owned twice

by fialkkaa

Summary:

story about Oscar, Max and Charles and their lives in London, living their boring corporate live.

Or I have no clue what to write here

Chapter 1

Oscar always thought that there was no way for someone to love him the way he wanted to be loved. He wished to be loved enough to cross an ocean, commit a crime or to start a war even. Wanted that kind of love like in the books like Pride and Prejudice, The Fault In Our Stars or Romeo and Julie, but gay and without the death.

Back in school, he couldn’t really say he was bullied for being gay, but having minimal conversation with any of the students or teachers did left some marks on him. It wasn’t the same in university, there he was accepted, but the memories of kids laughing at him stayed in his mind, carrying them into his adulthood.

The most fun he’s had in his life was his university years. He found the right friends right in his university course, the perfect job to work in afterwords, a good apartment in a far better apartment then he grew up in and the most important thing, getting out of the life his parents sat up for him.

Yes, growing up in Australia in an upper-class family, his parents doing everything for him, gave him certain advantages. But leaving them behind, having access to only a small amount of his money, and relying on support from his aunt made starting his life in England a bit harder.

Now, in his late twenties, an assistant job, in a not so small company anymore in London, actually enjoying his life more then he ever imagined.

✧

“Oscar! Oscar? Hello??? Earth to Oscar?” Charles was standing right in front of Oscar’ desk, waving both of his hands in front of his face.

“What’s wrong with him?” Max came to stand next to Charles, both looking at Oscar. “I wanted to talk to him, to know the reason why left the meeting this morning, but he’s not even acknowledging me.”

“Well, he doesn’t have his AirPods in, so… Oscar?” Max walked around the desk to stand behind Oscar’ chair, laying both of his hands on his shoulders. “Hey, are you with us?”

“Shit, sorry,” Oscar eventually stuttered out of himself. “Oh, fuck, sorry, what did you need, Mr. Leclerc?” There were still Verstappen’ hands on his shoulders, and just for a while, he wanted them to stay there for a bit longer, just like in his wildest dreams. Oscar was looking at Charles the whole time, so he was surprised when Max was the one that started talking.

“Its way past 6, go home Charlie, I’m gonna talk to Oscar here,” he wasn’t looking nowhere near Oscar, looked like he wasn’t even acknowledging him till he tried to get up from his chair, but couldn’t.

“No, Oscar, I need to talk to you, so stay here, I’m gonna walk Charles down, you are gonna stay here and then we will talk in my office,” Oscar wanted to argue, wanted to say something back, but by the time he figured what to say, both of them were already walking towards the elevator.

Max couldn’t be away for more than ten minutes, ten minutes that Oscar spent looking across the room, thinking about spending another day in work instead of at home, with his cats. For a while now, he’s been thinking of getting a new job, a job that allows him to work from home at least once a week. Not like this one, where he had to be in the office every day of the week.

The moment he heard the elevator, was the moment he looked up, seeing Max walking to him, alone, smiling like it wasn’t just half past 6 on a Friday.

“So, Oscar, the emails you send me this morning - “

“Im sorry, I’ll remake it, just tell me what needs to be done and I will do it,” He was just standing next to his chair, looking at Max, feeling like an idiot, like usual when he was standing in front him or his husband. Instead of the usual angry looking boss, he was looking at a happy smiling Mr. Verstappen.

“Oscar, no, you don’t need to remake anything, the work was actually pretty amazing, which you would’ve known if you hadn’t left the meeting this morning,” He was smiling at Oscar, something he didn’t really get to see, definitely not at him.

“Oh…”

“Yes, oh, what I would like to know is, why you left and didn’t come back? Cause if you’re not gonna have a proper explanation, you are gonna have a problem. Oscar, we all have been working with them for years, they are our biggest client. And imagine me, explaining everyone, why our best employee left and never came back, and only to find you in an empty room, staring out of the window.”

“You wouldn’t understand, Mr. Verstappen. I have my reasons and I understand if you’d like me to leave. I can leave quietly, find somewhere else to work,” and in some way he wanted exactly that. He wanted to stay at home with his cats, he didn’t want work late at night, at weekends, at holiday, didn’t want to work under a boss that looked at him like he wanted to eat him alive.

