Page 118 of Xerxes Ascendant
“You’re getting foundation all over me,” Akira said awkwardly as the clingy embrace dragged on for several seconds, hating that his attempt to be light-hearted sounded irritable.
“He means he’s overjoyed to see you too, Mish,” Kyle accurately translated when the twink froze in his misguided attempt to hug Akira into suffocation.
“Uh, sorry Master,” Misha apologised, teetering on his heels as he tried to brush the transferred make-up from Akira’s suit. It only made the mess worse.
“Cease,” Akira instructed, and when Misha began to scrub harder, locked fingers around his slim wrists and forced him into stillness. “I am glad you are unharmed.”
“Awwww, boss, I love you too.”
“But you seem to have misplaced your dog tags, Mish,” Kyle accused with a playful lilt to the words. “I should write you up for being out of uniform during work hours.”
That earned him a haughty glare. “Fuck you.”
“Not without these,” the blonde teased, unclenching his fingers to reveal Misha’s glitter-encrusted dog tags resting loosely in his outstretched palm. Recalling how Kyle had shoved Theta into the wall on his arrival, Akira imagined how proud Sarah would be to learn of the unobserved theft. His light-fingered wife had been the one to teach Akira everything he knew of the craft, along with how to escape a pair of handcuffs.
“Ah,” Misha crooned, tucking the recovered dog tags back around his neck. “Does being kidnapped mean I get to take the rest of the week off?”
“No,” said Akira. “Please call Miles back.”
Muttering something about retracting his overly hasty declaration of love, Misha hit redial on his runepad.
“What now?” the device snapped, and Misha shoved it into Akira’s expectant hands.
“Dunno. Master Grumpy Ass wants to speak to you, No. 2.”
“Mish,” Kyle warned in a sing-song voice. “Only I get to talk about him that way.”
“Miles Mackenroth. Do you have something you wish to tell me?” Akira narrowed his eyes at the screen; not at the curly-haired man whose face took up most of it, but what he’d spotted in the background the first time he’d answered. A pot plant.
Lower Xerxes did not have pot plants. And it certainly didn’t have the sleek chrome railings that Akira received a glimpse of now as the runepad shifted in Miles’ hand.
“I do indeed, Master Epsilon. I quit.”
Kyle sucked in a surprised breath. “What? But I thought...” He trailed off.
“Without notice, I assume,” Akira said dryly, “considering where you are.”
“Yeah.” Miles gave a half-smirk. “I found myself another job that commences immediately. And pays a fuck-ton better.”
Kyle’s face wavered between disappointment and pride. It eventually settled on the latter.
“Well, congratulations,” he said steadily, looking genuinely happy for the sly bastard despite the fact that Miles had left his House manager in the lurch without saying a word. “It’s a shame we couldn’t throw you a farewell party, but...oh. Is that...is that the mayoral office?”
“It is. Do you like it?”
“I’m...not overly fond of it, no,” Kyle said with careful neutrality, clearly remembering what Benedict had done to him in it, “but I’m less fond of your brother coming back and finding you there.”
“He won’t.” It was spoken with unequivocal certainty.
“How did you even make it over to Upper Xerxes?”
“It’s like you said before, Randall,” drawled Miles as he threw himself down into the mayor’s expensive chair, and he must have kicked off from the desk because the office background behind him began to rapidly rotate. “When your whole life is on the other side, it’s not a question of how to make it happen but just doing it.” He shrugged. “Those struts and wires were rather terrifying to traverse, but it was better than wasting the rest of my life on the lower levels.”
“Charming.” Misha sniffed. “You know that’s ourhomeyou’re insulting, Mackenroth No. 2?”
Miles’ smile held a touch of darkness. “An obsolete nickname, Misha,” he murmured. “For there are no longer two of us.”
Kyle stiffened. “What?”
