Previously:
... But I don't stop. I don't stop. I will not stop.
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POV: Nero
So I stopped.
Ok, hear me out. I was on the verge of basically killing the damn guy but Aiden happened to be one of the observers (Aiden broke a bit of the force field from the top to watch) and when he noticed me basically losing my shit (I have no clue how), he broke me out of my daze by ringing my phone that surprisingly didn't die from all the beating. I picked it up and cautiously said, "Hello?"
"NERO STOP! Don't you dare kill him!"
Yeah so after that, I stopped, Aiden jumped down, began scolding me but I was zoned out because all the adrenaline was finally rushing out and the tiredness was finally kicking in. Didn't help that I was still trying to maintain that stupid force field.
"Nero, are you listening to me?"
"Honestly, no."
Aiden gave me a look. "Well, I'm not going to repeat everything I just said so I'm just going to ask the important stuff. Why on earth did you call for your demon friend?"
"Well hello to you too, asshole."
"He says hello asshole. Also, I called him out because I needed a shit ton of his power. You know, to maintain this piece of shit. That you happened to crack open." I pointed at the force field's hole.
"Oi, I needed to see in. I get best friend privileges. Tell the evil mother fucker I said hi too."
"...He liked the name."
"It wasn't a compliment."
I just shrug. "Just relaying the message."
Aiden looked at his phone and I swore there was slight panic on his face but it passed by too quick to confirm. "Ok. Cool. Now that you're done here, you should go back home. Like now."
"... Why the rush?"
"The longer we keep the force field up, the more time we give the government assholes to find us. I'm pretty sure one of the bystanders called for them."
"Well shit. Ok, I'm going to fly to MegCorp now."
I floated up to the hole but before I could leave, Aiden asked in an alarmed tone, "Wait, why are you going back to work? Didn't you take the day off?"
"No, I did. I just realised I left my work in the office that needs to be done by tomorrow. So I'm just going to pick it up before I go home."
My best friend gave me an incredulous look. "Are you sure that's all you're going for?"
"Yes Aiden trust me, I'm way too fucking drained to do anything else right now. I just want a soft surface to crash on and my bed really sounds nice right now. Anyway, as soon as I'm in the clouds, I'm going to remove the force field. Somehow hide yourself or something."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me. Get home safe. We can talk uh tomorrow or something. About the other thing."
With a tired nod, I bid him goodbye and flew up to blend in with the grey clouds. The grey clouds that were drizzling water. "Oh for fucks sake. Now my suit is wet."
"Honey, it's not just wet. It's dirty from all the tumbling around and has a huge hole in the shoulders. I think the suit being wet should be the least of your concerns."
"*sigh* yeah probably. I'm just too out of it right now. I feel as if I'm about to crash back down to the ground any second now."
"Now that won't be any good, will it? I shall keep you up until you reach your destination. So, what have we learnt today"
"Not to listen to you ever again?"
"No, the opposite. You should've just used the last spell, first. Now, look at you. All tired and shit."
"Thank you so much for your wise advice... AFTER I had already done the deed."
"You never asked."
"And for good reason. Anyway, I'm going to put you back to your prison now. As much as I love your company, I'm currently very grouchy."
"Is it going to be another two years if before we meet again?"
"Something is telling me... it'll probably be a lot sooner. Bye Raziel"
"Goodbye Nerovsky. Don't have another panic attack. Or do actually. It brings me out."
"... No."
I called back my powers, only keeping my wings out. It's raining, I have cuts and bruises everywhere and I have homework. This day might be just as bad as the Chase day.
♤♧♡♢
By the time I land on the empty rooftop of MegCorp, I was drenched, cold and my hair was sticking to my face. At that point, I was so exhausted, I found it energy consuming to just breathe properly. The entire rooftop was swaying side to side and a painful throbbing in the back of my skull turned everything black temporarily. In an attempt to alleviate the spinning of the rooftop, I shook my head vigorously, only for it to get worse. In retrospect, the idea was fucking stupid but cut me some slack. Why the fuck is everything spinning? This never happened before... well now that I'm here anyway, I might as well sneak in and try to get my shit without getting spotted.
