Heya did you make it through the brick wall of the beach chapter? Glad you made it. Time for one more slightly fluffy chapter. this one is very short compared to the last one and technically another short gap rather than the usual long gap X'D but I could not get this to fit in the last chapter that sucker was already huge.

Song Suggestion: ily by Surf Mesa feat. Emilee

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing~ I'm not affiliated with CapCom or their IPs. I just write fanfiction.


The beach trip came and went and Monday was the first of July. Chris and Emma took a plane back home after another round of hugs from the family, landing around 4 pm. Emma stretched as they walked away from the gate. Commercial flights were always so cramped.

"Hey, do you mind if we stop by the grocery store on the way back?" Emma requested.

Chris shrugged. "Might as well. I could use a few things," he agreed as they walked through the terminal. It would save him some gas to stop along the way rather than go home and turn around.

"Thanks" Emma replied with a grateful smile.

It took a while but eventually, they got their bags from the luggage return and went back to the car. By the time they got out of the parking lot, it was close to 5 pm, and rush hour traffic had begun.

Crawl forward. Stop. Make some progress. Stop. Start and instantly hit the brakes. Chris sneered at the cars ahead of him. Stupid traffic... He gave a tired sigh and looked to the cup holder to find his usual pack of cigarettes waiting for him.

Emma watched with a slight frown as he picked up the box and tried to shake one loose. "That bad?" she asked and he nodded.

"Yeah. It's a shit habit but—" he stopped and shrugged. There wasn't really anything else to add.

"Do you mind if I offer an alternative then?" Emma asked, unsure if he was going to finish his sentence.

He'd just gotten the cigarette free; he frowned slightly but nodded. "I'll hear you out."

"Fair enough." Okay, how to word this in a way that isn't dumb and cheesy "… So, how about this. When the cars stop, lean over and I'll give you a kiss instead as a distraction," she said with a nod. "If it doesn't work that's fine, I won't be offended if you end up going with the cigarette, but figured it's worth an offer since I'm here."

In a way it would kind of work twofold. Keep him busy so he didn't have a smoke and get him more used to a little PDA since they were in the middle of traffic.

"And you say I'm ridiculous," he said, amused, but all the same put the box down, for now, and left the cigarette on the dash… just in case.

Traffic picked up and stopped. Emma leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. Start and stop and another peck. Chris rolled his eyes at this, still amused. Start and stop. He glanced at the cigarette but leaned over and gave Emma a kiss, which caused her to smile. Start and stop and a kiss. This repeated a few more times and the militant man found himself grinning as the frustration of traffic had turned into a game. Start and stop. Once the car was safely stationary, he reached a hand over to hold the back of Emma's head as he gave her a deeper kiss than the last.

"Hm! Green light," Emma said, breaking away from the smooch to let him know he needed to focus on driving again.

The car inevitably stopped again. "Red light," he replied with a playful smirk before giving her another short kiss then going back to focusing on the road. He looked at the cigarette once more, picked it up, and put it back in the box. He wasn't sure what witchcraft Emma was using but, it was working.

Before long the two made it off the highway, down the road, and into the grocery store parking lot where their game of red light kisses came to a close. The smiling pair walked into the store and got a cart, then made their way through the different aisles. "Hm. What do you want for lunch this week anyway?" she asked as she looked over a few different peppers to try and find a good one.

"Not sure. Though I think I've had my fill of red meat for the week after that barbeque," he admitted and Emma nodded.

"Yeah, that was a lot of food." She laughed. "Dad never could figure out how to cook in small portions."

"A trait you inherited it seems," Chris joked, giving her a slight nudge since making too much was usually excuse to invite him over.

"I'm not that bad," Emma said, shaking her head before bagging and putting the pepper away. "Okay, let's see then. Two fish dishes and two chicken. That'll still have a good amount of protein in it," she suggested and Chris nodded.

One pack of salmon, a pack of chicken breast, plus some ground beef, and pork chops for her own dinners. Veggies, rice, pasta. Did she still have vinaigrette? Might as well get a bottle of that to be safe. The two walked down each aisle and as they found items they needed, they put them into the cart. Emma would put hers in the bottom basket while Chris used the top basket. Protein bars, a loaf of bread, some fruit to munch on as a snack. Chips and salsa and pre-cooked frozen chicken as well.

Chris was about to add a small frozen lasagna meal to the cart when Emma let out a chuckle. "Don't let the Russos see you with that, they'll give you an ear full for it," she warned.

"Eh I'm used to it," Chris replied, putting it in the cart all the same.

"All right," Emma said in a tone that indicated 'don't say I didn't warn you.' The two continued through the store and by the end, Emma's portion of the cart was stuffed while Chris' really only had a few necessities. The two waited in line to check out. Chris went first since he had fewer items, followed by Emma, and the bags were inevitably all mixed together by the time they were put into the trunk of Chris' car.

The drive back to the apartment was mostly uneventful as rush hour had passed and the two eventually made it to the parking garage. Chris slung a bag of dog food over his shoulder and carried a few bags on the other arm while Emma grabbed a few – well, more like five – on each arm as well so they wouldn't have to make more than one trip.

"You know we can just take multiple trips," Chris said with a mixture of amusement and concern as he followed behind her. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Nope, you're supposed to be resting your foot and you just walked around the grocery store," Emma said with a determined expression. It did hurt like crap; her arms were screaming from the weight, but she was stubborn. One trip. He needed to avoid going up and down the stairs as much as possible.

