"Welcome!" The wife Linda greeted Bryan once she saw him take a seat which belongs to their stall and quickly handed him a menu while smiling, "Would you like me to bring you some coffee while Alex prepare your meal?" Of course she recognized the young man but for some reason the sizes and shapes of his body are no longer familiar.

  'This is the first time I noticed that this young fellow had the potential of joining the ranks among the really dangerous breed of men.' Linda thought while losing herself and unconsciously stared at Bryan's complexion.

  "I'll take four portions of the usual with an extra-rge apple pie and a big jar of wild-berry sorbet with pineapple in a blend and maple syrup, add Custard to two slices of the pie and Vanil Ice Cream on the other two slices on that half of the pie and give it to me after I finish my meal then have Alex wrap the other half after adding Whipped Cream, Cheese, and Caramel Sauce." Bryan said which caused Linda to be startled awake from her daze while feeling deeply embarrassed and ashamed of herself after allowing herself to fantasize about someone other than her husband.

  "Got it." She said before hurrying to the stall to give Alex the order but before doing that she hugged her husband and gave him the most perverted kiss while squeezing his butt which startled the poor fellow who wasn't expected his wife which is normally extremely shy and would always compin if he kissed her in public.

  "Huff... I appreciate the gesture but I know you too well so, is someone bullying you?" Alex asked while tightening his hand around the meat cleaver with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

  Linda hugged him tighter while looking up she smiled and said : "No. But I just realized that I love you so much after losing myself staring at another man who's much more handsome and manlier than you, here... I confessed."

  Alex stared at her for a few seconds before squeezing his wife in a mighty hug that creaked her bones, "Humph. Girl... there's no man on earth that's more manlier than your man, let's go! I'm going to show you the difference between country-born strength and city-born strength."

  His wife smiled widely because seeing her husband so jealous was all the confirmation she needs of his love towards her and now he's just getting slightly misled from the correct path which is pampering her and expressing more words of his love instead of allowing his pride to make him do all sorts of silly, childish, and stupid things but even while he's doing them... Linda always saw Alex as being the same person who managed to maintain the same purity of the heart ever since he was a child but now he's a grown man who only knows to work hard every day while staying positive for a bright future no matter the odds which keeps stacking against them.

  "Oh! It's you Bryan." Alex said awkwardly while looking back towards his wife who giggled from amusement because she really does find this situation quite funny and now her husband must be torn between following through on his words from earlier or retreating after greeting this customer who became one of their few friends in the city.

  Bryan looked between the husband and wife before smiling widely while saying : "You're here to show off in front of your dy, aren't you?"

  "Huh!" Linda gasped and covered her mouth while blushing deeply because this means that Bryan did notice that she was checking him up earlier!

  "How did you know?" Alex took the simplest approach without thinking too much about it.

  'Because a simir incident happened before a few months after my graduation and you ended up in so much trouble once you broke that fellow's arm then beat him up when he insulted Linda if front of a crowd of people.' Bryan thought to himself but calmly swore to himself that he'd never allow something like that to happen to this pair in this life.

  Simply because so far they're the closest possible example of real family in his opinion!

  "How about making this unexpected event nice, quick, and simple because I'm getting really hungry." Bryan said while folding his sleeve.

  Alex nodded then asked : "Are you sure you want to arm wrestle with me?" He was doubting the younger man's decision and genuinely tried to discourage him since his choice was wrong.

  Bryan looked at him with an amused smile at the corner of his mouth before standing in front of the wide tree stump which Alex only use it when deboning or breaking bones for the stew, "I promise to take it easy on you for two reasons brother, one is because you still are going to use that arm to cook a meal for me ter and the second reason is because you need to promise me that you'd listen to my advice and allow me to pay your debt so that you and sister Linda can open a restaurant with the money I'm investing on you two."

  Linda squinted her eyes after hearing that and wondered if Alex is the one who told him about their debt, but all her confusion increased once her husband looked at her and ask : "What the hell Linda? Why did you tell him about our matters?"

