Chapter Text
"Ughhh... now I remember why I had such a massive crush on you in college."
"No, you didn't..."
"Of course I did!"
.
.
.
"...What?"
"Oh, come on! You knew."
-------------
"Azul! I'm glad you made it!"
Class - or more like a school gathering after ten years of graduation. Azul could not believe, when he saw everybody, that ten years had passed.
Sure, some people had their own really profitable businesses; others were already married.
Even after all this, everybody was the same, and the loud conversations across the villa were the same as the ones back then in the clubs.
Azul was wondering till the very last moment whether he should even go.
A month ago, when he got a message on the Monstro Lounge account on Magicam, he got really skeptical and was overthinking it.
It was by Vil, of course...
Nobody would even think about this gathering except Vil, and probably Rook, who Azul was sure had something to do with it.
The message read something between the lines of:
"Since ten years have passed and all of us have changed drastically, I invite you to our villa in Sunset Savanna, mine and Rook's. I invited all the people that I got to feel close to during those three years, the people I would love to catch up with."
The date and the address were also written.
Azul quickly wrote his usual business-appropriate words about how grateful he was to hear that and that he would do everything in his power to be there, in between his shift and smoke break.
He threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped on it. He stopped for a second and quickly switched chats to ask Idia if he was going.
All messages grammatically correct, of course.
Truth be told, he wasn't looking forward to this event.
And it wasn't because of the people there. Think about it—how good would it look for the Lounge if he had a meetup with a famous actor and a model, or with a successful lawyer?
It's just...
A buzzing sound in his hand got his attention, and he quickly switched his thoughts toward it.
Idia
7:58 pm
"Tbh idk cause that month I got lots of work but if you really wanna go ITAI"
Azul pushed his glasses up with his middle finger and put his thumbs on the keyboard.
Azul
7:59 pm
"I know, but I'm in a dilemma. I hoped you would've solved it, but I guess no luck here."
Azul let himself smirk for a second before returning to his work smile... just in case any customer decided to pass by the employee exit.
Idia
7:59 pm
"Look I ain't some dialogue tree that spits out the optimal choice to answer yer questions but real talk if you want to lmk idmb"
A small smile slipped across Azul's face. He then sighed when he processed the way Idia had written down the last part of the message.
Recently, Idia had been making some progress while writing to Azul. He used fewer abbreviations, but punctuation was still lacking.
Azul
8:03 pm
"Thank you"
Idia
8:03 pm
"NO DOT AT THE END YOU GOOD?!??!?"
Before Azul could write an outraged text about how ungrateful he was, Idia, as if feeling the storm coming, quickly changed the subject.
Idia
8:03 pm
"What abot Jade and Floyd are they going"
Azul
8:05 pm
"I don't know."
There was a pause before Idia texted again. To Azul, it was well known that if Idia took time to answer a text while being online, that meant he was thinking of the best way to put his thoughts into words.
Idia
8:08 pm
"Hold up when were you planning on doing that? Kinda feels like you skipped the patch notes."
Azul laughed to himself at the thought-out punctuation. His eyes quickly moved to the time, and when he saw he'd been away for fifteen minutes, he shoved the lighter and the cigarettes into his pocket.
Azul
8:08 pm
"I got to go, Idia. I've been on a break pretty long. We can talk about this later at home."
Idia
8:09 pm
"Zul your ovethinkng something again"
Azul didn't pay much mind to it. In any case, he'd tell Idia about it at home after a few hours, or over breakfast in the morning. It depended on when both of them got home.
Azul stormed into the Lounge, put on his polite smile, and got ready to greet guests.
The Lounge was Azul's pride and joy. Since college, it had grown into a giant network of restaurants and hotels, thanks to Azul's brilliant reputation and his actually successful attempts to hide some of his not-so-good actions from the past.
The Monstro Lounge network became popular among many successful businessmen and even royalty.
Azul jumped from one table to another, serving orders, talking to the customers, collecting and handing out business cards, and putting tips into his pockets.
