Another day another chapter let's goooo! Thanks as always for reading this far and or coming back to continue to read! I'm always happy to receive so much support. If there is anything I can do better let me know in a review.
Song Suggestion: Woman Like Me by Little Mix
Disclaimer: same as the last 3 chapters, I'm a fanfic writer and only that. Capcom owns their copyrights I'm just using the characters for fun.
Sure enough, as Chris said, he was gone for a little over 3 weeks, August came and left without incident as it gave way to the beginning of September. Luckily this trip was a bit easier than the last, he thought as he walked up the stair to the apartment and noticed that the vase outside of Emma's place had been replaced since he was last around. He dug the keys out of his pockets to unlock the apartment and closed the door behind him as he dropped his bag and walked over to the fridge to find. Yep. Everything was growing. Again. He closed the fridge with a sigh, These mid-length missions were always the killers. With long-term missions, he'd at least had a place of his own rather than barracks and short ones he was usually home before his food spoiled.
He couldn't complain about this mission too much though, it was more of a formality as he and the others helped Ethan and Mia Winters get settled in Romania for witness protection, monitoring, and military training. Ethan was a decent guy so it was good to see that the two settled into their new home well enough. Mia seemed to be struggling the most with this but hopefully, with time the meds would help her.
As he thought this over he looked through the cabinets he found a similar theme since he generally didn't keep junk food around the place. Some stale chips, an expired jar of salsa, and the usual box of protein bars. Chris gave a tired sigh as he tossed the chips and salsa with a frown and thought it over and looked at his watch. 7:56 PM. It was a bit late. All the same, he pocketed his keys and left his apartment to walk next door and knocked twice.
"Hello? Oh! Chris welcome back," Emma says with an initial tone of confusion before recognizing him. To be fair it had been a minute since he shaved.
"Hey," he replies. "Mind if I take up your offer for food," he asks, she did say she'd give him food for the lessons, might as well ask for it when he needed it. Emma smile at that.
"Sure," she agreed and moved out of the way as she opened the door further so he could enter. "What are you in the mood for, quick food or tasty food," she asks as Chris walked over to what was becoming his usual seat.
"Quick," he replies as he takes a seat.
"Can do, let me think a second," she says as she closed the door and walked over to the fridge to see what she had before nodding. "Okay got it," she said and took out a container, and started heating up the toaster oven. she then retrieved the tiny oven's baking sheet and opened the container she grabbed to start set what looked like homemade chicken nuggets on the sheet. "How was your trip?"
"It was work," he said once more with a shrug causing Emma to chuckle.
"Is that the only answer I'll get to that question?" she asks amused as she put the tray of bites into the small toaster oven.
"Probably," he admits "how has practice been going," he asks as a change of subject.
"Going well I think," she says in response before leaning against the counter to face Chris while waiting for the food to finish warming up.
"You think?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know enough to know if I'm doing it right or wrong, but I've been practicing," Emma explains shaking her head lightly.
Upon hearing this he leaned a bit to check the toaster oven. that was probably going to take a few minutes. "We have a few minutes, let's see if you made any progress," he says as he got out of his seat at the island and moved the dining table to the side. Emma takes out her phone and sets a timer, placing the device on the Island, and walks over to join him. Once she made her way over he holds up his hand for her to try and punch. "Aim here," he says tapping at the inside of his palm and Emma nods taking a wide swing at the target only for Chris to move and put her into one of the practice holds from before which caused the woman to yelp from surprise. "Think, what do you do."
"Right um," Emma thought it over a second and went through the motions but to no avail. Chris eventually let her go.
"You're panicking" he points out "What's causing you to freeze up?"
"You surprised me is all," she says with a frown.
"If someone breaks in they're not going to give you a warning," he points out in return, "Right now you're practicing to prevent that, so use as much force as you need,"
"Okay," Emma says with a nod only to have her attention caught by the timer going off. Once more Chris uses the opportunity to put Emma into a hold.
