Roxy Muñoz (sticksandrox) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-08-31 19:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, caden, caden x roxy, roxy |
Who: Caden and Roxy
When: morning, Friday, Dec 29th
Where: home
Status: complete
It was difficult to be really happy about the fog lifting when Roxy was in so much pain. Gavin had set her nose, but it still felt like someone had filled her sinus cavity with angry bees. It was swollen and it hurt a ton, and from what she’d been able to see in the bathroom mirror with her phone flashlight, both of her eyes were blackening up too. It was something she would’ve been more upset about if their very survival hadn’t been in question, she supposed.
The power outage had made a hellish situation even worse, forcing her closer to men she didn’t care for to keep warm. They didn’t have much in the bar to protect themselves with -- some extra coats from lost and found, some musty blankets from the back room. The ovens were gas, so they’d turned those on and left the door open for a while to warm up the kitchen when it got really bad, but all of them were concerned about poisoning their air by accident. All night long, they could hear the things outside. Roxy tried her best to sleep, but got nothing more than a shallow hour or two of it, if she strung all the brief naps together.
And then things got better. The power came back, the fog began to lift, and their phones suddenly worked again. Caden called Roxy before she could beat him to it. Even her relief that he was alive and unhurt felt muted under everything. She considered going to the hospital, but Roxy was sure it would be a zoo, and she wasn’t dying of anything, so as soon as it seemed like she could, Roxy left the bar to go home. She just wanted her bed.
Knowing that Roxy had been at the bar all night with Gavin made Caden feel better, though he didn't like the idea of her being stuck with some of the regulars he knew would be there, including his dad. But it had to be better than Roxy being stuck somewhere with a bunch of strangers, so he just accepted it and opted to ask Gavin about things later, if he needed to.
Being stuck with a witch all night hadn't been pleasant, though Zania was okay. His fingers had itched for most of the evening... well, where his fingers used to be anyway, and he ended up with something of a headache, like his brain had been working overtime to try and remember something long forgotten. Almost like a word there on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't quite place it.
In any case, once the fog lifted and Caden had gotten in touch with Roxy, he left the spice shop and headed back to his car, and then home. He was exhausted, wanted a beer and a hot shower and then bed. But he wanted to make sure Roxy was okay too. He beat her home and struggled with the decision before putting on a pot of coffee rather than grabbing a beer. That could come later. He sent a quick text to Aaron asking if he was okay, and then, reluctantly, to his mom, because fuck, who knew in this town.
The coffee was finishing up when he heard Roxy's car in the drive and Caden poured her a cup of coffee beside his.
Roxy sat in the driveway for a couple of extra minutes, her phone in her hand. She wanted to check in with Mila, wanted to send a text to Spence, but the first one seemed too daunting to try and the second was just foolhardy. Later, when she could think more clearly, she would call him. And it was likely Caden had checked in with Aaron, so she could hear second-hand how Mila was doing. The hospital had to have been a safe place, so she wasn’t extremely worried, not yet. Now she had to face her fiancé and whatever his reaction would be to the state of her face. Roxy twisted the engagement ring on her finger around a few times, then got out and let herself into the house. She couldn’t smell the coffee as she stopped by the door to put her purse down and get her coat off.
Caden put the pot back on the burner when Roxy walked in, and he left the coffee mugs where they were as he left the kitchen to greet her. There was the urge to check her over and make sure she wasn't hurt, even though they had talked on the phone and she had been with Gavin. But it was always nice to see with his own two eyes. His own two eyes, which were immediately directed to her swollen nose and blackened eyes. "What... the fuck," Caden said, gripping her shoulders to turn her more directly toward him. "What the fuck happened to you?" Someone at the bar, no doubt. Some asshole who had been drinking too much. "Who did that?"
It was good to see him, and Roxy wanted to ignore her face and just throw her arms around him and cry with relief for a little while, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Caden couldn’t let even small shit go, there was no way he wasn’t going to freak out. Roxy’s hands came up to hold his forearms as she let him turn her. “It was an accident,” she said first, which was about all the effort she was going to put into defending Joseph. “... but it was your dad. He got scratched by one of those big things outside and he was drunk and panicking and I tried to clean the wound, and he just ... reacted.” Roxy felt a little guilty about it, like she’d asked for it by trying to help in the first place. “Gavin set it for me,” she added in a mumble.
