Author's Note: Thank you to those who did end up reviewing/already adding this story to their favorite's list- I did not expect it to be met with such success so soon. Yay!
So on a quasi-related side note; I think I may be a bit obsessed. Of course I own every single Resident Evil game to date (aside from the Outbreak series, because I like to pretend that they don't exist) but today marks a new height (or low?) to the fandom. I now possess Resident Evil 5 for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 (I also have the infinitely stupid MadCatz RE5 headset for the PS3 [which sucks, don't ever buy it] and a RE5 console skin for the 360). Is that a problem? I keep telling myself that it's totally justified; I have different friends on each console that want to play it, and since I already earned all of the achievements on the 360 version, earning the trophies in the PS3 version just gives me something else to work for. Again, this is the madness that I tell myself to make it sound more rational. I don't do a good job, do I? Sigh. (Though I have to admit, I did forget how maddening that game is to play without unlimited ammo. Sheva doesn't even have a machine gun in her inventory and yet she insists on looting every single box of ammo that we come across. Thanks, partner).
Clearly I enjoy parenthesis indicating my side thoughts. Anyway, enough of my blathering. On to part deux!
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Disclaimer: I know it's shocking, but since the last chapter, I still have not amassed the funds needed to buy out Capcom. As such, I do not own any of the characters, locales, items, whatever associated with Resident Evil. Wah. I also do not own anything associated with Disney…
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Chris Redfield had never been one to willingly go out of his way to say at the office longer than needed to complete any given task. He clocked in when he was supposed to, though sometimes casually late (hey you couldn't blame him), and was usually out the door the minute after his shift ended. He didn't believe in office overtime, and he certainly didn't believe in ruining his hard earned time off from work pouring over files and reports.
Captain Albert Wesker clearly had different views.
Chris had returned to the precinct almost two hours after everyone had left for the weekend because he could not find his wallet for the life of him and figured that he had left it in his locker somewhere. He had anticipated that the Raccoon Police Department would be filled with its usual bustle, but he had counted on the S.T.A.R.S. offices on being dark and empty when he arrived- he would just shoot in, grab his wallet, and leave without incident. What he did not expect was to find Wesker in almost the same exact position he left him in over two hours ago: one hand supporting his head while the other's fingers drummed methodically on the desk as he scanned through reports on his portable laptop.
The blond haired captain of the special unit paid him no mind when Chris walked into the office, and so Chris simply figured that in his trance he was simply not heard. Chris shrugged and rolled his eyes. It was not like he had anticipated a warm reaction from the other man but he must have been so mesmerized by his work to not notice the not so quiet footsteps and lockers slamming as Chris attempted to locate his wallet. Even after gave up trying to locate the leather trifold, the blond did not offer him so much as a glance in recognition, though if he had Chris would have been none the wiser. The omnipresent sunglasses that the Captain wore made it impossible to see just where he was looking. Feeling devious, Chris decided that he would sneak up behind the other man but before he could even open his mouth to indicate his presence, Wesker spun around in his swivel chair and glanced up at Chris with a bemused expression.
"Yes, Chris?"
The brunet replaced his slight shock at being discovered with a mask of minor annoyance.
"Can't you just say hi like a normal person?" he muttered darkly.
"Perhaps, but that would be too conventional for my tastes," he responded with what Chris had dubbed a 'Wesker smirk' before gesturing to Chris's own desk with an inclination of his head. "Your wallet is under that pile of papers in the corner that you haphazardly threw there, if that is indeed what you are looking for. I cannot imagine you coming back to the office off-duty for any other reason."
Chris threw his hands up in frustration before stomping over to his desk and reshuffling the papers around. True enough, the wallet that he had been searching for was located under a light stack of papers that detailed their operations order from the previous week. How Wesker had known the exact location of his wallet was beyond him, but even more infuriating was that the older man had watched him rummage around the office for a good ten minutes without even offering to help. Chris sighed as he shoved the wallet in his right back pocket and then returned to the Captain's desk with arms folded over his chest. Wesker had since turned around and resumed his position huddled over the small screen.
Neither one of them said anything for a while, so Chris took it upon himself to not so tactfully peer over the other man's broad shoulder to see just was he was perusing through. They were files on the recent reports of murders by a cannibalistic cult; Chris had also seen increasing coverage of these events all over the news and suspected at one point S.T.A.R.S. would be dispatched to try and find the leaders of this supposed cult. Wesker's interest in scanning through every minutia detail only confirmed his suspicions. Good, he was ready for some action.
"It seems that most of these incidents are occurring in the direct vicinity of the Arklay Mountains to the northwest. There are at least six different reports, and yet no one had managed to bear witness to the full incident. One would think that by now, at least someone would have gotten glimpse of the culprit, or perhaps culprits, but the only common sightings are that of strange dogs."
Chris was shocked that not only did the captain not call him out for spying on his work, but was actually including him on whatever data he had found. He quickly put away his surprise and leaned closer the computer screen to watch as Wesker pulled up another data file, this time a map that displayed red dots wherever a body had been found that was linked to these incidents.
