Chapter 43 - Is the word canoodling weird?

POV: 3rd Person

"Are you seriously getting baked right now, at a company event?"

Nero flinched hard at the unexpected company as he leaned against the pillar. He was sitting up on the balustrade of the balcony, one leg propped up and the other swinging on the side. The grip on the joint loosened but the smaller man managed to keep it from dropping to the balcony floor. It'd been ten minutes since the man came to the balcony and whipped out the weed stick. In the timeframe, he also managed to call Aiden to come pick him up (since he's had a couple of drinks) and the conversation went on for longer than necessary due to Aiden's persistence to sneak him into the place for the rest of the night. Nero managed to convince him out of it but lost energy in the process.

Nero dragged his attention from the sky to his company boss, directing a surprised and guilty smile towards him. Leo was leaning in a relaxed manner against the opened glass door, ignoring the couple snogging in the corner and amusedly attend to his favourite employee. After seeing Nero's amazing dance moves, Leo was left stunned (to say the very least) right out in the open, to the point where even after being caught gaping at the shorter man, he couldn't get out of his daze. Once he managed to recover, however, the man had disappeared and disappointment washed over him. So he decided to actively look for the man. Now he was not desperate but at that moment, he definitely looked desperate in the eyes of the crowd. Matthew had a good laugh after directing him to his goal.

Nevertheless, once Nero saw that his boss wasn't actually mad at him, Nero's shoulders relaxed and his lips turned from guilty to guilty but amused. He looked back out towards the view of the lake, located at the back of the building and resumed back to appreciating the moon's reflection off the water's surface. He answered the question in a playful tone while doing so. "Am I in trouble if I say yes?"

There was silence (minus the uncomfortable lip-smacking noises) and Nero assumed that the man walked away So it proved to be a great surprise when Leo managed silently glide across the balcony to stand right in front of Nero. His hands were gripped to the little space that Nero has left beside himself and his face was a small distance away from the other man's, causing Nero to take a sudden intake of air. Even after sitting on the railing, Nero barely reached Leo's height so they were eye to eye. Usually, this situation would cause Nero to be a flustered mess but the marijuana was beginning to hit, deeming him a bit out of it.

The tanner man looked a bit longer, not giving anything away, before he said in a deepened tone, "depends..."

The tone brought shivers down Nero's spine and he gulped before breathily asking, "on what?" Subconsciously, his eyes dropped to Leo's lip and the other man clearly saw the action. Leo's lust spiked immediately and it took his all to stop himself from dragging the high man into his arms and snogging him senseless. Instead, he said, "depends on whether I get to take a drag myself."

That was certainly not the answer Nero was expecting and sat a bit dumbfounded before nodding because he couldn't get any words out. The reaction garnered a chuckle out of Leo and he reached over to take the pre-rolled stick out of the sitting man's hand. Even the slight brush of fingers triggered a spark between them.

Leo brought his attention to the lake as he took a drag of the stick and the entire view made him look majestic in Nero's eyes. He couldn't help but gaze at him with admiration and awe (yes apparently him doing weed is a turn on). He didn't even try to hide it, so he knew that Leo knew about his blunt stare but the man paid no mind.

They're like that for what feels like years but in reality, about two minutes and it was nice. Really nice according to both of them. But slightly stoned Nero couldn't help but break the peace between them to ask an urging question that'd been pestering his mind.

"Shouldn't you be like, not doing that? Surely your image would be tarnished. Slightly since people can overlook it due to your looks but tarnished nonetheless."

A snort came out of the other man and he inquired back, still looking out, "are you going to tell on me?" He noticed the subtle compliment in Nero's words but decided to not make fun of him. Yet.

Nero scoffed as a response. "And throw myself under the bus? Not a chance."

"Then the only people who know is me, you and the spit exchanging couple over there." He finished off by staring into Nero's soul and smirking. Nero had a hard time screaming, STOP BEING SEXY. He managed to keep it under bay when he diverged the conversation.

"Are those two still at it?"

"Yep."

"Jesus fucking Christ. They probably taste like each other don't they?"

"And probably exchanged half their body fluids to each other."

"Ok Leo, you're seriously making the act of canoodling disgusting. When it's not. It's actually really hot."

"Pfft. Who the bloody hell says canoodling?"

Nero was frowning at this point and feels deeply offended by the question. When it wasn't even worth being pissed over. "Well, who the fuck says spit exchanging?"

"Oi, I'm just stating facts."

"Saying that they're canoodling is also stating facts."

"Well yes but my point is, canoodling was such an odd word that I haven't heard anyone use recently. Except now. That's weird."

Nero's outward pout made him look adorable in Leo's eyes and he was about to close the gap and connect their lips, but Nero stopped the action by refusing to stop retaliating back. Even high, the employee just would not give up.

"Well you uh taking a drag from my joint at your company party is fucking weird."

Leo's left eyebrow rose in slight disbelief. "you're doing the same thing. In fact, you started it."

"See you say that but the difference is, you're the president of the company and therefore, the organiser of said party. You're the big important dude who's currently meant to be downstairs either pampering all the important people or finding someone to fuck for tonight. But you're here. Up on the balcony. With me. Smoking weed. Which could possibly destroy your career. Even though marijuana is legal."

Even though the shorter man had said a lot, there was only one thing that had captured the CEO's attention and he couldn't help but comment on it. "Why do you have this perception of me?"

Confusion passed through the shorter man's face. "What perception?"

"That I'm some sort of fuck boy."

"Because you are." Nero's deadpan face was very off-putting.