"Emma it's fine, it's a tiny cut," he said, still amused as he tried to push himself to frown at that.

"No, I saw it. It's a good size gash and you need to be careful with it," she rebutted as they made their way up the stairs.

Emma unlocked the door to her apartment and Chris followed after her, sorting out which bag when to which apartment. He'd come back and close the door in a second. "Where does the dog food go?" Chris asked after putting the other bag down on the island next to the ones Emma just put down.

"Do you mind putting that in the storage closet? Bottom shelf." Emma started digging through the bags for items that needed to go into the fridge so they wouldn't go bad.

"Can do," he replied, walking to the back of the apartment.

"Thanks. Love you," Emma said without much thought as she continued organizing the groceries.

"Love you too." Chris stopped in his tracks as he realized what he'd said.

It took Emma a moment to make the same realization and turn to look at him. The second they made eye contact, they smiled and started laughing before going back to what they were doing. It was something they both knew but had never really said before.

Chris opened the closet and put the bag down next to a similar but half-empty bag before closing the door and walking back to the main room of the apartment, only to see two obnoxious figures in black hats, black sunglasses, and black windbreakers staring at him from the doorway.

Well shit.

"Christopher Redfield, you're a difficult man to get ahold of," one stated with a frown.

"Yeah, that's on purpose," Chris said, scowling.

"Who is that?" Emma asked as she closes the fridge and walked over. Oh for the love of… Again? She'd thought they'd given up... "Oh." What was the statute of limitation again? Could she get in trouble for this? Hm. Probably not.

"We've gotten word of another incident and we could use your help," the other started as they were about to take a step into the apartment.

"No," Chris said, his glare causing the man to stop in the doorway. "I'm not interested." He started walking over to the door to close the gap and give them less reason to enter. He should have closed the door before. As he walked over, Emma frowned slightly, noticing that he had started to limp again. His injury was probably starting to get aggravated.

"This isn't a request anymore," one said, holding out a yellow envelope similar to the one they had last time. "We've been monitoring a situation and—"

Chris cut them off. The less Emma knew the better. "Look, if the CIA needs help, they can go through the proper channels with the BSAA," Chris informed them with an annoyed expression.

The BSAA... is that who he works for? Strange. Emma had never heard that particular acronym before. All the same, she remained quiet as she watched Chris put his hand against the door frame as a further deterrent to prevent them from entering.

"We need your expertise on this one," they said, trying to offer him the envelope, which Chris ignored.

The last time he heard that he was the only one that survived. "I'm one person. If you have a full-blown incident on your hands, you need a team. A full team that's properly trained, not a hand full of soldiers with one expert as a bodyguard."

"If we had another option, we'd take it but right now we need to move quickly," they insisted, continuing to try to give Chris the envelope.

"Do you think I don't know a coverup when I see one? Move quickly... sure. Quickly around all the red tape that would otherwise get the states in a world of trouble. Sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen to save face with the others," Chris pointed out, causing the two to frown. From the look of it, he'd hit the nail on the head.

"Would you just read the damn report?" the one holding the envelope declared, starting to get irritable in response to being called out.

Chris finally took the envelope, which he ripped in half then handed it back. "Go through the proper channels. Then we'll talk."

"You—"

"Go," Chris ordered in a deep authoritative tone that caused the two to step back. They hesitated for a moment, but eventually left. As suspicious as he was about the BSAA that didn't mean he was okay with going around the process. He needed to find out where the snag in communication was. That wasn't going to happen if he started taking outside jobs from other organizations.

"Well, they were pleasant," Emma said, finally speaking as Chris closed and locked the door. He walked back to the island to start looking through bags, still limping.

"Yeah, a real treat," he grumbled causing a partial smile to cross Emma's face.

"You should sit and rest. I'll be over in a minute if you need help with changing the bandage," Emma said, silently praising her foresight to have Duke stay at the sitters until Tuesday. She was exhausted.

Chris thought it over a moment, weighing if it was worth arguing or not. "Where's your first aid kit?" he asked as he puts down the can he was holding.

"I'll grab it," Emma replied and made a shooing motion with her hand, indicating that he should go sit.

"You're coddling me," he pointed out.

"Yep," Emma admitted with no shame as she stopped what she was doing to head to the bathroom and dig through the cabinet under the sink. "Here we go." She grabbed the small red bag then looked around in the storage space behind the mirror to get a small bottle of acetaminophen. She wasn't sure how bad it hurt Chris, but some medicine might be appreciated. With that, she headed back to the living room and put the two items down on the coffee table.

By the time she got back, Chris had already removed his socks and shoes and begun unwrapping the bandage. The gash wasn't awful, but it was deep and right between two of his toes, making it all the more difficult to tend to. "Thanks," he said as he opened the bottle first and popped two pills in his mouth. With that taken care of, he started digging through the bag to get some cotton pads, gauze, and rubbing alcohol.

"So... BSAA?" Emma asked, which got Chris' attention.

He'd messed up. "Don't," he said, stopping what he was doing to try to find the words. "Please, just don't." Don't look it up, don't get involved, don't get caught up in his mess. Don't get hurt.

Emma flinched slightly at the initial coarseness of his tone. "Right..." she replied as her smile faded. "I think the bags to the right are yours." Emma added as she went back to putting her groceries away. She didn't want to know; she didn't want to worry more. So why did this suck?


Man alive I am excited about the next chapter. so I'm just gonna hurry off to start on that. Prepare for a ride.