The department head sat stiffly in his seat while the food boxes were brought in and placed in front of Levi. Who then opened them one by one, and set the vast majority of them in front of Noah.

Levi peeked at Noah from the corner of his eyes to check whether the other liked the food he had served. And then, upon getting a positive response, right there, in front of department chief’s disbelieving eyes, the ferocious wolf miraculously transformed into a big fluffy doggie looking at his owner. As he adoringly gazed at the teen, the only thing missing to complete the picture was a wagging tail.

Everyone else present felt as if they had been personally attacked by the shameless display of… whatever the hell this was! Two brothers-in-law - one a fully grown man and the other a still-wet-behind-the-ears teen, yet what is this feeling of being fed a big bowl of dog food?!?

Noah gazed down at the boxes of delicious food with glistening eyes, incredibly touched by his brother-in-law’s care (and also conveniently missing the adoring gaze of the latter). 

One could tell just how attentive and caring his lovely brother-in-law was just from the food he had ordered for Noah.

All of it were Noah’s favorites that he had eaten over the past two days. Though Noah had never spoken about what he liked or disliked among the things he had eaten, Levi still somehow noticed and remembered all of his preferences without a single one amiss!

Blackie: (눈_눈) ‘Of course he did… he spent more time staring at you then he spent staring at everything else combined! At this point, he knows your habits well enough to write a dissertation about it!’

Noah: ‘Ah, brother-in-law is so good! 

o(≧▽≦)o So, so good, ah!’

Sister is one lucky woman! Brother-in-law will definitely make a perfect husband and father that will pamper his little darlings into the heavens!

The “lucky” sister whose “perfect husband” had forgotten about her existence and was cheating on her with her own little brother: “…” QAQ

Blackie, who recorded this moment for future reference: ‘Heh, really dying to know if he’ll still be a “perfect husband” in your eyes if the little pampered wife lying on the bed under him is you…’ (¬‿¬)

Regardless of what the future held, the “little pampered wife” Noah currently felt very grateful for his brother-in-law’s thoughtful care. However, unlike Levi, whose skin was thicker than the city walls, Noah’s was rather thin.

Putting aside the fact that eating in the middle of an important meeting wasn’t entirely appropriate, he wouldn’t feel good if he was the only one eating. Wouldn’t it be torture to watch someone eat nice food while you could only watch? How would he even eat in peace if he was making others wait for him? Wouldn’t he feel pressured to finish quickly and end up choking on his food?

And who wanted to be stared at by three (four if Trey was included) imposing men while eating a meal? (Blackie: ‘Make that five. Cause, your “perfect husband” will definitely be paying maximum attention to his “pampered little wife”.’)

Most importantly, if he started eating now, it wouldn’t just reflect badly on him, but he would also implicate his silly brother-in-law! The man might be a bit socially maladjusted, but he had no bad intentions whatsoever!

He absolutely couldn’t let others misunderstand his good brother-in-law like this!

Blackie: ‘…you know, at this point, I feel like my humorous interventions are totally unnecessary. You are hilarious enough all on your own.’

╮(╯∀╰)╭

Noah shot Levi a look filled with appreciation and gratitude, making the other man’s chest swell with satisfaction and pride. Noah then turned his attention to the department head, who nearly started to grow mold, and opened up their talk with… an attempt to whitewash Levi’s rudeness: “We missed lunch due to the incident, so everyone is a bit edgy right now.”

Noah patted Levi’s hand reassuringly as if to say ‘Don’t worry, I understand your true intentions.’

Levi stared heatedly at the right hand that had just received a warm and ticklish caress from his baby, missing the rest of what Noah said, and with it, his opportunity to object.

“Since the matter of the representatives has now been resolved, and we’ve already taken enough of your valuable time, how about you let inspector Fynn take it from here? Or is there anything else the department head wishes to discuss?”

Noah hasn’t even finished his speech yet when there was another knock on the door, followed by the mentioned man himself entering without waiting for their response.

“No, that is all!” the department head, who had initially entered the conference room with plenty of things to say, now jumped at the opportunity to fling the two troublesome personages to someone else and make a quick escape before they changed their mind.

Fynn was still in the middle of a greeting when he was given a hard pat on his shoulder by his chief, “Inspector, the nature of the case has changed into an intercity one. You are still in charge of investigating it, but from now on, your work shall be overseen by the officially appointed supervisors from both Concordia and Astarea”–he motioned towards Noah and Levi–“Cordia Aris and Astar Levi.”

The solidly built man gave slender Fynn another heavy-handed pat, “I leave the rest to you,” and without waiting for Fynn’s response, he high-tailed it out of the conference room, followed by his entourage.

Fynn stood there dumbfounded, only partially due to what was happening and mostly due to the intents he was feeling. His fearless and imposing chief had a clear intent to flee from the scene as if running away from a calamity. There was a peculiar intent tearfully pleading ‘please notice me senpai’ coming from Aris’s bodyguard. And the entire room smelled of food - not the kind that was packaged in boxes on the conference table, but dog food!!

Speaking of food, the literal kind, his good friend Aris wanted nothing more than to dig into it, and the impossible to miss, overpowering ball of pink intent Astar Levi wanted to… dig into Aris?!?

What the fuck was this?!

What happened between yesterday and today?!?

When he had warned Levi to know his place, he didn’t intend for the man to come to a sudden enlightenment that that place ought to be inside Aris!!

‘Don’t tell me…’ an ominous shudder passed through Fynn ‘…that my warning backfired?!’

Seeing the rare sight of a befuddled Fynn, Noah’s lips quirked in amusement, “Hi, Fynn,” he waved with what seemed to be a baffling mix of languid enthusiasm. Fynn had no idea how anyone could pull that off, but apparently, it was possible, and it looked goddamn charming.

Inspector Fynn speechlessly eyed the two sitting across him and didn’t know where to begin.

Noah, on the other hand, didn’t have such issues, “Have you had lunch yet?”

***

“Brother, thank you for the food. I love it a lot,” Noah paused to let his praise sink in, “but I can’t finish all of this on my own. Would it be alright if I shared it with everyone?”

Levi hadn’t known what type of food Noah felt like eating today, so he had ordered a bit of everything, which ended up piling up into a stack that was more than enough for three Noahs. Thus, when his baby looked at him with those watery pleading eyes, he could do nothing but nod while internally feeling like he had swallowed a fly.

Food that he had lovingly ordered for his baby would end up in the stomach of his rivals in love!

‎( ﾉಠ益ಠ)ﾉ ┻━┻

Much to Levi’s dismay, the food delivery didn’t know how many people Levi had intended to order food for, so they naturally sent enough disposable eating utensils for four people. Which was the number that they estimated based on the amount of food.

Levi couldn’t even come up with some kind of bullshit excuse of there not being enough utensils!

And so, Noah, Levi, Trey, and Fynn, sat themselves around the big conference table and dug into the food.