The next day, having fully recovered overnight, Midas resumed going to work alongside Jones. Things didn't change much as he hadn't been gone that long.

Making his way through the corridor, files in hand, Midas briefly pauses at the station to check out for the afternoon. A nearby Jonesy peeks from around the corner, noticing his boyfriend nearby, and grins with a mischievous look in his eyes.

As he approaches him from behind Jones notices the huge amount of files in Midas' hand and quickly reconsiders trying to surprise him. Instead, simply wrapping his arms around him from behind and giving him a nice embrace.

It does startle him, but not enough for him to drop his files thankfully.

"Oh, hello my dear. Trying to sneak up on me are you?" He smiles, relaxing into Jones' arms while his black hair brushes against the blond's chin.

"Well I wanted to scare ya, but noticed your all that paperwork and decided to give you a cuddle instead." Jones chuckles, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Y'know, for all your hard work golden boy."

Midas' face goes a bright red as he smiles softly and puts his files away in a draw. Jones picks him up and holds him bridal style. While the blond scoops him into his arms, he turns to him while raising an eyebrow with a little smile on his face.

"You want something, don't you?" He smirks, reading Jones like a book and putting a hand over his cheek. "What is it you desire?"

Jones chuckles sheepishly, blushing and grinning like the big dork he was.

"Well I was kinda hoping we could have some lunch at the Pizza Pit in Tilted Towers. But uh..."

He clears his throat while clapping his hands against his thighs.

"I may have forgotten my wallet at home. So..."

"You want me to buy it." He finishes Jones' sentence.

He nods while Midas smirks a little. As Jones paces across the corridor, he begins thinking to himself.

"Well, you'll have to convince me." He tells Jones, eyeing him with his golden iris and secretly smiling. "Convince me to say yes."

Jones begins to grins mischievously, an idea already in mind, and pulls Midas closer to his chest.

"How about I just do this?"

The blond then proceeds to start planting kisses on his reddening cheeks. He begins to snicker a little, feeling the warmth of Jones' lips against his cheeks.

It was nice. It made Midas feel safe in Jones' strong arms.

He blushes an even deeper red as Jones plants a few kisses near his jaw, trailing down to his collar bone.

After a few seconds Jones stops and puts Midas back down, chuckling at his flushed face.

"Well, did I convince you?" He asks.

Midas clears his throat while fixing his tie and his now slightly scruffy hair.

"Ah, well... You certainly have. But please, we're in a workplace." Midas starts. "Someone could have seen us flirting with each other."

Jones chuckles once again rubbing his arm, having not thought of that. However, Midas sighs and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"But nevertheless, you convinced me. So I guess I'll HAVE to get us pizza." He smiles, a slight hint of sass in his voice. "Let us be on our way shall we my dear?"

Holding out his hand Midas beckons Jones to take it. He promptly does and the two of them begin heading out of the building and in the direction of Tilted Towers, all while discussing what they'll be ordering.

------------

A little bit later...

When both men arrived at the restaurant they ordered their usual which consisted of a pepperoni pizza and a meat lover pizza with chicken strips and wedges on the side. It held a special place in their hearts as it was the meal they shared the night Midas finally confessed his feelings to Jones and had a proper first kiss together.

Midas simply watches as Jones devours his fourth slice of pizza and another wedge. The man really loved his food.

"Jones I know you love your food, but please slow down. You'll choke on something if you're not careful." He tells him after finishing his own slice of pizza.

The blond swallows what's in his mouth so he can respond.

"Heh, sorry Goldie. Guess I got a little carried away." He apologizes. "But I'm so hungry. I may have forgotten to have breakfast this morning."

Midas chuckles a little while shaking his head.

"That's not like you, forgetting breakfast. Are you feeling ok today Jonesy?" Midas asks, putting his hand on his.

Jones shrugs as he tosses a chicken strip into his mouth.

"I dunno dude. Maybe something's been on my mind lately."

Midas shuffles his seat closer to Jones', resting his head on his broad shoulder.

"Something I could help with perhaps?" He offers. "I don't like seeing you down, so why don't you tell me what's wrong."

Jones chuckles a little, rubbing his thumb against the golden ring on Midas' finger.

"Not sure why, but I've been thinking about Ares a little lately. There's a part of me that misses him." He tells his boyfriend. "Is that wrong of me?"

Midas' expression changes to one of sadness. He had tried to forget about him for the past couple of months, but the memories seem to always find a way to resurface in his mind.

The good and bad ones...

This time, through his troubled boyfriend.

"Well...I don't think it's wrong for you to think about my father." He replies. "Perhaps you wish you could've spent more time with him when he finally saw the error of his ways."

"If that's the case, maybe you do too."

Midas lets go of Jones' shoulder to hug his arms, feeling guilt and despair gathering in his gut as well as golden tears in his eyes. He tries keeping it together, but his boyfriend can see the distress and emotional baggage in his face.

"Shhhh, it's okay baby. You can cry if you want to. I'm right here for you." He comforts him. "I'm sorry I even brought the subject up."

Though quiet, Midas begins to cry while Jones holds him close, rubbing his back. Thankfully for them, no people noticed the breakdown he was going through and continued with their meals. After a few minutes, he begins to calm down and looks back at Jones.

