TIMING: Current
LOCATION: Mabel’s Maple Shoppe
PARTIES: @chasseurdeloup and @eldritchaccident
SUMMARY: Kaden gets a call about a "rotten egg" at the store Teddy's working at for the moment. There's definitely nothing weird about the egg at all.
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A
Another day, another strange call to animal control that Kaden was assigned to investigate. This particular call was about an egg and he was tempted to ignore it and do something a little more critical but the owner was insistent and so was Gary. The other officer told Kaden that the owner wouldn’t stop calling and making a stink (or was she saying there was a stench? He didn’t remember) and that he wasn’t going to fill out one damn line of Langley’s paperwork if he didn’t at least go by the place. A threat that the ranger couldn’t ignore. The shop in question was one he hadn’t been to before and one look at it, he could see why. Mabel’s Maple Shoppe. Seemed excessively niche, which wasn’t entirely out of place in Wicked’s Rest. But a place that “caters to all your maple needs” wasn’t going to be on the top of his list to stop by. Kaden didn’t know what maple needs consisted of but he was pretty sure he didn’t have any of those.
The scent hit him as soon as he entered the store, before the bell above the door could finish ringing. It wasn’t the worst odor he’d been up against but it sure wasn’t pleasant. Kaden tugged the collar of his shirt up a little to try and help mask it at least a little. Didn’t help much. There was someone at the counter and he figured it was best to speak to them before rifling through the shop for the creature in question. “Hey, got a call from the owner, Ms. Maple, I’m assuming. Animal control,” he said, holding up his badge to the person at the counter. “Something about a rotten strange egg. She said she saw a strange worm slither away from it I think? Was worried about a nest.” He cleared his throat, trying to mask the slight gagging from the smell, “Pretty sure I can sniff it out but wouldn’t mind being pointed in the right direction.”
—
Mabel’s Maple Shoppe was just another on a long long long long long long list of temporary jobs Teddy found themself enlisted to help with. Well, not so much enlisted by the establishment, but when an establishment found itself in need of a helping hand, the oft bored ex-demon was always just there to help. Just at the right time. It wasn’t spellwork, but it seemed almost magical in a way. Too quick on the draw, smiles too bright to ignore.
Teddy wanted to do everything humanity had to offer. They’d been removed from it for so long that even the simplest things filled them with joy. Time and its monotony were generally the reason for most people’s malaise with the working industry, but Teddy found that hopping from one occupation to the next kept it fresh, kept it fun. It added ever more names to their roster of those that owed favors. Not in the way of the fey, but of jovial connection and well earned gregariousness.
Of course, it was ever useful to have a handful of options to lean towards whenever a sudden task beyond their means reared its head. And Teddy had spent many of those good fortunes in readying the house for Emilio and Wynne. So they were back at it. Trying to find normalcy in their erratic work schedule after that… excursion into their past. In trying new jobs at new places, Ted could pretend they were someone else. A week at Mable’s and they would be off to somewhere else. Only, well, the egg happened.
Teddy hadn’t seen it. Not yet. Mrs Mable was going off about it, and how it was driving away customers. But somewhere along the five hundredth maple flavored item Teds had gone a little noseblind. The animal control officer walked in, and they were more than happy to flip the sign to ‘We’ll be back soon.’ so they could take a moment to direct him. “Did she even actually explain what she saw? She was acting like it was radioactive I swear. Wouldn’t let me leave the counter.” Though, whether that was something due to the egg itself or her desire to keep sales rolling, that was beyond them. Curiosity had been burning, and Teddy wasn’t usually one for self-restraint. But patience won out. Whatever it was, they’d find it together now.
—
Kaden shook his head. “She didn’t say anything specific. Honestly, I was pretty sure this was a job for…” He paused. “I don’t know, anyone else. Not animal control necessarily. But Gar– Officer Miller insisted that we at least check it out. Mostly so he could stop taking her calls.” He probably shouldn’t be so honest with a civilian technically but it was hard to care one way or another. He wasn’t there to be a cop, he was there to get paid to do the shit he was going to do anyway: clean up supernatural messes and help animals.
“I mean, if nothing else, it smells radioactive so good enough to reason to get it out of here. Just be careful,” Kaden warned. “If there’s a nest, the thing that made it could be nearby. And I’ve never encountered an animal that doesn’t protect its nest with everything it’s got.” Same with monsters. Putain, he hoped they weren’t dealing with something supernatural but he had a feeling he wouldn’t get that lucky.
—
Strangers liked to tell Teddy things. Must’ve just had one of those faces. Open and welcoming enough that extra details just slipped through the cracks and filled the ex-demon up with sated wonder, then more questions. They caught the trip in words, and found an opening to slide inside of, stepping in time with the officer’s gait as they rounded the back of the shop. “Is that Gary or Garfeild? I know a couple Millers.” They chimed in, a cheshire smile sprouting upon their lips. “One of them is a doll, the other just loves to try and get everyone else to do his work.” C’mon officer, at least give up the hot goss.
“Don’t actually know if radiation actually has a smell. I think it’d be a lot safer if it did, but I get what you mean. I’ve been dealing with this all morning. Do you want some Vick’s?” The mentholated vapor rub just under the nose was more than enough to block out the worst of it that morning. They didn’t really get much of a chance for an answer though, as the pair exited the old maple wood door and spilled out onto the patio.
—
“You do?” Kaden said, surprised to hear Gary’s name dropped by the employee. “The first one, yeah. Gary.” He sighed at the thought of the other officer. “Look, we have a pretty good set up. I do the field work, he does the office work. It’s a win-win.” The less time Kaden had to spend chained to a desk, the better. And Gary felt the same about getting scratched, bitten, and bruised on the job. Which would be fair enough anywhere but especially in this town. It was more dangerous than most so it was probably for the best that the only one trying to control the animals and monsters around town for the WRPD was a ranger.
—
Truthfully? No. Teddy didn't know the man. But those were the first two names to come to mind with a Gah- at the beginning, and Teds was always looking for a way to push themself into anyone else's life. A messy little habit, but a fun one. “Ahh, so you're more of a man of action then? That's a pretty good foil to old Gary. At least you like what you do.” They offered a smile.
It was overgrown and blushed with flowers just starting to bloom, but beneath one of the larger bushes, sure enough the remains of a messy insectoid infestation littered the mossy stone floor. Teddy’s eyes scanned the debris, excitement growing as they realized this was so much more than mundane. Not enough to recognize the species or anything like that, only that it wasn’t any bug they’d find in a natural history museum.
—
Kaden let the employee lead the way towards the back corner of the store, the musty smell growing more and more potent as they walked. It was almost enough to drown out the smell of maple – almost.
His brows furrowed as he leaned down to examine the source of the stink. “I don’t get it,” he started, “it’s just a damn–”
The words caught in his throat as the world shifted around Kaden, like he was seeing clearly for the first time in his entire life. It was as if he finally understood his purpose, what he was meant to be doing: his duty.
It wasn’t just a damn egg, far from it. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
—
The officer squatted and Teddy alongside him, carefully prying to get a clear look at whatever–Oh. Oh goodness. That same sweep of emotion infected the ex-demon gazed upon what must have been an egg, but, no- no that was– Well, of course it was their child.
—
Out there on the patio, one quick look at the employee next to him and it was clear to Kaden that they both felt the same way. That they were going to protect this egg — no, child — with their lives. Any worry of whatever the nest might belong to had faded away. It didn’t matter who or what made the nest or what made the egg, it didn’t belong to that creature. The egg belonged to them. Kaden reached out and carefully picked it up and cradled the egg in his arms. “We should get him some place safe,” he said to the employee.
Right. He just realized they hadn’t even exchanged names. “Kaden, by the way,” he said, glancing back at thm. “My name, that is. Don’t think I said it before.” His eyes didn’t stay away from the egg for long, practically glued to the miracle he was holding in his arms. “Speaking of, he needs one.” Once again, Kaden realized he wasn’t exactly being clear. “A name, I mean.”
—
The warm fuzzies spread throughout the caster, a total shift from the nosy ruse they had built up before. None of that really mattered anymore now did it? Who had time to poke anyone for information when they had precious cargo to care for. A warm hand came up to the officer– Kaden’s back. Teddy crept in closer, inspecting the egg, carefully reaching out to stroke its surface. Something deeply buried welled up in their chest. Somewhere between pride, determination, and devotion. They knew instantly they'd do anything for their little baby. That they'd make it work with–
Teddy didn't remember having an egg with Kaden.
But it was theirs. There was no doubt. The child was theirs. And they would care for it. “Oh–” a name, of course he needed a name. “What about…” The goat was already Levi jr, so that was out of the way. Maybe name it after Emilio? Shouldn't Teddy have had an egg with Emilio? Maybe Emilio just couldn't have eggs. Maybe that's why they had to have one with Kaden. Kaden was a perfect parent, just like they'd be. “Lio?” Teddy would figure out the mess in their mind later, it didn't matter that much, not compared to taking care of the baby.
The apron was more than enough soft fabric to create a small swaddling sling, one that Teddy carefully hung around Kaden's neck, all the while softly gazing at their dear new addition. “That works if she's a girl too. Or whatever, y’know. It's so hard to tell when they're this young.”
—
Kaden didn’t know how the egg got here or why he knew it was theirs or why— Wait, what was their name? The hunter squinted as he tried to read the name tag the other person was wearing. Telly? He was pretty sure that’s what it said. Anyway, he didn’t know how Telly and he ended up being the two destined to raise this egg and keep it safe but there was no doubt in his mind that it was anything other than a fact.
“Lio?” Kaden repeated, glancing up at them for a second before his eyes zeroed back in on the child in his arms. The sling was a welcome addition, it would help him keep them close, keep them safe, and make it easier to protect them from anything in this fucked up town that so much as looked at them wrong. “That could work…” Something about the name sounded familiar. It did remind him of his home, of Lyon. That was sort of nice. Almost like a family name, then.
Although he felt like Monty should be involved with this somehow. No, that was silly, of course Monty would help raise the egg. Even if he wasn’t the parent, he’d be a great stepdad. Or something like that. Kaden wasn’t sure what the right term for him was. Maybe they should name it after him? “If they’re a girl, we could call her Anya.” It was something like Montaña – close enough, at least. Not that it mattered much one way or another. “I’m sure they’re going to be perfect no matter what,” he practically cooed as he brushed a tender hand along the egg’s surface.
“We should get them home, though.” He looked back at Telly when it struck him that he wasn’t sure what home meant at that point. “I mean, I have a cabin. It’s safe out there. But I’m sure your place is good, too. Wherever that is.”
Hold on, wasn’t Kaden supposed to be on duty? No. He was supposed to take care of the egg. Or something like that. This was part of his job, he was sure of it. At least for now. Being a working parent was going to be difficult. And Telly was on the clock, too, weren’t they? They could both make it work. “I guess we should figure out work schedules, too,” he added. “You can leave the place closed for now, right? We should get supplies on our way. This petit ange deserves the best nest in the world.” If he could look at himself objectively, Kaden would have wondered where the grin spread across his face came from, but in the moment, it felt obvious — correct, even.
—
“Anya and Lio. A shame it’s not twins.” Teddy effused maternal joy, cooing over their shared precious cargo. “Though… I guess you never know with these kinds of things. We could just go with Lianya, sort of a combo.” For the first time in a while, their eyes traveled up from the egg to the man holding it. The slightest touch of confusion wormed in, only at the strangeness of how little they knew him, and how important he obviously had to be. They both belonged to this egg, so in some way, they belonged to each other. Right? Even if just as caretakers.
Home. Right, they should get it home. Needed a nest. Needed to bundle it up with joy and fluff and all the comforts of home. “A cabin? Aren’t the woods kinda…..” Fun to run around with a slayer and take care of the more monstrous mal-doers who would for sure try and hurt the people of Wicked’s Rest, and more than that, would hurt their little baby. “I’ve got a big house on World’s End Isle, lots of empty rooms. You could stay there too. Could bring all your stuff and there’d still be room. It’ll be safe there.”
Teddy had completely forgotten about the maple goods store until Kaden brought it back up, and in all honesty, it was still the furthest thing from their mind right then. “Ah I barely work here.” Noncommittally and disaffected, Teds could not care less about the tiny too sweet smelling store. “Mostly I just temp for fun, don’t really need the money. I’ll close up while you figure out what this lil guy needs.” They curled in close while helping the man to his feet, scritching at the ‘head’ of the egg as if it were an actual humanoid infant. “We’re gonna be the best parents, no matter what.”
—
“Lianya.” Kaden ran the name over his tongue before nodding. It was a solid compromise. “I like it. What about you?” he said, cooing to the egg. “Do you like that name, Lianya?” There was no actual response but he swore the egg grew a little warmer. Or brighter. Something like that, it was a good response. He could tell.
For a moment, Kaden was offended. What was wrong with his cabin? It was perfectly safe out there. All his weapons were out there. How was he going to protect this child if the weapons were in the cabin and he was on World’s End Isle with Telly? He sighed. He couldn’t argue that the island was more secluded and probably had better defenses. “Sure, we can do that. It means we’ll have to baby-proof more rooms, though.” Did he know what that entailed for Lianya specifically? Not really. They could figure it out. “After we pick up supplies in town, we can drop them off at your place and I’ll run to mine to grab what I need there.” And by that he meant weapons.
