Secret of the Ageless (closed for amon_darknight)

[slut_in_white]

"No. Absolutely not."

A young woman, flanked by two men in business suits, was telling those same men off as she walked down the hallway of glass and chrome - the standard look for any office in a modern office building these days. She looked amusingly out of place next to them. Both of the men were probably well into their 50s, one balding and the other graying, while the woman couldn't have been a day older than 25. Neither of them would have exactly won any beauty contests, either - one with his dull eyes and the other with a hooked nose that was too long for the rest of his face. Meanwhile, she could well have just stepped off of the pages of a beauty magazine, with grey eyes so bright they might well be described as silver, wide and framed by dark lashes, a button nose and full, luscious lips. The men were both quite tall as well, while she was unusually short, standing at perhaps 5'2" or 3", which looked all the comically shorter while the two men towered over her.

But, more to the point, she didn't look like she was trying to fit in. In fact, she looked like she was trying to do the opposite. Hair dyed a violent shade of purple, she was wearing jeans and motorcycle leathers next to men in well-tailored business suits. And more, she was ordering them around, instead of the other way around.

"Miss Harris, please listen to reason..." the balding man began.

Miss Amilee Harris whirled on him, glowering. "This is not reason. Absolutely not. I will not have some meathead following me around because we received a threat written in crayon, for fuck's sake."

The greying man winced. "It wasn't a single threat, Miss Harris. He's been sending them regularly for months, and the details included have been growing increasingly personal. You know this." He sounded faintly annoyed.

"So? Why should I allow one crazy person to interfere with my life? Would that be tantamount to allowing him to win?"

"I understand your anger, but the shareholders will demand some kind of precaution. You are far too valuable to this company to be taking risks with your life."

Amilee snorted. "So it all comes down to money. No one gives a shit about me, they're just afraid the stock prices will drop if I die."

The two men gave each other meaningful looks. She wasn't wrong, exactly. Some of their primary shareholders resented her and her unwillingness to conform to the business world as much as they knew they needed her.

See, Amilee Harris was the head of technologies at Starbound Industries and the sole designer of six of their last eight products. Starbound was growing at an extraordinary rate with every new product they produced - Amilee had designed a new CPU architecture that was taking the world by storm, and Starbound was hers. Without her, it was nothing. And everyone knew it. So, as much as the shareholders might not like her looks or her personality, they couldn't do anything about it either. As much as they wanted to try.

But, as it happened, Amilee was far, far too old to be taking shit from crotchety old men who didn't like her hair colour. 300 years too old for that, in fact.

Baldy cleared his throat, evidently nervous, and his voice actually trembled slightly when he spoke next - Amilee was famed for her temper, and he feared it as about to be directed at him. "Y-you see, Miss Harris, we've taken the liberty of hiring a protection consultant for you to meet. He's waiting in your office as we speak."

"You what?" she hissed, stopping dead and glaring at him. "Get him out!"

"Please. At least meet him. If you dislike him, we'll find another!"

Amilee took a deep breath. She wasn't going to be able to get out of this one, not if it was important enough for them to risk springing it on her like this. So maybe the solution was to play along, and then ditch him until they realized he was useless and fire him. That could work.

"Alright. Fine. I'll got meet this glorified-security-guard of yours." Her tone said they owed her for this, and she swept down the hall to her office, pushing open the door to glare at whoever was waiting on the other side. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I don't want you here. I don't want you protecting me. And the moment I can get you gone, I'm firing your ass. Got it?"

 

[amon_darknight]

A man sat here in the extraordinary office, he looked around and saw all the expensive furniture and artwork. He could smell the polish from the desk and wood around the room, the room had recently been cleaned as well. He took in all the fine features of the room, the computer, the window, the comfy chair, the large drawers on the desk, the nice sofas that had been put in here for clients. He straightened the sunglasses he wore and nodded his head as he knew who he was to meet in a few minutes.

"Miss Amilee Harris..."

He did his homework, knowing where she went to school, her degrees, her position in the company, a lot of information was not listed about her, something he would have to learn on his own he guessed, strange he was not able to find info on her past though. He knew she did not seem to like the business world and wanted to be a free spirit, to roam and play as she felt fit. She was rich and wanted to do what she wanted to do.

"Spoiled..."

He looked to his watch.

"Three minutes."

