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One day, Jurard was flipping through all the mail sent to Armis HQ.
“Octavio, Octavio, Octavio, Octavio... Gibby, Octavio, Octavio... Where the hell are my letters!?” He narrowed his brows. “Octavio, Octavio...huh?”
One letter in particular caught his eye. A letter with no return address, it merely had “Daddy♥️” written in cursive. Who could this be for? He didn’t love to open his teammates’ mail, but to be fair, this was vague enough that it could, theoretically, be for him. Though he didn’t recall doing anything to have any little Rexfords running around...
He opened the letter regardless. It read:
“Daddy Ruze,
When are you gonna come see me again? 🥺 I’m almost out of the gold you gave me! Kitten needs some more treats, y’know? Pay attention to me mooore! ✨ You promised you’d come back soon! I might have to find another man to take care of me if you don’t. Hehe!
💋Hakka🔅”
Jurard was speechless, his mouth agape. What...the hell...was this!? This didn’t sound anything like the bastard axe-wielder he knew! He was having some sort of love affair, or rather, he was someone’s sugar daddy? Jurard was mostly shocked, but he also felt a twinge of something else, deep down. Something negative. Jealousy? No, why would he be jealous? Clearly, he was disgusted, or he felt bad about his teammate getting taken advantage of, and who did this guy think he was, and why couldn’t Ruze be his— No! He just felt bad for Ruze. Even if the guy was an asshole, he didn’t deserve this.
He stormed into the common area of Headquarters, carelessly slammed Octavio and Goldbullet’s letters on the table, and rushed straight to Ruze’s private quarters. Without even knocking, he burst right in. “What the hell is this!?” he shouted.
“Huh?” Ruze, who was sitting at his desk writing something, quickly pushed it away and stood to face Jurard.
Jurard shoved the letter in his face. “‘Daddy’!? And who the hell is Hakka!?”
Ruze quickly scanned its contents, thought for a brief moment, then answered. “Oh. That’s addressed to Azure Ruze, not me.”
“Who is Azure Ruze!?”
“Uh...” Ruze’s eyes shifted away. “My brother. Yeah. He’s my brother.”
“You expect me to believe that? You don’t have a brother!”
“We don’t talk much.”
“And how did a letter to your brother end up here at Armis HQ!?”
“Dunno. Not my problem.”
“It is absolutely your problem! He’s clearly being taken advantage of! If he’s really your brother, you should warn him about this Hakka person!”
“All right, well, first of all, my brother’s a dick. And that should mean a lot, considering it’s comin’ from me. Second of all, that Hakka guy’s from Tempus. So I’d prefer not to get involved.”
“Tempus!? God dammit!” Jurard huffed. “Well...if the letter really is for your ‘dick’ of a brother, then...I guess it’s fine.” He crumpled the letter up.
Ruze scoffed. “Were ya jealous?”
“Jealous!?” Jurard squeaked. “Me!? No! Why would I be jealous!? ”
“Heh. Whatever you say, Leader.”
Jurard found an out! “That’s right, I’m the leader! And as your leader, I was simply concerned that you were being taken advantage of. If you are being taken advantage of, then Armis is being taken advantage of. That’s all it was.”
“Sure. Makes sense to me.”
Jurard’s eyes fell on the paper on Ruze’s desk. He couldn’t make out the words from where he was standing, but it looked like a letter of his own. “So...what are you writing?”
“A letter,” Ruze stated plainly, unblinking.
“To who?”
“To whom.”
“Who is this Whom person!? You have to tell me! I’m the leader!”
Ruze barely stifled a chuckle. “Well, they also go by Nunya.”
“Nunya Whom!? What!? I don’t know this person! That’s not helping!”
“Nunya Bizness, Jurard. Meaning, I’m not tellin’.”
“That’s not funny! All outside communication is supposed to go through me, y’know! It’s in the rules! I’ve been going easy on you guys about this for a while ’cause I haven’t needed to check, but maybe I should start again.”
“Meh. I’ll let ya see it when it’s done. Go away, now. You’re being noisy.”
“Fine! I’m not happy about this, but fine!” Jurard stormed off.
❖❖❖
One week later, Jurard was going through the mail again.
“Octavio, Octavio, Octavio, Octavio, Octavio... Gibby, Gibby, Octavio... Ruze?”
He had only seen the previous letter because it was addressed so vaguely. He really didn’t like to read the others’, even if he was technically allowed to based on the rules they had agreed upon. But...there was that previous letter, and the strange conversation they’d had after... He decided to take a peek anyway.
“Daddy!
Thank you sooo much for the stuff you gave me the other day! It really helped out. I’ll give you a special thanks next time I see you, ’kay? Just don’t tell anyone about it, teehee. It’s our little secret. ♥️
Love, Your Kitten, Taviထ”
He could accept the possibility of the existence of some random “Azure Ruze” after one letter. He could accept one letter being delivered to the wrong address. But now there were two—and it was a different name! Ruze had two sugar babies!?
