บท 58: Chapter 58

Henry forced himself awake with a yawn, blinking as his tired, red eyes welled up. At first he found himself confused as to why he was sat in the back of a car with Joshua's head on his shoulder. It took him a couple seconds to remember the reason they had been rushed to the Lore's company building, they had a major finance meeting today and he was one of the two secretaries assigned to this meeting since he had been involved with the merging of the finance departments.

However, with his pounding head and nauseous stomach, the young man was unsure how much use he would be today. They had drunk almost as much as when he and Joshua were out with Gin, but since a lot of it had been wine, Henry felt he was suspended in the moment before dizziness hits you, everything a little out of focus.

He needed a coffee.

He looked down on his shoulder, Joshua still blissfully asleep, his translucent skin still flushed from the alcohol and lack of sleep. He must not have managed to wake up properly when Haerin rushed in to remind them of the meeting, because shirt collar had not been buttoned and the tie had a messy knot. His waistcoat was misbuttoned and hadn't been adjusted at the back either. At some point in the journey, his custom suit jacket had fallen under his feet. Even his hair had not been combed, which he could fortunately get away with seeing how silky his dark hair was, however it did give his a more youthful vibe.

As the younger man looked at the still sleeping older one, he could only dread how he looked. He did know he was quite good at getting dressed half asleep, but he could not recall getting dressed this morning. He looked down at himself, seeing a pair of charcoal grey slacks with a thin bottle green squared detail and a camel brown cashmere sweater with dropped shoulders. His white shirt was sticking out at the bottom.

Ah, it is not a dress shirt.

Henry decided to not worry about that, at least his clothes looked presentable, if a little more casual than usual.

The Lore driver that had come to pick them up was waiting after having parked the car, seeing that Reyes's second master was already awake. The young man noticed the gaze and asked with a hoarse voice, "Do you have a mirror in compact mirror or something similar in this car?"

"Miss Penelope leaves a small make up bag in every car, would that suffice?"

"Perfect." Despite saying that, Henry felt his stomach drop a little, just how bad did he look to offer the entire make up bag?

Luckily, once he received the bag, keeping his left shoulder still as possible to let Joshua sleep a little more, he looked in the small handheld mirror and let out a breath of relief. While his skin looked dry and his eyes were red, it could be easily sorted with some moisturiser and the eye drops he had noticed in the bag. The main issue was his sandy blond hair, it was an unruly mess. Once again, he was incredibly lucky because at the bottom of the bag there were a few hair ties.

Keeping as steady as he could, he used the eye drops and face cream in the bag, reminding himself that he needed to treat the youngest Lore sibling for the save. It was only then he shook Joshua awake from his deep sleep… well awake was perhaps an overstatement.

The pretty man sat up with bleary eyes and zero acknowledgement of his surroundings, his mind was still asleep and if Henry had let his head hit his shoulder again, he would have been right back to sleep without even remembering this short wake period. However, Henry did not allow it, too busy pulling the top half of his hair into a small ponytail, the front pieces escaping and framing his face. Instead, the older man found himself elbowed in the face as he started drifting back to his sleeping position.

Now he was awake.

"Where are we?" His voice came out low and husky, still heavy with sleep.

Upon hearing the voice, Henry could not help but feel a little annoyed. While his voice was croaky and dry, the other man still sounded perfect even when barely awake after a full night of drinking.

Holding in the petty bitterness, he responded, "The finance departments meeting is today. Haerin and Ramy pushed back as many meetings as they could this morning, but this was the only one that was too important to delay." He watched as Joshua frowned, furrowing his eyebrows a little, as if he was trying to think hard about the meeting at hand.

"Oh right, we hadn't finished the day before yesterday."

After saying that, Joshua made no effort to move. He was still so tired, that the thought of getting to the meeting was absent from his head. The 23-year-old simply sat there, motionlessly, completely unaware of Henry alarmed gaze.