He could hear voices on the other side of the door. At least they were keeping to the schedule, he stood up from the chair and placed it back to how it was, he made sure his black suit was neat and straight. He wore a single ring on his right hand, a strange symbol etched into the black band. He closed his eyes and he took a deep breath. Soon he saw the battle in his mind, armored soldiers, soldiers on horseback, fighting, slaughtering, he opened his eyes when he heard the sound of a female voice speak to him in a sharp tone. He looked to her through his dark sunglasses and he lowered them down the bridge of his nose and revealed he had stunning green eyes, they looked like emeralds as he took her form in. He stood there, his strong body people could tell he had even through a suit, he stood at six foot, a very nice build to him, lean and fit, he had tattoos on the side of his neck, tribal markings it looked like, his hair was short on the sides and combed back to give him a slicked back hairstyle. He was calm and centered, he did not let what she said get to him, he was in control.

"Miss Amilee Harris, it is a pleasure to meet you."

He bowed low to her, like a Japanese man would do out of respect for guests, but he did not look Japanese at all.

"My name is Ben, Ben Francis, and I have come a long way to work with you."

He looked into her eyes and smiled at her.

"I do understand how you feel, but I can assure you, I can be like a ghost, and you will not even know I am there if you feel that is what you want of me. But I assure you, that you will want my services. I have been briefed by your chairmen about the threats on your life, and that is something I do not want to see come to be. Please be at ease, I will not interfere with your life at all. I just want to assure that you are safe, you are far to young to have to feel threatened by maniacs."

He looked to the two older body guards and saw how they were sizing him up.

"I am sure the two gentlemen would be far better suited to guard you than myself, but please know that I come highly recommended, from east Asia, to Iraq, I have protected nineteen others and I have never failed at my mission."

He took a step toward her and knelt before her on one knee, and placed his right hand over his chest to his shoulder and lowered his head.

"Miss Amilee Harris, please allow me to protect you. I do not wish to speak to the chair-members again, there presence makes me feel dirty..."

He dare not meet her eyes as he awaited her decision.

 

[slut_in_white]

Well, she was impressed by his composure, at least. There weren't that many people who would give so little reaction to having their new employer introduce themselves by saying they wanted to fire them as soon as humanly possible. Most people would have stumbled over their words, or tried to make up excuses. But, apparently, this Ben Francis guy wasn't most people, which boded well for him, all things considered.

I am sure the two gentlemen would be far better suited to guard you than myself...

Amilee snickered. "Them? Bodyguards? Good lord, no. This is Mr Jacobs, head of Accounting," a thumb jerked towards Hook-Nose, "and this is Mr Sanderson, my lawyer," she explained, pointing to Baldy. "I have never had a bodyguard before. I'm still absolutely convinced I don't require one. But the shareholders disagree, and until they can be convinced otherwise, I'm stuck with you."She shooed the two men away with a motion of her hands and then closed the door behind her, turning back to face Ben on time to see him down on one knee.

It seemed he took this job quite seriously. "Don't do that," she snapped. "You're making me feel like you're about to propose or something." She stepped around him and sat down at her desk, placing her booted feet on the surface and watching him closely. "Okay, rule 1. Stop calling me by my full name like that. It's Amilee. Rule 2. I will do what I want, when I want. Do whatever you have to in order to do your job, I guess, but you may not interfere with whatever it is I've decided to do. If you're lucky, that'll mean I'll get absorbed in a project and work late here every night for a month. If not, it means you don't get to stop me from going out to party or what have you. Understood?"

She waited to see what he would say. She'd be surprised if he agreed to her terms, but if he did, then he was a flake and she'd have a lot easier time ditching him. She hoped he would - it'd just make it easier to fire him later.

 

[amon_darknight]

So he figured right, the two gentlemen did not have the body of a warrior, nor the keen eyes of one. He always thought of the eyes being the window to the soul and that if you looked hard enough, you could see everything about a person through them. He took in every word she said and got her vocal tone, made it something he would memorize, he would have to learn everything about her, the way she walked, the way she talked, the way her every body part moved, he needed to know it all. This was not just a job, this was his life.

He was a protector.

He pushed his sunglasses back to cover his eyes and he stood.

"Yes, Miss... I mean Amilee, I understand your conditions, and I will follow them. I only have a few rules for you, one; please do not ever put yourself in danger, two; please do not interfere if I feel you are in need of protection, you will listen to my every command. Protection, warfare, counter intelligence, intell work, that is what I have studied, that is what I have perfected, and that is what you will know about me."

