Morissey and I took our first steps off the property, but he seemed hesitant once he reached the road. As I was behind him I couldn't quite tell what might be on his mind, but he turned his head to look back to me.

"...Would you mind walking at my side?" he asked quietly.

I tilted my head, confused. It was a benign request, yet the way it had been asked seemed to hint at something a little deeper. Nevertheless I took the few extra steps to reach his side. In all honesty I was just used to tailing people as I was quite short and tended to fall behind, though not many had really given it much notice.

"...Thank you," he said once I caught up, but just as quietly as before.

From here I could tell in his eyes something was weighing on him. He'd spoken earlier this morning about a meeting, right? Maybe it was related to that-- a meeting that didn't go very well.

"Um, are you alright?" I asked. "You seem...tense?"

His eyes wandered to mine, but no words seemed to come to him. In his gaze was the answer I needed even if it went unspoken.

Though I was now walking at his side I was still more or less following him as he decided where to go, which turns to take and which roads were best traveled. As we continued our evening venture through the backstreets of Huot I could see his eyes constantly shifting and scanning the world around us, checking every slight movement and every passing glance. While these behaviors weren't at all foreign to me I hadn't a clue what he was looking out for or trying to avoid. Many years ago I recalled his saying how he practically owned the place.

As far as I could tell he was going out of his way to walk only the emptiest streets as though he wanted to avoid as many people as possible. Given he'd always been so eager to walk with me it wasn't likely to be just some general issue with people.

The more I thought about it, the more his tense expression and silence worried me.

After about twenty minutes of walking in awkward silence we happened upon an empty back road, any semblance of activity well behind us. From my side I could hear the gust of a deep exhale.

"The...meeting did not go as well as I'd have liked," he finally said, keeping his eyes forward but his snout downturned.

"Oh?" I replied. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"...The matter concerns you, I'm afraid," he continued.

"Pardon?"

His eyes met mine, but quickly averted and found the road again. The most he seemed able to muster was a sigh as we started our way down another empty street at the edge of town.

"The meeting was...regarding your home funding," he said. "In particular, about the third child."

"S-Saffron?" I stuttered. "You're not going to make me get rid of him, are you?"

"No, no, nothing like that, but...the agreement on pay regarding the hosting of new types."

I already had a bad feeling about this, and yet even this far away from the center of town I still felt eyes on me. A quick look around us revealed nothing out of the ordinary so I silently hoped and pleaded that it be just my imagination and nervousness acting against me.

"It was brought up in complaint how I'd allowed a lesser cut to your pay for your second child given your housing arrangements, despite it making sense to me at the time," he finally said after another once-over of the surroundings. "Though, if I may be honest, I would rather just...abolish that stipulation in its entirety."

My ears perked.

"...R-Really?" I asked, incredulous.

Though once I did I felt a slight chill down my spine. Looking over my shoulder brought nothing of interest to my eyes.

"Yes, really," he sighed. "I remember how I was when we first met and that rule was made known, and I...I apologize for that. You know me better than anyone, even those I've kept in this organization the longest, but there is just...no excuse for that."

I wasn't sure what to say to that, not expecting an apology for such a thing. I'd honestly always thought it was just how things were this far south similar to the equal-but-opposite proving true at the far north. That's at least what I'd heard and come to know by now.

"I'm not sure I understand," I responded.

He paused for a moment, only the sound of our footsteps to break the silence.

"After meeting Stella I had to look back at my life and the choices I'd made through a very different lens," he said, my recalling some of these details from years prior. "Nobody likes being told they're wrong and certainly even fewer likes being truly proven wrong, but with that foundation broken and details laid bare I had to figure a lot of things out all over again. The more time we spent, the more my mind seemed to traverse this strange maze my then-present circumstances provided."

"But...wasn't that a good thing?" I asked.

"It was, yes," he affirmed, "but as I said in the past-- when she passed away I found myself spinning out of control and right back into the same vices which kept me captive for a number of years. It was like a long-overdue sour grapes, only I actually got a taste of the grapes and they were as sweet as could be. It was...very much like waking up from a dream and finding yourself back in the same bleak existence as when it all began. Once it's over you wonder if anything happened at all-- it felt so real, but just like that it was all over."

