Cait rolled her eyes and tried to mumble something but Tolly pushed his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet, turning to Cas with a playful smile. Something seemed to be bothering him, but Tolly figured it was just worry about Cait and maybe feeling left out the way he had with Levi. "Back me up here, Cas! You know medicine and stuff, tell Cait she's gonna hurt herself if she keeps talking."
He snapped out of his thoughts and took the tea off the heat “hm? Oh, yeah you might not want to talk a lot, much less fight Tolly back on trying to have you rest. Rest is good, and from what it looks like you need it.” He smiled kindly before finding a cup and pouring the tea into it. He added a few mint leaves on top to help with the pungent small and walked over to Cait. “Can you sit up?” He asked softly, guiding her hands to the warm mug
Tolly helped her up into a sitting position and then scootched over so Cas would have room on the couch too, patting the cushion beside him invitingly. Cait gave the tea a hesitant sniff and then chugged half the glass, setting it down with a grimace. "What'd you put in this?" she asked, voice still gravely and rough. "It tastes like you blended Tolly's old socks into a drink."
Cas sat down next to Tolly with a grateful smile "that because you're not supposed to drink it all in one go." he laughed softly "drink it a little slower, it's not going to help if you drink it so fast." he instructed gently "It was herbs like rosemary, hibiscus, and tarragon. there's also a little lemon and white moonflower in it. along with mint." he explained. "drink that every day and you should feel a bit better in a few days." he glanced up at the clock and stood "I have to go to the shop and start working on it." he smiled at Cait "I hope you get better Cait." he turned to Tolly "you can stay with her if you want., you don't have to come with me." he said softly, gathering the basket of ingredients from where he had left them by the door
Tolly tossed an arm across Cas' shoulders, kissing him on the cheek as he started talking. Cait watched both of them with a carefully blank look, nodding along to the instructions Cas was giving her and she curled into herself a bit, missing Tolly's warmth. Tolly was leaning quite happily against Cas' side, hopping to his feet the second Cas got up. "I already said I'd go with you," he replied, petting Cait on the head as she laid back down. "Caitlyn here is a big girl, she can take care of herself." He followed Cas over to the door, watching him with a confused look. "Why would you think I wouldn't want to go?"
"I never said I didn't think you'd want to come," he said once they'd left Cait's dorm room "I just thought you might want to spend time with her since you've been gone a week and now that she's sick. That's all." he glanced over at him "she misses you Tolly, it just seemed like she wanted to spend time with you too. Besides, I'm sure it would be more fun instead of restocking and fixing the shop."
Tolly was still frowning as he followed Cas out onto the sidewalk. "But I already said I'd help you. I can hang out with Cait later, when I'm not gonna be abandoning you to go work by yourself." He reached down to take Cas' hand, kissing the back of it softly. "I'll go back to her if you want me to Cas, but… I'd like to stay with you."
Cas sighed softly and nodded, smiling faintly at the kiss "alright, you can stay." he leaned onto Tolly's shoulder "I wouldn't think of it as abandonment if you wanted to hang out with your friends by the way." he glanced up at him "your friends matter too. Don't push them off to the side because of me." he straightened when they rounded the corner that led to his shop and Cas stopped dead in his tracks. On the semi-broken window was a depiction of him tied to a stake in spraypaint. Underneath were red bright words.
"Burn the Fake."
Tolly smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah, but I already made plans with you, and I'm not going to ditch you for someone else. Especially because I know Cait'd just force me to fill out a questionnaire about her potion while she drank your tea." He laughed quietly, a sound that died in his throat when he saw the state the shop was in. It took him a moment to do much more than process. He growled once he finally managed to, pulling Cas closer protectively. "Cas, campus police. Now"
He shook his head still not looking away from the shop “they’re not going to do much.” He whispered, gently pulling out of Tolly’s grasp and taking his hand to tug him towards the shop. He raised his head defiantly to glare at the picture before pulling out his keys and unlocking the door. He took a deep breath before stepping inside
Tolly followed him, eyes flickering across every darkened corner of the shop with growing concern Broken glass sparkled beside the half windowpane still remaining, but there wasn't anything else that seemed dangerous. "Cas they've already done a lot. This is a threat, you should at least try to get some protection for yourself."
“If this a lot then they can’t do much worse. I’ve been dealing with this for two years now Tolly, campus police doesn’t scare them anymore.” Cas headed to the back room and found a few brooms. He set them aside and found some gloves. He handed some to Tolly “we’ll have to get all the shelves out of the way before we can sweep the glass. The gloves are in case anything mixed and is unsafe to touch. Nothing should be dangerous but you never know. Anything still in Jars can be set aside on the counter.” He explained as he crouched down and started separating out the ingredients from the broken shelves
"Then call the police police." Tolly pulled on the gloves sharply, moving over to the broken shelves to pick up the surprisingly large number of jars that hadn't broken. "This is illegal, it's a repeat offence, and you've got more than enough proof to get an arrest." Once the jars were cleaned up he grabbed a broom, sweeping away the broken glass. "And anyways, you shouldn't just lay down and let them walk all over you! Crimes like this only escalate, Cas, they never get better on their own."
