Chapter Text
Ash hated the sound of his ringtone especially when it was blaring at god knows what time in the morning. He was never a morning person even before he became a CEO, but early morning calls were a different breed of annoying. He wasn’t functional enough to think, damn it.
He was still too tired, body aching and mind too jumbled to go to work. He debated just throwing the phone away. That was, until he realized that wasn't his ringtone after all to begin with.
"Oh shut that up."
He grumbled into someone's soft chest. Soft chest?
Ash cracked his eyes open to see Eiji, all in his miraculous glory, sighing as he fumbled for his phone. It was in the pocket of his trousers which Ash so helpfully ripped off his legs and thrown to the other side of the room without a care. Eiji groaned.
The sight was enough to get Ash back to reality.
"Let me go." He peeled himself away from Ash's grasp. He clung tighter.
"No." Ash grumbled. He remembered last night. It wasn't a dream, the confession, the sex. Ash pounding him into the mattress and Eiji writhing and moaning his name as he came. Him kissing Ash deeply, softly, tenderly. It was real this time and Eiji was here with him for it.
"If you don't let me go, it's going to continue." Eiji explained.
"It'll go away." Ash wrapped his legs around Eiji this time as well. His bare skin sliding against Eiji's felt electric, he didn't want them to move. But the ringing didn't stop, and Ash finally huffed in defeat when Eiji raised a brow and gave him a challenging look.
Ash missed the warmth of Eiji's body as he slid off the bed to the other side of the room. That's a little pathetic of him though, it was just a minute.
Eiji glanced at the name on the caller ID and bit back a sigh.
"Yes? What's the matter?" He probably didn't mean to sound so rude, but he was probably becoming aware of how much Ash was eyeing his naked body. His skin was so soft, his shoulder and neck littered with marks which Ash had put on his skin last night. They look beautiful under the lighting from the windows.
And that ass...
Eiji glared at Ash while blushing hotly, admonishing. He went back to sit on the edge of the bed so that he could at least cover his modesty. Ash chuckled and mouthed at him to put it on speaker.
"Eiji, you haven't by chance know where Ash is, right? He's not in his office." Shorter called from the other side. He sounded worried. Eiji wanted to huff. He knew where Ash was alright. He was wrapping his arms around his waist, rubbing his cheek on the small of his back. Wow, that groan from him rubbing his stubble was interesting.
“You do know it’s a Sunday.” Eiji sucked a breath. Rough patch. Eiji knew exactly what he was doing and Ash was living for it. Eiji pushed his chin away, which Ash immediately decided to resist and press open mouthed kisses on his neck instead. He was working out a pair of really red ears.
“That never stopped Ash from going in. Man’s a workaholic. Remember that week he was down with the flu? This is the first time he’s gone. No way he’s taking a day off.”
That was true. Ash never really rested. Can't help it though. There wasn't any good reason to. Eiji clicked his tongue, displeased.
“Well, I am.” Eiji sighed. There was muffled laughter against his skin. Ash loved it when Eiji was being a bastard. He would never admit it of course, but he has an inkling Eiji knew. Eiji stared at him with a pointed look. Ash smiled at him, and Eiji's eyes seemed to convey 'the blond idiot had the audacity to smirk at him, the nerve'. So Ash snatched the phone off from Eiji’s grasp and spoke to Shorter with a smug voice.
“Shorter.”
“Ash! Where—“
“I’m still alive before you ask. No, I will not be coming in today so go take a break. Yes, I’ll have all files ready by Monday. Yes I’m at home with Eiji, and yes, you are disturbing us at the moment. I’ll appreciate if you don’t bother us. Our phones will be silent and we will be unreachable for the rest of the day.” Ash listed off. “Now, if you don’t mind, there’s something I’d rather be doing.” He glanced at Eiji. "Or maybe someone."
"Ash!" Eiji spluttered.
“Wait—“
Ash turned the phone off and threw it somewhere in the sea of sheets. It was Shorter's problem if he understood what Ash was implying. It'll probably take him awhile.
“Wow, you actually did that.” Eiji blurted.
Ash tilted his head as he stretched on the mattress like a cat just waking up. “Did what?”
