A New Arrival (Echo)

Armistad was rushing around today. He was about to have a new resident for the house. He knew this person from her history, but had never actually met her face-to-face. He was her trustee, the person in charge of her money, since she had a problem controlling herself when it came to the way it was spent. He'd not been in this position long, only a few weeks, but it was enough to make his nerves a little frazzled. Especially when he'd read her case file.

Her name was Echo Salander, and she was a drug addict. He'd been....instructed on how to handle such a person in his training, but he knew the actual experience would be somewhat different.

Armis ran back and forth between the green room and the blue. He didn't have the slightest idea what color she liked, but if it was pink, she was out of luck until they were able to get some of the bedrooms renovated. Crimson had taken the only pink bedroom, and he wasn't going to ask her to move. He viewed her as his daughter since her bought with food poisoning, and as they were getting along much better now, he didn't want to ruin that.

He thought that he should have Echo stay in the blue room, since it was right next to his, and he could keep an eye on her. But as she was also an adult, she may want to have a little bit more privacy than that arrangement would afford her.

Armistad was still debating on this as he was heading to his office to get something he'd forgotten to take up to his own room when the doorbell rang. He ran to answer it and spoke briefly with the official that was delivering his new resident to him. When the man moved aside to leave and Armistad got his first look at this woman, he was struck. She was beautiful! Her blonde hair, her eyes, and legs that seemed unnaturally long. He had to shake himself mentally.

"Well," he said, after a second's silence to compose his thoughts. "Why don't you come in?"

Oh, Merlin! Even her voice was beautiful. Armistad needed to get his head on straight or there was going to be a whole lot of trouble. He'd felt her body heat as she'd passed him, she'd been so close to him. He'd had to step back to stop his body's natural reaction. He saw her eyes flickering around, and he supposed it was to see if there was an escape route. He'd put spells on all the windows and doors in the house to signal him silently if they were opened without him knowing.

He cleared his throat. He needed to be strict with this one, it appeared. He indicated around the room, telling her what each was.

"Dining room, front parlor, the hall behind the stairs leads to my office. Through the dining room is the kitchen." He pointed to the stairs and led the way to them. Reaching the top, he did the same as the floor below, telling her the other end of the hall had no livable rooms.

"It's because we are in the middle of a remodel. This is my cousin's house, and I am taking care of it while he's at Hogwarts. He'll be taking over when he graduates, but I'm in charge for the time being." He led the way to the two bedrooms he had that were available and opened the door to each. He looked into Max's old bedroom and frowned. He still couldn't believe that his cousin had been locked in there merely because he could use magic. But then, here he was, practically hiding from the rest of their family because he could do the same. No member of the Xandex family, save for Max, knew that he was back in London. He shook his head to bring him back to the present.

"I only have these two rooms available until we get some work done up here. I was thinking that if you didn't want to share a bathroom with Crimson, then you might want to stay in this room. Crimson is my daughter." He walked into the blue bed room and opened the curtains so that she could get a better look at it.

"However, if you don't mind sharing with a fifteen-year-old, there is the green room. But keep in mind, that I will be doing surprise inspections, no matter what room you stay in, and I am very thorough. There is no place in this room or any room that I will not search. So I wouldn't even bother trying to bring anything into the house at all. Oh, and there is no way to leave the house without my knowing it. I have put protective charms on all the windows and doors, and I will know the moment they are opened." He smiled at her a little bit. "I'm also the only person that is able to Apparate in the house. You would only splinch yourself if you tried."

He spread his hands when he was finished showing her the room.

"So, after hearing all that, which room would you want?"

Echo frowned slightly as he moved away from her. She wasn't used to that reaction. She fixed her bright blue eyes on him and watched him for a moment. She didn't know what to make of him and that intrigued her. Echo was especially good at reading people. In her life she had to be if she wanted to survive. It had been something she had been adept at doing since she was small and had gone to first abusive foster home. She had known the husband would be trouble. With this man though there was nothing in him that wanted to harm her. She wasn't foolish enough to think that would always be the case but for the moment it caught her off guard.

She looked away when he cleared his throat. He still hadn't told her his name which she found a bit odd. The court officials had only referred to him as Mr. Xandex but she never called anyone Mr. Except Dex and only when he was being serious.

She nodded her eyes flashing to every room as he spoke their names. Following him upstairs she noted that no bedrooms were on the first floor. She noticed that there were several rooms closed off and would have asked except he answered her before he got the chance. She nodded but didn't speak. She rarely spoke unless spoken to or of course unless there were drugs in her system. She was always much braver then.

