Lucas was awestruck.
The woman before him was beautiful. She had long, wavy hair that perfectly matched the shade of chocolate in her eyes. Which only made her matching rosy pink lips and cheeks make her look even more like a doll. She was taller than the average woman, but even when when she took a step closer towards him, he could tell she only reached his chin. Her eyebrows were now pulling together in an irritated expression due to him not answering, but he could only focus on how the rest of her body seemed to be a mirror of her hair. Sculpted in a way that imitated it's waves.
Perfect. Dreamlike. Incredible.
He was tongue tied while looking at her. And not a single one of the words popping in his head as a means to describe her seemed good enough to him. Sadly though, his search for said description was cut short when he felt sharp pain at the back of his head. Followed by a deadly serious voice sending a shiver down his spine.
"I'm sorry for the interruption Miss Jasmine." Aiden said as he gave his brother another slap on the back of his head. "My brother tends to forget not to be a pain to others."
Jasmine immediately understood the situation and sighed in relief. She had only been focused on Lucas, but now she realized he had been accompanied there. "I didn't expect to see you again today Mr. Villan." She had seen the man with Claire, and seeing her relaxed around him, meant she could also relax.
"It was sort of last minute to be honest." Claire said as she made her way towards them. Since Aiden had already taken her silly Lily out of Lucas' arms, she simply stood next to him and caressed her bun like cheek. "I hope we haven't interrupted anything important."
"Oh don't worry. We had just finished the exercise we were doing." Jasmine replied in return.
"Goes to show he isn't as dimwitted as he looks." Jacob interjected as he stretched his handout to her. " Jacob Patterson. Nice to meet you"
"Jasmine Jones. It's a pleasure to meet you." She shook his hand first and then turned towards Lucas. To her confusion, he was absent, mindlessly staring at her. Even so, she began to properly greet him. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well Mr....?"
Lucas on the other and, simply stared at her. And the lack of a reaction on his part made both of his life long brothers inwardly smirk. Aiden discreetly nudged his elbow into his side to snap him out of it. "This is Lucas Villan. He and Jacob are my brothers. So if either one of them give you any trouble, feel free to let me know."
Hearing her chuckle in response, Lucas finally snapped out of his daze and reached out for her hand as well. "I'll keep that in mind Mr. Villan." Looking back at Lucas she offered him a friendly smile." Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Villan."
"Please. Call me Lucas." His eyes were trained on hers as he finally managed to regain control of himself. "And the pleasure is truly mine." He held on to her hand until she was the one to let go. Making him immediately miss the sensation of her skin.
"What's next in class Princess?" Aiden asked the little girl in his arms in an attempt to refrain from laughing at Lucas.
'Our second sign language practice is next.' She replied.
"Oh?" At that Aiden had an idea. Leaning towards Claire, he spoke closely to her ear. After suggesting his idea to her, and getting her approving nod, he straightened himself and looked at Lily. "Princess, I want you to formally meet Jacob."
He gestured towards Jacob, who was seemingly caught off guard. Nonetheless, he took a small step forward and offered her his hand to take. "Hello Miss Lily. It's very nice to finally meet you. I've heard many good things about you."
Lily shyly took his hand and shook it. And now knowing that everybody around Aiden would always seemed to understand her, she began to talk to him like she normally did.
'Hi. Nice to meet you too.' She signed with a timid smile on her face.
"Princess." Aiden called for her attention once again. "Jacob here has had a lot of trouble learning sign language. Even Lucas and I can't seem to help him. Do you mind if he stays with you to practice for a while? I mean, I'm sure you can help him more than anybody else. What do you say?"
Lily looked back at Jacob, who had successfully hidden his surprised reaction before she noticed it, and studied him. She had grown accustomed to Aiden's attempts at getting her to know his people. But that didn't mean she wouldn't be wary of them until deeming them to be okay.
"He's as much as a brother to me than Uncle Lucas is." He quietly told her. And after giving the side of her head a gentle kiss, she turned around with a convinced smile.
'Okay! I can help him!' She replied before turning towards Claire. Gesturing for her to kiss her, Claire lifted her head up and gave her a quick peck a the lips. Lily then asked to be let down, and as soon as she stood on the floor, she held Jacob's hand and began to guide him towards the child sized seats at one of the rooms corners. Patting on one, she smiled up at him. 'You can sit here!'
Everybody, including Jacob, felt as if their hearts had melted by her actions. She was too pure for this world and they all knew it.
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"Correct me if I'm wrong Lucas, but I could've sworn you have a little crush on Jasmi-" Claire had begun to say, when she was abruptly grabbed by the shoulders.
"I need to know it all little Cheeto!" Lucas held her by both shoulders as he looked down at her. He waited for Aiden to shut the door behind them, but they were still right outside the classroom. Lucas was so excited, he couldn't even contain himself. "How long have you known her? Is she into guys? How about hobbies? No no, is she single? Please don't tell me she's married!"
Claire stared at him a bit wide eyed before she burst out into laughter. Not a second later, Aiden was by their side.
