Chapter 6: Groceries

A/N: Hi everyone! I was so touched by all the reviews I received from the last chapter that I thought I'd surprise you all with another one! Just another cute little chapter where our couple meets up again for another random encounter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil; I just own my characters.

Enjoy!

/

Fridays were the worst days of the week-at least for Rachel. While others would be happy that the weekend was about to start, for her it meant her least favorite chore had to be done: grocery shopping. She absolutely hated grocery shopping. It was a hassle checking her apartment to see what she needed and writing everything down so she wouldn't forget. Then she had to go to the store and walk through the various aisles trying to find the items that she needed all the while not going crazy and buying things she didn't need. And the cherry on top was being stuck in line waiting to pay for her stuff and carrying her bags home.

If she could push it off, she would but sadly she was running low on food and other necessities. There was no way she would be able to get everything she needed tonight since she didn't have a car so she decided to just get food for tonight and she would borrow Isabella's car for the rest tomorrow.

Pulling out her phone, she quickly texted her best friend about her plans.

'Gonna need to borrow your car tomorrow. Need to get groceries. I'll grab what I can tonight.'

'Ahhh, forgot it was Friday. That's fine, I'll have to get stuff for the family dinner tomorrow so we can do it together. Mom said you have to come to this one. She thinks you're not eating thanks to school.'

'If your mom is offering me food then I won't need to get groceries since she tends to send me a crap ton of leftovers'.

'Gotta love mom for that. If you're getting stuff tonight, can you get me some wine? I got called in for a double shift at work and I won't have time later and I'm not going to the liquor store on a weekend.'

'Sure thing'

Looks like another thing was added to her list. Not wanting her list to get any longer, she left before Isabella added more things to it.

/

"Let's see, I got that, I got that, I just need to get that bottle of wine."

Looking at her list, Rachel walked down one of the many aisles of the store. With her basket of various groceries in hand, she made her way to the liquor aisle.

She bumped into someone by accident as she walked by.

"Sorry!"

Leon raised his eyebrow when he heard that familiar voice. Sure, enough he saw Rachel walk past him as she scanned the shelves for a certain type of wine.

"Now where was it again?" she muttered.

She scanned the bottles looking for the brand that Isabella's family usually drank. She found it but sadly it was on the top shelf. And being the pixie that she was, that meant she had to either ask an employee to get it or try to grab it.

'I'm not going to waste more time here.' she thought.

Stepping on the tips of her toes, she tried to grab the bottle. Even when she raised herself a few inches, she was still too short to grab it.

A hand appeared above her and handed the bottle down to her.

"Thank you so- "

Her eyes almost bugged out when she saw Leon standing in front of her. She almost dropped the bottle in shock but quickly put it in her basket so it wouldn't shatter on the floor.

"Oh, hello Leon" she said.

Leon looked at the bottle she got and narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're not stress drinking again, are you?" he asked.

Rachel chuckled weakly and shook her head. Seemed he was worried about that day in the park.

"No, not this time. This is for a family dinner I need to go to tomorrow. Besides I'm not much of a red wine kind of girl"

She spotted a bottle of whiskey in his hand and raised an eyebrow.

"Still into bad whiskey I see."

Leon looked at the bottle he was holding and made a face.

"I just got back from work, and it was a long day" he said.

That little mission in Chicago turned out not to be so little. The smugglers who brought the T-virus sample found out they were caught and tried to get away by escaping to the shadier parts of the city. When they were caught, they had the brilliant idea of trying to dispose the samples in the Chicago River. Needless to say, he had the fun task of diving into the river and grabbing the sample before it contaminated the water.

Oh, the joys of being a government agent.

Rachel could see that Leon looked tired. Whatever his job was it must have been stressful.

"Yeah, you look pretty tired" she admitted.

"I'll let you go. Thanks again for getting that wine for me."

"You might want to get some vegetables while you're here so you can grow" Leon joked.

"Ha-ha, like I haven't heard that before" Rachel said dryly.

She walked away and headed for the register. The cashier was a guy around her age that had way too many piercings on his face. As he was ringing her up, he looked her over and had a little smirk on his face. Rachel rolled her eyes, knowing what he was thinking. It was a good thing she wore a hoodie because she didn't feel like having her chest being looked at.

"I need to see your ID for the alcohol" the cashier said.

Rachel pulled out her license and gave it to him. The cashier looked at it then back at her. The smirk he had on his face made her want to gag.

"You sure don't look like you're 24" he said.

"So, I've been told" Rachel said dryly.

The cashier gave her back her ID and rang her up.

"That'll be 42.78…and you're phone number."

Rachel scoffed as she handed her card. The cashier processed her order and went to hand her back her card and receipt. She reached for it only for the cashier to pull his hand back, giving her a goofy smile.

"So, what about your phone number?"

SLAM!

Leon slammed his bottle of whiskey on the counter. His crystal blue eyes were dark as he glared at the kid. The cashier gulped and gave Rachel her card back with a trembling hand. Rachel glared at him as she snatched her card back.

"Jackass" she snapped.

She grabbed her bag and stormed out of the store. Why were guys her age such pigs? First Jeremy and now this.

"Sunshine, wait up" Leon called out.

