Commitments

[Vae]

Vaeltia pulled into West’s driveway and quickly pulled the messenger bag she normally had with her. It was another day, and another period of time for her to spend with her Master. Only she was running late, and hadn’t had the time to change out of her Uniform.

She had thought to stop at home and take her usual quick shower and change, but she had gotten detained and ended up heading straight over. He shouldn’t be mad, but then she hadn’t told him that she was going through the academy, but he was an Arrow as well -- and that should mean something.

“Hey, West.” she called as she stepped onto his porch. His truck was still there, so she knew that he was most likely not in town... but then he did have that whole teleportation ability.



There was a slight odor of cordite and oil in the air. The smell of steel put to purpose.

West's head appeared around the corner.

"What..."

It vanished.

West's head appeared around the corner.

"...are you... Shit."

Whatever he'd been doing, a fat run of blood slid out of his nose and spiderwebbed around his upper lip before he wiped it off. He stepped around the corner, his other hand holding a bluish grey automatic.

"What are you doing? What month is this?"



“WOAH, West!” she said as she took an unthinking step back down off the porch. Her hands snapping up in the casual surrender place. Her voice was remaining even, but her eyes a bit startled.

“I was walking onto your porch...with the intent of getting inside, I know I’m a little late...and April...um, Two-thousand-twelve.” she gave him a curious look. “I am supposed to be here right? Nothing changed since last week, right?” She was confused.



"I know that."

He looked puzzled at what she'd said; why she'd included the year, or where she was going.

Belatedly, he realized the defensive gesture, and tucked the gun behind his back and into the waist of his pants. He remembered now, though. Sometimes the things Tyria would say. And he'd look at her the way Vaeltia was looking at him.

You just don't know when, little flame. That's all.

"No...," he added, "Nothing changed. Sorry."

He wiped at the blood again. He wasn't sure why he apologized, other than he felt he should. She seemed startled, after all. A finger pointed at her.

"I meant... what are you doing?"

[West (The Mage)]

She put her hands down when he removed the gun, but she was still visibly tense, her eyes trained on him. She breathed out slow breath forcing herself to relax slightly, before letting her hand slip into her messenger bag. “I was hoping I could change out of my Academy Uniform, if that’s okay.” she said as she withdrew a white shirt and shook it at the Acanthus.

“You’re bleeding, what were you doing? And why did you pull the gun on me, you normally don’t do that.” She took the step forward again, back onto the porch. “And why ask the month?”

She had heard things, but this was the first time she had seen them.



West focused on the uniform, and the bag, eyebrows furrowing before he looked back at his Apprentice. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again as he thought of how to explain.

"Oh... the month. Sometimes you see things, but don't know... when... they'll happen."

He did the open and close thing again, considering clarifying, but not sure if he could without confusing the issue more. So, he did what he usually did when faced with that predicament: he moved on.

"Sure," he added, gesturing at the shirt.

After a pause, he added, "Why... didn't you tell me? That you were doing this... now?"

The subtext was clear: it was something he'd expected, but not during her Apprenticeship.



Her eyes widened, “And that made you pull a gun on me?! What did you see?” She shook her head, pretty much guessing he had passed the issue. “Thanks, and...erm...because...I dunno.” She took a step forward towards his door, after fishing out the spare key.

“I guess it’s just a thing. I got my hiring letter about a week before Consillium, I guess.” She unlocked the door, her eyes occasionally shifting to her Master. “I just didn’t think to tell you then. And, well... here I am. I’d been working on those hoops for a while, and I didn’t want the opportunity to slip out of my grasp.” she shrugged. ‘“Besides the Academy seemed like a good idea, and they needed more women on the force anyway.”



"What? No!" West replied vehemently, surprised and apologetic at the same time.

"The gun... I already had it, in my hand. I was... trying something."

He was aghast that she'd thought that, and it showed on his face. And he kept rambling.

"The gun, look." He reached up to rub the back of his head like a genie's lamp that would sprout answers. "Look. I've been around guns my whole life. With... my dad," he continued with a slight hesitation, "Then the Army, then HPD. I'm sorry. It's just something I forget, sometimes. Not that I forget, but, it's just natural. To hold one."

"It was already in my hand," West repeated.



She looked at him with questioning eyes, she had never seen him so nervous. It was weird, especially with what people said about him. “It’s...you know what hold that thought.” she said holding up a single finger as she slipped into the house and took a few minutes to change out of the uniform. Then pulled two of his usual beers from the fridge, making the note that she’d have to pick up more for tomorrow.

“Okay, you were saying something about your dad, and I guess it was just a reflex then, I can deal with that.” She offered him the drink. “You know I really don’t know too much about you, and HPD? like Police?”

[Vae]

By the time Vaeltia returned, the firearm had been removed from West's pants and lay on the handrail of the porch. The clip had been removed.

He turned from looking out toward the fenceline at the sound of the door, a handkerchief in his hand; navy, turned deep purplish-black from dabbing at his nose. A small nod of approval at the sight of the beers, and he took a long pull of his own.

"Yeah. HPD. Houston Police Department."

His eyes slid away as he took another drink, sifting through stirred memories.

Spooky. Zack. Gus.

"After the Army, while I was becoming an Arrow," he continued. West shrugged. "My military experience, you know. It made it easy."

Too easy.

There were times he could have let that become all he was. West drank again, lapsing into silence. It was probably more than anyone in Sacramento now knew about him.



“So why be confused and shocked when I show up dressed in my Academy uniform? Obviously you’ve seen it before...or something like it.” She looked at him oddly before leaning against one of the porch’s posts “You’re obviously not a member of HPD anymore, so what happened?”

She gave him a side long look. She had heard things, but so fare they really didn’t seem to match up with the way he acted. “Did you get jaded or something?”

That would match up with what they had said.



"I wasn't... shocked," West answered, brows furrowing again. "I just didn't think... well, I thought that would come later, that's all."

He wasn't sure how she was juggling the demands on her time, but it was... something else. He thought about it for a moment, and realized that it was that yet another influence was being introduced into the time which he had to teach her. Or maybe it was that she could juggle the different influences, apparently with ease. It was something to sort out later; to meditate upon.

West answered the next questions with one of his ubiquitous shrugs.

"It was time. Time to be an Arrow."

In retrospect, he'd understood that it had been something of a test: to see if he could learn to take orders, to understand his role instead of waging a personal, private war against the Seers.

The reality was, he'd just learned to skirt the line of what was expected.

That was then; this was now. Maybe her last question hadn't been accurate then, but it had been... recently. It also forced him to circle back to thoughts of her Apprenticeship -- and how Chris, Diana, and Maxine had all left. Maybe having other influences was a good thing.

"Yeah, maybe," he added, turning back to look at the fence-line before she could see the slight flush of a blush.