Weird, his place has a lot fewer plants than I’d have expected, Kat interrupted, apparently bored with our conversation.  Aren’t fairies supposed to be exploding in plants everywhere?  I know we haven’t exactly hung out with one before, but all the ones here are perfect and almost plastic looking.  I mean, I can tell they’re not plastic, but they’re so perfect.

I glanced at one of the plants she was referencing reflexively as we passed it, confused to see she was right.  These plants almost looked fake they were so perfect.

Fitz noticed my interest in the plant.  “Fairies tend to have a lot of greenery in their houses,” he informed me, holding the door open for me and then pressing the elevator button so I didn’t have to.  “We have less than some, but we still have a lot.”

I nodded, but was thinking over Kat’s words as I started putting my coat back on, which I’d grabbed before we went out the door.  “Are most of them that…perfect?  Is that a fairy thing?  I haven’t been around a lot of fairies, so I don’t know what’s normal.”

To my surprise, he sighed deeply, not looking particularly happy.  “No, that’s – that’s more for my mom.  She’s still a fairy, of course, but she spent so much of her life focusing on trying to be the perfect royal.  Maybe it was because she married into the family instead of being born into it, but I think she felt pressure to make sure she had the right appearance.  I honestly only vaguely remember the fairy castle I lived in as a child, but everywhere my parents lived after that, the greenery was always perfect.  Mom wanted perfect hedges, perfect flower beds, everything.  She didn’t want a twig or a leaf out of place, and the yard had to reflect that control.  Lyla and I tried to make Mom happy with the plants, because she will definitely get upset if she sees plants that aren’t perfectly manicured.  It’s just one of those things, I suppose.  I just said it was fine for people to have quirks,” he admitted with a bit of a smile, “I guess that’s Mom’s.  Don’t tell her,” he added in a lowered voice, “but I have a plant in my room that is not perfect and is growing wildly.”

I dutifully agreed to keep his secret, but I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic towards his mom.  I knew the pressure to feel perfect, and I felt like the idea of being royalty and being in the public eye would create even more of a reason to try to be perfect.  Maybe the plants she liked weren’t as aesthetically pleasing to the other fairies, but I did appreciate that they were trying to make her happy in that one area when it was something she couldn’t control, but would probably stress her out if it wasn’t “perfect.”

I decided to tell him as much, even though the elevator was nearing his office floor.  “That’s kind of you to do – help her feel less stressed in this one area at least.  It sounds like you don’t like them looking like that as much, but making her feel better is worth it, right?”

He considered this, then nodded as we got off and went back to his foundation’s office.  “I hadn’t exactly thought of it that way.  To be honest, a lot of what we do is trying to make her happy because when she’s upset, it’s just a lot of yelling and I hate that Lyla ends up having to deal with most of it.  I thought it was simplest to try to keep things smoothed over, basically, but I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, too.  Mom is probably confused,” he allowed slowly.  “Adair said that he thinks the dark magic that was starting to take over basically ended up wiping those parts of her brain when it faded.  That’s why she retains some memories and functions but others are just…gone.  He’s been trying ever since then to see if he can come up with a cure – every so often he sends us new medications to try, or wants to do some imaging with new machines, or whatever the deal is.  He isn’t giving up, which I appreciate – having a doctor who’s spent centuries studying every type of medicine in existence and is personally invested means a lot, but,” he sighed again, “I honestly don’t think this is something that can be fixed.  We can’t just reverse the damage to her brain.  I think Adair hopes that maybe in the future there will be some kind of magic or technology that can, but currently nothing works – not even our own healing magic.

“Anyway, there are times it’s been clear Mom is confused and on rare occasions, even scared – mostly when she doesn’t recognize us and doesn’t realize where she is.  We’ve tried to keep some things the same for her, but it’s hard as time goes on – the practical aspects of things like familiar clothes or furniture are hard to maintain as decades go by.”  He led the way into the conference room where all the stuff for the party was laid out.  For a few moments, he just stood there, thinking.  “I guess I’ve mostly looked at it from my perspective, or Lyla’s.  I didn’t think much about how Mom might be feeling stressed or confused beyond when it was obvious that she was upset.”