Though I'd been with Esmé for over a decade that was certainly a familiar feeling to how I experienced her passing and my subsequent fleeing of yet another town I'd called home.

"Thing is, those memories were still with me even after I cycled back into those habits. The memories of how much better things could be, how I'd been so, so wrong...and no amount of drinking and distraction could erase them."

I wasn't too sure where this was going, or where we were heading. By now we'd found ourselves in an unfamiliar reach of town with most of it now behind us.

"Whether I wanted to or not, I had grown," he finally came to. "It was foolish to think I could return to how things were as though three years of my life just hadn't happened. Try as I might, I had to move forward, and do so properly."

We stopped at a bench under a tall lamppost, though he'd only rest his hand along the top of the backrest.

"While I did relapse and regress some number of years ago, I tried my best to make progress and correct the damage I'd wrought-- not just to you and yours, but to some others as well. I've done some horrible, stupid things, Samuel, but as soon as I was able to grasp what I was doing I tried to stop and fix it. I'd be lying if your newest child didn't remind me of that time, though surely it's just a coincidence as it occurred quite a ways from here."

My heart skipped a beat. By sheer reflex my hand reached up to my chest, but fortunately I don't think he saw.

"...I'm trying to grow," he said after a moment. "Stella showed me kindness and affection at my most vulnerable points and both you and Daniel showed me that your way of life is possible and can be just as happy and fulfilling. What I remember from my prior life isn't great, but that's in the past. From here I can move forward and make better choices, maybe push the world around me toward a better future."

"Wasn't that the point from the start?" I inquired. "You said some time ago that your organization's job was to help people."

"It was, but...as you can probably tell, the execution was unfair and left much to be desired," he answered, turning to face me. "That leads me to where we are now, the matter of your children being one of those shortcomings.

A breeze swept by, bringing the salty air from the shore along with it.

"As time went on I found myself at odds with that rule, perhaps kickstarted by just who your first child is," he said with a little smile. "For the past many years it was something I still enforced because it was an old rule and repealing that is easier said than done. That's...what the meeting was about."

"You were trying to repeal that rule?" I asked, genuinely surprised.

"...Yes, I was," he confirmed. "I told you not to worry about your newest addition, that I would be looking into the matter. That's what I was trying to do, and try I did."

He finally relented and took a seat on the bench while I continued to stand at its side. Morissey sat with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped out in front of him as he picked through his words to figure out what to say.

"I'd just...finally had enough of that, a rule based on antiquated thinking designed only to punish those looking out for the ones unable to do that for themselves," he said before releasing a hand and bringing it up to his forehead. "What you might not realize -- through no fault of your own -- is that though I'm the lead of this organization I'm not able to just force rule changes."

"Well, yes, I think I recall you saying similar in the past."

"Yes, and I'm bringing it up now to...really highlight that aspect," he continued. "While it was my proposal, it was thrown out. Quite literally nobody in my upper staff voted in favor of my amendment. Worse yet, they started to ask me uncomfortable questions and put me under scrutiny. I did expect some of this outcome, but not the whole of it and certainly not the severity which manifested in our conference room."

"I-I'm sorry?"

"...There was a fair amount of frustration and disgust at just the proposal," he replied. "I've no doubt that I've caused a stir, and given the people employed by this group and their respective backgrounds that stir may have lost me the remainder of their confidence."

"...I'm sorry to hear that, but...what do you mean by 'remainder'?"

He released a little chuckle upon my inquiry and looked up at the blazing orange sky.

"I've noticed over the years that my actions and work have been put under a microscope since we've started to socialize," he laughed. "They think you and your family are a bad influence."

"...Oh."

I couldn't think of anything more to say. I don't think I'd ever been called that in my forty years on this earth, and I'd been called many an unsavory term.

"I think it...probably goes without saying that I can't grant you the favor I had back with Sura's enrollment," he went on. "Further, they...actually want me to retroactively revoke that previous favor."