But all of his thought were gone the moment he saw those blue deep eyes, looking down at him. “Oscar, why the fuck would you though I wanted to fire you? Never in my life I would think to let you go, you are import part of our team, and I definitely don’t want you to work for someone else. And that was not enough for me, that is not a proper explanation, Mr. Piastri. So I’m gonna need a little more that just that I wouldn’t understand.”

He didn’t really want to be looked down at, didn’t want to be talked to stay, especially now, when he was thinking about leaving the company.

“There is one more thing I would like to know, and that is if you know that you send me an email you probably wanted to send to someone else.”

“What? Just now we were talking about me wanting to leave this company and you start talking to me about an email I send to you by accident?” This was probably the last straw for Oscar, all that stress that has built up in him, everything he’s been thinking about, having the need to let it all out. ”You know what Mr. Verstappen? For months I’ve been dealing with you and all the things you’ve been throwing at me! And this was the last thing for me, because really? An email i send you by accident? That is a thing that doesn’t really need to be discussed!” And with all that, all that stress was out, everything he thought and wanted to say was said.

“Wait, what?” We were discussing what?” Max has never probably been so confused in his life. “The reason you left this morning was that you want to leave?”

“And what would you do in my position, huh? If you had your own life, but your bosses made your life difficult with nothing but trifles! Because that is what you two have been doing to me. I'm spending every evening here, every important holiday, I am here, in the office, I am never at home, never spending time anywhere else!” He was probably exaggerating, but whatever, right?

“Why the hell are you yelling at me!!!” Max just wanted to have a normal talk, talk about the meeting, the email, but all of this, was not his cup of tea.

“Because I have had enough, Max! All of this, I don’t want to keep working here anymore!” Yes, now he knew he was exaggerating, cause he’s never even yelled at anybody. “And you know what, I can finally admit that I have had enough,” each word spitting at his boss a little louder than the one before. “And yes, I do want to leave, want to spend my time with the people that I care about, not here, locked.”

With that here turned around to face his work desk and wanted to start to take his personal stuff, before being stopped by a hand on his elbow.

“Mr. Piastri, why don’t we sit down and talk, alright? You don’t have to make sudden decisions, okay?” Max regretting all his decisions that lead right to this moment, right here.

“I don't like to be touched, so don’t, Mr Verstappen. And I made my decision, I have been thinking about this for a while, so..” All that while gathering all of things, he felt the hand leaving his elbow, the memory of thinking that he wanted that man to touch him long gone, now left with anger.

“Fine, go, I expect a reason from you, I expect that you talk with the HR team, to give me an official resignation letter with you reasons…” he was standing with his arms crossed in front of him, looking the old, angry himself.

It took him while to take everything and put everything in his bag but eventually, he managed to do so just in the time to see his boss slamming the door to his own office. With that, he took his phone and jacket and left, leaving his access card on the table.

✧

Chapter 2

The moment he slammed the door to his office, he realised that they both most likely overreacted. He hasn’t lashed out like this for a long time, especially on someone else than Charles.

He really hoped now, that Oscar will come back in the morning, that he’ll change his mind about all this, come to his office in the morning and pretend that all of this didn’t happen, but all that was gone when he heard his phone ring and saw the name.

Laura-HR.

Now he already knew that Oscar did what he wanted and with a slow breathe he picked up the phone call.

“So, Max, imagine my surprise when I got a text from your assistant, and let me read it to you - “

“Laura, no - “

“Oh, yes, Max, so the text was, and this is word to word. Good evening, Mrs. Ellis, I don’t want to trouble you like this late in the evening, but I just want you to know that I am resigning, and for the explanation, it is due to differences with my supervisor. Thank you, and sorry to bother you. What has fuck did you do?”

“Why do you thing that its my fault?” He tried to sound as innocent as possible, but nothing ever works on Laura.

“Only you and Charles are, well were, his supervisors, and the other reason is, few weeks ago I heard him on the phone talking to someone, mentioning your name. And lets be honest, Charles would never lash out on anyone, especially on such a kind soul like Oscar and - “

“Kind soul? He screamed at me and then left? What was I supposed to do? I wanted to talk to him and he was the one who lashed out, Laura.”

“Well, I cant do anything right now, but im gonna try to get him to see you, both of you, tomorrow.”

