Welcome to another chapter of cuteness~. This one is a bit of a cliche/common fanfic prompt but hopefully, I was able to put enough of my own spin on it that it's not too cheesy lol

Song Suggestion: The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am a RE fangirl and not even that cool of one X'D please don't sue thanks

Emma Heads up the stairs of her apartment with Duke at her side as they make their way back from their after-work walk. As she heads up she notices Travis and Bastion heading back to their apartment. "Hey guys," She greets with a slight wave.

"Emma hey," Bastion replies as Travis gives a short wave in return.

"Are we still good for monthly movie night next Friday?" Travis asks curiously and Emma nods

"Yeah I should be good for that," Emma agrees "I'll check if Chris can make it this month, you know how his schedule gets."

Bastion snickers a bit at that "you mean his lack of schedule? Yeah, I know. He's the only one that has been here longer than me." he points out and shakes his head.

"Fair enough, I'll check with him and text you in a bit." she replies and give another short wave in parting "see ya guys"

"Bye," "Seeya around,"

Emma heads back into her apartment and quickly feeds duke before heading over to Chris's apartment.

"Hey, are you home?" Emma asks as she opens the door to his apartment to find him sitting on the couch.

"Hey," He replies sounding a bit congested which gets Emma's attention. she walks over to the couch to give him a peck.

"You're warm," she says concerned before moving to place the back of her hand on his forehead before placing it on her own.

"eh," he replies with a shrug and goes back to his book.

"Chris you have a fever that's not Eh," Emma replies with a slight frown. "Did you take anything for it?"

"Nah, I'll be fine, it's just a cold," Chris replies before coughing into his hand.

Emma shakes her head and drops it, for now. She'd check on him in the morning before heading out for work. "If you say so. Anyways. Bastion and Travis were wondering if you're available for movie night next week"

"Probably not. I haven't heard anything yet but it's been a minute since I've... been away for a particular set of reasons" Chris replies as he remembers he can't tell her where he's going or why.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Emma asks as the concern was renewed he usually didn't slip up like that about work.

"I'm Fine," He replies once more as he waves off the concern. "Are you going to pick something to watch or are you heading back for the night?"

Hmm, he was sick whether he wanted to admit it or not. "I think I'm going to head back for the night. Just wanted to check on movie night so I could let them know how much popcorn to make." She replies and he nods.

"See you for training then," he replies.

"See you around," Emma replies and heads back out to her apartment. If she was a betting woman, and she was, he was going to be feeling whatever that was by the morning. She knew enough guys to know they generally didn't react well to being sick. Was that a stereotype? Yes, but one that had been proven accurate in her own life. Especially when they refused to treat it in the early stages.

With that thought, she heads over to dig through her kitchen cabinets to get the rice cooker out and gets that started. She then starts boiling a bit of chicken. while that started she heads over to watch an episode of that new karate spin-off show on Netflix. once the episode was done she started working with the chicken taking some of the water out to thicken into a gravy while leaving the rest to make a bit of hearty chicken noodle soup.

"There," she says with a nod as she looks at the three containers. one of plain rice, one with the chicken gravy, and the other with the soup. Plain rice if he was really not feeling well, some gravy to mix into it if he was feeling not as bad but pretty bad and chicken soup if he was well enough to stomach it. It was at least enough for two meals between the rice and soup. Emma puts those in the fridge. Worst case scenario, if she was wrong she had some easy dinner for the week. And with that, she went to bed.

Beep!Beep!Beep!

Chris groggily reached out to find his phone to turn off his alarm. he had a pounding headache that was making him dizzy in the worst way. His cough had gotten worse as well. He grumbled to himself before flicking through his contacts to call in for the day to rest before heading out still wrapped up in his comforter. Why did he smell coffee?

Sitting at the Island was Emma sipping at a cup of coffee. "hmm oh you're up." Emma says "hope you don't mind, I'm out of grounds."

"Bull," Chris replies knowing well enough when she was making up an excuse. Emma chuckles at this.

"Whatever you say," she replies with a shrug. "The fever got worse?" she asks and Chris nods as he walks over to get a glass of water for now.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna sleep it off," He says as he walks over to a cabinet to get some medicine and plops a pill into his mouth before washing it down.

