InsaneJournal

We gotta get through this
Who: Caden, Nate, and Rhiannon
What: Being in the wrong place at the wrong time (as per usual)
When: Friday, June 19th, Afternoon
Where: In the mall
Warnings: Language, Riot related violence



Summer was already in full swing and Nate couldn't have been happier to have some time with Rhi and Caden. With no homework to worry about, they had more time together and that was never a bad thing. They'd headed off to the mall that day to just hang out and do some window shopping and Nate didn't figure there would be too much excitement. Unfortunately, he had a running streak with being wrong whenever he thought that. It was a talent. A horrible, unkind talent.

"You guys wanna catch a movie?," he questioned, glancing over at the two walking in step beside him. "Or we can grab pizza on the way home and binge on Netflix."

Caden had decided to take summer classes so he could graduate early. Since he did his classes online, he could cram as many hours and courses as he could manage without having to worry about teacher's schedules and shit. He was so done. He didn't even care about walking, although if his mom wanted him to, he would. Although they got to see Aidan do that this year, so maybe it would be less of a thing if Caden just took his diploma and got on with his life. He'd have dropped out last year if it wouldn't have broken his mom's heart.

His tolerance for crowds was getting better. With Rosie's help, Caden was learning to tune out the emotional static going on around him constantly. So long as people weren't really worked up or whatever, he could keep level. His dad's wards certainly helped. "I vote for pizza and Netflix," he said. Movie theaters were really not his thing anymore. Too many people being forced to feel things by the flow of the movie, with hormones running rampant. It was nearly impossible to actually watch a movie because of the distraction.

And peanuts. Peanuts fucking EVERYWHERE. Stupid goddamn peanuts. They were going to make him a shut in before his powers did.

"Then when we get horny and act up, we don't have to deal with the ushers kicking us out," he joked instead of pointing out his issues. He hated that he was the one who kept them from doing things. Because of too many feels, or goddamn peanuts, or whatever. It annoyed him more than he'd admit.

Rhi tilted her head back, humming happily at the feel of the sun on her face. “Pizza and Netflix is definitely the way to go,” she murmured, falling back a step behind them so that she could launch herself up, hooking her arms around both their necks and swinging between them with a giddy grin. She loved summer, even if Caden wasn’t around nearly as much as she wanted him to be. It was warm - well, warmer - and she didn’t have to get up for school. Add in her boys, and all the privacy they could ask for, and she was in heaven.

“I like how you say ‘when’,” she teased Caden. “Don’t you think we can behave ourselves?” She tried to look innocent, spinning on her heel and walking backwards in front of them, her sneakers squeaking against the tile. Dressed the way she was, she wasn’t convincing anyone of her innocence.

Nate smirked. "He says "when" because he knows we can't behave ourselves." All three of them knew that. If they had time alone and no interruptions, they were going to be naked, it was as simple as that. Hell, even if interruptions were a threat, they usually didn't care. The thought alone made Nate want to quicken his steps so they could get to the car and grab the pizza and get to the main event. Being tangled up in Rhi and Caden was exactly how he wanted to spend the rest of the evening.

His eyes were fixed on Rhiannon as she walked backwards, but also directly in front of her to make sure she didn't accidentally bump into someone. It was that half-glance that put the protesters into his line of sight. His attention flicked briefly to Caden and he nodded at the group in front of them. "What's all that about?"

"I say when because you always think clothes are optional," Caden teased, stepping in to catch Rhi around the waist and steal a kiss while they were walking. One of the advantages of being an empath was he rarely walked into people because he could feel them coming. Not that he wasn't letting their girlfriend distract him

Nate's question did though. Pulling out of the kiss but not letting go of Rhi, he turned his attention to the crowd. "I can't tell, but they're pissed about something," he observed. "Like super pissed about to throw down-" Just as he said that, a person was flung to the ground and jumped on. "Yeah, that." Of course, the idiots around them were jeering and yelling and not doing anything. Caden let go of Rhi. It was Chicago, but seeing one person get ganged up on for no apparent damn reason pissed Caden off. "Come on," he said as he pushed through towards the prone guy. Who wasn't much older than them and seemed to be trying to get away and not get beat to death.

Shoving to the line and seeing red at that point, Caden grabbed one of attackers and spun him around, leading with a right cross. Which made pain echo through his empathy along with rage, confusion, and fear. He reeled back as the guy rushed him, grunting in pain. The people nearby all reacted to the emotions he was now projecting.

Oh shit…

Trying to look offended didn’t really work, Rhi was discovering, when your boyfriend had his lips against yours. Caden had cut her off before she could argue that she was a werewolf, and therefore clothes totally were optional, but she couldn’t complain about the way he was doing it. Her eyes tracked the same way as Caden and Nate’s, a frown creeping onto her face as she noticed the knot of people.

