Escape
Warm chocolate hues squinted at the mix of colors pinned to a coark board. The brightly colored cloth was tagged next to an ink drawing of a dress and it was taking all of the former model's attention to try and see what was amiss. The colors were great together, but something... "Pearls!" he clapped his hands as the thought crossed his mind, but before he could do anything with the sudden trail of thought the room shifted in ambiance and Natanaele felt a sudden touch that had him stiffening.
"Sorry..." Came a familiar voice that had him instantly at ease once more. "I should have called beforehand."
The brown eye male turned around to give his best friend a perplexed look, "What happened? What's wrong?" Natanaele was emmediately concerned despite the amused look on his friend's face.
"Why do you think something's wrong?" The onyx haired male questioned, brow arching slightly.
The other gave a sigh and roll of his eyes before taking his friends arm and intertwining it with his, walking them over to his bed to sit down, "Well, for one, you never apologize for pulling an Adele and appearing out of the blue uninvited. Secondly, you're brow line is tense and your eyes are distant." He flicked at the other male's brow playfully, watching as he winced with a grunt, "And lastly, I've known you for years Poe, so what is it?"
Brandon gave a chuckle at the pet name, something that only came out when Natanaele knew something was majorly wrong with his friend, "Of course you'd see right through me."
"Which is why you came, now stop wasting time and tell me what's wrong."
The male gave a snicker before opening his mouth, "I fought with Ms.Fray." Brandon had rarely, if ever called Clary by her first name. It just never came out.
"On a scale of Plaza Hotel in 03 to Wedding Day...?" Natanaele was peering at Brandon with such an intense gaze that the older male couldn't help but swallow hard before answering, "Let's just say that the odds of Klysm being this upset when mum died were minute..."
Natanaele couldn't help but clench his jaw and give a solemn nod, "Okay, so what are we going to do?" the Italian had never really hesitated to help Brandon out when it came to his father. Abuse was no where near foreign to him, especially by a guardian.
"Nothing. We're doing nothing." The slim model frowned and was ready to protest, "I've already filed papers to officially distance myself from my father. And my mother's inheritence is just as big if not more so than that which my father would have left me, plus my grandparents were kind enough to give me something before passing. I've no reason to worry." He gave a shrug, running a hand through his hair and looking at the pigmented corkboard.
"Yet you, Mr.Brandon Kristoffer Poe are frowning quite avidly at my poor upcoming fashion line like they just beheaded my sister in front of you." Natanaele tilted his head to the side, looking at his work in silence.
"I just never thought it'd come to this." The older male muttered, shrugging.
"It's going to be alright. You've got me and Isabella. You know we wouldn't let you go into war empty handed." The male gave a darkly tinge laugh before snapping his gaze to the other male.
Brandon frowned and was about to ask what the model meant by that when his phone rang, eliciting a cold chill through out his body. Taking it out of his pocket, he barely had a chance to look at who was calling before the phone disappeared from his grip.
"Deal with your rubbish father later. I haven't seen you in months and I miss my peculiar best friend. So how have you been and what are you up to these days?" The former model grinned and threw his arms around the other male in an overly brilliant show of affection that was rarely ever seen, even by Brandon.
Not thinking twice, he allowed the embrace and dug his face into the milky white skin of the Italian's neck, his scent somehow soothing him. If anyone came into this room at this very moment it'd be read completely wrong, "I'm going to ask your sister to marry me." was the abrupt answer he gave to Natanaele's question. "And I'm going to go back to India and work on expanding my company before Klysm can gain over the rest of Asia."
Natanaele gave a snort, "Fucking finally, do you know how awkward it is to go see my sister in her new home with her father and have him think I'm her husband or something close to it?!" The thin male pulled away a scowl on his face, "He tried to tell me that I would make a great successor." A visible shiver came over the light haired male before his face contorted, "Why would you even want to go against your father, that's just adding fuel to the fire Poe..." The strands of blond fell over his chocolate hues as a frown held his features.
"Nico, I owe it to my mum to give him something to remember her by. The only reason that company got where it did was because my mother and her family invested into the business. She was a brilliant woman when it came to technical engineering. I've seen my father draft and redraft some of her best works to try and understand their complexity and not once has he succeeded and I plan to decode them and advance in a way he will never be able to." The Englishman gave a sigh before he could go into deeper bits of his plan.
"Anyways, I just have to do this and I won't stop until I succeed. You and I both know my father doesn't deserve a third of what he's made in that company. Not with all the bloodshed, blackmail and shady deals he's pulled off over the decades."
Natanaele couldn't respond knowing Brandon had strong points to try and go against.
"But that's enough about me. Isabella has been telling me a lot about what you're doing and I'm honestly hurt you didn't mention it to me." Brandon feigned a pout as he fell onto the bed with a bounce.
"It's not like I was purposefully not telling you. You're just hard to get a hold of when you're not popping into my room like a rude prick." Natanaele flailed a hand as he fell besides Brandon.
The stronger male dragged the blond to his chest and chuckled, "My little Nico is all grown up and I haven't even gotten a chance to see him grow." He fake sobbed before ruffling blond tousled hair.
"Shut the fuck up. I'm just as tall as you and taller in heels."
"You're still younger."
Natanaele huffed and pulled away from the darkly haired male, but it was useless because he was dragged back into comfortable warmth within seconds. "Thanks for being a great friend, Natanaele." Brandon announced, "If something happens to me, just know that I love you and your sister very much."
At this, the blond peered up at the other male through his long locks of golden hair. Meeting blue hues he could see there was something that Brandon hadn't told him, "I love you too and you'll make an amazing brother-in-law and I don't want to hear anymore of this banter that sounds like your saying goodbye.
There was a steady silence for a long moment as Brandon's phone rang from behind Nate's back and Brandon could only summon a small release of air.
"I heard you're dating Klysm's oldest daughter." Brandon half smiled, "I didn't know a hulahoop could be straight." this earned the broadly shouldered male a punch in the ribs, "Hnng." He complained briefly, "If she makes you happy, then I'm happy for you, man." Natanaele stopped his movements as he listened to his best friend, "She's got a few rough spots, but I can see she's trying hard to clean up her act and I know part of it has to do with you and, in a way, I'm a little thankful. The Hale family is very fucked up, as you already know, and we never get to choose what happens with our lives very often. Even with the supposed support from Klysm, it's hard to not feel like you have to fit a mold from day one that you're out of the womb. And I'm glad you can be there to give Kalissa the needed air to become her own person. I may not be all for you guys being together, but that's not my place to butt into." Brandon gave a shrug, chin resting lightly above the blond's head, "And as for you, I know you can hold your own against my father, but always try to keep a step ahead of him. He's got an entire web of things to trap you and you're at the center of it each time you face him."
"Kal's brilliant and I honestly still am gay, it just..." the former model frowned, "There was something about her that felt like home, like a bit of it that I had never felt before." He gave a chuckle realizing he sounded cliche, "And if I don't keep her from harm, who will? We both know Klysm only knows how to deal with problems in one of two ways." Both males lay quiet.
"We got this, Poe. I promise you that your father won't be able to hurt you or bring you down in any way. Trust me."
Once again there was something in the way Natanaele spoke that had Brandon wondering what Natanaele was talking about.
"Isn't that my line?" the older male chuckled before giving a yawn and feeling his fatigue of the day cloud him over.
"No... It's my turn to keep you safe now." He heard the words come from below him as his eyes closed with sleep.
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