“That was work.” Eiji waved at the general direction of his phone. “You never ignore work.I actually expected to wake up to an empty bed because you're on your way to the office, or sitting on the bed with his laptop open while he typed away on the keyboard."
Ash shrugged. “Never had a good reason to. I mean, I don’t usually have you in my bed in the mornings.” This was also fact. Ash doesn't have a reason to stay home. Work had been all that's been worth it. He tried taking partners in the past but either they become to demanding or they simply don't enjoy Ash and his ramblings. They certainly can't deal with his temper, and they definitely don't appreciate him being buried in work 90% of the time. Eiji was different though. He was always dealing with Ash and efficient with his work.
Eiji was pink in the face again. Adorable. Ash could get used to flustering him “Anyway, get back to bed and cuddle with me.”
“So demanding.” Eiji laughed. Ash loved that sound. Again, he could get used to this. “The sun is up, time to get out of bed.”
...never mind. He was not getting up so early. Damn why did Eiji have to be a morning person?
Ash grumbled. “It’s too early.”
“It’s nine am.” Eiji checked Ash’s bedside clock.
“Too early.” Ash insisted. He wrapped himself with his duvet, blocking out the sun and Eiji's pleading face which Ash was sure that he couldn't resist.
“Ash.” Eiji continued to giggle. Ash glared at him and hissed. Eiji called him a kitten and grasped at his ankles, pulling Ash out of the bed. But Ash gripped at the headboard.
"Oh wow, you are such a child. A really immature child." Eiji grunted.
“Noooooo!” Ash groused. The things Ash endured for love. It wasn't just a day and Eiji was back to being a royal pain in his ass.
Eiji rolled his eyes. Or he probably did. Ash couldn't see, but he could hear it in his voice, as strange as that sounded. “Okay!” He let go. “I’ll eat breakfast then. You can stay here for all I care.”
He dropped Ash's legs and walked out. Ash peeked out of the blanket. “Get in here and hug me.”
“So bossy.” Eiji stuck out his tongue.
“Ngh.” Ash tsked. "That's my job description."
Eiji slid off the bed. “Too bad I’m not your employee anymore.” He chuckled to himself while he sorted his clothes scattered on the floor. He slipped on the soft material on his body. It’s too big on him. Ash wasn't sure if he was doing it on purpose. He could be off to make breakfast after all, or he could be teasing Ash, being the bastard that he was, flashing him his ass and wearing Ash's shirt that was oversized on him. It barely covered his modesty and it ended somewhere on his thigh. His ass was peeking from under it.
Ash felt warmth spread in his gut. He was not letting Eiji go that easily.
“Anyway, I’ll be—oh shit!” Eiji was sprawled on the floor, a weight tackling him from the back. Ash pushed him into a blanket and rolled into the cloth before being manhandled. “Aaaaaaash!” Eiji spluttered. He felt quite like a potato sack for some reason.
“Bed. Now. Cuddle.” Ash threw him on the bed with enough force to not hurt, an intense look on his eyes. He then crawled on top of him, arms trapping Eiji beneath him. “Do you know you look really good in my shirt?”
Eiji grinned up at him. He was teasing him afterall. “I’m surprised you can make coherent statements.”
“I can come up enough for this.” A bright sleepy grin graced his face. A hand held Eiji's cheek, warm and firm. He drew his face closer and pressed his lips against his. First it was chaste, and soon enough he was slipping a tongue into Eiji’s mouth. He moaned into the kiss, already melting into Ash’s touch.
“Alright,” Eiji chuckled. “I think I can get used to this.”
Ash’s smile grew bigger.
"Okay, but are we actually going to talk about what happens next?" Eiji leaned on the table while Ash rummaged the kitchen for anything to eat after Eiji finally persuaded him to get off the bed. Perhaps this was going to be a staple in the future, them making breakfast together. Or lunch. It was past noon.
Ash paused from his scavenging. He doesn't keep much food at home. At least, not without Griffin. He's hopeless in the kitchen too. "Are you ready to tell me? I'm assuming we're at least dating. We are dating, right?"