And then there was a guy on the ground, getting pushed about. Rhi growled, fingers curled in tight against her palms as she stormed towards the crowd in Caden’s wake. She saw Caden’s getting pushed, and suddenly the snarl wasn’t so quiet, or subtle. Teeth bared she waded in after him, punching and kicking anyone who came close enough.

Nate didn't like the sound of where Caden was going, but he had very little time to react before the group turned on one guy. He wasn't any more keen on letting the man get pummeled than Caden was, so he followed after his boyfriend without much question. The moment that Caden got tackled, the emotions thrust themselves upon not only the crowd, but on Nate too. Caden was projecting and it was difficult to fight down the emotions coming off of him.

"Shit," he grunted, shaking his head as if that was going to somehow clear the fog. The momentary distraction only seemed to make him a target, getting him lost in the group of people riled up by the onslaught of emotions that only heightened their own.

Caden was surprised when he noticed the guy grabbing him had feral yellow eyes. A were? "You're a wolf?" he gasped as he realized how out matched he was. "You're all wolves?" Fuck, why would a bunch of werewolves gang up on some guy? They didn't need to.

"Yeah, kid," the wolf over him snarled. "You wanna make something of it. Like your friend there?"

He gasped and shook his head. "Not my friend-" he said. "Why? What?" It was really hard to ask questions with a werewolf on top of him and so many emotions overwhelming him.

"Why?" the wolf snapped. "Because the fucker had a silver knife and was threatening to carve us up. That's why, you stupid little shit. Who's the big hero now?"

Silver. Fuck. Rhi. "Rhi, silver!" he yelled as fear shot through. "He's got a knife!" Shit, shit, shit. What had he gotten them into?

Rhi had picked up the scent of the wolves the moment she’d gotten close enough but by then Caden’s lack of control was already telling. It didn’t take much to get Rhi involved in a fight; one of her boyfriends being involved, and the waves of emotion rolling out from him...it was an inevitability. She was aware of Nate behind her somewhere, people moving between them too quickly for her to keep track of him and Caden. That just made her snarl louder, her eyes bleeding pale and fierce as she pushed her way towards the guy on the ground.

Her head snapped up at Cade’s panicked shout. His voice cut through the crowd like it was nothing, fear an acrid smoke that hit the back of her throat and smothered the building rage. Faltering, she looked around, seeing nothing but shoulders and backs, everyone around her too fucking tall for her to get past again.

“Cade?! Nate?!”

Caden's shout caught Nate's attention more than anything else. He couldn't move in two directions at once, but the thought of someone having silver made the whole situation even more dangerous than before, especially with Caden's emotions pumping through everyone. He tried his best to move through the crowd in the direction he'd seen Rhiannon go. He wanted to help Caden too, but it would be easier to do if they got Rhi out of the line of fire. Silver could kill her. He and Caden both knew that, so he shoved through the crowd, dodging elbows and fists as best he could in the process.

"Rhiannon!," he yelled, opening his mouth to say it again and getting socked for his troubles before he had the chance to get a syllable out.

The wolf dropped Caden as the guy tried to jab him with said silver. Shit, shit, shit. The boy scrambled away from the fighting. "Rhi? Nate?" he yelled, unable to see or feel the emotions of his lovers to find them in the throng. Which his out of control emotional projecting had turned into a full blown riot. Shit…

As people rushed into the brawl between the wolf and the idiot with the knife, Caden was bounced around as he tried to escape. He ended up on the ground again, trying hard not to project his panic and not doing too great a job. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to breathe, shoving down the negative emotions as much as he could. It took him several minutes to fight his way out of the brawl, and by then he was bruised and bloody.

And still couldn't see Nate or Rhi. Shit.

The emotions of the crowd around her were building, panic and fear and rage swirling in the air until Rhiannon felt like she was choking on it. She couldn't see the boys, couldn't reach them. Her eyes faded pale and fierce, sharp fangs catching at her lip as she snarled. Cornered lone wolf in the midst of a strange pack, with the scent of silver in the air? There was no possible way of that ending well. She clawed at the man in front of her, trying to shove past him to get to Nate and Caden. He was a foot taller than her and twice as wide but it didn't stop her snarling at him, toe to toe as he stared down at her. He swiped at her, knocking her aside without even thinking about it.

She hissed as her palms hit concrete, not quite catching herself in time to stop her head bouncing off the sidewalk. There was a forest of legs surrounding her, shuffling feet that focused around a figure on the ground, furious kicks being delivered over and over again. She wanted to get closer and help, but the scent of silver was strongest there and right now the wolf was taking over. Scrabbling to hands and knees at least, she fought her way through. By the time she could stand at the far side, she was aching, clothes ripped, dirt and blood smudged across her face and arms. Her legs were a mess of bruises and not for the first time, Rhi was grateful for her were healing.

