One Night

One Afternoon

This one-shot is set during the events of Book 4: Loving A Bully. Enjoy. (๑°꒵°๑)･*♡ 

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His wife was going to be the death of him.

Or the cause of a lower back pain.

Not that it matters, Leon thought, as he juggled three watermelons to his shopping cart. He would gladly let his very beautiful and very pregnant wife kill him if it would serve to make her happy.

He should be used to this now. Sophia had started craving before she even knew she was pregnant and it was not like Leon wasn't willing to give her everything she ever wanted. But didn't her doctor say that her cravings would decline by the third trimester? Sophia was already in her third but instead of declining, it seemed to have gotten worse and even more spontaneous.

Two weeks ago, he had to end a call with a potential client when she asked him to buy her cheese sticks.

A week ago, she got him combing the streets in the middle of the night for tomatoes.

Five days ago, she got her knocking on Rohan's door before dawn broke for some kimchi.

Today, she called him in a middle of a meeting for watermelons. And she wanted three.

Leon would never complain out loud but f*****g hell, he'd probably be the only one to eat the rest of these goddamn watermelons. She'd probably eat a tiny portion again and have other cravings. And who else would have to finish them? Leon. She didn't want to waste food or let them spoil so he'd have to.

Leon would have gained twenty pounds if he didn't hit the gym everyday. Hell, he even had to rearrange his father's offices in Boston just so they could have a larger indoor gym in the building. He didn't even do field work anymore since Sophia's pregnancy. And since they were currently living in his old house, he was glad he didn't clean out the basement were his old gym equipment was.

An amused voice brought Leon out of his thoughts.

"Domestic life suits you well, Leon."

"One word and I'll put a bullet through your head," Leon growled, turning to meet his best friend's laughing eyes.

John chuckled, not even hiding the fact that he was indeed finding all this amusing, and put his hands up. "Watermelons this time, then?"

Letting out a long exhale, Leon carefully brought the large fruits down in the cart. "Yeah," he answered.

His best friend was trying not to make comments that would anger him further, Leon noted this irritably, looking at how John's lips were pressed tight together. Leaning an elbow on the handlebars, Leon studied him suspiciously.

"What are you doing here in the supermarket?"

John shrugged. "I wanted to know what it's like."

"Explain."

John grinned broadly at him. "I wanted to know what it's like to be a henpecked husband."

He never learned, did he?

John howled in pain in the middle of the fruit aisle when Leon slammed his fist into his jaw.

"Jesus f*****g Christ, you're a monster!"

Leon crossed his arms. "I'm in a testy mood and I don't want you to test me."

"You should have just said that before you punched me, asshole!"

"Ah, but it feels good to let out some pent-up emotions now and then."

John straightened, massaging his jaw. "I'm sure you're all pent up since Sophia's – kidding!" he avoided the fist that came again his way. "Damn it, Leon. You already left a mark. Punch me again and I'll be telling on you."

Leon narrowed his eyes. "Go ahead. I'll tell Terry you're skipping work to f**k with me in the supermarket then."

The two glared at each other for a few moments.

Then they burst into laughter, realizing the absurdity of their situations with the women in their lives.

"You two are f*****g idiots," Rohan muttered as he passed by them with a basket filled with tampons, chocolates and pints of ice cream.

John grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "And here we have another sucker. Fancy meeting you here, Rohan."

Grinning, Leon watched Rohan elbow John away. "The sisters?" he asked.

Rohan heaved a long suffering sigh. "The sisters," he mumbled in agreement. "Why they have to have both their periods at the same time is f*****g beyond my comprehension. They've been running me ragged since yesterday."

John snorted. "They know they got you around their fingers, that's why."

"And you know we're both going to f**k you up if you keep f*****g us up, don't you, John?" Leon said with a lift of his brow.

John's smile faded. "Can't we be mature about this? We're all working adults, aren't we?"

Rohan and Leon traded glances.

Then the both of them cracked up.

"Shut up," John hissed, looking around. "People are staring."

And could they blame them? Even if the three friends just stood there, they would still look.

Leon was in what Sophia would call his commando outfit, a leather jacket, black shirt and jeans, and boots. He'd come to the supermarket straight after receiving a call from Sophia saying that she wanted watermelons. He didn't even remove his guns.

John was in an expensive suit, his hair slicked back. The asshole probably had a full schedule of meetings but was here, making fun of him, probably hearing from Sophia where he was. John liked to make calls to his friends now and then, pretending it was official business just to slack off from work.

And Rohan, he probably had just woken up, given the crumpled hoodie he was wearing and messy hair. He had worked through nights for the past month for a security system that was going to be put on the market next week and at the same time, accompanied his fiancée around the city for their wedding preparations.

"When are you going back to Boston?" Rohan asked Leon.

Leon grabbed a bag of apples and put it in his cart. Sophia would probably move to apples next and it wouldn't hurt to stock up just in case. "In three days," he told Rohan. "I've already booked our flights."

Rohan didn't look happy to hear that. "That soon?"

"Yeah."

Should he tell them he and his father was considering opening a branch of their investigative agency here in the city and that he might be moving back with Sophia soon? Might as well surprise them.

John frowned at him. "I wish you'd stay for a while. Or just move back."

Leon's lips twitched. "I'd rather not."

"Why?"

"Because you'll keep coming round to our house, piss me off and spoil Sophia and our daughter with gifts."

"That's not exactly a bad thing..." John muttered slowly and Rohan chuckled.

"He's perfectly justified. You even stalked him to the supermarket, dumbass."

"You miss him too, smartass," John countered.

"Not as much as you do, fuckface."

Leon looked up the ceiling and prayed for patience as the two hurled childish insults at each other. They might all be grown men but some things never changed, don't they?

"I'm leaving," he muttered, pushing the cart up to the check-out counter. The two followed, still bickering. Leon looked straight ahead and pretended he didn't know them.

"No news about Skull yet?" Rohan suddenly asked him, lining to pay for his purchases as well.

At the reminder that Skull was yet to be found, Leon closed his eyes. Pressure pushed on his chest, tightening air in his lungs. Then he opened them again when John spoke.

"Yeah, we need to talk about him," he murmured, his eyes on Leon. "Haru has told me some pretty interesting things about him—."

"Save it for later," Leon cut him off with a glare. This wasn't the time or place. They had already attracted a lot of attention and there were too many ears. Hell, even the cashier who was checking out his fruits with a star-struck expression on her face was listening closely.

John nodded abruptly. "There's much to talk about. We can't put this off any longer."

Rohan agreed and looked at Leon. "We're having dinner tonight at your place anyway. We can talk after."

The cashier handed Leon his change with a 'have a nice day' that seemed considerably warmer than typical. Leon barely noticed, his thoughts on Skull. His cell phone had buzzed then and he pulled it out of his pocket. His hard expression softened when he saw who had sent him a text.

"Is it the wife?" John asked with a small smile.

"Yeah."

Leon picked up the bags. Then he nodded goodbye at Rohan and walked to the exit.

John continued to follow him. "What did she say? Why do you look so happy?"

Leon grinned. "Because she said her father can't visit us this weekend."

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A/N:

Stay safe and stay at home, guys. (*^▽^*)

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