E r o s

The first thing I was greeted with when walking into my office was Mikhail who was placing something on my desk as I stepped in.

Turning to me, the man gave me a nod in greeting.

"It's today" he said and I raised a brow.

"Sorry, I don't think I'm following" I said and he tapped the paper that he had placed on my desk.

"Hawthorne. Today" Mikhail iterated and I nodded.

"Ah, I see. Thanks. He leave a time or am I supposed to play the waiting father?" I asked as I grabbed the paper and saw only a few words written on it.

'Save a seat for me, thx' - H

"The chair is over there" Mikhail said as he gestured to my seat and I just shook my head before crumbling up the paper.

"Of course" I muttered before beginning to start on my usual work.

There was a few things that were quick and easy to clear up, some required me to have to make appointments for, and by the time I was half through my work there was a knock on my door.

I didn't even get to say anything before the man of the hour himself walked through my door, clad in pretty normal clothing given who he was.

The brown hair and blue eyes, regular t-shirt and jeans, as well as the plain watch and running shoes. Everything about him was just giving your average civilian, no one would ever suspect him of being a mafia leader.

"Hello there" He said, a polite smile on his face and I just nodded while gesturing for him to sit down.

"You don't seem amused. From what I hear, you're quite the charismatic man" Silver said, his eyes never leaving mine as he sat in the chair across from me.

"Surprises are really not my thing. I don't like to be kept waiting either" I said, a sardonic smile crossing my face.

"Just thought I'd keep you on your toes. I apologize if I really upset you" Silver said but it was clear his apology was half assed.

My impatience spiked as this small talk continued, I just wanted this guy to get to his point already. Small talk always lead to nowhere so I decided to pick up the pace.

"No need. I just want to know what you want" I stated and Silver smiled again.

"I have a proposition" he started and I nodded.

"I assumed so" I chimed.

Silver put his bag on the table before pulling a big paper out, a map actually, and laid it out before me. Certain areas were circled, different colored circles indicating what I noticed to be was territories.

"This is your group" he said, pointing to the areas circled in blue.

"Notice how most of your territory aligns with the docks" he said as he showed me all of my areas.

"For Northway, his territory lies in the heart of the city where the highest buyers tend to live" Silver continued before leading his finger over to the green circles.

"And me, on the outskirts of the city. Not much traffic but I can usually jam up what comes in and out of the city" Silver said with a shrug.

"You're looking to expand, I assume?" I said and Silver nodded.

"But I can't do that without permission. It would be very rude of me to just place my men in your territories now wouldn't it?" He said.

"So, what? You're here to ask permission?" I asked.

I knew there had to be something more, he wouldn't come all this way from the outskirts just to ask that.

"Not only that but I'm seeking a little more of something along the lines of an alliance" Silver's eyes met mine and I immediately frowned.

"An alliance...?" I muttered and Silver nodded.

"Yes. You, me, and Northway. You can still have your reign over your territories, the only thing is everything becomes more...shared" Silver said and I just eyed him.

He was looking to benefit off of our assets and that just didn't sit right with me. It was true that with my men running the docks, it's hard to get things from overseas but that's exactly what hangar's are for and I'm sure there are plenty of those on the outskirts.

I could tell that Silver wants something bigger than what he's selling and I knew better than to show my hand so quickly.

"Shouldn't Northway be here for this conversation?" I said, suspicion clear in my voice.

"Well, if you agree then the next time we see each other, Northway will also hopefully be present" he said and I just crossed my arms.

He came to me first because Northway is a hard ass but if he hears that I agreed, he'd be more willing to comply and Silver knows this. So basically, I'm the deciding factor in this whole shindig.

"I can't say I'm big on sharing" I said as I watched Silver adjust his watch.

"Oh that's just your pride talking. You'll get used to it after a while. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll all get along" he said.

"You're not exactly doing a good job at selling me. What do you possibly have to offer that would give me the tiniest bit of incentive to even consider this?" I asked and Silver gave me a vague smile.

"Some information" he said.

"Spare me the ambiguity" I countered.

"You came to your position not too long after your parents passing, no?" Silver suddenly asked and his question threw me off.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Well, you're the only Azure left, which makes you a very important man. It's interesting to hear about how those in power came to their positions" Silver said, folding one leg over the other.

He gestured for me to start and I just narrowed my eyes.

"You're really going to sit here until I talk?" I asked and Silver nodded.

"Share your story and I'll share mine" he said.

I internally groaned. Why did this suddenly become story time?

"Well, let's just say this life chose me" I said and Silver actually gave me a surprised look as if my answer wasn't what he expected.

"You didn't want to?" He asked.

"I don't think many do this kind of work because they want to, unless you're some money hungry degenerate" I said and Silver pointed a finger at me.

"Hey, some of those money hungry degenerates are very good friends of mine" he said and I shrugged.

