Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Resident Evil characters, Capcom does. (this doesn't include the OC's that will be mentioned along the way.)
"Leon.", he can hear a vague familiar female voice calling his name, but it is as if she was moaning it out of pleasure, he could not see anything but black and blurry mist and he doesn't know where he is or what he was doing to make the woman speak like that in such a manner. But it somehow reminded him of a specific night 23 years ago.
The next thing he knows is that he opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw is the familiar off-white ceiling he sees every morning and it was just a dream...a past that his mind had somewhat reminded him again that he keeps trying to forget, he thought as he sees that he was in his bedroom despite still not moving his head to look around, but he thinks that it wasn't possible when he remembered that the last place he was at was in a bar that is probably hours away from his condo, maybe an agent saw him and brought him home, seeing he was too drunk to work?. He attempts to tilt his head and looks around but even the slightest movement gives him a migraine, "Goddamn hangover.", he curses as he holds his head with his right hand, making efforts to massage it with his two fingers to lessen the headache.
It took Leon a few minutes to recover, and when he is finally able to move his head, the first thing he did was tilt it ever so gently to the left side of the bed, he opened his eyes and saw his bedside table, with a lamp on top and the light on it open, dimly illuminating over the room due to the sun rays from the window overpowering it, his keys, and an alarm clock that displays 07:31 a.m. He had overslept for 31 minutes. He usually wakes up at exactly 7 am by consciousness to fix his bed, have breakfast, tidy up, and get. dressed. All of that he finishes for 30 minutes and drives all the way to his workplace that takes only 20 minutes of his time. He had been doing this for the last 2 decades now due to his demanding job requiring him to be there at exactly 8 am sharp. But he was the one to blame here now is he?, he got drunk and now he will be late. He brushes it off and scoffs, "Who cares if I'll be late today?, it's a once in a blue moon event for me to oversleep, and I never get a nice vacation.", he comments to himself, nothing could go even worse than sleeping on a workday- well almost everyday is a workday for Leon S. Kennedy.
He then tilts his head down and that's when he saw that something did go wrong last night, he saw his clothes scattered all over the floor, his black jacket, white shirt, pants, belt, socks, and his underwear?!, he lifts the covers and peaks down to confirm and he did, he never sleeps without at least a boxer or a brief on, he denies it and giggles it off by blaming his drunk self that must've chosen to go to bed naked. But when he scans the left side of the room more- what he saw at the end of the bed was a red leather jacket, he does not own one and the only person he knows who wears one all the time was his best friend. "No.", he mutters firmly, his demeanor changing drastically from careless to tense as his eyes grew wide thinking of the possible situation. He had just now noticed and realized that the aura and smell of the room is- different... the smell of sweat despite the cold weather, but maybe it's because of his heater and there was also the feeling of confirmed- lust that he's now terrified to look at his right side to see who he might have slept with, there's no denying it now and he uses both his arms to sit up on his bed while still keeping the covers over his waist, as he slowly looks at the right side of the bed.
"Claire.", he says with a low voice, still not processing everything happening as he sees her face, slightly covered by her messy red hair, she is facing him, sleeping on her side with her right arm keeping the covers in place as it is exposed unlike the rest of her body that was under the sheets. That's when Leon realizes the intensity of what he had done when he ever so slowly recalled that she was the one who brought him here, he involuntarily shouts, "Claire!", and this caused the woman to immediately wake up dazed, she groggily looks up at him before gaining more consciousness as she sees Leon freeze in his place, looking at her, she quickly sits up, keeping the covers over her chest, she nervously answers, she knows it was her fault, being the sober one, but he made a move first, "I-I'm so sorry Leon, I shouldn't have given in-", she answered before quickly getting interrupted.
"What did we do?", he asks her and she stays silent, "What did we do?!", he asks, screaming desperately as if he doesn't already know.
