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Anyone who doesn’t live under a rock knows the name Argyle Molina. Some know him as the son and heir to the Surfer Boy Pizza Franchise, one of the most successful food chains in the country. Some know of him through his various non-profits and charities or the grants he funds for several issues, including after-school programs for all kids and job programs for prisoners or people on parole. But if you were to ask the average American, they would most likely know him through his online presence or other public appearances.
Argyle is very active online, having a large following on most social media platforms. He posts often, but they’re not the type of posts one would expect from someone with more money than most would know what to do with. He just… posts about his life, like anyone else would. He posts odd shower thoughts that have people bewildered by undyingly amused. Sometimes he’ll post videos or pictures, sometimes of himself, and unless they’re from a publication or a photo shoot, the quality is shoddy at best. One of his most popular Twitter posts is just him following a stray cat, speaking to it in a baby voice, for almost 5 minutes.
Argyle doesn’t act or even dress like he’s rich, keeping his long flowing hair and too-bright clothing. He spends most of his money for good, simply wanting to help people. Simply put, he’s a delight for most people to follow. For how well-known he is, you’d be hard-pressed to find many who genuinely hate him.
And as such, Argyle’s fanbase often wonders if there’s a romantic element to his life. He’s never mentioned anyone, but he has access to basically anyone he’d want, including the actors and actresses he’s been exposed to in a few recent acting roles he did for fun. But he’s given no indication one way or another.
Anytime Argyle is open to an interview, any news organization would clamber to take him up on it, even if they didn’t have any plans to. People are often clambering to get interviews or words from him, but he rarely appears in such things. As he once said, he finds them stressful and hard to schedule.
The Chigaco Times is no different. There are rumors of the young charity worker coming to the city for an unclear reason. So it’s only natural for the paper to at least attempt to get in contact with the man, even if not everyone gets the hype.
“Why do I have to do this?” Robin Buckley, a junior editor, asks her coworker, Jonathan Byers. “He’s not gonna respond to me.” She’s the one who was tasked with reaching out to the billionaire, and she suspects that it’s because everyone else who is more essential or qualified to is busy.
“You don’t know that,” Jonathan says softly, but there’s a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, I do. He’ll be offended by a huge-ass paper making a junior editor reach out to him.” Robin groans, leaning back before sighing and looking at her computer again.
“He doesn’t seem like that kind of guy,” Jonathan observes, “I think he’ll respond. Maybe you’ll be the one to find out if he’s single.” He nudges her, and Robin reaches back to swat him.
“Sure,” Robin scoffs, “I think that’s about as likely as us seeing your totally real boyfriend.”
“He is real!” Jonathan insists, “It’s long distance, I told you.”
“Yeah, he goes to a different school; you wouldn’t know him!” Robin mocks.
“Shut up,” Jonathan groans, but it’s with fondness.
“What’s his name again, Molina?”
“Yep.” Jonathan looks down at his phone, typing or texting someone, but Robin can’t see. “Did you send the email yet?”
“Yes, but let me just say, having him have the same name as the most famous billionaire in the country does not add credibility. You work for a newspaper; you should know how to make it realistic.” Jonathan just rolls his eyes.
“You should check your email.”
“Uh, okay, why-?” Robin stops dead. “He said yes, holy shit. ”
“Told you,” Jonathan says casually as if it totally wasn’t a big deal.
“Holy fuck, I’m going to talk to Argyle Molina ,” Robin whispers to herself.
“What time?”
“Thursday. We don’t have anything that day, right?”
“Yeah, the mayor’s meeting is Sunday.”
“Oh, God, that’s going to be fun,” Robin groans, and Jonathan gets it. They often have to go to these political meetings that are usually duller than dishwater, but they’ll live.
“Oh, you know it.”
~~~
Robin’s trying not to be nervous as Argyle Molina wanders into the interview room. He’s not wearing a suit, but a shirt covered in colorful weiner dogs and orange pants. It shouldn’t work as an outfit, but it really does. He smiles at her, plopping down into his seat.
