Don't say I didn't warn you

"Why can't I go with you?"

"Because this isn't somewhere you should be."

"But.. there are a lot of places I shouldn't be that I've gone to.. so?"

"Enough Ekko, you aren't coming with."

"But - "

A sudden glare, one that could kill if looks could, stopped the little girl mid sentence. When she was given that look, it wasn't one she should disobey, unless she was okay with getting punished if she did. Though she'd begun to grow restless and slightly rebellious, something about that one stare sent chills running up and down Ekko's spine and she couldn't help but listen to anything Dylan said at that point. Maybe it was because he looked evil.

Or because he actually was.

Dylan turned around, his back to Ekko now, and began to walk off as he heard a sigh(probably of relief) coming from behind him. The girl must have been glad she got off with only that glare and nothing more. It had taken some time but she had begun to learn that if she followed what he said, things would go well for her. But she had also started to act somewhat like him, resulting in her rebelliousness and Dylan really wasn't the type of person to deal with that. Especially not now, when he had more important matters to attend to.

"I'll be back in a little while. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." And with that, the redhead disappeared from the entrance to the den, leaving little Ekko on her own for who knows how long.

Sometimes he felt bad, when he left Ekko alone that is, because the little girl did not seem to want anyone else to be around her. She had to still be scared of the others in the pack, but when Dylan wasn't around someone else had to watch her, it was a given. The first few times, Moira had taken her while Dylan had to go out but lately even Moira was having a hard time with the girl simply because she wanted Dylan to be around. Kids weren't Dylan's thing, not by a long shot, and no matter how much (hidden) affection he had toward her, Ekko was really getting on his nerves with her tantrums when he left her alone.

To anyone else, that would probably sound bad, but he had no reason to be worried over it. He had no real reason to care, yet he found himself doing so more often than not lately and it kind of worried him in a way.

He couldn't think of that now though, not when he was heading to the Ministry. To a certain news reporter's office, to be exact. He wasn't sure how things with Maude even started, they just kind of did. He ran into her on accident one day when he'd been sent to check up on how Safiya was doing with the Minister and the rest had basically been history. It hadn't been long, but they'd somehow hit it off and Dylan found himself going to the Ministry more often than he used to - though always with the excuse of going to check up on Safiya(except he didn't need to leave Ekko alone for that).

The nineteen year old shook his head, his messy locks bouncing about some falling into his face as he knocked on the office door.

Sometimes, she did feel quite strange about it. But she was only twenty-three, so if she was going to make some mistakes, she supposed that it was best to get those out of the way early on. And one of those, potentially, was named Dylan. He didn't have too much going for him, job-wise. And something about him was strange. But he was so unlike Henry that she couldn't really stop herself.

And yes, she had known from the first time Dylan had flirted with her. Henry was the reason why. Things had changed, though, over the past month. He was amusing, to say the least, and he had made it clear that he cared about her, which was more than most people could say. She had lots of friends, really, but none of them were that close besides Maddie. She had a family that she loved, but Gilbert was distant despite their meals every other week. Iveagh was working incredibly hard and Maude was obviously proud of that, because their father refused to. She loved all of them. With every part of her, she did. But it was nice to have someone like Dylan around after spending so much of her life as a responsible daughter, a hard-working employee and a woman overlooked by the man she thought she loved.

Maybe she was wrong.

Or maybe she was hoping that Dylan would change her mind.

Either way, she was wondering when Dylan's next visit would be when Henry came by that morning. He wanted her to look over the plans for an upcoming gala. Well, fantastic. Because she wanted to consider what he would look like in a suit? No. No thanks. Not at all. Nope.

Instead, she told herself that there was an entirely different option: Dylan. But that was only if she could get him to agree, which part of her knew wouldn't happen. It was a shock, then, when he arrived at her door later that day, knocking and leading to her opening it up.

"Dylan!" She greeted with a smile, pleased that he had arrived at the perfect time. Stepping back, Maude twisted her waist almost without thinking, making her skirt curl around her legs. "Come in," she offered, gesturing towards the rest of the room as she passed him a coy smile. It would be better to warm him up to the idea of it rather than to spring it on him, so she waited for him to walk in before closing the door behind him.

Sometimes it was like he forgot the purpose in coming to see Maude. He didn't feel anything got her, not really, yet he always found himself thinking about her, wondering what she might be doing. Maybe it was just a subconscious thing that didn't really have to do with Maude herself.

Maybe whatever he had going on with her wasn't because of the girl herself either. That wasn't a maybe, that was a definitely. Dylan wanted to forget, about who was probably a mystery to everyone but himself, though he made it a point to act like there wasn't anyone who even mattered to him that much.

He'd be damned if a girl was the cause of any emotional problems.

Maybe that meant he was damned already.

The way Maude greeted him after opening the door made his heart (almost) skip a beat, as though he hadn't seen her in who knows how long, like she meant so much more to him than she did - or he was willing to admit. It didn't stop a weird though genuine smile from appearing on his lips as he walked into the office saying, "Thanks." As he heard the door close behind him.

As his eyes wandered around the older girl's office, he couldn't felt but feel somewhat intimidated by her job. Well, not the job itself but the fact that she, like a lot of other people, probably didn't think too much of him because he didn't have a steady job like she, or they, had.

It wasn't like he didn't have a job, though. It just wasn't one like she had. "Been busy?" He asked through his thoughts, while his eyes finally settled on her.

Maude walked around the chairs set up in front of her desk for visitors, choosing to lean against it rather than sit behind it. After all, they weren't quite formal enough for that anymore, were they?

"Oh, on and off." She shrugged. "It depends on the day, really. I think the days after matches are the worst. Busiest, that is."

He seemed distracted, she thought after looking at him properly. Maude couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing for her desire to convince him. Perhaps it was. And she really had no choice but to try.

"I'm glad you came by, actually. This morning hasn't been very pleasant. Mainly because it's been busy, actually. I'm glad for the break."

And it wasn't untrue, really. Pushing off of the desk, she stepped towards him as she decided to go ahead and bring it up. Her hand reached for his invitingly, even as she came up with a way to bring up the topic. The problem, really.

"I was wondering," she began gently, offering a warm smile, "if I might be able to convince you to help me out with something."

And she could only hope that either Dylan would say yes, or that if he didn't, Henry wouldn't expect her to attend. Merlin, if she had to watch him dancing with everyone else like she had at the previous year's Christmas ball, she would probably snap. And she didn't even know what that would look like. Probably awful. Worse than when she found out that Iveagh was thinking of skipping University to help out their father. Gosh, she needed to talk to Gil about that.

"See, I need a little favor, and was hoping you would be the man for the job."