Chapter 364: The Real Gift
Nash waited in the car, parked a little away from the hospital entrance, hands resting on the wheel, letting his mind drift quietly while Victoria finished her visit.
He saw her approaching from a distance, her silhouette cut out by the parking lights, a certain lightness visible in each of her steps since last night.
She opened the passenger door and slid in, letting out a breath that almost sounded like contained satisfaction.
"So," Nash asked, turning the key in the ignition without fully starting the car, "was it good?"
"Better than expected," Victoria said, a satisfied smile appearing on her lips.
"And they didn’t say anything about the drive?"
"Nothing at all," she confirmed. "Monique got hit right in her pride, and with Hector’s attitude, we can trust them to leave us two steps ahead."
Nash nodded, satisfied, and reached for the gear shift.
"Good. We can go, then."
He was about to start the car when Victoria placed a light hand on his arm.
"Wait," she said.
"What?"
She didn’t answer right away. She simply leaned toward him, one hand coming to rest gently on the back of his neck. Her fingers slid slowly into his hair as she closed the last of the distance.
Her lips brushed his first, soft, testing. Then she kissed him properly.
It was slow, deep. She took her time, tasting him, her mouth moving against his with a quiet, hungry patience. Her tongue slipped past his lips, not rushing, just exploring, lingering, as if she wanted to memorize the exact flavor of him after everything that had just happened. One of her hands stayed on his nape, thumb stroking the skin there in small circles while she deepened the kiss even further, pressing closer, breathing him in.
She stayed there, kissing him like she had all the time in the world, like sealing this moment against his mouth was more important than anything else. The cherry on top would have been if Hector came out to witness this. Maybe it was her plan all along? Or maybe was she just feeling kissy?
When she finally drew back, it was only by a few centimeters. Her lips were slightly parted, still close enough that he could feel her sweet breath. A satisfied, almost languid smile on her mouth as she looked at him.
Nash stayed silent for a second, a little caught off guard, before a calm smile of his own appeared.
"Okay," he said simply. "Guess it was really good up there."
Victoria let out a small laugh and settled comfortably into her seat, still looking pleased with herself.
"Like I said," she murmured. "A thousand times better than expected."
The drive had taken almost twenty minutes. Nash left the familiar neighborhoods behind and pushed deeper into an area of the Spires where the properties grew more and more spaced out, hidden behind high walls and rows of carefully trimmed trees.
"I know this area," Victoria said, watching the landscape slide past the window, one finger tapping thoughtfully against her thigh. "Or at least, I thought I did. I’ve had business not far from here, technically. But I don’t remember a domain this big around here. Where exactly are we going?"
"We’ll see," Nash had simply answered, an enigmatic smile on his lips.
She leaned slightly toward him, placing a hand on his thigh, her fingers tracing small, distracted circles.
"You’re always this mysterious with me," she murmured. "Even after everything we’ve been through together? You know, I like being surprised, but I like knowing where I’m going even more."
"Give me your birthday and maybe I’ll think about it," Nash replied without taking his eyes off the road.
"Mmh," she said, a smile floating on her lips, before leaning in even closer and placing a light kiss against his temple. "Keep surprising me then."
The car finally stopped in front of a massive wrought-iron gate, framed by two stone columns covered in carefully maintained ivy, opening onto a paved driveway that wound through an immaculate garden.
Victoria straightened up at once, her smile fading for a moment, replaced by genuine perplexity.
"Wait," she said, leaning forward to get a better look through the windshield. "What is this place? I swear, I lived in this sector for years, and I absolutely don’t remember a domain like this."
"The mansion," Nash said, a satisfied smile appearing on his face as he inserted the keys into the gate’s security box. "The real gift from last night."
The gate opened slowly, gradually revealing the full scale of the estate—a massive building of light-colored stone, three stories high, mullioned windows stretching across the entire façade, several secondary wings spreading out on either side of the main building.
Victoria remained silent, her mouth slightly open, watching the whole thing with growing astonishment as the car advanced along the driveway.
"Nash," she said finally, "I know every major estate in this zone. Like, all of them. It’s my job to know this kind of thing. And this—" she gestured vaguely at the building, "this didn’t exist a week ago."
Nash stayed silent for a moment, a thoughtful crease appearing between his eyebrows, Victoria’s remark raising a doubt he hadn’t considered until then.
*Can the system literally create things like this?* he thought, his gaze slowly climbing the massive façade of the mansion. *Or does it just rewrite what already exists—change papers, erase an entire collective memory like it’s nothing?*
He had never really tested the limits of what the system could do beyond stats and passives. That question probably deserved to be dug into later.
"The politician who gave it to me must be the type who has things built discreetly," he said eventually, out loud, parking in front of the entrance steps. "A private project, kept off the public records until it’s finished. The kind of guy who doesn’t like people knowing where he stashes his money before it’s done."
"Maybe," Victoria admitted, getting out of the car, her gaze still lifted toward the façade with a fascination mixed with a vague unease she couldn’t quite explain. "But it still gives me a bit of a chill down my spine, if I’m being honest. A place like this just appearing out of nowhere."
They climbed the steps together, Victoria slipping her arm under Nash’s, her hand resting lightly on his forearm as they crossed the threshold.
