Chapter 66
Cyrus stood there, completely zoned out of the meeting going on in front of him.
He’d listened intently for a while. For almost two and a half weeks in fact, even if he had zoned in and out at times.
But now, it had been five weeks since he'd arrived at Ender’s compound, and he found he just couldn’t anymore.
It was too much of a struggle to hear what they were saying and not step in. Before now, he’d tried to live his life in black and white. Cyrus knew the world wasn’t really that straightforward, but his had been. At least, it used to be, and his understanding of it that was.
Cyrus, honestly, felt…frustrated and lost. Or maybe it was more just out of place, and really, he was out of place.
Not to mention, entirely useless. He couldn’t even fake being muscle, or a bodyguard, or whatever the fuck he was supposed to be, because of his lack of paying attention.
So, yeah, his existence was just completely unnecessary here.
And while he tried to not feel jealous, he was a bit at how easily Killian seemed to just belong… But then, the Siren had always been great at adapting.
At this point, he was barely noticed by anyone there.
The others had stared when he first came, but that had stopped after the first week, and they seemed to pretty much just ignore him now.
Which was not something he was used to at his height, or at all.
Larger Cryptids tended to stand out. So yeah, he could definitely say this was the first time he’d ever been completely ignored.
Fuck…ignored and unnecessary—what a life. His jaw clenched, his teeth grinding slightly at the thought, while his nails dug into his palms as his hands clenched tighter.
Ender mostly did his best to ignore the looming Fate standing behind him during meetings as much as he could, but the difficulty of that task was growing with the man’s inability to stand still. He honestly preferred the interruptions to this. Though, he was surprised Cyrus had lasted this long.
Ender hadn’t thought this job would work out for the man, and he’d been right.
It had been a few weeks now since Cyrus had stopped even attempting to argue about the shit they were getting up to and planning.
Though, that pretty much meant that the Fate was not paying attention, which sort of defeated the purpose of him being there.
Not that Ender even needed a bodyguard following him around the compound, which was where he mostly was.
He pursed his lips, tuning out the others talking around him as he thought on the matter at hand. The Fate had to do something there. One didn’t even really need to know Cyrus Grimm well to realize the man was not someone who liked to be idle all the time.
He’d also randomly caught sight of worried expressions on the Fate’s face, when the man thought no one was looking. Okay, he more spotted them on the surveillance videos, but it still counted as him ‘catching sight of’ in his mind.
Severo had mentioned to him that the Fate was having a rough time…but based on what the Shadow Dweller had said, it was before even coming here. The question was, with what? Personal life? Professionally? Or was it related to him changing the timeline?
Regardless, the issue at hand was that Cyrus was the opposite of a rule breaker, which was not really the type of personality they tended to have here, as rule breaking was sort of necessary for most of the work they carried out.
Well, rule breaking as in government rules, not Ender’s rules. Ender’s rules were not to be broken, or else.
Killian sighed, his hands slowing as he continued to type. He was settling in well with his new job. He'd hacked a few governments, and some other systems by those on the other side of the law, and yeah, it was working out well.
So far, Ender had kept him away from anything to do with the Bureau. Which was a feat in itself considering how thoroughly intertwined the CEB was with everything, but otherwise, things were good for him. Cyrus, however…
Well, his man was becoming increasingly antsy.
His fiancé was struggling. And Killian wasn’t sure why he hadn’t realized it before, but now that he had, the fact that the Fate had quit his job too easily was glaringly obvious, and it should have concerned him at the time.
Yeah, he’d had the whole soon-to-be a dad thing going on, but still.
He had known, probably since only a few months after meeting Cyrus, that working for the Bureau had always been what the Fate had wanted in life.
Killian stopped typing as he leaned back in his chair, thinking on when they’d first joined. They’d been in their late twenties at the time, long before they’d dated, and before Severo had joined up.
On hearing a door slam, Killian jerked awake, sitting up in bed. “Wha…?” He stared tiredly up at Cyrus as the Fate practically marched up to his bed.
