"Hey, little hero..."
Luke stared at him wide-eyed, his pupils dilating in shock.
Boris, though dressed in casual attire, radiated the feeling of a predator, a feeling that could not be explained.
Almost everyone who saw him for the first time would be momentarily stunned, most in fear, some in awe, like Luke.
"He has the same build as father," he thought, the main reason he was stunned.
It was rare to see someone with his late father's figure.
As he admired Boris, Boris too admired him.
"A handsome hero," he thought, admiring the boy's hazel eyes.
"You look just like your father..." Boris commented as he sat by Luke's side.
Luke's pupils dilated as he turned to him.
"You... you know my dad..." he asked, paced, breathed; his usually cool composure collapsed at the mention of his dad.
"Yes... who does not know the..." Boris paused, remembering the glare a certain someone had given him in the hospital halls, Luke's mother.
"Sigh!!" he sighed internally.
He was a man of his word; there was no need to go contrary to it, even though nothing truly bound him to it.
"How do you know him... I heard he served in the army, but he never once spoke about it... How was he like... Is..."
"Take your time, kid..." Boris raised his hand in surrender, overwhelmed by the boy's barrage of questions.
"I'm not telling," he frowned, feigning anger.
Luke's eyes, which sparked with excitement, quickly dimmed, his cheerful expression now unreadable.
"How may I help you, sir..." His demeanor changed, his tone refined as if he wasn't the same person from a few moments ago.
"This kid changes mood quickly," Boris thought, impressed by Luke's sudden shift in mood.
"Don't you wanna ask about your dad..." Boris pressed.
Maybe the kid was playing hard to get on him...
Though that shouldn't be possible, as they were total strangers.
"No, it wasn't right for me to ask... You are a total stranger, not to mention if my own family haven't told me about him, what of a stranger... I am sorry for my behavior earlier..." Luke tried to bow, his cast in the way.
"Huh..." Boris' eyes widened.
The boy's statement now seemed rehearsed.
It felt like he was talking with those overly polite flight attendance.
Words with no substance.
"How old are you..." Boris couldn't help but ask.
"Thirteen..."
Boris was taken aback. The boy didn't look his age; his build, though wrapped in a cast, was sure to belong to a sixteen-year-old, and his face, though handsome, wasn't that of a wet-ear thirteen-year-old.
He didn't comment. He was just like him back in the day...
He shook his head, his age wasn't what he was interested in... But the boy's temperament.
His age making it more weird.
He, usually without any filter, wanted to ask how a thirteen-year-old could be so polite, but then he remembered whose child this was.
The same woman who had dared to give him, a lieutenant commander, the stink eye.
"She really trained you well..." he said with raised eyebrows. "And you soaked it all in like a dried desert," he added with a smile.
"Little hero... I like you. Being with that woman shouldn't be easy, yet you..." He smiled, showing his pearly whites.
"I like you. What more do you have..." He leaned closer.
Luke stared at him without even a flicker of emotion.
"Wow!!"
He was impressed...
He then stood to his feet, hand placed in pocket, and then...
He pulled out a gun, glancing at Luke at the corner of his eye, yet the boy's expression remained, though internally he was cussing at him.
"What the fuck is this guy doing? He wouldn't tell me about father, now he is pulling out a gun..."
He remained cool, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"What are you doing..." Luke asked.
"Aren't you scared..." Boris pulled closer, twirling the handgun on his finger.
"Why should I be..." Luke was confused.
A soldier couldn't kill a civilian for no reason.
"Really, what of now..." Boris positioned the gun to his head, pulling the hammer back, yet the only reaction he got was confusion.
Luke was truly baffled why this soldier was playing games with him.
He didn't even fathom he would pull the trigger; the thought didn't even cross his mind. But then...
Click!!
Boris pulled the trigger. Luke slightly shaken, not out of fear but by the vibration from the gun.
"He didn't flinch..." Boris leaned back, looking at Luke like a specimen.
"That woman can't teach him this..."
Then he remembered someone of a similar bearing, and it all made sense.
"You are really something. I like you. Why don't you join the army..." He leaned closer, the gun placed on Luke's cast.
The boy wore a look of confusion.
"Is he here to recruit because of saving that girl?" Luke thought, unaware it was because of his temperament.
Most, if not all, would have panicked at a gun pointed at their head, yet he was just confused, a rare trait, a lesser trait of psychopaths.
Not that he knew.
"I am not trying to recruit you because of the girl you saved..." Boris seemingly reading his mind said, then he paused, remembering why he was here in the first place. "...though that was foolish to take on three grown men all by yourself," he added.
He was here to first praise the lad, then reprimand him.
This was the first case he handled just after arriving at the district.
Three grown men with a background in martial arts, beating up a thirteen year old kid to a near death state.
It was an idiotic act on Luke's side, for fighting with the three men in the first place.
He had wanted to visit, but a lot had kept him away, until today.
No matter how far, to Boris Luke should have run for help instead of stepping in.
"Yeah, I know that..." Luke said with a pained expression.
Not because he had fought with three adults, but because he had lost, and rather badly at that.
"...Well, don't beat yourself up. You did save the girl after all..." Boris, unaware of the boys thoughts, lightly slapped the back of Luke's head, trying to comfort him.
The boy's eyes widened in surprise.
Was the guy trying to kill him?
"This is what gets a reaction. You are a weird one, aren't you?" Boris looked at Luke with raised eyes, the latter glaring at him.
And just like that, his expression returned to its lack of expression.
"What the fuck" Boris cussed out loud, impressed by the boy's self control.
It seemed he wasn't conscious of it. Like a program, expression seemed to be the glitch while this was the original.
"What did she do to you to make you like this? The army wouldn't be able to get this effect..." He leaned closer again, staring at Michael like a new toy.
"Could this also be the effect of his gene mutation..." he mused.
"Hey, kid, what's your ability..." He asked, a look of confusion on Luke's face.
"Ability?..."