I'm so sorry for the late update! I had a very busy weekend and had to pretty much babysit my little brother through it all. v.v

CH8
= Jake: Scare John
"We could try replicating the event that led to your condition." John gives me a horrified expression. "I'm kidding! I'm not a violent person."
"I don't know about you, but you seem awfully close to those two pistols of yours to not be dangerous." Dave all but snarls at me. I believe that the younger blond does not think very highly of me.
"Dave. Are you really okay?" John moves closer to the boy and places his hand over hid uninjured hand. If the worried look on John's face didn't clue me in then the warm smile that Dave gives him does. John, little 'I am not a homosexual' John was quite taken by a boy. And that would also sort of explain why Dave is weary of me. He thinks I am a rival in some way.
"You two seem close. Are you together?" I ask.
"We are." Dave states boldly as he intertwines his hand around John's.
"D-dave..." John was flustered and he was not denying the statement in a anyway.
"Why are you laughing?"
"You'll understand when you recover your memories." He pouts, but I believe that the brothers understood my comment. Dave brought John's hand up to his lips and placed a kiss on it. Dirk sent Dave and John to go to sleep since first thing in the morning we would leave cause the likelihood that those individuals would return was high.

= Dirk: Plan what to do next
"So the person you came to look for was John."
"Yeah. About four days ago I received this letter by carrier hawk." He pulls a light blue envelope out of his pocket. I open it up to see one simple hastily written sentence. Jake this is a matter of life or death! I need help please! -J
"Carrier hawk huh. Too good for a pigeon."
"I tend to always prefer the more bolder options." He chuckles.
"Well then you're in luck. Theirs no one bolder than me." His face turns red when he registers the implicit remark. He's as easily flustered as John is. All of a sudden his face morphs into a smirk of his own.
"The real question is if you're bolder than me." Okay, scratch that John is a bit cute, but this guy is outrageously hot.
"Only one way to know." He playfully punches my arm and walks out of the room ,lightly laughing. As I watch him move away I can see his backside and the way his hips move with every step. I don't think I've seen a finer ass.

I woke up at around six in order to have everything packed by the time the kids woke up. I look into Dave's room and see that both Dave and John are sound asleep. I take their bags and head outside.
"Well isn't that interesting!" I hear a familiar voice say. I look around and my eyes settle on Jake who is idly chatting with a woman. His smile is so inviting which I believe is what is encouraging her to continue trying to flirt with him. AT least I hope its only at 'trying'. Without thinking twice I walk up to them.
"Oh Strider! You're up early!" Jake turns to me and now that I'm close to him I realize that he seems a bit stiff. Was I bothering him? Maybe he really is interested in the woman. "Well good day ma'am, but I am afraid we are in a bit of a haste to travel." He takes a step closer to me as he says this. The woman stares for a moment before commenting with a 'well have fun then'. We get to our horses and as he got to his horse it nudged him with its nose and made a sad noise. "I'm okay Bec." Oh, great. Me and Dave aren't the only ones that talk to their horse. It made a louder sound. "Nothing is wrong with me, okay?"
"As much as I believe this conversation is endearing as fuck I'm gonna need ya ta spill ta me why you're so stressed out."
"You have an accent."
"Don't change the subject English."
"She told me that about a week ago there was an explosion near the castle...and I rather like your accent"
"Right, Dave said that the king must have pulled a prank or something. And I rather like yours too."
"What kind of prank would involve a loud chaotic bla- oh right. I almost forgot about the cotton candy wonderland prank from ten years ago in which he filled the armory with cotton candy while the soldiers were training."
"That's nothing. Bro told me about how right before his coronation the entire castle was drowned in fish. No one ever found out where he got all the fish. Or how he even go rid of them."
"Wolves. He used wolves to gather and then eat up all the fish."
"And how do you know that?"
"He told us the story. But never mind that what if the explosion was not caused by a prank, but rather by an attacker?"
"Do you mean that for over a week the royals have been held hostage?"
"Well has anyone seen him lately?"
"No, but that's because we live in the woods. Besides isn't the king always able to hold off his enemies."
"Not if they involve the people closest to him. He is very overprotective of his children."
"Which would explain why John was..."
"...in need of my help."
He finishes my sentence as my voice trails off. I look at him. Straight into his forest green eyes. I lean forward. He starts to lean forward too. Are lips are barely touching-
"Oh here you two are." Damn it Dave! Jake quickly jumps back and turns his attention to his horse instead. I would be more angry if it wasn't for the fact that he was using John as support.
"A-are you two lads ready to go?" I didn't miss that stutter English.
"Where are we going?"
"To Jake's castle."
"But what about my family?"

