"It's truly startling how slack the educational system has become." Wesker growled as he corrected something in the textbook resting on the table before him. I shrugged around my mouthful of cereal, swallowing before making my comment.

"Not everyone is as smart as you." I said and he rolled his eyes.

"Possibly because the weak material they are being taught does not allow them to be."

"You went to a fancy school for geniuses." I pointed out. "Apologies if the rest of us public school imbeciles can't meet your standards." I spoke with heavy sarcasm and he heaved an irritated sigh as he let the pen drop into the spine of the book. Ignoring my mockery, he continued on reading through it to me, explaining something when I didn't get what it was going on about. I wasn't sure what grade this was supposed to be aimed at though I guessed somewhere in the late high school or early college area. For the most part I kept up just fine but there was plenty I didn't know. I continued eating as he taught me the bits I questioned, following along since he was sitting to my side rather than across from me and the textbook was angled so I could see as well.

My attention slipped and my free hand idly grabbed for the pen, doodling on the edge of the page closest to me. Without straying from what he was reading, the blond smacked my hand to wordlessly chide me. I chuckled but didn't stop, making more of a point to venture further into the page. He did seem annoyed by this but I saw the smirk on his lips saying he was willing to play along. He went to swat my hand away again but I moved just in time to flick a solid straight line across the page. Red orange eyes turned to me with a look that told me I was behaving like a child though he didn't bother lecturing me and risk losing my wide smile. I raised an eyebrow at him in challenge and when he reached for my hand, I tried to move but he got his fingers around mine too quickly. I was startled by him holding my hand, having expected him to grab my wrist instead. He moved the pen back to the paper and began to write something. Not being one to back down, I struggled against his movements to write my own message. We fought for control though he never used his actual strength to get the upper hand, seeming content with the nonsensical scribbles we were making together. I wasn't sure what he was trying to write or draw, I wasn't sure what I was doing either but this was fun.

I laughed and used my other hand to help myself get a little more power but he matched me, his free hand coming up to grab my arm though he didn't do anything with it. I moved one hand to bat his away but it came back over our joined hands and he quickly managed to write the word 'meat' though it was barely legible. Curiosity almost had me allowing him to finish whatever he wanted to write but I wasn't going to let him win, so with a little more force we scribbled a little longer until I could start to make out letters. Straining to see what he was doing probably was just enough of a distraction to let him finish and I could make out the word 'head' and I laughed. He was calling me a meathead. I doubled my efforts to control the pen now that I knew what I wanted to do. The pen had very sloppily navigated over to the second page and I was only just starting the word 'douche' when the paper finally ripped and we both stopped abusing it.

We both laughed, completely oblivious to how our hands were still joined around the pen. As I settled down, I stared at Wesker. There were creases around his eyes and his shoulders shook even if it was very slight. He was being real. He really was having fun and I was happy I got to be a part of it. I continued to stare like I was entranced by this extremely rare sight. Until he caught my watchful gaze and pressed his lips into a line and cleared his throat. He finally released my hands to put his onto his lap. Suddenly aware of how obviously I was caught staring longingly at his smile, I looked away and took a deep content breath. There was a touch of heat in my face but I wasn't as self conscious of it as I used to be. I felt this moment drawing to an end but I didn't want it to and I definitely didn't want it to be ruined by awkwardness. I wanted to hold this memory dear, I wanted to keep the fun going- I wanted to see that smile again.

"So I have something I want to do with you but you have to swear not to laugh." I told him strictly as I got up to get rid of my cereal that had gone forgotten. I would clean it up later but for now I just wanted it out of the way so we could keep this rolling. Wesker leaned back in his chair and watched me carefully as I power walked into my room, searching through my stuff for the stupid child's toy set Claire thought was so hilarious. Now it was going to serve its purpose and I really hoped it would be something we could have fun with even if it was just to make fun of what we were doing. I hid the box behind my back as I exited my room to return to the table where Wesker was waiting for me with folded arms. "It wasn't my choice, this was forced on me." I told him so he wouldn't think this was something I wanted to bring in with me.

"I thought whatever Jill snuck into your room was something you desperately wanted to get rid of." he questioned, seeming genuinely confused as to why I would be showing it to him. Heat rushed to my face and I wondered if he knew it was a sex toy or at least something similarly embarrassing. Did he even suspect the thing Jill gave me and my masturbating were related?

"No!" I shouted with a pitch higher than I intended. Well if he didn't know before, he did now and the smirk he wore confirmed it. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a breath to calm myself. "Well, yeah, but that's… something else." I said before opening my eyes with a light glare at him for bringing that up again when I was doing so well on not thinking about it. "This is something Claire forced on me because she thought it was funny. It's related to what we were just doing so I thought it might be fun to pull out." god I was too aware of everything coming out of my mouth sounding like an innuendo now.

