I'm a car crash, on the highway, better stay down, under my chains
Wednesday, 3/13, Noon
Julius + Danny + Maeve
PG-13 | Complete
Julius had gotten permission from Shara to have this little skirmish in her backyard. He couldn’t tell if she was amused or disappointed with him, but it was of little consequence, considering she’d agreed to it. Given him an explanation that was something like “If you’re going to do something stupid, best do do it at home”, which had sort of been his intention. Better to do this where a crowd of people could gather, where he didn’t have to worry about having to fight off an actual dragon. No, he’d be taking him on in human form, thanks. It was only fair.
Still, the remote possibility made him wonder if he ought to go bother Briar about her arsenal, but.
Things had been strained since the other night. Or, well. Had it already been a couple weeks? Since she’d rushed out in the middle of the night with the implication that it had all been a mistake. It felt like time had both sped up and stood still in the interim. But if it had been weeks, no wonder he was so twitchy. To be fair though, Danny had made it easy to talk himself into this fight, and had given him no reason to try and talk himself out of it. That and he had all kinds of pent up energy these last two weeks, and not much to do about it. He’d already had to order twice as many cartons of clove cigarettes as usual because he was going through them like they were candy, and while he’d attempted to channel some of the energy into learning some more skills, put it towards being better at magic, that sort of thing, he couldn’t concentrate. If he was a runner he’d run, but. Nah.
So instead, it’d been throwing himself into work, smoking a pack and a half a day (on a good day), coming up with ideas, reworking the spring menu, reorganizing everyone’s schedules for maximum efficiency, bartending on nights that he’d usually just sit (because just sitting was hard now, made him twitchier than usual), and apparently get into arguments with internet trolls that turned into full on fistfights.
Good. It had been a while since he’d gotten his hands dirty.
He was unusually early. It was a relatively nice day. Warm enough, he supposed, though still not nice enough for his tastes, so he was still wearing Sebastian’s jacket over a plain black tee shirt--something that wouldn’t show blood, but also he didn’t care so much about if it got ruined--and jeans, with old work boots he still had from the distillery days. Not so polished, but this wasn’t one of those things that you showed up for in a suit. Maybe in 1925 but not now. He had smoked through a handful of cigarettes at this point, a pile forming near the bottom of the fence post he was leaning against in wait of his opponent. If he showed. Julius got the impression this one was all talk, which would be too bad. He was looking forward to having something to do today.
Danny showed up in a hoodie and some worn out jeans. He had a tanktop on underneath that he though, initially, might make him look more impressive, but after a little bit of reconnaissance, had discovered that Julius was a bit taller and more solidly built than him – as most people were to Danny. So, he’d worn the hoodie to try and bulk up his image and had the hood on over his thick dark hair as he made his way to the meeting spot.
Danny was uneasy about this, not because he thought he would lose – he knew that going into it – but because he was sure Julius had a lot more friends than he did and some of those friends might include the gargoyle Jayati had warned him about, the one who could punch a hole through his chest. He wasn’t worried about the same from Julius because according to the word on the street, Julius was just a mere fae. And the fae didn’t worry the dragon.
While Danny had fought in human wars and done a lot of things that would make someone think he had a harder edge to him, truth be told, he was something of a coward. He’d like to think of himself as a mighty dragon like Xi, someone confident through and through, and not just on the surface, but he was full of boasts and bullshit instead. Most of that was due to an injury he’d suffered as a hatchling that had mauled his wings and stunted their growth. He could still fly, but not very well, and his self-confidence had never been the same.
Instead of a fighter, he was a survivor, someone who made friends with powerful people and relied on them for the heavy lifting while he ran around in the background doing the light work. As such, he’d considered telling Roman about this and seeing if he could get the other dragon on the island to become outraged at Julius and come back him up, be an intimidating huge figure behind him, but Danny had decided against it.
For one thing, he was liking the fact that the town members were starting to think of him as a screw up. It had gotten him out of police questioning after the lab bomb and it had gotten him out of having a tail follow him to New York where he ran some shady deals for Lily and the Malcontents. Or just for Lily. Danny wasn’t sure that her matters were necessarily linked to the Malcontents, but he’d do anything she asked him to do because she made him feel important and powerful. The sex was amazing, besides.
