We Are Bulletproof

Tim? Kinley threw Kero a look. Why was he shouting about Tim right now? Oh. Right... Evie. Tim's parents weren't nearly as weird about taking in strays. They worried about Evie, but since there were no reports of a missing girl, they thought it was better to keep her within sight... for whenever her parents did start looking for her. Why couldn't his parents be more like that? Why did they have to be so dead set against somebody staying over night? ONE night, even?! (Although surely it wouldn't be just one night...)

Now he wished he'd never come home--and he thought of Kaiden and wondered if this was how it all went down between him and their parents. Or if he just slipped away one night, knowing that it would come down to this? Kinley was aware--and resentful--of the fact that Kaiden leaving was what left his parents twisting the collars tighter around their remaining sons.

Kero, however, didn't know about the argument that blew up between Kinley and his mother about the video Tim's friends posted online. He'd been tagged in it, so naturally, it showed up on his timeline and when his mom saw it, she was... unhappy, to say the least. She probably wasn't at all pleased to hear Tim's name right now. Still, if it would get them off his back, maybe. He didn't like it, didn't like the idea at all. But if he could get out of the office, it would be nice. He could do whatever he wanted after that. His mom couldn't be there all the time to watch him like a baby.

"Are you at least going to let me call Tim?"

Their parents turned to one another to discuss the situation, while Kero strained to hear what they were saying. Their mom still seemed dead set on not letting Kinley out of her sight, but their dad was a little more lenient, Kero thought. Eventually they turned back, both parents' faces grim and displeased.

"All right. Let Tim come and pick him up, but you are not leaving the house tonight."

Kero looked back at the weird Dragon guy, who still looked comically baffled. He rolled his eyes at him; Dragon narrowed his eyes again. Sheesh. What a weirdo! And Kero thought Andy was weird, but man, this guy took the cake!

"Tim said he would come get him," Kinley said, after a quick exchange with Tim on the phone. Rather than call him, he texted--because his parents were right there and they would hear all the things he wanted to say. He still felt like there were a lot of things he wanted to say, things he wanted to ask. Because... because it was obvious that Tim had things to say, too. He knew something about magic, about the supernatural in Hazleton.

Kinley wasn't typically quick to anger but anger simmered beneath his mostly calm demeanor as he waited. He was angry with his parents. He was frustrated. He didn't feel like an adult, like the adult he was supposed to be. He turned eighteen but nothing changed; they still treated him like he was Kero's age. He wasn't! Now that he was an adult, he should have the freedom to do what he wanted with his life.

Part of him was scared, though. It would be the first time he left home, whenever Tim helped get him out of his room. Eventually, his parents would have to stop eyeballing him and then Tim could help break him out. After that... things got muddy. Kinley did have money saved, mostly because he didn't have a whole lot to pay for. There was no rent with his parents, there was no car. So he mostly tucked away what he made, not really knowing what he was saving for. Maybe a car. That would be helpful. Now he was going to throw it away on a place to stay. A studio apartment, maybe. Unless Tim moved in. Then things might get awkward in such a small space.

Kinley looked over at Dragon. If his parents weren't right there, he might have held his hand or brushed his hand through his hair. Instead, he just sort of... reached out and lightly rubbed Dragon's back in an attempt to make him feel better.

"Dragon," he said, in a low voice, hoping his parents weren't listening but knowing they were. "My friend is going to pick you up." Why was he even saying it? He knew he wouldn't recognize any of those words and he sure as heck couldn't exchange drawings with so many hawk eyes on him.

"Kiney?"

Dragon lifted his head at the sound of his name, having been looking at the ground in lieu of looking at all the people who seemed to not be happy with him or with Kinley. He could tell by the sound of their voices that they were angry, although he couldn't imagine what it was all about. Wasn't this Kinley's home? Or did he trespass and these people wanted to keep them here?