She starts to get emotional and tear up, before reaching for her underwears and shakingly put them on her body that is under the covers, she's still crying, but didn't answer his questions, she was ashamed of herself, as she continues to grab the rest of her clothes that was mostly on her side of the floor, aside from her leather jacket and rapidly puts them on as well, not standing up from the bed.
"Answer me Claire Redfield!", he shouts again, impatiently, not accepting what had occurred, and that's when he got the response he was looking for.
She stops at what she was doing and looks at him, matching the same emotion of anger and confusion that the man is feeling, despite still having tears running down her face, "We fucked!", she shouts with the same tone, "There's your answer. Are you happy now?", he once again froze in his place, he's never seen her this angry in the entirety that they've known each other, now he's thinking that maybe it was his fault..but he shakes his head forgetting about the thought, he could recall from a vague and blurry memory that she was not intoxicated, and she knew what she was doing...he didn't.
"Why are you angry when you were the one who took advantage of me?!", he blames her, and she stands up from the bed, not wanting to be near him anymore like she did the night before, "Huh?! Why are you mad?!"
"Well guess what? You were the one who pulled me in bed with you, I wanted to go home and fucking leave you here all alone but I didn't because you sounded desperate!", she explains and the man was taken aback, so it was really his fault, but his ego got the best of him.
"I was drunk, I didn't know what I was doing, you could've pushed me away!-", he talks back as she stands there before shouting again, "Well I guess I didn't because- I love you Leon!", he stopped, shocked by the confession as both adults went silent. She couldn't contain her true emotions anymore and unintentionally confessed, "I've loved you ever since the night at Racoon City...remember? And at my apartment where we first made love?, I thought you did that because you felt the same way but I was wrong, when you told me you wanted that goddamn woman, that stranger who kissed you and helped you after we did it and it pained me.", she pauses, tears continue to fall down her cheeks and her voice starts to shake, "Turns out that intimate time was nothing but sex to you, that's why I decided to keep what I was feeling and probably take that little secret down to my grave. But now- here I am...confessing to you- how pathetic of Claire Redfield to do so."
Her expression, her words broke his heart as her best friend, he would've kicked the life out of the man who made her feel this way, but it is not another man, it was himself who made her this sorrowful. He didn't know what to say to comfort her and the first thing he said made things even worse between the two of them, the reason why Claire will break off their friendship, "Remember then! You seduced me that night, then you left the next day to find your brother, you left Sherry and I to go through all that!- and you're aware of that, you also know I have Ada now.", it just came out of his mouth as he stares at her, upon hearing this, she wipes her cheeks and continues to bend over to pick up her remaining clothing that was on the floor, she looks back at Leon with an understanding face, nodding but somehow still shedding tears.
"But I made sure that the both of you were fine before I left, I didn't just leave you behind...And don't worry, I'm aware that you love Ada- I never expected you to love me back anyways...and at this point, I think it's best that we shouldn't be friends anymore. We should forget that we ever found each other back in 1998 and just live our lives as strangers, because I cannot see you the same anymore after all this- chaos.", she states firmly as she looks away from the man and starts walking to the door, "Goodbye Leon Kennedy.", but she stops.
"So that's it? You're just gonna leave me again like that? After all we've been through?", he asks continuously and at that moment, he wanted to stop her, run to her and hug her, apologize for what he said, but he physically can't as he watches her twist the door knob, walk out of the room and close the door behind her with force, left him without an answer.
He wanted to cry, he was feeling all of the negative emotions possible on a human being, but all he can do is stare blankly at the door his best friend just walked out of, before shouting as loud as he can and at the same time punch his fist on his thighs, not minding if the neighbors can hear him and complain or if his thigh will be bruised, not caring if he is so late for work. All he knows is that he has never had his heart so broken before. What he doesn't know is that Claire stayed on the other side of the door, she can hear him shout his emotions out and she as well can't prevent the sobbing from coming. She left the condominium building shortly after recollecting herself, on the way to the parking lot and her car, and she wonders if she had made the right decision for the both of them.