Chapter 91 - Where is he?

Notes:

- Well I was gonna more or less gonna finish off NeroxLeo in two chapters but this turned out to be a lot longer than anticipated so it's probably going to be in three chapters

- I don't know when the next chapter is coming out but we're nearly there and I apologise for leaving it here xD

- Listen to DPR Ian's new album thanks. It's pain. But beautiful pain.

-----------------------------

POV: 3rd Person

"And why on earth should I help you?" Aiden's anger was apparent and it was clear to Leo that he did something wrong even though he didn't know what it was.

"I'm sorry. I'm quite lost.." Leo had to practically shout as he was flying with his (very cool) salamander wings in the general direction of where Nero disappeared. "Listening to your voice and Nero's sudden change in behaviour, I seemed to have done something to offend you both but I can't seem to recall or understand what it was that I did wrong."

A loud scoff sounded through Leo's handset. "As if you have no idea what you did wrong, you emotionally manipulative, cheating bitch."

Leo nearly dropped his phone at the unexpected and completely uncalled for insult. "E-Emotionally maniputlative- just what on bloody fuck are you talking about? How did emotionally fuck with anyone?"

Aiden was stubborn and refused to answer in a clear-cut fashion. "Still playing dumb I see."

Leo had about enough and finally snapped back at Aiden's impatience. "Listen brat. I don't have time for your games. I just came out of a restaurant chasing your best friend because she suddenly broke down in the middle of the restaurant without any reason and flew away when he saw me. I have no idea what has been going on these past few weeks but even if he doesn't want to see me anymore, I need to make sure he is ok. So can you just tell me where he could be at this point and it would be great if you could also tell me why the hell you both suddenly hate my entire being."

Leo was panting by the end of his vent but the other side remained silent for a while. He had thought Aiden cut the call on him and he was about to throw the phone down onto the surface of the earth in rage before Aiden spoke with a solemn tone.

"Aiden broke down?"

Leo sighed out, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. He needed answers, Aiden seemed willing to answer somewhat and the last thing he needed to do is to piss off the other man and change that reluctance into a complete shutdown.

"Yes. He was at a restaurant with someone I didn't recognise, crashed into a waiter with water pouring all over him and then he suddenly broke down."

"Ah, so he actually went to his blind date. Third time's the charm."

Leo felt his blood heating up in anger and envy all over again. "So it was a date."

"Yup. I set him up on a blind date but he didn't go the first two times but now he finally went. But from what I'm hearing, it didn't go all that well and now I have a feeling he won't let me matchmake anymore."

Leo remained quiet, feeling slightly betrayed by Aiden. He had assumed that there was a mutual understanding between the two that Leo had the approval to go for Nero and that Aiden would help him get to that stage. Instead, he did the complete opposite and attempted to get his one-sided love to get with someone else.

"The main question is," Aiden continued, " why were you there at the restaurant? You weren't stalking Nero were you?" Leo could feel the suspicious glare through the phone.

"What no?" Leo defended, feeling offended that Aiden assumed he would stoop that low in the first place. "I was there with Sydney trying to-"

"You were with your fucking ex on a date?" The initial anger began seeping back into Aiden's voice and Leo was quick to defend himself yet again.

"I was not on a date with her. I was trying to cut her out of my life for good."

"HA! How'd that work out for you?" Aiden had a hint of amusement in his voice but it was clear he was still very annoyed with me.

"Well, it worked out as well as you'd think it did. She stunned silent before she decided to pull a crude publicity stunt and attempted to kiss me in front of paid, hidden paparazzi."

"And you're saying it was completely non-consensual?"

"Yes! Why would you doubt me with this matter? You know I'm basically in love with your best friend!"

"That's what I assumed too but now I have every reason to doubt you!" Aiden snapped back.

"For what reason are you guys doubting my genuine feelings?"

Aiden ignored Leo. "Did Nero see you at the restaurant?"

