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The sky is blue,
The grass is green-
It was a lovely and peaceful day; the blazing noon sun is as merciless as always but it’s nothing PAX air condition can’t counter for. Marius was dozing off on the couch of NXX headquarter's main longue, watching absentmindedly from the dull sad grey high ceiling of the room, before glancing to Vyn who was preparing tea from the office pantry and then focusing his unfocused eyes once again on the sorry excuse of scenery which is the room ceiling.
The sky is blue,
The grass is green-
and Marius was damn bored.
The youngest NXX member huffed out, the sound full of irritation and frustration. Luke was out for God-knows-where with his whole secret agent agenda, Artem and Rosa are probably either in the middle of suing someone to bankruptcy, solving some celebrities’ drama fiasco, or disclosing murder-cold cases -Wait no, that’s NXX job. Thankfully, the love of his life- his other half (Vyn will kill him if he hears this), is present here with him in the NXX office. The psychiatrist is like Marius’s personal ASMR video content collection, hearing whatever Vyn was doing is always manages to calm his turbulent mind down, even when all Marius do at the moment is stressing himself thinking about absolutely nothing.
Hey in his defense, one of Marius’s life mottos is ‘Always handle your day like it was your mid-life crisis since you can’t be sure at what age you die’ and Vyn said that this kind of mindset will surely kill him one day.
Well, he’s not wrong.
Marius let out a pathetic string of inhuman grumble that sounds exceptionally close to a whining puppy, as he rolled on the couch, face down to the detergent-smelled fabric. The brown couch creaked loudly as the big human occupying it is clearly forcing himself to fit the said furniture, it will definitely let out a very tired groaned if it has a mouth.
Vyn stopped whatever he was doing in the pantry -was he making tea? Marius is not sure- threw him an unreadable glance, before letting a poorly hidden snicker at his demeanor. “Bad day at school, Marius? What, your classmate bullied you?”
Marius groaned loudly; his voices muffled down by the couch. “It’s more like my groupmate who coincidentally is also my in-status-boyfriend is bullying me,” Marius wailed dramatically.
That, earn a melodic giggle from the professor. Marius never got tired of hearing that angelic sound.
“Really, what’s bothering you? You coincidentally have someone who’s professional at hearing out problems.” Vyn pressed the word with every visible mockery laced into his tone. The white-haired professor made his way to sit on the couch next to Marius, his right hand busy lightly stirring the tea.
Marius rolled again, sitting up. He threw his whole-body weight to the fluffy cushion behind him, “I am bored as hell. I want to do something productive but my body and mind are not cooperating at all and it annoys me.” The young CEO confessed. Marius may not be as workaholic as Artem could be, but sometimes he is just way too committed to his works that a slight disturbance will ruin his focus like a thin string snapped unexpectedly. It’s like turning off your engine abruptly when it’s running hot, but unlike an engine, Marius had a hard time cooling off.
“Considering the prolonged stress you’ve got from your last few weeks' schedule, it’s understandable that you are experiencing burnout. You are exhausted, it’s better to take things slow for a couple of days.” Vyn nodded, more to himself rather than to his conversation partner, as he took a sip of the light-colored tea on his floral antique cup. Marius bet ten grand stellin that the monstrosity of beverage on Vyn’s hand is consisted of little-to-none sugar in there; Vyn had said that sugar will spoil the tea's actual taste, no wonder he’s so bitter.
Speaking on his schedule, Marius openly frowned.
“Yeah, I can see that. You kinda abuse your power as my therapist and personally tell my secretary to free up my week and sort of got me kicked out from my own office. Thanks to that now my brain is still in working mode but I don’t have anything to do.”
“And precisely as your therapist, it’s included in my contract job to keep an eye on your schedule and I have my prerogative right to intervene should I find that you are getting overworked and needed break.” Vyn easily countered, Marius could have taken it as a mere genuine act out of his unyielding love and worry over his wellbeing, but the other’s evil smile is enough to make the young CEO knows that Vyn was just messing around with him with this answer. But then, the psychiatrist’s face softens, “Why don’t you go painting like you always do in your free time?”
