Drew (seethroughalens) wrote in worldsapart_ic, @ 2019-04-24 19:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | drew nolan, ryder adams |
Who: Drew Nolan & Ryder Adams
What: Bigots are like cockroaches, they can be found just about anywhere
When: 24th April
Where: NYC Deli
Rating: PG
Warnings: n/a
Ryder shifted uncomfortably in the line at the deli, rubbing the back of his neck. At the head of the line, and at two of the tables, were people the likes of which he recognised on a fundamental level. They were the kind of people that had hung around his dad’s pub with increasing regularity. The kind of people who had reached across the bar to pat Ryder and praise him for being a good, American human. The kind of people who had chanted ‘build the wall’, ‘lock her up’ and ‘burn the bitch’. His skin was crawling, and the longer he stood in the queue biting his tongue, the smaller he seemed to get, his impressive stature almost immediately diminishing and for someone who was well over six foot tall he looked awfully small.
Realistically he knew that if something was to kick off he'd be more than capable of defending himself, that wasn't the issue, the issue was more that he was worried about hurting someone and ending up validating their bullshit cause, as bullshit as it was.
"The fuck do you mean?" the guy at the front snarled, "You some sort of non-human lover?" A few jeers emboldened him as he spat on the counter. "Or maybe you're not human yourself. Give me your hand, darlin', let's see if you bleed red."
Ryder opened his mouth to speak, brows furrowed because it was going too far when someone else jumped in instead, a voice from behind him raising.
Drew just so happened to be on the other end of that raised voice especially as he couldn't just stand by and watch some poor Fae get insulted and threatened by some ignorant assholes who didn't look as though they shared a brain cell between them. He might not be supernatural but he wasn't a coward and he definitely wasn't about to let this go unchallenged.
"How about you do us all a favour and take your small minded bigotry someplace else, like back to the fifties where it belongs?"
That remark immediately drew the man's attention away from the counter and to where Drew was standing. "What did you say to me?"
Drew's eyebrow lifted. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I use too many big words for your pea sized brain to be able to understand?" He held up a hand. "My bad, let me try again. Stop being a total asshole."
Ryder stepped up behind the human who was intervening just as the neanderthal's friends came up to join him. "You probably wanna be thinkin' about movin' on," he drawled, arms folded across his chest. The leather of his jacket groaned a little. "Ain't no need to start somethin' here."
The guy opposite Drew puffed up his chest, unintimidated by the guy and his newcomer friend, depsite how impressively tall they both were. His buddies flanked him, chins tipped up in challenge.
"What're you gonna do about it, pretty boy?" he asked, sneering. "You some freak lover too?"
Drew's head turned ever so slightly as somebody else stepped up to call these asshats on their idiocy and that was nice that there was another decent soul because there were a lot of people and not many were saying anything. Cowards, that's definitely what it boiled down to.
"If by freak lover you mean a decent human being and not a total shithead excuse of a person then yeah I guess that's exactly what we both are," Drew returned coolly as he held the other man's gaze, unafraid and unflinching.
Ryder went one step further, lifting his chin and letting his eyes shift slightly, able at least to control the way that his body reacted in that instant. The guy stumbled back a little, in what could only be described as abject horror before rallying himself. "You like him?" he asked Drew, dark eyes cutting to the blond. "You a fucking mutt as well?"
"Call me a mutt again," Ryder growled, "I dare you."
Drew didn't need to look at the brunette to know exactly what the half of Dumb and Dumber was saying. Clearly he was a wolf.
The guy snorted in response to Ryder's warning. "Or what? You gonna hit me?"
One of his friends spat at the ground at both of Drew and Ryder's feet while another just smirked. "Ain't this cute, freak lover and his mutt, bet you two have a lot of fun together behind closed doors, huh? Fucking fairies."
"Pretty sure it's time you guys leave," Ryder said, which was echoed by the manager who had come out from behind the counter.
"I think it's time all of you left. I'm not allowing any fights to break out here. You want to fight, you take it outside."
Ryder just lifted an eyebrow and squared his shoulders, waiting for the guys to make another move, ignoring how he felt his hackles raise at the slurs being thrown in their direction.
"Looks like you were on the money, man, they ain't got anything to say in response to that. Fuck off, queers. We don't want either of your kind in here."
"I apologise," Drew said to the owner. "But you're right, we'll take this particular disagreement outside." He turned back to the Neanderthals. "You coming or what?"
