Orlain

Joey dropped his glasses on the floor, cuddled back into the cushion, and refused to respond to Damien's threat. She weighed as much as a piece of paper; he could probably handle it.

"Oh god, how long's it been since we had pizza?" Zakuro sighed, closing her eyes as she imagined it. She never realized she could miss a food so much, but after nearly a year and a half of eating hardtack and rabbit, pizza sounded like the best thing ever conceived.

Damien took Joey not moving as a challenge and let herself flop down on top of him, laying on her stomach his back.
"I figured you would like the idea of pizza.." She laughed, turning her head to the side on Joey's shoulder. "And I don't want to cook."

"Ohhh I can't wait... Pizza guy needs to get here faster.." Jack whined jokingly.

------

Upstairs, in comfortable clothes, Rane sat down on the large bed. Her and Taiju got the master bedroom that was once Damien's parents room.
She starred down at her hands, still not comfortable with the feeling of no magic.
"What happens if we don't find a way home?" She asked Taiju quietly.

"Ohoho god, what are you doing," Joey groaned into the cushion. "I thought you said sitting, not full-bodied tackling and dead weight." He turned his head to the side to show he was grinning.

--

Taiju, clad in sweat pants and a t-shirt and feeling awkward in all of it, shrugged as he fidgeted with some of his items from his pack. He picked up his sword belt, looking at the blades with a hint of longing, before setting the weapons down by the side of the bed within easy reach. "I don't know," he said. "When Zevran signed me up for this, I didn't think I'd get in as deep as I did, let alone--this." He gestured vaguely at the open room.

Damien laughed and just settled into laying comfortably on top of Joey. "Take it like a man Joey!"

"I think he called you fat Damien!" Jack gasped as if he was offended for her.
"WHAT!" Damien squeaked before reaching down and poking Joey roughly in the sides, "you calling me fat!?"

-------

Rane let out a deep sigh, "I honestly had hoped to be a big help. But I never imagined to get as attached to everyone as I did..." She trailed off lightly and looked back up and away from her hands. "And even if we are stuck here forever... I don't regret a moment of it. At least you are here with me.."

Joey yelped and squirmed for freedom underneath Damien--he'd never cope with the fact that he was horribly ticklish and everyone knew it. "Damn it, no!" he cried through his laughter. "No, I wasn't!"

"Liar," Zakuro said lazily from where she was slowly sinking down further into her chair. "You were totally calling her fat. You're such an awful boyfriend, Joey."

--

Taiju sat down on the edge of the bed beside Rane, reaching for her hand. "Neither do I," he replied. "We'll figure something out. Even if we cannot return home, we'll adapt to life here. The others did it with Orlain without knowing whether they would ever go home. We can do the same."

Jack looked down at Zakuro, "I am such a better boyfriend then him. I would never call you fat cause you were perfect." He laughed, mostly teasing at Joey still. "I mean I can't approve of my friend having a boyfriend who calls her fat!"

"You are so mean Joey!" Damien shouted, poking at him, and trying to stay laying him through his squirming. Just before they both fell off the couch she stopped and kissed the back of Joey's head.
"That will teach you to call me fat!"

----

Rane smiled warmly at Taiju, his reassurance meant the world to her and made her feel much better. "At least we don't have to kill a dragon."

"I--didn't," Joey breathed, winded, as he struggled to catch his breath again through his giggles. "C'mon, I'd never. You're about as big around as a toothpick and you know it."

"You should learn from Jack, Joey," Zakuro said wisely. "Otherwise, she'll just keep beating you up 'cause you say dumb things."

"I hate all of you," Joey moaned into the couch cushion.

--

Taiju laughed. "No," he said. "Not as far as I know. Though only the gods know exactly what kind of horrible monsters might be lurking here, instead. For all we know, there's something a hundred times worse than the dragon ever was somewhere here and that's how we're meant to go back home."

"Too bad Jack is taken or else I would just break up with you to date him. At least he knows how to treat a lady." Damien huffed, still giggling.

Jack was about to open his mouth to add, but the doorbell interrupted him. He quickly jumped up to answer the door, eager to get pizza.

