Alright, I know this took a while. Enjoyed a two-week vacation in the countryside. I was roped into a no-phone (except for emergencies) and no-TV and no-internet camping trip. Holy shit, I never realized how dependent on the Internet I've become until now -.- I'm lost. Not even the weather report was available.
Then, after coming back, my workload increased due to the upcoming holiday season. I hate the commercialization of Christmas. Though this year, with the virus and all, I can understand why people are doing their Christmas shopping already.
Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"Not the skates?" she asked as Leonard unlocked his car, a seemingly inconspicuous SUV like the millions of others on the road.
"No, not this time." he shook his head and opened the back, his dogs hopping in right away and laying down on the blankets spread out there.
"Okay." she shrugged.
"What?" she chuckled.
"I don't know, I thought you'd be driving... I don't know."
"An Aston Martin, like James Bond?" he grinned.
"No. Yes. Maybe." she huffed. "I don't know. It seems weird that an assassin drives a car like everyone else."
"Yeah, this car is like every other." he nodded. "You know, except for the armored chassis and the hidden weapons compartments."
"I knew it!" she shouted excitedly. "Show me!"
He opened various parts of the car's innards, two small compartments on the ceiling, each of which had a pistol resting in it. Another was inside the driver's side door, with a mirrored compartment on the passenger side, both holding yet another gun each. He opened the glove box, a Glock resting in a holster nailed to the hatch. He opened a fake wall at the back of the glove box, showing nother four guns ready to be grabbed in holsters.
"Okay, why so many guns?" she asked. "And what about the Glock on the hatch of the glove box?"
The Glock is my legal gun." he told her. "I'm licensed to carry concealed. The others are my emergency weapons but since it's tough to hide magazines, it's easier to just grab a new gun when the first is empty."
"Did you ever have to use them?" she wanted to know.
"No." he shook his head. "This town is pretty peaceful, apart from the usual miscreants that you have everywhere but there isn't really anything like organized crime here."
Leonard started the car and drove towards the town, his property receding in the distance while the buildings of the town got larger. Penny had to admit that it seemed very peaceful here, the air was clean and crisp due to how far north they were but for Penny, it was a welcome change from the smog and exhaust filled air she had experienced in Los Angeles.
For some reason, she felt as if she experienced everything more intense than usual. The color of the leaves on the trees appeared a fuller orange, the grass was a fuller green, the clouds whiter than usual, the sun's yellow more intense. Even the water in his pools seemed bluer than she remembered water to be.
She put her hand back and felt a wet tongue running over the back of it. She almost pulled her hand back by reflex but stopped herself when she remembered that there were two dogs in the back. She turned her head and found Tyson licking her hand, then looking at her with what she could only describe as a smile.
"Leonard, do dogs smile?" she wondered.
"Not in the sense that we humans are." he shook his head but concentrated on the road. "Dogs have a facsimile of a smile, when they open their mouths, pull their lips back and let their tongues lap over their teeth. But to see if a dog is happy or content at the moment, you need to look at its body language."
"You mean, if the dog is relaxed and not tense?"
"Exactly." he nodded.
"Or when he wags his tail?"
"Tail wagging means the dog is excited in general." Leonard told her. "That excitement can be joy, fear or anger. You just need to read the entire body language."
"So I guess is your boys are happy." she giggled, running her hand over Tyson's head and chin, the large dog raising his head to give her easier access.
"I hope so." he chuckled.
"So, where are we going to have breakfast that allows your dogs to be there?" she asked.
"There's a little cafe in town." he replied. "I know the owners and they know that my boys would never attack anyone."
"Aren't other people concerned?"
"Most know me and them." he shrugged. "Also, most parents love it because their kids like to play with my dogs and while they're doing that, they won't cause any disruptions."
"They're playing inside the cafe?" she was surprised. "Doesn't that by definition disturbs anyone?"
"No, the cafe has an outdoor area in the back with a small playground for children." he told her as they neared their destination, Penny seeing the truth of his words when they rounded the corner.