"Wrestling over a pen to insult each other in a textbook?" he playfully jabbed and I did not pout.

"Wesker." I sighed his name in complaint. I just wanted to give this stupid thing a dramatic entrance and play around with whatever it contained because I haven't actually looked it over. "This is the one time I'm making an effort to be comedically dramatic here, do you have to ruin it?"

"Alright, alright." he raised his hands in surrender before nodding to what I was hiding. "Do your dramatic reveal." he told me but I rolled my eyes and simply placed the children's chemistry set on the table dully.

"You already ruined it." I state blandly as I folded my arms with a huff. He stared at the box in front of him with raised brows for a moment before turning his eyes up to me with a disbelieving look. "We don't have to, it was just a thought." I rolled my eyes as I grabbed for it, having come to regret bringing it out in the first place.

"No, no, it's alright." Wesker was quick to stop me by grabbing my hand and I noticed again that it was indeed my hand he laced his fingers around instead of my wrist or something else not as intimate. "It could be entertaining." he offered with a smile that I pushed myself to return. I was still feeling embarrassed for presenting the child's toy set after he looked at me like I must be joking and he was only humoring me to keep the peace. It was too late to back out now though so I sat back down and watched as he opened the box.

… … …

We were done with the set before we were even through all the listed experiments which Wesker had immediately tossed aside in disgust anyway. He led me through what we were doing, taking the time to explain each reaction as we mixed the different chemicals it provided. However, following Wesker's direction, I ran around our apart… prison… to get whatever household items the blond said we would need to get better reactions or just to make our own experiments. I should have gotten more information about what he was doing than I did to make sure he wasn't setting something up that he shouldn't be… but it was a simple matter of him telling me what he needed. He was forthright about what to expect from each mixture, constantly talking me through what we were doing and I never even thought that he might be lying about any of it. Knowing what he was capable of he could probably make some sort of an explosive or something but I just wasn't concerned about it. I felt irrationally safe here with him… and happy. I don't know how long I've been wearing this ridiculous grin for but I didn't mind it.

"How many?" I called back over my shoulder though I already pulled down the whole stack of bowls from the cupboard and started to fill them with water.

"How many layers do you want?"

"Uh… how many colors did the box come with?" I asked, briefly hesitating in what I was doing.

"Just the primary colors." he answered and I shrugged.

"We can make the secondary too, so six?" I looked over to see him nod so I filled six of the bowls with water and carried them to the table two at a time. I noticed Wesker pause to stare at what I had done with an eyebrow raised. "What?"

"You realize we only need a small amount." he reminded me and I just shrugged uncaringly. He wasn't one to be wasteful but it was just water and some sugar so it wasn't all that important. He let it go so we got to work mixing colors until we had six bowls of differently colored water. Then we quickly agreed on a color order and got to adding different amounts of sugar to each bowl, more in the colors we wanted on the bottom and less in the colors we wanted on the top. Next we took turns filling a syringe from the box with the colors to put them one by one into a tall clear vial until we had our own little rainbow pillar, the layers remaining separate due to the varying densities.

"What's next?" I asked eagerly when I was finished admiring what we had already done. He directed me around and I got back to it, anxious for our next project. Never in my life did I think I would ever have so much fun with a children's toy and with my traitorous former captain of all people. But I was genuinely having a good time and from the small twitches of his lips when I caught him staring at me, I was sure Wesker was too- logic and reason be damned. To be honest I had been tuning out the blond's lessons in favor of just doing the next thing so when he handed me something and told me to add it to the mix, I poured it in before he could tell me only to add a certain amount.

"Chris!" he chided though he grabbed my arm and pulled me backward with him just in time to avoid being sprayed with the foam like substance that spewed from the beaker we had been working with. It was like a volcano eruption, it shot up and out from the top to pool around the table. I'd seen things like this before but not on this magnitude and I couldn't help but to notice the slight sizzling sound I could hear over my heartbeat. I hadn't actually believed I was in danger but Wesker's reaction momentarily had me alert. I turned my head toward him and burst out laughing at the nearly guilty expression he wore. A moment later and I was surprised to hear him chuckling along with me.

"That was fun! More dramatic than I was expecting at least." I exclaimed as I turned back to the mess we made.

