Chapter Text
Had someone asked Deuce Spade whether he thought he'd be paired up with the tallest most fearsome guy in the company to present a project to the company boss, he would have laughed and called it a certain impossibility. He wasn't the lowest of the low in the company's think tank, but he was definitely nowhere near the top (despite his best efforts) and someone like Malleus Draconia was simply too brilliant to be paired up with little ol' Deuce. This wasn't empty praise. The man singlehandedly came up with the most wild ideas and his game plots sold gloriously. Only having been an employee for half a year, he was considered the company's brightest star. So, of course, Deuce could not hold a candle to Malleus Draconia.
Unfortunately, the boss of Insomnia Games™ liked to pair up their workers for big projects. Sometimes, they'd be grouped into pairs, or trios, and sometimes quartets would be formed — an entire orchestral section once... Ah, that was right, the boss liked to use classical music terms. They were an odd one, for sure, as no one had ever seen the boss's face. Not even once. It was one of the juiciest secrets of Insomnia Games — and no one had ever gotten close to cracking the alluding mystery.
Deuce was not at all thinking about that, however, as he read his name nestled far too close to his future partner's name in disbelief, and then pure unadulterated panic.
"No, no no no no no —" he repeatedly muttered to himself, walking hurriedly towards the men's restroom to splash water on his face, clear his eyes, and hopefully read a different name. The entire think tank was terrified of Malleus Draconia. He was simply difficult to understand, and people claimed he was near impossible to look directly in the eye — so of course, talking or any sort of conversation was totally out of the question. Malleus had been paired up with literal geniuses such as Lilia Vanrouge, a master at choreographing beautifully dark and tragic plots mixed with exotic scenery that invoked many emotions. That dude named Silver who revolutionized romance action games. The overeager albeit innovative Sebek Zigvolt who had made the best lightning/weather CGI in the whole company — and even they all had claimed that it was difficult to work with him.
This was some sort of strange nightmare. He would wake up soon, and all of this would be gone, the dream would disappear. One. Two. Three —
This was real shit right here. Deuce was, to put it mildly, quite screwed.
"Ace, what do I do?!" he hissed over the phone, high school friend calling at a most convenient time. "This guy has been holding MVP in our think tank ever since he got here!"
"So? Isn't that a good thing?" Ace didn't understand why Deuce would be so stressed because they did not work at the same company. Ace had gone the straight and narrow road, going into private investigations which sounded odd but oddly suited him — though his bedside manner could be a little nasty, if Deuce recalled reading the comments about him in reviews. "Sounds like you can learn a lot from this dude."
"No, Ace, you don't get it," Deuce insisted frantically, struggling to get his heart rate under 120 instead of steadily rising. "This dude is a legend in the company, possibly in the whole world of gaming. You talk to a single gamer and everyone knows of this guy — and he's my partner. I'm toast!"
"Hu. Yeah, I guess you are," Ace replied, and Deuce swore he heard the man smirk. "Good luck getting eaten from breakfast!"
"What did you just say to me?" His voice got dangerously low, a slight gurgle of a dark past emerging from within.
"Ya heard me. Go on. Fail and make a mess of yourself, since you're so sure you can't hold your own in your dual project with this guy."
See, Deuce and Ace had been rivals before they had been friends in high school. In some regards, they were still rivals before they were friends. It was a friendly (supposedly) test to see who'd do x first before the other. Get married (though, it didn't seem likely with their hopeless personalities and what with them having attended an all boys school). Get ranked MVP in their job (that had been a thing until Ace decided to work a solo job, which made him exempt from such a contest — meaning Deuce automatically won). It went from important life goals to things as stupid as who could eat a cookie faster without crumbs or stains.
So, with all that being said, they knew each other very well, and between the two of them, Ace was more likely to be a little manipulative jerk and twist Deuce around. The other was actually aware of this, despite most people assuming that he wasn't, but since Ace was typically helping him out, he never complained about it (too much).
On a normal day, Deuce would have snapped right back to his true self, but the weight and pressure of Malleus Draconia was a little too potent to fully ignore. "If you think I'm gonna just give up without a fight, you're so wrong!"
"Oh? You were legit just whining about him being the best, like, five seconds ago."
"Yeah?! Well, everyone gotta start somewhere! I'll make good use of this partnership and learn all I can!"
Ace laughed. "Sure, sure."
"I will!"
"Alright~"
Deuce yelled in anger before composing himself. He was, after all, still in the company building. It was stupid enough to have this conversation in a place where Malleus Draconia could possibly be. Thankfully, Deuce wasn't a complete idiot, and he had checked to see if the bathroom was full — which it wasn't, it was completely deserted thank his lucky stars.
"Yo, if you're done whining about work, are we still on for poker tonight?"
"Depends on how hard the partnership goes," Deuce muttered, wondering if he should just cancel his night plans ahead of time so as to save everyone else their evening. "I mean, I gotta meet him soon, so depending on how that goes, I'll try to text ya?"
