bit cramped but it had recently been repainted and had two single beds in it with a dresser in between. a few picture frames hung on the walls to try and make it feel more put together.

"Let's see, I moved in almost 2 years ago?" Emma replies with a nod. "There were a few attempted break-ins after that. At the time I thought Chris was some member of the military so I had asked him to help teach me some self-defense options when he had the time until I got the hang of it." she explains as she turns on the lights and they walk into the room.

She chuckled a bit at that "Well you found a good teacher for that, He taught me back when I was a teenager,"

"Ah, you two are close then?" Emma asks with a smile, how cute.

"Kinda," Claire admits with a sad smile as she moves to sit on the closest bed. "He didn't really have much of a choice, we lost mom and dad so suddenly and I wasn't really old enough to take care of myself yet."

Oh her heart. How the heck did Chris never mention any of this. "I'm so sorry," Emma replies only for Claire to wave it off.

"It's fine, it was a while ago." She replies "Anyways, thanks for the room," She says feeling like she maybe said too much.

"Not a problem, you're welcome to anything in the apartment, if you can't find something you need just ask," Emma says and walks out back into the main living area. she waits until she heard the door to the spare room close before walking to the main entrance, quietly leaving then heading over to Chris's place to knock on the door.

"Emma," Chris says in greeting with a concerned expression. "Is something wrong?"

"I think I need an explanation," Emma says still trying to mentally process what she just learned in the last hour. Chris motions for Emma to go inside. after she does so he closes the door. Emma turns to face him again. "Are you okay?" She asks concerned. "Your sister came to visit and you were very quick to leave after only seeing her for 30 minutes." she points out.

"We had a falling out around 5 years ago." he explains with a frown as he crosses his arms.

"so she came out here to try and patch things up?" Emma asks and he nods in return "are you guys good now?" she asks and receives another nod.

"I still feel a bit guilty, but yeah. We're good." Chris replies as his frown lessens slightly.

"I'm glad to hear that," Emma replies with a smile. "Look, maybe in the morning, you could offer to have her stay a bit longer and spend some time with her. I don't mind lending out the spare room while she's here."

"She's an adult she doesn't ne-" Emma cut him off at that.

"Chris she flew all this way to see you. Of course, she wants to spend time with you," Emma points out with a frown, a sympathetic one but a frown nonetheless. "At the very least offer?" Emma requests "Flying out here was her olive branch for whatever you guys were fighting about, you should try and offer one back." Yes, she was being nosy but the disappointment in Claire's voice when she said 'I know' from before still rang in her ears.

"So you're suddenly an expert on siblings then," Chris asks annoyed.

"I have an older brother and a younger sister so yeah I guess so" Emma replies as she crosses her arms now.

"That's the first I'm hearing about it," Chris points out.

"Well, this is the first I've heard of Claire," Emma rebuttals with an expression that read 'your move'.

They were both getting irritable and it wasn't going to get better unless one of them decided to de-escalate. It takes Chris a moment but he lets go of a short breath and puts his arms down. He takes a step forward and moves to put an arm around her waist. "You know when I said I was maybe trying to pick a fight. This isn't what I meant."

Emmas expression weakened to a more neutral one as she drops her arms as well. only to hold up a hand and gently press a knuckle into Chris's side with no effect. "Pretty sure that's not an apology..."

"... I'm sorry," Chris says quietly.

It takes another moment but Emma replies as well. "I'm sorry too... Can we have a do-over on this conversation? That. didn't go so well the first time." She requests as she shifts to hold him in return.

"Alright." he agrees and gives her a peck on the top of the head.

"I talked to Claire for a bit after you left. You left pretty quickly and she seemed disappointed." Emma explains "I think she was hoping you'd reach out a bit and ask her to stay."

He listened as she spoke and nods. "We have been in this argument of ours for 5 years now. It's not something that's just going to go away overnight because she came to visit."

"That's fair, I'm sorry I didn't take your feelings into consideration," Emma says feeling a pang of guilt.

"I did kind of spring this on you by asking for her to stay with you," Chris admits. "For now I think it's for best that she heads home as she intended. The argument between my sister and I was my fault and I still feel pretty guilty about it, I don't think I'm ready to move on and pretend it didn't happen."

"Alright" Emma agrees.

While he wasn't quite ready to bury the hatchet with Claire, he was fine with burying the butter knife of an argument that he just had with Emma. "Come here," he says as he picks her up and carries her over to the couch so he can sit down and hold her. it wasn't the first time they argued but it was kinda the first one she instigated. "Hey. I was a little bit mad, but I don't hate you okay?" he says as he remembered the words that helped him feel better after admitting his guilt to her in the past.

"kay," Emma replies giving a sigh of relief as they both relaxed. She looks up to give him a peck which he returns.

Meanwhile, Claire leans back from the kitchen wall of Emma's apartment having pressed her ear to it to hear. A hint of a smile was on her face but it was a more genuine one compared to the sad smile from before. He ran because he needed time to process feeling guilt from their conversation. She could respect that for now so long as he tried eventually. She looked over to the side of the fridge to see the letter from a soon to be 7-year-old named summer who was inviting the couple to their birthday, and a small stripe of photos. one of Emma and Chris with a tired smile, another with Emma making a silly face and Chris staring in confusion, and another with both of them laughing. Claire chuckled at that.

Woohoo for more FanNatic Hodgepodge Lore! As far as Claire lore goes it's pretty heavily based on Chris and it completely cuts off after 2014. Given that she actually did end up in Antarctica before finding Chris which was a search that spanned multiple games and locations, It seemed reasonable to me that the reason it cut off was because she was mad at him when he didn't show the same initiative in return when it came to making sure she was safe. Even though he did technically go to Antarctica as well to find her. He pretty well ignored her looking for him until it got to the literal ends of the earth and he didn't show up when she was in trouble outside of that. Kinda a dick move, not going to lie. Especially when you consider that he kinda had to raise her for a bit based on the lore that their parents either disappeared or died when Chris was at the oldest 25. I'm going to hazard a guess that it was probably closer to when he was 23 which would explain suddenly lashing out against a superior office[canon] have a falling out with the airforce to go and raise his 17-year-old sister, which would also be enough time for him to have given her the hand to hand training and Firearm training that was mentioned in RE2(?) which would have meant Claire was at best 19 when she when through Raccoon city/Rockfort/Antartica. she made that much effort to find him as a teenager and he didn't really come close to returning the favor when she needed him. So yeah. That's the logic I'm going with for a 5-year Grudge. I think it's slightly justifiable x'D like I'm completely on team Claire for team 'Slap that boi' how ever Emma is a bit too soft for that.

Review Response:

InkScribbles- there may very well have been some ominous foreshadowing at play last chapter ufufu. the timer is ticking.

MoonlightLily88 - yey 3 I'm so glad you're enjoying the story U hopefully you still are by the time you see this

Guest 1995 - lmao X'D yeaaah he's also kinda a dick. lots of jerks in this story but if they weren't here there wouldn't be one to tell X'DD hopefully this chapter was worth the wait.