When I first mentioned Alden in II.2, it was more to add to the sense that Dante and Lady weren't the only demon hunters around, and to give Dante a little bit of jealousy with regards to potential other friendships that Lady could have. I hadn't really thought of Alden too much as a person, which is kind of a bad habit as an author—I don't want to mention someone without really defining them as a person. His significance is kind of retconned in, but actually motivates subsequent chapters. I'm interested in seeing what you guys think!
Here's actually another one of those Ephemerality chapters that doesn't follow the same "one moment, one chapter" rule that I have set up, mainly because Lady's interactions with Alden are more spread out and I don't want to split this up into multiple chapters.
Anonymous: Oh, I'm glad that you think it's working! I'm always so nervous about laying it on too thick, so I'm relieved to hear that you don't think it is, haha. As for Lady failing to acknowledge him as a person ... you're going to like the chapter I just finished writing, which I'm posting next. :)
Bakabara: Thank you, and I hope I don't disappoint! I really miss Vergil too—he's so snarky and amazing, but there's no way he could "come back" until after IV, at least, and even then it's highly improbable... UGHHHH he makes me want to write AU!
Pink Priestess: Thank you as usual, dear! :) Expect a lot more Dante from here on in. There will still be a few chapters where he's not around (like this one!) the majority of the chapters from this point on are Dante-tastic. Woo!
zenbon zakura: Lol yeah, Dante can be pretty smooth when he wants...!
This chapter was requested by Anonymous—strangely enough the same day that I decided to add the chapter to the outline—and KuteInsanity. The next chapter takes place the night that Dante and Lady work together on the job in the freighter, and is very simply called "The Blanket." I'm not going to say much about it because I want it to be more or less a surprise. :)
Warning: Do not read this until you have read the corresponding chapter (in this case II.1) of The Passage of Time!
Ephemerality
9: Alden Sinclair
(corresponds to a between in II.1: Recurring Events and II.2: Unforeseen Circumstances)
Alden Sinclair had brown eyes. That was the first thing she had noticed about him: he had big brown eyes that very clearly conveyed the fact that he had no idea what he was doing. It wasn't something that she could criticize about him, since she knew that she had probably looked the same way on her first mission, the first time she saw demons. At the same time, it was something that pissed her off about him—he couldn't go around looking like a deer in the headlights if he wanted to be taken seriously as a demon hunter.
One of Lady's contacts, a somewhat secretive but still trustworthy man who called himself Grant, had suggested that the young man contact her in order to talk to a more experienced hunter. It hadn't even occurred to her that anyone else would ever be interested in the career, but she figured that more people were exposed to demons now that there were more open portals and passages between Hell and Earth. In fact, for that very reason, she was surprised that there weren't more punks running around with guns and knives claiming to be demon hunters and getting themselves into a lot of trouble, but she wasn't going to jinx herself.
Alden, on the other hand, seemed legitimate. Wide-eyed and more than a little overwhelmed, but legitimate. He was here to network—no, it was more innocent than that: he was here for guidance. She didn't think she would be a particularly good teacher, but she guessed that if the choice for advice was between her and a guy like Dante, it was best to go with the organized human girl instead of the sloppy demon.
Come to think of it, she wondered who, if anyone, knew that he was a demon. It was still strange to her that a demon would hunt other demons, but she imagined that other people might not take that information as well as she had.
But enough of Dante; this nice boy Alden was sitting in front of her, waiting for her to answer his question. She had agreed to meet him at a coffee shop—he had nervously mentioned that he was too young to get into bars, which was where she usually met clients and contacts. Age had never stopped her when it came to meeting clients in bars, having turned twenty-one earlier in the year, but having breasts had always worked to her advantage when she was still only eighteen years old and trying to get her foot in the door.
So had her gun.
"Sure, why not, I'll help you," Lady answered, casually taking a sip of coffee in order to mask the smile she almost let slip when he sighed in relief. He was lucky that she wasn't charging him, but he was kind of cute in a strange way, so she was willing to make this one a favor. After all, he was just starting out. "What is it you need me to do, exactly?"
