POV: 3rd person
"Well, isn't this a delight?" was the first thing Erwin said after meeting the Piece by Piece Tech employees. The question confounded everyone in the group except for one person. That said person rolled his deep blue eyes and replied back sarcastically, "an absolute treat."
Now that Aiden didn't have to pretend to be some meek, shy brat, his stance was completely straightened up and him leaning back on his leg gave off a nonchalant aura. He had his hands stuffed in his outer garment and his expression was screaming 'bored' to the rest of the members of the party. In reality, his heart was still hammering against his chest.
It caused the giant man's eyebrows to raise in curiosity but nothing more. Instead, he continued to ignore everyone else's questioning look and spoke his mind. "Who would've thought that you worked under a tech company?"
Aiden added a bored tone to his response, to show how much of a shit he doesn't give. It's façade though. He wanted to do nothing more than to knock everyone unconscious and hide away from the world. "It really shouldn't be that surprising, all things considered."
"It's because I considered all things that I'm saying this. I thought the other job is... exclusive."
"...What other job?" Aiden gave him a confused frown but his eyes were heated with boiling anger. He non-verbally attempted to tell the other man to shut the fuck up or else die through glowering at him. He got the message because he quickly put his hands up in defeat before putting one of them in his pocket, making him look like he was modelling for some photoshoot. They continued to stare at each other, studying and insulting each other inside their heads and they would've continued for longer if there wasn't a clearing of a throat that interrupted them.
Turned out it originated from Shinsou, who looked more puzzled than ever before. "So it can be assumed that you two know each other before today?"
The two men looked back at each other for a quick glance before Aiden answered, "yeah, something like that."
"Friendly terms?" the posh man asked.
The question caught Aiden slightly off guard because it's not something someone would usually ask, especially during the initial meeting. Aiden answered honestly nonetheless. "I did just say I did not want to be here and attempted to run away as soon as I entered the building, so that should kind of give it away."
Shinsou said nothing in response, just sent a small, amused smile Aiden's way. Instead, the CEO said something in his place, accompanied by a teasing smile. "What? We aren't friends? But... we were getting along so well the other day. I thought we were friends. Why would you want to leave?" The smile turned into a perfect sad frown, too perfect to be genuine and the blue-haired employee saw the extras falling for it. They had sympathy in their eyes for the other man but anger for their co-worker.
Aiden rolled his eyes again and fought back. "That's bull and you know it. We were at each other's throats till the next day. Anyway, I wanted to leave because I refuse to work under you."
"What's wrong with... hold on. You said you know nothing about me. Meaning you shouldn't have known I owned this company till we met. But you did know, judging by your initial behaviour. Does that mean you actually did look me up?" Erwin bent down to meet Aiden at eye level and the action caused the latter to take a step back. The former had a smug smirk resting on his face and Aiden fumed.
"I- no! I did not look you up. It was from that one time months ago. It just came to me when I entered."
"That still means you looked me up. In fact, it was even before I knew YOU existed. Does that mean... I win?"
"NO! I refuse. It's still my win. I won. It's my win and you can't take that from me."
"But I can because you knew about me before I knew about you. Isn't that the game?"
"No- I- Well- just shut up and fire me already."
The other three men were staring at the entire interaction with a newfound interest, looking back and forth like a tennis match.
Erwin sent a confused look to Aiden's way and tilted his head. "Huh? Why would I fire you?"
"... you're kidding right?"
Erwin shook his head in confusion.
"Well, if you haven't noticed by now Mr. Fonzo, I completely and utterly disrespected you and I've been bratty in the way I act and talk. On top of that, it's me. In fact, the last reason should be the main reason why I'm fired. We don't even like each other!"
"But you see, all of that would've gotten you fired if you weren't you."
"Uh, what?"
"I mean, I wouldn't really expect anything less from you. This reaction is actually the tamest out of all the possibilities."
Who does the mother fucker think he is? "Again, we only talked like twice. You know jack about me so you don't know if I'm being tame with you."
"Oh, but it was enough times for me to read you."
