Ch 4 Anyway (3)

"Nothing, which is uncommon in my life. Maybe that is another part of the reason I find you so interesting. It is against my nature a bit but I am not going to ask you. I always learned trust is a two way street. I also have enough paper shields to play the fool sometimes. You don't have to block the door I am not running from you, greenie."

Goliath's eyes flashed then softened. He then pushed off the door and in a flash he was standing over me with either arm pressing against the counter and his waist pushing gently against my legs. I was effectively pinned. "Maybe you should be, princess."

I raised my left hand slowly and rubbed one of the bright green scales that only I could see. I traced one and then the next slowly. "A princess afraid of her own knights is a fool. Knights should terrify her enemies and come when she calls. If she is afraid of them they might turn on her like dangerous dogs. Humans aren't so removed from the animal kingdom after all." I let my hand fall back to keep me propped up as I sat on the counter. I wondered if he got the double meaning in the words I had chosen or if I had been watching too much old anime with Hero. "Not that I think I need to tell you that, Goliath. Since children can be very mean when something doesn't fit their norm."

"So you see me as your dangerous dog, princess?" Goliath looked down on me but it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Have you not made yourself my guard dog, my knight. Waiting for the whole night outside my door to be sure I was safe in my house." My heart was speeding up and I wanted to free my legs to wrap them around him but I didn't.

He growled a bit then backed off his hips. I swallowed as I realized I was afraid he would leave, his eyes glowed as he saw my reaction. "You said your dog needs a bath, princess."

That got me to smile again, "Yes, and after, if you wish to stay with me you will have to wear one of my uniforms." I reached out at a measured pace and started pushing on the shoulders of his jacket.

"I have a feeling your collar won't chafe as bad as others." He let me remove his jacket as he leaned in and kissed me.

He was a good distraction. It was the best bath I could ever remember having, and my tub has always had jets. It was also the longest bath I had taken in ages as well. Not being in a hurry was a nice change. It almost made me sad when Goliath helped me out of the tub, but the world wouldn't wait forever and I didn't want it bursting in, so I took his hand and stood.

He handed me one of the towels that had been hanging on the wall, and took one for himself. "You need to shave." I considered wrapping the towel around me but decided to use it to pat dry instead.

Goliath ran his hand over his chin and looked in the mirror over the counter. "It isn't that bad yet, but if you prefer, princess."

I tossed the towel at Goliath and he caught it without turning around. He then hung back up both towels. "Yes, but if you really want to go around looking scraggly that is up to you."

His whole body shined now that the scales were clean. I wondered if he was as handsome to other people if they couldn't see the magnificent scales that I saw. "I don't like breads they itch," Goliath reached in his discarded jacket and pulled out his knife.

"Damn you are brave. There is a razor in the upper left counter drawer. When you are done, come see what I have in my closet."

I started to head out the door but Goliath spoke up after finding the razor. "What are your plans for today, princess?"

"Eat breakfast, check on 2-bit before he completely dismantled the house and makes my other programmers mad at him. Though knowing how the world works I will need to entertain an officer from the military as he apologizes to me for not saving me in the first place, and Hero will contact me to see if I want to go to one of remembrances, if not my friends funeral."

Goliath stopped shaving and looked at me through the mirror as I said the last thing. "One of your friends died."

"Anrya, she was ok for an active. Shot in the shoulder and busted her head on the fall down the stairs. According to the government AI anyway. The funny thing was, it was annoyed that it couldn't pin the shooting on you or 2-bit."

Goliath had started shaving again but he was listening to me. He paused again to speak, "I have shot enough other people it should have been easy enough to fake."

"Even if you hadn't your group was in matching full body gear. You are big and 2-bit is smaller but in full gear it is hard to tell even from a picture. There were any number of ways for the AI to try and convince me you couldn't be trusted but it chose not to take that course."

Goliath stretched his neck as he ran the razor over a curve. "It wants your trust?"

"And it didn't think it could fabricate good enough evidence for me to believe it. That is the solution I come to as well. It might also have to do with that I saw the black dragon on the film from the station disasters."

Goliath finished shaving then turned to face me after patting his chin with the towel. "The black dragon, he is one of the stronger ice dragons right?"

"If the legend my father told me was true. I am not sure how much I believe. Dead heroes never come back. Who would come back from paradise to save some kids that shouldn't have gotten into the problems in the first place."