[C] Here We Are

Cade gave a low, impressed whistle as she pulled up to the mansion.

"Holy shit this place is amazing."

It had been a long time since she had seen a place so big and beautiful. This place was more gorgeous than Gerhard's coven grounds.

"Come on, fucker, let's go find this bitch of ours."

Every time Cade opened her mouth, Marty hated her more.  

Rolling his eyes, he decided to shift into his weasel form to scamper on ahead of her.  

That way he wouldn't have to respond if she talked.  

Once at the front door he shifted back and opened it up, walking right in as if he'd never left in the first place.

Cade stepped out of her car and followed after the rat- uh, weasel. Because being a weasel was so much better.

Her wide eyes flickered around, drinking in the beautiful coven grounds as she walked up the path towards the front door.

What it must be like to live around here...

Marty had lived here, but he was too much of a tweaked out addict to actually appreciate the finer things in life.  

He suffered from a sever case of tunnel vision.  

Get drugs, get high, repeat.  

He did vaguely remember the excitement and wonder he'd felt when first arriving at the coven.  Everything felt like a dream that was too good to be true?

What exactly changed?  Something had.

Marty couldn't remember what it was.  

Right now all he could think about was that he was sober and it sucked.  

He wandered the hallways, trying to remember which one was Giacinto and which room was hers as well.

Cade followed after Marty, jogging to catch up with him, then slowing down to a crawl so she could look around, then realising that she was falling behind and jogging up to him again.

"Darragh!" a voice called out from a hallway around the corner.

A second later a little figure with flaming red hair flew around the corner and smacked right into Marty.

Marty practically back-flipped the hell away once he was smacked into by a five year old.  

Not just any five year old though, a goddamn redhead.  

Faster than one could blink he was back into his weasel form and scurried up Cade's leg.  

He perched himself hiding behind her back, his little paws holding onto her shoulder.  

He hissed out at the child, his face barely showing from behind Cade.  

Marty hated soulless jockeys.

The sudden movement around the boy as he dropped to the floor dragged some tears and loud sobs from his little body.

Cade jumped as she felt little claws scratching at her legs through her jeans, then clinging to her shoulder.

"Aw, no, fuck off." She grabbed the loose fur at the back of the weasel's neck and yanked him away from her shoulder. She wasn't have anyone using her shoulder as a free taxi service.

Aodh turned the corner a second later, immediately dropping down to check on Darragh. As usual, it was crocodile tears, and soon he had the boy in his arms, giggling and squirming as he was tickled.

"Say sorry to the person you bumped into, Darragh."

Instead of squirming in her grasp, Marty instead bunched himself up and hung there with the most evil eye a weasel could muster.  

But it wasn't pointed at Cade.  

He was still glaring at the two gingers.

The little boy looked down at his toes as he was set down and nudged forwards.

When he was stood in front of Cade, he looked up with wide green eyes. "I'm sorry, Mr. Weasel. I didn't mean to run into you."

Cade kept her gaze on Marty, wondering how he'd react to the frankly quite adorable apology.

Marty shifted back into his human form, the patch of fur on his back turning into the back of his hoodie.  

The unexpected weight change made him fall to the ground.  

He sat with his legs and arms cross, a rude scowl on his face.  

"Watch where yer goin' eh?" He said.  

It was the nicest, most least offensive thing that came to his mind.  

He could tell the man with the boy (his father perhaps?) would be able to rip him apart in a second, so he did his best to keep back the racial slurs.

Darragh's lip pushed out a little more at the scolding words but nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Weasel."

The boy turned on his heel and moved to grip Aodh's jeans, leaning his head against his father's thigh and half-hiding his face in the coarse, light material.

"That's a good boy, Darragh." Aodh patted his son's bright hair.

"Is there anything we can do for you two?" Aodh asked with a friendly smile.

Marty stood up and wiped off the back of his trousers.  

"Do y'know where the head lady is?" He asked brazenly.

"Tony? She got called off to America not so long ago."

Aodh lifted Darragh into his arms again, hugging his son with a little smile.

"She doen't know when she'll be back. It could be days, it could be weeks. Did you need her for anything important? Maybe we could help you instead."