He stared right into her eyes.

"And my last rule..."

He sighed as he said this.

"Please do not every try and run from me, your safety and well being are all that I care for."

He remembered the last girl that he protected, she was quite the handful. He shook his head.

"As I said, I can be like a ghost if you want me to be. Please..."

He looked to the window and he walked over behind her. He sensed something was not right. He stared out the window and watched the surroundings.

"Do you know anything about this evil man that wants to hurt you, have any kind of information, other than what I have seen already? Enemies, rivals, something like that?"

He kept his eyes scanning.

"Also when can I move my stuff into your place, I am required to stay with you as well... I do not have much for personal belongings and I require not a lot."

He kept a vigilant eye.

 

[slut_in_white]

Amilee snickered at his list of rules. "That depends. What would you consider me putting myself in danger? I'll do what I normally do with my life, and if that's something you consider dangerous, than you're just going to have to deal with it." Her expression turned serious when he asked her not to run from him. "I'll only run if you make me. If you're really as ghostly as you claim, you won't have to worry about it."

She smirked. She knew she shouldn't try to make the man uncomfortable, but he seemed like he had such a stick up his ass, it was too tempting. "I mean, what if I decide I wanna get laid? What if I go out to a club and find some stranger and I want to go home with him? Is that dangerous? Because if you cock-block me, I'll probably try to run from you, just saying."

Her tone was light, like she was teasing him, but in the back of her mind, she already knew what she would do if this psycho actually decided to act. She'd get as far away from Ben as she could, and handle the crazy stalker herself. His life was short. He could be killed. It was ridiculous to have someone as fragile as a mortal protecting someone like Amilee.

"I mean, I have all the usual enemies. Competitors. Ex-boyfriends. You know. The usual. But no one who would want to kill me. I suspect he's some kind of stalker. Obsessed with me, like the way crazies get obsessed with pop stars or whatever." She was waving her hand as if to wave away the very question as ridiculous, trying to imagine the kind of person who would choose a nerdy inventor as the object of his obsession instead of a usual celebrity when Ben continued, asking about bringing his stuff to her place.

She froze, then spun to face him, her expression some combination of anger and horror.

"What?! You are absolutely not moving in with me. That's fucking insane. No! I want my privacy! Stay in a hotel or something. No way am I letting you live in my apartment!"

 

[amon_darknight]

He thought about all she said. Crazed stalkers, competitors, ex-boyfriends... jeez, this was something out of lame t.v show or something. He shook his head, something just did not feel right, it was like they were being watched.

"If you want to go and get laid, or go to a club, by all means go ahead, but I will always be around."

He looked to her now.

"Of course I will have to stay with you, do you think I can teleport or fly, if something were to happen to you... I mean I would have to be there for you. It only makes sense, I will not get in your way Miss... I mean Amilee. Trust me, I do not want to be getting in the way of a child and her play time."

He than went back to staring out the window.

"Its not like you don't have the extra room, you are rich and have a very large apartment."

He sighed. But where was he being watched from, there was no one to be seen.

"How many stories is this building?"

He had to stay between the watcher and her.

"Just what is it you invented, I had heard somethings, Starbound this and Starbound that. Just what is that?"

He was playing dumb, he wanted to hear her talk about it, hear what she sounded like when she spoke about something she was passionate about. He himself was very tech savy.

 

[slut_in_white]

Amilee's spine went straight and she glared at him. Child? Was he trying to insult her for a reason or was he actually dumb enough to say something like that to his employer, thinking he'd just get a pass? Maybe his last employer was an airheaded little girl who'd giggle at something like that and admit that maybe she was a little childish, but that was not Amilee.

"Child?" she repeated, clearly angry. "Just because you have a stick shoved so far up you're ass that you can't even sit down doesn't make me a child. You're the one with the problem here, not me. And the extra room in my apartment is beside the point! I don't want a strange man hanging around my personal space. I don't know you! Why the hell should I be okay with some stranger invading my private home because the stockholders have their panties in a bunch about some vaguely threatening letters? I can take care of myself, and I don't need you at all, to say nothing of needing you hanging around my house."

She calmed a little when he asked about her company, and though she suspected the argument about where he would stay at night wasn't over, at least he knew how she felt about it now.