"We will come back to this but to answer your question, I'm not sure? I mean he was facing in my direction a couple of tables away. The only thing I saw was Nero crashing into a waiter and dropping onto the floor."

"And this crash happened around the time Sydney apparently tried to kiss you?"

"It was not apparent. It happened but yes it occurred when she tried to pull a move on me."

"Ah yes. Then it's definitely your fault. All of THIS, including the past, is your fault."

"What? How? Explain." The passing wind around Leo was cold against his exposed skin but his body was hot from the range of emotions he was feeling in a short period, all at the same time. From panic to worry to anger to confusion.

"No," Aiden calmly responded. "You should probably give me some sort of explanation because something tells me everything is not what it seems. Are you and Sydney back together?"

"NO! For the last time, I AM IN LOVE WITH NEROVSKY!" Yeah maybe shouting it was quite unclassy of Leo but he was frustrated and peeved from the sudden doubt. He was damn lucky that he was flying high in the air and not located on the ground.

Aiden burst out laughing at the sudden declaration and Leo felt his ears getting even redder than they originally had become.

"Damn. That was cute. Doesn't explain why you and Sydney kissed though. Quite passionately according to the witness. From everyone's understanding, you're not the type to do casual flings and go for serious relationships only."

"What are you talking about? Sydney didn't manage to kiss me. I pushed her away and-"

"Yeah no that's not what I was referring to," Aiden said dismissively. "I was referring to the time back at your building. In front of your office."

It takes a couple of seconds for the realisation to hit and Leo gaped No... surely not. "Aiden. Please tell the witness you mentioned earlier isn't who I think it is..."

"And who do you think it is, Leonardo?"

"Nero?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot say that it wasn't him because that would make me a big fat liar."

All of a sudden, everything that had occurred in the past made sense but also didn't make sense. He found out the reason why there was a sudden shift in demeanour but it didn't make sense why. Why was there such an adverse effect? Unless... no way... I'm not THAT dense am I? but before Leo went down that clusterfuck of thoughts, he needed to clear up the misunderstanding. And fast.

"Listen to me Aiden. There has been a huge misunderstanding. I'm going to assume Nero wasn't there for the entire time or else we wouldn't be here right now."

Surprisingly, Leo could feel Aiden's hesitation to give him a chance through the phone but the silence meant the green to go. Leo had never been so relieved.

"Yes, Sydney and I kissed, however, once again, it was non-consensual. She kissed me out of nowhere. If Nero stayed longer, he would've seen that I had violently pushed her away and went off at her."

There was silence for a very long time and once again, Leo had assumed that Aiden had changed his mind about giving him a chance and cut the line. He could feel his heart sink to his stomach but it was quickly jolted when he heard a quiet voice from the other side of the line.

"You're not bullshitting me here? Because it had complete crushed Nero and he-"

"I'm not! Aren't you like a world-class hacker? You can hack into the cameras of my building and find the log from that day. In fact, I'm kind of hurt that you didn't do that when you found out about this initially. You KNEW I was completely smitten with Nero. How could you doubt me and completely believe Nero's point of view completely?"

It wasn't Aiden's fault and Leo was riding on a weird sort of high and blurting out whatever came to mind.

"Well, I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! Maybe because Nero's MY BEST FUCKING FRIEND and we DON'T DOUBT EACH OTHER'S WORDS and take it to face value. Yes on hindside, it was kind of stupid of me to not look into it further but cut me some slack here. I was heartbroken myself and my own life is in shambles and I just realised I was not supposed to mention this to you ever. Fuck, forget I ever said any of that. Tell me what happened next. Why did Sydney kiss you?"

"Once again, we will get back to... that trainwreck of a word vomit soon. But Sydney was talking about getting back together again since we had parted on mutual and amicable terms. I told her that I have no romantic interest in her anymore and was in love with someone else. She refused to accept that and continued to pester me for the rest of eternity but at the time, she seemed ok with it as she just said ok and walked away. My point is, I did not emotionally cheat on Nero.

