In and Outside the Octagon
Title: In and Outside the Octagon (2/?)
Author: berryblue_girl
Rating: PG-13 (may change)
Genre/Warning: Modern AU, mentions of MMA-related violence and language
Summary: Nasir interviews Agron and Duro Krueger, two of the UFC's newest recruits. But things don't end between Nasir and Agron when the interview does.
Disclaimer: I don't own this show or its characters. They belong to Starz and the all-mighty Steven DeKnight. I'm just playing with them.
Author's Notes: Thank you for the great response to this story. I hope you like this update as well!
Nasir decided it was time to take a break when his eyes started crossing from staring at his laptop since eight that morning and his stomach rumbled. Saving his work, he shut down his laptop and picked up his phone, calling one of his best friends, Chadara.
“Hey, Naz,” she answered, slightly breathless, “make it quick. Things are a little hectic today.”
Chadara was a nurse and worked at one of the local hospitals. Nasir stood and said, “Well, I'm taking a break from editing one of my articles and wanted to know if you'd like to meet up at Lugo's for lunch.”
“That sounds fantastic!” she enthused. “I'll meet you there! Gotta go!”
The call ended, and Nasir tucked his phone into his pocket. He grabbed his bike, wanting to take advantage of the nice weather since he didn't work out that morning. Locking up his apartment, he took the elevator to the main floor. He pulled his hair back into a messy bun before walking his bike outside and hopping on it. Most people that found out Nasir and Lugo were best friends were confused to say the least. But in high school, they bonded over being children of immigrants and the UFC. He was the first person Nasir came out to and it didn't seem to phase Lugo. They would go the mall, and Lugo would point guys out and ask Nasir what he thought. They met Chadara in Nasir's first year of college at a small gathering to watch a UFC event. She looked like a blond bombshell who could be quiet and all smiles one minute and then be shouting at the TV over a bad referee call. After the event ended, the three of them went to IHOP, ate pancakes, and talked fights until the wee hours of the morning. After that, their duo became a trio. They shouldn't have made sense but they did. Nasir arrived at Lugo's bar and grill, his muscles burning slightly from the ride, and chained up his bike. Right as he was entering the building, a red-faced man in a chef's jacket stormed past him, ranting, “Take this job and shove it up your ass, you Nazi fuck!”
Lugo was right behind him. Nasir stepped aside as Lugo jerked the door open and shouted after the man, “Go back to Ruby Tuesday's, you fucking cock!”
Lugo turned to Nasir and panted, “I won't have rank amateurs working here!”
“Whatever you say, Gordon Ramsey.”
The stocky man laughed and the two shared a hug. Lugo pulled back and said, “I thought I was going to have to send search party to your apartment to make sure you were still alive. What's been going on?”
“I've been swamped with deadlines!” Nasir replied, letting Lugo lead him to the bar area. “On Monday, I had to turn in my recap of last weekend's fight card and do my interview with the Krueger brothers. Tuesday was spent working on that article and my predications for this weekend's fight card. And today I have to send in my final draft of the Krueger brothers interview for review by this afternoon.”
“Jesus!” Lugo lamented as Nasir sat down and he slipped behind the bar.
Nasir shrugged. “Hopefully I should have the next two days to relax before my next assignments.”
Plucking a menu from behind the bar, Nasir scanned it and asked, “Can I have the jalapeno bacon burger with extra seasoned fries and a sweet tea? Chadara is coming here for lunch so her usual grilled chicken salad.”
Lugo nodded and headed back to the kitchen. It wasn't a few minutes later that Chadara breezed the door, Castus in tow. Castus had been Nasir's first serious relationship in college. They dated for a year and a half before breaking up and deciding to stay friends. The three hugged, Chadara explaining, “I met him in the lobby as he was leaving after his sister.”
Nasir smiled at Castus and they took seats at the bar. “When are Aisha and the baby being released?”
“Later this afternoon,” Castus replied. “She's still expecting you to come by for a visit.”
“I will,” Nasir reassured. “I've just been so busy with work. This is the first I've been out of the apartment since the Krueger interview.”
“Speaking of,” Chadara segued, her face now alive with curiosity, “how was your interview with your epic MMA crush?”
“Completely professional,” Nasir said with an eyeroll. “I didn't shove his brother out of the conference room and have my wicked way with him, or whatever bizarre scenario you have concocted in your head.”
