William Phantom, the adopted brother of Callum Rivers, CEO of Rivers Corporation, and Charlotte Rivers, CFO of the same corporation. He is also their Regional Manager, with capital letters, because Aunt Zaria would only let William take a position in the family business if he wasn’t allowed to meddle too much with internal affairs. Joke’s on her though, he could do that at the table when they have their weekly sibling dinner, not that he would. He is extremely grateful to the Rivers for taking him in and raising him. They didn’t have to give him a steady job on top of it. Also, now that Uncle Felix and Aunt Zaria have retired and fucked off to somewhere around the world for their travelling retirement plans, they don’t interfere that much with how Callum runs the company anymore.

Truth be told, he would have done something else with his life, but William did make a promise to his grumpy, baby brother to always be by his side. Whatever. The point was, he was young, only twenty-nine, which is not old. Shut up, Callum! And that means he was definitely still young enough and perfectly capable of taking flights on commercial planes in business class. There was no need to charter a private plane just for him. Truly unnecessary.

The problem was that he made the mistake of complaining—in a joking manner—to his siblings about that time someone found out he was a Carrier at the airport and harassed him. William genuinely did not think it was that big of a deal. The man had propositioned him, William had declined with a laugh. End of story. Sure, it had been a little uncomfortable in public and the guy hadn’t exactly taken his rejection seriously, but William was perfectly fine. 

“Callum, you don’t have to buy a whole plane for me. It’s really fine,” he tells his brother, laughing awkwardly. 

Callum doesn’t even deign to respond, too busy googling for good planes and where to buy them. William sighs and looks at Charlotte instead.

“Charlotte, tell Callum to stop overreacting!” he pouts at his big sister, who has kindly hosted their weekly dinner at hers and her ostentatious husband’s penthouse apartment. 

“Will,” says Charlotte, who takes his hand in her own. She looks at him with concerned eyes. “It would make me feel better if you took the private plane.” 

From the side, Callum snorts in victory. William slides down his chair with a sulk until Peter puts his baby nephew, Lenny, in his arms. He’s is sufficiently distracted from all thoughts of his new, private jet then.

~

Since his complaints about wasting money—Charlotte is the CFO and has expressly approved the expenditure—mean nothing to his mother-hen siblings, William grudgingly tags along with Callum to pick out a plane. Technically, they can afford this expense since Rivers Corp. has been doing well recently, what with the Pierce Foundation going bankrupt and no longer trying to crush them. Plus, under Callum’s leadership, they truly are flourishing.

As such, William finds himself in the passenger seat of his company car while Callum drives them to the hangar where all the planes they want to look at are kept. He still complains loudly, until his brother aggressively turns up the radio. To which William resorts to singing along. Callum grits his teeth but allows it.

~

‘Azure Airways’ is a huge, blue sign on the building when they arrive. Even William is speechless with awe for a few moments. The building is sleek and white and so much cleaner than William would expect an aeroplane garage to be. But the planes inside are just as minimalistic as the architecture. 

They are greeted at the entrance, by a man in a blue suit. He smiles warmly and introduces himself as ‘Henry Saxe’, CEO of Azure Airways. His smile turns amused when William mutters “nice” under his breath. His brain-to-mouth filter only works when there are no good-looking people around. Callum elbows him.

Henry Saxe directs them into the hangar, and they get down to business. He points out several different planes and explains the pros and cons of each vehicle. Callum listens attentively and takes notes. William mostly ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s over them. He is fairly confident that Callum will pick the right plane for the job anyway.

They come to a plane where another man in a white suit is talking to an engineer. And when he turns around, William’s eyes widen dramatically as he looks between the man in a white suit and Henry Saxe.

“This is my brother, Johnathan,” introduces Henry Saxe. William is slightly overwhelmed by the combined raw sexiness of two very handsome men. Henry and Johnathan are almost identical, except that Johnathan doesn’t seem to smile at all, and somehow that makes William want to talk to him more.

“Hi, I’m William,” he says to Johnathan, who has dismissed the engineer to give them his full attention. William is a little stunned by the full intensity of those golden eyes, not gonna lie. “It’s nice to meet you,” he adds.

“Hm,” says Johnathan. 

“Are you here to show us the insides of the plane?” asks William. 

There is a brief few seconds where Johnathan doesn’t do anything, then he nods and gesture for them to step into the plane. William eagerly climbs in.

As expected, the inside of the plane matches the whole Azure Airways aesthetic. William tries the seats and explore the bathroom and the bedroom. While he knew private planes could come with a bedroom, William had never expected to need one.

“Callum!” he shouts from the room. “Make sure you pick one with a bed! Like this one. Make it nice and big.”

Callum rolls his eyes, but William knows he will pick one with a bedroom now. 

He comes out from the bedroom and goes up to the Saxe brothers eagerly. “Your planes are gorgeous,” he tells them sincerely. “I imagine your designers must have taken inspiration from the pair of you.” 

His own brother makes a face and William flushes when he realises that he just called the Saxe brothers gorgeous to their faces. 

Henry Saxe’s amused smile has not left his face since they arrived. “Thank you, Mr Phantom.”

“I have a question though,” says William. “Who is our pilot? Or my pilot? Since I’m going to be the main passenger unless Callum or Charlotte wants to use the plane. Otherwise, it’s definitely mostly just me. And my secretary. Can’t forget the secretary,” he laughs awkwardly. Callum usually stops him from rambling and the Saxe brothers are too polite to interrupt. It leaves William to stop himself and he’s not great at that. See aforementioned comment about his lack of filter when faced with hot personnel.

“Do you take business trips often?” asks Henry Saxe politely. 

He nods, not willing to start another ramble.

“Me,” says Johnathan. William blinks at him. “I’m your pilot.”

Henry Saxe sends his brother a look that Johnathan steadfastly ignores. Henry Saxe sighs and William feels that. It’s the same sigh he makes whenever Callum wants to do something he shouldn’t. Although it’s mostly Callum sighing at him. He wonders what Johnathan did.

They finalise the papers and after that. William signs where Callum asks him to sign.

~

“Johnathan,” says Henry Saxe. Johnathan doesn’t look at him. He knows what Henry will say. “How will you manage your workload while piloting Mr Phantom?”

Johnathan has thought about this already. Granted, he only started thinking about this when he volunteered to be William’s pilot and it has only been two hours since then, but Johnathan has thought of an acceptable solution. “I will work remotely when I do not have to fly,” is all he says. 

His brother sighs again, which Johnathan ignores. “If Uncle asks, you can explain to him.”

It is permission granted. “Hm,” he nods.