= Dirk: Be John
"But what about my family?" Jake turns his attention to me with a solemn look on his face.
"My number one priority is keeping you safe. We don't know what is happening at the castle right now, so going there would be too risky of a situation." I don't respond.
I watch as Dirk attaches Lil' Hal to Jake's carriage alongside Jake's horse. Dirk pulls Dave onto the carriage who is struggling on the grounds that he can do it himself. While I get into the carriage he moves to get his two wheeled machine.
"Why don't you place that back there as well?" Jake asks Dirk. In response DIrk leans in close to Jake and seems to whisper something into his ear. Jake is still for a moment before replying in a calm voice "Maybe I do." Dirk opens his mouth to say something.
"Can you two stop flirting so that we can go already?" At Dave's comment Jake turns red. Huh. It's good to know that doesn't only happen to me. Though its hard to see much of the Striders' expressions, so it wouldn't show if they did blush and no one would be the wiser. That makes me want to do something sneaky. "What's with that goofy smile on your face?" Oops. Can't be caught now.
"Nothing~" I lean closer to him and he places his arm over me.

= John: Be Jake now
Such a hypocrite the younger Strider is.
When we stop traveling for the upcoming night I can't help but question why if the king is under someone's control nothing suspicious has happened yet. Even if John has escaped the odds that Jane dad too are very low. She's not one for taking chances. Most likely she's waiting for me to save her.
"Maybe their waiting for a specific moment." For what though. The closest important date that I can think of is John's birthday.
"Let's think about that later. There's a stream nearby. I'm gonna go wash my wounds." Isn't that a bad idea. "Let's go John." Why that cunning- why is John smiling like that? That's his devious pranking face.
As they disappeared from sight I hear or rather feel Dirk whisper into my ear and like earlier it stuns me for a moment. "Now where were we?" I have to make the quick decision of either faking nativity or flirting back. Now Dirk is not the first person, though he is the first man, to come onto me. Though, normally I would go with the former option but I just can not resist the latter in this occasion.
"I don't believe we were anywhere Strider." I lean so that I am closer to him and in a low hopefully tantalizing voice say "unless..."
"Unless what?" I can hear both our breathing pick up pace. My heartbeat is beating faster which leads me to believe that so is Dirk's. I wonder what things Dirk is capable of doing to me or I him. I want him in a way I have wanted no one else. Wait...What am I doing? Even if I don't like it I'm a prince and I have a fi-
"We were about to do this." I close the distance between us. And just like that I stop thinking. What could possibly be so important that it would make me not want to do this? Dirk places his left arm around me and pulls me close. I place my hands on his head and run them up and down his hair. Eager to feel more of him I press my lips harder against his. He pulls away for a moment then a sudden thought hits me. "I-its probably n-not the best place for this." I manage to mutter out in between breathes.
He slowly loses his grip on me. "Only this once. It wouldn't be fair to always let you go after you tease me y'know." Right. I'm the one who started the kiss. I turn around looking for something anything to focus on instead.
"Point taken."

= Jake: Be Dave
I brought John to the stream under the premise that I wanted to wash my wounds. Of course that isn't the whole reason if you get the gist of it.
"Hey Dave?" I hear John ask me as we are quite a bit away from the other two.
"Yes?" I ask as I turn around. He presses his lips to mine and as I close my eyes to push back I feel his hands on my face. He removes my aviators and moves back a bit. I pull him back into a more forceful kiss.
"D-dave" He moans into it to which I proceed to push him up against a tree. I'm towering over his hunched form when he looks, his eyes moving all over my face. A large smile plants itself on his face. His own eyes are shining with pride. He starts giggling "now your cheeks are as red as your eyes."
"Now lets see how dark I can get yours to be~" He gulps. Of course now he can clearly see the pure desire that I have for him.

= Dave: Be Dirk Again
And this comes around full circle doesn't it?
Those kids are taking quite awhile which leads me to believe that they're getting down and dirty. Which is ironic seeing as how Jake refused to go any further. Wonder what he'll think if i tell him what could possibly be happening...An angry Jake English may not be so bad, maybe hot even.