"Chris the food is going to burn," Emma points out with a frown.
"Then get out of the hold," he counters. Emma tries again, it took about 4 tries and Chris loosening his grip slightly but she managed to get out this time.
The woman seemed surprised at first as she noticed that she was able to move her arms then smiled ear to ear before remembering the alarm that was still going off. "Oh shoot the chicken," she said as she hurried over to turn off the alarm and get the nuggets out from the toaster oven, turn it off, and put them onto a plate which she moved over to the Island. "that's better," she said as peace and quiet was restored to the apartment. Chris walked over and looked over the food.
"What is this anyways, leftover chic-fil-a?" he asks with a hint of curiosity. He did say fast so he wasn't going to complain but it didn't hurt to know what to expect.
"Dorito chicken," she said with a short laugh. "It's an old recipe I made during my college years when I was out of breading," Chris simply looked at her with a bewildered expression which caused Emma to chuckle a bit more. "Hey don't knock it until you try it. Besides, that's one of the better recipes from those days."
He shook his head and did try a bite. It was surprisingly decent. The breading was crunchy, it did actually taste like Doritos and it had a bit of a kick to it. "Why does that work."
"Because it's basically mess-free chicken nachos?" Emma replies with a shrug. That was a good enough answer for Chris as he continued to munch on the meal. Emma places a glass of water next to his plate which was also accepted. Once he finished the meal Emma put the plate and glass in the sink. The two practices for a bit longer before Chris went back to his apartment for the night.
This went on for the next few weeks. Each Thursday Chris would stop by around 8 and go over different holds and breaks with Emma for about an hour and he'd leave with a small stack of four or five Tupperware meals to eat throughout the week.
'*'*'*'*'
Lobo was enjoying his own lunch as he watched an increasingly familiar yet odd sight that he noticed a few times over the last few weeks. Chris walking into the Cafeteria to warm up lunch before heading back to his office to eat it. He quietly hummed to himself before getting up and tossing his take-out container so he could head out early to meet up with the rest of the team. Sure enough Umber eye, Canine, Night Howl, and Tundra were already there and warming up. "Hey yo guys" Lobo calls as he walks over "any of you guys notice something weird with Alpha?" he says to see if anyone else found the sudden change in routine odd.
"Not really" Tundra replies as she adjusted her hand wraps.
"You're not trying to start trouble are you?" Canine asks shaking his head.
"He looks like he's finally getting some of his weight back. The new York mission a few years ago really knocked him down," Umber eye says with a shrug.
"Yeah, he started taking his lunch breaks again out of nowhere," Lobo says which caused Night Howl to laugh.
"So he's finally eating again, that's a good thing. Or are you worried that means he's going to kick your ass harder?" Night Howl says which causes the others to chuckle.
"Hey hey I won that last sparing match fair and square," Lobo retorts.
"Then you won't have a problem with him getting back to his old muscle mass, the dude looks like a skeleton." Umber eye says.
"A skeleton compared to someone that literally punched a boulder into the air," Lobo says in return.
"That sounds like you're worried to me," Tundra points out earning a few more snickers from the others.
"She's not wrong," Canine agrees. "Anyways, are you still good for drinks tonight or are you too busy patrolling the cafeteria."
"Yeah yeah, I'm still good to go. Who else is going" Lobo agrees as he drops the subject.
"We're all confirmed except Alpha, I haven't had the time to ask him yet," Night Howl admits.
"Hound Wolf Squad, Roundup," Chris says and the 5 imminently get into formation.
"Sir yes sir" they all reply. The day went on with business as usual before starting their usual regiment to stay mission ready. As each person finishes up their routine Umber eye was the first to head over to Chris.
"Hey Alpha, we're heading out for drinks after work, are you in?" he asks though he clearly seems to be expecting a yes.
Chris checks his watch and shakes his head "Nah can't make it this time. I have plans."
