Figuring it all out

"It's been past thirty minutes," Drake muttered to Erik, glancing at the new clock, that he'd found and set on the table, where they sat, waiting for the past thirty minutes "She mustn't have made it back to here."


"It's still dark. We should go out and look for her," Erik said, leaping to his feet, like some sort of hero out of a book.


"Oh, please," Drake growled, half-way scoffing, "she could be anywhere. Sit down and stop trying to be her knight in shining armor." He knew for a fact that she wasn't within a mile from him because he couldn't hear the slightest murmur of a thought from her. He tried to not admit to himself that he was worried. He tried thinking of something else, but nothing could come to mind. He laughed at himself the one time that she wasn't on his mind by force all he could think about was her! What was it about her that kept her on his mind!


"What's so funny?" Erik hissed at him like a cat who had just been sprayed with water as he sat back down, hesitantly.


Drake scratched the side of his head, hoping he didn't have fleas. "Nothing, just worried."


"You laugh when you're worried?" Erik asked, raising his eyebrows.


"I laugh all the time," he said, picking up his cup of coffee and swirling it around, watching the brown liquid create a tiny whirlpool as it remixed with the white cream, "laughing's healthy right? Keeps things positive?"


"For some reason," Erik muttered, "those don't seem like they'd be your intentions."


"Oh, no?" Drake asked, looking at Erik as if he were hurt, "do you really know me well enough to make that claim?"


"Are we just going to sit around here and wait for her to simply show up then?" He asked impatiently. "What if she's lost?"


"What do you suggest we do?" Drake smiled, setting his cup down with a soft clink and leaning across the table towards Erik, almost threateningly as his smile played around the corners of his lips until it formed into a sneer.


"Look around for heaven's sake!" He exclaimed, standing up again.


"God! You're like some hyperactive bunny rabbit. Sit down and breathe we won't be able to find her in the dark," Drake laughed to himself, covering his mouth with his hand, by habit. He hated sharing Damien's habits.


"Whatever, if you aren't going to help. I'm going on my own, right now," Erik growled, heading for the door and throwing his jacket on, "god, I hope you sent her with a coat."


Drake pressed his lips together and glanced out the window, where it was snowing furiously. Now he was worried. "Wait," he said hurrying after Erik, making sure to grab his own coat, "you'll never find her without me."


"You didn't send her with a coat? Did you?" Erik nearly shouted as he slammed the door to the alley shut, "Its like negative twenty out here!"


"I know," Drake muttered under his breath and admitted, "it was stupid. I didn't think." Isn't she old enough to take care of herself though? She isn't exactly three is she?


"Damn it," Drake gasped, buttoning his coat around him as a gust of wind blew right through him. It was cold.


"And to think she's out here in a nightgown," Erik growled, walking out of the alleyway angrily.


Drake rolled his eyes, but when he looked down at his hands he saw that the fingers were turning blue and were quickly becoming numb. She was catching frost bite. Great! That meant so would Damien. All Drake could do was hope she found warmth before all three of them lost their fingers.


"What's the matter with your hands?" Erik asked from his side, curiously.


"Nothing," Drake growled in turn, but Erik lashed out from no where to grab his hands and pull them closer to his face in the light of the street lights. "Cut it out!" Drake hissed, yanking his hands free and stuffing them deep into the pockets of his coat. "What the hell is the matter with you?"


"You have frostbite," Erik mumbled, mostly to himself, "but we've only out here for a minute or two . . . tell me how is that possible?"


"Tell me how is that possible?" Drake mocked him, angrily, wishing he'd put on a damn pair of gloves. "I thought we were going to find Jade before she gets frostbite!"


"Let me see your hands," he insisted, "that looks bad. If we don't warm them up  you could loose your fingers. Then how would you be a star flyer?"


"I'm not an idiot, but no fire on earth will warm my hands or damn freezing toes up so let's just find Jade," he said, rubbing his hands together.


"Before she gets frostbite," Erik repeated Drake's words, "she probably already has it, but so do you and-"


Drake looked at Erik trying to hide his horror. Erik was a smart man and he was about to figure it all out. If he did there wouldn't even be a point to finding Jade, because Damien would kill the two of them any ways.


"What is it with you two," he muttered, "it's almost like you can read each others minds sometimes and when she accidentally cut her hand with that knife you buried your hand in your shirt. All of the looks you give one another and now she has frostbite and so do you even though it doesn't make sense for you to. . ."


Drake stopped walking. If Erik was to understand about Jade and himself, he would have to be told the right way. That was that he would not utter a single word to Damien or show any sign of knowledge or think that he had any right to move in on Jade because Drake's love was fake. Maybe he'd just leave that small part about fake love out. Erik might not have been able to handle it, "Ok, let's get this over with, while we're waisting my time," he grabbed Erik by the shirt and shoved him into the nearest wall.


"What is it?" Erik growled, trying to slip free, but Drake was stronger than him and would not let him go until he had said what needed to be said.

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