Stop running into Me

The next day, and man, was Amie not interested in this being a thought, he felt like déjà vu and him were dating. Was déjà vu a guy? Would he date a girl? Oh my word, Amie, stop! Amie ran his fingers through his blonde hair as he walked over to the boy at the inn. He was apparently passed out in the hallway. Had he even gotten a room there, or was he just stowing away? Did it matter? Didn’t Amie have his own things to deal with? Well apparently those didn’t matter today. He was busy having a mid-life crisis about his leg, and he kept running into some kid whose name he didn’t even know.

Amie nudged the guy in the shoulder, “Hey, homeless guildess dude, wake up.” Aw, they were bonding. Wasn’t that cute? The boy actually jumped up, and swung at Amie, who easily dodged back. “Jumpy much, kid? Here’s a hint, learn your allies from your foes. And everyone is one or the other. So you want to give me your name?” he asked, smirking in such a way that he never did. He was never this cocky, he was never this in charge, and he was not this serious. This kid had better learn to cooperate, or Amie and him were going to stop having words.

Words: 223/1000

The boy just swore, crossing his arms at Amie. At Amie. Oh, no, he really didn’t want to be doing that. There was something in Amie that said no. It said a very clear no, and it said no one got to talk to him that way. No one got to act that way toward him. Like they knew what they were doing and they could just… no, no, no. Amie could hear the voice in his head screaming, but he calmed it. Ambrose… Amie, he wasn’t sure which was which, but they had two different, very strong, personalities. A part of him knew his heritage and embraced it, but a part of him asked questions. Questions like what some foolish kid’s name was. Then some foolish kid didn’t want to play ball, and Amie just had no time for that. Breathe in. Breathe out. What would Percy do? Break his nose. What… else would Percy do? Ask how he felt? No, no, that’s stupid. Percy wouldn’t do that. He would talk at him. Yeah, at him… sometimes… we need talked at… right? It sounded familiar.

The twenty-five year old, who broke more noses than he realized, looked the teenage boy straight in the eye and asked, “You got a name?”

Words: 434/1000

He looked away, taking a deep breath, “Yeah…” Playing the game with Amie wasn’t a good decision. “Zeke… can I go now?”

“I’m not the authorities, don’t talk to me that way,” Amie said casually. Respect. He didn’t demand it.., ever, but right here, right now, this kid was asking for a death penalty. “Are they going to kill you if they catch you?” The way that boy’s jaw tightened…. The answer was clear. So he was asking for a death penalty. “Here’s how you don’t get killed. You are nice to the people who want to help, and you trust no one.” Was Amie angry? He didn’t know. Did he sound angry? **** sure he did.

“But-” the kid clearly caught the contradiction, but Amie’s scowl faded into a smile, then a laugh, and the boy thought better than to ask. Clearly his company was insane? He wasn’t sure.

“Look… just… Zeke… my name’s Amie. I don’t want any trouble… I’m not smart enough to avoid it though, so… that’s my fault. But your trouble is you never seem to leave this town… can you maybe… tell me why” It was obvious to Amie that this kid was either the worst hider or he had a reason to be here. Ambrose figured if someone with his survival instincts kept getting into deadly situations, he has a reason. He knew that kind of guy. He was that kind of guy, within reason.

Words: 676/1000

“Its nothing. I just… look, you don’t know anything.”

“I know lots of things,” Amie said. His tone wasn’t serious though. He gave up on that. It wasn’t him. He was the happy one. He didn’t let himself be ruined by all the hardships of real life. It was there, he was there, and he was going to enjoy it how best he could. The smile on his face seemed to make this poor kid disbelieve him. “Look… I’ve fought two groups of paladins for you. You are still here. Our choices are… I never come back to town… you never come back to town… or you talk to me. Fun fact… I’ve paid for the room for tonight too… and I really hate wasting money.”

“Well maybe you should give me the room,” the smart mouth said. He didn’t have the charisma for it really. He sounded bitter. Amie just sighed, and smiled. He reluctantly convince the boy to come into his room and talk. It took a good, and long, half hour to get Zeke to explain himself. He had family in town, and they needed him to support them. “Nothing is more important than family.” Amie could hear the switched being flipped in his head, and he couldn’t think normally. Family… yeah… family.

Words: 893/1000

“Well… family is… good,” Amie said, his slow words showing he was thinking hard about this. He didn’t consider himself an intelligent man. He wasn’t the little soldier, but he wasn’t the brains. He was the unrelenting brawn, his speed making up for his lack of tactics. “If you have family you care about, you know you’re putting them in danger, right? They’re helping you, or associated at the very least, and being so high profile isn’t good for them.”

“Well maybe it you’d stop showing up I wouldn’t be so high profile!” Zeke said, almost in a growl. Clearly he didn’t like being lectured.

