Work Text:
“But Claire, that’s breaking and entering,” Leon complained, as they stood at the backdoor of the perfectly manicured house.
“If we don’t break anything, it’s only entering,” Claire said through gritted teeth, working on the lock. To Leon, it looked like she was haphazardly wiggling the tool, but he trusted she knew what she was doing.
“Are we going to get in trouble?” Sherry asked, peering over Claire’s shoulder.
Claire shot Leon a look that told him this was his fault. “No, we aren’t going to get in trouble. Nobody’s home and we won’t damage anything. Maybe eat some of their food, but that’s it.”
Sherry’s face scrunched up. Clearly, she had more questions and concerns, but she went silent beside Claire. While this wasn’t something any of them would typically do, the promise of food and shelter was worth the risk.
“Ahha! I got it,” Claire cheered, the door swinging open. They waited a few beats, making sure an alarm wouldn’t go off before entering the house.
They did a quick sweep, Leon taking upstairs, while Claire took Sherry with her to do the downstairs. “Find anything?” Leon asked when they met back up in the kitchen.
“Family’s at Disneyland,” Claire said, pointing to the calendar on the wall where Disneyland was written in bright pink and circled several times. “The kitchen’s pretty bare since they are gone, but there are some frozen pizzas, so we have dinner at least.”
“I’ll take it. Anything is good at this point.”
“We also found an N64 in the living room!” Sherry said.
Leon laughed, amused and grateful that in their scramble for survival, her main focus was on the video game console.
X
“I’m going to win this one. I’m going to win it,” Sherry said, having repeated the same general mantra the last few races.
“Sure you are kid,” Claire said, Yoshi shooting a red shell at Princess Peach.
“Hey!”
Claire grinned, bumping her shoulder against Sherry’s. “You’ll get there. At least you’re doing better than Leon.”
“This game is stupid,” Leon grumbled, Toad solidly in seventh place.
“You’ll get there,” Sherry said, repeating Claire’s words. “At least you aren’t in last.”
“I can’t stand either of you,” Leon groaned, as Wario passed him, landing him in last place.
“Now you’re in last,” Claire pointed out; Yoshi gliding past the finish line, Princess Peach not far behind.
“Thanks for the update,” Leon grumbled.
After scarfing down the pizza, they’d been playing for the last couple of hours, doing anything to get their minds off the hell they’d been through. She almost suggested another round, the screen in front of them playing the ending castle scene, but Sherry was dozing off beside her. “Let’s get you to bed.”
Sherry shook her head but laid beside Claire, resting her head on her thigh. Claire wanted her to sleep in a nice comfy bed after all of this, but she would make do with whatever she needed.
“Oh, to be a kid and sleep anywhere again,” Leon mused.
“Yeah,” Caire agreed.
“Do you have any ideas about how we get through this?”
“Not really,” Claire admitted. She’d been racking her brain for how they could move forward without getting caught by the government, but every plan she’d thought of would take time, too much time. As much as she would love to keep breaking into houses and sleeping in crappy motels with Sherry and Leon, she still needed to find Chris.
“Me neither.”
The silence was suffocating. The memories the video game helped keep at bay were sinking back in—the weight of everything was too much to bear.
“Do you want to play another round?” Leon asked, right as she thought she might crumple under the pressure.
“You’re on,” Claire said with a shaky grin, trying to muster back up the bravado. They’d have to face their problems eventually, but for now, this would do.