"Oh, that looks nice." she said as she got out, Leonard also stepping out of the car and opening the back to let the dogs jump out."
"Mister Hofstadter!" and older woman greeted him as they neared the entrance.
"Hello Esther." Leonard greeted her.
"Table for two?" Esther grinned at them.
"Yes, please." Leonard nodded and the dogs rushed past him to get to the woman.
"And how are my little babies!" Esther squealed when the two Malinois reached her, their heads rubbing against the woman's leg and their body language clearly denoting joy.
"They seem to like her." Penny grinned.
"She gives them treats, so yeah." Leonard agreed with a chuckle and took Penny's hand, leading her into the building and towards the table in the back that the man behind the counter was pointing at. "Hello, Fred."
"Leonard, my boy." the older man, who he called Fred, greeted him, coming over. "How is Alfred doing?"
"He's great." Leonard smiled warmly at the man, surprising Penny. "Fred, are you coming over to pick fruit this year?"
"Of course!" Fred beamed. "We'd never miss that. Same price as usual?"
"Same price as usual." Leonard nodded.
"We'll be there." Fred smiled and handed them the breakfast menus before leaving them alone.
"Does he know what you do for a living?" Penny asked quietly when Fred was out of earshot, the gentle music permeating the place adding an extra layer of security.
"Hell no." Leonard chuckled. "The only one in this town apart from my dad, and now you, that knows what I am doing and what my dad was doing for a living is Doctor Winston, who you've met."
"Oh, okay." she nodded, making a mental note to keep any discussion about his line of work for later when they were alone. "How do you know these two?"
"Their daughter and son-in-law own the dog training school and they helped me to train my boys." he told her.
"It's nice to hear how affectionate you are about them." she smiled.
"I think I can honestly say that I like my animals more than people." he shrugged.
"Oh, why is that?"
"Because animals aren't pretentious. They don't have prejudice. They just are. They live in the moment and are thankful to you for the simple things, a home, food and affection." he said. "Whereas people hide behind masks of pretentiousness and make-believe. They show their true colors only when filled with emotion, like when they are fighting." he continued, summing up her own feelings about people.
"Or make love." she added, her eyes boring into his as she felt the heat move down to her core.
"So, you ready to order?" a returning Fred broke the spell.
"I'll take a double order of waffles, extra whipped cream and syrup." Leonard ordered. "And a large can of hot chocolate."
"Um, I'll have the french toast dish." Penny chose. "And I also take a cup of hot chocolate."
"How many slices of toast?" Fred asked, noting down the rest.
"Uh, four." she decided. "Extra cinnamon, please."
"Very good." Fred nodded, jotting down the last detail.
"What?" Leonard asked when he noticed her amused stare.
"I never pegged you for a waffles kind of guy, especially with whipped cream and syrup." she giggled. "I was almost expecting some form of breakfast salad."
"Why?" he looked confused.
"Well, because your body is so... hard." she shrugged.
"Penny, I don't know if you have noticed but so is yours." he winked. "And I doubt my dad feeds you salad all the time."
"Well no, he..." she started but then got it. "Ah, right."
"I have enough daily exercise to get that off again in no time." he shrugged. "The only people weighing their food and refusing certain types are people on a diet or bodybuilders. Well, other type of athletes too."
"I never understood what motivates people to bulk up on so much muscle." Penny mused, remembering Kurt, though that one wasn't as bulky as some she saw on TV or even on the streets.
"I respect those who do it for the right reason." Leonard said.
"Why is that?" she wanted to know.
"Most want to improve their looks, but I talked to a professional bodybuilder a while back while I was on a job. He told me that he started the training to learn discipline."
"Really?" she was surprised. "That's the last thing I'd connect to bodybuilding."
"Is it?" he smiled. "Think about it. Bodybuilders have to adhere to a strict diet schedule, eat every few hours. They have eat the same things, they can't eat a piece of cake because they fancy one, at least not when they're getting ready for a competition. They also can't take a day off just because they don't feel like it."
