Lunch went surprisingly well.
Despite it ending in a debate over whose favourite celebrity was best and a “hear me out” contest, which Dominic had to participate in, it ended well, with Dominic being added to a group chat.
The way they conversed with each other and forced him to participate was new to him.
His previous friends already knew he was introverted by nature and left him out of conversations and most hangouts.
It didn’t feel forced, and although he felt uncomfortable being around women due to previous experiences, he didn’t feel unsafe.
It felt… alive.
Fulfilling.
He even laughed.
The rest of the day was uneventful; Saron didn’t summon him to her office to be interrogated, nor was he sent out on any assignments.
He was free for the rest of the day.
Dominic opened the door to Adrian’s apartment.
“I wonder if he’s home,” he muttered.
He entered, and Brave greeted him, barking and jumping at his feet, excitedly.
“Hey, boy…” He bent down to pet him.
The dog jumped and licked his face.
“Ew, ew,” he chuckled as he gently pushed Brave’s face away.
But Brave pushed his hand away and licked him more.
A shadow towered over them, and he looked up to see Adrian.
“Hi…”
“Welcome back,” Adrian smiled, then bent down to meet his eyes.
“He seems to like you,” he told Dominic.
“Yeah,” Dominic replied.
Adrian slowly stretched his hand towards Brave, but was growled at.
The muscle around his jaw tightened.
His smile widened, stretching across his face as he retracted his hand.
Dominic froze as Brave snarled at Adrian.
Not even his dog likes him.
“I feed you and take care of you, you know…” Adrian muttered.
“He really likes you,” he said to Dominic.
“I’m so sorry,” Dominic said, holding Brave’s face.
“How could you be so mean to your owner?” He scolded the dog, trying to stop himself from petting the cute boy.
Brave panted cutely and let a low bark.
“It’s fine…” he said, laughing lightly.
“He cares in his own way…” With that, he snapped his fingers, and a cheese stick appeared in the air, which caught Brave’s attention.
He moved to Adrian and sat with his tail wagging.
“Woof!” He barked loudly.
Adrian smiled wickedly.
“So now you know me?” he said, the treat floating above his head.
“Sit…”
Brave inhaled loudly, then sat and barked again.
“I’ve never seen a dog with so much attitude,” Dominic said in amusement.
“Well, he’s a special one,” Adrian replied, handing the cheese stick to him.
“How was your lunch?
Aisha, Mikaela, Penny, and Hailey, right?” He stood up.
“Yeah,” Dominic responded, “How’d you know?”
“Their group is quite popular,” Adrian answered, while Dominic stood.
“They are incredibly friendly… from what I’ve heard.”
Dominic pursed his lips.
“I’m sorry for what happened—”
“It’s fine, they are simply having a natural reaction,” Adrian replied, walking away.
“Is it true that your resonance sounds like the wails of the dead?”
Dominic couldn’t help but ask, but Adrian didn’t respond.
“Sorry, I asked,” he apologised, believing he touched a sensitive topic.
“No, no… I guess they are correct,” Adrian said.
“I’ve never thought of what I sounded like.”
“You can’t hear your resonance?” Dominic asked in confusion.
Adrian seemed to have good hearing, so it would be impossible for him to have never heard his resonance.
“I’ve heard it before, but I tend to tune it out… It’s like a heartbeat, it can be technically heard, but it tends to be tuned out.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Dominic said.
“Are you hungry?” Adrian asked, immediately changing the topic.
“Roxy made us food.” He walked to the kitchen with Dominic following.
“Roxy?”
“Roxanne,” Adrian said.
“You remember her, right?”
“Yeah, nice lady,” Dominic replied.
Good, because she’d be so disappointed if you don’t,” Adrian joked, opening the fridge.
In it were lots of food in tupperwares.
“Are you allergic to anything?”
In the fridge were rows of food, all different dishes.
How did she prepare all that in one afternoon?
“Okay.” Adrian took out two containers.
“Land or sea?” He asked, waving around both.
“Land.”
“Okay.”
Both containers were placed in the microwave.
“So you and Roxanne are best friends?” Dominic asked, attempting to make up a conversation.
“Yeah… Friends at first scruffle,” Adrian replied, nodding.
“She completely demolished me in that fight.”
Dominic scoffed in disbelief.
“She did?”
“Yeah.
Why?
Do you think she wouldn’t have because she’s a girl?” Adrian questioned.
“No, no… She just seems sweet, that’s all,” Dominic responded with a gentle chuckle, with his arms crossed.
“Ha!” Adrian laughed.
“Don’t let that fool you… She’d fuck you up if given the chance,” he said.
Dominic imagined Roxanne, her sweet little smile, and the way she behaves and speaks.
Even when she took down the blights with her peaceful flower rain, she seemed gentle.
“Nah, I don’t believe you,” Dominic said.
“Okay,” Adrian said, shrugging.
“You do you.”
A comfortable silence fell between them before Dominic asked, “So, how did you master your resonance?
Also, how long did it take?”
“Hm?” Adrian hummed, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Why are you asking?”
Dominic shrugged.
“Just curious,” he said.
“Makes sense… To be honest, I don’t think fully mastered any of the powers I gained from my contracts,” he said.
“How many contracts do you have?” Dominic asked, leaning forward.
