Chapter 17 - How high end can one be?

Note:

- This is a pretty long chapter (word wise) but it's pretty slow I guess since it's just describing shit

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POV: Nerovsky

"Yes Aiden I know what to say and what not to say. Stop mothering me down. I'm older than you."

"BY ONLY A FEW MONTHS YOU NUMBSKULL." I wince from the unexpected volume and put the device away from my ear. Aiden goes back to normal again and I barely catch what he says before I put the phone back to my ear. "God I hate your name. I can't even create a punny insult. Anyway, clearly you need to be mothered down considering the shit you pulled yesterday."

"For the fiftieth time it was not my-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah it wasn't your fault. Except it was partially your fault and any fault is bad so now you deserve to be lectured by me like a mother for at least a week."

A groan of frustration escaped from me. Leave me alone Aiden. I swear to god one day if I don't give you shit for fucking up... Maybe shaving off that light blue hair of yours might be a good punishment. Your verbal lecture is just as equivalent to that. "Yes ok fine whatever. I'm here now. I'm gonna go now. Stop neglecting work and actually work. How are you not fired yet for just casually calling me without a break?"

"Don't tell me how to do my job. It's because I know how to do my job and am the best at it that I have the freedom to do whatever the fuck I want..." I hear more muffled voices on the other end and Aiden momentarily gave his attention to them. He quickly came back to say, "looks like my godly skills are needed now. Bye."

He ended the call without a reply back and I stared at my lock screen once again. Of course he would get the last word. This is cues for another sigh of irritation. So I did that and then stared at the MegCorp revolving door, which is spun in front of me. Last time I stood here and appreciated the spinning, I was here for my first day. Now I'm doing this on my last. Don't you love how everything just comes in full circle. With that as the closing comment, I entered and immediately headed for the front desk. The place was a bit empty since it's 6:25pm and most of the workers were clocked out by now. However, majority of the remaining workers seemed to have recognised me as 'the one who didn't chase after Chase' (yes I already got dubbed a name) and began blatantly stared at me so it felt like the entire company staff was on this floor. The stares varied from gawking to gaping to studying and all of which were accompanied with whisper and gossip.

My question is... the video got taken down from online in like 4 hours. How the fuck has so many people seen it? Can't people get a life or something? Old people were right. Curse the digital age.

I did the best to ignore all the rudeness around me, I approached the receptionists in confident strides. Well I tried to but honestly, it was probably just timid, stiff leg movements because come on, I had self-diagnosed social anxiety. I could not deal with all the attention on me. Once I reached the desk, the first thing I noticed was that it's not the same receptionist from yesterday. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if bitchface gave her PTSD of some sort after their reaction. Poor looked like the chick from The Ring was standing in front of her.

A flat, alto voice brought me back to reality. "Hello. Welcome to MegCorp. How may I help you?" Girl did you go through war or something? Why do YOU sound as dead as a door nail? You weren't even there yesterday. Well at least she isn't gaping at me.

"I- well- um-" Clearly her flat enthusiasm had caught me off-guard and caused internal panic within me because now I felt like I'd done something wrong. Her face didn't change though and she continued to dully look at me so I took one large inhale and start again. "I-I'm here to pick up my um blazer and satchel from um yesterday. I also um have an-an appointment fo-for a meeting with the CEO, Mr. Covell. At 6:35pm?"

"Name?"

"Um Nerovsky Poston?"

"Why do you sound like, unsure of your name?"

"Huh?"

She just blinked slowly as a rebuttal. "Yeah. I'll just check on the system." Clack, clack, clack goes the keyboard. I'd rather be at home and be bored. "So you're on the system. So you can like go through and wait on the like floor. It is the 50th floor. The like secretary will take over from there."

"Oh um thanks..." Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. Does boss sir always hire such quirky people? I patiently stood in front of the desk and waited until I retrieved the items from yesterday. Instead, I got back the same dull voice.

"So like, why are you still standing there?"

I felt my left eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Um my blazer and satchel bag? I'd like to have it back?"

"Oh. Right. Yeah ok." She reached under the desk and magically pulled out my items, handed it over the marble bench. I thanked her and headed towards the elevators.