Damien carefully got up off Joey, to get the money to pay the pizza guy while Jack grabbed the 3 pizza's from him.

----

"Oh no, please don't say that," Rane laughed, leaning into Taiju lovingly. She closed her eyes to relax for a moment when the doorbell went off and made her jump.
"What was that!"

Joey remained on the couch, weary and dejected. He could never decide whether everyone loved or hated him. Possibly both, in equal amounts.

"Yay, food~" Zakuro cheered, leaping up from her seat.

--

Taiju likewise jumped at the sound of the bell. It didn't repeat, and nobody else in the house seemed concerned, so he relaxes again. "Not a clue," he replied. "I'm assuming it's harmless."

Jack took the pizza to the kitchen, prepared to eat even if no one else did.

Damien closed the door after paying and walked back over to Joey. She knelt down and planted a kiss on his cheek bone before pulling on his hand.
"Come on, you need to eat."


----

"I suppose..." Rane agreed as she relaxed again as well. "Perhaps we should go down stairs, Damien said she would have food." She wondered if the food was the same here as back home. The others never said much about their food being weird, so she assumed it was the same. And she was a little hungry. And she knew better to keep her strength up. Though, if they weren't going to be traveling as much, she might not need it.

Joey laughed and slowly got to his feet. "But getting up requires effort," he complained playfully as he followed Damien into the kitchen.

"So lazy," Zakuro chastised, already reaching for a piece of pizza out of the box.

--

"True," Taiju agreed. After the trials of the day (shopping really being the worst of it), he was ready to admit that he was hungry. Hopefully food here wouldn't be too strange. He stood, keeping his grip on Rane's hand, and headed back out into the hall.

Kerian preceded them, halfway down the stairs and to the kitchen before they were. She was already dressed and looking comfortable in better-fitting jeans and a casual dark blouse, seemingly unaffected by her surroundings.

Jack grabbed a slice of pizza and quickly started eating, making it obvious how much he was enjoying eating it.

Damien grabbed a slice for herself as well and greeted the other three as they came down and into the kitchen.
"Help yourself there is plenty. It might taste a little strange, but I think you will like it. I never met someone who didn't like pizza."

Rane looked at everyone eating and then at the open box on the counter. " What is it?"

"It's pizza. Bread with cheese and sauce and meat on top of it. Eat it slowly, it's a little hot." Jack said between mouthfuls of food.

"Sounds . . . interesting," Taiju said, looking with some skepticism at the open boxes.

"We've mastered the art of creating food that is terrible for you, but still edible," Joey said, chasing a drip of grease down the side of his finger. "Theoretically, it won't kill you."

Kerian perused her options for a moment, before settling on a piece of vegetable-topped pizza and settling herself on one of the wooden kitchen chairs. She was clearly having an easier time adjusting than the other two were.

Rane watched the others eat for a moment and then watched Kerien. She couldn't understand how this was coming so easily to her. She hesitantly took the smallest slice of pizza that there was and fumbled with it in her hands, glancing up to see how everyone else was hold it.
After a moment she finally took a little bite and chewed it slowly, making a face. She couldn't decide if she liked it or hated it.
After another bite she settled into the taste a little more. "This is strange, I don't understand how it tastes like this... But I am so hungry that I don't care.." She concluded before taking another bite.

"Atta girl, once you accept it you will like it more!" Jack laughed, grabbing another slice.

"Wait 'til we break out the frozen foods," Joey mused. He reached into his pocket to check his phone, which felt like an unfamiliar weight at his hip.

Taiju took a piece of the plainest pizza he could see and sat down, eating slowly. It was good, he had to give them credit for that, but it seemed like a fine meal in comparison to what he typically ate in Orlain. He wasn't sure how someone could regularly live on the food here.

"And there's a whole lot more to get used to," Zakuro said, wiping her fingers on a paper towel.

Rane ate two small slices of pizza and decided that was enough. She was worried to overload her stomach on such new food.
"Kerian, you seem so calm. What is your secret?" Rane asked once she was finished with her food.

