claire redfield (claireredfield) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-01-31 21:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, claire redfield, dean winchester |
Who: Claire Redfield & Dean Winchester
What: A date
When: Early December
Where: Sabroso! Mexican Grill
Rating/Warnings: Teen/Language, light sexual talk, but otherwise nothing too awful.
Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
The dreams had taken a pause for Claire, which was something she was grateful for. For the first time in months Claire had been sleeping through the night and she hadn't realized how much she'd missed sleep. Things with Dean were as they always were, Claire wasn't complaining at all, and she was happy.
Very happy if she was being honest.
They'd agreed to meet after work for dinner, and once Claire was finished she changed and headed toward the Mexican restaurant. She greeted Dean with a kiss, and a smile. Claire looped her arm through his as they entered the place, and upon entering they found a booth.
"Did you have a good day?" Claire asked after the waitress had came by to ask for their drink order. For her it had been hectic since everyone was coming by to pick up the things that they were missing for their Christmas dinner. It wouldn't slow down as the month went on it would only get worse. Claire didn't mind, busy days meant that things went by quickly and she didn't actually feel as tired by the end of the day even if her feet were.
~*~
"I have had a complicated day," Dean answered as he licked his lips, tasting Claire there, smiling at the thought he had a girl of his own, "My---I guess he's my understudy at work is getting frustrated with me. Can't say as I blame him. I've been putting everything on him while I work at my landscaping business. He's not getting paid any more for it. He's not getting a raise while I'm still number one. It's tough on him. I don't blame him. I just can't bail on my boss when I'm not making it full time in landscaping."
They had gotten good at ordering together. Dean didn't bother pausing for Claire to place her order as he made his. He liked the steak fajitas with cheese sauce on the side. It was a heart attack waiting to happen, but it tasted great. There were some things worth the sacrifice and Dean was willing to put in some extra workout time to eat what he wanted. Claire tended to be a little more conscientious than him, but she was no shrinking violet which Dean really enjoyed about her.
She didn't make him feel as if he was some kind of lowlife.
"What about you? Things going smoothly or you ready to kill the next person who approaches courtesy of holiday shopper rage?"
~*~
Clarie's brows furrowed slightly at that. She knew that Dean wanted to make his business work, and leave the other work behind. Claire couldn't blame him. If she could get back onto the police force she would do it in a heartbeat. As it was, she still didn't believe that she was ready for it yet.
"Hm," she hummed softly, brows still furrowed over her eyes, "maybe you can talk to your boss about giving him some sort of raise for taking on some extra work?" It was a simple suggestion, one that he might've already done. Work wasn't something they talked about a lot other than how their respective days had gone.
Claire waited on Dean to order, not even bothering to look at the menu. She ordered the chicken fajitas along with a beer before handing her unopened menu to the waitress.
Sighing, Claire shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "It's busy, that's for damned sure. The people aren't so bad, but I'm about ready to shoot the speakers at work. I'm sick of holiday music." Claire replied with a chuckle, arms coming up to rest against the table until the waitress brought their drinks back to the table.
She took a sip of her beer, "I will admit that I am enjoying the snow though. It's nice to see." She knew that it wasn't great for Dean's business, but it was at least pretty to look at.
~*~
Snow was a novelty in their part of California. The state had every biome possible, but they were in Southern Cali which translated to the famed beaches and sun, sunshiney days. Dean had gotten comfortable with the stability of the weather. He found the snow amusing only in the barest hint of the word. Mostly he worried his work was going to be wasted or ruined for clients who'd been happy.
"I like seeing the snow," he admitted, "I just wish it wasn't taking a toll on people's lawns I've done who were happy customers. I've had several call me asking about a 'guarantee' or something. I'm not a shopping mall. I can't control the weather and I don't insure their plants. They want me to redo the work? I have to get paid for it."
There was no way Dean could afford not to be paid for his work. He had to get paid. That was it. He didn't have a back-up plan in place to take care of Acts of God or Orange County Catastrophes.
"My boss doesn't like to talk money with me unless I'm talking to him about how much I'm not getting paid since Jimmy has taken on the brunt of my work. That? That makes the old man happy. I suppose I could put a word in for the kid. He's a good guy. Weird, but who isn't around here, right?"
~*~
A small smile crossed Claire's features. She could understand why Dean would like seeing the snow, but not so much having it here. "I bet it is hell on the business. Hopefully everything will turn back to normal soon." She was hopeful for Dean's sake at least.
There was no way that any of them could've predicted the weather, or how bad it was going to be here during December. She took another sip of her beer, "I don't blame you. There was nothing that you could've done with the weather. I mean, nobody could've predicted it."
She wasn't sure where this weather had come from. From what she'd seen no one knew, they just sorta ran with it.
"There are a lot of good people here. Strange, but good." Claire offered with a smile and a chuckle after the fact. "I say why not? Worst case he says no." She lifted a shoulder, and then shifted in her seat slightly. "Couldn't hurt anything at least. I'm just happy to still be able to get into work. Unless another blizzard hits, in which case, I think you should be at my place and we can be snowed in together."