"Nate? Caden?" She called out, her voice reedy, wobbling a little. She couldn't see them, and there was no way of smelling them above the crowd.

The crowd had erupted into pandemonium and Nate had no clue which way was up for what felt like forever. Everywhere he turned there were walls of people hitting each other and if that wasn't enough of an obstacle, the emotions that permeated the air were starting to make him feel sick to his stomach. The punch he'd gotten left him aching, but he couldn't focus on that at the moment. He had to find Rhiannon and Caden and they had to get the hell out of there before one of them got seriously hurt if they weren't already.

When he finally found Rhiannon, it was just in time to see her head thunk against the ground. It made him gasp out loud and worry flooded through him as he scrambled in her direction. At least he tried to until she started to move, fighting her way through the crowd to the other side. He followed after her, barely wriggling his way through the crowd. He hoped Caden would be on the other side, but he wasn't. He turned towards the crowd the moment he realized Rhiannon was alone.

"Caden?," he called out, eyes panning across the crowd in desperate search for their boyfriend.

Rhi reached for Nate as soon as she saw him emerge from the crowd, flinging her arms around his neck and squeezing him tight. He was safe, he was okay. Now they just needed to find Cade. She linked her fingers with his, refusing to let go of Nate now she'd found him again.

"CADE!" She yelled, jumping up to try and see over the crowd, the writhing mass of anger and hate and panic between them and Caden.

Caden finally worked his way to the edges of the crowd and free of it. He stumbled away as fast as he could running into a couple of people as he blindly scrambled to get away from the emotional surge he'd accidentally helped create. Somebody grabbed him and asked if he was okay, and Caden nodded. He just needed to find his friends and get out of there. "My friends-" he gasped, pushing away. He was trying to put his back up so he could catch a breath, but it wasn't happening.

The guy let him go, probably thinking he was strung out on something. Which was pretty accurate, really. He felt like he was on a bad high and stumbling around like a drunk. Putting some distance between him and the crowd was helping. He finally found a wall and collapsed against it, panting heavily as he sank down to the ground. He needed to get his wall back up. Then he could help. Maybe.

Nate held tight to Rhiannon when she got to him, doing his best to comfort her while his eyes still searched for Caden. Now that they were outside of the crowd, he could better assess the situation. "Do you smell the direction he's in?," he asked. He knew it was a long shot with all the smells conflicting, but if anyone could at least get a direction pinpointed for their boyfriend, it was Rhi.

Rhi shook her head, whining in distress as she looked around. She was too worked up to focus properly, surrounded by the smells of the crowd. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to shut out the noise of the riot, her knuckles white where she was holding onto Nate.

And there....she had something. Just for a second. Rhi's eyes snapped open and she moved towards the smell, towing Nate behind her. Blood dripped into her eye from the graze on her forehead, already healing even as they walked.

Caden reached up for his ward, glad it was still around his neck. His dad was going to kill him if he lost his wards again. Or took them off. Hell, his parents might kill him anyway if they found out he had jumped into the middle of something. His mom especially, with her lectures about picking his battles. Yeah, he really needed to learn to do that.

Concentrating on the dampening of emotions and spirits his ward gave off, Caden managed to slow his breathing down. The brawl was still going, but right now, Caden could care less. He got his head back well, enough to get back to his feet, but that was about it. He was really beginning to think leaving the damn house was a bad idea.

Nate followed along after Rhiannon, still concerned for her, but more worried about finding Caden and getting him the hell out of the building before things exploded again. When he finally caught sight of Caden, he was barely standing. He looked like a character in Mortal Kombat right before a finishing move. That wasn't a good sign. Rushing towards him, he slid his arm around his middle to keep him up on his feet.

"I got you," he told him, eyes flicking to Rhiannon. "Let's get him out of here."

Rhi moved to Cade's other side, wrapping an arm around him too, grabbing Cade's wrist and looping his arm around her shoulders.

"Home?" She asked, glancing around Caden to look at Nate. She didn't want to go to the movies anymore, she didn't want to do anything. She just wanted to go home and curl up with her boys and check them over herself to make sure they were okay. She tried to keep a lid on her worrying to make it easier for Cade; she was broadcasting like a fucking broadwave radio station and she knew it.

"Oh thank fucking God," Caden muttered as Nate and Rhi seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He was pretty sure he wasn't hallucinating them even. Especially with the worry they were not doing a great job of hiding. "I'm okay," he said automatically, but leaned on them because he still felt light headed. He looked over at the crowd and winced. "Tell me I didn't do that." God, had he done that? Shit...

"Doesn't matter," Nate told him, shaking his head. There was no point in trying to figure out if the mob had more to do with Caden's pushed out emotions or the rioting that was bound to start with the silver wielding fucker that started the whole thing. Getting Caden home was what was important. Heading towards the nearest exit, Nate focused on that more than anything else.