I had my gloves on again, so I hesitantly reached over and patted his forearm once.  “You’ve been trying to do what’s best for her and take good care of her.  Sometimes it’s easy to get in the groove of caregiving and forget to take a step back every now and then and reconsider.  You’ve been focused on what you knew about your mom for years, and it’s obviously working.  I’m just looking at it with new eyes, and it’s not like you need to change anything – I just have a different way of looking at what you’re already doing.”

He seemed to relax a bit as he listened.  “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

He and his aunt spend a lot of time catering to his mom, Kat pointed out.  Does he ever get a break?

I repeated this question to Fitz.

He shrugged a bit.  “I mean, she’s my mom, so, um,” he paused when he saw my expression.  “Yes.  We do.  I make sure Lyla takes breaks.  I hire someone to take over at least one day a week, but also every so often I make sure she has a vacation, sometimes an extended one.  I feel bad sometimes that she has such a limited social life, though I know she’s doing it because she loves my mom and it’s her choice, but I want her to have the ability to have her own family one day if she wants.”

“And you?”  I asked pointedly.

“I travel sometimes for work,” he kind of motioned around him, “but I make sure Lyla has backup whenever I do.  And I work outside the home, so it’s not as intensive for me.”

Aka he didn’t deliberately have as much time off, but I could see what he meant.  He wasn’t bearing the brunt of caregiving, and he was trying to make sure Lyla was okay.

I didn’t really have a good reason to stay longer, and I did need to get back to work, so after promising to look over the pamphlet in more detail later, I turned to leave.

“Wait, Ezra!”  Fitz dashed out after me as he remembered something.  “Can I have your number?”

I looked at him in surprise.  “Don’t you have it already?  How else did you call before?”

He stared at me blankly while Kat laughed in my head.

He means your own number, you doofus.  Not the Clerk’s Office.

Oh.  Uh.  Whoops.

“Oh, you didn’t mean my work number,” I said out loud, hoping I didn’t look as embarrassed as I felt.

“Oh!  Yeah, no I meant your personal number.”  He chuckled a little, but he seemed to be not so much laughing at me as at the situation.  “I should have made that clearer.”

I hesitated, despite Kat’s protests.  I finally decided I needed to just voice my concerns.  “Can I ask why?  I’m not refusing, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page first.”

“I enjoy talking to you,” he responded instantly.  “It’s been nice.  Not just because we relate, I guess, with parents who we’ve had to help, but just…your perspective on things, I guess?  Like I said, I enjoy talking to you.”  He looked thoughtful.  “Maybe it’s because you know about me and my background but you’re pretty normal about it.  Not everyone is.  A lot of fairies get flustered and some supernaturals start to get defensive or interested in challenging me just to see where they line up, I guess.  Meanwhile there are humans like the mayor who spend all their time fawning over me and I’m not really that special.”  He shrugged.  “My money is largely inherited, and even what isn’t, I got a lot of help for.  When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, Adair was the one who came up with the idea of philanthropy when I told him I wanted to use the family money for something good.  He also taught me about investing and helped put me in touch with good people who knew more about that.  I really owe a lot of who I am to him or to just what family I was born into, so it’s frustrating sometimes when I see people acting like I’m something special or trying to befriend me just for money.  It’s – like people don’t see me all that often.  They see my family, my position, my money, something other than me.  You,” he focused on me, his green eyes piercing, “you see me.  Which is nice.  So, yeah, I’d like to keep in touch, if you’re cool with that.”

He likes you, he likes you!  Kat sounded absolutely gleeful.  Yesss!

He likes that I treat him like a person.  Nothing that he said goes beyond a friend, I cautioned her.

I don’t care, he likes you, he likes you!

I decided to ignore her chanting, difficult as it was, while I hesitated, then gave him a little nod.

Fitz seemed pretty happy with that, entering my number into his phone as I gave it to him and then giving me his number as well.

