Claire wakes up after the hot tub night with Chris.
Another kinda half arsed one, sorry, but this time I mainly had writer's block.
Claire delicately rolled under her sheets and whimpered at the pounding inside her skull. She rolled saliva around her mouth and gagged before bringing herself to her elbows, and her stiff ponytail fell against her shoulder.
"Jesus…"
She gripped the cotton material of the towel beneath her, and dry heaved.
"Oh fuck…"
What the hell? How much had she drank last night?
She painfully sat up on her knees and a damp towel slowly slid from her back as she tried to get a grasp on everything; why was she cold and wearing a damp bikini? Why was she in bed, sandwiched between two towels? Why was there a bucket at the side of her bed?
She changed out of her bikini into a pair of loose pyjamas and made her way to her door with a clumsy sway.
"I need some pain meds…"
She slowly shuffled down the hallway and into the kitchen, where Chris was sitting at the corner booth, reading a book and idly sipping a coffee. In front of him on the table was a little plate; only little crumbs and smears of melted butter indicated that he had already eaten breakfast.
"Morning, Chris…God my head hurts…"
Chris scoffed at her and placed his book face down on the table, keeping his page. He cast a dark gaze at her, and immediately she knew that he wasn't impressed with her about something. It was a gaze she hadn't seen for a long time, shaking her nerves even more so.
"What's wrong?" she asked slowly, and he cast a hand into the air with another scoff.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?! Do you have any idea…ANY idea how much of a fucking mess you were last night?!"
"I..wha-"
"You were fucking wasted, Claire!"
"Going by my headache and the nausea, I figured," she giggled to herself, but his sour expression didn't shift, and her own features slipped back into one of seriousness as she lowered her eyes.
"You got way too comfy in my face, Claire. Way too comfy."
"What do you mean?"
"You were so fucking close to me I could smell the wine in your breath, I might as well had been able to smell what you had yesterday morning for breakfast too!"
"I-"
"I don't mind you being clingy, I may not remember everything about us, and maybe I am the issue here because of it, but I don't need you getting so drunk that I have to get you out of my face! And you almost kissed me! For fuck's sake!"
"I'm sorry!"
"I don't know how much of what you said was hot air or had some actual meaning to it!"
"What did I say?!"
"Talking about how you're scared of losing me and how you don't need another man in your life, what else? Oh, and this;" Chris grasped the booth seat by his head and adjusted his seating position, "you miss the REAL me, you said."
Silence befell the Redfield kitchen, with Chris still glaring at Claire like she had stomped on a basket of puppies. The ticking of the clock was almost deafening to Claire, and she couldn't meet her brother's gaze.
"I don't remember saying that…but it is all true, Chris…"
"The 'another man' part sounded a bit suspect."
"I don't need another man…" Claire straightened her posture and met his eyes again, "it's true…it's not suspect at all, all I've ever had is you in my life and I don't want that to change!"
Chris sighed deeply and folded his hands in front of his face.
"Look. You know me. You know I don't remember everything. I don't remember how much we meant to each other, but- oh Claire don't."
Claire was still standing on the cold tiles, her hands gripping the opposite elbows as a choke escaped her lips.
"Claire, come on…you know that I don't remember shit. I'm trying, you hear me?! I'm trying! But getting clingy like you did last night, whether that is your normal behaviour towards me anyway, will NOT help me."
"I'm sorry…"
"I know you're stressed from everything, so am I, but getting as drunk as you did isn't the way to be. I can't look after you if you do that to yourself. You're lucky I even got you into bed last night."
"You didn't change me out of my bikini?"
Chris blinked once, maybe twice, before stretching his facial features.
"No I fucking didn't! I'm not undressing my baby sister! If you had thrown up on yourself then I'd have considered it and put you into a night shirt or something but Jesus fucking Christ, Claire, no!"
The siblings slipped into silence again save for Claire's soft gasps of mild distress.
"I'm sorry, Chris…"
"Well," Chris straightened up as much as his crippled body would allow and folded his arms, "I think that hangover headache is enough of a lesson for you."
"I'm sorry…"
"Stop apologising, and quite frankly, you've only got yourself to apologise to." Chris half snapped at her, and she bit her lip, "learn from your mistakes, and please give me room to try and become the brother you know without clinging to me like a goddamn barnacle!"
Chris wished he had used a better word than "barnacle", but it was the first thing that sprung to mind, and he was pissed at himself for it. He sighed with pain in his heart and Claire's continuing silent distress, and he held his arms open to her. She flicked her eyes at him and rubbed her lips together, but her gaze to the floor on her left only weakened him.
"Claire," he said softly, "let's forget about last night, I mean, you kinda have anyway. Now come here."
Claire slowly shambled her way to him and sat on the booth seat next to him, and he welcomed her into his arms. He kissed her cheek, and forced himself to ignore the stale smell of wine emanating from her pores.
"Just promise me that you won't get as bad as you did last night, at least not for good reason, ok?"
"Yeah…"
"Now come on, help me make you a hangover cure breakfast. Bacon and grilled cheese sandwich?"
So I've slowly been getting myself back into writing again, so much so that in two days I've done 1000 just on my xmas special for this year, and it is completed! So look forward to that in December! As well as this, I haven been working on a fic which involves...something that I kinda bailed on in Let Me Live, in the Ring of Fire chapter ;) ;) ;p so for any readers who enjoyed that chapter, you're gonna love that fic!
I've requested a few changes at work for physical and mental health reasons, and while the changes haven't officially happened yet, they partially have, and I already feel better in myself, so my writing may pick up again soon!
Again, sorry for the crappy chapter! Also I may have accidentally forced my hand on this one and might have to change the ending, but we'll see ;)