"You're where?"

Eragon glanced at Saphira, who was speaking rather angrily into the phone. He grinned – someone else had attracted her wrath. It was nice to see her get mad without being on the wrong end of it for once.

She listened for a few more seconds, then sighed. "Alright, we'll be there." She closed the phone with a snap. "Eragon, they lost Thorn's car."

"Huh?"

"That's what I said. Don't ask me how they did it, but they did. Apparently Zak is very inventive when it comes to random acts of stupidity," she muttered. They were standing on the corner of the theater, waiting patiently (scratch that – impatiently) for Murtagh, Thorn, and Zak.

Eragon grinned. He was definitely going to like Zak. They began to walk back the car. "How can you lose a car?"

"Ask them," Saphira said crossly. "Honestly – how you men manage to do things like this, I'll never know."

"We try," Eragon said modestly. "What happens if Murtagh gets here before we get back with Thorn and Zak?"

"He gets to wait, on the off chance he's not late. We've got ten minutes until the movie starts, and he likes to show up five minutes late, remember?"

"Good point. He's in a bad mood, though, so we better hurry," Eragon said, opening the passenger's side door and sliding in as Saphira started the car. "You don't want to Murtagh ticked off, trust me, and sometimes it's easy to set him off."

Saphira raised an eyebrow as she backed out of the parking lot. "Really? I've never seen him smile or frown. You never see him show any emotion at all. I didn't know he could get anything more than displeased."

"You have to know him well to tell," Eragon explained. "And he does take off the mask every once in a while, when he's really upset or happy."

"Nice to know."

They sat in silence the rest of the way there. They pulled into a parking just in time to see Zak being slapped by a pretty young woman with long black hair.

Saphira waved as she rolled down the window. "Get in!" she called.

The black haired girl glanced over, then turned her attention back to Zak. "Hit on me again and you're dead, Feiht," she snapped, then followed the other two into the car.

Thorn laughed as he got in the back. Zak climbed in after then, sitting in the middle, as the black-haired girl sat on the other side of him. "Saph, you're a livesaver," he said. He punched the purple-haired teen on the side of him. "And you, Zak, are an idiot. I can't believe you told that guy - ."

"It wasn't my fault," Zak protested. "Arya brought him over!"

"You're the one who did that thing, though, remember?" the black-haired girl retorted. "And then you - ."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what happened next," Zak said, annoyed. "Blame me, then! I don't care."

Eragon looked back at the three curiously. "How exactly did you loose a car, anyway?"

They all glanced at each other. "I have no idea," Thorn admitted. "Zak?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Zak said crossly. When Arya opened her mouth, he glared at her. "And I don't want to hear about it, either."

Arya shrugged. She glanced at Eragon and frowned. "And you are?"

"Eragon Garrowsson," Eragon introduced himself. Technically, he was Eragon Morzansson, but he hated to say that after he'd been told more of his father by Murtagh. "You're Arya, then?"

"Arya Izlandi," the black haired girl said, then frowned at him a bit more. "Garrowsson, you said?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You remind me of an old friend of mine – I was wondering if you were related. Apparently not, though," she explained. She looked at Thorn, who seemed to the leader of the little posse. "What movie, now?"

"Bloodbath IV," Thorn replied, eyes focused distantly on Saphira, who wasn't noticing. She was too busy staring at the road. Zak smacked him on the shoulder, smirking, and Thorn grinned, looking away.

"Here we are," Saphira announced, parking. Gratefully, the three in the back got out, happily separating from each other. Grabbing her purse, Saphira urged them on. "Hurry up – we've only got a minute until the movie starts."

"What about - ," Eragon started, but Saphira cut him off.

"He's always five minutes late, I told you already," she said, walking quickly. "Hurry up!"

"Aw, Saph, calm down," Thorn said reassuring. "the previews always take fifteen minutes anyway. We have plenty of time."

To Eragon's surprise, she sighed and slowed down a bit. "You're right I guess. We have some time… Eragon, maybe we should wait for your brother."

"Naw, he'll find us in the theatre," Eragon said, unnerved by how easily Thorn had placated her. He still wasn't quite used to the calming effect the huge redhead had on people.

"Who now?" Arya asked as they reached to door to the theatre.

"Eragon decided to invite someone else – his older brother," Saphira explained. "He's a bit… well…" (she glanced at Eragon) "Easily annoyed? Irritable, that's it."

