Bound Together (xjynx & Liam Dale)

[Liam Dale]

Christian Reicher was the youngest son of Germany's ambassador Christoph Reicher, being 19 years old he had almost none responsibility thanks to his permissive mother, and he started taking photography classes just to kill time, being in a new country without friends was boring enough to kill someone, and attending to that course was also an excuse and an opportunity to sneak out and remain hidden from his bodyguards, who were all the time next to him, no more than 5 feet away from him. It was the most annoying thing in the world for Chris and every time he got the chance, he would escape them through the bathroom window and take a time for his own at the academy's backyard, and sometimes going outside, to walk down the streets, with the only company of his trance music and smokes.

For fancy that might look, being the ambassador's son was the worst, every meeting crowded with old people talking about the shit of the world and barely doing something about it, other than nodding with faked sad faces. Chris couldn't even spend some time with his elder brothers, they were all sunk in their political careers back at Germany and they didn't had time for their little lost and irresponsible brother. Christian was the outcast, but with his father always busy to try and put him in the right path and his mother always giving him what he wanted, it was quite easy to avoid his brother's Skype preaches.

He was living his life in the best way possible for him, managing good enough to have fun if he really wanted and getting always the VIP passes to the clubs he liked the most. Once there it was only a matter of time until someone came to talk to him, and found out the amusing accent, a hard mix of English and German that was slowly refining itself, spoken in a rather soft voice, unless he was drunk, in bad mood or ranting about something, in those cases the English language almost shone by its absence, it was hard for him to think in German and translate every word to English when he wasn't focused.

After a few months living at the United States, Chris had found his favorite place to go during his escapes. Central Park was the perfect place to lay under a tree and read something or just doze off beneath the fresh shadow. Lately he had been going there quite often, he even had his favorite tree, resting his back against it he had a nice view of the lake and was far enough from most people. It was the perfect spot to be alone and forget about what was waiting for him that night, a tedious meeting with other important people his mother said. He knew the bodyguards would find him sooner than later, they already knew about his knew place, but Chris wished something happened to stop him from going to that boring meeting where the most exciting thing was to see his mother trying to fix him up with some politician's daughter.

Christian sighed heavily, staring at the swimming reflection of clouds at the lake's surface, it was a nice summer day and he was about to be taken away to get into an ugly tuxedo and be forced to hold a glass of wine all the damn night... It wasn't fair.

 

[xjynx]

Seth

Seth was currently in a hotel room at the Ace hotel. He was posing as a business man–well, more than posing. His father was a business man on the front, but the head of the assassin group behind the scenes. As such, Seth acted the part of the business man's up-and-coming son quite often. Most of their clients and their targets were rich prominent, after all, and it was easier to kill them when they already knew their targets.

Tonight would be the first time step one in the process of the assassination. He had to identify him, and then follow him. He couldn't talk to him, not really, couldn't befriend him, because that could make him suspicious after his death. Seth rolled his shoulders. He didn't need his full set of tools tonight. After all, it was only an introduction.

The identification folder lay open on the desk. It displayed an a couple images of Christian Reicher. It was a pity that he had to die; he was rather attractive, after all, but that didn't matter to Seth. He was a born killer destined never to have real friends or lovers. Everyone who knew him knew a lie, and even his father didn't truly know him. Seth spent his life suppressing his humanity.

He flipped the folder closed, and stowed it in the safe in the hotel room. It wouldn't be good if someone found it, after all. Seth let his dark gray eyes scan the room. He had checked for security cameras earlier, of course, but it never hurt to check again. Satisfied that there were none, Seth moved to get dressed. He had to look nice for this party. He spent the next hour or so carefully stowing a limited set of tools, just in case of emergencies, in his tuxedo jacket. Seth spent some time devoted to smoothing his hair back as well. Cleaned up and minus the nose ring, he really did look the part of a young professional.

Seth faked a smile at the mirror. It was flawless, as always. With that, he pulled gloves on. Not only were they appropriate for the formal dress, but they also kept his fingerprints off of everything–again, just in case. As he was about to leave the hotel room, his pager beeped. It was an inconspicuous sound, and the device itself looked like his regular cell phone, but it was much more secure. He glanced at the message. "Onyx, tag target." Seth rolled his eyes. He already knew what he was supposed to do, and didn't need to be reminded.

He was still required to reply, so Seth quickly sent back: "Peridot, overout." With that, Seth walked back to the mirror and straightened his bow-tie. He pocketed the key for his hotel room, and headed out. At the lobby, he saw a black car waiting for him. Every time he had a different driver–safety procedures, of course–but it was clear which car was his.

 

[Liam Dale]

After being dragged by the bodyguards to the reinforced car, Christian was taken home and let at his living room, sitting across his mother, one of his guards pat his shoulder in a condescending manner, the woman wasn't bad, but the boy's freedom had ended for the day. Chris just sat there staring at her, waiting for the unstoppable stream of words to start falling from her mouth. English meant it wasn't that bad, German meant he was possibly screwed.

"Sie können das Haus nicht verlassen, bis wir verlassen... Ihr Vater, du und ich" (You can't leave the house until we leave... your father, you and I) The woman leaned over staring at his son directly in the eye. "Verstehen Sie?" (Understood?) Her eyes narrowed. She could stay sitting there until the very moment they had to go out and she would do it. Only getting up to push Chris to his room and into the shower. She closed the bathroom door to leave Chris alone and checked if he had everything ready for the party before leaving his room.

