He stayed his distance from Echo. The longer he was absent from her the angrier he became. Then that damn artist showed up! He was going to lose her to an ungrateful boy that wasn't aware of how precious and unique his beautiful little Echo was. She was a queen and he was just treating her as though she were any other girl! Echo was supposed to be his!
Dawn didn't make him feel like Echo did when he first saw her. He didn't feel the immediate bond with Dawn that he had with Echo. Her eyes were too dark. She was…. he didn't know what was wrong with her. He didn't want her, she wasn't meant for him. Only Echo. Sweet, short, beautiful Echo.
Slen felt the rage in his chest build up from day to day. How could she? All his reasoning had flown out the window a long time ago and he had no idea why but he didn't care. Echo was his. Eventually he approached her. She was sitting in her apartment with that stupid smile she always wore after she spent time with that damn artist.
She looked up at him as though she were a blind man seeing that light of day for the first time when he appeared. She nearly squealed a loud and flew across the room hugging him tightly around the waist.
"I haven't seen you in forever! Where have you been, I've been so concerned!" She told him, letting Slen go. He mentally scowled, trying to harden his heart to her. She betrayed him. Echo was so innocent, she didn't know what she had done. He looked at her with a longing feeling. Her pretty over-joyed smile dropped from her face and she became worried.
"Hey, is everything alright?" She asked. Echo comes into his life and all his defenses fall. All his anger directed at her vanishes and he can't hold her responsible.
"Everything's fine. I've just been… preoccupied." He told her. She titled her head a little.
"With what?" She replied.
"Nothing…" He says and goes to the couch, sitting down, at one time he would feel quite at home, now he felt as though he was trespassing on someone else's territory and that made him uneasy.
"The scent of that artist is all over the apartment." Slen says. Echo smiled softly, her eyes glowing with that stupid affection that was supposed to be directed towards him.
"He's a good friend Slen. When you vanished I had to get someone to keep me company. I'm actually trying to get a roommate. If anyone answers my ad." She said going into the kitchen. This made him bristle with anger. A roommate? Is she trying to get rid of him!? With another human around he couldn't come and go as he please.
"A roommate, hmm?" He asked, trying to keep his voice level. She nodded, not picking up on his anger.
"I've kind of decided that I need more friends than just you and Jake. I'm starting to get lonely. People are starting to talk. I don't want that." Echo said as though this wasn't a big deal.
"Oh?" He replied. She looked at him with those heart melting aquamarine eyes.
"Yeah… you're okay with that… right? Because you did cross my mind and I would hate to block you out of my life." Echo told him. He nearly groaned, damn her innocence.
"I wish you had said something about it. But you are a full grown woman that has the right to do as she pleases. You own this apartment, not I." Slen told her. She nodded.
"Good. I'm glad you're okay with it. Hopefully the person that comes to stay with me has a job and will busy during the day so you'll be free to come and go." Echo replied.
"Have you gone to see Dawn recently?" She asked, trying to change the topic to something she assumed would be pleasant. It probably was to her. Dawn was quite a disappointment to him. He only hoped it was because she was a six month old that didn't really seem to have a personality to someone that didn't spend too much time with her. He occasionally checked in on her to make sure she was fine. She would soon grow.
"A few days ago, yes. She's a baby so she doesn't do much." He told her. Echo smiled, those full mauve lips curling into a delightful smile that nearly made him shiver in euphoria.
'"Oh, does she have those cute chubby cheeks?" Echo asked.
"I haven't really paid much attention." He said absently. Echo eyed him curiously.
"You haven't paid attention to what your future mate looks like?" She asked in disbelief. He shook his head as she watched him from the other side of the kitchen counter.
"Human children look all the same." He told her.
"What and your species don't?" She replied with that sass he admired so.
"I never said we didn't look the same." Slen replied. "Because of that fledglings are preferred. They are unique and different and my kind enjoy that." Slen told her. She smiled softly.
"What have you been doing anyways, huh? Whatdaya think you're doing, leaving me all alone like that for! I was really worried!" Echo demanded.
"I had things I needed to arrange, Echo. My life doesn't orient around you and your childlike whims." Slen replied sternly. She opened her mouth to reply but closed it without a word. He had a point, the only reason he was around her all the time before was because she was his mate and he wanted to be with her as much as possible. Echo looked at the clock on the stove.
"Oh crap. Jake's coming over in like two minutes, you should get going if you don't want to be seen." Echo told Slen. Anger made his heart beat violently in his chest at the mention of the artist. Slen stood, Echo came across the room and hugged him again.
"Bye, thanks for coming to see me." She told him. Slen only patted her back awkwardly and left her behind.
"You're thinking twice about what you did." Maximus said as Slen entered his forest. Slen only sighed and said nothing in return.
"Technically speaking you can still claim her. Echo is free to you until Dawn is five years old." Maximus continued.
"Don't tempt me." Slen said. His brother laughed softly.
"You'd have to get rid of that freak of a human. I have never seen a bigger human in my life. How tall is he?" Maximus asked, Slen only ignored Maximus's question as his attention bristled at Maximus's mention of Echo's rather tall (for a human) neighbor.
"When did you see that boy?" Slen replied.
"A few weeks ago. You were avoiding Echo like the plague and I decided to check in on her for you. You're insane. I have never seen a fledgling more beautiful. Don't you dare tell Elizabeth I said that." Maximus said. Slen shook his head.
"I know. She deserves better than what I can offer her. She deserves happiness and she would never have that with me, how many times do I have to explain my reasoning to you?" Slen replied, attempting not to sound as bitter as he felt.
