Chapter Seven: Mistakes

The next morning, Daniel woke at his desk, schematics for one of his old projects open and zoomed in 1000% for some reason.

Remembering that it was Friday, he jumped up from his desk and walked to his kitchen area. Originally pretty large, his counter space was almost completely taken over by blueprints and discarded prototypes for weapons he'd designed, built and forgotten about, so the kitchen felt fairly small now.

Walking to his fridge, he pulled out a bottle of milk and drank straight from it, almost immediately spitting it out and checking the expiration date.

Disgusted, he threw the bottle in the trash and said, "Damn it, almost a week old. When was the last time I went shopping? A month now?"

Closing the fridge, he went back to his desk and checked his email, noticing that he'd had a new message.

"No subject...huh...weird."

It passed his system's virus scan, so he opened it and it said Check your bed.

Glaring at the monitor, he reached into his desk and pulled out a gun, one designed to take in solar energy and expel it as a highly volatile and explosive glob of liquid energy.

Walking around the corner from his office space, he saw that there was indeed someone in his bed, under his blanket.

He turned on his light and pointed his gun at the bed and said, "Show yourself."

The blanket began to move and shift and he cocked the gun, waiting patiently when suddenly, someone grabbed him and pulled him backwards into a hug.

A sultry, feminine voice whispered in his ear, "Two beautiful women in your room and you point a gun at them?"

Jumping out of the woman's arms, he turned to face her and say, "Did one of the Director's send"

Unable to finish his sentence because the woman put a finger on his lips and whispered, "Loose lips sink ships, Ronin."

Pointing back at his bed, the girl said, "Besides, your little lady got all dressed up for you this morning."

Turning back to his bed, he saw Liliana sitting in what appeared to be a maid's outfit, trying to hide in it's frills.

Alternating between looking at each of them, he said, "Ok...what exactly is going on?"

The girl said, "Well for starters, my name is Silas, but I think you know that."

Looking at her, he said, "Your official student id has you with white hair."

Shrugging, she said, "You're not the only one who likes to keep a low profile buddy. I changed it the second someone called me on it."

Liliana said, her voice shaky, "Daniel...could you...could you close your eyes?"

Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "Why….?"

Silas snickered and said, "She lost a pretty big bet and she's shy."

Looking at Liliana, who just sat in his bed, her face as red as he'd ever seen it, he asked the only question he could think of.

"What bet did she lose?"

Sighing, Daniel closed his eyes and Silas gave Liliana the signal, at which Liliana asked, "Do I have to?"

Silas said, "Yuuup, that was the deal girly."

Ronin felt Silas pull him close to her, pushing her body against him and at the same time, he felt Lily rubbing against his back, doing the same, when he felt her grab his hand and put it on her thigh.

His eyes shot open and he broke free of the two of them and said, "Ok, too much, too much. What's going on."

Lily just looked down at her feet, still glowing red and Silas said, "So, last night, I'm minding my own business, working on a project, when some strange girl practically starts slamming on my door. I thought it was a rebel raid or something, from how hard she was hitting my door. I open it and there she is, asking about some random guy I've never heard of when she says, 'I guess he was telling the truth.' Now that piques my interest. I tell her to come in and ask what's going on and she says lover's problems.

Well, I'm WAY too invested to let go by this point, so I tell her to come in, have a drink and talk to me. We sit down and one drink turns into two, two drinks turns into fourteen or fifteen and she had a couple too. Turns out your little lady here is a REAL lightweight buddy.

Well, already long story short, I made her agree to this little stunt to prove your dedication to her. So you're going to DO both of us, and pick the one who you like most. In all honesty, I was gonna cut out after the fun, but you're actually kinda cute, I may actually stick around."

Liliana looked Daniel in the eye and said, "I get you first though darling."

Silas looked at her like she was crazy and said, "Nope, deal was we get him at the same time. I've been up empty bed creek since I got to this school and I'm not waiting one second while you get your kicks."

Daniel looked back and forth between the two of them and said, "First of all, that is NOT happening. Lily, sweety, I'm with you, so that's that. Silas...this has been...weird...but it's nice to meet you. Both of you need to get this weirdness sorted out on your own, I have things to do, so hopefully you two can get it dealt with somewhere that isn't here."

Liliana looked at Silas and pouted as she said, "See! He's so busy with his projects! I'm WITH him and I only get it once a week!"

Daniel looked at her and said, "Nope, not getting baited into this conversation right now. We'll do it more often, I promise, but right now I'm on a strict deadline and I CAN'T miss it. Change into something you can walk around in, in public please hun, you've got some clothes in my drawers, grab whatever you want. Silas, I need to speak with you. NOW."

Silas winked at Liliana as she walked toward the door and Lily started to change, not saying a word, pulling off the surprisingly intricate uniform and looking for more clothes.

Outside the door and closing it, she said, "What's the word Ronin, gonna take me up on that offer after all?"

Looking around confused, Daniel replied, "What? No. How do you know my code name?"

Silas smirked and said, "Marcus told me allll about you. You're a lot cuter than he made you out to be, but I guess he did mostly talk about your brains and ideas."

"You're a new inductee?"

Nodding quietly, Silas said, "Yupperino, that'd be me. Normally, I'd be introduced to the Marcus and Friends workgroup traditionally, but apparently you and Eve are going to be doing some serious work tonight and he wants me to watch you to make magic."

Sighing, Daniel said, "You specialize in data streams and information manipulation, right?"

"Among other things, I'm good with my hands too."

"Ok, then you can actually oversee to make sure nothing goes wrong," he said, ignoring her innuendo.

Fake pouting, she said, "What you won't sleep with me, but you trust me with your life?"

"I'm with Liliana, end of story and if Marcus trusts you, it must be for some reason," Daniel responded curtly.

Liliana walked out of the room and kissed Daniel, hard and deep, her eyes never leaving Silas's. When she finally let him go, she stuck her tongue out at Silas and said, "That's how LOVERS kiss."

Squinting at Silas, Liliana pointed at her eyes and then at Silas saying, "Be careful with her Daniel, she's dangerous...and she drinks a LOT."

As Liliana walked away, he felt Silas grab his arm and he asked, "How is she ok with this?"

"Ok with it? I'm sure it's driving her crazy, but she lost our bet, so I can do basically whatever I want with you now. Some girl shows up at my door accusing me of trying to steal her man when I've been celibate for months, you better bet I'm taking all I can get. Let's get to work, lover boy, lots to do," Silas said as she pulled him to a nearby lift.