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It was that time of the week again. Fëdor stood in the queue of his local supermarket with a cart full of food.
His tips hadn’t been great this week. And because those little shits tanked his courier rating he now was getting fewer jobs AND he was being paid less for the jobs he got. Ungrateful little parasites!
Feeding an extra eight mouths wasn’t easy and the closer he got to the register, the more nervous he became. Fëdor had done the math while he gathered all the stuff he needed. He had to swap some products for lower quality versions and even had to decide not to get some of the things on his shopping list because he just couldn’t budget them. He’d calculated his entire cart to the kopeck and if his crappy phone’s calculator was right he’d be left with just a little over a measly 40 rubles.
It was his time to stall out his goods. He was already deciding which items he’d give back if he’d miscalculated but despite having a plan he hated the look in the cashier’s eyes whenever he was too cheap to pay for what he’d brought to the register, not to mention the other shoppers who all judged him for holding up the line and being a broke college student.
His heart went crazy when he swiped his card and he sighed in relief when the machine beeped to confirm the transaction.
While he was loading everything into bags he couldn’t help but wonder why he kept so many of them around. Couldn’t he maybe send a few ones back to the card world? Brolly would be happier there… but Kuromaku would never allow Fëdor to send his jack back alone. And Waru and Romeo were nothing but a drain on his bank account with nothing to show for it but Spade would try to stab him again if he tried to send anyone back.
Plus Fëdor had bonded with a lot of them by now. If they were just doing chores like they were supposed to they were already contributing a lot but he also would be lying if he said he didn’t get along with a lot of them. He even loved a few of his clones.
He sighed and looked at his phone, not knowing what to do. But when he looked at his bank app to see the damage the shopping trip had done he was surprised that he still had 7000 rubles on his account.
Fëdor quickly left the store with his groceries in case the cashier had made a mistake and made him come back to pay anyway, and the summoner hurried home with his groceries because his arms were too weak to carry so much weight for too long.
~
Fëdor had decided he wouldn’t touch any of that money if he didn’t know where it came from. He waited at home to see if the store transaction wouldn’t bring him down to being broke again but the amount had already been deducted. When he really sat down to investigate he even found out that a few minutes before he paid at the supermarket the money had been sent to his account.
What the hell was going on here? Somehow he’d received a sum of money from an anonymous benefactor. He looked at the transaction but couldn’t figure out who was the one that had sent him the money. Googling it gave him some website he’d never heard of, that couldn’t be it.
The clones were eating together with him while he stared at his phone. If he’d known he’d have this amount of money he wouldn’t have bought them the cheap canned tomato sauce they put on their pasta, he would’ve spent a few dozen more rubles for a higher quality sauce that didn’t taste like trash.
“You look distracted.”
It was Kuromaku who had noticed Fëdor on his phone.
Fëdor put it away and laughed. “Just checking a grade for the essay I submitted a few days ago but it isn’t online yet.”
Kuromaku nodded. “The one I helped you with, correct?”
“That’s the one, yeah,” said Fëdor. “Thanks again, by the way. I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
“Don’t worry about it. We wrote a great essay. Your grade will be good, and if it’s not I’ll help you write a strongly worded email to your professor to make him see the truth about your good work,” answered Kuromaku.
Kuromaku was always looking out for him and it instantly cheered him up. Fëdor decided to forget about the money mystery for now and enjoy his time with the clones and the fact that he got to save a little bit of money for his next grocery trip.
~
Fëdor didn’t want to pick up the phone when he saw who was calling him but he wasn’t given a choice. His finger shivered as he pressed the call icon and put his phone against his ear.
“Mr. Petrov, heyyy!” Fëdor nervously said.
“Hey Fëdor, just checking up on you. Everything ok over there?” Mr. Petrov said.
“Yep, all good, mhm!” answered Fëdor. “Listen, I’m so sorry that I’m late with rent. We-- um, I had this unexpected expense and I’m not able to pay right now. But I’m taking extra shifts at work so I can pay as soon as possible, I promise!”
“Fëdor.” The summoner knew what Mr. Petrov was gonna say already. “You have until the end of the week to pay me. I can find tenants who’ll pay on time without any issues, Rostov has enough people looking to rent.”
Mr. Petrov hung up and Fëdor immediately felt like crap. He had no idea where he was going to get this money and if he didn’t, he’d be homeless. He looked at the deck of cards on his desk and considered a grave option he only wanted to keep as a last resort.
“We can’t afford rent?” asked Felix, who’d apparently come into Fëdor’s room while he was calling.
“What? No!” yelled Fëdor. But it was already too late, Felix was running back to the living room and Fëdor didn’t run fast enough to stop him. “Felix!”