“I doubt he’d want to come here.” He was looking out of the window, staring at the people on the street down below.

“Well, if he wont, that’s okay, he has the right to leave, everyone has, Max, but he was the fourth assistant in the past year. Look, talk to Charles, maybe Piastri will listen to him.”

“I need to call him, just before I had the talk with Oscar, I walk Charles down and he left to go home, he is still probably on the way.”

“I think Charles is the more reasonable out of the two of you and - “

“Hey, that hurts!”

“Go home Max, talk to Charles, try him to get to talk to Piastri, then I’ll se about that resignation letter.”

“Bye, Laura.”

“Bye.”

Max took his notebook, made sure the night shift employees knew he was leaving and that no one was in the upstairs office, and left. He wanted to call Charles, yes, but somehow he changed his mind. Instead, the thought of talking to Oscar himself lingered in his mind. He knew that all the informations about all of their employees were in their company database, knowing Oscar should still be their, all the information about him.

He didn’t want to call Laura again, so Matthias it was. The phone was ringing for a while, all the time he was slowly loosing hope. “Fuck, Max, what the fuck do you want?” He sounded like he just ran a full marathon.

“Wow, if I knew you were doing something important, I wouldn’t have called,” laughing more then to anything in days.

“Well? What do you want?” Like max only called when he needed something.

“How do you know I want something?”

“Bitch, I am your lawyer, you only call when you want something. So I am asking you nicely, cause if you’d like to know, I was fucking the love of my life and - “

“I don't have to know everything, Matt.”

“So?” Sounding more and more impatient.

“You have access to our company database, and I would like to an address of someone?”

“Wait a minute, need to get dressed and find my notebook.”

“Thanks, so, how are the honeymoon going, huh?”

“They are fucking amazing, Nina planed absolutely everything, every day is perfect, especially with her, I really love her.”

“Well, I am happy for you, both of you and - “

“The name?

“Oh, yeah, Oscar Piastri, thanks. And so what are you doing there, huh? Other then fucking?”

“We went diving, climbing, also zip-lining or we just spent our time at the villa.”

“You are so lucky, but I am not really jealous to admit, considering where we spend our honeymoon,” remembering that lovely month spent traveling the middle east.

“So, Oscar Piastri, born on sixth of April, 1998, Melbourne. Is that him?”
“Well, I don’t really know anything else rather than his name, so most likely yeah.”

“Okay sending you the address now, and whatever you do, good luck.”

“Thank you, Matthias, and enjoy yourselves.”

“Bye, Max.” He stood the for a while just looking at the close bakery across the street, until he heard the phone again.

105 Rick Roberts Way, Stratford, London E15 2FP

Great, it wasn’t even that far, especially since he wanted to talk to Oscar as soon as possible.

✧

Oscar was so glad to be home finally, finally with his cats, glad that he wouldn’t have to wake up in the morning, fucked because now he’d have to look for a new job.

He had no actual idea how to find a job, he didn’t even want to find anything new. He found this work while he was still studying, he was there for almost 6 years, climbing from a beginning IT guy doing forgotten passwords to a courier, while still studying, to a receptionist, to a social media assistant to his final climb to be CEO assistant.

He must admit, in the end, he found liking the work, but lately it was just to much, all those time when he had to work late in the night, all the weekends he spent at home glued to his computer.

All he now wanted was to take a shower and cuddle with his cats, but no even that had to be interrupted by a ringing bell from down stare.

He was very surprised to see his former boss, he had to laugh at that thought, standing in front of his apartment block, obviously very oblivious to the camera.

“Hello, who is it?” Now that he had the change, he thought he would make a little bit of fun of him.

“Hello… Hi, I - I have a packet for Miss Williams and - and she is not answering her doorbell, so I just thought that, well, that you might take it for her,” wow, Oscar was impressed, a good reason, but not the best, and he even changed his accent and voice a bit.

“Well, in that case, come up upstairs, its the 4th floor, apartment 20,” now that he knew he was coming up, he had no idea what to to next. Just almost hour ago, he screamed at him, told him he had enough, made his life difficult. Now, he was coming to his apartment, not knowing Oscar knew he was not a postman.

It took a while for Max to get upstairs, by then Oscar completely changed his mind, not wanting to see Verstappen. But the knock on the door had to come.

He let him knock for a while, but in the end couldn’t just let him stand there. “I know it is you Mr. Verstappen, I saw you thought the camera.”

“Yet you let me up.” There was unmistakably a smirk on his face, deciding to look thought the peephole, seeing the smirk, he decided to open the door. “Yes, I did, but I am starting to doubt myself, wha are you doing here?”

“Don't be so angry, Oscar, can I come in?”

Oscar was too angry to answer so he just stepped aside, letting him in. Oscar let his boss thought the long hallway, into the only room he has in his apartment.

“You have a nice flat, small, but nice,” he was just looking around, not looking nowhere near Oscar” “And… omg, you have a cat?” Seeing the cat scratching post, a cat litter box, but no cats around.

“You are not here for my cats - “

“You have more?”

“Why are you here?”

“I came here to apologise, Mr. Piastri, I should’ve taken a different approach. I should have talked to you differently. And for that I apologise.” For a second Oscar genuinely wanted to believe, but he remembered all those moments Max raised his voice because of little little, some that weren’t even his fault.

“Today wasn’t that big of a deal you know, I have been thinking about doing something else, going somewhere else, even before I became your assistant. And your approach to my work didn’t exactly help.”

“You texted Laura that the official reason is differences with my supervisor, which is a bullshit and we both know that and - “

“But its true, you must admit that. Why don’t we sit, Mr. Verstappen? He immediately turned around hading towards his little sofa. “Please, sit down,” gesturing to the little otoman.

When Max sat down, he felt something little against his leg, purring softly.

“That is Axel, he likes people. He’s a european shorthair, be careful, he sheds a lot, so if you want to avoid a fur mess, you should probably keep your distance.”

“Thats is okay, we have cats at home ourselves, so I know what’s it like to have fur everywhere,” giggling softly, and Oscar almost forgot his outburst that happened just almost an hour ago, would be able to forget all the time his boss acted like he was something more just because he was the CEO.

“So, you probably didn’t put all the work into finding where I live to play admire my cat.”

“Oh, well, I came to talk to you to not leave us.”

“Well, I already made up my mind.”

“And is there something I can do to change that?” Max thought that maybe, if he allowed Oscar to do something, do things differently, he’d change his mind, wouldn’t want to leave the company.

“Well, yes…” he said with such excitement, that Max almost hoped he would come back. “I mean, no.”

“Come on, Piastri, you want something, name it. You want more money? I can do that. You can bring your cats to work if you want, I wouldn’t mind, really and - “

“It was never about money, with that I am quite comfortable, actually.”

“Then about what? You never complained about anything, at least not to us, so why is suddenly everything wrong?” Max was standing now, looking down at Oscar, probably thinking he was something more when being above.

Oscar stand up. “If you think you are so good and so above me fine, I just don’t like you. You are acting like I am something less, of course not your husband, just you, and let me tell you something, you are not! You are not something more then me just because you built this big ass company!”

“Why are you yelling at me!” Both indeed yelling at ayes other.

“Because that is just me, I am a quite aggressive sometimes, so what? You mind or something.” Sitting down, out of nothing, like nothing happened.

Max, obviously very confused, mimicked him in sitting down, this time, next to Oscar on the sofa. “What the fuck just happened, Oscar? You don’t just have an outburst like this and then be calm all of a sudden.”

“Why do you care? From what I know, you don’t really care about anyone else other than yourself or Mr. Leclerc. Or you only care when it directly affects you.”

“Now you are being unfair to me cause - “ Max really tried to defend himself, but Oscar being quicker.

“See, and that is the problem, you only ever care about yourself, I have never seen you care about anyone else.”

“And how would you know who I care about? You only ever see me in the office, don’t you?"

“Fine, when was the first time that you remember meeting me, huh?”

“That is easy, the day that me and Charles did the interview for you position.”

“Wrong.”

“No, Oscar, that was the first day I saw you.” He knew he was lying, but it definitely wasn’t that long ago. Yes, he knew him a bit longer that he was admitting to, but it couldn’t have been that long time ago.

“No, the first time we met, I mean you two and me, was more then 8 years ago.”

“What the hell are you talking about? No, we didn’t.” Max, in some way, saw the truth in Oscar’s face — but he didn’t really want to believe, that the man he’s liked for the past two years, the man he had maybe, just maybe, hired as his assistant solely to see him every day, could have known him for that long.

“Yes, we did.”

“No, we didn’t.”

Oscar stand up again, looking nowhere near Max. “You should leave, now.”

“Don't throw me out now, please.” Oscar very well heard the desperation in his voice, but couldn’t let himself be in the same room with the man he has admired, liked, maybe more, for the past 8 years.

“There's nothing more to say.”

No, no, there is a lot more to say, fine I admit, I have known you for a bit longer, but for 8 years? Come on, how old were you then? Fifteen?”

Oscar started laughing, cause how the fuck do you have a assistant and do not know his age. “How old do you think I am?”

“Im sorry, that was stupid of me to say and - “

“I said what I said, leave, and there is nothing you can do to change my mind.”

Max could do nothing more then defeatedly stand up, but not without trying something. He came closer to Oscar, brushing their hands, seeing if he would pull back. When no reaction came, he stepped even closer, putting their forehands together, leaning against Oscar.

“I will leave, but you must promise me that you are gonna thing about the work, give it at least a couple of days,” Whispering without needing to. “You can come to us anytime, this is our address,” Handing Oscar a little card. “Please, think about it.”

Max left without looking back, quietly closing the main door. He looked at the little card, it was simple, just an address, nothing more.

22 Colebrooke Row, Islington, London N1 8ST

✧

Its been just a couple of few days, but Oscar is doing better then ever. He cannot say he is at his best, but there is no stress over missed deadlines, over his angry boss and he’s also not missing the time he stayed away from his cats.

In those days, there were no emails, no phone calls, no texts, well except one, from Charles, the morning after.

Talked to Max, hope you will come back, with love, Charles.

The only thing Oscar thought about was the love, the Charles thing wasn’t that big. Mr. Leclerc loved sighing himself after everything everywhere, but the love thing was weird.

He never admitted it to anyone - not in the eight years he had known them, the eight years they couldn’t remember. How could they? He had just been another slut in a brothel, someone a lovely, older couple had come to for their own pleasure.

Back then, Oscar was already studying his university, just making more money to get himself a better apartment. He knew immediately who they were. Charles' deep blue eyes and Max’ nose he could sit - he should stop thinking about him that way.

All his university years, he wanted to get into one company and one company only. Ghostline. Handling everything from viruses, websites to high levels of security. He wanted to work on viruses, hacking and anything in common, but wouldn’t mind doing something else.

Then after years of doing nothing, came the possibility of applying the work as their assistant. Once in a while, he remembered the pressure they put on all of them, on all 50 people that were applying for that job.

Now, he would probably never taken that job if he knew how much stress it’d bring him, all the sleepless nights he spent creating new antivirus, cybersecurity, firewall.

He started looking at a few jobs applications, some were to far, some had fewer money then he needed, some were just not his vision. He also started looking more and more at the card Max gave him.

He had to think rationally about it. That forehand moment he had with Max and the love thing from Charles were constantly on his mind.

Yes, he knew they were somewhat open in their relationship, but he also heard they never had anyone more then once. It was just few days after that night in the brothel. He asked his boss if he knew if they were coming back. He was very confused when he was told they are everyday visitors, but never have someone more than once.

He was looking at the card with their address almost all the time, and c’how could he not? His apartment was small, just slightly bigger room with everything in it, the kitchen, kitchen table, sofa, and the bed. ¨

He had it magneted on his fridge, gave it their on purpose, to thing about them all the time, even though he did and didn’t want it at the same time.

✧

It was officially 3 weeks since he left and he was slowly loosing his mind. While watching one of his favourite movies, he took his phone, stood up and walked to stand in front of the fridge. For a while he was just staring at it.

He then put the address into maps, it wasn’t far, but it wasn’t something he could just walk in ten minutes, 30 minutes by car, 45 by public transport, 2 hour walk, at least.

He did probably the only thing that his mind was screaming to not do, he texted them. He took all his courage and created a group called elysium, and yes he was wondering if they were gonna remember that it was the name of that brothel.

He was nicely surprised when both of them saw it immediately, not writing anything, just waiting for Oscar to make the first move.