"I'm never going to understand you…" Maximus muttered. Slen just shrugged, he knew that Punishers weren't meant to be understood, he came to that understanding a very long time ago when he was a boy. Punishers had a compassion for the human race and that led them to protect the innocent from the vile.
I kind of felt bad about kicking Slen out because of Jake… but you know…. I kind of really like Jake… a lot. I was finally getting somewhere in my life. I wasn't waiting around for Slen to show up. If Jake was home all I had to do was go across the hall and knock. He would just let me in and we would chill out together. Once he let me screw around with some clay and I sort of made a huge mess. He didn't care much. He just found it freaking hilarious as my ears glowed a red that would make Rudolph feel dull.
I think that he liked me as much as I liked him. Both of us kind of just wanted to ease into the relationship. We had been hanging out for a while now, tonight he was going to introduce me to his friends and we were going out for a movie. Jake had informed me that he was sort of a sixth wheel. His two best friends were in a committed relationship and Jake didn't have anyone to hang out with unless he wanted to feel awkward. Then I walked into the picture! Hooray!
But anyways, Jake was picking me up at about five thirty, we were going for dinner before the movie and it was five fifteen now. I had to put on some make up and put some curls in my hair. So I went to the bathroom and dolled myself up a little. Not too much though. I liked to look as natural as possible but skin looks smoother with a little bit of foundation. I heard the front door open and Jake called my name. I left the bathroom, smiling broadly at him. He already had a smile on his face. He was always smiling. I didn't know why but I figured he was lucky.
"You look nice." He told me simply. My smile got bigger as bashfulness made my cheeks flush a little.
"Thanks. I'm excited, I get to ride in that roaring truck of yours." I said as I grabbed my messenger bag and slung it over my shoulder.
"It doesn't roar." He replied.
"Yeah I think it does. I'm pretty sure it shakes the glass panes in the windows on the first floor when you start it." I said crossing my apartment and grabbing my keys. Jake left ahead of me and I locked the door behind me. He was waiting by the stairs. I smiled thinking about how we met. I'm stupid clumsy. He gave me a different kind of smile from his usual one, it kind of made my heart flutter. His eyes seemed to be a smoky gray that I could just stare at his eyes forever. He turned and walked down the stairs, I followed after him. His long legs making it hard on me to keep up. I swear he walked down the steps two at time and didn't even bat an eyelash.
I caught up with him, either my grumbles about his stupid long legs got his attention or he remembered that I was delightfully short and that he needed to wait for me. Either way he was watching me walk down the stairs toying with his keyring. He had his apartment and truck keys on the ring, and a little souvenir penny that had the image of a mountain range poorly etched over Abe Lincoln's likeness, it was shiny but a little tarnished in the center, like someone kept running their finger over the surface. I didn't catch all that detail just by watching him play with it, one day he threw his keys at me to let him into his apartment for me because his arms were full with moving boxes.
I liked his keychain. I noticed little details about people. Somewhere he went with someone he cared about and he made a souvenir penny and that was the token of his memories from the trip. It was part of his story. Maybe just a little part of it, but it was important to Jake.
"You're so slow." He said, poking me in the side playfully. I shoved him a little and walked onto his car.
"No, you just have giraffe legs that help you walk five feet each step." I jabbed at him. He laughed and unlocked the passenger side of the truck. I got in and sat down, buckling my seat belt as I waited for him to get in and get on our way.
"It is a little loud, so I did have a some sound canceling tech put into the cab." Jake said and started the truck. There was quite the noticeable difference between being on the outside and inside of the cab. I looked around the interior. The seats were white and blue leather and the gear shift was a polished white orb with carefully painted gear symbols.
"This is really nice. Did you restore it yourself?" I asked him as we got onto the road and at a good speed.
"I did with my brother and dad. We're all really good with cars." He told me, checking the intersection before darting across.
"But aren't these cars meant for like, a Sunday drive in the mountains or somethings?" I asked. Jake chuckled.
"That's what old men do. I like to drive around in my girl. Dad said I should get a new car to drive around in, but I prefer Belle." He told me. I smirked.
"You named your truck Belle?" I replied. Jake smiled brilliantly, flashing those pearly whites of his, I wondered why the hell he didn't have a girlfriend yet.
"Yeah. Once you build a something from the ground up you're gonna have a connection with it, Echo. So I named her Belle. We found her in the car graveyard and Dad said she had a good body, just needed some new parts, paint job, and new upholstery. So I decided to fix her up." He told me.
"You can't act like you haven't named an inanimate object like this before." Jake finished. I shrugged. I never said I didn't name things. I named my car, guilty of the same crime.
"Yeah… I actually named my car George." I told Jake, fighting back giggles. I wasn't lying. Jake nearly had to pull over he was laughing too hard.
"You're making fun of me for naming my beauty Belle, which is feminine French for beauty, when you named your rinky dink Civic George? How on Earth is that fair!" Jake demanded, his eyes crinkling up at the corners with laughter. When he smiled, his whole face just light up. God I was falling head over heels for this guy and I didn't even know how he felt about me.
"Yes Jake. Because I'm the world's biggest hypocrite!" I told him sassily. Jake shook his head in good humor and turned into the parking lot of the restaurant we where meeting his friends at.
"And my rink dink Civic needed a dignified name to make him feel better about himself." I mumbled. Jake started to laugh again as he took the keys out of the ignition. The penny clinked pleasantly against the keys as he put the keyring in the pocket.
"Hey, be sure to lock the door when you get out." He told me. I nodded and released my seat belt and got out. We headed into the restaurant.