POV: Nerovsky
What I wouldn't do for a smoke right now. As I waited for the Uber outside the building, clearly in a gloomy mood, I analysed the sky to kill time. It was more or less clear but if you looked further in the distance, you could notice the dark clouds drifting our way. Of course, the only day I fight with my best friend is the day the weather decides to be like, let's make yourself more miserable and rain when you're out of work. I bet my non-existent social life that it was going to rain.
Someone moved to stand next to me but I gave my attention to my shoes instead. I miss Aiden already. Should I have been so harsh? But he won't learn otherwise! We need to understand that his action just put a shit ton of attention on us and we possibly could've been in the police precinct, under investigation. Well then again, the police in this area are quite incompetent so maybe I may have overestimated their abilities just then BUT he talked back to Ms. Whore semi-mayor. He could've easily just been fucked over because of that. He's lucky she was too flustered to think about anything... well except going to the mayor's house and getting down on him... Aiiddeeennn. I released a sorrowful sigh and looked back out to the streets again.
"So it's safe to assume that the blue-haired company of yours was your best friend?" The voice was recognised immediately and swivelled my body to face the person next to me.
"Leo! I mean Mr Covell. What are you doing here?" I couldn't be bothered to hide the surprise in my tone but I did try to hide the delight. I thought I did a pretty good job (he did not do a good job).
The other man chuckled at my genuine shock and answered, "Well, I was going to my car to go back to MegCorp when I saw you standing out front, quite dejected. So I came here to check up on you. Now that I answered yours, will you answer my question?"
My forgotten depressing spirit came back and possessed me again. I answered his question with a depressing undertone. "Ah right. Y-Yeah. That would be my best friend, Mr. Aiden Hendrix."
Boss sir looked at me with a concerned frown etched on his face and he leaned a bit forward as if to find something by really staring at it. Any longer and my face can cook a fucking egg. The man hesitated for a second before quietly asking, "Are... are you alright? I was going to introduce myself to the infamous dodgy best friend but I uh well we saw you two arguing. You both left each other looking pretty sad, like you guys broke up or something..."
We? Who's we... oh right Erwin the asshole was with him. I should really stop calling him an asshole. I don't have a grudge against him or anything. Along with sad eyes and a tiny smile, I nervously scratched the back of my head. "Well, honestly speaking, no I guess I'm not alright. I can't really take breaking up (I create quotation marks with my fingers for breaking up) with my dodgy best friend well. It doesn't happen often so when it does... it sucks. Especially since it's only him who I have." With the realisation of my unintentional confession, I rapidly put on a more cheery face, adding on, "And I don't know why I told you any of that. Sorry for my unnecessary rambling. Your time is precious after all. And besides, I'm ok enough to go to work so you won't have to worry about the quality being affected."
Leo's concern was still written all over his face but his frown had softened up. "It wasn't unnecessary rambling Nero. I asked for it and I wanted to know as much as I could. So it was appreciated. I got to know a bit more just then."
A shy smile appeared on my face and I quickly looked away so he didn't catch it but it was too late. A satisfied smile formed on his face and I ignored it (because he looked and I'm a simp). "Thank you for asking though," and look at my phone. "My Uber is arriving in about 3 minutes. You should uh go back to work. The boss shouldn't be late after all."
The response I got back was a dull look. "Don't tell me what to do Mr. Poston." His joking undertone was the only thing that stopped me from freaking out about the usage of my last name. "I own the bloody company. I do whatever the hell I want." He then tilted his chin up to demonstrate his haughtiness.
I snorted at his childishness, responding back with the same level of childishness. "Oh, I do apologise, your highness. It was wrong of me to say such a disgraceful sentence, to you none the less. I shall save your breath and go commit seppuku."
I grabbed a pen out of my front pocket and mock stab myself in my bowels. As soon as the tip dug into my skin, I burst laughing which was followed by Leo's own sexy and resurrecting laughter. God, it's like music in my ears. Like angels singing in harmony. Like Beyoncé singing a ballad, live and right in front of him. Once we calm down, we were still grinning at each other like lunatics. Speaking of lunatics, everyone else around us apparently was staring at us. The reactions were ranged from jealousy to weirded out. Mind your own business was my only thought.
"Cancel the Uber."
"Huh?" I'm confused. Does he not want me to go to work?
"The Uber. You don't need it."
"Uh... Why...?" Am I fired? Was the Seppuku thing too far? But he laughed!
Apparently, his Oddity gave him the ability to read minds because he interrupted my internal turmoil with a breathy laugh. "No, you're not fired, Nero. I'm telling you to cancel the Uber because I'm taking you to work."
I blinked once. Then twice. Then a gazillion times. I asked incredulously, "You... are?"
