Chapter 48 - Wanna bet?

Notes:

- Chapter uploads are going to be dead for a while again. Uni's opening up soon and i haven't done my assignments lol

- but yeah, from this point, for a short period of time, it's going to be about Aiden/Erwin so enjoy (i'm surprised i've reached this point. like it was so far a couple of months ago)

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POV: 3rd Person

Nero totally left us alone on purpose, that asshole... was what Aiden thought as soon as the door came to a close after his best friend's departure. The air immediately settled into awkwardness and it became suffocating for both men, so Aiden being the hero he is, decided to save everyone from their misery by breaking the tension first. "So... you heard the man, what's your verdict?"

"Before that," Erwin asked the question that'd been on his mind ever since Aiden disappeared from Indigo Halls. "What happened to Rothwell?"

"Oh yeah, him. I forgot to tell Nero as well. I essentially just beat him up and anonymously dropped him off to the closest police station. It's their problem now."

"You didn't get hurt?"

"Well, he did get a punch on me because I slightly distracted at the time but nothing I couldn't handle. Look, this isn't about me. Are you going to tell me your decision?"

Erwin said nothing, just blinked a couple of times before placing his elbow on the table and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. It was accompanied by a smirk and analytical eyes. Aiden felt extremely uncomfortable being studied blatantly, since it was usually the other way around so he was about to call the other man out, but Erwin quickly inserted. "Well, what do you want the verdict to be?"

Aiden leaned back against the cheap leather and returned an are-you-being-legit-right-now look, matching the tone of his voice with his expression. "I think it'd be quite obvious what I would want your stupid verdict to be."

"Humour me anyway."

"... weirdo but sure. It'd be the utmost relief if you let us off the hook and keep everything you saw and heard to yourself, which includes not telling Nero's love-of-his-life."

Erwin snorted at the latter part of the statement but it was not enough for him to be distracted from the problem at hand. "Sure."

"Sure?"

"Mhm."

"Uh, what are you suring to exactly?"

"I thought it'd be quite obvious, don't you think." Erwin played the reverse uno card on Aiden and the latter knew that it's supposed to tick him off but instead, he found himself fighting off a smile. I guess the guy doesn't always have a pole stuck up his ass, so for that one reason, I'll play along.

"Humour me anyway." Aiden mimicked his position and returned the same smirk, which was a miscalculation on his part because now their faces were a small distance away from each other, accentuating each other's eyes. From Aiden's perspective, Erwin's eyes were a crystal clear hazel colour with the softest brown infused with green. It's like the greenest grass over rich soil and Aiden could guarantee the eyes would glow if he smiled a soft smile, simultaneously dazzling and seducing anyone enraptured in his eyes. From Erwin's perspective on the other hand, he felt as he dove into an ocean of royal blue but it wasn't a single hue. It was a combination of hundreds of different hues, all expressing different emotions. While the obvious ones were discontent, interest and playful, there were hidden ones. Emotions that tempts him to uncover.

Regardless, it left both men secretly breathless. Other than that, Erwin didn't seem unfazed by Aiden's distance, so he doesn't move away when he responds, "I'll your little secret. What you guys are doing isn't a bad thing and you said it before, if you're not going to do it, who will?"

Aiden studied the other man a bit longer before moving back into his seat and crossing his arms over his chest in irritation. "It's not a little secret. Don't make it sound stupid like a high school crush or something along the lines of those."

Erwin chuckled and moved back himself, rested both his forearms on the table instead. "Oh, I apologise. I didn't mean to make little of it and sound condescending."

"Bullshit."

"Yeah you're right. I wanted sound a tiny bit condescending."

Aiden rolled his eyes but it looks more playful than annoyed. There's still some irritation there though. The action causes more chuckling from the CEO and he continues to add on, "speaking on high school crushes, you want to make a wager."

The blue haired man certainly didn't expect that. So he suspiciously questioned, "What kind of wager?"

"With money, obviously."

"Hmm, nah. I've got enough of that already. That shit is kind of worthless to me."

"You do? It is?"

Aiden just sent a self-knowing smile Erwin's way. "Indeed..."

"It's not dirty money."

"Pfft, the only laws we break is our powers for good. Well, actually that's a lie. We break other laws but it's no murder, rape or kidnapping. Just minor stuff."

"Minor stuff?"

"Yep."

"So where do you get said money?"

"That's for me to know and you to not find out, don't you think?"

"That's not how the saying goes."

"I know."