"... did you just throw my own words back at me?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Erwin smiled an innocent-not-so-innocent smile
Bitch. "Ok but it still doesn't change the fact that you hate me."
"I don't hate you?"
"Uh, yeah you do."
"No, I don't."
"You dislike me at the very least then"
"Hmm, not that either."
"Now you're just trying to look good."
"I always look good."
"Oh get off that pretentious throne of yours."
"I have every right to be on it."
Erwin had a cheeky grin on his face and Aiden just returned an unamused frown.
"You don't like me. I don't tolerate you. As you can see, the feeling is more or less mutual so you should just fire me."
"... Nah."
Aiden blinked twice to animate disbelief. "N-Nah?"
"Yeah, I'm not going to fire you."
Aiden contemplated whether to throw a childish tantrum or not. "But why not?!"
"Because having you work under me is quite... satisfying. Imagine, I get to boss you around and you cannot say anything back."
If the blue haired man had a pencil in his hand, it would've snapped in half due to the sheer pressure of his clutch. I refuse to give him any sense of victory or satisfaction Aiden thought to himself as he declared, "Fine, if you won't fire me, I'll just quit. Good day to you." He turned around on the spot and took one step, but only one step because Erwin said the one thing that Aiden could not fight against.
"Did you forget that I know things that no one else is meant to know? You leave this premise and I cannot guarantee the information's confidentiality."
Aiden slowly turned back to face the man with a look of vexation. "Are you seriously blackmailing us again?"
The assistant whipped his head to his boss and his mouth was slightly ajar and the other two were already frozen in befuddlement from the beginning. Fonzo ignored all the stares except Aiden's and crossed his arms over his chest. "Am I?"
Aiden's mind went into overdrive. He's bluffing. He wouldn't tell. He wouldn't dog. He gave us his words. He's also best friend's with Leo and he tends to have a good eye for people. But then again, this fucker is only loyal to the people he likes. And I already fucked that up in the initial meeting. So maybe he will snitch and everything we worked for will be gone. Just like that. His mind wasn't getting him anywhere, so he just growled back, "you're an asshole."
"Aiden!" "Hey!" this was from Enji and Will respectively, who finally snapped out of it and were simultaneously apologising to Mr. Fonzo and scolding Aiden further. The blue-haired man gave no fucks and zoned them out to continue glaring at his nemesis.
Erwin, instead of taking the obvious bait, just laughed at the comment and concluded that this conversation was over. His face turned back to professional and serious and formally stated, "Now that we got introductions and resolved all the issues–"
"No we didn't. I was forced into silence," Aiden interrupted grumpily.
"... as I was saying, issues are resolved so if can finally get to the crux of everything. We're not understaffed but I believe we don't have any employees who are qualified enough to fix the issues we've been coming across or come up with any unique ideas to handle certain situations. I'm not undermining the capabilities of my own employees but they were never trained for the things we've been coming across, so I asked for help from you guys. I'm hoping you guys could help us through this, even though it's not for your own company. Even if you can't, that's completely understandable and I will not be angered because of it. The final thing to address is that anything learnt within these walls, stay within these walls. It's risky putting such trust in strangers, especially from some other big name company but I really could not have thought of any other solution. Well, my assistant couldn't. I was actually against this entire thing. Anyway, you guys have signed the contract before coming here, yes?"
"Yes, sir. Our boss has it with him and he said he will personally give it to you," said Will in an enthusiastic tone. It's so over the top that Aiden can't stop himself from gagging internally. He swore that Shinsou did the same but it was so quick, it could be considered the trick of the light.
"Excellent. I have a meeting pretty soon so I'll quickly finish everything I need to say before departing. Among the three of you, who's considered the best?"
The new employees all looked at each other before Enji shrugged and answered, "We're not sure. We are all from different departments and we met each other for the first time today. I guess you could say we're the best at what we specialise in our own company."
"Hmm, ok in that case, who's the best at advertising here?"
"That would be me, sir." Will put his hand up and stepped a tiny bit forward.