Lugo emerged from the kitchen, explaining, “Everything will be ready soon. Hello, Castus!”
The two shook hands while Chadara griped, “You mean you didn't try anything? I mean, this is the man whose thighs you described as being carved from “marble and sex”. What gives?”
“I'm with Chadara on this one,” Castus seconded. “We're not asking for wild sex, but give us something!”
Nasir wasn't sure if he should be amused or insulted by his friends' assumptions about his lack of professional behavior around his “MMA crush”. Attention was temporarily distracted from Nasir when the food arrived. Castus ordered a Coke and stole fries from Nasir's plate. After a couple minutes of silent consumption, Nasir licked his slightly burning lips and conceded, “I'll admit I checked him out a few times, but as the interview progressed, I became engrossed in their stories. I'm as a big a fan of Agron's fight career as I am of his thighs. So yeah, all and all, I was...”
He trailed off as the end of the interview came rushing back into his mind. Embarrassment and guilt flooded his system as he reached from his phone, saying, “Shit, shit, shit” under his breath.
“What's up?” Chadara asked, leaning over his shoulder.
Sighing as he checked his personal email, he said, “At the end of the interview, he was...kinda flirty, or at least I hope he was, and I might have...givenhimmypersonalemail.”
Without fail, his friends crowed with laughter. Lugo chortled, “And you are j-just now remembering this?”
Nasir gave him the finger, which only caused Lugo to laugh louder. He stopped scrolling when he saw an email from aggy_mma@gmail.com, entitled Not sure what to put here. Chadara squealed, “Read it! Read it!”
“Why should I, you intrusive hag?” Nasir groused, locking his phone.
Chadara only grinned and took another bite of her salad. Lugo and Castus finally regained control over themselves, Castus saying breathlessly, “Only you would forget that you gave your email to your ultimate MMA crush. Thank God I wasn't exactly subtle when we first met or we would have never dated!”
Nasir excused himself to “go to the bathroom”, which prompted a chorus of “Sure, you are” and “Details, fucker”. He practically ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind him for good measure. Unlocking his phone with trembling fingers, he leaned against the door and read, Nasir, sorry about my shitty subject title. Never was very good with those. But anyway, I know it's only been a few hours since the interview and you probably haven't even checked your email, but fortune favors the bold, right? I was thinking maybe we could watch the fights together this weekend. Let me know. Agron
(^v^)
“Like you said before, he's probably busy.”
The stinging sensation of the needle on his shoulder blade stopped, and Agron and Duro's little sister Sophie asked, “Want to take a break before I start the shading?”
“Sure,” Agron replied, sitting up straight and stretching some. Duro was sitting on a stool across from him in the small room of the tattoo parlor where Sophie worked, a bandage over his heart. They were getting matching tattoos, a trio of orchids, for their mom as a Mother's Day gift. Sophie rolled from behind him, pulling off her gloves as she said, “I dated a journalism major in college, and once he had a writing assignment, it was like I didn't even exist.”
Duro frowned. “Wasn't that the guy you dumped for that very same reason and he stalked you until Ags and I tracked him down and threatened to beat his ass?”
“The very same,” Sophie replied, taking a sip of water and offering the bottle to Agron. He took it as she said, “If he doesn't reply by the end of this week, then it was a bust and he's a dick that is obsessed with his job. No harm, no foul.”
“Except the harm done to poor Aggy's heart,” Duro snickered, “at being rejected by his epic man crush.”
“He's not my man crush!” Agron growled, throwing the bottle at his brother's head. “I really like and respect his opinions on MMA and yes, I find him very attractive.”
Duro and Sophie exchanged looks before saying, “Man crush.”
“Fuck both of you!” Agron shouted while his siblings continued to snicker. “I've been getting picked at about this since Monday, and it's really not funny anymore!”
His younger siblings sobered up. After a Moment of Silence, Sophie rolled closer and said softly in German, “I'm sorry, big brother. We took it too far.”
“Yeah, we were being dicks,” Duro added. “Forgive us?”
Normally Agron would have doubted their sincerity, but in their family, they only spoke German amongst themselves or when something needed to be said just between them. It was their special way of communicating. So Agron reached up and pinched his little sister's chin and said, “Always.”
