The job offer (Private, PG 13)

8:03
One day after "The incident."

It was eight a clock in the morning, Alexander had gotten home late last night, but he news he had gotten was good. The woman that he had saved last night was going to live, getting her to the hospital kept her from loosing enough blood to be a critical condition. This had been a huge moral boost after he had failed to take out her assailant, from what he had heard Ben had stepped up and taken care of it. He had gotten in at around two thirty A.M, but had gotten up early this morning. He could not sleep because he could not stop thinking about their guest.

In a phone call from Robin he had been caught up. She had helped him out of quite a tight spot, in return Robin offered her a place to stay. Alex was totally alright with this, for two reasons. One is that she had earned it from helping out his friend and the other reason was because from what Robin had said this Terra would be an excellent candidate for the third member of The Free.

The young man sat down on the armchair on the first floor of the apartment building behind the coffee shop Hideout. Breakfast today was muffins with a nice pot of coffee. While if someone were to ask him how he likes his coffee he would say he likes "A rich dark blend" but what coffee you drink tells you nothing of the persons personality. He liked it sugary and full of milk, just like Robin. So a pot of such was sitting in the middle of the table steaming and allowing the fresh baked scent of muffins to seep through the whole house. Alex liked baking on the weekends, but he also wanted to reward Robin for his downright commendable service as of late along with his friend who had really helped him out of a tight spot.

There would be one place set for Ben, facing his room, and one space set for Terra facing the stairs. There was a tray of muffins next to the coffee pot on the middle of the table along with a small plate of butter and three coffee mugs. One was already filled and next to Alex's plate. He was waiting for the others however.

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    Terra woke up in the morning rather refreshed. She gathered herself, and cleaned the room back to its prior state. She woke up early as she had planned. She gathered herself, completed a few morning rituals, and was downstairs in about twenty minutes. As she reached the bortom of the stairs she saw  the young man sitting at a table with coffee.

    "I presume you are Alex. It is a pleasure to meet you. I think this thing you are doing for Robin is really awesome. Sorry, I got a bit carried away" She walks up to Alex with an extended hand. "I am Terra. It is a pleasure to meet you." she would firmly shake his hand if he took it.

Alexander stood up and shook her hand. "Yeah you got that right, my name is Alexander." He had a very firm handshake and was welcoming to Terra. "Sit down, have some breakfast. I imagine Robin is probably completely out of it right now. He might not be up in time to eat with us but I don't want to wake him up." Alexander looked at Robins door and imagined him snoring happily inside.

"Hey thank you for what you did last night, Robin was in a lot of trouble there and if you had not come along... Geese I don't even want to think about that! Anyhow, he was telling me how you may be looking for some employment?" Alexander grew very serious and he looked Terra in the eye. "Well I have two offers for you, one is working at the coffee shop. We are horribly understaffed at the moment so you would be doing us a favor. And one involves you working at the coffee shop, but it also involves extraordinary tasks that no day job would ever ask of you. It would involve helping the people of this city in a way that they have clearly needed for a long time now. But, before I tell you about option two. If you even want to know, you have to swear to me you can keep it a secret. Weather you get the job or not."

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    "No problem, he was in need of assistance so I offered it. Yes, I am looking for employment." she watched as he grew serious and Terra listened as the young man spoke acknowledging what he was saying with the occasional head nod. She didn't really eat much ever, so she ended up just sitting down and hearing out what Alexander had to say. When he paused to hear her response Terra got quite and thought for a moment.

    Terra smiled confidently believing in Robin's guardian. "A job at your coffee shop would be wonderful, but I think I would like to hear you out on your other offer first, so you have my word that I will keep the secret." Terra doubted that it would be anything too serious. They were probably going to just tell her some sort of secret ingredient or something. In the back of her mind she did wonder if Alexander was going to ask her to do something creepy. The idea made her shiver a bit.

"Well alright then, I'm glad I have your word. Me and Robin, we don't just operate a coffee shop together. When we came to this city we found out that things were bad... Well we already knew that they were bad when we moved place to place to get here. So we decided that we needed to help people. At night, a few months ago we started patrolling around. Out goal was to eliminate every Kishen egg we found, and to do our best to detain those criminals or dirtbags that were still human. It has been going pretty well as of late. But that is why you found Ben out at that time last night. He was originally supervised by me. But when someone who just shot a woman ran away I asked Robin to catch him while I took her to the hospital. He was wounded, I don't like sending him out on his own unless I know he can handle it and he was able to do just that."

"Someone witnessed as Ben took out that guy and thought he was a murderer, someone who was apparently a lundragon and something I need to investigate. You had the goodness of heart to actually stand up for Robin when he was in a lot of trouble there. So what I am asking Terra, is if you would like to join us on our nightly activity's. We are only ever doing it to help. This little group we have, we named it the free."

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    "That makes last night make a lot more sense." Terra was feeling a mixture of being impressed that there were people like this in this city and worried that such a young boy was on these missions. She wondered if when she headed over to the DWMA if she should mention this to see if they would help these two, but decided against it. Terra stood up slowly from her chair and pushed it in.

    Terra looked Alexander in the eyes."I do not understand how you think that is a viable question. What person with the power to stop people who eat souls wouldn't do so? Count me in, but I would like to be able to work alone for now. As you have your secrets you must keep. I also have mine. Once I get this curse removed from me I won't mind working in a group, but to get it removed I must go to the DWMA." With that Terra prepared to make her way to the academy and would do so if Alexander had no more to say.

"Alright! Glad to have you aboard! Just a couple more thing's and I'll let ya go. I would not be able to pay you unless if you work in the shop, I do in fact get all of my money on the terms that I get audited every month so an expense as big as a salary would raise some flags on the legal side. I have a secret as well Terra that I want you to know before you join up."

"Alright, so. A few years ago, when I was going through the loss of my family I was stupid and I made a mistake. I ate souls, and became a Kishen. Worst decision I ever made, and part of the reason I want to hunt down some of these monsters in the first place. I didn't kill anyone to get them, don't worry. Doing this keeps me sane knowing I am on the other side from them, along with some will and Robin it's what's keeping me from turning into a monster myself. So we collect the souls of those we are FORCED to kill. We don't want another monster coming around to a free lunch, and eating them while it makes me stronger also keeps my demons sealed away. Feeding the hungry dog in me and so forth. Knowing this if you still want to work with us when you are able then I would be glad for the trust. Regardless, good luck with that curse business I hope it works out."

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    "Glad to be aboard, and working in the shop shouldn't be a problem." Terra turns and faces the young man giving him her full attention. Whatever He was about to say seemed very important, so again she just listened. Terra just kept listening as the young man told her about his past. She didn't judge him because, despite all of the bad things she had heard about kishin, this one was obiously doing something positive.

      "Of course this changes nothing. It seems my perception of kishin was merely skewed,and for opening my eyes a bit more I thank you. I am also not what I at first appear to be, but I hope that can be a conversation for another day. Maybe that will be the same day where we can both talk about our pasts in more depth." With that Terra spun on her heels and ran off to the DWMA.

Alex was happy to smile at Terra's acceptance, and to think he was worried that his Kishinism was going to be a problem! He sat back in his chair and sipped his cup of coffee as he watched her go. A few minutes later he heard a door open. "Hey Robin! Good morning! Breakfast is ready, you just missed Terra she just left for the academy." "So everything went well I take it?" He said rubbing his eyes as he sat back in his chair. "Oh yeah, she is all for joining and I think things are you going to go very well."