Work Text:
Silver had been out from under his father’s thumb for six years now. Six long, hard years of nothing but work, desperation, and the need to survive. But he had recently landed a job, a steady job, one that paid better than battling. And he was spending his newfound freedom and off days doing something he had found by accident on the internet a while back, when he hadn’t had time to invest in looking into it: geocaching.
He loved getting to find nooks and crannies he never would have thought about in the past, both in his neighborhood and beyond. Six years ago, he scarcely dared to leave his father’s house, never mind do something as frivolous as searching for hidden treasures and logbooks in his city, but now he relished in it.
As he investigated the latest tree in the nearby park for this hidden treasure, he thought he saw a glint in the upper branches. He took six paces back, before running and jumping onto the lowest branch of the tree and heaving himself up. He laughed a little— he never thought he’d do something like this for any reason, let alone for fun, and now he was climbing a tree for the bison tube in the upper branches.
His father had taught him survival skills, and how to climb trees to hide from the cops. But now Silver was in his element, doing it for his own pleasure, and he found he rather liked the mental skill it took to move himself to a safe branch, and the strain in his muscles as he climbed.
He reached the bison tube and perched on the branch below like a bird, unscrewing the lid and writing his username on the logbook. He took a moment to observe the city below him as he screwed the top back on, fingers going through the motions without needing his eyes to track them.
He could hardly believe where he had gotten. It was the six year anniversary to the day, that he had run. Run to a few friends, couch surfed until he found a job, found an apartment. He was a fully fledged adult, paying rent and taxes, and he had decided on his day off, to celebrate six years of freedom with some well earned geocaching.
As he clambered down to the lowest branch and dropped to the ground, Silver laughed more. No one had saw him, but he wasn’t exactly trying to be stealthy with this cache. He logged it in his phone and kept moving. He wanted to get a few more caches before he decided to pause for lunch. He could afford to eat out these days— he scrimped and saved every penny he could for days like today, where he treated himself to some freedom. It wasn’t often he went out for a full day just geocaching, or visiting friends, or doing anything out on the town. He had quite a lot of work days, and most times when he went to see friends they just hung out at someone’s apartment, split money for a pizza, and streamed a bad movie to laugh at while they chatted.
Silver noticed a little storm grate in the sidewalk as he walked, and marveled at how much it looked like a (metaphorical) cage he had been in for years. He had imagined living in the grates and sewers when he was a child, much preferring active imagination to anything real. But now? Now, he had freedom. Now, he had options. Now, he was wandering the streets, looking for something fun and exciting and learning more about where he was on his terms. It was new, exciting, invigorating. He couldn’t believe how far he had come.
There was an event for Geocachers later that day that Silver was planning on attending too— getting to make new friends and see some old ones. It was perfect for him. A perfect celebration, for six years of freedom.