So mission get-my-work-without-getting-caught was underway. I hid all the way (even the elevator was empty) and was successfully able to retrieve the target documents (due to most of the people being on break). However, as I was about to sneak back out to the elevator to go back up, I literally ran into Matthew, who was leaving the elevator. It wasn't even my fault. He was the one on his phone and super distracted. As soon as we bumped into each other, I quietly cursed to myself because Matthew looked up, analysed me and his face turned completely hysteric in concern. "NERO?! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"
WHY IS HE SCREAMING?! In panic, slapped my hand over his mouth and dragged his muffling ass back into the elevator. I pressed the top floor and quickly closed the elevator. I began addressing (more or less) his worried inquires. "I'm fine. It looks worse than it actually feels. I just got caught up in something that needed to be dealt with today so that's why I couldn't make it to work." Is it me or is the elevator going sideways instead of up? And why are am I seeing black spots every once in a while?
Matthew anxiously replied back, "YOU DON'T LOOK FINE LIKE AT ALL?! Should I really take your word for it? Oh my god... are you actually part of the mafia? I mean I had my suspici-"
I cut off my manager because his rambling was making my head throb harder and made my breathing heavier. "I'm *breath* not part of *heavy breath* the mafia. I just need you *heavy breath* to tell no one that I was here. *breath* Promise?" What the fuck... is going on? It shouldn't be this bad. I've used more of my power before and I wasn't half this bad. Am I... drugged?
"Wuh what? Why? Nero, you're looking worse by the second and you're warming up quite rapidly. We need to take you to the hospital NOW! Why the fuck are we on the top floor?" Matthew barely let the door open to the 51st floor before punching the ground floor and the close button. He had put my arm around his shoulders and held me up.
"Matt... I can't *heavy breath* go to the... hospital. I'm going... *breath* home."
"Like hell you are! What the fuck are you doing here anyway? You have the day off."
I didn't have the energy to reply or push him off by the time we reach the ground floor. We were walking towards the exit when it re-registered that Matthew was taking me to the hospital. No, shit! With a sudden burst of renewed energy (borrowed from the ex-demon king himself), I pushed myself off Matthew and stumbled a few metres away from him. Shock settled on his face and was about to step closer but I shakily put my hand up in resistance. "Matt... I'm not... going to the hospital. I'll... deal with it... myself."
With that being said, I made my way towards the exit. I felt heavy the stares of onlookers but it wasn't as heavy as the feeling in my legs as I tried to take a step. The distance to the door felt kilometres away and a part of me gave up. No. you're nearly there. Kind of. The throbbing was getting a lot worse and the room transformed into a merry-go-round. Every second blink was blurry, even with my glasses (A/N I completely forgot to mention but Nero took off his glasses before he was fighting Jax. It put it away during his transformation). In the distance, I saw a familiar blue-haired male looking frantically for something. Once his ice blue eyes landed on me, he fast-walked towards my direction. I stopped in shock but also in surrender, now that my head weighed like I was balancing a bus on top of it. Everything was blurry and my eyelids were heavy. Aiden's mouth was moving but all I heard was the high shrilled frequency and my heavy inhales.
All of a sudden, I'm grabbed on my arm and spun around 90 degrees by someone who was not Aiden. Am I going to be stabbed? I blinked as much as I could to clear up my vision and for a moment, it did clear up and I came face to face with the most beautiful face known to mankind. "...Le...o...?"
His mouth was moving but I didn't care. I was too busy basking in the warmth and comfort radiating from his body.
He always seems to have that effect on me. It'd be nice... if he was mine to keep.
With the last of my consciousness, I curled my lips up in thankfulness before I permitted my body to slump against his, letting the darkness take over. The last thing I heard wasn't the shrilled frequency but a concerned, baritone yell of my name.
♤♧♡♢
POV: Aiden (A/N that's right bitches. We finally get to see things from Aiden's point of view... for a short while... for now)
"NERO!"
I approached the two men and immediately got in the MegCorp's CEO's personal space. Fuck politeness, I had a temperature of an unconscious body to check. "Shit! He's burning up to inhuman temperatures." There was murmuring going around us, phones out like we were impressive buskers and I was about to snap and tell them to fuck off but someone else beat us to it.