I physically and emotionally cannot do that as I am completely and utterly gone for the man. I don't think there is anyone else who would ever make me fall for them as hard as Nero did. Do you understand? Could you now explain why Nero reacted the way he did because right now I have one theory and I don't want to get my hopes up. If I'm wrong it will crush me. "

Aiden was really enjoying silence a fair bit because there was no noise. Leo assumed he was processing everything that he had just said, so he gave him his patience and time. It didn't take long for the silence to be broken and in the most unexpected way.

A phone-dropping way.

Literally.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

"What the fu-"

Leo's phone jumped out of his hands out of shock, the device plummeting to the face of the earth. Leo muttered some curses before quickly zooming to his handset and picking it up before it shattered onto the asphalt. He flew back to where he was and screamed back at Aiden.

"WHY THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU SUDDENLY SCREAMING, YOU FUCKING TWAT?! I DROPPED MY DAMN PHONE!" Leo was now half deaf and would've been phoneless.

Aiden didn't seem to give two shits. "I'm freaking THE FUCK out! That's why I'm screaming. How are we all so fucking stupid?"

"Yes, yes, it was dumb and we are idiots but what's done is done. Can you please answer my question and possibly finally tell me where Nero is?"

"Surely, you can't be that dense. Even Nero was somewhat on the right track with you before Sydney pulled that fucking stunt. It's quite clear why Nero reacted like that."

"In hindsight, yes. Yes it is clear and yes I am a dense fool but I need you to make it clear by telling me so there isn't another misunderstanding and my heart isn't shattered all over again."

Aiden sighed. "Leo. I really shouldn't be telling you any of this. It's not my thing to tell... but honestly, fuck it. It's literally the most obvious thing to everyone except you dense dumbasses and it's clearly hurting both of you more being separated than together. Nero had wanted nothing to do with you because... he is in love with you and it hurt to see you with another person."

The words were like a breath of fresh air that had come at Leo at full speed, which had knocked the wind of out his lungs all at the same time. Leo's heart raced faster than ever before and an uncontrollable grin beamed on his face as he flew through the night sky. His hands shook in excitement and he felt Oddity heat up along with the feelings of joy and relief. Relief that his heart wasn't going to be shattered all over again.

He wanted to shout in excitement to the whole world. He wanted to tell his grandma's neighbours that his feelings were legitimately reciprocated. But more importantly, he wanted to fly faster to Nero and tell him that their feelings are mutual and that they can finally have their own happy ending.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god. You guys are so dumb. Why are you guys so dumb? How dense do you both have to be to get to this point? Am I meant to just..." Aiden was still freaking out unnecessarily.

Leo was slightly offended to be called dense but couldn't exactly say anything back because the smurf-haired man was right. He wouldn't have been in this situation if Nero and he were both smarter about the situation.

In Leo's defence, he did have some suspicions about the other's feelings. I mean, they nearly kissed multiple times. So he had assumed Nero had more than friendly feelings for Leo but not as intense as Leo. So he didn't do anything. He was waiting for the other to fall for him deeper. He was also terrified that he was reading it completely wrong somehow and Nero was just being VERY friendly with him.

And he thought he wasn't wrong when they had that night occur. Except he also found out that Nero's feelings were deeper than he had anticipated.

And now he learnt it was even deeper. Love level deep.

Leo level deep.

He needed to fix this fast.

Leo interrupted Aiden's freaking out and scolding to bring the situation back to where it was meant to be. "Alright enough freaking out. What's done is done. Can I now go fix it? Do I have your approval to pursue your best friend once again?"

Silence once again.

"Do... do you love him? Seriously? Genuinely?" Aiden's room had no room for jokes, only legitimacy.

"Yes. I have for the longest of time and all of it has been the best moments of my life." Leo mustered all the seriousness and conviction he had into his voice.