At eleven thirty, after sending out the last customer with multiple handshakes and promises to meet again, he locked the front door.
He counted the tip jar on the counter, looked around at the employees to see them cleaning, then went to his office, counted all the bills, tips, and used products, and wrote down what he needed to buy and which products to look through.
After an hour and a half, a few of his colleagues passed by to say goodbye. He put on the trained smile, lifted his hand, and waved back.
After closing, when he got home, he turned on the light, and to no surprise, Idia still wasn't home.
Idia rarely worked away from home, but as the director of S.T.Y.X., he had to go on check-ins.
They were only for the day, no biggie, but when he ran experiments on blot, he could come home at three or four in the morning.
Azul didn't mind that, though.
He quickly took his shoes off, neatly put them next to the door, slid off his gray jacket, and moved inside.
He peeked into their room just to be sure, then went to the kitchen.
He got a glass out of the cupboard and turned toward the sink to fill it.
He stopped midway when he saw a bowl of instant noodles, almost empty.
He sighed dramatically, put the cup away, grabbed the bowl, and threw away the contents inside.
Doing that, he was grumbling the whole time under his breath about how annoying this habit of Idia's was.
Well, if Idia's habit was leaving everything behind, the other one's was talking to himself.
Azul did that all the time when he was home or alone at work.
As if narrating his next action, which Idia found hilarious.
Azul tapped his hands together after the job well done and went back to the sink.
Just as he was about to pick up the cup, his phone vibrated again.
He looked down just to see he had been added to a group chat for that reunion.
Just as he thought he could've brushed the thought out of his mind, it popped up again, and Azul was once again outside on the balcony looking through the members.
His eyes stopped on the twins, and he felt a jolt across his whole body.
He pulled his tie down, sat on the little chair, and lit his cigarette.
He could've sworn he smoked the whole pack while snooping through their profiles.
Nothing.
Or at least nothing to hide from Azul.
Azul threw his head back and brushed his hair with his fingers.
Why was he so mad at Jade and Floyd?
He couldn't answer that question.
He knew what was going on with them.
Jade took over the family business.
Floyd... Floyd, you could say, did whatever he wanted.
Dammit, Floyd got married and invited Azul; he just brushed past it.
He was so mad at them, especially Jade, and he couldn't even explain it.
After high school, they just stopped talking with him and...
To Azul, it was such a betrayal.
He looked through all their accounts, trying to find something, something he didn't know, to be shocked by.
The front door opened loudly.
It was Idia.
Azul turned around to look at the tired figure throwing his shoes off through the hall, jacket already on the ground.
He moved toward their room, but by habit checked the balcony, and when he saw Azul's silhouette there, he slightly opened the door.
He slipped his arm inside and petted the other's hair.
Azul pushed the whole door open, and Idia leaned in to kiss his forehead.
He pulled away and looked at Azul's crooked glasses.
He stared at him for a while, Azul back.
Just looking at each other silently.
They hadn't done this in a while.
Azul moved his hand to put it on Idia's, who, in exchange, held it in his much larger palm.
"What are you doing up so late, don't you need recharge?"
Azul looked at the table and methodically collected his trash.
"Waiting for you."
Idia leaned against the door, hands over his chest.
He smiled, bare teeth on display.
"Why you lying? You know I catch you everytime."
Azul furrowed his brows and looked over his shoulder at Idia.
He slightly pushed him away from the door to move to the toilet.
Idia laughed and followed him to clean his teeth.
Idia tied his hair; Azul pulled his back and pinned it.
While cleaning their teeth and faces, no matter how tired they were, there was supposed to be some bickering, whether it was Idia mocking Azul for something that happened throughout the day or Azul pinching Idia around his ribs and stomach.
When they lay down, Idia was in his boxers, hair messy all over the pillow and shirt pushed up over his stomach.
Azul, as always, was wearing one of his silk pajama sets. He took his glasses off, put them on the nightstand, and tucked in beside Idia.
Both his legs wrapped around one of Idia's, his hands around his waist, and Azul's head rested on Idia's stretched-out arm.
