Chapter 78 - Hi, how you doing?

Note:

- At this rate, I'm gonna be reaching the 200 chapter limit welp

- You've officially read around 200k words from this story. I'm sorry. It wasn't meant to be this way.

- Bold italics= singing. (Yes I keep changing it because I forget what I did last time and I ceebz scrolling up like 50k words)

- Sometimes, my own imagination and ability to dream terrifies me...

- STAN DPR IAN <3

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POV: 3rd Person

I think I've got my sight for you

I don't mean to let it brew

I thought I thought it through

Now come on you know I just get confused

Come get your funky love story

I love it when the skies can't sleep

I left a message encased in me

So bye bye (so bye bye)

A flawless ending

So beautiful

You're so

[instrumental]

Let's take a trip down a dark place baby

Look for me now I'm not that (crazy)

Let's talk about what makes you happy

Because I know (I know)

I'm calling for you

Come get your funky love story

I love it when the skies can't sleep

I left a message encased in me

So bye bye (so bye bye)

A flawless ending

So beautiful

My love is turning kinda grey

(I love it when you sing)

My heart is looking the other way

My love is turning kinda grey

(she loves it when you sing)

My heart is looking the other way

Come get your funky love story

I love it when the skies can't sleep

I left a message encased in me

So bye bye (so bye bye)

A flawless ending

A flawless ending

So beautiful

(A/N: did I just copy and paste the entire lyrics for So Beautiful by DPR Ian? Yes, yes I did. It needs more appreciation. Please listen (linked above))

The band on the stage dragged out the ending smoothly, ending with a strum of the guitar. A second of silence told the audience they're done and all gave Aiden and the nameless instrument players a huge round of applause, with some even squealing out the singer's name like a typical fangirl.

Aiden chuckled, gave a small bow, put the mic on its stand and bid his just-met-today band members goodbye, before stepping off stage.

(A/N: kind of what I had in my head but a lot bigger because she's rich and a lot less blue, more golden. Also, there's a backstage for the stage so pretend there's curtains or something)

Backstage was a lot smaller than it seems but at least there's walking space. He could've just jumped off the stage and gotten out that way, but something told him that there would be a huge crowd rushing towards him and demanding answers for their questions and Aiden wasn't really in the mood to entertain them.

He came back out into the main hall and rushed to the wall to blend in with the wallflowers whilst looking for the main attraction of this event.

It didn't take too long as she apparently had the same idea.

"Aiden! Oh my god, you were amazing! You could legit be a singer as a career. I'd sponsor for sure."

Mia proceeded to capture him in a crushing hug where all the oxygen was squeezed out of his lungs and the bones began cracking.

"Yes, great, thanks but can you let go now? You're turning me into mince."

"Oh!" She immediately let go of Aiden and gave an apologetic look. He dusted himself off and gave his old university friend an appreciative smile. The band on stage began playing something that sounded like it could be elevator music, which calmed the previously excited guests.

"Well I hope I did a good job this past three hours," Aiden playfully knocked her shoulder with his. "I'm getting paid for this after all. I still can't believe you remembered about my odd jobs website."

"Well at desperate times, you tend to remember a lot of things. You had no idea how much I panicked when that shitty C class celebrity cancelled on me because they were, quote on quote, too good for a unicorn birthday party. Like the audacity of that bitch. My mother is the owner of a multimillion-dollar..."

And then she proceeded to go on a tangent, which brought back memories for the other man as well as told him to bury himself in his own thoughts.

His mind went back to the rain incident (like it had been ever since it had occurred) and he recalled what happened, again. He just can't seem to wrap his head around it or believe that it had actually happened.

Halfway through his sobbing session that day, Erwin somehow moved them from the rain to the sofa of his living room. At the time, Aiden didn't even notice walking or straddling the other man's lap when he pulled him into his lap, only remembering that he clutched the other man tighter throughout. He'd sob harder when he noticed that the man was rubbing his back in consolation and whispering words of comfort into his ears. Aiden barely remembers what was said now.

