By the time Claire had finally managed to calm down enough to try to sleep again, she could hear the birds singing outside. She thought maybe she should just start the day and deal with being tired. There was always coffee.

Steve, however, pouted at that idea.

"I was hoping maybe..." He trailed off, eyes flicking up to her bed. "We could nap for a few more hours."

Claire was silent for a moment as though she were thinking of an excuse. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it, giving a few nods of her head instead. She wasn't expecting to fall back asleep, but it might be nice to cuddle for a bit.

She wasn't sure if she would actually be able to sleep, but she was too drained to think of a solid excuse. Maybe she just wanted to curl up beside Steve and feel his heartbeat, listen to his breath. Maybe she just didn't want to be alone. Either way, she climbed into bed with him.

He lay on his back, carefully stretching his bad knee out. He didn't want to tell Claire that Rebecca was right – he ached all over. He'd been taking less and less of the herbs and had completely stopped taking the white pills; he hated the way they made him feel. Foggy.

She lay beside him. She intertwined her fingers with his, closing her eyes and just enjoying the warmth coming off of him. The body wash he'd used in the shower had mostly faded, leaving his natural scent clinging to his skin. She liked it.

She stared at the ceiling, trying to quell the left over anxiousness in her stomach. She briefly considered taking one of the little blue pills Rebecca had left her for anxiety but decided against it. She didn't know if they would knock her out and wasn't really up for finding out.

"Claire?"

"Hm?"

"Have you been having nightmares this whole time?"

"No." She sighed softly, wrapping her free arm around her middle. "Just sometimes. The first few nights were the worst."

"Is it always that bad?"

"No." Sometimes they're worse. "I didn't deal with it as badly back in October… I had nightmares but they weren't like this."

"I'm sorry, Claire." He felt genuinely bad; the entire time he'd been here, she'd been waiting on his every whim and he hadn't so much as asked her how she was doing. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close against his body. She seemed so much smaller in his arms. He could feel the bones in her back.

She said nothing, closing her eyes and letting Steve stroke her back lightly. She breathed in deeply, letting his scent wash over her. Eventually her breath fell in time with his and she relaxed. She couldn't remember the last time she let herself be this close with someone.

"This is nice." Steve murmured after a stretch of silence punctuated only by their breathing. There was no reply from Claire, just her steady breath. "Claire?"

Still no response. He smiled softly and kissed the top of her head. He was glad she was going to get some rest. He eventually let himself sleep, but only after admiring her sleeping form. He brushed the tip of his thumb against her lower lip. He wanted to touch every inch of her body, trailing his fingers down her jawline lightly, but decided against it in fear of waking her.

The room grew warm before Claire roused from her sleep. She woke up, past noon, groggy and covered in a light sheen of sweat. There was a slight knot in her neck from sleeping pressed up against the boy.

"Mornin'. He said softly.
"Morning." She murmured back, finding herself nuzzling against his chest before she was really aware of her actions. He smiled.

"You sleep okay?"

She rubbed her eyes with her knuckle. "Yeah. Did you?"

"I took a little bit of a nap, yeah."

She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. She nuzzled into him with a soft sigh. She didn't want to admit just how comfortable she was at this moment. There was something hot and hard against her leg that she was acutely aware of. She frowned softly, reaching down and wondering if Steve's sweats had bunched up. She tried to smooth them with her hand only to jerk it away when she made the realization that it was in fact, not fabric she felt.

Steve made a soft noise in his throat and felt his face get hot. He wasn't sure if it was from the contact, the simple fact that Claire was beautiful and pressed against him, or because he'd just woken up – but he was hard. He'd hoped she wouldn't notice.

"Sorry." She murmured, pressing her hands flat against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat.

"You don't have to apologize for touching me, Claire." He gave a grin despite the blush creeping across his cheeks. "Hell, I want you to touch me all you want."

Claire wet her lips. She wanted to. She really wanted to. She ignored the voice in the back of her head telling her all the reasons she shouldn't, pressing her palm against him. She felt a spark of arousal.

"Touch you like this?" She murmured quietly.

The boy made another soft noise in his throat, his heart pounding hard in his chest. He was finding it hard to draw breath, hardly able to focus on anything but the friction. He couldn't believe Claire was actually touching him.

It all happened so fast; she was telling him to roll over one minute and climbing on top of him the next. With a couple layers of clothing between the both of them, she rolled her hips against him slowly. She leaned down, peppering kisses on his jawbone and then his mouth. He moaned softly into her mouth as she rolled her hips against him again, quicker now.

"Ah – shit, Claire…" He gasped. Claire kissed his throat, hoping to coax more delicious sounds from him. His soft, breathy little whines and moans as she moved against him set a fire in her core. She didn't know how badly she needed this kind of connection.

