Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 482. Work and Number

Ethan interrupted the moment by opening the entrance on the other side of the yard just as Henry leaned down to me.

The puppy straightened up and shot a glare at the poor attorney.

I smirked and looked away, taking one last drag before letting our cigarettes disappear back into the past.

Ethan came to us, opened the car, and drove us dutifully back to work, either not noticing the glare he had received or skillfully ignoring it.

"What about Kitty?" I asked eventually to diffuse the silence.

Ethan looked at me through the rearview mirror.

"The tiger is mostly roaming outside these days."

"No, I meant, will he run beside the cars or will he ride with us on our journey to the capital?"

Ethan laughed.

"I wasn’t informed about this, but Kitty surely won’t be left behind." He seemed to have developed some fondness for the greedy tiger, like the rest of us.

"Good," I mumbled, and looked back out of the window.

It was early; the sunlight was glistening, but there were dark clouds on the horizon.

I leaned forward and touched Ethan’s shoulder to flip the coin, to make sure that this was just a normal weather change and nothing remotely apocalyptic related to the disappeared insects.

Ethan only flinched slightly but didn’t react otherwise, probably knowing what I was doing.

Giving commands again to not let me see myself, I saw Ethan driving home today amidst a little storm with masses of rain.

I flipped the coin for tomorrow and saw Ethan’s car stopping in front of the ganghouse; there were a few clouds in the sky, but no sign of the little storm.

Alright. I was relieved and leaned back again.

The puppy immediately pulled me into his embrace, so I was chaotically lying against his chest.

"And?" he asked.

"It will rain heavily today, but not tomorrow. Ethan, be careful when driving home today."

Henry and Ethan both nodded before the former glanced out of the window as well.

"You are still paranoid because of the insects?" the puppy asked.

"Yeah." I searched for a better position and lay down on Henry’s lap in the end, before correcting myself.

"No, I am just making sure."

"I know." He looked down on me, his fingers combing through my hair.

Even from beneath, he was so flawless that it was infuriating.

The registration was followed by the bus; the lunchbox of the day was stale bread—and nothing more. The amount of nuts had also lessened significantly.

What the hell is that?

A quiet reminder not to miss the weekend work, where there could possibly be a bit more proper food served?

I ate the little nuts I had, and Henry gave me his as well.

"You eat too." I mean, we had a very good breakfast, so neither of us needed to eat.

"No. You look so cute when nibbling on nuts," he whispered quietly.

I raised my eyebrows and looked at him. I didn’t want to be called cute in an open space—or generally, and I was somewhat always unsure if his words contained some underlying perverted meaning.

He chuckled and looked innocent enough, so I let it go.

I got my yellow helmet when we arrived, and the next moment I stood on the elevator, watching Henry trailing behind to show off his newly discovered favorite hand gesture.

Leaning back against the railing, I did the same, just so that he would finally go away. Do kids feel like this if their parents linger uncomfortably long behind?

I can’t remember that time anymore; not sure if my mother had been the super-clingy type back then, but I think she hadn’t.

Henry was overjoyed, and I chuckled before watching the horizon come closer, the view becoming wider.

That was when there was a soft metallic friction, silent but not silent enough for me not to pick up.

The next second, the railing behind me broke away, and if I hadn’t had my abnormally fast reflexes, I would have probably fallen.

"MY GOD!" one of the men exclaimed, while I looked behind me, watching the railing crash to the ground.

Henry had already left, so I pulled my phone out, telling him that the railing fell, but I was alright, and he should not make an unnecessary ruckus.

This was just in case he was listening in and heard the commotion—I didn’t want him to teleport here.

Looking up from my phone, I found all the men staring at me; apparently, my reaction was way too calm.

The only other group unbothered was the four soldiers on this elevator with us. They had gripped their weapons but didn’t move from the spot.

Armless squeezed himself through the men who had all stepped back from where I stood, pulling me to him and the others.

Nice, so he will probably really give me his number today—fuck, that sounded gay, and not the kind of ’puppy gay’ that was teeth-clenchingly acceptable.

"Are you okay?" the man from before asked me; it was the gruff worker that showed me proper wall building.

"Yes, just shocked," I lied and nodded.

"EVERYONE, STEP AWAY FROM THE RAILING!" He yelled way louder than necessary, and it was indeed unnecessary because, with the exception of the soldiers, not only were we all close as fuck—everyone had pushed together so that we stood in the middle, as far as possible away from the unstable railing surrounding us.