After Aiden had finished sobbing into his bosses shoulders for what felt like decades, he slowly moved off his shoulder but still remained in his lap. He hadn't looked up, choosing to look down that both their laps in embarrassment and lack of knowing what to do.

It was silent before Aiden quietly apologised and Erwin gave him a playful flick on the forehead, scolding him on how he should never apologise for letting it out or being comforted by someone else. Instead, he should thank them.

He looked up at Aiden, who was giving him a soft smile, which in return made him give his own thankful smile and words of gratitude.

After that, both men got up, Aiden cleaned his face while Erwin cooked some food for them and then they both ate in comfortable silence.

Aiden's boss never asked what happened and the shorter one was grateful for that. Instead, Erwin gave him a week off work (working days) to stabilise and bring himself back to tip-top condition. Aiden was very against it at first, saying how he doesn't have time to take a break and that he'll be fine but eventually, he gave up. Both men knew he needed this.

Still, his pride as an employee who's heavily involved in the project wouldn't let him have that long of a break so he managed to reduce it down five working days off.

After that, he just went home and hadn't seen the other man since. He had checked up on Aiden via text a couple of times but the man is currently way too busy to care about anyone else. The sentiment was really valued though.

The break truly was what he needed, although Nero's mothering wasn't really necessary. It was more annoying than anything. After he heard that Aiden had broken his shell in front of someone else, he became very worried and assumed the electro user would do something to himself since this had never happened before. He refused to leave Aiden alone for the first two days, even taking a day off on the first but eventually, he convinced Nero it was just a moment of weakness and overwhelming and Aiden would be fine. He'd still visit Aiden whenever he's free though

Halfway through the third day, Aiden began getting really bored and since he wasn't allowed to do work, he decided to open up my odd jobs website again. It had been running during university years as a method of income and it did its job well, with many satisfied customers. The service was soon closed down after Aiden got involved with his sidekick job and the full time one.

He had got a couple of requests almost immediately but only took the ones that required a computer and nothing more since he was too lazy to get out of the apartment.

Except for one.

He had gotten a request from Mia, who was a university mate, to sing at her twenty fifth birthday party. Aiden was going to decline it since she was one of the rich kids who have CEOs as their parent, which means there's a high chance of coming in contact with other snobby kids or worse, meeting one of the Trophs but she sounded desperate and he hadn't seen her in years. Plus, there was free unlimited booze for the night, so if he came in contact with my nightmares, he could deal with it. More or less.

Which got him in the position of listening to Mia's rambling, on the last day of his mini vacation. Somewhere in the middle, Aiden somehow gotten a drink in his hand and the two moved away from the edge of the venue, now sitting at the birthday girl's table.

All her close friends were also there, listening in on the one sided conversation but Mia's eyes were still trained on her old friend.

"... and that's how my poodle got knocked up."

How the shit did we get here? Was Aiden's first thought.

"Well... damn." Cut him some slack, he just spent time filling in the details for you readers.

Luckily, the response was deemed satisfactory and her babbling was renewed again. As much as Aiden loved this girl, he wanted to do nothing more but to stuff a sock in her mouth.

Talk about nostalgia.

This time, her friends joined in on the fun, with some even trying to get Aiden into the conversation so they could talk to him but he only gave dry responses. He could just get up and leave but dinner hadn't been served so it would be seen as rude.

So he dealt with the mindless chatter. He slowly was regretting accepting this job. Actually, change that to rapidly.

He was so out of it, he began dozing off with his right arm holding up his chin, elbow on the table, when all of sudden the table went quiet. He blinked himself awake and noticed that the people around were staring behind him, with looks of aw, respect and lust.

Aiden turned around to see the cause of the looks, only to yelp and nearly startle off his chair. Erwin was currently crouching down to Aiden's eye level and was a lot closer than the latter anticipated. His head was literally a couple of centimetres away from Aiden's.

