Chapter 43

Archer was the one to greet Samuel as the latter pulled up at the Lore's company building, already prepared to deal with whatever heightened state of mind the Reyes's heir would arrive in. The man's prediction had not been wrong, when Samuel did exit the car, his face was a mixture of worry, anger and conflict. As the door was slammed shut, Archer just laughed; Samuel always had the most amusing reactions.

"Where is he?" Samuel demanded as he was led into the familiar building.

"Joshua told security that Henry would stick around until just after midday. Why're you angry?"

"Because! Does it matter? I wanna punch him."

"Careful, Sam, your personality's showing."

Henry, clearly, was not the only one to tone things down when in front of his parents.

"You want to see the folder?"

Samuel turned to see Archer was waving around a tablet. All his unwarranted anger immediately melted away as he snatched the device and started to look through the folder.

One of the assistant secretaries had been tasked with the tedious job of scanning the entire folder and adding hyperlinks to the various websites and sources. While the digital work was still underway, the extensive document had already been compiled into a folder and shared with the members of the Reyes and Lore families.

Archer laughed again as he saw how quickly his friend had been appeased.

The man himself was completely dismissive of his own behaviour when his youngest sibling had been hurt; when it came to being overly protective and doting, no one could beat Samuel and Archer.

On the 20th floor, one of the two floors the finance department occupied, Joshua's computer lit up with a chime. It was a message from security that Archer had requested: when Samuel arrived to inform Joshua.

However, despite the spacious but not large office being occupied, the message was not noticed. This is because at this current time, Joshua was laid back on the small couch he had within his office, arm over his eyes. The exhausted man was more asleep than awake.

This is where him and Henry had come to once leaving their parents. Initially they had been silently fretting whether the folder they had thrown together was good enough and did not have any major mistakes – a needless worry, however the men were too invested to notice that – neither outwardly speaking their worries but both seeming to understand that the other felt the same way.

After a couple minutes of standing in the office in silence, Henry announced he needed to smoke. Joshua would have followed if his arms did not start feeling weak from the use of the crutches. Instead, he reluctantly stayed back, decided to rest his exhausted body before thinking about work.

This was how he ended up taking a morning nap in his office. It was also why he was unaware that Samuel had come for his younger brother.

What did finally wake him up was when Henry returned with a face of fury almost half an hour after he had left.

Unlike the sleeping man, he was more than aware that Samuel was here for him, however that was not the reason for his out-of-the-ordinary anger. What had caused the angry stomping and the slamming of Joshua's door was whispers he had come upon while half asleep in the bathroom, which had a little rest area with a too-comfortable chair. That is where he had gone after getting half way through a cigarette and realising he was even too tired to smoke. It had taken Henry everything in him to not cause a fuss and trouble others, however that just meant he was now fuming. In the moment, it was more than clear he was Caroline's son. What had made matters worse was that his brother also came across the whispers, and he immediately went off with no regard for niceties.

This a clutter, however, the anger was momentarily forgotten. The sudden entrance had reminded Joshua's half-asleep mind that he was in his office, making him scramble to get up. As comfortable as the couch was, it was narrow, so much so the man fell to the ground with a groan from the short moment of flailing.

Henry paused, his fuming expression melting off his face in an instant, choking back a laugh at the sight of the perfect man with him back on the ground.

Not even trying to get up, Joshua sent Henry a sour look. He knew he would not be able to get up himself with his ankle injury and fatigue, there was no point in putting himself in a more embarrassing state.

"It isn't funny, close the door before anyone sees."

Henry did as he was told, only to burst into laughter as soon as the door clicked shut. He used the door to lean against, making no attempt to help the other man get on his feet.

After a few seconds, Joshua got to self-conscious on the floor, seemingly to have already forgotten the reason he had not already tried to get up. After a lot of struggling, he managed to sit himself up, too tired to continue. In the end, all Joshua could do was lean against the couch and continue to send Henry a glare.

The latter just laughed more; Joshua looked like an annoyed child all of a sudden.

This was still the scene their older brothers arrived to, giving them a sense of déjà vu. It was not that they had seen this exact thing before, it was that they could still vividly remember the last time they had watched the two men acting out of characters: during brunch.

It was suddenly very clear that the situation had not been a freak occurrence; it seemed that when Henry and Joshua were together while exhausted, they would both interact like pre-schoolers.

Not wanting another headache, Samuel turned to his brother, who had moved away from the door so it could be opened. "Have you eaten breakfast? How about you take a nap."

Hearing his brother's voice, Henry finally clocked that Samuel had entered the office. Stopping his laughter, he nodded. Although he was tired, it was not quite as bad as last time. He had also managed to get a little rest in the bathroom, which combined with the growing effects of nicotine. "We had some toast and coffee before arriving."