"Of course they are" I said before continuing.

"This group belonged to my father, it was one he had started up while he was in high school. What started out as a small tight knit group of friends eventually flourished into a gang worthy of reverence" I said and paused for a second before speaking again.

"That is until my sister's passing. He lost himself and with his downfall also came the group's tragedy. He lost everything and my mother always detested the group, she thought it was better off for the Azure Dragons to disband and for a while I thought so too" I admitted, staring down at my desk as if I was watching the memories of my past play out on it.

"Back then, I already knew my future was going to be crappy, I had settled for far less than I should have. I was content knowing that my life sucked and it would likely never get better. But then I remembered the members who had blindly devoted themselves to my father"

"You could say I felt bad. The people of our group was mostly those who had lost their way along life and wanted some place to call home. Rejected from this world's norm, they ended up with nothing, just like I did"

Heaving a sigh, I looked up at Silver who was surprising actually listening intently. I'd expected him to get bored at some point but he showed no signs of losing interest so I decided to just finish up quickly.

"So I stepped up" I said.

"I wasn't going to let them suffer because of my father's drunken mistakes. I've lived around this life long enough to know how to conduct myself, the rest was just trial and error" I finished and Silver gave a nod after I was through.

"That's an inspiring story indeed, I could never believe that someone at such a young age could be a leader. It takes a disciplined person to be capable of such responsibility" Silver said.

"Well, I definitely did have the discipline part down" I said as flashbacks of Auntie Leila's lessons went through my mind.

"And now look at you, leader of one of the biggest and baddest groups out there. You should give yourself more credit" Silver said as he grinned.

I chose not to respond and moved our conversation back to our original point.

"I held up my end, it's time for you to do the same" I said and Silver chuckled.

"Oh no, no, no. I don't actually have a story, I just like listening to others. I was born into this life simple and plain, groomed my whole life for the throne and here I am" he said.

"I...see" I said.

So I was conned into giving my life story, that's great.

"Now, here comes my bargaining chip" Silver said as he pulled a paper from his pocket.

"What is that?" I asked.

"The name of the man who was driving the car that killed your sister"

I could only stare at Silver as he held out the paper. I wasn't tempted by it at all, in fact, I felt nothing as I looked at what should have been my one way ticket to closure.

My father had sent out many to search for the guy but he was too elusive, even for my father's men. I know Silver is expecting me to jump at this information but I just couldn't.

"It's a weak chip. You can keep it" I said and Silver frowned.

"Okay, I'm actually upset now. You don't want his name?" He asked and I shook my head.

"It's been twenty years since that happened...which means I've had twenty years to grieve and come to terms with myself about what happened. I have no interest in chasing down a man who didn't even see the face of the girl he killed" I explained and just like that, a smile crossed Silver's face.

Before his smile was more of a business one but for some reason I could see that this one was genuine, his eyes crinkling at the corner of his eyes as he stared at me.

"You really are just as interesting as everyone says you are and I'm glad you didn't disappoint. Please do consider my offer, I know I don't have anything to offer now but it'd warm my tiny little heart if you did" he said as he put a hand to his 'tiny little heart'.

"You'll have your answer by tomorrow"  I said and Silver gave a hurt look.

"I'm a bit offended that you'd treat my proposition like something that needs so little thought" he said.

"You did a piss poor job of selling me" I said with a shrug.

"I don't think I did. You're just very different from most people. Tell you what, you tell me what you want, and I'll get it for you" Silver said and I shook my head.

"There isn't anything I want that I can't get myself. Thanks for the offer though, I'll keep it in mind" I said.

Silver sighed and then stood up before looking me in the eyes.

"You're a hard man to please, Eros Azure" he said and just like that, the man was out of my office and in the wind.

I didn't think I was a hard guy to please, he just knew very little about the things I liked which already shows me that he hadn't done enough research on me.

Suddenly, Mikhail's head popped in through the opening and looked around before stepping in and shutting the door behind him.

"What did he want?" Mikhail asked.

"What everyone wants in this industry, profit. The guy wants some sort of an alliance partnership kind of thing but I'm not exactly all for it" I explained.

"You turned him down?" Mikhail asked.

"Not necessarily. I'm not really sure if we'd benefit from this. Having to share means being dependent on others to do their jobs and I can't oversee all those areas at once. Things can slip under the radar and I'm not a fan of having my chair pulled from under me" I said.

"Well, you always tend to think of the cons first. Think of the new exposure of products we'd get, we would have access to things we didn't before. I'm sure that's what Hawthorne's intentions were, he wants new things to keep his buyers interested" Mikhail said and I nodded.

"Sometimes this job is a pain the ass" I said and Mikhail nodded.

"Hey, maybe we'll actually get to retire one day" Mikhail said and I chuckled.

"Don't get your hopes up too soon" I said.