Something very soft brushed against her cheek the next morning. When she opened her eyes, she found Ayden looking down at her with that adoring gaze of his. She closed her eyes and the soft thing touched her cheek again.

“Time to get up,” he told her.

“I’m tired,” she grumbled.

“Yeah, that’s what you get for staying up most the night playing those video games.”

When she opened her eyes to frown at him, he tapped her nose with a pink flower. Her face softened. “Did you get that for me?”

He smiled. “Who else would it be for?” he asked rhetorically, caressing the petals of the rose against the side of her face and neck.

She smiled back and then rolled on to her side, making him pull the flower away. “You’re sweet.”

“Only for you.”

“Mmm.” She snuggled into him and he put his arms around her.

After a moment he chuckled. “You’re not going back to sleep.”

She whined. “Sleep good.”

“Come on, I’ve got just the thing to wake you up.” He got off the bed and tugged at her until she opened her eyes and came with him. He helped her into a robe and took her into the bathroom to introduce her to the shower, then left her to enjoy it while he searched for some breakfast.

Gabe was already in the kitchen, rubbing his eyes, and yawning. “Hey. You like oatmeal?”

"Yeah."

“Cool, I’ll make some.”

“Thanks,” Ayden told him, then started looking in the cupboards. “There isn’t much we can take with us is there?” he said more to himself.

“We can hit the store before we go,” Gabe said as he put a pot of water on the stove and turned it on. “I have to stop by my place, too. Get a few things, and I should tell Gram I’m leaving. And Kelly… she’s my girlfriend,” he said the word with distaste as he scratched his head, messing his already messy hair. “Sort of.”

Ayden raised a brow. “What do you mean sort of?”

“Well, she’s this gorgeous chick I met at the bar, brought her back to my place and she just never left. At first I was like whatever, you’re okay. But then she started seriously getting on my nerves. So, I told her to leave, but she started crying and my gram, who I live with, told her she could stay because she likes her.” He rolled his eyes. “That was over a month ago,” he grumbled.

“I think I’m starting to understand why you’re so happy to go with us,” Ayden said.

Gabe chuckled. “No shit. It’s getting so bad I’ve actually been considering getting a job just to be away from the house.”

“Why not just stay here?”

Gabe looked around and sighed. “I do sometimes. Few days here and there, but after a while…”

“Miss Falcon too much?” Ayden guessed.

Gabe nodded. “It’s his place, his stuff… but he’s not here.” He took a deep breath and then snapped back to a light mood. “Anyway, I like road trips and being that it’s my fault, I—”

“Ayd!” Tess called. “Come check out this body wash stuff.”

“I saw it,” Ayden called back.

“Then come here cuz I’m naked and wet and I want you.”

Ayden’s face turned red.

Gabe laughed. “She’s great. You’re a lucky guy.”

Ayden smiled, blushing more. “I know. I… um…”

Gabe chuckled and gave him a push out of the kitchen. “Go, I’ll save you some oats.”

Ayden sat on the couch behind Tess who was on the floor. He pulled the brush through her still damp hair while she watched a movie. Gabe thought she would enjoy watching a guy named Jackie Chan. At first, he put on a movie about two cops in a city, but Tess started asking too many questions, so he changed it to one that didn’t have any modern stuff in it, well… he skipped the beginning part that did.

Tess was grinning widely after the first fight scene with him. “This guy’s great.”

“Yeah, it’s real too,” Gabe told her.

“Real?”

“Well, all those people are actors who are putting on a play. You get that, right?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, well they have a way here of capturing the sight of them and putting it on a disc so you can watch it. They’re great at making things look real, so no one is actually getting hurt. But all of Jackie Chan’s stuff is real moves that he really does.”

“I want to meet him,” she said excitedly.

Ayden smirked. “Wanna see how long you last against him?”

“Yeah.”

Gabe smiled. “Well you can’t just go fight him, he’s really famous.”

“So?”

“In this world it’s hard to meet famous people,” Gabe told her.

“Is he a god?” she asked.

“No.”

She shrugged and went back to watching the movie.

A while later, Gabe walked out from the office. “So, I thought we should take this.” He said, holding a CD. “It’s the portal to your world, right?” He flipped the disc so they could see the word Kelstone handwritten on one side. “Should work with any computer I’d guess, so I’ll bring my laptop with us, then you can pop back as soon as you get the orb. No need to come back here.”

“Good thinking,” Ayden said.

Gabe nodded. “Yeah, hope it works for you though.”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“How many times do you think I’ve clicked play in the last eight months?” Gabe asked.

“According to Fate, just once,” Ayden answered. “She said the portal being open was an oversight. Though Falcon knew you’d click it immediately.”

Gabe scoffed. “Either this Fate chick doesn’t know or she’s lying. I’ve clicked every day that I’ve been here, sometimes several times. And I’m here at least once a week. It only worked once.”

Tess pushed pause and looked up at Gabe. “But…”

“That makes no sense,” Ayden finished for her. “Unless… Fate wanted you to come through the portal.”

“Why would she want that?” Tess asked.

“She said she needed us to come to Earth,” Ayden reminded her. “Maybe she had him steal the orb so she would have a reason to get us here.”

“Then why are we really here?” Tess wanted to know.

Ayden shrugged. “I don’t know. Have I mentioned how I’m not a big fan of her?”

“She’s doing her job, Ayd,” Tess reminded him. “Good of mankind and all that.”

“Yeah. We’ll talk to her when we get back.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “How long have we been gone anyway?”

“Over two months so far. Then we’ve got two days to get to the orb, let’s say another day for getting it back,” he said as he started braiding her hair. “We’ll have been gone for five or six months.”

She took a deep breath. “That’s the longest we’ve ever been away from home. Poor Mom’s probably going crazy.”

“Do they know you’re here?” Gabe asked. He took a DVD case off the shelf, took out the disc, and replaced it with the Kelstone one.

“Yeah, that’s how we knew who you were,” Ayden said. “Fate gave us a description and Falcon said it sounded like you.”

“Still remembers me after twenty years, huh?”

“He misses you,” Tess told him. “He’s always talked about you, always wished that you were able to come to Kelstone.”

“Tess,” Ayden said quietly. “Don’t say that, we’re not supposed to bring people back.”

“Well, I’ll tell her when we get back to let Gabe come.”

Gabe hid a smile and got away from the subject. “So, is Falcon all old and gray or what?”

“No. He doesn’t have any gray and he’s not that old, he’s only forty-three,” she said defensively, though she loved to tease him herself and call him an old man.

Gabe smirked. “Bit of a daddy’s girl, aren’t you?”

Ayden chuckled. “That’s an understatement.”

“Stop talking about him,” she grumbled. “You’re making me miss him.”

“It’s been two days, Tess,” Ayden told her.

“But it’s been two months there and it’s weird being so far away.” She sighed and pressed play on the movie again.

Ayden just shook his head at her and Gabe smiled.

After the movie was over, they took Falcon’s wallet and the case that Gabe had put the Kelstone disc in, then headed outside. “We have to go to Chendal when we get back,” Tess said.

“Of course,” Ayden agreed, knowing she would want to.

“What’s Chendal?” Gabe asked.

“A town. Matt, a friend of ours, lives there. She wants to try out the moves from the movie on him. He’s a fighter too, a mercenary for the Fighters Guild.”

Gabe nodded as he opened the passenger side doors for them. “Get in,” he told them. “And don’t freak. This thing goes way faster than a horse.”

“Cool,” Tess said, getting in the front and closing the door. Before Ayden was even in the back, she was touching stuff. She opened the glove box and took some things out. “Hey Ayd, reading stuff and a map.”

“Give it here,” he said, closing his door. She handed it back to him. He opened the map first. “Whoa,” he breathed. “Your world is big,” he said to Gabe as he got into the driver’s seat.

Gabe laughed. “That’s just California. Earth’s way bigger than that.”

“Do you have more maps?” Ayden asked, fascinated.

“Maps and languages are his thing,” Tess said. “Ow!” she complained a second later and put the hot cigarette lighter back in its hole.

“Sorry, no more maps,” Gabe said. “We have tons of languages here.” He started the car. “What do you have back home?”

“This seriously burns,” Tess grumbled, waving her finger back and forth, trying to cool it off. She wasn’t used to having to deal with things like burns for more than a few seconds since her mother, Sera, or Ayden had always been there to heal her immediately.

“Lots.” Ayden said. “Common, Woodlanders—which many call Elven—Fairian, Dragonic, Gnome—” He stopped when loud music suddenly filled the car.

Gabe smacked Tess’ hand away from the stereo and turned it down. “You’re like a kid,” he told her.

She glared. “Am not. I’m just curious.”

He chuckled. “I’m not insulting you, it’s cute.” He reached over her and grabbed a strap. “This is a seat belt. It keeps you safe, keep it on whenever the car’s moving.” He pulled it across her and buckled her in. She frowned at it, but said nothing. By the time Gabe turned to help in the back seat, Ayden had already figured his out.

Everyone was quiet for a while as the car started moving. “So what town are we going to?” Ayden asked.

“Arcata, it’s a nice place. Falcon and I have been through there a few times. Very artsy, people are pretty laid back,” Gabe told him. “I don’t think it’s on the map though, it’s a small town. Look for Eureka, near the top. Arcata is right next to that.”

“How are we gonna get that far in two days?” Ayden wanted to know when he found the place on the map.

“We go a lot faster when we get to the freeway. That’s a really big road.”

