When Sierra started dating Cliff, it was incredibly hard for her to believe he actually cared for her.
All her life, she was always surrounded by men who would hurt and use her, and Cliff was so big and intimidating, hence why she was so hesitant to be near him. But to her surprise, he was always quiet and gentle. The only time she had ever seen him get angry was when a Grunt tried badmouthing Giovanni or failed a task Giovanni had given them.
When they started dating, she expected him to hit her after a bad day like one of her exes or foster parents, who blamed all their shortcomings on her.
When he came to her home, ranting and raving about how "we owe Boss our lives, he deserves nothing but the best", she would tense, expecting him to storm into whatever room she was in and bring his fists down on her.
But it never came.
Cliff could be loud when he wanted to be, yelling at Grunts if they said something that didn't sit right with him. The Grunts were usually too scared to yell back, but Arlo would just roll his eyes, telling Cliff to calm down and take some steam out in the workout room.
Sierra would expect him to yell at her when she did the tiniest thing wrong. She remembered her second foster mother grabbed her and screamed in her face when the then seven year old Sierra accidentally dropped a ceramic bowl.
She expected Cliff to do the same, yelling at her and screaming that everything was her fault.
But it never came.
"Why...?" She whispered, night when he was holding her tight in his lap after a nightmare she had involving her fourth foster father.
"Why what?" He whispered back, a gentle thumb wiping away a stray tear.
"Why don't you leave me? Or hit me and scream at me? Don't you think I deserve it?" She asked, more tears filling her eyes, more out of fright of everything she and Cliff had built falling apart and she would be yet again, alone.
Cliff looked surprised, then sad and confused. "Why would I leave you? Or hurt you?" He asked.
"It always comes to me." She sniffled, wiping her eyes. "Everytime something happens, I get hit and screamed at, it's always my fault."
Cliff's brown eyes widened then he glared. "Who the hell hurt you?!" he growled. "I'll kill them!"
Sierra was surprised, he wasn't angry at her? Why was he being angry for her?
"Everyone I thought I could trust." She sighed. "My exes, my so called friends, my foster parents...Boss was the first one to ever believe in me and he got me to where I am today."
"Hehe, that's Boss for ya." He chuckled quietly then sighed. He gingerly took her cheeks into his hands, having them make eye contact.
"But, Sierra, I swear to the stars above that I would never hurt you." He said, leaning their foreheads together. "I care about you too much. I know I'm...intimidating." He said. "But if there's anything my father taught me, it's to always be gentle. I could never actually lay a hand on anyone."
"But when someone bad talks boss, you-"
"I know, but you and I both owe him our lives. He saved you from the streets, he saved me and my family from poverty." Cliff sighed.
That made much more sense to Sierra. That's why Cliff gets so passionate.
And she realized they had a lot more in common than she thought.
She started to cry again, this time out of guilt. She had judged him based on the bad things she'd seen about him rather than the person inside him, who was a compassionate soul with a kind heart.
"It's ok, let it all out." He said soothingly, cradling her and letting her tears fall into his shirt.
After that, things were different. She expected to feel that fear again, telling her she was going to be alone and it was always going to be her fault. But she had him by her side.
So it never came.
I kept thinking about my hatred for Niantic hinting Spierra (Spark x Sierra) in the GO Fest video on Youtube so I wrote this out of spite lmao.
Viva la Clierra!