Stick around

Shut Eye stood halfway out the front door of his home and waved farewell to the final foal as they left with their parents. He was always glad at the end of a foalsitting session when the children's positive comments of their time with him. Today, however, she was not the last foal. Just the last one to leave.

Shutting the door, Shut Eye turned around and looked back to his kitchen where he had left Kid with a bowl of oats and a glass of juice. He didn't give him quite as much as he had given the other foals since the underfed child couldn't stomach such quantities of food. Shut Eye hoped to change that.

"So, Kid," Shut Eye said upon re-entering the kitchen, "The guard pony who sent you here told me you were looking for a job."

Kid pushed the oats around in the bowl, he felt bad that he couldn't finish the oats or the juice. Despite the quantities being so much less than the others. They were able to eat supper, desert and breakfast. Kid couldn't finish his supper by a long shot, was barely able to taste the dessert and was only able to eat a few oats.


When he heard his name, and what Shut Eye had said, Kid's ears perked up a bit as he smiled, despite feeling nauseous from eating so much in what he considered a short amount of time.

"Yup!" Kid said enthusiastically as he kept his smile up. "I was hoping to look around the market for one today!"

Shut Eye nodded. "Sounds like a good plan. What sort of job are you looking for?" He asked, taking a seat at the table, "What are you good at?"

Kid thought for a moment, the only thing he really was good at back in Manehatten was being a con-artist. Though, he didn't really want to tell Shut Eye that, not after he had willingly let him into his home and stay the night.

"I used to...uhhm...sell ponies some things." Kid said, maintaining his smile, not wanting Shut Eye to find anything suspicious with the statement. "Maybe I could be a...stall worker?"

"Really? That's neat," Shut Eye said, "A salespony. That's a good job. But, maybe, instead of working a stall, would you wanna consider helping me? I'm not good at advertising or selling my services...so far its mostly word of mouth. But if you're good at selling, I'd really be interested hiring you."

"Sure thing, Shut Eye!" Kid smiled even wider as he was offered a job. "But...I must ask...what is the pay for this job...and what exactly would I be doing?"

From just one night at Shut Eye's house, Kid knew that Shut Eye was a good stallion. At the same time, he wanted to know exactly what he was doing and how much he was paying. For no reason other than the fact that he wants to keep his nose clean in Ponyville. And he would like to be able to afford a small shack that he had spotted on his way here. The shack was fairly run down, but it had the basics Kid needed. More importantly, it wasn't very expensive and with a good enough part-time job, Kid would easily be able to afford it. Hopefully before somepony else could get it.

"Well," Shut Eye said, "When school lets out you'd be going to the park to play with the kids and whenever someone mentions their parents going way you tell them about me and how awesome I am." He chuckled a little, "Actually, I could probably enroll you so you could spend more time with them...but anyway, pay, right. Hmm...what do you think is fair pay?" he asked.

Kid doesn't know what fair pay would be. Nor did he think any pay would be fair if he was going to be enrolled into a school. Though, he had to think of how much this shack costed. As advertised, the shack was only about 500 bits, though for a place to live in, that's fairly good...or atleast thats what Kid had heard. However, he didn't want to ask too much for working for Shut Eye.

"Uhmm...I don't know..." Kid said confused about what he should ask for. "I mean...there is this little shack i'd like to live in down the road from here...but I don't know if this work is worth that much..."

"Little shack..." Shut Eye thought, "Wait, you mean number 12 Rainbow Road?" he asked, thinking about the ugly box that someone was trying to pawn off for a few hundred bits.

"Yeah! That's the one!" Kid smiled, glad that Shut Eye knew where it was and what it looked like. "It might not look like much on the outside, but on the inside it's fantastic!"

Kid had been inside of the little shack, it wasn't "Fantastic" but it had the bare necessities. Just a little bit of touching up and Kid could make the shack nicer...probably.

Shut Eye didn't like the idea of Kid living in that run downed shack alone. He thought about it and tried to put a twist on things.

"Well..." he said, "I could go as high as ten bits a day, but that would leave you on the streets for fifty days." He said, "I could rent you my spare room if you'd like, but that would cut into your pay; five bits a day. But that'll include meals. So, think you could live here for a hundred days and save your bits?" Shut Eye asked.

Kid thought about for a moment, he had slept on the streets by himself before. And that would be the quicker option to getting that shack finally.

"10 bits a day sounds great to me!" Kid smiled as he mentally compared the streets of Ponyville and Manehatten. "The streets around here seem a lot friendlier and cleaner than back in Manehatten."

Shut Eye was so taken aback by what Kid had just said that his face and body completely failed to react. The streets seem better... he could hardly comprehend it. He'd rather liveon the streets... he thought, rather disheartened by this.