"Who has plans on a Thursday?" Tundra asks with a mixture of disbelief and curiosity causing Chris to give a short chuckle.
"There was an attempted break-in at the apartment a few weeks back. It frightened the neighbors pretty bad. I've been giving some self-defense pointers to the newest one." He explained as he packed up.
"The bacon mac neighbor?" Lobo asks as he overhears the conversation.
Chris nods "yeah that's the one. It freaked her out pretty bad apparently, so she asked for a few lessons and insisted on paying, got her to drop it by accepting lunches as collateral."
The answer seemed to surprise the others who looked to Lobo who had an 'I told you so' expression plastered across his face.
"Oh, sorry to hear about the break-in, good luck with that," Night Howl says with some sympathy.
"Ey yo, but you're hosting poker night next week since your ditching this week," Lobo says with a laughing smile which Chris waves of.
"Sure whatever, don't expect much" he agrees as he slings his bag over his shoulder "See you guys tomorrow," he adds before giving a shout which the other respond to in kind like clockwork. Once Chris was out the door Canine looked to Lobo.
"Alright, what are you planning," Canine asks.
"You can't tell me you're not a little bit curious," Lobo says defending himself. "Whoever this chick is, she's been making homemade meals for the captain for weeks now."
"I'll admit you kinda have a point. It is a little strange when you put it that way." Tundra reluctantly agrees.
"I'm staying out of this," Umber eye says holding up his hands as he walks away.
"Same," says Night Howl as he packs up as well.
Another week passed and before long it was Friday. Lobo was starting on his workouts when Night Howl walks over to use the machine next to him. "...okay I'm in. what's the plan."
"my man, I knew you'd come around," Lobo says with a chuckle causing Night Howl to shake his head.
"don't make me regret it. Umber is still pretty against this." The man says in return.
"Not to worry, it's easy you get to reap the rewards of my curiosity. Promise" he says with a smirk. "Just make sure you're at the meeting point on time."
"Right," Night howl says as he wasn't sure if that made him feel any better or not. All the same, he did as he was told and make sure he was on time, and waited outside the apartment building for the others to show up. Tundra and Lobo showed up next followed by Umber Eye then Canine each of which had a pack of beer with them. The group of 5 walked into the building and up the stairs to the second floor. Once Lobo noticed the vase with flowers he smiled. Bingo. He took a hard turn to break off from the group and knocked on the door only for Umber eye to hook his neck and start pulling him away while the other 3 remained at the door.
"Seriously," Umber eye says quietly as Lobo chuckles at his victory upon seeing the door open.
"Hello?" Emma says clearly confused. "Can I help you?" she asked through the partly opened door.
"Sorry to bother, I think we got the wrong door," Canine says with a sheepish smile.
"Oh. Who are you looking for?" she asks as she seemed to relax enough to open the door a bit further.
"Alpha, Is he on this floor?" Night Howl asks only to Emma's expression to shift back to confusion.
"Chris Redfield" Tundra clarifies which causes Emma to nod.
"Oh, you almost had it then. Chris's door is," she started only for Chris's door to open and show a less than thrilled team captain.
"The Hell are you guys doing," Chris asks perplexed.
"Sorry cap," Lobo squeaks out from Umber Eye's chokehold "Forgot which door was yours," he says with a smile, a lie which Chris didn't buy for a second.
"Get in here before I kick your ass," he says as he gets out of the way so the 5 could go inside. At this point, Umber finally let go of Lobo and went to enter the room as Night Howl and Tundra started to walk over.
"Ey, You should join us for poker, do you play?" Lobo asks which caused the group to pause once more.
"Um. Well, that's very kind of you, I don't want to impose though," Emma replies with a nervous smile.
"It ain't trouble to have one more right guys?" Lobo asks looking to the others for backup.
"It would be nice to not be the only lady at the table," Tundra adds with a slight smirk.
"Aw well don't be mean and count out Lobo," Canine says with a laugh which causes Lobo to glare at them.