"This just makes me want to background-check you more."

"Good luck finding any information. You're talking to one of the greatest hackers of the decade."

"Well, I guess I'll need it. Anyway, back to the topic of the wager, what do you want to bet instead."

"Maybe you should tell me what we're betting on first?"

"Nah, trust me, you'll like it. Give us a bet."

"Hmm, fine. Winner has to do 3 favours for the other. No questions asked and they must be done unless they're illegal or it's uncomfortable to the point where it triggers some sort of panic attack."

"Kind of ironic that it's you who's saying it can't be illegal."

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, I'll agree with those terms."

"Ok cool, now what are betting on exactly."

"Whether Nero and Leo will get together."

"That depends, does Leo like Nero?"

"Oh you have no idea. He's fucking whipped for him."

"Totally called it. Nero won't believe me, that insecure fuck."

"Should be saying that about your best friend?"

"It's because I'm his best friend that I can say it."

"Fair enough. So are you down?"

"Of course not!"

Erwin's eyebrows jumped up in shock. "What? Why? You were into just a min–"

"Because that's a stupid wager. We're both going bet on them getting together."

"Good point. So, what do you propose then?"

At that, the shorter man's lips formed a mischievous smile. "Why, I'm glad you asked. I propose we wager on how long it will take for them to get together. Closest wins."

"Hmm, alright, I'm down."

"Great. An important rule however, we can't directly or indirectly mess with their relationship to favour our bet. We watch them do it in their natural pace."

"Of course, I don't play dirty."

"*Scoff* yeah right–"

"Hey!"

"– I bet 65 days."

"... I don't play dirty, I just want reiterate that. Anyway, I'll wager about 45 days."

"Only?"

"*Shrug* Leo can be very charming."

"And Nero can be very stubborn and difficult."

"Well we'll just have to find out in due time, won't we?"

The blue haired man smirked and put out his left hand. "Let the best man win."

Erwin momentarily stared at it before bringing out his left hand to shake on it. As soon as both men touched, they both internally commented on the warmth of each other's hand.

His hand is cold thought Erwin.

His hand is so warm thinks Aiden.

Both men lost their grip at the same time, appreciating the lingering change in temperature. It left them in a comfortable silence for a short while before Aiden couldn't help but blurt out, "I'm a shitty person for betting on my best friend's love life, aren't I?"

Erwin returned a tiny grin and shrugs. "Well, I'm not any better now, am I?"

"But like, you were always shitty. From the beginning. So this is nothing for you."

Erwin was exasperated and refuted back. "I'm a very kind-hearted and good natured person, thank you very much. Where did you even get this perception of me? We only ever met once."

"And that's one too many. It was enough for me to read you."

"Oh bullshit."

"You are the fakest of all fakes to the people you don't like or the people you don't want to deal with. You put on a multitude of masks to breeze through life or your PR manager makes you. For example, you have flocks of girls around you whenever you go to events because you're nice and approachable but that's only because you have to. In reality, you want to tell them to fuck off and go find someone else's dick to suck. Unless you want to get laid, then you charm her to bed. When you don't have your mask, you're usually known as a cold hearted bastard because you're too blunt, only your employees and co-workers deal with that side of you though. You want me to continue?"

Erwin was left speechless, jaw slightly gaping. His eyebrows shot up and his eyes were... unreadable to Aiden, which was surprising. The man read people's expressions almost too perfectly. He managed to get shit that no one else has ever figured out. Regardless, it didn't stop a smug expression to form on that latter's face. The face seems to snap Erwin out of it and the first thing he said was, "You're a stalker."

Aiden sputtered out indignant noises and semi-shouted back, "What the fuck, no I'm not! I can just read you well and I've come across people of your nature."

"No way you just got that out of your ass. You looked me up after last week, didn't you?"

"I DID NOT! Or else we wouldn't be in this position, remember? I didn't even know your fucking name." Ok maybe, some information I found from the MegCorp case my have popped up in my head mid-conversation. They were snippets though, I just filled in the gaps to make sense of it.

"Nah, you're lying. Playing ignorant."

"I am NOT playing ignorant you..."

And with that, the two bickered for about half anhour before they were kicked out by the manager of the diner. From there, thetwo just glared at each other before Aiden flew up into the sky and Erwin opened up a portal to his living room. Needless to say, they both agreed that the bickering left them on bad terms but both also left a different kind of tension that formed midway, which was currently unidentifiable. All they know was that it wasn't a bad kind of tension...