The word 'groceries' was innocent. And, though he had been unable to do one of the biggest things to rob one of their innocence, he was not, under any circumstance, "innocent".

But he went grocery shopping anyways. But he did not enjoy it.

Basta walked up and down the isles of the local grocery store, holding a crumpled list in his hands.

"can I help you?" Basta looked up, startled, and found himself face to face with a soft looking teenager with golden hair and a broad smile.

"Err maybe." The young man scuffed the linoleum floor with the toe of his sneaker. His eyes wandered over the apron tied around the girl's waist, then up to her bust, where a name tag was pinned. Lynn.

"What are you looking for?"

"Umm" Basta scanned the list again. "Juice" Lynn's smile didn't fade.

"Follow me." He obeyed, and trailed behind the girl to the back refrigerator, where juice carton after juice carton after juice carton were arranged.

"Thanks"

"It was nothing." Lynn looked as if she wanted to stay longer, but when Basta turned his attention to the wall of drinks, she left. She's probably like, 16 anyways he thought, exhaling deeply. He put a carton of OJ under his arm, and re-glanced at the list.

As he made his way towards the bakery, a young man with dark hair and piercings caught Basta's eye. An idea came to him. Basta approached the punker, and got his attention.

"Do you know where i can get some-"

"Junk?" The man caught on right away. Basta wasn't bothered by the metal pierced through the man's mouth, nose, ears and eyebrow.

"Ye"

"What kinda shit you looking for?" He smelled like smoke.

"Crack" Basta nibbled his lip. In reality, he hated the stuff. But if it meant getting him home faster...

"At the back of the cinema" said the punker, pretending to be interested in muffins.

"Naw, who deals this shit?"

"You're looking for Thornton, then." The guy shrugged. "Lived up at the ski hill, with all the nice houses."

"Thanks" Basta walked away, as if the conversation never happened.

X

"Thank you for buying the groceries, Basta." Meg smiled and began to unload the bags the second he set them down.

"No problem" he said through grit teeth. He was already missing Italy. Missing the sun. Missing the gravel parking lot with the glinting cars. The purple hazy sky. The smells. The sounds. Even the goddamn pigeons!

"Benoit will be in soon, he was just out with the girls."

"Oh." Basta had nothing more to say to the lady. He just wanted to find this Thornton character. Rosie cried.

"Oh, let me get the baby" Meg disappeared around the corner. Basta was left alone with the begrudged groceries. Just then, the phone rang. "YOU CAN GET IT!" Called Meg from the other room. Ok, now this is just fucking weird! Basta picked up the phone, so completely pissed off. As he looked at the phone, though, he nearly had a fit when he saw the Caller ID: B Thornton.

"Hai?"

"Hello? Who is this?" Basta's jaw dropped; it was Benoit on the phone!

"Its Basta. Meg told me to pick up the phone."

"Oh, hi Basta. Could you please put Meg on?" Basta nodded, unaware that Benoit couldn't see that. He brought the phone to Meg, already planning that man's assassination.

X

When Benoit opened the front door, Anya by his side, Basta felt his throat tighten. I can't kill this man... DAMN BASTA! You're getting soft... you must have bonked your head. The muscle under his right eye twitched.

Then the unexpected happened. Anya came over to Basta, wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug, her face pressed against his belt buckle.

A/N:

Hi guys! Wow... its been a while, eh? Long time no updates. And i apologize for that. I will try to FINISH the other stories. Because i noticed an uncool trend in my stories: unfinished-ness.

My website www . freewebs . com / agent-oo8 (link enclosed in my profile under "homepage") is currently getting massive updates and a new look. If your favourite stories enclude "Its called a crush, Hot fuss, or Pins and Needles, i recommend you go to my site. I have separate pages for those stories. If you leave a review you can feel free to recommend a page for the site. Anyways, peace out.