"Got it. Stay safe, Deuce. Wouldn't wanna find your corpse hung up because this Draconia dude killed you for being too low for his level."
Deuce should have gone to work for Underworld Software.
Face washed, tie readjusted, slacks smoothened, lint removed, hair swept to the side, screams released, nerves as ready as they'd ever be, Deuce waited in Conference Room 1 for his partner to arrive. The theme of their project was dragons — just dragons, and Deuce was trying to formulate interesting ideas that were malleable and open for intensive world building. Something of that nature, if Draconia's former works had anything to say about it.
The only problem was, that Draconia was late by about half an hour, and Deuce was beginning to get annoyed beyond his confusion and fear.
So what if the guy was amazing? He was late by a lot! That wasn't acceptable. What would the boss have said if they were there?! Beyond that, it was just plain rude when one had a partner — to keep them waiting — and Deuce struggled to stamp down his anger as his furious brain cells forced themselves to just keep drawing up new ideas on his spreadsheet photoshop file. Scenery sketches. Vehicle designs. Animal cyborg ideas... No idea was ever too strange to be put off the table. Actually, the more fantastical, the better.
He was still so very late, and Deuce was beginning to wonder if he should start drafting up a letter of complaint when the door finally clicked open, and Deuce opened his mouth to say something — only to be left completely incapable of all forms of speech.
Malleus Draconia stood before him, a tall and elegant man who was poised and every bit too regal for the normal world. This man reeked of power and an insufferably stifling presence that would not be talked back to nor ignored.
"Is there something wrong?" Draconia asked, and oh, his voice was so deep, Deuce felt it in his stomach — or maybe that was the lack of breakfast. Deuce had never seen Malleus Draconia up close, but he was seeing him up close at that moment, and wow, the man was something else, hu? Tall, handsome, intimidating... ethereal in a macabre sort of way. Dressed almost all in black, he stood out like a grim reaper as opposed to Deuce, who wore a white collar and dark jeans with his red tie.
"Were you kept busy before you came here?" Deuce asked, trying to keep eye contact, but ultimately failing to not let his eyes shift a little — because that force behind his strong posture and confident gait as he strolled to take a seat in front of Deuce... it was too strong. Too much.
Malleus Draconia's eyes narrowed, and Deuce had to resist all urges to shrink back. "Kept busy? Not particularly. Why?"
Was it alright to tell him that he was a whole hour late? Deuce shivered. He was a perfect hour late. Maybe he had just gotten the time wrong? Perhaps someone had sent him a faulty sheet? Deuce wasn't one to back down from challenges that faced him, but he had just formally met the man, and he wasn't trying to make their partnership a living hell from the get go. "It's nothing, don't worry about it," he reassured with what he hoped to be a pleasantly not tired smile. "I got here earlier and started sketching out designs and stuff — since our theme is dragons, do you have ideas you want to try?"
It was somewhat okay, talking to Draconia about work. The man was very creative with his ideas, but there were certain strange oddities about him that were hard to ignore.
First off, was the fact that Malleus hadn't brought any electronics, save for his phone, and he didn't check it once during the whole time he was with Deuce. If he wanted to illustrate an idea, he did so with old fashioned pencil and paper, or pen. No tablet, computer — nothing. A very old school type of guy, but Deuce was not about to judging their best member, because that would have been really stupid and despite his past and despite his looks, he was not completely stupid! Just... sometimes.
Another thing was his manner of speech. Formal. It was so formal, in fact, that it came across extremely cold which probably tied into his old fashioned habits — and Deuce slowly began to understand why even Insomnia Games's brightest struggled to handle this man. He was just... Deuce hated to say it, but he was difficult to connect with. There was no small talk between them. Just work. And, in many cases, the work was tedious and grueling as designs and concepts were tweaked and changed, again and again.
He was also completely and brutally honest, which, Deuce didn't mind! It was just extremely harsh because, well, their status clearly showed. Deuce was mid-tier and this man was top-tier or beyond.
"You have a strong and steady hand," Draconia complimented, "but, you lack deeper creativity. The designs are put together well, but they're too simple."
"Don't you think simplicity can have its charms?" Deuce muttered, not at all feeling good about himself as he looked at his work, staring him in the face. He didn't feel good about them when Malleus Draconia judged them — but he had worked so damn hard to get into the company, he wanted his ideas to be valued all the same.
"Fair point, but all the designs are simple. Maybe backgrounds could be simplified for ease of connection speed, as Lilia put it, but main characters should be spared no expense. They have to stand out."
Deuce sighed. "Yeah, RAM space can get pretty tight when everything has been rendered like an 8k photograph," he muttered, placing his pen down and stifling a yawn. "Simple yet solid backgrounds, I can do. But uh, what do you wanna add to the characters?"
