Kora got up in the morning and changed rather quickly looking about her room. She was alone at the moment and she didn't hear anything. She had gone to bed last night with him walking about her apartment looking at the things she had. He had also followed her to her room, and she again told him to go away and stop being creepy. He just gave his typical response.
"Is that a command?" She was really getting angry at that stupid phrase. However she seemed to be alone right now. She moved to her kitchen and saw no one. Feeling almost relieved, she stepped into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee and grab some food. She was starting to feel okay because he wasn't there. Almost, almost she thought it had been a bad break from reality, but then she turned around. Coffee in hand and there he was, just standing there.
"Great." She commented more to herself than anything else. She put her cup on the small table there, she moved back over to the toaster that popped up and grabbed the toast there putting peanut butter on it and sat down after that. She pulled her computer over that was sitting there charging so she could read some news. She glanced over the top of it to look at him. Just standing there staring at her.
"Why don't you go do something? Do you really want to stand there and stare at me?"
"I was wandering around this complex while you slept. I wasn't tired, you are awake. I don't really have a choice but to stand here and wait for you." She took a few sips of her coffee, his tone sounded kind of flat.
"Why are you apparently stuck to that book and who reads it?" She asked pointing at the book on the counter.
"I apparently pissed someone off, they cursed me to servitude. Very old magic." He told her and she didn't think that was very descriptive. Obviously it was freaking magic.
"How did you piss someone off?" She asked and he was silent for a moment.
"I don't think it matters how I pissed someone off. I just did and here we are. It doesn't change what is."
"Well I can see your attitude may have played a factor." She said with a snarky tone, looking back at the computer.
"Can't say yours is much better." He stated, because he wasn't told he couldn't voice his opinion. She was very clearly a different kind of master than he was used to. He also kind of felt like her comments were personal in a way he couldn't name. He'd barely been around her a day but felt kind of defensive when she made comments. Normally he really didn't give a shit what they thought about him, and he did typically just stand there silent. Though like he'd said before by this point he was already doing something.
"I don't think you get to judge others' attitude being an assassin or whatever you are."
"But a clear shut-in gets to make assumptions about another when she hasn't seen much of the world?" His tone was dark and she just looked up from her coffee at him. Her hazel colored eyes only held mild irritation unlike his.
"How do you know I'm a shut-in? Now who is presuming?" He raised an eyebrow.
"I've met a great number of people in my life, you are a shut in." She shrugged, not seeming to be super offended by it.
"I like my privacy, and I go out when I want to. Though if we are going to talk shut in, I'd say you take the cake with that book. How many years were you stuck in there?" He wasn't sure that he had ever met someone that he found so… annoying. He also realized that he really couldn't help that he was staring at her. He wasn't sure if it was in aggravation or something else. He was just doing it without thinking. Which she clearly picked up on because she commented about it. He just stood in her kitchen waiting for whatever he guessed, and looked at the items on her fridge. She finally got up to go to work and he followed her of course.
He was stuck to her, which following her he found out that she was sort of a creature of habit. Did the same routine every morning and night. They did the same thing over the next several days. She always seemed to work in the back at work. Once over the week of her summoning him did he see her up front. Kind of odd, it wasn't like she didn't have people skills. Whatever, it was boring but not bad he guessed.
Kora looked at Orion who was reading a book at the moment standing off to the side of the room. He'd started to do that after day two of following her around. Though those that she worked with still didn't see him. He said if she wanted them to see him all she had to do was command it and he would show himself. Otherwise he felt it more prudent to stay invisible. She had just turned from him, she wasn't playing his game and going to give the commands so he could get one from her. Every five, he got one of her. Not to mention the blood thing.
"Orion," She was thinking and trying to really figure out how to break this so he wasn't following her around. He wasn't able to respond to her question of how to free him, she hadn't tried again. She'd asked him how his throat was later the next day. He'd just said that it was fine, and she had nodded and continued on with her work.
"Yes?" His gaze came up from the book. The man had a very intense gaze she had to say. It wasn't emotionless but there was a lot hiding in their depths. She had a feeling a good amount of it was anger and resentment that was pent up year after year. Gave him that kind of bad boy look she was sure the girls up front would go crazy over. That and how he looked in general. He wasn't bad looking by any means, to be honest he looked like he walked off the cover of a magazine. Were all supernatural creatures like that? She sighed, must be nice.
"You truly have to do anything you are asked?"
"Anything I am told to do, asked is not a command." Right, she guessed that was true. He was really watching her now clearly waiting for her to tell him to do something. They were obviously spending every day and night together because of this. He was learning more about her then she felt than the other way around. She should fix that, they were going to be like this for a while it would seem. Best to not hate each other she supposed.