Upon that news my guts immediately twisted into knots and my heart sank. I'd been relying on that favor as to avoid saddling inhumane amounts of work just to stay afloat, else I was pouring all of my time into paperwork and leaving nary a couple hours to spend time with my family. With Riv and Sura entering their teens they'd undoubtedly need more clothing before too long, not to mention the attention and care Daniel mentioned over the past while. I couldn't make Daniel bear the load of the whole family on his own just so I could work more.

As I crept back into my head it was like the world around me had stopped, or at least seemed unable to break me from my spiraling thoughts. Any sound wasn't more than a ring in my ears and barely intelligible, as though my hearing had blown due to some nearby explosion.

"...Samuel?" I heard, Morissey's voice finally permeating the fog in my brain.

"...Ah, I'm...I'm sorry about that," I said, my ears falling back and my gaze turning to the ground. "...Th...Thank you for bringing work for the weekend."

"...Yes, it's fine," he sighed. "I'll...have to dock your pay by ten percent as per their request, as you likely gauged given your expression."

"...Yes, I understand," I said, my eyes still to the ground below. "I'm...sorry that my family and I have gotten in the way of your organization."

"...But--" he said, standing back up.

From my periphery I could see his feet drawing nearer, a slow and steady pace. The closer he got, the more I braced myself for some kind of physical altercation and the more tense I grew. Between his advance and an uneasy feeling creeping up my back I was frozen and unsure what to do, feeling as though I was caught in a crowd despite seeing only my employer in my midst.

"Samuel," he gently called upon reaching me. "Please don't shrink away from me like this. I'm not going to hurt you."

I hadn't noticed my spine buckling and my cowering away from him the closer he got and couldn't help but feel stupid and embarrassed as I tried to right myself.

"May I see your hand for a moment?" he requested.

With much hesitation I extended my hand, but the strings of muscle in my arm were taut like a stretched rubber band just ready to snap. Even all these years later encounters like this one still tugged at old, unwanted memories and evoked miserable, embarrassing behaviors.

A shuffling noise could be heard just in front of me along with a muffled snap. My hand was taken, flipped palm-up, and something was placed inside. Once the deposit was left my fingers were made to curl around whatever I'd been given. After a moment of nothing more I felt safe enough to look at what I'd been given.

In my hand was a small sum of bills. Just beyond my hand were Morissey's still holding his wallet.

"I may have to dock your pay, but I will compensate for it from my own," he said. "If you're willing to wait a few hours on Fridays I'll give you the altered sum in the morning and the remainder during our evening walks."

"I...Why are you doing this?" I asked, hardly able to make sense of any of this.

"Because, Sam, I started this organization with the intention of improving the region," he answered, placing his hand on my shoulder. "The idea of punishing someone who's trying to do the very same is just not something I can abide by any longer, and I'm very sorry I ever had. I can't take back the past, but I can try to correct those things for a better future."

"But...won't this cause problems for you?" I asked further.

Try as he might to hide it I picked up on the gentle droop of his ears.

"...Whatever you do, please keep this arrangement between us," he said, a slight squeeze on my shoulder. "I'll be doing what all I can, but should other members discover this, I..."

His gaze fell to the ground. While I might not know what he was getting at specifically, the severity of possibilities wasn't lost on me. Something about how those words were hanging in the air seemed to invite more of that uneasy feeling and I strained my ears to listen for anything out of the ordinary. It all seemed to just be in my head, likely the tension of this outing playing on my nerves and insecurities rather than anything of actual concern.

"...It's fine, Morissey, I understand," I answered. "Th-Thank you...so much for this."

It made sense now why he'd opt to come out this far away from the rest of town when he had something important to share. I could hardly see through the weepiness in my eyes as I carefully folded the bills into my wallet and tucked it back into my pocket.

"No, Samuel," he said. "I'm only doing what I should have done so long ago. Thank you...for helping me remember and pushing me to be the kind of man I wanted to be."

Even with the feeling of gnawing on my spine I couldn't help but smile a little. I never thought a small, useless, emasculated thing like me could make a difference in anyone's life-- let alone a positive one.

He turned away from me to once again face the road, then looked back to me.

"Shall we continue?" he asked, a nervous little smile creasing his lips and his ears still slunk back to some degree.

I took a step or two forward to reach his side, the two of us continuing on our Friday night walk through the quiet back roads of Huot.

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