"...Nikolai."
Those large eyes were narrowed into a slight glare even when they looked up at him. No recognition could be gleaned in that gaze, no hint of friendly deception—
Nothing.
It was as if they were back to being strangers who never had each other's backs during the apocalypse.
Malic had figured something might happen given the mission setup, but he hadn't thought that it would go so far as to give Nikolai an entire reset. It made sense, however; how could they rewrite his story, and how could the mission be B-ranked, if the man himself was perfectly aware of the story to be revised?
Eventually, Nikolai raised a brow at him. That dark-eyed gaze still fell short of meeting his actual eyes before glancing over at the others, then returning to him with barely hidden wariness.
A quick glance downward let Malic see the slight shake in Nikolai's hands before he clenched them tight into stillness.
"Did you need something?" Nikolai asked. Malic raised his gaze to his face again, noting the way that the man quickly turned his gaze away in turn. "If not, I'd appreciate if you could move out of the way."
"I need to talk to you."
Large eyes blinked wide open in surprise, before narrowing again in suspicion. "About? If this isn't about work..."
"The incident from before."
Nikolai immediately shut his mouth with a click of teeth, jaw clenched. Though Malic had no idea on the full context of their previous altercation, it wasn't hard to see that it was a less than pleasant moment for Nikolai. He spoke, "If that's still an issue—"
"It's not. I don't have an issue with you, at least," he said, cutting Nikolai off before he could say more. "I just think that there was a misunderstanding on my end, and I wanted to clear it up with you."
Rhiannon took a step back and away from him, as did Renato. It was as if he'd just said that he had a contagious disease, these bastards. He knew that he came off impatient most of the time, but it wasn't like he wasn't capable of being calm and reasonable when he has to be.
"...we'll be going on ahead," Renato said eventually, seeming to have finally sensed the atmosphere as he grabbed Rhiannon's wrist and dragged her away.
Took them long enough.
Nikolai didn't even seem to process their departure, the way he remained still in shock at his words. He was equally surprised at his reasonable words as Rhiannon and Renato were, but he was still forgivable in his ignorance; he didn't seem to even have his memories in this moment. This was made even clearer by the way that his wide-eyed gaze rose to meet Malic's own for a second.
It was just a second's glance. A slip of a second of their gazes meeting, but it seemed to be enough to have Nikolai sucking in a breath and looking away with a shaky exhale.
Is this what it was like for him, to meet eyes with another person? Was it always this heavy a thing in his head?
"...alright. Let's go to the cafeteria."
"Not your office?"
Nikolai's lip twitched downward for a moment, before returning to a neutral expression. "I don't exactly have a chair to spare."
"I see."
Quietly, he followed after him. His reputation as the company's ace seemed to be a real enough thing, the way strangers kept greeting him as he walked down the hallway.
No one paid Nikolai any mind. There were some half-hearted nods in greeting here and there, yet the contrast to the cheery "hey!"s and "hello!"s directed his way was jarring.
Did people not realize how rude they were being?
"Is it that much of a surprise?"
He turned to Nikolai, gaze ending up on those wryly smiling lips. "What is?"
"Your face." Nikolai tapped at the corner of his lips, seeming to be referring to the frown Malic's own face. "It's too expressive, Agcaoili."
Agcaoili. So their work relationship was that distant?
"Is it," he said. "What did you see?"
"You seemed to be confused at the difference in treatment."
"I was."
"Huh." Nikolai finally let up on his neutral expression then, allowing himself a sincere and amused smile. "You're honest. I figured you were, but I didn't think you would be with me."
"I make it a rule to be honest with anyone, regardless of how it might come across."
"Aha. That explains things."
"Explains what."
"You're blunt too," Nikolai huffed. He pushed open the glass door leading to the cafeteria, walking for one of the corner seats immediately without asking for Malic's input. As he sat down on the inside seat, he said, "We're both not on break, so let's make this quick, shall we?"
"Fine." He sat down across from the man, a table sat right between them. With his hands clasped on his lap as he crossed one leg over the other, he said, "Tell me how you perceived my behavior from that incident, and I'll try to understand what happened so I can apologize if it's necessary."
"...are you always this straightforward?"
"Yes."
Nikolai burst into a laugh, before covering his mouth. His eyes were wide, as if he hadn't expected his own laughter. "Hah. Sorry, I just...I was caught off guard for a moment. You're this blunt with everyone, even to your bosses?"
He thought back to his dance coaches, and nodded. He didn't change his attitude for anyone for all of his life and that inevitably cost him a lot of enemies, but the friends he got from his own honesty were invaluable. He'd never regret being the way he was because of that.