"Okay, I'll leave you to rest then, Text me if you need anything," Emma says as she gets up to wash out her mug and put it in the dish rack before giving him a peck on the forehead. he really was burning up.

"Kay." he agrees before coughing. "Goodnight."

"Good night," Emma replies with a short chuckle as she shakes her head. before heading out back to her apartment to write up a few sticky notes. she waits a bit before heading back over and placing the Tupperware in his fridge. With that, she heads out to work for the day.

The drive was about as eventful as traffic could be but she eventually made it into the office. "Em hey," says Maurice as he catches the elevator.

"Morning Mr. A-" she noticed her boss make a face "Maurice, how are you doing?"

"Well enough, I'm running a bit late for a meeting though," he admits as he allows the elevator to close after she walks in.

"It's early surely they'll understand traffic happens," Emma offers in return.

"Yeah, Do you mind grabbing me a coffee? Just leave it on my desk." He requests. Emma resists the urge to give a curt huff in response. It's been over a month and a half close to two months why was he still asking her to get his coffee. It's practically a daily occurrence. "Sure."

"You're a peach, two cream, and a sugar. thanks," He requests as the elevator opens "Oh and, there's a stack of files on my desk if you don't mind sorting those if you have the time I need them for my next meeting."

"Can do," Emma says as she makes her way to the break room. She'd already had a cup so she didn't need more caffeine or she'd be bouncing off the wall. All the same, she gets a paper cup and fills it before grabbing the two creamer cups and one packet of sugar along with a stirring straw. He could mix his own coffee. she thought in slight defiance. Even then, she brought it to his office and put the cup down with the extras to the side before picking up the stack of papers and folders from the desk and heading back to her own. It honestly was a mess. Some of these didn't even belong in the same folder yet there they were.

What a slob, she found herself thinking. How was this guy her manager if he couldn't keep his own files straight? Emma frowns at this. She just had to stay for 2 years then she could look again without it damaging her resume. It wasn't that long. Kinda. let's see, where was the code for this one. kz-4123 Ah, there we go, that goes in this folder then and. "Done," She says as she smiled at her handy work. If file organization could be a masterpiece this would qualify, she thought with an internal laugh.

Emma picks up the stack to bring back to the office, she was about to put them down when her boss walked in.

"Perfect timing," he says walking in and over to the now mostly cold coffee that had been sitting there for 30 minutes to put the cream and sugar in the cup quickly. "and I'll take those," he says accepting the files from Emma. "Thank you kindly and Emma; cream and sugar in the cup next time."

Next time? Oh for the love of all that was holy. This was going to be two years of being a coffee maid, wasn't it? faaa- "My apologies, must have slipped my mind."

"Maybe you need a cup yourself then," Maurice jokes with a smile. "Alright well, gotta run, wish me luck," he says.

"Luck," Emma replies shaking her head which causes him to chuckle as he heads out. Well, at least now she'd be able to do her own work.

'*'*'*'*'

Chris yawns as he wakes up a second time feeling a bit better, still feverish but the medicine had managed to cut back the headache and dizziness. He grumbles as he heads over to the fridge and finds the additional Tupperware inside.

Hope you're feeling better. Rice if your stomach isn't feeling well, if you're up to it you can add some of the chicken gravy for flavor. put a damp paper towel over the bowl and microwave it for 60 seconds and the rice will be soft. If you're not well enough for Soup by dinner let me know. -Emma p.s. I love you

Not a single I told you so, just compassion. He shook his head and dug his phone out of his pocket to send a quick text.

[Chris] I love you too.

With that taken care of, he took the chicken gravy and rice out of the fridge and followed the instructions on the sticky note. While the food warmed up he grabbed his laptop from the study and set that on the living room coffee table. Once the microwave sounded that it was finished he went back to grab the bowl of light food and a fork before heading back to the couch.

He finished up the small meal and managed to keep it down well enough before picking up the laptop to start clicking around at the keyboard and browse the internet.

Maybe Ethan had a point, he had lived in the area for 17 years now and never really had an address, from fear that the second he did that he'd end up getting uprooted but that never really happened. Where did he even start? he thought as he looked at a few different websites that loudly proclaimed they were the top site for Buying Selling and Renting. He was hesitant in thinking this but, maybe it was possible for him to have a little hope for a slice of 'normality', a choice in his life that wasn't dictated by being a soldier under the BSAA.