"A few years ago, I developed a new method of laying out the circuits on a CPU. The circuits have been getting so small that electromigration was becoming a big issue, and my design avoids most of the issues raised by electromigration. It means our CPUs can use transistors that are even smaller than anything the competitors can make, so ours have a much higher speed threshold than theirs. We can output more power in a smaller space than they can, so I'm sure you can see why that might be a big deal. Most of my work since has involved incremental improvements on the same concept. Materials changes, shit like that." She was smiling, despite the fact that she had just been angry a moment before. She loved her work, it was clear on her face. "I've actually been working on a new concept recently, playing with superconductors. Imagine what could be done if we could change the circuitry on a whim! I mean, create changing conducting paths by manipulating the temperature of the material. The layout of the transistors would have to be perfect, but then we can alter how the architecture works according to what it's trying to do. High FLOPs could look different than gaming could look different than..." She paused, grinning. "Sorry. I'm going on too much, aren't I? I get kind of over-excited sometimes."

 

[amon_darknight]

Oh he must have hit a nerve as he heard her angry tone come back.

"My apologies my lady."

He bowed to her with his hand across his chest.

"I did not mean to insult, you do just look so young."

He smiled.

"And I can sit down just fine. I am just doing my job."

When she went on about what she did for the company and why she was so rich, he heard the joy and happiness her job brought to her, he could feel her smile, her intelligence soaring out of her as she explained to him what she has done. Her voice sent sunshine into the room and brought a smile to his face as he listened. She was highly intelligent and very happy about what she did in her job, and that made him happy to know that.

"I am glad you get to do what you love to do, it is something that is hard to do these days."

It happened than, in a blink of an eye a rock shot clean through the glass and was on target for Amilee, but out of no where, her new body guard caught it, with his bare hands, like it was nothing.

"Childs play... damn it."

He placed his hand on her chair and moved it away from the window.

"He is watching and he is testing us."

He rolled back to the side of the window and pulled the blinds closed.

"This was just to see how good I was. The rock would have only have hit your chair, but how the hell did he fire it with such speed to break this glass?"

He shook his head as he looked to Amilee.

"Tell me more about your work."

There had to be more to this than she was letting on.

 

[slut_in_white]

Amilee cursed at the sound of breaking glass - she was facing away from the window, so she couldn't see what was coming through, but her gaze still went instantly to her new bodyguard, the fear written plainly on her face.

The irony of the situation was that he would almost certainly read it as fear for her own life, and her looking to him for protection. Quite the contrary, she was actually instinctively looking to make sure he was alright - her own safety didn't even cross her mind. And why would it? She'd been shot in the chest twice already in her life, and she'd walked away from both incidents with little more than some trouble breathing for the following few days.

Honestly, she would have fought harder against the idea of having a bodyguard if she thought she was actually in danger, but she'd thought the threats were empty. She'd figured the bodyguard would hang around her for a little while, looking out for a non-existent danger, and then he'd go on his way once it was clear the threat wasn't real. But it was. And he was in real danger by protecting her. Shit.

"My-my work?" she repeated, uncertain. Her mind was too focused on how she was going to get him out of harm's way to respond immediately. "I, uh, that's it. I mean, I'm a big nerd. I sit at my desk and play with CPU designs. On the boring days I have to write up patent reports. Nothing that would make me the target of some crazy. To be honest, I really thought I just had a stalker. Some guy who wanted to be original in his obsession and so we went after a geek-star instead of a rock-star. But that..." She motioned to the rock in his hand, and then turned to look at the now-closed window. "That was too good for some one-off crazy. Wasn't it?" She only added the question at the end belatedly, once she realized some young nerd-girl probably shouldn't know that. You learn a lot of interesting things when you're as old as Amilee, but it wouldn't do to have her give away her age to her new bodyguard by accident. Though... she had to wonder if maybe it was okay to do so if it meant she could convince him to stay out of harm's way.

Probably not. He'd just think she was crazy, and then she'd have the dual problem of an assassin on her tale and a bodyguard who wanted to put her in an asylum.

She blew out a breath, thinking harder about his question. "Maybe it's something that happened as a result of my design. I know Intel has lost huge market shares to us and ended up laying off a bunch of people as a result. But I mean... we were growing so fast at the time that we hired most of them pretty much the moment they walked out the door over there. But maybe one of the layoffs that didn't get hired here is feeling particularly resentful?" It didn't sound very likely, even to her own ears, but it was the best guess she had, at the time. "I really don't know."