“I’m going to do it,” Cyrus blurted.
He slowly raised a single brow in question.
“Do ‘what’ exactly? Aside from annoyingly waking my ass up from the dead of sleep, after I spent all night studying,” he said stiffly, while at the same time trying to not notice how the man’s muscles seemed to bulge under the tight black T-shirt he had on.
And he didn’t notice…nope, not at all. Because Cyrus was his friend, and Killian had no interest in romantic, or even just sexual, entanglements…none at all.
“You’ve slept enough,” Cyrus chuckled, an annoyingly bright white smile spreading across his stupidly handsome face. “I’m joining the Bureau, do it with me.”
“Finally ready to piss your parents off?”
“I waited this long, so I could learn. I have learned and I have graduated. Now, I am ready.”
Killian eyed the man. Nothing in his expression told him much, but his words held enough determination and stubbornness that he really didn’t need to look further.
While Killian couldn’t say he saw the appeal of government work, they were in fact well-funded, and it had always been a possible direction he could go. Add in that he’d be working near-ish with his friend, and it wouldn’t be too bad. Less annoying than working with complete strangers all the time.
Yep, it had nothing to do with him just wanting to stay near Cyrus in any capacity he could…
“Fine,” Killian huffed, after ignoring his own internal delusions and denials.
“Yes!” Cyrus pumped his fist, laughing, before sheepishly asking, “Does this mean you’ll come with me to tell my parents?”
Killian snorted. “Fuck no. Good luck, now get out.” He waved the Fate away as he laid back down and snuggled into his covers.
“Betrayal!” the man yelled as he leapt onto the bed and on top of him.
Killian squealed, struggling to get away as Cyrus went for his sides and started to tickle him.
“NO—” he cried, the word cutting off as he started to laugh.
With a wide smile on his face, Killian giggled as the memory drifted away. Oh, he’d been in so much denial back then. His smile slowly dropped as reality set in.
It really had always been what the man had wanted and more. And Killian had followed.
Well, at first, he had just done office work while he’d been studying. Despite having been well trained back then, he’d never had any interest in capturing anyone.
Though Cyrus’ job back then had led to a few fights between them, before they’d finally started dating. The arguments had always been about stupid shit. The truth was…Cyrus’ job as an agent had probably helped speed up the breaking of his resolve to never date or be with anyone.
As a field agent, the Fate would be away from him for weeks at a time.
Killian would never admit it, and had never admitted it, but he’d felt incredibly lost not having the man near enough to come to him at the drop of a hat.
What was worse was, for the first time, and likely the only time, he’d found himself feeling worried… and jealous.
He knew then, and even knew now, that the thoughts he’d had were ridiculous.
Cyrus had left to hunt people, not go on a secret romantic rendezvous.
Yet, at the time, his mind kept pushing the idea that just because the Fate was there to hunt, it didn’t mean he wasn’t seeing other people out there in the world, away from him.
It had been the one and only time he’d ever felt insecure about Cyrus.
Which was why he’d sometimes purposely start fights with the man.
It had been wrong of him, but yeah, repressed emotions could make one do stupid shit.
It was soon after Severo joined… Wait, no…
twenty-eight years after, and exactly one hundred years from the moment Cyrus had first asked him out at nineteen, that he and the Fate finally started dating.
That same year, Cyrus had taken over from his cousin as the Director of the North American Headquarters, becoming the youngest Grimm to do so. Cyrus had been so proud at the time…
What was his poor man supposed to do now that his dream job was gone?
Killian jumped when the door opened and Ender walked in. “Hard at work, I see,” the Gorgon drawled with a smirk.
He winced when the Cryptid closed the door behind him, right in Cyrus’ face, leaving the Fate outside the room.
“Is there a reason you are locking him out again?”
“Mmm, I’m sure he’s tired of staring at me. And more importantly, I’m tired of being stared at.”
“Ah…”