"He only counts as a lady when he's bitchin," Tundra says with a snicker.
"So 90% of the time" Umber eye points out as he joins in on the ribbing.
Emma tried not to smile at that but she pretty clearly had a bad poker face.
"Okay yeah she'd be fun to play with, she can't keep a straight face to save her life," Night Howl notes with a chuckle.
"I resent that, I'm not that bad," Emma says with an embarrassed laugh.
"Those are fighting words. Come on cap just give the thumbs up already," Lobo says with a smile.
"Fine," Chris says making a mental note to put the team through the wringer first thing on Monday. "Everyone get inside before I change my mind."
Emma gave a sympathetic smile since it seemed like he got pressured into letting her join in but at the same time, it was kind of funny to her, since it reminded her of how she had a hard time telling her nieces no. It must be a family thing, found family or otherwise. She locked up her apartment and cautiously walked over to join the group.
"Who brought the deck," Umber asks as the others all looked between each other. "you're kidding," he asks as everyone starts to chuckle.
"We all brought beer," Canine said amused.
"Just messing I got them here," Lobo says with a smile as he puts a stack of 3 decks on the table.
"Who did the least reps today," Chris asks as he moves to take a seat at the table.
20, 14,16,24, 18. they each listed off before looking to Emma.
"... what's a rep?" She asks with a sheepish grin causing the others to laugh.
"It's the number of times you do a set of exercises like crunches or pull-ups," Night howl explains out of sympathy. "I think we have our dealer for the first round," he says with a chuckle before taking a beer from one of the packs and taking a seat. the others follow suit grabbing a drink before taking a seat as Emma simply sits down without one.
"ye ain't gonna drink?" Lobo asks curiously, "by the way don't worry about mixing the decks, they're the same 3 we use each month so they're already mixed up."
"Well I didn't bring any so it doesn't seem right," Emma admits as she shuffles the 3 decks into a stack but Tundra shakes her head.
"Which one do you want? You're fine to have a few, we brought way too much as it is," she says which helps Emma relax a bit. It was nice that there was another lady around.
"Do you have stout?" Emma asks sheepishly which causes Night Howl to smile.
"Good taste. I brought a few," He says with a chuckle as Tundra picks one up from the pile and has it handed down to the guest.
As the others took care of the drink Emma started dealing out 2 cards to each before noticing an issue "do you guys usually play with chips?" she asks since she wasn't really sure how they were going to do this without those.
"Shit, I knew I forgot something," Lobo admits causing the others to grumble and complain. "hey sorry man, it happens sometimes," he says in his own defense.
"One moment," Emma says as she gets up and heads back to the door. A few minutes later she walks back in with a few unopened packages of cookies. Oreos, and two types of chips ahoy, regular and M&M. "Maybe these will work instead," she suggests with a short laugh.
"Cookies?" Umber eye asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, my Grandpa would play poker with us using hard candies, so I figured maybe cookies would work... they're at least round like chips" she admits.
"I'm down for that," Canine agrees as Emma takes a seat and starts divvying out the treats. "Adds an extra level of difficulty since you can end up eating your money," he says with a laugh. The others nod in agreement and Lobo smiles at this.
"Hey while we're making adjustments. I brought these," he said as he put an extra stack of cards on the table "If you tap out first then you have to pull a punishment card?"
the others laugh at that and nod once more. "Since you forgot the chips you should take two already," Chris says with a smirk. That got Lobo's attention.
"Hey now that was an honest mistake," he says which got the others to laugh.
"What happened to all that confidence from earlier," Umber eye points out with a smirk "Are you scared of your own idea?"
"No," Lobo replies and begrudgingly takes two of the cards. before giving a quiet sigh "Talk in a British accent for the next 3 rounds," he reads in a very poor British accent which causes Night Howl to laugh and shake his head no. "And each player pours a shot worth of their drink into a glass. Drink the whole concoction before you can play again. Ah come on," he says with a frown as the others howl and Tundra gets up to look for a clean glass. Each person pours in a bit of their drink and Lobo downed the whole mix by the time Emma was done sorting out the cookies.
