Seren kicked off their shoes and went up to the study where Wilbur was already recounting the day in pure excitement. Talking about how he’d never been assaulted before, how he saw fae silver for the first time, and tried curry. Seren arrived and shut the door behind them. Shaking their head at how excited he was over their daily routine.

“Tomorrow, I should take you to try boba.” Seren said as they placed the bag on their desk.

“What’s boba?” Wilbur’s jaw dropped. “Is it spicy too? I think I like spicy.”

“Nah, it’s a sweet tea with tapioca pearls.” Seren shook their head and handed over the binder. “Can you dump your pockets on the desk for the final count?”

“Yeah!” Wilbur ran over and dumped all the random currency onto the desk.

“You put it in your pockets?” Eric asked. Disappointment was clear on his face.

“Yup.” Seren said as they added up the numbers in the binder. “But he did a good job. He did three jobs all on his own.”

“Is that why the numbers look the way they do?” Eric asked.

“Yeah,” Seren said.

“Yeah, cause I am so good at this! You really could retire at this rate!” Wilbur said smug with pride. Seren shared a knowing smile with Eric and shook their head.

“You’re thinking of retiring?” Eric asked.

“Nah, one of the people we talked to today thought I was training my replacement.” Seren said. Beginning their counts.

“Right.” Eric nodded, “Thank you for your work today, Wilbur. You may be excused.” Wilbur nodded and with a giant grin he ran out to no doubt tell his mother about the day.

“You let him get hit?” Eric asked,

“He let him get hit.” Seren corrected. “He walked up to an angry man and told him to pay up. It was a rookie mistake and sometimes pain is the best teacher.”

“We are going to hear from his mother. Especially when she hears you let him handle fae silver.” Eric sighed taking the binder from Seren to look over the numbers.

“He never touched fae silver. The lady just wanted me to identify its worth. He saw it but never touched it. And lost a stl in the process and tried to pretend he never had it.” Seren said, shaking their head before writing the final number onto a scrap of paper and handing it to Eric to be written in the binder.

“You did a lot of these,” He said finally. “This is more than I expected from today. You did double the work today.”

“Well yeah.” Seren said dumbfounded. “The work still needed doing and if Wilbur was going to slow me down then I was going to work harder to pick up the slack.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Eric said, giving them a side hug.

“Thanks.” Seren said numbly. Still hearing his own words echoing in their head. They got up once their work was done and was ready to just faceplant into their pillows.

“Seren.” Eric said, they turned tiredly. Eric hesitated.

“Good job today.” He finally said. Seren nodded and smiled tiredly. They trudged down the stairs and to their room falling onto their bed. But they couldn’t rest as there was a strange annoying humming sound. They looked over to the corner of their room and their mouth dropped. The nest had doubled in size and easily was the size of a volleyball. Little iridescent sprites whizzed around the nest. Seren jumped out of their bed in alarm.

“What is this!?” Seren tried not to yell as they got closer to the nest. The sprites buzzing around the nest intensified their buzzing and rushed up to them. “Whoa! Whoa! Hey!”

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“Be still, sisters!” The Waterbearer suddenly appeared. “They are Serenity, our savior!”

“Your what?” Seren asked weakly. The sprites stood down and instead their humming became sweet.

“You are our savior. They’ll treat you as they would me.” The waterbearer said. “For giving us a beautiful home to call our own. Safe from our enemies.”

“What?!” Seren said. Raising their voice made the sprites defending their waterbearer stop humming sweetly. “No, that wasn’t at all what I had in mind. I thought you’d make your home somewhere in the city. Fae aren’t allowed in the city.”

“You’re fae, are you not allowed?” The waterbearer asked.

“We’ve been over this I’m.” Seren stopped and sighed. “Y’know what? Nevermind. How long are you going to stay here?”

“We are going to protect you for the rest of your days.” The waterbearer said. Seren felt more exhausted.

