The next morning Drake was shocked to see Damien wrapped in a fuzzy blue blanket sitting on the couch staring out at the wall. He looked awful. Glancing from Jade, who was sitting with her legs folded in a chair to Dane who was sipping at a mug of coffee, wearily.

"What is going on?" Drake growled. "It's past eleven o'clock."

"I'm sick," Damien glared at him darkly, immediately darkening the room around him, "so stop your shouting."

Well, at least the man wasn't moping. It seemed that his uncle's genius plan had worked.

"And what about you?" he turned his eyes onto Jade, who had picked up her little cat and was gently playing with it. She was still in her pajamas and her hair was a disaster.

"I guess we're all staying in today," she muttered absentmindedly, not allowing her eyes to leave the cat. "It's going to storm badly."

"Do you have somewhere to be Mr. Grumpy," Amon smiled at him, cruelly.

"No," Drake snapped, "but sitting in this living room with the lot of you the entire day, makes me want to vomit."

"Don't," Damien placed a hand to his mouth as if he were going to be sick, "talk about things like that."

"So get a healer," Drake rolled his eyes.

"So go fuck yourself," Amon snapped, narrowing his eyes at his nephew.

"So go drown yourself in some-" Drake began to shout, completely surrendering to his anger.

"Okay," Dane stood up, placing his mug down with a loud clunk, "calm down, the three of you."

There was a long silence after Dane sat down, shaking his head and drinking from his steaming mug as he watched the colors on the television move. Amon sighed and turned his eyes onto the device as well.

"Why don't you sit down?" Damien broke the silence calmly, smiling evilly at Drake. The way he had worded it, he wasn't making it a command. Obviously his illness would prevent him from being strong enough to control his power.

"Because the only seat left is next to you on that couch," Drake snarled, folding his arms across his chest defensively. What did the man want from him?

"I don't bite," he laughed through that smile and Drake let his eyes notice how abnormally sharp Damien's canine teeth were. The man ended up coughing afterwards though and blowing his nose into a few tissues.

"Then I don't want to get sick!" Drake hissed. Damien smiled at him almost peacefully as he tilted his head.

"Just sit down, why don't you?" He laughed gently again, adding that question mark to his sentence. "You're making me uncomfortable."

"And we wouldn't want that!" Drake barked. He was uncomfortable, staring at a man who looked so much like himself and who he despised. He wondered silently to himself, and not for the first time, how old Damien really was. He looked so young. In fact Drake couldn't remember him ever looking a different age. The man disturbed him to no end. "I'll sit on the floor if you don't want me standing over you.''

"No," Jade sighed as she stood. He'd been ignoring her and her thoughts and had almost forgotten that she was even in the room. "Sit in my chair. I'll sit on the couch." I know how hard it is for you.

You know nothing. "Fine," he growled and switched seats with her. She didn't even look at Damien or seem to acknowledge that he was there and just simply stroked her cat. Drake could easily tell that it was irritating Damien

Really? He snapped at her. We are all going to be trapped in this room for the day and you're pulling this?

"Stop it," Damien muttered, looking directly into Drake's eyes. How had he known that he'd been thinking to Jade? He hadn't even been looking at her, "That's rude."

"You aren't even sick!" Drake shouted and stood up, angry that Damien had forced him to stop thinking to Jade no matter how self conscious or uncontrollable it really was. "You are clearly faking it. If you were sick, you'd be sulking in your room like some injured animal, waiting for Dane your mother to nurse you back to health."

"Here then," Amon tossed an electronic thermometer at him, which he caught with one hand. It was the type you stuck in one's mouth. He began to shake his head with a laugh, but Amon growled, "know you're wrong?"

Well, that gave him the courage to walk up to Damien and stick the metal rod between his pink lips. His entire body was rigid and it was all he could do to keep his hands from shaking. He pulled it out after it beeped and took a few quick steps back. It read, "103.6."

"God," he looked up, "why don't you take some medication then?"

"Hmm," he smiled, collapsing on the couch so that he was lying down, arms hanging over the edge and feet a few inches from where Jade sat. "It wouldn't work."