He stormed through the common area, again slamming the other letters on the table. Octavio and Goldbullet exchanged a look. Octavio’s eyes went wide as he noticed what Jurard had in his hand, but he dared not to speak.
Jurard burst into Ruze’s room, loudly shouting, “Who the hell is Tavi!?”
Ruze instantly flipped around. “Tavi? That’s my kitten, of course. And who are you?” He looked just like the Ruze that Jurard knew so well, but something was different. The most obvious thing was that his coat was blue.
Jurard stiffened. “Ruze!? What is—”
Ruze glided across the room and took Jurard’s chin in his hand, gripping it and tilting his face upward. “You’re pretty cute, babygirl.” He winked.
A jolt shot throughout Jurard’s body. He felt strangely excited—but mostly scared. Clearly something had happened to Ruze. Some kind of curse? With his bad luck, Ruze was always getting cursed. But Jurard had never seen anything like this.
“Who do you think you are?” Jurard demanded.
“I’m Azure Ruze.” He wore a crooked smile, narrowing his eyes as he placed his free hand on Jurard’s shoulder. “You wanna have some fun?”
“I— You— What— No!” Jurard’s face flushed a deep red. He yanked his chin away and bit the hand on his shoulder. He quickly darted out, his heart pounding, straight to the common area.
Goldbullet and Octavio looked up from their letters.
“You guys! Something’s wrong with Ruze! He’s...acting weird!” Jurard huffed, his face still full of heat.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Octavio asked.
“He’s, uh...” Jurard was a bit embarrassed to admit that Ruze had come onto him. “He’s just...weird! And he’s calling himself ‘Azure Ruze’! And people have been writing him these strange letters, and one of them’s from Tempus, apparently, and I don’t even know who the hell ‘Tavi’ is, and...”
Octavio stiffened. “Ah...hahaha!” he awkwardly laughed. “That is weird! Hahaha! I wonder what that’s all about! Haha!”
Goldbullet gave him a knowing glance, then looked back to Jurard. “Isn’t Azure Ruze the name of Ruze’s twin brother?”
“Twin brother!? He said he had a brother but that they don’t talk! Why would he be in Ruze’s room, anyway? Are you sure this isn’t a curse?”
Octavio was still laughing to himself. Jurard wasn’t sure why.
“Mm... Yeah, I’m pretty sure, Jurard. Ruze doesn’t act like that.”
“But that doesn’t answer—”
“Hey,” came Ruze’s rugged voice.
Jurard froze. Did he come to finish what he had started? He slowly, slowly turned, only to find...Crimzon Ruze, in his famously red coat.
“That asshole jumped out my window and ran off. No idea why he came here.”
Jurard found this a bit suspicious. “If that’s true, then why didn’t you chase after him? I mean, even if he is your brother, he’s not an Armis member.”
“Thought he might’ve done somethin’ to ya. Had to come check.”
Heat rose to Jurard’s cheeks once more, though this time, he wasn’t filled with embarrassment, just...warmth and happiness. “O-Oh. Well...thanks. I’m okay.”
Ruze put his hands behind his head. “Sorry. I mean it. That guy sucks.”
Octavio let out a sigh of relief, while Goldbullet chuckled.
Jurard still felt a bit weird about the situation, but Ruze seemed honest for a change. And so, he decided to trust him on this, just this once.
❖❖❖
Another week later, Jurard was flipping through the mail.
“Octavio, Octavio, Goldbullet, Octavio, Octavio, Goldbullet, Octavio... Me?”
No return address. He opened the envelope.
“Hey Babygirl,
I can’t get you out of my mind. That love bite you left on my hand is startin’ to fade, and it makes me miss you. I wanna take care of you. Make you mine. Give you some goodies. I’ll come see you again soon, ’kay?
Love, Daddy💙💢”
He quickly crumpled the letter and tossed it in the trash. He never wanted to see—or think about—that awful man again! Still angry, he went back to going through the mail.
“Goldbullet, Octavio, Octavio, Octavio... Huh, another one for me?”
This one didn’t have a return address either. He hesitated, fearing that it was another letter from Ruze’s brother...but opened it anyway.
“Jurard🦖,
Anyone ever tell ya how good of a leader you are? Just felt you should know. You put your all into this whole thing, and Armis couldn’t do it without ya. ’S hard for me to say this stuff out loud—gotta maintain my image. But listen. Bein’ a team player means I gotta show my appreciation sometimes. So...thanks.
- Ruze💢”
Maybe they weren’t the same person, after all. Jurard felt good for placing his trust in Ruze.
As he set the letter down on the desk, he noticed something written on the other side of the paper.
“P.S. Can ya use some funds to buy some antibiotics? I got a nasty bite the other day.”
“Huh!?”