Chapter Forty-Seven – Free Real Estate

Chapter Forty-Seven – Free Real Estate

“What is a family unit? As we progress further into this century, the idea of family continues to break down and ve redefined.

And we’re here to help.”

–The Family, ad, 2050

***

“Luuuuucy!” I called as I slumped back home. Instead of being greeted by the most beautiful woman in the world, I had to side-step Junior as she stomped over to me and tried to plop herself down in my way.

“Hey!” Junior said. She ran around, then stood before me again. “Wait, I need to talk.”

“About?” I asked. I was feeling my day in my bones. It had been a long one, and I was glad to be back home. As a bonus, Nya had taken off after I landed the Bastion and had run off to… somewhere. I didn’t ask, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“You’re going to that fancy school, and Lucy too. Why can’t I go?” Junior asked.

“Why would you? Do you even know how to read?”

“No shit, I know how to read,” she snapped.

“I don’t know. Your generation’s supposed to be real fucking dumb,” I said.

Junior scoffed. “We’re in the same generation, idiot.”

“Yeah, but I’m smart as fuck,” I said.

She shook her head, arms crossing. “You think you’re smart, really?”

“I mean… not really, but like, shit’s kinda working out for me so far, so I can’t be that stupid, right?” I asked. I wasn’t exactly the poster child for humility, but damn, I knew that I wasn’t a genius or anything approaching that kind of level. Some of my friends might be. Gomorrah struck me as a straight-A student sort, and Grasshopper as a sort of genius savant who was also real weird. “Look, I’m not book-smart, but I’ve managed well enough so far? I mean, we live in a mansion, and I have the prettiest girlfriend, so I can’t be fucking up too hard, right?”

Junior’s eyes narrowed, but she seemed to give me the point. “Okay, fine. Look, I’m mostly trying not to be too bored. Me and Kat are getting old enough that we need, uh, prospects, you know?”

“Yeah, I get that,” I said as I fell back on my heels. This was going to be a conversation, wasn’t it?

Unless I found a way to foist it all off on Lucy?

Yeah, that was a good plan. “Tell you what,” I said. “Let’s talk to Lucy together.”

“You just want to give her all the trouble,” Junior said.

“No. Come on, I wouldn’t foist the likes of you onto Lucy, I love her.” Fuck, she read right through me. “I was about to go complain to her about something anyway. Do you know what I’m working on right now?”

“I… guess I don’t,” Junior said. “Some samurai shit?”

“Pretty much.” I started to walk further into the house, and Junior caught up to me. “So, the gangs in New Montreal have had it kinda good these last few weeks. Mostly because when shit’s bad for everyone, that’s the best time to be running a gang. Anyway, they’re growing pretty big and pretty strong, and pretty fucking annoying too.”

“What’d they do?”

“So far? Honestly, not too much. It’s just lots of infighting and shit. I guess I might be jumping the gun a little. Is that how that expression goes? Anyway, I figure there’s good odds that they’ll start something that some poor samurai fuck is going to have to end. So I’m trying to be preemptive about it.”

I found Lucy in our bedroom, she was in short-shorts and an oversized T-shirt with my logo on the front, watching something on the TV with a mostly-empty bowl of snacks tucked under her arm. A real renaissance picture in the flesh.

“Cat!” she said. “You’re finally back.” She patted the bed next to her, then glanced around, probably looking to see if any of the fifty pillows she had could be repurposed as a backrest for me.

“Hi,” I said. I tossed my coat off, then my boots, and finally just flopped back onto the bed next to her. “I need hugs and help.”

Lucy laughed. “I can offer both!”

“Thank god,” I said as I leaned into her side. She was warm. “So, uh, first issue. You know the gang thing?”

“You complained about it at length,” Lucy said. She smiled though, which made it sting a bit less. “But yeah, go on?”

“So… I need help. Yours. We basically need to get the gangs together and working together, and I think that might be easier to do if there was like… I don’t know, a sort of central thing that they can use to complain through? I was thinking we could set the Kittens–not the kids, but the group–up as that? You know, get a bunch of folks together, give them basic gear and an ear, and then have them serve as a… community outreach kind of thing?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“That’s going to step on a lot of toes,” Lucy said. “I’m not opposed though.”

I nodded along. “Yeah, I figured. It’ll steal the thunder from a few gangs since their whole gimmick is about helping their community, but… fuck it, I bet we can do a better job in some places, and where we can’t, that just means that the gangs there are doing alright already and might just need a bit more help.”