"My dad?" Caden's fingers tightened on Roxy's arms for a brief moment before he let her go. He found he didn't really care that Joseph had been hurt by those things. Roxy had been trying to help him and she got a punch to the nose for it. At least Gavin had been there, but why hadn't he been the one helping Joseph? Roxy shouldn't have been anywhere near the guy. "Fucking bastard," Caden growled, pushing past Roxy to grab his coat. He had just gotten home but he didn't care. All Caden knew was that he would find his dad and break his nose. Maybe more.
Roxy’s eyes widened a touch as he nearly knocked her off balance. She fell back a step, but then reached for Caden’s arm. “Caden, don’t,” she said, her tone more pleading than she wanted it to be. “Please don’t go.” It was a completely selfish desire -- she didn’t give a shit about Joseph, but she didn’t want to be left alone. Roxy pulled at him a little, tears pushing at the backs of her eyes. She’d done pretty well with not crying at the bar, keeping it all in and waiting with the rest of them, but now that she was home and Caden already wanted to rush off for revenge or whatever, it was all threatening to burst forth. He hadn’t even hugged her yet.
Caden wanted to pull away, get his coat on and get the hell out so he could find his dad. But Roxy looked miserable, and he suddenly wondered if this fog stuff was really over. What if he was out driving and it started up again. Caden paused and studied her. She looked like someone had bashed her face into the damn wall. "Fine," he groused, hanging his coat back on the rack. "But the next time that fucker walks into the bar, he's getting a broken nose from me. You ought to let a doctor look at your nose, Roxy. Gavin might have set it but you don't know that he did it right. Can you breathe okay?"
“Just make sure I’m there to see it,” Roxy muttered. She didn’t want him to go do it now, but she knew it would be extremely satisfying to see Caden break Joseph’s nose. He might not have meant to hit Roxy on purpose in that moment, but that sure as hell didn’t absolve him of all the pain he’d inflicted on his family for decades, pain that got passed down to her through his son. The pressure in her face from the urge to cry was giving her a sharp headache already, and Roxy just wanted to get clean and lie down with her man, fall asleep with his arms around her. She didn’t know if he would give her that kind of peace though. “I can breathe, yeah,” she answered, and took a few deep breaths in and out to show him, ignoring the tiny whistle in them. “Just feel stuffy. I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow, if everything’s like, settled down.” There was always the possibility that this wasn’t over yet, but it exhausted Roxy even more to think about. She reached up to gingerly touch her nose and instantly regretted it, wincing. “Are you okay?” she added in a small voice, looking Caden over.
Her wanting to watch him break his dad's nose amused him more than it probably should have. And Roxy knew him well enough to know he wasn't joking. It would probably piss off Gavin but when did that ever stop Caden? Sighing, Caden cupped her face carefully, as not to hurt her further. It was going to take a while for all of that to heal and he had to fight back the urge to at least call Joseph and tell him off. There was going to be hell to pay for this. "I'm okay," he told her, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Got stuck in that tea shop with the Castell woman. Guess the rumors about her family are true too. You want some coffee?" She may just want to go to bed, and he couldn't blame her for that. He was exhausted too.
Roxy didn’t give a shit about what Gavin thought of it. He’d been nice enough to her through the fog, but he still hadn’t done shit to rein in his father, had he? So Joseph could take his licks like a man and hopefully he would learn never to touch her again. Honestly, it felt nice to know that Caden wanted to defend her at all. She nuzzled her jaw into his hand and closed her eyes briefly when he kissed her. “Zania Castell?” she murmured, giving a vague frown. Roxy barely knew her, mostly just by reputation and the few times she’d visited the tea shop to browse for gifts, but that seemed like an odd matchup in her head. “So she’s really a witch too? Huh. ... but yeah, uh ... coffee and then a shower. I feel so fucking gross.”
Caden knew what Gavin's relationship with their dad was like. And Gavin knew the same about Caden and Joseph. It was what it was and Caden would handle the problem the way he always did. Gavin would get a fist to the face too if he tried to stop him. He lowered his hands from Roxy's face, still trying to resist the urge to leave right then and there and take care of the problem. But she looked exhausted, and he was exhausted, so he walked over to pick up the coffee mugs, bringing one to Roxy. "She's a witch. Not sure what kind... you know, good witch or bad witch." Caden snorted softly. "She had fuckin' spiders trying to attack her when I was there. To say it was surreal is a fucking understatement. I would've rather been at the bar, to be honest."
