None the Worse ✓

18) 'How Many Years Of Prison Do You Get For Breeding Dragons?' And Other...

18) 'How Many Years Of Prison Do You Get For Breeding Dragons?' And Other Questions You Never Thought Anyone But... Actually, Questions You Never Thought ANYONE Would EVER Ask

It sounded like a good idea to read the complete Sherlock Holmes collection and watch every movie adaptation that had ever been made to get better at deduction, but in reality, Benjamin just got addicted to the stories and lost valuable time he could have used to do actual in-real-life deduction. As a result, he learned nothing new about his subject.

He just needed to find out about Thijmen's past. He felt like it was his duty.

All he knew so far was that he was Dutch, had lived in several countries, which resulted in him speaking many languages, and that he was a criminal. The question was, what kind of criminal?

This, Benjamin could not answer. Maybe he had gotten a DUI (did he have a driver's license?). Maybe he had gotten arrested for streaking in public as a dare. Maybe, just maybe, the cops found a secret room of Thijmen's, where he had been breeding illegal baby dragons.

Because it didn't matter if he locked himself up binge-reading detective novels, or went out to climb on the shed in the backyard and then jump into the pond to pretend he could fly, when the weather was nice (which he most certainly had never done), or walked by Thijmen's side 24/7. Because the Dutch boy never let anything loose.

Ben figured he would find out, though. Eventually. Because no one could keep a secret forever and Thijmen had already slipped up once or twice.

In the time that they knew each other, he'd (accidentally or intentionally) told him that he didn't do criminal stuff in secret and he'd gotten defensive about drugs. In fact, the only instance of him telling Benjamin to 'shut up' had been related to it. If that wasn't shady, then Benjamin didn't know what was.

This meant that this case didn't have to be left unsolved. It just meant that it would take a while. Ben would gather information bit by bit, as Thijmen unknowingly threw it at him, and he'd solve the puzzle when he had enough pieces.

However, Benjamin knew he had an advantage. A big one, in fact. And this advantage was, all things considered, the very reason he wanted to find out. Thijmen and him were dating.

Was it considered dating if there had only been one date and that date included watching birds? What was the exact definition of 'dating'? Can you really be dating if—

No, damn it. Benjamin needed to focus. To think. What would Sherlock Holmes do? Probably something smart, a talent which Ben had not yet mastered. To pass the time, and while he tried to fully get into the mind of a genius, he went Thijmen-watching.

This was a surprisingly interesting thing to do, because if one would look at Thijmen for but a moment, they wouldn't see much. No, Benjamin had to look closely to find small signs of approval, disapproval or indifference. Those were really the only emotions he seemed to show. Oh, and he apparently found a lot of things funny, because he smiled and laughed at things that didn't seem funny to Ben at all. At times, he was left completely flabbergasted after Thijmen laughed when he wrinkled his nose or lifted an arm. There was no logic to it whatsoever. He seemed to be fairly less hostile with his Designated Group Of Friends than Benjamin's own, but then again, this was understandable. There was no Heston to pick his nose or Messiah to salivate over him. Speaking of which, avoiding them would be hard, but he'd manage.

For the meantime, he Thijmen-watched.

It seemed Benjamin's parents were trying to do the same thing and having just as much trouble. For starters, they were still terrified of him, and it's not like either party put any actual effort in furthering their interactions. It was hard to believe their goal was to rehabilitate Thijmen, when it looked like he was already behaving like the perfect teenager, despite making the Emsworths feel like they were going to be brutally slaughtered in their sleep.