"Initially, the bodies were discovered in this vicinity," Wesker pointed to an area on the screen with a gloved finger, "but as more and more of these killings are occurring, they have started to migrate closer to Raccoon."
"The victims are usually hikers, right? So maybe this group has a hideout in the woods somewhere; since they rarely, if ever, come into town maybe they're… feeding… off of other people to stay alive? But… it doesn't sound like a normal cult to me… usually if a cult has some weird beliefs they leave behind evidence of their rituals. From what I've seen, the only evidence found at the crime scenes are the mangled bodies with various bite marks. That, and cults tend to not just 'pop up' randomly… So maybe it's just some crazy psychopath that's hiding out in the woods?" Chris mused.
"Hmm, a valid point, I suppose. And the dogs?"
"Well that's easy; animals respond to the way you train them. If this 'cannibal' trained a dog to attack other people, it will do so to please its master. Growing up, I had two neighbors with dogs; one had a Doberman, and the other had some little furry shit, I think it was a poodle or some crap. I don't know. Anyway, the guy with the Doberman was real nice, so the Doberman was the friendliest dog I've ever met. The asshole with the other thing hated kids so he taught it to run up and attack us when we were playing near his yard. It sucked."
Wesker let out a derisive laugh as a mental image of a young Chris Redfield running and screaming at the sight of a small dog entered his mind. "You were scared of a poodle?"
"Hey, I never said I was scared! I just said that it was a mean little dog that's all!" Chris attempted to cover for himself.
Suddenly, his phone went off with a series of high pitched beeps, cutting off any further ridicule. Wesker raised an inquisitive brow at the interruption while Chris flipped open the small device.
"It's my sister. She probably wants to know if I wanted to do dinner," he answered the silent question, not quite sure he was trying to justify himself to the other man but had felt compelled to nonetheless.
"Dinner…?"
"Yeah, you know that thing where you eat food towards the end of the day in order to sustain your body? Sometimes followed by desert, maybe even seconds? Or is that too 'conventional' for you either?" Chris mocked good-naturedly.
"Shit."
The brunet blinked in confusion as Wesker inspected the clock on the opposite wall and powered down his computer in an instant. He had never heard the captain swear before, so something must be up.
"Everything okay, sir?"
"I apparently misjudged how long I had spent looking over those reports and neglected to keep track of the time. I had a prior engagement for the evening." The blond explained as he whipped his desk into order and gathered his personal effects.
Chris, emboldened by their conversation, felt it was now time to heckle Wesker in revenge for his earlier mockery.
"Ooh, hot date sir?" Granted he had never seen or even heard the captain talk to a female that wasn't associated with S.T.A.R.S. or the police department but surely he had some commonality with the average male.
Wesker snorted. "If your definition of a hot date involves watching Disney movies and having tea parties with stuffed animals, then yes."
It was then that he must have noticed the cogs turning in Chris's mind because he scowled darkly and brushed past the other man. "I have to play caretaker to the young daughter of a friend tonight," he explained sourly.
This was quite possibly the best information Chris had ever heard about the older man. Cool as ice, hard-assed, sarcastic, I-wear-my-sunglasses-at-night Wesker was playing babysitter to some kid? Chris almost doubled over, he was laughing so hard. The images of Wesker sitting down in a chair while some little girl attempted to win him over with stuffed ponies and tea sets that were playing over and over in his head was too much. He didn't even care if the captain excused him from S.T.A.R.S. on the spot for such a display of disrespect, because it was totally worth it. There was no way he was going to let this admission go to waste.
"So the great Captain Wesker plays nanny on his Friday nights? Sir, I would have never placed you as someone so warming and thoughtful towards small children," he taunted shamelessly as he followed the other man down the halls and out of the building into the staff parking lot. "You and my sister would get along just fine."
"Mr. Redfield, it is so important to your career and your immediate well-being that you cease your inane commentary."
By now the loud guffawing had somewhat subsided into sporadic chuckles as Chris watched his captain proceed to his car and fumble for his keys in very obvious agitation. Wesker was lucky that both he and the other man had somewhere to be, because there was no other way that Chris was going to let something like this go so easily, and there was absolutely no way that Wesker would have allowed Chris to remain a living being for much longer if he had continued his taunting. He was almost surprised he hadn't been executed and thrown in the dumpster yet, but still too amused to care.
"See ya later, Captain! Put in a request for 'The Little Mermaid' for me, will ya?"
He retreated, still chuckling to himself, to his motorcycle while ignoring the daggers that the blond was glaring into his back. Plopping himself down on the warm leather seat, he laughed again as he watched the Captain's black sedan screech out of the parking lot and out of sight within seconds.
I guess there are some perks to staying in the office late after all… Chris mused with a grin.
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You can probably guess who Wesker was referring to when he mentioned the daughter of a friend. Not like it's particularly difficult. Why Chris requested "The Little Mermaid" is beyond me, it was the first Disney movie that came to mind. I don't even like that one, but maybe Chris has a deep seeded crush on Ariel? Wonders never cease.
Yay for being longer (Bow chicka bow wow)! Let me know how it was!