Note:
- This chapter and maybe the following isn't going to be really action packed (well at least that's what I decided on the 8th of August 2020) to kind of make it into a breather. I feel like I've been pushing my boys into different intense conflicts back to back. I feel bad. So take it as kind of like a filler arc or maybe just character development arc.
- This story was not meant to be this action packed. I regret making this story my first T_T. it could've been so much better.
- I still don't know with POV I like best so you're still going to have to deal with the inconsistency
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POV: Nero
It was Thursday, three days after Jax the Third was stabbed twice by my best friend and my boss. It was two days after that the cops found Jax's body and ordered an investigation on him and what had occurred to him. It was also two days after that Aiden finally calmed down and apologised for everything, including the occurrence during the Oddity meeting. It was a teary 3 hours. It was one day after that the incident was covered up by Aiden once again and one day after the arrest of Jax the Third due to serial murders, discovered during the investigation.
I was walking into the MegCorp building and looking around at my fellow co-workers. Like me, everyone was wearing their casual clothes for the randomly declared casual clothes day (I seriously have no fucking clue what Leo is thinking half the time). Well... casual was a bit of stretch. Most were dressed to impress. Heavy make-up, heavy jewellery and branded clothing. You could say it's casual in comparison to the usual. I couldn't really complain though as I'd also joined the bandwagon. It's not like I wanted to though. I was perfectly fine going in sweatpants and hoodie but Aiden refused with his entire life. He went as far as to say he will smash my PS4 as retaliation for not listening to him. That man scares me sometimes.
So he gave me his clothes since he's all chic and shit. I am currently wearing a simple supreme (disgusting) shirt with a black Louis Vuitton sweater on top, mini LV's scattered in an orderly fashion throughout the clothing. Accompanied with it is Tommy Hilfiger jeans that fit surprisingly well, hugging me in the right places. However, said right places were mostly covered up by my tan, brownish trench coat. That's the only thing that's mine, so you know it's from the sale section of Target. It was still my favourite though. It's so warm. Anyway, that the rest was provided by my best friend.
The circular frames sitting on the bridge of my nose (they still hadn't cracked even after everything they'd been through. I'm becoming concerned because I'm growing weirdly attached to them), the multitude of rings and the bling on my neck were all provided by me. It's one of the things I spent money well on. I also finally got to fill the total of 11 holes present across both my ears with jewellery as well as wear the ring for my lip piercing to work. I won't lie when I say it changed my appearance drastically and gave me a hot emo look.
The lip ring definitely did not go unnoticed by my surrounding as I felt a couple of passers-by fascinated and shocked stares. My face heated up and ducked my head a bit. Yes. This was the worst idea. Why did I think people will ignore this? They're all old men and women who go home, feed their family dinner while talking about the weather, then proceed on to tell their children bedtime stories, finally ending the day with their significant other to talk about the stocks for the day.
As I was about to reach the security gates, I heard my name being called from behind me. How they recognised me from my back baffled me but I turned around anyway. I spun around on the spot and in the near distance, I saw Matthew (in his sweater and jeans) as well as Pearl (in a simple short dress) enthusiastically waving their hands at him. A shy smile rested on my lips. Once they got closer, Matthew began rambling off.
"Good morning Nero! Bro, do I have news for you. So you know... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"
Matthew's sudden outburst scared the living daylights out of me and visibly jumped up. I go into defence mode and looked around for anything suspicious. Only to find nothing. My tone came out urgent, "What? What is it?"
"What is THAT?!" This time Pearl had her eyes open wide and was staring at my lips in interest. Matthew brought up his finger to poke at the ring at the corner of my lip. That's when it occurred to me what the outburst was about. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, YOU SHITTY BOSS? THAT'S WHY YOU FUCKING SCREAMED AT MY FACE LIKE A LUNATIC?! My internal wrath didn't show on my face but I disbelievingly breathed out, "You mean my lip piercing?"
"YEAH!"
