Death ain't nothing but a heartbeat away [closed]

[aspectional]

He's late.

Being in the employ of Shannon Vaughn means that being late is a bad thing and Eli knew that well, but living with his father and having to deal with him meant that sometimes he ran late because of a conversation had gone on too long or he needed to go run an errand for him. Normally, he could cheat by just teleporting to get there on time, but he still wasn't familiar with this part of town and he didn't want to be seen by anyone who didn't know about his powers. Plus, he had been ordered to go to an alley and teleporting in would just be a bad idea all around in that case.

So Eli had to run all the way from the apartment he shared with his father to the specific alley he had been told to go to, nearly getting turned around at a couple of points due to the mental map he had of the area not being fully complete yet. But he successfully got to the street the alley was connected to only a few minutes late, looking like he had run all the way from home. He took a moment to slow down his breathing and heart rate and did his best to make himself presentable. Once that was taken care of, he slipped down the alley and did his best to try and make sure Shannon didn't notice when he got to where he was dealing with whatever unfortunate person who had gotten on the wrong side of his boss.

Comments

[privatematter]

It was a delicate line to hide things from Shannon. He knew the value of secrets, and that was why he preferred his own people to have none from him; it gave him power, but it should also have conferred safety to his subordinates because they knew he could protect them from whatever dark pasts they hid, or use their strengths without endangering them more than necessary. For Eli to keep secrets from Shannon was to be a lesson hard learned on why one really should not do that.

"Mannerisms are different from actions," Shannon countered. "Even if he looks like some kid who doesn't know up from down, much less work from play, his actions could very well say otherwise. Probably serves him pretty well in life to act like that."

As he spoke, there was a knock on the door, firm and no nonsense. Shannon tilted his head and called for them to enter. It was one of the lower ranked kids, trustworthy but too thin-skinned to do much more than run messages from time to time. He did the job Shannon gave him and that was enough for now. The kid carried an armful of plates, steaming with delicious smells of bacon, waffles and omelets. His balance was somewhat precarious but he managed to pass around the plates without any incident and Shannon even thanked him as a reward. As Eli was more unconscious than not, his own plate was set on the edge of Shannon's desk, and the kid had scurried out with a large grin on his face for the praise as soon as he was done.