xp_logs | Cain, Dani, and some townies, at the dance.

x-juggernaut.livejournal.com posting in

Cain and Dani get bored with chaperoning and go for some fresh air. Two drunk townies try and crash the party. It does not go well.

Dani stood idly near the punch bowl trying to look chaperone-like. She wasn't sure she was quite pulling it off in the dress that Lorna had insisted she wear, a semi-formal red halter dress with matching red high-heels, as opposed to the black pants and suit jacket she had initially proposed. She felt like she should be one of the students, not one of the chaperones. The perils of being only a year older than the graduates. At least no one had tried to spike the punch, yet.

Cain tugged at his suit jacket, frowning as he looked at the students dancing. He'd let Lorna rope him into chaperone duties somehow - about the most boring thing he could imagine. Listening to the crap that passed for most modern music while watching kids hug and rotate in a circle wasn't his idea of a party. No one had even tried to spike the punch, yet.

Cursing again his decision to leave the traditional hip flask of whiskey back at the mansion, he loosened his tie and noticed Dani by the punch bowl. He cleared his throat as he walked over, making sure he wasn't drowned out by the music.

"You look about as bored as I feel, huh?"

"Watching people have awkward fun is not my idea of a good time," Dani replied, looking up at Cain. It was odd wearing heels, they made her tall enough to actually be some-what in proprotion to his height, which was fairly impressive. Dani was not a short woman. "And this ain't my kind of music."

"No kidding," Cain said with a growl. Neither the band nor the kid with the headphones and the funky DJ setup appeared to ever have realized good music existed before the 1990s. "Could use a bit of class. You know, some of the King. Maybe some Hank Sr., some Roy Orbison. Instead of all this beep-beep-thumpa-thumpa crap that sounds like someone left their shoes in the dryer."

"Don't forget Johnny Cash or maybe Loretta Lynn," Dani fiddled with her hair, pulling it back from her shoulders. She had agreed to wear some makeup if she didn't have to get her hair pulled into a painful looking glitter helmet. "This music ain't got any emotion, don't mean nothin'. It's just sex with clothing on. May as well just take a bath with your socks on."

Cain snorted in laughter, shaking his head. "That's one way to put it. You know, I think the punch bowl's safe, want to get some fresh air?"

"Fresh air sounds good," Dani agreed, smiling as Cain gestured for her to go first. She was not a girly girl by any stretch of the imagination, but she was learning to accept small courtesies, especially from Cain, who was an old-fashioned style gentleman. Old fashioned was a good thing.

Cain had to give Lorna credit, she'd arranged for a nice place to hold the prom in, a manor house just on the edge of town. The lights of Salem Center could be seen down in the distance, and the weather was actually clear and warm, a sure sign that summer was coming soon.

Almost perfectly peaceful, except for the sound of the ragged pickup sputtering into the parking lot, hoots and hollers coming from the interior. After doing a squealing lap, barely missing the parked cars, the truck came to a halt by smacking into a light post, the bumper hanging half off and laughter coming from inside.

Dani watched passively as the truck sputtered to a halt and the engine turned was turned off. Everyone at Xavier's who was going to the prom was already here, whomever these kids were, they weren't invited, but until they did something offensive, Dani was perfectly willing to simply watch and leave them be. She was not, however; naive enough to think that they would just wander around the parking lot for a few minutes and then leave.

The truck looked like it could be fun to fix up though. She liked old trucks from the 70's and 80's. The bigger and meaner, the better and this one fit that description well.

Cain stepped back a ways, watching two young men get out of the truck and stagger towards the building. They definitely didn't look injured - the truck had almost coasted into the light pole. No, that was a definite chemically-assisted stagger, Cain recognized.

"Heeeeeey, baby..." the taller of the two slurred out. "Ain't you looking all fancy tonight? Howzabout we take you somewhere a little more fun, huh?"

The younger one poked his friend in the side. "Hell naw, Steve! There's plenty of fun right here, sounds like! C'mon, darling, why don't we head inside and you can give us a dance or two?"

Dani stepped up to the boys, getting dangerously close. Standing tall and proud in her heels she practically towered over the shorter boy and was at eye level with the other. "You two aren't man enough," she replied coldly, placing one hand on Cain's bicep and running a slow finger down his arm, careful to not touch his skin. "Go home to your mommy's."

Unfortunantly, Dani had experience in dealing with guys like these. She had married and divorced one and come out stronger for the experience. These guys were too dumb and inebriated to matter.

The two drunks looked at each other, then laughed. "Hell, I see how it is," the first one hooted. "This is one of them 'muties only' dances, huh? Too good to let us normal folk in?"

"Yeah!" the other chimed in, bolstered by alcohol and the presence of his buddy. "You got something against our kind, mutie?"

Cain took a large step forward, towering over both men. "Yeah, I do," he stated flatly. "We got a No-Assholes policy here. So I'm gonna tell you two townie pieces of shit to turn around and walk your asses down to the gas station on Spencer. There's liable to be a cop parked there drinkin' coffee, and he can haul you two in for being drunk in public and generally embarassin' yourselves."

"And why... and why... an' why in the hell would we do that, huh? Big mister freaky huge dude don't scare ME..." The taller man took a step back nonetheless, the stench of beer almost visible. Cain just brushed by him, walking over to the truck.

With one hand, he wrenched the bumper free from its sole remaining mounting. Placing a hand on either end, he squeezed, compressing the metal down to the size of a basketball, then dropped it at their feet.

The townies visibly blanched as they stared down at the twisted hunk of metal before looking back at Dani warily to see what she was going to do. For the moment, she just stood there, ready to take action if needed, but more than willing to let Cain handle the physical situation.

"He's muscle," Dani told them simply, "I am fear. Want to see what I can do?"

"...you guys are some kinda freaks!" The shorter one yelped, turning tail to run. His friend looked from side to side, then to Dani, to Cain, and back to Dani again before swallowing his pride and racing after his friend.

Cain watched the two townies stumble a few times before they headed out of sight. Smirking, he reached into the window of the truck and took the keys out of the ignition. "Well, there's two drunk idiots off the road tonight, huh? Guess it ain't all boring."

"Sorry about...well..." Dani blushed, gesturing at his arm. She had taken a liberty she possibly shouldn't have taken. "I thought they might be intimidated if they thought I was with you." And they were intimidated by both of them, just for different reasons than Dani had intended.

"Assholes," she proclaimed, swearing uncharacteristically.

"Ain't no harm," Cain said with a smile. In the small space of quiet, he could hear the familiar strains of Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman" coming from inside the manor house. Turning, he offered an elbow to Dani. "What say we head on in there and show the kids how real music gets danced to, huh?"

Grinning like an idiot, Dani took his arm and headed back inside. Maybe being a chaperone had some advantages afterall. And someone still needed to guard the punchbowl. After the song.