Emich stuffed his keys into his pocket and grabbed his beige jacket from the hook before leaving the studio apartment. It had just rained so the city felt fresher than it had been in months. Some people were already sitting outside with their drinks in hand with their friends waiting for their food to arrive. It was an overall calm evening.
Emich ducked into the small Vietnamese restaurant and was instantly greeted by the small woman who ran the restaurant.
"Bonjour!" she chirped happily and dug out a menu for Emich who smiled in response and quickly skimmed through the menu.
"Je vais prendre un petit Pho s'il te plaît," Emich ordered and the woman wrote it down on a sticky note and gestured for Emich to sit down before bringing him a cup of tea.
"Merci!" Emich called before walking out the door with his food in hand.
Even more people had gathered outside the various restaurants. Even the outskirts of Paris were beautiful in the right light. If you looked past the dingy side alleys, streetfights, and blatant drug deals that happened in the bright of day, it was really nice. To be fair, Emich didn't have the best references. Before Paris, he had lived with his abusive father, at the frontlines, as a prisoner of HYDRA, and finally in different Legion facilities.
Emich was on leave for the first time in almost a year. It was his third year in the Foreign Legion and for the first time, he was allowed a long leave, even tho he would have rather stayed with the Legion. Emich had joined the Legion purely because it was the easiest option. After his five years were up, he would officially be a Frenchman and be able to move anywhere within the EU relatively freely. After the first year, however, Emich knew he was once more where he was meant to be.
The only home the man had felt in over seventy years of life was at the frontlines in France, with men he fought with. Even tho nothing could replace the friends he had lost, Emich was able to find new people he could call friends and a new place to call home.
The local librarian already recognized Emich as he walked in. She smiled and waved kindly as the man walked in. For the last four years, every time Emich was on leave from the Legion he'd spend way too much time in the library.
"Bonsoir!" she greeted with a stack of books in front of her waiting to be scanned.
"Bonsoir," Emich responded and walked up to the desk.
"J'ai tous les livras que vous cherchie prêts ici," Agathe said motioning to a small stack of books at the edge of the counter.
"Merci Agathe," Emich thanked as he started packing the books into a tote bag he had brought with him.
"Je vous en prie. Vous semblez vraiment intéressé per la Seconde Guerre mondiale," Agathe commented on the book topics. Emich just chuckled lightly and responded:
"Je crois que je suis. Vient avec le travail, je suppose."
For years Emich had seemed out and read basically every book written about the Second World War. He had checked out every book in the library and spent hours researching stuff on the computer. Working the computer was a challenge but after a couple hours and the help from a confused Agathe, Emich found what he was looking for.
"Oh! Nous avons également quelques films sure le sujet si cela vous intéresse," Agathe chirpped seemingly just remembering the movies.
The mention of movies brought back another memory, but Emich pushed it to the side as he nodded his head and Agathe started leading him towards the film section.
YOU ARE READING
Project 43
Fan fikciaSteve Roger's abandoned and abused little brother had to run away from the hell he was living in. He joined the war not caring if he lived or died but found something worth fighting for along the way. Still, Hydra wouldn't let the soldier simply exi...
