The first time I met him was when he broke into my apartment. And when I say broke into, I mean literally.
I was sitting innocently on my newly favourite chair (because old favourite now had a wobbly leg) when two people jumped onto my balcony and smashed through my sliding glass door. One of them had short brown hair and was wearing a suit. The other was wearing a red coat. He had long blond hair that was tied back. He was also launching himself at the other man.
I screamed and hid behind my chair, as if the small wood and plastic entity would actually offer some protection. The brown haired man fell to the floor but then managed to kick the blond haired man away long enough to stand up again. The men exchange blows, blows strong enough to do serious damage. Meanwhile my body was jelly, frozen as I took in the scene before me.
The blond man picked up the other person and slammed him down on my old chair, causing it to break into smithereens. "Hey!" I stood up, momentarily forgetting my fear. It wasn't my favourite anymore but that didn't mean I wanted it destroyed.
Both of the men looked at me, as if noticing me for the first time and my fear suddenly returned. My head wanted to move but my body didn't seem to get the memo. I stayed frozen as I looked at the scene before me.
The blond took advantage of the situation, taking one of the chair legs and slamming it into the brunette's head. "You should get behind something," he told me as he hit the brunette again.
Not a bad idea. I looked around at my possible exits. My bedroom was behind me and the door to leave my apartment was to my right. It was probably a better idea to try and leave the apartment but all of my important stuff was in my bedroom. If I just left now I wouldn't have my phone or keys or anything else useful. My legs still didn't want to move but I forced one leg back. Okay, good progress, now do the other leg.
Just as I was moving my other leg the brunette took out a knife. The blond kicked it out of his hand and it shot out, landing right in front of me. Unsure of what to do with it, I stepped on it and moved my leg back, kicking it behind me. The brunette lunged towards me, presumably to grab the knife. I saw my life flash before me eyes as I brought my hands up in an attempt to protect my face.
As he reached out for me the blond caught his collar and shoved him back. As the brunette lost his footing and fell the blond hit him a third time on the head. This time the brunette didn't get up. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.
The blond looked at me. I froze again, my heart beating so fast I was surprised it wasn't exploding out of my chest. "Next time get behind something."
"You…you broke my chair," I said, pointing to the damaged wood.
"So I did," he said, not taking his eyes off of me.
He reached down to pick up the other man. It was then that I noticed he had a metal arm. "Is he… you know," I said, not able to say the full sentence.
"No, he's just knocked out," he said. "Which is probably better than he deserves."
Unlike you? That's what I wanted to say but didn't because I happened to value my life. Instead I just stood in silence, too scared and confused to move. He picked the man up and slung the body over his shoulders. The blond guy said he was still alive but was he? Was he still breathing? I studied the brunette until I saw his chest slowly rise and fall. Oh good, imagine if there had been a corpse in my apartment.
"Don't tell anyone we were here," he said before going to the balcony and jumping off. You know, the normal thing to do.
Of course I didn't listen to him. I immediately took out my phone and called the police. But the blond was long gone by then, and aside from my broken door and chair there was no sign of them ever being here.
One week later I got a large wad of cash in my mailbox and a note saying 'for the chair.'
It was nearly a month before I saw him again. This time he was sitting on the new couch I bought. "This is nice," he said, leaning back against it.
I screamed and looked around for anything within arm's reach that I could use as a weapon.
"There's no point," he said. "If I was trying to hurt you I would have done it already. Besides, no offense or anything but I doubt you could hurt me if you tried."
Despite my fears it took all of my strength to not smack him in that moment. "That's not very reassuring," I said.
"I guess not," he said. "Look, I'm not very good at making small talk."
"I can see that," I cut in. Rationally, I shouldn't be talking to him like this. I should be trying to run out the door and call the cops. But for some strange reason I felt comfortable around him. Plus he might try to stop me if I did try to do anything.
He gave me a small glare before continuing. "I need to camp out here for a little while."
What?
"Huh?" I felt my blood rush up to my face in anger. "You can't just go barging into someone's place without asking." I yelled as I waved my arms. "Who do you think you are?"
"I'm-"
"First you break my stuff," I paused my arm waving to gesture to my newly fixed door. "Then you waltz into my apartment like you own the place."
"Well I'm-"
"Like, who does that?" I didn't remember walking towards the couch but now I was right in front of it.
"I'd explain if you'd let me finish!" He said, shooting up in front me. I gasped at our proximity and unconsciously took a step back. That made his gaze soften. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just need somewhere to lay low for a little while."
"And you think this is the place to do that?" I asked. "You know you're breaking and entering, right?"
"No one knows about this place," he explained.
"Yeah they do, I called the police after you broke in last time," I said.
"Even if you did, I never targeted your place, it was random, that much should be clear to everyone who knows I came here. Besides, it's not the police who are after me right now," he explained.
"You're not really making me feel better about you being here right now you know," I said as the colour left my face. Just who was this person?
