THIRD PERSON POV

Aria’s soft palms still burned bright red from the force that he had used to beat his homemade pizza dough into submission. It was almost cathartic for the small man, a socially acceptable way to get out at least some of the frustration that had begun to surmount over the past few days.

Bug had never really, truly been angry at anyone or anything before in his entire life. The man’s frustration was shrouded by more sadness than anything. However, thinking about his special bowl, shattered into a million pieces on the ground, still stoked tiny embers of resentment in his overwhelmingly kind heart. 

The heat from the oven blasted Aria in the face like a hair dryer turned up way too high, drying out his eyes and making him take a small step back. But as the initial heat dissipated, Bug couldn’t help but crack a little smile as he spied what lay inside. 

Cooked to utter perfection and filled to the brim with all of the best toppings that he knew Thad loved, Aria resisted the urge to squeal with happiness as he pulled the pizza out of the oven and gingerly carried it toward the waiting, heat-resistant counter.

Deep down, the petite man knew that he shouldn’t be doing this - that Thad would probably find a way to misconstrue the pure intentions of his kind gesture as something else completely - but he simply couldn’t help himself.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that he was too giving at times -‘too much of a people-pleaser,’ as his mother would so often tut at him. But on the contrary, Aria’s brain was just a pressure cooker of kindness. He loved helping others and making people happy, no matter who they were or what circumstances they may be in at that moment. 

And - just like a pressure cooker - he constantly felt that if didn’t find an outlet to let that kindness out, he would certainly explode. 

Bug’s head snapped up from where it was - staring down and stuck in a daze as he marveled at his beautiful pizza. Instead, the muted ‘shh’ of the front door of the Housing Pod sliding open caught his attention, and Aria quickly scurried around the corner as he prepared to slip away into the bedroom for the rest of the night, as had become habitual for him. 

However, just as he went to pull his apron over his head, something that he was absolutely not expecting made him pause in his spot and swivel his head over to the door with an utterly terrified expression.

There were… people.

Multiple people, walking straight into his Housing Pod as if they owned the place. 

It sent Aria straight into the throes of a fight or flight reaction. 

‘Who are these people, are they trying to rob me!? But I don’t have anything valuable, so maybe they are here to kidnap me instead!? Don’t they know committing crimes like this could warrant an immediate escalation to execution?!’ 

Bug’s flight of thought was terrifyingly uncontainable, sending his anxiety reeling as he tried to think of how to handle this horrible situation. Only when a few people brushed past him and began pulling at slices of his pizza that his brain finally decided to snap into place and he re-discovered the ability to move his frozen limbs again. 

“H-hey, I put a lot of love into that recipe!” He wailed, flying back into the kitchen as fast as his short legs could carry him. 

Before his rational mind could tell him that this was definitely a bad idea - especially considering these men were quite literally twice his size - Aria seized the forearm of the closest one and tugged hard, leveraging the weight of his entire body in an effort to yank them away from his masterpiece. The men simply looked down at Aria as he tugged fruitlessly, his scrawny arms not moving the man even a millimeter from his previous position. 

“Oh man, I can tell, it’s delicious! Thanks, Bug.”

Aria’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he moved his head to peer around the form of the man that he was currently tugging on. 

When he did, he saw a different man. He was licking his greasy fingers as he shoved the crust of the remaining pizza slice into his jaw.

“What… what is going on?!” Aria finally breathed, words catching painfully in his throat as he felt tears of raw confusion begin to choke their way up his esophagus.

The small man felt even smaller at that moment as he stumbled back a few steps, pressing himself against the closest wall and holding clasped hands tightly against his chest in an effort to keep the last, dangling shred of his sanity intact. 

He was so disoriented, so scared and completely on his own.

‘I’ve never heard of someone robbing a Housing Pod and stopping to eat the food! A-and how did they know my nickname?! The only person who calls me that is-’

As if even the idea of thinking of his name worked to summon him, Thaddeus’ curly head turned around the corner that led to the kitchen. A relaxed, lopsided grin on his face as he brushed past Aria, not sparing his Soul Mate a single glance as if the small man did not even exist. 

