Chapter 56 - Are eyes allowed to be captivating?

Note:

- Uni is over woo! I might still be slow on the upload mainly because I'm just getting used to the break and I wanna play Genshin but like, now I'm free so more writing!

- There might be a chapter 55.5 posted later because I haven't exactly written it but I really wanna start getting the main chapters out now. So keep an eye out for that. Or don't. Up to you.

- I have 800+ views and I'm really confused but very grateful. (psych, you have 2.8k now, 8th Oct 2021)

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Previously:

Without wasting any more time, I stare into her eyes and with a sad smile, simply say, "Power surge... fifty volts edition."

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POV: Aiden

Three things happened all at once. Firstly, Erwin ended up following my instructions and disappeared when he was cued to do so. Secondly, electricity surged out of every part of my body but was mainly concentrated at my fingertips. It shot out like a string and hit dead-straight on Wendy's forehead. Her mouth opened to scream but before any sound could come out, she spasmed intensely and limply collapsed on the wet carpet. The power that surged out from my other muscles electrified the entire room, with sparks coming out of certain furniture and completely dimming any lights that happened to be on. Finally, as soon as Wendy lost consciousness, her bodyguards seemed to finally sense danger and crashed through the study door with their guns up. I didn't account for this to happen but it seemed I got really lucky because they stepped into the electrified room without hesitation, which proved to be their downfall as they instantly got electrocuted and dropped to the floor. I guess being flashy proved to be worth it after all. Hopefully, they were electrified stupid and forgot ever seeing me here.

I looked around the room and the bodies residing on the floor in contemplation and allowed myself to process what the fuck just happened. A gigantic sigh left my body and the cold finally settled over my wet body. Goosebumps formed and I shivered but I ignored it to deal with the aftermath of this incident.

I brought out my phone (which was protected by a case that insulated the entire thing because I'm not stupid) and got to work. I first made sure there were no traces of my existence here by hacking into cameras and shit to hide away as well as removing any obvious traits that lead to me, which was very minimal. I then created a fake alibi for myself by saying I was at MegCorp for lunch with Nero and got the damn guy to vouch for me. Once that was all done, I made it look like that all three of them got electrocuted from faulty wiring, and it was Wendy who went batshit crazy with her power. If there was one thing I learnt from Ace Attorney and it's when tampering with the crime scene, you check every little, nitty, gritty detail and make it consistent. Phoenix Wright got nothing on me.

Finally, the police and ambulance needed to be anonymously tipped here. However, before I could hit the call button, white light formed out of thin air and gave me the scare of a lifetime. I was about to shoot the damn thing before it registered that it was a portal gateway. Why is he back? Did he get Stockholm syndrome already? I rolled my eyes and turned away to face the windows again to make it look like his sudden appearance didn't capture my attention. I asked for the useless fuckers and ambulance quickly.

Well, now that is done I think to myself as I bid the emergency line farewell, time to face the storm head­– IN THE NAME OF JESUS AND MY WHORE OF A MOTHER what the fuck is he wearing?! Well more WHAT IS HE NOT WEARING?

My fucking temporary boss entered Wendy's study with a towel draped over his shoulder and was using one of its ends to ruffle through his hair, giving off a sexy I-just-came-out-of-the-shower vibe. His hair was helping to amplify the vibe. But that's not the issue.

No, the fucking issue was that he's wearing his wet dress shirt with all his buttons UNFASTENED, so you could see all that. All that being his very smooth, golden skin and his VERY DEFINED AND CHISELED ABS. LIKE HOLY JESUS CHRIST ABOVE THE SKIES, even though you couldn't see the full thing (except when he went to dry his hair, that was when the open shirt lifts and aiowerlsdfj YOU COUDL SEE HIS VERY STURDY PECS), YOU KNOW IT WAS FUCKING PERFECTION. IT LOOKED LIKE A CHOCOLATE BAR. I WANNA LICK IT. IT LOOKS LIKE A WASHBOARD. I WANNA WASH EVERY ARTICLE OF CLOTHING THAT EVERYONE IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD OWNS ON IT.

His appearance zapped me into nearly dropping my phone to the floor. It shocked me enough to drop my jaw to the floor and drool for the motherfucker. The surprisingly amatory gaze directed towards me jolted me enough to almost forget who he was to me and just jump on top of him and crush my face against his pecs. Almost. I probably would've if my eyes didn't lock onto his amused, shit-eating grin that settled on his face and his smug eyebrow raise.