He could be pissed at Eiji and date him at the same time right? The former was just him being a little petty, and be wasn't mostly pissed at Eiji. It was mostly directed at Lee Yut-Lung, but Eiji sure needs to take responsibility and pay him back for it.
Probably in the form of hugs, dates, kisses and some mind blowing sex afterwards.
"I guess we are." Eiji scratched his cheek. "We are in a relationship then. Partners."
"Boyfriends." Ash said. He liked the sound of that. Eiji Okumura was his boyfriend.
"Alright then." Eiji laughed shyly. "But I'll still leave my job."
Ash didn't want to think about that. It was barely more than two years, but Eiji was the only one among his secretaries who stayed long enough. And in those times, they were almost joined to the hip. There was barely a time Ash was not with Eiji, or the other way around. The lines between work and personal life blurred too, especially when you don't actually have a personal life like Ash. Ash liked Eiji as a secretary. It was one of the reasons why he had kept him all this time after all.
Spy or no spy, if he was a shit employee, Ash would not even think twice about it.
But Eiji was exactly what he needed. And Ash had grown comfortable about it. Only to reveal that he was actually secretly a billionaire, as absurd as that sounded. It would make sense that he wanted to stop this set up. And, they can't date if he was still Ash's employee.
Ash scratched his chin. It all made perfect logical sense, and Ash was going to let it happen sure. But that didn't mean he was going to like it. He was still going act as grumpy about it as possible.
"I hate this." Ash huffed. "I don't want Alex. I want you."
"Well I’m glad to be wanted so much.” Eiji rolled his eyes. He was still wearing Ash’s button up shirt from last night and his black boxers. It didn’t really help Ash’s case. Eiji looked more enticing this way than when he was all naked.
“I’ve always wanted you.” Ash said. “I told you, I’ve wanted you for months.” He said earnestly. It shouldn’t be a surprise, and yet Eiji flushed all the way from his ears to his chest as if this was news to him. And then he gaped at him, struggling to say something.
“For real?” Eiji finally choked out. “Literal months? Since when?”
Ash shrugged. “You know. It just happened. I was so sure it was obvious.”
“It wasn’t exactly…” Eiji trailed away. Now it looked like he was reviewing every single interaction they had for the last month, and he turned redder and redder at every second. “Oh.” He pressed a palm on his lips.
Ash chuckled, amused. So Shorter was right. Eiji really was just dense. It was a little bit comforting to know that he wasn't flat out rejected in the first few tries. Innocent and oblivious Eiji was a little cute.
“It took me awhile to realize honestly.” Eiji hummed. "I guess I ran away from my feelings too much."
Oh.
Well, it was a good thing Ash waited after all so he wouldn’t scare off Eiji just like that. Even if he nearly died of blue balls for months. All of it was absolutely worth. Hopefully he never had to go through that ever again. It was agonizing.
"Hold on," Eiji eyed Ash with this look of suspicion. "So that party, when I met Mizuno-senpai, and you suddenly had me work overtime even though all the presentations were perfect already so all we did in here was watch crappy movies...."
Ash swallowed hard. Oh yeah, there was that.
"...Were you jealous?"
Ah shit.
Ash laughed. "Me? Jealous? No. Not at all." He was. Oh he was. It was an irrational feeling of course. But the man was talking to Eiji with that tone, and he knew Eiji before Ash did, probably spent more time with him than Ash did. And he was also looking at Eiji with those eyes.
Like the one Ash gave Eiji.
Damn it.
“Too bad,” Eiji lowered his eyes. “I’d be so into that.”
“Really?” Ash’s mind paused. Eiji liked him jealous? “Well I mean—“
But Eiji was suddenly cackling. “Gotcha.” He smothered his face with his hands, trying and failing to keep his laughter in. “Oh wow, I never knew you were the possessive type.”
Bastard! The things he really endured for love.
Ash growled, raising a brow at Eiji. “I’ll show you possessive.”
He pulled Eiji into a deep kiss, chastity out of the question. He grabbed his wrists and pinned them on the wall, making sure he couldn’t escape.
“O-oh.” Eiji gasped as they pulled away. His knees buckled and his face surprised. But he was reciprocating, Ash would take that as a sign to continue. He heaved his lover on the table, carefully so he wouldn’t hurt him, especially his leg. Then he slipped a hand under his shirt and toyed with the hard nubs of his nipples. Eiji shuddered at the touch.
