Chapter Text
Time passed much too quickly for Luke’s preference. During the preciously cramped timeframe they had to prepare an entire narrative, NXX also held a total of three meetings that Luke suspects were Vyn’s underhanded method of observing him and Marius in a more controlled setting before letting them loose to deliver hell. Mostly on themselves. Which was sweet. Kind of. Luke suspected Vyn was getting more out of these observations than his actual subjects were since the psychiatrist hadn’t said anything despite promising pointers on behavior. When he’d commented on this to Alyss over text, his friend had no helpful insight either; the only thing she could give him were reassurances that Vyn would have said something if he saw the need to. Which, okay, man of few words much like Artem, Luke can respect that.
But also. What the fuck.
What did that mean?
“It means we have chemistry, babe.” Marius winks at him lazily. Luke side-eyes the acting CEO but otherwise doesn’t respond; Alyss would be so proud. Seeing no farther reaction, Marius returns back to the task at hand, matching accessory after accessory against Luke’s wrist, “I doubt Vyn meant it anyway, have you ever seen him coach someone on how to lie better?”
He’s right. Vyn has coached them on how to spot tells, but he’s never really taught them how to cover said tells up. That brings up another issue though. What were those meetings for then? As much as Vyn made Luke wary, he was a highly renowned psychiatrist. Luke would think Vyn had better things to do than schedule set times in order to watch two people he could see whenever he wanted. As he is distracted, Marius pushes the rest of the display back, apparently having found a favorable design. An assistant comes forward to take the rest away. The dark haired man fiddles with the band for a moment, then fastens the watch on so quickly, the last click is over before Luke even manages to process he’d acquired a new addition to his arm. The brunet stares at the shiny glass surface and polished edges dumbly. A tailored suit. A new watch. What next, cufflinks? He hopes not; there were several things Luke foresaw in his future and attending more of these red carpet events was not one of them. Oh god, how many zeroes were trailing after that last number? Please no. He set his arm down as gingerly as he could without it appearing suspicious.
(This has been bothering him for a while but why does Marius know Luke’s size? There’s an entire suit laid out for him in one of the Pax CEO’s many penthouses, complete with a couple pairs of nice shoes. That all fit. Like a glove.
If people could spout emojis, Luke is certain he would have vomited confusion. Marius had brushed aside the whole thing like it was no big deal; which okay, fine maybe it wasn’t to him, but Luke doesn’t even know how wide his shoulders are. How the fuck does Marius know? Alyss had mentioned before that she has several pairs of shoes Marius just casually gave her in passing that all fit better than the ones she bought herself. Which, objectively, was creepy but the attorney hadn’t been bothered and Luke really was trying to not be overbearing so he’d dropped then forgotten about the whole thing. Only for it to reappear on him.
“I’m an artist,” Marius replied easily when pressed, honesty a silken brush over the falsehood of his half truth, “making estimates for measurements is child’s play.”
He’s right, and Luke hates it, but there’s no getting real answers if Marius doesn’t want to give them. Vyn only hummed when Luke went to him, seemingly unperturbed, and based on the doctor’s reaction, he’d chosen to completely skip going to ask Artem. Eventually the brunet told himself Marius probably had rough estimates of their entire NXX team somewhere just because. Rich people things. Maybe. Now that he’s on that train of thought, Vyn probably has complete psychological profiles of all of them. Which is hardly a thought he wanted in his brain. Should Luke start attaching trackers to everyone, just, casually? For safety? No, that’s weird. But they were involved in investigations that could very well go south. And one acting CEO is a high profile target. Abort. He’s dropping this and never thinking about it again.
On the bright side, at least he has a suit fitting for the occasion now.)
Whatever expression breaks through his face makes Marius grin, “Don’t worry that pretty head of yours; it’s sturdier than it looks.”
That’s not the problem here, but Marius is a hurricane when he wants to be and in the short amount of time they’ve spent together, Luke has learned it’s better to let something like this go. Leaving the building is an entire process, but he finally exits with Marius on one arm and a gleaming (glittery, shiny as fuck) watch on the other he keeps pulling his sleeve over. Luke suddenly understands Alyss’ confusion when she first met said Pax CEO; the super rich were entirely a different species when it came to spending habits.
“See you later.” Having arrived at Luke's residence, Marius mock salutes him before leaving. Luke rolls his eyes at the retreating back, then turns his own way; time to make any last preparations before being dropped in the deep end and told to swim.
You’re in the news, is the first line of text he wakes up to the next morning. Luke clicks the attached link then immediately rolls over to bury his head back into his very soft pillow, swallowing back a bone deep ache that is slowly becoming harder and harder to mask. It’s too early to deal with paparazzi bullshit, thank you. As agreed upon earlier, he’s going to divert all of this towards Marius and Pax PR unless it begins to intrude upon his life. Both of them have countermeasures in place should the invasion go overboard, but from the brief glance Luke gave over the attachment, none of that is even close to necessary yet. Whoever snapped the photograph hadn’t even been trying to catch them; their blurry silhouettes are just off center, blending into the trailing greenery of the restaurant décor.
Marius is barely recognisable. Luke suspects the publishing outlet must have done some borderline invasive digging before releasing the headline. His own face is hidden by Marius’ shoulder; he can just make out the outline of his fingers around the taller man’s wrist. Luke has a sneaking suspicion he knows exactly when the metaphorical shutter went off for this particular moment.
