Lost in Technicolor

The Man With the Golden Rimmed Glasses

"How far away is this place exactly," Damien spoke out from in front of Petra.

"Not too far," Erik snapped, "look, go ahead of me down the stairs."

Damien turned sideways, glancing back at Petra, "You go on ahead, love."

"What? I meant both of you!" Erik hissed, watching Petra closely as she strode past him and hurried down the steep stairs carefully, where she waited at the bottom for the two.

"Come on," Damien sighed, snatching Erik's crutches from him so that he was left balancing on one foot. Then Damien took one step down, holding out his other hand for Erik, wearing a perfect smile.

Erik scowled as if Damien were the most disgustingly vile creature on the face of the world, but nonetheless he placed his hand on Damien's broad shoulder and with his help made his way down the stairs. He frowned realizing how muscular Damien was. He had always been taller than him, but the fact that he was physically stronger than him bothered Erik. 

"That wasn't so bad now was it?" Damien sighed, handing Erik back his crutches once they had reached the bottom of the stairs, where Petra stood waiting patiently.

Erik snatched the pair wooden poles from Damien, furiously, "I'm surprised that you didn't try to shove me down and have me break my neck!"

Damien smiled and glanced at Petra with a laugh. However, she could only find a frown on her own face because she knew that Damien was playing his usual games. He didn't care about Erik in the slightest, but he wanted to see if he could gain his affection and loose his hatred. Then he'd forget about him like a child with an old toy for a new one. Petra sighed. She had seen him do it over and over. Sometimes he'd even forget whether he was on good or bad terms with a person and be friendly with someone he'd just made hate him the previous day.

"What?" Damien muttered to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her closer to him as they exited the building and entered onto the busy, loud streets.

She just shook her head, wearily watching the hungry eyes and soon found her self clutching Damien's arm to her body. He glanced down at her with a devilish smile, which she'd learned to read as a look of hidden pity. "Here," he sighed, quickly dropping to one knee. She nodded and climbed up onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt like a child and probably should have been embarrassed, Drake certainly would have made sure that she did. However, by burying her face into Damien's shoulder she didn't have to see all of the living roving eyes that haunted her dreams.

Damien sighed as Petra's hot breath raced around his shoulder blade from where she was hiding her face in his shirt. He knew that she had been through an ordeal and he knew that her life wasn't the easiest one, but sometimes he couldn't help but wish that she'd find some courage and learn to defend herself somehow. Surely there was a way. However, the only time that she appeared to be strong in any way was when she was hiding behind some goofy disguise.

Suddenly Petra let go, much to Damien's surprise and she walked ahead of him without giving him a second glance. What had he done?

"Something wrong?" He muttered over the many voices.

She looked back at him, eyeing him from head to toe and responded with a question, "What was your first impression of me?"

He frowned at her. What was she getting at? Where was this coming from? "I," he began. How was he supposed to answer that? He couldn't have both her and Erik angry with him. That wasn't how it worked. "I can't remember from that long ago, doll" he lied with a shrug.

Erik glanced back at them curiously, "If I recall correctly, you seemed to be both peculiar and belligerent to me."

Damien stared hard at Erik. That was right. He had forgotten that at one point she had been very strong and capable of facing the world but slowly time had worn her down.