Kaden followed behind as Telly closed up shop, gently cradling the egg and rocking it ever slightly. Nothing about this made a lot of sense if he paused to think about it but at the same time, it made all the sense in the world. The skies had cleared and his purpose was right there in front of him, right there in his arms. Kaden beamed at Telly’s words. They were going to be the best parents, no matter what. “We will be,” he assured them. “And nothing in the world will stand in our way.”
[pm] Oh. Guess that makes sense. Wait, is she back from Ireland in that case? I'll keep an eye out. I can do some patrolling, too. If you want.
Anyway, Jade. What do you know about her? What's her deal?
[pm] Yes. She's back from Ireland. It was It was Bad things She's not Yeah. Yeah, that would be good. You don't have to [...] talk to her if you see her. She might not want me to. Just [...] let me know if you do. Let me know she's okay.
[user tries to figure out what kaden is looking for, but he's tired.]
I don't know what you mean. She's a slayer. She hunts. I think she delivers food or something for money. Why do you want to know about her?
TIMING: current
LOCATION: a tree in the woods
PARTIES: @chasseurdeloup & @recoveringdreamer
SUMMARY: kaden finds a balam stuck in a tree. felix could think of many places they'd rather be.
CONTENT WARNINGS: none!
Felix was no stranger to coming back to themself in strange positions after a shift. In fact, that was one of the few things throughout their life that had remained a constant thing. It might have been comforting, in a strange way, if not for the… public nudity of it all. The public nudity made it a little hard to feel any kind of relief. There were few things worse than waking up naked.
Waking up naked in a tree might be one of them, though.
The jaguar had been antsy lately. Felix thought he might dislike the curse, even if he wasn’t really affected by it. (The jaguar neither spoke nor knew how to rhyme, so he seemed immune from this particular oddity.) Maybe that was why he’d taken over when he had… but Felix had no idea why he’d climbed a tree. He didn’t usually climb trees. It felt a little cliche.
Gripping the trunk tightly, Felix looked down. The side of the tree was all clawed up, so it was pretty clear how they’d gotten up here. How to get down would be a little more difficult, though. They heard someone shuffling below, and they took a moment to look themself over, to see if there was blood on them. Had they hurt someone? But… no. Their skin seemed clean, and they couldn’t taste any blood in their mouth, so… Everything was fine. Whoever was down there must have shown up after the jaguar got into the tree. Which might mean they could help.
“Is — Is there someone down there?” Felix called, uncertain. “This isn’t as weird as it looks, I swear!”
—
It wasn’t every day that Kaden got a call about a “spotted mountain lion” stuck in a tree. He figured it was best not to ask too many questions and just head over to the location in question and see for himself what the fuck was going on. The one thing he was pretty sure about was he was going to deal with some supernatural bullshit.
He approached the tree with a full arsenal: tranq filled shotgun, plenty of knives, and a pistol, just in case. A familiar sensation slid down his spine the closer he got. Even after all this time, it set him on edge, made him want to squirm away from the feeling just beneath his skin. There was definitely a shifter nearby. And if he had to hazard a guess, it was a balam. Unless sirens had suddenly become leopard-shaped. He doubted it.
Kaden could feel the balam’s presence before he could spot him (spot – he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at his own bad pun). The voice made it much easier to find the guy in question. The ranger looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun, and realized he had to take a few steps back to see the person stuck up there. “Putain de merde,” he muttered. “You’re pretty goddamn high up, aren’t you?”
And very naked, too, apparently.
Definitely a balam.
“Pretty sure it’s about as weird as it looks,” he said, eyes running over the trunk of the tree, looking for some easy way up or down. “Lucky for you, I’m pretty damn used to weird.” All he could see were claw marks dug into the side of the tree. Of fucking course. Wasn’t hard for a giant goddamn cat to get up there but there wasn’t much hope for a human.
“I’m animal control,” he called up to the guy. “Got a call about a big spotted mountain lion in a tree. Seems like I found you instead.” He wasn’t sure if he should let the proverbial cat out of the bag (he laughed again) and clue them into the fact that he knew what they were. It came with a a whole host of questions, though: how do you know? Why do you know? Are you going to hurt me? All that shit. He was hoping he could skip it. “Kaden, by the way. I take it you’re not shimmying yourself down anytime soon. Considering you’re not really dressed for it.”
—
They were pretty high up. Felix wasn’t afraid of heights — it would be pretty weird if they were, considering — but they’d really like to have their feet on the ground right about now. The jaguar was a good climber, was built for it. Felix? Not so much. They clung to the branch of the tree as tightly as they could, even if they were pretty secure in the fact that the jaguar wouldn’t let them fall. If it started to look or feel like that was a possibility, the spirit would definitely take over. The only issue was… Felix had no idea if the cat would take them down from the tree or climb them higher. It was a little hard to predict that kind of thing sometimes.
Getting down as a human was probably a better option here. And maybe that would be easier to do with a little help from the bottom of the tree. Felix risked a look down, spotting the faraway figure of the man who’d approached. Unharmed, they reminded themself, you didn’t hurt anyone. They swallowed, letting out a shaky exhale. This time.
“Yeah, I, uh… I think I’m stuck. But… You’re here now, so… maybe I’m in luck?” This guy was wearing a uniform, and that probably meant he had a plan. Right? People in uniforms were smart! They knew things! He probably dealt with this sort of thing all the time! This probably wasn’t even that weird to him.
Okay, maybe that was a stretch. He said it was ‘just as weird as it looked,’ so maybe this wasn’t the kind of thing he saw on the daily. Which was kind of a bummer, really, because Felix had no idea what they were doing and it would have been really nice to have someone around who did. But if the guy was used to weird… maybe there was still a plan in place?
Sweat pricked the back of Felix’s neck as the man spoke again. Animal control… spotted mountain lion… Their mouth went dry, eyes zeroing in on the gun the officer had brought with him. “Well, I haven’t seen any mountain lions here! Someone probably saw wrong, I think we’re in the clear.” Not a good time for rhyming. Stupid curse. They let out a nervous laugh, shaking their head. “Yeah, um, I’d rather not try shimmying down. I’ve got… certain things… swinging around… Do you have a better plan? I don’t think climbing down is it, man.” They swallowed again, hugging the tree a little tighter. “I’m Felix, by the way. Uh, I guess… I forgot to say.”
—
“Yeah normally I deal with cats stuck in trees. Not naked people. Can’t be that different, right?” Kaden shouted up. “At least you don’t have claws.” He huffed a small laugh to himself. At least they didn’t have them right now, that is.
As Felix spoke, Kaden was assessing the situation – namely, the tree. There was no way he was climbing up that thing, not without a hell of a lot of help. And the space between the branches it would be dangerous for Felix to try and jump down to any of them. As he was contemplating what to do next, he realized something.
“Are you rhyming?” he asked, brows knit together as he addressed the stuck balam. Well, alright there was no doubt that they were. He could hear that much. “On purpose, I mean?” Was this a cat thing? Honestly it wouldn’t surprise him if cats would speak in goddamn riddles if they could speak. But no, he’d met other balam by now. Leticia and Nicole didn’t speak in rhymes. So this was just their own personal quirk.
“Anyway, I’m gonna go get my ladder from the truck. I might have some extra clothes, too. I don’t know if the ladder will be tall enough but it can’t hurt. Hang tight.” It didn’t take him too long to walk to the truck and back, ladder and a change of clothes in hand. With the amount of blood and other bodily fluids he dealt with on a daily basis, he tried to keep at least an extra shirt or two in there.
Kaden started to extend the ladder and worked to get it propped up to the side of the tree. He considered spilling the beans, see if he could save them both the trouble of doing this the hard way when Felix could just use their jaguar form. It was probably best to do that now while they couldn’t attack him for being a hunter. Right? “You know, uh,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously, “you don’t have to hide the whole, uh… thing.” Great. Good explanation. Can’t misinterpret that. “I mean the, uh, shifter thing.”
—
“Haha! Definitely no claws!” Felix shot back down, the smallest hint of desperation in their tone. They had claws. They had very big, very sharp claws. They did not want the animal control officer to know this. “Just hands, no paws!” Were they trying too hard? Was it obvious? It probably didn’t matter much. After all, the animal control officer had no reason to think that the naked person in a tree sometimes turned into a jaguar, did he? Felix was safe.
Well… safe from being outed as a balam. Less safe from being called out for the rhyming thing.
“Oh, I, uh, I guess I am a little.” They tried to sound surprised, though they weren’t sure why. Did it matter if they were rhyming? Would they get in trouble for it? Would Kaden decide not to help them out of the tree? Felix had no idea how the French felt about rhymes. They’d never met anyone French before. “Um, I hope that’s okay, or I’ll have to ask you for an acquittal! I’m doing it because of… a bet. I made it with my friend, and I haven’t broken yet!” Did that make it sound better, or worse? Felix wasn’t sure they wanted this guy to think they were rhyming on purpose, but they couldn’t exactly hide it, either. It was kind of increasingly obvious.
In any case, it didn’t seem like Kaden would leave him in the tree. Felix let out a shaky, uncertain laugh at the instruction to hang tight because, really, what else were they going to do? If they stopped hanging tight, they’d fall. And they really didn’t want to find out how much the ‘cats always land on their feet’ cliche applied to them.
So, they held tight. They clung to the branch they were on, and they waited for Kaden to return like a superhero with a ladder and sweatpants. “Oh, man, I really owe you one,” Felix breathed a sigh of relief as the officer returned. “This whole tree thing is not fun.” They watched carefully as Kaden leaned the ladder against the tree, trying to inch towards it carefully.
And then, Kaden spoke. He said Felix didn’t have to hide and, at first, the balam’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I mean, I’ve been out of the closet for years now, but I’m not really sure how —” They cut themself off when Kaden continued. The whole shifter thing. Suddenly, Felix was trying to inch themself back up the tree, trying to put distance between themself and the man at the base of it. “You — Uh, I don’t know what you mean, stranger! I don’t know how you’d know that, unless you’re a ranger. I mean, what? Haha! I meant — Do you think this is a chestnut? The tree. I swear I heard someone say it was oak, but I think I disagree. I don’t even think I know where chestnuts grow. It’s probably pretty slow. Right? I don’t think you need to come up here, though, it’d get a little tight. Actually, you can probably just go!”
—
Kaden narrowed his eyes as Felix babbled on. If he wasn’t already suspicious that he was dealing with a balam, he was positive now. No question there. The guy definitely had paws on occasion. And claws. Merde, he hoped those didn’t make an appearance, he didn’t want to deal with any more scratch marks today. If nothing else, Felix seemed too nervous to simply shift in front of the ranger. Or otherwise, considering that he’d been there for a while prior to Kaden heading out there.
“Right. A bet.” He didn’t buy that for a second. Not that he had any sort of guess for what the fuck was going on or how the hell he walked into some kind of fucked up nursery rhyme that went along the lines of:
The clock struck three when the cat ran up the tree
People called upon the ranger to swoop in and save them from danger
He brought the ladder, asked the balam what was the matter,
And they told him that actually they were fine and that they didn’t even know how to climb
Or some shit like that.
“I don’t know if you know it but you’re not a bad poet.” Not that he could say much, considering. He stood there, blinking, when he realized what he’d just said. “Putain de merde, now you’ve got me doing it.” If he didn’t know for sure that he was dealing with a shifter, Kaden would be worried that he’d walked into some sort of fae bullshit right about then.
Granted, that could still be the case even if it was a balam stuck in a tree and not a nymph. There were plenty of fae out there and all kinds of bullshit they could have stumbled into out in the forest of Wicked’s Rest. Honestly, if rhyming was the worst thing that happened, they were probably lucky.
Either way, wasn’t his problem to solve at the moment.
“Huh?” was Kaden’s first reaction to the mention of coming out of the closet. “I wasn’t asking if you– I’m not trying to–” There was really no way to respond that wasn’t horribly awkward. Hell, Kaden hadn’t even considered that was a direction his own comment could have steered them towards. Putain, was it possible this balam was more fucking inclined to make conversations awkward than Kaden was? He hadn’t expected that one. The same way he was prettys sure Felix hadn’t expected that a hunter was standing there with a ladder now. “I’m not just going to leave you up there in your birthday suit. Especially since you look like a strong breeze would blow you over at any second.” He was pretty sure that now they were shaking as they tried to cling onto the branches and trunk. That or the tree was vibrating. Kaden was going to place money on the former. “Uh, anyway, you’re not wrong. About the ranger part, I mean.” He cleared his throat, hand wanting to reach up to rub the back of his neck in some attempt to relieve the tension in the air but unable to let go of the ladder and perform the tick. “But I’m not– I mean, I don’t want to do anything or–” Kaden looked up, trying desperately to find some sort of eye contact with the shifter stuck in a tree. It was difficult from their particular angle, but he hoped they knew he wasn’t lying. “Look, I just want to help.”
He shifted on his feet, unsure of his own words. Kaden knew enough hunters that he knew this was going to be a hard sell for any shifter to believe. “I mean to help get you down. That’s it. I promise.” For whatever that was worth in this situation. “I can’t leave you like this, it’s too damn pathetic. And you need someone to hold the ladder.”
—
The French animal control officer clearly didn’t believe Felix’s bet excuse, which was… fair, actually. They’d really only gone with that excuse because it rhymed, anyway. If they weren’t stuck rhyming, they could have come up with a much better excuse. Of course, if they weren’t stuck rhyming, they wouldn’t have needed an excuse. It was one of those ‘endless cycle’ type things, like the chicken and the egg.
