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Thanks for waiting for this update! I got kind of busy and I was also taking some time to experiment with my writing style. Anyways, enjoy!
The path ahead was obscured by darkness. Their path to freedom and what came ahead.
Steve was silent, but his heart threatened to gallop out of his chest and with it came a burning sensation. Tight and constricting. Will he morph back into that thing soon, and kill Claire? (Will Claire have to kill him?) Or will they get caught by Umbrella being tracked down by that thing in in his chest.
There's a part of him that felt he shouldn't think about that kinda thing if he knew what's good for him.
As if on cue, Claire is the first one to break the silence. She let out a dry cough, a white cloud of february cold above her hung for a bit. "Hey Steve,"
"Howdy, Claire." He met absentmindedly.
Her tired gaze met his. "I still feel like I don't know a whole lot about you. You know, the you before the island and all that."
"Really?" Steve was taken aback, his full attention captured. His heart thudded. Someone as cool as her wanting to know more about him? An ember kindles in his cheeks.
Without his knowledge, a smile blew up over his face, eyes practically becoming stars in the dark.
She let out a small chuckle, taken aback by his excitement."Yeah, tell me a little more about yourself."
"Well," He thought back, hand under his chin, and that trademark shit-eating grin of his lit up his face. "I was the fastest runner on the track team. I won bunch of medals and trophies and stuff for it! Always got first place if you're curious, but I guess you could tell by how fast I could run to your rescue, huh Claire." There was a beat of silence before she couldn't hold in a snort.
They rounded the top of the hill which seemed to lead to a park overlooking a city. The lights were still like stars beaming in the night
"What's your school like?" Steve beams curiously.
. "It's college." She began, there was warmth in the way she thought about her college dorm reverberating with music when her roommate was out. The shitty cafeteria food and microwave macaroni on weekends. Going out with friends on adventures past midnight. B-rated horror movies on weekends. Her roommate's annoying boyfriend who slept over on weekends. Stuffing one too many people in the car that one time to go to the mall. Regular college kid stuff.
Steve caught himself hanging onto her every word almost staring at her, and looked away when he thought it was too long to be staring thinking he was being weird.
"How about your friends at school? What are they like?" Claire suddenly realized she had been talking for a long time. She tried to keep the conversation going.
"I don't have a lot of friends at home, but they're good ones. Like uh Frank, Anthony and how could I forget Tom? That guy's basically like a brother to me!" He stopped, a melancholy fog of nostalgia sat for a moment. He hadn't talked about the guys in forever, much less thought about seeing them ever again. A world away. "We played video games on the weekends and hung out and got into all kinds of trouble. They're great guys though! We ran track together, and well they always ate my dust." Steve blurted trying to stop his thoughts from halting his speech.
Of all the feelings he had on Rockfort, homesickness was one of the most common. And most frustrating. It gnawed at his chest again. His brow furrowed.
A passing thought flit in that can drag him out of the awkward silence.
He piped up. "Speaking of siblings, what's Chris like?"
"Chris? Oh well, he's nice to me and really tries to get along with everyone he meets, but he's the type who doesn't back down." She began." Well, neither am I because I always wanted to be like him and all. He loves to be the 'Big Man' of the house. "
Then the light slowly lowered. "Our dad passed away when I was little, and he's kind of been raising me along with Mom ever since."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Steve frowned. Claire sighed.
" I love him to bits and do anything for him and I know he'd do anything for me too, but there's times where I just wanna punch him in the face!" She did a little uppercut for demonstration, the flashlight moved as it spotlighted her fist. "I know that he's six years older than me and all"
She paused doing a bit of mental math. ", well 5 years and 10 months technically, but I wish that he would stop treating me like a kid. I'm in college for crying out loud."
"Really? I wouldn't know being an only kid and all that." Steve said. "I've always kind of wondered, what it was like." A twinge of jealousy dug into his voice.
Claire was only half listening, as she dug hastily through her pocket. He had just reminded her. The movement catches Steve's attention. " I guess because we've been talking about family. I well- I've been meaning to give this to you but I wasn't sure if there was going to be a right time. And uh, here."
She handed him a thin film. A photo of his family. His eyes grew wide for a moment as he let out a sharp involuntary gasp. Steve clutched the film between his fingers, his hand shaking.
"I got it off of that woman who we fought on the staircase back at the motel." Claire spots a wooden bench and guides him to it, and they sit in momentary respite.
"Mom and Dad. It's stupid and cliche but you know." His voice cracks a little. His voice becomes older. " You don't really appreciate people until they're gone. My mom, she spoiled me really. She'd nag me all the time 'Steve you have to do your homework before you go to Tom's! Don't forget your lunch!" She could hear in his voice he missed being a normal kid, immature.
As he scooched as far he could from Claire on the bench, she put a hand on his shoulder. He let it stay, but he looked away as soon as he could start to feel his face scrunch up. Quiet hiccups escaped him, the beginning of tears began to form and were blinked away. He tried choking back all the emotion.
He sniffed pathetically, covering his face with his elbow. "I miss them so much." She moved her hand rubbing his back. "I know." They stayed like that for a little while until Steve finished with a couple of nervous coughs.
Side by side, they sat at the edge of the city drinking in the neon light. The stale frost of february dawn nipped at them, but their nerves were too shot to death to even take notice of the cold. Steve held the picture of his stolen family photo up into the mix of neon pink and natural light, bittersweet nostalgia settling on top of him like the time Frank's cat sat on his chest at the sleepover.
After a long silence. Claire piped up. "You know, when we're not in danger. I'd like to go on another one of these midnight walks. I feel like I learned a lot." A small weary smile creeps onto her face.
"About what?" Steve raised an embarrassed eyebrow. It sucked she had to see him like that.
"About you." She says, the obvious answer that it is.
Getting to really know each other like this in the night where no one can see their faces and it filled him with something like hope. It was like watching silver peel off to reveal gold. She was no longer the hot babe the action hero like him had to get.
She was Claire Redfield, sarcastically funny, strong, thoughtful and kind. Someone who accepted him as Steve Burnside, not the action hero, but also perhaps vulnerable part of himself that he didn't like. And it made him want her more than ever, to be with her. To have that kind of light in his life.
Though, he knows he doesn't deserve her.