He felt a little better at the back rub but honestly, Dragon just wanted to go. With Kinley. He wanted to go somewhere quiet, where it was only the two of them, and no one was shouting or glaring or looking at him funny. In the tense silence, he could feel his anxiety rising from the uncertainty and the unpleasant newness of this experience.

Reaching out, he curled a hand around Kinley's hand, stepping close to him until their arms brushed side-by-side. He caught the glare from the female but he didn't let go, instead lowering his gaze again to escape her anger. Without being told, he knew that it was all directed at him.

What he didn't expect was for her to move forward and silently take him by the other arm, pulling him forcibly away from Kinley.

Yeah, the back rubbing might have been worse than hand holding. Kinley sort of forgot that Dragon wasn't wearing a shirt so he was basically massaging a stranger in front of his parents. His father didn't seem to mind nearly as much as his mother did. Especially when Dragon took his hand. That seemed to set his mother off more than the back rubbing and she immediately grabbed onto Dragon to pull him away.

"Mom! He doesn't know what you're doing."

Part of him was alarmed because he had no idea how Dragon would respond to that. What if it looked like an attack? What if he took her as a threat? He seemed to do that with Kero a bit for a moment back there. As much as Kinley was peeved at his parents--his mother, really--for overreacting to everything, he didn't want anybody in that office to come to any harm.

"I told you he's a foreigner."

"Go inside the house. Your father and I will stay with Dragon out here until Tim comes to pick him up." Her voice was sharp as a whip crack, brief and terse.

Dragon wrenched his arm out of her grasp, prompting a surprised gasp from her. He glowered and let out a sound like a growl at her, backing up, eyes darting from side to side as he sought for a way out. It did seem like an attack. She was trying to separate them, Dragon understood that, and he wasn't having it.

"G-g-" The small male was trying to say something, his eyes popping nearly out of his head. He was staring at something behind Dragon. Or... at Dragon's back.

Feeling cornered and desperate, Dragon kept backing up until his back hit a wall. His eyes were wild, frightened, and he felt an ugly tightness in his throat. Not anger... but fear. Fear for what these people wanted, for their hostile presence and for the way that they kept glaring at him.

"His BACK!" The small male screeched, pointing at Dragon. "WHAT THE HELL IS ON HIS BACK?!"

"Kero, language!" The male spoke this time, sharply.

"BUT LOOK!"

Kinley stared at his mother. He hated to do it but he was going to have to. He'd have to say no to her because he couldn't leave Dragon alone with them! They were already scaring Dragon, literally until his back was against the wall. Ignoring how Kero's face seemed to pale (he must have seen the ink dragon mark on his back) and the way his parents were reacting, Kinley followed Dragon with concern etched on his face. There was no telling what would happen if they were left alone with him. While Kinley doubted his mother would raise a hand against him--she was never really a violent person, just an emotionally volatile one--he also didn't know how Dragon might react if they kept coming at him with their angry faces and tones.

"You guys are scaring him!"

This time, despite the way his mother burned a hole right through him, he put his arms around Dragon.

"We got lost out there and people were shooting at us and you guys are...!" He bit back the words. There was a reason he was such a skeptic when it came to magic and all that. His parents weren't the biggest believers in town. They passed their lack of beliefs down on them. Talking about magic and dragons and cards was just going to make him look crazy--and it would give them ammunition against him if they decided he might be looney and dangerous.

"He's just scared."

"Shooting at you?!"

Dragon clung to Kinley, his fingertips digging into Kinley's arm--the one around him, holding on to him. He didn't want to be here in an enclosed space with strangers. Even if Kinley seemed calm, and was speaking to these humans, Dragon didn't know them. He didn't know if they were friendly or hostile; if they had abilities that could hurt him and Kinley. Dragon could heal himself but he couldn't heal Kinley, if anything happened to them.

"Kiney..." He gestured toward the door. "Kiney..." Dragon tried to edge towards it, wanting nothing more than to get away. If the female kept guarding it, he would just have to... to do something about it!

