Three, two, one... showtime:
M. O. M.'s office was… different to say the least. The normally Spartan-looking place was now colorful and lively, not unlike the time where Diana and Martin had arrived to be briefed about the strange moon phenomenon that caused monsters from movies and comics to become real. It surprised Diana only slightly, but it was a welcomed surprise.
"Hey, Diana!" Billy cheered, using his human shell, "How did your date go?"
"Billy! It… wasn't a date…" she answered, smiling nervously.
"Right, right, right… Okay, how did the 'meeting' go?" he said, still teasing the teenage girl, who was blushing so badly that her face had gone a nasty shade of red.
"It was…ok, I guess"
"Come on, Diana, it must have been great if you are all smiles now."
"Alright, alright! Jeez, Billy, nothing happened, he just showed me around and stuff"
"Well, that's too bad. Did you invited him to come along with you for the party? He could use someone to take him out more often, you know?"
"Yes, we sort of talked about that. Do you think M. O. M. would allow him to come out of The Center when he's not away on an assignment? After all, I think you are right, he does need to get out more often" Diana asked the alien.
Billy pondered about this for a moment, until he was able to give a truthful answer to his friend: "I think I can talk to her about that. I mean, surely you know the… circumstances of his employment here, right?"
"You mean the thing about him being an orphan? Yes, he mentioned it. Billy, how is it possible? How did an orphan winded up being raised by The Center?" it was a very fair question, and one that Billy could answer, but he was doubtful about it himself. And he didn't want everybody else to overhear what he was about to say. After all, not everyone knew the history of James Archer's upbringing in the Center.
"Ok, I will tell you, but we need to talk about this in a more secluded part. Come on"
"Well, well, well, look who decided to finally get out from the Armory" Max said, teasing his younger team-partner, who was looking himself at the mirror in his quarters while he tried to smoothen the formal jacket he had decided to wear. It had been given to him as a Christmas gift last year, by none other than M. O. M. herself. He never understood why the head of The Center usually gave him better gifts than the rest of the employees (in a discreet manner, of course), but he never questioned her motives, and as such he never pronounced word against it. Unfortunately, the gifts rarely got any use at all, since he hadn't ever gotten out from his quarters to use them, but it now seemed that all that was about to change.
"What? I'm just tidying myself up for the party. No big deal!" Archer said, still trying to figure out how to wear clothing that was not The Center's combat uniform, "Dammit! Why is this so hard?" he exclaimed, giving up on the jacket. He really had no idea of what he was doing, and it showed. Max just chuckled to himself and stepped into Archer's room, helping him with his clothes.
"You are wearing it the other way around, fella" he said, taking his jacket off and turning it inside-out, only to give it back so the kid could wear it back, "See? That's better, isn't it?"
"Yes, I suppose. Thanks, boss" Archer answered with a sheepish smile.
"Don't mention it, Arch. Now, about all this… can I ask you, why the sudden change?"
"Uhm… I don't think I get it…"
"Don't think I'm stupid, kid. Billy shows up with a pretty girl, looking for you, then suddenly you are going to parties and dressing sharply?" Max commented, referring specifically to his actual outfit: a set of silvery-looking trousers, a black turtle-neck, long-sleeved shirt, and the black formal jacket he had somehow gotten. It was something he had never seen him wear, and attending to the (few) Center's festivities was completely out-of-character for him, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not against any of this kid, but I want you to be careful, alright? Girls are great distractors, and distractions get people killed in the field, you hear me?"
"Yeah. I hear you, boss. I'll be careful"
"Good, now let's go, you have a date waiting for you"
What I am about to tell you happened a long time ago, but it seems like it was just yesterday. James Archer was the son of two Center agents, our top agents at the time. His mother was M. O. M.'s best friend back in the day, before she became the manager and was just an agent like you.
Needless to say, the mother was rethinking about her long-term employment in The Center due to her new status as a mother. The director at the time, a man named Hartman, assigned the parents a last mission before they retired, but they never came back. We searched for them for weeks, but never found a trace of their whereabouts. The Center took a pretty good hit when they disappeared, but M. O. M. took it even worse. Hartman understood it, and allowed her some time off to deal with her loss. What none of us had thought about was what would happen in that time span.
When M. O. M. returned, she was now the legal responsible for James, effectively becoming into a de facto mother. Hartman was furious, and threatened to fire her for not consulting about her decision. In the end, M. O. M. won, and Hartman was discharged. She was tasked with occupying his former position as manager, but in the end she had to deal with the fact that her responsibilities where too much for her to do her job in a proper manner. After James' thirteenth birthday she took a final decision: she asked me and Dr. Julius Strong to erase her kids' memory. Records of his birth and her relationship to him where altered or flat-out erased, and the people who knew about it accepted promotions in the farthest Center outposts they could find or early retirements. It was the only way to keep him close without causing a scandal in The Center. Imagine that, M. O. M.'s kid being promoted to field agent, and Special Response Teams after. No one would have tolerated that, and M. O. M. wouldn't have tolerated being responsible for that kind of division among the agency. So, she has followed his career ever since those first days, treating him like she would to any other agent. But that doesn't take away the fact that he's, essentially, the son of The Center's manager. That's why he's here today, Diana, and it's important that you do not tell him any of this.
Diana was in a state of-near-shock. She desperately wanted to believe that Billy was playing around with her, that he had just invented the story he just told her to mess with her. But the rather guilty-looking person in front of her told the story by itself: it was no joke.
"Billy… what you did… it was… wrong. You… you stripped that kid from the love he deserved. How could M. O. M. tell you to do that? Doesn't she feel responsible for that? Does she even care?"