"That... actually makes sense." she agreed. "It reminds me of your dad training me. He has never given me a day off before today. Even when I was bedridden because of my back, he had me throw a ball against the ceiling to train my depth perception with one eye."
"Yes, dad is a proponent of both discipline and the Japanese way of train hard and fight easy." Leonard nodded. "He believes that any day you don't work to either improve yourself, your life or the lives of those you care about the is a day wasted."
"I believe that." she nodded as Fred arrived with their orders.
"There you go." the older man proclaimed and sat down the plates and cups and the can with Leonard's hot chocolate.
Penny saw Leonard's order, a plate with eight large waffles on it, a small bowl filled to the brim with whipped cream and a small bottle of syrup. He poured himself a cup of chocolate and took a sip, commenting the taste with a hum. She took a sip of her own chocolate, savoring the thick taste and she took a spoonful of whipped cream to add it to the liquid.
The toast tasted marvelous. It had been a long time since she had that particular meal, her time in Los Angeles never allowing her to enjoy it and Alfred only giving her breakfast that would give her the energy for the morning training, not that it didn't taste good. She watched Leonard dig into his food, her mental image of the trained assassin only eating the perfect meals to keep his body in peak condition conflicting with the almost childlike joy that he showed when wolfing down the waffles, and she was unable to suppress a laugh when she saw a bit of whipped cream stuck on the tip of his nose.
"What?" he mumbled, his mouth full.
Giggling, she put her hand forward and scraped the cream off his face, sucking it into her mouth. He gave her a sly smile and a look that she understood the meaning of perfectly before continuing to eat. Suddenly, his dogs rushed past them to a glass door at the back of the cafe, waiting patiently until Esther followed them, opening the doors to the back area with the small playground.
The two dogs rushed out and proceeded to roll on the grass areas before beginning to play with each other, which to Penny looked almost as if they were fighting, the way they jumped at and tried to bite each other. Only the fact that Leonard, after seeing it, stayed completely calm assured her that this was something normal. She still decided that she needed get clarification.
"They're not fighting, are they?" she asked him, pointing at the two canines.
"No, they're playing." Leonard smiled. "If they were fighting, they would be growling and barking at each other. And they'd really try to bite."
"I see." she accepted, astonished at how little she knew about animal behavior given that she had grown up on a farm.
As they ate, the cafe started filling up, families coming in with children big and small. As Leonard had told her, some of the children made direct beelines to the playground where they started playing with the dogs. Esther provided some toys that they could use and soon enough, some kids were playing tug of war with Tyson, the dog pulling three children into his direction as his teeth were holding onto the toy the kids were trying to get it away from him, all of them laughing as they did.
When Major jumped up and put his front paws on one of the kids' shoulders, the kid collapsed to the ground from the weight and began crying. Leonard quickly whistled, the dog sitting back down and looking down at the kid with what she would guess was confusion. Leonard got up and went out to help the kid up, kneeling down to be at eye level with the boy, as the boy's parents were rushing out as well.
"Don't be afraid." Leonard told him. "It's his way of playing. And you kinda invited him to do it."
"I did?" the kid sniffed.
"He did?" the boys father asked, looking as confused as the dog.
"Yes, he did this." Leonard said and showed the same arm movements the boy had done. "That's an invitation for the dog to jump up to snuggle, more or less.
"Jason, are you okay?" the mother went down to hug her son. "Mister Hofstadter's dogs would never bite you."
"Really?" the boy asked, the tears gone for the moment.
"No, they wouldn't." Leonard shook his head and tilted it to call Major over.
Penny grinned when she saw the dog put his right front paw on the boy's leg, as if he wanted to apologize. Jason giggled and petted him, hugging the dog's head who licked over the boy's cheek as Jason squealed. Penny could only watch in surprise at how quickly the boy had forgotten what just happened and was playing with the dog again, Major even jumping up again but this time, Jason just laughed and let himself be pushed down, after which the dog licked all over his face.