"Wow."
Nikolai rested his folded arms on the table, head lowered for a bit as he blew out a breath. "I'm a little envious. I suppose I can give you a bit of honesty since you're being honest with me."
"Mm."
"I was in a bad mood, mainly. You and your friends were being noisy in the office and I knew that was inappropriate, but it wasn't helping any that I was as stressed as I was." He smiled to himself, seeming regretful as he clutched at his sleeves through his folded arms. "You shouldn't have been so rowdy in the office, but...I shouldn't have snapped like that either. I was rude, and I'm sorry."
He nodded. "I'm sorry too, for not behaving appropriately in the office. Though," he frowned as he sat back into his seat, "I have a feeling it wasn't because of me, as it was more because of those loud-mouthed fools."
"...you call your friends fools?"
"They aren't my friends." Be it in this life or a past life, the people he'd come across earlier—the people outside of his companions through the apocalypse, at least—didn't even seem like people he could tolerate being with unless he had absolutely no choice. And even then, he was sure he'd make an effort to let them know that he'd rather not spend a second more in their presence.
He disliked loud people, and he especially disliked people of no substance. That was how it was for him, and that was how it'd always be.
"They're not? But you're always surrounded by those people..."
"Have you considered that I don't like them either, but I have to tolerate them for work?"
Nikolai blinked then, looking up to meet his gaze briefly before looking away again. "I...hadn't considered it. Sorry."
"Stop apologizing. It's only natural for people to see the world according to what they know."
"Maybe, but that's no reason to be so narrow-minded," Nikolai said. Then he smiled for some reason Malic couldn't understand, making him frown. "Can I be very honest with you?"
"Always."
Those large eyes blinked in shock, at the same time as a wet tongue darted out to lick at his dry lips.
"Don't do that."
"Huh?"
"Licking your lips," he said, eyeing the way those same lips pressed together into a firm line. This was a habit he'd already called out on his Nikolai, annoyed as he was at how much the man's lips often cracked and bled during their few weeks together. It didn't help any that he liked picking at his lips too. "They'll dry the skin. Just use a lip balm."
"Hey." Nikolai eyed him then, gaze narrowed in on the skin right under his eyes. "Are you actually a repressed mother hen?"
"...a what."
"All this time," Nikolai continued to say, not explaining anything as a smile grew wider and wider on his face, "with that intimidating appearance, were you actually always a softy?"
"I'm not a softy."
"You tried to look out for me just now."
He scowled. "Because it's something I noticed. You did it in front of my face."
"You'd give this kind of advice for your Sales team too, then?"
So he was in Sales? Odd, but he could work with that.
"No."
Nikolai raised a brow like he'd just incriminated himself, even when he couldn't see what the issue was. That lot of noisy bastards from before were people he couldn't care less for. Nikolai, in comparison, had saved his team multiple times from trouble, and was a person he trusted.
It was clear just who it was he'd give a damn for.
"Alright then. Am I special to you?"
"In what sense?"
"In what—huh?" Nikolai laughed, an odd awkwardness coming up in his voice. "You're asking in what way? So I'm special in some way after all?"
Wasn't he?
This was a man who was a stranger to him the weeks before they met, yet he'd quickly built himself up as a reliable companion over the time they'd spent together. He was blunt at times, reserved in others, but he was always honest with him. If there was something he couldn't say, he just wouldn't say it, but it never felt like he'd ever lied to his face.
Even with his rough attitude, Nikolai accepted him wholly. Hell, forget acceptance—the man enjoyed his attitude and laughed whenever Malic said something blunt and unforgiving, like it was only natural that he'd be so.
("As expected of our hero," Nikolai would say, grinning all the while.)
He made himself at home with the rest of Malic's companions too, and that wasn't an easy thing to do.
He supposed that made him special in some way.
"Yes."
Nikolai stared straight at him then, seeming to have forgotten his self-imposed rule of not meeting anyone's eyes. "You're kidding?"
"No."
"...um."
He stood up, startling Nikolai just enough that he visibly did a full-body twitch. He deliberately held in a smirk of amusement when he said, "Let's go. We've talked about what we needed to discuss, so let's return to work."
"Are you...are you seriously just going to not explain that?" Nikolai sputtered, looking up at him. "Was that a joke?"
"I don't joke about things like that."
"I'm surprised you know how to joke at all."
Nikolai slapped a hand to his mouth, seeming to have been surprised at his own words.
Oh?