Jack downed at least 5 slices of pizza before he was full, probably a little too full. He had gotten used to eating in small portions in Orlain, but it was just so good that she couldn't stop. He leaned against the counter from where he was standing, happy and content.

Kerian dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and shrugged. "I suppose it is curiosity," she said. "Obviously I would like to go home again, but this is fascinating. I had always wondered what is was like where you came from, and now we get to know." She looked to Joey and the others with a nod of her head.

"In the worst possible way," Taiju said dryly.

"Perhaps. But panic will not help us here, either." Kerian shrugged. "I am worried, but I cannot help find a way home if I cannot think clearly. Adapting and working with what we have is all we can do."

Rane nodded lightly, "you are completely right Kerian. Like always." She smiled warmly at the woman. Her good sense always made her feel better, now especially.
"You said something about there being no magic... So then how do you heal?" She asked the group.
"There are dotors who use medicines and machines and such to make you better," Damien explained with a smile.
"Then I want to learn about these doctors and such, so I can help the same way I did in Orlain if I have to. Maybe it will help us find a way home."

"It's a little more complicated than that," Joey said with a wry smile. "Doctors have to spend years in school learning how to do it. I thought about doing it for awhile, but frankly, I don't know what I'm doing here anymore after fighting dragons. I guess we could find some books or something, but there's so much to it..."

"We can at least talk about the medicine and stuff we use," Zakuro said. "Cold medicine isn't exactly a difficult concept."

"I can't tell if this is easier or more difficult," Taiju remarked.

"I want to try, and I am a quick learner." Rane smiled, if anything, it would give her something to do. And it would keep her mind off anything else.

"I think that sounds like a great idea," Jack agreed, glancing at the clock on the wall. "And as much as I want to stay, I need to get home. I have a long way to walk." He didn't assume that Joey would be going home yet and could give him a ride. His parents trusted him to be out more then his dad did.

"I'll take you home," Joey said before polishing off his pizza crust. "It's pretty far and it's gonna get dark--though, I guess that's sort of redundant now. Either way, give me a minute. Dad's probably going to miss me soon, too."

"Yeah, I guess I should go, too," Zakuro sighed. "Should probably sleep before tomorrow. There's going to be so much to do . . ."

"When will you return?" Kerian asked.

"Mid-afternoon? Assuming nothing else stops us. I'll try to think on what's going on during the day, but I really don't have any clue, so I can't guarantee much." Joey slid off the counter and ruffled his hair with both hands as he stretched. "I'll see if the library has any first-aid books, though, for Rane."

"Thank you," the blonde haired girl smiled at Joey, "anything helps."

"Awesome, no walking for me," Jack mused happily, "now Zak and I can make out in the back of your car." He nudged her in the side lightly, winking playfully. He didn't mean it, but it was fun to joke about.

"Grossssss.." Damien groaned, picking up the empty box of pizza and throwing it away, barely managing to get it into the trash can.

"If you so much as think about it, I'm taking you home in the trunk," Joey replied.

"Aww, you're no fun," Zakuro whined.

"Yeah, I know, how dare I not want you two to defile my car."

Kerian laughed softly, watching the group banter. The four had always had a friendly manner about themselves, but it seemed heightened by being home. The familiar environment made them all a little more comfortable, and it looked like they were already slipping back into mannerisms they were more familiar with.

Rane blocked a yawn behind her hand politely, feeling tired. She was ready to sleep and forget she was in a strange place for just a little while.

"Oh come on Joey. Defile is such a strong word!" Jack laughed, turning to head out to his car. "It would be more like an improvement!"

"See you guys tomorrow," Damien shook her head lightly. This would the first time in a very long time that the 4 of them didn't sleep under the same roof or around the same campfire. It would feel strange at first, but so normal at the same time.

"God, I hate you both," Joey muttered as he stood, slipping his keys out of his pocket. "Good night. Let me know if you need anything," he said, with a look to Damien as he headed for the front door. "Call or whatever. Hopefully tonight will just be uneventful."

"Well, now that you've said something . . . " Zakuro trailed off as they went outside.

Tai looked over at Rane and, due to the naturally contagious nature of yawns, immediately blocked a yawn with the back of his hand. Kerian watched them both, smiling faintly.