"Yes. Now let's go or the clearance for the meeting won't actually be valid."
He grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards the outdoor carpark, leaving no room for argument. I was dumbfounded out of all rationality and didn't put up any resistance. Apparently, I was rational enough to ask, "Why?"
He just gave me an are-you-dumb look over his shoulders and looked back front. "Because I have a car. We work at the same place. We'd be wasting fuel if we took two cars. We're saving the environment. That good enough?"
I was still processing what's going on so I returned an absentminded nod. By the time I was back from the land of what the fuck, I was sitting in the passenger seat. Of a fucking Bugatti Divo. That caused another static moment in my brain. Words immediately left my mouth without going through is-it-going-to-fuck-you-over filter in my brain. "Did you seriously bring a Bugatti to the fucking emergency meeting?" NERO YOU DUMB BITCH. I'm going to become a nun that's it.
Leo's pulled us on the main road now and he looked over to me, giving a shrug that accompanied a demeanour that said, 'what's the problem'. "A lot of important and VIPs come to this thing. I need to show off so I can assert my dominance and be the main alpha. Well, co-alpha. Erwin brought his Royce Rolls."
Before I could hold myself back, I howled in laughter, so hard that I felt tears forming in the corners of my eyes. I managed to wheeze out, "You guys are... are actual children... children I tell you. You're both worse than Aiden and I." Aiden... I MISS YOU SO MUCH! I FEEL MYSELF GETTING SAD. STOP.
Leo's pouting and sulking proved to be a good quick distraction from the sad feels. Cute. "...What?" The other man was looking at me with raised eyebrows, wide eyes glimmered and a smirk was growing wide. It took me a couple of seconds to realise I said my thought out loud and I slapped my hand over my mouth, mimicking the same huge eyes. Except mine were enlarged in embarrassment. Hasn't been an hour without Aiden and I'm already this much of a mess. I tried to save myself but it didn't really work out. "I- What I mean- Well actually- (I give up. I'm just digging a bigger hole) let's see what's on the radio, yes?" I fumbled with the touch screen in the car, trying to find the radio. In my peripherals, I saw a complacent smirk super glued to his face. Even when I managed to get some sort of music ongoing, the smirk does not disappear. He has no fucking clue how much I hate that fucking look on him damn bitch ass stupid ass.
I liked the pouting lips a lot better. Leo's smirk grew into a full blown, self-satisfied grin.
I fucking did it again. I groaned in agony and mumbled to myself, "Fuck Alaska. I'm just going to kill myself."
By the sound of his newly formed guffawing, it seems I said louder than intended. Again.
♤♧♡♢
"Are we there yet?"
"Ok, now you're just doing it to take a piss out of me aren't you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about. This is all just unconfirmed accusations. I can't believe you would doubt me like this."
Ok, so before I reached this level of little shit, the car ride was actually fun and peaceful. After my kill myself comment, I remained silent for 5 minutes, before Leo started small talk. We talked about work, then moved on to talking about co-workers (turned out Leo knew and saw all the office drama. The only reason he didn't do anything about them was because it was only the source of entertainment he had at the damn place) and then finally moved to interests.
We had a lot in common such as having a shit ton of ear piercings (could not be worn to work unfortunately but Leo apparently wanted to change that. Shareholders won't let him), we both had a soccer career in high school (in the short time I was in high school), we both apparently had tattoos on our back and we both thought that most humans are shitty. The latter topic got us in a philosophical discussion that lasted for most of the ride (somewhere along the line, we got stuck in a traffic jam and Leo had a mini road rage. It was interesting to see, to say the very least). It was enlightening and very enjoyable and more importantly, it brought us a lot closer together. I'm pretty sure we reached the friend level at that point. God, I hope so. Wait I also don't because I kind of growing feelings I need to get rid of and this is definitely gonna make it harder.
We finished our discussion and just sat in comfortable silence... before I decided to plot my revenge and annoy the fuck out of him. I did the classic "Are we there yet?"... 5 times... for the past 10 minutes.
Leo released an annoyed groan and banged his head against the very-expensive steering wheel. "Is this revenge for feeling smug and making fun of your initial blunders? The one where you just blurted out anything and everything? It was adorable! I couldn't help it."
I gave away nothing. "Again. No idea what you're on about. That never happened. You're being delusional."
"I swear to god Nero, I will run you over and ruin this newly formed friendship like now."
I ignored the little dance that my heart did. "Oh? Since when were we friends?"
Leov gasped in mock hurt and held his hand over his heart. "Ok, now I'm hurt. Not only are your words brutally annoying but they brutally hurt as well. Did our conversation for the past half an hour mean nothing to you?"