  "Humph. I don't kiss and tell, why don't you ask him?" His wife gred at him while crossing her arms then looked away while puckering her lips.

  "Sorry. Sorry. My bad," Alex immediately realized that he messed up once he saw his wife's reaction, "Since you're promising me and Linda such a good deal if you win then you need to promise me that you're going to tell us how did you know about our debt to boss Ryan when you lose." The man said while folding a piece of cloth and putting it to cushion between his elbow and the jagged, prickly, and uneven surface of this wooden stump.

  "Deal." Bryan did the same and followed Alex's example even when he knows that the chances of his skin actually breaking by such a surface were close to none at all but there's no need to attract unnecessary attention after all.

  "Hmmm..." The first thing Alex noticed was the firm grip of this young man and the oddity of the situation when his own rough hand started to change color when Bryan's fingers sank deeper and deeper in his skin until the pressure reached the bones and joints on his wrist!

  Bryan looked towards Linda and said : "Give us the signal sister," Then stared at Alex's expression which became a lot more serious than before, "Just do your best brother, Linda doesn't even care if you win or lose but remember this... tell her how much you love her every morning and I promise you that everything is going to be just fine in the future. Don't you think it's about time for you to have kids? I'm quite looking forward to being the godfather of your brats!"

  "Begin!" Linda said which pulled her husband away from the train of thoughts which this fellow pushed him to ride, even she thought that Bryan was saying all that nonsense to distract Alex which made her look at him differently since he's being dishonest and trying to gain an advantage before their match even started.

  "Ghhhhh... Haaa... Hnghh... Ughh..." Alex kept trying to push Bryan's arm but even after giving it his absolute best this fellow's hand refused to even shake not to mention tilt slightly to any side.

  Linda knows best how wildly and primitive-like her husband's physical strength is, throughout their life together there was more incidents than she can count when his power saved their time, the day, and other people's lives!

  To see him appear so weak and vulnerable like a little toddler in front of this young man was quite the shock for the wife who had absolute trust in Alex's win before giving the signal, but now she and her husband both felt like the ste of thoughts within their minds was wiped clean by some mischievous devil which left them at a loss of words, thoughts, and actions.

  Bryan extended the other hand to pat Alex on the shoulder who never stopped trying to change the outcome of this match until his face was terribly red, "Breath. You're going to harm yourself if you keep doing this... think of how sad sister Linda would be when that happen?" Once the man looked at him he slowly helped him to his loss while saying : "I know that you still don't believe how you lost but we can confirm who's stronger by using your favorite stone, watch this then go make me my food."

  Linda looked at the stone which Alex calls it the luck stool, he found it god knows where exactly and brought it to their stand.

  Sometimes he'd sit on it in his break and most of the time he'd be using it to sharpen his own knives and some of their neighbors' tools whenever they're in the mood or have enough time to py favors.

  'It can't be!' Both husband and wife watched as Bryan simply grabbed the stone with one hand from the narrowest and slipperiest corner before looking at them then effortlessly yanking it from the ground then raising it above his head with a single hand, afterwards he waved it around like a toy before tossing it in the air then catching it and finally putting it down!

  Alex quickly ran to his luck stool but before he got to confirm that it's still heavy and lift it up from the ground he saw a few cracks on the part which Bryan held it and a pair of circur shapes in the center of these cracks which were violently pushed deep into the stone, the shape is a perfect fit for two of Bryan's fingers.

  "Brother Alex, Sister Linda. Congratution in advance, and don't forget about the godfather thingy!" In the end Bryan whispered towards Alex but Linda still heard what he said and looked away to hide her blush, "Hurry up and get me my food man! I'm still a paying customer you know, come on... no dilly dallying." In the end he had to snatch Alex by the waist and raise him in the air with a single hand while saying that just to pay this strong fellow for a prank which was once pyed on him by the husband when he was showing in front of his wife.