It only took ten minutes to get to Gabe’s grandmother’s house. “Stay here, and don’t touch anything on this side,” he told Tess, pointing to the controls on the driver’s side. “Seriously.” He decided to take the keys with him just in case.

She rolled her eyes.

When he got back he was wearing dark brown leather pants, boots, and a dark green t-shirt. His outfit almost matched Ayden’s. He put a bag on the backseat and started the car. Seconds later a pretty brunette woman tapped on the window.

He sighed as he pushed a button and the glass moved down into the door. “What do you want?”

“I want to go—who’s that?” she demanded in a jealous tone when she noticed Tess.

Gabe turned to Tess and made a face that said: please play along. He put a hand on her upper thigh. 

Realizing what he was up to, Tess decided to help by pretending to be like Vivyka. She put a hand on his, twitched an eyebrow at the woman, and smirked. 

He returned his attention to Kelly and shrugged. “A friend.”

“Asshole!” She slapped him and stormed back into the house.

Gabe chuckled. “Bye Kelly,” he muttered under his breath.

Tess pushed his hand away. “Who was that?”

He sighed as he put the window back up. “A one night stand who turned into an irritating psycho that won’t go away,” he told her as he pulled out of the driveway.

“Can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to stay with her,” Ayden teased. “She seems so nice.”

Gabe smiled. “Yeah. Well, with any luck, I’ll never see her again.”

“Now that she thinks you’ll be away for several days with your friend,” Tess said. “You know, there are nicer ways to break up with someone.”

“Tried those, didn’t work,” Gabe told her. “As I said, she’s psycho.”

Their next stop was a grocery store. “Your world is so loud,” Tess said when they got out of the car.

“I know,” Gabe agreed. “That’s why Falcon and I used to go camping all the time, to get away from the noise and commotion. Anyway, stay with me in here and try not to look so amazed by everything. Oh.” He stopped and went back to the car, opening the truck where a lot of camp gear was. “Put your daggers in here, you can’t bring those in public places here.”

Tess sighed but didn’t argue. Once he closed the truck, they followed him into the huge building.

“Oh, I want this,” Tess said a while later as they walked down a colorful aisle. “Mom said she used to love these.”

Gabe grabbed the box from her, turned it, and pointed to a small word on the side. “Do you know what that is?”

“No.”

“How about that one?”

“No.”

“Good rule of thumb,” he said, putting the box back on the shelf, “don’t eat it if you don’t know what's in it. Just stick to the stuff that says organic and you should be fine.”

“But none of these say that,” she grumbled.

“Which means you shouldn’t get them. This stuff’s horrible for you.”

She made a face but left the boxes alone and continued to follow him down another aisle.

Ayden smiled. He liked this guy, and he could see why Falcon was friends with him, they seemed to have a similar nature. He even sounded like him sometimes, especially when he was telling Tess no.

Much to Tess’ displeasure, they ended up getting boring stuff like fresh fruit, sandwiches from the deli and some bottles of water. He was quite emphatic against something called soda, as well as several other items she picked out. She seemed intent on only wanting stuff that he said was bad for her.

By the time they stood in line to pay, she was in full pout. Ayden thought it was interesting that she never listened to anyone other than her father and Cael, but for some reason, she listened to Gabe. Maybe it was the similarities to her father, he definitely had that authoritative yet warm tone like Falcon did.

At the last minute, Tess grabbed a bar and threw it onto the moving counter top. “It says organic,” she told Gabe with a snotty attitude, not caring what she got anymore, just as long as she got something that she picked out.

Gabe just smiled.

“If it isn’t Lord Gabriel,” the woman behind the counter said with a grin as they got to the front of the line.

“The fair Jennifer,” he replied with a flirtatious smile.

“Is your whole world about numbers?” Tess asked, looking at the cash register.

Jennifer raised a brow at her.

“She’s in character,” Gabe explained smoothly.

She nodded. “So, I’m free Friday,” she hinted unsubtly.

He grinned at her, but then looked apologetic. “Unfortunately I won’t be here. We’re heading up north.”

“Oh,” she said, a touch of disappointment in her tone. “One of those events?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, let’s get together when you get back then,” she said with a meaningful smile.

“Of course."

They paid with Falcon’s debit card, even more numbers, and left.

When they got back to the car, Gabe pulled out something from his bag and handed it to Ayden. “You’ll like this. It’s called a laptop computer.” He plugged it into an adapter that went into the cigarette lighter, then opened it and turned it on. “This is the mouse. Use this button to select stuff.” He moved his finger on the touch pad and double-clicked the button. “This program will show you our entire world. Click this to go closer, this to go out, and this to move around.” He patted Ayden’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll get it the rest.”

“Ayd’s really smart. He can figure out anything.” Tess said matter-of-factly.

“Must suck to have a girlfriend who thinks you’re crap, huh?” Gabe teased.

Ayden smiled. “Yeah, horrible.”