Work Text:
John Flansburgh, the charming head of McCafferty Inc., checks his hair and fixes his glasses as he strides towards the meeting room. On the other hand, John Linnel, CEO of Canary Corp., traipsed towards him, anxiously fixing his hair. Around them, dozens of the exploited working class whispered as they walked towards each other, discussing what those two could possibly be talking about today.
“What do you think they do in there?” Somebody asked. “Why do you care? It’s none of our business.” “I heard they’re laying off people.” “No! You’ve got it all wrong; they’re expanding the company.”
“Well, I heard that they’re gay.”
“...Shut up, Kyle.”
Linnell cleared his throat, and the gossipers’ snapped up, only to be greeted with the CEO looming over them. At once, all five of them immediately got back to work, and Linnell continued walking towards the meeting room. As soon as he was far enough, they all peered up at him once more.
He was fixing his collar now, clearly bothered by the remark. But he couldn’t show it now, as he finally met the other John in front of the meeting room. He took a deep breath, gaining his composure, and looked his counterpart in the eye.
Flansburgh straightened up, stopping in front of John. He grinned at the shorter man, much to the other’s chagrin. “Linnell! How’ve you been?” Flansburgh greeted. “I heard that the Wall Street Journal isn’t talking about you anymore.”
Linnell’s head tilted to the side as he sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. “Always the charmer, Flansy. I heard that McCafferty Inc.’s stocks are worth less than Canary’s."
Flansburgh’s eyes narrowed, but he still kept smiling. Linnell softly chuckled, noting the crack in Flans’ charming persona. They stayed like that, in an awkward tension, until Flansburgh cleared his throat and held out his arm for Linnell to take. “Shall we?”
Linnell glanced back towards the office, where almost all the employees were watching the two intently. Linnell glared at them, which caused them to go back to work. He then looked back at Flans, who was still holding out his arm. Flansburgh smirked at Linnel’s reaction, shaking his own arm a bit. “Well? Are we discussing this or not?” Linnell rolled his eyes, but looped his arm into John’s. Flansburgh smiled and opened the door, led Linnell inside, and quickly closed and locked it.
Once they knew the door was shut, the workers looked around to each other. Some of them crept up on the door, trying to hear what was happening in the meeting. To no avail.
“...I told you guys they were gay.”
“Shut up, Kyle.”
Linnell took a seat across from Flansburgh, who was pulling papers out of his briefcase. Linnel fixed the collar of his button-up before doing the same, opening his briefcase and slamming down the papers. Flansburgh jumped a bit, before chuckling at the older’s urgency. “What’s with the aggression, John?”
Linnell glared at Flansburgh, trying to gauge if he was being serious. Taking his silence as a yes, Linnell leaned forward on the desk, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. “What’s wrong, Flansy,” he took a deep breath, “is that McCafferty Incorporated is stealing 50% of our customers.” John spat out. “This is a clear breach of the contract, John.”
Flansburgh leaned back and crossed his arms, chuckling softly. “That’s not my problem, John. It’s not my fault that we simply make better quality products than you.” Linnell’s eyebrow twitched, and he dug through his papers and pulled out a copy of the agreement the two signed a couple years ago. “It is your problem, Flansburgh. Do you know how serious it is if I myself decided to come and see you?!” He exclaimed, standing up and slamming his hands on the table. “This is clearly a breach of the contract we both agreed to, John. If this keeps up, Canary Corp. is going to stop selling to McCafferty.”
Flansburgh’s eyes widened as he leaned up from his chair, looking at Linnell intently. “You… you can’t be serious.”
Linnell glared at him, and leaned forward, until there was barely any space between them. “John,” he rasped out, “would I joke about something like this?”
Flansburgh’s face flushed, partly because of the stressful situation, and partly due to the fact that this was the closest Linnell had been to him in a while. He looked away from the other and shakily breathed in. Once Linnell realized his proximity to the other, his eyes widened as he uttered a small apology and began to back away.
But John grabbed his arm, now looking Linnell directly in the eye. The latter gulped and looked away, but Flansburgh moved his free hand to cup his face. Linnell blushed and flashed John a nervous smile. “F-Flansy?”
“Do you want me to stop?”
Linnell looked down, thinking about what to say. “Sorry,” Flansburgh sighed, pulling his hands away from Linnell. But John held his hand on his face, too embarrassed to look Flansburgh in the eye. “Please… Don’t stop…"
Flansburgh chuckled and moved his hand from Linnell’s cheek to under his chin, forcing the older to look at him. Linnell gasped softly as his eyes widened, and Flans smirked at the sight of his associate. Flans leaned in closer, and Linnell let his eyes flutter closed.
“Do you want to kiss me?”
Linnell’s eye shot open, and he was met with Flansburgh’s shit-eating grin. Linnell took a moment to respond to him. “Wh-What?”
“Do you want to kiss me?” Flansburgh repeated.
Linnell thought about the question for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he finally responded. “Y…Yeah. Yeah, I want to kiss you.”
“Do it, then.” Flansburgh challenged, removing his hands from Linnell’s face.
Linnell blinked and stared at John in disbelief. The younger smirked, clearly enjoying getting a reaction out of Linnell. With a soft laugh, Flansburgh leaned back into his chair, crossed his arms and legs, and looked at John expectedly. “Well?” He mused. “I’m waiting.”
Linnell pushed himself off of the table with a growl, quickly making his way towards John. Flansburgh watched him closely, still keeping the facade of composure. John was standing in front of him now, flustered and breathing heavily. There was a look on Linnell’s face that John had never seen before; he knew that the older had easy buttons to push, but this time it was entirely different. Linnell’s eyes were narrowed and he was completely focused on Flansburgh, his eyes complemented with a small snarl. For the first time in any meeting between the two, Flansburgh felt the usual control he had on Linnell slip.
Flansburgh blinked at the sight, regaining his usual demeanor. One day I’ll slip, he told himself, but not today. He chuckled once more and stood up, pushing himself off of the chair. Linnell stepped back slightly, but Flansburgh stepped forward and put his hands on Linnell’s waist, holding him in place. John’s expression changed entirely, the flustered expression now back on his face as he froze up, with no knowledge of what to do. Flansburgh smirked and placed Linnell’s arms on his own shoulders before returning them back to the older’s hips. The two stood there, staring at each other for a couple seconds, before Flansburgh spoke up once more.
“Kiss me, son of God.”