Ash captured one of them with his mouth, licking and sucking at them while his other hand snaked down to the hardness between Eiji's legs. It was warm, wet, and leaking.
"A-ash..." Eiji gasped as he grinded against Ash's palm, desperate for friction. He was flushed and panting, arms wrapped around Ash's neck for support, pulling him closer to his chest.
Ash loved seeing him squirm. He loved seeing him so desperate for Ash.
Ash pressed a kiss on his lips, deeper, filthier. He slipped in a tongue, playing with the wetness there before breaking apart to gaze at each other. Ash pushed Eiji onto his back and ripped his boxers in one clean swipe. Without waiting for another minute, Ash took Eiji into his mouth and sucked, making him a bit of a writhing and moaning mess.
Jesus, he looked beautiful. Ash had waited months for this. He wanted for so long and now that he got it, he was no longer letting go.
He teased and he touched and he toyed with Eiji’s member, licking and sucking them, but never stopping. He tongued at the slit before fully taking him back in, the tip hitting the back of his throat. He moaned and Eiji was whimpering, shaking. His toes curled. He was about to come.
"Stop, A-ash, I--"
The door opened so suddenly, they weren’t able to prepare for it.
"Aslan, are you ho--ohh my god!!"
The two of them snapped their heads towards the door where, lo and behold, Griffin was standing with his suitcase, staring at them with wide eyes, face quickly getting flushed at the scene unfolding before him.
Ash had forgotten about Griffin. He was supposed to come home today. Was his flight early?
Somehow between the mortifying ordeals of getting caught by his brother, he registered Eiji choking back a high pitched whine and Ash suddenly felt something wet splatter on his cheek.
Oh. Eiji had cum.
It must have been a sight, and Ash might have wanted to die a little inside but it was too late for that at this point.
The room was silent, save for Eiji's panting. Griffin stared at the two of them, eyes jumping between the two, from Eiji who covered his face with his hands, damningly wrecked, and then to Ash who was still hard and flushed red in the face with traces of Eiji's cum still dripping on his face.
After a few minutes, when Griffin seemed to have collected his sanity. He straightened up, cleared out his throat and gave said solemnly. "Congratulations to both of you for finally figuring it out. Please put us all out of our misery and don't stop on my account. The sexual tension in the office was killing all of us."
He then took his suitcase, and walked back out of the apartment slowly.
Eiji blinked at Ash, face red and drool dripping from his mouth, and then he did the strangest thing.
He burst out laughing.
Everything was the same that Monday morning.
Except it really wasn’t. After all, Eiji and Ash went to the office together. It’s not like that was a peculiar sight. They’ve done it more than a dozen of times at this point. No, what was different was Ash’s good mood which apparently scared half of his employees, Eiji’s grouchy mood which scared the other half of the employees (because it was so peculiar to see the moods switched so early in the morning, and Eiji was usually an angel in the morning to their employees. Usually anyway), and lastly the fact that they were holding hands all the way to their office.
Ash insisted they did.
“I see you love birds finally got it together.” Shorter was there waiting in their office, reclining in Ash’s seat with the dramatic swivel when they entered. He was grinning mischievously, waggling his brows. Behind those glasses of him was probably a twinkle in his eyes as well.
“Fuck off Shorter.” Surprisingly, it was Eiji who grumbled. Shorter raised a brow.
“Woah, that’s new. I had expect Ash to say that.” He glanced at Ash who was grinning widely instead. “He fucked you that well?”
“Maybe.” Ash giggled, which creeped out Shorter more. Ash wondered why. He giggled too! Occasionally. It wasn’t that weird, honestly. “How did you find out about it anyway?”
“Aside from it bleeding from your face? Griffin told me.” Shorter snickered. “Kinky.”
Oh. Damn. That was a little embarrassing. So Griffin told other people. Of course he would. It was mentally and emotionally scarring. Usually, he was going to start fuming at what Griffin had done, and yet Ash somehow couldn’t get himself to care. “Cool.”