"I can't tell you much," he turned his head away. "It's for your own good."
"Then what can you tell me?" I asked.
"I won't be any trouble," he said. "Obviously you've seen what I can do, I live a dangerous life. But I do what I do to help other people. I fight for people who can't defend themselves."
"And I'm just supposed to take your word on that?" I said, crossing my arms.
"That's all I can give you," he said.
He seemed sincere. I wanted to trust him, but at the same time I knew how foolish that was. I didn't know who he was and he obviously wasn't going to let me know. And I've seen him seriously hurt someone before. Not to mention the fact that he broke into my apartment after he partially destroyed it. Destroy, and then help remake? "Were you the one who gave me the money?" I asked.
Now he crossed his arms. "I couldn't just leave your place looking like that," he said as he looked down.
So it was him. That money had been more than enough to cover the costs of the damages. And yet I still wasn't sure. "If I called the police right now what would you do?" I asked, mentally calculating how far away I was from my phone as I said it.
"I would let you," he said. "Of course, I wouldn't be here when they arrive. I'll probably leave when you start to dial them. But I wouldn't stop you."
I had no more questions for him. With him not being willing to open up more, this was all the information I had to go off of. I didn't know him, he was dangerous, he kept things from me, he broke into my home. But he had paid for the damage he had caused, he didn't seem hostile to me, he said would let me call the police if I wanted, and really with how powerful he was he could have really just taken my place over by force. And he didn't.
My thoughts stopped when he moved his metal arm to the side, or at least tried to. It squeaked and groaned like it was rusty. "Let me look at that," I said, removing the distance between us.
"Hey, what are doing?" He said. "Knock it off." I ignored him and grabbed his metal arm, pushing the coat sleeve up. For all the vocal fuss he made, he made no move to stop me. The arm was a wreck. It looked like it had been trampled on by an elephant.
"What did you do to the poor thing?" I asked as I studied it.
"I was lucky that my arm was the only thing that got hurt," he said. His voice was somber, but I wasn't paying attention to that.
"Lucky?" I squealed. He flinched at the volume of my voice. "Lucky that such a nice metal arm was ruined. How could you say such a thing?"
"Why do you care so much about a metal arm anyway?" He asked in an annoyed tone, still not making any effort to pull away from me.
"It comes with the territory," I said. "I'm a bioengineer, this stuff is my bread and butter. Now stay here for a minute."
"Huh? Why?" He asked, pulling his sleeve back down once I released his arm. I turned my back and walked off. It was a possible foolish move, but from what I'd seen if he really wanted to hurt me it didn't matter whether I faced him or not.
"Because I'm going to fix it," I said, fetching my tools from a nearby cabinet.
"What? Bu-"
"No butts," I cut him off as I grabbed my tools and walked to him again. "Just sit tight."
"Now hold still," I said as I grabbed his arm. Was I insane for doing this? Probably. But fixing his arm gave me a sense of control, it was something I could focus on that would help calm my nerves. He tried to pull away from me. I narrowed my eyes at him. "I said hold still!"
He relented and I took out tools from their box after studying his arm for a moment. "What's your name?" I asked as a I began the process of fixing his arm.
"I can't tell you that," he said.
I rolled my eyes. "Is that for my own good to?"
"Yes," he said. I wasn't looking at him but I knew if I was I would see his eyes narrowed.
"Then what should I call you?" I asked, measuring the width of his good arm to see what size of metal I needed.
"Don't call me anything," he said. "It's better you don't get attached."
"Attached? It's not like we're going to start dating or anything," I said, getting the metal to attach to him.
"Ch, you don't get it," he said.
I frowned at him. "Stop being so rude when I'm trying to help you."
"It's not like I asked for your help," he mumbled.
I glared daggers at him and shook him. "What is wrong with you, can't you just accept my help? Just stand there and stop being such a moron!"
He went frigid and his eyes went wide. "Sorry," he squeaked.
After that he let me finish his arm without complaint. An hour and a half later I was finished. "Good as new," I said with a smile. "Or even better if I do say so myself."
He moved the arm around and clenched his fist a few times, testing it out. "Not half bad," he said.
"What?" I exclaimed. "It is the best thing you've ever seen!"
"Yes, yes it's amazing," he said, nodding up and down. "Thank you."
He relaxed his posture and looked outside. "It should be safe for me to head out now. Thank you for letting me stay here."
"No problem, daffodil," I said.
"What did you just call me?" He asked angrily.
I shut my eyes and smiled. "You didn't give me your name, so that's what I'm calling you until you tell me."
He didn't take the bait. "Fine, whatever. It's not like we'll see each other again anyways." With that, he turned and left out the balcony door.
I don't normally write for this series, but I figured I'd give it a try. I wasn't sure how cartoony vs realistic I wanted to make it, hopefully it balanced out well. Please let me know what you think!