“Hey, you don’t have to insult me!” Felix complained, clinging to the branch they were holding a little tighter. “I’m stuck up a tree! Isn’t that bad enough? You shouldn’t keep adding more stuff!” A little panicked at the realization that Kaden, too, had spoken in a rhyme, Felix looked down quickly to ensure that the glass orange hadn’t gained the ability to walk and followed them here from the boiler room. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that the curse was mobile just yet. It probably would, in a few more days. The whole town would end up cursed with rhymes, and it’d be all Felix’s fault. Everyone would hate them, and they wouldn’t even be able to move to Canada about it.
Okay, maybe they were catastrophizing a little bit. It was just a little hard to look on the bright side when you were also looking down from close to the top of a very tall tree. All they could focus on were all the branches they might hit on their way down, or the animal control officer they might eat if their jaguar took over and got them safely to the bottom.
The animal control officer who was a ranger. Because of course the animal control officer was a ranger. Wasn’t that just Felix’s luck lately? At this rate, a thunder storm would probably roll in any moment.
Felix scrambled to tighten their hold on the tree, shaking a few leafs down in the process. The ranger confirmed that he was, in fact, a ranger, but then followed it up with a claim that he really only wanted to help. Felix let out a loud, nervous laugh. “I’m sorry, but am I just supposed to take your word for that? You guys are literally built for combat! Combat with people like me, specifically! So, I’m not exactly jonesing to come down there, you see!” The tree wasn’t so bad! Felix could have a good life in the tree. The squirrels wouldn’t care if he only spoke in rhymes.
The ranger wasn’t leaving, and Felix swallowed. Was he going to shoot them out of the tree, or would he prefer they be in jaguar form when he did it? His father told him once that a balam’s pelt was a highly desirable thing for a human to have. Felix felt panicked. “Everything is good here, Mr. Animal Control Officer, sir! Really, you can be on your way, Monsieur!” Would using one of the three French words he knew serve in Felix’s favor here? Maybe! Only one way to know!
—
Kaden let out an exasperated sigh. He had been hoping that this was going to be a simple cat stuck in a tree situation that someone had exaggerated on the phone. It wasn’t likely, but it happened once or twice. Well, sort of. He wasn’t sure if the fact that it was an ovinnik that one time fit the criteria but it had to count for something. Either way, he was starting to think it might have been simpler to deal with Felix while he was a goddamn jaguar than… this.
“Can you quit the rhyming shit?” Merde, maybe it was contagious. If it was, he was going to have to pull out the goddamn whiteboard again because he wasn’t going to speak if it was going to come out in rhymes. That was one step away from it coming out in song and once was more than enough. “I mean it, I’m tired of this bit. You’re making it harder than it has to be getting you out of this goddamn tree.”
Putain, he was going to fucking scream if this was going to keep on being a goddamn theme.
He swiped a hand down his face before taking hold of the ladder once again. “Like I was fucking saying, I’m not going to hurt you.” Unless this rhyming shit kept happening, then he might consider it. Kaden figured that admitting that wasn’t going to help the situation. “I don’t hunt anymore.” Well that wasn’t quite true. “I mean, I do, but just monsters and beasts, not shifters. Unless they kill people. Sometimes.” Or if they slaughtered animals on his partner’s farm, apparently. “Not that– I mean, I doubt you’ve killed anyone considering you got yourself stuck up a damn tree.” Then again, he didn’t really know one way or another, did he? “Putain, that’s not the point. I’m trying to fucking help you, not kill you. If I wanted to do that, I could leave you up in that damn tree.”
Something told him that wasn’t going to be enough to convinced the balam to start shimmying down the fucking ladder. It wasn’t all that different from what he’d said before. Only it was a little worse. “What can I do to prove it to you?”
—
“I can’t!” Felix shouted back, a little miffed. Did he really think they’d be rhyming if they could stop? Granted, they had implied that it was just a bet they’d lost, but that lie was a little thin. Surely an officer of the law would see through it, right? “Look, at least I’m not starting up a chant! This could definitely be worse. Like, what if I were talking in reverse? You wouldn’t even be able to tell what I was saying! There are much worse games we could be playing.” Except it wasn’t a game. It was a curse. And maybe it was going to get him killed after all, because what if the ranger grew tired of it? What if this was the straw that broke the camel’s back? If there was one thing Felix knew well, it was the danger of angry rangers.
God, were they rhyming in their head now, too?
“There isn’t an ugly glass orange down there, is there? Um, not for any particular reason, I’d just like to stay aware.” Was the ranger rhyming on purpose? Or was the curse somehow airborne now? Was that a thing that could happen? Felix should have listened more closely when their abuela went on and on about curses back when they were five years old and more interested in SpongeBob.
A hunter who didn’t hunt anymore? Except, he still did sometimes? Just beasts and monsters. And also shifters who killed people? Felix’s head was spinning with all the add-ons to what had started out a pretty straightforward statement, shifting forward to press themself as flat against the tree trunk as they possibly could. “You’re not — filling me with confidence,” they called back down, a little muffled because of the way their cheek was now pressed against the bark. “I mean, no offense! I’m just starting to think I should stay up here and take my chances. It’s actually not even all that uncomfortable in the branches! Everything is going really great. You don’t have to stand around and wait! You can honestly just leave. You probably have, like, equipment to retrieve!” That was probably a thing animal control officers did, right? Retrieve equipment from the woods? It sounded right.
Except the ranger wasn’t leaving, and Felix’s anxiety thrummed in their chest. “It’s kind of a hard thing to prove,” they admitted. “Like, it’s just… me trusting you not to make a move? And that’s hard. I feel like I need to stay on guard.”
—
This whole goddamn situation was absurd. There he was, a ranger and an animal control officer, in the woods trying to help a naked balam out of a tree. One who couldn’t stop rhyming. “You should get that checked out, you know,” Kaden called up. “The rhyming thing, I mean. Sounds like some kind of magical condition. Or just the normal bullshit that happens in this town sometimes.” Didn’t seem like he was going to be able to stop Felix from rhyming anytime soon. Now if he could just get him to get out of the goddamn tree.
Kaden couldn’t blame them for being wary of him. He hadn’t made the most compelling argument and even if he had, the nature of what he was – a ranger – was a big enough barrier to trust. It wasn’t like he could say he had never been a danger to shifters, either. There was blood on his hands and bodies piled up on his back and Felix’s concerns only added weight to it all – a helping of guilt and realization he would always be worthy of suspicion stacked on top. How the hell could he just ask a shifter to trust him? What gave him the goddamn right?
He pinched his eyes shut for a moment and exhaled. He still had to try. He scratched his chin and tried to think of something that might inspire confidence. Maybe there was someone they both knew. But this town, for as small as it was, was big enough that he didn’t know if they were going to find someone in common who was supernatural or could vouch for Kaden in some way. He could mention Monty, maybe. It crossed his mind, but something held him back from saying his partner’s name. Sure, he didn’t think that the mess of a balam clinging to the trunk of the tree was going to put the zombie in danger, but with everything happening at the farm, it felt like a risk.
“My cousin is a werewolf,” he offered. It felt safe enough. Alex wasn’t in town right now and wasn’t tied up in the whole bullshit with the farm and whoever was targeting Monty. Even then, he wasn’t sure if it would be enough. “I’m also dating a zombie.” That was vague. It should be okay. As much as he wanted to elaborate, to prove himself, he couldn’t risk anyone he cared about further than what he’d already said, not with everything going on. “Look I could leave you here with the ladder but it’s not going to be safe to climb down if I don’t hold it for you. And I’m going to feel like shit if you end up falling off of that branch and hurting yourself or some shit like that. So can you just climb down the goddamn ladder? “
—
“Hey, thanks, I appreciate the concern! But I’m not sure this is the kind of thing a doctor could discern.” The very idea of going to a doctor sounded bad, anyway. Felix wasn’t sure if any of the usual tests a primary physician might run would be able to detect that a person shared their body with a jaguar spirit and often shifted into a jaguar as a result, but they’d really rather not find out. Especially because they didn’t think a prescription would do much for a rhyming curse, anyway. Or did the officer mean he should seek help from someone magical? Felix didn’t even know how to begin to do that, either. Rhyming was kind of low on their list of problems right now, anyway.
Marginally higher than the rhyming curse was the ranger on the ground below them, for example. He swore he wasn’t a danger to them, but hadn’t Felix heard that sort of thing before? Hunters, his father warned him, would say anything to pull down your defenses, would make a thousand excuses in order to properly make prey of a predator. If they climbed down out of this tree, what would it do beyond make them an easier target for this man’s blade? They were safer up here, where he’d have to work harder to shoot them down. They knew that.
Frustration poured from the man on the ground, and Felix wondered how long they realistically had before he either decided to take a shot or just made note of their appearance before walking away. Would he track them down later? Was he that kind of hunter? Fear thrummed in their chest, tight and desperate.
But then… the hunter spoke. His cousin was a werewolf, he claimed. He was dating a zombie. Felix hesitated, trying to gauge whether or not any of this made the man any safer. They could request a promise, but what good would it do? Felix couldn’t bind someone to their word the way a fae could. Felix couldn’t even climb out of a tree. They tried to think of some question they could ask to confirm that the ranger was being honest, but they came up empty. Peering forward a little, they studied the man as best they could from the distance. “Could you… put all your weapons on the ground?” They sounded cautious. “Drop everything and spin around?” They shifted their eyes to access the jaguar’s vision, to give them a better look. “If I can be sure you’re unarmed, I’ll come down.”
—
“Not a doctor, I meant a—” Wait, what did Kaden mean exactly? A spellcaster? A curse expert? An exorcist? “Nevermind. I meant someone supernatural but I can’t say I have any one in mind. Wish I could offer more.” He supposed he could mention that magic shop he stumbled into with Emilio that one time after the run in with the mapinguari but he had a feeling that Felix was also the kind of person to drink the lotion. Maybe it was for the best that they didn’t wander in there on their own.
For a second, Kaden thought that he might have broken through to the balam, that he might have managed to build a little bit onto the bridge of trust. It was hard not to let on that his heart sank to the pit of his stomach when Felix asked him to remove all his weapons. He knew it was a fair request, he understood that much, but some stupid part of him had hoped that the rest would be enough. He pulled air into his lungs, trying to accept that this was going to be constant going forward, trying to accept that if he was trying to be whatever kind of hunter he was, he was going to have to prove himself over and over again. He couldn’t let it grate away at him like sandpaper. It wouldn’t help.
“Okay,” he said with a nod, sighing as he stepped away from the ladder to start removing his weapons. “It, uh, it might take a while.” He could make excuses or try to explain but he didn’t feel the need. Instead he just pulled out the knives in his belt, from his pocket, in his boot, the pistol full of tranquilizers, the other pistol with bullets. He may not kill non-humans anymore, not if he could avoid it, but he still worked as animal control in a town full of monsters. He lived in a place where danger was constant. It wasn’t unreasonable to be armed, to be prepared.
The weapons piled up in a cluster a few meters away from the tree and away from the ladder — out of reach in case that had been an unspoken concern. Kaden hesitated as he reached for the last knife tucked away inside his belt. He trusted Felix not to harm him, he did, but being without any weapons of any kind on his person felt vulnerable. He felt just as naked as the balam up in the goddamn tree. What if something unexpected happened? What if he didn’t know how to control his shifting and Kaden was suddenly face to face with a jaguar? It was stupid, deep down he knew that, but he gripped the handle of the knife tight all the same.
He could do this. He could let it go. He could trust that things would be okay. He had to. He asked for trust. He had to demonstrate his own.
Unclenching his fist, the last knife dropped onto the pile and Kaden returned to the ladder, ignoring the anxiety spreading through him as he looked up at Felix. “Unarmed,” he said, holding up his hands in a show of surrender. “Do I really have to spin around?” He felt vulnerable as it was, he didn’t need to embarrass himself on top of it all. “I can if you really want but I was hoping that was part of the rhyming shit and not a real request.”
—
What kind of person did you go to about something like this? The closest Felix could think of was an exorcist, and the mere idea of visiting one on purpose made their palms sweat and their heart pick up pace almost as much as the presence of the hunter down below. There were a lot of things that made Felix anxious. Their current situation seemed practically designed for it. Pretty much everyone had had a nightmare about showing up to school naked, and this felt like… a really high stakes version of that. Complete with a rhyming curse and a hunter who may or may not want to kill them!
Felix held their breath for a moment, wondering if the hunter would argue with their condition. At first, he was sure there was a fight brewing. They had no idea how to go about avoiding it or escaping it, and they were weighing the pros and cons of shifting to allow the jaguar to jump over to the next tree or something along those lines when, miraculously, the hunter agreed to their terms. Relief sagged them against the tree, and they watched carefully as the hunter moved.
There were knives. A lot of knives. Guns that made Felix’s skin crawl, a pile of weaponry so large that they had to wonder how it had all fit on one person. There was a moment of hesitation before the hunter placed one last knife onto the pile, and it was this moment that made Felix decide that this probably was everything. Without it, he might have carried a bit more doubt.