“Just cool?” Shorter whistled. “Damn, what’s Eiji all pissed for?”
Eiji though, rolled his eyes and looked at Shorter with a deadpan expression. “My ass is hurting because of this bastard.” He gestured at Ash. “And my back, and legs, and arms. Oh my god, my whole body is aching.”
Ash grinned dopily, absolutely proud of his handiwork. Yesterday was such a wonderful night. Months of pent up release was suddenly spent. It was absolutely blissful.
"I did that. And I definitely would do it again."
His mood stayed the same despite the paperweight Eiji threw at his face left a purple bruise.
Totally worth it.
The next few hours started with all the other people congratulating them. They seriously weren’t even properly dating yet. You’d think it was already marriage. He wondered what their reaction would be when they actually get married.
Woah there Ash, that’s going too fast.
One of the firsts to do so was none other than Max, who Griffin first probably ran off to the other day and told him all about the scarring imagery he bore witness to.
“Well, kiddo all I can say is, stay safe, use protection, and hopefully don’t have sex on dinner tables.” He patted him on the back, laughing. “But I guess it’s too late for that huh, Griff really threw himself on my doorstep, pale and wide eyed, I thought he witnessed a murder.”
“You can’t begrudge me for having a more interesting sex life than you old man.” Ash snickered while typing on his laptop. Eiji was on his office’s couch, slacking off for the first time while working in this company. He was holding a couple of pain killers. Max meant well and Ash had known him since he was seven years old, but damn did he act too much like a dad. Even better than his own dad to be honest. Ash didn't know what to feel about it.
“I know kid. All I’m saying is, all you’ve done is work. And now I’m happy to see you try and live life.”
Oh. Well.
That just proved his point about him being a dad.
Ash wasn't going to admit that it touched him of course.
Next was Jessica when they went to the labs. Though she didn’t exactly say anything profound like Max, except look between them and whistled. “Fucking finally.” Then walking away.
That seems very in character of her.
The rest gave them a look that said they wanted to voice out their thoughts, but knew better and immediately shut their mouths. Spineless. Ash would have wanted to see someone dare though. That ought to be interesting. He did, however see Kong slide Bones a ten dollar bill when they thought he wasn’t looking.
Good to know that not only does the entire company know about it, they were making bets about his love life as well.
Alex was looking at them nervously while Eiji explained to him about his new promotion, and that heavily amused Ash. If he gave a few predatory grins just to scare him off a bit, Eiji didn’t need to know that. Though knowing Eiji, he probably already did.
Ash did not expect though was to see an email from Lee Yut-Lung, threatening him murder if he hurt his childhood friend. No in retrospect, maybe that was a little expected. They were friends after all. He's probably going to receive a proper shovel talk in the future.
What he did not actually see coming was Akira Ibe strolling in his office, looking for Ash and Eiji. “Congratulations.” She said.
Ash stared at her with bewilderment, but Eiji simply sighed and rubbed his forehead with exasperation. It was like he had already expected her to show up soon, just not this soon.
“I was dreading this conversation.” He said while gesturing at her to sit on one of the chairs which she did daintily. Something about this made Ash feel like he was missing something.
“What are we here to talk about, exactly?”
“Your new board member and chairperson.” Akira stared at Eiji pointedly. He groaned.
Ash stared at the two of them, the pieces starting to click together. “You’re giving your seat to Eiji?”
“Wrong.” Akira cut in. “It had always belonged to Eiji. Unofficially at least.”
Apparently being with Eiji meant surprise after surprise. “Explain.”
Eiji sighed. “So remember that time when some asshole came in the office? Who was that? Smith and Co. I think?”
Ash remembered. He made sure to get his point across. No one was insulting any of his employees, CEO or not, he was not going to stand for it. And the man not only had the gall to insult his employee, his best secretary, he had to insult Eiji in front of him too.
“Ah yes, Smith and Co.’s stocks dropped because Eiji started to pull his investments from the company and the companies that supported it. When asked, he said he heard a rumor. Of course, it was a lie and the company recovered enough not to go bankrupt, but who wouldn’t listen to an Okumura’s hunch in business, yes? After all, he wouldn’t be this filthy rich if he didn’t know what he was doing.” Akira snorted.
