rageandruin (rageandruin) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-12-26 14:21:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #november 2017, caden, caden x caius, caius |
Who: Caden and Caius
When: evening, Tuesday, Nov 28th
Where: The Back Porch
Status: Complete
Even though it wasn’t even December yet, the holiday season was wearing Caius out. That probably came from all of his mitigating circumstances, but it was also a very busy time of year for work, and he couldn’t exactly opt out of that part. He was still fairly discouraged by the missing pages of the Baron grimoire, but he and Reagan were working on a plan to do a spell to try and track them down. If they hadn’t been destroyed. Caius wasn’t exactly hopeful, but it was a direction, at least. He’d moved back into the house with Reagan, and that was going well so far, even if they couldn’t spend all their time together and he sometimes still felt weird about being there.
More mundane matters had kept him busy all day, and as eager as he was to get off of his feet, Caius felt like he needed a drink or two to decompress before he went home. But not in the office, because he was sick of looking at it. He also didn’t really want to talk to anyone he knew, so he went to the Back Porch. It was warm and pleasantly noisy inside, even without a big crowd, and that felt like what he needed. A blanket of anonymity for a while before he went back to his broken-brained life. Caius took his coat off as he headed toward the bar, and hung it on the back of one of the seats before he settled into it, glancing at the guy serving another customer.
Point Pleasant was a small town, and the Porch was low key and casual, so Caden was rarely surprised by anyone who walked through the front door. The one person he never expected to see sitting at his bar, however, was doing so now, looking around for service like he had every right to be there. Caden knew it was mental, but he could have sworn his hand throbbed where his fingers were missing. This was no mere coincidence, Caden knew. Caius D'Onofrio knew the Lucas brothers owned this bar. So why the fuck he was sitting at Caden's bar was a mystery, and not a welcome one. Anger swelled inside of Caden's chest, which thankfully overshadowed the sliver of fear he felt. Memories of that night in Reagan Kelly's house were not pleasant ones.
He set the beer down in front of the man he had been talking to when Caius entered the bar, then he walked toward Caius, his jaw set, his back tense. "The fuck do you think you're doing in here," Caden asked, already feeling the urge to lash out and punch the guy right off the chair. "You've got a lot of fuckin' nerve is all I gotta say."
That was not at all how Caius expected to be greeted when the bartender came over, and he just stared blankly for a few heartbeats, his brows slightly raised, as if waiting for the punchline. Because that had to be a joke, right? The look on the man’s face said it wasn’t though, and Caius could hear the barely restrained violence in his tone. He looked familiar in that small-town way, and Caius knew he was one of the Lucas brothers, but damned if he could recall which one. He had no idea why the Lucas was reacting to him that way ... which probably meant it had something to do with Reagan. Huh. Caius studied him curiously. “Do I?” he murmured. “And why’s that?”
Yeah, this guy was definitely asking to get knocked out. Caden's fingers on his good hand curled into his palm. "You think I won't kick your ass out of here, you're fuckin' wrong," Caden told him, his voice low and simmering with poorly restrained anger. "What're you going to do then, huh? Use your hocus pocus in front of everyone? Let 'em all know what you really are?" Caden knew more than a few people in the bar would have his back if he laid out Caius D'Onofrio. It still blew Caden's mind that Caius would even come here. "I want you out of here, before I return the favor," Caden said, lifting his hand up for Caius to see his missing fingers. "You want to test me, go ahead."
Caius couldn’t recall ever being looked at or spoken to with that kind of unbridled hatred, but that just piqued his curiosity even more. Even though his heart was picking up with a surge of adrenaline, Caius wasn’t afraid. He could defend himself easily enough, in ways that didn’t make his ‘hocus pocus’ obvious at all. His dark gaze ticked to Caden’s hand when he held it up, the two missing fingers glaring in their absence. Had he done that? It sure sounded like it. Caius had to know more. He met Caden’s glare steadily again, and started focusing the same magic he’d used on Brianna McCarthy. He wanted Caden to calm down first of all, and second of all ... “Tell me what happened to your fingers,” he said, low and quiet, studying the other man.