It's quiet between the three of us for a moment before I see the expectation in his eyes. This motherfucker expects an answer to his question... When I already answered his question.
"... It's my lip piercing?"
Now he was blinking at me like I was the stupid one. "I know that."
I couldn't hold it in. "Then why the fuck did y—"
"What I MEANT is when the fuck did you get that?"
"That's not what you asked. You asked—"
"I KNOW WHAT I ASKED! NOW ANSWER THE QUESTION."
The interaction between us gathered a giggle out of Pearl that was muffled by her bad attempt at holding it back.
I rolled my eyes at Matthew. "Geez, no need to get snappy."
"I swear to fucking go—"
"I always had a lip piercing."
"... No you didn't"
"Uh, yeah I did."
"Uh, no you didn't."
"With all due respect boss, I would fucking know when I got my piercing and when I didn't since I'M THE ONE WHO GOT IT."
"Ok but I've never seen you with it before today."
Ohmygodhowishemyboss? How did he get hired? I'm going to get a migraine before work even begins. I rubbed my forehead with my thumb and pointer in order to prevent any upcoming pain. I ground out in annoyance, "The reason you haven't seen me with this is because facial piercings and a multitude of ear piercings are not part of the uniform. Meaning, I'm NOT ALLOWED to wear it."
"... Oh yeah. Could've just said so. No need to be crabby."
"This dumb bitch, I oughta—"
I didn't finish my jibe because Pearl was unable to hold it in anymore and was legitimately rolling on the floor laughing. Well, it was more crouching on the floor laughing but pish, posh. Her laughter lightened the already light-hearted mood and brought a smile to both our faces.
"Hey, gang." Mason joined our group and was confused by the current sight. "Uh, why is Pearl losing her shit on the floor?" He looked back up to us for an explanation but before either of us could say anything, the man's eyes enlarged and he bubbly exclaimed, "Holy shit! Is that a lip piercing?"
An involuntary, annoyed groan came out of me and I gave him a flat expression. "Yes. It is. It is the stem cause for Pearl's fall. Look, we have time since we need to actually clock in. Do you just want to sit down in the sitting area and I'll just give you the backstory? Because you guys are definitely going to pester me about a backstory."
Enthusiastic nods are the only responses I get from my friends (You heard me bitches. F r i e n d s o t h e r t h a n A i d e n. I will never let this live down). We sit and begin explaining the short story. It was just a bet. If I manage to not burn a single element of cooking pasta, I wouldn't have to get a piercing with him. He also gets to choose where it goes. I burnt the pasta. So yeah, he got an eyebrow piercing whilst he got me the lip piercing.
By the time I finished the story, everyone was making fun of my lack of ability to cook and roasted the shit out of me. I just had to clench my teeth through it all or else there would be three dead bodies, flung across the reception area. I'll just destroy them during work or something. It's not hard finding something wrong with them anyway. They went on and on but out of nowhere, Mason and Pearl abruptly shut their mouth and their face turns into a mixture of seriousness and surprise. Their eyes were in shock and for a second, I assumed they'd just noticed my vast number of ear piercings but they were looking... behind me? Matthew had also shut up now and was looking in the same direction but with a more entertained look. He had that trademark shit-eating smirk.
Before I could spin around in my seat to see what the deal is, darkness overwhelmed my sight and I felt soft yet callous palms placed over my eyes. I instinctively put my own hands over the stranger's and gripped tight, preparing for the worst. Instantly, I calm down when a familiar, comforting but spicy scent hits my nose. There was a hint of black pepper and Italian bergamot but it was balanced out with vanilla and nutmeg. It smelt fucking good. I relaxed back completely (as well as shivered a little) when the man of my recent dreams and partner of recent incidents requested in his baritone, British accent "Guess who," literally next to my ear. It was so breathy and hot and oh my god...
I played along with his game and answered back with honey dripping in my voice. "Ooh I don't know. Oh my god, are you my boyfriend number 7?! Steven?!"
