Shooting to his feet, Noel struggles to balance the papers in his arms, glancing around futilely for somewhere to hide, but before he can find anything, a slim brunette woman pounds around the corner and slams right into him. Fortunately, they're on the landing, so neither of them are in danger of falling, but the impact makes him lose his grip on the documents, and he watches in dismay as they cascade to the floor.
"What the hell!" Genevieve shouts, steadying herself. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Move!" And she shoves Noel into the railing and storms past him, stomping up the stairs before Noel can even react.
"Noel?"
Noel isn't surprised to see Jade climb onto the landing, but he is displeased. All he needs is to get caught eavesdropping again.
Jade scans him, then the papers littering the floor. "What are you doing here?" A wan smirk curves his mouth. "Spying again?"
"No!" Noel protests automatically. "I was running an errand and I just—you—ugh!" Crouching, he starts gathering the fallen documents. "Consider having your private conversations somewhere private," he hisses.
Jade snorts, and suddenly the scattered papers all levitate off the ground. Noel watches with wide eyes as they float over to him and reassemble themselves in his hands. He's never seen Jade use his powers so casually before. Swallowing, he tightens his grip and stands. "Thanks," he says begrudgingly.
Sticking his hands in his pockets, Jade shrugs. "I'm the reason she was like that," he says by way of explanation.
Noel regards him curiously. "That was…Genevieve Quinn, right?"
"I thought everyone recognized her."
"Flunkies don't rub elbows with the same crowd you do," Noel reminds him. "She was—uh…she was your guide? Before?"
"One of the guides I used sometimes, yeah." Jade sounds utterly unconcerned, leaning back against the railing. He's changed out of his training clothes and into the outfit Noel saw this morning, jeans and a henley, rolled up to the elbows. It takes conscious effort not to stare at his forearms. "You seem to know that much at least."
"I heard some people talking about it." Noel considers reproaching Jade for being so obvious about rebuffing Halo's guides, but decides against it. It would just be for the sake of scolding him, since it's not like Noel is going to insist he continue doing something that he found painful. "Was it really so bad with her?" he finds himself asking instead. "She's very beautiful, and I heard she's the most powerful guide in the company."
"Still only an A-class."
Arching a brow, Noel shifts the documents to one arm in order to indicate his orange ID badge.
Jade's lips press into a thin line. "It wasn't as bad with her as with some of the others," he admits. "She was my twenty-nine, so it wasn't the worst, but it still sucked. And she was always—" he breaks off, a muscle in his jaw jumping. "She had ulterior motives."
"Apparently," Noel mutters.
"Your brother doesn't like her either," Jade goes on.
"I don't think Beckett likes any guides."
Jade looks like he's going to respond, but his watch buzzes and cuts him off. "That'll be my trainer," he grumbles, checking the readout. "I've gotta go."
And he continues past Noel, up the stairs, and is swiftly out of sight.
Noel restarts his journey, resolving to just wait for the elevator next time.
----------
Halo was, to the surprise of many, named after a person and not the concept. Lucille Halo started the company shortly after her daughter manifested as an esper, using capital from her family's successful tech business. She always said in interviews that she didn't trust any of the major Paradigm agencies and she trusted the government even less, so she wanted a place that she would feel comfortable letting her daughter work at. Within three years of its founding, Halo had become one of the largest and most successful private agencies in the country and it hasn't diminished at all in the years since. In fact, it's only gotten bigger and more influential, opening up satellite campuses in more cities every year. Ownership passed out of Halo hands when Lucille retired, but the legacy lives on even fifty years later.
Workplace pride is strong within the company as a whole, and as such the yearly anniversary of the founding is treated as a major holiday. Main operations cease for the day of and the day after and the board organizes a massive party that every employee is highly encouraged to attend. This year, the company turns fifty, so the celebration is expected to be enormous.
Over the two years since Noel started working here, he's volunteered to join the skeleton crew required to stay on call at the agency for emergencies. It comes with a bonus, and he'd rather be manning the emergency hotlines than reveling in whatever decadence the board decides to throw at them. His coworkers were always baffled that he didn't want to go, citing the fancy food and expensive wine and popular musical artists booked to perform. The Halo Founding Day party is infamous around the city for being the hottest party of the year, and non-employees have to have a ticket to get in, so choosing not to go seems absurd.
So absurd, that his supervisor won't even let him volunteer to stay behind this year.
"You did it two years in a row," Catherine says, uncompromising. "If I let you do it again, it'll look bad on my review. People will think I'm picking on you."
"I'll tell them you're not!"
"No."
So there's that excuse gone. Noel could just stay home, watch a movie on Jade's stupid enormous television, order food, and cuddle with his cats, but then he'd literally never hear the end of it from Tess or Catherine. Plus, the inevitable barrage of social media posts from the party wouldn't do much for his mental health. The best thing to do would be to show up, walk around for a while, then leave before things inevitably got crazy.
Because they always got crazy.
Founding Day was infamous for a reason.
"Take one of my cars," Jade says, tossing him a set of keys before he can even process the statement.
"What? No—!" Noel fumbles with the futuristic touchless fob. He doesn't even recognize the logo. "I'm not going to do that. I can get there just fine on the shuttle."
This year, the company has rented out an entire hotel, including most of the rooms, and to save the stress of parking downtown, they've arranged for shuttles to run from the agency campus to the venue.
"You said you were coming home tonight, though," Jade points out, leaning against the kitchen island. "How are you going to do that?"
The understanding was that most employees would be staying overnight in one of the rooms, so the shuttles would not be running back to the agency. Noel bites his lip. "I can get a cab."
"Downtown? On Founding Day?" Jade snorts. "Good luck."
He has a point. The entire city more or less shuts down around Halo's yearly party, and other establishments take advantage of the holiday to host their own parties. Since they'll be at a downtown hotel, the streets around it will undoubtedly be a zoo.
"But I can't take your car," Noel argues, sliding the fob across the countertop until it hits Jade's hip. "If people see me in your car, they'll know something is up. This is supposed to be a secret, remember?"
Jade rolls his eyes. "I've never even driven this one," he says, flicking the fob with one finger. It sails across the island and Noel barely grabs it before it pitches off the edge. "No one will know it's mine."
"But they'll know it's not mine!" Noel tosses the fob this time, and Jade snags it effortlessly out of the air. "A D-class like me could never afford any of the cars you own."
"Say it was a gift."
"From who?!"
"A sugar daddy."
Noel treats Jade to his most unimpressed look. "Do I look like someone worth paying money to date?"
Jade purses his lips, swinging the fob around one finger. "Depends. Some people are into the whole…sad wet cat thing."
That startles a laugh out of Noel's mouth.
Smirking, Jade launches the fob into the air, where it halts, hanging still for a second, before zooming across the island to hover in front of Noel. "Just say you borrowed it for the night if anyone asks," he insists. "The valets won't know you, so it probably won't even matter."
Unable to formulate another argument, Noel sighs and plucks the fob out of the air. "Fine. Thanks, I guess."
"Just don't get drunk and crash it."
"Trust me, I can crash it without getting drunk."
That startles a laugh out of Jade's mouth.