He thought quick though. When one delt with foals, one had to be able to think very quick. "Okay Kid, you win. I'll hire you for ten bits a day, but only if you'll stay here. The room rent and food will be free, but in addition to your advertising duties, whenever I do end up foalsitting you'll be my assistant. You'll have to play with whomever I am sitting and keep them occupied with fun and games so I can take care of more boring tasks like cleaning and cooking. Will you accept that?" he asked.

"...If I do that extra work and sleep on the streets, would you pay me 15 bits rather than 10?" Kid asked as he thought over what Shut Eye had said.

It wasn't that Kid didn't want to stay with Shut Eye, in fact, he had found that last night's sleep was the best he ever had! He also appreciated Shut Eye assisting him when he got hurt. Kid just really didn't want to be a burden on anypony and he really hoped to get that shack as a home of his own. Mainly because he was all too used to ponies who seemed nice enough to invite him into their home with food and everything, only to end up using him like a slave.

Shut Eye frowned a little at the question. "I'd really...really prefer you stay here." He was about to say that it would be better for Kid not to be on the streets, but he was figuring that the youthful mind wasn't good at short or long term planning; he just saw a goal and ignored the rest. "I'm...I'm really lonely." It was the best lie he could come up with in a short amount of time, but in his experience guilt worked pretty good on foals.

"But...don't you have all the foals take care of to accompany you?" Kid asked. "Not to mention, that doesn't seem like a good deal on your end!"

Despite how close to it he is, Kid wasn't born yesterday. While being in Manehatten, Kid learned how to detect lies fairly easily, mind you, not all the time. That being said, Kid still felt a little guilty about not wanting to stay with Shut Eye.

"Bad deal?" Shut Eye asked, "Seems like a good deal to me; somepony to keep me company when I'm not foalsitting. I don't foalsit constantly...mostly on weekends, and even then not every weekend. I foalsit to stop being lonely."

"I...see..." Kid sighed as he looked up and down at Shut Eye. He definitely didn't seem lonely, though Kid knew better than anypony else that looks can be deceiving. He also had an odd feeling that Shut Eye might not be able to afford an employee. "Maybe...instead of paying me, i'll stay here for a little while and do some chores...at least until I can find a proper job."

Shut Eye's ears picked up a bit. He hadn't expected a turnaround so soon, let alone that much of a turn-around. "Really? You'd rather do ch-" then he decided not to finish that question. Driving Kid further away wouldn't help and would be too easy at this stage. "Um, okay, if you're willing to do that then I'm willing to accept the counter-offer."

Shut Eye looked around the small house really quick and said "You can start by putting away the stuffed animals in the living room," he said, standing up from the table. "Good to have you on board Kid."

Kid was already planning on leaving Shut Eye by himself one night, hopefully without him noticing. Kid thought of when he should do it, and decided that after a weeks time; if Shut Eye could even put up with him for that long, he would leave in the middle of the night and avoid burdening Shut Eye further. For now though, he started cleaning up the stuffed animals in the living room as he was told.

Shut Eye nodded to himself after Kid went back out to the room. Okay, got him to stay, now I need to keep him here. he thought. There were two routes he could take; keep guilting the foal, or get him to genuinely like it here. The first one would be easiest; just act all mopey and lonely, but guilt was a terrible burden to put on another pony, especially a foal. It'd be too low of Shut Eye to do that, but it might be unnecessary if it kept Kid off the streets.

So, until such a time as he had no choice, he'd need to make Kid genuinely enjoy being in a home and being a child.

While Kid cleaned up the stuffed animals, Shut Eye went out with him and began to stack the various board games that had been tossed about during the previous day.

As Kid almost finished cleaning up, he noticed the last stuffed animal was the same stuffed animal that had pinned him down last night. Not wanting to go near the stuffed animal, he started backing away from it until he bumped into one of the potted plants the two other foals had re-arranged for their game. Quickly turning away from the stuffed animal and towards the potted plants, he started to try and push them back to their original positions. For anypony else, this would have been a simple task. For Kid, this proved to be extremely challenging. As he could barely move the potted plant, unsure if he could even cause the leaves to move.

Shut Eye spotted Kid struggling with the potted plant. He also saw the one stuffed animal that had been left alone. With a smile, Shut Eye animated the toy again and had it walk up beside Kid and start to push with the young pony. Then he used his magic to help Kid move the plant by reducing its weight enough until Kid could push it.

Kid started to smile as he felt the potted plant get lighter. That is, until he looked to his side and saw the stuffed animal from before walking around again. His eyes growing wide, he whimpered a bit as the stuffed animal stood beside him pushing the plant.

Shut Eye finished putting the games away and had the doll- once the plant was back where it belonged- leave and skip over to another of the potted shrubs, waving its stuffed paw for Kid to come help it with the plant.