“Aye, someone brought more booze!” Thad smacked the closest guy on the back in greeting. The three men thanked him, returning the back-slapping before turning to make their way back toward the living area, where the rest of the people were milling about. 

Thad went to follow behind his friends, but Aria quickly stepped in front of him, arms stretched out wide as he tried to form a blockade with his flimsy frame. Tears welled at the corner of the cliffs of Bug’s lower eyelids, threatening to tumble down his flushed cheeks at any given second.

“Thad, who are all of these people? I-I’m scared!” He exclaimed, voice cracking from the weight of his fright. 

Thaddeus groaned as he was finally forced to acknowledge that Aria existed. He rolled his eyes up at the ceiling and crossed his arms before finally settling his gaze down on the twink who stood before him. 

Per usual, the sight didn’t really disturb the larger man in the least, he was more than used to the little crybaby at this point. However, there was something else, something that was beginning to bother the impassive man more than he usually was. 

That scent of freshly baked peaches that always noticeably clung to Aria’s skin was… morphing. 

Thad’s nose twitched as he suppressed the overwhelming urge to violently sneeze this metallic-y, dirt-like scent right the fuck out of his nose. 

It wasn’t right. Aria wasn’t supposed to smell like that, and it made his fingers twitch in the smaller man’s direction as he resisted the urge to find out why. 

‘Had he used a different soap recently?’ Thad pondered, head tilting slightly and nostrils flaring at the new sensation. But before he could think about it any further, Bug was whining again. 

“Are you even listening to me?” He could only whisper, chin wobbling a million times a minute as Bug felt the first tear finally tumble off of its precarious ledge. 

“It’s a party, Bug.” Thad stated matter-of-factly, speaking in a slow and slightly condescending tone. “Just do what you do best; be invisible. Nobody likes a buzzkill.” 

Aria could do nothing but stare incredulously up at his Soul Mate, who shot him a brief, sarcastic smirk before pushing Bug’s arm aside and walking straight past him as if the smaller man were nothing but an inanimate turnstile. 

If it wasn’t for the person who suddenly recognized his short stature and shoulder-length, wavy brown hair, Aria likely would have been frozen in the same spot until the party’s end.

“... Oh my Elders, is that you, Aria?!” 

A familiar high-pitched squeal and hurricane of red waves assaulted his face at once. Aria’s entire body immediately turned rigid with shock as the taller woman wrapped Aria up in her arms from behind, as if she needed to touch him to prove that he was really there.

“...Andrea? What are you doing here?!” Aria used the moment before he turned around in Andrea’s arms to wipe at his eyes, not wanting her to see the tears he’d just shed, especially after Thad’s warning about being a ‘buzzkill.’

Aria had absolutely zero clue what that word meant, but he inferred that it likely didn’t include him crying. 

“What am I doing here?! More like, what are you doing here? You don’t go to parties, even begging on my knees for you to go with me didn’t work. So what the actual heck?!” The redhead exclaimed, finally pulling back to look down at her tiny friend with a bewildered mixture of confusion and surprise. 

Aria cracked a small, timid smile, wringing his fingers together and looking at the taller woman from underneath his lashes. “I… I kinda live here?” Bug stated as if it was a question, already wincing in preparation for his best friend’s impending reaction that was sure to be every bit as explosive as she always was.

It took a few moments for Andrea’s brain to work, but when the pieces finally slotted together in her brain, the redhead’s eyes went wide. 

“Wait, so you’re telling me… Holy shit, Aria! You're mated to Thaddeus Axton?!” Andrea practically screamed, grabbing the sides of her friend’s shoulders and shaking him like a vending machine that just took someone’s money, as if the action would make all of the information she was seeking fall right out of the small man. 

Aria nodded quickly, eyes wide as he tried to prevent developing vertigo from Andrea’s violent shaking. 

“Um… yes? Didn’t you see us being paired together at the Soul Mate Ceremony?” He squeaked out.

“Oh, please. That ceremony is literally hours long, I was probably asleep by that point!” Andrea grabbed her friend’s arm at once, towing him behind her into the throng of people in the living area. Looking around she craned her neck until she found the blonde buzz cut that she was looking for, and when she did, she made a beeline for the tall man.

