Of Blackjack and stepping up

chapter 1: the end of the worst

(This is cross posted on ao3 but I decided someone on here migth like it.

This chapter contains:
Bars
Car crashes (nothing graphic)
Death of a spouse
Heavily implied ab/se
Rather heavy affection
Mild mentions of mulitation
Mentions of ab/sers
Mentioned slavery (modern slavery)
Mildly implied undereating)

Alexander Johnson wakes up and feels weird. He's not really well rested, he never is. He stands up, to make himself a coffee. Despite working in a coffee shop, Alex isn't necessarily picky with his coffee, being more than fine with the cheapest coffee he could find and an old coffee pot. 

He has a case with his glass eye on the counter, an eyepatch currently covering his lack of an eyeball. His pink hair is open still, not yet tied back. 

He stretches while yawning. He looks at his phone while the water boils. 

There's a fake condolence message from Amy, his two year older sister. He doesn't know where she got his number this time and doesn't want to. He doesn't want her to have it. 

His mom sent a message about needing a new marriage partner. 'Oh god, what did he do this time?' Is what Alex thinks. Nothing else much. He never feels much for his husband beyond mainly disgust. He rolled his eyes as he looked at the news on his phone 

"****** ************* got killed in a horrific car crash." Oh no. Alex feels desolate, melancholic and at worst woeful. Not really sad. He can't bring himself to sadness. He doesn't feel sad. 

Disgust Alex always feels at him. At the pure thought of that man.

He drinks the bitter liquid in his cup. It doesn't wake him up really, it's just a ritual at this point. He gets dressed, remembers to attach the pomegranate pin to his front pocket again after fixing it yesterday, ties his hair back without a care to catch all hair, puts his glass eye in and goes to work. 

He arrives quickly. His boss looks overworked so he drops off the small bundle of food he makes regularly for them. It's his rests from yesterday, 2 of the three potatoes he made. "Here, Res. Smith. It's a few potatoes.". He smiles at them. They look much calmer. "You are a savior Alex. Thank you." 

He smiles. "Of course, it's fine." He goes to tie on the apron they have to wear and put on the cap. He quickly gets into work mode. Giving out coffee, smiling brightly and looking happy. 

Afterwards he hurries to his second job. He is a housekeeper and sometimes babysitter. While he doesn't want children, he enjoys taking care of them and likes them mostly. Mostly is courtesy of young Amy, a small devil who made his life just that much worse. 

Alex arrives a bit early. The eldest daughter of the people he housekeeps for is still getting ready. She's objectively pretty and smart and Alex is convinced he must like her.  He doesn't. At least not how he wants to. He finds her nice. He deep down isn't attracted to her, no matter how much he tries to believe he is. He pretends to be fine when his male coworkers would take him along to drink and they'd talk about their crushes on women and Alex always feels wrong. 

He doesn't like to think about most men. Yes, he has really really nice memories of that boy when he was 16 who'd be so sweet and be the one person he is really comfortable with and he got that fluffy warm feeling that felt nice and would make him comfortable and pleasant. But sadly Alex is an idiot so he is convinced that's platonic. 

Alex simply does his chores he's being paid for and a little more. He has a chat with the house owner. She's an older lady with a few kids. "You don't need to watch Rosemary today, we stay at home." Rosemary is their 7 year old who really likes Alex. He likes her, as a little sister. He too easily feels familial relations. He gets attached a lot. Over the surface. Not more. 

More than surface wasn't a thing he'd keep going. It would hurt him. He doesn't want pain again. At least not that gutting. He doesn't want to be that open even once. He adjusts his pin. He knows about its meaning. And that's why he chose it. He eventually leaves. 

Alex goes home. Pretty much straight to bed. He falls into it. As soon as his glass eye is back in the ring box, his eyepatch is on and he is cuddled beneath the covers, his door opens. He immediately grabs the nearest thing he could use as a weapon. Which is a knife under his pillow. He is up in seconds and at the door. 

He lowers the knife when he sees Bast, his best friend. She's a pretty, dark skin mermaid who has shortish hair and a love for reds and blacks. Her dress, her makeup and most things about her are either. Behind her there's a slightly shorter, purple woman. Her feet don't quite touch the ground and she's very pink. Despite her lavender skin, the whole woman wears nothing but pinks. 

Natsuki. Basts fiance and ghost. 

"Alex! Alex! Alex!" Natsu excitedly yells at him. 

"Suki, let's not scare him."

"Ok Basty. But then tell him!"

Alex looks at them flabbergasted. "What do you want at 9 in the evening?"

"We want to take you somewhere! Get ready please!"

Alex grabs his glass eye and swaps it with his eyepatch, ties his hair back once again and slips into his shoes. He pulls his overalls correct, makes sure his turtleneck covers his neck and makes sure he wears gloves. Natsu and Bast wait patiently. 

They walk together to a small bar, the one Alex is usually dragged into. Apparently his coworkers take him so often that the person watching the door already knows him. Inside there's not much going on. There's the typical barkeeper, whose name Alex doesn't know. In a corner booth, a blond man sits next to a brown haired vampire, noticeable by their blue skin. Next to the vampire sits one Sophie Johnson, Alex's older twin sister. 

She produces pink fairy dust, and overall looks healthier then her brother, be it her pink hair, tanned skin or unscarred face. Unlike Alex, there's not many scars on her, while he is covered in them, his face not excluded. 

The fairy dust is all over the vampire who holds Sophie's hand. When the man notices Bast and Natsu he waves them over with a giant gesture. He has a camera and a newspaper boy cap on the table in front of him next to a glass of Soda. The vampire has a juice box and Sophie another soda. They sit next to the small group. 

"Mori, Sophie, come, get off from each other, we are more." The man said, smiling. "So, you must be Alex. My name is Porter. And I assume you know Sophie because I am like seventy percent sure you are related. And that vampire is Mori. They are non binary and use they/them." "Yep, I do.''.  

Alex feels confused. Not about Moris pronouns, those are fine. The rest less so. 

"So, I called you all here because we all have a personal issue with Katherine Ghislaine Johnson. Is this a correct assumption?"

Everyone nods, including alex. 

Katherine is his mom, a monster who even the usually peace loving and polite Alex hates. 

She is a cut throat woman and Alex would've loved to not know her. He has a deep hatred for his mother. 

"So, we decided to take her down. I personally want to for my girlfriend, Emily, who she has taken." Comes from Porter whose previous smile faded to a sad expression. 

"I don't want someone who neglected and abused me with any power. At all." Comes from Sophie and leaves Alex surprised. His sister, the world famous singer, has been mistreated?

"I don't want an abuser on the leaves." Comes from Mori. 

Bast and Natsu just nod. 

It's Alex turn. 

"I don't want someone who has owned and probably still owns slaves free."

Porter nods, and without skipping a beat says: "Let's take her down then. Let's get her into prison."

Alex nods. Yes, he will join them. 

(I hope you enjoyed the chapter)