Sophie grinned and kissed his cheek, rolling back behind him. Duro smiled and said gently, “You have to admit, you have some fanboyish tendencies when it comes to this guy. You've read every article he's written since joining Bloody Elbow, you follow him on Twitter and Instagram...need I say more?”
Agron let Sophie maneuver him back into position, saying, “Okay, you have me there. And I'll accept the label of “fanboy” but don't call whatever this thing is with Nasir a man crush. That makes me sound like some fourteen year old dipshit with his first hard-on or something.”
Sophie began shading, snorting as she worked. Duro nodded his head. “Fair enough.”
Thankfully the topic of conversation shifted from Agron to Sophie. Duro asked her where her car was, and after a few minutes of prodding, she told them that she had broken up with her boyfriend Tiberius over the weekend. He had responded by slashing her tires and putting a cinder block through her wind shield.
“Don't you two do anything!” she insisted. “My neighbors in the apartment next to me saw him and called the cops. The authorities are handling it, and I really don't need you two going off, half-cocked and looking for a fight.”
“You tell us if he keeps bothering you,” Duro insisted. “His dad is Marcus Crassus, and you can bet your ass he'll try to get all this swept under the rug.”
“I told you that guy was a fucking asshole,” Agron growled. “You have the worst taste in men!”
“Like you're one to talk,” Sophie grumbled. “Sedullus, Julius, Marcus...should I go on?”
“Nope,” Agron replied quickly. “I don't need a greatest hits of my relationship fails today, thank you very much!”
His cellphone sounded in his pocket, and he asked Sophie to pause for a moment. He unlocked his phone and saw that he had an email. Pressing the envelope icon at the bottom of his screen, he checked his Gmail. His rage at Sophie's dick of an ex dissipated some when he saw that Nasir had responded to his email. He selected the message, his face splitting into a grin.
To: aggy_mma@gmail.com
From: naz_angel7@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Not sure what to put here
Agron,
So sorry I didn't answer your email sooner, but BE decided to slam me with deadlines. It would be awesome to watch the fights with you this weekend. My place? Yours? A neutral location? Would it be cool if I brought friends? And don't worry, it won't take me as long to respond to this email.
-Nasir
A/N- I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are loved like Agron loves Nasir.
Author: berryblue_girl
Rating: PG-13 (may change)
Genre/Warning: Modern AU, mentions of MMA-related violence and language
Summary: Nasir interviews Agron and Duro Krueger, two of the UFC's newest recruits. But things don't end between Nasir and Agron when the interview does.
Disclaimer: I don't own this show or its characters. They belong to Starz and the all-mighty Steven DeKnight. I'm just playing with them.
Author's Notes: Thank you for the great response to this story. I hope you like this update as well!
Nasir decided it was time to take a break when his eyes started crossing from staring at his laptop since eight that morning and his stomach rumbled. Saving his work, he shut down his laptop and picked up his phone, calling one of his best friends, Chadara.
“Hey, Naz,” she answered, slightly breathless, “make it quick. Things are a little hectic today.”
Chadara was a nurse and worked at one of the local hospitals. Nasir stood and said, “Well, I'm taking a break from editing one of my articles and wanted to know if you'd like to meet up at Lugo's for lunch.”
“That sounds fantastic!” she enthused. “I'll meet you there! Gotta go!”
The call ended, and Nasir tucked his phone into his pocket. He grabbed his bike, wanting to take advantage of the nice weather since he didn't work out that morning. Locking up his apartment, he took the elevator to the main floor. He pulled his hair back into a messy bun before walking his bike outside and hopping on it. Most people that found out Nasir and Lugo were best friends were confused to say the least. But in high school, they bonded over being children of immigrants and the UFC. He was the first person Nasir came out to and it didn't seem to phase Lugo. They would go the mall, and Lugo would point guys out and ask Nasir what he thought. They met Chadara in Nasir's first year of college at a small gathering to watch a UFC event. She looked like a blond bombshell who could be quiet and all smiles one minute and then be shouting at the TV over a bad referee call. After the event ended, the three of them went to IHOP, ate pancakes, and talked fights until the wee hours of the morning. After that, their duo became a trio. They shouldn't have made sense but they did. Nasir arrived at Lugo's bar and grill, his muscles burning slightly from the ride, and chained up his bike. Right as he was entering the building, a red-faced man in a chef's jacket stormed past him, ranting, “Take this job and shove it up your ass, you Nazi fuck!”