"Go with me on my first job," Alden said, leaning forward in his chair excitedly. "For backup, I guess, but mainly I want you to tell me what I'm doing well and what I need to keep working on."
Lady nodded: it was a reasonable enough request. It would kind of suck if she had to refuse a good job as a result, but she liked to think that the good karma would catch up with her if she did this boy a favor. "Sounds good. Do you have one tonight?"
"I ... don't have it lined up just yet," he admitted, brown eyes seeming to turn just a shade darker out of embarrassment. Or maybe it was just the lighting. She wasn't sure. "I'm not really sure how to start up, that's the problem."
She was a little surprised that he didn't already know this, but she guessed that this was why he had come to her for help. "You usually just start with a contact," Lady explained, sitting up straight and resting her arms on the table. "They hear things about demons hanging around an area or in a building, and act as a go-between with the client. Usually it's because the client doesn't want to talk to a demon hunter directly."
"Why?" Alden asked curiously.
"Denial, I guess?" she offered, shrugging lightly. "Your average person still doesn't want to admit that there are demons out there. If they're talking to a liaison, then it's like they're talking to some random person. If they're talking to a demon hunter, then there's definitely something wrong. That, and I think we scare them a little."
"Why would anyone be scared of you?" Alden immediately got flustered and started backpedaling. "Not that you're not a really cool, intimidating demon hunter or anything, but you're also ... you're nice, and you're pretty, so it seems weird that anyone would be scared of you."
Lady smiled lightly, and not just because she was amused by the fact that he had described her as nice—she wasn't necessarily mean, but she didn't necessarily consider herself a nice person. Usually men only got embarrassed around her if she started trying to manipulate them with her sexuality, and yet Alden was blushing in the middle of a simple conversation. It reminded her of how things used to be before her mother's murder, when all of the boys who were going through puberty would get nervous while talking to her. She found herself wondering how old he was exactly, despite the fact that she could tell that he was an older teen. He was cute, in a way.
"They're scared because we know how to kill," she said, still smiling a little, even as the conversation grew darker in nature. "We're like mercenaries or bounty hunters, only we make our living killing things that can kill normal people."
Alden nodded, soaking in the information.
"Besides," Lady continued, "it's best to have a liaison because they can filter out the bullshit jobs. People only get my number through referral, or if they've already hired me and I like them. It's not like we advertise in the yellow pages. And that's actually when you know that your foot's in the door—when jobs start coming in direct as well, and not just through your contact."
"So ... you just need to get a liaison to get you started?" Alden asked uncertainly.
"Or you could blindly stumble into some kind of big job and make a name for yourself that way." Lady knew that Dante had a liaison named Enzo, who she had never worked with or even met, but she still couldn't help but feel a little bitter. As terrible as it felt to talk about the events of Temen-ni-gru in this way, he had really gotten lucky in having taken credit for clearing that up. She had heard from another contact of hers that Dante had gotten a lot of jobs in the aftermath of the disaster, the government hiring him to take care of the large amount of demons that still lurked around the city while they were rebuilding it. It was almost unfair that he had gotten so easy of a start having been the only demon hunter in town, where she had had to build a reputation for herself as equally reliable, if not more careful.
"Sounds like I'll have to do just that." Alden laughed nervously, and there was something strangely pleasant about the laugh, emphasized by the fact that he had a lilting tenor.
"You already have one, though. I mean, you found me through Grant, right?" She frowned when Alden nodded. "Then what's the issue? You managed to meet him, which is already a good sign since he can be a bit of a hardass. That, and he wouldn't have sent you to me if he didn't think you had any kind of potential."
"Yeah, I just..." he trailed off, looking down nervously. There was something oddly familiar about the expression on his face, something that made her think that not everything was what it seemed to be.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Lady quietly asked, leaning forward. She sighed as he mutely shook his head. "Well, let me know what I can do." She pulled out the notebook she usually carried with her and ripped out a page. "Let me give you my number, that way when you do get that job lined up, I can tag along and give you tips." Usually she didn't give her number out to anyone, but there was something about the kid that she liked.