"We should rest," she said, getting to her feet. "We'll likely have much to do tomorrow morning."

Jack laughed as they headed out and got into Joey's car. He wasn't eager to go home, but he knew it would be worse if he didn't.

Damien listened for the front door to shut behind them and continued picking up, putting away the extra pizza.
"I don't know if you guys will have a busy day or anything... We have to go to school in the morning. I will be home by 3 or so, and I am sure everyone will be over shortly after." Damien explained as she finished up cleaning. Because she was the only one to live there, her house was always pretty clean. And no one could ever tell that her family was murdered in the same house. Cleaning was something Damien was good at.
"But regardless, you all should get to sleep. It's been a long day none the less," She gave them a sympathetic smile.
"What should we do tomorrow while you are away?" Rane asked, standing up to head up stairs.

"Hmn... I don't think it would be a good idea to leave the house by yourselves just yet. We can try to show you around the local area once we are back from school.."

Kerian nodded. "I'm sure we can entertain ourselves while you are gone," she said.

Taiju, who had little interest in adventuring in the neighborhood when he still had no idea whether the neighbors were friendly, just shrugged. "We'll manage," he replied, before taking Rane's hand. "Come on. It's been a long day and I doubt I'll be on my feet for much longer."

When Taiju grabbed Rane's hand her heart fluttered a little and she smiled at him. Even after all this time she still got nervous around him from time to time. She wrapped her hand around his and just nodded in agreement. She fallowed his head up to their room.

"Good night guys... My room is the blue door down the hall. If you need anything please don't hesitate to wake me up," their friend explained to them. She would head off to bed not long after them, and probably be awake before them. But she wanted to walk through the house once to remind herself that she actually was home.

"Thank you," Kerian said with a polite dip of her head, following Rane and Taiju upstairs and splitting away from them at the top of the landing for her own room.

Taiju sat on the edge of the bed, then flopped backward, taking off his glasses and covering his eyes with his arm. The action hitched up his uncomfortable shirt over his stomach, but he was too tired and too relieved by the soft mattress under his back that he couldn't begin to care. At least the beds here were a hundred times more comfortable than the straw- or feather-stuffed things of Orlain.

Rane flopped tiredly down next to Taiju, laying on her side to look at him, only a few inches between them. She noticed the bit of his stomach showing and smiled to herself lightly. These new clothes fit so strangely. And with how differently everyone dressed she couldn't understand why they couldn't ware their own clothes.
After watching him silently for a moment she reached over and kissed the bit of his cheek that his arm wasn't covering before moving up on the bed to get into an actual sleeping spot, not just at the foot of the bed.
"These are so soft, I wonder what they are made of," she mused lightly, sitting forward to take off her over shirt for a loose tank top under it, that Damien and Zakuro had told her was alright to ware by itself. It covered her torso, only keeping her arms bare, so she didn't mind too much.

Damien wandered around the house for a moment, almost trying to remind herself were everything was.

"I've no idea, but it's certainly better than sleeping on the ground again," Taiju sighed, eventually sitting up. He fumbled for a minute with the lamp, managing to deduce that the switch at its base would turn it on, before getting up and switching off the overhead light. He had no idea how any of it worked, and only knew that messing with certain switches resulted in certain actions. It felt more like he was being trained via observation and learning things like a child did, but for now it would have to suffice.

Rane kicked off her shoes off the side of the bed, more sloppy then usual, and watched Taiju figure out the light. Everyone seemed to be figuring out this world faster then her.
"This place is strange." She stated once the over head light was off. "And I don't think I am good at adapting." She felt a little ashamed, but she was only human. She wasn't even that good at most magic back in Orlain. And though she was a wanderer, everything was the same in Orlain, cept the big cities, but she normally stayed away from them.

"We're all going to have to work at it," Taiju said soothingly, slipping into bed beside Rane. "We've only been here for half a day or so. If the others could learn to survive in Orlain, where it was, apparently, a hundred times more dangerous than here, then we'll adapt to this place as well."