"What will happen when he gets out?" she questioned wondering if there was no point in unpacking if she was going to be shipped off soon anyway. She followed him to the rooms and looked inside of each. She noticed his frown, she noticed every expression. It was another thing she had picked up on because noticing those kind of things kept you alive when a deal went south. She didn't mind the colors in either room and each would have been fine until she learned she might have to share a restroom.

"I can take this room thank you." she said softly, although her ears perked up at the sound of a daughter. "She's your daughter?" she questioned knowing that it was impossible or else highly improbable that he had a fifteen year old daughter.

Her eyes darkened only the slightest amount at the mention of room inspections. She averted her gaze from him her mind already ticking away as to where she was going to keep what she needed. At the mention of the charms placed on the house and the apparation prevention spell she said nothing. It didn't matter to her if he knew when she left, she would leave and no one could stop her. It would be easier and better if she could do so undetected but it wasn't her problem it was his.

"I don't need a keeper." she said after a long pause, although she didn't stop to appreciate how ironic those words sounded considering the reason that she was here.

Armistad nodded and went to the linen closet to get her some sheets. He brought them back and started to make the bed for her. When he had the bottom sheet on, he had to bend over to pick up the top sheet as he had dropped it on top of the pillows. He smoothed the wrinkles out when he'd spread it over the mattress and tucked it in.

When he had the bed made, he turned around to her.

"I'm Armistad," he said, with a small smile. "You don't have to call me Mr. Xandex. It makes me feel old and I'm twenty-three. And before you start trying to figure out the age I would have had to be to have Crimson, I would have been eight and that would be impossible. She is my foster daughter, but I view her as my own." He looked around the room and cleared his throat again.

"I can't think of anything else to tell you, except that my room is right next door if you need anything. My door is usually open, I just ask that you knock first. And in the case of Max when he gets out of Hogwarts, he'll be taking over the operation of the house gradually once he turns eighteen and leaves school. He's sixteen now, so it will be another two years before he can even start to help. Until then, I am the one that you come to if you have a problem, all right?" He moved over to her and held out his hand. He didn't really expect her to shake it, but he thought that it would be polite for him to do so.

Armistad

Armistad stared for a moment. He'd not expected her to do that! He swallowed and turned his gaze as his body betrayed him. Dammit! His shirt wasn't any longer than the waistband of his jeans, and he now had a reason to wish it came past his ass.

He cleared his throat for the third time in the last half hour. It seemed to be becoming a nervous habit of his. This girl, no, she wasn't a girl, she was a woman. And he had the feeling that she knew what she was doing. Funnily enough, Armistad didn't care at that moment.

"I am in charge of your accounts, yes. Your allowance is 75 galleons on a biweekly basis, 150 a month. I hope that is acceptable?" He had gone over her file with the people that had delivered her today the week before. They had told him to give her a good amount, but not too high, or her inheritance would be gone before she was twenty-one.

Dammit! Armistad had to keep his eyes to himself! He'd just shot a glance in her direction to guage her response, and had instantly had a resurgance below the waistband of his now too tight jeans.

"I hope that the room will be comfortable," he said, trying to cover his discomfort.

Armistad backed away from her when she asked what she could do for more money. He knew what she meant, since it was hard for her to not have noticed his... condition. He shook his head instantly.

"I can't give you any more than that. It was the decision of the officials, not me. If they had let me have my say about it, I would have been able to get you about two hundred a month. But they wouldn't go any higher than the 150." He moved across the room to finish opening the curtains.

"As for what you can do to get more money, I don't work like that. I am not the type to be coerced by the offer of sexual favors." He turned to face her. "Yes, I noticed how attractive you are, and that you have a nice body. But that is as far as that will go, I promise you that. If you have a problem with that, then I am sorry, but this is a business. I have offered you a home for as long as you need it, and have the authority over your accounts, but I cannot just open them at will. I have to go through the authorities to get that money for you. And I will not be entertaining the possibility of you doing anything for me sexually, so please get that out of your mind."

He looked around the room again. He didn't know what else to tell her, so he said the only thing that he could think of, and that was the next part of what he had rehearsed.

"I will need to see you in my office when you are settled, and then we will be getting dinner around. And when I say 'we', I mean the both of us." He looked her straight in the eye, still trying to get his body under control.

Armistad sighed. He knew why she needed the money, it was all in her file. She was a drug addict, and he'd been told that she was more than likely paying off her dealer. That was why they had put the limit on what she would be able to receive from her accounts each month. And the decision had been made that Armistad would be her final chance. If she didn't break ties with the dealer and get clean, if she chose to keep going the way she had been, she'd reached the end, and more forceful measures would have to be taken.

