Drizzle

Drake stood, swiping a hand across his mouth nonchalantly, "Well, now what? I don't think she's in this world. My best bet would be on End World."


"Yes, that would be where she originally traveled too," Jordan said in a very manner of fact way, "but she could easily have rode a train to another world. Besides, neither you nor your . . . Damien seem to have any idea which year her ring was set too. Just that she is with Damien. Am I wrong?"


"No," Drake sighed, "so then what is your plan exactly?"


"Well," Jordan smiled the tattoo's swirled onto his face moved with his skin. "We are going on a journey through Damien's life. Starting from the day he met Lyra, come on."


Drake frowned, "This will take more than three days then."


Jordan smiled at him, making Drake raise his eyebrows. It had been a long time since he had been around someone who wore a smile when they were happy and a frown when they were sad. No games. "Oh, definitely in our time it will. Three weeks would be much more accurate of an assumption. Here." He tossed Drake a ring identical to his and said, "Wear it so that you don't travel back in thirty minutes."


Slipping on the cold ring, Drake wondered with a sigh where this guy had been when he and Jade had been scratching in the dirt for any clues on how time traveling worked.


"And now?" Drake yawned.


"Well," Jordan gave him an empathetic look, "we could find a hotel and rest for a bit since it is getting dark."


Drake nodded and they began to walk down the lonely street, "May I ask how old is the Damien we are visiting here?"


"Er," Jordan paused and glanced up as if he could see the calculations he was making in his head there, "um, twelve I suppose and Lyra would be um nine. Wait," his eyes fell straight into Drake's, "you do know that Lyra and Damien are both paired, right?"


"I figured as much," Drake replied, stepping over an empty bottle sitting on the street in front of him. "Why?"


"Well," he sighed, "it's a pretty big deal to all of the worlds and especially the king. I'm sure that you've never been exposed to how big of a deal it is because Damien hid you and this girl we're looking for from the worlds, but look on the inside of your right wrist."


Flipping over his arm and glancing at the inside of his wrist, Drake saw the familiar triangular birth mark.


"Only one of the graces has it and whomever presiding over the grace with that mark is basically given the duty to take him or her to the king for evaluation and then to travel the thirty-two worlds for the match. Where we have traveled to is a time when Damien first meets Lyra. I hope at least. I'm kind of guessing here," he said with a laugh as he placed his hand on the back of his neck casually.


Drake smiled at him, charmed to be in the company with someone who hadn't know him his entire life and wasn't constantly comparing and contrasting him with Damien. This boy had already judged him from what he had said earlier and believed that Drake was Damien that there simply was no difference between the two other than age and its obvious results. "What do you think of me?" Drake asked smoothly.



Jordan moved his head to look Drake in the eye. He squinted and tilted his head this way and that as if trying to find something before replying, "I think that you're tormented by something terrible. I just don't know what. And you of me?"


Taken aback by the question, Drake found himself unable to recall a time when anyone had asked him what he thought of them. He seemed to usually be the center of any conversation, well him and Damien. He smiled though, amused more than ever, "I think that you can see straight through people easily, but you're wrong in thinking that Damien and I are alike in any way."


"Oh, yes," Jordan responded flatly, jumping up onto the sidewalk and off the street as a pair of bright headlights shone over the hill top. Drake did the same. "I have figured that out quite quickly in the past half hour. Possibly that's what torments you," he laughed as the car zoomed by the sound quickly dissipating into the foggy night, "but I'm not one to pry."



The hotel room was small, dank and full of both live and dead insects, but Drake hadn't had much money on him. He hadn't thought of it and Damien probably had, but why would he ruin an opportunity to make Drake miserable. He collapsed onto the slightly damp bed, which smelled of mold. He could practically feel the bed bugs swarming up his bare arms from the moment that he laid down, but it didn't matter because he was asleep within a minute.


His dreams were dark and mostly about Damien. Something along the lines of him being trapped inside Damien's head, completely unable to move. He woke with a scream, finding himself out of breath. He coughed a few times, which didn't help anything because he ended up inhaling an enormous amount of dust, which nearly choked him to death.