"Yes well I aimed to make it more of a show for you." he admitted and I smiled at him again, not minding that his hand was still around my arm. My heart thumped harder as he stared back at me intensely as his fingers slowly slid further down my arm to hold my wrist and stopped there. I held his eye contact for just a little longer before I had to force my gaze away. Just as I felt his grip loosening on my wrist, I adjusted to catch his hand before he could take it back. For a long minute neither of us moved but I could almost feel a warmth coming not from me… but from Wesker. I couldn't look at him now to see what kind of expression he wore, fearing it may kill me. He was the one to break the silence by clearing his throat. "We need to clean this up now." he said that but he made no move to do so nor did he let go of my hand. "Before it disintegrates the table." he added and that snapped me out of my lovesick daze.

"That stuff's acidic?" I demanded though I too did not release our joined hands.

"I…" Albert Wesker actually faltered with a shrug. "I may have gotten a touch carried away." he admitted before giving me a sideways look and I laughed again.

"And I was the idiot that poured in all of the contents to make it an explosion." I pieced together and he nodded in agreement.

"None of it got on you, did it?" I shook my head but his eyes glanced over my body anyway.

"You?" he shook his head and I sighed. He broke the silence so I had to break our physical contact even if I didn't want to. I took my hand back and told myself it wasn't suddenly colder. "So how do we go about cleaning this up?" he guided me through the safe process of cleaning the acidic foam though it wasn't all that bad. Wesker said it was only mild and would only do damage after long periods of exposure but it was better to use caution… of which he used none. He claimed it would do even less to him being superhuman and whatnot… I was really tempted to throw some at him and start a foam fight with the stuff but thought better of it. Even if it wasn't actually very dangerous and we would take showers after this, it was better not to mess with it. We could make some normal foam stuff after this and start a fight with that. "Hey Wesker?" I called to him as I exited my room. I finished my shower first and had been waiting in my room for his water to turn off so I didn't have to see anything that would get my imagination running wild… not that it wasn't already. I tried not to think that he was taking a longer shower as some sort of invitation for me to see him naked but I was sure that's exactly what he was doing.

"Yes?" he asked as he joined me on the couch… without a shirt on. I set a boundary then I go and basically tell him it's okay to push it by holding his hand. Damn it all.

"Um… well…"

"Just spit it out Chris." he spoke with mild irritation in his voice though it did nothing to dampen the nice atmosphere around us. It was this comfortable feeling that gave me the strength needed to talk about this.

"I've been wondering… if you knew what I was doing and all… what did you do about it?" I was blushing and turned away from him by the time I was done talking. He was quiet for a moment and I could feel his eyes studying me. I didn't admit that I was very interested in his reaction to listening to me masturbate and if he was turned on by it… not directly.

"Nothing." that one word crashed into me harshly and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I turned to him sharply, I thought he was- he was grinning evilly at me. He was toying with me again. I punched his arm, upset that he caught my feelings about it but he didn't react to it. "By the time I figured out what you were up to the first night, you were nearly done so I simply remained calm and went to bed. Although I admit I had trouble sleeping that night." I blushed harder at that, remembering that he was actually tired the next morning. It wasn't just from hearing me but he also continued to think about it all night and it kept him up. "The second night however was more of a challenge, I needed the aid of a cold shower to my calm body down." my face got even hotter and I couldn't look at him anymore. He was turned on by me- he got hard because of me and struggled to hide it enough that he needed to take a cold shower.

"But you didn't-"

"No." he cut me off though he wasn't rude about it. I looked at him again with a pleading look I wasn't fully aware of and he smirked at my expression. "Why?" he voiced the question I couldn't ask but I nodded to admit I wanted to know. "I would have." he told me with that sultry tone that made me want to melt into his touch. "But I'm not that comfortable with the cameras." my eyes widened at the reminder that we were being watched and I wondered who was monitoring us right now. God I really hoped it was Jill. I calmed down from my inner panic when I felt Wesker's strong hand on my thigh. "Is it really so bad to be seen with me in a positive light?" he questioned with such a complicated look- I could identify some anger, some hurt, and something I could almost call longing. My world felt like it was tipping. I didn't know I was implying that I didn't want anyone to know I was okay with being here with him- though I didn't because of what else it could imply with my BSAA standing. I didn't know I cared about his feelings about it- but I did.

"N-no! That's not- I-" I didn't know what to say. No, I didn't think it was a bad thing to be on such good terms with him- I mean it carried a lot of personal issues because of our past but I think I've been working through them well enough. But yes, when it came down to it, I did think it was bad for others to see how comfortable I was with him. He was the world's number one enemy and here I am being so open and friendly with him… and I enjoyed it… and I didn't want anyone else to know about it. Even if we weren't being watched, I would still set my personal boundaries but would I let more slide between us if I wasn't worried about what the BSAA might do if they thought Wesker had manipulated me somehow? "It's complicated." I muttered, turning away from the blond man. His hand slid away from me and he sighed as he stood to walk into his room.