“Trust me, I tried. Hated all the sketches I’ve done and I threw half stack of my paper in a rampage fit.” The art student slash world-renowned mysterious painter slash full-timer CEO of the world's largest multinational group who hold enormous assets worldwide grimaced when he remembered the mess he left on his private studio- he needs to call Vincent to deal with that later. Artblock sucks, but what even more worse is having a major art block when you need it the most.
Vyn tapped his finger rhythmically to a small surface on his thighs, looking deep in thoughts. “Individual strain is way worse than I expected, then.”
Oh no, Marius knows this tone. The younger man out of the two went pale, rivaling the professor’s own pale complexion, cold sweat magically forming on his temple like a villain cartoon character caught in a broad spotlight. “Please don’t turn this into one of your sessions.”
Thankfully, Vyn snapped out of his own working mode, relaxing his posture. “I’m not. Maybe try something different then? You like extreme sports; you can try new sports. Or maybe if you have no ample time to do sports, maybe you can do arts, but in a different way than your usual classic oil-painting styles.”
“Hmmm, it’s worth the try.”
“Good,” Vyn replied as he took off his glasses and wipe them with a piece of microfiber cloth. It’s getting colder inside the office, and the low temperature making the professor’s glasses got all foggy when it came to contact with the owner’s warmer breath exhale.
“Hey Vyn, what’s your glasses prescription?” Marius suddenly found himself asking, curiosity got the better part of him. He knew that Vyn’s sight is not that good, but he never really knows how bad it actually is.
The professor seems to share the same surprise as him, not expecting a sudden interest in this particular information. “It’s -4.75 for the left eye and -5.25 with -1.0 cylinder for the right eye, but I usually tone down my lens strength by one,” Vyn provided.
Marius whistled at that, “Damn- is that why you always get all pissed off when you forget where you put your glasses? You literally blind without them.”
Vyn scowled, “It definitely is bothersome when I lost my glasses, I admit.” He sighed, easing the frown that barely formed on his face, “What’s with this sudden question?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking of giving you a new eyeglass for you, that’s all.”
Vyn threw him the most unimpressed expression, “My birthday is long overdue.”
“It doesn’t have to be a birthday gift, right? I just remember PAX Fashion & Design had just invested in an aspiring young fashion designer and there’s an interesting eyewear design amongst her new set. Looking at it I can’t help but think that maybe you won’t mind adding more to your collection, and I get to try designing them too.” Marius answered while playing with the cushion pillow, glancing to the professor when he finished, as if wanting to see Vyn’s reaction toward the previous statement.
“My, I appreciate the thought. Though judging from your explanation, I am in conclusion that you originally want this as a surprise gift for me. Shouldn’t you keep it as a secret, then? For the surprise factor and all?”
Marius, the young and rich and extremely successful man, pouted like someone just stepped over his fallen ice cream. “Hiding shit from you is hard as fuck. I will save myself the embarrassment of acting foolishly trying to set up a surprise for you.” His body betraying him, Marius couldn’t help but shudder at the mere memory of a clusterfuck disaster that is Vyn’s 28th surprise birthday party last year. How he, Rosa, and the mighty national agent Luke manage to set up an unbelievably failed birthday party ever recorded in human history.
Rosa didn’t know that they failed, but that’s because she is Vyn’s favorite, and his favoritism is showing as clear as getting slapped by a brick.
Artem was silently enjoying their misery from the sideline.
Luke was prompted to retake his military psychological training.
Marius just want to die.
“Language. But it’s the thought that counts, right?” Vyn, the evil embodiment of Satan itself, had the audacity to laugh.
Marius scoffed, “Duh- and adding more things you can ridicule me for the rest of my life? Yeah, no thanks.”
It was many many months later that the customized eyeglasses were finally ready. Marius’s hands were literally trembling like he overdosed himself with dozens of redbulls when he first received the packaged item from Vincent. The always-smiling assistant didn’t even bother asking when Marius requested a free weekend out of the blue. One glance at the shining eyes full of excitement and anticipation was enough for the butler to grasp more or less the situation regarding the arriving mysterious package.