He leaned back against a stack of pillows and stared up at the plain white ceiling. After so many nights on the road, the room almost seemed claustrophobia-inducing. He wondered at the truth of his own words, but had to believe that they would learn. Kerian was adapting remarkably quickly; that, at least, was reassuring.

"This place is so busy and so full of people, it's hard to believe that it isn't more dangerous then Orlain." Rane scooted down ward from her sitting position, resting her head on the clean fluffy pillows. She looked over at Taiju again, seeking truth is in words, but looking at him, she couldn't help but smile and forget what she was saying.
Not in her whole life had she imagined she would make such good friends, or be a part of something so big, or lose River... And even more so, she never thought she would end up in a relationship. But loving Taiju was the easiest thing she had ever done, and just seeing him made her feel better. By now, she was smiling like a dork, blushing very lightly.

Taiju turned to look at Rane, and smiled a little when he saw she was grinning at him. "What?" he asked, sliding closer and slipping an arm around her middle. "I know it's probably amusing watching me mess around with all these lights and whatnot, but I didn't think it was that funny . . ."

He laughed without waiting for an answer and pressed a kiss to the middle of Rane's forehead. At least they were still together. Before, in Joey's home, disoriented and mostly alone, he had thought Rane to be gone, or to have been left behind in Orlain. Finding out that she was a mere few miles away had been the biggest relief he could recall.

"No," Rane laughed lightly and tiredly, "I was just thinking how I never even thought about something like what I have with you until I met you." She leaned into him lightly, cuddling herself nice and cozy into his chest. She always forgot how incredibly warm he was until she was near him again. Specially in the cold night, he could sometimes keep her warm with out a blanket.
"It seems so odd to think about how life was before I met you.." She spoke softly, obviously tired and borderline falling asleep.

Taiju hummed his agreement, resting his chin on top of Rane's head and closing his eyes. Rane's presence had changed a lot for him, whether he was fully aware of it or not. He had left home in part to avoid marrying, desperate not to be forced to take care of someone he did not care for for the sake of a family legacy. Now, there were little ideas about what the marriage customs here must be like, flitting around the edges of his thoughts, and he wondered if he could get back to Orlain before he asked . . .

But, that wasn't important. Not now.

Rane cuddled into Taiju's neck a little more before feeling herself totally relax and fall asleep in his arms. She drifted off quietly and off into dream land where things were less stressful.

The next morning Damien rose before the other three, and left a note explaining a few things about the house and what to do if they got hungry. She tiredly grabbed her things for school, that she had gotten together before they went to Orlain, and headed out of the house quietly. She had barely slept, home felt like such a strange place all night, and so she was a bit groggily. She stopped by the coffee shop before piking Jack up at his house like she did all the year before. No one ever really questioned why Jack didn't know how to drive. It was probably a mixture of being too poor and not always having a good mental state for driving.
They headed to school, chatting about how everything that was so normal felt so strange now.

After they parked at the school they headed inside to meet the others. Damien said hi to other kids as they walked through the halls. She was popular compared to everyone else, probably not for good reasons either. And Everyone knew Jack, though most people just thought he was weird. He sure didn't miss school at all.

Joey was already at the school, occupying a seat at their usual table in the corner of the cafeteria. He looked tired, but was more or less functional, idly spooning cereal from a flimsy plastic container to his mouth. Zakuro was sitting at the opposite side of the table, looking around for the rest of the group. When she saw Damien and Jack, she waved them over with a smile.

"Everything go okay last night?" she asked as they came over to the table. "Nobody set the house on fire or anything?"

Jack and Damien crossed the open room to meet their friends, Jack had his skateboard under his arm like always.
"It was pretty quiet, they were still asleep when I left," Damien answered, plopping her bag on the ground and sitting next to Joey.
"It was nice to sleep in my bed again, and get a real shower."

Jack plopped down tiredly into a chair, "I slept like crap. Almost missed the hard beds and the forest floor. My house was too quiet."

"Heh, well, I was up half the night worrying about what we'd do for getting them home, so you're not alone." Joey stifled a yawn, then stuffed another spoonful of Cheerios in his mouth. "I'm not even sure I'm going to get through today. It seems like I barely know how to act around people anymore. Not that I was good at it to start with . . ."

