i love you from here

CHAPTER TWELVE

Charlie tosses her keys on the kitchen countertop. Jake flinches.

"You're still here," Charlie observes. "Thought you'd've left by now. You're usually gone by day two."

Jake shrugs. "I'll leave later. I was just making sure you got back safe."

Alarms blare in Charlie's head. "Why?" she asks warily. If Jake is getting attached, she has to find some way out of this. She is not going to let him interfere with everyday life. His short stays are just that- he stays and leaves and stays away for months, if not longer.

"Because I'm not supposed to let you wind up dead."

Charlie relaxes a little. Why she's glad he doesn't care, she's not sure. Having an assassin get emotionally attached to her would make her one of the most protected people in the world. But he would spend more time at her apartment. And having an assassin-for-hire using your apartment as a hotel with free breakfast isn't exactly convenient.

Riley is warming up to Jake. She'd still chew his head off if he so much as touched her owner, but she has the confidence to walk away from Charlie when Jake is around now. That makes Charlie very uncomfortable. Jake should not be normal to Riley. He should not be a welcomed guest.

"Well, thanks for making sure I'm not dead. Means a lot," Charlie says. A few seconds later, she realizes that she might've kept the sarcasm in that last part a little low. If she corrects it, she's going to sound like an absolute jerk. But if she doesn't, she runs the risk of Jake thinking there's some connection between them. Charlie isn't grateful for him. He's just kind of there.

Jake starts packing up his weapons. Charlie silently counts, curious to see how many he has. She's at four knives, a 9mm handgun, and blades that slide out of the heels of his boots.

"You're like a platypus," Charlie comments, smiling a little. Jake looks up, confused.

"What?"

Charlie gestures at the spikes on Jake's boots, even though he's already slid them out of sight. "Male platypuses have spikes on their heels. Well, not spikes, they're actually spurs. That's why platypuses are technically venomous. Only guy platypuses have 'em, though. Seems a little unfair to the ladies. That's life, though, I guess, and it must work out alright since they're still alive. Perry never really used his against Doofenshmirtz, which is a little weird, but I guess he was being nice." Jake stares at Charlie, wordless and baffled. He's wondering why Charlie felt the urge to share that information. And he has zero clue what or who Doofenshmirtz is.

Jake holds out his bulletproof vest. He's been holding it out for a minute or two now, but Charlie was so distracted in her rant that she didn't notice. Jake kind of forgot, too- he was too busy trying to decode what Charlie was saying. Or rather, the reason she was saying it. He gets it, the thing about the spikes, but not the rest.

Charlie falls back into her surly, silent facade. She's not even sure why she said that thing about the platypus. It made her seem stupid. She's really not stupid. She can read most people pretty well, she has a 4.0 GPA, and her street smarts are good. And she doesn't loosen up around people until she knows them better. She does not know Jake well. She never will. That's something she decided a long time ago.

A few long moments later, Charlie notices that Jake is holding out the vest. He needs help getting it clipped in the back.

"You should really get this loosened," Charlie growls. She's not mad, she's just struggling to get the clips done. Jake grunts.

"No."

Charlie clips the first two. The third one won't clip, and she's getting annoyed. "Well. Then you should get it made so that you can get it on yourself. This is ridiculous. What do you do when I'm not here?"