It was their routine; sometimes the routine could be "broken" by someone whining, and this time it was Azul.
None of them were against comforting each other in these cases.
Both knew that mentality was an interesting thing, even though they had learned that in completely different ways.
Azul's hold on Idia's leg tightened.
"Uuuh...Zul are you..okay?"
Azul shoved his head into Idia's hand and nodded.
Idia grabbed one of Azul's long strands and moved it around his finger, while Azul, on the other hand, was tugging on Idia's hair.
"What happened?"
Azul murmured something into Idia's shoulder, then quickly turned his back toward him.
Idia quietly sighed and, with his free hand, moved his fingers up and down Azul's back.
"How's Ortho?"
Idia looked at Azul for a second in disbelief, but knowing him, he was just trying to escape that talk, and Idia let him be.
"He's okay...I did some upgrades on his systems recently."
Idia said excitedly, and Azul smiled, hearing the change in his voice.
"What upgrade?"
Idia started rambling about how Ortho wanted to switch his voice box, and he had worked on that recently to try and make it sound less robotic.
Then he rambled about another one, and another one... until he suddenly stopped, and silence filled the dark bedroom.
"How was your day?"
Idia asked, eyes glued to Azul's back.
"It was okay."
Idia moved his head a bit to the side and looked at the ceiling.
"Then why is your mood so off?"
Azul stayed quiet for a while, then finally turned back to look at Idia.
He pulled his body up and kissed him on the cheek, watching the ends of Idia's hair light up pale pink for a second.
"I'm just tired."
Idia turned his head toward him and inspected his face with a stern look.
"Then why stalking Jade's socials?"
Azul quickly sat up in bed, his half-lidded eyes staring toward Idia.
Idia also pushed himself up and looked at Azul, not giving up on his question.
"I just...I was checking if something interesting is happening in the Coral Sea."
As those words left his mouth, he thought this was the dumbest excuse he could've ever made.
"That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard!"
Idia got up and moved to the corner of the bed, pacing right to left, his bright blue hair being the only source of light in the room.
Azul quickly got up after him too, trying to face him.
"Look, I'm sorry, it's not what it looks like!"
He quickly blurted that out, and Idia finally stopped, still keeping his composure.
"Azul what are you talking about?"
For Idia, it was a genuine question; for Azul, it was provocation.
"I'm not texting Jade or anything and-"
"Stop, stop, stop why would I stop you to text with your friends?"
Azul's white eyelashes, lit by the blue, fluttered quickly a few times.
Idia pressed his lips together and sighed.
"I...I don't care what you are doing, talking or texting about...because I trust you! I just wanna know why you looked...like that?"
Azul huffed and pulled Idia toward him by his hand.
He snuggled his head into his chest and looked up at him.
"So what other upgrade did you do on Ortho?"
Idia looked dumbfounded at Azul.
He rested his head back and pushed his bangs away.
With his other hand, he hugged Azul.
Idia looked at the ceiling and sighed.
This was Azul they were talking about. If there was a problem happening with him, he wouldn't tell anyone; he'd hide it and take it to the grave with him. By now, Idia knew that if he pushed too much, all it would resolve into was a fight, which was not something he wanted, especially now.
He looked down at Azul and pushed the fallen hair in front of his face away.
"You home tomorrow?"
Azul shook his head slightly, then his gaze went blank.
"Well, till six I'll be home, then I have to go to work. We are hosting a grand banquet for the Sunset Savanna bank owner."
Idia pouted slightly, which earned a genuine laugh from Azul.
Idia lightly pushed Azul onto the bed and got on top of him.
The other smirked and grabbed a lock of his hair, which was now bright pink.
"Lost you cockiness pretty quick I see."
Azul remarked, looking at Idia's wide eyes.
The other ran his fingers along his sides, earning a loud laugh and squeal beneath him.
Azul quickly grabbed his hands and squeezed them, seeing Idia was enjoying torturing him a little too much.
"Do you want to accompany me?"