  'How dare you hang me in the air to dry in front of strangers as if I'm some sort of skewered frog? Sucks to suck huh!' Bryan thought while looking at Alex who just received another heavy blow to his self-confidence then put him down.

  Immediately afterwards Alex hid himself in the kitchen and Linda gred at Bryan while supporting his waist with two arms, "Did you really have to go so far?" She asked while harrumphing like a steam engine.

  Bryan just smiled, "Take a seat first sister," After pulling the chair for her to take a seat he joined her, "We both know that I just did you a huge favor by putting a leash on your husband for you and handing you the chain, now is your chance to squeeze more love, care, and compassion from brother Alex by taking advantage of his unstable psyche and mental state.

  "Whatever walls he stubbornly built between you two during the years are no more and you can explore them and build bridges wherever you want now.

  "Once I handle that so-called boss Ryan and make sure to teach him a lesson of never ever daring to try to sink his poisonous fangs in those whom I consider family or I'm going to be his problem, afterwards both of you can finally open your restaurant and live like normal people in a decent street in a nice apartment with a view.

  "The mere thought of such hard working people having to struggle so much just to survive on a daily basis is sickening and disgusting so please tell me where to find that Ryan so I can have a nice long chat with him and how much do you guys owe him?"

  Linda was in tears after hearing what Bryan just said and all of her buried emotions came flooding down with her tears.

  Bryan just patted her shoulder and shouted : "Alex. Come hug your wife and tell her how much you love her and that everything is going to be alright."

  "Huh! Didn't you just say to cook you some food?" The man stuck his head from the door and compined.

  "Less nonsense! Get your ass here and do what I said, can't you see that sister Linda is sad?" Bryan cracked his knuckles which made Alex remove the apron in a hurry and come running.

  "Bfft..." Linda giggled once her husband tightened his arms around her and carried her towards the kitchen while whispering these words which he would usually be too embarrassed and shy about saying them out loud since it's much easier for him to transte these words to action instead.

  "You two better not be doing some lovey-dovey and naughty stuff in there!" Bryan teased.

  "S-shut up you idiot!" Linda shouted.

  "B-bully." Alex gathered his courage and joined the fun.

  "Yes, yes... just hurry up and make the food so that we can gather your stuff before the dark and take care of the other business at hand, I pn for both of you to spend the night at a hotel away from here and tomorrow a friend of mine will take care of your living pce and the restaurant location." Bryan said before asking : "Also how much do you owe?"

  "23,500." Linda answered while coming out with a pte of their specialty of appetizers, but she was kind of worried that the amount is too much for Bryan.

  He just calmed her with a wave of his hand while saying : "Don't worry sister. I promise you that money is no longer going to be a problem for you, also... there's a few stalls which are worthy for us to recruit but I don't know which of them should we trust." Bryan lowered his voice since this street is famous for pickpocketing thieves and spies for the gangs, earlier when he was tossing the stone and having a match of arm wrestling with Alex there was quite a few here and there in the shadows of the corner watching him.

  But he didn't care about some boss of some petty and insignificant gang at all which is why he kept loudly prociming and voicing his intentions so that these spies would get a chance to send the message, either he's forced to make the trip in person or his target comes knocking it doesn't matter since in the end he'd be able to achieve the same result.

  Linda nodded and whispered back : "I can recommend some of them who work hard and are eager to become free from the gang's influence."

  "Good. Once the two of you are settled let's offer them our help and see who want's to add more specialties to the menu of your new restaurant," Bryan said then smiled widely and got up, "Stay close to brother Alex sister Linda, don't leave his side." Once he finished speaking he gave her his phone because he doesn't want it to be ruined.

  Linda on the other hand panicked once she saw a familiar and hateful baldy walking ahead of a group of thugs heading in the direction oh their stall, most of them are armed with baseball bats, steel pipes, hockey sticks, iron chains, different knives, and one of them even had a katana hanging from his waist!

  The thin baldy with shades on and a weird glittery yellow T-shirt on top of white pants and a pair of long shoes made from what would seem to be the skin of alligators.