The Soldier of War and the Daughter of Peace

Chapter One

Admittedly, the first time Nora Asher saw him, she was a bit suspicious.

He'd been waiting to go into her first literary classics lecture. He stood out to her because he was by himself, his arms folded as he leant against the wall, a baseball cap pulled down over his short-ish brown hair and a nonchalant expression. He looked to be about twenty five or twenty six, and judging from the breadth of his shoulders, and his well-muscled physique, she'd guessed he was majoring in some sort of sport or health and fitness program.

She wasn't even sure why that drew her attention, but it did. And how could she not be suspicious, when he moved like he saw everything around him, like he was on high alert, and his eyes trained on her in a more than an 'I'm checking you out' way. When he glanced at his watch constantly, and seemed to survey everything that happened with a degree of detachment.

Nora knew how to spot the signs of a secret service agent; she'd been around them for a large part of her life. As the first month of college went by, her conversations with her parents got stonier and stonier on her side, sure as she was that her dad had assigned another security personnel to tail her. Without having even the courtesy to tell her.

All Nora wanted was normal. It didn't seem like such a difficult thing to achieve, to most people. But for the daughter of the president, normal was…out of the question. Not only was it out of the question, it was unattainable. Completely.

But that didn't stop Nora from trying. It was why she was at the pool party, despite being self-conscious because of all the eyes on her and her unusually well-exposed body. Everybody wanted to know the president's daughter, wanted to be friends with her, know her secrets, but most importantly, they wanted the spotlight that followed her around whether she wanted it to or not. And the ones who didn't, wanted to get to her dad through her.

The music thumped loudly, the beat reverberating down Nora's body, the sun heating her skin. The air was thick with laughter and yelling and girls screaming as the boys threw them in the pool. Amy nudged Nora to get her attention, then nodded in the general area of a couple guys she deemed hot. "Check out the hot guys over there."

Amy was five feet and nine inches of slender beauty, with natural honey blonde hair that was dead straight, her skin a deep caramel tan, and her eyes a brilliant blue. The green of her strapless bikini went well with the shade of her hair. Nora, by contrast, was petite and curvy, standing at five feet and two inches, with curly black hair, ivory skin and brown eyes, like her mother's. She was regretting the outlandish red ruffle bikini she had on, wishing she had bought with her the oversized sweatshirt she felt most comfortable in. The president's daughter was very rarely seen in anything that didn't cover her upper arms, stomach and legs, so while Amy flaunted her natural perfection, Nora just felt odd and out of place. She was used to people watching, but most of the time, she had more clothing on.

From the moment they'd met when they first moved in as roommates, they'd hit it off well; Amy came from a big family, so she didn't seem bothered by the fact that in Nora's world, there was no such thing as privacy, and they were never really alone. There was always someone. The security detail assigned to Nora, standing guard at their door, roaming the corridors for threats, following her everywhere. The press, always trying to get a shot of the president's precious daughter doing something wrong. The people trying to get close to Nora, to know her.

Nora was never really alone. She wished she knew what it felt like to have just a few moments to herself, without anyone knowing who she was, or who her father was. She'd like to walk down the street and not be bombarded by people wanting to talk to her, shake her hand, photograph her, hug her. She was eighteen years old, and was just thankful she'd finally made a proper friend in Amy.

Nora shrugged her shoulders, distracted. "Yeah."

Amy rolled her eyes, and nudged her again, "What's up?"

"Nothing," Nora shook her head, playing at indifference. She didn't want to be a downer when Amy was obviously looking to have some fun. She crossed her arms defensively in front of her, drawing Amy's attention.

"You look hot. Stop fidgeting," she admonished, slapping Nora's hands away from adjusting her bikini bottoms.

"That's easy for you to say," Nora complained, her face twisting into a grimace. "I'm not usually so… underdressed in public. When my dad sees the pictures, he won't be thrilled."