~*~
"Snowed in, huh? In terms of cliches I want to live out, that ranks pretty high on my list."
There wasn't a big list of cliches Dean Winchester hadn't lived through in his life. He remembered too many terrible things happening to him which shouldn't have even been possible. Aliens who weren't aliens, leprechauns, wishing wells, cursed objects galore and so, so, so many ghosts. Dean thought sometimes he dreamed more dead people up than had ever been born.
It was strange to think about wanting to be trapped in some crazy scenario.
"With all the crazy things I've done? Seen? Lived through? Died through and been resurrected after? I normally steer clear of cliches. I could get behind being snowed in with you though."
Dean could get behind, in front of, underneath, or on top of that idea. He was feeling particularly flexible where Claire was concerned. She brought out the animal needs in him. All he wanted was to fuck her until he felt human again. Claire made him remember he was human which was something Dean forgot after too many nights dreaming. Memories the likes of his weighed on any man after a time.
~*~
Claire laughed, "See? I have good ideas every now and then. Even if they are cliched."
Honestly nothing had ever sounded better to Claire. Being snowed in with someone she cared about, curled up on the couch watching the snowfall and fucking in front of the fireplace. Claire would be happy with all of that.
Hell, she was just happy spending time with Dean.
They didn't often talk about the dreams together often. Claire talked about them enough on the network, but they didn't talk about them in private often. She wanted to ask, and maybe one day she would when the time was right.
For now, she was happy helping Dean forget his dreams, or at least, she hoped that she was helping him forget them a little. "We can have fun with that one at least. I'm sure there's other cliches we can hit at some point. Right now that's the one I'm interested in most. Besides, we can get the fireplace to going, and just spend the evening in front of it." Claire gave a waggle of her brows, although she wasn't joking about spending the evening in front of the fireplace.
~*~
Trying to remember the last time he'd been in front of a fireplace, Dean remembered being tired, dirty, and bruised all over. It had been after a hunt. They had salted and burned a book of occult spells to get rid of it. Sam hadn't bothered to stay in the room long enough to get warm from the flames; Dean had lingered too long resulting in getting an earful about how they had to get back to the bunker already.
"I like fireplaces. Real ones."
Dean couldn't help the wistful sound in his voice. Normalcy was something he'd craved without knowing why until his Dreams. Those had filled him in quickly on why he'd want to mow lawns, design fountains, and plant flowers. He wished he could explain in words the way he felt for Claire. They hadn't progressed to love so much as---moving swiftly that way. Dean felt as if he was going to fall in love with her.
Soon.
"Do you---have you spent a lot of time in front of fireplaces or am I going to get to be special?"
~*~
There was something in Dean's voice that told Claire he might be hurt to hear her say anything but no, she hadn't spent a lot of time in front of the fireplace with someone else and that yes he was special. The truth of the matter was she had spent a lot of time in front of the fireplace, but by herself.
"I have spent a lot of time in front of the fireplace. By myself." She smiled softly, "It's been only you since the accident. I don't know if I told you that or not." Claire lifted a shoulder, "And I moved into that place after my brother was sure that I'd be okay on my own." Chris had worried about her, and she was thankful that she'd had him for every step of the way during her recovery. Without him she would've been lost.
"So yeah, you're special, Dean. In more ways than just getting to be the first person that I'm going to spend a lot of time of with in front of my fireplace."
She took another sip of her beer, giving a nod to the server as their food was delivered to the table.
"Mine isn't real though. It's gas burning, but I like the real ones too."
~*~
"You didn't. Tell me that. How long has it been since that accident?"
Dean felt stupid. His brain wasn't working his mouth; his mouth was moving, saying words he couldn't hardly remember the meaning of much less why he was saying them. There had been very few moments in his life where he'd lost all ability to speak or understand words. One he remembered in particular had to do with Hell while the other had been all about a beautiful girl who hadn't cared he was slightly bowlegged or not as tall as he wanted to be.
Holding up a hand, he shook his head to the negative, "No. I don't care. It could have been yesterday. That means I'm special. I haven't been special for any reason except the wrong one for---my whole life."
He stopped himself from saying 'thank you' by taking a bite of his food he couldn't even remember ordering. It was good. Everything was good.
Everything.
"You and me and a gas burning fireplace. Sounds like a real good end to a real good date. Eat up. You'll need your energy."
~*~
Clarie's mouth opened, about to tell him exactly how long it'd been before he silenced her with a small movement of his hand. One corner of Claire's mouth tipped up into a smile, "I do want to say one thing; you're all kinds of right for me, Dean." She hoped that he would one day really know that was how she felt about him.
He'd shown her everything good about himself, mixed with some of the bad, but hey, they were human. It was part of the deal.
"Yes, sir." Claire gave a small salute with her fork, "And you'll need yours too cowboy. I have a feeling we'll both be exhausted come daylight." Claire had no plans for tomorrow, and she was more than happy to spend her day sleeping away next to Dean.