It's a Wonderful LifeChapter 7.7

Darcy was up before Ira the next morning. Ira awoke alone, the sheets on the other side of the bed cold. He frowned, patting his hand on the spot where Silas usually slept. Opening just one eye, he squinted at the bed but saw no sign of Silas. A sense of disappointment filled him, a drop in the bottom of his stomach that made him sigh softly. He closed his eyes again and dropped back down on his side of the bed, burrowing back below the thick covers.

Some more time passed. fePldu

“Awake, love?” Silas’s voice interrupted the silence Ira had surrounded himself with. He blearily blinked, shoving the top of the covers off his head, and frowned at Silas. Silas was standing by the bed with a tray in his hands. On it was a veritable breakfast feast laid out.

Ira shot up, sitting up so quickly that his head spun for a second, all the colors in the world blending together in front of his eyes. He put a hand on his head while he waited for the colors to unblend and once they had done that, smiled up at Silas. “Breakfast?” he asked, his stomach growling as if on command.

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“It’s our first day living together, I thought we’d celebrate,” said Darcy, sitting down on the bed next to him and handing over the tray. Ira gripped it tightly, careful not to spill the hot chocolate that was almost all the way up to the edge of the ceramic cup. Steam was still lazily rolling in the air above it.

“Thank you,” Ira said, closing his eyes as he smelt the heavenly breakfast before him. They’d had breakfast in bed before, Ira knew. He couldn’t quite remember it, but he had pictures of it. Silas was an unfairly good chef and it sometimes felt like the man was using it as an attack against him. An attack against Ira’s stomach. If that was the case, it was very successful. Ira was sure that if Silas continued on with these attacks, sooner or later his stomach would surrender. qUXKwc

It wouldn’t exactly be a crushing loss.

“Your welcome,” Silas said. His hands smoothed through Ira’s bedhead, gently forcing the strands apart and making sure they weren’t sticking up every which way. Ira leaned into it, the sweeping massage against his scalp making his toes curl. He hummed under his breath, drowning himself in the positive feelings this man gave him. He wasn’t used to them Didn’t know how he should react to them. But he quite liked them.

Silas stayed with him during the entire time Ira ate his breakfast. He ate leisurely, taking his time to enjoy the occasion. There was no reason to rush, after all.

After breakfast, he followed Silas to the front side of the mansion. It was only as Silas started putting on outside clothing that Ira started to wonder if the man planned to go somewhere. “Going somewhere?” he asked, the words echoing his thoughts perfectly.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“To work,” Darcy said. He smiled at Ira, leaning forward to gently kiss him on the cheek. The spot stayed uncomfortably warm afterward, and Ira almost had the urge to touch it. Silas continued, “Your welcome to join me if you want.”

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“I’m the CEO of Heartfelt Entertainment,” answered Darcy. When he saw the look Ira gave him (a shuddering look of intense disgust) he smiled and added, “My father named it.”

Ira decided to not hold it against him. It wasn’t fair, to judge people on the sins of their predecessors. That name was really very stupid though. 3KH2F9

He sighed. In his heart, not out loud.

In the original story of this world, the CEO of… Heartfelt Entertainment (he felt stupid just saying it) was never named. He was a mysterious figure working in the background, but he never entered the stage. Wealthy, constantly bragged about by his father who was retired and “couldn’t be prouder”, he played no real role in the story.

He was a mob character, essentially. Well, it wasn’t like Ira had room to judge.

Heartfelt was the entertainment company the protagonist worked with, and they invested in movies all year round. Their reputation was spotless, and Darcy’s even more so. They were one of the best entertainment company’s in the country, and even Ira’s Host was contracted to them. In the wake of the protagonist’s downfall, the company suffered some losses but quickly made up for it due to Darcy’s genius business acumen. Ira didn’t know what that meant, but that was what the mission notes said. a2UyxN

Ira went with Darcy to the man’s workplace. He decided that it could be cool, to see how an entertainment company operated internally. The ride there felt shorter than it was, and Ira spent that time reading. He’d bought a bunch of new books between missions and had saved them to his database. The one he was reading right now was a real tearjerker, trying desperately to make Ira feel something. It wasn’t going all that well, but he enjoyed the writing style and the worldbuilding too much to let it stop him. He would finish this book, even if he despised every other character that showed up on-page.

Silas walked into the company holding Ira’s hand. Their connected hands swung in the air between them, drawing eyes from all directions. Nobody said anything, but Ira saw the wide-eyed looks and preened. It felt good, knowing he had something that other people wanted too. His back straightened out as they walked across the large, shining hobby and into the elevator.