 

[amon_darknight]

He smiled as she was fighting the fear in her now. She looked as if she tried to control it.

"Amilee, its okay, I am fine, it will take more than a few rocks to stop me from protecting you."

He tossed the rock and caught it quickly as he crushed it, he threw it away in the trash as he took an handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped his hands clean.

"It is clear that we are dealing with someone that knows what they are doing, you see that is why I must stay by your side. Please text me your address and I will have my things brought there."

He remained calm and collected.

"I am sure the person or persons behind this, does not know what they messing with, but since I am your protector Miss Amilee Harris, I will protect you with my last beat of my heart."

He folded his handkerchief and placed it back inside his inner jacket pocket.

"Tell me more about yourself, what are somethings you like to do for fun? What are somethings that you would like to do, reckless or not. And if they are reckless, are they things that I could do with you to make sure you come out of them okay?"

He smiled at her as he looked to her through his sunglasses. He felt good about protecting her, and he was sure that he could hide the fact that he has been alive for far longer than she could imagine.

 

[slut_in_white]

but since I am your protector Miss Amilee Harris, I will protect you with my last beat of my heart.

He could not have known that was the worst possible thing to say.

"NO!" she shouted abruptly, pushing herself to her feet and coming to stand directly in front of him. It would have possibly been intimidating, having her come to stand so close, to glare straight at him, except that she was close to a foot shorter than he, so it mostly just looked comical.

She looked startled by her own shouting for a split second, while she realized that she had no reason for her outburst. She couldn't exactly explain that she wasn't okay with someone like him trying to protect her because that put him in more danger than she could possibly ever be in. But he seemed to already assume that she was a bit of a rich brat. Maybe she could play on that. Maybe she could convince him she was having a tantrum. Throw him off of her real goals.

"I told you, you can't come stay in my apartment! So some dude threw a rock through the window, who cares?! If I was in real danger, he'd have used a gun or something. I'm fine, and no, you can't come stay with me! It's not happening! I need my privacy!" More like she needed him to not be around in case something bad actually did happen, because she was much more readily capable of taking care of herself than he was of taking care of her (so far as she knew, at least). But she couldn't tell him that, so whining it was.

"Go home, Ben. I'll deal with this creep myself, and then you don't have to worry about following my childish ass around. Win-win, right?"

 

[amon_darknight]

"Miss Amilee, stop this at once."

He sounded harsh, he looked at her with scorn in his eyes.

"I have sword to protect you, like the Knights of the old days did for their Ladies of the Court, I have done so for you. It is my right as a protector to choose who I protect and now there is a real threat on you. I do not know why you choose to ignore this, this is something you cannot deal with alone and I for one will not let you."

His countless years of service, his numerous hours of training, all the sweat, blood and tears made him into this. What else could a man with all the time in the world do but train and learn new things. One thing he always vowed was to protect those that needed protecting, and Miss Amilee Harris, was one that needed it.

"You can rant and rave all you want, but I will be your guardian. I will sleep at your door step like a dog, or I will sleep in your back yard, what ever I must do."

His every fiber in his heart was telling him this is where he needed to be.

"I will stay by your side and there is nothing you can say to make me leave."

He was a tracker, he had keen senses and fast reflexes, he would be her shadow. Why was this feeling there for this woman though, never before has he felt this way for a client, but she was different...

"Don't push me away."

He looked to her, he said that with much compassion.

 

[slut_in_white]

Amilee just gaped at him. This was more than just a job to him, obviously. He was like a knight, maybe, or a paladin or... something. But why?

"Why do you care so much what happens to me?" she asked, taking a step back. "You don't know me. You're here because the board paid you to come, and now that I'm telling you I don't want you here, you won't leave? Why? What do you care what happens to me? So what if this psycho gets what he wants? So say I send you away, and I get shot or whatever. That's not on you, that's on me for sending you away." She frowned, reaching up to take off his sunglasses so she could look him in the eye. It was a forward thing for her to do, and probably bothered him (or at least, it would have bothered most people), but she needed to see his eyes.

"If I told you you weren't going to be paid for this job, would you leave?" She suspected she knew the answer to that question already, but she had to hear it confirmed. She had to hear it from him.