Erwin stood up, guffawing at the reaction while Aiden gave him a mean stare, mentally burning him alive by setting his maroon suit on fire.

"Ok, we've really got to talk to fate about this whole push-Aiden-and-Winny-together-whenever-possible thing," Aiden groaned outwardly. Inwardly, his heart was thumping, his stomach was fluttering and he was smiling like a loon.

"Do we? Is it to commend him? And don't call me that, Denny." Erwin asked, amusement seeped in his voice

"Fuck no. To complain obviously." Being the bigger person that he is, Aiden completely ignores the name calling.

"Who's complaining? I'm certainly not."

Aiden stuttered out a whole lot of gibberish. Is he...? "Are you flir–" before quickly shutting down the question because you don't ask your boss that under any circumstances without it being really fucking weird. He didn't want to know the answer to that, especially in front of all these people. He wouldn't know what to do. Instead, the red faced man pretended he wasn't having an internal crisis and sniped back. "Well, I certainly am."

"Why?" Erwin's face was still amused but there was a little bit of disappointment in his tone. Aiden picks it up.

"Because who the hell wants to constantly see their boss everywhere they go? That's like unnecessary stress," Aiden says, completely exasperated.

"HE'S YOUR BOSS?!" Mia squealed out. The two men whip their heads in her direction and she looked absolutely ecstatic.

"Uh, Mia? Why do you look like you're a crazy fangirl plotting–OOF" An elbow to the ribs by said person was enough to quickly shut Aiden up. She doesn't even look away from Erwin when she did it. I grumble under my breath but do nothing more.

"I'm SO glad you could make it to my birthday, Mr. Fonzo. Mother was telling me how you were invited and I was so excited to finally meet you."

Aiden scoffed at her antics and glared at her. I doubt the feeling is mutual from the other party. He probably would rather be in an accident on the way here.

Judging by the eyebrow twitch, Aiden was more than correct about the other man's irritation but said man was a professional and continued to talk to her in the fake cheery voice of his.

The electro user brought his attention back to the rest of the table and instantly, they all began bombarding him with questions and statements. Aiden wanted to run. He usually was quite outgoing but if they were anything like Mia, he'd rather seppuku.

He turned back to his boss and continued to stare at the man until he gained his attention.

Eventually, he felt the weight of the stare and turned towards Aiden with a raised eyebrow. The latter quickly mouthed, "Save me please, take me away."

Erwin lost composure and snorted in humour before covering his mouth with his hand. He glanced back at Mia, who didn't notice the change in behaviour and was still chattering away. He looked back and mouthed back, "No."

"Why?!" Aiden mouthed with an angry face.

Erwin went back to talking to the birthday girl and Aiden was about to throw a huge fit because apparently, being ignored by his boss, for who he might have more than platonic feelings, was not acceptable. But then he noticed that the other man was texting with his phone without looking at his screen.

Aiden's phone soon buzzed and notification happened to be from the man standing a metre away from him. The message read, "I thought you didn't want to see me everywhere you go. It gives you stress. Your actions aren't following your words."

Is this bitch salty? The temptation to punch Erwin nearly overwhelms Aiden but his need for an escape without being rude was deemed more vital.

So he swallowed his pride and did the one thing that always seemed to work with everyone.

He typed out, "Sowwy, I take it back. I didn't mean it. Please take me away on your white horse."

Aiden looked back to the other man with his signature pout and puppy dog eyes. As soon as Erwin read the message, his eyes widened and his head whipped towards his employee. The sight he was seeing was a sight to behold.

The taller never once thought that something like puppy dog eyes would work on him. He usually found it cringe. But goddamn did it make Aiden look absolutely adorable and irresistible. His capabilities to decline further was destroyed with that one look.

With a sigh Erwin conceded and bid Mia goodbye, saying he had something else to do. He then approached the cute bastard (A/N his words not mine) and gave out his charming smile to the rest of the table. It nearly blinded them.

"Apologies for interrupting but I need to take my employee over here," he clasped onto Aiden's shoulder, "And discuss some work related topics. I hope you all have a nice evening."