Danny had to continue to perpetuate that thinking in order to remain useful to Xi. He was just Danny, the boastful dragon, vocal supporter of the actions of the Malcontents if not already assumed to be working with them – after his meeting with Jayati, he’d be surprised if there were still any doubts – and just your average blue collar or pink collar uneducated worker that had to work two jobs to make ends meet.
He kept a low profile as he made his way behind the bakery, hoping that Julius hadn’t rallied a crowd of supporters, because this would be humiliating enough. As much as he’d love to just transform and let the fae bathe in some acid until all the was left was a hole in the ground, he had to play his part. And he’d do it well.
“Ey, chato!” he called at in greeting as he spotted Julius. A grin spread on his face and a cocky swagger entered his steps as he moved closer, hands in the pockets of his gray hoodie. “You’re early. Eager to get your ass handed to you? Or did you just miss me that much?”
Ah, he decided to show. Good for him. Julius ran a hand through his hair and took one more last, long drag on his cigarette, flicking it in Danny’s direction before finally glancing up, a somewhat bored expression on his face. He’d seen this type of kid a hundred times over. They were all about the same, all talk with nothing to show for it. He, on the other hand, had never been this kid. He was only cocky after he earned it. He wasn’t stupid, he knew he was perhaps a little rusty, and getting into this fight was probably a bad idea. But it hadn’t stopped him before, and it certainly didn’t now. The point wasn’t necessarily to win—though he had a pretty good track record even when shaking off some rust—it was mostly to let off some steam.
“Just figured I’d take some time to enjoy this beautiful day on the off chance you decided not to show,” he said after a moment spent sizing up his opponent—done in the same way he’d seen many a casting director do with the aim of making actors uncomfortable—his mouth ticking upward in a slow, lopsided smirk.
In response to the cigarette butt being flicked his way or just because this was how he prepared for a rumble, Danny spat on the ground between them and withdrew his hands from his pockets. “Yeah okay, cutie. Whatever you say. By the way, I slept pretty good last night. Usually means I was in someone else’s dreams. Was that you?”
He smirked and stretched his arms over his head, catching one elbow and stretching it to the side, then doing the same with the other. Danny rolled his neck and scuffed his boots on the ground.
Whether Julius was basically doing the complete opposite on principle or because it was just his way was up for debate. But he moved languidly, slipping his jacket off and hanging it on the fence post, shoulders rolling slowly as he stepped away from the fence, cracking his knuckles.
He laughed at the question, shaking his head. It was a shame they had to get into it, Danny was funny, though he wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or accident. Maybe he just pinged Julius’s sense of humor. “No, my dreams were about someone much prettier, darling. But we’re not here to talk about my dreams now, are we?” He stopped just in front of Danny, making a point to really work the extra two inches of height (plus an added half an inch or so from the boots). It wasn’t a lot, but when you didn’t have a lot to begin with it was worth milking. “You can always back out now, kid. No shame in it.”
Danny studied the way Julius approached while keeping his own expression neutral, despite the tightening in his shoulders and the slight tick in his jaw. He hated, despised the fact that in human form he was shorter than average. How was that fair at all? He was a goddamn dragon, for fuck’s sake. Instead of intimidating, broad, or even muscular, he looked like your average Mexican from roughly 150 years ago. Short and slender.
He didn’t back away with Julius got unnervingly close but needed to tilt his head back just enough to keep a steady gaze on the fae. Danny bit his lip and then released it to pout. “Sorry, Julie.” He tugged the hood down from off his hair, freeing a mess of dark locks, and shook his head. “I could never break your heart like that.”
It was with the last word that Danny made his first move. He wanted to find out how much of Jules’ talk was just talk, but he also wanted to land a good blow right at the start, since that may be the only chance he got. Instead of using his hands like a civilized fighter, Danny rammed his knee forward and upward into Julius’ groin.
Julie? Really. Was that one of those things meant to insult his (supposedly) fragile masculinity or something? Because if so, Danny was definitely barking up the wrong tree there. The only thing Julius was the slightest bit sensitive about was his height but. Well. There was no contest here now was there? He wasn’t sure he wanted to dignify that with a response beyond an eye roll, might have even laughed.
