Chapter 34 - Is the floor TRULY hard enough?

Previously:

Once his lips were barely a breath's away from mine, my eyes involuntarily fluttered shut in expectation.

-----------------

POV: 3rd Person

"I'M HOOOMMEEEE! AND I'VE BROUGHT CHICKEEEEEN!"

Both men on the couch froze at the booming voice coming from the direction of the front door and immediately, their heads whipped in the direction of it. The front door was further down and requires to pass through twisting corridors so no one was currently standing and viewing what was happening on the couch. This gave Nero and Leo enough time to look back at each other, realise what the fuck was going to actually happen, both turn in a new shade of red and then promptly jump back from each other. The taller man jumped up, all the way to the other side of the couch and the shorter man also jumped up but jumped without any direction. So in the end, he ended up just falling from the couch and tumbling onto the floor, face up. "Fuck" was the only thing Nero could say as a response to the little pain he experienced on his back.

Leo's eyes grew into worry and was about to move towards the fallen man to check on him before Aiden decided to grace them with his presence. "Nero! You're awake... what are you doing on the floor? And why can both of your faces blend in with strawberries?" His latter comment did NOT help their face situation at all. It just made it worse. Leo awkwardly coughed and Nero got back up on the couch as he unconfidently responded, "I was just... checking how hard the floor was?" Leo tried to hide his snicker and Nero glared at him in retaliation. His glare was trying to send wordless signals, telling him that it was all his fault. Leo picked it up but decided to ignore it.

Aiden sent a bewildered look his way. "You were checking how hard the floor was?"

"...yes?"

Aiden looked at the both of them with bemusement before he remarked back, "Riiiight... Anyway, that's not important. What's important is that I brought fried chicken to eat. Oh also knowing how you're doing, Nero. How are you doing?"

Nero threw him a straight-faced expression. "Nice to know that your chicken is more important than my wellbeing. Regardless, I'm doing better now. My ears are still slightly ringing but the throbbing in my head is gone as well as my fever. What happened anyway? I thought I was goners. Wait, did you go out to get chicken for this long?" Normally, Nero wouldn't have asked any of this in front of another person (i.e. Leo) due to the possibility of secrets spilling but the curiosity was getting to him. Plus, for some reason, Nero didn't mind Leo knowing some details.

By this point, Aiden placed the takeaway box on the coffee table and was mauling at the drumstick. "Nah, went out for other things. Had to take care of the aftermath. As for what happened, I'll give you a quick rundown. Jax got his hands on an uncommon but deadly bacteria from one of the city's research labs. The bacteria itself is fast working and will kill you by heating up your entire body in 5 hours. Jax managed to get it in you when he stabbed that hole in your shoulder."

Leo suddenly exclaimed in disbelief. "You had a bloody hole in your shoulder?! It wasn't there when I found you!"

Aiden quickly came to my defence. "Yeah, he quickly healed it up using some underground potions I provided him from before."

"...Called it. You guys are confirmed dodgy."

"ANYWAY, I found out you being infected after I had fought off the goons that came afterwards and-"

This time, it was Nero who has an outburst. "There was MORE of them?! Why the fuck did you send me back then?"

"Because, you were in no shape or form to fight them."

"WAS TOO!"

"Nero. You got stabbed in the shoulder by a whip that you could have easily avoided if this was two years ago. You've become rusty and old. Accept it."

"I am NOT old you ass! The only reason I-"

"As I was saying (Nero: "Hey!"), I destroyed his lackeys with my Oddity, which is electricity slash lightening for Leo's curiosity. And then one of them slipped and said you got infected. I quickly snuck into a lab to get the antidote and that is when I found out that it had to be registered within an hour of infection. It was 55 minutes since that point so you can bet your sorry as I flashed my way from the other side of the city to get you. I made it just in time, gave you the antidote and then we brought you here since it was the closest."

"... I see. Well in that case," Nero faced Leo once again and displayed an appreciative smile. "Thank you for letting me invade your home to recover."

