It's Like Running Away

"Um, sure," Ai said actually still somewhat distracted by the fact that his dad was still around. He was honestly worried that the man would notice him and walk over for another chat and he didn't see it ending any better than the previous one had.

Too intent on his food to notice anything else, Dodge smiled at the agreement and went on eating, wishing he'd gotten a couple of rolls while he'd been in the line. He'd grab them if he went up for seconds. "Good. And I've got a few more games that I think you'd like. There's one where you have to..." Dodge trailed off as a shadow fell over his tray. "Um."

Ai, who had been keeping his head down in hopes of going unnoticed, saw the shadow fall over Dodge's tray first rather than the owner of said shadow.

Glancing over his shoulder, Dodge came face to face with the stern man he had no interest in meeting at this point. He swallowed around a lump of mac and cheese that fell flat in his belly. "Can....can I help you, sir?" he forced himself to ask, trying his best to be polite and not give away his feelings about the whole situation.

Emory basically ignored Dodge's question, focused on his son who was still looking down. "Aiden," he said, causing the boy to tense before looking up at him.

"Y-yes?" Ai said, hating himself for a moment for stuttering.

"Who's your friend?"

"He, uh, um..."

Not wanting to wait through the stuttering, Emory cut him off. "Or he can introduce himself?"

Aiden fell silent again, looking back down at the table. He just wanted his dad to go away again; far, far away where he could just forget he even exists.

Inwardly enraged by the exchange between father and son, but knowing it would do no good to make a scene, Dodge forced a smile. "I'm Dodger Hayes, sir. Are you Aiden's father? I've...heard a lot about you."

"Mr. Hayes, I am sure that Aiden has been sharing only relevant facts, in order to maintain the family's reputation," Emory stated quite plainly. Then he turned his attention to his son. "I am surprised to see that you have managed to make an acquaintance. You should have made more than one by this point in time, but it is a refreshing sight, nonetheless."

Aiden, keeping his eyes down on the tabletop, nodded slightly, biting down on his bottom lip much harder than necessary. He hoped that this would end soon and without any sort of massive explosion.

Dodge couldn't stand to hear Aiden be talked down to like that. Turning around completely to face the man, he clenched his jaw until he could find something to say that wasn't violent, vulgar, or both. "To be honest, sir, I was just trying to be polite. Aiden doesn't talk much about you at all."

"To be honest, Mr. Hayes, I am not interested in hearing about my son's lack of respect for our noble family."

Aiden couldn't hold back a scoff. "Noble."

"Well, Aiden, if you would prefer, there are distant relatives of the family who could receive the honor of being the heir to the family name. You are not irreplaceable."

Ai narrowed his eyes, but held back anymore comments.

Dodge stood and found himself not quite nose to nose with the man, but close enough. "In fact, sir, there's at least one person who thinks your son is absolutely irreplaceable. If you don't think so, that's your own fault."

"Dodge, don't," Aiden said voice a little louder than previously so that he was sure he'd be heard.

Dodge turned toward Aiden, frustrated. "No, I'm not going to let you get treated like that. If you want to let him, fine, but that doesn't mean I have to." He turned back to Ai's father, standing his ground. "Your son is far more than you deserve for a child, I can tell you that. There are fathers who would kill for a nice, smart, handsome son like Aiden and you treat him like a poor substitute for a human. I pity you for not being able to see what you have." By this point, Dodge had completely lost his appetite...which was truly unusual for him.

Aiden watched the scene before him with an open mouth as his father's face reddened with anger. "And, just what do you think gives you the right to speak to me in such a manner? You are nothing but a child," Emory spat with barely contained rage.

"No, sir, I'm not, but you're behaving like one." Dodge rolled his eyes at Mr. Hartland, who was clearly working himself up into a fit. Dodge, while positively scorching mad, tried to keep a calm exterior. "I'll speak to you however I want to. I have a right to say the things I say to you by law. The way you treat Aiden, though? Acting like he's the scum of the earth? That's child abuse." Well. Never say dropping in on speech and debate matches isn't helpful.

Having had enough of listening to the conversation, Aiden stood up from his chair and with one last glance at the pair turned on his heel and exited the cafeteria at a very swift pace. Was he just running away from problems again? Yes. Did he care at the moment? Not at all.

Dodge bit his lip when Aiden got up and left, torn between following him or laying the law down the way he had been. Finally, he made his decision. "You better be glad I care more about making sure he's okay than I care about you." With that he hustled out of the cafeteria with more than a few eyes on him, calling out for Ai.

Aiden stopped abruptly in the middle of the walkway once he felt that he had put enough distance between himself and the cafeteria. Standing there, he wondered how he was even still standing up shaking as badly as he was. Willing himself to remain standing, though, he closed his eyes and started to take deep breaths. That was rightly a disaster, and it was actually worse than he had feared or imagined.

When Dodge noticed that Ai hadn't gotten very far, he slowed to a crawl, not wanting to sneak up on him. Everything in him wanted to draw him into a hug, but he felt like that'd be a really dumb idea at the moment. "Hey," he said, as softly as he could manage, "I, uh. Well, I'm not sorry I said it. But I'm sorry you had to be there."

Aiden was quiet for a very long moment, not quite trusting his voice. Finally, he asked, "Would it have been worse if I hadn't been there?"

Dodge considered a second. "Yeah, probably. I...I didn't think he was going to be that bad. He deserves a lot worse than the things I said."

"Probably," Aiden agreed, noticing that he was still shaking. "I wish I were brave or strong or whatever enough to tell him all of those things myself..." He looked down at his shoes before falling rather ungracefully on his bottom, giving up on standing with shaky legs.

Deciding he'd deal with whatever consequences he got, Dodge covered the rest of the distance to Aiden and dropped down beside him, wrapping an arm around him. "Hey, it's not your fault. You're strong, Ai...I couldn't have lived with a dad like that all that time. Hell, I ran mine off. If you're not brave it's because he's stomped it out of you. What a bastard."

Aiden didn't react for a moment, looking down so that his hair fell into his eyes. "I've never, ever been brave," he said quietly. "Even when I was a little kid." He pulled his knees up to his chest.

Dodge was silent for a second or two, lost for words. "Well, you know..." he said, stalling for time before saying the first thing that came to him, "at least you've got me to be brave for you until you learn."

Aiden laughed. "But, you're the not so smart kind of brave," he weakly protested. "That's just going to get us in trouble. Or well, more trouble than the trouble we'd already be in to call for needing to be brave."