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 headed up the stairs of her apartment with Duke at her side as they made their way back from their after-work walk. As she headed up, she noticed Travis and Bastion on their way back to their apartment. "Hey guys," she greeted them with a slight wave.
"Emma, hey," Bastion replied as Travis gave a short wave in return.
"Are we still good for monthly movie night next Friday?" Travis asked curiously and Emma nodded.
"Yeah, I should be good for that," Emma agreed. "I'll check if Chris can make it this month, you know how his schedule gets."
Bastion snickered at that. "You mean his lack of schedule? Yeah, I know. He's the only one that has been here longer than me." He shook his head.
"Fair enough, I'll check with him and text you in." She gave another wave in parting. "See ya, guys."
"Bye."
"See ya around."
Emma headed back into her apartment and quickly fed Duke before heading over to Chris'.
"Hey, are you home?" Emma called. She opened the door to his apartment to find him sitting on the couch.
"Hey," he replied, sounding congested, which got Emma's attention. She walked over to the couch to give him a peck.
"You're warm," she said, concerned, placing the back of her hand on his forehead before placing it on her own.
"Eh," he replied with a shrug and returned his attention to his book.
"Chris, you have a fever. That's not eh," Emma replied with a slight frown. "Did you take anything for it?"
"Nah, I'll be fine. It's just a cold." Chris coughed into his hand.
Emma shook her head and dropped it, for now. She'd check on him in the morning before heading out for work. "If you say so. Anyway. 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 replied as he remembered he couldn't tell her where he was going or why.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Emma asked, her concern renewed; he usually didn't slip up like that about work.
"I'm fine," he replied once more as he waved 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 replied.
Chris nodded. "See you for training, then."
"See you around," Emma replied, and heads back out to her apartment. If she was a betting woman, and she was, he was going to be feeling whatever he had 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 headed over to dig through her kitchen cabinets to get the rice cooker out and got that started. She then began boiling of chicken. With that started, she headed 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 hearty chicken noodle soup.
"There," she said with a nod as she looked 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, then headed out of his room still wrapped up in his comforter. Why did he smell coffee?
Emma sat at the island, sipping at a cup of coffee. "Hmm, oh, you're up," Emma said. "Hope you don't mind, I'm out of grounds."
"Bull," Chris replied, knowing well enough when she was making up an excuse.
Emma chuckled. "Whatever you say," she replied with a shrug. "The fever got worse?" she asked, and Chris nodded as he walked over to get a glass of water.
"Yeah, I'm just gonna sleep it off," he said, walking over to a cabinet to get some medicine. He plopped a pill into his mouth then washed it down.
"Okay, I'll leave you to rest then. Text me if you need anything," Emma said as she got 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 agreed before coughing. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Emma replied with a short chuckle as she shook her head, then headed back to her apartment to write up a few sticky notes. She waited before heading back over and placing the Tupperware in Chris' fridge. With that, she headed out to work for the day.
The drive was uneventful, despite the traffic, but she eventually made it into the office. "Em, hey," said Maurice as he caught the elevator.
"Morning Mr. A—" She noticed her boss make a face "Maurice, how are you doing?"
"Well enough. I'm running late for a meeting though," he admitted as he allowed the elevator to close after she walked in.
"It's early. Surely they'll understand traffic happens," Emma offered in return.
"Yeah, do you mind grabbing me a coffee? Just leave it on my desk," he requested.
Emma resisted the urge to give a curt huff in response. It' had been over a month and a half, close to two months, why was he still asking her to get his coffee? It was practically a daily occurrence. "Sure."
"You're a peach, two cream, and a sugar. Thanks," he requested as the elevator opened. "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 said, then made 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 walls. All the same, she got a paper cup and filled it before grabbing the two creamer cups and one packet of sugar along with a stirring straw. He can 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 frowned at this. She just had to stay for two years then she could look again without it damaging her resume. It wasn't that long. Kind of. 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 said as she smiled at her handy work. If file organization could be a masterpiece this would qualify, she thought with an internal laugh.
Emma picked up the stack to bring back to the office. She was about to put them down when her boss walked in.
"Perfect timing," he said, walking in and over to the now mostly cold coffee that had been sitting there for thirty minutes, putting the cream and sugar in the cup quickly. "And I'll take those," he said 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 joked with a smile. "All right well, gotta run. Wish me luck."
"Luck," Emma replied, shaking her head, which caused him to chuckle as he headed out. Well, at least now she'd be able to do her own work.
'*'*'*'*'
Chris yawned as he woke up a second time, feeling better. He was still feverish, but the medicine had managed to reduce the headache and dizziness. He grumbled as he made his way to the fridge and found 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 it 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 the keyboard, browsing the internet.
Maybe Ethan had a point. He had lived in the area for seventeen years now and never really had an address, from fear that the second he did that he'd end up getting uprooted. But that had never happened. Where do I even start? he thought as he looked at a few different websites that loudly proclaimed they were the 'Top Sites for Buying Selling and Renting.' He was hesitant, 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 checked 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 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 better since he didn't mention needing anything. She'd stop by to make sure, but other than that, she wanted to give him some space. The last thing she needed was to catch whatever he had and take more time off work.
"Look alive, space cadet," Maurice said as he walked past with a pile of folders that he put on her desk."Gotta run to another meeting, could you get those put away?"
"They have you booked back-to-back today," Emma commented, surprised by how many meetings this guy had.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Maurice said with a laugh. "Thanks again, see ya around."
It made sense that 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 divvy 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 headed out and stopped at the store along the way to pick up a few things.
Emma headed up the stairs of the building to the second floor then over to Chris' apartment. She opened the door without announcing herself to avoid waking him up if he was asleep. Instead, she found him wrapped in a blanket resting on the couch with a laptop that he 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 said, shaking her head. He was acting like a teenager whose mom walked in on him watching por— "Wait... Were you watching porn?" Emma asked, 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 tried to keep a neutral expression while internally screaming. Well, his options were to admit he was looking at houses, and that he was thinking of moving and wanted her to come with him if he did, or go with porn. "Eh." Smooth.
"Well, try not to have too much fun you're supposed to be resting," Emma said, amusement still evident in her tone as she went to the fridge. The rice and gravy were gone. Good, at least he was eating. "There's some ginger ale in the fridge if you want it," she added as she closed 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 said 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. He still didn't know if it was feasible. Instead, he watched her head out before reopening the laptop and going 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 give him access to that all the time. Granted, they still had their moments where they'd argue, or butt heads given they practically lived 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 misunderstanding. Even then, those things passed by, and they moved on all the same.
As he thought over 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