Adrian smirked.
“Why are you asking so many questions?”
Dominic waved his hands dismissively.
“I guess I want to know a bit about the creepy guy I’m living with,” he responded.
“Normal people start with other things,” Adrian said, in amusement.
“Well, we aren’t normal,” Dominic said casually.
“Are you going to answer or not?”
“I have fou- no five contracts,” Adrian replied.
“One of which is a bloodline contract… Close your mouth, something’s going to enter.”
Dominic’s mouth was agape, and he immediately closed it once Adrian said so.
“Why do you have four?!”
Adrian shrugged.
“I guess I was greedy,” he said.
Being greedy…?
Sounds like an understatement.
“How on earth can you have that many contracts?
Shouldn’t you be more unstable?”
“I guess I’m just built differently,” Adrian joked.
The microwave stopped, making a ringing sound.
“Dinner’s ready.”
They didn’t bother plating the food and simply ate from the tupperware.
“You seem like a regular dude,” Dominic commented.
Adrian raised his head slightly.
“Did I come across as strange?”
“Very,” Dominic replied.
“You make it seem like you have a few screws loose up there.”
“I’m crazy,” Adrian said calmly, digging into his meal.
“Saron threw me into a psychiatric ward before I arrived here.”
Dominic’s mouth opened agape again.
“What the fuck?”
What the hell?
Why did she throw him in there?
Did he get out of control and try to kill people?
He imagined Adrian on a killing rampage.
“Don’t worry, I’m not that kind of crazy,” Adrian laughed.
“Why did she throw you there?”
“Attempted suicide, multiple times.”
Flashes of a woman falling from the top of a building, and the way the blood is crawling to his feet. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
His hunger faded as his gaze fell upon Adrian…
Adrian didn’t look bothered by the information he had just dropped.
“What?”
What could have pushed him to want to do that…?
Multiple times?
“Nothing,” Dominic responded.
Adrian continued to eat.
“So…” he said, stabbing his fork into a shrimp.
“What did you study while you were in university?”
Is he trying to change the topic…
“I assumed you’d know,” Dominic responded quietly, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, not over the fact that Adrian had tried to commit suicide and was thrown in a psychiatric ward.
“I don’t know your entire life; most of it isn’t my business, ” Adrian shrugged.
“I studied Aerodynamic Engineering.”
Adrian nodded.
“Okay,” he said.
“Roxanne told me you told her you made a rocket as a child, so I suppose it’d make sense you studied that.”
“Yeah, it was my dream to study it,” Dominic responded, smiling softly.
“I wanted to build planes,” he said.
“Pity you couldn’t…”
“What about you?” Dominic asked.
“Huh?”
“Surely, you must not have been in B.O.G.S all your life,” he said.
Adrian stopped eating.
“I stopped going to school by eighth grade, my grandfather believed the education system was causing my potential to waste away…”
“Sounds like a recipe for disaster,” Dominic commented.
“Not really,” Adrian replied.
“I became a well-established member of our little society and knew a fair bit about physiology, history, mathematics, anatomy, chemistry, and a few others…”
Dominic’s mouth was wide open.
I’m a coughing baby compared to this nuke… How?!
A twinge of envy stirred within Dominic’s chest.
“Wow, lucky…” Dominic said.
“Well, my grandfather is among the wealthiest in the world… I had the resources to do as I pleased,” Adrian commented casually.
“You are rich, rich, huh?”
Adrian laughed lightly.
“I’m practically royalty,” he bragged.
“So what are you doing in B.O.G.S, Your Highness?” Dominic asked sarcastically.
“Because I pissed off the wrong people and now I have fifty million bounty on my head…”
Dominic choked on air, coughing loudly, eyes watering.
“What the hell?” he choked out.
“Fifty million?!” He yelled once his coughing fit had settled.
“What?
It’s not too far froo the bounty on your head set by a Hellbourne to force you to awaken,” Adrian said.
“What is it?”
“A twenty million,” Adrian said.
Dominic nearly fell from his seat from hearing that price.
“A twenty million?!” He shouted.
Adrian laughed, “It was bumped up because I am supposedly protecting you,” he said.
“I wonder if I awakened myself— Adrian, do you think I’d get the money if I awakened myself?!”
Adrian gave a stunned expression, then laughed wholeheartedly.
“What would you do with that much money?”
Dominic looked at him blankly.
“Sorry for needing money that would last me the rest of my life, Your Highness,” he remarked with sarcasm.
“Right, you are poor and just got a steady source of income,” Adrian said smugly.
“Tell me, peasant, how does it feel to be paid 90k a year?”
Dominic threw his fork at Adrian.
Of course, it wasn’t aimed at him and landed behind him.
Adrian hadn’t flinched and simply looked very smug.
“You’re a jerk…” Dominic commented, crossing his arms.
“I know,” Adrian replied.
“Do you drink?”
“What drink?”
“Wine.”
Adrian snapped his fingers, and two bottles of very nice-looking wine appeared in the air.
“Roxanne bought these from her little country… They have really good wine.”
“Why are you asking me to join you?” Dominic asked, feeling suspicious.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to finish these two alone, but I realized we were having a nice conversation, so I thought, why does it have to end?”
“Weird, but I suppose that’s fine…”
“Lovely.”