"Here," he heard Jordan's voice say. He looked up through his watering eyes to see him fully dressed and holding out a chipped glass filled with water.


Drake grabbed it and quickly swallowed it down in a few gulps. He wiped the tears from his eyes with the corner of the bed sheet and then said to Jordan, "Thanks."


"Nightmare?" Jordan inquired, a bit to Drake's annoyance as he sat on the side of the bed with him.


"No, the best dream I've ever had why?" He wanted to bark sarcastically, but the dream he'd just had forced him to simply nod yes. He would not become like Damien and he most certainly would not be consumed by him.


Jordan sat there quietly for a few moments as if he were thinking and then with a sigh he muttered, "So do you think you're up for this?"


Drake frowned, feeling that familiar anger building up inside his chest, making his throat ache. Ready to see Damien's life in full detail? Why wouldn't he be? Who did this guy think he was? He didn't know a thing about Drake. Biting down his anger, Drake whispered, "What exactly do you mean by that?"


"Well," Jordan began, "if I were you, I would not be comfortable with this in the least bit."


Drake laughed hard at him as he stood up and reached for his shirt on the window sill and pulling it over his head, he smiled, "Jordan, this is about the most comfortable thing I've done in the past few years."


He recalled the conversation Damien and Dane had had with him on the train. "How so?" Jordan asked, probably completely unaware of the line he had just crossed.


"I mean, it isn't exactly rainbows and unicorns to talk to the man you've thought was your father your entire life that you've loathed so much and have him come out and tell you that he's in fact you!" Drake said letting his hideous temper slip out a bit.


Jordan frowned at him as his stare intensified. Those green eyes were boiling Drake's rage and like water in a tea kettle, Drake was about to burst out with a scream. He was desperately trying to hold it back, until Jordan laughed merrily, "I'm sorry, please forgive me. I've just brought up the first topic that Damien told me not to. Here, if you're ready we can leave," Jordan said, slipping off the bed and holding out a hand to him.


Drake's anger vanished as he stared back at Jordan in a blank shock. No one had ever apologized to him for speaking about Damien. His uncles . . . or brothers, used the topic of conversation against him whenever they were angry with him and Damien had stuck it in his back like a knife long ago and twisted it every now and then to see him writhe in pain. Jade avoided it when she could and talked about it meekly when there was no way to dodge it, but apologize about it? Why would someone even do that? Especially if they hadn't played a part in the whole affair.


"What?" Jordan asked through an uneasy smile, dropping his hand after some time, letting it hit his high. He then turned and walked towards the door.


Drake stood up, wearing a smile himself as he made his own way to the door, "So you seem to know a lot about me. Tell me your story."


Jordan lifted his dark eyebrows as he reached in front of Drake to open the door. Walking forwards, Drake turned back to watch him come through door and then met him with an expecting look. He rolled his eyes, but not in an angry way, "My story is boring and very much irrelevant to this trip."


Drake shrugged and remained silent. Unlike Damien, he did not have the need to have his way all the day long like some child. "But since it's only fair," Jordan sighed from his side. Drake smiled. It was nice sometimes though.


They walked out of the small hotel and into the bright day, immediately met by a crowd of people, which they filtered their way into. "I have a mother and father and no siblings. Just the three of us and, well, my grandmother. She's lived with us since grandfather died. I work at that clock store with my father and . . . well, that's really all there is to know."


Drake laughed so hard at him that he doubled over and they both had to stop as the wave of people rushed past them. "What?" Jordan snapped at him, clearly annoyed.


Drake stood straight, sighing and wiping the salty tears for his watering eyes. He shook his head and they began to walk on. He had never met someone who had a put together family. Someone who's life was normal and problem free. Maybe, he had come to think that it was an impossible hoax.


"So not a single problem in the world?" Drake said casually through his grin of jealousy.


"No one's life is perfect, Drake," Jordan frowned.


"Oh no?" Drake gave him a sideways glance. "Entertain me then. What's the thorn in your side?"


Narrowing his eyes, he replied, "It's going to drizzle soon. I hope you don't mind getting a bit wet."

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