I want explanations, you name when and where.

That minute after was shorter than he expected, and he almost jumped when his phone rang with a new massage.

Our house, tomorrow at 7, dress comfortably.

The message came from Charles, but it was completely different Charles then he knew. There was something dark in it. But the second message scared him even more.

And you will be here on time, no excuses.

And, well, amazing, now his autistic brain told him that everything is wrong and that he’s definitely not going. Why should he? He wants a happy relationship, not this toxic bullshit.

He now he’s zero interest in some explanations, so he just turned his phone off, made sure his cats had enough food to last to tomorrow, thinking he’d spend the whole day in bed, gave himself a long shower and stumbled into his bed.

✧

The massage surprised them. After three weeks of nothing, they lost all hopes. But now, they were somewhat sure it would all work out. Charles was the better out of the two of them that had better memory, but even thought he tried, he could not rememberer meeting Oscar all those years ago.

For months, he's been trying to make Oscar feel comfortable around them, to make open himself to them, make him feel welcome in their office, but nothing has been working. He was more closed then all the previous ones.

Yes, he must admit, they have been doing this for a while, but sorely for the reason to keep them. For years, they have been dating men, inviting them to spend some time with them, think about their lives together, but in the end, all of them left. Once it was Max that scared him with his sexual needs, then it was Charles’ need to have everything under control, and the last one cheated on them the first night they left on a business trip.

It was all actually Max’ idea, to try and invite Oscar to their lives, their bed. Their new assistant just left, she was there for just about 4 months, forgetting to mention she was pregnant, Charles and Max finding out just few hours after her very planned c-section. After that, they started the hiring process for the new assistant, they saw a lot of people from and outside off their company, but Oscar really caught their eyes. It wasn’t just his ability to talk himself out of a wrong email he send them by accident, it was his ability to admit his wrongdoing, finding immediate solution, even though it was them that made a lie to see how would people reply.

They hoped they could bring Oscar in, show him their lifestyle, try to invite him and ask him to stay.

But now, way past the time they texted him to come, Oscar nowhere, they thought that maybe they should’ve think of a different way to approach inviting him.

They didn’t prepare anything big, just a small dinner, falafel with hummus, roast potatoes in za’atar, and fresh cucumber sandwiches, and for the dessert they didn’t want anything utterly serious so they bought scones with jam and cream. In some way, it was the food that represented them, was their favourite, made it when they were in a mode or just wanted to make themselves feel more at home.

It was almost 2 hours later that Max lost all the patience he had. “What the fuck did we do wrong?”

“I should’ve realised he wouldn’t come, he didn’t reply to his massages.”

“He almost never replies to his texts and emails, Charlie, that wound not be anything new.”

“But this is serious, we should’ve made sure he knew he was welcome here,” Standing up, Charles started walking from one side of their living area to the other.

“It was always good with the previous ones?” He, in some way, wanted to be confident in that sentence, but when it came out, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Max, come on, you cannot put all the men we date into a one little box. You damn well know everyone is different.”

“Of course I know, Charlie, but he always seemed so, so like everyone else. Blending into a crowd, never standing out.”

“And maybe that was the thing we were supposed to notice, don’t you think?” Charles picked out the phone outside of his pocket and opened the group chat Oscar made yesterday. “We should’ve texted him earlier then now, not wait for almost two hours.”

Im sorry if we were too much, are you gonna come?

He texted it and waited for a couple of minutes, but still, nothing was happening.

“He was last online yesterday, the time does match the last text we send him.”

And maybe that was the thing they were supposed to notice earlier, the wound notice Oscar’ absence, would maybe notice that there wasn’t exactly anything right with Oscar, but again, thy were only thinking of themselves and their own pleasure.

✧

Notes:

so I found some time to write some more, but im also writhing some work on Sev/Moony/Pads, so I will see what im gonna finish first

Notes:

this will probably continue only if someone likes it, eventually I want it to be bdsm with a little back story but I had to start somewhere. Oscar is Australian, Charles is French with the blood of Palestine(sorry but no Monaco here) and Max is Dutch/British.
i also have 4 months holiday in front of me before university so I have all the time in the world. and I do apologise for the mistakes, im to lazy to read after myself.
thanks