"Who was shooting at you, Kinley?" The male and female both looked concerned, shocked. "What are you talking about? Where did this happen?"

Dragon looked over at the youngest male, who was now edging away from him, still pointing and staring at him.

All of these humans were... strange. Different from Kinley.

They weren't nice, he didn't think.

"It's okay," he said to Dragon, who seemed agitated and ready to leave. Kinley couldn't blame him. The way his family was acting was way over the top but... he couldn't say he was surprised. His mother hadn't been pleased when her eyes started to open to Kinley's... er, experimentation phase. As she put it, anyway. It was a phase and she didn't want him destroying his entire life with immature videos of kissing guys when he was drunk or... or whatever she was imagining was happening with Dragon. (If Mrs. Briggs told her "everything" then yes, she thought they were having sex on school grounds, no less.)

"I don't know," he said, his tone softer. "I think they were hunting wolves up there but... it was dark and they might have thought we were... something else."

He glanced over at Kero. He probably had an idea of what he meant since he mentioned the magic to him before. Magic, monsters. He saw the ink on Dragon's back, too. Surely he understood what he was really getting at.

The-the dragon on that guy's back. It was moving.

IT WAS MOVING!

And nobody was even paying attention to him! ...actually that was sorta to be expected. Kero was 'just a kid' and nobody ever took anything he said seriously. He bristled at that, though he was still pretty damn shocked that the weirdo Dragon guy had a dragon tattoo on his back that moved around.

Kero edged further away from him. Spooked didn't even BEGIN to cover how he felt at that moment. He thought--well, he thought magic was for kids. Like parlor tricks and guys pulling candy out of kids' ears. Not... not THAT! It didn't look like it was fake, either. He swore the dragon tattoo thing swerved to look at him with one inky eye.

"M-m-mom..." Kero would've run over to Kinley, except he was holding on to that Dragon guy. Did Kinley know about the tattoo?! He had to though; he and this guy were alone together in the office before everybody noticed the lights on and came rushing out of the house.
M-mom..."

"What is it, Kero?" Their mom sounded distracted. She was half freaking out over... er... the PDA thing and half freaking out over somebody shooting at Kinley.

"M-mom..."

"Up where? Near the school?" Their dad took a step forward, looking Kinley over with a critical eye. "Neither of you boys were hurt, were you?"

"He got... I..." Kinley looked down at his scraped leg. "I tripped when we were trying to get out of the woods, but other than that, we're fine."

Saying that Dragon was bitten wouldn't tell them anything; the wolf bit him, sure. But there was no evidence other than the blood Kinley's jacket--which they never knew Dragon was wearing. And the blood on Kinley's jeans from when he'd wiped a bloody hand on them. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, though, Kinley was fine. And the worst of Dragon's wounds were completely healed over and gone. Still, it was obvious they had been through something, given how their clothes were covered in dirt and leaves.

That or they were doing... something untoward in the woods, which Kinley hoped his mother wasn't thinking. Despite what everybody was thinking, he and Dragon didn't really get to enjoy their alone time together long before something happened. Something always seemed to be happening.

"We're just tired," he said, knowing he sounded and looked it, too. "But yeah, in the woods by the school. It was weird. I think they were just hunting wolves but..." He shrugged slightly. "I didn't want to stick around and find out what they were doing."

"Oh thank goodness!" Both of them looked visibly relieved. The male came forward to inspect Kinley, while Dragon tensed, ready to spring if he made any moves. But he didn't; he only looked them over with a critical eye, while the female put a hand to her chest. Why she did that, Dragon didn't know; these humans had strange customs.

"We're going to have to talk to someone about fencing off those woods," the male muttered to the female. "It's only a matter of time before someone gets lost in there, or something happens."

"Kero, stay out of those woods from now on, understand?" She had turned to the younger male, who was still looking a little shell-shocked. "Kero? What's wrong?"

