Chapter 38 - His name is what now?

POV: 3rd Person

Leah's fuming. She felt as if the big bang happened all over again and Earth somehow ended up in some other dimension. The interaction in front of me... is impossible. Improbable. Never should be happening in the first place. Why? Because he's mine and only mine. It should be me in that position.

The slightly hysteric girl was walking back from Leo's empty office in order to look for him and show off her outfit (Nero: which should be borderline illegal for this work environment. I'm pretty sure she's more uncovered than covered. The purpose of clothes has been defeated) to seduce him a bit more when she saw her target with arms around someone else. The caused her to immediately freeze mid walk and aided in her brain frying a bit. Never in her life had she known Leo for touching girls and guys carelessly. He never had the playboy status and had the respectful, mature gentlemen image. But here he was, with his arms wrapped around that... peasant in a clearly affectionate way. He's straight. Definitely straight. He's straight! That didn't stop her from becoming anxious by the minute.

She began watching the exchange between her beloved and the lowlife from when Leo was hugging the newbie really tightly. Like he wanted to kill him and well, she was hoping for that to be the case. She started to feel a bit relieved and hoped everything was just a big misunderstanding, however, the shorter man seemed to say something life changing because you could see Leo's side profile turn lustful and all of sudden, both their heads were getting closer. Leah panicked and her flight-fight-freeze response kicked in, screaming her pet name for her beloved.

Which brought everyone back to the current situation where Leah was glaring and losing it, Leo was frustrated from being cockblocked all the time and getting called that idiotic nickname and Nero was completely done with life, ready to be taken in by the devil. He'd rather much deal with Hell's pit than any of this. Nero still hadn't moved away from Leo's shoulder and Leo had not dropped his arms from the other's hips, causing Leah's every muscles to twitch in frustration. I need to break this up ASAP is the only thought running through her mind.

She cleared her throat purposefully and pretended to completely oblivious of the sight in front of her. "What are you doing Mufasa?" Once the name was repeated, Nero had control over his bubbling temper and it registered to himself that he should be laughing. So he does, after pulling away from the taller man's shoulders. Well, he snickered more than howling but it was loud enough for the entire party to hear. Leah's face contorted into perplexation and Leo's ear tips turned into a burning red colour. He looked at his partner with death written all over his face, accompanied by embarrassment.

Instead of retaliating back though, he ignored the smaller man and answered Leah's question. More or less. He did have a serious, business-like tone which lowkey freaked out Nero. But it also caused a giggle out of him internally because of the unprofessional action he was pulling simultaneously.

"What I'm doing is none of your concern. The real question is why are you here? And for the love of god, would you stop calling me that stupid name? I've told you like EVERY single time we've met up."

The sudden outburst caused the female to startle and make uncomprehendable noises and Nero's snickering turned into full blown guffawing. Leo was ticked off but his defences were down so Nero used the opportunity to finally pull away from the man's grasp and laugh a bit further away from him. In doing so, he was able to clear up his clouded head and begin functioning. Leo did look disappointed but made no move to reclaim the heat he lost.

Meanwhile, Leah managed to fix herself up and responded in a frustrated tone. A frustrated tone that was meant to be seen as cute. It was accompanied by a pout. You know, the ones that tsunderes do with their small pouts. Nero thinks it's not a good look on her though. He thinks it makes her look like a duck. An angry duck. (A/N: The man is ruthless against females he doesn't like)

"I'm here to see you, of course! A-And talk about um about the new advertisement campaign. Yes, that. Also, we're very close childhood friends so why can't I come to see you? And the name I gave you is not stupid. I know you secretly love it."

"I DO NOT!" Nero was crying and wheezing from chortling too hard. He looked absolutely hysterical as he clutched at the cramps, present in his abdomen.

He was promptly ignored by the other two (Leo looked like he wanted to die in a hole) and the boss proceeded to add, "If you have anything related to work, you book an appointment and we talk. Just like every other time. You do not just waltz in. In MegCorp during working hours, I am your boss, not the childhood friend."

Yikes was Nero's only thought as he deeply breathed in and out to get his body back to homeostasis. He managed to call for the elevator while everyone else was distracted. Talking about stasis, Leah was paralysed from his words with teary eyes but she quickly recovered. She was about to open her mouth to fight back but the glasses man quickly interrupted to deal with his ordeal first.

"Looks like I'm not needed anymore and I'm kind of late for work so I will be going now." The elevator had impeccable timing and arrived at that exact moment. Nero inwardly beamed and walked towards his freedom, however, as he put one foot into the elevator car, he's stopped by a grip on his left wrist. The hand doesn't tug him back but it doesn't let him go forward either. Releasing an exasperated sigh, he half turned to meet the worried and slightly vexed eyes of Leonardo Covell. The slight anger projected put Nero in an off mood as well (even more of an off mood), displaying a small frown.

However, Leo somehow managed to sound a tiny bit whiny when he enquired, "What about the assignment?"

Nero didn't bother to hide his annoyance. "... what about it?"

"... I want the findings."

"This is stupid."