He managed to dig up his lease a few days after visiting the graveyard with Emma and check the official end date. July 31st, 2021. He had a little over a year to figure out what he was looking for, and he had until the end of December to decide if he wanted to go forward with this or sign another contract. For now, he would keep this to himself as simply indulging curiosity.

'*'*'*'*'

Emma stretched her neck a bit before taking out her phone to check for messages.

Thursday, May 14th, 1:37 PM

New Messages

[Chris] I love you too

She smiled at her phone, good, he found the food in the fridge. He was hopefully doing a bit better since he didn't mention needing anything. She'd stop by to make sure but other than that she wanted to give him a bit of space. The last thing she needed was to catch whatever he had and take more time off work.

"Look alive space cadet," Maurice says as he walks past with a pile of folders that he puts on her desk "Gotta run to another meeting, could you get those put away?"

"They have you booked back to back today," Emma comments a bit surprised by how many meetings this guy has.

"Yeah tell me about it," Maurice says with a laugh. "Thanks again seeya around."

Suppose it made sense he was busy, there were a lot more authors under their department than there were performers for her last job and the department structure was different too. Before each employee could pull from a pool of options for themselves, while here the senior manager was in charge of a genre of writing and would then divy out the upcoming releases to the people they managed. So he had to know about all of the releases high profile or otherwise.

Still, it wasn't like Emma was the only person in the department he could go to for file runs. Just the newest... dang it. Maybe it would get better after another new hire came in? The day went on as normal from there, a few runs to put files into storage and a coffee run later Emma managed to make it to 5 PM. She heads out and stops at the store along the way to pick up a few things.

Emma heads up the stairs of the building to the second floor and heads over to Chris's apartment and opens the door without announcing herself to avoid waking him up if he was asleep. Instead, she finds him wrapped in a blanket resting on the couch with a laptop that he instantly slammed shut the second she walked in.

It took a second but she started laughing as she closed the door behind her "Well that was a reaction," she says before shaking her head. He was acting like a teenager whose mom walked in on him watching por- "Wait... Were you watching porn?" Emma asks amused. She wasn't one to judge, it was his sick day but the fact he felt like he had to slam his laptop over it was really funny to her.

Chris tries to keep a neutral expression while internally screaming. Well, his options were to admit he was looking at houses, that he was thinking of moving and wanted her to come with him if he did, or, go with the out of porn. "eh." smooth.

"Well, try not to have too much fun you're supposed to be resting," Emma says with amusement still evident in her tone as she goes to the fridge. The rice and gravy was gone, good he at least was eating. "There's some ginger ale in the fridge if you want it," she adds as she closes the fridge before walking over to lean over the back of the couch and give him a peck on the forehead. he still felt warm but he at least sounded better than this morning. "I'm going to head out but if you need anything text me."

"Right," he says with a nod before giving her a peck in return. He wanted to reach over and pull her onto the couch and have her join him in the search but he still wasn't sure if he should mention this yet. He still wasn't sure if it was feasible. Instead, he watches her head out before reopening the laptop and went back to clicking through pictures of different rooms in an empty house.

He quietly thought over their brief week and a few days living together while his apartment was flooded. The occasional nights where they'd pick an apartment and stay together and the content peaceful happiness it provided. Living together would let him have access to that all the time. Granted they still had their moments where they'd argue, or butt heads considering they practically did live together already with how freely they entered each other's apartments. Arguments rarely lasted that long though. Maybe a day or two. The worst of it was a little over a week and that was usually after something more major like finding out he was on site when Tanner died or the awkward air from the breakup miss understanding. Even then those things passed by and they moved on all the same.

As he thought over this and the hows and whats would be required to make the idea of sharing a home a reality he cautiously allowed himself to daydream about the two of them working together to clean and fix up any imperfections he noticed while looking at the various homes.

this was a fun and cute lil chapter to write =v= I wanna get in as much cute as I can before RE 8 events start kicking into full gear X'D cause we all know what kinda train wreck that ends up being. until then see you next chapter. based on my notes it's another cute one U