The crisis averted, Leonard returned to the table and together, they finished the breakfast, the plates empty and their stomachs filled. Penny was surprised at how much food Leonard was able to eat but guessed that his training would quickly get rid of that again. She realized that she was consuming about the same amount, just different sorts when Alfred fed her to keep her full of energy for her training.
Leonard ordered the check and added a generous tip to the end sum, handing Esther several bills. Apparently, that was a regular thing for Leonard, since Esther just smiled and thanked him without the bulging eyes at the surprise of the amount of the tip. Leonard whistled and the dogs quickly ran over to him, following him out. Penny went after them to his car where he unlocked the back so the dogs could jump in. He opened the passenger door so she could get in before he sat down in the driver's seat, starting the drive back to his house.
"Very good." Leonard said appreciatively as he lowered his arms. "You did learn a lot already."
"I know, right?" Penny giggled, feeling a bit strange wearing his sweatpants, a sweatshirt of his and no underwear to avoid it getting too sweaty. "Alfred had told me to switch up my moves, since I was going simply with the order he taught me and boy, was that difficult."
"I'm impressed and a bit jealous." he chuckled.
"Why jealous?" she wondered.
"Because you are learning a lot faster than I had." he laughed. "I trained for three years to learn everything my dad knew and here you are, just over three months in and well on your way to reach what I achieved back then."
"Not now?"
"No, I have something you will never catch me up with." he shook his head, chuckling. "Experience. Learning the moves to fight is only the first step, your real skill comes when you actually use it. In a real fight, you have to mix it up and you have to invent new moves, otherwise, an equally skilled opponent will always outfight you."
"You mean like dirty fighting?" she asked.
"Yes, like that." he confirmed. "Use your environment to your advantage. Never hesitate to kick sand into your opponents face, kick him in the balls or back, and if the fight is to the death, you also need to be willing to stab him in the back if the opportunity arises."
"What was your dirtiest fight so far?" she wanted to know.
"Well..." he hesitated. "It was earlier in my career, my fourth job, when I was still young and full of myself. And I didn't do enough reconnaissance beforehand and it cost dearly."
"In what way?"
"Well, the video is quite disconcerting for someone unfamiliar with what I do." he shrugged.
"There's a video?" she was surprised.
"Yes." he nodded with a sigh and she could see his discomfort.
"Can you show me?" she asked quietly, seeing him tense before he relaxed.
"I rather wouldn't." he sighed. "It's quite gruesome."
"I wanna see." she said resolutely. "Why wouldn't you want me to?"
"Because it's the part of this business that you haven't seen." he replied. "Remember what I did in the alley?"
"Yes." she nodded, how could she ever forget.
"Imagine that level of violence multiplied by a hundred."
"I still wanna see." she said again. "Would you rather have me learn this out there?"
"True." he admitted and went to his bookshelf, where he took out a volume of the encyclopedia, one of almost a hundred similar looking books.
He opened it and riffled through the pages until he got to one with a key settled in a small cutout of pages. He took the key and went to the wall of the room, where several pictures of various landscapes hang. He took one off and Penny expected to find a safe, the reality was simply more wall.
Instead of the expected safe, he removed the nail from the hole before inserting the key and turning it. She heard a clanking sound and a piece of floor suddenly lifted. Leonard dug his fingers under the lid and pulled, opening the compartment in the floor completely. Inside, she saw a large chest without a lock. Leonard opened it and it revealed several rows of the silver coins she knew to be payment for the services of the organization he was part of.
He pulled the silver coin partition up, revealing another one, only this time full of golden coins. He also pulled that one up and underneath, she saw several items, a few DVD cases among them. He grabbed one of them and stood up, leading her to the TV set, where he put the disc into the player.
"It's weird to see someone have something on DVD." she giggled.