“We’re getting evicted!” the fourth yelled.
“Huh? What!?” Brolly said.
“What the fuck?” said Spade.
“What did Fëdor do this time?” Waru said.
“I don’t know but we’re out of money and can’t pay rent! We’re going to live on the streets!” Felix yelled with tears in his eyes. “It’s the end of the world! How is poor Fedya gonna study when he doesn’t even have a place to sleep!?!”
“It’s not the end of the world, relax,” said Fëdor, who facepalmed. “Guys, listen. We’re gonna have to downsize a little and I’ll take up some extra shifts and everything will be ok. But it would’ve been ok already if someone hadn’t given me a bad rating on the app!”
Spade looked away like he was guilty but Fëdor knew he didn’t feel any remorse.
“You should spend this time studying, not working,” said Kuromaku.
“Yeah well looks like I don’t have a choice,” sighed Fëdor.
Kuromaku, who had been reading his newspaper with a cup of coffee, got up from his sofa and walked to the kitchen table and opened Fëdor’s old laptop he’d given to the clones not that long ago. Felix was crying and Waru was laughing. The summoner didn’t wanna be with them right now.
“What about us? Can’t we help?” asked Gabriel.
“Look guys, I don’t want you to clean up my messes, you shouldn’t work. Just behave while I’m outside. Kuromaku is in charge until I’m back,” said Fëdor before he went to change into his uniform and left the apartment.
~
Fëdor was completely exhausted. It was hard to climb the stairs after spending so much time delivering pizzas, his legs felt like pudding.
It was so late already, he’d worked the entire evening until the restaurant closed at midnight and he even delivered the orders that came in a few minutes before closure, so it was close to 1 at night when he finally came home. He just wanted to go to bed and collapse so he could get some sleep for his classes tomorrow.
He walked past the living room but noticed a blue light was on. Were they hiking his electricity bill now by not turning off their damn tech?
Fëdor went into the living room to turn off all devices but when he looked he saw that Kuromaku was still sitting at the living room table with his laptop open before him. He had strong bags under his eyes and a cup of coffee next to him but he somehow hadn’t gone to bed yet or even put down his mattress in the usual spot.
“Kuromaku?” whispered Fëdor.
Kuromaku looked at him. “Good evening Fëdor, welcome home. How was work?”
Fëdor groaned. “Let’s not talk about that… Why are you still up? I thought you were an early bird.”
“I am,” said Kuromaku. “I’m working on something. You can disregard me, I’ll shut down the laptop and go to bed when I’m done.”
Fëdor was getting suspicious. “Are you sure? I might need you in the morning to help me study a few things before my test, you’d have to wake up on little sleep.”
Kuromaku took his phone and tapped on the screen. “My alarm has been set for 6 o’clock. We’ll go over your syllabus together one final time so you can ace your test.”
Fëdor didn’t trust the second but didn’t know what he could even say, so he just went to bed after saying goodbye. When his alarm went off in the morning he met with Kuromaku, who looked so tired that Fëdor knew he hadn’t slept for even a second.
When Fëdor checked his bank account later that day he had enough money to pay rent.
~
It kept happening again and again. Throughout the week Fëdor would get random transactions into his bank account from that company he’d never heard of. Sometimes it was just a thousand rubles and sometimes it was more. One time he even got 12,000 rubles in one transaction and despite appreciating the money stream, he was getting anxious.
What if a crime boss had instructed his minions to send him money from different accounts and one of them had accidentally typed in the wrong number? What if Fëdor woke up tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse surrounded by men with bolt cutters and wrenches? He didn’t want to end up at the bottom of a lake with his feet encased in concrete because he got caught up in criminal activity by accident!
It was really tough for him to not touch the money in case he had to pay it back some day but he had no choice. Thanks to this money he could pay rent and groceries and he could even buy a few extra gifts for the clones when there was some money left over. He knew he should just buy the basics but the look in their eyes whenever he bought them something nice was just so precious that he couldn’t resist doing it. Brolly and Gabriel got a few new SNES games he found second hand in a little store, for Felix he bought a better memory card for his camera, Spade got a microphone to record music with, and maybe he could even save up to get Kuromaku a better laptop, since lately he was always on that thing while it was on its last leg.
But the best part was that Fëdor didn’t have to take so many shifts anymore. He still had to work but he was starting to get more time to study. And he was starting to get more time to spend with his dear clones. He was starting to feel like a human again and not just someone who went to class, worked, and slept.
Where was this money coming from? Who was sending him it and why? Was the crime world about to come down on his ass? What was happening!?