That is.
If he hadn’t gotten the wind completely knocked out of him, bent over at the waist as an unexpected, white hot pain that shot all the way up his spine and down his legs for a good hot second. He did not know—though really at this point he should have assumed—that they were playing that game. That was going to smart, but definitely not as much as what he was about to do to this kid after that move.
As bad as it was on first contact, the pain was not even the worst he’d experienced and was more of a shock than anything after the first few seconds (which, to be fair, felt like an hour), but it had put him in the perfect position to pull something he usually reserved for much bigger opponents, taking a sudden leap forward, headfirst into Danny’s chest.
As pleased as he was to see Julius double over from his blow, Danny knew retaliation was going to come and he’d started to back away to put some space between them when the fae launched at him. If Danny thought Julius had a hard stubborn streak, he found that what was harder was the man’s head as he went sailing backwards from the impact.
He clawed at Julius to grab hold of his shirt but when he hit the ground, flat on his back, what was left of the air in his lungs was pushed out with a grunt and Danny’s grip fell away. Danny coughed and instinctively tried to turn towards his side to keep from exposing his vulnerable belly. “Fuuuck,” he croaked.
Oh this was definitely an unfair fight, Julius was pretty sure of that now. But some people were hands on learners, and at the moment he had enough venom in him (nothing like a swift kick to the balls to really invoke some ire) to teach some life lessons the hard way.
But he also wasn’t a big fan of the whole, kicking a man while he’s down thing. Not his style. “Get up.” He stooped down to pull Danny up by the collar of his hoodie. Weezing or not, this was happening. What did they say? In for a penny, in for a pound? “You’re not getting off that easily kid.”
Danny scrambled to get his feet underneath him when he was hauled back up. His normally human colored hazel eyes had slipped a bit in their glamour and now glinted a coppery metallic as he clenched his teeth. Being called a kid was something he was used to. He couldn’t help what he looked like in human form and more often than not, compared with supernaturals who bragged about their age like Julius did, he was a kid. It was just another facet of his destined to be immortal life that he hated and resented others for.
But even kids could throw a punch. And Danny had a dragon’s strength to back it up.
“I’d be disappointed if I did. Always hated half-assed jobs.” He smirked. As he continued to waver on his feet, Danny balled his fist and snapped it up into Julius’ jawbone.
Good. Julius would have hated for this to end so quickly and simply--one childish attack and a headbutt to the chest wasn’t much of a fight--and when his head snapped back after the blow to the jaw (and honestly, he was sort of amused that Danny had managed to avoid the better parts of his face. Clearly that was some serious crush or something) he had some kind of nasty grin splitting his face. It had been far too long.
He had no such qualms about avoiding any of the nicer parts of Danny’s face, however, because when his fist came up it connected directly with Danny’s nose, the other aimed for his stomach, before coming back, forearms in front of his face in a proper boxing stance.
Danny staggered back again and managed to keep his feet this time. The fist to the nose smarted more than the gut punch, and his eyes blurred but he didn’t think it was broken or bleeding. “What was that, a love tap?” He grinned and came right back at Julius, not in any particular form, Danny wasn’t trained for that, just rushing him and swinging his fists to aim at his head or his ribs, whatever he could try to get in.
When he got tired of that, he went for a kick in the shins.
There was probably something to be said for not having form. It certainly made Danny a bit of a wild card. Julius flinched when one of Danny’s fists connected with his ear while he was protecting his face, a high pitched ringing throwing a little of his equilibrium for a moment, a punch meant for Danny’s eye connected with jaw instead, landing a few more punches to the gut and ribs before Danny apparently just got bored and kicked him in the shin.
Oberon, fuck. Fine. Shaking off the injured shin, he swung his leg around to sweep at Danny’s knees, another fist simultaneously aimed for an eye.
Danny was not prepared for a move like that, or prepared for any kind of move, as a matter of fact. Though he did manage to somehow block a few of Julius’ by pure chance, he clearly was not a polished fighter. Or even an experienced fighter, as he’d previously boasted. But he was durable, could take a hit, and had supernatural strength to lend power behind his own when he was lucky to land one.
