Chapter Five:

After the food had been demolished and the crew was lying around the living room with overstuffed bellies, Claire excused herself to go outside. She sat for a while on the porch swing and looked out at the growing darkness. It was a little after twilight though not quite late enough for the streetlights to come on and the stars were out.

Claire contemplated the topic of the afternoon and laughed to herself.

"What's so funny?" she heard Leon's voice from the side of the porch. She glanced over the railing and saw him gazing up at her.

"Nothing." She replied.

"Ah, I get it. Private jokes." Leon rubbed his hands together vigourously and hoisted himself up and over onto the deck. "Kind of like that stuff you and the girls were giggling about today."

Leaning back and folding her arms in front of her, Claire tried to hide her smile. "So, you figured out we had our little rituals going on, huh?"

"Claire, I had sisters growing up. I've learned that women always have their little rituals going on." He sat himself down next to Claire. "So…any particularly interesting sacrifices made?"

"A few." Claire said, picking a speck of lint off of her sweater.

"Such as?"

Claire shook her head. "Uh-uh. Never share the discussions within the circle with anyone outside—especially a male. Girl Talk rule number one."

Leon scoffed. "Right. When did you ever follow any rules? Come on, you can tell me."

Claire grinned coyly. "Well…there was this one rather interesting topic that we came up with."

"Tell tell." Leon encouraged.

"Rape fantasies."

The sound of crickets became the soundtrack to Leon's silence. He seemed to have frozen in his current position, his eyes were blank and his mouth a thin line.

Finally, like a marionette, he tipped his head up and down, not moving any other part of his body. "Rape fantasies…hmm…that sounds…interesting…okay, where the hell did you come up with that idea? Was it Rebecca? Was it you? Do I have to start monitoring what you read from now on?"

Claire laughed and shook her head. "First of all, it was Sherry's idea. She's doing some project for school—so she says." She quickly added when she saw the look on Leon's face. "And what's the big deal. A lot of people have them—perfectly normal people."

Leon shuddered and gave Claire a weary side way glance.

"Besides, I hardly think you can consider the mess we came up with as rape fantasies. Jill's was about Chris."

"Damn!" Leon grimaced.

"Rebecca's was about Carlos."

"Am I surprised?" Leon mused.

"And Sherry's…well, we never actually got to hear Sherry's…she has it written down somewhere."

"A New York Times bestseller, I'm sure."

"Right."

Leon looked expectantly at Claire.

"What?" she asked.

"And yours?"

"Mine?"

"Yeah, yours. Who do you fantasize about? No wait, let me guess—Harrison Ford, right? No, no wait, Richard Gere? It's one of those old, Hollywood geezers you idolized when you were a girl? Oh, don't tell me it's that loser Bon Jovi."

Claire slapped his arm. "Don't you ever talk that way about Bon Jovi! I won't have it."

Leon puffed his chest up. "I could kick that guy's ass any day of the week."

"I know." Claire replied, taking a deep breath and steeling herself. "That's why my fantasy was about you."

Again, Leon was shocked into silence. He became a marionette again, his head bobbing up and down only slower this time. "About me?" he repeated. "Oh…that's…that's a surprise alright…" he paused. "About me? Why?"

Claire stifled a giggle and shrugged. Before she spoke she wondered if maybe she were drunk, what other excuse would she have for spilling out these private, personal details she had sworn to secrecy? But then again, no alcohol had touched her lips that day.

"I guess…because you're just about the sweetest guy I've ever met."

"So you think I would RAPE you!" Leon exploded.

Claire flinched; she hadn't known he would take it like that.

"No! No, of course not. I didn't say you raped me, I just said…oh, forget it."

Thinking Leon would get up and go into the house, never again to bring up this subject again, Claire turned away and smarted inwardly. What had gotten into her? She would never before have allowed her feelings to come to the surface. Had the afternoon's talk somehow shed her of her inhibitions—or just made her clinically insane?

"Soo…" Leon continued conversationally. "What did you tell the others?"

Claire turned back to Leon. His expression was soft and understanding if a little unsettled by the content of the moment. He also seemed genuinely interested in what she had said about him.

"Oh, it was nothing. No, no really it was. The girls were completely disappointed in me. They thought I could do better."

"Try me." Leon told her.

"Well…you know how…how I used to have those nightmares about Steve?"

Leon tried to appear neutral at the mention of Steve's name but nodded. "How could I forget?"

"Right…well…I told them about that…and how…how you were always there to comfort me and hold me until it was over. You really always made me feel so…safe…"

Leon nodded. "And?"

"And? And what?" Claire asked. "We went at it like two dogs in heat—what do you think, Leon? I mean, really?"

"Sorry. Sorry." Leon apologized. "I guess I just…I kind of expected more from you."

"Ha ha. That's what Rebecca said."

"Yeah, well, Rebecca's—"

"An idiot? No, she's not, Leon. Well…not completely."

More crickets chirping filled the air and Claire glanced up at the night sky, found the brightest star, and wished for something to break the silence. She expected something along the lines of Chris bursting out and making some stupid announcement or even one of the girls to find the two of them and grin like Cheshire cats. However, she got something a bit more pleasant.

She felt a hand on her knee and when she glanced back to Leon she saw he was smiling warmly.

"Yes?" she asked more tensely than she had intended.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to say that…I'm flattered, I guess."

"Even if my fantasy is boring and you're not some dark clad character in a S&M game?"

Leon laughed. " Especially that I'm not that."

He bit his bottom lip and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess now is as good a time as any."

"To what?"

"To take the advice Carlos and your brother gave today."

"Oh? And what advice was that?" Claire asked.

Without saying anything, Leon leaned in and gave Claire a small kiss on the lips. Then another. And another. Until Claire realized what it meant, that the once in a lifetime clash of shared emotions had come along and kissed him back.

"Wow." She said when they pulled away. "Chris and Carlos told you to do that?"

"Well…Carlos mostly. Chris kind of grunted and gave a do-what-you're-gonna-do look."

"So you and the boys were outside having some male bonding time?"

"It wasn't any more eventful than your girl talk." Leon told her playfully, pulling her into his arms. "Of course that's probably another story altogether."

Note: Well, it's finally done. Sorry for the delay in the chapters. I've been a little busy with other writing projects. One in particular that I'm thinking of—then again, people are probably getting a little tired of Leon/Claire stories from me so we'll see.

Special thanks to my reviewers who stuck with this story (despite the controversy, though I appreciated all reviews both favourable and not so favourable. I understand and respect that everyone has an opinion)

Nesza, Angel Himura, The Evil One!#$&(), Santiago, Skye Wesker, 007, V, Marching Madly Onward, Crimson Bandit, Clinton, The Devil, SOB, Bad Guy, HELL, Skyle, Hotaru, Break the Silence, she's so fou, Overshadowed Malice, and Shadow of Neph and everyone who reviewed as Unknown.

Man, I hope I got everyone. If I left you out, I'm really sorry I was just going down the list and my eyes (out of exhaustion) aren't working properly.