First Sight

[leveraged_buyout]

Lucien Moreau wasn't in town often, and that was the way Damien liked it. The less he saw the man who sired him the better, and even when the household was full of his spies who undoubtedly reported every little detail back to the old geezer, at least Damien didn't have to see him.

But if old Moreau arrived back on an early flight and summoned for his presence, as much as Damien didn't want to, he obeyed those summons. It didn't matter that he was still abed when the butler delivered them 15 minutes ago, his father demanded to see him and Damien obeyed.

It was only down the hall and into Moreau senior's private studies, but it still felt like it was going into another world. Damien's loafers clicked loudly on the tiles as he walked down the long hall of the west wing, the original section of the mansion that he normally avoided altogether. This was the old man's wing, a part of the ancient mansion that was inherited down generations, unlike the newer east and south wings which were added only shortly before Damien was born.

Dressed up presentably in a three piece suit, hair quickly slicked back to battle the his bedhead, Damien knocked on the large study doors and waited to be admitted. He covered his yawn with a fist as he waited, mind still blanked by the early morning to ponder the reason for the meeting.

Comments

[a_very_distinctive]

Eliot waits in the car while Damien books a room, watches him lead his chosen indiscretion up, and is watching when a light goes on upstairs shortly after. He waits a minute longer, watching the reception desk through the window, until the clerk disappears into the back at the same time that a group heads in and casually follows them. It gets him through and to the elevator without any suspicion, his neat hair cut and expensive suit making him almost invisible. On the third floor he pads silently down the hall and sets himself up next to the door corresponding to the light he'd seen outside. And waits.

[leveraged_buyout]

It lasted only half an hour, but Damien was very satisfyingly debauched within those thirty minutes and felt like it went great ways to work out his sexual frustrations. He gave the permission for the charge to leave first since the young man said he didn't need help getting back to where he was dropped. For how discretion, he was paid enough that he probably didn't have to work anymore that night.

While the other quietly slipped out, Damien went to go take his shower. There's no point in smelling like sex when he went back.

[a_very_distinctive]

The kid just about jumps out of his skin when he comes out the door and finds Eliot standing there. "I know who you are, an' I know where t'find you," he informs him stonily. Both lies, but also both easily remedied. "Which I won't have t'do so long as you keep your mouth shut."

It's a calculated risk, giving the event more significance in the guy's eyes like this, but Eliot has the nagging feeling Damien doesn't realize how recognizable his face is in this town and how easily one wrong word could bring things crashing down on him. So he listens to the kid's stammered assurances (though thank fuck he's not actually a kid, or he'd be seriously rethinking his employment) and then watches him almost skitter to the elevator... then considers for a moment before pulling his lockpicks and letting himself into the room. It'll probably be better to have this conversation somewhere that's not a public hallway, after all.

He takes a seat in the armchair nearest the bathroom and settles in to wait for Damien to be finished.

[leveraged_buyout]

Damien finished his shower expecting to be alone in the room. When he came out to grab something from guys carry bag, he saw out of the corner of his eyes that the figure of the other was still there, but he didn't instantly realize who it wasn't.

"You're free to go," Damien reminded him while moving back into the bathroom to fix up his hair.

Only when he looked into the mirror and saw the reflection of Spencer that he did a double take and spun so fast he almost lost his balance. His hand went out to the counter to steady himself.

He froze where he was, staring with the deer in the headlights reaction. Even his question was no more than a fearful whisper. "What are you doing here?"

[a_very_distinctive]

Eliot doesn't say anything when Damien wanders out then right back into the bathroom again with an offhand dismissal and not even a glance in his direction. He just waits, quiet and patient, and it's easy to tell exactly when Damien sees him in the mirror, even before he spins and nearly falls.

Eliot doesn't move, just watches and waits, one eyebrow arching. "Makin' sure you don't get your dumb ass killed," he answers blandly. "Or outed, looks like."

[leveraged_buyout]

Damien could hardly hear what Spencer replied over the roar of his rushing blood and loudly pounding heart. Spencer was here despite all his efforts to be rid of a tail, and he knew Damien's secret. The one thing that could possibly end him, and if his father wasn't going to kill him before, he definitely would if Damien's deviation was discovered.

