Only Angel 2 [h.s] AU

City lights & clean slates

Beau's POV
New York.

It was Saturday evening, and for once, I wasn't behind a screen or under fluorescent lights. I was sitting across from Darien at a rooftop bar in SoHo, sipping something citrusy and overpriced. Below us, the city flickered—alive, restless, humming with things I didn't have to care about tonight.

The air smelled like warm gin and rooftop heat. For the first time in weeks, my shoulders weren't tight. I felt... not good, exactly. But light. A temporary kind of weightlessness that I didn't want to examine too closely.

Darien leaned back, her legs crossed, an olive balanced delicately on a toothpick between her fingers. Her lipstick hadn't budged all night. She looked at me with that narrowed, suspicious gaze I'd come to recognize—half amused, half investigative.

She twisted the olive once. "Tell me the truth," she said. "What was really going on between you and Harry?"

The question landed with the same ease as the breeze brushing past us—but it cut sharper. It was unexpected.

I didn't blink. "Nothing?" I say in more of a question.

Darien let the silence sit for a second too long before tilting her head. "You sure about that?"

I shrugged and brought the glass back to my lips. "We worked together. That's all."

She snorted softly. "Right. Because Harry's known for being so warm and approachable." Her voice dripped with sarcasm. "He doesn't even like most of us half the time, Beau. And yet somehow, he was always around you."

My stomach tensed, but I kept my expression even.

"Maybe I was just easy to tolerate," I said with a smug smirk.

Darien raised a brow. "You don't have to lie to me. I'm not gonna run back and tell him anything."

I looked down at the lemon twist in my drink, watched it float there like it knew something I didn't.

"There's nothing to tell," I said, hoping she drops it. Darien didn't press. She nodded like she understood, even if she didn't. Maybe that was her way of respecting boundaries.

"Alright," she said, tossing the olive into her mouth. "But for the record, I always thought something was there. And not just because Nes was weird about it."

That made me look up. "Nes is weird about everything."

Darien grinned. "True. But with you? She had a special kind of venom."

I gave a dry laugh, then reached for my drink again. "Some people just need someone to hate."

"Mm," she hummed, eyes flicking out across the skyline. "And some people just need a reason." I was halfway through my second drink when the elevator dinged behind us.

Darien glanced over her shoulder. "Here they are."

Sure enough, the rest of them poured in like a hurricane — Nes first, heels clicking like gunfire, eyes already narrowed and scanning the bar like she was looking for something to hate. Colson followed with his usual half-smile and glazed-over stare, a joint probably hidden somewhere in that leather jacket. Alec brought up the rear, half on his phone, half paying attention, and already grabbing a chair before anyone greeted anyone else.

Alec slid into the seat beside Darien without saying a word, but I caught the way his hand casually found her arm, giving it a soft squeeze as he leaned in to murmur something just for her. She smirked, chin tipping toward him, and for a second, the world around them felt quieter.

Interesting.

I'd never asked if there was something going on between them. It wasn't really my business. But the way she looked at him — the way he looked back — it said enough.