He was busy studying but his mind was distracted. He picked up his phone and went to the website that was paying him again. It was some kind of platform where you could sell whatever services you wanted to. You could sell your new nest of puppies, get rid of an old sofa, get someone to draw you something or you could even pay someone to be your fake girlfriend at the family function. Fëdor had even seen a few videos about people who were lured to killers with this site or hired a hitman to kill their ex.
Fëdor didn’t know what he was looking for but he knew that he wouldn’t rest until he found a clue.
He’d gone through a bunch of categories when he found a little section for artists looking for work and people looking for freelancers. He scrolled and scrolled until he found something looking for a coder to make them a simple program from this morning that had been marked as closed.
Wait… But he’d seen these before. The terms he was using were ones Fëdor had seen before, and then suddenly he had an epiphany and got up from his desk.
It was pretty late already because he’d decided to study a little longer than normal. Kuromaku had left his room an hour ago after thinking Fëdor would’ve gone to bed and the summoner didn’t doubt that his second clone was still awake.
Fëdor walked to the living room and saw Kuromaku hard at work on his laptop. He smirked and walked up to him.
“So it was you!”
Kuromaku’s laptop screen was reflected in his glasses. He didn’t look away from his work and just kept typing. “What was?”
“You’re the one who’s behind the random money I kept receiving, aren’t you?” asked Fëdor.
Kuromaku stopped typing and his throat bobbed. He acted like he’d been accused of a heinous crime. “How did you… What makes you think that?”
Fëdor proudly smirked. “I didn’t understand where the money was coming from so I started researching the company that was sending me money. And when I found the coding section I realized I’ve seen you coding some of the things these people were requesting. So it was you, wasn’t it?”
Kuromaku looked guilty as charged. He tightened his mouth and a light blush appeared on his cheeks. The king of clubs was adorable when he was trying to come up with a lie.
“Yes. It was me.”
Fëdor was gonna clap and point but he remembered that everyone was already asleep and he’d wake them up if he did that. He quietly laughed and smiled at the second clone. “But why not just tell me? You did something great for me!”
“You didn’t sound like you wanted us to work. If I’d told you, you would’ve just told me that you didn’t want us to work. You’re quite proud.”
Even despite the comment about his pride, Fëdor still walked around the table and tightly put his arms around Kuromaku to hug him. The second blushed even harder and was clearly embarrassed but Fëdor was perfectly happy and wanted to cherish this secretly sweet man.
“Maybe I am a little proud, but not so proud that I can’t admit when I’m helping someone out. You’re a selfless guy who’s always looking out for everyone, aren’t you Kuromaku?” said Fëdor while he patted the king of clubs’ head.
Kuromaku relaxed into his summoner’s hug. He didn’t like to admit it but he quite liked when Fëdor hugged him. It just didn’t happen as often as he wanted it to. All the more reason to appreciate it now that it was happening.
“I want you to come as close as possible to 100% happiness. Besides, I wasn’t the only one who chimed in. In the past week Spade has been selling his music on the same platform and so has Brolly with his art. We’re all doing our best to help you.”
Fëdor felt bad for ever considering sending his clones back to the card world when they were helping him all along. He wouldn’t make presumptions again! He crossed his arms over Kuromaku’s chest and laughed. “Then I’ll have to thank them for that later. But I wanna thank you the most. You’re the one who started this and thanks to you we can all eat better food and enjoy our free time more. Thank you, Kuromaku.”
Fëdor kissed the second on his temple and Kuromaku turned red. It was an adorable sight and Fëdor wanted to squeeze the small king’s cheeks.
“You know I almost thought that some mafia boss was accidentally funneling money into my account?” Fëdor said.
“Why would they do that?”
“I have no idea but I was sure that I’d wake up with a few organs missing one of these days. I’m very glad that it was you after all.”
“I hadn’t considered that. I’m sorry for causing you distress,” said Kuromaku.
“Don’t you dare apologize!” Fëdor said while he hugged the second more tightly. “You saved my ass. But seriously though, next time you should really tell me. I’ll sleep better at night.”
“I will,” promised Kuromaku.
Fëdor knew he wouldn’t. The second had an ego the size of Russia and didn’t want anyone to know how selfless he was but Fëdor had seen it many many times before. Like a caretaker who was always looking over his fellow clones. He made sure they were happy and thrived and when they didn’t he’d sacrifice himself to make them happy.
But tonight Fëdor was glad that Kuromaku was like this. He was the summoner’s favorite clone for a reason and when he asked him to go to bed he said he would but definitely kept working for another few hours.
Fëdor would make sure he’d get his reward eventually.