"I don't get it. I'm just some girl. Worse, you apparently think I'm bratty and childish, so I'm not even a particularly good girl, in your esteemed opinion. So why do you care what happens to me?"

 

[amon_darknight]

He did not let her take his sunglasses from him, he grabbed her hand and gently placed it at her side.

"Please refrain from doing that."

He lowered his glasses and allowed her to look into his eyes. He spoke so calmly, like she was not yelling at him.

"I know it seems strange, you would never understand. Just please know that I want to protect you."

He shook his head.

"I would like to know you, it would make things easier between the two of us. As for the money goes, your stockholders tried and I did not take it, I have money. It hurts my soul to think what would happen to you if that cruel person got there hands on you, that is why I do what I do. I would not leave, I heard the details and I have made my choice to protect you with my body and soul."

He looked to her, she had this wild look in her eyes.

"I know it sounds very extreme, but trust me I am an extreme guy, well when it comes to protecting..."

He put his hands on her shoulders.

"Amilee, you might be bratty and childish, but that means even more that you need someone to guard you. I can see that you are a good girl, even deep down, you are a female, I understand that you need to be on your own and get out on your own stride, you don't need any men telling you what to do, I get that. I am not here to tell you what to do, I am here to make sure the bad guys don't get you and harm you."

He took his hands off her shoulders and fixed his glasses than.

 

[slut_in_white]

Amilee still didn't understand. She crossed her arms, scoffing at his explanation. "None of that means shit!" she shouted, turning away from him.

She needed to calm down. She stalked across the room and leaned against her desk, taking several deep, long breaths. And when she spoke again, this time, she sounded calm. It might have been accurate to even call her tone serene, except that there was a tightness in her voice that sounded like pain.

"I realize you want to protect me. I don't understand why, but I know it's what you want. I recognize that. What you don't understand is that I don't want to be protected. Not because I have some childish need to prove myself. I'm not stupid enough to think I never need help." She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "But do you know what it's like? To have someone walk into your office and offer to give their life for you, whether you want them to or not? This isn't about whether or not I think I can protect myself. I don't want your life. I don't want to carry that with me, but you're not giving me a choice! What if this guy does come after me, hm? What if something happens to you in the course of protecting me? Do you think I want to spend my life carrying around the guilt of you getting hurt because of me?"

She blew out a long breath and closed her eyes. "Whatever I did to draw this guy's anger, that's on me. It's my price to pay. Not yours. I hate the thought of someone else getting injured because of me. My life is not worth more than yours. Do you understand?"

 

[amon_darknight]

He sighed as she went on.

"Listen, if I were to tell you, that no matter who it is out there that wants to hurt you, they would not be good enough to kill me. Yes, I am very well trained Amilee."

He never did like to say that, but he felt the need to tell her that now.

"You do not need to worry about me, I will be okay, trust me."

He smiled as he saw the look of concern in her eyes. She no longer showed a non caring attitude, now it was all about her care for his own life. He smiled at her.

"I have left a very extensive resume, you will read there, that I have never failed a client before and I am not willing to start now. It is simple, let me watch out for you, stop fighting this and go and live your life, do not care about me, act as though when you first met me, you are just going to go do your thing, ignore me and have a good time at what ever you choose to do. And I will be watching, I will not interfere, I will heed your rules, I just need to be close by."

He looked to her, ready to move past this.

"Yes, your life is worth far more than mine, you are a inventor, you are a giver, why can't you see that. How do you know in the next 20 years that you will not invent a way for everyone to have infinite energy, or something amazing like that?"

He stood there and spoke to her with more concern for her.

"You very well could have that in your future, I can see it in your eyes. You have something in your future you must live for, and I am willing to die to make sure that happens."

His cell phone buzzed, but he did not pick it up.

"That is the truck waiting for instructions on where to drop off my belongings, like I said, back yard at least?"

 

[slut_in_white]

You do not need to worry about me, I will be okay, trust me.

Amilee smiled. Sad, but a smile nonetheless. "I could say the same to you. You don't need to worry about me." She met his eyes, her gaze still fiery. "I don't need a bodyguard. I'll be okay, trust me." She shook her head. "But apparently I have to trust you, and you don't have to trust me." She waved her hand dismissively. "It's alright. I'm used to people not taking me seriously. Apparently I don't get a say in these things. I can be important enough to protect, but not important enough to make my own fucking decisions."