Marius sent a quick text to the older man, asking if he has free time. A simple yes from Vyn as an answer was enough to remove a week of on-site job stress.
People are saying that loving Vyn is hard, because trying to read the psychiatrist is as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. Maybe people could say that understanding Vyn is difficult, if they try to understand him in the first place. But for Marius, loving Vyn came as easy as breathing. He didn’t know how, and didn’t know since when he was capable of doing it, but loving Vyn is easy. It’s inevitable, it can’t be avoided. Just like how the sunrise and sets every day, just like the tides of the sea.
So when he pick Vyn up from his research center, and he saw the white-haired man walking toward him with a soft smile, Marius was once again reminded- of how it was easy to love Vyn.
The sky is blue,
the grass is green,
and loving Vyn is as easy as that.
Feeling giddy with the gift on his jacket front pocket, Marius led the older man into his sports car (he was trying to impress Vyn damn it, don’t judge him) and started the engine when Vyn finished securely his safety belt. Marius put his car in auto-drive mode, and they fell into a light conversation, mostly with Marius reciting whatever businessmen manage to piss him off today, with Vyn adding his comment every now and then.
Their conversation halted when the car system beeped as they were nearing the destination, just in time with Vyn was finishing telling an interesting encounter during one of his seminar lectures abroad. Marius took control of the steer again, and he park the car at the parking slot.
Marius was the first one to step outside the car, with Vyn following suit behind. The professor glance around, trying to see where the younger had just brought him to. It was the riverside park near Artem and Rosa’s Law firm but on the area of the park where Vyn was unfamiliar with.
Seeing the genuine confusion, Marius explained without needing the other to ask about it. “This is the restricted area, under PAX. It’s supposedly under construction, but the renovating already finished 3 days ago, and now it’s in the gardening finishing phase.”
Vyn looks around them, and his eyes widen slightly when a breathtaking sunset view greets them from where the car was parked. The sunset paints the sky in a beautiful vermillion hue, with a hint of red bleeding out from the edge of the scattered clouds across the horizon. The Adjudicator walked closer to the steel railing, raptured by the beautiful scenery before them.
Marius feels a growing pride deep inside his guts seeing how Vyn enjoys the place he prepared. “So,” Marius cleared his throat like the main character of a drama readying himself to get into the act. “The sky is blue-”
“Are you really saying that while we are seeing the sunset, Marius”
“The grass is green-”
“We’re standing on concrete.”
“God- just lemme finish the poem- you ruined my moment.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t notice there is any momentum here.”
Okay, Marius needs to revise the previous statement a little bit; loving Vyn came as easy as breathing, but it can be challenging at some points.
Finally taking out the gift from his pocket, Marius handed the older man a luxurious and expensive-looking spectacles case. “Happy Birthday, Vyn.” Marius sarcastically said; It was March- they are literally 5 months after the professor’s actual birthday.
Vyn sighed tiredly, but he smiles nonetheless. “You are so ridiculous, you know that? It’s not even my birthday.”
The professor looks at the hard glasses case with a marble surface that now rests heavily on his palms. With one hand, Vyn opened the case. Inside the case was an elegant classic vintage rectangle semi-rimless eyeglasses. It has thin, golden temples with glossy black tips. There’s a carving detail around the hinge into the end pieces, a beautiful familiar pattern that curved around the thin golden temple.
“…What a beautiful design,” Vyn said after taking a short breath. Marius knows that Vyn has a high standard when it comes to everything around him, and the man is hard to please. But the way Vyn’s eyes gleam as he carefully picks up the eyewear pieces, Marius knows that he succeeds at making a design that fits the professor’s taste. Vyn looked up from the glasses on his hand, “Should I assume that this is your personal customized design?”
Marius opened his arms, presenting himself with a smirk, “Your one and only.”
Looking at how contented Vyn was with his design, it was all worth the countless nightless days he spent, revising and readjusting the design all night long. Marius even visited some famous eyeglasses specialist designers, consulting the design and asking for their input.