"I know it is." he sounded disappointed and I knew there was nothing I could say to make it better. The atmosphere was tense and sad, ruined. It wasn't fair for him to say that- to put me on the spot like that. He couldn't actually expect me to be okay with all this and showing it to my colleagues in the BSAA who wouldn't understand. How could they when I didn't even understand it? Was he just trying to make me feel bad? "Here." I startled at the smooth voice that invaded my thinking, turning to find Wesker standing before me with a letter in his hand held out for me. I took it and opened my mouth, to say what, I wasn't sure. "It's alright." he stopped me with a light shrug. "That was an unfair question. I understand the situation I have put you in and I expected far worse behavior from you but you've been rather pleasant. I have become comfortable in this arrangement and it's not fair of me to want more out of it." he didn't wait for me to respond, instead he nodded to me before heading back to his room and I watched him lay in bed with his arms folded. That was certainly unexpected. I didn't have anything to add to that but it gave me a lot to think about so I decided to turn in for the night as well.

I read 'Arklay' and tried to sleep… but thoughts of Wesker getting hot and bothered over me kept invading my mind. The man I've been secretly attracted to for so many years just said he would have touched himself while thinking of me. So I ended up masturbating again. This time I welcomed the thoughts of Wesker and I didn't even bother putting on any music to try to hide what I was doing.

~...~...~...~

Our progress with the T-virus went rather well though in years' time, we were still held up by the amount of intelligence our BOWs were able to retain. We were constantly pressured for newer developments in our research. It was during 1988 that Spencer ordered the assassination of our old mentor so naturally William and myself attended to take whatever research he had accumulated in the ten years since we were in his charge. With the new information we had, the Tyrant Project came to fruition though it was stalled when we could only get the specific mutation we sought with a certain gene pattern found in one in ten million people. There was much work to be done in order to obtain a more genetically compatible strain of the virus.

I spent much of my life in that laboratory working on viruses, drugs, and what have you and all with various species. I took a great deal of pride in my work and rarely got out though I did enjoy hiking through the forest when I had some downtime to be alone with my thoughts. Somewhere in my mind I knew it wouldn't last. There was always more information to learn, more tests to run, more improvements to be made. Eventually I grew bored running the same tests and patterns day in and day out, it wasn't enough anymore. I was growing more wary of Spencer's motives by this point as a lot of what he did baffled me and it was growing to infest my mind. I shared these concerns with William but he didn't share my views, claiming the man was just some snob demanding more and more from us and that it didn't mean anything. He thought it was just best to continue our work and try to meet his expectations as best we could. But there was a tugging in my mind I couldn't shake, a feeling that there was something more.

Using a favor we were able to get from Spencer, we were given an intelligent BOW parasite engineered by Umbrella's European Branch called Nemesis Alpha. That furthered research as the parasite could be inserted into a mutant to enhance the being's intelligence so it could be given orders from trainers. Nemesis Alpha was injected into our most used and resistant test subject, Lisa Trevor, however her immune system bested it which led to the discovery of the Golgotha Virus. It proved to be useless for further bioweapon development yet William saw something in it… something Spencer approved of and funded. This action only deepened my suspicion of the man so when William transferred to NEST to continue work on the G-virus with Annette, I joined Umbrella's intelligence bureau to better pursue the questions that followed me. Though separated, William and I were close enough to keep in contact and continue working together.


So I was going to go into more depth with the chemistry stuff but got lazy so I skimmed it instead, my apologizes. Slower chapter, most of it just furthering the comfort between the two. Anyone pick up on Chris's steady slipping into calling Wesker's cell his room or the prison their place/apartment? That one's not fully accepted yet though I guess neither is the room thing, it's still something he catches himself thinking though he doesn't mind it.

I have a question for you guys. The whole thing with Chris being worried about what the BSAA would do with him if they found out about him and Wesker (believing Wesker to have basically brainwashed Chris and worry about him turning on them) was going to be something that came into play but it's drawing too many parallels to another (much larger) Chrisker fic I've had in the works for some time. (I've actually stolen a few STARS scenes or ideas from that one and laid out some references between the two fics *cough*likethebankrobberywhereChrisgetsshot*cough* that I can't wait for people to catch!) To prevent the fics from colliding and being too similar, I've decided to distance them. In this one, I'll be focusing more on the relationship between Chris and Wesker and pushing aside other aspects either hinted at or yet to be introduced in this one. In the other one, well there's some changes in how things were going to happen but it's not important to lay it all out here. Point is, the question, has anyone gotten involved with the whole BSAA watching them and possibly being suspicious of Chris thing or do you guys think it's just another excuse for Chris to use and it can start to go?

Thanks for all the love and support you guys have been sending me, I love talking to you guys and hope to hear from more of you! Arren, out!