A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

World 54: Part 4

Julian had been in an exceedingly good mood on Monday, since it seemed like his happiness more or less inversely correlated with Juniper's. The young miss's face had turned yearning after seeing Fei Chuan carry a stuffed shark almost the size that she was. Lannister was quick to pick up on it, and asked Julian where they got it.

"The arcade," Julian informed them cheerily. "This was the only one they had!."

Lannister hesitated, hands twitching for the wallet in his back pocket.

Julian rounded on his adopted sister. "Since it came from the arcade, you shouldn't touch it. I had a lot of fun, but it's probably bad for you."

Juniper pouted, hard. Lannister looked like he didn't know what to say.

Fei Chuan shifted the massive toy into a more comfortable position, inadvertently drawing Juniper's envious gaze again. Lannister tried to catch his eyes in a meaningful way, probably to impart something along the lines of "sharing is caring," but Fei Chuan deftly evaded him. Lannister was also too thin-skinned to ask him for a price in front of all the busybody parents that were coincidentally hanging around, especially since a good portion of them likely heard him cast his judgement on arcades just this week.

Thus, for the first time Lannister was unable to procure something that Juniper wanted and Julian had, and the seeds of discontent were successfully sowed. If Juniper were a bit older, maybe she would have let this slide as she would be in her 'Mother Teresa' phase.

But as a young girl who was spoiled by her parents to the heavens in front of her (actually) adopted brother, this was a serious mark on Lannister's record of guardianship.

Julian was oblivious to this. Sunday had been revolutionary to him in a different way, and he had gained two things. First, the concept that Triton Lannister, number one hero, might not always be right. Second, a wheedled promise that Amachi Shiko would continue to bring him to these gaming spots every other weekend.

The majority of the school year progressed like that. Julian demonstrated the natural aptitude of a [Villain], and did well in all of his classes. Fei Chuan never bothered to ask him how he fared in comparison to his classmates, and merely praised him when his score was high and went over the curriculum with him when his score was low.

When the weekend rolled around, he brought Julian out to places like trampoline parks, obstacle courses, and escape rooms. In this respect, Fei Chuan had a great advantage over Lannister. The number one hero was almost always on-call, and often could just barely make it in time to pick Juniper up from school. In contrast, the number one sidekick was called into minor cleanup situations that were usually resolved before the paparazzi could even show up, and consistently showed up five minutes before school ended to pick up her ward.

Fei Chuan wasn't entirely heartless, however, and usually bought two smoothies or two bags of chopped fruit on days when he knew Lannister wouldn't make it. On those days, even Julian thought Juniper's lonely visage was pathetic to the point of pity, so he would offer one of the drinks to her and make Fei Chuan sit next to him on the school steps. The boy would converse with him and completely ignore his adopted sister, but company was company.

In the beginning, another teacher would at least make an attempt to accompany them in hopes of gaining Lannister's gratitude, but as the incidents continued and increased in frequency even the most ardent had gotten tired of overtime. At any rate, Amachi Shiko was a certified sidekick; her hands were trustworthy enough.

"And I got a 98 in Tactical," Julian was saying. "The teacher said I scored the highest in the class." He looked at Fei Chuan expectantly.

Fei Chuan obeyed and ruffled his hair. His voice was quiet but warm when he said, "You've worked really hard."