The leg sweep unbalanced him and would’ve sent him to the ground by itself, but Julius had to throw in the punch to his eye. Danny took the hit right in the eye socket and went down hard with the added momentum. His skull smacked against the backyard of the bakery and in an effort to catch himself, had extended his hand only to land on it at an odd angle. He wasn’t sure if he cried out in pain or only whimpered, too stunned by the impact of head vs ground to recall.
Groaning and aching all over, especially coming from his throbbing wrist, Danny still tried to get back up. He braced his knee beneath himself and pushed off the ground, but his wrist wouldn’t take his weight and he hissed and fell onto his side, hugging the aching limb against his aching ribs.
“Sonovabitch,” he growled, spitting blood off to the side. “Fuck this shit.”
Danny started to transform, copper scales folding out from human skin as his glamour dropped and his size changed. As a dragon he was considered small, yes, but as a dragon he was bigger than he was as a human. He’d melt this little fae into a pile of jelly. Sharp appendages tore from his shoulders and unfurled into wings, one slightly deformed and smaller than the other. His uninjured hand spread onto the ground and his fingernails turned into claws that dug into the soil as the sound of his growl deepened to a more respectable rumble of draconic anger.
By Oberon’s saggy ballsack, she leaves Julius alone for five minutes (two weeks, give or take, whatever) and he starts a fight with a Dragon. Not just a Dragon either, but one she knew, and one who had she was pretty sure had even less moral scruples than the average one. Honestly, at first she wasn’t all that worried. For all her (and Sebastian’s) talk, Julius had been in fights before, not that she’s witnessed, but she knew, and she was partially hoping that one of their smart mouths would win before their fists could get involved.
That, and she had been avoiding him, which including thinking about him, and definitely avoiding showing up to witness, intervene, or even cheer on some street brawl he got himself into because he and Danny couldn’t control their damn mouths. Ego. Orneriness. Just old fashioned men being dumb, whatever it was, she had to be the reasonable one, clearly, even though she wasn’t being that just by showing up at this damn thing.
And just in time too, she could feel the ripple of magic that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she stepped into the ‘backyard’ behind the bakery. Fuck. These two idiots could do nothing by halves, could they?
Some people in the gathered crowd — which luckily wasn’t too substantial — were smart enough to step back and give a wider berth once they realized what was happening, and that made it easier for her to step up on one of the tables and shout, “Alright, show is over, everyone out, you get a free drink at the pub if you clear out in the next two minutes!” It worked, thank fuck, and she jumped down and dodged around them to get a step between Julius and Danny. This was definitely something she was going to regret. Maeve may smell like pub right now — though not as bad as she sometimes did, having been there mostly doing paperwork this early in the day — but Danny in his scaled form was going to recognize her, and that was not ideal. But she really didn’t have a choice, did she?
“Stop it. If you two are done spraying testosterone all over the damn place, you can stop the measuring contest.” And her with her few paltry knives she carried on a normal day in town, staring down a soon to be ready to go fullsize dragon, “This has gone far enough.” Stern, commanding, calm. The sort of person she knew Danny responded to, who knew without question she would be listened to. It was accompanied by sharp blue eyes over her shoulder at Julius’s little worse for wear face with a look that hopefully told him not to make this worse. And if she focused real hard on the situation at hand, it was easier to blame her jackrabbit heart solely sweet dreaon the Dragon and not him.
Titania’s tits, that was it, Julius was officially done with Dragons. He’d had his fill. Two threatening him in the past six months or less were more than enough for him. Not to mention that this went far beyond cheating. There was, at least in his own mind, some kind of agreement that two people in a skirmish like this should at least be uh… Nearly the same size. Relatively. He could ignore the knee to the groin and the kick to the shin, but this was just straight up rude.
Not that he was stupid enough to say anything about it. He had far too much will to live for that. He’d been looking for a way to make a graceful exit, since the only thing that could remotely be considered a weapon in his possession was the same knife he had on the dig in Ethiopia in the 1960s, and not particularly good against uh… Anything supernatural, to be quite honest. But then there was Maeve. He felt a small twinge of annoyance at her for showing up at the point where he was about to be stepped on or melted or whatever Danny was planning on doing, and not at the point when he was, oh, you know, winning, considering her habit of being a little overprotective of him.
