Night time had fallen long ago. But before that, many operators and headquarter staff were at the Gadget Upgrading Department. Nicknamed "The GUD" by it's regulars. Each person was getting their own businesses done inside. After finishing said business, they quickly head on to somewhere else to work more. People constantly went in and out of the department to attend to other matters. The schedule as a member of Rainbow was always filled to the brim, leaving little to no free time for them.
The number of people present in the office decreased as the sun went down. The only soul left during these late hours was one of the Japanese operators, Echo. He was slouched over his workstation with a set of dark, heavy bags under his eyes. This was one of his once-in-a-blue-moon situations where he would suddenly work extra hard during a period of time. Though it didn't feel like it to him, he had been modifying Yokai for about 5 hours straight with no break whatsoever. The process that he repeated for the past 5 hours was this: Tinker with the components inside, design and add new ones in, test how it is after the modification and make suitable changes according to the results.
A single glance at his work station would immediately show you his personality. Nuts and bolts were scattered across the desk as if someone carelessly spilled them on it. A number of tools like screwdrivers and wrenches placed left and right. The only thing that wasn't all over the place were the numerous cans of empty energy drinks gathered in the corner. He figured that he could throw them all in one go when he's done so it slowly piled up till now.
Just as he was about to screw the lid off of Yokai to add in a new component. His phone, which was next to the mountain of cans, suddenly vibrated. It was a text message from Lesion which read:
Old man Liu:
Are you still working on Yokai? It's already pretty late. 1:27 a.m. to be precise.
Echo placed his drone down and texted a reply,
You:
Bingo
You:
Can't sleep without me? [kissy face]
Old man Liu:
I don't want to fall asleep and have you wake me up by bombing my phone to let you in like last time. I was having a nice dream you know.
You:
Sure feels nice to live in your head rent free [smug]
Old man Liu:
Don't flatter yourself. Head back right after you're finished, ok?
You:
[got it!]
Echo placed his phone into his pocket and continued to work on his drone. He was motivated to get it over with asap after receiving his lover's texts. (And also his growing desire to lay on his bed and be lazy again) He fixed his glasses, grabbed his tools with determination before going down to business.
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A fair amount of time had passed and he still wasn't done with Yokai yet. He drank the last of the energy drinks, which only added more junk to his landfill of a desk. And apparently he was too absorbed in his work that he couldn't hear distant footsteps approaching him from behind.
When a pair of hands suddenly plopped down on his shoulders, he jumped and let out a startled shriek. Quickly turning around to see who the culprit was, he was greeted with roaring laughter coming from the man he was texting minutes ago—- Liu Tze Long.
"Hahahah! How did you not hear me coming?" Lesion managed to get out in between his laughing. The toothpick in his mouth barely managing to not fall out.
"You're so childish, aren't you literally 44?" The Japanese man fired back with his face turning a little pink from embarrassment.
"You're so boring." The Hong Konger said playfully as he shifted his gaze towards the messy desk, "When are you done with all this? Maybe I can help out since you're taking decades on it."
"It hasn't even been much time since I told you I'd finish it."
"Oh yeah? Check the time you idiot. I wouldn't have come if it wasn't already this late."
He checked his phone for the time, it was already 2:04 a.m.... Whoops.
"I suppose I'll stop here then... I'm starting to miss my bed." Echo stood up from his chair and stretched, "Help me with the cans, will you?"
He bent under his desk and handed Lesion a plastic bag before he cleaned everything else up on the desk.
"I don't hear a please."
The Japanese man rolled his eyes and mumbled in the most monotone voice ever, "Please."
"Not enough energy."
"Pleeeease." His eyes rolling as he spoke.
"More." He said with a smirk.
He cursed under his breath and exclaimed, "Pretty pleaaaaaase!"
"That's more like it." The Hong Konger took the bag with a smile. Masaru wanted to punch him square in the face whenever he made that handsome yet shit-eating grin
After Tze Long collected the empty cans and threw away the trash bag. He returned to Masaru's workstation to see the man scrolling through his phone with his half-assed tidied up desk next to him. Many of the tools were just swooped aside in a concentrated spot. There were even some components left scattered on it. He could already hear Echo's whiny voice if he pointed it out, him complaining and occasionally calling him names in his mother tongue.
The Hong Konger sighed before properly putting everything back in place in a tidy order. This was a huge improvement from the first few times where he barely cleaned up after working. Plus, it was already late and they would both rather get to bed as fast as they could. So he left the smug remarks for some other time.
He wrapped his arm around Echo's shoulder in a single, swift motion as if he had done this numerous times. He tilted his head to lean against his partner's shoulder. Taunting in a low, almost flirtatious voice, "You're such a man child. What will you ever do without me, hm?"
"Stop jerking yourself off, it makes me wanna gag." Masaru replied.
"You didn't gag the night before yesterday though. You took me pretty well actually." Tze Long looked at him with a devious smirk.
The Japanese man turned away slightly to conceal the blush developing on his face again. "Do you ever shut up? Let's get a move on, I'm tired."
"As you wish, 靚仔。(pretty boy)"
They walked back to their room together, with Lesion's arm still wrapped over Echo's shoulders. The Hong Konger didn't notice it, but his lover also slightly leaned his head towards his. They enjoyed each other's company in sweet silence as they walked down the empty hallways. Both yearning for the comfort of the bed they share and most importantly, the mutual warmth of being with each other, figuratively and literally.