"It'll be okay," Zakuro said, patting him condescendingly on the head.

Joey grunted and continued with his cereal.

"I was thinking that we may have to just deal with them being here forever. It's weird for them... But I don't see anyway for them to go back." Jack said in a calm tone, "maybe we should not worry about it and just prepare them for living with it?"

Damien shook her head lightly at Jack, "I don't think we should just give up."

"Why not? We kinda gave up, and basically found a way out in the end," Jack shrugged, "it didn't turn out too bad for us."

"There has to be something," Joey said, dropping his plastic spoon in the container now half-full of milk and nothing else. "And I mean--they did everything they could to take care of us and get them home, y'know? I'd hate to have to tell them, 'Well, sucks for you, but we're not even going to make an effort.'"

Zakuro nodded once, looking down and drumming her fingers on the table. "I feel like there has to be something," she added. "We had that whole prophecy deal, so . . . Maybe?"

"I don't mean completely give up, just don't stress about it so much, is what I mean to say..." Jack trialed off lightly. He couldn't explain what he ment. But it just didn't feel right to just sit there and stress about trying to get them home when it may not be possible. And if it was, he felt like it would show up with out having to stress themselves out so much.

"We shouldn't think about it right now... We have school. That alone is stressful enough. And it's our senior year. We have a lot of work this year.." Damien half agreed with Jack.

Joey's response to all this was to push his breakfast out of the way and drop his head on the table with a dull thunk.

"Ugh, yeah," Zakuro groaned, hiding her face in her hands. "So much work to do and worrying about them and ew. Couldn't we at least gotten to deal with them after we graduated?"

"Doesn't work that way, unfortunately," Joey said, muffled.

"Of course not. We'll figure it out, though. We always do."

"Yeah, I'm just going to cheat my way through this year again..." Jack chuckled lightly, leaning back in his chair. Though he wasn't really joking.

"We will get through all of this, we always do," Damien smiled warmly at the group, rubbing Joey's back gently.

A group of boys walked by their table, this group was of about five, muscular boys who all plays sports and had a knack for being douch bags. As they walked by Jack, who was sitting on the outside of the table, he roughly bumped his chair, nearly knocking him out of it, laughing as they walked off.

"I am sure going to miss how we delt with people in Orlain..." Jack growled under his breath, doing his best to not give the bullies a reaction.

Damien glared at the group as they walked away.

Joey lifted his head to glare at the departing group. "Hey, fuck off!" he yelled after them, though it would probably go unheeded.

"We wouldn't want to deal with them that way anyway," Zakuro said pointedly, shaking her head as the boys walked away. "They're jerks, but it's not like they can do much anymore, given we've done way more than they ever would.

"I don't know... I have felt pretty weak with out.. Our powers.." Jack spoke lowly, taking a deep breath. He dared not admit that he felt weak with out Jayce. Jack tended to be the main one out of the four of them who got beat up. Mostly it was because he gave them such a reaction. Last year he was kick out of school 4 times for getting into fights.

"I almost forgotten about all the powers.." Damien admitted, "man if we ever tried to tell anyone about what we went through we would be put in a mental hospital for sure." She laughed lightly, even though it was more serious. It was a funny thought though at the same time.

Joey sighed, slumping back into his seat when it was clear the danger had passed. "Agreed," he said. "Can't just go, 'Hey, so we popped off to an alternate dimension for an afternoon, though it was more like a year, and you wouldn't believe the stuff we did."

"Be nice if we could tell someone and get some help, though," Zakuro said thoughtfully, propping her chin in her hand. "Not that I know if anyone could help, but y'know. At least it'd explain why we're not at home ever, helping three people who don't know what they're doing here."

"Yeah that would be nice. Seems like we are more on our own now then we were in Orlain," Damien sighed. She dug a piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it and looked at it.
"In other news, do we have any classes together?"

Jack pulled out his scheduel out of his pocket as well, "math, science, writing, PE, and english."

"We have math, writting and english togther.." Damien mused, looking over her list of classes.