CDandHBFH 05 [Caspian Dukes and Vereint Georges]

Title: Caspian Dukes and His Best Friend’s Husband
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Frame set: Allies & Enemies, “Good Times”
Characters: Caspian Dukes, Vereint Georges, Warrick Tobias, Melissa Kim
Pairings: Vereint Georges/Warrick Tobias
Genre: friendship, superhero, meta
Summary: Vereint and Caspian go see a movie together.

“I’ll have to remember that,” Caspian said.

“Lock it, put it in your pocket. Now we’ve gotta run if we want to make it on time.” Vereint lifted the shopping bags out of the cart with one hand and caught Caspian’s sleeve with the other. “Come on.”

Caspian followed him out onto the street. The movie theater was only a few blocks from the store.

* * *

They were nearly alone in the theater. It was nice not to be packed tight with a bunch of strangers. They were able to enjoy the movie as though they were alone.

“That was a great movie,” Vereint said as they left. He dropped his cup in the garbage with a slosh of melty ice. He shook the last few pieces of popcorn into his mouth before crumpling the bag and throwing it away.

“This was a good idea,” Caspian said agreeably.

“Let’s go pick up that stuff and take a taxi home,” Vereint said. “Unless there’s something else you want to do?”

Caspian shrugged. “I’m good. Maybe we should bring something back for Warrick and the kid?”

Vereint thought. There were some bananas at home and plenty of chocolate sauce. “We could stop off for some ice cream. Banana splits sound really good.”

“Score!” Caspian grinned.

They walked to the locker Vereint had rented. They’d had a good time and Vereint felt like the night had been a success.

Which was when the man with the gun stepped out of the alley. He wore a ballcap low over his eyes and had pulled his scarf up over the lower half of his face. “Gimme all your money,” he growled.

“Really?” Caspian asked.

Vereint looked around. They were the only ones in this corner of the street. He saw a group of laughing people disappear into a restaurant, a slender girl reaching out to touch a Chinese lantern in passing. They were alone with the wannabe mugger.

If they had been two different people this would have been a terrifying situation.

“I said, gimme all your money,” the mugger barked aggressively.

“Do you know who I am?” Caspian asked.

“I don’t give a fuck,” the mugger said. “Give me the money or I start blasting.”

Caspian stepped in front of Vereint, a rather gentlemanly action. “Look, no one wants to get shot tonight, but no one wants to hand over their wallet either. At the same time, I don’t think you would like what would happen if you pulled that trigger.”

“Oh yeah, what are you going to do?” the mugger asked. His finger tightened on the trigger.

Caspian was remarkably graceful as he lunged forward, his hand slapping the mugger’s arm with a deceptive lightness that resulted in the loud crack! of the ulna breaking. Caspian kept moving forward, his right leg twisting around the would-be mugger’s to bring him down to the ground.

The man screamed and clutched his broken arm, which flopped limply. Vereint took one look before grimacing and averting his eyes. That arm looked disturbingly gross.

“You’re hurting me! You’re hurting me!” the man screamed, wriggling in Caspian’s firm grip. “Fuck you, man. You’re hurting me!”

“You tried to shoot me,” Caspian said. “You’re lucky all you got was a broken arm.”

“Fuck you! Fuck you!”

“Real nice,” Caspian said, holding the guy with one hands while pulling his phone out of his pocket with the other. “Good thing there’s no kids around or I might have to break your other arm. Now quiet down before I get testy and really hurt you.”

“You can’t do this to me. I have rights.”

“Shut up.” Caspian held the phone to his ear. “Yeah, hi, hello, this is Caspian Dukes and I’ve got a downed mugger near the corner of Lotus and Sprout Street. Can you come pick him up? Ha, yeah. Thanks.”

Caspian stuck his phone back in his pocket and smirked at the would-be mugger. “And that’s that. Someone will be by to pick you up shortly.” He lightly flicked the back of the man’s head when he started cursing in response.

Vereint glanced at his watch. “About how long is this going to be?”

“They said it would be about eight or ten minutes,” Caspian said. “I usually have priority, but this is just a mugger, not a supervillain. I don’t think they’re going to show up with lights blazing.”

“Right.” Vereint hooked his thumb down the street. “I’m going to go to the locker. That way we can leave as soon as they pick this guy up. That okay with you?”

“Yeah, that’s cool,” Caspian said.

“Okay. Then I’ll be over there,” Vereint said. “Don’t leave without me.”

Caspian waved at him. He was completely comfortably crouching next to the supine mugger. Never mind that he was in civilian clothes, he looked ready to burst into action at any moment. It brought a nostalgic smile to Vereint’s lips–back when he’d been a superhero fanboy, pictures of Caspian Dukes had been on his collectible list. To get a picture of Caspian dressed like a normal guy hovering over a baddie would have blown teenaged Vereint’s mind. He would have framed the print and hung it on his bedroom wall.

Even though he was an adult, there was a part of him that would always be a product of that boy’s life. And Caspian had been one of young-Vereint’s heroes.

TBC…

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Check out “Allies & Enemies” at: All Romance Ebooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookStrand, Goodreads, iTunes, Kobo, Less Than Three Press, Smashwords. — superhero, urban fantasy, mm, drama. Darkstar x Blue Ice.

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