But whatever. He’d take all the help he could get, even if it was from someone who was apparently not talking to him, swooping in to save the day, yet again. At least he’d talked the other Dragon down last time. He could at least take comfort in that. He rolled his eyes at her expression, hoping to convey his own message of I’m not stupid, thanks, taking a surreptitious step backward, putting more space between himself and the shifting Dragon.
Danny was almost fully transformed, unbothered by the presence and noises of the crowd at this point, when he heard a clear voice call out for everyone to leave. Slit pupils in shiny metallic eyes narrowed when he spotted the woman on the table. Just who did she think she was?
The dragon huffed as the crowd started to disperse. He made to swipe at Julius with four-inch talons when the woman was there between them and her scent hit him. Danny’s nostrils flared and he blinked in confusion. Briar? But… this wasn’t Briar.
Before he could work out the problem, the woman barked out a command and the dragon immediately recoiled, his spade tipped spiked tail winding around his waist as it once more formed a human shape. Wings shrank back and disappeared and eventually just Danny stood there again holding his wrist to his chest and looking chastised.
“He started it!” Danny accused, jerking a bruised chin at Julius. “Poor Julie needs a hero to come rescue him from the big bad dragon.” He snickered, then cocked his head curiously at Maeve as the last of his tail disappeared. Danny was at least discreet enough not to say her name. Or the name he knew her by, anyway. He looked from her to Julius, then back.
It was impressive to see, and on a different day she would have found it fascinating, but instead she was just relieved that everything was calming down. It also gave her a moment to assess Danny’s human shape, confused and unprepared as he was now that the dust was starting to settle. Neither of them seemed too bad off, at least, from what she could see from the glance she had cast her...friend? Over her shoulder.
And she was actually relieved he stepped back, there were some things she was good for, and this was one of them. At least this dynamic was old hat for them.
Admittedly, part of her didn’t like seeing Danny hurt either. She was fond of him. Not fond enough to leave her knives — or worse — unsheathed if he tried to have a go at Julius again, but still. Enough that she took no satisfaction in seeing him wounded. There was recognition in his eyes though, and she had the feeling that even if he seemed to be listening to her now, this wasn’t going to shake out easy for her once everything was said and done, even if it picked up after this was done.
Oh for fuck’s sake, “You both started it! Seriously? Neither of you are young enough to settle petty shit started over the internet like this.” Which was not something several of her personas would have gotten behind, a thing which Julius knew very well and Danny could guess, though Briar was better at being discreet. Too used to being at the bottom of the totem pole to take risks like this. Not that she hadn’t gotten into a bar brawl on occasion but, “Oak and Ash, at least settle it in the basement of a bar or some shit, no one has any respect for tradition anymore.” That last bit was more muttered than anything else, looking miffed as she straightened her clothes, looking ten shades of done with this even though she had just arrived.
“Julie? Really reached for some creativity didn’t you? You, who couldn’t win an old fashioned brawl without shifting, think you have the ground to mock him for something he can’t control?” It was a double edged sort of thing, that Julius couldn’t control her, and therefore hadn’t made her intervene or even wanted her to, and a jab at Danny for not being able to control himself. With some effort she managed to make it sound like a legitimate question, though the exasperation was still obvious. Hard to keep it out of her voice, but easier to focus on that than the compulsion to shake both of them until their heads rattled off their shoulders, and possibly punch Danny for hurting Julius.
Made a little bit easier to resist by the really did have pretty much equal responsibility in this from what she had read, the ass.
Julius stood behind Maeve, more irritable by the second since it seemed she wasn’t even going to let him get one last jab in or even argue the point that Danny turning into a Dragon when he realized he had basically lost did not, in fact, prove anything except that he was a child who couldn’t play by the rules and apparently threw a tantrum any time he didn’t get his way—a dangerous tantrum, but a tantrum nonetheless. But she’d already answered to it, and made some ridiculous insinuation that they could have had this match in the basement of a bar? Who’s bar? Hers? Yeah, alright, made sense when she wasn’t even responding to his messages and when she did it was a one word response and usually Busy
So, his jaw set (painfully so, considering he sizable bruise forming under the scruff), and he stood there, quietly assessing his own damage, “Not too busy now, apparently,” muttered under his breath but definitely just loud enough for her to hear it.