Alden looked up, his eyes shining proudly. "That would be great, thank you."
"How did I do?" Alden nervously asked, bent over from physical exertion, a demon sprawled by his feet.
Lady paused to figure out how to phrase it. He hadn't done a bad job of the mission—the demons were dead, nobody was harmed, and nothing had been damaged, which by her book meant that it had been a success—but his technique had been sloppy. Lady had ended up jumping in to make sure that he didn't get hurt more times than she would like to admit.
"You need to work on your shot, for starters," she answered, joining him where he stood. "You have a good eye, but I would definitely invest in some more time at a shooting range just so you can get used to the basics. Once you get that down, the more complicated shots you kept trying will come more naturally to you. By the way—" She pulled out one of her guns. "—that demon's not dead yet."
Alden jumped as Lady fired down. He watched with wide eyes at the demon gurgled, then disappeared into a cloud of sand.
Despite her prompting Alden had remained tight-lipped with regards to why he had never called her about that first job. It was six months after their first meeting that he had finally given her a call, only because he had gotten a job—not through Grant as she would have assumed, but another contact named Henry Gaffin that she occasionally spoke to—and wanted her to come in as backup so she could observe him. A part of her wondered if he had wanted more time to get used to demon hunting before inviting her along for her to assess him, but from the way he refused to talk about it she also suspected that there was something else going on that he wasn't going to tell her. He kept secrets, which to her was very frustrating: she was curious to find out what made a nice, shy guy like him decide that he wanted to go into demon hunting. She knew from experience that it was not a decision one made lightly.
"While you're at the range, you ought to ask about the advantages and disadvantages of each gun , because right now you aren't making the best of what you have," she continued, wiping her gun on her skirt before returning it to its holster. "And be sure to clean them tonight when you get home—clean them whenever you use them, because the last thing you want is for your gun to jam when you're on a job."
Alden nodded, still leaning over slightly to rest from the physical exertion. He was certainly in good physical shape; not built like Dante, but with wiry muscles that made her assume that he would be great at speed and evasion if he actually tried to avoid attacks. Throughout most of the fight he had stayed put, trying to make what looked like informed, effective shots, but instead firing erratically, and in doing so leaving himself open to attack. From the way he held his stance, she imagined that he would be a very good sniper, crouched on a rooftop and picking off demons one by one. But he wasn't on a rooftop; he was in the fray, so he needed to learn how to fight aptly without allowing his nerves to overtake him. She had been shaken in her first fight as well even with her formal training, but this was his fourth job, if what he hadn't been lying over the phone to her earlier that evening. He couldn't keep fighting the way he was fighting if he expected to live.
"Also, you should invest in some closer range weapons as well, in case you get jumped like this again," she added. She didn't expect him to use a big sword like Dante did—maybe just a knife of some kind. "I use bayonet fixtures on one of my guns as well as on Kalina Ann—" Here, she patted the missile launcher behind her. "—just in case anything gets too close and I can't reload, so I can stay protected. They're also good to tie into your fighting style—and speaking of which, you need to work on your movement. If you haven't already, I suggest you learn some kind of martial art or hand-to-hand combat, because it really helps the way you maneuver during a fight, even if all you're using is guns."
"So ... you don't expect me to punch the demons?" Alden joked.
"No, of course not," Lady replied, laughing lightly. While she had done so to get out of a tight situation once or twice, it wasn't something she did often. Not like Dante with those gauntlets of his. "But it's something worth learning."
Alden finally straightened, and Lady noticed for the first time that he had actually grown an inch since they had last seen each other about six months ago. It looked like his face had matured as well, which made her wonder: if he was still going through a growth spurt, how old was he? He might have been as young as she had been that night on Temen-ni-gru, but she felt uncomfortable asking the question, despite the fact that it was nothing to be nervous about.