Vyn’s attention then focused on the eyeglasses again, he closely inspected the only pattern on the eyewear design. It was a dragon-like being surging from the middle of the handle and then curling into the screw near the hinge. Vyn recognized that symbol, especially the unique head shape. “Sea serpent. Isn’t this your family emblem?”
Marius didn’t respond to him right away after Vyn blurted out the question, so the psychiatrist curiously glanced up to properly look at the young CEO. Marius smiled, “Yes. It’s my family emblem.”
Trust Marius to be the sentimental one between them, Vyn let out a sigh full of fondness. “You are ten years too early to include me into your family,” Vyn joked, lightly shaking his head in exasperation.
“No, I will say 5 years -give or take- since there’s no saying I won’t propose to you when I’m 26 isn’t it?”
“What-” Vyn snapped his head toward the purple-haired young adult so fast that Marius was scared he will snap his neckbone off. The elder's stuttered words stopped at his throat. The psychiatrist held his breath, looking positively aghast and lost. The way Vyn’s eyes enlarged at the statement is almost comical, and even when the light chuckle Marius let out sounds genuine and he meant it as a joke, the obvious uncomfortable response the older had just shown give a slight pang of hurt inside Marius’s heart. “Marius- I don’t know-”
“Easy. I’m not rushing nor pushing you for anything-”
He knows that Vyn’s home country -unlike the modern and flexible Stellis- Kingdom of Svart tends to be more close-minded than the rest of the countries in the world. They cling to their custom and tradition, and they despise changes more than anything. So, it’s quite understandable that even though some of the population there is okay with it, but overall, relationship between same-gender was generally frowned upon.
“-It just a thought of mine.”
Marius won’t lie but he did think about settling down. His affection to the psychiatrist is already well beyond the simple crush or the longed feeling to explore his sexuality; he really is serious with Vyn. This is clearly Vyn’s first time having a kinda-relationship with another man, so he didn’t want to scare the professor off. Aside from that, one of the biggest problems will arise from Marius’s side himself. He is now the sole heir of PAX and there’s an unvoiced pressure from all parties that Marius is to keep the blood going. Which means he was expected to produce an heir. Which also means there is no way his relationship with Vyn gonna works on long-term.
But Marius isn’t Marius if he’s not stubborn. He’s not gonna bend to the normalcy, and he’s for sure is going to stand with his frowned-upon relationship.
Hell be damned.
“…okay.” The tension on the professor’s shoulder gradually eased when Vyn placed the spectacles back to its case, slowly closing the lid shut. But after spending so much time around the older man, Marius could tell that Vyn is still iffy about the whole conversation. So, Marius reaches out toward Vyn’s cold hands, clasping their hands together around the case.
“Do you like it?” Marius gently changed the topic, steering it away from the uncomfortable subject matter.
Vyn, of course, knew that this was Marius’s attempt to change the topic -an escape- and he give a small smile as he follows the lead, “…It’s really beautiful. Thank you.” Vyn looked back toward the spectacles case on his hand, “I can tell you put great care into designing this, this glasses will match with my- hey!”
Marius praises his impulsiveness -and maybe his troll side- that he decided to choose that exact moment to swiftly pull Vyn’s glasses off, effectively destroying whatever mood that they unintentionally set. Marius also snatch the new glasses case from Vyn’s grip, and quickly took several steps back so that Vyn can’t snatch both of his glasses back.
“Marius-!”
The younger couldn’t help but laugh at how Vyn really is struggling without his assisting eyewear. He could see how Vyn frowned, his eyes trying to catch Marius’s figure in front of him. “My bad- my bad- You really can’t see anything, huh?”
Vyn clicked his tongue in annoyance, “I can see a blur of my stress source in front of me.”
Marius chuckled as the professor blindly reached out to him. He purposely steps out from Vyn’s reach but then steps inside his reach again when Vyn scowled at him, brow furrowed. The young CEO opened the spectacles case to take the new glasses, before gently putting it on Vyn with careful hands, as if the eyewear (and the owner) is a fragile thing (beings).