"Wasn't that just us interrogating each other so we got to know the enemy better? The aim was to information bullets to hurt each other with, no?"
Leo looked like he's about to cry from either hurt or frustration. So I cut him a break and laughed. This time, I was straight up sobbing. Leo looked pissed and faced back to the traffic, grumbling something under his breath (probably obscenities). But the smile on his face told me that he wasn't that pissed off and enjoyed our... banter (?) as much as I did.
My hysteric fit was cut off from a ringtone. A very familiar ringtone. From my other phone. "What the fuck...?" was my immediate response. Leo was looking at me expectantly and I returned a shaky smile and took the folding contraption in my hand. Did Aiden already figure out what he did wrong? Ok but even then. He wouldn't call me knowing I have work. Did something happen again? One way to find out. Before I could put the phone to my ear, Leo quickly asked, "Did you get a new phone? I swear the one you used that night was an iPhone..." I gave him a VERY wobbly smile, not knowing how to respond. So I ignored the question and his heightened suspicion, picking up the phone to get myself busied.
"Hello...?"
I heard the loud passing of the wind. Aiden is moving. And fast. He's flying. That's not normal. "Nero! Ok, good where are you?"
"In the car with Leo I mean Mr. Covell, going to work... there's a traffic jam."
"Ok. Cool. Good. WAIT LEO?!"
"Aiden... why did you call me?" I saw Leo's left eyebrow raise up in intrigue through my peripherals.
"Um right yes! *large inhale* Look I'm just going to pretend we just didn't have a huge fall out like an hour ago or else I'm never gonna talk without having a nervous breakdown. But do keep in mind that I partially figured out what I did wrong. ANYWAY. You're kind of needed. Like right now."
I stiffened up and frowned. "Say what now?"
"Yeah like here's the thing. Long story short, since this is kind of an emergency, you know how there was one time like a couple of years ago where we went to the underground arena. You know, the illegal Oddity UFC gambling place. Because we needed funds."
"Yeah..."
"And you know how you beat the shit out of one of them and then just yeeted out of the place with the money?"
"Yeah so like apparently you beat the shit out of the champion of that place... champion of 5 years." I think I know where he is going with this.
"Oh."
"Uh yeah. Basically, his life went to shit after that and he's blaming you and he found out where you work because you didn't wear a fucking mask that day like a dumbass and now he found where you work and is heading there right now to demand for a revenge rematch and he's going to announce it as soon as he goes into the building and if he doesn't get what he wants he's going to destroy the building. So yeah. You need to go there. Like now." Aiden basically rapped that entire explanation and was now catch his breath.
"... WHAT THE FUCK AIDEN?!" I heard Aiden wince and Leo jumped up in his seat. He settled back and sent me death glares. I looked at him apologetically and gave my attention to Aiden again.
"Aiden... how fucking far is he?"
"Well, the last security camera I saw him on tells me he is like 5 minutes away from the building. I'm currently chasing after him right now, in hopes to slow him down or something but I can't stop him. He's fucking serious."
"You're fucking with me... he's that close?"
"Yes. Think you can make it before him?"
I am currently stuck in the world's longest traffic jam. And even without the traffic jam, I'm at least 10 minutes away. Which means I only have one option... "Yeah, I can make it before him. But I need you to stop chasing after him."
"What?"
"I'll deal with him. What I need you to do is find a place where we can fight with the least number of damages. A field or something."
"...I can find you a place but it has to be close by. From what I heard; the dude wants it to be close by in the CBD. Something about having an audience. Meaning it'll most likely be next to buildings. I can only promise to find a place with the least likelihood of external damage."
"Oh for fuck sakes fine. I'm running out of time. Text me when you find one." I can't catch a fucking break these days, can I?
"Roger that." The line cut off quickly after that. I looked at Leo and I was met with a face of puzzlement, curiosity and concern, all at the same time. Well. That's enough of savouring all the different emotions on Leo's face.
"Nero, what happe- what on earth are you doing?" I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the passenger side. I looked back at him once more.
"Yeah, so something came up and I really cannot make it to work today. Super-duper urgent. Like 5 minutes urgent. Please take it out of my unpaid leave or something. Ok bye."
I stepped out and closed the door softly (it's a fucking Bugatti) in a matter of seconds and fucking bolted through the traffic, to the closest alleyway. I heard my name being called out from a distance and I sent Leo a backwards wave. Thank fuck he was driving today or else he'd be bolting with me... then again, this entire ordeal would've been avoided if I just took the fucking Uber.
I found an alleyway and sprinted even faster to it. As soon as I entered, I released my seal and called for wings. With that, I flew up high into the semi-grey clouds and tore through the skies, towards the MegCorp building.