“Yeah, I’ll remember that next time I see you. And I’ll just keep walking,” Amie said with a smirk, “See how well that works out for you. Or… would you prefer leaving my room right now?” He hooked a thumb at the door and Zeke glared. It was a mutual understanding, just no mutual respect.

“Whatever you have to say… you don’t leave family. I’m not leaving.”

“Fine, fine… but… I mean, a trip would be best. Maybe just lay low. In a house or somewhere. Just don’t be seen, and definitely don’t do magic. If you don’t want the authorities finding you for doing something… just don’t do that something and they’re a ton less likely to spot you, eh?” he asked with a big smile. The boy arched an eyebrow at him, like he didn’t know what he was talking about, even if he made sense. Amie knew what he was talking about, but he wasn’t just going to throw that information at Zeke.

Words: 1164/1000

“I’ll lay low,” Zeke said, relenting slightly. It looked like he was going to listen, until he got this angry look and said, “But what does that help! They’re already looking for me. I can’t lay that low, I’m not the dirt.”

Amie chuckled. Maybe the kid wasn’t so completely awful. He was pretty rude, but Amie didn’t automatically dislike rude people, right? “Okay, that’s fine… I’ll um… I’ll… ” he took a deep breath and swore in his head. Not out loud. There were people around. He didn’t show his stress to people, just his humor. Not that his almost nervous laugh seemed like real humor, but he supposed it would do for now. “I’ll just have to lead them out of town, eh?”

“I guess that might work… it is Oak Town though… they really like it here.”

“Right, but the ones actively looking for you will follow me, and maybe be a bit distracted by their hospital stays. Other people don’t necessarily know your face. It’ll be fine, break some bones and all the headaches go away,” he chuckled. He was starting to sound morbid, but he was actually reasonably stressed. Oak Town. Yeah, one of the last places a guy with a notorious family needed to set up camp.

Words: 1377/1000

The conversation seemed to slowly turn into something a bit more reasonable. Sure, they weren’t quite friendly, but they had a plan. That night Zeke would head home, and he would stay home. Amie would walk around town for a few days if necessary, though he doubted it would be necessary, and from then on, he would draw fire away from town, with those particular guys. Perfect, right? Except about ten minutes later when someone knocked on the door. Association was bad, even if it wasn’t a Paladin, so Amie immediately looked at his window, “Get out, go home,” he said in a quiet voice. Zeke looked at the door, then the window, and seemed anxious. Maybe he wasn’t adept at jumping out windows? Oh well, he did open the thing and he did make his way down while someone started knocking louder. A firm voice telling Amie to open up.

Ambrose sighed, closed his window, and went to the door. Zeke was gone, so at least Amie didn’t need to worry about him anymore, right? Hopefully so, because when he opened his door he remembered he had a lot more to worry about than some punk kid. Namely his face, as he remembered the “punch first, ask questions later” mentality of the first at his nose.

Words: 1594

Being jumped was a bandit tactic, and Amie was immediately, and surprisingly furious when he got punched the first time. When he got jumped on and grabbed he was still angry from the first blow. Based on how the paladins, all of which he’d beaten up in the past few days, were talking… they didn’t know Zeke had been there. Well that was good, at least. The swift kick to the back of his knees was less than ideal though. He had things in this room, his things, and no one was getting their hands on them. Amie traveled light but he cared about his possessions. The new scar on his leg was proof enough of that. He was glad they weren’t grabbing that, but as he was pulled from the room his panic set in. He needed to lead these guys out of town, yeah, but he needed to take his stuff with him. So, technically he thought he was being arrested, and that wasn’t really “leading” anyone anywhere, but Amie could view it however he pleased. Right now all he was seeing was red alert.

“Hey, thugs, why not sit and have a chat with me first, hm?” Amie said, his tone still as amicable as ever. His head hurt even more for it, as he felt a fist connect with the side of his head. It hurt, but it did mean that the man let go of his arm to do it. Good, all Amie needed was a tiny break in their defenses.

Words: 1850

When the man went to grab Amie’s arm again, Amie instead grabbed the paladin’s arm. He flipped him over immediately and felt himself jerked backward. Nope. Amie threw his head back and managed to make contact with the paladin who felt the need to get better hold of him. He glanced back only long enough to see blood on the man’s face. Well it served him right, he’d tried to break Amie’s nose after all. Amie jumped up and ran back into his room. He grabbed his bag, lifted the window and… nope, bad plan. He had to turn around to defend from being grabbed, and in that moment he swiftly fell out of the window. Falling backwards out of a two story building was not fun, so as soon as his feet made contact with the wall he launched himself off with a Long Jump. Bad plan, bad plan, bad- “Oof!” All the air went out of Amie as his back crashed into the roof of another building. His head was swimming but he managed to reach out and grab the nearby chimney. Oh, that was fine, he didn’t need the skin on those fingers anyway. It was all over-rated. He saw the paladin’s disappearing, no doubt intended to climb up onto this building, which meant he didn’t have time. Now, what had he done when he’d met Kaz? He swung his back around onto his back and waited until he could see one of the men on the ground.