"Hm?" She asked with a soft smirk, teeth grazing his lower lip again. She loved what this position was doing to her; she felt confident and in charge as he could do nothing but enjoy the lovely friction between them.

He swallowed another moan, starting to roll his hips against her in time. He could feel the heat radiating from between her legs and it only served to make him even harder. He half wondered if he was dreaming.

The boy's breathing grew erratic quickly, thrusting against her blindly now. There was a familiar knot growing in his stomach. He tried to concentrate on something else but he found it too difficult as Claire fumbled another kiss on his mouth. He loved the way she tasted, the way her tongue flicked against his. It made him burn, made his toes curl.

"Ah, Claire-" He whimpered again, wrapping one of his hands around her backside. He squeezed it, enjoying the way her skin yielded to his palm.

Claire giggled and went to kiss his jawbone again when a knock on the bedroom door caused her to practically fling herself off the bed. She stood on shaking legs, like a teenager that had been caught with a boy in her room. Which, technically, she kind of was. There was a shameful look plastered on her face.

"Stay there for a sec," She murmured, adjusting her pajama bottoms before peeking out around the door, carefully. She half expected to see Albert Wesker standing there but relaxed when it was just Chris.

"Oh, hey."

"Hey." Chris tried to peer around Claire, a bit suspicious. "Is Steve in there too?"

"W-we were napping." She explained, stepping out of her room. She closed the door behind her to make sure Steve had some privacy and to keep Chris from asking more questions.

"It's past noon." He cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh. I didn't know." She pulled her ponytail down, running her fingers through it to smooth it. "…didn't sleep last night. Had a bad dream." Her eyes flickered up to Chris. She eyed the coffee pot on the kitchen counter and immediately busied herself with it. She didn't want to look her brother in the eye right now.

"So you two both napped in the middle of the day huh?" Chris couldn't help but smirk. He had a feeling that's exactly the opposite of what they were doing.

Claire sighed softly, filling the pot with water. "Kinda, yeah. It was light out when I woke up the first time." She measured and poured the beans, keeping her eyes focused on the task at hand. "Steve heard me crying and came to check on me."
"I thought you weren't having the nightmares anymore." Chris laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Sorry, Claire."

"I wasn't." She tried to say as matter-of-factly. The image of the Tyrant with his hand wrapped around her throat again flashed in her mind. "…I dreamed about Wesker. That he… tracked Steve here. He was gonna kill me, too."
Chris's grip on her shoulder tightened. "I'm sorry." His voice was much softer this time. "But you have no reason to worry. This place is a secret, even from him. I won't let anything happen to you two while you're here, I promise."

"Thanks." She gave a weak smile.

"I just swung by because I was in the neighborhood. I called but no one answered. Just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Didn't mean to interrupt anything, though."

"You didn't." She said too quickly.

He chuckled. "I'm meeting Jill for lunch, though, so I gotta get going." He opened his arms for a hug. His younger sister hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arms around him. He hugged her so tight she heard a few joints pop.

Claire locked the door behind him, watching him from the window as he got back into his jeep and backed out of the driveway. She watched him turn the corner before hurrying back to the bedroom.

"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly at Steve who had managed to prop himself up against the pillows. "That was my brother." She joined him on the bed, putting her ponytail back up. "D'you want to….?" Her eyes flicked towards his lap eagerly.

Steve looked embarrassed as he shook his head. He'd gotten so excited and so close that it left him feeling sore. He didn't know what he did wrong. "Sorry." At least he knew he wasn't dreaming.

"It's okay." She furrowed her brow lightly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay." He nodded, averting his eyes. "…it hurts. I think I did something wrong." He admitted, quietly. His face burned again.

Claire gave a short laugh that filled him with another wave of embarrassment.

"Oh, Steve, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to give you blue balls."

"Huh?" He blinked a few times, bringing his attention back to her.

"Blue balls – ah, I don't think that's the technical name, but basically it means…" She trailed off trying to choose her words carefully. "Y'got too turned on and then we stopped." She shrugged lightly.

She was well aware of the condition – she'd both accidentally (and sometimes on purpose) inflicted it on a few boys in high school. She did feel a little bad, though. He seemed pretty inexperienced. She would be lying if she said that didn't excite her a little bit – she'd never had a virgin before.

"Oh." Steve looked relieved, glancing down at himself. He was still partially hard despite not being in the mood for it anymore. "….I really liked it, though, before. What you were doing."

"Me too." Claire kissed him again, slipping her fingers into his hair. He kissed back, a little bit more tentatively than earlier. He seemed to have lost a bit of his confidence. She deepened the kiss, her tongue flickering over his. He made that familiar noise in his throat and Claire felt a shiver run down her spine.

"Y'gonna make it hard again." Steve whined, breaking the kiss.

Claire laughed. "Sorry."