The Assassin & The Mercenary

Chapter 6

As promised I let him plan how the day ended, but we still went through the day that I thought through first. First on the agenda was the Flatiron building which had some floors filled with my archived exhibits from the various previous Expo's. We arrived at about 10 in the morning and went to the 14th floor. It was a series of my favorite projects and I knew that he would really enjoy it as much as I do.

"What is this floor about? I saw every other floor has a theme except this one" James asked as I gave the entrance pass to the 14th floor's receptionist. I think his name is Jake. I didn't care much about learning his name, just that he was put in a receptionist chair.

"This floor is made up of my favorite projects I've worked on. Some of them never made it to the Expos because Howard didn't think they fit the 'vibe' as he calls it".

"What the fuck is a 'vibe'?" James replied with sneered curiosity as we walked through the exhibits.

"I honestly don't know. It was started 30 years ago and Howard has vowed that he needs to bring it back." I told him as I rolled my eyes at the thought of my brother.

"Didn't know he was that into linguistics"

"He's not. He just wants to have credit for something that will last into next century. He's sure that the flying car he displayed will fade out as soon as investors realize who's behind it" I sighed and see him look at me with curiosity out of the corner of my eye "Everyone values a woman until she leaves the house. You can't tell me otherwise because it's how the world works".

I see him wanting to ask more but he doesn't say anything and we continue walking through my projects. As soon as we round the final corner we come to my three best works. The flying car displayed in the last Expo. The suit that has vibranium woven into it so it appears like regular leather that was shown in the 1937 Stark Expo. I was walking towards the third piece when I saw James staring at the car in awe from my peripheral.

"James!" I called to him as I walked towards him "What's so interesting about this that you have to stare at it like that?"

He looked at me and then turned back to the car, then glanced at me again before he spoke. His voice an unnecessary strained whisper. "You were behind this?"

I looked at him with a mask of confusion over my inner turmoil "Yeah? Why are you asking?"

"It's just that I've always loved this model and you took it and made it something to mirror yourself" he replied with a faint blush on his cheeks.

"What do you mean by that" different turmoil, same mask.

"It's both beautiful and amazing" he somehow turned rosier by his own words. Said through a whisper with a different kind of strain against it.

I blushed at his words and looked down towards my flats "Why thank you. You're quite a pretty man yourself".

He made a circle on the toe of his right foot and linked our arms as we walked onto the third exhibit. My pride and joy.

As we approached the box that withheld my metaphorical child, I heard James gasp beside my right and stutter in his steps. The exhibit usually had this effect on those who had my blessing to visit it.

"Is that... What is that?" James from a little ways in front of me as we stopped in front.

"That, my boy, is my pride and joy. I treat her as if she were my own flesh and blood. It started as my 11th grade science project and ended up in here" I lookedtowards the swirling mist as my eyes filled with hidden sorrow for what became of her.

"What is it called?" James said as he looked towards the swirling motion with curiosity, awe and something I knew all too well from her.

"I call her Moxis. I named her after the Romanian god Zalmoxis. Since the god was a mystery to many, I named Moxis after him since it seemed fitting" still don't know why he had to be a god though. A goddess' name would have done just fine.

"You said you created her. What does she do? What can she do?" I rolled my eyes at her insistence to bother me and respond to his question.

"She does anything she wants to do. She can do anything I ask her too" I told him. I looked towards the ever changing void of colors, and decided she needed to be let out. I reached towards the glass and changed it to let her out. She swirled around on the floor till she appeared as a German Shepherd. I rolled my eyes at her chosen breed as she started walking towards the exit to leave. James stood there looking like he would pass out. He looked at Moxis as if James Stewart just walked into his apartment.

Moxis barked at us to get us going. I linked my arms through James' left one and pulled him along to grab Moxis' collar and "leash". We got onto the elevator and went towards the ground floor with my chuckling and James' silenced amazement.

"Come on James. We got to get to lunch before our next activity of the day. I planned to go to Park Central since it's nearby" I looked towards him with hesitation as his silence was unnerving to me at this point. As I met his eyeline, I saw he was staring at me with awe. A little more relieved as I went to talk but he interrupted me mid-sentence with something unexpected.

"James let's get going. I want to beat the lunch-time ru-" my words were cut off by his mouth, crushing them before they could leave my lips. Surprised at first before I melted into the warmth his kiss provided. An immeasurable piece of time passed and before either of us could push it further, he pulled back.

"I'm sorry but I couldn't hold back after you showed me Moxis. I've honestly been wanting to do that for a while". James looked at me with an oversized smile permanently glued to his face, reaching as high as his eyes.

"Why are you apologizing? I've wanted to do the same thing for a while."