As I waited for one of the elevators, the obvious stares began to irk me and I was tempted to just knock them unconscious with a large release of power but I didn't. Because I didn't need Aiden eating me up. The elevator finally arrived and I entered alone. I pressed the 50 button and pressed the close repeatedly. I'd rather not risk small talk. God seemed to have semi forgiven me for my sins of yesterday because the door closed without anyone having entered last minute (because knowing my luck, that probably would've happened). The elevator travelled smoothly without any rattles in about 10 seconds before it deposited me on to the 50th floor. The CEO floor. Also dubbed as the Demon's Den. I didn't know why but I found it quite funny. Considering how the real demon's den has entered the floor now for the first time.

Like all the other floors, the interior design is modernised but this was to the max with white everywhere. White tiling on the floor (accompanied with a wood where the wood created a walkway kind of thing), white ceilings with 30W LED downlights and off-white marbling on majority of the walls. Some walls were feature walls with some nifty designs.

As you walked further in from the elevator, you come across two pathways, created by the wood panels on the floor. One went straight and the other one 45 degrees to the right. Now I was not been told which fucking path I take but in the distance of the straight path, I see a desk with someone sitting on there. So I'm just gonna assume that's the secretary and her desk.

I shook a bit because I hated having no clue where to go, I advanced towards the also-white desk. I didn't even appreciate the area around me while I walked because I was too busy trying calm down my rapid heart. Oh god. I hate talking to strangers. Why am I here? Should I just quit? Like it would save so much time. I finally arrived but the person behind the desk didn't notice me. She had her head down and seemed to be concentrated on writing something out. Oh god I have to break someone's intense concentration. I'm so mean. I should just leave. But shouldn't. I'm so sorry. With all the little courage I had I asked, "Um ar-are you Mr. Covell's secretary?"

The lady jumped a bit in her chair in surprise and looked at me with a bit of a panicked face. She put down her pen and grasped her dress above her heart, she wheezily responded, "Jesus Christ you scared the living daylights out of me. I did not hear you."

I felt blood rush to my face and look down. In an abashed tone, I quietly apologised. "I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

She gave a light-hearted chuckle and I gazed up to see a pretty smile settled on her face. "Oh, it's alright dear. Don't freak yourself over it. I believe you asked a question."

I gave her a shy nod. Her warm aura is welcoming and helped me relax a bit.

"Well yes I am indeed the secretary of Mr. Covell. How may I help you?"

"I have an appointment with Mr. Covell at 6:35pm? I am a bit early but I can wait."

Her eyebrows began to raise and eyes became more rounded in genuine surprise. With the apparent shock, she breathily stated (NOT QUESTION), "You're Nerovsky Poston."

I was squirming uncomfortably in my spot and simply replied with "yes" in order to fast forward this conversation.

She absentmindedly kept nodding at me. Um is she gonna stop? "Um?"

That snapped her out of it. "RIGHT! Yes. Mr. Covell is already free. You can go in now. If you walk down a bit further, it's the door on the left. The only door there."

"Thank you."

I followed the given instructions and eventually in front of a rosewood door. There was gold nameplate with 'Leonardo Covell, Founder of MegCorp'. I bet this entire door costs more than 6 month of rent. I inhale large amounts of air for encouragement before knocking on the door.

My favourite baritone voice came out a bit muffled when "come in" was said.

I opened the door and peeked inside and-OH MY GOD IS HE STRIPPING? (spoiler: no. he's not.)

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POV: Leonardo

10 MINUTES BEFORE NERO ARRIVES

I leaned back on my chair as I appreciated the newly arrived tea. It's earl grey, which was quite basic but it was still good, especially after a long day's work. I was facing outwards the windowpanes, where I appreciated the semi night sky (it's a short day after all). Unlike yesterday, there were clouds present, which made the stars invisible and the moon was barely visible. That reminded me, it was nearly time for Nero to come in, the final appointment. I would not be lying if were to say that I wasn't looking forward to the meeting. Ever since out first... well second (wait... third?) meeting a month ago, you could say I was disappointed that I hadn't ran into him at all afterwards. He had piqued my interest but not enough to voluntarily seek him out. Because I had met people who interested me in the same way but just turned out to be like the others because the interesting persona happened to be a façade to get close to me. However, after yesterday, even without knowing jack all about Nero, I could tell he was not exactly ordinary... even with the Oddity, he was completely outside the norm. He was completely shrouded in mystery that I found myself wanting to solve like Sherlock Holmes.