The interview starts well, with both introducing themselves and Robin asking a little about his life. Argyle gives the earnest, if somewhat confusing, answers he’s known for, and she becomes comfortable far faster than she had thought she would.
“So, do you have any new projects or anything you’re working on?” Robin asks. Argyle hums to himself.
“Nothing new right now, dudette, but I’ve been wondering about doing something to help with rent control,” Argyle answers with a shrug, “I don’t really know enough to say, bro, but I’ve heard about how rent is going, like, super high right now.”
“Oh, is that a concern of yours?” Robin asks.
“Yeah,” Argyle nods, “I need to do research and stuff, but I’ve heard about how rent is more and more of someone’s income, especially for people with lower incomes. And, I mean, I don’t think anyone should be spending over half of their money just for a place to live.”
“That’s a noble cause, for sure. Is there a specific reason for your interest?”
“My boyfriend knows more about it, and he told me.” Robin goes blank, swallowing, replaying what she just heard.
“You… have a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, for… almost six years now. Did you not know?” He asks, tilting his head in confusion.
“No, I don’t think anyone does,” Robin answers truthfully, “It’s quite a popular question on the internet, on whether or not you are single.”
“Oh,” Argyle says, “I thought I would’ve mentioned it by now. Oh, well.” Argyle shrugs again, smiling casually. Robin silently vows to get Jonathan something as a gift. Somehow, the universe agrees with him, and she feels the need to thank him.
“Does your boyfriend influence you a lot?”
“100 percent, dudette!” Argyle answers immediately, “He’s super insightful and knows about all these social things. He was the one that inspired me to look into free dental visits for low-income families.”
“He sounds very intelligent,” Robin says softly, ungodly curious about who this is.
“He is, dudette,” Argyle mumbles, with maybe the only instance Robin has ever seen of heart-eyes.
“Six years… so he knew you before the public did,” Robin observes. Around four and a half years ago, Argyle Molina was revealed to be the mogul he is, heir to an empire. Before that, he was unknown.
“Yeah. He didn’t know I was me, either. He just thought I was some random dude he thought was cool.”
The interview continues for a bit longer, straying into random topics or interests of the rich man. A video of it, along with the transcript and accompanying article, is uploaded the next day.
As expected, it caused quite a buzz online. There’s a mix of people wanting to know who this mystery boyfriend is and people saddened that Argyle isn’t single for either themselves or their celebrity of choice. Of course, some aren’t thrilled over the fact that Argyle is with a guy, but most of them are relegated to private chatrooms and the very bottom of the comments section.
Robin gets quite the praise for the sheer number of clicks and views her work got, with a nice bonus as well. Jonathan gives her a knowing look, but she doesn’t question it, walking on air.
However, the air is taken from her as Sunday rolls around, and she has to exit the exciting lives of the most eccentric billionaire in the world to dry politicians. At least she’ll have her friends with her, including Jonathan, Nancy Wheeler, and Steve Harrington.
The event is formal, and, as the press, the group gets a table right near the front. It’s an outside presentation with decent weather, which is a small bonus. However, they’re seated at the table, reaching the halfway point when a problem arises.
“Ah, shit,” Jonathan mumbles.
“What’s up?” Steve asks, closing his video recorder. There will be a small recess before there is even more talk of laws and policies and such.
“I don’t think I have enough battery to last the night,” Jonathan says, peering at his camera, “I could’ve sworn I charged it.”
“Oh, no,” Nancy whispers, “I could run super quick to the office if you need.”
“No, it’s alright,” Jonathan says, pulling out his phone, “I think I can call someone.” This is a public event, so anyone can come and go as they please.
“Are you sure?” Nancy asks as Jonathan’s phone pings.
“Yeah, they’re coming.” Jonathan nods. “Crisis averted.”
“Good. This is so interesting; you wouldn’t wanna miss anything, ” Steve teases, getting the table to laugh. But Jonathan continues to smile to himself, a smug aura around him. Robin raises an eyebrow, but he just grins at her.