For a moment, Marty's eyes flickered over to Cade, a silent communication of 'well fuck.'

But he quickly looked back at Aodh and gave the man his cheeky grin that was far too big for his hollow face.  

"Yeh, we got something important we needed to see her 'bout." He said honestly.  

"Know of 'nyone she likes to spend her time with?  Best friends er humans er whatever that might know how t' reach her?"

Cade's gave a little sigh at the news. For fuck sake. They couldn't make it easy for them, could they?

Ger wouldn't be too happy.

Aodh's weight shifted a little and he gave an easy shrug. "She's pretty much got no way to get hold of her. She checks her emails occasionally, but shes using this as a sort of break from her usual duties. She's not talking to many people."

Aodh didn't trust people that appeared and started sniffing around Tony's best friends and humans. It didn't sit right with him.

Marty had put his few remaining brain cells to use and when that didn't work he visibly slumped in disappointment.  

He gave off the appearance of a child who had been told that Santa Claus wasn't real.  

His fingers started to twitch aimlessly and he bit onto his knuckles.  

"That's no good." He said, his voice cracking just as his wits were starting to crack as well.  

No Tony.  No human.  No human.  No Drugs.

AOdh was unmoved by the pathetic display.

Cade thought Marty was being an idiot. She stepped forwards, kicking Marty discreetly in the leg. "Well, if you could give us her email, we'll try to get in touch with her through that. Thanks for your help."

Aodh rattled off her email and Cade repeated it back, committing it to memory.

"Thanks for helping us out."

She waved as she grabbed Marty's hood and led him back towards the entrance.

Considering what was going on inside of Marty, he was doing an exceptional job of hiding just how bad off he really was.  

He didn't react at all when Cade kicked him.  He didn't even notice it, he was too wrapped up in the panic that was swelling inside his chest, expanding it and threatening to burst.  

His heartbeat was uneven and heavy, his pulse was loud in his ears, ringing and making the pounding in his head worse.  

Poison.  Poison.  So much poison!

But aside from the twitching fingers and rapid tapping of his foot, Marty didn't show anything.  

If one were to look into his eyes they'd be able to see all the distress.  But his eyes were too busy shifting to focus in on.  

As Cade dragged him off he followed, only whimpering in protest.

"What the fuck?" Cade exploded as soon as they were half way to the car. "Could you have been any more fucking obvious? Best riend? Human?"

She threw out her arms, letting go of his hoodie.

"Why didn't you just tell him our plans outright? Come on, let's go do something productive while we sit on our fucking thumbs and try to figure a plan out."

"So keep yellin' about it RIGH'IN FRONT OF T'COVEN YOU STUPID CUNT."  He shouted, blowing up himself.  

With Cade yelling at him, he couldn't hold back his meltdown anymore.  He started whimpering loudly as if he had bugs crawling all over his skin.  

Then he extended his claws and started pawing at his face, shredding his hollow cheeks like ribbons.  Blood ran down his neck and hands but he didn't stop walking towards the car.  

Plan.  Plan.  Yes, Plan!

The shouting did nothing to her. Nothing at all.

"For fuck sake, just get in the fucking car before you tear your face off."

She dropped into the drivers side and slammed the door shut behind her. For now they could busy themselves with doing what Ger asked. Dress themselves all pretty like good little girls and boys.

Marty did get in the car, curling up in the front seat and continuing to basically scratch off his own face.  

He looked completely insane, like he'd lost all his marbles.

"I'm not taking you out into town while you're sat clawing at yourself. Ger wants us to go into town and shop so stop fucking around and pull your shit together."

She reached out to slap the back of his head before she turned the key in the ignition.

Marty hissed at her, a bit of his blood spitting out of his mouth.  

But then he just curled up in a ball and hid his face entirely, silent.  Completely silent.

She hissed back at him, fangs clicking into place threateningly. She was completely unaffected by his silly little tantrum.

"Halle-fucking-lujah," she muttered when he fell silent.

"We'll shop and brainstorm at the same time. If you have an idea that isn't completely fucking stupid, speak up. Otherwise just keep your mouth shut."