responsibility

you reminded me i should finish this <3 and since minoth's your guy:

Putting in an ad in the local newspaper seemed like a doomed effort but Minoth tried it anyway (carrying a fondness for print media and the written word and doomed efforts in general), and lo and behold, his efforts bore fruit. The help he wanted turned out to be a teenager with a solemnity past his years. Billy said he'd never worked at a stable before but would work diligently to learn, and well, Minoth could hardly tell him no since this was also Minoth's first time working a farm on his own. Helping out a friend with the harvest and taking care of his friends' horses occasionally is quite a different deal than being himself responsible for a bunch of horses.

The first few days Minoth shows Billy around the place and shows him how to do different chores, muck out the stables and get the horses settled. The pay's not that good if Minoth's being honest, and hanging out at a stable can't be any teenage boy's idea of a fun time, so Minoth's not exactly expecting the kid to be eager to get to work.

But Billy is as diligent as he promised, and when Minoth asks, "How early can you show up here?"

Billy says, "How early do you need me to?"

So there's that, coupled with what seems like a general distrust of adults. Put all the signs together and they could (potentially, Minoth may just be seeing ghosts of his past) make a worrying tableau. Still, Minoth knows better than to push, especially this early into their acquaintanceship. Watching and looking for more clues, however, Minoth can do.

"So, what do the kids do for fun these days?" Minoth tries asking him as a conversation starter as they're walking from the outhouse to the barns.

Billy stares blankly at him. "What they've always done, I presume. I don't really have time for such things."

"Hmm."

Well, this wouldn't be as easy as Minoth thought. Point of fact is, Minoth hasn't lived in this area all that long himself. Not long enough to learn the names of anyone living in the area - well, besides the repairmen he'd hired to fix up the wiring in the outhouse. Minoth could screw planks together as well as anyone, but light fixtures were fickle and never seemed to work for him.

Altogether, getting to know anyone in the village seemed like quite a long and tricky process, but then Minoth runs into one of the repairmen at the village's only store. "Hey there," the guy - Bart, Minoth seems to remember - says, waving a little.

"Hey yourself," Minoth says, turning up his charm with an easy smile. "How have you been?"

Through a long conversation about the various light fixtures in the outhouse, the whereabouts of Bart's brother, how Minoth's animals are doing and the state of the crops this year, Minoth also gets to hear Bart's descriptions of Minoth's neighbors. Most of them farmers or old couples but finally, Bart says, "Oh yeah, and the Blacks should be in your area, too. Jessie's got a teenage son and a younger daughter."

"Huh. The son's name wouldn't be Billy, would it?"

"How'd you know?" says Bart. "You an old friend of Jessie?"

"No, but I hired Billy as a help for the stable. Very diligent, that one."

"Yeah, my cousin says he's good at school, too. Kind of a loner, though. He and his sister must've taken the death of their mother very hard."

Bits and pieces, enough to piece together a narrative, perhaps. Still, Minoth shouldn't go assuming things, jumping the gun and poking his nose into other people's business - that's more the style of Minoth's old friend - no, Minoth will stay out of it unless Billy tells him.

Two months of summer vacation, a newly-acquired moped license and Billy finally has the opportunity to get a job. He does not go into the city to work as a store clerk or ice-cream vendor like his classmates, however - the ad for that stable in the newspaper caught his eye. Working at a place closer to home would be better, so he tried applying. Now here he is, listening to his new boss explain to him all the tools for grooming a horse's pelt.

The horses all belong to rich people living in the city, who pay Minoth for their care and boarding. "Well," Minoth amends. "One of the horses is mine. Really, I bought her for someone else, but I'm her caretaker now." A gray mare who gently headbutts Minoth when he shows her to Billy, and Minoth grins and gives her a scratch. "Her name's Dove. Speaking of, do you know how to ride?"

Billy should've expected this. "No," he admits.

"That's fine," says Minoth. "I suppose I'll teach you, then."

Billy's not here to make friends, Minoth's nonchalant friendliness irks him in a way he can't explain. The last time someone tutored Billy in anything it was his father teaching Billy to shoot, way back when. Those days were different.

Nevertheless, Minoth is paying Billy to help him and if Billy needs to learn to ride for that, then he will.

"I'll take you up on that, then, please."

Minoth lends him Dove for the learning part. Days they spend on learning how to get up properly, get down, how to saddle her up and how to hold the reins. Billy's seen plenty of horses - Minoth's not the only one keeping horses in the area - but it's different up close. Billy does his best respect Dove, while Minoth laughs and says that Dove's very patient, don't worry (but there is always, always something to worry about).