MP: 190/200
Words: 2101/1000

Amie waited for the right moment to strike…. And… jumped off the roof. He kept thinking I regret nothing to convince himself this was a good plan. Jumping was fine, falling was fine, landing with that hard of a Power Strike was borderline deadly. No, the guy was going to be fiiiiine. He shouldn’t have picked a fight with Amie if he didn’t want his head impacted back into the ground. Seriously, how was he even still picking these fights? Either way, he was out and down, and someone else caught in the chaos seemed disoriented enough. Amie’s hand was hurting, but he jumped to his feet and ran. He still had three more paladins chasing him, and one of them had a suspiciously bloody nose. Oh, it wasn’t like Amie had anything to do with that, surely. He was completely innocent. That was why he was sprinting out of town away from two paladins, right?

Either way, Amie made it out of town, still being pursued, and wanting nothing to do with it. He forgot all about those fire attacked until one blasted into his arm. At least it wasn’t his back. He kept running, ducking and dodging a few more attacks until he felt like he was far enough from town. Also he was exhausted. Turning to fight when you are exhausted isn’t the best plan, probably, but Amie was going to make due.

MP: 165/200
Words: 2337/1000

“Why don’t we all just sit down and chill, hm?” Amie asked jokingly, tossing his bag to the side as he panted from the running. One of the men laughed, but the others seemed too tired for that.

“We don’t make deals or talk to guildess mages, especially not ones as dangerous as you.”

Oh, I’m guildless now? Well, better not show ‘em that tattoo… Amie thought, glancing to the side without looking innocent at all. They seemed to think he was plotting, because a fire ball got thrown there and he almost jumped. If they started just chucking spells around, they would damage his stuff. Not cool. “Hey, eyes on the prize, stupid,” Amie said, egging the man on. Ambrose was not a distance fighter. He didn’t have the stamina for it, he just had the raw power. He needed to finish this quickly so he could go home. And so much for a nice trip, because he’d be doing his own laying low after this.

Calling the paladin stupid had worked, yay. Except now he was casting more fireballs, boo. Amie grumbled to himself and jumped out of the way. He didn’t have the stamina, or the speed right now, so he was going to need to fix that and wrap this up fast.

MP: 165/200
Words: 2553/1000

Amie’s blue eyes flashed purple for a moment before he started running. Man did he not feel like running right now. He was much faster at least, and dodged with relative ease. His plan had been to fight the fire mage, but as he got closer a wall of fire appeared, and Amie veered off. Okay, fine, he’d just have to fight another one, and lucky him, one of the other men was right there. Amie ran past with a basic power punch right through his chest. Yeah, at least he could spare one guy’s face, hm? He did his regular right hook, left uppercut, the uppercut being his second basic power punch, and they were both down. Now for Mr. Fire. Amie charged up his Thick Skin before just diving through the fire wall. Apparently that hadn’t been expected, and he pushed the guy right out of his comfort zone, and onto the ground. He didn’t have any of his spells left to use, so he just kept swinging. He managed to pin the paladin with his legs, and just kept swinging and dodging. It was in no way pretty, but Amie didn’t care about pretty. He just cared about getting out of this, and knocking the guy out. He realized toward the end that the guy was out, and Amie immediately got up and hobbled off.

MP: 130/200
Words: 2782/1000

Blood was still dripping down Amie’s face, but he didn’t slow down. He didn’t have time. He just wanted to leave before anyone woke up, or anyone else arrived. He ran his fingers through his hair, before realizing he’d just streaking his blond with red. Amie swore, wiping his hand on his shirt, before realizing with a wince that some of the blood was coming from his hand. He grabbed his bag and just kept walking. He needed to find a water source, before he could go home. As the pain settled in his hands started shaking. His nerves were raw and his head ached.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he said as he examined his torn knuckles and ripped palm. “Stupid.” He wanted to break something, which was why he was so angry at himself. He was working up to a bounty in his own right, wasn’t he? He wasn’t… he… family was family, but he wasn’t his parents. Right? Would he have been just like them if he’d stayed with them? He shoved his hands in his pocket as he kept walking. He helped a kid out, that was good right? Sure he’d been violent, but that was all Amie knew how to do… right? Was that all Amie knew how to do? Break bones and hoard his stuff? He gave up on finding a water source and just collapsed by the first tree he found, his hands were still shaking, but the pain had numbed.

MP: 130/200
Words: 3028/1000