Lugo was right behind him. Nasir stepped aside as Lugo jerked the door open and shouted after the man, “Go back to Ruby Tuesday's, you fucking cock!”
Lugo turned to Nasir and panted, “I won't have rank amateurs working here!”
“Whatever you say, Gordon Ramsey.”
The stocky man laughed and the two shared a hug. Lugo pulled back and said, “I thought I was going to have to send search party to your apartment to make sure you were still alive. What's been going on?”
“I've been swamped with deadlines!” Nasir replied, letting Lugo lead him to the bar area. “On Monday, I had to turn in my recap of last weekend's fight card and do my interview with the Krueger brothers. Tuesday was spent working on that article and my predications for this weekend's fight card. And today I have to send in my final draft of the Krueger brothers interview for review by this afternoon.”
“Jesus!” Lugo lamented as Nasir sat down and he slipped behind the bar.
Nasir shrugged. “Hopefully I should have the next two days to relax before my next assignments.”
Plucking a menu from behind the bar, Nasir scanned it and asked, “Can I have the jalapeno bacon burger with extra seasoned fries and a sweet tea? Chadara is coming here for lunch so her usual grilled chicken salad.”
Lugo nodded and headed back to the kitchen. It wasn't a few minutes later that Chadara breezed the door, Castus in tow. Castus had been Nasir's first serious relationship in college. They dated for a year and a half before breaking up and deciding to stay friends. The three hugged, Chadara explaining, “I met him in the lobby as he was leaving after his sister.”
Nasir smiled at Castus and they took seats at the bar. “When are Aisha and the baby being released?”
“Later this afternoon,” Castus replied. “She's still expecting you to come by for a visit.”
“I will,” Nasir reassured. “I've just been so busy with work. This is the first I've been out of the apartment since the Krueger interview.”
“Speaking of,” Chadara segued, her face now alive with curiosity, “how was your interview with your epic MMA crush?”
“Completely professional,” Nasir said with an eyeroll. “I didn't shove his brother out of the conference room and have my wicked way with him, or whatever bizarre scenario you have concocted in your head.”
Lugo emerged from the kitchen, explaining, “Everything will be ready soon. Hello, Castus!”
The two shook hands while Chadara griped, “You mean you didn't try anything? I mean, this is the man whose thighs you described as being carved from “marble and sex”. What gives?”
“I'm with Chadara on this one,” Castus seconded. “We're not asking for wild sex, but give us something!”
Nasir wasn't sure if he should be amused or insulted by his friends' assumptions about his lack of professional behavior around his “MMA crush”. Attention was temporarily distracted from Nasir when the food arrived. Castus ordered a Coke and stole fries from Nasir's plate. After a couple minutes of silent consumption, Nasir licked his slightly burning lips and conceded, “I'll admit I checked him out a few times, but as the interview progressed, I became engrossed in their stories. I'm as a big a fan of Agron's fight career as I am of his thighs. So yeah, all and all, I was...”
He trailed off as the end of the interview came rushing back into his mind. Embarrassment and guilt flooded his system as he reached from his phone, saying, “Shit, shit, shit” under his breath.
“What's up?” Chadara asked, leaning over his shoulder.
Sighing as he checked his personal email, he said, “At the end of the interview, he was...kinda flirty, or at least I hope he was, and I might have...givenhimmypersonalemail.”
Without fail, his friends crowed with laughter. Lugo chortled, “And you are j-just now remembering this?”
Nasir gave him the finger, which only caused Lugo to laugh louder. He stopped scrolling when he saw an email from aggy_mma@gmail.com, entitled Not sure what to put here. Chadara squealed, “Read it! Read it!”
“Why should I, you intrusive hag?” Nasir groused, locking his phone.
Chadara only grinned and took another bite of her salad. Lugo and Castus finally regained control over themselves, Castus saying breathlessly, “Only you would forget that you gave your email to your ultimate MMA crush. Thank God I wasn't exactly subtle when we first met or we would have never dated!”