"I don't know what to say, Diana. You have to walk in somebody's shoes to understand the reasons behind their decisions…"
"Sorry, Billy, but these are some shoes I would rather not even try on. Whether M. O. M. approves or not, I'll make sure he knows that there's a world beyond the one she created for him" Diana was furious, but she kept it to herself. It wasn't Billy whom she was furious at.
"I'm sorry Diana, I know that what I did was wrong…"
"Yes, it was, Billy, but I don't blame you. I blame M. O. M. You are just another piece in her chess board. I won't let the game keep going on, at least not with her own rules"
"So this is a party, uh?" Archer had to ask, his mind overloaded by the constant visual and auditory stimuli.
"Well… yeah. You've never been to a party before, Arch?" Anne asked, giving him a strange look.
"Err… no?"
"My, my, you've missed on some good stuff. Seems like we have to get you started, right now!"
"Actually, I am supposed to meet… someone in here…"
"Whoa! You got a date?! You are growing too fast!" Anne joked, which caused Archer to gruff in annoyance, "go ahead, go look for your date, we'll see you later, kid"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever" Archer dismissed, as he began looking around for Diana.
She was furious at what she had just found out, but at the same time she felt sorry for Billy. And Archer. Speaking of him, where is he? He said he would be here by n… She was stopped on her tracks by bumping into someone, and she recognized who it was before he had time to apologize.
"Here you are!" she said, her previous frown now turned into a sincere smile. She had suddenly forgotten the unpleasant conversation with Billy, "And you are looking good, if I may say so"
"Uh… thanks. This… is not how usually dress. I must admit that it was a bit hard to piece it together. So… what does people do in these… 'parties'?" Archer asked, making it apparent that he was completely out of his element.
"You have never been to a party?"
"That's the second time they've asked me that same question tonight"
"And?"
"No, I've never been to a party"
"Well… we could… dance, how about that?" she said, pulling him lightly by his arm.
"Uh… Ok, but I don't know how to dance" he admitted, slightly ashamed and with a nervous grin on his face. I can't believe how out of touch with reality I am.
"Don't worry, I can teach you some things" she said, finally being able to drag the smart-dressed guy into the dance floor.
Meanwhile Martin watched from afar while his sister (correction, his step-sister) was flirting with a guy he didn't even know. What if he is some kind of pervert or the like? What if he only wants to take advantage of her? These questions roamed wildly in his mind while he drank the light beverage in his glass. But there was one question that he hadn't given a thought about: Why did it matter to him that much? What did this all meant?
He wasn't asking those questions because he was sure he already knew the answers, and he didn't liked them at all, so he instead pushed them out of his head and focused on his present worries. I'm gonna keep a good eye on that guy.
"Ouch" Diana yelped softly. Jesus, he even makes polite mistakes, what is it with this guy? That's gonna hurt in the morning, tough…
"Sorry! Dammit, I'm so bad at this…" he said with a small laugh. It was contagious, and she found herself laughing despite the clumsy way they were dancing. It was a ridiculous moment, sure to be reminded to her in the future by her brother (Where is he, by the way?) in a way to mock her, but she really didn't mind it at all.
"It's ok, you are doing it pretty good for your first time. Are you sure you've never been to a party before?"
"One-hundred-and-ten percent. I even rarely come out of my quarters" he said, trying to have a conversation and keeping up to the lively music's rhythm.
"That's not good, you now? But anyways, I'm already taking care of that"
"R-really? Won't it interfere with my job?"
"Don't worry, you won't be having any work for the next month apparently. Bad guys celebrate holidays too. Besides, I overheard some stuff about team rotations. I don't know how that works but I assume you and your friends are going to get R & R"
"Yeah, basically, it means the B team is now on standby for action. So I guess you are right, I'll be free for the next month or so. Though I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to survive. Out there, in the real world"
Suddenly, the frantic music stopped, and a calmer tune began to play and the lights dimmed slightly
"W-what's going on?" he said, looking around, and missing Diana's blush as she realized it was Billy who had done it. So, despite the fact that I almost chewed his head off, he's now my teammate on this… There was something comforting about a friend willing to help despite the circumstances.
"Err, this is kind of embarrassing. It's called slow-dancing. If you feel awkward about it…" she said, with her hands behind her back. After catching a side-ways glance, he finally understood what she meant.
"Oh. Err… and what about you? Do you… want to?" he asked with a blank expression. It was a sight that very nearly made her heart melt, and the fact that he was asking her to slow-dance…
"I would love to…"
And strangely enough, there was no need to teach him anything. It seemed like this level of intimacy between two people who barely knew each other was not wrong, but rather, that it was something… natural. And it didn't bother her. Maybe it should have, maybe… maybe she should have had a problem with it, maybe she should have declined. But she didn't want to, and for the first time in her life she was going to listen to herself and do what she thought was right, society and rules be damned. And him? He didn't know what to think. He was versed in combat with directed-energy weaponry, projectile weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, asymmetric paranormal warfare and a great number of other skills, all necessary for his survival while in the line of duty. But this? He was out of his element, a babe in the woods if you may. And he wasn't afraid of it. He wasn't afraid of not knowing the girl whom he was now holding in his arms that well, and he was certainly not afraid of the idea of going out into a world he didn't know anything about.
It was okay. It wasn't perfect, but it really felt close to it.
I think I have a flair for the dramatic, but I also think I overdid this one, SPECIALLY the ending. Anyways, if you think so (or not), then please leave your input in the 'Reviews' section (remember that our stories grow better with your feedback, people) and I'm still waiting for those fabulous new stories in this category. Come on, don't be shy, there's a lot of good you can do in here.
So, that woud be it for now, as you remember I already stablished a new update rate, so the next update will take a while to come around, but in the meantime I encourage you to read my other works and leave more input on those too. Remember that 'love you give is love you get'... or something like that...
