Butler Boy - Chapter 12

“Did I do the right thing?”

Sebas snorted as he leaned against the park bench. “Hell if I know, man. You're the one who's always navel-gazing lately.”

I hummed in agreement. “My apologies, I am beset upon all sides by moral quandaries.”

My friend snickered, his shoulders shaking briefly. “Eh, no problem, man. You've still got that wit, so I figure you're okay.”

There was a moment of silence as we watched the kids in the park play. It was after school had ended for the day, though I'd pulled a half-day to have my meeting with the ADA. As a very important person with important things to do, he couldn't be assed to hang around a vacation town's police station until after classes let out for the day. But, hey, everyone wanted to clock off and get home at a reasonable time, so it wasn't like I objected to getting pulled out of school at lunch for someone else's convenience.

“You wanna' talk about it?” Sebas asked, apropos of nothing.

I grunted, the mutually-intelligible primitive dialect shared by all teenage boys allowing me to automatically be understood by my cohort.

“Eh, just figured something was on your shoulders,” he shrugged again, minutely. “What with all the staring into space and everything.”

The two silver tickets in my pocket felt a lot heavier than they were.

But... no. For the same reasons I didn't tell Astrid. Family was one thing. Friends were another. I felt a lot more sure of Sebastian than I did of any of my scouting buddies, even – especially – Mike. Sebas just... felt a lot more solid than he did, but I could be wrong. I didn't think I was, but I could be.

Instead, I tackled my problem from a different angle.

“You know what the difference between 'looking' and 'seeing' is?” I asked him, standing up and stretching.

The taller, older, more gangly teen blinked at me and frowned slightly. “No, what?”

“Looking is passive,” I explained with a jerk of my head towards our surroundings. “Seeing is active. You look at something, your eyes just glance over it. You don't really study it, you don't notice the details. The imperfections. The problems that need fixing. Seeing? You notice, you focus, you really-”

“See it, I gotcha.” Sebas nodded, rising up from the bench languidly as well. “Okay, mister wise zen master, what do you see?”

I smirked at him and turned. “C'mon.”

I could practically feel the other teen roll his eyes, but follow along behind me. Making a beeline for the nearby corner-store, I put on my best friendly smile and approached my first target.

“Hello, Ma'am!” I waved at the woman racking her cart outside the building.

“Oh, hello dears,” she smiled, looking between us. “Is something the matter?”

“I was wondering if we could help you get these to your car,” I nodded to the packed bags she had. “Or just walk them to your house if you live close by.”

The woman blinked and frowned for a moment, looking us over. She wasn't what I'd call 'old,' but my perspective was a bit different than most in my position. I'd peg her in her late fifties at a guess, perhaps a bit older if she had good genes. Slightly thinning hair, a pair of older-style pince-nez glasses, and a back that was just barely beginning to bend into a stoop.

“My name's Arden and this is Sebastian, if that helps,” I offered, keeping my smile up.

“Arden?” She asked, blinking, and I winced internally even as she reared back a bit and straightened up. “Surely not Arden Villin?”

Sebas moved behind me, his presence looming like a surrogate older brother.

“That's me,” I nodded, scratching my hair a bit as I grinned awkwardly. “I guess pretty much everyone knows about what happened around here.”

“I should hope so, young man. Your situation put the town in quite a tizzy for a few days,” she paused, then shook herself. “Ah, where are my manners? My name is Honey, and yes – just like the kind bees make, and I suppose I could use a bit of help. Not that I'm old enough to need it, but I can't remember the last time I had two young men offer to escort me back to my apartment.”

I quirked a smile and grabbed a pair of bags, nodding at Sebas to pick up the other two.

“Now young mister Villin, I know,” Honey started as she began leading us down the street, her floral blouse fluttering in the breeze. “But what about you, young man? Sebastian, wasn't it?”

“Yes, ma'am. Sebastian Rainwater,” he nodded.

“Oh, you're from the reservation then? I thought they had their own school?” Honey asked, frowning slightly in confusion.

“My dad's part of the tribe, but my mom's from Kashmir – India,” Sebas explained. “She wanted me to go to a public school.”

Honey blinked, almost skipping a step. “W-wait. Your father is Comanche, but your mother is from India?”

I sighed as Sebas grinned in a particularly shit-eating way. “I'm and Indian Indian, yep. Half Native American and half ethnically-Kashmiri descended.”

“Oh my!” Honey giggled, holding up a hand to cover her mouth. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but...”

“It's honestly fine,” I shook my head. “He loves telling that joke.”