"You ever been asked to do something you didn't want to do?" He was silent for a moment seeming to study her.
"Yes."
"Couldn't you refuse to do it?" She asked him as she pulled out a few more items from the boxes before her, sorting out the trash from what was salvageable.
"No, it's compulsion. If I refuse anguish is a mild word for the punishment and I will still perform the task. Just a passenger in my own body really." Well that sounded horrible.
"Oh, but you have a few commands you can't obey, like be free or leave."
"Rules, unto death do we part. It trumps the leave card. What is a servant curse if you could so easily be freed. That's foolish." She let out a sharp breath. She was not well versed in curses so excuse her. She mentally reminded herself that she was clearly dealing with a rather upset person who probably wanted to lash out but was never able to. She pulled back on her own snippy remark.
"What happens if I never command something more from you?" She figured that she needed to talk to him more than the bland or snide comments here and there to stop following her or to stop creeping. It was apparent he was very used to being treated indifferently or like an object. Kora mentally told herself to not be those people and figure things out about or with him. That was really the only solution here.
"You will, because no one can help themselves. You've already given three even if they are mundane, and technically if I didn't ask for clarification if it was a command or not you would be up far more." She thought about that for a moment.
"You ask because you know it's not a command. If it was you wouldn't ask, that's not how a command works." She told him and he shrugged.
"Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Depends on your tone, you know very little about what you did even having read it again. It's not so black and white." He closed the book he was reading watching her half work and talk.
"You know, you'd think that you'd be less of an ass when someone is trying to understand and did try to cut you free a couple times now. I'm starting to understand how you may have pissed someone off and they cursed you." She more grumbled and he moved from across the room toward her. He stopped on the other side of the table there.
"If you had seen the things I have, you'd understand why I am the way I am." Yeah well she guessed, took a certain kind of person or being to kill someone and not have a mental breakdown. Though she really didn't know his whole story, and if he was forced to do as he was told, couldn't really help it now could he? She did try to look at it from his point of view from time to time, but when he got snide she found it harder. That and the fact he was following her everywhere.
"You never answered the question, if I don't really command anything of you what will happen? Regardless of if it's something mundane. Just humor me." She said and he shrugged.
"To be honest I don't know. I've never had someone not command. I do know that I will eventually need energy and you are supposed to give it to me. I guess we will see what happens when I need it." Which he was starting to feel it a bit. He'd been asleep for so long, and he wasn't used to waking and having to wait. So this was different, but he knew in the next few days he would start to feel like he was starving even as he ate normal food. When you were a half breed things tended to be more complicated for you.
"Well you are just going to have to feed from someone else." She said as she picked up a stack and moved to put it with a different pile he followed her letting out a rather sharp breath.
"No, that is not how it works. You have to, that was the agreement when you signed it. You provide what I need and I provide for you. So when I need it you are going to have to give it, that's how marriage works. That's what vows are for." She turned around pointing at him. Whoa, he better reign that shit back in.
"We are not married, that is not a marriage document. I didn't take any vows." She said angrily.
"Yes you did, it's a curse, it's not going to be normal. What was written was based on marriage. I told you before, or did you forget you can't break what is written or betray me in any way physical or not."
"You mean did I forget that you can kill me if I don't follow the rules, not vows by the way, verbatim? Yeah kind of hard to forget." She told him, and he was insane to say this was akin to marriage. What kind of marriage was he used to? Caveman? Then again the first signature didn't have what looked like a date, she had no idea how long he'd been doing this.
"You'll feed from another if I say so." She told him and his gaze was narrowed, the color of his gaze seemed to grow a deeper green rather than aqua. She could also feel his irritation in the air, kind of felt like the temperature went up.
"You are incredibly frustrating. What part of I can't, did you not get? I'm not going to starve because you feel like making me." She put her hands on her hips meeting his gaze solidly not put off by the darker air of him or the fact he was taller and stronger. She would stand her ground damn it, and he was not going to tell her how things were going to be.
"You sure seem to have a set of bizarre changing rules. You already said the commands you can't follow."
"If you made me feed from another I could, but I would not absorb the energy. So the command would be followed but I would not feed, just the action. Sometimes the way things happen aren't so simple as a command. I am cursed, the curse dictates this for me." She was thinking too literally, that's not how the world worked.
"Well excuse me, but if I don't want to give my energy I don't have to. I don't even know what that entitles and heaven forbid I don't just trust some invisible stranger from a book." She snapped at him and turned to walk away from him. She had a half mind to command him out of her presence for a bit. She was brought to an abrupt stop when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back before him. There was anger in his gaze and she felt her heart beat faster.