Ash stared at Eiji with an open mouth.
“You did what?!”
“Again, it wasn’t illegal.” Eiji rolled his eyes. “And it’s not like I can do it often. Not in a long time anyway.”
“Technically you started a rumor about them and that’s definitely somewhere in the illegal side.” Akira deadpanned. “Anyway, to cut it short, this ridiculous guy phoned me in the middle of the night at Tokyo and gave the strangest proposition of all time. He said, ‘what if I send you a ridiculous amount of money so you can but this companies’ shares?’ and voila, here we are. I think I’m the stupid one here. I’m not even sure why I agreed.”
“What?!”
Ash was actually getting a little tired of being gobsmacked of whatever Eiji had done. Don’t get him wrong, he was amazed and that’s a little badass but what the fuck?
“So now, I’m here to return it back to him. God knows I’m too young for this. I’m in my early twenties for goodness sake. I’m supposed to do stupid shit. Bang my girlfriend at every bar and resort out there, get ridiculously drunk till dawn. Not sit in boring meetings and make sure you get what you want.” She grumbled at Ash.
“Is this all true?”
Eiji looked uncomfortable.
“Yeah.” He covered his face and sunk deeper in his seat. “I was supposed to tell you. This was why I didn’t want to come clean either. I didn’t want you to think I was meddling with your decisions.”
“Eiji, you didn’t meddle. Quite the opposite actually. You’ve been helping me all this time!” Ash stared at Eiji with incomprehension. “Why didn’t you say it sooner?”
“I mean in case you didn’t notice, we didn’t really have time to talk yesterday.” Eiji raised his brows.
Ah. Yeah. They were a little busy. Good point.
“Anyway, so this means you’ll be taking my place yes?” Akira stood up from her seat, signaling that there really wasn't anything to discuss. “I’ll send you the papers. It’ll be in time for your resignation. Good bye.” And with that, she left.
“Well.” Ash began. “Isn’t she quite the character?”
Eiji snorted. “She can’t date my sister if she wasn’t equally a bastard. Won’t survive being part of the Okumura family actually. Kinda like you. You'll fit perfectly right in. The Christmas gatherings are going to be chaotic."
He clicked his mouth shut when he realized what he implied. Eiji blinked hastily, fave dusting pink.
Ah.
"Freudian slip?" Ash teased.
"Shut up." Eiji glared at him. But there was little edge to his words.
"Alright. Alright." Ash laughed. "You can be part of the Callenreese family instead."
Eiji groaned. "I suppose I can. I'll just marry Griffin. I'm sure he'll make a wonderful husband."
"Hey!"
Eiji snickered.
Ash pouted at him. "I can't believe you'd pick my brother over me. Don't you think I'd be a wonderful husband?"
"I can't believe my boss is asking me to be his husband. In a strange turn of events."
"Not your boss anymore." Ash pointed out. "And if you take back your shares, you are going to be the boss of me, in a strange turn of events."
Eiji looked at him exasperatedly weary. "I'm guessing you what me to take it then?"
Ash took Eiji's hands into his own, looking at him straight in the eye. "I think it's what you deserve. In the end, it's going to be your decision. I don't want anyone thinking I'm using you, or that I'm stopping you from being anything but happy. But I just think that if there was anyone I would love to be by my side as an equal, or something close to that, it's going to be you."
Eiji's breath hitched.
"So what do you say? Do you want to change the world with me?"
There wasn't anything that Ash wanted more than ever before than to have Eiji by his side. Not even his goals, which were a near second. He wanted Eiji to say yes so badly. Desperately.
Eiji tilted his head and laughed.
"It sounds like a marriage proposal." He cupped Ash's face and pressed a kiss on the top of his head before pulling away and smiling.
Perhaps the road to world change was too far away, perhaps it was even too ambitious. But ambitions are what paved the present and future, did it not? No revolution was made because of a limited vision. No changes was not created from big dreams.
And the way Eiji stared at him made Ash feel like the road towards it was no longer so daunting. Eiji spoke the words so softly, and everything felt right.
Afterall.
Things are only impossible until they're not.
"Always."