"Will you put him first before anything? Will you communicate with him properly from now on so this doesn't ever happen again? Will you love him for the rest of his life? Because the man only loves once and only once."

"Yes. Yes to all of it." Leo tried to stop his heart from jumping out of his chest at the last question. He would want nothing more than to be the only one in Nero's lifetime.

"Are you going to be the hero or the villain?"

"... what?" Leo was confused but it was quickly cleared up.

"Will you be a hero and sacrifice him for the world, or be a villain who sacrifices the world for him?"

How grim... Without any hesitation, Leo responded, "A villain. I would be the biggest villain only for him."

The wind cooled down further and it filled the momentary silence once again before Aiden's happy tone returned after months of its absence.

"Then yes. You have my approval to pursue my best friend. That being said, this is your only chance. You fuck up once more, your body will be unrecognisable in a pool of acid in the middle of the Sahara, no murdering rule be damned."

But I didn't fuck up... it was all a misundersta-

"And if you're thinking that you didn't screw up and it was all a misunderstanding, then you're wrong on so many accounts. If you dumbasses just fucking talked, none of this would've happened and no one would be in pain. So yeah, you fucked up. So did Nero but this isn't about him."

Leo was grateful he kept his mouth shut and did not refute back. Getting Aiden's approval felt like the final boulder was lifting off his shoulders but it was soon crashing back onto the said shoulder when Aiden continued to add on more.

"Now that you got through one hurdle, you have to get over the final hurdle. Which is probably exponentially harder than me being an obstacle."

Oh for fucks sake. "Do I have to get the approval of someone else now?" Leo sighed out, cooling down from his high from before.

"Yeah, you do. Nero."

"Nero what?"

"No, as in you need to get Nero's approval."

Leo was puzzled again. "Care to elaborate."

Aiden sighed in resignation. "You know the man and you know his history. He's filled with insecurity. It's the main reason why he was so quick to believe you and your ex got back together. He doesn't believe that you and he would be a thing. Ever. It's feasible. His insecurities, which are ocean-levels deep, tell him that you are out of his league. That in this lifetime, you would never look his way, let alone reciprocate his feelings. So yeah, the next person you need to impress and convince, is your love himself."

Leo saw red and snapped at the complete gibberish. "What utter rubbish is that? What kind of bullshit-"

"Trust me," Aiden placated, "I know more than you how much of that is bullshit and absurd but even I haven't managed to get him out of this mindset. His complete lack of self-esteem prevents him from believing anything said about him that is positive. So I'm wishing you good luck. No, I'm praying you to convince him that you are in love with him so he can finally learn to love someone else as well as himself."

Leo knew Nero was quite self-deprecating but he hadn't realised it was this bad. This was therapy level bad. Nonetheless, Leo wanted nothing more than to convince Nero of his love and finally get together with him. So Leo showed his gratefulness towards Nero.

"I promise that I will change his mind. And thank you. For all of this. For listening to me and more importantly, giving me a chance."

"Yeah, yeah it's fine. Just go make out with Nero already and resolve the UST already. It's suffocating." Aiden put on a nonchalant attitude but you could tell he cared for his best friend and he wanted Nero to finally learn what love was, even if it was through a third party. Leo was more than glad to be that third party.

"Anyway, I sent the GPS location of where Nero currently is. He's by a cliffside that looks over the city, not too far from where you are (Leo: You can see where I am already? I think I'm more scared of you now). He usually goes there by himself when he's in sad boy hours and needs space to breathe. The idiot didn't think to turn it off on his phone but then again, he probably doesn't expect that I would snitch on him. Oh well. It's for his good anyway. His safe haven can be a shared haven now. Now go get your man and I wish you the best of luck. Truly."

Aiden ended the call with those words and Leo was excited all over again. He looked up the location and sped through the sky.

He had a man to make his.