When it’s about five minutes until the recess is over, the buzz of talking from the audience starts to die, starting from the back, near the entrance, voices suddenly cut out table by table as if silenced by something. The only noises then become whispers and the click of phone cameras.
The table of journalists shares looks, wondering why. They glance around the crowd, but nothing immediately stands out to them. Nancy and Robin whisper to each other while Steve gets his camera ready to record again. The only one who doesn’t seem fazed by the odd behavior is Jonathan, who still waits patiently with his nearly dead camera.
“Holy shit. Look!” Steve suddenly whispers, pointing into the crowd. The group follows his finger, trained on a particular person weaving through the tables.
None other than Argyle Molina is making his way slowly through the tables set up on the grass. He’s distinctive, towering over nearly everyone and dressed brightly enough to serve as a rescue beacon. He lazily moves past chairs, apologizing when he bumps into people, paying no mind to the stares.
“What’s he doing here?” Nancy asks, looking pointedly at Robin.
“Don’t ask me! He didn’t say anything about being here,” she quickly says. Steve trains the camera on the large man.
“Maybe he’s going to announce some new project?” Steve suggests. “Working with the city on something?” Nancy shrugs.
“Maybe he’ll be speaking,” she adds.
At that moment, as if he heard her, Argyle turns, eyes locking onto the journalists’ table. He smiles widely before making a B-line for the group.
“Oh, why’s he coming this way?” Robin stage-whispers.
“I thought you liked him?” Jonathan asks, finally speaking. Unlike his coworkers, he’s just as calm as he once was, acting as if this wasn’t strange and unexpected. Robin glares at him.
“Yeah, but not when he’s walking over here like the Terminator,” she whispers. Jonathan looks at the young billionaire, still with that goofy smile on his face, lumbering closer. He raises an eyebrow.
“Okay,” Jonathan scoffs, rolling his eyes. Robin opens her mouth to say something but quickly snaps it shut again.
“Hey, dudes,” a calm, soothing voice says from just a few feet away. Argyle stands beside the table, grabbing an empty seat beside Jonathan. He pulls it out, plopping into it as if he’d been there the whole time. “I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“No, we’ve still got a few minutes before the mayor comes back on,” Jonathan answers readily.
“Oh, perfect!” Argyle lifts a bag, placing it on the table with a thud. He roots around in it noisily. As he does, he glances at the gobsmacked journalists, his gaze landing on Robin.
“Nice to see you again, Robin, my dude. Heard you got some major clicks.” The woman in question nods numbly. “Cool, dude. You deserve it. That was one of the more fun interviews I’ve done in a while.”
“You haven’t done any interview in almost three months,” Jonathan points out, taking a long sip of his water. Argyle scoffs good-naturedly.
“ Still, I’ve been to some boring ass talks, so it was nice,” Argyle counters.
“Do… do you two know each other?” Nancy asks, motioning between Jonathan and Argyle.
“Yeah, uh…” Argyle hesitates, “Nancy? Nancy Wheeler?”
“Yes…”
“Cool. So you must be Steve,” Argyle points out, nodding at the man in question. “But to answer you’re question, dudette, yes, we do.” Before anyone can ask anything more, Argyle finds what he’s looking for in the bag.
“Aha!” He pulls out a black piece of plastic, handing it to Jonathan. Jonathan quickly grabs it, swapping out the nearly dead battery of his camera.
“Thank you,” Jonathan says softly.
“Anytime, babe.” Argyle leans forward, planting a big, sweet kiss on the more petite man’s lips. Gasps ring out from around them, both from their table and not.
“Jonathan, what?! ” Steve blurts. The photographer giggles as he pulls out of the kiss.
“I’d like you all to meet my boyfriend, Argyle Molina,” Jonathan introduces, with Argyle bowing his head in greeting.
“You do exist,” Robin mumbles before she can stop herself. “No offense, but we thought he was bullshitting us.” Argyle laughs loudly as Jonathan glares at her.
“I never lied to you,” Jonathan points out. “Not once.”