Roxy got her shoes off in the brief moment while Caden was fetching coffee, and she accepted it and moved to sit on the couch with a little sigh. “Spiders?” she asked, giving Caden an incredulous look. Her instinct was to wrinkle her nose, but that hurt like fire, so Roxy stopped immediately. Fuck. She sipped from the hot mug, holding it with both hands to warm her fingers up a bit. “Like, attacking her how? Sounds like more of a bad witch thing to me. I would’ve rather had you there too,” she added with a wry twist of her lips. Joseph would’ve paid for what he’d done right then and there. Or it never would have happened, because Roxy didn’t know that she would’ve stepped in to try and help with Caden around. But it had gone how it had gone, there was no changing it now. At least they were all alive, Roxy was sure many others hadn’t been so lucky.
"I don't know. They were just... everywhere. Crawlin' all over her. They didn't come anywhere near me." Caden took a drink of his coffee, remembering what a bizarre fucking experience that had been. "Then she basically set herself on fire to kill them all. Not like, grabbing a lighter and shit but... magic." Caden shook his head. "It killed them all but didn't touch her except her clothes. You know how they burned witches? Yeah, don't think that would do much to her. If I didn't already know this shit existed, I would have rather taken my chances out in the fog than stay there with her."
Roxy could only stare at him blankly for a moment as she tried to wrap her mind around that. Then she huffed out some air between her lips and rested the coffee mug on one of her upraised knees so she could rub wearily at her eyes. “What the fuck is happening lately,” she muttered, though it wasn’t really a question for Caden. Just the universe. Suddenly Roxy felt a tiny bit grateful for being where she’d been, in the familiar environment with nobody setting themselves on fire. If given the choice between hanging out with some spidery bruja and getting her nose broken? Roxy would’ve had to think about it. She felt some pressure behind her eyes as her emotions started to bubble up, but she felt too tired to follow through with any real tears. “I’m glad you’re all right though,” she murmured, looking at him again. “Being out of touch was the worst part of it, I think.”
"What the fuck is happening is this town's fucking motto," Caden said. He couldn't even begin to describe how weird it was to watch Zania essentially catch on fire only to be unhurt. He would have preferred to be at the bar with his family. And then Roxy wouldn't have been anywhere near Joseph. Caden felt the rage bubbling beneath the surface again as he took in the sight of her nose and the bruises. Fuck his father. Caden was just going to have to wait for a day when Gavin wasn't at the bar to tell his dad exactly what he thought about this shit. "Yeah, that was pretty bad. Fucking phones should've been working." He reached out to brush some of her hair back. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. I thought you'd be safe with Gav, but apparently I was really fucking wrong."
The gesture was sweet, even if Roxy could see some of the anger in his eyes. Even when it wasn’t directed at her, she knew what it looked like. She gave him a wan smile and scooted in closer to lean against him, needing some of that affection while it was on offer. “It wasn’t his fault,” Roxy murmured, though she wasn’t going to really defend Gavin too much. “Everything was chaos and I stepped in when I shouldn’t have.” That didn’t defend it, of course, but Roxy knew he wouldn’t have punched her if she hadn’t been in his face. That was what she got for trying to help that old asshole. “Did you and Zania have heat where you were?” she asked, wondering a bit now if they had to cozy up together to stay warm.
"No, you stepped in to help him," Caden corrected. "Fuck him for his reaction to that." His dad was lucky anyone tried to help him. Caden might have considered letting him bleed out, or suffer in pain. He sipped his coffee and nodded a little. "Her... fire shit... kept the shop warm, so when the power went out, we didn't lose the heat. That might've been the only silver lining to being stuck there. I'm fuckin' tired though. There was no comfortable place to sleep." Caden sighed and tilted her chin up so he could see her better. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"
It was the silliest thing to care about, considering they were all alive and mostly-well, but Roxy was glad that Caden hadn’t had to get too close to Zania for them to stay warm. Witchy fire shit was good for something, she supposed. She looked up at Caden and wished she didn’t feel so weepy and exhausted and out of sorts, because she really thought a good fuck would make her feel better. They both needed to sleep though, and her head was aching something fierce. “I’m sure,” she murmured. “There’s other people who need it more than me, and the last thing I wanna do is sit in a waiting room for hours on end. I just ... wanna go to bed with you. Is that okay? I promise I’ll go later if it’s not getting any better.”
