Chapter 172: Chapter 172: Old friends
"And when you talk about the Devil," Elias said, half-amused, half-resigned. "Ashwin, you met Luka last time."
"I did." Ashwin’s eyes didn’t leave Luka. "I still don’t like him."
Luka blinked, caught between a laugh and a wince. "That’s... refreshingly honest," he said, shifting his tablet under his arm. "I just wanted to say hello. We were good friends... when Elias wasn’t buried in academic work."
Elias sighed and popped a coin into the machine. "Ashwin doesn’t like anyone who hasn’t been pre-screened by his boss," he said dryly.
Ashwin tilted his head, finally flicking his gaze to Elias. "That’s called doing my job," he said, mild as ever but standing just off Elias’s shoulder like a sentry.
"Uh-huh." Elias’s mouth twitched. "And this is called me trying to buy a snack without triggering a security briefing."
Luka raised both hands a little, an awkward smile tugging at his mouth. "Eli, I need to tell you something."
The nickname almost made Ashwin tense; his shoulders shifted, weight moving as if he might plant himself more firmly between them.
"I’ve been seeing you around this week," Luka went on, voice lowering. "Meetings, corridors, cafeteria. You’re always with someone, him, Robert, or Victor. Nobody even looks at you for more than two seconds before they look away. That’s not you. You used to talk to everyone."
Ashwin’s mild expression didn’t change, but his stance did, a subtle half-step that positioned his body squarely between Luka and Elias. A quiet, unspoken message: watch your next words.
Elias tore open the bag of crisps with a small sigh, the sound halfway between amusement and exasperation. "And yet here you are, talking to me," he said. "Guess the glass isn’t that thick after all."
Elias plucked a crisp from the bag and held it between two fingers, looking at it instead of Luka. "You’re right," he said after a beat. "I am always with someone." He popped the crisp into his mouth, chewed once, and smiled without warmth. "But you’re wrong about why."
Luka blinked. "What do you mean?"
Elias turned, leaning one shoulder lightly against the vending machine. "You’re assuming Victor’s the one keeping me on a leash," he said, voice low and even. "That I’m some poor omega who can’t talk to people without a guard breathing down his neck." Another crisp, another pause. "Funny thing is, I’ve always been like this. Introvert. Didn’t talk unless I had to. You remember me buried in code and research while everyone else was at the bar?"
Luka’s mouth opened, then closed again. He glanced at Ashwin, but the bodyguard’s expression remained a bland stone.
"I isolate because I want to," Elias went on, still mild. "Not because anyone here is making me. And if you’d really been paying attention instead of lurking in the cafeteria, you’d know that."
He dusted his fingers against his palm, then let his eyes slide back to Luka, the faintest curl at the corner of his mouth. "So tell me," he asked softly, "is the money from Clarke that good? Or are you doing the spying as a hobby?"
Luka froze. The little line between his brows deepened, his tablet shifting against his arm as if it had suddenly gotten heavier. "Eli, I..."
Elias cut him off with a slight tilt of his head. "Don’t bother. I knew from the beginning." He dropped the empty crisp bag into the bin beside the machine, voice still low but clear. "You don’t have to pretend to be worried for me. You’re being paid to be."
Ashwin’s brows flicked up a fraction before he smoothed them out again, posture still relaxed but eyes sharper now, tracking Luka’s every breath. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, but the faint change in the air around him said he’d just recalibrated everything he thought about the man standing there.
Elias reached for his can of diet coke, cracking it open with a hiss. "So if you’re here for a report," he said, taking a slow drink, "write down that I’m eating junk food and perfectly happy with my jailer." He gave Luka a small, crooked smile over the rim of the can. "It’ll save us both time."
"Ah, still as bitey as ever," a familiar voice cut in, warm and cutting at the same time.
Elias’s head came up. Ruo was striding across the break area from the corridor, black hair loose around her shoulders, a dark-blue suit fitted sharp enough to draw eyes. Behind her moved Victor, Samael, and Connor, all three looking faintly amused, as if they’d walked in on a sitcom.
"Ruo!" Elias was already moving, hugging her before she could finish closing the distance. The look Ashwin shot him was halfway between a raised brow and a warning; Victor’s glance was sharper, a flicker of crimson sliding between Elias and the woman in his arms.
"You’re back!" Elias said, the words almost tumbling out.
"Yes, yes, I’m back now that Adler’s decided to play god," Ruo said, wiping at an invisible tear with the edge of one manicured finger. "Seems like nobody needs me anymore."
"Don’t start," Elias muttered into her shoulder, but his mouth twitched.
She leaned back to look at him properly, eyes bright. "And who is this?" she asked, her tone suddenly all business, chin tipping toward the man still standing stiffly near the vending machine.
Luka had gone still the moment she appeared, the tablet hugged a fraction tighter to his chest, the movement almost too small to notice. Connor’s smirk deepened; Samael’s gaze flicked between Luka and Ashwin with lazy interest, as if waiting to see who would move first.
The whole corner of the break area seemed to hold its breath for a beat, junk food, security, and old friends colliding at once.
"Whoever he is," Victor said at last, voice soft but cutting through the pause, "he’ll be transferred out of my division. I don’t take traitors lightly." His hand came to rest at the small of Elias’s back, a quiet, deliberate claim.
"Victor, you’re no fun," Ruo said brightly, but her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Before anyone could volley back, the sound of measured footsteps broke the tension. Robert appeared at the edge of the room, expression grim enough to make Ashwin straighten. Without a word his gaze flicked to Luka; the young man stiffened, clutching his tablet tighter.
"Go," Robert said evenly, and Luka went, retreating without protest.
The mood shifted instantly. Victor’s palm stayed at Elias’s back as he turned, Ruo falling in on his other side, and Connor and Samael trailing close. The little knot of them moved as one, leaving behind the scent of coffee and crisps and heading for the glass doors of the executive suite.
By the time they reached Victor’s office, the chatter of the floor had died to a murmur again. Whatever Robert had brought with him, it was serious enough to sweep the whole group inside and shut the doors behind them.