Caius knew damn well what happened to his fingers, but Caden found himself answering his question anyway, compelled to do so despite the urge to reach out with his mangled hand and choke the guy. "You," Caden said in an equally low voice. The violence still simmered beneath the surface, but the intense urge to hurt Caius had dulled for the moment. "You and your goddamn magic. You snapped them off." It didn't occur to Caden that he shouldn't be having this conversation, that Caius didn't need an explanation because he should know what the fuck happened to his fingers given he was responsible for taking them.
Caius’s eyebrows flexed closer together. He’d snapped them off? He must’ve frozen them to get a clean break, he couldn’t imagine tearing fingers free from a hand was easy to do otherwise. He couldn’t recall ever injuring someone that much, so it was a little jarring to hear, but he knew he wouldn’t have done something so blatant without a reason. “And what did you do to earn such a punishment?” Caius asked, his tone still quiet and soft. He continued focusing on keeping Caden’s anger pushed back, his temper in check. Caius’s heart was beating hard, but he thought he had a solution to this, in the end. Once he’d gotten all the information.
Punishment. That was laughable. Something inside Caden bristled, but he didn't correct Caius, even if the argument was there on his tongue. "I hit your girlfriend," Caden said simply, as if such a thing wasn't as abhorrent as it really was. "Wife? Whatever. I hit her a couple times, actually. But the bitch asked for it." And she was lucky Amelia had returned, because Caden had no idea what he would have done if she hadn't. No, he wasn't looking to get two witches on his ass, and he'd promised Gavin it was over, but Caden still blamed Reagan Kelly for Amelia's disappearance.
A muscle under Caius’s eye twitched. He’d hit Reagan? A couple of times? And he was still fucking breathing? Caius didn’t even have the memories of their relationship in his brain, but hearing that made him want to snap off the rest of Caden’s appendages as well. “Sounds like you got off easy,” he murmured. He would have to ask Reagan for the rest of the details, because he suddenly didn’t want to talk to this piece of shit anymore. Or ever come to this dump of a bar again. Caius leaned in a little closer, his stare cold and hard now. “You’re going to forget all about that incident,” he commanded quietly. “You never hurt Reagan Kelly, and I never hurt you back. You lost those fingers in an accident, and anybody who says differently is wrong. You don’t harbor any ill will toward me or her or our families, you have a healthy fucking respect, instead.” Caius paused, then added, “And you’re going to start treating women better.” He didn’t know if that would stick or not, how deeply into someone’s personality he could make tweaks and changes, but fading out Caden’s memory about this particular thing seemed prudent. “Say you understand.”
He got off easy? He was missing two fingers because of this asshole. Caden stared at Caius, bristling at the tone of voice the other guy was using with him. At the same time, Caden listened, Caius's words taking hold in his mind, shifting his memories of what had happened with Reagan Kelly, and his hand. An accident made sense. More sense than a witch freezing his fingers clean off. Something seemed to go blank in his mind and he stared dumbly at Caius for a moment before he nodded. "I understand," he muttered. "Sorry." And no, it didn't seem odd to be apologizing to this guy. It felt necessary. Caden could recognize power when he saw it.
Watching that change happen in Caden’s face was fascinating. Brianna had just looked vaguely confused before she fell into line, but there certainly hadn’t been this level of intense emotion involved in their conversation. Caden Lucas went from looking like he wanted to stab Caius in the neck to quietly wary and agreeable. That was a good change, for all of their sakes. No matter what happened with Caius’s own situation, if Caden gave Reagan any more trouble, he wouldn’t survive it. “Good,” Caius said shortly. He stood up from the bar and picked up his coat, more than ready to get out of there. He didn’t care if it looked odd or not -- they’d just had a brief conversation and now he was leaving. Most of the idiots in the bar were probably too drunk to notice anyway. Without another word to Caden, some anger simmering under his surface, Caius headed for the door.