Anyway, let's go through a short summary of the emotional rollercoaster I experienced just because of this one wanker. Yes, wanker because the bastard emotionally tired me out UNINTENTIONALLY and that hasn't happened in years. Anyway it started when I was enjoying my short break before my next meeting with Erwin. Why Erwin decided to visit me is completely lost to me and sometimes I think he gave up owning the company at some point and goes fishing for a living instead. Regardless, I got a call from a very panic sounding receptionist which told me that there was an employee arguing with a client. Now this has happened before and it could be resolved without me last time so I left it alone, get someone else or something. However, what got me downstairs was when she said it was Beatrice Chase that was involved. You know, the daughter of one of our long time partners. That resulted in me swearing internally in anger and having to have notified them of our arrival in 30 seconds. Not only was this no name tarnishing the company name but they're also about to lose me a lot for said company. I got my suit jacket and fast walked out of the room without explaining what's going on to my best friend but he doesn't even question it, following me out as well.

Once we reached the ground floor, the first thing Erwin and I observed was the destroyed couches (stuffing oozing out of them), whip-like marks on the floor plus floor and finally, Beatrice had pink strings floating around her as if she were floating underwater. It seemed she hadn't noticed our arrival and I observed her scowling at the front desk (which now has harden string coming out of it). Is someone behind the desk? More importantly, she broke the law and got innocent people involved on top of that. I finally gathered their attention after I demanded for an explanation quite loudly and surprise, surprise, the one who rose from behind the desk is Mr. Nerovsky Poston. Oh you're fucking kidding me. Once the recognition hit, I felt enraged because I played nice boss the first time and let him go, only for him to fuck up again. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was slightly interested in him and finding out he was the employee screwing shit up made me very disappointed. I felt a growl bubbling up my throat but I held it back in favour of an explanation from preferably both parties. Ms. Chase goes first and her story from the get-go sounds extremely biased, exaggerated and a bit fabricated. She makes herself the victim and I saw tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Now, there wasn't any evidence against her statement so I had no choice but to believe her, leaving me to give a death glare directed at Nerovsky. That was short lived though because the man defended his honour which in return left me completely perplexed. At least he referred to hard evidence to back up his claims. Before I could even question him, he decided then and there that he was going to leave, which irked the hell out of him. I was going to stop him but Beatrice beat me to it by attacking him, which was swiftly avoided. Too swiftly... like he's used to be attacked out of nowhere. How peculiar... So at this point, I've had about 3 different mood swings and I'm not done.

Time skip to when Nero was about to enter the portal to the rooftop and you found my mind as well as emotions is more muddled than ever. Me, who is known to be cool, observant, level-headed and a great people reader was completely confounded by this one man. He wanted to move the rooftop to not involve bystanders. My heart warmed up to that and respected for him grew a little bit. It gave me a tiny insight to his aware and considerate nature. He's going to fight her on the rooftop... without an Oddity. The second thought got me into a bit of a nervousness and concern because he was my employee and my employee's safety is my number one priority. It was not because it was Nerovsky that I was bit more anxious than I usually would and it was not because of this fact that I grabbed on to his arm to stop him. When I did grab his arm, he initially gave me a shy smile with fondness hidden behind it which most definitely did not take a bit of my breath away. He did not look angelic at that moment. But that smile drooped a little after I said my worries and his eyes had coldness added to it. Did I say something wrong? Reassurance given, he disappeared through the portal. Except I wasn't reassured so I ignored his only request and got Erwin to take us behind the door of the entrance to the rooftop

We watch the fight in awe. Random thoughts were running through my mind as we watch the entire exchange. How on earth is he meant to go against her? He's good at dodging... is he a coward? Woah he can jump high... is he balancing on the pole?? Does he think he's Spiderman or something? Wait is he seriously appreciating the sky now? Can't see his expression though. I still don't get how he's going to- wait did she just say he possess an Oddity? Maybe I should've read his application. Anyway why isn't he using it? Why is Erwin smirking at me? Oh Chase forced him on the floor.. by bringing down my pole. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure she made all the damage so far... well at least Poston is on the ground now. And now he's frozen. Is he thinking of counter move finally? What in the of the queen? Just what is he doing... she sounds like she's dying... Well he explained it... why isn't he stopping, she clearly has had enough... ok now it's gone too far (I give a vocal growl and beginning opening the slightly ajar door to end the torture. However, Erwin stops me with a hard grip on my wrist and tells me to look ahead.) Oh he stopped... and apparently found out about us as well.

