The days and weeks that followed weren't as interesting as Hutch had hoped.
School, with its ever-shifting social dynamics, lost its curiosity of Hutch and switched its focus onto other things, apparently more intriguing than he. Not that he minded, preferring to fade into his surroundings over standing out.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he continued to be tutored by Julian, and with time they discovered enough common ground to form a weak but stable friendship, bonding over their shared, after school and work, Wednesday activity of shooting sporting clays with Casimir and Rod. Although this occurred every other week, it became something Hutch looked forward too, despite starting out as the worst of the lot. Hutch learned rather quickly that shooting a gun was nothing like a bow, and skills from the one did not translate well to the other. Yet, he found it thoroughly enjoyable, even if at first, his favorite part was dinner at the clubhouse afterwards.
On Saturdays, Hutch would work alongside Casimir for the extra credit projects he'd obtained from school, or in the lab to pick up more hours for his co-op, and to learn what he could about the ongoing research he and Julian were doing.
There were also the driving lessons, sprinkled in throughout the week, and practice was frequent, as even Celina would have him drive, even if it was just for a short jaunt up the road.
And on Sunday mornings the family would gather to go riding about the property, and once a month, they would have a dedicated family day, where after lunch, they would set out on some sort of adventure. Even if it was only for a couple of hours though, Hutch was always included. Even the morning rides would find him on the back of one of the extra stable horses, which evolved from a choice to being mandatory, after only two weeks into the new year.
While Hutch continued to build his expertise within his role as a butler, he was able to observe much of what was going on around him. He saw the long days Celina spent at the tower, working through the eviction of the company who broke their contract. He knew every hour, Casimir spent in his lab, working in a worrisome and slightly obsessive manner, from which it seemed Celina alone, had the power to pull him.
Julian was the largest mystery, speaking little of what he did or about the job he had outside of the house. He left every weekday at 8, and would normally be back by 4, with few exceptions. In his spare time, he was devoted to the lab as well, although his interests there were more for the plants, the one thing that he would talk about with little prompting.
Clara, on the other hand, became a stalwart companion, going back to the university dorms on Monday mornings and returning Friday nights like clockwork to share with Hutch the stories she'd gathered while attending her classes, living on campus, and working afternoons at the Tower.
There was a routine to his life, with little variation, and he preferred it that way. He enjoyed the predictability and stability of it. It made the spontaneous moments seem far more exciting, and memorable. And soon he found himself feeling blessed and grateful for the life he had found in that place, surrounded by people, regardless of the guilt it brought with it.
When the worst of the winter had passed, he began to run again each morning, with Casimir beside him. Their friendship felt even stronger than it had so many years before.
When spring came round, as he'd promised, Casimir took Hutch to look at new cars, and the day he passed his driving test, he took him back to the dealer and bought him the truck he had decided on, a 2006, King Ranch F150, in dark stone metallic grey. Casimir already had 3 of them for the stable hands, so in Hutch's mind, if he never returned from Illimev, it only made sense for him to have a fourth.
Hutch found a new sense of freedom in having a truck of his own. He no longer had to ask for rides or share with anyone where he wanted to go. He treated his truck like a trophy, keeping it spotless both inside and out. Adding its frequent cleaning to his list of bi-weekly chores.
He had kept in close contact with Ren as well and got to watch as his relationship with Clara turned from that first dance, into a proper date, to the many that followed. By the time school was out, and summer arrived, it was obvious to everyone that they had slipped from friends into something more, much to no one's surprise, except for maybe them.
The end of the school year brought some manner of relief to Hutch too. His grades had dramatically improved over the semester, far beyond his expectations. Although he gave all the credit to Julian for the time he'd taken, to teach him what the school couldn't. And at some point, Hutch even managed to make a group of casual friends, which he spent no time with outside of school hours. He had continued to find most of the students to be irritating on some visceral level, especially the girls who insisted on asking him out; his rejections going unnoticed, and his refusals falling on deaf ears. They didn't seem to care that he had no interest, for there was only ever one woman on his mind and in his heart: Kahlala. Even as the months passed, she continued to haunt him every time he closed his eyes, begging him to come home to her, and he wanted nothing more, even though he couldn't deny that his life felt full and rich. After all, he'd found contentment and satisfaction, with yet another family and good friends.