He smiled lopsidedly, sweeping some of the dust off of his pants. "So what fighting style do you know?" he asked.
"CQC, mainly—that's Close Quarters Combat—as well as some Muay Thai, which is a style of kickboxing" she answered. "I was also a gymnast as a kid, but I quit a long time ago. It helped with my balance and agility, so in hindsight I'm glad I did it, even though I hated it back then." She leaned back, and considered the question that he was bound to ask. "For you, I would say that you should look into some CQC, but supplement it with another martial art for some variety. Do some research, find a style and studio that you like, and you'll be fine."
"Can you teach me?" Alden suddenly asked.
Lady felt a cold chill pool in her solar plexus, running up her spine before settling in the base of her skull. No, she ... she didn't want to do anything like that. She wasn't qualified to be a teacher of any kind, and she certainly didn't want a protégé following her around and asking her for advice 24/7. A favor now and then she could do, but she didn't need this kid hanging off of her. At all. "Alden—" she nervously started.
"No, I get it," he interrupted, shrugging and turning away. "You don't want me hanging around you or anything. It's fine, I understand." His stance, particularly his shoulders, seemed very defeated. "Thank you for the help. I won't bother you anymore."
"Wait, I didn't say that," Lady quickly corrected. She had thought it, but she hadn't said it. "I ... I mean, I can give you tips every now and then, but that's it." There was an uncomfortable pause in which Alden glanced over his shoulder at her before letting his gaze settle on a trash can to their right. "I would help you more, but I ... I kind of like to do my own thing," she added.
"Well, can we ever work together, you and I?" Alden asked, glancing back at her again. His eyes, which normally did such a good job of showcasing his emotions, were heavily guarded. "Not just with you giving me advice, but the two of us kicking ass and taking names?"
"You mean like partners?" The chill rushed through her body again when he nodded. What was it that was making her so nervous? He was just asking to do more jobs with her, not to date her. "I decided that I wouldn't be taking a partner any time soon," she admitted. "It's nothing personal—I promise. I said the same thing to Dante a while back." He didn't need to know that it wasn't necessarily flattering to be compared to Dante from her perspective, but if it helped to ease the rejection, then she was willing to use it.
"You know Dante?" Alden exclaimed excitedly, rushing towards her with a sudden explosion of energy that surprised her considerably. Now that was a switch. "Well I guess that's not too surprising, since the three of us are the only hunters in town... What's he like? Is he nice?"
"He's ... strong," Lady said, trying to avoid all other qualifying adjectives for him, like "arrogant," "idiotic," "perverted," and— "And nice, when he wants to be," she added, deciding that she could give the demon a bit more credit.
"Do you think you can introduce me to him?" Alden nearly turned red as he asked the question—she forgot how easily he got flustered, and thought it strangely cute. "He's really cool and it would be great to meet him and ask him a few questions as well."
"We're ... not exactly on speaking terms," she admitted. No, they were apparently just in hold-her-in-his-arms terms. There was a reason why she had stayed away from him after that night a little over a year ago and rebuffed all of his friendly advances: she didn't want to deal with anyone on a closer personal basis. It was as simple as that. She didn't need anyone, and to be honest, she was surprised that anyone—in this case, Alden—would need her for anything. "But who knows," she added when she noticed the forlorn expression on the boy's face, "once you start making a name for yourself, you might get called on the same job as him. I've had that happen several times."
"Yeah, but you're actually good at demon hunting. Like, really good. I'm not." Alden frowned, brown eyes dull. "Henry mentioned that you were also there on T-Night..."
"Oh, that." Lady sighed, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably—they were a little tense for some reason.
"Weren't you scared?" Alden quietly asked.
"Loath as I am to admit it, yes," she said, smiling cryptically. "But I had my reasons for being there." She shifted her shoulders again, still feeling tense. "What about you? Why are you doing this?"
"Your missile launcher strap," Alden said abruptly.
"What?" What did that have to do with anything? Was he dodging her question again?
