Hartley opened the door for Axel and smiled at him, taking the coffee from him as he closed the door again. "For me there's no such thing as too high, Ax." Maybe he was smug, maybe he was cocky. He felt that especially today, it was well earned.
He could make Axel's life a little easier at least.
"Okay, out with it. Like you said, I'm smart, no way am I falling for this. You did something. What did you do?" Axel came into the living room and dropped his little bag of stuff onto the coffee table, taking a seat and taking a drink from his own coffee, giving Hartley a small frown. "Tell me whatever you did was untraceable because he has a lot of friends on the outside and they will come after you."
"Of course it's untraceable. Anyway, his friends will be busy and you should stay home with me for a while. Well. In James' home. Same difference." Hartley grinned and took a sip from his coffee before sitting down next to Axel, stretching out until he had his head in his lap and looked up at him. "It's complicated, but it's definitely not traceable. Some hacking, some clues, some observation. I don't like the next in line, so he's probably getting arrested right now. I've looked and there's someone who doesn't deal with prostitution, so it's going to be him and there will just be some small-time pimps probably. Separation of power."
"Hart, darling, you can't fix this. You get that, right? If he's less into prostitution, that means he's probably into drugs and the more people want drugs, the more they'll do anything for money. Things won't change." No, Axel wasn't overly hopeful but he never had much to believe in. He never saw light at the end of the tunnel but then, he wasn't really the sort to only see darkness either. He knew the world was cruel but he also knew he had some pretty amazing dumb luck. Hence Hartley. Things weren't all bad. "Did you do all of this so I could quit? Cause that had a slightly dodgy hero complex vibe."
"Of course I can fix it. It's social economics. It's not exactly rocket science." Hartley shrugged and reached up, tugging on Axel's hair. "It's a work in progress. I'm very aware of that, Ax. I know this isn't a magical fix, but it's more of a step in the right direction than the city has managed in years. They just keep it quiet. Now there's movement. And, no, I didn't do this just so you could quit, although I think you should. I do it for so many reasons. And I know what I'm doing. Maybe I'm the only one in this entire city who knows what he's doing."
"If I quit, where do I get my money? We want a place, don't we? Well, you need money for school so all of yours has to be put into that and me? I owe James over two hundred plus my food money and general expenses and unless I start dealing drugs, I don't know what else to do." Axel didn't intend to quit. It wasn't that he didn't want to, he just knew his options were lacking and he was desperate to get somewhere. "The city is fine, idiot, it's just our crappy little area. Otherwise Central City is pretty sweet. Could be worse, you could be in Gotham."
"That's hardly fair then, is it, one area of the city as lacking as this? Anyway, I have money for now. Look." Hartley sat up and reached for his notebook, drawing up some figures. "We can pay seventy dollar to James. That's a good start. Then I can still put half the money aside for school and with the rest, we can afford food and stuff. It's not that bad and I will probably get at least one more scholarship. I'm not telling you to quit. You know I want you to, but I'm with you either way. I just think you could be more."
"If we have an address, I'll start looking for a job but without a stable address, no one sane will accept me." No one sane would accept him anyway but he thought it was worth trying. Maybe he could just go back to stealing? That was pretty profitable and he didn't have to fuck strange dudes any more. Sounded like a lot of fun, he couldn't wait for the day it happened. "As long as we get James his money back. I don't want to piss him off, he does a lot for us."
"We'll get an address. First I want to pay James back. We can give him seventy today and everything else, we wait. I should get another scholarship approved in the next few days. I'm cautiously optimistic. If it's one of the big ones, we're talking several thousand dollars. Luckily I do have a bank account." Hartley started to write down more figures. "We can pay James back and maybe even give him some extra and with this scholarship I should maybe even manage to get a place at one of the places that are funded partly by campus. They have some buildings that aren't dorms, it's nothing special, but it'd be a hell of a lot nicer than this area."
"I think so far, together we've eaten about seventy dollars worth of food from him this passed month alone. I have to say, I kind of like that he doesn't charge us." Axel grinned playfully and reached down to play with Hartley's hair, sipping his coffee as he did so. "I don't know if I want to live in a dorm area, they'll all be snobby dicks to me. I don't need that shit. How about you live there and I just loiter around near it?" Axel knew what kids like that could be like, he really wasn't game.
"It's off campus actually. Not really for college aged kids as such, a lot of the people who end up getting it either have some issues that mean they can't stay on campus or they already have families. Or they are really smart people that they are trying to bribe. We can have a look at it, I'm not moving anywhere without you. We can also find somewhere else." Hartley sat up to drink his coffee, then shrugged. "We'll pay James back slowly. Give him back his savings and some extra."
"I guess that's not so bad. And one day you're going to be all smart and brilliant. And I get to watch you be smart and brilliant." While Axel did very little that could be classed as either. Axel knew he could aim higher, he knew he wasn't stupid and that's why he didn't really feel that self conscious. As far as he was concerned, he was going to be about the same forever and he could deal with that. When things got bad, he just remembered how hot he was. Made him feel better. "You can just take me to parties and brag about how handsome I am."
"It wouldn't be so bad, no. We could live pretty nicely there. They are partly furnished too. I've no idea how much of a chance we actually stand at it, but it's actually not that unrealistic." Hartley smiled and kissed Axel. "You know I always brag about how handsome you are, Ax. But you also know that if you ever want to try, I'm ready to help, yeah? You're still a minor, we can get you ID and it's not like people would question a gap in your work history."
"I don't know. I mean fake ID or not, I don't know if I'm cut out and the sort of jobs I can get probably need me to have some kind of training and education. I'd be going against people who are way better than me. I don't even think I could beat them." It was just logical. He'd seen smarter and better kids fail and he knew he could never do as well as them. So why bother?
"Depends on what kind of job we're talking about. I mean, if I get to be TA, for example, which I'm going to try, there will be some payment and benefits and, yeah, not just anyone could do that. But there are jobs where you can get training as you go. Not exactly glamorous ones, but you're good-looking, you're charming, you could probably get a job as a waiter or something like that somewhere eventually. I know a lot of LGBT places. Hell, if you wanted to get a job that's more suited for what you're so good at, you could try dancing at a club. You're eighteen soon."
"I can't really dance." He could move but like proper dancing? Fuck that. He mostly just rubbed against people until they were into him. It was very fun. He sighed longingly and looked up at Hartley, gently stroking his face. "We'll work it out together, I'm sure of it. Now, I'm planning on taking a nap. Want to come with me and cuddle or what?" Because cuddling and being with Hartley beat out contemplating the future any day.
"You could see about applying to that one clothing story, you know the one I mean. The only one with clothes gay enough for you. Hell, they can just hire you as their model." Hartley turned his head so he could nuzzle Axel's hand, then he nodded. "Let's cuddle. I have work to do later, but I want to hold you now."
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First, come up. :D
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Open the door for me, I have coffee and food and texting is super hard right now
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He could make Axel's life a little easier at least.
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