Kirk+Max Bodyguard AU

[abjurer]

There's a certain amount of scepticism in how Max regards the newcomer. Alex had brought him home, introduced him as someone who was going to help keep Max safe. A bodyguard. No, a babysitter. One little mishap, and Alex was treating him like he was a child, like he couldn't be trusted to take care of himself. Bad enough that he had to live with his brother for a few months (it was that or a psych ward, they'd told him an he'd take Alex over hospital any day), but having someone following him around London, probably reporting back every word to his brother?

No, this was stupid.

Unfortunately no amount of arguing had swayed Alex from his course of action, and now Max had been left in the living room, glaring at the man who was sitting across from him on the sofa. The length of the coffee table between them might as well have been a ravine.

Comments

[universal_charm]

As far as debuts went, being assigned to guard Alex's younger brother was not what Kirk had in mind. He had been assured that serving Alex in such a way would be a great stepping stone to his career, but looking at the other man very nearly his own age he highly doubted it. Yet the pay was good, offered a comfortable roof over his head, meals, and from the looks of it job security. How much trouble could this kid really get into? Better than living pay check to pay check, making milk stretch with water, and far better than crawling back to his Uncle's house. Not that he would be welcomed back. Bridges burned bright and long.

Alex gone, Kirk lounged back into the cushions, throwing one arm over the back, a rake if ever there was one. But why stand on ceremony for his charge? He barely did it for Alex.

"Glaring at me isn't going to make go away, you know."

(Sorry for being so late! D: It's just been a stressful week >_< )

[abjurer]

Max's scowl deepened when the other man addressed him. He tilted his head a little, considering, like a bird might watch a worm. He looked arrogant, the way he was sitting on the couch like that, like he owned it. It pissed Max off, everything about him did for some irrational, violent reason.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked, leaning forward a little. "I come from a family of mages. You don't even know what I can do."

Lol, I am equally late so no worries!

[universal_charm]

"Your brother briefed me," he replied curtly, tilting his jaw up slightly so he could look ever so slightly down his nose at the other man. A simple act of defiance, not easily punished within the ranks or beneath his uncle's roof, and he was nothing if not a master of it. He was here to watch this mage-kid, not cow-tow to him.

"Think a few parlor tricks are going to be enough to scare me off?"

Re: Lol, I am equally late so no worries!

[abjurer]

Max huffed and settled back down on the sofa, arms folded defensively over his chest. "He would." He cast a dark look towards the door, as though Alex would feel it from wherever he was. Still, he met Kirk's gaze squarely with his own, not backing down an inch.

"Parlour tricks?" Max asked indignantly. "Where have you been living that that's what you think?"

Re: Lol, I am equally late so no worries!

[universal_charm]

"Out in the real world, not some ivory tower," he growled, blue eyes drifting around the space, taking in the luxuries he had only ever dreamed about. Not that it made much difference, as none of them were his. He was just visiting, passing through until he could prove to Alex he was worth something more than a glorified baby sitter.

His eyes turned back to Max, letting out a resigned sigh. "Look, until your brother moves me elsewhere, I'm stuck here. Did he tell you my name or should I introduce myself?"

Re: Lol, I am equally late so no worries!

[abjurer]

Max sneered at him for that. "Must have been a real backwater then. Real stuff isn't that hard to come by." Avoiding it, in his opinion, meant that someone was obviously trying to not see it. And magic was something that was at his core.

Max gave a dismissive shrug. "No. He didn't say anything." Or he might have earlier but he had an awful habit of talking to him while he was still mostly asleep. He spent a lot of time sleeping recently.

[universal_charm]

It wasn't like magicians came prancing through his little farm town every day of the week. In the city he'd run into them, of course, and in many respects he was jealous of their ability. He wondered what his life would have been life had he been so gifted. But wondering on what ifs and could have beens didn't fill his pocket book or his belly. No, apparently watching this brat was going to do that. Damn it, whenever he could find the time to get Alex alone...

"My name's James Tiberius Kirk," he announced, somehow injecting pride into the names of his grandfathers though he'd always hated his middle name. And he really hadn't done much besides rack up an impressive array of misdemeanors. But in the army you announced things like that, so he bit down and got used to it.

He sighed and laced his fingers behind his head, twisting on the couch to lay down, stretching out across the cushions. "Just call me Jim, though. It's Max, right? Pretty sure Alex said Max..."

[abjurer]

Max could have introduced himself the same way. He had names, he had lineage that he could track for a fair way back. Instead he gave him an unimpressed look. Bored and arrogant.

"Max. That's my name. Also if you get your feet on the sofa Alex will have you murdered." It was a nice sofa too. Max put his feet up anyway out of spite but no-one else was allowed to do that.

[universal_charm]

"I'm pretty sure that goes against policy, so I think I'm safe," Kirk snorted, hardly intimidated. Like he was going to let this spoiled brat think he had a one up on him, could push him around.

He let out a long, bored sigh, leaning his head back over the edge of the couch.

"Can we just both admit we both hate this already? Because I do. This isn't exactly my idea of a glamorous first assignment," he grumbled, turning his head back up to glare at Max as if it was his fault. "Once we've established that, you could show me your room and your study or whatever you call the place you work. Kind of figure that's where you spend most of your time, right?"