Just as Marius had expected and visualized, the design perfectly fit the professor; the clear frame allowing the beauty of Vyn’s eyes to be on clear display and the thin golden handle with the silver sea serpent carving accentuated the adjudicator's pale skin and warm white hair. It was getting late and the air got cold as time passes, warm color decorating Vyn’s cheekbone, creating a deep blush that make Marius’s heart rate pick up in speed.
“There.”
Vyn blinked his eyes open and Marius could see those mesmerizing bright golden orbs adapting and refocusing to the changed vision. Their faces were so close to each other, sharing the same breath. From this close distance, Marius was able to see his own reflection on Vyn’s eyes, glistening with warm artificial lighting of their surroundings.
Vyn is beautiful.
The white-haired man was silent for awhile as if he himself was lost inside Marius’s deep gaze. Vyn was seemingly searching for something inside Marius’s eyes, and he seems to have found it, as his lips tugged upward in a soft smile. “Well- thank you for making my world clear, as in, literally.”
“You are not a romantic one aren’t you.” Marius rests his forehead to Vyn’s, at this specific moment that Marius thanks his premium genes (Thank you dear father and mother) that he has at least a foot taller than Vyn. It makes him easier to rest his head on top of the other’s -only Rosa could call it a headrest and get away with it because she is Vyn’s favorite.
“I just choose not to be romantic with you.”
Marius knows that. Vyn is known as a gentleman, he can easily swoon ladies left and right and be disgustingly sweet when he wants to be. To be honest Marius doesn’t feel jealous even a bit; he likes to think that those sweet-rotten gentleman act of Vyn’s was just one of his personas. Afterall, Vyn once told him during his psychology class, it’s easier to fake positivity, and people show their true color around negativity. And for Marius who is born and grew up in the grandiose drama of high society life, those statements from the professor had hit close home. He can relate to that.
But Vyn was openly showing his color to Marius. And that fact alone warmed Marius’s body like no heater could. The fact that Vyn is himself around Marius, is a proof enough. Marius kissed Vyn’s left eyelid, “Don’t worry, I will gladly take the sap role.”
They looked at each other again for what feels like an eternity, and no one knows who’s the one leaning into the other first, but Marius found his lips pressing softly into Vyn’s in a gentle kiss. Vyn fluttered his eyes close, hands went up to wrap around Marius’s torso, and Marius used one hand to cradle the hair at the back of Vyn’s head, bringing them as much closer as physically possible.
The kiss was not in rush. It’s a gentle press of two lips, shying from each other in a languid dance. Marius can feel Vyn’s smile, and he answered back with a smile of his own. The young CEO moved his hand from the base of Vyn’s skull to his face, gently caressing the cold cheek with his thumb.
Marius then slightly tilted his head to the side, deepening the kiss just a little. Vyn hummed in content, responding to his advancement. One slender arm looped around Marius’s shoulder, pulling the taller man closer. Marius always found this distinctive sweetness when kissing Vyn; maybe it’s because of the professor liking toward wine, or maybe because of Vyn’s daily dessert intake, but Vyn always has this sweet taste that drives Marius into insanity.
The kiss was not in rush. It’s an easy dance with both of them enjoying the other’s presence, taking as much time as they can. As their bodies allowed them to. When they parted, Marius met with Vyn’s golden gaze again, and he feels like the happiest man alive in this world. He feels so much love just by looking at those eyes.
-those eyes, with Marius’s eyeglasses decorating them. Marius almost cries from happiness. Instead, he leaned up to press a gentle kiss to his forehead, grinning into the cold skin.
“Happy birthday Vyn,” He lamely finished.
Vyn sighed, he feels like punching that dopey smile, or maybe squished his cheek and kissed him breathless, or maybe both.
But his smile never fades from his face, “You are so lucky that I adore you.”
---
The sky is maybe not blue right now,
And they are standing on concrete,
But Marius von Hagen is damn in love with Vyn Richter.