I'm a Healer, But...

23

Theseus was eight when he got his powers.

A farmer at the edge of L'manberg was a foster parent, and he always had a few kids staying with him. They helped with the farm- never more than they could handle- and in exchange they could stay as long as they didn't cause any trouble. Theseus had always been a troublemaker- he made loud weird noises when he was happy or sad, and jumped off high places, and stole things he wanted- but he tried so hard to be good for the farmer, because when he was good, he was allowed to take care of the cows.

Henry had been his favorite. Her name was actually Betsy or something stupid like that, but Theseus had secretly renamed her Henry. His only friend, another one of the fosters, told him it was dumb, but he always called her Henry too, so he couldn't have thought it was too dumb.

But then Henry got sick. She wasn't walking around much, so she couldn't make it to the grass, and Theseus had to start hand-feeding her fruits to make sure she was eating enough. She stopped producing milk, and he'd overheard the farmer talk about sending her away, and Theseus... Theseus panicked.

People usually get their powers when they're at least teenagers. Healers are usually the only outliers- for some reason, they almost always come in younger. Nowadays, he thinks that it's because only a kid can have a truly selfless urge to help others, because he would have given anything to help Henry.

So he snuck out in the middle of the night, breaking into the barn and curling up next to her. He just wanted to spend whatever time he could get with her before the farmer sent her away to who knows where, but then he had rested a hand on her side, and-

He fixed her. He didn't know how, his powers still too weak for him to even recognize what he was healing, but when he dropped his hand, exhausted, she was all better- and she let him know it, too, mooing up a storm, enough to wake the whole barn, and then the farmer, too.

The farmer had stormed into the shed, assuming there was an intruder, but instead he found Theseus, clutching a bouquet of buttercups while he cried tired tears of joy.

It was only a day later that a hero came to talk to him- the number one hero of the time, the Captain. He always thought she was so cool, and she treated him like a grown up as she sat down to talk to him. No baby talk, like his social worker, and no exasperation like his teachers. She told him that he had a very powerful gift. That healers were rare, and healers who could heal animals or sickness were even rarer. She looked a little sad when she told him she'd like him to come with her, because he could be a hero like her, saving people who were hurt or protecting other heroes.

But Theseus didn't want to go. He didn't even want to heal people, which made the Captain look confused when he told her. He wanted to stay with Henry and his friend. When his social worker tried to insist, tried to grab his hand and pull him into the Captain's car, he bit her and ran up to the room he shared with his friend, shutting himself in the closet and refusing to come out until his friend promised they were gone.

The farmer tried to bring it up a few more times, but Theseus ignored him, and started taking care of the cows whether the farmer said he could or not. It wasn't long before he got a new social worker, his old one refusing to return after she had to go to the hospital to stitch up his bite.

The day he met his new social worker, Miss Puffy, she introduced him to Clay.

Clay was so nice. He was only eighteen, normally too young to adopt, but he was a special case, Miss Puffy told him. Theseus felt more comfortable around him than he did any of the few adults who had tried to speak to him in the past, so he nodded shyly and went out for a walk to get to know Clay.