Chapter 48 (reuploaded)

Seeing Gin suddenly drop the laptop he was holding and lean over Henry in a rush, Joshua immediately found himself a little panic. He hadn't been expecting that something would be off as soon as he arrived; he almost dropped the pizza he had taken from the delivery man at the reception. Luckily, he managed to stay calm enough that once he had assessed the situation, he quickly rushed into action, closing the apartment door, running in and dropping down next to Henry. The boxes were left on the coffee table and the polythene bag with drinks on the floor.

"Fuck, Henry! You with me?" Gin lightly shook the lethargic man's shoulder, getting a feeble groan in response.

Joshua put the back of his hand against his forehead, feeling that it was warm but not feverish. "What happened?"

"Dunno, he was a little tired, then I was reading your wedding plan and look again to see him slumped back." Gin quickly thought over what henry had shared earlier. "Know what, he's probably exhausted, apparently he's been so busy he's been eating in the canteen, the apartment is empty."

"But he skipped lunch today… and came in super early for a meeting… oh." Realisation came over Joshua as he quickly realised what the problem was. Even the younger man's helpless state could stop an irritated expression from flashing on his face. "He's overworked and malnourished, he needs carbs."

With a sigh, Joshua went to get a glass, only for his ankle to give away and explode in pain; he had completely forgotten about his ankle. "Glass."

While Gin did not appreciate the one-word order, he got up anyway, bringing over a glass from the kitchenette. If honest, he was still worried about Henry's condition, but Joshua's reaction probably meant there was a little more than meets the eyes. When he returned to the sofa, he saw the older man feeding the younger one some of the softer dried fruits, face still annoyed. "Open the bottle of cola, pour some into the glass and let it sit for a bit. And stir in a pinch of salt."

"Do I look like a servant?"

"You're the only one that can move, stop complaining."

Was Joshua… crabby? The redhead looked down at his friend for a second before deciding it was not worth his head mulling over. Instead, he just did as he was told, joining Joshua and his bad mood.

The sweetness from the dried fruit slowly brought Henry's bearings back, first seeing Joshua sitting over him, his deadpan face screaming 'told you so'. Right, he had been there when Samuel was worrying over how weak and tired the man looked. He was also there to see him skip lunch for a sugar-free energy drink and half a pack of menthols. Joshua had asked him if he would be alright with only that, to which Henry vehemently assured he would be.

The younger man was starting to feel a little embarrassed now, looking away and muttering, "Shut up," even though he hadn't been verbally told anything. The look in Joshua's eyes were enough.

But now that he has spoken, clearly feeling a little better, Joshua did not hold back. "I thought you were going to be 'perfectly fine'. Didn't you 'made sure to eat enough', had food at home, didn't fall into bad smoking habits. You sure look it now."

"Fuck you and your perfect recall," Henry muttered bitterly, still too ashamed to even look in Joshua's direction. A piece of fruit was pressed between his lips.

"Shut up and eat."

Deciding not to test he man any further, Henry reluctantly opened his mouth and took the piece of dried fruit.

After ten minutes of being fed like a child, Henry finally had the energy to sit up, albeit with help. And once he was able to support his own body, Joshua handed him the tall glass of cola, only giving one word: "Drink." Having been too out of it to register what had been said when the cola was poured, the unsuspecting man took a big drink, almost immediately going to spit out the concoction. Luckily, Henry managed to stop himself making a mess, instead painfully gulping back the salty but sweet soda before, only a little dribbling from his lips.

"What the fuck is that!"

Paying no mind to his exclamation, Joshua nudged the drink towards him, eyes dead. "Drink."

Like a good but resistant child, Henry went for the quick option and chugged the horrible sweet-salty-bubbly drink. It was not that it was a disgusting drink, but it did not feel even a little bit right on his tongue. Once finished, his screwed his face up and let his tongue hang out in disgust with a groan.

