Today was much like any day in that leon awoke and immediately checked on glenda and the baby before starting to work on making breakfast. it was strange to see considering who was doing it but leon had always preferred to do things himself rather than having servants do it for him. the pregnancy had taken it's toll on glenda so she tended to sleep in more now rather than getting up early anymore. this wasn't to say she was lazing about since nothing could be further from the truth. even now at seven months pregnant she insisted on doing her duties as the headmistress of new beacon.
With the new architecture in vale and leon all but ruling the kingdom at this point the criminal underbelly of society had been driven underground , literally. the underground area leon made and was working on in secret had been "coincidentally" discovered just as the criminal organization were beginning to get panicky at the lack of avenues available to them. before they could use a whole bunch of old or abandoned areas near the loading docks for their businesses. now however everything entering and exiting vale was individually checked and scanned with special tech curtesy of titan corp that made it impossible to bring in contraband.
The underground solved this by opening a new way to bring in their goods from outside as well as send them out. the higher ups for these criminal organizations however knew that this was all intentionally done by leon to keep them under his thumb but were helpless against it. either they played by his rules or they vanished , there was simply no other options. leon didn't care about them however as he had his own devil's den in charge of this side of things under the ever diligent erik.
While leon and glenda were eating the food he had prepared the doorbell range much to their confusion since neither were expecting a guest. when leon pulled up the feed on the camera at the door both he and glenda was astonished to see ironwood himself standing outside alone. the two shared a look but leon just sighed and got up while glenda went back to her food. leon opened the door with an annoyed expression "I assume you are here to give me some sort of an ultimatum again?" leon guessed calmly leaving ironwood speechless for a moment.
The man frowned "i can see how our previous interactions might give you such an impression however i am not here , officially anyways. may i come in?" he said after fixing his emotions. leon was highly surprised by how cordial the man was being considering his stern personality. "alright you've stoked up my curiosity so i'll play along , yes you can join me and glenda since we were in the middle of breakfast." leon said with a shrug before moving over to allow the man in. despite his many shortcomings ironwood was at least familiar with the various customs since he noticed the shoes lined up neatly by the door and removed his own without a word.
Leon had no problem admitting that this tradition was stolen by him from Japanese culture simply because it was indeed a good way to keep dirt from getting tracked in. the faunus of menagerie also had this custom but it was not considered absolutely necessary to adhere to. "good morning glenda , it is rather later but allow me to congratulate you on the baby." ironwood said sincerely when he saw glenda. "thank you james , it was a rather surprising turn of events for me to be honest." she said with a small smile.
Ironwood nodded in understanding "it came as a shock to most who were familiar with you as well , myself included. i will admit though from my reports you had exquisite taste in who fathered your child , even if i don't like the man in question he still seems like a fairly competent parent so far." he said honestly. "did he just compliment me or insult me?" leon asked from nearby with a conflicted expression. "both , but considering how james and you tend to clash in many ways that's probably the best you can expect." glenda answered with an amused smirk while ironwood nodded in agreement.
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