Scribbles and Drabbles

Green Thumb 2

Alec left around noon. Walter's headache was gone and he was in working condition. Alec hadn't done too much on his laptop. Just log out of a few websites that Walter had to try to remember his password to get back on. Alec had logged back out of his own accounts of course. Walter grumbled and got to work on a project. Answered some work emails and generally did the day to day things he had to do in order to get paid and live a happy-ish life. Not to mention start his next assignments for university.

He checked his phone regularly, answering messages from worried friends. Alec sent some pictures of him out with Tristian. Walter smiled and sent a thumbs-up emoji. Tristian was similar to Alec in many ways. On the shorter side and slender. Tristian was a few shades darker than Alec, who was tanned compared to Walter's fair skin. Tristian was a rich brown compared to Alec's warm beige.

They looked happy together but Walt could see the distress in Alec's eyes. How he was draped over Tristian in every shot. "You really should just pick one of us," Walter shook his head, leaning back on the sofa.

Truthfully Walter wasn't sure Alec could. He'd never seen Alec willingly have less than three fancies at any time. He was happiest with around four. The largest was six but that hadn't been for long. Too much work and not enough people were willing to put up with so many people with Alec's attention. Walter was the only one who was required to put up with it. Everyone else had been free agents or from other fractions. It was just Walter who was under Lord Barrow's protection.

Walter looked over at the bonsai tree sitting on the coffee table. It looked better there than on the table. He had found a pot to put it in, thankfully. It couldn't get rid of it, he knew that for sure. Recollections of his sisters' first trees, of his brother's, filled his mind. His one was rather nice and well-formed, a good sign. One of his cousins had been malformed. His aunt had taken her to the clinic immediately and cancer had been found. These trees showed the inner workings of their creators. His mothers and fathers were planted at the family home, their son and daughters with them. It was good luck. And now Walter had one.

He clenched his hand. Why now? Why when he was only months away from completing university were his powers beginning to form. After 21, people never had their powers awake and yet here they were.

[Walter, are you coming to the bar tonight?]

Walter swallowed at the message. Lord Barrow's messages from the previous night had all been deleted. Clearly, Walter had looked truthful enough that Barrow had felt the need to rescind any unseen threats. It did mean replying to this one a little harder.

[I would prefer not to. I'd like one more night to recover, sir.]

[Understood, petal. Let me know tomorrow.]

[It is appreciated]

He closed his laptop. He wasn't getting anything more done today. He still needed to go ground himself in something proper. If the new moon had been last night, today was likely as good as any to try to sneak out of the city for an hour. He checked the time. It was only five. If he went now, he'd be back before Barrow was likely to notice.

Alec sent him another picture as Walter was heading the communal stairway. Tristian looking a little embarrassed and Alec looking smug. Alec was playing games with his toys. [Be gentle on him] Walter sent as put on his helmet and started up his bike.

The bike rumbled to life beneath him and Walter sped out onto the road. Getting out of the city was fairly easy on the face of it. Almost too easy, when Walter thought too hard on it. Hopefully, the fact he was heading to a park and not the highway would keep Barrow's men off his back. And out of his way. Nothing happened between the apartment and the park. No car tried to stop him, no strange diversions.