Eventually, Minoth has Billy come along on Dove while he takes the horses out for exercise. They ride along the roads surrounding Minoth's stables, paved and gravel roads both. Minoth tries to start conversation, sometimes, and Billy's not impolite, he'll chat with Minoth if the guy wants to, but it seems meaningless.

He's just the help Minoth hired. That's it. If it's not about horses or the stables, there's not much need to make conversation.

Still, Minoth keeps making small talk and asking about Billy's day. That's how the first month of summer passes, with Billy working at the stable and then driving home to make sure Primera has dinner, if their father still hasn't made it back home. Talking only to store clerks, Primera (who is his baby sister), his father (only when he has to) and Minoth.

When Billy's moped breaks down in the middle of nowhere, halfway between his house and Minoth's stable, Billy therefore has few options.

His father doesn't pick up the phone. Billy tries a few times just to really nail it in, staring out across the fields and wondering what he did to deserve this in between calls. Then, after Billy has concluded that he's definitely not picking up, Billy stares at Minoth's number below his father's on the list.

Minoth gave him his number when he had to retrieve a delivery from another city and would be out all day, so that if anything went wrong in the stable Billy could call him. Everything went fine, though: Billy let the horses into the field to graze, and cleaned the stable as usual.

Billy considers calling, but he wouldn't. He'll figure out something else to do, he resolves - but then it starts raining. Billy debates himself for another five minutes - it's improper, it's entirely his fault he's stranded out here, if only father would pick up...

Billy calls Minoth.

"Hello Billy," Minoth says, picking up after a moment. Actually answering the phone. "Did you forget something at the stable?"

"Sorry for calling you," Billy says, gritted teeth clinging to politeness like his mother taught him. "But my moped broke down, so I was wondering if you could..."

"Where are you at?" Minoth asks. Billy tells him, and Minoth promises to be there in twenty minutes - and then he actually is. He brings the truck so that they can put Billy's moped in the back, drives Billy home, even tries to offer trying to fix the moped.

"No, you've already done so much," Billy is saying, still not quite believing how - easily everything was solved. Imagine, if father ever picked up when Billy needed his help- but this has nothing to do with him. Focus, Billy. "Thank you so much."

At least, the moped turns out to be easy to fix once he's got it in the garage with the tools. Billy takes pride in knowing how to fix his own transportation if it breaks down, in dealing with problems on his own. But imagine having someone to ask for advice.

Something seems to change after that. Billy is still baffled and uncomprehending to hear about Minoth's theater adventures or bug collecting journeys, but seems more tolerant. He starts to elaborate more when Minoth asks about his day, too. Maybe they can actually get along, after all. Though Billy really should get out more and get some friends, if Minoth's hearing his talk about his day right.

The most obvious sign pointing to the fact that something has changed happens yet a few weeks later, however.

The lights in the stable short-circuited and Minoth can admit his own weaknesses, he knows when he's beat, so he calls Bart to come and fix it. "What the hell did you even do?" Bart asks in mock-horror after prying open the casing on the wall to look at the wires.

"Watch it," Billy snaps. "It was an accident."

Bart holds up his hands. "Sheesh! Calm down, little man."

Billy puts his nose in the air. "Don't call me that. And be polite to Minoth."

Bart and Billy continue sniping at each other until Bart is finished with that part, and then Billy stomps out into the yard. "He's so rude," he complains.

"You really need to hang out with more people your age," Minoth comments mildly.

Billy doesn't answer and stomps away to pet Dove, who comes scampering up to the fence when Billy approaches. If I ever have a kid, I need to get them a horse, Minoth decides. Or if I ever have a niece or nephew. Would Addam let me buy a pony for his kid?

Then Minoth thinks: huh.

The weeks pass. Billy asks if he can keep working at the stable after school too, once it starts, and hell, why not? Then a few months pass, and Minoth lets Billy help with training and exercising even the more skittish horses. He's getting to be quite good at this, actually.

Billy eventually admits that he's started talking to some girl at school named Margie, which has Minoth calling Addam just to tell him that Billy's finally got a friend. Billy tells him about what exams he has and Minoth tries to give advice and, Minoth eventually starts to wonder, where exactly is Billy's actual father in this situation?

"He's fine," Billy says, scowling. "He's just away on business trips all the time."

"That doesn't sound very good," Minoth says mildly.

Billy sighs. "It's fine. We'll be fine."

"You can always call me, if there's anything," Minoth says, anyway.

"Yeah, I know," Billy answers, flippant, except of course he isn't. Ever-serious teenager, trusting no adults except, perhaps, one. But he says confidently, "I know you'll be there."

"Good," Minoth says, smiling. "So long as you know it."

Billy will always have one adult in his corner, if Minoth's got anything to say about it.

all this to say: Billy inherits the farm when Minoth retires to do theater