Damien couldn't move from his spot, he couldn't even let go of the counter in fear his legs wouldn't support him. He couldn't even pretend that he wasn't having a panic attack.

"How did you find me? How... When did you get here?"

[a_very_distinctive]

"Jesus, sit the hell down before you fall down," Eliot grumbles at him, rolling his eyes. "I followed you, 'cause you suck at paying any damn attention to your surroundings. Anyone could'a tailed your ass, you're just lucky it was me, an' not someone who wants to fuck your shit up."

He bites back a sigh and leans forward a little. "Serious, sit down. And I've been here since your piece of ass walked out. Was in the hallway before that."

[leveraged_buyout]

There went any hope, however miniscule it was, that Spencer could have somehow found him after the fact. Damien took the suggestion to sit down, looking numbly at the closest chair for only a brief second before moving to the one across from it that Spencer didn't already occupy.

He fell into it more than sitting down elegantly.

He needed to cover this up; right now, only Spencer knew. Or was it only him? Did the rest of his detail sit outside in the car? Damien was unaware of how transparent his thoughts were as he appraised the shorter man wondering how hard would it be to take him out. "Only you?"

[a_very_distinctive]

"Yes, only me." He rolls his eyes again, because Damien's about as transparent as god damn glass. "An you really don't wanna be thinking about anything stupid right now. Or at least stupider than you've already been. 'Cause you couldn't take me at your best, and neither could anyone else on your damn payroll. Plus, do you really wanna fuckin' go after the one guy who's actually on your side, instead of your daddy's?"

[leveraged_buyout]

Damien pursed his lips in frustration, more out of how Spencer was right than being caught of his ill conceived scheme. He didn't have the resources to get rid of this one man despite the danger he posed. It would piss him off if he wasn't still so shaken.

"How do I know you're really on my side?" Because if Spencer wasn't, if there was even a fraction of him that wasn't 100%, then Damien was screwed like he had never been before. "You don't listen to a thing I say, you disobey orders... And... You're here."

[a_very_distinctive]

"Junior, if I wasn't on your side you'd be long dead, or at least sold out to your old man. And I disobey orders when they're stupid."

[leveraged_buyout]

Damien was coming out of his shock to instead fix a very hard glare on his head of security. "Anyone else saying that would have been dismissed already." But he really didn't have much of a choice but to trust Spencer, the man was abnormally resilient against attacks.

[a_very_distinctive]

"Yeah, well, hopefully you got a strong enough sense of self-preservation t'not wanna fire the only guy you can be pretty damn sure isn't shilling for your old man."

[leveraged_buyout]

"You may consider yourself fortunate that I still can't fire you." But for now, Damien was accepting the fact that he was going to have to live with Spencer knowing his secret and hoping that was as far as it went. "However, I do not want to hear you mention this night again."

[a_very_distinctive]

Eliot snorts and leans forward, elbows on his knees. "Pretty sure you're the lucky one here," he points out blandly. "Believe me, I could walk out the door an' have another job in less than twenty-four hours, probably even workin' for someone who actually respects my expertise."

He leans back again, eyeing Damien critically. "Look, I don't give a damn where you wanna stick your dick or, hell, where you want anyone else t'stick theirs, but next time you feel the need t'creep out here an' get your rocks off you let me know. 'Cause the way you're goin', it's just a matter of time before you manage to trail a pap out here after you and out yourself to the damn world."

[leveraged_buyout]

Damien didn't exactly flush red with Spencer's crude words, but he did stiffen very noticeably and looked like he bit into a lime. "I was very discreet," he defended picking the thing he could argue as opposed to the other facts. "You couldn't have followed my car, I looked. There weren't any cars behind me."

He wasn't going to discuss his bedding habits with anyone, least of all his redneck security. But it did feel somewhat relieving to finally let someone into his secret, no matter how heart stopping this moment was.