"Ease it up on the grip there Lucas." He was entertained by his brother's outburst of joy, but he knew that excitement, like anger or fear, could lead to him not measuring his strength. And brother or not, he would beat him black and blue if he were to leave a bruise on his little Angel's skin.
"Sorry sorry." Lucas replied as he gently rubbed her shoulders.
"It's fine." Claire said between chuckles. He hadn't gripped her all that hard. "Yes, she's into men. And no. She's not married." She saw the glint of happiness in his eyes and couldn't help but smile. He looked like a teenager talking about his crush. "But the other stuff you're gonna have to find out for yourself."
"Fine by me." With a wide smile he practically crushed her in a giant bear like hug. "Now we're even for sure little Cheeto." He said referring to the fact that she cut his cheek during the house raid. Injury for which he still had medical tape on his face.
"Yeah yeah good for you" Aiden aid as he pulled her away from him. He had avoided touching her so freely while in the hallways of her base. And there was no way he would let his brother get to do so before him. "We should get going."
"No need to be jealous Bro." Lucas said with a wide grin on his face. "Little Cheeto is just a guest at my wedding with Jasmine. Not the bride."
"You're gonna jinx yourself you know." Aiden chuckled as they begun to walk down the hallway. After they all laughed at Lucas' fast paced thinking, he looked down at his little lady. "You really don't mind Jacob staying behind with Lily?"
He had privately asked her before, but he wanted to make sure it was something she truly didn't have a problem with. After all, he knew very well how important Lily's education was to her.
"It's fine." She replied. "It's good for her to have company during her classes from time to time. It'll help for when she transitions into a regular classroom with other students." Looking up a him she continued. "Besides, I didn't think having Jacob back in the meeting would do him much good either. I mean, that was what you were thinking after all. Right?"
"Right." He said as he smiled down at her. The thought of them understanding each other without much trying made him glad. And even a little relieved. At the end of the day, he was a man surrounded of complex situations. So having her easily understand his way of doing things benefited him greatly. Not to mention relaxed him greatly too. There was no need to be on edge around her when it came to him making decisions, or in her case, suggestions.
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After everybody rejoined the meeting, they gathered in the same room as they did before. Only this time, Jacob and Anna weren't present.
Colton gave Claire a reassuring glance, letting her know he had probably everything to with it. Gesture that put her at ease. Knowing the two, her older brother took very good care and Anna and it was for the best that she skipped the second half of their gathering.
"You can begin Tildy." Claire said which prompted Tildy to do so.
From her seat, Tildy tapped on her tablet, and again made every screen in sight, with exception of the ones being monitored by the two people in the far end of the room, switch to images. But this time, the images were that of diagrams, surveillance and a few other things. Not one remotely similar to the gory scenes they saw earlier.
"This second half of this meeting will cover a number of topics. But the most important one will be in regards to our resources. As you all know, it's because of our lack of man power that we've been kept behind schedule. But thanks to our newly acquired partnership with Mr. Villan, we believe that not only will we be able to achieve our original goal and deadline, but we would also be able to minimize the calculated risk percentage even further." Tildy spoke resolutely. Not really caring about the daggers a certain masked man was sending her way.
Aiden and Claire had already spoken several times about what their collaboration would provide to one another, but now that his involvement was literally forced through his front door, he had much more interest in personally seeing it through to the end. With that in mind, he was intent on learning as much as he could during the meeting.
"Our guests will be briefed on the major details of our plan later. So right now we will be focusing on how our efforts and resources will be joint from here on out." Colton said as he looked over at the Villan duo. Letting them now that they now had the green light to comment freely throughout the rest of their group discussion.
"And exactly how tightly are we expected to be 'joint' with them during the process of achieving our goal?" A deep voice with a sarcastic tone drew everybody's attention to the other end of the table. To the man in all black accompanied by the matching pair. One sitting at each of his sides.
"Excuse me?" Tildy looked at him with obvious irritation on her face. She already suspected where the conversation was headed.
"Oh please Tildy." Adrien continued. " I know you're all smart enough to understand that adding unknown people into our groups would cause an uproar. And if you add the fact that you all expect them to work with each other so suddenly, it's obviously going to cause problems within all of our teams. So I'm just asking. Exactly how close are we going to force everybody to tolerate such a 'collaboration'. At least not when the other side isn't worth half the praise they receive."
The room was silent for only a second before Colton's voice cut through the thick tension Adrien had created. "Arrogance will do you no good in this room Alpha."
Just like the man who Ben had killed during the night raid, the people in all black that worked along side the Collins, preferred to keep their names hidden. Secret. Unknown. Something that intrigued both Aiden and Lucas alike. But, their intrigue was heavily outweighed by their need too slap the man silly. Disrespect was one of the most taboo subjects in their lives. Regardless of how important the person responsible for it was.
"It's not arrogance if it's true." Adrien replied as an overly confident smirk could be practically drawn over his mask. "We have absolutely nothing to gain from working with such....people."
Nobody else could say a word. Not because they didn't plan to, but because Lucas' laughter filled the room the instant Adrien finished saying what he did.
After wiping what seemed to be a fake tear from his eye, he turned to look at Claire. "Hey little Cheeto. Who is this guy?"