Excalibur {Complete}

4

"My impulsiveness?" I repeated, my voice like acid. Honestly I hadn't known I could sound like that. I turned around in the seat and glowered at him, my heart racing in my chest and my body shaking slightly.

He sat there without moving a muscle as he responded evenly, "Yes. You suddenly left Titan this morning because you say Alik killed your friends. So, you take off running and end up caught between my group and yours fighting. You tried to fight me on impulse when we thought you were simply a civilian trying to get away from the fighting.

"In addition to that, you yelled at Jace even though he had a gun to your head. And you thought about leaping out of this car while it was in motion, and now you want to leap out again just so you can get away from us. But you haven't thought anything through. Your impulsiveness is going to get you killed."

"You're an ass."

"I get that a lot."

As I stared at him, his words started to sink in, and more importantly what he'd said about the two gangs fighting. Hadn't he said 'his' group? Did that... did that mean he was the leader of some gang? My heart skipped a beat as my eyes grew wide. Tristan arched an eyebrow at me. It must have dawned on him too because he smiled almost immediately after giving me that curious look.

"Shall I re-introduce myself?" he said, tilting his head off to the side. He kind of had a sexy look like that. I was pretty sure he was doing that on purpose. Teasing me again... what the hell? God he pisses me off... When I didn't answer, he seemed to take that as an invitation and shifted his body across the seat. For some idiotic reason, I forgot the door was unlocked behind me. I pressed my back against the door as I watched him warily.

Reaching out as he got unbearably close to me, he took my chin between his fingers and tilted my head up, "I'm Tristan Ukomota, I'm the head of Fukkatsu."

"F-Fukkatsu...?" my voice cracked unwillingly.

"Means 'revival'; my father was Japanese," he replied with a smile.

I let out a breath as I took this in. So he was born into this whole gang crap. Tristan released my face gently as the pair that had left the car got back in. As the doors slammed shut, Zak put it in gear and started down the alleyway toward the main road ahead of us. I think at one point I finally remembered how to breathe as I settled against the seat, finally tearing my gaze away from Tristan who had turned to address his two underlings.

Glancing over my shoulder, I eyed the three cracks against the rear window. The gun shots hadn't gone through which meant the glass was probably reinforced, bullet proof. Definitely high grade stuff, especially before the government went and destroyed everything with their ridiculous wars. I hardly listened to Tristan as he asked Zak if they'd lost Alik. The answer must have been favorable because Tristan leaned back against the seat and eyed me as I sat there staring at the floor.

I flinched as I felt his hand on my face again, turning my head. Since when did he get so close?! I almost freaked out on him, but I reigned in my urge to slap his hand away and punch him in the face. I supposed he was right, I was pretty damned impulsive. His eyes narrowed a bit as he eyed my face. What the hell was he looking at? Oh. I forgot I had been pistol whipped by my ex, and had my ear drum busted. Well, maybe not fully busted because hearing was all right in that ear, it was just a little dull.

"How did this happen?"

"W-when I fell," I answered. They already didn't trust me, not that I really wanted them to, but telling them I was Alik's boyfriend was probably a really bad idea.

"And your ear?"

"Happened when Alik shot my friends," I glowered at the floor. At least that wasn't really a lie. It wasn't the whole truth, but still.