Aiden interrupted quickly. "Yeah don't say thank you just yet. There was a condition for letting us come here."

"Uh... what?" Nero watched as Leo's face turns into a stern look, which causes an unsure frown to form on Nero's.

"Well... he said since we're using his place as recovery station, he has the right to know what the fuck is going on. And it's not just today's shenanigans. I told him that he's going to have to ask you when you wake up so how much you reveal is up to you. I'll support whatever you decide to do."

"Oh... I see." The CEO was staring at his employee with the same hard look but this time, it was accompanied with expectation. Nero gave out a surrendered sigh and solemnly voiced, "I guess that is only fair. He's been involved with all this one too many times." He stood up, dropping his blanket on the sofa and walked towards the clear wall. He looked out into the city in deliberation before continuing (his back was facing the other two), "I honestly cannot give you the full details but... I'll say what I can. I hope you'll be satisfied with that. I also hope I don't get fired over it. I've been having too many close calls lately and it's bringing me closer to my death."

The British man answered back, "We'll just have to find out once you tell me."

"... Fair enough. Well, as you mentioned before, Aiden and I are quite dodgy. We have connections with the underground and the black market and blah, blah, blah. But we're not bad people. At least, we believe we're not bad people. Well, Aiden is not a bad person."

"Oi, you are fine, Nero. You're not a bad guy."

"Only because I have you to stop me, Aiden. You already know what was going to happen if you didn't come earlier today." There was silence to that, proving that Aiden knew exactly what was going to happen and knew that Nero's comment isn't too off. "Do keep in mind sir, I wasn't always like this. I was like Aiden at one point in my life. I just had very bad experiences that made me hate the world a lot more. But that's a story for another day. Anyway, a couple of years back, Aiden and I found out about an underground ring where we special people fight, illegally without restraints, for a lot of money. I'm sure you've heard of it. Most business owners go there to bet or make dodgy business deals."

"Yeah... I seem to recall something like that. Is it still ongoing?"

"Yeah, it is. Continuing forth though, I was in desperate need of instant money because my dodgy apartment had been robbed of all my valuables and money and my insurance company barely gave any compensation. I also had to move out so I didn't get robbed again. So I entered myself for a night at the ring. Long story short, I bet the champion of the place and went off with my money, never once thinking back on it again. However, Mr. 5-years-champion wasn't happy at all and apparently, after that, his life went to shit. Never explained what happened. Never really cared. But yeah, he trained a couple of years and decided to pick a fight on me today. I was planning to just ignore the guy but the reason I had rushed out of the car today was because the fucking guy was going to MegCorp to demand for me and apparently, if I didn't appear in two minutes, he was going to start wreaking havoc in the building and injuring innocent people. So I had to go there before he could reach the building. I took him to an abandoned place, fought him, won and then went back to the office to pick up the work I'm MEANT TO DO BY TOMORROW! OH MY GOD WHERE are THE DOCUMENTS?! AIDEN?!"

Nero turned his head towards Aiden in panic and was met with a set of bored eyes and slow munching of chicken. Only he can make good food look unappealing. "Calm your tits. They're perfectly fine. They're inside your satchel which is in the bedroom."

The black haired man turned back to the window and sighed in relief. "Ok, good. Anyway, to finish off, I got the documents. Crashed into Matthew. Matthew tried to take me to hospital and the rest, you already know."

After he finished, the tension in the air was suffocating and the silence was sombre. Nero nor Aiden dared to break the silence, waiting anxiously for the third man's response. As Nero was gazing out, an odd flash on the rooftop of the neighbouring building caught his attention. The flash was gone but an oddly shaped shadow (lit by the full moon) had replaced it instead. It captured Nero's complete attention and was intently staring at it. Even when Leo started speaking, his eyes never left the distant figure.

"So just to clarify, you did not start the fight nor did you want to fight him but you did so because he's was going to hurt the company otherwise?"

Nero distractedly responded, "Yeah..." You know... if I'm not wrong... those things surrounding the black silhouette kind of looks like tentacles...

