10 Pizzeria Waltz

They entered the pizza shop, walking casually up toward the front counter. Were they going to stay, or were they going to go? Caden came to a stop when he spotted Malcolm and Tommy seated at a table. There was a tomato pie in the center of the table and a couple bottles of beer. He squinted his eyes slightly.

The two Merlyns glanced over towards he and Thea and raised their brows.

Tommy immediately stood up and walked over to them, a small smirk across his lips. He seemed friendly as he draped his arms over their shoulders and walked them over to the table. "I see you two are doing fine, let's catch up a bit."

Caden shrugged at this, not really minding it. This meant Thea didn't have to buy anything for them to eat if they were willing to share the large pie on the table.

"Tommy, we're..." Thea looked up at Tommy as he patted her shoulder, assuring her it was fine. "...On a date." Her head lulled to the side slightly with annoyance as she just went along with it since Caden didn't seem to be resisting. She could probably understand what he was thinking, free tomato pie.

Tommy slid onto the bench beside his dad and allowed the two to sit beside one another across from them.

Thea who wasn't too into it, didn't slide immediately into a seat until Caden himself reached over and took her hand. Bringing her into the bench without resistance, he smiled a bit.

Malcolm smiled charismatically as always, picking up his dark bottled beer and taking a swig. "Hello Thea and..." He looked over the boy, having not seen him before.

"This is Caden," Tommy said as he gestured towards the unknown element. "Met him last night at the party. Seems he made sure the two of them got out before the police arrived." He snickered quietly as he took a sip from his own bottle.

"Now how did they manage that?" Malcolm laughed inwardly through his nose at this, snorting almost. He took in every bit of data he could get by scanning the boy's face with his eyes. Like any good assassin he was able to profile this figure by his expressions, micro-expressions and his features. Caden seemed to carry himself as someone with power, but it wasn't wealth nor was it superficial power. That was a mystery all on its own.

"I watched them go into a linen closet, but when I opened the door, they were gone." Tommy exclaimed as Caden and Thea let him speak on their behalf. It wasn't that Caden cared, and Thea didn't really see a problem with it, as it could be seen as a simple magic trick.

"Really?" Malcolm said with an interested higher volume tone, looking over the two of them.

Caden nodded with a smug look on his face. "Al Mujus," he winked at Malcolm who furrowed a brow at his choice of words. Though it sounded suspicious due his use of arabic, just the wink made him feel a little unsettling.

Malcolm's mind began to churn, like a hamster on a wheel. Just the use of arabic did this, but he remained calm and composed on the outside. "The Magi, huh?" He rolled his jaw a bit leaning back in his seat. It would be normal for him to know other languages, even arabic, he ran an international business group. "A learned man at such a young age." He straightened out his brows as he continued to observe the seemingly harmless boy who emenated of power he didn't quite understand as of yet.

"Yeah, it was quite the Undertaking," Caden said as Thea talked with Tommy on the side, he watched from the corner of his eye as she collected a piece of pie and began to eat it casually.

Again with the words, Malcolm seemed to show small expressions of curiosity and was very much alert. The boy used the word undertaking, out of all the different words he could have used. This boy was the same age as Thea, no?

"Oh?" Malcolm spoke full of interest, placing his bottle of beer down on the table. He would then clasped his hands together and lean them on the edge. "If you don't mind me asking. Where'd you two meet?"

"Hyde Park," Thea answered the question when Caden went to open his mouth. She was pretty sure he was going to say in her backyard. That would just sound weird, that and she knew that he talks with her mother. In that aspect, she didn't want that to get back to Moira. It would have essentially mean she had met him while he was trespassing.

Caden looked over at her with one eye widened, a brow raised in that respect, as he'd pick up a napkin and wipe the corner of her mouth.

Thea simply smiled at him as he did so, before swiftly snatching the napkin out of his hand and placing it on the table crumpled up. "I was blowing off some steam, he found me on a bench."

Tommy furrowed a brow hearing that he had found her on a bench. "Sober?"

Caden averted his gaze from the two on the other side of the table. "Far from," he'd say with a teasing tone before doubling over from a playful jab to the stomach from Thea. "I feel squishy..." He uttered as he rested the side of his head against the table, grinning up towards Thea.

"People don't usually say they feel squishy," Thea said with an expression which made it clear she was trying not to laugh at him.

"My name is Caden, not people," he mused as he poked at her shoulder in a jesting manner.

Tommy shook his head slightly seeing the two of them get along like a pair of clowns. "Anyways. Some social media posts place you at the party. The Police might want to find and question you two." He'd warn as he took a swig of his beer, much like his father had done moments ago.

"I always wanted to meet Captain Quentin Lance," Caden snickered sarcastically as he'd scratch the back of his neck slightly.

"He's not a bad guy," Tommy said with a chuckle in return, having met up with Laurel's father last night at the party when the police arrived. "Just a little..." He swayed his head side to side a bit, "Troubled... He lost one of his kids five years ago."

Caden sighed quietly, "Laurel's sister, Sara, I know." Even though he displayed sympathy, Malcolm could see that it was false, though well hidden. It was as if he knew something that no one else did, as if Sara wasn't even dead. Then he paused when he recalled his use of arabic. Was this little man a member of the League of Assassins? Did he know what he had done, what he was planning?

That's when Caden's eyes suddenly snapped onto Malcolm's, these eyes cast blame upon him. He was the one who destroyed the Queen's Gambit.

