kaz brekker | grishaverse. (nomourners) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2019-01-12 12:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !narrative, * kit, c: cash wolfe |
WHO: Cash Wolfe (with Edgar Wolfe NPCed), mentions of others there including Theo, Jordan, [Benjamin], Viola, Evan, Tessa, and Zoe)
WHEN: Saturday, January 12, 2018; Afternoon
WHERE: The Wolfe parents’ house!
SUMMARY: Wolfe family pizza day! But it ends badly because Cash is incapable of controlling Kaz Brekker. But, honestly, who isn’t??
WARNINGS: Um. Cash almost stabs his dad’s hand because Kaz is the worst?
Having Kaz Brekker in Cash’s head was a practice in balance, control, denial. As someone who had always been the carefree sort--a boy whose enthusiasm and extroversion contrasted against his identical twin’s in a way that complemented both boys’ character strengths--it was something altogether new and hard to process to have the cold rivers of rage and vengeance hibernating quietly beneath the surface. But not everything about Kaz Brekker was easy for Cash to ignore, or to hide. There was this new problem, the one where he could no longer touch another person without wanting to vomit, or die, that seemed to want to plague him in his real life no matter how much Cash tried to forget the dream that had lead him here in the first place. Evan was the only one who knew about his little problem, the only one he’d trusted with his new greatest weakness, and the only one he’d allowed to try to help him solve it. So far, it wasn’t working. On a normal day, this problem was manageable. With the real winter weather rolling into Virginia, Cash at least had the excuse of coldness to explain the gloves he’d taken to wearing when he could get away with it being socially acceptable, a tip he’d picked up from Kaz’s playbook. At work, he’d stopped trying to outperform himself by shaking everyone’s hands that came through the door. In town, he expertly avoided running into other people and they didn’t seem to notice this so much when he continued to flash his brilliant smile at his neighbors in greeting from across the street. Smiles he could stomach. It was touch that made him want to crawl out of his own skin. Today was not a normal day, though. Today was Wolfe family pizza day, as proclaimed by their mother who was never short of reasons why all Wolfes needed to be back under one roof. Wolfe family anythings were even more crowded these days than they’d been before, which was saying something because the Wolfe family wasn’t small by any means. It was loud, rambunctious, busy when it was just them, but now it included others. Alice and Sophia had their significant others, one of which had two kids they brought to family functions with them. Theo had Zoe, as was normal, but now he also had Tessa. Then Jordan never came to family anythings without Viola and that meant that Cash had the habit of inviting Evan, too, though he told himself she was there as his buffer, as his friend. Round that out with their youngest brother and whomever he had tagging along, and they were suddenly so numerous in number that it was hard to avoid running into someone every time one turned around. Cash had readily volunteered to chop the onions, peppers, and mushrooms for the pizzas that evening, deciding it was a good excuse to separate himself from the others by pulling the kitchen cart off to the side near the kitchen table upon which he could go to work dicing and slicing. Separated but still involved in the glory that was the Wolfe family, it was so much easier for him to ignore the pieces and fragments of the Bastard of the Barrel that pierced him and changed him. He could laugh at jokes, throw in his own commentary into the multiple conversations bubbling in the kitchen, smile and pretend that all of this was normal and right. And maybe it would have all been normal and right if his father hadn’t insisted on trying to bring out the old Cash, the cash from Before. He couldn’t be faulted for the attempt, not really. For all his father knew, Cash was just in a funk, something he could be brought out of with a little Wolfe family prodding. “C’mon, Dad, stop,” Cash could hear himself saying over and over, the words punctuated with a forced laugh to lighten his tone, each time his father came by him and nudged his shoulder, clapped a hand on the back of his neck, or tried to roughhouse him. “C’mon, man, for real. I’ve got to hack some veggies. Stop,” he’d say again. And again. And again, until the words felt even more robotic than he did. But he wouldn’t stop because it wasn’t in the Wolfe family nature to leave one another to their own devices. And once again his dad was standing over him, hand lovingly resting on the back of Cash’s neck while he told some funny family story that Cash couldn’t even hear over the sound of water beating against the barge, or the anger that boiled and broke against his edges. He blinked and, for just that moment, Kaz could not be contained. In one swift movement, Cash stopped cutting the onions and stabbed the knife down into the wooden surface of the kitchen cart, the sharp point of it directly centered between two of his father’s fingers belonging to the free hand he’d rested there. He wouldn’t have missed, he’d known exactly where the knife would land. The kitchen that had, moments before, been full of chatter and laughter had now fallen silent. Cash looked at his father, making a point to maintain eye contact. His voice was cold and precise, controlled, as he said, “I said to stop. Now take your hand off my goddamn neck before I take it off for you.” Zoe started crying and that was when Cash came back to himself, Kaz once more tucked away just beneath the surface. The color drained from his face as he glanced between the knife and his father’s face, and then to the onlookers. He couldn’t bear to look at Evan, the only one in the room who likely understood what had just happened. Heart hammering in his chest and breaths coming too fast and too short, Cash stumbled backward and then bolted for the back door. He’d just made it to the gate at the fence when his father had apparently recovered from the shock of what had happened because his voice boomed out from the door Cash had not closed behind him. “Cassius Ryan Wolfe! Don’t you dare take another step. Come back here now!” But Cash was already pulling the gate open, moving as fast as his leg could carry him toward his car. So much for fucking normalcy, he thought. Fucking Kaz Brekker. |