Because there would be pictures in the paper the next day. She couldn't see any camera flashes now, but the day was still early. Amy placed her hands on her hips in a move Nora had come to know meant business, "When are you going to live a little? You're not a little girl anymore, stop worrying what your daddy will think, and start doing what you want. There's nothing wrong with swimwear, and there's nothing wrong with flaunting your God-given body, so just have fun. There's nothing wrong with an eighteen year old girl having fun."

Nora frowned. "You're right."

"Of course I am," Amy sing-songed, grinning widely.

"I can have fun."

"Yes you can," she nodded encouragingly.

"This would be the perfect time to have fun."

"Precisely!"

"Maybe I should call my dad and give him a heads up," Nora added musingly, and Amy groaned, slapping a hand across her forehead.

"And you were doing so great," she muttered. She placed her hands on Nora's shoulders, looking her in the eye, "Listen to me closely. You will have fun. You will swim. You will laugh. You will flirt. And God-be-willing, you will like it. Understand?"

Nora mock saluted her, "Yes, sir!"

"That's more like it!" She spun Nora around, and shoved her at the closest guy, "And here's your chance."

Nora stumbled into him from the force of Amy's shove, apologizing.

"It's alright," the guy said, offering her his hand. "I'm Will."

"Nora," she replied, taking his outstretched hand and shaking it.

"I know. I think everybody knows," he grinned.

"Guess I should have seen that coming, huh?"

Will shrugged, the front of his wavy, shaggy blonde-brown hair falling across his face and into his blue eyes. "Yeah, considering you're in the public eye," he laughed, his eyes quickly slipping down her body for a millisecond, before coming back to meet her eyes. "So, what are you majoring in?"

Nora raised an eyebrow, "You don't know?"

"I do. Double major in political science and history. I was just being polite," he grinned easily.

Nora, oddly, wanted to do what her dad did. She wanted to make a difference, she wanted to serve the people, she wanted to better the world. She wanted to orchestrate peace. As much as she hated constantly being watched and judged, her time always being demanded for some party, some fund raiser, some gala, that she never got time for herself. As much as she despised the lack of privacy, and the fact that her security detail had to know private things about her all the time. She wanted to make a difference more.

"Well, seeing as you know everything about me, why don't we talk about you?" Nora proposed. She certainly didn't want to bore him by telling him stuff he already knew about her. She was pretty sure that that was not Amy's idea of fun.

He nodded, "Well, I have an older brother and a younger brother and sister. My oldest brother is…"

Nora tried to pay attention. She really did. But for some reason, her eyes kept wanting to drift to his left, wanting to look past Will when she really should be paying attention to him. For ten minutes, she nodded like she was listening, smiling and adding in a few 'hmms' and 'yeahs?', but instead, her mind was trying to stop her from looking over to his left to see what had caught her attention. And then she couldn't stand it anymore. She looked as subtly as she could, before bringing her gaze back to Will.

It was him. The guy who she believed was secret service, sent by her dad to watch her without her knowing. He wasn't doing a good job; she'd pegged him from the get-go. He stood beside two other guys, who were chatting easily, every now and then turning to him and asking his opinion. His dark blue singlet fit him perfectly, displaying the muscles of his arms and the lean length of his torso. His eyes seemed to systematically scan the crowd, but it was so very subtle. His eyes landed on her, and for a second, surprise flitted across his features as he took her in, bikini and all. But then it disappeared less than half a second later, and his face was relaxed again.

And suddenly, she was angry and irritated. At her dad and him. She could look after herself. She'd been here a whole month and no one had attacked her, no one had threatened her life. It was almost like she was normal, except for the three man entourage that followed her every movement, who carried at least two guns each and were trained to take down an attacker. Nora was certain her parents were completely overreacting at the level of danger involved. She had enough men to protect her here, she didn't need anymore. But if her parents were going to assign someone else to her, she had a right to know about it. That was what made her the maddest – that they hadn't told her.

Why wouldn't they have told her?

She threw a glare at him, her jaw tensing.

Will cleared his throat, "I'm boring you, aren't I?"