"And this fight you participated in was before you joined the company. You never went back ever since? Did you get dirty money other ways?"

Nero was barely paying attention to Leo at this point. "Yes and no, we don't get money using dirty methods anymore." Those could be tentacles or... they could be fucking whips. No fucking way... it can't be. Nero subtly called forward magic and enhanced his eyesight to clearly visualise the person on the other building. Oh, god is definitely playing me for a fool.

Randomly, Aiden interrupted with an extremely random question. "Hey, boss where's the doggo?"

By the tone of his voice, Leo hadn't expected the question for various reasons. "How do you know about my dog? I haven't announced-"

"I'm an IT guru. I can do some hacking. Anyway, I wanted to play with the fluffball and now I cannot find it."

Leo's voice didn't hide how irked he was. "You hack- you do not get dog privileges. I will not tell you where Timmy is. You can hack your way to the answer."

"Challenge accepted!"

Leo was exasperated. "I was kiddi- you know what, we can deal with this later. Back to the topic at hand. What did Aiden stop you from doing today that would classify you as a bad person?" Leo asked loud enough but the question went in Nero's one ear of the and out the other. He was met with silence from the other man. Instead, Nero's fists began clenching into a fist and you could see his shoulders visibly tremble. The two men behind couldn't tell whether it's from sadness, anger or something else but Aiden immediately stood up, alert. Leo's expression transformed into unease due to Aiden's reaction and called out to Nero.

"Nero? What's wro-"

Without looking back, Nero interrupted his boss in a serious tone. "Aiden, we need to go now."

Aiden tensed further. "What are you talking about? What happened?"

"He's fucking back."

"What? Who?"

Nero turned around with an angry expression on his face. "Jax! He's on the rooftop of the building over there." He pointed in the direction of the building and then fast walked back to where the pool was. Aiden and Leo looked over at each other before chasing after him.

"Nero! Wait! How the fuck do you plan to get there from the balcony, let alone fight him?" Aiden's voice was calm but strict. He gave his best friend a knowing/warning look. Nero cursed in his head and quickly thought of something. Shit. I forgot Leo's there for a second. I can't even use my power. Not gonna stop me from going over though. "That's why I said we need to go. You're going to fly us over there and preferably before he starts causing destruction."

"But you're still recovering! And you can't even use your power right now! You can't possib-"

"I don't care. I have recovered enough to defeat him again. So let's go."

"No. I'm not letting you go. I'll go."

"Aiden, this is my fucking fight. You're taking me."

"You can't ma-"

"I don't know if you forgot, but I'm still here and I'm more than willing to help out." The argument was interrupted by the forgotten British boss who was looking somewhat amused. His remark dumbfounded the younger men. It's the blue haired one who spoke up. "You what now?"

Leo shrugged a little. "I said, I don't mind teaching him a lesson or two in Nero's stead."

"But I just said it's my prob-"

"Nero shut the fuck up. Leonardo, you do remember that using your Oddity is illegal, yes?"

"Yeah I do. But who said I followed the rules myself. Just because I call you dodgy, doesn't mean I'm a saint myself. I've broken a few rules here and there. That specific rule I have broken countless times."

"So you're fine with it, even after knowing the chances of being found out?"

"Yep. I want to avenge my employee and meet this Jax guy myself. Plus, I won't be found out."

"And how can you be so sure?"

"Because, I'll have you covering up the tracks, won't I?"

"Oi, who the fuck said I'll do that?"

"No one. I just know you will."

Aiden grumbled under his breath but didn't deny the allegation. Nero observed the conversation in defeat, shoulders slumped. "Neither of you guys are going to listen me, are you?"

"Nope." "No."

This garnered an eye-roll out of the shortest man but he still walked up to Aiden with determination in his eyes. "Fine. You guys deal with him but I still want to go there and watch. So you're flying me, Aiden."

"... Fine." With that being said, Aiden grabbed Nero's forearm, he looked at Leo, who called out some phoenix wings; which looked majestic and felt fucking hot, and finally, Aiden called for thunder under his feet to boost them into the air.