“Oh, wait, that’s my personal cell – in case I don’t answer, you can call my pager or my work cell, too.”  He gave me those before I could protest.  “I’ll answer something, I promise.”

I possibly should have been a little more impressed that I’d just gotten an ultra rich guy’s personal cellphone number, but I was stuck on the fact that he gave me so many.  “I can probably just send you a text and wait,” I pointed out.  “I doubt anything I’d contact you about will be an emergency.”

“Eh, well, I don’t mind if you just text me about what’s going on, but also, feel free to talk when you want.  I mean, if I’m free,” he amended.  “I do work.”  He glanced at the stuff on the conference table.  “A lot, right now, actually.”

I laughed a little, kind of amused that he was forgetting his job for a bit.  “I work, too, remember?”  Then I remembered something, my smile fading a bit.  “I don’t always answer the phone immediately, so, uh, texts might be most helpful.  I’ll try to get back quickly if you send me a message.”

He nodded firmly.  “Got it.  Sounds good.”  Then he gave me a more personal smile.  “Thanks Ezra, really.  It’s nice to feel like I’ve found a new friend.  I have a handful, but never that many, so I always value when I find a new one.”

“Yeah,” I agreed softly.  “New friends are nice.”

I headed out again, this time in possession of his phone numbers, and finally paid attention to Kat again once I got onto the elevator.

Would you cut it out?  I interrupted her chant.  It’s getting annoying.  And he just said all this stuff about friends and all.  He’s just talking about being friends.  I don’t have a lot of friends, either, so I get what he means.

Still, he likes you.  She refused to back down on that.  You found a nice rich guy who likes you!  Jolene would be so jealous and I’m so happy about that, but mostly I’m happy you’re making a new friend.  And you like him!  And he likes you!

Okay, clearly she wasn’t going to let this go any time soon, so I decided to just ignore her.  She was right about Jolene – that was apparently her life’s goal, finding and marrying a rich guy.  The “nice” part was probably not something she cared about, but Jolene would have killed to meet and befriend Fitz.

I thought about contacting Mom the other day, I interrupted Kat’s rant abruptly, totally cutting her off with my change of subject.  Just, you know…to see how things are going.  Since we’re not a minor anymore and having to depend on her and Phil, maybe she’d be more willing to just talk sometimes.

Kat was silent for a long moment.  Ezra, she finally said.  I get that you want some kind of connection to someone and somewhere to belong, with someone who can accept you, but that’s not with Mom.  You know that.  You know what kind of person she is – she’s shallow and weak and obsessed with plastic.  Plastic people and plastic life.  You’re so much better than that.

I sighed.  I know you’re right, but I just – I wondered if maybe things would be different?

They won’t be.  Not because you have a job now and don’t depend on her, but because she hasn’t changed.

You don’t know that for sure, I pointed out half-heartedly.

Okay, true.  Kat conceded that.  But I think it’s unlikely.  We already know what kind of person she was from the time we were born until when we went to live with her.  The chances of her changing because you left – letting her get back to her perfect plastic life – seem small.

I sighed and gave in.  A part of me still hoped that maybe Mom would be willing to accept me if I wasn’t threatening her life, but Kat was right – Mom wouldn’t have a reason to let me into her life.  I would still be a potential threat to it, actually, because I highly doubted Phil or Jolene would be cool with Mom befriending a simple clerk, even if that clerk happened to be her son.

I wish we had a family, I murmured half-heartedly.  People who cared.  People who accepted us regardless.

We have each other.  And Goose!  And Elanius, even if they aren’t technically family.  Maybe the fairy prince, we’ll have to see how it goes.  We’re slowly building more to our circle.  Hopefully someday that circle will include someone who is willing to be with us – or at least one of us and is okay with the other being there – but we’ll build a family.  Even if it looks weird, we’ll build one together.

I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but the more I did, the happier I felt.  Yeah, we could make our own family.  Maybe it would be made up of a few chosen friends and a dog, but it would be a family that would accept us, and that was all that mattered.