"It's not stupid."

"You're a child."

"Is that your only defence?"

"No, but the rest would get me fired."

"...Now I'm intrigued."

"Stay intrigued."

"Fine... Give. Me. My. Designated. Name."

"... Is there a due date for this?"

"Well, no but—"

"Then in that case, I don't have any findings."

"... There's a due date." Leo's face is dead serious.

"..."

"..."

"..." This was Leah with her mouth open like a fish.

"... I still don't have any findings."

"You're lying." The response was almost immediate.

"I'M NOT!" Nero shook off the grip hard, catching Leo off guard and quickly stepped into the elevator. He pressed the 25th floor and smashed the close button repeatedly. Leo had the chance to stop the elevator from closing and harass him further but ultimately let the poor man go. It didn't stop him from frowning at Nero as the door slid to a close. But just before it fully shut, Nero stuck out his tongue like the mature employee he was, causing Leo's eyebrows to shoot up and instantly regretting letting the other man go. Shit, he got the last word as well.

Once the elevator's numbers began decreasing, the CEO produced a disappointed sigh and turned back at the stunned girl. Collecting himself, Leo brought back his business attitude and prepared himself to deal with the rest of the dull day

"Now. Did you need something Leah?"

Rapid blinking and a gaping mouth was her only response and Leo felt himself wanting to chase after Nero to escape back into their own world again.

♤♧♡♢

"This day is really rivalling the Chase day and that's really saying something, considering there hasn't been an explosion," was the first thing Nero mumbled to himself as he dropped onto one of ground floor seats, coffee swishing around in the paper cup. He rubbed his forehead in hopes to get rid of the slight throbbing that's occurring. But alas, it did nothing. The headache originated from many things. This includes the... interaction from this morning, which wouldn't have been an issue if Leah hadn't turn up. He legit got the headache because the bitch (Nero's words) turned up. The pounding got worse when dumb, dumber and dumbest decided to drag Nero into a meeting room and harass him into the details of the relationship between him and the boss. But the thing is, Nero doesn't know himself so it caused internal chaos of overthinking and rumination that ultimately ended up getting Nero even more confused and frustrated about their relationship. The mixed signals were literally doing his head in. Anyway, that entire shenanigan ended up eating into my break time which was not good for already cranky Nero.

To top it off however, the devil vessel had been getting stared at by everyone the entire day because of his fucking lip piercing. He was a different species in their eyes and some even had the guts to come up and ask for detailed description of it. Nero, being the awkward, unsocial, introverted midget he was in his everyday life, almost fainted from all the excitement but managed to barely stand breathing. It was at this point that he realised that he needs to start taking his own advice and stop listening to Aiden, PS4 at stake or not. Anyway, he's currently on break alone (Nero: Thank Satan and his kids. I don't appreciate god anymore. He's fucked me over one too many times.) with a cup of coffee and hopefully, some peaceful daydreaming.

He almost achieved said nirvana for about five minutes but life decides to play the fuck you card again and let him experience more pain. Great, now fucking Satan hates me. I'm legitimately holding ex-Satan inside me. What more do you want? I bet my left leg that Raziel and the current guy didn't split on good terms and I'm suffering the consequences. Honestly, I should just kill myself. ...Ok that escalated quickly.

The newly formed pain (the existing's intensity is doubled) was caused by the very well-known new employee of the advertising department and her friend. They at one point sat on the opposite side of the studded man, analysing him with a hard glare and arms crossed over their breasts. Leah didn't bother hiding her hatred against him in her eyes and her friend tries to look down on him with the same intensity but all Nero was getting from her was confusion, like she didn't actually know what's happening (Nero: Girl trust me, I don't know either).

Nero was too lazy to give a fuck about appearance or common courtesy and opts for ignoring them and looking everywhere but at them. He also believed Leah doesn't deserve his respect because of her lack of name-giving skills. Her possessive tendencies were a major turn off. He found her as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. He doesn't know why it was a duck though. He feels bad for insulting ducks like that. Even lame ducks.

After what feels like an eternity, Leah broke the silence with her fake sweet tone. It was funny to Nero because her face was still holding that ugly scowl of hers, jealousy seeping out of every inch of her exposed pores. That was a lot of jealousy.

"So why are you and Leo really good friends?"

Wow, she went straight for the kill. Also, did she just emphasise on friends? And "What happened to Mufasa?" Nero didn't mean to blurt out the last question and that caused a slight panic within him because believes he might have voiced the entire thought. But from her face turning red and embarrassed demeanour... yeah that still doesn't give way whether he spilled or not.

The platinum blonde girl purposefully cleared her throat and simply stated, "I've decided that the name is too childish and embarrassing so I'm going to call him another name."

Disbelief washed over Nero. "... YOU decided it was childish and embarrassing? On your own accord?"

"...yes."

"... right. So what's the new name?" because as much as Nero wanted to kick the girl all the way to Scandinavia, he was quite curious about the new name for his boss. Who knows, it might actually be good.

She beamed at the question and proudly announces, "I'm glad you asked. It's DiCaprio."