Yes, your life is worth far more than mine

She flinched visibly when he said that. That was such bullshit. Even if she wasn't immortal, that would be bullshit. She wanted to scream at him, she wanted to tell him that she'd already lived several lifetimes of her own. She didn't need another, and she sure as hell didn't need someone with only one life to be giving up his precious life for her.

He asked her where he could drop off his belongings, and she sighed heavily. Apparently there was no arguing with him. She got out her own phone and sent a text. "Drop it at the tower on the corner of Albert and 40th. The doorman's expecting your stuff - he'll help your guy bring it up to my apartment."

There was a moment of silence, then, and Amilee looked up at Ben, her expression sad. "Do you really believe you have nothing to offer the world? How do I know you're not the one who has something valuable to live for, hm?" She pushed herself up from where she was leaning against the desk to approach him again. "That must be a sad existence, to think that you're not even worth a life. Why? How could you think so lowly of yourself?"

 

[amon_darknight]

He shook his head at her statement.

"It is a very long story that I do not wish to go into right now. Just trust me when I tell you that this what I was born to do."

He pulled his fancy looking phone out of his pocket, it looked like something out of an Marvel movie. He texted on the screen and put his phone away as he smiled at her.

"Thank you for cooperating, please let us get to your place so I can unpack and we can go on about your life."

He considered her words.

"I know what my life is worth, and it is nothing compared to yours Amilee, you can do things other than fight, kill, hurt. That is all my hands can do, I do not like to admit it, but that is what this life has given me to work with. So, you see, you create things, you love doing what you can do. I hate what I can do..."

He shook his head as he closed his eyes for a moment, he saw the fights, the killings, the wars all rush from his memories and he stumbled a bit as he opened his eyes again, he looked to her and smiled.

"Sorry, come on, lets get out of here, unless you want to stay. I would like to get to know you more, if that is okay?"

He smiled at her.

 

[slut_in_white]

She understood. She could imagine what it had to be like, to feel like a tool of destruction, and thus feel like your life is somehow worth less. She might have even allowed him to protect her in the face of that - were she not immortal, at least.

As it was, she simply smiled and nodded. "Sure, let's get out of here." She led him out of the office and to the elevator. Once they were inside and alone, she leaned against the railing in the elevator and looked up at him with a smirk. "Yeah sure. Ask away. What do you want to know about me?"

The smirk turned into a full grin and she lifted a finger. "But first! You have to answer a question for me. What's with the sunglasses? You seem, um, unusually attached to them." After all, he hadn't let her take them off earlier. And who wears sunglasses inside, anyway?

 

[amon_darknight]

"You have a lovely smile Amilee, don't hide it."

He smiled as he followed her onto the elevator. She had a very lovely body, he just smiled as he heard her speak, her voice was lovely when she was not yelling.

"My sunglasses, well let me tell you. I believe you can look at the soul of a person through the eyes of a person. Yes, the eyes are the windows to the soul and just by knowing what to look for, you can tell what type of person they are."

He saw her looking at him.

"At least that is what I believe..."

He chuckled. He took his sunglasses off and let her really see his emerald green eyes.

"Okay, your turn. What do you like to do for fun?"

He looked to her.

 

[slut_in_white]

Amilee listened, interested, as he explained his reasoning for the sunglasses. How odd - Ben seemed like such a strange person sometimes. He was completely normal, but then he'd say or do something that made him seem like a man out of time. Like the comment earlier about protecting her as a knight of old would, or now, with this thing about eyes being the windows of the soul.

But, she'd promised that she'd only ask one question before he got to ask about her, so she smiled genially and considered his question carefully. "It depends on the day, usually. I like to go out, find some place interesting and unusual. Someplace that hasn't been touched by some kind of marketing firm, trying to turn it into a product. I was into raves for a while, back before they became sponsored by Red Bull or whatever." She shrugged. "I'm up for anything, honestly. It just has to be real. Authentic. Not packaged and sold, you know?"

The elevator dinged, and the door opened to let them out into the underground parking lot. Amilee made for her car - a lime green Tesla Roadster. It reflected her pretty well, actually. Flashy and a bit ostentatious, but also, underneath, something genuine and good. She motioned for him to get in while she sat down in the driver's seat and started the car.

