Ethan smiled so hard as he stared at the plaque, unsure what to even say at this point. Too many emotions crowded in at once, making it hard to put any of them into words.

Then his eyes realized that there was still the paper within the file, and he narrowed his eyes for a moment. "What’s this one?" he said while picking it up.

Hayley had a smile here as she said, "Well, that one is something from the Arcorys family."

Ethan at this point had just pulled the file open, and inside of it was a bank note of sorts, a cheque if you will. And it was for a million gold grits.

"I don’t understand," Ethan said, genuinely surprised as he turned upwards. "You’re giving me money?"

It was the weirdest kind of gift, considering this was Mr. Stark they were talking about here. A young man who was on a clear path to becoming the richest person in the country, if he wasn’t already.

Hayley shook her head. "Not just money, my love... but before I tell you what this is, I can’t take acknowledgment alone. This was me and Percy."

"After the event, we both reached out to our father and told him we wanted to show support for our childhood friend by being one of the first to acquire a jet..."

"At first, daddy dearest wasn’t interested, saying the airships we had were barely even used and he didn’t see himself traveling anywhere. But after lots of persuading and promising to take more interest in the family business, he agreed."

Ethan shook his head in amusement as Hayley continued, "So this is our indication of interest for one of the jet models, and we better get the best one."

Ethan shook his head again, smiling uncontrollably. He had not seen any of this coming one bloody bit. "I don’t even know what to say, Hayley..."

"Start by saying thank you," Hayley said with a teasing tone.

Ethan laughed, standing from his seat and slowly opening his arms. "Come here."

Hayley was giddy at this and quickly paced towards him as well, hugging him so tightly. Ethan’s cheek rested on her head endearingly, and he muttered, "Thank you so much."

"Anything for you," she muttered back, rubbing his back.

Then they pulled back, separating a short distance from each other while staring into each other’s eyes with smiles.

Hayley readjusted her expression into a mischievous one and said, "But I must say, pretty boy, nothing goes for nothing in this world, so you are going to have to make up for all of these..."

Ethan chuckled and asked, "How do you suppose I do that?"

"Glad you asked," she said with a mischievous smile, before adding, "Now usually, the best kind of makeup for this would be for you to lean me over on that table and fuck me like a dragon would." She pointed at it.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah," Ethan kept saying with a widening gaze of shock on his face.

Hayley laughed again. "Butttttt..." she dragged it out, "I know that’s not going to happen, so I got the next best option."

"What?" he asked curiously.

"Give me a minute," she said, then quickly turned and paced out of the room.

Ethan smiled as she left, wondering what she was about to do next.

Hayley had gently slipped into one of the nearby rooms. This was where Percival stayed in and kept his stuff.

There were about seven rooms in the place, and with only five of them living there at the time, they had simply taken whichever rooms they wanted for a bit of privacy.

Hayley arrived at the door, listened in for a moment to be sure what he was doing, and she could hear him in the shower. Apparently, he had only just begun.

Then she slipped into the room quietly, and within a minute, she was back out, closing the door gently. The shower had been too loud, but Percival had picked up faint sounds which died out not long after.

It didn’t last long enough to let it concern him.

Unfortunately, the sweet scent of his shampoo and soap lingered in the air, throwing off his senses and preventing him from picking Hayley out the moment she entered.

Hayley returned back to Ethan’s study and raised her hand excitedly to reveal what she had. "These are movie tickets to a Harlie Chapman show premiering today."

"Oh damn, he’s still an actor?" Ethan said. Harlie Chapman was their favorite actor growing up, but with recent developments, he barely had any time to keep up with those trends.

"Yes, very much so. But thing is, these are not my tickets. These are Percival’s."

Ethan’s eyes widened.

"And he got them cause he planned to take Aliyah out, but he changed his mind and they canceled," she said.

"Wait... I thought he didn’t like Aliyah like that." Ethan looked puzzled yet amused.

"That’s what he says, and this morning when we went to get these, he said he’s just trying to expose her to more movies cause she barely watched any... but fuck it, that’s not the point... thing is, we have to go now!"

Ethan narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Wait... did he give you these tickets himself?"

"Yes," she said with a straight face. "Now let’s go."

"Hm... Hayley," Ethan muttered. A good part of him really wasn’t buying this. "Okay, hold on. I’m just going to ask him myself."

"Listen, he’s in the shower," she said, tapping her ear.

Ethan paused for a moment to pay keen attention as his ear caught it. The room was like the next one to his.

And before he could say anything further, she quickly said, "Ethan, it’s either this or you’re really going to do me right here and right now, and you know which one I’d love more..."

She said this now walking closer again, with a sway in her hips.

"Okay, fine, fine, jeez," Ethan said hurriedly.

"Good, good. Now grab your coat and let’s go!" she said, now walking closer to the door.

Ethan grabbed his coat and gently made his way to the door when he suddenly remembered. "My keys."

But without even answering, Hayley moved like a blur of motion back to the table, snatched up the car keys for him instead, and raised them up for a moment.

"Let’s go," she said, then moved like a blur again. But this time she didn’t just stop at the door. The fur of white had zoomed past at such speed that the door blasted open.

Ethan shook his head amusingly, and before the door made its way back to shut completely, he too blurred out of the room and right behind her.

Then the door jammed and shut.