"Great, go to the receptionist and tell them who you are, where you're from and that you're here to join the advertising team. The manager over there knows what's going on so he'll guide you from there."
"Sure!" He basically skipped his way to the receptionist desk and Aiden immediately thought simp.
"Now, between the two of you, who's knowledgeable on IT and tech parts?"
"That would be me, sir," Enji proudly declared. However, Aiden also announced, "I mean, I'm also pretty knowledgeable on that stuff as well. Considering how I build my own prototype drones and toys."
All three men looked at him with a dumbfounded Enji clearly wanted to ask more on it but he held himself back. Erwin observed Aiden a tad bit longer before turning his head towards Enji. "Well, that's convenient. We've got back up just in case one doesn't know. Enji, you can deal with it. Please follow Shinsou and he'll inform you on everything."
The assistant gave a polite smile and walked towards the elevator. Enji bid his farewell and chased after the other man. This left the two very colourful men alone. Aiden wanted to shoot himself in the leg right then and there.
Erwin thoroughly studied the electric man as he asked, "So, what else are you good at?"
Aiden squinted his eyes in suspicion. "That isn't the right question. You should be asking if I'm good at whatever is left."
"Yeah, you're going to get that but I'm still curious to know, just in case."
"Just in case?" Aiden was clearly unconvinced if his tone was saying anything.
"Yep."
"... sigh, I'm good at anything tech-related."
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"So an all-rounder in the technology industry?"
"More or less, yeah."
"How humble..."
"I'm just telling you the truth. Can you give me my task list now?"
"Eager to work under me."
Aiden said nothing but gave him a glare that could kill any normal person if they looked for a second longer. Erwin wasn't affected and smirked as he mock surrendered.
"Alright, alright. As you know or I hope you know, we have a new car model coming out and it's packed with all the newest tech and driving features. Except, we've come across an issue with the touchscreen and the applications on said touchscreen. There are all sorts of errors and we can't seem to find a way of fixing them without removing important elements. It's the control centre for the entire car so having it run perfectly is imperative. It's been stressing out everyone for the past month or so."
"... you want me to be your IT fix it guy?"
Erwin scratched his chin and sent an apologetic smile Aiden's way. "Uh, something like that? Until the problem is resolved. Then you'll be assigned to your department."
I've been demoted... to an IT handyman. Me, the greatest hacker and tech guru of this decade, has been demoted to fix-it Felix. This issue better be fucking huge and not be a "did you turn the power on and off" kind of problem. At this point, Aiden was too exhausted to continue staring at the man angrily so he surrendered with a huge sigh. "Alright, whatever. The quicker I finish, the earlier I can leave being under your care, yes?"
"Well technically, you signed a three month contract so I don't know about that."
"And you're the boss, so you can say fuck the contract and get me out of here. Look, I'm here to do my job and nothing more. If I've done my job, why would I need to stay any longer?"
"That's... a fair point... Ok, fine. If you resolve the issue before the contract period, you can get out of here. I don't believe you can though."
"*shrug* I guess we'll have to see. Now, where do I go?"
"I'll take you there but I'll have to leave you there to fend for yourself because I've got another appointment."
"Eh, I think I can manage. I'm not socially incompetent like Nero."
The two of them went to the elevator when Erwin commented, "it was completely unnecessary to diss your best friend like that."
"It's completely necessary. It's his fault that I'm here in the first place."
"It is?"
"Well, not directly. Indirectly. Well, technically... look, it just is."
"If you say so." Erwin smiled and for the first time, Aiden didn't get annoyed at it but instead joined him. Although not frequent, his smile turns out to be addicting when you're not wanting to murder him as much. They're in the metal box, waiting for its arrival at their destination. The comfortable silence surrounded them and Aiden assumed it was going to be like that till they reach their floor but Erwin addressed something that should've been addressed from the beginning.
"Also, next time you come to work, you're coming in your suit."
"Oh... right. Can I get special considerations?"
"No."
After that, Aiden brooded through the rest of the day.