The entrance hall opened up before them, immense—a double staircase rising majestically on either side toward the upper floor, massive chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling, the marble floor echoing their footsteps.
"It’s huge," Victoria murmured, tightening her grip on Nash’s arm, instinctively moving closer to him, her shoulder pressing against his as she slowly turned her head to take everything in.
"Exactly," Nash said. "This is precisely what I needed."
They continued the tour, Victoria never really letting go of his arm, discovering room after room—an entire library on the first floor, several independent suites spread across the different wings, each with its own bathroom and small private living room, an industrial kitchen capable of feeding dozens of people, two separate pools (one indoor and heated, the other outdoor surrounded by palm trees), and finally the covered breakball court, equipped with bleachers, professional locker rooms, and a lighting system worthy of a real stadium.
Nash felt something growing inside him with every new room discovered—an incredulity mixed with an immense relief that kept expanding.
*Thank you,* he thought, addressing the System, that invisible force that always seemed to know exactly what he needed before he could even clearly formulate it.
Literally everything he would have wanted to give himself one day, everything he had secretly imagined for months without ever really daring to think about how to obtain it, was here—concrete, real, under his feet.
"There are so many rooms here," he murmured, almost to himself, stopping for a moment in the middle of one of the east wing corridors, his gaze sweeping over the doors lined up on either side. "Like, really so many. Everyone could—" he interrupted himself, shaking his head slightly, an incredulous laugh escaping him. "I can’t even believe it. Everyone can actually be together in the same place, safe, without anyone having to step on each other. It’s literally possible now. Right here, right now."
Victoria watched him with particular attention during that short moment, a soft and curious smile appearing on her face. It was rare, these instants when Nash completely dropped his usual restraint, when his emotions suddenly became readable without him trying to calculate or hide them behind a strategy.
She loved those moments—maybe more than she would have admitted out loud—that rawer, more vulnerable version of him, almost childlike in his wonder.
"My plan," he continued, gradually regaining his usual composure as they stopped in front of the large glass windows overlooking the court, Victoria still nestled against his side, "is to install everyone here. You, Dahlia, Zayela, Baby-Boom, Lina, Sarra, Amara... everyone. Everyone can be gathered in one single place, secured, with enough space so no one steps on each other."
Victoria remained silent for a moment, her head resting against his shoulder, thinking.
"It’s going to cost a fortune in staff," she said finally, returning to her usual role of pragmatic manager, even if her hand still hadn’t released his arm. "A place like this, you can’t just leave it running on its own. You need maintenance staff, security, cooks, potentially medical staff given the number of people."
"I know," Nash said, nodding. "I’ve already thought about it."
A slight, almost mischievous smile appeared on his face.
"And honestly," he added, "it could be fun."
Victoria lifted her head to look at him, one eyebrow raised, already sensing where his mind was starting to drift.
"Fun how."
"We’ll talk about it later," Nash said, deflecting the question with a calm smile. "For now, priority is Phase A. And finalizing Baby-Boom’s integration. The rest can... No, actually, we finish with Baby-Boom, and then we move on to this part. We need to get on it starting today."
Victoria watched him for a moment longer, shaking her head slightly, an amused smile on her lips. Then she rose onto the tips of her toes.
Nash was nearly two meters tall. She couldn’t reach him properly without him meeting her halfway. He understood immediately and bent down, lowering his head toward hers.
She kissed him again, softer this time, slower. Her hand came up and rested gently against his cheek, thumb brushing the line of his jaw as her lips moved against his tenderly.
Nash returned it.
Then he deepened it.
His hand slid to the back of her neck, fingers threading into her hair, holding her in place as the kiss grew heavier. His other hand moved down, settled firmly on the curve of her ass, and he lifted her just enough that her feet left the ground for a second. The sudden shift pulled a low, involuntary moan from Victoria’s throat, the sound vibrating directly into his mouth.
She smiled against his lips when he set her back down, still close, her breath warm against his.
"You see?" she murmured, a little breathless. "Like I said... a thousand times better than expected."
She didn’t give him time to answer.
She pulled him back in, kissing him harder this time, more demanding. Her head tilted, mouth opening against his as she practically devoured him, tongue sliding deep, restless and hungry. Both of her hands clutched at his jacket, then his shoulders, pulling herself against him like she couldn’t get close enough. Every time he tried to adjust the angle, she followed, chasing his mouth, refusing to let the kiss break for more than a fraction of a second.
Nash matched her intensity without hesitation, one hand still buried in her hair, the other gripping her waist now, holding her tightly against him while the everything around them faded into nothing.
Meanwhile, on the run-down Dust Dogs court, somewhere in the Underground’s rock bottom, under the flickering pale neons buzzing above the crooked rim, Roam bounced a worn-out ball against the cracked asphalt, alone.
He stopped, set his feet, and shot. The ball sailed through the air and dropped clean through the frayed net.
In his head, Tylo’s voice was still echoing.
"So we’re actually doing this, then. We’re going up against the shrimp."
Roam clenched his jaw, watching the ball roll away without making a single move to go get it, his facial features hardening.
"So... this is actually happening?" he muttered.