Before he could reply--he only pointed to Dragon again--a knock came at the door, startling Dragon who clung to Kinley for dear life again. But once the door opened, it was just another human, looking politely puzzled.

"...hi. Kinley wanted me to pick up his friend?" He smiled--no more than a flash--at Kinley and at Dragon.

Surprisingly, Dragon understood him. His mouth fell open slightly. Did-did this human speak dragon's language?!

Yeah, they were going to end up locking up the woods behind more chainlink fences, which would deter some kids... but not all of them. It could even pull more in if they were curious like Kinley. Or troublemakers like some of his classmates had been. Kinley only nodded, though, glad to see his parents were cooling off a little bit. Or his mom was. His dad had never really been all heated up in the first place.

And then he tensed, mostly because Dragon did--until he saw that the newcomer was just Tim. Relief flooded through him, although so did apprehension. How was he supposed to explain everything he needed to explain with so many eyes on him? His parents were going to have a thousand questions and Kero would have a thousand more, saved up until Tim left with Dragon. Kinley cleared his throat and smiled in Tim's direction but he also quickly darted a look toward his mom, to make sure she wasn't glaring daggers at them. Tim had been his friend for a while so... he hoped she wasn't going to be weird forever about a stupid Facebook video!

"Yep!" Kinley looked down at Dragon and lightly ran his hand over his arm. Oh man. How was he going to explain all this to Dragon without upsetting him? He didn't even notice that Dragon already understood Tim. "Dragon... Tim." He pointed at Tim and smiled apologetically at Tim. "Sorry... he's kinda... new at this whole language thing."

Dragon turned to look at the other humans. They were speaking again, but he didn't understand them. But the new person? Why did Dragon only understand him? He blinked at the stranger; the stranger smiled at him. Dragon couldn't help but feel that he knew him, even though he didn't and couldn't know him. He had never laid eyes on him in his life.

But the new person felt a little familiar.

Was he... another dragon? Dragon craned his neck forward to study him, since Kinley's arms were around him and he wasn't letting go of Kinley anytime soon, either.

"Oh it's... it's fine, I'm sure we can mime to each other or something." The new person laughed. "Hi Dragon," he said, rather kindly.

Dragon lifted a hand to wave, uncertainly looking from the newcomer--Tim? they said?--to Kinley. When did Kinley have dragon friends? Were they--special, like Dragon? And what was mime?

"Well, now that Tim's here, your friend can go with him." The female looked Displeased again. She moved forward but the male subtly moved with her, just slightly blocking her way.

"Thank you, Tim," he said, reaching for his wife's hand.

"Oh don't thank me, it's nothing." Tim smiled again--maybe a little mischievously. "Dragon? Do you want to come with me?"

Dragon shook his head. "No."

"Uh... yeah." He gave Tim a sidelong look. Yes, thanks, Tim. It would get his mother off his back a little more for the time being. He was pretty sure she'd be spitting fire when she found out later that he was helping him escape... if all went as planned. But really, Kinley was an adult now! He might know better than his parents but he also kinda thought he did. There were things his mother didn't fully understand about him or his brothers and she never would, no matter how hard she tried. Kinley knew she loved him--there was no doubt about that. But her idea about what was best for him conflicted with what he wanted out of life.

And she couldn't possibly want him to be a Happy Burger employee forever! He shoved the thoughts out of his mind. It was going to be really uncomfortable trying to explain everything to his parents and Kero eventually but... he thought they all loved him enough to forgive him. A part of him was starting to really understand more about Kaiden. He wished he could see him again, to talk to him about all this, to see if this was the kind of thing that drove him away, too.

Looking back over at Dragon, Kinley was pretty sure Dragon was just saying no because he didn't know what was happening. So he moved to stand in front of Dragon and turn his head toward him before placing his hands on his shoulders.

"You have to go with Tim for now." He pointed to Tim again. "Yes. Tim."