Just to quell the last ounce of doubt that remained, Felix nodded. “Um, if you don’t mind. Just, you know, that and the disarming combined…” They trailed off, letting it hang. It would convince me, they wanted to say, but they were worried about actually admitting to that. What if the hunter somehow used that to his advantage? What if he was still planning on killing Felix the moment their feet touched the ground? It was better to be certain, they decided. “You don’t have to make it fancy or anything. Just, uh, consider the extra comfort it would bring?”
—
For fuck’s sake. Kaden sighed and spun in a stupid circle. At least they were in the middle of the woods where no one could see them. It could be worse, he supposed; he could be singing and dancing in the fucking Common again. For good goddamn measure, once he was done spinning clockwise, he spun counterclockwise, too.
He put his hands back on the ladder to steady it and called up to the balam. “Are you satisfied now?” They better fucking be. “Can you climb down now before you shake so much you fall off the fucking branch?”
—
The man spun around, and Felix decided that they were satisfied. Their shoulders slumped a little, and they nodded their head. “I’m sorry for making you do that,” they offered quietly. “It’s just, um… some of you guys aren’t very fond of… cats.” Slowly, cautiously, they inched towards the ladder. They put one foot onto the first rung, slowly starting the process of transferring themself from the branch to the ladder before stopping again, freezing midway there.
They were naked. With everything else going on, they’d kind of almost forgotten that they were naked. They looked down at themself with a grimace, squeezing their eyes shut. “Um, would you mind closing your eyes? Nothing personal, you know, I just… don’t really want you to see above my thighs. You can open them again once I get pants on. Or, um… find something else to… gaze upon.”
—
Kaden watched as Felix began to climb down the ladder, keeping an eye on their feet each time they stepped down one more rung, checking to make sure they didn’t slip. If they did, he was ready to act. What that action was going to be, he didn’t know. But he was ready to do it. He was so focused on making sure that they were steady and safe that he’d also sort of forgotten that they weren’t wearing any clothes. Right.
“Hold on,” he said as he ran over to grab the extra set of clothes. He climbed up a little bit of the ladder, keeping his eyes on the bark in front of him and hung what he could on one of the rungs before scurrying back down. “Be careful on the way down, I left the clothes on there for you.” Maybe that was dumb. “You can kick them off if it’s too hard to go around them. But, uh, I’ll close my eyes now. If you slip and fall, I’m not going to be able to catch you, though. So you’re aware.”
—
Felix froze in place as the hunter told them to hang on, stiffening when they felt him move away from the ladder. Their heart thrummed anxiously, eyes locked onto the pile of weapons just to make sure that he didn’t grab one as he went by, but the hunter seemed to have no interest in his arsenal. Instead, he fetched clothes. It was a little confusing, all things considered; Felix had mostly been told that hunters were a single-minded type, but this man genuinely seemed to have no interest in hurting them. And there was relief in it. Felix didn’t want to paint with a wide brush, didn’t want to assume the worst of a large population of people. They wanted the world to be better. This hunter made them think it wasn’t such an impossible thing.
They waited as the hunter returned, placing the clothes a little up the ladder. Relief flooded the balam. “I really appreciate it,” they called down. “Um, I just hope they fit.” Too-big pants that they had to hold up with one hand were better than no pants at all, but if they ended up unable to pull the pants over their legs entirely? That would be embarrassing in more ways than one.
They grabbed the clothes as they got to them on the ladder, pulling the shirt on right away even if they weren’t sure how to pull the pants on without falling. They shimmied down a little closer to the ground, then paused again to try it. One leg in… don’t fall… It was a difficult process, but they managed to get them on. And, as a bonus? They did fit well enough. Felix let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, I’m coming down!” They called down the ladder. “And I’ve got pants on, so you don’t have to turn around!”
—
Kaden could hear the balam’s heartbeat pounding in his ear as soon as he stepped away from the ladder to grab the clothes. Merde. He didn’t think about what it might look like, he forgot the pile of weapons behind him entirely. Putain, he could hear his mother’s scolding in the back of his mind already. Unprepared, unarmed, helping a shifter, didn’t even think to put the greater good before yourself and betray them. He really was a terrible fucking hunter.
He was relieved to see Felix’s feet touch the ground, though. And the clothes fit or at least came close to it. Good enough for the time being. “Glad to see you eye to eye,” Kaden said with a hint of a smile. “I was getting tired of looking up your nostrils.” He started to collapse the ladder once more. That was the easy thing to put away. He wasn’t really sure what to do with his weapons. He sure as hell wasn’t leaving them out there but he didn’t want to scare off the balam. Cats got spooked easily and he’d finally gotten them to come to him.
“How long were you up there?” It was at least the fifteen or twenty minutes it took them to actually decide to climb down the ladder and Kaden hadn’t shown up right away. It must have been a decent amount of time. His brow creased as a thought occurred to him. “Got any injuries? Skin burn, punctures, cuts? I’ve got a first aid kit or two if you want me to look at anything.” The ranger knew he was probably pushing his luck, adding suspicion onto himself and his intentions. Putain. “I can also drive you to your car or drop you off somewhere. If you want.” His eyes caught a glint of light reflecting off one of the knives piled up in the corner. “I, uh, would just have to grab those.” Kaden nodded towards his arsenal. “Which, uh, I get if… I mean if you want to carry them instead? Or, I don’t know.” He rubbed the nape of his neck. “I don’t want to leave them here, that’s all. But uh whatever you’re comfortable with.”
—
Face to face with the hunter now, Felix felt even more intimidated than they had in the tree. He looked like a normal guy; maybe that was part of it. It was easy to fear monsters that looked like monsters, but it was so much harder when they appeared human. You never knew who to trust, never knew who you needed to watch your back the most closely around.
But this guy had helped them. Felix didn’t think he was a monster; a monster would have made a move towards the pile of weapons instead of the ladder, wouldn’t have given Felix clothes to wear or shared information about his werewolf cousin. Felix forced themself to relax a little, unclenching their fists and offering a shaky smile. “I guess I should be glad you were focusing on my nose and not… other things,” they said, eyes darting down momentarily. “Though, uh, the idea that my nose is bad to look at kind of stings!” It was their attempt at a joke, though it wasn’t a very good one. They let out an uncertain laugh, anyway, and the very attempt relaxed them a little. There was less fear clinging to them now, even if they still weren’t sure they felt entirely safe.
They looked up to the tree, grimacing a little when they realized just how high they’d been. Felix wasn’t afraid of heights — far from it — but there was something a little uncomfortable about the knowledge that the jaguar had carried them up so far. Had he been running from something, or just having a good time? It was hard to tell. “It’s hard to say for sure,” he admitted. “It might have been a couple hours, or it could have been more.” There was probably some time before they shifted back to themself where the jaguar had enjoyed the tree, wasn’t there? They glanced back to the ranger as he spoke, a little surprised at the new line of questioning. “I’m not hurt or anything, no,” they said slowly. “It’s, um… nice of you to offer, though.” Their heart picked up a tick as the ranger glanced to his arsenal on the ground, palms sweating. Was it stupid to still be a little afraid of him? He’d done nothing but help. “I — I could maybe borrow your phone instead? Even if I could find mine, it’s probably dead. But I could call a friend to come pick me up and take me home. And, you know, maybe bring me a comb.”
—
Kaden was hoping that maybe Felix would calm down a little once they’d been standing face to face for a little longer but it seemed like, if anything, his pulse had only picked up speed. Putain. He didn’t know how to make them less nervous, be less of… he didn’t even know what. Less of who he was? He wasn’t armed. He wasn’t standing within reach of the weapons. If anything, the was the one at a disadvantage. Kaden couldn’t just transform into a jaguar at will, unlike Felix.
It was strange how after decades of training, the ranger found himself trusting that the balam wouldn’t hurt him, but the shifter didn’t trust him in return even after all the help. Maybe it was all the grace he deserved, considering his past. He nodded and reached into his pocket for his phone, unlocking it before reaching out for Felix to take it. “Hope you have the number memorized or that you and I have some friends in common.” He took a step back, farther away from the balam and away from the weapons, hoping it might relieve some anxiety.
He wondered if the entire phone conversation was going to rhyme. Kaden huffed a laugh at the thought. Probably would. “You think some kind of spellcaster can help you with that?” he asked. “The rhyming thing, I mean.”
—
Felix knew, on some level, that it was unfair to make the ranger jump through so many hoops. It should have been enough to disarm him, or to recognize that he was trying to help the moment he mentioned the ladder in his truck. But hadn’t Felix spent most of their life being warned about hunters and what they did to people? Hadn’t they heard horror stories from their father as a child, from Teagan and their other friends as an adult? Maybe it wasn’t fair to say that hunters scared them, because everything did. If Kaden had been a normal human, Felix probably still would have been uncomfortable and uneasy. They weren’t as much of a predator as their claws made them appear.
Their hand trembled a little as they reached for the phone, though the smile they offered Kaden was genuine and grateful. “I really appreciate this,” they told him earnestly. “And I didn’t mean to resist. I know I’m not making things easy here. Just let me make one call, and you’ll be in the clear.” Kaden probably didn’t want to hang out in the woods, unarmed and doubted, any more than Felix wanted to be there. Luckily, they did have a few numbers memorized and, with a quick call, arranged a pickup.
Offering the phone back to Kaden, they did manage a small laugh. “I have no idea how to even find out,” they admitted. “It’s a hard thing to do research about. But it’s not the worst thing to be cursed with, you know? It is a little annoying, though. I’m pretty sure people at work are making fun of me. But… they sort of always are, to some degree.”
—
For whatever reason, Kaden kept expecting that maybe they’d stop rhyming, that maybe they’d simply snap out of whatever curse or spell it was that they were under. Their speech would sound normal, expected, even. Then the last word would remind the ranger that Felix was in fact still rhyming. Not that he had any doubt prior to all this that it wasn’t by choice but if he had, well, it was clear that something had gone wrong. More wrong than getting stuck up a tree, that was. “It’s alright,” he said with a shrug, trying to not let the shaking hands holding his phone bother him. It was stupid for that to upset him, to let it get to him. “I get it. Not like you know me, right?” He hoped that reassure Felix a little more than it had reassured himself.
“Someone on Amity Road might know something,” he said as he tucked his phone back into his pocket. “I don’t know anything about magic or curses unless it has to do with hunting so, wish I could be more help but I’m out of my depths.” Honestly, if Kaden could avoid casters and spells and all that shit, he tried to do just that. Magic only tended to make things more complicated. “Hope your co-workers cut you some slack. That or… you should find a way to get them back.” Kaden gave them a wink, hoping they felt some solidarity in the rhyming. Or something like that. Comfort, maybe. It wasn’t much but the least he could do.
—
If they’d known him, would things be different? Felix felt antsy around Winter, even though she was their friend, and a medium was a far cry from a ranger. But Kaden was kind, and helpful, and Felix knew it was just as unfair to judge him on having been born a ranger as it was for people to judge Felix on having been born a balam. So he offered another apologetic smile, looking down at his feet. “You’ve been nothing but helpful towards me,” they pointed out. “I mean, you could have just left me in the tree. I doubt anyone would have blamed you. I shouldn’t project things onto you that are untrue. It’s really not fair. You don’t have to act like you don’t care.”
Even now, Kaden was trying to help. Felix nodded, making a note to check out some of the shops on Amity Road for help. It was good advice; they weren’t sure they’d earned it. They let out a laugh, small but genuine, as Kaden made a rhyme of his own. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out,” they assured him. “This is the kind of thing someone has to know about. And… I really do appreciate all your help with this. You’ve been great, and that’s not something I want to dismiss. I’m sorry again for… being hard to manage. I hope me being difficult didn’t cause you any emotional damage.” They took a step away, figuring Kaden was probably ready to be rid of them. “It was nice meeting you, man. And I’m sorry if I… messed up any day plan.” Ducking their head, they turned to go, walking towards the road to wait for their ride.
That whole thing, they thought, probably could have gone better.
TIMING: late april / early may.
PARTIES: @chasseurdeloup & @magmahearts
LOCATION: the woods.
SUMMARY: cass comes across a wolf-like beast in the woods and calls in kaden for backup.
CONTENT: none!
When you spent as much time as Cass did acting as Wicked’s Rest’s resident superhero, you got used to seeing a lot of strange things. Animals that weren’t the kind human textbooks listed in their index, people who did things that made little sense, beings that seemed to be both of those things at once… Cass liked to think she’d pretty much seen it all. But that didn’t necessarily mean she recognized things when she saw them. She was pretty much learning all this on the fly. No one had ever really taught her anything beyond a few quiet lessons here and there. She’d never had, like, extensive supernatural survival training.
So… she wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking at here. It looked lupine, but it didn’t look quite like Alex had when she’d taken down Rhett to save Cass, or the werewolf she’d led into her caves to keep it from hurting anyone. But that didn’t necessarily mean anything, did it? Fae were fairly diverse without their glamours; were werewolves’ shifted forms the same? She hadn’t seen enough of them to know for sure.
Luckily, she knew someone who had.
She made sure to follow the maybe-werewolf at a safe distance as she called Kaden, rattling off her location and asking him to hurry. If this was a shifted werewolf, they might need help. And if it wasn’t… It might be trouble.
—
Kaden knew that a call from Cass only meant one of two things: a prank, or something serious was going on. Thankfully he only assumed the latter because when he picked up, the fae was saying something about a potential werewolf that she saw shift and run off into the woods. All he could do was hope that she stayed far enough away from the beast until he got there. He wasn’t sure what she meant when she said it looked “different,” but he wasn’t going to waste too much time asking questions on the phone – there would be time for that when he got there.
It didn’t take too long to track her down and lucky for him, she wasn’t too hard to spot. He made sure to bring weapons for him and some gear for her too, just in case. He had no clue if she knew how to use any of it but he figured a knife couldn’t be that hard to get a grip on and it was better than nothing. “Hey,” Kaden said as he gave the kid a small wave. “So am I the sidekick again today or what?”
He wasn’t sure what they were up against or if he should be quiet now or if they had some space. “How far did it get?” He paused and realized maybe he shouldn’t get right down to business. “And, uh, how are you?” It had been a little bit since Alex had been away and he’d seen less of Cass around the cabin because of it. Not to mention, he spent less time there himself as of late. “Been a little bit since you bullied me into watching some superhero thing or another.”
—
There was never any question about whether or not Kaden would come, just as there hadn’t been when Alex called him all those months ago after their altercation with Rhett. Kaden, Cass thought, was a steady force. He was a foundation you could build upon. He was like a rock, in that way — firm and definite. She knew she could count on Kaden, even if she was no longer certain she could count on the person who’d brought them together in the first place. Alex was gone, but Kaden was here. Cass still thought that mattered.
She grinned, returning his wave as he got close. “You’re always the sidekick,” she replied cheerily. “Like — Oh, actually, is it offensive to say ‘like Frenchie in Moon Knight’ ? Because Frenchie’s a cool guy. I’m not just saying it because you’re French. Even though you are French, and he’s French, so it kind of works double.”
But there were more serious things to worry about than Moon Knight’s French sidekick, and Cass knew it. Her expression turned a little more serious at his question, and she nodded her head firmly. “I’m not sure. I was trying to hang back. I thought that was probably what you’d tell me to do.” Her expression turned a little lighter at his question, something soft seeping into it. She’d been bad, for a while. After Alex left, she’d felt just as defective as she had when she’d been cast out of her aos si, like she’d done something wrong and bad and worth leaving over. But now, lately… “I’ve been good.” There was a warmth back in her cave that hadn’t been present before. This, Cass thought, must have been what people meant when they spoke about a father’s love. “How are you? Have you been okay in the cabin?” He was alone there now, wasn’t he? It must have been strange. It must have been sad.
—
“Right, should have known.” Kaden sighed, though he wasn’t sure how genuine his exhaustion really was. He wasn’t about to let on to the kid, but he found her babbling about superheroes endearing. She could never know, though. Couldn’t encourage it. Then he might have to actually try to understand any of it and that sounded harder than taking down any werewolf. “I don’t think it’s offensive. Unless he’s Canadian.”
While they talked, Kaden crouched down to check the area that Cass pointed to. His eyes swept for any paw prints, claw marks, broken branches, anything that might clue him in to what exactly they were headed towards. There was a clear trail of damaged foliage headed in the direction Cass had pointed out. If he had to guess, that’s where they should start looking. “Good job,” he said, trying to hold back his smile. He was more than relieved to learn that she hadn’t thrown herself directly into danger without him or anyone else’s help. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she had, especially a few months ago, before the run in with— Right, he didn’t like to think about that, the sight of her rocky skin covered in blood. Surely she didn’t need the reminder about it, either.
“Good? That’s good,” he repeated as he followed the trail of scuffs and scratches in the dirt deeper into the woods. He was afraid that might not have been her answer given everything. “I’ve been alright. Can’t say I’m at the cabin that much anymore, though.” He tried to smile again but it was half-hearted. Sure, he might have been over at the farmhouse just as much had Andy and Alex not left the cabin empty, but it was hard to say. He definitely took strides to avoid being there by himself when he could help it. It was fine if Monty was there, it made the reality of the place easier to ignore. Otherwise, the echo of his own footsteps was just a reminder that his family had gone. Not that he didn’t support them, either of them, but it was hard to feel like the thing he’d been searching for for so long, real family, was a little farther away again. “It’s not the same when it’s quiet.” He huffed out a laugh at the irony — not so long ago, he would have longed for more quiet moments in the cabin. Guess the grass was always greener.
Except for the grass to the left of them. That grass was chopped up by claws that had dug into the ground, kicking up the dirt and weeds. He could feel the familiar pin pricks down his spine starting to tingle. They were definitely headed in the right direction. “We’re getting closer,” he warned her. “You’re ready to drop your glamor, right?” He figured it would keep her a little safer if she was in her form covered in rocks and magma. It would be harder to bit through, at least. Unless… His brows furrowed. “That would make it safer, yeah? Or are you still rock with it up?” It wasn’t exactly something they’d covered in hunter training. He wasn’t a warden so his knowledge of fae was already limited, not to mention, they weren’t exactly learning how to keep fae safe.
—
Kaden didn’t seem offended to learn that he was a perpetual sidekick, nor did he seem upset at being compared to Frenchie. Cass flashed him a grin. “No, he’s French-French. I think he was in the French secret service or something. Is it offensive to be Canadian?” Wasn’t Leila French-Canadian? Cass wondered if she should be offended on Leila’s behalf here, but she doubted Kaden was trying to insult anybody. He wasn’t mean, he was just… French.
This was evidenced by what he said next. He said good job, and it felt like a fire had been lit inside her chest. Pride burned through her, the flames dancing and sparking and setting her whole body alight. It was a small miracle that she managed to keep her glamour up in her excitement, though her eyes did glow just a little with the joy of it. She tried not to let it show too much for fear of coming on too strong, of making Kaden uncomfortable and risking him taking back the praise. She shot for something a little more nonchalant as she nodded. “Yeah, if you’re not careful, I’ll totally take your job,” she teased with a grin that was a little too wide to really sell her ‘totally don’t care’ attitude.
The joy in her chest burned a little hotter when he seemed to care about her answer, when he said it was good that she was good. Cass had spent so much of her life so desperate for people to care about her that, when someone revealed that they did, it felt like a life-changing level of victory. It surged through her so intensely that it was just short of an eruption. “Oh, really? Where are you staying now, mostly? Do you still keep cheese in the cabin?” She liked his cheese. She could probably go take some if he wasn’t there all the time. “Yeah.” Her smile faded just a little at the thought of the empty cabin. Wasn’t it funny how something that had once held the whole world within its walls could fall empty after a while? “I get that.” Even her cave felt emptier than it used to without Alex around to fill the space, though that was changing now that someone else was around to fill it. She couldn’t tell Kaden about her new visitor, but… she could let him know she was okay. She thought he’d like knowing that.
She trailed along behind him as he moved, reflecting none of his careful trek in her own steps. Cass would walk and chatter and carry on until he told her not to, because she wasn’t really good at this kind of thing. She was a superhero who burst in with a quip to save the day, not the kind who snuck around and did things in secret. She was way more Spider-Man than Black Widow. “I’m still rocky,” she told him with a hum. “The glamour’s just, like… a mask.” She didn’t used to think of it that way, but that was how her father described it and so that was how it was. The glamour wasn’t her. “Do you know what we’re looking for? Is it a werewolf? Was I right?”
—
“Only if you’re French,” Kaden answered with a small smile. “I’m sure the Canadians don’t care one way or another. But that’s because they’re not French.” No matter how much they wanted to be or seemingly tried to be.
“That so?” He looked back at her, brow raised and trying to hold back the smile betraying his attempt at stoicism. So much about Cass reminded him of Alex – and not just because of how linked the two of them were in his mind for a while. She was energetic and stubborn and smart and a pain in the ass. And he’d absolutely put his life on the line for her. Maybe that wasn’t saying much, he had a tendency to throw himself into the line of fire more often than not, but this was different. In the way he’d drop everything if she asked. Hell, in the way he had dropped everything for her now. “Guess I’ll have to stay on my toes.” He wondered how much she knew that, if she knew that he would be there for her whether or not Alex was in the picture. He wondered if he should say that.
Then again, she had called him. And he came. And he’d always been better at showing than telling.
“You know,” he started, eyes still fixed on the trail in front of them, “could maybe set up some sort of internship with animal control. If you wanted.” He felt foolish as soon as the words left his lips. It was probably stupid and not something she cared about or wanted to do. Kaden quickly tried to shift the subject. “Right. Anyway, been staying at the farmhouse.” He realized that might not be as clear as he wanted it to be. “Uh, with Monty. At the farm. You know, his farm.” He was sure she was glad he clarified the completely obvious. Putain, it wasn’t even technically his farm anymore, he’d given it to Daisy to run, but everyone there knew that at the core, Monty was the beating heart of the farm, even though his own heart had stopped decades ago. “There’s still cheese. And food.” Too much food. “I keep cooking for five people. Haven’t gotten out of the habit.” That was definitely the reason, that he kept forgetting he didn’t have to feed Alex and Andy, too. It was not at all because he wanted to make sure he had provisions for people like Cass, Mack, and Ariadne. Just in case they needed it. Because that would be idiotic.
Kaden tried to swallow back the flush of embarrassment that lodged in his throat. “Oh. Guess that makes sense.” He really should have known that, that the glamour was just a mask. Hopefully that didn’t damper her confidence in him. He may not know the most about fae, but supernatural beasts? He was an expert. “Hard to say,” he said, trying to get a closer look at the tracks in the dirt, looking for any little detail that he may have missed. “It could be a werewolf. About the right size. Fast. Sharp claws. Movement doesn’t seem the most deliberate, a little less controlled. Definitely dangerous. But it’s not exactly a full moon. There’s a lot of other canine creatures so it’s hard to say for sure. What color was the fur, did you see?” He looked back at her, wondering if she remembered anything more. “Was it black? What about the ears were they–”
The sharp shattering of branches silenced the ranger, his gaze shot to the direction of the sound, and a blur of fur and teeth burst out from the bramble. Kaden’s arm jumped out in front of Cass, not just to stop her in her tracks, but in some attempt at a shield, like it would be enough to keep the danger at bay, like it could keep fangs from sinking into her. It was hard to say exactly what it was in the commotion beyond an angry fucking monster, but instincts kicked in all the same. His free hand wrapped around his pistol and he fired at the creature, hoping it would focus on him. “Run!” he shouted at the fae, hoping that maybe, for once, she’d listen.
—-
“And you think they want to be French?” She squinted, tilting her head to the side as she tried to understand. Was it an enviable thing, being French? She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard as much but, then, her experience probably wasn’t a normal one. Cass wasn’t even human; what could she really understand about being French?
She’d worried for a while after Alex left that she’d lose this, too. Kaden never seemed to mind her when she spent hours on end sprawled out on the couch in the cabin or hanging out in Alex’s room, but some small part of her mind always warned her that he only really put up with her for Alex’s sake. Kaden, Cass had thought, didn’t care anything about her on her own. But… Alex left, and he was still here. He still came when she called, still told her she’d done a good job even when all she’d done was not run headfirst into danger. It was exhilarating to know that Kaden cared about her, even with Alex out of the picture. “It’s okay,” she assured him with a grin. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
Her heart seemed to stutter-step at his comment, and she turned to face him quickly. “Wait, really? I’m — I mean, I’m not very… good at jobs. I tried a couple. A flower shop, a record store, a museum, a casino… I just kept getting fired.” It still stung a little, even now. “I wouldn’t want to mess work up for you or anything.” Even if she did think it would be fun to work in animal control — and especially to work with Kaden. She’d have a blast annoying him all day. He moved on quickly, though, and she thought she should respect him and do the same. She let out a little oooooh as he mentioned he’d been living with Monty, grin widening even further. “Do you milk cows? Do you ride horses together? Oh my god. You’re like the little Roman soldier from Night at the Museum, and he’s the little cowboy!” Excitement built up in her chest at the realization, followed by the quiet pang that had now replaced the desire to text Alex with new Kaden-related revelations.
“Well, if you’re making too much food, anyway, I can come take some off your hands,” she said, hopping up to balance on a log as she walked beside him. Her arms shot out to help her balance, and she hummed. “I guess it’s different than what you’re used to, huh? With werewolves and stuff.” Shifters used to confuse her for the same reason. Trying to recall the color of the fur, Cass stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth in careful concentration. Was it black, or had it just been a dark gray? Had the ears looked like a wolf, or —
A noise off to the side grabbed her attention alongside Kaden’s, and she turned towards it quickly. She tensed as a shape jumped out at her, but… Kaden got in the middle. He jumped up to protect her, to keep her safe, and Cass’s breath caught in her throat. He told her to run, but there was no way she was leaving him. She dropped her glamour, figuring she’d be better off using that small amount of concentration she used to keep it up elsewhere and hoping to spook the creature in the process. “Hey!” She shouted, waving her arms. The magma in her veins glowed, and she hoped it would capture the thing’s attention. “Look at me! Ooga booga booga!”
—
Kaden shrugged off her hesitation. “I’m not good at jobs either. This is probably the only real one I’ve managed this long.” Before, work was something he just did in between hunting. Temporary jobs were better and bartering in favors were common. So this was all new to him. Didn’t hate it, though. “Helps having an advantage.” Especially considering he likely wouldn’t have the job at all if he weren’t a ranger and one of the few applicants that weren’t scared off by the position’s death rate. “Anyway, pretty sure you can’t mess it up. They know they can’t afford to fire me. Plus, if they did, Gary would have to leave his desk for once. I think the only way you could mess things up for me is if you set the police station on fire or something.” Then again… “Wouldn’t be the worst thing, honestly.” Maybe he shouldn’t encourage that.
“Yes, we take care of the animals and ride horses and– wait, the Roman soldier from where?” What the hell did a museum have to do with a farm? Kaden gave his head a small shake, accepting that this was one of the many moments where he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, couldn’t figure out what she was referencing, or how it matched up to the current conversation, but she was too excited to steer her off course. Or back on course. Whichever it was. Didn’t matter too much, he never wanted to snuff out the joy bubbling up from her anyway, even when he defaulted to his standard grumbling responses. And it was the same reason he decided not to elaborate on what had happened at the farm recently. “Take as much food as you want,” he said, biting back the grin trying to slide onto his face. “I’ll even take requests.”
Her menu orders would have to come later, though. Right now, the monster gashing its maw at them was more important. If Kaden didn’t know any better, he would have assumed this was a werewolf. He couldn’t say if that was preferable to the reality of the situation. A qutrub was dangerous in ways that werewolves weren’t, their mannerisms slightly different, enough to interrupt the ranger’s instinctive rhythm when facing off against a wolf. He’d have to stay on his toes, keep his guard up. Especially given how infectious a quturb bite was to anyone who wasn’t a ranger or slayer. And Kaden didn’t know if Cass was safe as a fae or if she was just as vulnerable. The best thing to do was to make sure they didn’t find out. The best thing for her to was to get out of–
A string of curse words erupted from him like a goddamn volcano. She wasn’t supposed to get the monster to chase her while she ran away, she was supposed to get to safety. The beast ran at her and Kaden took aim again with his pistol.
The shot landed and the bull– “Putain de merde.” It wasn’t a bullet. It was a goddamn tranq. And it may have hit, but it wasn’t going to slow the thing down for another few minutes. Those minutes were going to feel like a goddamn eternity – time that they didn’t have. The ranger managed to find more curse words as he shoved the pistol back in its holster, scrambling to grab the crossbow off his back. He’d half hoped that the creature would turn its attention to him after he attacked it, but the glow of the lava flowing in the cracks between the nymph’s skin was too enticing for the quturb to look away. Kaden ran behind her, placing her between himself and the monster. “Duck!” he shouted as he aimed the crossbow at the monster, hoping to hit before its claws came anywhere near Cass. If nothing else, he hoped it would give him enough time to put himself between the two of them, to get her out of harm’s way.
—
If Kaden’s attempts at employment were similar to her own, maybe Cass didn’t need to feel quite so ashamed by them. After all, weren’t there worse people to emulate? Kaden was a good man, even if he was a hunter. He wasn’t like Rhett, who had terrified and traumatized her, or even Parker, who had agreed not to hurt her only as long as she was on her best behavior. Kaden, she thought, didn’t need to make such promises. And wasn’t that what she wanted to be like? Someone who helped people, a hero in her own right? Kaden was strong and protective and good, and Cass wanted to be the same. So she smiled, she nodded her head. “That actually sounds really fun. Um, you know, if it’s… something you wanted, I’d totally be interested.” She could do good work as a superhero and as an animal control intern.
And she could annoy Kaden. That was a very important perk.
Of course Kaden didn’t know Night at the Museum. She hadn’t expected him to. It was a little funny that, of the two of them, Cass knew far more about human pop culture than the guy who was actually human. (Human plus, sure, but still human!) She rolled her eyes fondly, shaking her head. “We have got to have another movie night soon, dude. Maybe at your farm. With your booooooyfriiiiiiend.” She dragged the word out in a singsong, still grinning as she said it. “And you can cook!” She’d have to… find a way to slip away at the end that wouldn’t make Kaden freak out, though. The last thing she needed was for him to follow her back to her cave and stumble upon Makaio. She was pretty sure both men would get the wrong idea, and it would end poorly for everyone involved.
But only if this didn’t end poorly first. Cass had no idea what the thing coming at them was. Was it a werewolf? It looked different than Alex had when she’d launched herself at Rhett, and different than the werewolf she’d led into the labyrinth of Wicked’s Rest’s cave system, too. Whatever it was, there was no way she was leaving it alone with Kaden. He was tough and he was strong and he was brave, but that didn’t mean he could take everything on by himself. That didn’t mean he should have to.
He probably wasn’t happy she stayed behind. Actually, no, scratch that — given the long string of what she could only assume was very French cursing, he definitely wasn’t happy she stayed behind. But Cass was a superhero, and superheroes didn’t run from trouble.
The maybe-a-werewolf charged at her, but Cass hadn’t planned any farther than ‘get its attention.’ She looked at Kaden over the top of the beast’s head, waiting for him to take aim with his gun. He did… but what it fired weren’t deadly bullets. Of course they weren’t. Because Kaden was good, and good men didn’t load their weapons with deadly projectiles long before they knew what they’d be aiming for.
For a moment, she was sure the beast was going to sink its teeth into her, but Kaden was there again. Kaden was always there — that was part of what she liked about him. She ducked without question when he asked, and his crossbow took aim. It was sure to be more effective than the tranqs from the gun, she thought. But if that didn’t work… “What is this thing? Is it — Is it a person? I can attack it with my magma, but I don’t want to hurt a person.”
—
She ducked and the arrow pierced the monster’s shoulder, sending it tumbling back with a roar of pain. Kaden would have to load another arrow in the meantime. Or consider melee. Both were risky. But at least he couldn’t be turned if the thing bit him. Cass, on the other hand… He wasn’t sure what a bite did to fae. All he knew was he didn’t want to fucking find out.
“Not a person,” he shouted back as he fumbled to reload the crossbow. “Quturb. Like a werewolf and a spawn combined. No humanity left, though.” He wanted to tell her to run, to just leave this all to him. She shouldn’t risk her life here, that wasn’t her job. It was his. This was his birthright, for whatever the fuck that was worth. It was his battle to fight and his job to protect people. That included Cass. It more than included Cass.
But it wasn’t like she was defenseless. She was covered in volcanic rock and split with veins of magma. She harbored the power of a volcano within her, something that no ranger could compete with on the best day. Even then, Kaden wanted to reach out and pull her behind him, throw himself between the monster that was stumbling to its feet and her.
Instead, he was going to have to trust her, trust that she knew her capabilities, that she wasn’t being reckless. “Do it,” he called out to her. He took a few steps back and finished loading his weapon, hoping to be ready to land any killing shot they needed if for whatever reason something went wrong. “Be careful!” he added. “Don’t let it bite you, don’t get too–” His words fell away as the beast sprung to life and launched itself at them once again.
—
Despite Kaden’s reassurance that the creature attacking them had no humanity left in it, Cass couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt at its cries of pain. It was hard, still, not to think of Alex. It was hard not to remember that the only time she’d ever seen the werewolf in wolf form, it had been when she was saving Cass’s life. She wondered if Kaden thought of her, too, wondered if he struggled to see something inhuman instead of something that looked a little too much like someone he loved.
“What’s a spawn?” She could only understand half of the comparison. Most of Cass’s experiences with the supernatural were with either fae or the more sentient kinds of beasts and undead. She had friends who were zombies and vampires, had loved werewolves and sirens, but she tended to stay away from things like this unless she was saving someone. (She wondered if this qualified as saving someone. It would have hurt people if they hadn’t approached it, right? She didn’t like the idea of killing for killing’s sake.)
Closing her eyes for a moment, she nodded. Kaden was telling her that it was okay to hurt this thing, and if Kaden was saying it, Cass knew it had to be true. She trusted him as the authority on things like this. He wasn’t like Rhett, wasn’t like the hunter who had shot Alex or the ones that had targeted Metzli in the time she’d known them. Kaden was a good man, a trustworthy one. If he said it was okay to hurt this thing to stop it from hurting others, Cass knew it was the truth.
She twisted as the qutrub writhed in pain, gripping it tightly and letting the heat build beneath her rocky skin. The small eruption that occurred as magma seeped from between the cracks in the stone and onto the qutrub was quiet, but the creature’s cries weren’t. She couldn’t hold it for long before it was thrashing free of her grip and launching itself forward again.
Cass ducked behind Kaden instinctively, heart pounding. She wanted to make some quip that he’d groan at, wanted to say that she’d been bitten by werewolves before and wriggle her brows and pretend it didn’t hurt, but… she was afraid. As much as she hated to admit it, this thing scared her. And, without thinking, she trusted Kaden to take care of that.
—
With her help, Kaden had time to reload the crossbow and time to aim. He had the time to exhale, line up the shot, to focus, to lean into his training.
In the chaos of the action, he was able to make the space to slow down the seconds and milliseconds, to stretch them further and rely on a combination of muscle memory, decades of experience, and a touch of instinct.
The crossbow was raised. Trigger pulled. Arrow loosed. Head pierced. Blood splattered. Cries silenced. Body collapsed.
The adrenaline coursing through his veins didn’t allow Kaden to feel the wash of relief or sense of accomplishment from a hunt completed just yet. He stood his ground, hand reaching for a knife as his eyes remained laser focused on the twitching corpse on the forest floor. He had to be sure it was dead, that the danger had passed. He couldn’t relax until that moment.
He spun to face Cass, looking her over as if he could identify any injuries on her rocky skin. “Are you alright? Did it hurt you? Are you okay? Did it bite you?” The questions came one after the other in rapid fire — as if he asked every possible version, one of them would be the right one. His hands hovered over her shoulders, hesitating only because of the swirls of magma churning in the veins cracking her skin. Was it safe for him to touch? Would it burn? Hell, more importantly, was she okay with contact at all? Kaden didn’t know but it didn’t matter so long as she was alright.
From what he could tell, she was okay overall but he could hear her heart pounding like it was up against his eardrum. He wanted to provide comfort, but some part of him knew that she didn’t want to appear afraid, like she was still the brave hero. “You did great,” he assured her. And he meant it. She had come in clutch, gave him the time to line up the shot and make the killing blow.
—
It all happened so quickly. You wouldn’t think it would. Death was such a heavy thing, even when it was happening to some mindless creature; part of Cass felt like it should carry more weight than this, that it should take longer. But it happened so quickly, and she took another step away from the dead qutrub as if that meant anything.
Kaden turned to face her, and she tore her eyes away from the corpse with a small smile. He was worried; it made her feel a little warm, made it harder to feel bad for the dead qutrub. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but she didn’t feel like looking too deeply into it, so she only nodded. “I’m okay,” she assured him. “I’m not hurt, it didn’t bite me. Everything’s good.” Later, she thought, she’d recount this tale to Makaio in the cave, would see what he knew about creatures like this one. Maybe Cass could teach him something for a change; maybe that would make things feel a little less uneven.
Her smile only widened when Kaden told her she’d done great, preening a little under the praise. “You did the hard part,” she replied, feigning humility. She had done pretty well, hadn’t she? Kaden might have been eaten if not for her. She’d tell Makaio all about that, too. Having two people proud of her… It sounded exhilarating. “What, um… What now?”
—
Kaden’s lungs emptied when it was clear that she was alright. “Good, that’s good.” This is why he preferred hunting alone — it was too much stress having to worry about someone else’s well being on top of keeping himself alive. He probably got another gray hair or two after this encounter. Even then, he couldn’t help but match her smile. “Well not all of us can spew magma at things.” Alright, maybe it wasn’t the worst having someone else on a hunt to appreciate the hard work, especially when they were helpful.
The ranger took a step towards the corpse to get a better look at the state of it. No movement, no breathing, and he couldn’t sense it anymore. There was no doubt that it was dead. Still wasn’t something he wanted to risk leaving there with nothing but a crossbow bolt in its skull. “Now I set this corpse on fire and then we get you back home.” He turned to look at her, making sure that she was still okay. “Well, I guess it might be faster for you to burn the body. If, uh, if you’re okay with that.”
He couldn’t be sure how much she’d really experienced violence or death before, if she knew what burning flesh smelled like, if she was prepared to see muscle turn to ash. Part of him wanted to keep her from that. “On second thought, maybe I’ll come back and take care of it later.” There was no way she’d escaped all the horrors that this town served up on a silver platter, but she didn’t have to face this one. He could spare her this one. “I think, instead, we can swing by The Creamatorum on the way back. Wouldn’t want to waste time here just in case it closes before we get there. You know. If you want.”
—
Kaden smiled, and it was a rare sight. He was always a little grumpy, always a little sad. The smile made Cass feel like she’d accomplished something, like she’d won some great prize, and her own grin widened a little in response. Things had been rough for… most of her life, actually. But it felt like they were turning around now, like everything was coming up in her favor. She had friends like Kaden, she had a father who wanted to be a part of her life. What more could she possibly ask for? She bit back a laugh as Kaden commented that not everyone could do what she did, shaking her head. “Skill issue,” she replied flatly, then brightened it with a grin.
Kaden moved towards the corpse, and Cass followed curiously. It was still a little sad, seeing it there, but now that it was still it looked less and less like a werewolf. It was clear that this was a less sentient thing, even in death. She nudged it with her foot, tensing until it didn’t move. Glancing back to Kaden, she nodded. “I can burn it,” she agreed, a little hesitant. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be responsible for that, even if she’d do it for Kaden.
But… then he was backtracking, and she couldn’t deny the rush of relief that came with it. It didn’t look as much like a werewolf as she’d first thought it might, but there was still something a little scary and a little sad about the idea of burning a corpse that had initially reminded her a little too much of someone she loved. The offered alternative of the Creamatorum put that excited grin back on her face, and she nodded quickly. “That actually sounds kind of perfect,” she said.
@chasseurdeloup replied to your post “[pm] Gotta say, that moose tour wasn't exactly...”:
[pm] It's not robbery if it's a gift. Unless there's more gift rules you have that I'm not aware of. And I could never wear them to work and make Gary jealous. That'd be mean. Almost as mean as depriving you of the honor.
I'm not too bad. Been worse. I heal fast, too so they'll be gone in a day or two.
[pm] I return the gift. It is undesirable. Find something better, if you wish to give me a gift. Like a groundhog's head, or one of your creatures.
@chasseurdeloup replied to your post “Thoughts on baguettes?”:
Une baguette fraîche n'est pas que du pain. Nothing compares to a fresh baguette. At least from France. The ones here are fine.
[In french] Oh, are you a bread snob, then? It is made with yeast and flour, no? Therefore it is bread. I have only been to France in passing, you would have to show me the quality baguettes this town has to offer, change my mind.
TIMING: Current
LOCATION: a charming property Downtown
PARTIES: Kaden @chasseurdeloup & Alan
SUMMARY: Alan has found the perfect place for Kaden, and they schedule a visit. The Wicked’s Rest housing market is just as complicated as the rest.
CONTENT WARNINGS: n/a
This was it, this was where the little blue dot on the map said to meet. Kaden glanced around and didn’t see Alan in the immediate area. Didn’t feel any sudden spike in his hunter senses, either. Guess he was early. Buying a house from a werewolf sounded like a terrible fucking idea. Then again, so did living with one and Kaden was doing that at the moment, so he supposed it didn’t matter. He was damn sure he couldn’t afford his own place just yet and would be stuck on the couch for a while longer but it didn’t hurt to look, right? And that Alan guy made it sound like he might actually offer a decent deal considering how they ran into each other. Granted, the hunter was still suspicious that the deal wasn’t going to be anything to write home about if it was anything at all.
Putain, Kaden didn’t even know what sort of clothing to look out for. Considering. He leaned around the corner to see if anyone was headed his way. He didn’t see anyone but he heard a voice coming from the opposite direction. “Uh, hey,” he said, giving a small wave when he spotted Alan. “Guessing you’re going to be the one leading the way.”
______
Considering the circumstances of their first meeting, Alan had taken his time before offering a visit to the animal control offer. Since the other didn't have much of a budget, finding a house rather than a flat had not been an easy task, but he figured someone who liked animals that much wouldn't be happy with something that didn't have a garden attached. He had a ground-floor apartment he could make him see later, but he was counting on this being a coup de coeur.
He had also paid attention to the way he was going to dress today. He didn't want to look like he tried too hard, but there wasn't much in his wardrobe that was anywhere close to this vibe. In the end, he had picked one of his many Italian suits and paired it with brogues.
Alan had parked around the corner before heading toward the plaid-clad French. "It's a good time to visit the house. You'll get a good idea of the kind of traffic that passes by.” He approached him with a broad smile, oozing the sort of confidence he usually had on him. This wasn’t an attempt at reversing what had already happened, this was just Alan in his element and ready to get shit done.
______
Kaden raised a brow after giving Alan a one-over. He didn’t know a ton about fancy clothes, but that suit looked like it cost more than his entire wardrobe. “Nice to see you dress better when you’re prepared. Hope this wasn’t some attempt to overcompensate on my account.” Not that he would blame the guy; if he’d met someone while walking through the woods mostly naked, he’d probably try to come off as a little more put together on the second meeting. “Noted.” The man was as chipper and charming as ever, it seemed. And Kaden felt that same old chill along his spine, reminding him that Alan was still a werewolf.
The hunter shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up at the small house. It wasn’t entirely bad looking. “I’m guessing this one’s a little bit of a fixer-upper,” he said, looking at the exterior. The paint could use a touch-up, there was a shingle or two missing from the roof, but it didn’t seem like anything he couldn’t handle. “Decent space, though,” he said with a nod to the lawn. It wasn’t sprawling by any means, but it was far more than a tiny patch. “I guess now is when you impress me with the interior and tell me why this is all a steal, right?” he asked with a sly smile.
______
“Right,” Alan knew he would get a comment about this. He preferred that they started the conversation with the elephant in the room, as long as it didn’t become the sole topic they spoke about today. “I’ll happily give you a tour of my dressing room,” not really. He didn’t like having people in his personal space and still felt too mortified to attempt to befriend the guy.
Still, he didn't show it, reaching for his keys in his briefcase and finding the right ones without a hint of trouble. "It needs some updates, that's for certain. It was renovated in the 90s and it looks like it," florals, vinyl flooring over hardwood, you name it. "Doesn't scare you, does it?"
Leading the way up the few steps that led them under the porch, Alan turned to look at the guy with a professional smile. "I did tell you I could find you something within your price range," he didn't ask for said range. Alan could guess how much an animal control officer made, and he could just as easily convince the owners into lowering the price until it fit his buyer. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself, you’ve barely told me anything about your needs in terms of housing,” but he had a good feeling about this. Not only did the house have a proper garden, but it also had a cave that the other could turn into a cellar or a wine cave, though he would reveal that later. “Come in, come on.”
______
“I was actually hoping for a fashion show,” Kaden said with a shit-eating smile on his face. He almost asked if he had expanded to pillowcases or sheets, maybe even throw blankets, but he refrained. As much as it would amuse him, the guy was helping him out. Also, still a werewolf. Probably in Kaden’s best interest not to push him too far; he didn’t know what sort of control (or lack thereof) Alan had.
“Nah, I had a feeling anything in my price range was going to need a little help,” he said as he followed the werewolf to the door. “I like having projects to work on anyway. Not sure that I’ll ever be done helping out with Andy’s cabin but it doesn't hurt to have a side project.” The stairs on the porch were a little uneven, he wondered how much of that was cosmetic or signs of an actual problem. He could inspect that later.
His toe caught on the edge of the last step and he nearly tumbled into Alan. “Sorry. Must have misstepped,” he said, looking back at the stairs. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have said that something reached out and tripped him. He had been careful to try and clear the height, considering the unevenness. Strange.
Kaden shrugged it off and headed inside. It had definitely seen better days. The walls were covered in floral wallpaper that looked like it was bought in the 80s and had been there ever since. Carpets weren’t great, either, but that was all superficial shit. The hunter walked over to look at the walls and supporting beam that opened up into what could probably be a den, checking for any cracks or signs of leaning or unsteadiness.
______
“First-row seats are expensive. Let’s put that money into property instead, shall we?” The realtor gave Kaden a look. Of course, that guy still had the same good looks he had the other morning, but anyone with a bit of self-esteem couldn’t possibly have survived Alan scanning them with that look of pretension plastered all over him: from the controlled curl of his salt and pepper hair to the carefully tailored cut of his suit, down to the choice in terms of colors and textures, there wasn’t much about his appearance that was left to luck. He’d always been told that people drew their first opinion of you in a matter of minutes, and he’d wasted those being covered in a dirty sleeping bag. While he didn’t fully believe that quote was good for anything but job interviews, Alan was happy to test its veracity anyway.
“You’re crafty then?” So was Alan, in a way. His skills only extended to the fabrication of models as he felt like renovating anything bigger came with too much responsibility for a hobby. “I know you were saying you have a lot on your plate at work, so I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about this,” he briefly hummed. “Glad you like the challenge,” with a nod, he took them inside, reaching out to turn on the light.
The light fixture on the ceiling flickered briefly, before turning itself off. Weird. Alan sighed. “I’ll go downstairs, get the lights back on,” he declared. So much for his grand surprise. Heh, at least he wouldn’t be spooked by the dark basement. And yet, as he walked in there, his perfect vision didn’t stop him from slipping on a step, losing his balance, and ending up downstairs way faster than he’d have wanted to, knocking his forehead against the washing machine. “Que coño! ¿Qué diablos es esta escalera de mierda?” If he could have sworn one of the steps was terribly uneven or slippery, as he looked over to check on it, he couldn’t have told where it was. Maybe he just lost his balance. That happened. “I’m fine,” he called out, rubbing his sore forehead while he searched around for the electrical panel.
______
Kaden shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d call it crafty. I know how to hammer a nail, though. Simple enough.” Hunting didn’t exactly pay the bills so he didn’t ever grow up living in the most glamorous houses by any means. They learned how to fix what they had and make things last as long as they could. It was just practical if nothing else. Not that he wouldn’t call in a professional when it was beyond his knowledge, but he could do a lot before that point.
Which he might have to do if the place had an electrical problem. The flickering lights didn’t build any confidence there. “You need any help down there?” Might be a good idea to see what was going on, anyway. He was on his way to follow Alan when the door to the basement shut in front of his face, separating the two of them. “Putain?” The door closed so fast it practically bumped his nose. “If you didn’t want help, you could have just said so,” he shouted through to the realtor. He was about to turn away and wait when he heard a thump and what sounded like cursing following it.
What the fuck was happening here? “You alright?” he asked, a little concerned. He said he was fine but something felt off about this whole thing. Kaden decided to ignore him and open the door anyway. Only it was jammed. Did he lock it or something? “Well, you better be fine since you locked yourself in there.”
______
“I didn’t close the door behind me,” he called out. “Must have been the wind,” he assured him. It wasn’t the fucking wind. They had not left the front door open, and the chimney had been closed to keep things from falling inside the house. “I’ll be up there in a minute, getting the lights back on,” Alan’s voice carried up the stairs: the werewolf picked himself up and dusted himself clean. His forehead stung, but it wasn’t bleeding at least.
“Alright, where the fuck is that damn thing,” the switch to Spanish was automatic whenever frustration replaced all his attempts at remaining clear-headed. With no one to watch him, he became the very figure of the huffing and puffing wolf, upset and ready to confront anyone who might have been messing with them now. It must have been yet another haunted house. Original, he thought. Lil would have to deal with that one.
Hands at the ready, he walked around the staircase to find the fuse box there. It didn’t look brand new, but it certainly didn’t seem to date back to the initial construction of the house either. Yet, when the wolf went to switch it back on, an unpleasant spark of electricity coursed through him, one that had him shaking his hand in pain, and swiftly moving away from the fuse box. Yet, the light was now back on, and Alan figured it would just be best if they both left and visited that apartment he had mentioned instead. He wouldn’t be selling the house to Kaden in that state anyway. “You think you’re so fucking funny,” he wasn’t sure who he was mumbling to then. If it was a ghost, he wasn’t certain it would hear or understand. “We’re leaving, alright?” Alright. All he had to do was walk back upstairs and get out of there. If only the door would budge. “You’re joking?!”
______
What did he mean he didn’t close the door behind him? Kaden sure as shit didn’t close it. And it was definitely locked. “Putain de merde.” He tried the handle again, just to be sure, but nothing had changed. Kaden looked around for anything that might be helpful, like keys, or an ax. Before he could find anything, a hole opened up beneath his feet and he crashed to the concrete below. Fucking hell. He grumbled and cursed as he pushed himself up to his feet. When he looked up, the ceiling was there, complete, like nothing had ever happened. “What in the fucking hell?”
Kaden glanced over to the realtor who was also looking a little worse for wear. His hair looked as if the guy had been electrocuted. His eyes darted to the fuse box. Goddamnit. “Shit, are you okay?” He was standing, at least. Could have been worse.
No wonder this place was in his price range. “Alright, we gotta go.” The hunter looked around for some sort of alternative exit. And as he looked at the back wall, the bricks started to move, jutting out in a pattern that looked like a ladder. The ceiling warped and spread open to the room above them.
Kaden stood, blinking. “That looks like a terrible idea.” The lights flickered again. Merde. “Kidding, just kidding. Great idea. Guess the house wants us to go this way.” He couldn’t believe he just fucking said that aloud. “You’re the one running the tour, you first,” he said to the werewolf.
__
“I’m fine,” Alan could have snapped in other circumstances, but he was with a potential buyer, right? Who the fuck would buy that, he now thought to himself. His hand ran through his hair: he had noticed the way the other looked at it, one second too long for normalcy. Slicking his hair back as best as he could, he glanced up at the staircase, which had tripped him, then toward the hole where the other fell from. “That was one hell of a fall. You sure you didn’t get hurt?”
This was going so poorly, Alan wondered if the other would agree to visit anything else he had tucked under his elbow. If this wasn’t his favorite part of the job, he gave this a lot of thought. Small budget, but the guy certainly held his tongue. That was worth getting Alan’s sympathy: sometimes, being on his good side was really all it took.
Turning to look in the same direction as Kaden, Alan’s eyebrows furrowed. He was not the best liar, but although he knew of a few supernatural things, this was certainly new to him. “Did- Did the house do this?” He had heard of ghosts, obviously. Lil even dealt with one for him a few months ago. Alan thought it was just that: a ghost having a bit of fun. “You’re joking…” He glanced at the other. He had some nerve. Only one of them here was supposed to deal with danger. Yes, unruly animals were less of a problem than unruly houses, but still. “Unbelievable,” the realtor mumbled, approaching the wall and glancing down at the shoes he’d picked for the evening. Right, brogues. Italian leather. Splendid.
It didn’t take him more than two steps to scuff them. “I’ve seen the Haunting of Hill House, you know. Maybe it wants to eat us,” why did he say that? It sounded ridiculous the moment he said it. Still, he made it to the top and ended up in a room that looked nothing like the plan he’d been looking at the very morning. “That’s… Mmmh,” he tried to listen to his surroundings, but aside from Kaden’s body and his movements, there wasn’t much else to observe. “Huh, there’s no door.” The light didn’t come from any window either. It was as if the walls or the ceilings were glowing.