That was the splash of cold water I needed and I immediately got my shit together, more or less. I cleared my throat and pretended that my creepy staring didn't happen. "Uh, so what are you doing back here?" My words broke the stalemate but it wasn't enough for the... weird and unidentifiable tension that bloomed out of nowhere.

Erwin said nothing for a solid moment, opting to continue staring at me with a now unrecognisable emotion dancing in his eyes. Not being able to read people got me real uncomfortable and hell, let me tell you, I was so fucking uncomfortable. For more reasons than one.

My fingers twitched, wanting to fidget to distract myself but decided against, not wanting to show how much his gaze (and appearance) was fucking with my head. Finally, his face turned back to normal (whatever that meant) and he answered my question with a nonchalant shrug. "Just came to check in whether you murdered her or not."

I rolled my eyes internally. "So you don't have Stockholm syndrome?"

The other man looked at me with disgust and confusion. "What? No?"

"Tch, shame. And I told you already, she's not dead. I'd tell you to check yourself but I don't need you to tamper with the already tampered crime scene."

Erwin studied the room with half-assed concentration. "Yeah... I can see that. You did this to cover up your tracks I assume?"

I shuddered at the sudden breeze coming from the broken window before answering back, "Yeah, something like that. So they can't ever link it back to me, not they ever will since it's a genius hacker versus a bunch of monkeys. Actually, that's an insult to monkeys. I apologise."

"How humble," the CEO said in a deadpan voice, "Also, how do I know you're not lying to me about killing her?"

I released a frustrated sigh and dragged down both my hands over my face. "Alright listen, just because Nero nearly kills his targets, doesn't mean he or I actually kill our targets. There's a reason why it's NEARLY killed and not KILLED. I'll give you a short explanation of what I did Mr. I-don't-trust-anyone-except-me-myself-and-I, since I need to bolt real soon. Whether you believe me or not by the end of it is none of my concern. If you don't believe me, feel free to stay with the cops and meds to find out whether they send her to the ER or perform a fucking autopsy on her.

I electrocuted her with enough current so it wouldn't kill her but it would either turn her stupid or for the intended outcome, implant amnesia on her. With amnesia, she can start with a clean slate again and hopefully, get her shit together. It might be unlikely but the chance is there and I'm giving it to her. I'm pretty sure she'll just end up with the amnesia because, believe it or not, I'm not that shit at controlling my powers and what I'm doing."

Fonzo looked at me with a fascinated glance, surprise clear on his face. It's no shocker when he couldn't help but blurt out, "Yo-You intentionally gave her amnesia?"

An entertained grin formed on my lips. "Oh my, did the cool and collected CEO just stutter? Did I flabbergast the unflabbergastable?" I was gonna toy with him a bit more but fatigue began settling so I just opted to answer his question. "But yes, I did give her amnesia, hopefully. Well, I'm pretty sure that–"

All of a sudden, the noise of bustling humans originated from the other side of the penthouse and I panicked, internally. OH FUCK, they're here. I need to fucking dash. The sounds grabbed the attention of Erwin as he continued staring at the study door. The opened study. Fuck they could see through the door if I don't go now.

"See you at work!" Erwin's neck snapped towards me.

Without another word, I ran towards the opening, out into the sky, with the purpose to fly back to work. I reached the jiggered edge and jump out, expecting to free fall. Now if you didn't notice, I said EXPECTING to free fall. I highlighted this because I didn't free fall down towards the busy roads like, at all. I jumped, fell about 0.5 seconds before crashing and rolling on to carpet again.

"What the fuck?" I couldn't help but exclaim out as my back was on the carpet and was met with white ceiling. Wait, white ceiling? The ceiling of the study was green. Where the fuck... I sat up and observed my surroundings, instantly recognising where I was.

Erwin's office.

Everything looked about the same as I left it, with the only difference being a concerned Shinsou offering his hand and the owner of the office sitting on his leather couch on the other side of his room, with what looked like expensive scotch in his hand. I accepted Shinsou's offer and he dragged me up, immediately offering a white, fluffy towel as soon as I was stable on my two feet. I nodded in gratitude at the assistant, then glared with all the energy I had left at the asshole of a boss. "A fucking warning would've been nice," I ground out through my teeth.