“All right.” They said, “That’s a tomorrow problem.” Seren fell back into bed to rest. Their eyes closed and they fell asleep instantly. But not for long.

The doorbell ringing repeatedly and loudly jolted them out of their sleep and had them up and out of their bed. They groaned and considered just ignoring it and waiting for Mrs. Houper or Eric to deal with it. But when the door was answered, the doorbell was replaced with screaming. Beside them, the sprite nest turned from sweet humming to aggressive humming.

“Whoa, no.” Seren said, launching out of bed. “It’s my aunt. She doesn’t know and probably doesn’t care about you.” Seren quickly left their room and shut the door, hoping them being out of the room was enough. They got to the stairs just as their aunt came up them.

“You! You did this to him! I know you did you little rat!” She screamed.

“Mom stop!” Wilbur begged.

“Don’t you worry, Mommy will take care of this offense!” Seren’s aunt yelled. “Where is he! Upstairs?! ERIC!” She left Wilbur and ran upstairs. Shrieking all the way.

“Wow.” Seren said.

“I’m so sorry,” Wilbur said, eyes wide as dinner plates. “Please don’t hate her. She’s just over protective.”

“It’s okay, a rat is kinda a compliment.” Seren said they heard something creak. Turning they saw their door opening on its own.

“Hungry!? Let’s go to the kitchen!” Seren took Wilbur’s hand quickly and led him down into the kitchen.

“I’m not really,” Wilbur said confused. Waving at Mrs. Houper as they passed her. “But okay.”

“I am! Sooooo hungry.” Seren said. Rubbing their stomach to help sell the lie though they were sure it just made them seem more suspicious.

“You’re so weird.” Wilbur said but then laughed. “It’s actually nice to be around someone so different for once.” Seren slowed and released his hand. Considering this.

“Dinner’s not ready. Just getting it started.” Kalyani said. “If you’re hungry you might have to wait.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” Seren said. They pulled out a seat at the breakfast bar. “Kinda admirable, your mother is so willing to stand up for you.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty overprotective of me and my younger sisters.” Wilbur said. “She’s convinced everything is either beneath me or dangerous. But I really think she should be thanking you.”

“For getting your nose broken?” Seren asked. Noticing for the first time the bandage taped on the bridge of his nose. “Is that supposed to reshape it?”

“Wh? Oh, yeah.” Wilbur said, wincing as he gingerly touched the bandage. “Mom took me straight to the emergency room and has been screaming since I came home.”

“I believe that.” Seren said, still hearing the screaming coming from the third floor. “But why thank me?”

“I’ve learned so much today. Seen so much. Tasted so much. There’s so much out there just outside my door, and I never even knew it was there.” Wilbur said, shaking his head.

“Ah, well. You’re welcome then.” Seren said. They looked up at something moving in their peripheral vision and their face froze. A small horde of the sprites were lurking around the ceiling, keeping a watchful eye on them. “So. What is it you want to do? Like. When you get old enough to take on the world?”

“I don’t know.” Wilbur shrugged. “I always thought I’d be the next Lord Summers but now it seems like I’ll just take over here.” Seren forced themself to keep their face neutral.

“What do you mean?” They asked through the tightness in their chest.

“I’m going to inherit this business. My parents want it, and my mother really has worked pretty hard to make sure that I’ll be the one to inherit it. Blood relatives versus pity adoption.” Wilbur shrugged.

“Pity?” Seren clenched their jaw.

“Y’know I think I need something from the pantry. Seren, can you bring me some chili flakes?” Kalyani jumped in.

“In a minute,” Seren said. “Do you even want to do this for a career?”

“No, why are you so upset?” Wilbur asked, honestly confused.

“Chili flakes, Serenity. Sooner rather than later please?” Kalyani said louder.

“Yeah, I’ll get them.” Seren said standing up and trying not to stomp away.

“You know, when I do inherit. I’ll keep you on as my enforcer. You’re really good at it.” Wilbur said after them as they went into the pantry.