Sebas snorted. “I do at that.”

“Well, you two are simply adorable,” Honey laughed, deeply amused by the byplay. “So you're both in high school? Tell me all about that horrid room they had to clean out. I've heard the most awful things were found down there.”

I snorted lightly and nodded, expounding on the details the news hadn't covered. It was an easy enough conversation topic and she at least had the grace not to probe directly at the metaphorical elephant in the room. In the end, she thanked both of us for our time when we got to her apartment building, slipped us both a five dollar bill over our protestations, and sent us on our way.

“Okay, putting aside the weirdness of just going off and doing something random like that, it was pretty cool,” Sebas hummed, rolling the five dollar bill in his hand. “So what now?”

I pursed my lips slightly, one hand in my pocket fingering the bronze ticket I'd just picked up.

“Pizza?” I asked, holding up my own bill.

Sebas blinked, then nodded. “Pizza.”

Great thing about the nineties? Ten dollars got us a large pie at a local place with outdoor seating, two free-refill sodas, and we still had a pocket full of change left over. Sebas and I settled in with our order, inhaling deeply from the slightly-too-hot cheese.

“Remember, I'm swearing you to secrecy,” Sebas stated, sighing as he cut himself a piece of the sausage-bacon-pepperoni side of the large pizza.

“The pact shall not falter. Your disgusting heresy and unmitigated betrayal of your ancient customs is safe with me,” I assured him as I took my own slice of the plain cheese.

See, that was the catch.

In the unlikely – but not impossible – event that his mother saw him eating here and decided to come over to talk, we'd simply swap plates. We'd only had to use such underhanded tactics once, but the potential of a repeat lingered.

“Thanks,” Sebas chuckled, biting into a slice and groaning slightly. “If the gods didn't want us to eat cows, they shouldn't have made them so delicious.”

“Save me a slice of that, I'll trade you a cheese,” I commented, and my friend nodded.

“Deal,” he hummed, chewed, swallowed, and took a long pull of soda to wash it down with. “So, what's really up with the good deeds and everything? Like, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, but don't try to zen-master-buddha me. Not when half my ancestors are from that neck of the woods.”

“You've never been further than California,” I rolled my eyes, quickly devouring my first slice and going for a second.

“Meh,” Sebas snorted. “Anyway, so what's up?”

I hesitated long enough to tell him that there was, indeed, something up. “What if... I told you I wanted to be a superhero?”

Sebas coughed harshly, thumping his chest before grabbing for his soda. “Ugh – Damn, dude, give a guy some warning. Shit...” He clicked his tongue as he inhaled harshly through his nose and coughed intensely one more time. “So... superhero?”

I felt my cheeks color slightly. It still felt embarrassing to say it out loud.

“Okay, trying real hard to be non-judgmental here,” Sebastian stated, eating at a slower pace and sipping at his coke. “You aren't actually an alien or something, right?”

I snorted, grateful I'd already swallowed my own soda. “No, nothing like that.”

...though, that begs the question. Could the gacha do something like that? Just spontaneously give me a race-lift? Would I be able to swap between... elf or slime or whatever and back to human?

A thin strand of unease wormed its way into my stomach at the thought.

I pushed it to the side for later.

“I mean, alright I guess?” Sebas hummed thoughtfully, taking another bite of his pizza. “Dunno' what you want me to say to that, really. Good luck?”

I chuckled, then nodded. “Thanks.”

“This isn't like... that Japanese thing you told me about, is it?” Sebas paused and squinted at nothing. “Chunni?”

I snorted, waving my hand. “Nah, nothing like that. I just... I was kind of waiting for someone to come and save me, you know? Down there.”

Sebas grimaced and looked away. “I'm-”

“Don't,” I shook my head and interrupted him. “It's not your fault. It's not your responsibility. I just... it would have been nice, you know? To have someone break down the vault door. Maybe Big Blue himself?”

“Now that would have been a story,” Sebas mused, his eyes far away. “Alright, so... superhero. Cool. I guess we're going to go around doing good deeds, then?”

I blinked at him. “We?”

Sebas gave me a dull stare, leaning forward just a bit. “Let's get this clear, right now Arden. I am not letting your dumb ass walk around the town looking for evil to thwart and kittens to save from trees. You will get yourself stabbed, shot, or kidnapped again and I cannot live with another one of those on my conscience, okay? Just ain't happening.”

I felt a slow smile curve onto my face as warmth bloomed in my chest.

What was that saying, about the warm milk of human kindness?