"Everyone! Leave! There is nothing to see here and it's none of your business. GET TO WORK IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET FIRED ON THE SPOT!" I didn't recognise who he was but he already earned my respect. Everyone seemed to be scared out of their wits and obeyed immediately. I attended back to Nero and Leonardo. The latter gave up trying to make my best friend stand and opted for carrying him... bridal style. Oh, I'm so going to give him so much shit when he wakes up... if he wakes up. NO DON'T THINK LIKE THAT. I snapped out of it at the same time as Leonardo said something other than my best friend's name, "What the hell happened? He looks like he's been mauled. Actually, tell me later. Let's take him to the hospital."
"No!" "No!"
I whipped my head in the direction of the fourth party member, the same person who told everyone else to scram. The other man took the chance to speak up again. "When I found Nero, he was quite adamant on not going to the hospital. He went as far as to push me away with the last of strength when I practically was forcing him to go. I think there might be a reason why he can't go."
"And you're damn right. He can't go. Reasons. Anyway, I got the solution." I brought out the antidote stolen (by yours truly) from the research labs and injected it into Nero, just above his shoulder wound. "Now all he needs is proper rest in a comfortable bed. That is if I made it on time. I can't tell yet but it's a game of perseverance and luck."
The other two looked gloomy and distressed from the news and I kind of felt bad for being so blunt. I forgot not everyone is like Nero, who loves blunt news rather than hedging. "Don't worry too much. I know my best friend and he's been through worse. He will be fine." I hope he is fine. I will curse this entire world if it takes him away from me. "Anyway, it would be preferred if we can lay him down ASAP. I can take him back to my place but it's quite far and I can't exactly be flying around. His place is too uncomfortable. So would any of you guys be willing to share your beds, just until he recovers?"
Leonardo immediately volunteered. "My place is probably the closest. Especially since I have that. I have a comfortable place if I do say so myself. It should meet your criteria."
"That's great! Let's go!"
"Only! Under certain conditions."
"... What... conditions?" Are you kidding me?! My best friend is dying here?!
"You explain everything that happened from the moment he left my car, up until now. I also want to know how the fuck you got my number. Do you understand how freaked out I was when a random voice started screaming at me to find Nero or else he's going to die?"
I scratched the back of my head apologetically. "Uh yeah sorry about that. Yeah, I guess I can explain that. As for what happened today... I'll have to discuss with Nero and you'll so have to ask him yourself. I missed half of it myself. We... We will do our best to tell you as much as we can though."
The man gave me a doubtful and hesitant look before he released a conceding sigh. "I can accept that. Let's go to my office." He walked to the elevators, Nero clutched close to his chest. Adorable. I need to secretly take photos somehow.
"Wait aren't we going to your place?"
"We are."
"But the exit is... What?"
Leonardo gave a small laugh as a response before he picked his phone out of his pocket and called someone.
"Oi Erwin, come to my office... it's an emergency... can I just explain it once you arrive... god you're such a prat. I need to go to my place because I have an unconscious body in tow that needs immediate care... what! No, I didn't nearly kill someone... you fucking wanker I swear I'm going to- just fucking come to my office and open up a gate to my place!... I will tell your date on Friday that you have a foot fetish if you're not here in 30 seconds... I know you don't but they'll believe me over you... because they love eating up dirt on people... that's what I thought... see you soon."
His interaction kind of reminded me of mine with Nero so it bubbled a little chuckle out of me. He looked at me with one of his eyebrows raised in question as we go up the elevator. I cleared my throat and pretended I never reacted to his conversation.
"Was that Erwin Fonzo? CEO of Nichola and Co?"
"That would be correct."
"Then couldn't you just get him to send us to my place?"
"Firstly, he can only travel to places he's been to at least once before. Secondly, if I did that, I wouldn't get the answers to the many questions that I have for the both of you. And these questions don't only deal with today's ordeal."
"... Fair enough. Can't really argue with you there."
It was silent for the rest of the way home.