Family of two

14 - Matter of opinion

Four

„So, Four, the leaders made you go patrolling the Factionless?" Zeke asked his best friend over breakfast.

"Yeah. They claimed I had to get some real life experience to better prepare the initiates. I don't see it. Training will stay the same."

"Maybe they are right and you'll get some more ideas."

"If I so much as try to change anything for the better, Eric will oppose. You know that."

Four left to go to the ready room of the patrol guards. When he entered there was an easy atmosphere. While getting ready everyone was joking around and Four noticed that every guard helped the others. He hadn't expected such a light atmosphere in a departure run by Eric, but then again Eric wasn't there today. As soon as the guards noticed him the atmosphere changed and they gave him calculated looks. Even Barry, one of last year's initiates which whom he had gone along fine then. Four furrowed his brows.

"Four." Mike greeted him then making his way over. "You will be with me and Jack today. Let's get you ready and get over the basic rules. Follow me."

Four recognized Jack as the one who had pulled Eric over to the punching bags when Eric had one again flipped. Apparently Eric had made sure to assign him some baby sitters. Great.

"Main rule: Under no condition do you go off on your own." Four had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Seriously? He wasn't a new initiate. Mike then laid out some more rules which all get him annoyed before his day even started. Finally after some weird ritual at the end were suddenly everyone started shouting they were hitting the street.

When they came back hours later. Four was tired and bored. They had walked for hours and nothing happened. At the beginning they had walked together with Dan and Barry and Four had used the chance to speak to Barry. He seemed to like to be on patrol and had claimed there was actual danger outside. Only, Four had seen non off it. Barry had told him that there had been only recently an ambush at an Amity truck. He had wanted to say more but oddly enough suddenly had shut up. Only claiming that Eric had been amazing and he liked working with him. No amount of probing had gotten him to open up about the details. Apparently the kid had some kind of hero worship for the leader now, which was hard to believe, though apparently sadly true. After a while they had split up and he had tried to talk to Mike and Jack, but both of them were taciturn. Four had noticed them communicating with looks and hand signs. This whole thing had gotten more and more boring and since there was no threat he had investigated some of the houses from time to time, which had earned him angry glares from Mike, which he had shrugged off. It wasn't as if there was any real danger.

.

.

Mike

He never ever come across someone which such a bad attitude. More and more he could fully understand why his friend hated Four's guts. The man was so full of himself. He had told Four in the beginning that the main rule was to never wander off on his own and what did he do as soon as he turned his back? He did just that. He endangered himself and in the process everyone he was patrolling with. Apparently he never even noticed the factionless moving in the shadows. This time they had been harmless apparently since they hadn't tried anything but Mike shuddered to think what could have happened. Four had no one backs, not even his own. At the beginning he had chatted with Barry distracting him but Barry had caught himself in time before Mike had to interfere.

Standing at Eric's door with Jack now, Mike nocked.

Eric

One look at his friends' faces said it all.

"Four?"

"Four!"

After Eric had closed the door behind him Mike declared:

"If he has the same attitude during initiation I won't held you responsible if you beat him up."

"That bad?"

Both his friends nodded.

"I take it then, you won't take him out again?"

"Look Eric, I know I promised you, but that man endangered everyone. He strayed, he constantly chatted, or at least he tried to."

"I'll tell the other leaders then."

He wouldn't risk anybody's life over this. They had tried and Four had failed.

"I don't like Four!" Teddy piped in.

"No objection here, kiddo." Jack said. "So what did you do today?"

Teddy came over to the sofa were Mike sat with Jack, while Eric got some beers from the fridge.

"We went to the office and Sean was there. And he was real nice. And Eric worked and I played and I was reealy good, I was reeaaly quite. And then we went to the swings!! Do you like swings, Mike?"

"Yeah. Swings are awesome."

Teddy nodded his agreement.

Eric handed his friends their biers and made himself comfortable, smiling at Teddy's eager chatter. Teddy then climbed up sitting in his lap. Eric new he was content just sitting their snuggling and listen in. They had to keep that in mind now when they talked. It was only after Teddy had been send to bed that they could speak freely. Of cause first proudly showed them his new bed. As usual Eric stayed with him until he was asleep before rejoining his friends in the living room.

"So, Mia?" Mike probed him.

"She helped setting up the bed. You know at first I didn't want her to. Told you all about trying up that high chair. But Mia, well she looked sad, when I turned down her offer..."

"AAww." His friends cued.

"O shut up! She was fun, alright. And I like her. There, I said it."

"Oh, pal. Trust me, we know." Jack said.

"We're glad you found someone." Mike added.

"You think she likes me?" Eric felt unsecure. He knew he wasn't the most likeable person.

"Let's see: She defended you when you were vulnerable under the truth serum. She isn't the least afraid of you: I mean you glare and she keeps on giggling if she thinks stuff funny. She helped you, gave you advices for Teddy. She take an afternoon off from work to help you and not because you ordered her to but because she wanted to...Yeah pal, I think she likes you."

"Did something happened when she was here?" Jack asked.

Now Eric felt slightly silly but he told them: "I might have tickled her...?"

"Tickled her?" Mike quirked an eyebrow.

"Well when everything was done she threw some of the packing material at me and suddenly I found myself ticking her. It just happened." Eric defended himself.

Jack and Mike doubled over laughing.

"Man, you're one to go."