(The angle makes it seem more intimate than it really was, but Luke remembers–
“Do you mind?” Marius had asked once they’d left the restaurant, lingering around the mostly deserted gardens surrounding the building. The question had given Luke pause, caught in the middle of considering what kind of touch would be allowed. They’ve already had a lot of physical contact in the days leading up to this, but as inexperienced as he is, Luke isn’t completely ignorant. A healthy relationship may not require the more overt expressions of physicality, but theirs is one meant for the media.
And there is a certain standard expected by general society. They both have their own boundaries but Luke was initially the one shying away at every touch.
“Slowly?” Luke asks, frowning mentally at the upward tick of nerves that tails off the word; he clears his throat and tries again, “You can try. I’ll say if I don’t like it.”
They’ve stopped near one of the more overgrown overhangs.
“Okay,” Marius says, “okay.”)
He shakes off the thoughts to continue analyzing the photo. Honestly, had there not been the pre-existing case between Janus and Estelle, he doesn’t think the article would have made the cut at all.
Luke certainly hopes Marius has no plans of murdering him horribly using tetrodotoxin.
His point is, this headline wouldn’t have blown up so quickly if it weren’t for the fact there has already been a case of two seemingly unrelated people actually coming out as married. Even if one is dead and the other is in prison for being the killer. Did Vyn predict this would happen? He wouldn’t be surprised. This is a good beginning for validity if-when he attends that event from hell attached to Marius. He can also foresee terrible outcomes from this and if he ends up having to move to the international branch of his agency, Luke might just bite Marius’ uncaring face and leave a scar there.
Argh, whatever; Luke has enough faith in “King” to keep up his end of the deal even if Marius von Hagen continues to eclipse Marius for him. He thinks he could get along with the latter. The former is… well, the former is a surname that means nothing to Luke attached to a persona he cannot bring himself to like. He still doesn’t know where one ends and the other begins. Mostly on muscle memory, Luke tips several pills into his mouth, swallowing them with a few gulps of water. His throat protests briefly at the discomfort as he takes care of Peanut’s needs then opens up Time’s Antiques for the day. By the time everything is ready, the irritation caused by the medication has settled into nothingness again. He picks up a side project from behind his work desk. Back during his first official NXX assignment with Alyss, he’d gifted her a tranquiliser gun disguised as a tube of lipstick. Marius probably has his own arsenal– being in the position he is– but if they’re working together in this investigation, Luke will feel better knowing his partner is carrying something.
Thankfully, the dark haired man hadn’t said anything when Luke asked whether he could modify the watch Marius often wore with his business outfits. He’d handed it over with a request to have it eventually returned in one piece. Luke had been too surprised to be offended, then it was too late to be offended. He fiddles with the miniscule screws on the back in order to gain access to the inner workings. The design is a classic one-- bordering on outdated, actually-- which is a pleasant challenge. Some of the older timepieces in his shop have similar workings, if not quite this tiny, and the young agent slides away the delicate gears and mechanisms until he has a blank slate to work with.
Being a government agent, Luke already has several forms of personal defense to choose from. Coupled with his inclination to tinker around and make things, the arsenal he has access to is compounded far beyond a normal selection. However, considering what a civilian could safely carry without arousing suspicion, a lot of those options were void to begin with. If he needed to consider ease of use, his options were narrowed down even farther. Luke eventually settled on the same tranquiliser he’d given Alyss; he’d asked for Marius’ watch so he could modify and adjust the mechanism appropriately.
Although… Luke leans back in his chair with a hum, would it make sense to put this in the watch? Unlike lipstick, which he’s seen people carry multiples of, watches were usually singular. Of course, he could construct a mechanism that would integrate into the clockwork itself, but that required a degree of effort Luke was not sure he had the time to invest. The other option was Marius just wore the fake, but it ran the risk of raising unnecessary questions. Maybe a bracelet would be more fitting? No, considering the setting, anything more than a thin chain was probably inappropriate. Marius' reputation let him get away with a lot, but Luke has been privy to the outfits selected for this event and making Marius re-coordinate when he's already-Luke was getting off track. The point was, a hidden defense mechanism should blend in, not create more speculation. He tapped the work space gently, careful to not disturb the contraption laid out on the surface. A multi shot tranquilizer required more space solely due to its increased volume. If he limited it to a single shot, but spread out the device-
Ah.
Luke put the watch back together and set it aside, carefully breaking apart the shooting mechanism, before pulling out a small box from one of the drawers. The cufflinks he’d been gifted a while back are still sitting in their original wrappings, untouched. Blatant re-gifting isn’t Luke’s favorite thing in the world, but he has a sneaking suspicion the accessories would find more use with Marius than they would sitting in a desk until he remembered them again. Besides, these are on the bulkier side and cheap compared to whatever grade diamonds otherwise glittering on Marius’ elegant wrists. It’s less tasteful and probably not commonly seen on old money but Marius was hardly a model when it came to the pretentious image of the elite class and the color scheme is at least similar to what was already chosen. Besides, Luke feels less guilty about popping the jewel out in order to install the firing mechanism.
An older lady walks in, followed by a gaggle of new collectors, and Luke sets everything aside in order to play shop owner.
In between juggling several questions, his phone buzzes again with a message from Marius. The issue from that morning has been resolved already, which really went to show how little basis the article had. But it’s also an indication of how many eyes are on Marius, and Luke has more or less willingly walked into the metaphorical wolf’s den
By the time the customers stop coming in, it’s nearing closing time. Luke considers the half finished cufflinks turned tranquiliser guns and sighs.
Looked to be a late night.