Full Circle (Book 8 in Arrow/Spn Crossover)

Not So Distant Rumblings

I didn't even bother looking at Badger as I rejoined Coyote and we started heading towards the door. As we passed Cougar he held his hand up. Coyote stopped and I took her cue.

"Dancing Badger," Cougar said in that deadly empty voice, that one that's soft yet carries through an entire room. I never have gotten that down, "In case you or your friends have difficulty in counting to two and four or five of them try to join in, I will take immediate steps to correct your math. Do I make myself clear?"

Badger managed to look offended at that.

"Don't play innocent with me," Cougar continued, "You're a horrible liar. Dean? Ready?"

Cougar had our back, good. "Yup." He, Coyote and I went out the door. I gave him a quick grin, "Thanks."

The stone faced look he'd had on slipped for a second or two; a tight, bloodthirsty smile swept across his lips then disappeared, "You've hated him for a year. I've hated him since the second grade. Kicked his ass three times already. Be more than happy to do it again."

"Not the brightest tool in the shed is he?"

"No, but he's faster than you think and clever. The only reason Coyote defeated him so easily before is he was overconfident. He had no idea what she'd been doing all the years she'd been gone. He won't make that same mistake with you."

"Not to sound arrogant, but he has even less idea of what I've been doing. Thanks for the tip though."

"Not a problem."

Four cars skidded to a stop in the parking lot, three more were barreling down the street and several people were jogging towards us, "Huh, that traveled fast."

Coyote's hand squeezed my shoulder, "Not much happens around these parts."

"Great, high school all over again."

Rabbit and his family pulled up, along with several of our neighbors, "Dean? What the hell is going on?" Rabbit asked.

I didn't really want to get into all of it, I had other things to look out for, like Chasing Horse and Brown Fox coming my way. They weren't here to talk. "Coyote? Care to bring Rabbit up to speed?"

"Yeah, in a minute." She'd seen the same thing I had. "Dean, Horse loves to use his legs, he'll try to keep you busy to let the others get close. Fox has real martial arts training. Let Cougar or I help."

One of these days I'd learn to think my way all the way through a threat, "Remember last time we did this dance?"

Her hand grabbed mine and squeezed, pain shot up my hand, "Yeah, but I knew I was only fighting him and I wasn't already injured."

I looked away from the guys who were getting ready to kick my ass, or so they thought, put my hands on either side of her face and kissed her. "Those scrapes hardly count as injuries for me. My point was this is the same sort of set up. If we're going to keep living here all this shit would come to a head at some point or other. Better now when I'm calling the shots, then later, and it comes out of nowhere catching one of us at a bad time, if you get my drift."

She thought about it for a second, "You have a point. All right, don't kill any of them."

I had to laugh, "No doubts I'm going to win then huh?"

"Oh you'll win. I wasn't offering to help because I thought you'd lose."

There was fear in her eyes, that's when I got it, "I'm fine. Promise. Fight like this? Doubt it will trigger anything."

Her lips met mine again then she pulled back, "Love you."

"You too."

There was a nice ring of people forming, they were oddly quiet though. Badger and his minions were on the other side, failing at intimidating me with their glares.