Being seventeen again, Hutch's world had felt small upon his return his Earth, but with the onset of summer, his world expanded once again, reaching beyond his imagination. It started with a two-week family vacation to the western Mediterranean, where they stayed on a private yacht as they ventured from port to port, starting in Lisbon, Portugal, before visiting Valencia and Barcelona in Spain, Marseille in France, and ending with a three day stay in Rome. It all seemed as foreign to him as Illimev had when he'd arrived, but perhaps that was why he could appreciate so easily the differences of the cultures as he learned whatever he could.
Shorter adventures would follow, as business or research would demand, and wherever Casimir went, Hutch would venture with him. None being less spectacular than the rest. Each was unique, in its own way, regardless of their reason for the trip. He had collected small souvenirs, from each of their destinations, mostly bracelets, necklaces, and keychains, as they were easiest to carry.
At the end of the summer, the last family vacation of the year was an eleven-day river cruise down the Danube from Bucharest, Romania to Budapest, Hungary, and on that trip, Hutch wasn't acting as their butler, but a member of the family, and for Clara's sake, Casimir had invited Ren to come along, an opportunity he found impossible to refuse.
That summer still felt like a dream to Hutch. He'd experienced more in a season than he'd hoped for in a lifetime. He'd gotten to watch the sunset from the deck of a private yacht over the gates of Gibraltar and swam in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. He got to see so many different cities both old and new, and experience so many different walks of life, along a river cruise. At Casimir's side, he got to explore the jungles of Brazil, and ancient sites in Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru. But like every dream, it had to come to an end. And bit by bit, Hutch's ultimate dream began to fade, as Casimir's research and experiments would fail, again and again. Although he promised he was far from exhausting the last of his leads and nowhere close to out of ideas on how to proceed, it had all begun to sap away what hope, Hutch still had. Money, it seemed, could buy Casimir near anything, except for success. And with each failure, Kahlala's voice seemed a little further away than before, and her visage began to blur, until Hutch couldn't even feel her in his dreams anymore. Now she was always just a step beyond his reach, and every month seemed to draw further still.
Guilt began to feel like a constant companion walking hand in hand with his joy. Happiness, coupled with silent misery. Excitement with internal doubt, and good times were followed by anger in himself. When he would forget her for a moment, behind closed doors, he couldn't torment himself enough, reliving the memories of his worst sins, and greatest compromises to expand upon his guilt, in a desire for it to crush him. Work became his solace, and free time his enemy.
Brett remained the only physical, lingering annoyance, as from time to time, he would insist they meet up, and although for the most part, Hutch had reason enough to refuse, he never passed on an occasion that fit his schedule. In a strange turn of events, Brett took what Casimir had said to heart, or being escorted out of the 65th Floor Restaurant had truly affected him, as he never again mentioned BarRoss in Hutch's presence and spoke very little about himself or his own work. From where Hutch stood, it seemed as if Brett was taking a genuine interest in him as his son, and to him it was perfect, because his kindness and affection, happened to make him feel even worse.
Casimir never once opted to join them, fearing that he couldn't keep himself in check. He hated Brett at his very core and didn't want to give it away before the time was right, as in the background he'd been slowly acquiring Juisan and BarRoss stock, promising Hutch that time was all it would take before Brett wouldn't be a problem anymore, something he was never quite certain would be a good thing. After all, he was the source of misery, Hutch had come to crave.
Brett was the thorn in his side, that he refused to remove. He was the pain, that helped balance the scales. But it was a balance he knew would eventually tip. The good days already far outweighing the bad. And at some point, Hutch knew he would have to let go of his guilt, or he'd be driven to the brink of insanity over the things he inevitably couldn't control.