"There won't be another trustee this time, Echo," he said. "I am to be the last. If you don't agree to the amount offered and stay clean, they will lock you in an institution, and freeze your accounts altogether."

He maded the mistake of letting his eyes drop from her face to the floor and in the process, his vision caught the rest of her, causing his regained control on his body to slip again. He clenched his jaw and snapped his crystal eyes back to her face. He didn't need for this to be happening! He'd been so...... careful with his attention when it came to his female counseling clients in the past. None of them had gotten a reaction from him. But he was no longer just a counselor. Of course it was still his main occupation, but he was also the care giver at the Gallery of Calm, as his cousin had come to call it.

"Echo, I do want you to stay here and get yourself straightened out if that is what you really want. I cannot get you anymore money, but I can make you an offer. And it's not anything that requires you to sell your body, so please don't think that." Armistad closed his eyes to try to remove that image from his mind. So much for that. It seemed to be burned into the inside of his eyelids as well, and his body betrayed him even more. Enough to make him sit down on her bed in an attempt to hide it.

"I will pay off who or whatever you need this money for, I'll think of things you can do around the house to pay me back over time, and that will be the end of it?"

Armistad bit his lip. There had to be a way to get her out of this without her having to get into her money to pay off some dealer that, in his opinion, had no right to it in the first place. Yes, Echo was an addict. Yes, she more than likely had still been selling the drugs herself. But that didn't mean that she should have to give her inheritance to some.....asshole to keep her safe, when here he was willing to do that for her. He didn't know if it was a built in instinct, but he was finding that he wanted to do just that. Keep her safe.

"All right. You won't take it as a loan, then I will give it to you, but you are to get away from this person. Completely. He or she is not good for you, Echo." Armis stood and moved closer to her. "Surely you know that. I'm assuming that this person is not going to be patient for much longer."

He noticed that some of her hair had fallen into her eyes and he couldn't resist. He closed the distance between them and reached up to brush it back, letting his hand rest against her cheek for a moment. Her skin was so soft; and he felt his eyes being drawn to her mouth. His mind started running rampant with thoughts he'd not had about a woman since he'd left Durmstrang. He forced them all to the back except one. The only one that he would allow himself for right now.

"I would only ask one small thing in return for the money. If you would allow me to kiss you just once?"

Armistad's mind stopped entirely. He'd been kissed before, but not like this. This felt like the most natural thing in the world to him. He had not experienced this sensation. It was as if her lips had been made for his, and it was amazing! He didn't want this to end, but it had to eventually. But for right now, he was just happy with what was going on.

After a few more seconds, Armis had to back away. It was becoming too much for him to handle. He was having a new feeling, and it was one of incredible need. He couldn't let this happen. It was unprofessional, and he'd already gone too far in asking her for the kiss to begin with. But this? He'd never been with anyone before, he was, in fact, a virgin. It had been his choice to ask Sonja to marry him before he would sleep with her. But she'd told him that she only wanted to get pregnant and take him for everything that he had. When she had left, his heart felt as if it had gone with her. But now, he was feeling like he was about to detonate or something. It was strange.

He didn't feel that he was in pain, it was more of a pleasurable experience. But he just wanted to...... He couldn't do that! She would smack him clean across the face for even thinking of it! He had to get control of himself before he did something that he would regret.

"I'm sorry, Echo. Please forgive me for forgetting myself. I had no place to ask you for that."

Armistad was shocked. That was what she thought? Nothing could be farther from the truth! He just didn't want to do anything that she would regret later. And he was sure that if he did ask her to go to bed with him, and then gave her his virginity, she would regret that. She would feel bad that he'd not given it to someone he'd been dating for some time. But he didn't have anyone else, and he felt that Echo had been the one to claim his heart from the second she came into being. He hoped that one day she would give her heart to him, but he wasn't going to force her to do that.

"Echo, do you really think that? That I don't want to kiss you?" He shook his head. "It's not that at all. I want to do more than kiss you. So much more. But I feel like I'm moving too fast, and I don't want to push you, or make you feel that you have to do anything." He started pacing.

"I have to tell you something about me, Echo. I was hurt... badly, by a girl when I was in my seventh year at Durmstrang. I loved her so much that I asked her to marry me before I would sleep with her. I didn't want to take that last step until then. It just seemed more right to me. But she told me that she wanted to get me into bed just to get pregnant. I had never been so hurt in my life. But I haven't thought of her once today. I have found a new woman that now owns my thoughts."

