Themba looked at Ben in such a way that the blonde couldn\'t avoid knowing he was greatly disappointed - he even made a point of sighing and pulling away from the youngling, telling him, "Never mind," to hammer home his point. Ben wasn\'t ready to settle down, was too young to contemplate the committment he envisioned, it was all too clear. The ancient could only hope that, with time, that would change.
~*~
Over the next three weeks, Themba was true to his word and he took a stronger hand in helping Ben get a handle on his finances and arrange for some investments to be made. They started off conservatively, for even though Ben now had a small fortune in terms of his total bank balance, it was only a drop in the pond compared to what Themba felt he
should have to live the life he wanted and deserved. Together, they set what he had up to garner him everything he would need, and all it would take was some time for certain things to mature (namely Ben, in Themba\'s opinion, but e didn\'t ever say as much).
Ben\'s modelling appointments continued incessantly (a great surprise for someone so relatively new to the industry) and Themba was given cause to laugh heartily - and then threaten nastily - when he heard some whispers about Ben being a slut on one particular location. The manager in him quelled the jealous lover in him and put that nonsensical claim out like so much trash caught on fire in a waste paper basket. He left the office shaking his head and wondering what the jealous models would come up with next to try and undermine Ben\'s sterling reputation.
It was during the fourth week when an unexpected visitor arrived at the studio, managing to find his way to the front doors of the business and make his way upstairs to the offices without impediment. He was dressed impeccably in his Armani tuxedo, earning appreciative looks from Holly as he approached the desk. The smile she wore was very accommodating, putting him at ease even though he sensed a kindred somewhat older than himself.
"Hello, I\'m Kerr Galvin," he introduced himself charmingly and she recognised his accent straight away. "This may sound odd, but I sense my fledgling, Ben, in this building and I\'d like to catch up with him while I\'m in town?" he queried, not sure why he was asking to see Ben, rather than inviting himself in, but it might have had something to do with the look on her face. It had shifted gradually from curious and welcoming to shuttered and uncertain with every progressive word out of his mouth.
"Oh dear," she said, when the silence had stretched into an awkward one that had him tensing with the sensation that something was wrong. "I\'ll just get someone who can help you," she declared in her uncultured English accent but she didn\'t use the telephone; his mind buzzed, knowing she\'d sent some sort of distress call through the warehouse. It didn\'t make him feel any better about being here and the scare he\'d had from Ben all those months ago was prominent in his mind as Holly looked over his shoulder in relief.
Turning, Kerr saw a truly amazing-looking woman floating down the carpeted hallway towards him, but he couldn\'t look at her for long, because her age overwhelmed him and forced him to one knee before her, his gaze directed at the ground as near to her Blahnik-cossetted feet as he dared. "My lady," he breathed, his head swimming with the power and majesty of her, the wonderment she instilled in him and the feelings of worship her ancient blood evoked.
"Rise," Anu instructed Kerr, placing a hand upon his shoulder to fully communicate the order, well pleased by his deference. So few gentlemen and even fewer respectful kindred existed these days that she couldn\'t help but feel positively towards such a reverential display. She deserved it, of course. "You\'ve come to extract the poison, to take your fledgling away?" she queried without preamble.
Kerr blinked as he got to his feet (feeling a little unsteady still, to be looking into her alert black eyes), unsure what she meant and already regretting disappointing her. "No, I just wanted to visit with him, to check that he\'s alright while I\'m in town." The way he kept saying it was deliberate - like he was in New York on business and just
happened to have decided to travel to this part of the town to catch up with his fledgling.
It was far from the truth, of course; he was here specifically to see his ex lover, to ensure that he was alright and happy and reassure
himself that committing to Jenna was the next logical step in their relationship. It had been a few months, they\'d holidayed together and spent more or less every bit of their free time in one another\'s company. Kerr\'s schedule had finally cleared up (since he\'d finished fighting a cause that he still didn\'t believe in completey) and he\'d left without telling his current lover where he was going or why. She was happy with the status quo of their relationship but he was aware that he was still reserving a great big section of himself, just in case; his heart. He didn\'t believe it was fair, so he\'d come here to see what could be done about it.