"Alright I think we're ready to go for the first round then," she says with a chuckle. "Who's in and whos out?"
The group plays 6 or so rounds as Emma was actually keeping up with the others and managed to avoid punishment so far. that was about to change though.
"Three of a kind" Canine says with a smile which causes Emma to raise an eyebrow.
"Seriously?" she asks confused as she looks at the card.
"yeah they're right there," he says showing a queen of hearts, clubs, and diamonds. Emma put her own hand down showing two pairs, two aces and two queens, a queen of hearts and a queen of diamonds.
"Okay, so which of us is cheating then. cause that's the 4th Queen of hearts and there were only 3 decks" she points out.
"Really?" Night howl asks with a perplexed expression. Chris holds up a hand to get everyone to pause as he picks up the discard pile. Sure enough, he stopped and plucked out two queens and put them on the table.
"What the hell..." Tundra says with a frustrated sigh. The decks weren't balanced the whole time.
"Hold up. I think we're missing something obvious here," Lobo says before looking to Emma. "You were counting cards," he points out which causes Emma's expression to drop as the others stared at her with a mixture of shock and surprise.
"Holy shit you're right," Canine says with a laugh. "What the hell was your grandpa teaching you?"
"Wait is that against the rules?" Emma asks nervously.
"YES" everyone replies in unison.
"Well how am I supposed to know if others are cheating if I don't keep track of what has already been used?" she points out.
"Emma, THAT is cheating because you know the odds of the deck which isn't something everyone knows," Chris points out while holding his face and trying not to laugh.
"I'm just impressed she was able to keep up with three decks worth of cards even after two beers," Tundra says with a laugh "not bad."
"Hey if I had to take a punishment for forgetting the chips I think cheating gets two cards as well," Lobo points out with a wolfish smile.
"Yep" "agreed" "seems fair" "I'll second that" they all agree before looking at Chris.
"Pack rules," he says with a shrug as Emma's shoulders dropped. That hardly seemed fair to her. She didn't know.
"You do that while I sort the cards to get the extras out," Tundra says as she starts sorting the cards in the meantime.
Emma nods and picks up two of the cards. "Share an embarrassing fact," she says with a frown and thinks it over. "Gracious that's a difficult one. um." The others snicker and sip at their drinks as they wait. She bounces a few facts around her mind weighing over which would be the least embarrassing to share. "Okay got it, I have an irrational fear of overnight trips. particularly if it's with a large group."
"What?" Umber asks amused but mostly confused.
"why?" Night Howl asks with a laugh.
"That is more information than anyone here needs and I am not drunk enough to talk about it," Emma rebuttals as she sips at the last of her drink.
"Well shit someone get the woman another drink cause I'm curious," Lobo says with a snicker and gets up to do just that, handing Emma a third beer. She accepts it and shakes her head.
"Now you're just blowing it out of proportions," She says as her face turns red.
"They're going to ask all night, might as well spit it out," Tundra says with a gentle smile while continuing her sorting.
"She has a point. besides, that's hardly embarrassing. Unusual sure but not embarrassing," Canine points out causing the others to nod in agreement.
Emma massaged her temple "Fine, fine. So I used to fall asleep in my day clothes in my early twenties. It was a bad habit that started in college because I'd work myself to the bone. It wasn't exactly comfortable though and evolved into an even worst habit of stripping in my sleep so now I don't like going on overnight trips in a group because I worry that habit will rear its head when I least expect it since I'm not conscious for it," she says before opening her drink and downing a good swallow of it as the others start cracking up. "so yeah now you know way more about me then you need to."
"That is amazing," Tundra says with a chuckle.
"I have several questions," Lobo says which gets him a glare from Umber. "Which I will respectfully keep to myself."