"The strap. It's loose," he explained, pointing to the strap in question. "Do you want me to fix the strap for you so you don't have to?"
"Oh, sure," Lady answered dumbly, more than a little disappointed in the fact that he wasn't answering her question again. This time her transition had been so seamless, instead of the more direct approach she had previously used. The fact that he was avoiding the topic was more than a little frustrating.
"Right here, right?" he asked, indicating the clasp with his finger. When she nodded, Alden quickly reached forward, hooking his arms around her shoulders and leaning in to tighten the strap. His body was nearly flush with hers and face mere inches from her ear, eyes downcast and framed by surprisingly long lashes, and a light pink dusting over his cheeks and nose. She faintly heard the sound of his heart pounding in his chest, and surprisingly felt hers pounding as well.
"Perfect, stop," she quietly said when the strap of Kalina Ann felt comfortable again. She felt her own face heating up as well, wondering why she was blushing too. The last time she had blushed, she had still been—
Alden rested his hand on her shoulder and angled his face towards hers. She saw the flecks of gold in his warm brown eyes, warm and dark and confusing all at once—and then they grew closer as he pressed a light kiss to the corner of her mouth. It lasted for two seconds at most, but there seemed to be as much feeling in that fraction of a kiss as in the desperate, tear-stained ones that Mary had shared with David about seven years earlier.
Then he was several steps away from her, flustered and gangly and an awkward teenager once more, instead of ... well, whoever it was, in her mind, that could lean in and press meaningful kisses to the corner of her lips and make her almost want to kiss back.
"I'm sorry," Alden apologized, looking at the floor at her feet instead of at her as he spoke. "The moment felt right."
It had been right, she wanted to say, but the moment had passed as quickly as it had arrived. "I'm sorry," Lady insisted. "I mentioned before, I'm just ... I work alone. I'm..." She trailed off. It was the wrong time for her, and to be honest she knew it was the wrong person as well. Alden was a nice boy, but there was something lacking in him that she couldn't really place. Maybe it was because he was a young boy infatuated with an older woman. He was ... what, sixteen? She had recently turned twenty-two. It was weird.
"I understand," Alden said lightly, looking up at him with a guarded look in his eyes. "Don't feel pressured into doing anything that you don't want to do."
Lady smirked. She wasn't a kid anymore—she didn't succumb to peer pressure.
"But don't close yourself off completely," he continued, smiling lopsidedly again. "If I call you and you don't already have a job, will you go with me? Let me know how I'm doing?"
Well, it was the least she could do. Besides, she wanted to protect him, or at least make sure that he would end up strong enough to protect himself. He was only a boy. "Yeah, I can do that," she promised, smiling.
"Good." Alden's lopsided smile turned into a grin, but his eyes were still veiled. She just wished she could understand what he was really thinking, because suddenly it was a lot harder to do. "Now let's get out of here—this place kind of weirds me out."
Lady worked with Alden several times in the ensuing months, all cases in which he called her up and asked her to tag along . While she could tell from his improvements that he had been taking her advice to good use, there was still something lacking in his technique that she could never really place. She realized that she would never choose to split up on a job with him the way that she did on a job with Dante, if only because she worried that he would get hurt without her to keep an eye on him. Besides, she avoided Dante because he made her feel uneasy—granted, Alden made her feel uneasy as well, but in a different way.
Whatever secrets he had he still refused to divulge. Whatever he still thought about her he refused to say, or even to let his warm brown eyes say it for him. Lady felt herself wondering who this Alden Sinclair guy was, and why a nice boy like him had gotten himself into something like demon hunting. At the end of each mission, she wondered if she would actually see him again. Maybe he would get killed by demons, either on his way home or afterwards, on another job where she wasn't there to save him. Or maybe he would be okay and life a long, happy life in a peaceful, demon-free suburb with a completely normal wife and children. All options involved him never reaching out to her again.
Maybe that would be best for him—the one where he escaped with his life, of course—but maybe it would be best for her too. It was her job to fight demons. That didn't leave a lot of time for anything else.