I immediately got my eyesight back and when I blinked to readjust to the light, I came face to face with an upside-down Leo. A frowning upside down Leo. The man was behind me and leaning forward to look at me, essentially pressing his front to the back of my head. He bitterly demanded, "What do you mean boyfriend number 7?" It was so fucking hard but I managed to keep a straight face when answering back. "What's there to be confused about? Polyamorous relationships are the rave these days. There's Boyfriend 1, Mike. 2, Bobby., 3, Rob. 4, Bob. 5, Will. 6, Phil. 7, Felix. 8, Steven. And 9, I-can't-believe-you're-actually-taking-me-seriously."
As soon as I finished, a fit of laughter came out and I laughed so hard, tears formed. I was not the only one. Matthew was legitimately, like actually rolling on the floor laughing and the other two were trying SO DAMN HARD to hold back their laughs but failing. Dreadfully. You could also sense fear since they probably think they're going to get fired after this.
Speaking of dreadfully, MegCorp's CEO was sitting on my chair's right arm and returning the deathliest glare the world had ever seen. If looks can kill, I'd already be in hell's pit by now. It went on for a moment before you could see an idea pop into his head and the classic, smug smirk was back on his dangerously gorgeous face. I'm sensing extremely bad vibes right now. I need to run. Fast. I couldn't get up though because soon, Leo had his left arm around me and had me in a chokehold. Ignoring my struggles, he PURPOSEFULLY threw a question at me, loudly and cheerfully. A terrifying question.
"So Nero, did you complete the project I gave you?"
"What? What project are you on ab—" I quickly figured out what he was referring to and I shut my mouth, teeth clacking against each other. My face paled as fast as flash running to the supermarket and I was ready to call out Raziel to fly me to Alaska. The asshole knew my reaction and proceeded to mischievously answer the unfinished question anyway.
"Oh, you know, the one where I tasked you to give me a- MMMPPHH?!" My hand immediately flew up to block his mouth and held it there, hard. The man let go of me now and tried to pry it off but I refused to let go. I gave my attention to my shocked, amused and unhinged friends (the rest of the small crowd of employees look just as unhinged as well) and present them with a fake, reassuring smile. "It seems I have to talk about the project with boss sir. In private. I'll see you guys in the office in a bit. Don't wait for me. Please." My voice came out all bubbly but anyone could tell that it was fake and I was actually very distressed. Suddenly, a wet sensation presented itself at the palm of my hand I directed a disgusted face at him.
I grabbed Leo's wrist with the same hand (as revenge) and was about to walk off but Matthew's delighted voice stopped me. "Since when were you such good friends with the boss?"
Deadpanned answer was all he gets. "I'm not friends with him."
Leo brought his free hand to his chest and faked a hurt look. "What? If anything, we should be more than friends. Honestly, how could you say that? After everything we've been through together. Like on Monday where—"
My ears were burning and my freckles were hidden behind the redness of my cheeks. I faced him and shouted out, "STOP GIVING THEM THE WRONG IDEA!" I quickly turned back to my three friends and anxiously reassured their amused faces, "Nothing happened. Like at all. I swear. I'm going to go now to discuss this fuck- I mean this stupid project."
As I stormed off with an entertained Leo in tow, I heard the manager's voice call out, "We expect an explanation when you get back!" I flipped the bird at him without looking back and continued on my path.
"Uh, Nero? Where are we going?" The damn fucko sounded so fucking self-satisfied that it made me want to punch him. In the face. With my lip- I mean fist. Definitely fist.
My step faltered for a moment before I thought of something and my determination to get the fuck out of there reignited.
"W-Well, we're going t-to... your floor! Yes, we're going to your office floor."
"Can I oppose that option?"
"No."
"Actually, I can."
"No."
"But I'm your bo—"
"And I'm your mum. We're going there and that's final."
"But you're not my mu-"
"Don't care."
"...Fine." You could practically hear the pouting and it sounded adorable, so it put a secret smile on my lips.