It was safe to say that whatever sleepiness had been hanging over Henry's mind had been thoroughly dispersed. By now, he was more than aware that the other man would be perfectly fine once the meeting starts, he had seen the insane switch to work mode more than a few times in the past week. However, at least one of them had to be awake now otherwise Joshua would not even make it to the meeting. Not in this state at least. With a sigh, he took matters into his own hands.

The driver found himself having to physically hide his shock as he glanced back once again into the rear-view mirror. It had already been quite a scene to see his employer's second son let on even a remote sign of vulnerability. Even with his injury, he had kept on an air of poise. Part of what made Joshua Lore as perfect as he was the fact that it seemed like he was absent of any weak spots. Yet here he was, barely awake and letting his fiancé dress him properly.

As a driver, the man had seen on multiple occasions where, even if going through a rough patch, the very second the young man was aware of someone else around him, he would immediately act as normal as he could, which tended to be near perfect. However now, even as some recognition of the current situation started to light up in Joshua's eyes, he did not put up his usual front.

If anything, he started to look a little embarrassed, but that did not make him stop Henry from redoing his tie.

The shame was starting to get to Joshua, but he was still half-asleep even though aware of the other man helping him get dressed. In that state, even if he was embarrassed to heaven and back, all he could do was watch himself being perfectly attended to. Henry seemed very well versed in helping someone with their tie. Even though he was clearly still tired, which could be seen by the ever so slight clumsiness in his fingers, the younger man tied it perfectly, perhaps even better than Joshua had ever done so before seeing as it was so comfortable despite being neat.

He felt Henry's thumbs graze his neck as his collar was fixed, the skin a little rough. It only showed Joshua just how hard Henry had been working recently.

"I need to do the waistcoat."

The words flew over the tired man's head, Joshua just lifting his green eyes to look at the other's face.

By this point Henry could tell Joshua was truly awake, but clearly he was still not all that there seeing as his eyes were hazy. With a sigh, he shook his head and shuffled closer before putting his arms around the other man, chin rested on the other's shoulder.

While the blond man adjusted the waistcoat at the back, so it was cinched just enough, Joshua sat completely still. What else was he supposed to do in this situation? He should have turned around instead of just staring at the other man, but his mind had not been going fast enough to realise that until it was too late. The scent of Henry's aftershave filled his nose, it did smell good. Joshua was half tempted to ask to borrow it, however he did not feel like the deep mixture of musk and deep floral notes would suit him very well. He did think it smelt nice, just in the sense of it on someone else rather than on him.

Henry, who struggled a little too much, finally sat up, grabbing the blazer off the floor at the same time. As he brushed it off, he noticed Joshua staring again. "What?"

"Thanks," the older man mumble, cheeks flushing a light pink again after having just calmed down.

"Well, it's not like I could let you turn up like you had just rolled out of bed. Besides, now that you are properly awake, put the moisturiser and lip balm on yourself. Your lips are starting to go crusty."

Henry lied through his teeth as he handed the two products to the other man. While it was true that his lips were slight dry, they were not even chapped, let alone crusty. His competitive side just did not want to admit that the other still looked near perfect after the last few days.

After both were finally presentable, Joshua pulled out a bottle of water from somewhere and downed half the contents in a few ravenous gulps. He then passed the bottle to Henry, who gladly accepted the chance to quench his thirst and moisten his dry, irritated throat.

It was at this point that there was a knocking on Joshua's door, the door opening even without a signal or response. Ramy was stood there, holding a tablet. "The meeting should be starting now. If you want to finish everything today, you two need to get a move on."

The two men simply nodded, finally accepting their fate and making their way to the meeting they had both subconsciously been avoiding since having woken up.

Walking behind them, Ramy sending Haerin a text, lamenting over the fact that no matter what, their second masting always looked perfect. It had not bothered him nearly as much when it was just the one family, but seeing the two men together was too blinding for his hungover mind.