"Thank you," Emma replies as she looks at the last card with a perplexed expression. "I don't know if I can do this one," she admits and shows the card which read. 'Do an unflattering impression of the person to your left/right'. "I don't really know either of you guys well enough to do an impression" she admits as she looks between Umber and Canine.
"That's a fair point. maybe draw again?" Night howl offers.
"Well, you're Chris's neighbor, maybe do an impression of him instead," Canine suggests with a snicker.
"That could work" Lobo agrees and Chris makes a vague gesture of 'do what you want' though his expression said, choose your words, carefully.
"Okay uh." Emma thought about it. before nodding then attempting to mimic Chris's voice "Aim here. Hit like you mean it... uuh. Get in here before I kick your ass" she says which causes the others to openly laugh while Chris frowns.
"Oh my fawkin god that was beautiful. Thank you dear Lord for this blessing," Lobo says after clearing his through from almost choking on his drink.
"Alright, ladies the deck is all fixed up there were three floaters," Tundra said tossing the floater cards over to the kitchen island. She then shuffles the decks again "I'll deal this time. let's get back to the game" she says with a smile.
The game continued for another 2 hours as the group hooped and hollered between rounds at the various punishments before eventually a knock was heard at the door. Chris got up and opened it to find Mr. Russo.
"I'm glad you guys are having a good time. but some of us are trying to sleep," he says with a frown which caused Chris to look over to the clock. 11 PM.
"Sorry about that, We're just wrapping up," he says in response as there are a few disappointed grumbles behind him.
"Good," Mr. Russo says with a nod "and good night" he adds before heading back to his own apartment. Chris closed the door and looked at the others.
"Hound Wolf Squad, Pack it up," he says as the others push their cookie chips into the centers, roughly a third remained as they were munched on throughout the game.
"Hound Wolf Squad?" Emma asks as she puts the remaining cookies in a container making a note to throw them away once she got home.
"Wait, did we seriously not introduce ourselves?" Tundra asks as she looks to the others before frowning. "Well shit. sorry about that I'm Emily Berkoff, I go by Tundra in our squad, I'm the Recon specialist of the team. I tend to go in first and set up supply points but keep a low profile combat wise," she explains.
"Dion Wilson, also known as Canine, I'm the K-9 handler for the squad but I'll offer ground support as well," he says with a smile, Dion appeared to be the youngest of the group. Emma nodded.
"I usually go by Night Howl in this group but my name is Charlie Graham, no relation to the president of this fine country. I'm the communication specialist so I usually team up with Tundra for setting up safe points" he explains and Emma nods once more.
"Lobo's the name Heavy weapons the game though at this point I'm about to outdo Alpha here for his wings," he says with a laugh.
"Don't get cocky" Chris replies crossing his arms. "You still got a long way to go before you can outmaneuver me."
"Yeah yeah sure. anyways you can call me John" he says with a wink only to get nudged away by Umber eye.
"Suppose that leaves me for last, My name is Ronaldo Elva, I'm the sharpshooter and second in command for the squad, Friends call me Umber Eye" he explains and Emma smiles.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you all. I'm Emma Swanson, I'm the Junior Marketing Director for a local record company," she says. "Thank you all for your service to help keep civilians like me safe. If there is ever anything I can do for you guys just ask."
"You're sweet." Tundra says with a chuckle. "See you around sometime then Emma." She says before putting on her coat. "you guys ready?" she asks looking to the other 4 getting a chorus of yeahs and yeps.
"Hound Wolf Squad out," Umber eye says with a salute to Chris and the group heads out followed by Emma.
"That was fun, thanks for letting me crash your get-together," Emma says as she walks past Chris. "Have a good night" she adds and heads back to her apartment.
Phew, this was a long one hopefully it was as fun for you guys to read as it was for me to write :) I think this is a new record, 9k words in a single day between two chapters. if you have any ideas you'd like for me to try and include, let me know in a review.