Nora jumped, almost having forgotten he was there in the first place. "No," she said quickly, looking up at him, removing the glare from her face. "No. I'm just…incredibly thirsty."

"Would you like me to get you something, then?" He offered eagerly.

Nora smiled at him, "That would be lovely."

He quickly headed off to get her a drink, and she turned around, searching for Amy. She was in the pool, splashing with some other people Nora didn't know, and she headed over to her, standing next to the edge.

Amy looked up at her, "Nora, this is Emma and Delaney."

They grinned and waved, and Nora waved back, "Hi. It's nice to meet you."

"And you," Delaney said, while Emma splashed water in her face, cutting her off abruptly and making her splutter.

"Gotcha!" Emma yelled jovially.

Nora smiled, and she looked behind her, not sure if she was looking for Will or for him. Regardless of which one she was looking for, he shoved her as he walked past, not stopping and not apologizing as Nora fell into the pool.

Cool, deliciously refreshing water swallowed her, and she surfaced, looking after him in outrage. He'd just pushed her! And it was on purpose, because there was plenty of room for him to have walked past without even touching her.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked, concern tinting her voice, as she came closer to Nora.

"Yeah," she replied absentmindedly. She wiped at the chlorine in her eyes, indignantly pulling herself out of the pool and taking off after him.

"Hey!" She called, hurrying to catch him. He didn't slow down, though she was sure he knew she was chasing him. "Hey!"

She grabbed his arm, pulling him around to face her.

"What?" He asked, though he didn't look at all quizzical, like most people would if someone chased them. He almost looked expectant.

She frowned at him angrily, "That was rude!"

He raised an eyebrow, "What was?"

"Really?" She snapped. "You're really going to pretend you don't know what you just did. On purpose."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He shrugged indifferently, turning to walk away. Nora was in shock. Flabbergasted. Her surprise and confusion gave him the chance to slip further away, and she pulled herself together, catching up to him again.

He sighed, like she was bugging him when she pulled him around again. "Are you going to do this the whole way back to my dorm?"

She just gaped at him. She honestly hadn't met anyone like him before. No one spoke like that to her. No one was rude like that. And he had to know who she was, and yet he was doing it anyway. If people were mean or rude to her, it usually had to do with her dad's campaign, or judging her hair and clothes the way people did to everyone in the spotlight. She didn't know why this guy didn't like her. She'd never met him before. When she just continued to gape at him, unable to say anything, he raised his eyebrows in a fake interested way. "Well, this has been… I'd say interesting, but it really hasn't been."

"Who are you?" She questioned, shaking her head. Her shock was wearing off, and in its place was confusion.

"Mike."

Her jaw clenched, "Well, Mike, are you always such a jerk?"

He pretended to think about it. "Yeah."

"So it's not just me then?"

"Oh no, it's definitely you."

He grinned widely before turning around and walking off. This time, she didn't follow him. It was the first time she'd seen him grin.

Agent Todd was beside her the next second. His voice was carefully blank, "Do you want me to bring him back? Or follow him?"

"That won't be necessary, thank you Agent." She couldn't tear her confused eyes off Mike as he walked away, not looking back.

Agent Todd nodded, retreating back from the party to where he hung in the perimeter with Agents Jackson and Tyler.

Nora had been certain he was secret service. But then he'd pushed her into the pool. She made up her mind then that Mike couldn't be a part of her father's secret service. No one sent to protect her by her dad would have been so rude. And there began her dislike of Mike.

She had done absolutely nothing to him, and he had taken a dislike to her. Nora knew it wasn't right, but she felt the only way to counter that was to dislike him just as much. It was hardly diplomatic of her, but she thought she was entitled to it. He had been a jerk.

But damnit, he was a jerk with a nice smile.

So, what did you think? I noticed that this is a very small archive, so if you are interested in reading more, please, please, leave a review so that I know you want to read it!

This story is set a few years before the events of the movie, and will follow the complicated and twisted relationship between Mike and Nora, leading up to and after the movie.

Thanks so much for reading!