The Space Between

Chapter 5

Becker's House 4PM

Varian wasn't going to wait an hour to be picked up by Becker, so he walked and took the trolley back home. He texted the memo to the man and didn't think about it again. He pulled out his left over pizza and heated it up in the amazing invention called the microwave. Made things so much faster than the oven.

He took his pizza out, grabbed a can of coke and messed around on his phone while he ate. When he finished, he put the plate in the dishwasher (also an amazing wonder of the world) and threw the pizza box in the recycling bin. By the time he had done that, the front door opened. Becker was back.

He had barely had the door closed before he was already in front of Varian. Before the teen could ask anything, the man slapped him hard on the face, making Varian's head shoot to the side. He yelped and set a hand on his flaming cheek.

"Why would you do that?" He fumed.

"Do what?" Varian asked meekly.

"You're supposed to wait to be picked up. You don't get to decide that you don't want to wait for me!"

"I-I'm sorry? It won't happen again. You didn't have to hit me, you just had to say you didn't want me to do that..." Varian pointed out.

Becker grabbed Varian by his hair, pulling his head back and shoved him against the wall.

"Ow!" Varian whimpered.

"You already know how this works! I told you I was not afraid to do it again and I'll keep doing it for as long as I need!"

Varian's face grew red, embarrassed by how small and weak he felt at that moment. He was the teen prodigy that had an entire kingdom under his thumb reduced to nothing but a shaking child trapped in a corner. In reality, had he not always been that though? He may have seemed powerful back then, but in truth, he was still just a scared little boy.

"Sorry," he mumbled, looking down.

Becker released him. "You don't make the decisions around here, is that finally understood?"

"Yes..."

Becker raised his hand to slap him again.

Varian winced. "Yes sir," he quickly added.

The man nodded and lowered his hand. "Better." He turned and left.

The teen cautiously massaged his scalp, easing some of the pain. Disheartened, he grabbed his coke and locked himself in his room. Deciding to wait to do things the next day, he laid in the bed and pulled the blankets over his head. He wasn't going to sleep, but he took this time to think and curl up within himself.

He didn't have to be treated the way he was, but what could he do? The man was his guardian and he didn't have a dad or a princess to run to for all his problems. Not that he actually ever did that. He always relied on himself and if he couldn't get out of it, well, then he must have deserved it.

All he had to do was rebuild the portal and he could return home. That would be the end of everything. He'd have to make a portal that didn't leave behind any evidence, because the last thing he wanted was to leave the technology to be found and that person get stuck in his world.

S-Fit on Wednesday

"Hey, you're awfully quiet today. Are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah," Varian said, being pulled out of his thoughts by Hiro's words.

"Are you sure?" Hiro pressed.

"Mhmm! Maybe I'm a little tired. Stayed up playing a video game on my phone." That wasn't entirely a lie. Once he got over moping, he downloaded a game and played pretty late into the night.

"Oh yeah? What game were you playing?"

"It's called Hardlight. New game that was inspired by the supervillain named Hardlight."

"Oh, wait, really?" Hiro tapped on his phone screen to look up the game. "Huh, I'll have to check that out. So... you a fan of Big Hero Six? You knew about Hardlight a mild villain, but you're not from around here, so does news stretch that far?"

"Oh, it's more like a fascination. Their tech is pretty cool. I mean, Red Panda is a new step in tech, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Hiro replied. "Sooooo, uh... still coming friday?"

"Yep! What are we watching?"

"I'm not sure yet, but it's Honey Lemon's turn to pick so it will probably be a romance or a classic," Hiro said.

"Fine by me," Varian replied.

"Well, lucky you. I hope it's not a romance. I mean, I'm fine with a romantic interest, but I get bored when it's the main focus because you know they're going to get together in the end despite all the stupid struggles."

Varian laughed. Since he was new to movies, anything was fascinating to him because he was so blown away by how it made everything so real. They even found a way to bring artwork to life. Utterly incredible.

"Whatever it is, at least Fred has a popcorn machine like the movie theaters," Hiro added.

"Wait, what? Really?"

There was a machine for that? He thought people probably popped it on the stove or over a fire like him and his dad did. Or the special popcorn that was invented for the microwave. There was technology for everything.

"Yep. Perks of being a billionaire's son I think."

"Fred's a billionaire? Huh." Varian thought about this news. "He acts very nice for someone with that money. Most rich people are pretty rude."

"It's kinda rude to assume that," Hiro said.

"Oh, no. I was just meaning from my experience. Nobility are very quick to snub people like me from where I'm from. Except Rapunzel of course. Oh, and Eugene. They're nice."

"How many rich people do you know?" Hiro looked at him with surprise.

"More than my fair share, I'm sure. You know a lot, right?"

"Well, yeah. I guess so," Hiro admitted. "Comes with being a prodigy and Krei's intern I suppose..."

"Intern?"

"Apprenticeship," Hiro clarified.

"Oh, cool! You're an apprentice? I wanted to be one when I was younger, but no one accepted me because I was... different..."

"Ouch. I don't know where you come from exactly, but remind me not to visit there."

Varian merely laughed.