Maybe he shouldn’t have asked Aeri if he wanted to go running with him. He should have just let him sleep in with how long they had been traveling yesterday. Plus, he knew that Aeri never gets to sleep in when they’re on the road or at the south camp. Not with Gabriel being the family leader. Aeri probably wouldn’t even want to go with him. Especially since everyone always avoided him when he was running, the people automatically thinking he was hunting something down and chasing it but he wasn’t he was just running and why can’t people understand that he’s not always going after something bad that instead of the day being normal without anything causing trouble…

Shit, he let his mind spiral down again.

Damien shook his head hard, slapping his cheeks and scrubbing his face. But he couldn’t bring himself to get up from sitting on the edge of his bed. It almost felt like a weight was placed in the center of his back as he leaned over his knees. This happened sometimes, though. It wasn’t anything new, he just needed to find an anchor for his thoughts for the next few minutes. And it seemed that Life was going to give him a break since there was a soft knock on his bedroom door just then. Probably just Adanna coming to ask what he wants for breakfast when he gets back.

“Come in.” He straightened up when he saw a mess of blonde hair pushed back with a bandana peek around the door instead of the resident Yumbo. Aerithen was already bright eyed and bushy tailed, though with how bright of a blue his eyes were Damien didn’t think that phrase could apply to his best friend and have the same meaning. He was also wearing a tiny smile that made him look like he was ten years younger.

“Hey, Dames. You ready to go?” Damien nodded and pushed himself up. He needed to get his mind in a better place and this was a good way to do it.

“Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

——————————-

“Do you ever go any faster, or do you just stick with the same pace all the time? Because this is pretty slow, considering.” Damien whipped his head around to stare at the blonde next to him. They were doing a good jog at the moment, catching a break before picking up speed again.

“What?!”

“Yes! You’re becoming some kind of creature of habit! You won’t get any better if you keep doing this slow pace all the time. So…” Damien wasn’t at all prepared for Aerithen to suddenly lunge over and shove him in the shoulder. He staggered a step sideways before catching his balance, but the little shit had already darted forward a few feet.

“Come on then, slow poke!” What?

“What the hell are you doing?!” The man in front of him started laughing, and Damien was just getting more confused by the second.

“Tag, you’re it!” And then he bolted away.

“You little shit! Get back here!” He then darted forward to pursue his not-so-little friend, but Aerithen already had a head start.

Though, Aeri didn’t realize the challenge he’d just thrown at Damien’s feet.

Or how fast he could actually run, until he was already right behind him.

“The old man can’t keep up, hu- OH SHIT!” Damien swiped out a hand to catch the blonde’s shoulder, but it seems he’d been practicing, as well. Now it was a real game of tag.

They had been keeping to the outer, more deserted streets of town for the majority of their run, but now Aerithen was heading towards town square. Damien knew it was to try to throw him off with pedestrians and objects in the streets, but he obviously didn’t know the extent of Damien’s abilities. And that was just fine.

Aerithen kept Damien on his toes, that was for sure. He would run in a straight line for about thirty or so feet before he would suddenly dart off to one side, and he did this a couple of times before the street and foot traffic began to pick up with the morning sun.

It was only three turns until they were on the main street in the center of town, and suddenly the tables were turned against Damien. Aerithen was sprinting down the sidewalk towards the grocer, and ahead of them were two men stacking crates of fresh produce outside the grocer’s door. Damien was about to call out to Aeri to stop so he won’t hurt himself, but it was too late.

The blonde leapt over the crates without any hesitation, and Damien had the briefest thought of a deer leaping a fence as he watched his friend land on the other side without losing pace. So that’s how he wanted to play? Damien felt his mouth stretch into something that would resemble a feral grin, and launched himself over the crates to continue the chase. His chest was heaving with each breath he took, the ground beneath his feet absorbing the impact of each step, and his shirt was beginning to stick to his chest and back.

He had honestly never felt so alive when he ran before as he did now.

They continued vaulting, ducking, and running through the street until they drew close to the intersection of two main roads. Damien had been getting close to grabbing the little troublemaker a few times, but each time he slipped away from the fingers ghosting next to his shirt. Now Aerithen was speeding across the main road with Damien on his heels, but they both had to dig their heels into the ground as a steam car suddenly drove in front of the blonde. Damien barely registered what he was doing as his legs pushed out one last burst of speed and his arms came forward to wrap around Aeri’s body and pulled him back from getting a face full of metal. The driver honked a small horn at them as he continued past and waved, though the two men paid little attention as they stood in the road.

Damien was no longer there in the street. Instead, he was in Ozark standing on the side of the road, watching as a crowd gathered around a steam car further down the street. He could hear a woman screaming and the crowd muttering, but all he paid attention to was the small body lying behind the car in a splatter of scarlet with a baseball close by. Next was Little Rock with a heartbroken girl, then Springfield with a dog whining at a toddler boy. Carefree, innocent, naive, sweet, healthy, kind, loyal…

“...en...mien...Dames!” Suddenly he was back with all of his muscles rigid and tensed. His head was swimming and his vision began to go fuzzy, but then something really hard hit him square on the collarbone and he was gasping for air and...oh, he was breathing again. His arms unlocked from around the body he was clutching tightly to him, and instead one went to his neck while the other grabbed at a hunting knife at his waist...that wasn’t there.

Damien slowly had the world come back into focus, and he was grateful the first thing he truly saw was a pair of bright blue eyes. Though he didn’t like the scared and worried look in them.

“Dames? What just happened?” God, he sounded so small. What an ass he was to make his best friend feel like that. Once his throat stopped aching and he could breathe without coughing, Damien gave the blonde his usual answer that he hated giving.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine. Let’s go back to the house and see if Tamma has breakfast ready.”