The railing itself was a joke anyway, with just one steel rod that could be overcome by just crouching down and crawling through it if suicidal.

But it had felt stable enough, or I wouldn’t have leaned against it.

Anyway, Henry bombarded my phone, asking me if it was an assassination attempt.

"Who are you messaging just after surviving disaster?" the gruff worker asked me, and I grinned.

"I thought it was your friend, but it’s your girlfriend apparently," he chuckled.

"Yeah." I answered both of the questions and put the phone away after telling the puppy that I didn’t know and promised that I would be super cautious the rest of the day.

In my opinion, a rusty railing wasn’t really a threat, so that was that.

The rest of the men seemed scared but behaved like always, soulless as hell, only here for food, and now pressed together in the middle of a fucked-up elevator—so it was silent on the way up, with Armless not letting go of my arm and the gruff worker cursing here and there.

One thing was clear, though: the moment the elevator arrived upstairs, everyone hurried the hell onto the high but unmoving ground; even the soldiers seemed relieved.

Instead of asking the soldiers, the worker contacted the people downstairs through a walkie-talkie, telling them to take a look at the elevator, describing the situation, and telling them that nobody would board that thing until it was done—which was really nice.

I went back to the big room that had only one wall left to make; Armless followed after me.

"Hm?" I asked him.

"It wasn’t me," he blurted out.

"Don’t worry, I didn’t think so." I assured him, 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Number?" I held my hand out, and he passed over the little piece of paper he had gripped tightly at some point.

I looked at the number, making sure I could read it, and nodded.

"Sunday evening I’ll send you the address. The house will be empty; you can use it as a base or something; inside are more than enough weapons."

"Thank you." He looked away before bowing his head lightly.

"If you ever need something..."

"No problem. The best of luck." I reached my hand out, and he shook it.

Lingering would be awkward—though we would see each other the next two days, so what could be touching would turn awkward anyway—so Armless left for his room.

Henry asked repeatedly if he could teleport to me, as they couldn’t load the elevator with any more steel beams during the repair.

I told him to stay put, and later he told me they had gotten a new task, which was to dig a random hole.

I chuckled and put my phone away; this day felt awfully long and short at the same time.

While working, I constantly thought about tomorrow, unable to concentrate—though there wasn’t that much to concentrate on anyway—going through every possible scenario that could go wrong, which wasn’t overly helpful.

The conclusion I reached was I am nervous to death again; I want it either to go down immediately to make sure I can ’deliver’ and make it happen or to procrastinate this until eternity.

But no, not only did this day have to pass, but tomorrow had to pass as well, aaahh!!!!

When we were finally finished with work, the first droplets started like clockwork.

The railing on the elevator had been changed and reinforced, and although Henry asked me to just teleport downstairs, I rode it with the others, ready to teleport anytime.

Everyone was insecure as hell, and I soon saw Henry standing directly at the spot the elevator would descend to, watching over me with hawk-like eyes.

Pfft, cute.

Feeling this warm, fuzzy feeling again, I calmed down, just happy to see him.

The elevator ride down was luckily much smoother than in the morning.

Reaching the ground, Henry instantly put his arm around my shoulder and pressed my body against his on the way to give the helm back and to the bus.

I comforted the puppy with endless pets on the bus, watching as the rain worsened until we arrived at the city hall, where it settled into a monsoon-like downpour.

Ethan waited for us in the city hall instead of outside, looking miserably out towards the windows.

"We can take the car with you," I offered him.

"I can also teleport with you," Henry offered as well, and seeing Ethan’s expression change to one of underlying horror, he apparently had heard why Dr. Lawrence hadn’t been in that good of a condition lately.

"... You go first," he said and led us out as we nevertheless had to go to a side street before teleporting.

"We’ll take the car." I elbowed Henry and conjured up two umbrellas the moment we stepped into the rain, away from the others who seemed to want to sit it out inside—no idea how long they would be allowed to do that, though.

Ethan got his own umbrella, while I held the one for Henry and me, as he was stuck to my back again.

When we finally sat half-wet in the car, I remembered to message Omar.

K: [Does your mom have many female friends?]

Surprisingly, he answered fairly fast.

Omar: [No, none.]

Omar: [Why?]

Omar: [Is this about your grandma? I am sorry; I will talk to my mother.]

I showed Henry the messages with a laugh before typing,

K: [No need; they are best friends now—I am so happy for them.]