"He's perfectly nice," Eragon told her firmly. "He just doesn't know how to be nice, so he's always either pretending to be emotionless or mad. He knows how to be mad, though."

Thorn grinned. "Sounds a bit like my best friend from last year."

Arya and Zak nodded in agreement. "Very self-controlled," Arya commented.

"Completely nuts," Zak announced, spinning his finger clockwise around his ear in the universal gesture for insanity. "Loved him like a brother."

"What happened to him?" Eragon asked absentmindedly.

"Left. Had a few too many arguments with his father," Thorn explained, handing the cashier the money and taking the tickets. "He said he didn't want to remember anything from back there, so we didn't keep touch."

"Ah," Saphira said, not really paying attention. Eragon frowned. Something about what Thorn had just said sounded familiar… About to ask another question, Saphira interrupted him instead. "Want anything? Popcorn? Drinks?"

"I'll buy, course," Zak said quickly. Saphira stared at him surprise; he reached for her hand and kissed it delicately. "I wouldn't want anyone to spend any money on my behalf, of course."

Arya rolled her eyes. "Just because your parents are filthy rich…"

"Jealous?" Zak asked innocently.

Eragon, Arya, Thorn, and Saphira proceeded to ignore him, heading for the door for the movie.

Ten minutes later, Eragon wished fervently he had not come. White-faced, he stared at the screen, horrified, as yet another woman was decapitated.

"W-why's it always women?" he gasped.

Zak laughed loudly – he received a glares from all sides of the theatre, and several "Shhh!". "I have no idea. I love this movie! Ten dead already."

"Y-you keep count?" Eragon whispered, eyes wide. He didn't blink, far too terrified to move.

"Sure," Zak replied, shoving his face full of popcorn.

Saphira was doing much better than Eragon – then again, she had a huge muscle-man next to her she could hold onto. Thorn patted her comfortingly as number eleven was shoved into a pit of needles. Saphira flinched – she hated long falls, and the needles didn't help.

Arya gazed at the screen, looking faintly amused, bored, and disgusted, all at the same time. Zak patted her hand gently. "If you get scared," he said gallantly, "I'm right here… My shoulder's completely free."

Arya smiled sweetly. "If you even think of wrapping your arm around my shoulders, I'll rip it off. Got it?"

Zak leaned away from her. "Got it."

Eragon shuddered as number twelve jumped into the same pit to escape the murderer. Zak glanced at him. "Hey, you okay?" he asked, sounding serious. "You don't look so good…"

Eragon nodded shakily. "I'm fine."

He nearly jumped out of his seat when Zak patted him gently. He stared at the purple-haired teen, who immediately pretended nothing had happened.

Wondering if he had just imagined it, he almost let out a shriek when a voice spoke in his ear.

"You do look a bit pale, brother," Murtagh whispered, sliding in the seat next to him.

Eragon swallowed with difficulty. "D-don't sneak up on me like that." He shivered as number thirteen was cut apart, piece by piece, with a chainsaw.

"Calm down," Murtagh murmured, setting his drink into the cup holder. "Tensing up like that only makes it worse. Relax."

Eragon shivered again, this time because of Murtagh. The older male was so very close, so very real in the seat next to him; unlike Zak, Murtagh was trying to be as quiet as possible, and was speaking in his ear. He could almost feel his brother's lips against his skin there, and could feel Murtagh's hot breath. It didn't help that the words, taken out of context, could mean something much, much different, much more intimate. He hated how his brother affected him like this.

"Are you sure you don't want to go outside or something?" Murtagh whispered, misinterpreting Eragon's shiver. "You don't have to watch."

Eragon shook his head.

"I'll stay with you if you decide to leave."

Eragon shivered once more at the hot breath puffing on his ear – it felt kind of nice. He glanced at his brother, half-hidden in the darkness of the theatre. He shook his head again. "I'm fine."

"Liar," Murtagh told him softly, sound amusing. "Fine. Stay."

Eragon nodded gently, eyes focusing on the screen once more. He squeaked when the little boy – looking quite a bit like himself – screamed.

He started when a warm arm wrapped itself around his shoulders. "Shhhh," Murtagh's voice whispered in his ear. "I'm here, brother."

Eragon flinched again when there was another scream. Instinctively he leaned into Murtagh's arm, before he realized what he was doing and began to pull back away, sliding out from under it.

"What's wrong?" Murtagh asked.

