"There you are!" Arthur let out a disgusted sigh as he watched a man advance towards him once again in the store. The man in question was probably in his thirties, tanned and with black hair slicked back with too much hair gel. He was one of the food store's clerks and had recently started to hit on Arthur. "Listen, pal, I'm just trying to buy some groceries," Arthur snapped, grabbed some tea from the shelf, and tossed it to his shopping basket. "You know I'll stop seeing you here if you'd come to my place, cutie," the man said with a smooth voice. "Don't you feel the same way?" He was standing so close the Brit could almost taste the oily jasmine perfume the guy was wearing. "I feel many things when I see you, nausea above all. Don't you have to clean up aisle 12 or something?" Arthur said sharply and turned to go, but the clerk grabbed his shoulder. The Brit turned around and flipped his hand to get free. "I swear, I will punch you, you Italian wannabe," he said. "I'm not interested." Still that idiotically smug smile on his face, the man started to say something but hung himself off. Arthur thought it weird and was going to ask what had suddenly shut the usual chatterbox up when he felt a hand snake around his waist. Startled, he quickly turned his head to see Francis holding him. "Is this man bothering you, cher?" he asked with a small smile all the while looking at the tanned store clerk who was getting slightly more irritated, until he just turned around and left. They watched him get out of sight before Arthur freed himself from Francis' grip. "You know you could have easily taken him on," his friend said to him happily. "Yeah, but I still want to shop here in the future," Arthur answered and looked at Francis. "I haven't seen you in 4 days." Francis sighed. "I know. I'm sorry, Arthùr, I had to... deal with some things," he said quietly. In reality Arthur didn't care now that he hadn't seen him for days. Sure, it was bothering him during their time off, but now, when he saw him happy and well, it cheered him up too. He found himself absentmindedly looking and smiling at his friend. Quickly he shook his head and went for another aisle, Francis closely following. "What do you say about coming over to my place for dinner?" Francis asked, grabbing around his friend's shoulders. "Sure," Arthur replied happily and they finished their shopping.
Once outside they started to make their way back home, chatting of lesser things. "You often get hit on by extremely tacky gays?" Francis jokingly asked, lighting his cigarette. "Yeah, tell me about it, a certain Frenchman can't even keep his hands off me in the store," Arthur retorted to which his friend chuckled. "Better watch out, who knows what that dashing French fellow might try next." The Brit smiled. "I guess I'll just have to wait and see. ... What?" he asked curiously from Francis who had stopped walking and was looking at him. His friend shook his head. "Nothing," he answered with a smile and hurried back to Arthur's side.