And with that he headed outside where he shrugged out of his jacket and put it to one side, he definitely didn't want to get blood on it.
Ryder followed, throwing an "I doubt it," over his shoulder largely because he knew that would taunt the men into coming after them instead of going back to harrassing the woman behind the counter. He didn't recognise her scent, but she'd smelt sweet and sort of... forest-y, so he was assuming she was some kind of fae. Though she might have been able to defend herself it hadn't seemed like it, so he was glad that the guy had stepped up which had emboldened him to do so, too.
Last time this had happened though, he'd been human.
Rolling up his sleeves, Ryder chanced a look at the blond, holding his hand out. "Ryder," he said, figuring he should at least know the name of the guy he was about to get into a fight with as the man - and his four friends - came out, spitting on the floor and jeering.
"Drew," he returned as he took a hold of the other man's hand. "Nice to meet you." He shrugged out of his jacket because it was leather and also expensive, he didn't want to screw it up by getting blood on it. He might not have had any formal training but he could hold his own and he sure as hell wasn't going to let bullshit like he'd just seen pass.
Four against two, the odds weren't exactly in their favour, but Ryder looked like he could hold his own so Drew wasn't worried.
And then it happened.
The first guy lunged and Drew sidestepped him before ducking a punch aimed at his head that he promptly followed up by throwing his own.
Ryder moved quickly from the one that ended up swinging for him. He wasn't violent by nature but he wasn't about to not defend himself considering he was in a fight (and wouldn't Rhys, Kira and Colbie all have massively different reactions to this knowledge). He caught the guy's hand and immediately hissed, yanking his hand back as the edge of a silver ring burned his palm. He felt his eyes flash almost instinctively and ducked under another swing, delivering a swift punch to the man's jaw which rendered him unconscious as he hit the ground.
Shit, stronger than the average human, he forgot about that. He shook out his hand, looking down at the burn mark on his hand and felt that roiling anger inside of him again, the low simmer that turned hot when something like this happened. He glanced over at Drew and saw that he was holding his own, so Ryder focused another who had clocked his reaction to the silver and had yanked his necklace off, winding it around his fingers. Ryder made a point of making sure that he wouldn't get hit by that.
Drew grunted as he was slammed up against the nearby wall and he reached out to fist both hands in the other man's collar and using his superior height he wrestled the other man off him before he blocked another punch, foot landing squarely on the other man's chest. Thankfully it was strong enough to knock him back and over a nearby set of bins which caused the clatter but it was one less to worry about.
Of course what he hadn't been expecting was for asshole number whatever to pick up a discarded piece of wood and slam that across his back. Pain exploded in his peripheral vision before Drew grunted as he hit the ground though thankfully still had enough of his senses to be able to catch his weight as the other guy swung at him again.
"Motherfucker," he muttered as he swept his leg out and took him down before he lunged.
Ryder turned his head to see the plank of wood shatter over Drew's back and had started to move to help him when the guy started getting back to his feet and tackled the man to the floor. With the two of them crashing to the ground, Ryder ducked under the swing that was thrown at him, able to smell the silver and his skin prickled as though he'd been hit.
He had kind of had enough of this, though, and caught the guy's wrist, twisted his arm behind his back and shoved him into the assembled crowd, a few hands holding him there as he moved towards Drew and the other guy, who were grappling on the floor, rolling around and as soon as the guy rolled on top of Drew, Ryder grabbed the back of his shirt and literally hauled him back and off the blonde, throwing him backwards hard enough that he careened into a large dumpster with enough force to dent it.
He held out a hand to Drew, "You okay?"
Drew arched his eyebrows when the man he'd been grappling with was thrown through the air and slammed into the nearby dumpster. "Mmm, yeah, I think so? I mean, I feel like I got hit by a truck but it was worth it."
With a faint grimace he reached out to take a hold of the offered hand and used the grip to pull himself to his feet, definitely feeling the fight now that it was in the process of winding down and the adrenaline which had flooded his system was now ebbing away.
"I think we should probably get out of here."
"My sister's a lawyer," Ryder said with a little grin, "but I think you're right. Let's not get arrested today." Besides, he needed to be away from these assholes so that he didn't lose his temper as he could already feel it roiling, his blood pumping from the adrenaline of the fight.
He patted Drew on the back and ducked his head, pushing him forward and through the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight.