"Day."

"What?"

"There's a sushi place right there."

"Okay." Dayna looked into the rear view mirror. "And?"

"Can we go?" Miles asked. "Please? We're almost at Hollywood Hills anyway, it'll be fine getting to my place."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm hungry," Miles said. "Pleeeeease?"

"Miles, I swear to God." Dayna sighed loudly through her nostrils. "You're not six."

"But Dayna," Miles whined, sounding even more like he was, in fact, six, "there's a coffee shop too. Come on. I haven't had decent coffee in almost two weeks."

Dayna rolled her eyes. "You're not going to shut up until I go, are you?"

"What do you think?" Miles asked. He kicked her seat again for good measure.

Dayna looked at Jensen, not in the slightest bit entertained. "It's Miles' fault if we die."

"Wha—?"

Checking over her shoulder Dayna lurched into the lane beside them to make a left turn almost immediately. Jensen held onto the bottom of her seat as the Jeep lurched. Although she wasn't looking at him, she could clearly hear Miles' head hit the window beside him.

When Dayna had started driving straight again, Miles kicked the back of her seat loudly. "You're not in Fast and Furious, Dayna. Jesus Christ."

"You're the one who wanted sushi."

"I wasn't willing to die for the sushi!"

Dayna pursed her lips. "What about the coffee?"

Miles crossed his arms and slumped his shoulders as he muttered, "You know I'm always willing to die for coffee."

"Then don't sound so offended, shit for brains."

"Don't kill Rhodes just 'cause I wanted coffee."

Jensen looked over her shoulder for a quick second. "Sometimes you have to be willing to die for coffee to get the coffee."

Miles caught Jensen's eyes and grinned as Dayna pulled into the lot. As Dayna put the Jeep into park and turned of the engine, she looked into the back seat. "Sushi or coffee first?"

"Who eats sushi before they drink coffee, Dayna?" Miles asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Who eats sushi and coffee together, Miles?" Dayna asked.

"You're so judgy," Miles said. "Christ."

"And you're disgusting," Dayna said. "Go get your food."

"You're not coming with me?"

"Did you forget my order?" Dayna asked, looking into the back. She waved her hand towards the line of shops in front of them. "Go on."

"Rhodes, what do you want?"

"I—" Jensen started. "I'm fine, thanks."

"Chicken yakisoba and coffee it is," Miles said, unbuckling his seatbelt. "Cream or sugar?"

"Double double," Jensen said. "Please? If that's okay."

"It's fine," Miles said, but frowned after a second. "But I don't know what that means."

"It's... It's two cream, two sugar."

"That's... a double double?" Miles asked. "Is that a Canadian thing?"

Jensen raised her eyebrows. "Evidently."

"What's next, triple triples?"

"Um," Jensen started. She felt her cheeks going red. "Yeah. We have that too."

"Amazing." Miles smiled. "Double double coming right up."

He opened the door of the Jeep and jumped out, closing the door behind him. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he walked into the sushi restaurant.

"I need you to help me with something," Dayna said, eyes staring off in the direction Miles had gone. Jensen guessed she was a lot farther away than that.

"What is it?" Jensen asked, looking at Dayna.

"I need you to help me make sure he's okay," Dayna said, "I mean, you just got here. I know that. And you don't know him like I do. But he's been... off lately. He's drinking a lot of coffee and I feel like..." Dayna lulled her head to the side, staring at Jensen. "I feel like he's hiding something from me. From the world. And he won't admit it."

"You're..." Jensen examined Dayna's face. "You're really worried about him, aren't you?"

"I'm worried he's going to do something stupid." Dayna rolled her eyes and let out a weak chuckle. "Or that he's already done something stupid."

"We're not..." Jensen stopped to choose her words carefully. "We're not talking about jail. Are we?"

Dayna shook her head. "It's not my place to tell you what he's been through. But it is my place to tell you something's wrong and I need help trying to figure it out."

"You mean without telling him," Jensen said, "don't you?"

"I mean that if you find something—" Dayna drew a deep breath in as she looked back at the door as Miles walked out and went to the coffee shop three doors down. "—tell me. I'll confront him about it, I won't say anything about you, Jensen. I just want him to be okay. And if he's keeping secrets, he's not okay. Because Miles doesn't keep secrets. Not from me."

"I'm going back to Vancouver tomorrow night," Jensen said. "I won't be back here unless Keira decides I get the part. And if you need to keep track of—"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Dayna said. "You will probably get the role. Just so you know."

"Dayna—"

"I..." Dayna smiled softly. "Let's just say Hugh and my audition did not go well. You know, I just seemed to... forget all my lines. Hugh had a fit after a while. Stomped out of the audition room." Dayna looked back at Jensen. "Guess that's what happens when you make fun of addictions, my best friend, and my new friend. I just had too much on my mind. Keira made sure to tell me that that wasn't very professional."

"Was it worth it?"

Dayna snorted out a laugh. "Let me say, straight up, that if I ever have the opportunity to fuck with Hugh Gardener, whether it affects my career or not, it will always be worth it."

*

Pulling into Miles' driveway was how Jensen imagined Paris Hilton seeing a playhouse her father bought her at four years old.

It was that big.

Dayna didn't pull into the garage, just parked outside on the brick turnaround Miles had as his front yard. And Jensen thought that pulling into a gated community had been fancy enough—it was nothing compared to Miles' house's exterior.

Two columns grew from the front landing up into a peaked roof that could've been the Parthenon if Jensen didn't know better. There was clean grey paint on the walls that weren't immaculate rock work. Jensen was intimidated by the trimmed bushes at the front and the glossy front door—she wasn't sure she even wanted to go inside if she was ever going to appreciate her and Liberty's apartment ever again. Nevertheless, she slowly opened her door and got out, staring at the mansion in front of her.

Miles flung open the Jeep's door and picked up the two bags of Styrofoam containers filled with sushi. He started walking towards the door when Dayna let out an exasperated sigh.

"Honestly," she said, walking up to him and tearing the cup from his mouth so she could hold it. "Ask for help."

"Sorry, mom," Miles said, placing the handles of the plastic bag in his mouth before digging his keys out of his pocket.

"Miles!" Dayna said. "Gross!"

Miles ignored Dayna as he stuck his key into the lock and swung open the door. Taking the bag out of his mouth, he looked at her. "Better?"

Dayna wrinkled her nose. "Not by much. You still did it."

"It's not like I spat on everything in it."

"Whatever." Dayna walked inside the house.

Miles turned around to see Jensen still staring up at the house in front of her. "You coming, Rhodes?"

"You live here by yourself?" Jensen asked.

Miles put the bags down just inside the door and walked back over to stand beside Jensen. He dug his hands in his pockets. "I do."

"I should..." Jensen looked at her wrist. Not a watch in sight. "I should get going. I have to go to the airport tomorrow and I don't know if I packed everything. Do you have a... cab number?"

"I have six cars," Miles said, a small smile pulling at his lips. "And a lot of time. I can drive you to LAX if you want."

"You don't have to—"

"I want to, Rhodes," Miles said. "Cabs are expensive. And sometimes they're creepy." Miles looked at Jensen. "Plus, they'll say goodbye to you. I won't. Because you'll be back for Sparks Fly."

"Miles—"

"You'll be back, Rhodes," Miles said. "I know you will."

"I don't think you can be sure of that."

"I think," Miles said, tilting his head as he started to walk backwards towards the house, "you should just trust me. And maybe come in for food, at least? Movies after?" Miles shrugged his shoulders slightly as he looked at Jensen. "Please? I have lots to choose from."

Jensen pulled her lips to the side of her face.

"Come on, Rhodes." Miles wore the winning smile that landed him on magazine covers. The one that charmed the nation. The one that was swooned over by all genders simply because it was nice to look at. Because it was calming—made it seem like the world wasn't going to hell in a handbasket. "Please?"

Jensen smiled—Miles' smile made the world do that, too. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay." Jensen nodded and started walking toward the house.

Miles' smile grew wider as he stepped out of the way so Jensen could go inside. "Okay."

As soon as Jensen walked into Miles' house, she was greeted with more natural light than she thought possible in a home. There were multiple windows along the roof, a grand staircase the first thing anyone could notice. Glossy stairs led up to what Jensen could only imagine was an assortment of bedrooms and bathrooms, because what else would be in a house as big as this? On the wall beside it, there was framed prints of various movie posters—all black and white. Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Jazz Singer. The list went on, and the posters carried up the stairs.

Despite her wandering gaze and imagination, Jensen followed Miles, who had picked up the sushi bags, into another room—which was only the biggest kitchen she'd ever seen in her life. The marble counter island in the middle was almost larger than Jensen and Liberty's entire kitchen. His fridge practically took up an entire wall, and was surely stocked with food that Jensen could only afford in her wildest dreams.

As Miles put the bags on the counter, Dayna slid his coffee to him across the island like a bartender. Miles caught it and immediately took and drank it until he could toss it across the kitchen into a garbage can.

"Did you just chug your coffee?" Dayna asked.

"Maybe," Miles said, starting to pull containers out of the plastic bags.

"Jail made you weirder," Dayna said, rolling her eyes. She walked over to a cupboard and pulled out three plates.

"Rhodes," Miles said, spinning on the heel of his foot and turning around. He smiled again. "You know you can come in, right?"

Jensen's eyes widened when she realized she hadn't walked back into the room. Her feet were on the edge of the hardwood.

"Enter!" Dayna yelled as she placed the plates on the counter. She waved her fist in the air. "And eat!"

"Drink!" Miles said, grabbing three cans of soda from the fridge even though he was the only one who had finished his coffee.

Jensen stepped into the room. "Be merry?" she tried.

Dayna looked up from the plates and laughed loudly. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "One of us, one of us!"

Jensen laughed and mimed a curtsey. "Happy to be here."

Miles smiled as he stuffed a bite of shrimp tempura roll in his mouth. He leaned over the counter to grab one of the plates Dayna had put down and placed one of the takeout containers on it. He put the plate in front of Jensen, a pair of wooden chopsticks pressed to the top. Pushing the sushi to the side of his mouth, he said, "One chicken yakisoba."

"Thanks," Jensen said, giving him a small smile before she opened the chopsticks and ran them against each other a couple times before digging in. She hadn't really thought about how hungry she was until the smell of the food had wafted into her nostrils. Leaning an elbow on the counter, Jensen took a bite of the noodles.

"Miles, did you start eating already?" Dayna asked, about as accusatory as Jensen expected from her at this point, yet still carefree.

"Um," Miles said, chewing a couple more times for good measure. "No."

Dayna snorted. "Why did you let me grab you a plate?"

Miles was already grabbing more shrimp tempura before he'd swallowed the other bite. "'Cause I like it when you're nice to me, Day."

Dayna looked at Jensen. "See what I have to deal with?"

Miles cracked open the can of cola and took a drink.

"Do you have taste buds?" Dayna asked, wrinkling her nose. "Honestly."

"What?" Miles asked after swallowing his sip. "It's soda."

"And sushi?" Dayna asked. "I could've made green tea."

"But the soda is already there," Miles said. "And the faster I eat and drink, the faster I get to shower."

"You could've showered right away if you hadn't made Dayna stop for food," Jensen said, using the chopsticks to grab another bite.

Miles gaped at Jensen as Dayna snorted. "Rhodes!"

"Boom roasted," Dayna said, shooting a finger gun in Miles' direction.

"I'm gonna eat your salmon avocado roll, Michael," Miles said, biting into another piece of another roll—it looked like it had salmon wrapped around the outside. "Better watch yourself."

"You even think about eating my food and I will flush all the toilets in the house while you're in the shower," Dayna said. "Check yourself before you wreck yourself."

"Colour me terrified."

"I'll freeze your ass." Dayna looked over at Jensen like she hadn't threatened Miles with a witness present. "Jensen, please help yourself to anything. We never eat all of it."

Miles tossed a pair of chopsticks at Dayna, even though she had started digging in with her fingers too. "Rhodes doesn't eat seafood. Only chicken."

Dayna threw the chopsticks back at Miles if only to attempt to hit him in the face. Which she did. "Really?" she asked, looking at Jensen.

Jensen nodded. "Really."

"Interesting," Dayna said.

"See?" Miles said, throwing the chopsticks back at Dayna. "I listen."

"Occasionally," Dayna said.

As the three of them ate, Miles and Dayna continued their chopstick-induced abuse of each other. There was small talk; Miles actively avoided talking about the last eleven days and after a while, Dayna stopped asking him about it.

Miles ate the rest of Jensen's yakisoba when she said she was full; which just earned him Dayna throwing the chopsticks at him again while saying that Jensen could've eaten it later. Jensen insisted it was fine, and Miles took that as his opportunity to eat it as quickly as he could before Dayna protested again.

When he was done eating, Miles excused himself to, quote unquote, "Wash eau de Prison" off himself. He said that Jensen and Dayna should pick a movie, which Dayna agreed to.

And almost as soon as he walked away, Dayna offered to give Jensen a tour of the entire house. She insisted his showers always took ages and that they had time to kill. So, they wandered through empty halls.

There was a gym in one wing of the house that Jensen imagined was the size of any public gym available in the Lower Mainland. Unless Jensen had lost track, there were four bedrooms that didn't include Miles'. But there were six bathrooms—which Jensen didn't question out loud but she thought was strange. Outside was a pool and hot tub that Dayna said they could go outside and look at but it was "cold as balls" and she had made the executive decision not to do that—there was also a wine cellar that Dayna didn't go to because "there's nothing in there any more."

There were many windows in the house, which Jensen imagined would be gorgeous in the spring sun. White walls and black accents seemed to be his motif, and everything looked extremely well put together.

Miles had a lot of art on his walls—"bought from local artists," Dayna had narrated. They all had to do with various movies that Miles enjoyed. There was a hall lined with stills of shows and films that Miles had named his cars after, a door was at the end of the hallway.

"Can I ask," Jensen started, pointing at a picture, "what some of these pictures are?"

Dayna looked at the picture Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and she let out a snort. "I'm assuming he told you that he's a big dumb dork who names his cars."

"Maybe not in those words."

Dayna pointed to the screenshot Jensen was pointing at. "That's the Ferrari 250 GT. He named it Frye."

Jensen laughed. "Because what else would he name it?"

Dayna snorted. "Exactly. How many of them did he tell you?"

"Um," Jensen said, she scanned the images. "I know Hanson, Zuko, Ichiro... John, and Rosie."

"He told you about Rosie?" Dayna asked, a small smile dressing her lips. "Really?"

"I was told not to tell anyone," Jensen said.

"Because of the sweet sixteen hormones he claims to have had?" Dayna asked. "As if there wasn't a Rosie Carver poster in the gym?"

"There was?" Jensen asked.

"I think you'll come to learn that Miles is not a subtle person," Dayna said. "This—" Dayna pointed to a picture of the velociraptor from Jurassic World. "—is Blue. He named his Ford Raptor that. Because he's an idiot."

Jensen let out a small laugh.

"It gets worse," Dayna said, pointing to the last photo before a large door. "Recognize this?"

Jensen looked at it, instantly recognizing Michael J. Fox and Elisabeth Shue. "Back to the Future," she said, "of course."

"What car do you think that one goes with?" Dayna asked. "Go ahead, take a wild guess."

"Delorean?" Jensen asked. "He probably named it Marty or Doc?"

Dayna laughed. "That would make sense, right?"

"That's... not what happened, is it?"

"Oh no," Dayna said, shaking her finger. "He owns a Toyota. SR-five or something. Like the one Marty gets at the end of the movie. Not one of the most iconic time machines in film history, just a fucking Toyota that he named McFly. Because he apparently knows this kind of stuff. Rather than just buying a Delorean."

Jensen laughed. "Really?"

"I don't know how I could make that up," Dayna said, laughing. "I really don't."

She opened the door into the garage and didn't spend much time explaining which car was which. Walking through the garage, Dayna opened another door, which led them back to the kitchen. Two floors later.

"And that," Dayna said, closing the door behind Jensen. "Is almost the entire house."

"Almost?"

"Almost," Dayna said. "I had to save the best for last."

"How is there more?" Jensen asked.

"Because Miles—" Dayna said, putting her hands on the handles of double French doors. "Never does anything subtly."

"Holy shit," Jensen said as she walked in the room.

One wall held the biggest TV Jensen had ever seen in her life. Another housed a slushy machine, popcorn machine, and a bar counter surrounded by bottles of soda where Jensen had expected to see liquor. The other two walls held various theatre-sized framed posters that somehow complimented the crimson carpets beautifully, no matter what colour they were.

"There's more."

"How?" Jensen asked.

Dayna chuckled, walking over to a set of doors behind the soda bar that Jensen hadn't even noticed. "He's got a lot of free time on his hands."

Opening the doors and stepping back so Jensen could walk in first, Dayna smiled softly.

Walking in, Jensen was met with just about the biggest collection of blu-rays that she was sure anyone in the world owned. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves were in the room.

"Oh my God," Jensen said. "How does he keep track of it all?"

"It's in alphabetical order," Dayna said. "Because he got bored one day."

"This took him one day?" Jensen felt like her voice was echoing around the room.

"Miles doesn't get much sleep these days," Dayna said. "So, he has projects instead." Dayna looked around the room. "What do you want to watch?"

"First," Jensen said, feeling slightly sheepish, "I know you just told me, but where's the nearest bathroom?"

Dayna smiled. "Back through the kitchen, turn right, and it should be the third on your left."

Jensen gave her a small nod and headed in the direction they had come from. Walking through the kitchen, she followed Dayna's instructions down the hall. Counting the doors under her breath, Jensen found the bathroom door easily.

She turned the doorknob, frowning when it felt like it was turning from both sides.

Jensen realized too late that it was.

As Jensen walked in, Miles walked out. In a towel. They both screamed when they realized what had happened.

"Oh, God," Jensen said, "I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"Hi," Miles said.

Jensen wished her eyes hadn't darted to the bird tattoo on his collarbone. "Hi."

"So," Miles said. "Um, I'll go... get dressed, and you, um, can—" Miles stepped out of the way of the door. "—do what you... need to do. And whoever gets to Dayna first gets to call her an asshat, cool?"

"What?"

"I'm assuming she sent you to this specific bathroom," Miles said. "Am I wrong?"

"I..." Jensen started, "No."

"Dayna!" Miles yelled, causing Jensen to jump. "You're a shit!"

Dayna's first response was a loud cackle that ended with an equally loud snort that managed to echo through the hall. "Love you too, babe! Mwah!"

Miles rolled his eyes and let out a soft chuckle. "I'm going to get dressed. And we can all watch a movie. Okay?"

Jensen nodded slowly. "Okay."