Still Alive

Day 35

Drew a pic for this chapter, sorry for the low quality!

Piers woke up earlier than he had hoped from the soreness of his shoulder. He rolled onto his back and felt his left arm brush against a still sleeping Chris Redfield. He felt a domestic warmth wash over him - he never imagined he'd get the chance to wake up while Chris was still in bed with him. He looked over at the sleeping man and admired his strong features. He had never seen his captain so peaceful before. He wished he could give Chris this peacefulness in his waking hours too. As if on cue, Chris' brow furrowed and he let out a groan as he awoke.

"Good morning Chris." Piers whispered, mostly to himself.

Chris sat up with a soft, genuine smile beaming down at Piers. "I love it when you call me Chris. Seriously, you can stop calling me captain all the time now. I mean, we are literally in the same bed together right now."

"Yes sir, Captain Redfield." Piers said in his most obedient soldier voice. Although Chris' reply lingered in his mind, he said he loved it.

"Oh god please don't call me Captain Redfield like that. I have this week off and I am very much looking forward to nobody calling me Captain Redfield." Chris greatly exaggerated his annoyance earning a laugh from Piers. Chris leaned down and kissed Piers forehead before changing into some casual clothes and leaving to go make breakfast.

A few moments later, Chris came back with a tray for Piers to eat off of in bed. "It's nothing fancy but it comes with a free ibuprofen." Chris said as he set the tray with a yogurt and glass of water down.

"Thank you Chris, really, you've done so much for me I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay you." Piers looked down as he said this. Part of him felt ashamed for the weakness he had shown Chris these past few weeks.

"Repay me?" Chris questioned. "Ever since you were in the hospital I've been trying to repay you for saving my life. And besides I will always be there for you Piers Nivans. I don't need anything in return."

"I love you." Piers whispered, he said so gently like it was made of glass.

"Huh? Did you say something?" Chris asked from the doorway as he began to walk away.

"No, sorry, it's nothing." Piers said, content to let the moment slip away from him. He finished his breakfast in a peaceful silence. Once he was done he decided to take a short nap while the pain medicine kicked in.

Piers awoke an unknown amount of time later to find his dishes were taken care of and the blanket was put back on top of him. He slowly got up and noted the pain medicine working as he moved his arm around a bit. He walked into Chris' living room seeing it for the first and noted how homely it felt. The bookshelves were full of well loved books and a few fake plants acted as book stoppers. He had a coffee table in front of his couch with magazines sitting on top and a corner dedicated to a record player and a collection of vinyls. Pictures of friends were everywhere and a noted one with Leon and Sherry whom he had met on his last mission. As he was about to peek around more of the house, a framed photo of the STARS team caught his eye. There was a blonde man he guessed to be Albert Wekser. His face looked like it had been cut out of the picture but then taped back on at a later time. Piers moved on not wanting to draw attention to the photo (that Chris clearly had a lot of emotions about) and checked out his kitchen. It was a nice kitchen - big and clearly well loved. Everything was stocked and not a single dirty dish could be seen. There was a sliding glass door by the dining table that showed off the large, well kept back yard. As he checked out the other rooms, like the guest bed and bathrooms, he noted that he had yet to find Chris. That was, until, he spotted an out of the way door at the end of a long hallway. He opened it and found it led down to a lit up basement. He went down the stairs and immediately noticed the atmosphere was a lot lighter than he had expected from the unassuming basement. He stepped into what was a home gym with a surprising amount of equipment. He saw a sweaty Chris in the middle of the room working out in a little pair of shorts.