"And why ever not?" Drake tried to smile away his growing irritation with the man. He was the biggest baby!

"Because," Damien glared at him, "that ass of a king holds a grudge and this is his punishment for not selling myself to him."

"He ordered one of his servants to use his power on you and make you ill?'' Drake muttered. So that was why he hadn't gone to a healer either. "Then last night-"

"Yes, last night," he scoffed, shooting his eyes at Dane.

"I have already apologized three times Damien." Dane sighed. "I didn't realize that you were sick."

"Hmm," Drake raised his eyebrows, completely bored with the subject and entire situation he was in. Until his thoughts opened up to Jade and he looked her way shocked to see her, poking Damien's foot which had been stretched out onto her knee. He smiled even though she could't see it and playfully kicked back.

"Get your disgusting socks off me!" She snapped, but she wasn't really angry. When he didn't she attempted to shove them off, grumbling, "Why are your feet so big?"

Then just as she was putting all of her weight onto his feet he shifted them onto the floor so that she tumbled off the couch. Then he raised his legs back to where they were. He smiled again, amused. Drake wasn't in the slightest. Grow up he snapped at her.

You know just sitting here is boring and you said to get on his good side she looked at him.

Suddenly a finger was beneath Jade's chin, lifting it up towards Damien's eyes. "I've already asked the two of you to quit it," he muttered darkly from where he now sat leaning over the edge of the couch .

"It was anything, but asking," Drake scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"How can you tell?" She asked as he laid back down on the couch with a soft sigh. "Can you tell?" She looked right at Dane.

He shook his head, biting his lip, "No, not really."

Slowly everyone's attention drifted away as another long silence set in. Drake's fell onto Jade as she slowly curled up on the couch around her kitten. He knew that she was feeling lonely. She was living with a bunch of men none of whom particularly gave a damn about her. Her only possession then was that small cat. He laughed quietly to himself. She sure was pitiful.

He looked away from her and turned his eyes to Damien. Frowning he immediately realized that he was watching Jade with a smile. At that moment Jade looked up startled by Drake's thoughts right into Damien's eyes. His smile widened as he muttered, "How much do you hate me exactly?"

"I," she paused, thinking through her words very carefully, "I don't know you."

"Good answer," Amon laughed.

"You've never had any real family though have you?" He asked, sitting up.

"No," she frowned, feeling like he was being intrusive.

"So then," he turned back on his smile, "living with four men you barely know doesn't bother you at-"

"I don't have a choi-" she began to shout, but he interrupted her without hesitation.

"Does it bother you?" He muttered again.

"In what way?" She shook her head. "I'd leave if I could."

"No, that's not what I mean," he sighed, frustratedly, "I mean," he looked away, thinking, "we are all you will have . . . for longer than a while. Will you be all right?"

"I still don't understand," she laughed uncomfortably, "what you're-"

"You're still a child," Dane stepped into the conversation to try to bridge a communication between the two. "And none of us are really suitable parents," he glanced at Drake uncomfortably, "for someone outside of this . . . family."

Drake stiffed a laugh as Jade slowly understood what he meant. He wanted to know if she could take care of herself. Did she need constant attention and love? She'd never really had it before, except from Erik and even then she had only known him for a year or two. "Are you implying that he's in any way a parent to Drake?" She laughed a bit, ignoring how out of place it was.

Everyone fell dead silent. The topic hadn't really been brought up since she had been there.

"Well, biologically speaking," Damien smiled at her evilly, "I am."

"That's not what I mean," she shook her head.

"What do you know any ways?" He halfway snapped at her. "You've barely known me a month and not even that given you see me once or twice a week for a few hours. You know nothing."

"I know everything," she muttered angrily, pointing a finger to the side of her head, where Drake's many memories, ideas, and feelings were running.

Damien smiled to himself and half way laughed as he muttered, "Again you know nothing, my love."

There was a soft thud directing everyone's attention to the door which had been shut and Jade realized that Drake had shut it behind himself on his way out.