Breakfast

A knocking on the door woke Emerson. With a deep moan, he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He stared in front of himself in a sleepy daze, until the knocking resumed. He rolled his eyes and then felt around the floor, until his hand stumbled onto his glasses. Placing them on his nose, he stood and shuffled with no haste to the door and opened it. What was it, six in the morning?


"Hi, there," Dane White, grinned at him leaning on the door frame with Eli Porter at his right on crutches and his two siblings to his left. It was still dark outside the street lamps still glowing.


Emerson sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He hadn't realized that allowing Damien to stay with him meant that his entire family would too. How long had it been since he had seen Dane? They didn't exactly find one another agreeable. Nevertheless Emerson looked up to his eyes, "Come on in then."


"Great," he laughed, patting him a little too hard on the shoulder to be considered friendly. Then followed Evan with a sour look on his face and crutches in his arms, then Blair and Amon slipped past him. Amon muttered something that sounded similar to a thank you but it was hard to understand his slurred words.


He shut the door behind them and then directed them to the room where he, Petra and Damien had been sleeping. Dane eyed the two, Petra lying beneath Damien's arm a breathe's length away from him, one blanket tossed over their two bodies. Dane's mouth twitched slightly, but surely he knew that there was nothing to them.


"Damien," he muttered, bending down next to his brother.


Slowly Damien's eyes widened open. The first thing he seemed to notice was how close Petra was to him and immediately shifted away from her, then he noticed his brother staring him down and hissed, "Damn it! Dane don't do that. What . . . how did you . . . ?"


"Erik," was his simply reply. Damien raised an eyebrow at that as Erik moved out from behind Dane.


Right that was his name, Emerson smiled to himself.


"Oh, my dear, dear precious friend Erik come to the rescue," Damien laughed with that high voice he would when he was younger. Emerson took a step back instinctively, Damien was about to burst; he could tell.


"Damien, you sent Drake into your past?" Dane growled.


With a scoff, Damien stood, "Are you trying to tell me what I should and shouldn't do?"


"You should not have done that to him," Dane spoke coldly, his face as immovable as that of a stone's.


"He has Jordan," Damien folded his arms and then shook his head as if confused, "wait, why am I defending myself against you?"



"Jordan is a selfish pig, who drinks alcohol as if it were the air," Dane continued crossly, "if anyone should have gone back it should have been you Damien. You know that."


"Well, I didn't," he frowned and then through a grin he mocked him, tilting his head backwards, "so then, what are you going to do about it?"


Dane's jaw clenched and his fist tightened hard as Damien smiled unconsciously. Quick as the shine of Damien's white teeth, Dane had swung hard and sure, knocking his brother to the floor, leaving him completely baffled. Emerson watched him as he sat there trembling from what was probably anger.


Petra stood finally, "Dane, get a hold of yourself! Erik you're a bastard!"


Ethan pursed his lips and glanced at her, "Maybe so, but I will not allow Damien to be Jade's end."


"It's inevitable," Petra snapped at him through fiery eyes.


"All right, all right," Emerson sighed, rubbing his eyes. He could already feel a terrible head ache coming. "What's done is done, Dane, Earl are you going to be a problem?"


"Earl?" Damien laughed from the floor, "You mean Erik?"


"Whatever," Emerson growled. "Damien, you and Petra may stay as long as you need. As for the rest of you, test my temper and you'll find yourselves on the street."


Dane's eyes widened, "Emerson, if I might say one last thing to Damien-"



"What?" Emerson shouted, hysterically, throwing his hands in the air as Damien stood. "What more do you have to say to him?"


He felt Damien's cold hand rest on his shoulder reassuringly and he rolled his eyes, "Just get it over with."


Dane pursed his lips harder, glancing at Damien's hand resting on Emerson's shoulder, "You're supposed to be smart, Emerson," he growled, "yet . . ." he laughed and then shook his head, muttering something and then looked up at his brother darkly, "Damien, this should all be over with by the end of tomorrow. There will be no more games, brother. Jade will fix things with Alastair and time will be set right-"


"About that," Damien laughed lightheartedly, "um, see I won't be forcing Jade to do anything and I will be telling her everything. It will be completely up to her."


"Are you an idiot?" Dane roared, widening Damien's eyes and simultaneously cracking open a smile.


"I dearly hope not," Damien continued through his plastered smile.


"It's my idea," Petra butted in angrily, "I thought of all people you'd understand Dane."


"Understand?" Dane snapped, "I am so sick of this all. I don't care how, but it has to end. What you are proposing will hinder that completely."


Emerson gave a short laugh. He was becoming irritated quickly. "Enough," he sighed, "who wants breakfast?"


"Amon needs a bed," Blair muttered with a roll of her eyes, "I'm going to take him up."


Emerson shrugged, "As long as you know your way."


She nodded and was gone with her twin brother, leaving the unhappy group alone.


"Why are you still here?" Petra asked Evan, angrily.


"To see Jade tonight," Evan replied.


"Why?" Emerson raised an eyebrow, "Aren't planning on running off with her are you?"


"If that's what she chooses," he shrugged.



Both of Damien's hands locked into two fists, but he didn't dare go against Evan or was it Eli.


"That will not happen," Dane assured him, "she may think that she loves you, but trust me she is simply confused."


Damien raised his eyes to his brother's in amusement as Emerson questioned him, "Then who are you saying that her affections lie with?"


"Not Damien," Dane simpered to himself, "but I think it should be quite obvious."


"I haven't laid an eye on the girl," Emerson reminded him.


"It's Drake," Damien sighed, putting a hand to his head.


"Can't be true," Eli folded his arms across his chest as if the decision were his and his alone, "he almost treats her worse than Damien does and he couldn't care less about her himself."


"Not true," Dane smiled, "Drake is in love with her and Damien commanded him to treat her horribly the very day he realized who they were. So even though Drake can't remember, he should realize sooner or later, especially now that he knows his true feelings for her."


"Why would you do that?" Petra poked Damien's shoulder to grab his attention.


Damien looked away, furiously, pursing his lips.


"I see," Emerson laughed, "you made sure that Jade would end up exactly like Lyra. You set up her entire life to mirror Lyra's, including making Drake you. Interesting, I'm curious to see what the boy would be without your words."


"I only made him treat her like me," Damien replied slowly by no means in a defensive tone, but more of an explanatory, "I didn't command him to become me because he already was. He probably would have treated her the same either way, but I had to be sure."


"Does he even know?" Eli snapped. His eyes were lit with burning anger.


Damien smiled on him almost kindly, "No," he purred the stringed out word.


"Oh," Eli looked away, folding his arms across his chest.


"So breakfast," Emerson sighed again.

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