#[ getting free rhysagawa fic out of me huh

[strongfuck]

💋 (from katagawa)

from this meme.

Rhys was naive to think that rising to the top of the corporate ladder would free him from ever having to attend a New Year's party again. Apparently there's an interplanetary shindig for the Borderlands' biggest corporations and their upper echelons of executive staff-- something about encouraging cooperation and competition, Rhys doesn't really know; he'd zoned out in the middle of Susan Coldwell's introductory speech and had promptly decided he didn't care enough to really think about it.

The same sense of listlessness that used to accompany him at Hyperion's holiday parties fills him as he mingles with people. His reputation precedes him, it seems; in his first year since relocating to Promethea, Atlas' stocks had risen to incredible heights, and he'd begun environmental research that's restored 15% of the planet's habitable spaces so far. People see him and they recognise him-- the bright blue ECHO-Eye and the tattoo on his neck are hard to miss-- and every time, Rhys ends up trapped in conversations that're nothing but indirect dick measuring contests and some supposedly "healthy threatening".

The attention suffocates him, and it gets worse the nearer it gets to midnight. Everyone starts moving about, pairing off in order to have partners for the fabled "New Year's Kiss", and Rhys turns down ten people in two minutes and decides he probably has to escape for the better.

So he slips away as a crowd gathers near the stage in the function area, ready to count down the few minutes to midnight with the giant Tediore-brand clock on the wall. And while Rhys had intended to be alone when he walked outside of the building and into the cold air, he sees someone had already beaten him there.

His eye glows as he attempts to place them, and just as the name of the figure lights up his ECHO-Eye's interface, the man turns around with a raised brow.

"Atlas," he says plainly.

"Maliwan," Rhys greets in turn. And then, because calling a person by their company name is ridiculous, he says, "Katagawa, right? I'm Rhys. Strongfork, I guess, if you want a last name."

"Rhys is passable."

"Cool." He smiles some, stiff and definitely awkward. "Do you have a first--"

"You don't need to know my first name."

"Yeah." Rhys coughs. "No, definitely."

Standing in the cold with his hands in his pockets, Rhys wants to sink into the snow. Katagawa is staring at him with a look that feels almost medical in its intensity, and Rhys isn't sure whether this is better or worse than talking to everyone inside.

So he tries to talk again: "What're you doing out here, anyway?"

"That's none of your business."

"Right. Well, I'm here 'cause I couldn't stand being in there." Rhys' thumb jabs over his shoulder in the direction of the party. "You know, talking to all those people... I didn't even know there were parties like this in the first place until Coldwell invited me."

Katagawa scoffs. "Of course there are parties like this. How else are we going to distinguish ourselves from the ordinary people?"

"Ah." Rhys isn't sure what he expected from the son of two Maliwan executives, but this feels about right. "Yeah. Definitely."

"I'm sure you wouldn't know, being ordinary yourself until recently" -- Rhys' brows furrow slightly at the sight of Katagawa coming closer, close enough to put a hand on his shoulder -- "but being this high up the food chain? It's the best place to be."

"Uhuh." A beat. "You're lucky your parents were such a big deal, then."

"I am more than--" Katagawa shuts his mouth, grits his teeth, and looks away. "My status comes from more than them."

"But it's 'cause your mum's head of Mergers and Acquisitions that you're here, right?"

"Shut up!" Katagawa declares, shoving two hands into his chest. Rhys steps back a measure because of it, but keeps his feet flat on the ground in the end.

He shrugs as he adds, "It's not that bad, you know. You can always move up. I was middle management at Hyperion until I just... took Atlas."

"Are you an idiot? That isn't how it works. I'm..." Rhys takes note of the way Katagawa's fists clench, and in the back of his mind he's glad everyone was stripped of their weapons before coming here. "I'm not next in line for mother's title."

"Well, what number are you at?"

Katagawa's quiet. Annoyed. And then he spits out, "Twelfth."

Rhys can't help the wince. Katagawa glares at him, though, so Rhys lifts both his hands up in surrender.

"That's not so bad," he says.

"How?" Katagawa rolls his eyes. "How in the world is being the twelfth in line not so bad?"

"You just... have to be better than the first people in line. Right? RIse above the competition. Beat them at their own game."

"You make it sound easy."

"It isn't," Rhys admits, "but it's not impossible, either. I think you can do it."

"You're just saying that."

"No, no, no-- I mean it!" He doesn't really, but the way Katagawa's expression has softened some tells him he's on the right track. "I genuinely think you can do it. You just gotta be patient and try. Stop relying on your parents' names, do something amazing for yourself, and... freakin' impress them, you know?"

Katagawa's staring at him again, but this time Rhys doesn't feel nearly as awful about it. Gone is the laser that would've sliced him from head to toe, replaced now by this look of enlightenment that makes Rhys feel pretty good about himself.

"I should be CEO," Katagawa says.

"You should be CEO," Rhys agrees. "I think you'd be great."

Katagawa's head lifts with new confidence. Truthfully, Rhys feels pretty good about being such an inspiring force in him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Rhys agrees. "When you rise up, you'll have to let me know. I'd love to work together with you."

Inside, a chorus of voices count down to the new year. Ten, nine, eight...

Katagawa's hand reaches out between them, a smirk on his face. "You promise?"

And Rhys, relieved that they hadn't devolved into a fight, takes the man's hand in his cybernetic one for a shake. "Definitely."

Five, four, three...

Maybe it's the feel good atmosphere. Maybe it's because the conversation turned out better than he expected. Maybe it's just Rhys falling to peer pressure, as New Year's countdowns tend to inspire, if only because he found a person he wouldn't mind giving a kiss to.

He tugs Katagawa forward and presses a chaste kiss to his mouth just as the countdown hits "zero". Fireworks go off, the coloured lights shine around them, and a few moments later, Rhys pulls away and says, "That was for good luck."

Then he lets Katagawa's hand go.

There's something about the look that Katagawa gives him after that-- something Rhys doesn't think about until later, when the party ends for good and he's hooking up to the fast travel network to return to Promethea. Before he leaves, he sees Katagawa staring at him even in the company of his parents (and all his siblings, holy shit, that's an insane number of kids). So he smiles and offers a wave, and Katagawa smiles back in a way that makes him think, hey, I've made my first cross-corporation friend.

"I'll see you around!" Rhys calls, unsure if Katagawa even hears him. Considering the other man mouths something in turn-- something Rhys himself doesn't hear-- he doubts that he does.

It's only when he's rematerialised at Atlas HQ that he takes a moment to process that most recent memory, replaying the footage saved in his cranial drive. Because, as he goes through the recording his ECHO-Eye made, he's pretty sure Katagawa had said I'm going to make you mine.