Thea raised a brow at the expression he was giving Malcolm, she was becoming curious. Why was he looking at him like this? He was a family friend, or at least that is what she had originally assumed.

"I'm sure this City has quite 'The List' of losses regarding a lot of things." Caden said before relaxing and taking a piece of pie from the square on the table. He brought it to his lips and bit into it, nibbling on the crispy crust.

Hearing the emphasis on the two words of The List, Malcolm's own face darkened. He used arabic to describe himself. He used the word Undertaking and now he brought up the list as he spoke of something else. He was hiding things from the unexpecting, it appeared Thea wasn't in the know either. At least, that is what it seemed to him.

Then again, this could all be coincidence, these words could have been mere triggers to his latent paranoia.

"So where did you grow up, Caden?" Malcolm asked as he was curious about his background.

Raising a brow at the man, Caden chuckled a little. "I will tell you the same thing I told Moira. What's Past is Prologue." He went on to quote the Shakespearean Play of The Tempest. "I grew up in Lancaster Pennsylvania, rather peaceful place except for the couple of shootings... My parents died when I was five, and I came here to California when I was ten. I completed High School this past summer as I skipped a few elementary grades."

Malcolm raised a brow at the background which he had given him. He was speaking the truth in the respect that his parents were killed as well as coming to California. Though it did feel like he was telling a half-truth to conceal another truth.

"Which City did you move to?"

"National City," Caden responded to the sudden question, as if he was trying to uncover something. He spoke the truth this time around unlike how he handled the situation with Moira.

"And why did you come to Starling City?"

Caden's eyes tensed slightly at the sudden inquisition which had him bombarded with two questions now. "I have no answer for that." Again he spoke the truth, he didn't appear in this city on his own volition.

"I've also been stabbed right below the brainstem," he patted the back of his neck casually as he volunteered this information. This would have indelibly killed someone with this kind of damage. "If you wanted to know."

Tommy took this as a piece of dark humor and chuckled, thinking he was messing with his father. Thea also went along with Tommy, though her laugh didn't sound all that convincing.

Malcolm who could read the boy, just sat there with a straight up blank expression before letting out a chuckle. Caden as far as he knew was telling the truth. The boy had indeed died at least once and there were very few ways for people to come back. Had he used a Lazarus pit?

Seeing as Thea had stopped eating after her third piece of pie, he would lean back in his seat and smile a little bit. "Thanks for the food." Caden stated and Thea nodded as she wiped her mouth with a store printed napkin.

"Guess it's time to go," Thea giggled to herself as she slowly slid out from the table, Caden following suit as she did so. "Thanks for having us."

Caden nodded to them, giving a faint wave before hooking an arm around her and walking out of the neighborhood Pizzeria.

Malcolm watched them leave after Tommy had waved them off. "That kid seems dangerous..." He muttered to himself and crossed his arms as he looked at the remains of the pizza. "Keep an eye on him whenever you're near Thea."

Tommy raised a brow hearing this father say this and looked over at him as he nursed his bottle. "I don't know, he seems harmless."

Malcolm shook his head and laughed a little. "People aren't always what they seem," he said with a light sigh as he placed a hand firmly on his son's shoulder. This was the truth, considering the double if not triple life he was living himself.

...

As Thea and Caden were walking along the cement walkway on the side of the avenue that the Pizzeria was located on, she looked up at him with a brow raised. "Why did you quote the same Shakespeare play you did last night?"

"I'm using the Quote as a warning," Caden said as he looked towards her, a smile printed across his lips as if what he was saying could only be natural. "Their organization is known as the Tempest."

Thea continued walking with him with her arm around his lower back. They looked like a young teen couple, just roaming down the street. "So my mom is involved?"

"Involuntarily," Caden quickly corrected her so that she wouldn't misunderstand why he had used to quote with her mother. "She's being blackmailed because of Robert's failings."

Thea nodded slowly, seeing this as one of the reasons behind the rift that formed between them as mother and daughter. "What else do you know?" She asked curiously as she now had her earlier beliefs confirmed that he knew more than he was letting on.

"If I told you a secret your parents have been keeping from you, how would you feel?" Caden asked as he looked to Thea, who almost immediately froze up hearing this.

He had a secret her family was keeping from her. "Does Ollie know it?" Thea asked him, wanting to know if her big brother was in on this big secret. She idolized him, she wanted him back, and she was so close to having him once more. She didn't want to have a reason to be devastated by him.

Caden shook his head in return to her question, "Robert Queen is not your biological father."

Thea swallowed her saliva heavily, gulping, as her throat and chest began to tighten. The man she had grown up with calling her father, wasn't her actual biological father? He had treated her like a daughter, his daughter, even with this fact not being known to her. Internally she was devastated that she never knew, but she never asked and her mother never told her. Yet she could put two and two together, neither of her parents had dark hair, she didn't even share the same features as her father.

"Then who is my father...?" Thea managed to speak after great deliberation on her part as they walked up to an intersection.

Caden closed his eyes as he turned his head up to the sky as he felt a few drops of rain. "You just saw him, and I just warned him."

Thea's eyes went blank as this realization hit hard. If he had warned her biological father, using all those emphasized words, she couldn't imagine his role. "Blackmailed? Is he being blackmailed?"

Caden looked over at her when she was questioning him. It was as if she was begging him to tell her that Malcolm Merlyn was being blackmailed into being a part of Tempest. "He is the one who killed the man who raised you as his own and no, he doesn't know who you are to him."