Danny’s jaw tightened and his eyes begged of Maeve the question: really? After he’d shown her what Danny considered professional courtesy, after he’d told her things he’d never told anyone, not even Xi, she was going to defend the smarmy lecher behind her? He wasn’t phased by the insinuation on his lack of control. He knew exactly what he was doing when he shifted. Danny hadn’t agreed to any kind of terms with the fae. But it was a personal offense to him that she’d take Julius’ side. What was Julius to her? Other than someone who overused the word ‘darling’ and who talked down to every person he met with an air of privilege, which to Danny, from what he knew of Briar’s past and what she’d told him, marked him as someone she wouldn’t typically tolerate. Let alone defend. Everyone had their double standards, he supposed.
For an answer, he spat on the ground between them and wiped the back of his good hand across his mouth. It came back bloody. She may be able to cross that line and side with the enemy, but he wouldn’t stoop to her level and call her by the name he knew her, the name that Xi trusted somehow. Wait till Xi heard about this. “Yeah,” he smirked at Maeve, blood in his teeth. “I do. He knew what I was when he got himself into this. Julie is lucky he’s got you. I hope you both make beautiful babies together.”
With a scoff and a shake of his head, Danny tugged his hood back up – though it was dirty and somewhat torn – and turned his back on both of them to walk away. He was now wounded on more than a physical level, but he was done here.
Fucking great.
Maeve could practically see this particular bridge burning up in front of her, which was going to mess a couple plans up, thanks Julius, along with probably losing someone that — well she wasn’t sure if they would have become friends, but there was definitely some kind of kinship bond there. Not to mention he definitely had blackmail material on her if he cared to use it, now against Julius but the town in generally, her home and there was something in his eyes that said he might be angry enough to use it.
This went tits up faster than she had expected, kind of like whatever she had going with —
Not the time.
She gave Danny a disgusted look at his parting comments, flipping him off at his back even though it felt half-hearted at best, her attention and glare turning back to Julius to give him (or rather, his visible injuries) an appraising look. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as being eaten, and that was about as long as she was going to let herself look at him because there was too much going on in her head and chest right now for anything beyond finishing the mission. Which, in this case, was saving his ass. Again.
“Not too busy now? Really, Fírinne? Maybe I should have stayed home today after all.” If this was the thanks she got for putting herself between him and a Dragon, for seeing him even when it was going to hurt her, even when she knew Danny was going to end up figuring out shit she really didn’t want him to know. Not that she could predict how she would have reacted, but that didn’t matter at the moment, she was angry, rattled, relieved, and hurting from self-inflicted wounds. But his were going to heal and her job was done, she shook her head , running a hand through her hair as she walked off, stiff backed and with shaking hands.
Babies? What the fuck? Oberon, what a child.
The threat seemed neutralized though. For now. Julius walked to the fence post to retrieve his jacket, and extracted the pack of cigarettes from the pocket, tapping it against his palm in a tight, tense rhythm before pulling one out and placing it between his lips. It had been what? A whole fifteen minutes? Long overdue.
Fírinne? They were back to this were they? He lit up and took a long drag, feeling like that alone answered several questions. “Not sure why you didn’t.” If she wanted a thank you, she had another thing coming. It wasn’t like he hadn’t drawn a Dragon off of her, and after not hearing from her for two weeks, after having all of his messages and questions dodged, he didn’t really have anything left to say to her. Not if she was going to go back to calling him by his last name and acting like this entire thing was somehow his fault. It was partially his fault, he’d take some credit. At least, for the thing between him and Danny. He had no clue what had happened between them, except that it was apparently still off, and he was alone again, and apparently unwanted. Again. The usual. If he could leave, he would.
“Guess I’ll see you around,” he called after her retreating form, following it with another drag as he hopped back up onto the fence post.