"You okay now?"

He slowly nods with a sniff.

"Yes. In fact, I actually feel a bit better now that I've let my emotions spill out." He admits. "It feels like a lot of emotional weight has been lifted from me."

"Well, you're welcome...I guess?" Jones chuckles slightly. "I dunno. I feel bad that I made you upset so I guess I don't know how to react-"

Midas stops him there with a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Don't apologize. It's alright."

Jones immediately begins grinning like an idiot and lies his head on his shoulder while Midas smirks. His eyes fall to the nearby glass of water on the table and his smile fades a little. The liquid inside wobbles slightly as well as the table.

Something wasn't right.

"That's strange. What's going on?"

Before long, he feels a slight rumble beneath his feet as does Jonesy.

"Hey...do you feel that Midas?"

"Yeah...it feels like... something moving under our feet?"

The sudden sound of cracks forming in the ground alerts everyone as they begin climbing up the walls of the restaurant. The tremors in the ground worsen at the same time. Midas immediately grabs Jones by the wrist and orders everyone to evacuate.

"Come on! Get out of here! Everybody run!"

The people dash out of the collapsing building as debris crumbles around them. Midas barely has time to shove Jones out of the building through the entrance before two huge pieces of ceiling fall on top of him, much to his boyfriend's despair.

"Midas!! Midas are you okay?!"

To his surprise however Midas was perfectly fine, having used his power to cover his body in gold just in time and lift the rocks off himself, turning them gold in the process. He leaps over a knocked over table and runs past Jones who quickly follows after.

Once everyone is clear of the building it's not long before it completely collapses into a huge pile of rubble. The tremors in the ground settle down as well. Jones breathes heavily, his hands over his chest while his heart pounds.

"That...was close. You okay Midas? You took a pretty hard hit there."

He nods, flinching slightly as he holds his left arm. Jones noticed a bad looking cut across it and was bleeding out quite fast, blood smearing against Midas' golden fingers.

"Ooh, that doesn't look good. Dang, if only I had some bandaids on me."

"No, I-I'll be fine Jones. My power heals me overtime, remember?" He reminds him. "It's... nothing to worry about."

At that moment a car approaches Tilted Towers and stops in front of the boys as the crowds of people disperse. They instantly recognise the car as Jules' upon it stopping and she jumps out, closing the door and running up to them.

"Yo, did you guys feel that?!"

"More than that. We nearly died from it." Jones sighs, holding Midas close.

Jules gasps at the cut on his arm.

"Jeez that looks bad. But you have to see the mess I drove past on my way here." She tells them.

While she slips back into the car Jones helps Midas in, being careful to not make his wound bleed out any faster. Jules hits the acceleration and begins driving back the way she came. Strangely though, she heads towards the off road and drives over a few small hills before stopping.

"Take a look at that you guys."

Midas and Jones step out of the vehicle and look in the distance to find another building in disarray, but the mastermind recognises it by the design.

"Wait. That's one of the Seven's many outposts. It's completely destroyed." He points out.

"What do you think caused the tremors?" Jules wonders.

A sudden buzzing sound coming from Jones' pocket may have answered her question. He pulls it out and takes a look.

"Uh, maybe this'll help us." He says, passing his phone to Midas.

There was a message from an anonymous person, but he recognised the number.

It was one of the Seven trying to contact them.

"Midas, Jones. Get to Sanctuary as soon as possible."

--------------

Meanwhile...

"Alright. I think it's finished."

Slone gazes at the final result of her experiment. It had seen a major improvement from what it started as.

Now it had a laser cannon it could switch to with its metallic arm. The left side of their face had been modified to look half cybernetic, finished with a new eye.

Their clothes were ones that made them look like some kind of assassin, right down to the scarf around their neck, a katana plus a pistol on their belt, plus the I.O's logo plastered on its chest.

To finish, a mask covered their face up to their nose, concealing their identity and their hair was tied up in a bun, the fringe falling over their closed eyes.

"Are you sure they won't just try to kill you upon waking up Doctor Slone ma'am?"

"I'm positive Gunnar. Besides, you can just send them back to sleep if they do try anything. Whether it be by technology or brute force."

"Understood, boss. I'll give 'em a real thrashing if they try anything on you."

Slone smiles, knowing she could rely on Gunnar for anything. But she didn't have to worry about being attacked. She took care of that ages ago. She presses a button and looks up at the experiment.

It's eyes open up, the left one revealing to be a gleaming red while the other is a dull grey. They stand there in complete silence before Gunnar approaches it, knocking a hand against its shoulder.

"Hmph. It doesn't look like much does it- WOAH!!"

Seeing Gunnar as a potential threat the experiment makes quick work of tackling him to the floor, holding him down with its foot and pulling on his arms to make sure he couldn't try to escape.

"Okay I stand corrected!! Tell it to let me go boss!!" He yells as it begins pulling out the katana.

Slone smiles before tapping the cyborg on the shoulder.

"No no, 8R3Z. He's not your enemy. He's an ally."

Realising its mistake, it puts the katana away on its belt again.

She smiles.

"Come with me. Your training begins now."

And with that, both of them disappear through the door leaving behind a dazed Gunnar.

------------------