“Besides,” Sebas grunted. “It beats listening to you ramble on about electronics or whatever. And there's nothing to do over at the rez, anyway.”

Such was the classic dilemma of the American teenager, because fun cost money. We had an arcade, yes, and a laser tag arena. There were all sorts of kitschy tourist stuff to do, even out to horseback riding and kayaking down a few of the larger local rivers. But unless you personally owned the gear for that, virtually any kind of rental needed funds. Well, either that or connections. And while I'd been more personable in this life than my previous one, I'd never exactly been the type to network all that much.

The complication was that, while I did have the money, Sebas was on a much stricter budget. We'd butted heads a few times over the issue of me dropping money on joint activities, and that had resolved to only being something for special occasions. So most of our activities had to be ones that didn't require any kind of financial transaction.

“Might need to do some hiking,” I commented, making Sebas sigh and slump as he grabbed another piece of pizza laden with dead cow. “Just warning you.”

“You know I try to stay in town as much as possible to avoid wandering in the woods, right?” Sebas bitched.

“I mean, I'll give you shit about whining, but if you legit don't want to do it...” I trailed off.

“Fuck, fine... sure. Hiking,” Sebas muttered with disgust. “I thought we were friends, man. Introverts who hated the sun. Kindred spirits. Then you turn and stab me in the back like this.”

I snorted and shook my head, opening my mouth to bat something back at him-

'Beep-Beep-Beep!'

A flash of anxiety I had no reason to feel in this world flashed through my system, the ghost of a time when phone calls always meant something had gone wrong and I'd need to deal with it. Usually an errand left undone or similar small crisis, but occasionally a broken pipe or that one time something had caught fire. That'd been a fun night.

I twitched and the feeling was gone.

God, I hope I don't have cellphone PTSD.

“What's tha-oooh, right, you've got one of those,” Sebas clicked his tongue as I pulled the device off my hip and opened it up. I gave him a look as he mimed zipping his mouth shut.

“Arden Villin speaking, who may I ask is calling?” I spoke into the receiver.

“Ah, Arden! This is Bruce!” I twitched, an absent thought wondering how I could reasonably destroy the phone without making myself seem more suspicious to Batman. “I hope I'm not calling at a bad time?”

“Not really, I was just hanging out with a friend, Mr. Wayne,” I replied casually.

Sebastian's eyes widened and he almost choked again.

“Oh, well, I'll make this quick, then. I'm hosting a little party next weekend. Dinner and a show, you might say, to settle all those rumors going around about me. I wanted to see if you and your family might be able to attend.”

I opened my mouth to refuse, because Colorado and New Jersey were not exactly an overnight trip.

“I'd send a private jet, of course. And, since it would be black-tie, I'd have a few suits or dresses pulled for you and your family. No need to put you out by making you prepare last-minute. Actually, corollary to that, I'd even be willing to offer you accommodation for a few nights at my home. It's not like I don't have the rooms, after all.”

My mouth slipped closed without a sound, and I realized he was doing that thing where you thought someone was going to refuse your offer, so you just kept talking until they were too exhausted listening to you to actually say no.

“And, really, I wouldn't normally impose on someone your age like this, but... well, the incident with that Dodge fellow. He came to my attention initially because I offered a child your age shelter and she turned out to be running away from him. He wasn't her formal guardian or biological father, so I was setting things up to gain custody – that's why he's doing all of this, I think.”

I blinked. Replacement Robin? Had the designs of destiny shifted so easily?

Or had this been waiting in the wings all along? It wasn't as though I had an encyclopedic knowledge of all DC settings, after all.

“But, I'm rambling. She's about your age, like I said, and it would do me a real favor to have someone here for her first public appearance that I know isn't going to try and take advantage of her to get to my family's money. So, can I count on you, Arden?”

I reached up and rubbed at my face for a long moment.

“So, there are these things called 'sausage balls,'” I replied drolly. “They're extremely easy to make, very low-brow, and greasy. My mom hates them. Any chance that'll be on the menu?”

Sebas was slowly sipping through his drink's straw, still staring wide-eyed at me.

There was actually a moment's pause before the amicable laughter came over the line. I counted that as a win. “I suppose that's something I can make happen.”

“Alright,” I sighed, knowing better than to try and fight Batman when he was on a mission. “I'll pitch the idea to my mom. Then I'll get her to call you when she says it can't happen and you can... do that thing you just did to me, sound good?”

More laughter, with just the slightest edge to it. “Sounds good. I think you and AJ will get along just great.”

