Blood Bound

Part 8 - Parenting

Short chapter uh oh here we go

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Caden cast a glance at Steven, chewing his lip. "Do you have, like... a ladder, or a stepstool, or something?"

"I'm afraid not." Steven shook his head. "I could grab my chair from my desk-?"

"No way!" Brine interjected from the next room over. "Don't you remember what Officer Buckle says? Never stand on a swivel chair!" He poked his head into the room to find them both staring at him in bewilderment. "Neither of you- okay, it's an old children's book, stop looking at me like that."

"I just don't understand how she got up there." Caden turned back to the bookshelf, and Steven followed his gaze up to where their tiny, grey kitten was perched on the very top, mewling and crying as if her life depended on it.

"Well, that's the thing about cats." Brine marched into the room, his hands on his hips as he craned his neck to look up at her. "They climb. If she can get up there, she can get down."

"But she's so small!" Caden protested. "What if she hurts herself??" Brine heaved a sigh, then turned away.

"I'll get a kitchen chair."

It had been three days since the kitten, Cinderella, had arrived unexpected at their doorstep, and both Steven and Caden had found the little creature to be a bit of a handful. Beyond the typical cat care duties they were expected to perform, she was also small enough that she needed to be bottle-fed every three to four hours, which meant at least one of them was waking up every so often to feed her. Brine shouldered a lot of this responsibility, claiming that he had the most experience, but he supplemented this by complaining the whole time.

Despite Brine being basically the kitten's nanny, Caden had bonded with her the quickest. Steven suspected that they saw the other as a lost kid like themself. Whatever the case, whenever Cinderella (or Cinny, or Ellie, or Soot, or any of the other plethora of nicknames she had already gotten) wasn't bounding around Steven's apartment she was usually curled up in Caden's hoodie.

"Here we go." Brine said as he carried a chair into the room. "Honestly, don't either of you have any common sense? You don't stand on something with wheels."

"Skateboards." Caden fired back. He had gotten much more comfortable with Brine, almost overnight. Steven wasn't sure why but he wasn't complaining.

"A skateboard is a mode of transportation. You're trying to move." Brine set the chair at the base of the bookshelf and stepped onto it. "With a chair, you're trying to stay still, and wheels are kinda bad for that."

"Maybe." Caden replied coolly. Brine scooped up the kitten from the top of the bookshelf and handed her down to Caden, who immediately set her on his shoulder to snuggle into his neck.

"Hey Ells." He murmured in a sing-song voice. "Thanks, Brine."

"No problem. Keep your kid off the furniture." Brine hopped down, picking up the chair to return it to the kitchen as Caden scampered off with his playmate.

"You're a saint," Steven remarked as he followed him back to the kitchen. "Thanks for being patient with them."

"Oh, cats are just like that." Brine shrugged as he scooted the chair back into place. "And she probably was too small to get down on her own. I'll try to find out how she got up there, she can't jump that high yet."

"Right..." Steven paused by the kitchen counter, drumming his fingers on the granite. "...have you found a place for Caden yet?" Brine, now heading for the dishes in the sink, gave him an odd look over his shoulder.

"Ready to be rid of him already?"

"No, of course not." Steven shook his head hurriedly. "But, neither of us are parents, much less his, and he needs to be in school. I can't provide that for him, not in this area with his dad looking for him. You're the one who said he'd be safer somewhere else."

"Yeah, I did." Brine nodded. "Yeah, I've... been in contact with some people." He turned around to lean back against the counter. "Haven't found a place for him yet. Some possibilities to work on. Communication isn't exactly quick or easy when I can't just..." he made the phone hand sign next to his ear. "...call them up without the risk of being tracked down."

"Right." Steven conceded, pacified by the news that it was in the works. "Thanks, Brine."

"Sure."

The two men fell silent as Brine washed the dishes, Steven standing by quietly as he did so. He'd been trying not to think about it too much, but it still grated on him- soon enough, Caden would have to leave, and so would Brine.

Steven had been alone since he had separated from his parents at 17. He'd grown used to the silence and the loneliness, filled with gaming and blaring his TV at all hours of the day and night. He'd gotten used to doing everything for himself, getting himself to his blood draw appointments and dragging himself home when he was halfway unconscious. It became normal enough that he didn't even consider how nice it would be to have help.

But it was nice. It was very nice to not have to scrounge together a peanut butter sandwich at 11 PM when he finally made it home, or sit on the couch with his lungs rattling like an old car engine after trying to clean, or walk himself home alone in the middle of the night. That one wasn't just uncomfortable, it was unsafe too. Those men who'd attacked him- that wasn't a mugging, they had tried to kidnap him. That was premeditated.

Obviously, Caden couldn't stay forever. And neither could Brine. He had more responsibilities than just Steven, he couldn't stay here and be his bodyguard and personal chef forever. Steven would survive without him. It wasn't like the last time he'd left he'd been nearly kidnapped...

"You need something?" Brine's voice startled him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to find the vigilante eying him curiously.

"No, just..." Steven waved him off. "...thinking."

"About?"

"Just..." Steven shrugged. "How unexpected life can be."

"Got that right." Brine grinned at him, showing off his sharp canines. "I'm taking this out, I'll be right back." Grabbing a worn baseball cap, Brine set it on his head and pulled the full trash bag out of the kitchen trash.

"Alright." Steven watched as he stepped out the door, then shut his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

**

The nondescript van parked on the side of the road only barely caught Brine's attention as he walked past.

"Think you've got the wrong apartment." The first man muttered to his partner, watching the camera feed. "This guy's the only one I've seen go in or out."

"Stonewall only comes out to go to his appointments or grocery shopping." His partner told him. "Rarely alone."

"Why the sudden change? Where did this guy come from?" The first man gestured to the screen, watching as the man with the baseball cap tossed the trash bag into the dumpster. "He suddenly decide to get a roommate after we failed the first time?"

"Considering Stonewall's loaded and never goes anywhere without him, I'd say he's more like a bodyguard."

"Well, can't we just take him out?"

"If he is a bodyguard, he's probably dangerous." His partner said irritably. "More than we can handle."

"Well, call the boys in." The first man reached for his phone.

"I don't know that there's a need for that." The second man zoomed in on the stranger, his brow furrowing when he tugged the cap down to shield his face. "I think there are other ways we can remove him from the picture."