—
“I’m okay. Had worse falls than that,” Kaden said as he rubbed his back. At least he didn’t land on his wrists or ankles, that would really be a problem with that height. For now, he was just in for some bruises.
“Yeah. I mean, I saw it too if that’s what you’re asking.” His brow raised as he looked over at the werewolf. Sure, Kaden hadn’t been in a house like this before, but he was more than familiar with supernatural bullshit and, at this point, expected the unexpected. How was Alan not already aware of this? Did he only know about werewolves and nothing else? Putain de merde, probably. “Look, I don’t know what the fuck is happening any more than you do but a way out’s a way out.” At least he hoped it was a way out.
He watched as the other man climbed up the bricks, hoping that none of them disappeared as he grabbed onto them. So far, so good. “Eat us?” Kaden looked around, checking the corners of the room and glancing at the walls. Well, it didn’t look like they’d come any closer. If they were any darker than they were a moment ago, he couldn’t say, but there was still something unsettling about the place. He wasn’t sure if he was eager to follow him up the brick ladder or not, to be honest, but he climbed all the same.
“Putain,” he said as he looked around and noticed the lack of exits. “Who the hell listed this place, anyway?” He rubbed his temples before running his hands along the walls, looking for anything that might hint at what they should do next. “Are you… You act like this is sort of new to you. Weird stuff like this?” He didn’t know if the werewolf would catch on to what he was saying. “I mean, is it?” As soon as he asked the question, his hand pushed through the wall as if it were made of gelatin. Kaden jumped back, pulling his hand away. “Uh, think I might have found the way out.” As much as he hated that thought.
__
“You could have broken your coccyx there,” he commented, although he didn’t press it much more. It was none of his business what the other did with his back. Still, he was curious to know what had him falling like that. “Horse Riding? Rock climbing? Spelunking?” Alan knew that it wasn’t exactly a priority. They first had to get out of there alive, but it was one of those habits he kept from half a life ago: divert and keep people calm. Except that the other was quite calm. Hmm. Mustn’t have been his first time dealing with this shit either.
“That’s what I said. There has to be a reason why it’s doing all this nonsense, hasn’t there?” That made the most sense to Alan at least. Why did anything ever happen? The wolf didn’t put it above the town to have sentient houses that ate people, even if he had never once heard about that outside of that tv show.
“The owner’s kids. The owner died and they live across the country,” Alan didn’t try to find out how the owner had died, although he now assumed it was under strange circumstances. “I didn’t think it would be…” He sighed. Kaden must have caught on to his discomfort because he was the one to raise the question of weird stuff. “Ah, well you’re not from around here,” it wasn’t a complaint. People who were good-tempered like Kaden could come anytime they wanted. The problem was that they usually got themselves killed in no time. “I wasn’t sure if you were the sort to believe our stories or not.” If he did, he probably would survive for a while longer than the rest.
“It wasn’t really the plan to get you into a most likely haunted house,” otherwise, Alan would have let him in first and slammed the door on his back. Now why would he have done that? Sure, he was still a bit embarrassed with what had happened, but being caught naked was, unfortunately, part of being a shapeshifter. “Anyway, let’s just get out of-” The wall made a sound it shouldn’t have, and his grimace only grew as the other suggested they walked through it. “Have you, or is that how we end up eaten by a house? It could be its stomach. Squishy and -” He wasn’t sure if it heard or understood him, but it was precisely at this moment that Alan noticed the jelly wall moving closer to them. “You’re kidding me,” with yet another unnatural, disturbing wobbly sound, the wall jumped forward, swallowing the real estate agent whole.
—
“Yeah, sure. Horseback riding.” Kaden had fallen off a horse before, right? Probably. Not that he rode a whole lot or anything but he had and he knew how to. That was close enough. Plus, it was a better explanation than falling off the back of a bucking bies which is something that definitely happened. “Sometimes weird shit doesn’t have a reason to be weird.” He didn’t know if that was more or less comforting than the thought of the house trying to swallow them whole.
“Of course the owner died.” He wondered if they were going to find their body somewhere along the way. It wouldn’t shock him if they did. The ranger rolled his eyes at the comment. “I’m not from here, no, but I grew up around this sort of shit.” Whether he wanted to or not. Of course now he wondered if Alan had been born a wolf or turned if he was from here. “Well, not this shit specifically. Never been in a house like this before.” Kaden swore he heard the house grumble, its foundation creaking. Right. Noted. Don’t shit talk the house.
“Really? Could have fooled me,” Kaden said, not sure if he was joking or not at this point. What if he had figured out what Kaden was? Was he trying to get him killed? Or chase him off? Was this his way of protecting Monty or himself or…
Kaden didn’t have a chance to let his thoughts spiral. The wall jumped out and swallowed them both whole. For a moment, it was like he was swimming in gelatin. It was thick, viscous, and hard to move through, but somehow they were spat out on the other side, the ranger tumbling across the floor, covered in some sort of goo. At least he assumed it was the other side. It wasn’t the same room. There was a window. Only it was small, square, and in the very top right corner of the room. Kaden brushed himself off, trying to shake off the house goop or whatever the fuck that was. He narrowed his eyes, looked up at the window, and then over to Alan. “Think I can boost you to the window.” Which was great. For Alan. Less so for him. “If only we had some sort of rope.”
__
“You grew up around this sort of shit…” Was the other some sort of shapeshifter too? Alan couldn’t repress a smile, though he didn’t press it any further. That went away fast enough. The house seemed to protest the other’s language, and the werewolf was soon scowling. “Alright, let’s not be disrespectful,” it was not a great house but it really wasn't that bad. He didn't sell bad property because that would give him a bad name. He could handle slander, but bad housing? No way in hell.
"I'm in the house too." He paused. There was nothing they could do now but work together. Sure enough, it was a lot easier getting all worked up about it, but they were stuck in here, and getting irritated would probably further the other's point that he might have picked that property on purpose.
Perhaps he should have shut his mouth. Because he did end up being in the house more than he should have.
When the house spat him out and let him go, the realtor's suit was covered in a thin layer of gooey slime. He reached in his pocket for tissues, handing one over to his client who was fixating on a small window. "Rope? I can pull you up if you jump," if he knew for a fact he could do that when he was 20, time wasn't always so kind and Alan's back often reminded him of this much. "I could climb on your shoulders," he commented. "Or you climb on mine."
—
“I did, yeah.” Kaden wondered what sort of reaction he was going to get by admitting that. Concern? Fear? Solidarity? He had to know that Kaden wasn’t a werewolf. At least he figured they had a way to sense each other or smell one another or something. The smile was a little reassuring, though. Then again, Alan didn’t know that he was talking to a ranger, of all things. Kaden had a feeling he wouldn’t be smiling if he knew.
Kaden pulled his mouth into a thin line, trying to assess the height again. He was about 6’2” and the other man was, if he had to guess, less than about half a foot shorter than him. It could be possible for him to jump. Maybe. “Alright, worth a shot. Climb on my shoulders.” The ranger kneeled down and waited for Alan to balance himself. “On the count of three, I’m going to stand up. One… two… three” Kaden pushed himself up from crouching, holding onto the werewolf’s calves to try and help steady him. “Can you reach it?”
__
“Oh Jesus, it’s gym class all over again,” but the other was younger, and looked generally sturdier than the businessman. Stupidly sturdier. What the fuck. Even as he stood up, Kaden was surprisingly steady, and Alan told himself that he’d get back to the treadmill the next morning. He didn’t like having to depend on others. He never accepted that. It was part of having been raised as the eldest child : you couldn’t count on others.
“I can reach it, yeah. It’s… I think it’s heading into the garden.” Now he just had to undo the lock, and get out of here. He pushed up the window. It was one of these guillotine systems, though he hoped he wouldn’t find himself confronted to a French royal fate.
Looking down at the other, Alan could have sworn he saw something else moving, a shadow on the floor. He moved his head the other way, but there was no trace of anything there. Nothing. “Huh, okay. I’ll climb out, and…” he didn’t say more. The house was listening, wasn’t it? Climbing onto the windowsill was harder than it looked, and Alan may have stepped on the head of his hefty stepladder in his ascent. But he finally made it out, and he soon reached down to get his companion out of here. The floor beneath him was not precisely clean, but having been covered in jelly instants before, Alan had stopped caring for trivial details such as these. “Okay, one, two..”
—
“Putain, watch the head!” Kaden shouted when he felt Alan’s heel digging into his cranium. Once he felt the weight lift off his shoulders, he rubbed the spot he’d kicked. That was definitely going to bruise. It looked like the werewolf got up there okay. And the window opened, too. It almost seemed too good to be true.
From the corner of his eye, he saw movement in the shadows. Kaden spun around to look, but there was nothing there. Maybe the light had just changed when Alan stood in front of the window. Probably nothing.
Actually, they were in a supernatural house of some sort, maybe he shouldn’t assume that was nothing. Kaden looked up to see the werewolf extending his hand. Yeah, he wasn’t going to waste any time staying here any longer than he had to. The ranger nodded and jumped up on the count of three, grabbing onto the other man’s hand and pulling himself up to the ledge with his help. He tried to get what grip he could with his feet against the wall, but they were covered in whatever shit the last wall had been made out of so it wasn’t helping much. Once his other hand was on the window sill, it was easy enough to pull himself up to standing.
Kaden knew he shouldn’t look back, that he should just accept that they were leaving and only look forward, but he couldn’t help himself. When he glanced down, he saw what looked like hands, long and spindly with sharp claws, emerging from the walls, almost like the walls had shaped around them as they reached out towards the men. “Putain. Let’s go, let’s go!” He climbed out the window and shut it fast as he could, jumping down to whatever part of the roof was closest. He really didn’t want to jump from the second floor, sounded painful. Might be their only choice, though.
__
His back was going to murder him later. Alan knew that for a fact. Still, he held on tight on the other man’s hand, just enough for him to grab the window sill and get out. Sometimes, the werewolf felt old, but nothing did the job better than watching someone jump like that as if gravity or knee caps were concepts rather than reality. “Oh you have to be fucking joking.” The wolf was much sturdier, but he was not going to turn while standing on a roof. And yet, he didn’t take too much convincing, or any at all, to come and join him there. The urgency in the other man's tone was more than plenty enough, and Alan's decision was taken swiftly.
Better a twisted ankle than losing a leg or life to a damn house.
He wondered if they were safe here, down on the roof. Alan would have happily sat down here and taken some time to take a breath, even if he felt disgusting, and wished for nothing more than a warm shower to wash all the grime away.
He approached the other's side instead. "Let's get to the back. We can jump onto the veranda and into the garden," unless the garden wanted to eat them too, they would be safe, then.
—
“Garden, got it,” Kaden said with a nod, his head swiveling around, trying to spot the veranda in question. “It’s that, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer and just went on blind faith. It was better than being grabbed by arms coming out from the wall of this fucking haunted as hell house. The ranger could feel his shoes slipping and sliding against the roof tiles, which shouldn’t be an issue. It was almost like something was making them slick. Putain, it was probably the goddamn house. He coudln’t wait to get eth fuck out of there.
He pulled himself over one of the small dormers on the roof that was positioned over the window, and used the stupid shingles to his advantage, sitting and sliding down the side of the roof, his feet landing on the veranda. The surface wobbled beneath his feet, testing his balance. “For fucks sake!” he shouted as he tried to hold himself upright. It didn't matter, he didn’t have to stay there long, just long enough to plant his feet onto the goddamn ground. Kaden crouched down and crawled to the edge of the veranda, gripping the side and then turning to lower himself, practically throwing himself off the side.
Kaden looked back to see Alan was following right behind him, waiting to make sure the werewolf got out alright and ready to help if need be. As soon as he was in the clear, the ranger booked it to the fence gate and threw it open, running until he was back on the sidewalk across the fucking street. He wasn’t taking any more chances.
Once they were both safe and across the way, Kaden doubled over, placing his hands on his knees as he tried to process what the fuck just happened back there. “Good luck selling that piece of shit, Duarte. I think I’m gonna pass. And I think you owe me a goddamn drink at this point.”
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He managed to descend the veranda with much less elegance than his company. His sticky soles and mucus coating his skin and clothes had made things difficult, and just like Kaden, Alan had nearly fallen off the roof as he began shaking its slates.
"Damn it," Alan barely caught himself on the edge of the veranda, dropping to the ground before joining his client at the front of the hungry mansion. He expected the other to make a remark to him. He didn't blame him. Sitting on the edge of the sidewalk for a moment, he looked up at the house, looking weary and tired. "I changed my mind," he replied, his head turned to his client, the property developer nodded. "I don't think I'm going to sell that one."
He stopped talking. The idea of stopping for a drink somewhere was tempting and he just nodded silently. Tomorrow he would try to find something else for Kaden, and he would call Lilian Ballard.
[pm] Unfortunately, yeah I do. Good to hear. And thanks but you don't have to apologize. I, uh, have one of your knives I think. You must have dropped it. Don't know if you want to meet up somewhere so I can get it back to you.
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[pm] Why is this unfortunate? Is good man, generous. No no no do not-- You do not have to give thanks. Is just poliet-- polite.