Erwin took a sip of his alcohol before replying, "Language. I'm still your boss. And you gave me no time to say anything."

"Then just let me free fall and make my own way back." I go to his desk and sat my ass down on his table.

I thought the action would cause Erwin to tell me off (literally and figuratively) but shockingly, he said nothing about it. In fact, he looked rather content. Shinsou on the other hand looked as if he was about to combust. The guy was too stiff for his own good.

"Why take the long route when you can take the simple one?" said Fonzo

I shrugged. "Didn't know I had permission. Regardless, thank you... Oh yeah, did the cops catch you?"

Fonzo shook his head. "No, made it out of there just as they were about to reach the study."

"Hmm... you sure you didn't want to stay? You could've reported your kidnapping and get your deserved justice, as they would say." I couldn't help and roll my eyes at my comment as leaned back on my hands. I closed my eyes and let the exhaustion seep out

"Nah, it's better I didn't. It'd drag the company name through the mud, or at least get unneeded attention on me and the company. It's not a big enough deal for me to do anything on. I have other shit to worry about, like the launch. Plus, I feel like enough justice has been served."

"Oh? Has it?"

"I feel like getting amnesia and being rendered stupid is enough for justice and punishment."

"If you say so. But yeah, the only way I could get the cops to come without suspicion is by half-lying."

"Half lying?"

"I told them I was a CEO who got kidnapped by her and managed to escape on my own as well. I refused to tell them anything about my identity and sh-stuff because I wanna keep anonymous for the company's sake and I'm not pressing charges either because being electrocuted is punishment enough. Hopefully, amnesia will get her out of jail time. Although, she has bail money regardless... yeah she'll be fine. Nonetheless, I'm a genius."

Erwin had fascination written all over his face as he continued to observe me and I felt my ears beginning to heat up. Never in my life have I been flustered like this because of a boy. I was mad. Why did his eyes have to be so... captivating and... stupid? Yes stupid, don't at me. I was stupefied. My slight predicament thankfully didn't catch the other man's eyes but his next comment didn't help me hide my current issue. "You're definitely a smart guy. Thank you. Not just for the cover-up. For saving me as well. I really do appreciate it, as annoying as the process and execution was."

As cocky as I was, I never could handle compliments from others (except Nero) unironically and kind of flustered about but this time, it was much worse because along with the praise, I got to see Erwin come out of his iron armour for a short moment to send me a smile, a genuine smile. It was soft and gorgeous and holy shit if it didn't make him ten times more attractive. The expression caught me so off guard that my body couldn't help but let the blood rush my head, which never happened to Aiden Hendrix easily. My arms almost slipped.

I felt the heat radiating off my face and had to look away from my boss's face temporarily (as much as I wanted to stare at it) before I accidentally turned into his groupie. I mumbled out, "it's no big deal. Just doing my job." I turned back to him to returned a small smile of my own, which quickly turned into a frown as something caught my attention at his wrist area. My frown turned his smile frown as well and looked for what I was intently looking at.

Without any second-guessing, I took large steps till I was crouching in front of him, his wrists in my hands for inspection. The action clearly shocked the other two people, if their breath hitching said anything. But at the moment, it didn't register that I walked up to my boss and touched his wrists without consent, deeming it lowkey assault.

The only thing that was running through my head was the fact that he had a harsh red rash-looking ring around both his wrists due to the lanthanum imbued rope. I lightly rubbed over the damaged skin, feeling minor bumps. If kept any longer, the skin would definitely begin to bubble up. This reaction was not normal though. Lanthanum usually just prevented Oddity users from using their power and physically weakened them, without leaving any scars. Think of it as our kryptonite. This means...

"You're either allergic to lanthanum or the rope itself or you just have really sensitive skin. You should probably check it out with a doctor if you haven't already. For now," I brought out an ointment that I carried around everywhere (I react to rusty metal and they're a lot common than people think) and placed it in his hand while adding on, "put this on your hand as a temporary measure but then go and..." I trailed off when I finally looked up to meet Erwin's eyes, where he had the most unexpected expression. While his eyebrows and eyes had shock instilled within them, he had a soft, almost fond, small smile that made me completely blank out and forget what I was going to say.

It was enough for me to become enraptured and stare at him with surprise. Tensions were rising high as both of us remained silent and just to stare at each other. The smile I had and probably anyone had never seen before. It's usually a calculated or cold smile or not smile at all, keeping everything and everyone at arm's length with just his emotions alone. His shell was cracking again and I was all here for it. Everything around us blurred around us and we were put in our own world. It was only when there was an unexpected sneeze from the other side of the room that we snapped out of the trance and realised what happened.

The blush hit in full force again as I noticed I was basically holding my boss's hand, instead of just delicately holding his wrist for inspection. I jumped back away from him and a flash of disappointment passed through the other man's face before it was quickly schooled back to neutral. I, on the other hand, couldn't manage to get rid of the flush, so I looked like a blushing teenage girl who just saw Sasuke walk past me (he was a good looking man ok?) and he was the last person I wanted to see me in this state.

As I fast walked over to his leather chair to pick up my blazer, I began rambling out, "I- Uh- Sorry for... yeah sorry. Make sure you put the cream on your wrists as soon as you can and don't wash it off for at least an hour as well as don't inhale or digest it. It's probably poisonous or something. You can test it out if you want to see if it's poisonous but don't put it under me. If you can't do it yourself, get your assistant to help you but I'm pretty sure you'll be fine to do it by yourself, being the manly, independent, hot, I MEAN independent CEO that you are. It would probably hurt your pride to get help from someone else. Ok, I'm rambling, I'm just gonna go now. Ok bye. Please don't get kidnapped again. The company can't run without its boss after all ha, ha, ha. I need to seriously go before I say anything else that will ruin me."

Here's the thing about me, when I was extremely nervous or embarrassed or feeling any emotion along those lines, I ramble like an idiot, saying stupid shit or accidentally exposing my internal thoughts. This rambling thing wasn't as frequent anymore as I was cocky and confident enough to like to play anyone's game. The last time this happened was like, a year or two ago, so I was kind of malfunctioning. Especially since all he did was fucking stare at me with his unfairly gorgeous eyes.

I didn't look in Erwin's direction at all as I bolted past a puzzled but amused Shinsou and practically sprinted out of the door. Once out into the corridor, I slowed my pace to a jog till I reached the door for the stairs (I refuse to stay on this floor any longer than necessary).

"WAIT!"

Fuck. Hand on the handle, I turned around to find Fonzo standing outside of his office, a clear distance away thank god. I couldn't see his expression clearly but I think it was a rather happy and smug expression, probably due to my parting words. "What about your ointment?" He added on.

"It's fine, you can keep it. I've got another tube at home." I turned back towards the door but... "Where are you going now?"

"Back to work?"

"What? Why?"

I turned back to face him again, bemused. "What do you mean why? Because I'm your employee and it's still working hours?"

"Yes I know that but considering the unprecedented circumstances, shouldn't you take the rest of the day off?"

"Pfft, as if we've got time for that. It's not like I'm the one injured or anything and the previous fatigue surprisingly disappeared, so I'm good to go. You on the other hand went through some nasty shit, so if anything, you need the bloody day off, or at least a break because we all know you love your job too much for the day off. If you had an option, you'd probably tell Wendy to bring your work while you were captured." Confidence slowly coming back, wittiness still intact.

"Well, I can't exactly deny that." Erwin chuckled at the comment, which caused me to smile back and now we're just goofily smiling at each other. Not again. I purposefully cleared my throat and said, "Well, if that's all... I'm going to go now."

I turned the door handle, opened the door, took one step, and immediately stopped when Erwin blurted out, "Have dinner with me tonight!"

I froze. I slowly turned. I gave him a disbelieving look. "What?"

"I mean, as a thank you, for saving me."

Relief spread through my body (and slight disappointment) before responding, "You don't owe me anything. It's fine. I was just doing my job. My other job, that is."

"But I want to."

"But I don't want to," I argued back. Well, it's a lie I don't want to per se. My gut is telling me to not get involved with him any more than necessary or else one of us is going to get hurt, most likely being me. Delving into any sort of relationship is most likely a bad idea. Keep him at arm's length. Or longer. "It's alright, really. I have work to do anyway so I probably can't do dinner. Really, it's fine."

"But–"

"Have a good rest of the day, sir." I interrupted him immediately and walked through the door, down the stairs, without a single glance back. I knew it was disrespectful and I could be called out for it, but if I let him continue, I knew that my determination would crumble immediately.