Everyone whined in disappointment but gave their farewells anyway.

With his arms casually around Aiden's shoulder, Erwin manoeuvred them to another table where it was just the two of them. Aiden expressed his gratitude and both of them ended up actually talking about work and the project.

A couple of guests came up to Erwin to talk and each time, Aiden assumed he was going to be ditched for the more important figures but shockingly, Erwin exchanged a couple of words with them before shooing them away, bringing back full attention to the other employee. The act brought a whole heap of fluttering in his stomach and a smile stayed on his face throughout the entire conversation.

When the conversation shifted to Nero and Leo's incompetence in getting together, Mia came back to our table with a sweet fake smile. She suddenly grabs Aiden's wrists and began pulling at the very confused and reluctant man.

"Oh my god Aiden! Sing one more song for me please!"

"Uh but I already sang for you... for three hours." She shook her head in refusal. Erwin looks at the interaction with simple curiosity.

"I fell in love with your voice and I just have to hear it again. Please, just one song. For me. It's my birthday."

Aiden was still very hesitant but the girl was more stubborn and the tightening of her grip was getting annoying to the other man. With a sigh, the lightning man got up and headed towards the band. Almost immediately, the birthday took his seat and began animatedly talking to Erwin. Her gaze was lust full and her posture made sure all her best features shined, that being her boob job. This time, it was Erwin who was desperately looking for an escape.

Ah, of course, you seem very interested in my voice. Aiden shook his head at his (now ex) friend's antics and jumped onto the stage. He tested the mic and discussed what song he wanted to sing. Luckily, they all knew how to play the song and Aiden turned back to face the now interested crowd.

Might as well finish off on a hyped note.

He began singing Check Yes Juliet by We The Kings.

By the time I was halfway through the first verse, people were moving to the dancefloor and by the chorus, half the guests were jamming to the music, cheering and singing along. Aiden seeing this began enjoying himself as well, moving along to the music with a wide grin.

He'd move to the band members and get them to sing along with them and just let loose when it was just the instrumentals. It was by the end of the second verse where he looked over to Erwin and noticed the man was completely ignoring Mia to focus on the performance (mainly Aiden) with a sharp stare. A stare that was associated with lust.

It surprised Aiden into his cheeks blushing and he promptly looked away intoxicating gaze to look elsewhere.

Except his eyes landed on something much worse, almost enough for him to stop singing and drop his mic. On the other side of the room was Alex Troph.

The first thought that went through Aiden's head was you the family once in years and then you keep seeing them every second day like they're some haunting ghosts.

Aiden leaves their eyes locked with each other for a moment, both parties not giving away any emotion before the former went back to feeling the music.

Finally, the song finished up and the singer was met with another set of applause and whistling.

"And that's my encore. Thank you for dancing along and I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their night." With that, Aiden went off stage and quickly headed for the back door out into the back garden and lake.

He took a deep breath of the fresh air before shakily exhaling it out. Aiden didn't show it but the appearance of his brother did shake him up. Just not enough for him to outwardly react on the spot.

He stared at the reflection of the night sky against the manmade lake, deep in thought, until he felt the presence of a vexatious being.

"Stalking now? Haven't you done enough dear brother?" Aiden surprised him that he began any form of contact with his brother but managed to avoid showing the emotion by keeping his back to him.

"I wasn't stalking," Alex gritted out. "That's what I'm here to accuse you of."

"And why is that?" Aiden still refused to look back

"Why are you here? How are you here?"

"I thought it'd be quite obvious why. I was hired as her singer for the night but also invited as her guest as I knew her from uni. Not that it's any of your concern anyway."

"Singing? Did you lose your job already?" Aiden didn't miss the pompous tone

"No," Aiden finally turned around with a blank face. "I was given a one week vacation after you twats caused my breakdown by taking away the only biological family I had left." All of that was said in an emotionless tone, which caused chills in Alex's bones.