"Since when?! Who said?"

"*Shrug* I don't know. People talk."

"So you believe in every rumour you hear."

"No, but when 80% of the building is saying the same thing, it's kind of hard to just ignore it."

"Seriously? 80% of the company?"

"Give or take, yeah."

"Well, I'm here to confirm that I'm not, in fact, a fuck boy."

"... Guilty until proven innocent." I'm going to regret this entire exchange in a couple of hours.

"... I don't think that's how it works."

"Yes, it is."

"... Do you hate me?"

"No."

"..."

This short exchange was enough to sap most of Leo's energy so instead of continuously fighting, he used it to his advantage.

"You know what? Now that you mention it, I think it was written somewhere in my planner to get laid tonight–"

"Ha! Told you so."

"–so do you want to be my bed partner?"

"Say what now?" The conversation took an unexpected turn yet again and Nero found himself flabbergasted and utterly confused. It didn't help that his brain was semi functional so instead of the words being processed properly, they were swimming around in his head. It was words he never expected to hear out of the man in their lifetime. It was words that he welcomed but avoided at the same time because Nero wanted more than a single night of probably very good sexy times.

If Leo wasn't any closer, he'd take a step forward so he opted for leaning into Nero's space, bringing his lips close to my ear. His voice had turned breathy and his tone dropped all the way down. "You heard me. You want to fuck?"

Nero wasn't looking at the other man mainly because his brain was having an absolute meltdown and he knew if he looked, he'd probably going to faint and fall off the balustrade. And that's not just because he was saying the word "fuck" in a sexual context for the first time ever. With every ounce of functioning brainpower, he tried to direct the conversation elsewhere. "S-So why d-do you need to um get high anyway?"

From Nero's peripherals, Leo didn't look fazed by the question nor did he manage to get the hint to move away. That or he intentionally ignored it. Something told Nero that it was the latter.

"When you're the organiser slash head of one the greatest parties of the year, all you would want to do is take any forms of breathers. Now answer my question."

So Nero's tactic didn't work and he 2qw running out of options and excuses to use so he quietly squeaked out instead, "are you being serious?"

"... do you want it to be?"

Nero's eyes widened. "I–" yes, no, maybe? I don't fucking know. You're the one asking! Why am I being put on the spot like this? This isn't fair. Saying yes is a bad idea. Saying no is a bad idea. Maybe is too suggestive so it turns into yes, which is a bad idea.

Nero chose the 'staying silent' option which Leo took as a partial yes because he began to lean in, his vision zoning on the other man's soft-looking lips. Nero's breath hitched and immediately, he's reminded of the other two times. Leo's cologne began to overwhelm his nose and he became cross-eyed from intently looking at his lips. Nero didn't move away. He didn't move at all in fact, wanting to see where it went, even though it was quite obvious. Both men think along the lines of I swear if someone interrupts us again, I'm going to fire/kill a bitch tonight (Guess who's who).

Leo's lips barely brushed against Nero's when a shrill came from behind Leo. A very familiar, unwanted shrill. Both men did come slightly apart but their faces were still in an unsocially unacceptable distance. They looked at each other with severe disappointment, disbelief and utter frustration, both men plotting murder against their demise.

Nero monologued in his head, either fate doesn't want us together or Leah has some sort of cockblocking signals that go off every time we're less than one metre apart. All of a sudden, Leo burst out laughing so hard, he had to clutch his stomach. Tears formed in the corner of his eyes and Nero was confused out of his mind, until he noticed Leo was looking at him like he was the funniest thing on earth. It was at this moment that Nero realised that he actually monologued out loud.

He covered his face with the palms of hands, trying to hide the redness and hide away from the world. It doesn't seem to be working. It's another sad moment for him. Maybe I should go back into looking for open positions in Alaska's post offices.

♤♧♡♢

Nero was sitting on the balustrade, facing the entrance of the balcony. The couple making out in the corner were still there and the joint that was once present had been thrown out. It was peaceful and the air was cold but a nice cold. The entire atmosphere was lovely to the man.

That was a lie. It was not lovely due to the two people talking to his left. Said two people were Leo and Leah, who were chatting away like a stupidly good looking couple. After her outburst, she quickly split the two men up (not even trying to do it subtly) and dragged the boss to the side, saying she had something important to say. Leo being the nice childhood friend he was, couldn't say no and let himself be dragged off. Or maybe he wanted to go because she's a better company... Shut up insecure Nero. We all know that's utter bs.

Anyway, the girl cleaned up better than she usually did. Nero could guarantee all the straight boys had definitely drooled over her at least once tonight. But alas, her attention was only captured by someone she couldn't have (the one thing we had in common). Or at least that's what he thought, however by the looks of it, Leo seemed to be really enjoying himself, occasionally laughing at what she said or not pushing her away when her breasts were practically merging with his arm.

If that doesn't say he's more straight than gay, then I don't know what does. Inwardly sighing to himself in disappointment, Nero jumped off the railing with the intent of going back in and waiting for Aiden to come pick him up but he barely managed to take two steps when there was an unfamiliar call of, "Nero!" from in front.

Nero had to squint at the man who's dressed as a waiter, in attempts to recognise the man but he was drawing a complete blank. The man clearly didn't notice Nero's ordeal as he tightly embraces him, nearly tackling him over the railing. By then, all the people on the balcony were looking at the two, all with curiosity but Leo also had something else on his face, which was unreadable.

Hands suspended in the air to the side, high Nero asked with clear puzzlement in his voice, "Uh hi? Do I know you?"