"There's digital copies of that too." he chuckled
Penny quickly went to the bathroom to wash up and change back into her regular clothing before returning to the living room. She settled down next to Leonard who hit the play button, showing a black and white picture of a hallway.
"What's this?" she wanted to know.
"This is the aftermath of one of my earlier jobs." he explained. "A friend of mine had pulled those recordings from their systems to hide my involvement and I asked him to give them to me so I can maybe find out what I did wrong."
"Did you?"
"Yes." Leonard nodded. "Though it didn't help that Howard had cut them together like an action film."
"No sound?" she asked when she saw the picture moving.
"No, these cameras only recorded video." he shook his head.
She watched closely, seeing only the long hallway so far. She had no idea what was supposed to happen but suddenly, Leonard appeared from the bottom, wearing his usual bodyglove with his head completely free and his familiar hairstyle.
"No glasses?" she wondered.
"Contacts." he shrugged.
Suddenly on the screen, things got more hectic. Several people appeared from the other side of the hallway, the Leonard on the screen visible tensing and for several seconds, both sides just watched each other. Then, as if on cue, the goons ran at Leonard and Leonard ran at them. The image switched to a different camera to keep the action in close focus and she saw Leonard holding a knife with a serrate blade.
She noticed that the attackers carried long blades, machetes most likely but to her surprise, none had a gun, at least none was visible. The first attacker had reached Leonard and her boyfriend, if he was that given that they didn't have the conversation yet, dispatched the man with ease, his blade carving through the throat of the man, blood squirting against the wall, the darkness of it visible even in the black and white.
The narrowness of the hallway was a clear advantage for Leonard, since the goons could only attack one at a time, two if they stood close together. The next attacker tried a jumping kick at Leonard, which he simply side-stepped and flung out his arm to grab the non-kicking leg of the guy. Then Leonard simply pushed and the jump became an uncontrolled aerial roll which ended in the thug slamming headfirst to the floor, the momentum carrying the rest of his body further, which ended p in a broken neck.
"JESUS!" Penny shouted when she saw the third guy attacking with a running kick, Leonard catching the appendage and ramming the knife into the guy's thigh before pulling it down to the knee, opening up a foot-long wound that would most likely end up in the guy bleeding out.
His knife was stuck in the guy's knee though and Penny saw him simply letting go of it as the fourth guy attacked, trying the same kick as his predecessor had. Since Leonard didn't have a knife anymore, he simply caught the leg and rammed his elbow down on the kneecap and with a wince, Penny watched the knee turning V-shaped into the wrong direction, the facial expression of the guy showing extreme pain before he was silenced forever by a hard jab into his throat.
Leonard ripped the knife out of the guy's knee and Penny could see wounded man trying to scramble away. Then the fifth guy came at him with a machete and Leonard simply ducked, the blade going over his head while he plunged his own knife into the attacker's chest three times before kicking him in the face to make the body fall away from him. As the guy fell, Penny saw Leonard catching the machete, flinging it downwards blade-first and impaling the wounded guy who then lay still.
She saw Leonard gasping for air and continuing on and the camera image switched yet again. Leonard rounded the corner and a door next to him opened, more attackers coming out. Leonard simply grabbed the first and pushed him to his right, the man crashing through the door on the other side. The next guy died from Leonard's blade going into his throat, blood gushing out of the wound as the man drowned in his own blood. The third attacker actually stumbled over the legs of his buddy, allowing Leonard to grab this head and slam it into the wall on the other side, the plaster cracking from the impact.
The complete absence of sound made the recording even more disturbing.
Attacker number four apparently had a gun because Penny jerked backwards from the sudden muzzle flash. The Leonard on the screen jerked backwards as well and the bullet impacted on the wall on the right but that was the only shot the man was going to get. Leonard grabbed the gun from him, using his knife to cut the man's hand and he simply turned the weapon around, blasting the room on full automatic before throwing the now empty gun away. The first attacker came out of the room Leonard had thrown him into but Leonard more or less dispatched him without a second thought, his knife slicing through the man's throat.