[a_very_distinctive]

"Discreet doesn't count for shit when you're considered one of the most eligible bachelors on the damn continent," he points out, barely managing to resist another eyeroll. "And there's not a damn thing that's discreet about doing a slow crawl through the red light district lookin' for a hookup. You honest t'god think none of those boys you were crusin' out there read the gossip rags or watch the celebrity news updates? That no one's ever gonna recognize you and sell a cell phone pic of you t'some rag? Or try to blackmail you in exchange for not doing it?"

He shakes his head. "I followed the GPS on your car for the first couple miles, but by then you weren't paying a damn bit of attention, and if I'd been in a car you didn't know I probably could'a tailed you from the get go and you never would'a noticed."

[leveraged_buyout]

"I would have noticed." Damien gave Spencer an indignant glare. "And I turned off the GPS." But the rest of what the short redneck said was true, they were risks he took everytime he tried to laid. He didn't know of a better way though and this was already threw least dangerous method.

"Likely they'll think I just look alike, they wouldn't make the connection." Or so Damien was gambling. He hadn't lost so far. "What could you do better?"

[a_very_distinctive]

Eliot gives in and rolls his eyes again at that. "Sure you would, 'cause the roads aren't just chock full of cars going every which way. You'd totally notice a skilled tail. And you turned off the GPS you know about."

He raises both eyebrows in disbelief. "You really wanna bet your reputation, an' maybe your life, on that?" he asks. "Really?" He shakes his head and lets out an exasperated breath. "For starters, have someone not you do the picking up, cut down the odds of some pap following you straight to boys' town. An' make sure you end up with someone smart enough t'know better than to try and pull any shit with blackmail." And also make sure he wouldn't even have a phone on him to begin with. Or any recording devices. Or weapons.

[leveraged_buyout]

Damien's eyes practically bulged out of his face. "Where would I find 'someone' to do this for me? You were just reminding me how important secrecy about this is." It took him a delayed second to respond to the other matter, "Wait, you have more GPS in the car? Why would you do something like that, they're the company car. And I knew I should've taken another car."

[a_very_distinctive]

Eliot huffs in exasperation. "Not that I'm exactly enthused at the idea of bein' your damn procurer, but I would'a figured that'd be obvious," he points out flatly... then rolls his eyes again. "Of course there's more'n one in the car." And in every single one in the estate's 'fleet'. "Any asshole who might manage t'grab you in the car would know how to turn off the obvious one, only a god damn moron wouldn't have more." Three more, in fact, to maximize the odds that at least one won't be discovered if it comes to it. "An' count yourself lucky you didn't, 'cause there's no way in hell you were gonna be able t'keep this up for much longer without getting outed."

[leveraged_buyout]

"You." One word, but so many levels of disbelief that it was overflowing with emphasis. Damien could barely believe the suggestion and had trouble wrapping his mind around the idea that not only his secret was not a secret anymore, but he now had a willing conspirator.

"I managed fine all these years." While it definitely had it's convenience, Damien was even less thrilled than Spencer about the sudden inclusion of another person. "It doesn't happen that often."

[a_very_distinctive]

"Yeah, well, then no wonder you're such an uptight jackass." Because, yeah, his respect levels drop way down when there's no audience... though this is a new low, honestly. In his defense, he's pretty damn exasperated at just how stupid his charge apparently can be. "Maybe if you got laid more often you'd loosen up a bit."

[leveraged_buyout]

]Damien was getting equally exasperated by how much of an insolent, unrespectful, and complete bastard his head of security was being. To be fair, he was strung out and still feeling shaky around the edges from being unwillingly outed.

"How dare you... Is it really impossible to expect the slightest show of respect even from a ruffian like you?" Damien couldn't even get angry though, he honestly didn't have the energy to spare for that after this rollercoaster of an evening.

[a_very_distinctive]

Eliot leans forward, elbows braced on his knees, and fixes Damien with a steady, intense look. "Just what the hell d'you think you've done that means I owe you respect?" he asks, and if he's not quite incredulous he's certainly serious. "I do my job, keep your ass safe, an' you go outa your way to make it harder. Not t'mention you've treated me like shit from day one."