“No, you really didn’t,” Nancy mumbles, still somewhat shell-shocked.
“You don’t have to stay here,” Jonathan says softly to his boyfriend. Argyle just shrugs.
“I don’t mind. I was bored and missing you anyways, dude,” Argyle says, staring at Jonathan as if he hung the moon in the sky. It’s sickeningly sweet, and Steve has to hold back from cooing out loud.
The town meeting soon continues, but only some are paying attention now. Even those speaking know they’ve lost their audience, so they wrap up the session rather quickly. And as soon as the final words are said, the buzzing of talking begins again. People stare at Argyle and Jonathan, sometimes pointing or taking pictures.
“You guys up for a drink?” Argyle asks out of the blue, “My treat, dudes.”
“We don’t want to intrude,” Nancy says, glancing between Steve and Robin and smiling.
“You won’t be,” Jonathan presses, “We know a great little place with good food and music.”
“Yeah, okay!” Steve cuts in. Nancy looks like she might refuse again but shakes her head fondly at Steve. As they walk towards their cars, she does lean into Jonathan, whispering.
“If you want a date, we don’t have to go.” Jonathan grins at her.
“Argyle’s been in Chicago for almost a week, and he’s going to stay for much longer,” Jonathan addresses her and the group. “It’s why we decided to go public with this. People would notice me hanging around him and figure it out anyway, so there’s no point in hiding it.”
“You’re moving here?” Robin probes and Argyle grins.
“I might still fly around for projects and stuff, but this’ll be my home-sweet-home, my dudes. I wanna stay near Jonathan as much as I can.” He leans in, kissing Jonathan’s forehead, with the other not even phased.
The conversation is put on pause as everyone gets into their cars, following Argyle in his van for a few miles, eventually reaching a little building squished between a few larger businesses. A neon sign proclaims it as the Banished Dragon is plastered above the door, lighting up a rather shady-looking bar, but Argyle and Jonathan walk right in.
“Molina! Byers!” A voice shouts when they walk in. A young man with a wild head of black hair pops up from behind the bar, walking up to the couple. “Holy hell, you two, Twitter is already trending with your little stunt.”
“You knew we were doing it, Munson,” Jonathan snarks, and the bartender laughs.
“Still. Fucking wild.” He seems to notice the strangers, bowing dramatically. “Hello! Welcome to the Banished Dragon , Eddie Munson at your service.” He winks at the group, particularly at Steve, who coughs and looks away.
“I met this drowned rat in my Senior year of high school,” Eddie says, motioning to Jonathan, who scoffs and shoves him playfully. He leads them to a booth near the back that could fit all of them. The bar is a fantasy and medieval theme, and despite its outside appearance, inside, it’s very well taken care of and clean. “Who knew that he would get a boyfriend who just decided to buy me a bar to run.”
“Any friend of Jonathan’s is a friend of mine,” Argyle says casually, shrugging.
“You own this place?” Steve asks.
“Yep!” Eddie croons, “But I still like doing the work. Never was a manager type, so I tend the bar, but I also play guitar for my band.” Eddie motions his head towards a small stage that is currently empty.
The conversation continues a little longer, with Eddie personally making all their drinks and totally not flirting with Steve any chance he gets. The group doesn’t get trashed, mostly just one or two drinks over a few hours, so they’re all still good to drive. Argyle successfully charms all of Jonathan’s coworkers before the night ends, promising to do this again.
Within a week of the event, the internet is still swarmed with the revelation that Argyle Molina is dating some random photographer from nowhere. All of Jonathan’s work sees a massive jump in traffic. His boss also pulls him into a meeting or two, lecturing him on keeping things under wraps and not leaking anything, which wasn’t bad.
What is most amusing (or embarrassing for Jonathan) is that the photographer has gained a small fanbase of his own. He doesn’t understand much of it (what does ‘skrunkly’ mean?), but he does get some. Especially the few pieces of fan art and even fanfiction people have pumped out, even if some of it can scar him for life.
But it’s all worth it if Jonathan can wake up with Argyle curled around him.