"Grieving"

In the city of La Wiser there exists a small bar by the name of The Spiders Egg, while not well known its owners acted as both bartenders and informants within the establishment and had once upon a time became the Ivory syndicate's place of Pease and celebration

A home away from home if you would

And now Cane was sitting in one of the stools in the back of the room watching his friend make a fool of himself, even having arrived only a few hours ago, Leandro had gotten himself drunk to the point of regressing to a toddler and was now lifting entire tables and promptly throwing them at certain patrons

One moment he had been drunkenly flirting with a woman, the next he had been resting his head in her lap and being comforted like a baby. However, one of the other patrons had, somehow not seeing the giant resting in her lap, slapped the woman's ass in a rather greasy way of flirting and promptly ended up literally tossed through a wall

This had of course pissed off the man's drinking buddies and now Leandro had engaged in a rather amusing destructive brawl much to the dismay of the owners, thankfully for both the thugs and owners however Cane had used his ability to cancel all abilities in the building as to make sure Leandro didn't reduce the men to red paste in his drunken anger

"Oi! You joining in or what?!" Leandro shouted across the room at Cane, wearing a shit-eating grin and winking at the woman whose lap he had been in, causing her to blush heavily "We got trash to burn!" he yelled before charging back into the fray which had somehow grown even bigger, to the point where the entire bar was involved

Cane couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's antics, had he been in his place he would have simply shared a toast for the dead and gone home shortly after but that was never what Leandro was about

Fighting, drinking, and fucking was how the man lived, grieved and would be how he died

Cane began to brush himself off and before making his way into the fight he walked over to the bar, where the two bartenders/owners were standing horrified at the state of their bar, he took out his checkbook, wrote a six-digit sum, and handed it over

"This is for the damages, drinks and lovely view," he said handing it over and giving his best smile to the woman bartender, causing her to go a deep red, much to the chagrin of her male counterpart

And then he promptly picked up a stool and smashed it over the head of the closest brawler

****

A few hours later three individuals stumbled out of the bar, a bit of blood and booze covering them and one being carried by the other two, these were Cane, Leandro, and the woman Leandro had been flirting with, whom he had learned was called Linda De Maggio, a member of the De Maggio branch family from France

Despite being uninjured Leandro had to be carried by the other two as even after the brawl he hadn't stopped drinking, causing him to lose the ability to walk in a straight line, leaving him to be supported by a grumbling Cane and blushing Linda

What had probably surprised cane the most tonight however was when Linda had actually entered the brawl, fighting back-to-back with the boys, wielding a pool cue with the fury of a thousand suns, she was probably the main reason Leandro was never injured as every time someone tried, she beat them down with a cold fury that reminded him of two certain inmates

Now however the three just talked while waiting for a cab, though Cane could tell he was the third wheel in this dynamic as Leandro and Linda conversed about normal things like pets, hobbies, and favorite movies, leaving Cane to simply watch them flirt

Eventually, however, a taxi arrived, and they had stuffed the big man in, with cane taking the front seat next to the driver and Linda sitting in the back with a now sleeping Leandro on her shoulder, looking joyous

Once they reached his home, Cane said his goodbyes, getting a friendly Farwell from Linda and a sleepy mumble from Leandro, as he got out and watched them drive off, he couldn't help but look at his phone and the photo he had taken, Leandro curled up like a child on Linda's lap and Linda with a warped grin that seemed all too familiar

"What did he call the Alice and Jasmin…Yanderes?" he questioned out loud, remembering his friend's reaction to the stories he had told of his work, he looked back at his phone and chuckled

"Looks like he's got his own"

(Linda pov)

"How adorable" she couldn't help but think as she ran her hands over the man's golden hair "I always wanted a puppy"

He was so nice!

He had at first just seemed like another drunk just trying to get into her pants but as they talked more, she realized how similar they were, as he laid in her lap (no idea how we ended up like that) he had told her about himself and what had happened and what he had to do

Leaving himself bare to a complete stranger, trusting her

So pure and innocent,

and then when that rodent had touched her, he had defended her, fighting the entire bar… for her!

And as she fought beside him (and his friend… he was okay)

She had felt it! A bond! Just like her voices told her

"If you feel the bond as you fight beside another, you will be together forever!" they had told her

And she had found him

Her little lion

Leandro