Rachel looked over her shoulder to see Leon leaving the store and approaching her.

"I did tell you my name the other day" she said.

Leon shrugged when he reached her.

"Figured you didn't want that guy to know it" he said.

"…he saw my ID" Rachel said.

"I seriously doubt he was paying attention to your name when he was looking at it" Leon said flatly.

Rachel sighed.

"Well, enjoy the rest of your night. Try not to drink too much. I'm sure you don't want to spend your weekend dealing with a hangover."

She walked away after that. Leon followed, much to her surprise.

"My place is down this way" he explained.

Rachel nodded in understanding. They walked in silence, both with a lot on their mind. Leon was wondering about his job and what the D.S.O was going to drag him into next. Every time he went on vacation, they would pull him back into work. Rachel was wondering what tomorrow night was going to be like. Isabella's family was like her surrogate family. They always wanted to know how she was doing and if she was taking care of herself. That and if she finally found a boyfriend yet.

Both had simple problems, yet they were quite bothersome.

"So how did that paper you were stressing over go?" Leon asked.

Rachel was touched that he remembered that.

"It went very well. My professor was very pleased with what I wrote …but he said I need to do a better job with not being tardy" she said.

"So, you freaked out over nothing?" Leon said.

"Yeah, pretty much" Rachel sighed.

"But there's finals so I can stress over that."

"Remember what I said, Sunshine. There are other things to stress over" Leon warned.

"It was a joke!" Rachel said.

"And my name is Rachel!"

"I know but it's fun seeing you get annoyed when I call you Sunshine" Leon teased.

Rachel huffed in annoyance.

"So, are you visiting your parents tomorrow? Is that what the wine is for?" Leon asked.

Rachel shook her head with a somber look on her face.

"No, I'm visiting my best friend's family tomorrow. They're basically my second family" she said.

"Is this the friend who called me a perverted drunk at the park?" Leon had to ask.

Rachel gave him a nervous smile.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Isabella can be very crude, but she means well."

"I've been called worse" Leon said.

"Considering that you like to give people nicknames and tease them I can see why" Rachel joked.

"Hey, I can come up with a worse nickname than Sunshine" Leon offered.

"I think Pixie is a better fit for you since your tiny and have a temper."

Rachel made a face and shook her head.

"You know what? Sunshine is just fine."

"That's what I thought" Leon said.

They walked in silence for a while. With it turning to fall, the air had a slight chill to it. Rachel rubbed her arm to keep herself warm. Her hoodie wasn't cutting it tonight.

"So was your day at work that bad that you had to buy yourself whiskey?" she asked.

Leon gripped his bag in reflex.

"You could say that" was all he said.

"So, what do you do for work? Aside from rescuing college students from parties and returning their wallets?" Rachel joked.

Leon chuckled and looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you." He said.

"You can't tell me, or you won't?" Rachel corrected.

"A little bit of both" Leon said.

Rachel realized she wasn't going to get an answer out of him and decided to drop it. It was none of her business so why should she bug him about it?

Leon sighed.

"I work for the government" he said.

That caught Rachel's interest.

"Oh?"

"That's all I can say so we'll leave it at that" Leon said.

He knew it wasn't a good idea to tell a college student that he worked as a special agent who specialized in taking out the undead and dealing with bioterrorism. If she couldn't handle a college paper, then she wouldn't handle this.

Rachel hummed in thought, oblivious to what Leon was thinking.

"Yeah, I guess if I worked for the government, I would be drinking as well" she said flatly.

"You mean that cheap beer that you thought was good?" Leon teased.

"Hey! I'm not judging you on your taste in booze so don't judge mine! And you owe me a beer since you took mine away the other day!" Rachel said.

"I did you a favor by taking that away. It was alright but you could have gone with something better" Leon said.

"You drank it?!" Rachel cried.

"I wasn't going to let it go to waste" Leon teased.

Rachel growled in annoyance. Why was this guy charming one minute and then not the next?

Leon stopped when they reached the corner of the street.

"This is where I leave you, Sunshine. Try to stay out of trouble, ok?"

Rachel glared at him.

"You're never going to call me by name, are you?" she said.

"Nope. This is way more fun" Leon joked.

Rachel pinched the bridge of her nose. Why were the attractive ones so annoying?

"Well, if we're going to play this game then I'll just have to come up with an annoying nickname for you" she threatened.

"I look forward to hearing what you come up with" Leon teased.

Rachel rolled her eyes and crossed the street while Leon walked the other way. He wouldn't admit it to her now, but he was enjoying his little banters with her. It was refreshing to talk to someone about random normal things when most of his life focused on the strange and unusual.

He looked over his shoulder making sure Rachel crossed the street alright. He didn't know why he was worried about her safety, but it made him feel relaxed when he saw she was alright.

When she was out of his sight he started walking again. Why was he worried about some random med student?

Well, he would get his answer later down the road.

/

A/N: I feel like Rachel should give Leon a nickname since he keeps calling her Sunshine. What would be a perfect nickname for him?

I know their interactions are starting off slow, but I think it's better that Leon slowly starts to fall for someone this time around instead of like how when he first met Ada, he was head over heels for her. He deserves to be loved but he shouldn't rush into it.

Please review and tell me what you think!

Take care!