Darren woke up early for this day.
For this special day. The day they all will meet that lawyer. That someone who Darren will make sure will win his case. Next week is gonna be a great week, he hopes.
It only took him 20 minutes to be done of his morning routine because he needs to be as attentive as possible for today. This day is important and he needs to focus. He needs brain cells, nerves, bravery, and a present mind.
He cannot let his mind wander again, cannot let imaginations and whatnot restrain him in facing this day with a hope for a good outcome. He needs to make sure Lily and Lee could convince him to accept the case or all hell breaks loose.
But is he fine? Of course, he is so fine.
He's having a good day today because Atty. Elroy is meeting his best friends and Darren has something at hand, something in mind to do. He had thought of it when he heard Tim's statement last night. He had thought of something to do like a little Detective Conan or some Sherlock Holmes to imitate. Not entirely and exactly of course.
Now, what he gotta do is go downstairs and be responsible for once. Just this once because once he got himself that lawyer, he'll give him all the duties to investigate. He cannot be bothered with mind games or some whatever it is a lawyer gotta do.
When he reached downstairs, he immediately saw Tim on the living room floor, doing push ups as easy as picking up a trash. Well, maybe he was up earlier than he had expected if Tim is still working out.
He was shirtless and was just wearing a black summer shorts. If Darren were still the same gay he was three days ago, he would've been staring, gaping, imagining but well, let's just say he's a whole new human.
If you consider him not actually drooling at the sight of his muscled back and cunningly well-inked tattoos, you can say he's nothing like the gay man he was when he just came out of the closet which was eleven years ago. And now that he is 24, he had enough of flings and exploration.
What's left was his ignorance of all things gorgeous which is maybe why he cannot seem to get over the fact that Tim pulled away at the last second. His mind kept circling at that moment he's not very much fond of. He's got no time for delusions so chop-chop Darren.
A proper gentleman knows how to act as such. That's his new motto now.
Now, on with his duty, "Good morning" he greeted with a tone nicer than usual. Gotta play it cool.
Tim was swift to look up, surprised, "Hey"
Darren nodded at his response. He wasn't ready of any verbal interaction after the greeting.
"You're early again today" Tim spoke and stood up, finishing up his work out. He grabbed the shirt that lay innocently at the couch and proceeded to wipe his glistening body with it.
"Are you hungry? I haven't cook breakfast yet" he casually asked and Darren shook his head, eyes not quite looking at him because he wouldn't wanna be tempted especially when he had just claimed he is a whole new person.
Otherwise, all his reflections and late night thoughts would be in vain.
"Can I ask you a favor?" Darren asked.
"Uh yeah sure. What is it?" he nodded which Darren appreciated because he was quick to respond with a satisfying answer.
"I'm out of toiletries. Is it alright if I ask you to go buy some?"
Of course he isn't but he needs him out of the house even just for an hour.
"Sure sure. I'll go later cutie"
Tim sounded dubious at calling him cutie but when Darren didn't react badly to it considering what happened, his face lighted up and smiled.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Darren watched Tim go out of the gate on his fancy motorcycle, ignoring the question when did he has it fixed and waited for a minute before actually doing anything. For a fraction, he seemed to ponder on what he had to do.
When he was sure he still gotta do what he initially planned, he went through Tim's bag and opened it. He needs to investigate. He carefully looked inside and rummaged through it. He saw clothes and begrudgingly (because he had not thought of it in the first place), some of his boxers which smelled quite good and no, he didn't sniff. He just happened to take a whiff of its smell because his head is nearly inside the bag. Really.
He also saw and touched a belt, some useless fast food receipts, and socks. He tried to reach deeper and he touched something hard. He blinked and pulled it out. A phone. He reached for more and felt something as slim and smooth so he pulled it out. His laptop.
He nodded. This is it. He tried to open the phone but obviously locked with a password and he cannot really waste his time on that, can he? So he shifted to Tim's laptop and prayed in some miracle and alternate universe to not let the laptop have any password.
He'll wither if he doesn't fulfill his not well-thought plan.
He only waited for a few seconds before the laptop opened and he nearly called out Roman gods and sacrificed one of those homophobic men he had encountered 5 years ago to say thank you when he saw it didn't have any password.
Now, he's getting somewhere. Smooth.
He went straight to documents and tried to see if anything would be useful. If only he knew that something Tim was reading when he saw him one midnight, it would be extremely helpful.
He looked through the folders that was in there, some of which he cannot understand such as Bianchi Operation, Ricci MI Case, Hernandez case deal, and others. Some folders are named as EG Counterparts, EG Plans, EG_France, EG_Italy, EG_Spain, EG_Germany, EG_States, etc.
Darren continued to scroll through, hoping to see something understandable. He had tried to click on a folder named 'Jacques Bleu' because it was just intriguing . When he had opened the folder, he saw just one document saved as 'shit no man', he hard tried to read it and was confused to see the document blank. It was blank.
Okay, moving on then. He was pouting because of all the many folders, he wasn't seeing anything useful that can answer his questions. There's no use in lingering more because Tim can arrive anytime. Darren's not really keen on being caught touching things he doesn't own.
Is there no folders that can indicate something that would lead him into Tim's apparent dislike of the Elroy name?! He's dying of curiosity here. He scowled and breathe deeply.
He was ready to close the laptop and continue with his day when his eyes caught a folder saved as 'Elroy Deals'.