"Okay, my turn. I wanna know about the tattoos. What are they? Where'd you get them? What do they mean? I mean, you know, assuming they mean something." Not everyone's did, after all.

 

[amon_darknight]

He smiled at her, her answer was genuine, not something fake. He took notes of everything she said, he had to know who she really was. He smiled and nodded as she told him.

"Very interesting."

He than heard her question for him.

"My tattoos, well these along my neck..."

He looked at her, she really wanted to know.

"These represent all the people I have killed at a certain point in my life... I am not proud to have gotten them, but it was a tradition of those to the village I was in at that time."

He looked to her.

"I have a lot of tattoos, do you really wish to know all about them? Might take some time. And I would have to show you them."

He wondered would she really want to see them all?

"All of my tattoos have meanings, I have dragons, I have Oni, I have lots of tribal, they all have to do with killings I have done or the repentance of a life I have taken."

He shook his head.

"Do you have any tattoos?"

He wondered.

 

[slut_in_white]

There was a long silence after his admission that each tattoo was for someone he'd killed. It was clear he'd led a troubled life thus far, and she found herself saddened by it. So few people knew how valuable human life really was - he did, and only then, because his life had caused him to take so many others. It was a cruel twist of fate.

"Yes," she said finally, "I want to see them all." There was another pause, and then; "And yes, I have tattoos of my own." She wasn't sure what to say about them, to tell the truth. Many of them were old, inked with methods that had long fell out of use. She didn't know how to explain their meanings - they were all significant to her, but many had significance that wouldn't make sense for a young modern woman. And yet, she disliked the idea of telling him they were meaningless and shallow, as well.

So instead, she simply decided to explain them one by one. She only had two that were visible when wearing normal clothes - the rest practically required nudity, and she suspected there was no reason to both explaining them to him if he'd never see them anyway.

They were driving along one of the city's main roads, and once she came to a stop at a stop light, she took a moment to tug down the collar of her shirt, revealing a small heart at the top of her left breast, faded and old-looking, with a neat X crossed through it. "This one is for my mother. She died when I was very young." Which was mostly honest. It was for the women who had died alongside her mother, as well, but that would require more explanation than she wanted to give, at the moment.

A dark silence had settled over the car, with the morbid turn of conversation, and Amilee sighed. "Sorry, that's not a particularly pleasant topic of conversation, is it?"

 

[amon_darknight]

"If you want to see them and are that curious about them all, than I will show you when we are at your place. I hope you are okay with my undressing in front of you."

He blushed a bit at her. Than he heard her tell about her tattoo that she showed and he felt her pain and sorrow. He placed a hand on her hand and nodded.

"I am sorry to hear that Amilee, I am sure they are smiling at you from the heavens above."

He was glad she did not notice how old his tattoos were, some he was able to touch up himself, but there were many he could not reach and some he just would not touch.

"No, lets move onto some other conversation."

He took his hand away from hers, there was a strange feeling he got from touching her, he has never felt anything like that before. He shook his head as he smiled.

"So are you a gamer? I heard you talk about gaming before? Do you play video games only, or do you play other games as well?"

He wondered what kind of tech girl she really was.

"Do you use the computer for social media?"

He looked into her eyes as she drove, taking her every feature in as she drove down the roads.

 

[slut_in_white]

The tension broke when Ben asked her about gaming, and she began to laugh. "You sound like my grandfather," Amilee teased, giggling. So, she didn't have a grandfather, exactly... but whatever. She knew what your average grandfather sounded like.

"I game a little. Mostly computer games." She shrugged. "I dunno. I could be into table top or board games, I suppose, but I've never tried. Don't have anyone to try with, to be honest. I'm kind of a loner like that." She shrugged. "Makes it sound sad, but I don't mind. Too many people are too shallow. I'd rather spend my time by myself than with people I don't really like." That, and she was afraid of getting too close to someone, only to have to part from them later because she wasn't aging and they were. It was too noticeable, if she stuck around the same people for too long.

"What about you? What do you do for fun?" Why was it that she wouldn't have been remotely surprised if he tried to tell her, in actual seriousness, that he just didn't have fun. He seemed so stoic all the time. Maybe she'd have to fix that. Although, if things went the way she planned, he wouldn't be around long enough for her to fix anything... because yes, despite their conversation earlier, she still didn't want him protecting her. She was still going to try to drive him away - she just hadn't quite figured out how to pull it off yet.