“You don’t think i’ve tried calling the police? They don’t care about this place. They truely don’t. All they’ll do is put them in jail for a few months and release them with a warning.” He shook his head and pulled out somebody voles that were still intact. “I’ve tried fighting them Tolly, I’ve tried to defend myself and this place. I’ve tried so hard.” He whispered, carefully setting the vials to side before taking a deep breath and standing up to help sweep
"Take them to court then, there has to be something you can do!" Tolly took the vials carefully, setting them down on the counter beside the jars and then ushering Cas out of the way so he could push the cabinet back up into a standing position. The floor beneath it was littered with glass shards and the remains f what ha been in them, mixed together into a noxious mess of fumes that seemed to permeate the room now that they weren't being hemmed in by the shelf. Tolly winced. "I know you love this Cas place, I just… I know there's gotta be some way to defend it."
(Ah I didn’t see you answered! Sorry!)
“If you can find a way to defend it then let me know, I’m open to any suggestions.” He said, voice at the point of breaking. He went around the counter and found a box to put the jars and vials that weren’t broken. He set it aside and shut his eyes for a moment to restrain the tears that threatened to fall. “It’s not the place that I’m worried about,” he spoke slowly, trying to control the anger and sadness in his voice “it’s the people who come here for what I give them, for those who genuinely need this place. What if they come when people are here and end up hurting them in the process?” He glanced up at Tolly, eyes full of worry and desperation “that’s not fixable, not with what I can provide nor with medical services.”
(NP!)
Tolly frowned, immediately setting his broom to the side so he could wrap Cas up in a hug. It was times like these that he was glad he was big and it was easy to wrap people up in as much protection as he could give them. "Cas, these guys… they're cowards. They only attack when the store is closed or you're alone inside it, and they wouldn't dare hurt another person anyways because they know whoever they hurt would have their ass for it. This is personal sweetheart. This is a targeted attack on you."
Cas wrapped his arms around tolly’s and leaned into his warmth, grateful for husband strength. “As long as they’re not hurting anyone else, I’ll deal with it.” He murmured,” closing his eyes for a blissful second and let the destroyed shop slips way from view
Tolly kissed his cheek, a worried frown on his face. "Honey, you can't just…" He paused, struggling to find the right words to convince Cas to get help. "This isn't something you should have to deal with! You're such a wonderful guy, you don't deserve any of this shit."
He shrugged slightly “it’s okay, just two more years and I’ll be out of here.” He sighed heavily and leaned into Tolly “but thank you for the encouragement,”
Tolly held him close with a soft sigh. "But… but Cas, they're hurting you." That was really what bothered him so much about this, the fact that it hurt Cas so bad every time his shop got busted apart. "They shouldn't get to get away with that, it's not fair."
“Life’s not fair all the time, love.” Murmured, tilting his head up and nuzzling Tolly's cheek. “But sometimes it gives you some relief points.” He smiled softly up at Tolly and pressed a kiss to his Jaw “they can try to hurt me and destroy this place but until they kill me, this,” he waved to the room and to the salvaged jars “will never end.”
Tolly stooped over a little so Cas could nuzzle him, leaning into the kiss even as he whined. "You shouldn't have to endure something like this, though. There are resources, there are supposed to be things that'll protect you and…. and I'm worried that one day they're gonna do something that you can't recover from."
“They won’t go that far…I think.” He nudged into Tolly’s chest before turning in his hold. “I’ll be okay Tolly, don’t worry about me.” He reached up and pressed a light kiss to Tolly’s lips before pulling away and continuing to clean
"I always worry about you," Tolly argued quietly, kissing him back and letting his hands drop so Cas could move around more easily. "But… I guess I get it. I know I wouldn't want to worry you if something like this were happening to me." He grabbed a broom.
“But is worry about you either way,” he sighed softly and stopped cleaning “I’ll see what I can do, maybe talk to the counselors or something.” He suggested, not feeling hopeful that they would help but hoping it takeaway reassured Tolly
Tolly smiled weakly, seeming to relax a little at Cas' reassurance despite how half hearted it was. "Thank you, sweetpea. I think the counselors are a good start, even if I'd like you to get help that's a little more… heavy duty."
“If more help is needed then I’ll talk to the local officers.” He said, glancing up as he saw someone come in. He walked over with a small smile “Hey, uhm is there something I can help you with?”
Tolly smiled and pecked him o the cheek. "Thank you, Cas," He murmured, getting back to sweeping away the glass shards as the customer walked in.
The customer stared in horror at the state of shop. “What happened?” The girl whispered.
“Mishaps and misfortune.” Cas replied with a sad smile
She nodded sadly “I’m so sorry, I can come back when you reopen.”
“If you came here now it must be important.” Cas reassured, waving her over to where they had gathered the good ingredients.
“Only if you’re sure.”