Malleus Draconia leaned back in his chair. "I've yet to decide what might best stimulate your imagination, so I would prefer not to give a response at this time."
Deuce was flabbergasted. "Uh... Oh. Okay."
And, on and on it went. Deuce had texted the group chat a long time ago to inform them he wouldn't be coming home for hours, if not days, and to pray for his sanity. Malleus Draconia was a monster. That was the one resounding thought he had in his head as he struggled to keep up with the billions of ideas Malleus brought to the table, their complexities, intricacies, and all the rest. He was not considered the best for no reason. So much accomplished, and all with just his mind, a piece of paper, and a writing instrument! Nothing else.
Deuce wanted to be as amazing as that.
They hardly took bathroom breaks. They were still toggling between thirteen different game play ideas, whether autoplay should be an included feature or not (Malleus wasn't sure what the point of autoplay would be, but Deuce firmly argued that most individuals did not have time to play games if they had to pay attention to it 24/7), and whether the game should be rated for teens or adults. If they rated it towards adults, some semblance of sex was to be expected, but Deuce simply didn't want to go that route.
"Oho? Scared of intimacy, are we?" Draconia smirked mysteriously, raising the first personal question of the day — and of course, it was something bold and shocking.
Deuce colored brightly. "I said no such thing! I just... I wouldn't want my mother to ever find out I'd participated in the creation of such a product." He had already fought tooth and nail with her to be in a gaming company that even created adult targeted games at all. She was a slightly more old fashioned woman in some respects, and with his past, she wanted him to have no part in such things.
He thought Draconia would diss him for being a 'mama's boy,' as most people did, but the man did not whatsoever. Instead, he took on a thoughtful appearance as he asked, "You respect your mother a lot, don't you?"
"Well... yeah. She gave birth to me, and all, stickin' by me when no one else would so... Yeah, I do. What of it?"
"Nothing," Draconia smiled faintly, voice mysteriously low as he muttered, "If only more people were respectful of their loved ones."
Deuce didn't know how to respond to the man, so he didn't. He tried to keep his drowsiness at bay, but he had lost track of time, and he knew some of it had to be on his face.
"Are you tired?"
Yes, my eyes are dying from the strain of looking at my screen! Deuce wanted to yell, but he simply shook his head. "Nah, I'm good for a few more hours at least. Might crash after that, though."
Malleus Draconia stared at Deuce for an intensely long period of time. Without warning, he lifted himself from his seat and turned towards the door. "Come. We should end here, today."
Did Draconia look down on him? Somehow, Deuce felt a little bit like a failure. He shut his screen off and began to quickly pack up, refusing to show how sore his muscles were and how his back positively ached. "So, uh, I'll see you tomorrow? Same time, 10 AM?"
The air turned cold. "Did you just say 10 AM?"
Shit. "Maybe."
"But, I came at 11."
Deuce held his hands up in surrender. "Don't worry about it! Someone must have put the wrong time on my sheet —"
"No, no. I remember now, my sheet said ten," Draconia hissed, green eyes appearing slit almost as he gripped the doorknob tightly. "I apologize. I must admit, I am rather terrible when it comes to keeping track of time."
"No, please! Don't worry about it, really. It was nice that I had time to set up all my stuff anyway." Deuce did not want his partner to feel bad nor did he like the look of annoyance he saw on Draconia's face. "It all worked out for the better."
"It is incredibly ungracious to leave a colleague waiting for an hour," Draconia rebutted, shaking his mid-length hair with a stiff jerk of his head. "Tomorrow, I will try to make it up to you, Spade."
Tomorrow? "Really, I don't need like, compensation or anything —" Deuce tried to say, but Draconia would not let him finish.
"Absolutely not. I'll try to be on time. Be prepared."
Why did that sound like a threat?!
"Uh. Ah. Okay, Draconia-senpai!"
"We're going to be working together for a long time. No need to be so formal," the man replied, walking Deuce out to his motorcycle.
Deuce thought on how the genius never used anything but his last name and found the statement hypocritical, but he nodded. "Sure. Draconia." It sort of set the tone and sent him a message between the lines. You get comfortable with me first. After all, Draconia was like, what, seven years older than him? It would be downright rude to call him by his forename when the man called him by his surname.
"Sleep well. Goodnight."
"Goodnight to you too!" Deuce called back after a pregnant pause when Draconia was already halfway across the distance to get to his own car. Hu, they did park in the same lot, after all.
The tall gentleman gave him one last piercing look before nodding in silence and driving away first.
Deuce let out a breath in relief. He had survived! It hadn't even been that bad! He was alive! It was 2 AM — holy stars of the fiery suns — IT WAS 2 AM?! Why had they been working for that long? How had he not noticed? What the hell was wrong with this man? Actually, what was wrong with him, that the universe (his boss) had decided to pair him up with this crazy dude?!
"I'm gonna die, aren't I?"