“Mitty!” Andra exclaimed as she walked up to her own Soul Mate, speaking louder so that her voice would carry over the many loud voices that filled up the room. “Do you know him?” She pointed to Aria, who lingered behind her. 

Mit turned to the side, immediately pausing his conversation with a man that was dressed in an enforcer uniform and smiling brightly as he heard the sound of his mate’s voice. His gaze settled down on Andrea, but also flickered over to the small person that practically hid completely behind her slightly larger frame. 

“Andrea, what are you doing?!” Aria whispered sharply from behind closed teeth, anxiety flaring as he stood behind his friend. His brain was not built for meeting new people, but rather hard-wired for blending into the background at all times. 

“Don’t worry, Ari! This is my Soul Mate, you already know all about him.” She whispered back over her shoulder, reaching backwards to pull Aria a little further out so that his face could be seen. 

Admittedly, knowing that this big, scary man was his best friend’s Soul Mate did help ease his anxiety the slightest, but he was still scared. It took a few more beats for him to gain the courage to raise his eyes to take in the figures before him, but when he did, his brows immediately pulled together with confusion. 

“Wait… aren’t you the guy who was here the other day? When…” Aria trailed off, realizing he didn’t want to finish his sentence a word too late. But, to Bug’s relief, Mit didn’t seem to notice and immediately replied, his husky but kind-sounding voice the same one that he’d heard two days prior. 

“Yeah, that was me. Nice to actually meet you this time, short stuff. Sorry for putting my feet up on your coffee table before.” Mitty grinned down at the smaller man, intentionally trying to make his sharply angled face look more inviting and less scary to the skittish Bug. “...And of course I know him, he’s Thad’s mate.” He continued, shifting his gaze to his own mate as he responded to her question.  

Andrea’s jaw would have fallen straight to the floor if it wasn’t for Mitty reaching out to pull her closer, using a single finger to close her jaw before pressing a brief kiss to her lips. 

“Why do you ask, sweetheart?” Mitty tilted his head with a sexy smirk, raising an inquisitive brow as Andrea’s face immediately flushed bright pink. Her mouth opened and closed for a few seconds as she gathered her bearings, stunned into silence by the unexpected kiss. 

“T-this is the friend I was telling you about, whose Soul Mate is an asshole to him, remember?!” Andrea finally explained, trying to jog Mitty’s memory of the conversation they’d had just a few days prior. 

“Wait wait wait, hold up.” Mit held up a hand as if it could physically stop the conversation, blinking and turning his head to look back at Ari. “Thad has been treating you that badly?” 

Aria’s eyes went wide, releasing Andrea as he waved his hands in front of him in a gesture of denial. “No, Thad is… is alright! He is still just… adjusting to the newness of our relationship, there’s no need to worry about anything at all!” He spoke hurriedly and waved his hands as if trying to paint a picture in front of him; as if he was trying to convince not only Mitty of his words, but also himself. Andrea immediately gave him a look that screamed ‘really?!’ 

“Aria, stop defending him! He treats you like crap, how can you still act like everything is all fine and dandy?!” Andrea practically yelled, making Aria flinch away from her and curl his hands back to their safe space in the center of his chest. Seeing her best friend’s reaction made Andrea sigh, running a hand through her unruly red waves before placing a warm palm on top of his head. 

“I’m sorry bestie, I know you don’t like loud noises. I just… I don’t like him.” She gritted out, face screwed up into a look of disgust. It was then that a new voice caught the attention of all three of them.

“If you need someone to put him in his place every once in a while, I volunteer.” The enforcer that Mitty was previously talking to interjected. Holding out a hand toward Aria, he smiled brightly, dimples showing up underneath both of his high cheekbones and crinkling eyes a testament to his sincerity. “My name is Uriah, and you are?” 

Aria prepared himself to be afraid of the large man, but was pleasantly surprised when his nervous system actually calmed down a little at the sight of the enforcer’s friendly smile. 

The man’s sharp jawline and thick brows made Bug’s legs wiggle and induced the tiniest flutter in his stomach. It was nothing compared to the feeling that Thad gave him, but he blinked wordlessly as a single thought passed through his brain. 

‘He’s handsome.’ 

__

OOP is this a love triangle? 🫣

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Love you all!

Xoxo, Alex ❤️