Chapter Text
As he turned the key off the ignition of the large van containing all of their stuff, Agron looked through the driver's window and straight at the house which would become his workplace for over the next month or so. A voice beside him made his head turn:
"That house looks a little creepy, like that one in Amytiville or something."
Agron glared at his little brother Duro and knocked playfully on his shoulder with his fist. "Come on now, it doesn't look that bad. Sure, it's an old house, colonial and all of that, but the couple that bought it is really super nice. And besides, that's what we're here for, right? To give that place the shot of youth it needs. Because, as our motto says..." he stopped and extended his hand, his signal for Duro to finish his sentence.
In a annoyed voice Duro recited by heart: ""At Agron and Duro's Handy Reno services, your problem is our to fix". Look, I know all of that, but really Agron, don't you think this job is a bit, you know..."
"Of a big undertaking? Yeah, I know, believe me, I know." His brother said in a sigh and opened the car door and stepped outside, Duro following him to the sidewalk at the front of the house. Agron added with a smile: "But look at it this way: we've just started our business over three months ago, we've only been fixing small stuff here and there so far and only earning enough to make ends meet. This one's big, man! Sure there's a lot to do, but we'll get all of our meals paid and if we give good enough results, we might actually get our names out there in the renovation business. Plus...a little birdy has told me, that we might be getting more than twenty 'grand each for the whole thing..."
Duro's eyes lit up like a kid's on Christmas morning and Agron knew he had scored a top net goal with this argument. Because as far as Duro was concerned, being the one that was an expert with all of the paperwork and the accounting in their up starting company, nothing was worth more to him than what kind of cash they would receive in the end, while Agron was easily satisfied by just the smile on their clients' faces after a job well done. And so, a smile sprang up on the younger brother's face and with a clap on Agron's shoulder, he exclaimed:
"So when do we start?"
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As Duro was busy unpacking their stuff out of the van, Agron entered the house, thanks to the spare key that Naevia, one of the owner of the house, had left him. She and her husband Crixus were staying at her mother's house while the renovations were going on to give Agron and Duro the much-needed space to do the much-needed work.
He had taken a look once before at the house, when he was first offered the job two weeks before and Naevia was there to play hostess and indicate the whats and the hows (especially the how muches), but it had been just a quick looksie and he hadn't had the time to really examine as much of the interior as much has he would have liked. But now he had all of the time and the liberty of the world and, as he checked out Naevia's list of things needed to be done, he also waltzed through every room and took a gander of the work ahead:
- Replace the leaking faucets in the bathroom
- New cabinets for the kitchen
- Master bedroom needs a new ceiling fan (along with the wiring that comes with it)
- The roof of the garage outside needs a bit of fixing up
- The guest room needs a new color of paint
And as he checked everything out, he had to agree with Naevia on one point that they had talked about earlier: this place needed a *lot* or work, it was a complete mess. A lot of things were either filled with cobwebs, dusty, leaky or simply rotten. The floor even creaked whenever he would take a step on it. No wonder the couple got it even cheaper than their initial asking price. He even wondered for a moment if only one month would be enough to do all that was needed to be done. But, they had been hired for a reason and Agron knew that he and his brother could do everything under the estimated time. And, after everything done, Naevia and Crixus would finally be able to move into their new home after searching all of this time.
"Agron? Could you help me out here dude, please? I don't wanna be the only one unpacking stuff!" Duro's voice said from the opened front door and breaking Agron's train of thoughts.
Turning his head and rubbing his hands together, Agron smiled at his brother:
"Let's get to work."
***********
"Throw it up, throw it up, watch it all fall out. Pour it up, pour it up, that's how we ball out." sang Agron out loud, paint roller in one hand and headphones over his ears. He had taken upon himself to do the easiest job first, which was repainting the guest room, while leaving Duro in the kitchen to start measuring up the space he would need to make the brand new wooden cabinets. He had changed into his old overalls and was now hard at work, coating the wall with some primer over the deep red that now looked like rust after years of being there. His choice of color for the room: a nice bright purple to go along with the brand new bed sheets Naevia had just bought and had shown Agron in his first visit.
As he glided his roller across the wall in front of him and still sang some Rihanna, his eyes began darting out across the room and his vision soon fell upon a full-length wall mirror that was fixed upon one of the adjacent walls. Its frame had been carved from a deep-red wood, probably mahogany, and from his point of view he could see the reflection of the tree just outside the window. Dropping his paint roller in its container, Agron became curious about the mirror and took a few steps toward it, wanting a closer look. He didn't know why he was suddenly so transfixed by a simple mirror though, he had seen a lot of them in its day and this one looked no different than all of the others.
And as he came in front of it and looked at it more closely, he was proven right: it was definitely a mirror that looked just like any ordinary mirrors: with its wooden frame, the screws on the wall that had been put there to keep it stable, the long-haired, dark-eyed, shocked-looking man looking back at him...
Wait...what?