"Toast? Is that even a breakfast?" Archer commented, grabbing his phone. He called Haerin, which was not officially allowed to do, but since it was for Henry and Joshua, he figured it would be an exception. Before the PA could even speak, he said, "I know, I know, no assistance for me, it's not that. Can you send up some breakfast for Henry and Joshua? They haven't eaten."

"Why not send them to the cafeteria? You do realise how busy I am?"

"Yes, yes, yes! I'll make it up to you later, Rinnie. They are acting weird again. Brunch weird." Archer could hear the deep sigh from the other side, immediately knowing Haerin would do as he asked.

"Don't call me that, it's gross." With that, the call was cut. Archer made a note to himself to buy the PA something nice, he had been a little too demanding recently.

With the food sorted, the two older brothers turned their attention to their respective siblings.

"Let's get you off the floor, already. How did you even get there?��� Joshua responded with a decided silence, his features dusting with a blush.

Samuel held back the urge to sigh, wondering what exactly to make of his brother's current condition. Henry seemed to be half slumped against the wall, not even realising how tired he was. "Why did you bother go home so late? You should have just stayed over and tried to get more sleep." He pulled his brother upright and lead him to the couch and letting him sit down. Next to them, Archer helped his own brother sit down.

As soon as they were sat, both second sons slumped back, subconsciously leaning towards each other but not enough for any contact. After their second night in each other's company, as well as the first sober night, they had gotten a lot more comfortable around each other, more so than they were aware, or willing to admit. However, it was not a strange occurrence at all; they had spent the entire night planning a wedding. Even if there were no real relationship, they had decided to plan the proceedings to their taste, so they could enjoy. This meant that they had to be open about what they liked and disliked.

In a way, combined with Gin's introduction and the night of drinking, they had gotten to know each other extremely well. It was only natural for them to feel comfortable around each other.

To Archer and Samuel, it just looked like the two were too tired to care about their presence. The two heirs could only look at each other a sigh before sitting down on the two seats at Joshua's desk.

The silence got awkward with the elder brothers looking at their siblings, making Joshua turn to Henry; Samuel and Archer were making him self conscious. Quickly racking through his brain, he remembered Henry's anger and used it to start a conversation so the silence could be filled.

"Why were you so angry when you came back?"

Henry froze for a second; Joshua had started a conversation, unprompted. The man was not sure whether this was the first time or whether he had been too caught up in the situation to notice it before. However, even if he relied on the older man to calm his nerves a lot, the memory of having to drive their conversations was still fresh in his mind. The initiated small talk really had come at a shock.

When the question finally registered in his sleep-deprived head, however, all previous thoughts dissipated.

"That's right! Why is the problem not you being engaged to a man but engaged to me? It makes no sense. How am I the problem?" The returning anger filled Henry up with energy, his voice sounding more and more annoyed as he spoke. Joshua had sent him a confused look so he happily explained. "Right, so after I finished my smoke I went to the washroom and half knocked out on the seat in there. Then these three men come in, doing their business, but when I listened to them, they were trash talking me. Apparently, I'm too inferior to you. You probably sacrificed yourself for the sake of the merger. Someone as amazing as you should have an equally capable, better looking man. In fact, it's even suspected that I had a crush on you and used the merger to tie you down like the desperate hussy I am.

"I managed to keep quiet through most of it but that last one, I couldn't. So then they said it to my fucking face! Which of course they can do because I'm, I quote, a useless, ugly, overly pampered child who only has a direction in life because of my family and is delusional to think I could be matched with someone like you!"

"But you're not ugly."

Henry's brain, which had been running at the speed of light, grinded to a halt. All he could do was look at the hailed 'perfect' man and wonder what exactly had just broken within him for such an initial response.

"T-that's all you got?"

"No," he answered, not even realising what he had just said and how it had come out. "You're also more independent than all of our generation in our families. No need to even touch the attack at your intelligence. None of it makes sense, how exactly are you too beneath me?" Joshua was speaking quite slowly, the pauses between sentences a little longer than usual. It became a clear indicator to the other man that the absurd comment had also been down to Joshua's exhaustion.

"Exactly. But what really pisses me off is that you seem to have no problem whatsoever. Why is everyone only after me?"

"They've never met you, probably just jealous of your good reputation. Anyway, can you point out who it was?"

"Sam and Archer came into the bathroom just as things got loud and I left first. I think they know."

The two older brothers, who had clearly been forgotten as they hid their laughter at the amusing interaction between the couple, were suddenly dragged into the conversation. Samuel was trying to get angry again, but he hadn't seen Henry speak so enthusiastically nor sulk and whine since he was a child. In the end, the endearing side of his brother complex defeated the overprotective side. Meanwhile, the other heir just found Joshua's frank but all too honest behaviour absolutely hilarious, only just keeping in his balls of laughter.