Darcy didn’t let go of his hand. They rode the elevator up in silence and walked out onto a whole other floor, high up in the sky. Darcy walked straight to his office and sat down behind the gigantic desk, turning on the computer as he moved. Ira cocked his hip against the doorframe, spending a few moments just looking at this ridiculous man, this man who kept showing up and making him feel things. Things he hadn’t felt in eons, that he could barely remember the echoes of.

His eyes traced over the man’s features, the soft hair on his head that Ira wanted to play with, the soft edge to his eyes when the man looked at him. The strong lines of his body, the swiftness of his hands as they flew over the keyboard. What was it about this man, Ira wondered. 4AMnN6

He couldn’t keep watching him forever though. Well, actually, he could. It would be easy. He had all the hard- and software needed to do that if he wanted to. For the moment though, he only took a bunch of pictures and saved them in his database. His memory was impeccable (when he wanted it to be) but pictures were still fun to have. And he quite enjoyed taking them. With his pictures safely stored away, Ira gave Silas a jaunty wave and left the man’s office.

They were almost on the topmost floor. Above them weren’t any fun things, only conference rooms, and stuff to intimidated visiting business people and make them aware of how awesome Darcy’s company was with its brilliant view. So Ira decided to go down, instead.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The first floor he stopped at was the one below Darcy’s. Nothing of interest was going on here, there were just lots and lots of printers and machines sitting around. A couple of harried employers were running around and gathering everything the printers and other assorted machinery was spitting out, and none of them so much as blinked at Ira’s brief presence. He left that floor pretty early and continued downward.

The next couple of hours passed quickly. He visited more floors than he’d thought this building had, took lots of pictures of the unfairly pretty view, and had a very nice snack that one of Darcy’s assistants got him. Y4j0Nm

And while Ira had gone on an adventure of discovery, his Host had gone on one of her own.

Ira’s Host, whatever her name was, had gone on another date with the old man. And the man’s wife had caught them in the act, and was predictably furious. That she hadn’t been invited.

Turned out the wife was well-aware of her husband’s wandering attentions and was bisexual with no great love for the man she’d married. They had an arrangement and she usually joined in on her husband’s dates and if things went well, further arrangements were made. This actually worked out really well for them, apparently.

His Host was so shocked that she couldn’t get a word out for a solid half-hour. Ira didn’t see what the big deal was; humans having sex was gross regardless of how many people were involved. It was all sweating, weird noises, and things getting shoved into other things — not his idea of a good time. 8utQkJ

Uggh, Ira shuddered and mimicked throwing up. He did not like the dark path his thoughts had wandered off to.

Did not like it at all.

At the thought that things might lead to sex, Ira very quickly stopped paying attention to his Host. Instead, he continued on his own, perfectly sexless, adventure.

There was, in fact, a pool on one of the many floors in the building. There was also a completely kitted-out gym and a tennis court. Ira had never played tennis before, he’d scarcely had any idea what it even was. It was a human thing and so he had adamantly stayed away from it. Basically the only good things about humans were their imagination and the stories that sprung from them; everything else sucked. EMKAHV

But tennis turned out to not completely suck. It was actually a pretty fun game and Ira set off a reminder to check if there were any anime or manga about tennis when he got back home. There was manga about everything and he loved all of it.

A very grumpy old man taught him the basics while Silas was working late into the night, and Ira unexpectedly had fun. The time was enjoyable, the game was enjoyable, beating humans who had more training and watching them doubt reality itself was enjoyable. And the coach (did all human companies have tennis coaches on their payroll? Was this a thing he had missed? Confusion, meet Ira.) was very good at explaining things in ways that made sense to Ira’s inhuman brain.

Technically, he was in possession of a pretty human brain at the moment, but he elected to ignore that. His thought process was too powerful anyway, a human brain couldn’t go unaltered.

Ira showered when he had finished his practice. The coach had recommended a racket to him, and he bounced it gently against the wall as he descended up in the elevator. His Silas-senses were tingling — the man was finally done with his work. Instead of going up to Darcy’s office and just missing him, Ira went down to the lobby. a1Wmgd

Silas started going down in another elevator not long after.

They met at the lobby, Ira leaning against a white wall with a very large landscape painting above him while he waited. When Darcy stepped out of the elevator, the security guards greeted the man.

Darcy quickly walked up to Ira and snagged a hold of his hand again. Smiling his characteristically gentle smile, he asked, “Had a good time?”

“Yeah,” Ira answered and smiled back. “I learned how to play tennis,” he added, feeling the urge to brag about it. Silas’s eyes glittered back at him and Ira gulped, his eyes sliding away under that powerful gaze. He entangled his fingers with Darcy’s and let the warmth seep up his arm. Together, they left the building. 7bjJya