Eragon flushed. "I-I didn't mean to…"

Murtagh slid his arm back into place, giving him a brief, one-armed hug. "Sit still. It's fine, alright? I mean, we're brothers. You think it's weird?"

We're brothers. Eragon felt a stab of pain at the words. They were brothers – nothing else. He nodded, deciding to take what he could get. "No, it's not weird… you're right." He leaned slightly closer, enjoying the feel of that bare skin across his neck and sliding down to his other side, keeping him safe.

Murtagh was here, he was safe.

He sighed relief when to movie ended. Murtagh spoke again, this time sounding amused. "You really hate horror movies, huh?"

"Shut up," he said playfully, shoving his brother off him. They all stood up, filing out of the dark theatre with Thorn first, Murtagh last.

They were some of the last ones to leave the theater. When they finally got out, Thorn turned around. "So, Saphir…"

He trailed off, eyes widening. Stock still, disbelief etched on his face, he stared. Zak was to his side, a similar look on his face. Arya's beautiful face was shocked as all three of them stared at Murtagh.

Eragon frowned at them. "This is my brother. I told you about him before, remember?" Why were they acting so weird? He glanced at Murtagh, and was surprised to see the raven-haired teen had the same expression as the other three.

"M-Murtagh?" Zak exclaimed finally. He seemed unable to say more. Murtagh continued to stare at Thorn, looking rather dazed.

After a long moment, Thorn's puzzled expression gave way to a huge grin. "Murtagh!" he laughed, coming forward. Murtagh smiled wryly and embraced Thorn like a brother.

"What are you guys doing here?" Murtagh asked, when he and Thorn broke apart. "Eragon mentioned something about Saphira's new boyfriend and some friends… how do you even know Eragon?"

Zak seemed to recover himself. "Nice to see you too, Murtagh," he said cheerfully. "What, I don't get a hug, too?"

Murtagh's eyes narrowed.

Zak smiled nervously. "I'll shut up now."

Murtagh turned his gaze back to Thorn.

"Saphira's my girlfriend," he explained. "And she wanted me to meet her best friend, and I happened to bring along Zak, and Zak wanted more than two people to hit on, so I invited Arya."

More than two people? Eragon thought, feeling dazed. Saphira's one… so I'm two? Zak hits on men? Deciding to clear things up a bit, he asked Murtagh suddenly, "How do you know Thorn?"

All three glanced back at him in surprise. There was a moments hesitation. Then Zak seemed to remember something. He looked from Eragon, back to Murtagh, back to Eragon, back to Murtagh. He pointed at the younger male. "He's your little brother?"

Murtagh raised his eyebrows. "I thought you were going to shut up?"

Zak nodded quickly.

Murtagh moved back to Eragon, slinging his arm across his brother's shoulders affectionately. "Yeah, Eragon's my brother. I told you before, remember? When our mother died, our uncle, Garrow, started a case to get custody of us. The courts decided that Morzan was incapable of taking care of both of us, so they sent Eragon to Garrow, but left me with our father. Garrow sort of took me in when I left, so we're living together now – me, Eragon, our cousin Roran, and our uncle."

Eragon still felt extremely confused, but the others looked more or less satisfied. Saphira looked vaguely puzzled. "Explain," he demanded.

"Thorn's my best friend from before," Murtagh said. "Before I turned eighteen and could leave my father legally. We've been friends since we met in the second grade."

Thorn winced. "I remember that. I took your paste and you gave me a black eye."

Murtagh grinned. "Oh, yeah. Arya's this girl me and Thorn met in the fourth grade. Zak had looked up her skirt and she was making him regret it. Thorn decided to pull her off him, so we sort of all ended up as friends."

Saphira looked rather impressed. "This is a weird coincidence," she remarked.

"Nice, though," Arya murmured, still staring at Murtagh. No, glaring. Subtly. There was anger in her stare, but controlled anger. "Why, exactly, did you dump us again?"

Murtagh winced. "I am sorry about that. I just wanted to live my life as far away from that place as possible, alright? And I didn't want to go back there, even if it meant never visiting any of you."

"We could have come to you," Arya said coldly.

"And don't think you're going to get rid of us now," Zak chirped in. "We love you far too much to leave you at your brother's mercy, Taggy. Eragon's vicious sometimes, I swear. Something in your blood, I guess."

Eragon couldn't help but smile. "I'm sure," Murtagh said dryly.