Nasir excused himself to “go to the bathroom”, which prompted a chorus of “Sure, you are” and “Details, fucker”. He practically ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind him for good measure. Unlocking his phone with trembling fingers, he leaned against the door and read, Nasir, sorry about my shitty subject title. Never was very good with those. But anyway, I know it's only been a few hours since the interview and you probably haven't even checked your email, but fortune favors the bold, right? I was thinking maybe we could watch the fights together this weekend. Let me know. Agron
(^v^)
“Like you said before, he's probably busy.”
The stinging sensation of the needle on his shoulder blade stopped, and Agron and Duro's little sister Sophie asked, “Want to take a break before I start the shading?”
“Sure,” Agron replied, sitting up straight and stretching some. Duro was sitting on a stool across from him in the small room of the tattoo parlor where Sophie worked, a bandage over his heart. They were getting matching tattoos, a trio of orchids, for their mom as a Mother's Day gift. Sophie rolled from behind him, pulling off her gloves as she said, “I dated a journalism major in college, and once he had a writing assignment, it was like I didn't even exist.”
Duro frowned. “Wasn't that the guy you dumped for that very same reason and he stalked you until Ags and I tracked him down and threatened to beat his ass?”
“The very same,” Sophie replied, taking a sip of water and offering the bottle to Agron. He took it as she said, “If he doesn't reply by the end of this week, then it was a bust and he's a dick that is obsessed with his job. No harm, no foul.”
“Except the harm done to poor Aggy's heart,” Duro snickered, “at being rejected by his epic man crush.”
“He's not my man crush!” Agron growled, throwing the bottle at his brother's head. “I really like and respect his opinions on MMA and yes, I find him very attractive.”
Duro and Sophie exchanged looks before saying, “Man crush.”
“Fuck both of you!” Agron shouted while his siblings continued to snicker. “I've been getting picked at about this since Monday, and it's really not funny anymore!”
His younger siblings sobered up. After a Moment of Silence, Sophie rolled closer and said softly in German, “I'm sorry, big brother. We took it too far.”
“Yeah, we were being dicks,” Duro added. “Forgive us?”
Normally Agron would have doubted their sincerity, but in their family, they only spoke German amongst themselves or when something needed to be said just between them. It was their special way of communicating. So Agron reached up and pinched his little sister's chin and said, “Always.”
Sophie grinned and kissed his cheek, rolling back behind him. Duro smiled and said gently, “You have to admit, you have some fanboyish tendencies when it comes to this guy. You've read every article he's written since joining Bloody Elbow, you follow him on Twitter and Instagram...need I say more?”
Agron let Sophie maneuver him back into position, saying, “Okay, you have me there. And I'll accept the label of “fanboy” but don't call whatever this thing is with Nasir a man crush. That makes me sound like some fourteen year old dipshit with his first hard-on or something.”
Sophie began shading, snorting as she worked. Duro nodded his head. “Fair enough.”
Thankfully the topic of conversation shifted from Agron to Sophie. Duro asked her where her car was, and after a few minutes of prodding, she told them that she had broken up with her boyfriend Tiberius over the weekend. He had responded by slashing her tires and putting a cinder block through her wind shield.
“Don't you two do anything!” she insisted. “My neighbors in the apartment next to me saw him and called the cops. The authorities are handling it, and I really don't need you two going off, half-cocked and looking for a fight.”
“You tell us if he keeps bothering you,” Duro insisted. “His dad is Marcus Crassus, and you can bet your ass he'll try to get all this swept under the rug.”
“I told you that guy was a fucking asshole,” Agron growled. “You have the worst taste in men!”
“Like you're one to talk,” Sophie grumbled. “Sedullus, Julius, Marcus...should I go on?”
“Nope,” Agron replied quickly. “I don't need a greatest hits of my relationship fails today, thank you very much!”
His cellphone sounded in his pocket, and he asked Sophie to pause for a moment. He unlocked his phone and saw that he had an email. Pressing the envelope icon at the bottom of his screen, he checked his Gmail. His rage at Sophie's dick of an ex dissipated some when he saw that Nasir had responded to his email. He selected the message, his face splitting into a grin.
To: aggy_mma@gmail.com
From: naz_angel7@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Not sure what to put here
Agron,
So sorry I didn't answer your email sooner, but BE decided to slam me with deadlines. It would be awesome to watch the fights with you this weekend. My place? Yours? A neutral location? Would it be cool if I brought friends? And don't worry, it won't take me as long to respond to this email.
-Nasir
A/N- I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are loved like Agron loves Nasir.