Once we were called out and face to face with Nerovsky, you could plainly see the newly forming eyebags and droopy ness of his eyes... and basically his entire posture due to exhaustion. Even the manner of the way he spoke was screaming fatigue. Kind of felt bad but not bad enough to let him go immediately. I had questions and I wanted them answered. And answering he did... well some of them. He said he would do the rest the next day. Once we basically finished, I was definitely siding with the employee but it brought many other issues such as Chase, the deal, the usage of Oddities and many more, which got me in a contemplative trance. Ultimately, I just could not be bothered dealing with it at that moment so I decided to leave it for future me. Instead, I put my attention on Nerovsky once again, only to see him in his own daze. He was once again gazing at the stars in the sky with an obvious appreciative smile, the brightest stars (and surrounding city lights) bouncing off his glasses. The light of the moon combined with the bright fairy lights as well as a gust of wind from behind him gave him an ethereal glow. It made him look breathless. Literally. My breath hitched and I was very obviously checking him out with enamoured eyes. I think I fell a bit in love with him was the first thought that crossed my mind, before I trashed it in my mental brain. Wait I'm straight... I think... hold on... Erwin is here. Yeah so I had forgotten Erwin was also there and when I turned to him, he had the most shit-eating smirk resting on his face and his eyes danced in blatant amusement. Fuck I got caught staring by probably the worst person ever. I felt my ears heating up and my cheeks became redder but that doesn't stop me sending death threats to him through my eyes. It was this moment that Nero looked down at us.

Now if jumped forward to when Nero got the phone call from his friend (very dodgy friend), it would mark the first time I had seen utter fear and horror cross his face. His hands were visibly shaking and he took a huge gulp. My immediate assumption was is that the mafia boss or your mother or something? Which was obviously not the case but the call regardless took Erwin and I was in a loop of pure confusion. We heard the screaming from the other side but couldn't once he kind of calmed down. That bummed the hell out of both of us because Nero's replies were cryptic and dubious as my non-existent mother-in-law. He asked for his video to be taken down everywhere and the dude just said yes? Where the fuck does he have that power. And why is dead body and killing coming up in the conversation so much? Are you a good guy or bad guy? By the end of it, my fascination just reached new peaks for Nerovsky and I found myself wanting to unravel him ASAP. God I don't think anyone has shocked and surprised me as this man and we only met twice... three times? But apparently he didn't believe he bomb shelled us enough because he proceeds to jump off the building. This sure reminds me of 6 months ago... I wonder how mystery man is doing now. As my best friend and I were looking down, Erwin simply commented, "Well that was fun. Good luck tomorrow." And walked away chuckling into his portal. I should drop him.

Which brought us back to present time. I currently had 2 minutes till Nero is supposed to come in and my room was very warm from the heater. With that in mind, I stood up (while stretching a bit), I began taking over the suit jacket and draping it behind my chair as well as rolling up my sleeve. Halfway of rolling up the second sleeve, there was a knock against the wooden door and I robotically said come in. Nerovsky steps halfway into the room by the time I'm loosening my tie and he just froze.

For the second time since meeting this man a month ago, I was being blatantly checked out with crystal clear desire crossing his face. Redness overtakes his neck and cheeks, covered up he freckles present, proved my hypothesis from earlier once and for all. Cute. Wait that's the wrong answer... but he looks adorable... I shouldn't find him adorable. That doesn't stop me as I tested him by purposefully unhooked the first button of my shirt whilst I directly stared at him with a bit of yearning from myself. His eyes widen a bit and I hear his breathing jerk in anticipation. It was at this moment I realise that other than my current girlfriends' at the time, I don't mind the look of hunger for me. In fact, it was the first time wanting to encourage it.

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Note:

- Ok so at this rate, chapter 17 will be ten thousand words and that's not a vibe so I'm just gonna break it up into two and post both at the same time