"Gin, you put way too much salt in it, I only said a pinch."

As the younger man took out a box of pizza and started shoving a piece in his mouth to combat the odd aftertaste, Joshua turned to his other friend. From one look at Gin's face, it was clear that he had done it on purpose.

Even if the redhead was worried, he was still quite annoyed about being ordered around, and so to spite Joshua, put in two tablespoons of salt. In hindsight, it was not the man's cleverest revenge plan, but by the time Gin had realised this, Henry was already drinking the awful drink. What was done is done, there was no point crying over spilt milk.

Joshua simply received a shrug as he watched his friend take a slice of pizza.

As there was no reason to make a big deal out of it – well, in Henry's case, he had been so hungry that with one taste of the pizza, he had completely forgotten the horrible cola – all three men silently ate, none of them having eaten properly during the day.

Within 15 minutes, all of the food was finished and the three leant back against the couch, looking at Gin's laptop set up in front of them for their meeting. Or at least, that's what should have been happening.

As the genius hacker had finally started finding information from the Q Group's server, he had come over so they could look through what he found together. What Gin had found was the emails of one of the younger branch family members that had wormed their way into the mid-ranks of the infamous group. These fourth-generation elites were so accustomed to money, they rarely possessed the sort of common sense one would usually learn through life. In simpler words: they did not know how to keep things private, especially the 20-year-old girl in question.

The young man had started to look through the contents himself last night, almost deciding to keep it to himself and only sharing anything useful after finding some topics that had disgusted him to the core. Unfortunately, he could not save his friends from this information, since in several of them there had been mentions of the merger, and more importantly, the engagement party next week. And seeing as the girl was so chatty, treating email like an instant messenger, there were easy 60 to 70 personal emails per day, it was too much of a task for Gin to attempt himself.

That was the reason for the sudden meeting Gin sprung on them this morning.

But instead, he was sending a sideways glare to his two friends, that seemed to be too busy ordering Henry's groceries on Joshua's phone.

Joshua had received a dismissive response from the younger man when he brought up the lack of food in the apartment, and so decided to take matters into his own hands. But Henry seemed awfully picky about what to buy, apparently being a cheapskate when it came to large food shops. He had an issue with almost every item Joshua would add to the basket: it was too expensive, it was too cheap, too low quality, better to buy wholesale, better to buy when needed. And for every issue, Joshua decided to ask for an explanation so as not to make the same mistake next time, not even realising he had the intention to buy Henry's groceries again.

In that time, Gin had finished separating the separate the emails into three parts, emailing one to each of them and then proceeded to watch the clever idiots already acting like a newly wedded couple. He finally let out a sigh of relief when Henry and Joshua both came to the consensus that the basket was full, thinking they could finally get on with why they had all met.

To his dismay, another problem arose. Both were insisting they pay. And instead of a logical insistence where they each shared the reason why they thought they should be the ones to pay, there conversation was a back-and-forth:

"I'm paying."

"No, I'm paying."

Now Gin was the one who wanted to smash his head on the table over and over.

"Fuck! Shut up!"

The redhead finally blew up, realising this would never end on its own.

"Joshua, why the fuck are you trying to pay for Henry's groceries?"

Joshua froze on spot, suddenly very confused at his own actions.

"And Henry, a couple hundred mean nothing to either of you, why are you arguing so much over it?"

Henry sat there, stupefied at the very valid point.

"Henry pay this time, and since someone's already prepped themselves to buy the groceries for this apartment again anyway, Joshua can pay next time. Let the two of your dumb asses get ready for married life, huh? Done? Actually, don't answer, I'm saying it's done." As Gin said the last part, he plucked Joshua's phone from his hands and put it in Henry's.

"Now, I never thought I would say this, but fuck, can we please get to the fetishizing, paedophilic chick's emails!"

Gin really did have every right to worry about the two, their marriage was starting to look more dangerous than the enemy that had brought it about to begin with.