He looked down at the floor and then back up into her eyes.

"You are taking over every part of my brain. I haven't thought of anything but you since you appeared on the doorstep." He bit his lip, wondering if he should finish the story. He thought that it would be better and moved to stand back directly in front of her.

"I haven't dated since I broke up with Sonja. I never dated before her. And I think I need to tell you this so you can understand exactly why I'm so skittish around you." He lifted her chin to make sure their eyes were meeting and finished in a whisper.

"Echo.....I'm a virgin."

Armistad felt slightly empty and shook his head. He knew what was happening here. She was feeling like she wasn't worthy of him, when his heart was starting to tell him that she was the one he'd been waiting for his entire life. He hadn't listened to that particular part of himself in a long time, because it hadn't had anything to say to him that he cared to hear. But if it was starting to speak to him again, he was ready to listen.

He moved over to her and pulled her into his arms again, looking into her amazing eyes. The ones that he was sure could see straight to his soul. He slipped the sleeve she'd just adjusted off her shoulder again, lowering his head to kiss the skin he'd just revealed.

"I don't think you quite understand," he whispered. "I'm telling you this so that you know I don't have any preconcieved notions of what a woman should be like in bed. Since I have no experience, I cannot ask you to do anything that you don't want to, but Echo, I know what I do want." He kissed her lips softly.

"I have found that I should always listen to my heart, because when it speaks to me, I know what it's telling me is right. And it's telling me that you are the one. The one that it's been waiting for. You are the one that was meant to be my first."

He pulled away from her to wait for her response, now more nervous than he had ever been in his life.

Armistad heard the click of the door closing a few moments before they registered in his brain. His heart started screaming at him to let her be the one, to let her claim him. He felt his legs hit the bed and he sat down on it hard as her words entered his ears.

Looking up at her as she pulled off her shirt, Armis had to bite his lip to keep from groaning. She was beautiful. There was no other way to describe her. Even beautiful was a pathetic word. He didn't believe there was a word for her.

He just stared at her for a few moments whild his mind tried to work again. He'd never expected that she would agree and that he would now be so close to her in this way. And about to become closer.

She wanted him to take what he wanted from her? He couldn't just do that. He wanted her to be a willing participant, and not think that he just wanted to relieve himself of his virginity because he wasn't thinking with the head between his shoulders. He was, actually, but it was his heart that was controlling both. His heart had started telling him that she was the one to claim it. His heart didn't belong to him any longer, it was hers. For as long as she chose to keep it.

Armistad stood up and put his hands on the sides of her face, moving forward and kissing her softly. He was going to do this right, and make sure that she felt that she had the right to be loved. He was going to make sure that she felt wanted, now, and as long as she would let him.

"Echo, please, tell me that you are doing this because you want to, not because I want you to. If we aren't both ready, then this would be pointless, because it wouldn't be fair to the one that isn't. I want to be with you. More than anything, but I am not going to take something you aren't willing to give wholeheartedly."

His actions betrayed his words slightly when he stepped back from her and removed his own shirt a moment later.

Armis felt only slightly overwhelmed when she undid his jeans and kissed him as hard as she did. The sensation vanished within seconds and he looked down at what she was doing to him. Turning his crystal blue eyes upward to hers, he nodded silently. He wanted this more than he'd wanted anything in his life. More than he'd wanted Sonja, more than he wanted to breathe. She had him, his heart his soul and he didn't ever want her to let go of him. He was hers until she decided to let him go, and even then, no part of him would go willingly.

He moved closer to her, if that was possible. He pulled her into his arms and lay her on the bed, stretching out beside her and kissing her the same way she had him. It felt amazing, and like it was meant to be, and Armis wanted it to happen. He didn't care what happened to him after this, as long as he had Echo with him. He heard in the back of his mind the voice of his heart, and it was getting louder and louder with its calls of approval and its screams for him to do what he wanted so desperately to do.

But one other thing snuck to the forefront, and Armis needed to listen to this as well. He had never done this before, but he knew that there could be concequences if they weren't careful. Concequences that would result in a baby if the proper measures weren't taken. He kissed Echo again and promised that he would return in just a moment, slid off the bed and hurried to retrieve what he needed.

He came back and sat on the end of the bed, fearing that he'd more than likely ruined the mood for her, even though he had her future in mind with this precaution.

"OK," he said. "I've not changed my mind." He held up the little foil packet. "I'm hoping that you didn't change yours, either."