I said a quick goodbye and snapped the phone closed before throwing it on the table in mild disgust.

“Bruce Wayne calls you?” Sebas stared at me. “And... you ask him to make you shitty greasy food?”

I pursed my lips, then shrugged. “Yeah, guess that's pretty much my life, now.”

We both let that sink in for a few moments.

“Hey, you wanna fly across the country to attend a weird billionaire's ball in the most corrupt city in the US where a majority of the attendees have connections to organized crime?” I asked.

Sebas' dark eyes stared at me blankly. “No.”

I nodded, sighing. “Yeah, didn't think so, just wanted to make the offer.”

“Should I be jealous right now, or should I point and laugh?” Sebas asked hesitantly.

“You should finish your pizza,” I replied bluntly. “Then we're going to go look for a cat in a tree that we can save.”

Sebas blinked, his mouth slipping open as he stared at me. “That was a joke.”

“Not a joke anymore,” I replied bluntly.

The damndest thing was, though?

We actually found a little girl with a cat up a tree.

I honestly wondered if someone or something was fucking with me at this point.

All told, I'd managed to earn another bronze ticket for what was a superhero staple and a classic good deed. That brought me up to two silver and two bronze. Which, not a bad haul for a single day. Though I doubted either of the bronze ones would be good for repeat achievements.

One of the silver ones was labeled 'mercy.' The other 'generosity.'

Neither of those were difficult to understand. The first for easing the penalty on the Baxters, the second – presumably – for going soft on the financial reparations on all but the contractors who’d sealed off the vents and water. Likewise, the bronze tickets were for each of my simple good deeds.

Sitting in the woods behind the house as twilight closed in, I hummed as I looked them over. I didn't have time to make it to 'my spot' on the cliff, but...

I tore one of the silver ones and received a gacha egg.

“Taser – common ability,” I read aloud from the slip of paper. “Allows you to channel electricity through your body and discharge it, strong enough to seriously hurt someone.”

I thought about it a moment, then nodded. It wasn't anything earth-shattering, but it was useful. Especially since my pyrokinesis wasn't exactly subtle. Having a trick literally up my sleeve that didn't automatically reveal I had powers – I could carry a taser to throw people off – would be nice.

“Okay, second silver. Big money, no whammy,” I hummed, cracking the next egg and feeling a rush of energy course through me. “Oooh, sweet. Enhanced Vitality. Let's see... your vitality is beyond the norm. Yeah, no shit. You recover from ailments and wounds faster than what most consider normal. In addition, your life force has been enhanced, giving you an increased lifespan.”

I sucked in a slow breath.

That was... something. Something I'd repress and deal with later. Much later. I wouldn't really have to worry about that for a few decades, honestly.

Good pull, though.

Great, even.

I looked at the bronze tickets, hesitating.

Then I shook my head.

Poor impulse control strikes again.

They'd been burning a hole in my pocket all afternoon.

“Cat recuse first,” I muttered, tearing it. Standard sound effects, then a ball deposited itself in my hand. I cracked it and... two slips of paper fell out? “Okay... Hideout Realtor. Uncommon Item. From Hunter X Hunter. Create a secret hideout in a location of your choosing, the hidout will be stocked with the essentials and the only way to access it will be through the door you have created.”

I blinked, looking at the other piece of paper.

“Hideout Coupon – Place on Surface and Tear,” I read aloud.

That was... huh. Like... with running water and power and everything? How'd that work?

“Fuck it, it's magic,” I grunted, setting the ticket aside. I wasn't going to use it in our backyard, at any rate. “Last one. Let's see what we get. Had a good day so far...”

Tear, plastic ball, crack, and...

I stared.

Then I had multiple medical degrees shoved into my head and passed out.

120. Expert Medicine (4.9 Rarity, 0.09% odds)

-Elite Skill-

You are an expert in all fields of medicine that regular humans can seldom match. You know how to perform surgery, make your own supernatural medicine, and diagnose ailments with ease and finesse.

~~~

Happy Thanksgiving!

Or, um... random Thursday? I guess, if you're not part of the red-white-and blue crowd.

Anyway, here's a fun little chapter with Arden and Sebas palling around after a stressful meeting. Arden resolves not to tell his friend about his powers just yet, but there are a few things he can do to see if Sebas is on board or not.

Also, Arden tears some tickets at the end.

Next chapter will be Entrepreneurial Spirit to finish out the month. Hope everyone enjoys this one and I'll likely have the next one out over the weekend.

As always, thank you for your support!