Talking was useless, his mother could give him everything, but when she thought he was in fault, there was nothing he could do, no mom? nor mommy? was able to pierce the woman's heart not even with the most angelic face. At least she wasn't the preacher kind, and this had been better than he expected, maybe she just didn't want to ruin her make up, talking and gesticulating too much.

Chris just let his mother talk and push him, his eyes either going up to the big chandeliers, or down, following the marble patterns on the floor as he walked to his room. He went into shower, and took as long as he could, but eventually he had to step out and get dressed. Chris hated all the etiquette thing, all useless manners and dressing codes to simulate being better than the rest of the people, but most them were as obscene as the lowest or worse. He finally got ready and went downstairs to meet with his parents, they looked good dressing like that, Christian just looked like someone tossed a tuxedo over him and left.
The boy stepped into the living room and stood in front of his parents for a moment, feeling like the dumbest. "Wir gehen oder was?" (We're going or what?) He spoke quickly and sighed as his mother walked toward him to arrange his hair and bow-tie. His father made a sign for them to leave and get into the car, he didn't talk much, and he didn't like Christian to speak in German while they were living at another country, it wasn't polite, he said.

Once they reached the Four Seasons Hotel, Chris left behind his bad mood, and childish face and replaced it by the son of the ambassador facade, a wide grin showed up as he and his parents stepped into the hall where the party was about to start.

 

[xjynx]

Seth walked out of the hotel casually and knocked at the door of his car. "Mr. Reed?" The driver asked, and Seth affirmed with a smile. The driver stood up and opened the door to the back, inclining his head. While Seth got in easily, he internally sighed. He hated all these formalities and being treated like royalty. It made everything so much more complicated. If everyone was just efficient, his business would take half the time it currently did.

As they headed for the Four Seasons, Seth gazed out of the tinted window. He was in a city he had been in multiple times before, but had never spent too long in. The route, he noted, from his hotel to the Four Seasons was simple. It was a small piece of information, yet one that might prove useful at a later date.

When the car halted, Seth thanked the driver quickly and exited. He could feel the weight of his concealed weapons as he walked, and the straps that kept them in place were snug. He was comfortable with these things, grateful, even, for the reassurance. As he walked through the lobby, he checked his appearance once more in the glass of the window. He looked different with his hair smoothed back, but it was the look he always had when playing the business-man's son.

Seth headed for the room where the party was held. He was about 40 minutes after the starting time, late enough that there should be a number of other people to blend in with.

 

[Liam Dale]

After what seemed an endless hour, Chris had managed to escape his mother's eye and slipped away among the crowd, but it was impossible to pass unnoticed, one could follow his path only by taking a look at the trail of nodding heads he was leaving, as people recognized him and greeted him, he had to at least nod back or smile in response, and it was making his way to a lonely corner unbearable, almost to the point he thought about going back to his parents side, but he finally made it and reached the spotted place. He leaned against the wall, stopping himself in time from resting his left foot against the wall as he was used to do. It wasn't a complete vice yet, at least he used to think that way, but he found himself wishing he had a smoke, the bodyguards took the box he had earlier, it was theirs after all, but the men were used to this pickpocket habit of his and as long it was only their cigarettes they didn't care much. They could tell his parents and Chris would get grounded, but they would end up fired for letting a boy steal from them... that didn't talk well about bodyguards, didn't it?

"Ficken..." (fuck) He muttered, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Chris noticed then that there was music, almost inaudible with the continuous and annoying babbling around him. The music wasn't exactly his kind, a few violins, a paino... Boring stuff, yet focusing on it helped to stop hearing all the people talking. He was bored as hell and there was no escaping way from that place, the windows were open but it wasn't an option for him, too evident, the doors were closed, a security thing probably, he wasn't able to use the restroom as an excuse to leave, there was a rather notorious, yet delicate and in harmony with the decoration, indicator that led to the restrooms. It was matter of laugh that big sign with the restrooms word in golden italic on an almost black grey background, such elegance to say Sie können hier kacke (you can shit here). Chris laughed to himself, it was weird the things you notice when you're bored. He looked around, there was barely people his age, most of them girls, most of them staring at him and giggling stupidly, Christian rolled his eyes and looked away, girls just weren't his thing, he was quite sure about it, but he wasn't interested in boys for now, he just wanted to meet someone with common stuff and hang out, all his friends were in Germany and sometimes he could feel really lonely especially being so bored as he was.

As he looked away, Chris noticed a guy wandering around, niedlich (cute) he thought, realizing how his recent thought about not being interested in anything had crumbled, or lost a few bricks at least. Somehow the man seemed to highlight from the rest, it was like he was the only one doing something there, his sight wasn't lost, he wasn't talking to anybody, he wasn't even drinking, the man was focused on something. Chris thought he didn't seemed much older than him, he was around an age hard to find a these places and ocations. People attending this things were normally old and when there was someone young, was most likely a teenager like him, dragged by his parents to enter the social circle... Christian shrugged, maybe he was just security staff, he didn't look like a waiter. It was time to look away, he'd been staring for far too long, and the other could notice, if he hadn't yet. The boy scanned the room until he found his parents, talking, as always and even his mother hadn't noticed he wasn't there anymore, giving him more time to be at peace.