In a perfect world, Ben would exit the building, floating on a cloud of happiness and gabbling about the new love
he\'d found so that Kerr could put aside these feelings of guilt (as
if he was still cheating on Ben with Jenna, after all this time!) and their relationship well and truly behind him. Somehow, though, he already got the feeling that things wouldn\'t turn out to be
quite that easy.
"I\'m sorry, poison did you say?" he couldn\'t help repeating, seeing as she was merely staring at him. The buzz of mental communication was heavy in the air, though (and he suspected correctly that she was allowing him to feel that, as a courtesy, even if she didn\'t allow him the particulars) and so he didn\'t properly expect an answer on the spot.
Anu was communicating directly with Themba as it happened, telling him that his little pet\'s owner was here to collect it. Themba bristled against the callous wording and they sparred mentally for a few moments, him refusing to acknowledge her impertinence until Ben was referred to with a modicum of respect. That didn\'t come, but Anu
did insist that he release his pet immediately, so that its sire could take it away. Themba refused, and so Anu turned on him, giving nothing away as she stood there calmly before Kerr, but mentally reading Themba the riot act in front of Holly and Li.
It became something of an intervention and the three of them versus his mind meant that they quickly dug up all that he\'d been hiding from them. Incensed, Anu ordered that Themba send the childe out, so that it could have some time with its sire, while
they all had some time to themselves to resolve these enormous issues. She and the other women deserved more respect than he\'d shown, she told him, and forced his hand on the matter. Themba was somewhat petulant about it but admitted that he\'d wanted to send the fledgling back to his old sire in order for him to say goodbye before they left, anyway. Anu didn\'t respond to such direct provocation.
"Keep it for two weeks," she told Kerr austerely. "It will be out as soon as its bags is packed. When you return here with it, expect to be told that you will be responsible for it permanently," she warned, and turned on her heel to travel down the hallway. Holly followed hastily.
Kerr\'s stumbling questions went unanswered as the two women left him in the lobby of a very tidy business, leaving him to stare at the pretty water feature in a thoroughly nonplussed (and not at all calmed) way. Suddenly, he felt he was freefalling, like he\'d accidentally tumbled out of his plane on the flight here and that this couldn\'t be happening; had a woman that he felt to be as old - if not older - than Lazarus just referred to Ben as \'it\' and told him to take care of his fledgling for two weeks, after which he\'d likely bring him back to fin Ben\'s ties with her dissolved? What sort of bizarre situation was his fledgling living in, anyway? Anu didn\'t seem to like him much... but why take two weeks to make that sort of final decision?
It was all very confusing and had him frowning in consternation when the door at the end of the hall finally opened ten minutes later. He\'d completely forgotten the poses he\'d been going to adopt, to best show off his newly-cut hair and clean-shaven face, now that he\'d been given
this package to deal with. All he could do was look worriedly towards Ben, unaware that he\'d been turned out of Themba\'s suites tersely - though the African\'s fierceness had been directed at Anu, not at Ben, a fact that became clear when the large black man had clasped the youngling close to his chest and whispered that he would
fight for the two of them and when Ben returned from his farewell time with Kerr, the two of them would be
free, once and for all!
The closer Ben got to him, however, the more thoughts crowded into his mind - the image of Ben splayed wantonly across a magazine page (as presented to him by Ash - complete with a dried semen stain to prove Digital\'s prediction of spilled seed correct), the one of his lovely eyes highlighted on a two-storey billboard that he\'d seen when he drove into the city from the airport - yet the more emotional he became. His mind was awhirl with worry, fears, nerves and a love that he\'d dug a hole inside himself to bury, but all he wanted to do was hold him.
Not thinking about whether such an action would be welcomed, Kerr slid his hands from his pockets and was suddenly racing down the hallway towards his fledgling so that he could throw his arms around him and cover his face with kisses, exclaiming his name once and not not niticing that he was grinning broadly even as tears slid down his cheeks, pressed out of him by the emotions overwhelming his heart.