Shocking Aiden, his brother wiped away the previous haughtiness and displayed a look of guilt and regret. "We didn't- I didn't-" Alex exhaled deeply before starting again. "I was very much against the idea. I-It was stupid and you already promised you wouldn't touch us. We would've been screwed over a long time otherwise."

The confession caused Aiden's jaw to drop and all of a sudden he dropped all facades, letting his anger take over.

"That's not what I heard," Aiden spat out, "apparently, all three of you were very keen on the idea."

Alex shook his head vigorously. "That was a lie. You don't have to believe me. I don't expect you to believe but I just want you to hear from my point of view."

Aiden clenched fists relaxed at the genuineness of his brother and sighed out his answer. "Yeah ok whatever. Explain."

"I was completely against the idea. As much as I... dislike you–"

"Hate," Aiden rapidly inserted.

Alex sighs. "I never hated you Aiden. I just... everyone was blaming your mother and you for... the brokenness of our family, so I had to join the bandwagon. Eventually, at one point, I kind of forgot that I didn't actually mind you and assumed I always hated you. It wasn't till recently that I remembered but you can't just get rid of animosity that easily. But both of us aren't drunk enough for this conversation right now."

"Agreed."

"As I was saying, I fought the other two against the idea but they had their own agenda. Marcel's huge ego, pride, whatever you call it, was hurt because he didn't have anything against you and for once, you were one upping him. Bradley found you irritating and hated you. Call it superior complex or whatnot but he'd try anything to destroy you. So when Marcel proposed the idea of taking away George, Bradley was completely on board."

Aiden hummed in contemplation when a random thought hit him.

"Wait, how are you and Bradley not dead yet? I exposed your assassination plans. Don't take it personally. If I can stop deaths, I'll do it."

Alex snorted and scratched his cheeks. "Thanks for that by the way. He surprisingly forgave us and told us to stop the operation, stating how we're family and we all make... mistakes." Alex gritted out the last word and Aiden raises his eyebrow at the reaction.

"But yeah," Alex continued, "we're not dead, instead the other two are teaming up to bring you down I guess. You really shattered them, especially when you revealed you were part of the group of Oddities. Marcel missed the opportunity to use you and Bradley suddenly felt inferior to you."

Aiden laughed at their demise. "God that feels good. Would've felt better if I could've electrocuted Bradstard though. So what about you? Got no grudge or anything against me? I didn't leave you out during my lecture you know."

Alex smiled at the newly formed nickname and looked up at the sky. "Well I won't lie and say I didn't want to kill you that night and the day afterwards but, I had a deep thinking session and your words made me realise how shitty we all really are. I mean, I'm going to continue being shitty and keep my underground businesses running but maybe I should stop treating people like shit. It tends to bite you in the ass eventually."

"And it took me losing it at you guys to realise that?"

Alex just shrugged. Aiden kept analysing him, to the point where the other began feeling uncomfortable. "So is that why you didn't want to join their plan to take gramps away?"

"Yeah, something like that. I'm chasing after good karma this time."

"You can make it into great karma if you told me where they hid George."

Alex returned an apologetic smile. "I would if I knew where he was myself. They wouldn't tell me after I opted out of their operation, which is fair enough I guess."

Aiden tutted and felt frustrated all over again. Just when he thought he could get a lead after a week of trying, his brothers had to play the fuck you card again. "It was worth a shot. Well, thanks for telling me I guess. I can hate you a little less now."

The Oddity user brushed past Alex as he laughed out loud at the comment, deciding it's time to get out of here. "Well, I'm glad, lil bro." Aiden's steps falter slightly and his heart clenched at the sudden acknowledgement. Never once had the three of them called him their brother unless it was sarcastic or ironic and yes he did stop caring for it eventually but it still warmed his heart. "Good luck finding grandpa."

Aiden didn't look back, just raising his arm in parting and walking back inside. However, he stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder.

"If I had to choose, you would probably be the favourite sibling." Aiden let the door shut on the now chortling Troph.