He then ran on and the video ended.
"The rest was in a part of the building where the cameras had been disabled." Leonard explained the sudden end.
"By you?" she asked.
"Yes." Leonard nodded.
"So, what was your failure then?" she wondered.
"I failed in two regards." Leonard sighed. "One was to not take into account that there was a second camera circuit and the second was not casing the area enough to find out how many goons at his disposal."
"Jesus, how many men did you kill that day?" she couldn't decide if she even wanted to know.
"Forty-six in total." he sighed. "That was one of those jobs that made me more strategic and scientific in how approach my jobs."
"How long do you actually prepare for one?"
"If there's no time constraint, I sometimes spend weeks gathering information." he told her. "Jobs that are listed as urgent where the target has to die in a day or two, I generally shy away from."
"So who does them then?"
"The more gung-ho of my associates." he shrugged. "We have some who work like the proverbial bull in the china shop, rampaging through whatever building they have to to get to their target."
"Isn't that, I don't know, a bit overt?"
"Very much so, hence me not doing those jobs. The more people get wind of something having happened, the more I would have to bring in outside help to clean it up. Which usually is scrubbing of surveillance footage before local law enforcement can get their hands on it." he told her. "And if you don't do your research, you sometimes don't even know where they store their data."
"I see." she nodded, making a mental note to remember that approach.
"Good." he nodded and what followed was almost a minute of silence as he took out the disc and returned it to where it used to be.
"Is this why you tried to refuse me when I wanted you to train me?" she asked.
"Yes." he nodded. "Even after what you've told me about what happened to you in the years before I... uh... hired your services, I still saw that spark of innocence in you. And I never want to see that gone."
"Why would it?" she wondered.
"Penny, you have no idea how I felt after that night." he pointed to the blue screen that showed the large letters NO DISC FOUND. "Not vomiting before I was a safe distance away was harder than the fight was. I killed forty-five people in that sequence of events. I had planned for only killing the leader but when the alarms sounded and those guys appeared..."
"What happened afterwards?"
"Well, on my way back to the motel I was using as a base of operations, I stopped by a river and vomited into it. Then I jumped into the water to get the blood off of my outfit. Then I returned and had to get Howard to quickly get the footage. And he was barely able to do it before the police had found the hard drives and disconnected them from the system." he recounted. "Then followed a long investigation and they connected me to it via my alias."
"Really?" she was shocked to hear that. "How?"
"Well, small town, so someone checking into a motel, then a massacre happens and that someone leaves the next day?" he looked at her. "The police was good, I had to give them that. When they had failed to find anything, they had broadened their search and found me, along with six other people who had arrived in town earlier and left on the same day as me."
"How did that end?"
"I had Howard change the the picture on the ID." he shrugged. "Luckily for me, the motel lady was legally blind and barely wore her glasses, so she couldn't really identify me. It cost me a good fake identity though."
"How many identities do you have?" she wondered.
"Fifteen or so." he shrugged and put his hand on her thigh. "You will too at some point, if you really want to get somewhere in this business."
"Alright." she nodded and thought of something to distract her from the disturbing images still going through her mind, before it came to her. "Speaking of business."
"Yes?" he looked at her.
"Your dad expects us to have lots of funny one." she winked.
"He does." Leonard nodded and Penny suddenly found herself flat on the couch, Leonard on top of her and his lips connected to hers. Grinning into the kiss, she wrapped her arms around his neck and reciprocated, her legs beginning to rub his calves and thighs as they moved further and further up, at least as much as the couch allowed.
Leonard's lips moved to her ears and necks, nibbling on both areas and Penny shuddered, the feeling causing goosebumps on her skin. His head moved further south, his fingers undoing several of the buttons of her shirt, revealing her bra and her hardening nipples poking against the fabric. Just when his lips had reached the valley between her bra-clad breasts, a sudden bark startled them both, their eyes seeing Leonard's two dogs sitting next to the couch, looking expectantly at them.