Caden nodded, well aware of how relieved he was that she opted to stay here. It wasn't that he wouldn't take her, but Caden was fucking tired and he would rather sleep than sit around a waiting room for the next four hours. "That's okay. We'll see what it looks like when we wake up," he said. "Did you take any pain meds? You need anything to help you sleep?" Even if she was exhausted the pain from her nose might make it difficult for Roxy to sleep peacefully.
In turn, Roxy was relieved that Caden wasn’t insisting on her going. She’d already been locked up in one type of hell for too long, the ER waiting room hell would be even worse. She reached up to very gently touch her nose again. “Just some aspirin at the bar ... do we have anything better?” she asked. Usually she was the one who knew that sort of thing, but Roxy couldn’t recall the contents of the medicine cabinet at the moment. Everything hurt too much and she was too tired.
Caden paused, still studying Roxy's face. "We've got some Oxy if it's that bad." Granted, the Oxy was Aaron's, but Caden was of the mind that his brother needed to start weaning himself off that shit now anyway. He seemed to be healing, at least. "That's probably the strongest thing we've got." He knew he would be chasing some Oxy with whiskey if he were Roxy. Although sometimes he preferred the pain, depending on his mood.
Roxy’s brow furrowed for a brief moment before she remembered why there was Oxy in the house. Caden wasn’t developing a pill problem while she wasn’t looking, it was Aaron still flopping at their place. They’d been seeing less of him with Mila back, even with her in the hospital. She was feeling like it was getting to be time for him to leave, go back to his own trailer, but Roxy wasn’t going to be the one to make that call; he wasn’t her brother. “That would be amazing,” Roxy said, her shoulders sagging with relief already. She just wanted to be numb and sleep. “You know where his stash is?”
"Yeah, he's keeping it in the bedside drawer," Caden said. "I don't know if he was tryin' to hide it or not, but..." Aaron probably knew how Caden felt about him mixing the meds with alcohol, and Caden had thought about taking the Oxy on more than one occasion but hadn't pulled the trigger yet. "I'll grab a couple and bring you some water if you want to go lay down. It'll only be a minute or two." He thought about downing a couple himself just to numb out for a while. But he wasn't hurt and while he doubted Aaron would notice any missing, Caden would rather keep the Oxy for when they actually needed it.
Roxy was so immune to coffee by now that she knew the cup she’d just had wouldn’t keep her awake. Three or four might not even do the trick today. “Okay,” she told Caden with a faint smile. “Thanks babe.” Roxy got up, pausing to kiss his head before she moved around the couch to head back to the bedroom. Once there, Roxy started to peel her clothes off. Part of her wanted to burn them -- the shirt was stained with her blood anyway -- but she just left them in a heap near the hamper for the moment. Roxy really needed a shower too, but she knew that was going to hurt and she just couldn’t handle it yet. Drugs and sleep first. She pulled on a soft strappy nightgown and crawled into bed, the weariness almost a physical weight pushing on her every move.
While Roxy went to the bedroom, Caden busied himself with getting a glass of water and then grabbing a couple Oxy from Aaron's stash in the guest room. He briefly considered taking the whole bottle and hiding it, but he didn't have the energy to deal with Aaron should his brother come home in the next twelve hours and find the bottle gone. He dry swallowed a couple for himself and then carried the rest into the bedroom where Roxy was already looking comfortable. "Here," he said, handing her the pills first, then the water glass. "I'm fuckin' tired too, but I'm going to shower real quick. I'm not thrilled with the stink of that tea shop."
Roxy took the water and pills with a murmured thanks, popping the two for her into her mouth and washing them down quickly with the water. She was tempted to get up and join Caden in the shower, but her body didn’t want to move again until she’d had some rest. Besides, she would want to wash her hair, and that was never a speedy process. “I need one too, but I’m going to wait, I think,” she told him, a bit apologetically. Roxy knew she couldn’t smell too great either, and hopefully he wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with her. Before he could get too far, Roxy caught Caden’s hand and pulled it in close enough to kiss.
Caden didn't mind if she wanted to wait. He was used to the bar stink, even if it was intensified a bit now. But there was something about being around another witch that had bothered him and he felt like he could somehow wash it all off in the shower and get rid of the memory. Not that Zania Castell had been horrible, or bothersome. But witches... he wasn't a fan of them at all. "It's fine," he told her. "Just try to get some sleep. I'll be in in a few." He squeezed her hand when she kissed his. If he knew he could get away with it, he would probably just get into his truck and drive to his father and punch his lights out. But that would have to wait until later.