"Seriously guys?" Leonard huffed and checked the wall clock. "Alright."
"Where are you going?" Penny pouted, sitting up while not bothering to close the buttons of her shirt right now.
"To get my wallet." he chuckled just as the doorbell rang, Penny scrambling to close the buttons now.
"Who's visiting?" she wondered.
"Delivery service." he replied and opened the door. "Hello Dan."
"Mister Hofstadter." a rather young man smiled at him, his eyes going wide with desire when he saw Penny, who hadn't bothered to close all the buttons. "Oh, you have a guest?"
"Hi, I'm Penny." she offered her hand, which the young man shook and she guessed his age at eighteen at the most.
"Daniel." he returned and she felt bad for him when she saw his face fall after she had slung her arms around Leonard's waist and put her head on his shoulder.
"How much?" Leonard asked.
"Well, they're both three point four pounds, dad made sure of that, that's seventy-six dollars and eighteen cents." came the reply.
"Keep the change, Dan." Leonard smiled at the man after handing him a hundred dollar bill.
"Thank you, Mister Hofstadter." Dan smiled and with a last wistful look at Penny, turned around.
"Aww, I think he likes you." Leonard grinned after he had closed the door.
"Shut up." she hit his arm. "He's a child."
"Well, young adult." Leonard laughed. "Full of virility."
"Pfft, I doubt he could handle me." she poked out her tongue at him. "What did you order?"
"The monthly treat for the boys." Leonard winked at her and pointed to her to take one of the boxes before leading her to the backyard, his dogs following excitedly.
She carried the box outside, Leonard right in front of her. Once they were in the vast backyard, the dogs sat down in front of them, both looking up expectantly but showing calmness instead of excitement. Leonard looked at them proudly and opened the boxes, revealing a large bone with lots of meat on it on each. He pointed to her taking one and took the other.
"Now give it to Tyson, like this." he said and showed her by holding his bone sideways so Major could bite into the thinner end.
She held it out and Tyson came close, his teeth sinking into the thin meat on the end before the dog turned around and rubbed his body against her legs in a form of thank you. Both dogs ran off, sitting down close to what looked like a large open kennel and proceeding to rip meat off the bones, wolfing it down greedily.
"So, what's the story?" she asked him.
"Once a month, I get those type of bones for them, with lots of meat on them instead of their regular dinner." he shrugged. "It's my way of rewarding good behavior."
"Did you ever have to withhold them?"
"Sure, at the beginning, after they had grown up. Sometimes they acted out and in punishment, they didn't get their reward." he told her as they returned into the house, both washing their hands in the kitchen sink before returning to the living room.
"You're a hard taskmaster." she giggled. "Guess you got that from your dad."
"Actually, it came more from my mom, since my dad was regularly on missions..." Leonard started but stopped. "Did he tell you what he did before he became an assassin?"
"Yes, he said he worked for the government, doing the same thing." she nodded.
"Right." Leonard accepted. "So, dad was regularly away for weeks at the time, so my mom raised us. But my mom was... emotionally absent, so it was more my siblings who taught me how to act around others. They also then withheld some toys from me sometimes if I acted out."
"What happened to the rest of your family?" she asked quietly.
"They..." he started but hiccuped, Penny seeing the emotional pain clearly. "I'm sorry, I can't talk about that, not yet."
"Okay." she accepted and he visibly relaxed, his mind compartmentalizing the sudden onslaught of bad emotions away.
"So, we still have half a day left before you have to be back, what do you want to do?" he asked.
"Well, I remember us being interrupted before." she giggled and unbuttoned her shirt before swinging her leg over his lap to straddle him. "Lets continue, shall we?"
"Lets." he grinned and wrapped his arms around her body as she leaned in to kiss him.
Going to finish this chapter here. Didn't want to drag it out too much so I can update without too many people thinking I have abandoned this one ^^
Review please :)